Dukan – Day 160 – Awesome Vacation and I still have a week!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Cleaning up the blog and finding posts that never posted…. This one from January 2012. Update this afternoon, I promise 🙂
Sandi

Friday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 1.3 lb/0.6 kg
Total weight loss: Will update when back in China on MY scale and with my progress sheet.

So to update everyone from the past week…
Wednesday…
The walk that I went on was at Devil’s Millhopper sinkhole in Gainesville. I went with my friend Mary and it was great! It is 220 stairs down to the bottom. So we walked to the bottom and then back again and hiked the rim twice. Nice morning for walking. Then off for lunch in Ocala with an old friend. Then out to Bronson to say Happy Birthday to my niece Tasha and meet her 3 year old, Abigail. Too stinkin’ cute! Then back to cook dinner for my mom.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and a slice of turkey
Lunch: 6 oz sirloin and asparagus
Dinner: Turkey sausage with onions
Snack: FF yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal

Thursday…
An early morning start at 555 am back to south Florida for a dental cleaning appt at 10. Got there with 5 minutes to share 🙂 A nice visit with my daughter, Jenni at Panero’s, then a long 2.5 hour hike with my friend Jamie in Johnathan Dickenson State Park. Saw an alligator, literally 2 feet away, in a retention pond very cool, but scary 😀 then met the crazy friends at Kona’s for Jammin’ Jensen.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: Turkey slices and 2 small pieces of nearly fat free (1.5g) of sharp cheddar.
Dinner: Seared tuna on a stick and grilled pompano with mixed steamed veggies.
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal

Friday: up early, long walk through Stuart, across the bridges, down by the river walk, all before the sun comes up! Then I drove up to Melborne to visit my son. An evening visit with my friend, Tammy then to bed early.

Breakfast: 2 hard fried eggs and bacon
Lunch: turkey slices and a couple of small pieces of nearly fat free cheese
Dinner: chicken sausage (spicy and not, out of the cases), stir fried in a small amount of olive oil, with cumin, cinnamon, mushrooms, diced tomatoes and chilis. Then had 4 bites of bacon wrapped cobia nuggets at Tammy’s… Could not resist!
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal.

So, I’m apparently eating fine, since I’m losing. Still holding off on a total weight loss until I get home to my scale and progress sheet. I’m having a great vacation and nothing can beat that!

Ciao!

Quote of day: If you do not tell the truth about yourself
you cannot tell it about other people.

~ Virginia Woolf ~

Devil’s Millhopper

Me and Tasha

Abby

Update and Standing while Eating

Posted on October 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

So, I’m wiped out, as a lot of you have noticed (thanks for the emails) and I’m still healing. My arms hurt, but look awesome… I’m pleased with my decision. I’m still too exhausted between recovery, working my new job and homeschooling my amazing granddaughter Sydnie, to blog. I’m hoping to get a good blog in. I haven’t run since my apparent 13 km run in the middle of the night my first night post-op… I’ll post that story, as well… Sigh.

In the meantime, here’s some interesting info from one of my favorite Paleo blogs… She advocates sitting and eating while thinking about what you eat… I don’t necessarily agree. I KNOW what I’m eating and I stand while I eat. Good food. My last meal was stir fry organic chicken breast, sautéed in coconut oil with squash, mushrooms, onions, peppers and asparagus. That was 5 hours ago and it was delish and colorful and healthy… eaten while standing 🙂 I believe if you are being intentional and aware of what your are eating, standing is good… Burn more calories, lol.
Ciao!

Paleo RD Tip of the Week
By Amy Kubal, MS, RD

Get off your feet when you eat
Quick – what was the last thing you ate? No really – what was the VERY LAST thing you put in your mouth? Most of you are probably envisioning the last meal you ate; the one where you were sitting down and actually aware of the food on your plate and going into your mouth. Now, think about it again; what was the LAST thing that you ate? Were you sitting down?

image credit: guardian.co.uk

These days much of what we eat is actually consumed ‘in motion’ – standing up, running between appointments, on the way to work, you name it. Sometimes we just grab a bite of something, (or a piece of candy from the office candy dish), on the way to or from somewhere. Maybe we have a couple bites of something we’re putting into a meal, or into the kids’ lunches. Don’t forget the grapes you grabbed when you opened the refrigerator or the leftovers you nibbled on while clearing the table. How many meals, snacks, bites and samples have you eaten all while on your feet? Do you even remember all of these ‘foot feasts’? Did you actually taste or even enjoy the standing snacks?

My guess is that we are ALL (yes, even me) guilty of mindlessly putting something into our mouths without really even realizing we did it. One of the rules that I made for myself and my clients (because I’m mean like that), is that if you’re not sitting on your butt you can’t eat it. I don’t care if you are mid-way through a bite – sit down – right there on the floor, until the food is chewed and swallowed. Let me tell you, it makes you think. After having to pick my butt up off the floor about 20 times (I’m a slow learner) I figured it out and I’m betting you will too.
If you want to eat – you must take a seat! Are you sitting down?

Amy Kubal is a Registered “Paleo” Dietitian and the ring leader of Robb’s RD consulting team. She works with a wide range of clients from competitive athletes to those dealing with complex health problems. Check out her bio and consulting options, and her blog Fuel As Rx to get your Paleo nutrition fix.

And to finish things off, this is my new baby… BeBe. She’ll be 5 October 21. She’s a cat poo eater, so now she’s mine. I’m so glad her former mom and dad picked me 🙂

Goal – 150 km in September – MET

Posted on October 1, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I set a goal at the start of the month to walk, run and hike 150 kms the month of September, and I met that goal… More than met it AND 7 miles (11.26 km) aren’t on here from my mountain hikes in NC last week. So here are the results…

160 kms + 11 = 171 kms!!

I’m very pleased with meeting this goal. Goal for October 165 km with a minimum of 60 kms of running 🙂

Ciao!

Dukan – High School Skinny

Posted on September 29, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I found this in my email tonight…

A high school friend pointed out on Facebook the other day that I weigh less now than high school… Not only is that a cool thing to say, but after thinking about it, it’s true 😀 When I became pregnant with my son at 17 I weighed 155, I was 146 this morning. I didn’t do it, however, with magic coffee beans, hormone shots or diet pills. I ate lots of good, wholesome food and never counted a single calorie 🙂 Good food and exercise… The key to successful weight loss and keeping it off 🙂

Ciao!

Home

Posted on September 22, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, I’m home! Met by both daughters at the airport and so happy to be on home ground!

Its now 530 a.m. And I’ve been up for an hour… Readjusting back to U.S. time can be rough, but worth it!

My first day back was full of hugs and cuddles and phone calls and text messages and love. It feels awesome to know that I’m not getting back on a plane in a couple of weeks… I’m home 🙂

Dukan – My Last Walk to Work

Posted on September 19, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Today marks the end of my contract here in Hangzhou, China AND my last day of work. I fly home to the U.S. tomorrow and I am more than ready and SO excited!

I took the east sidewalk today… I would say that 80% of the time I take the west side. It depends a lot on the traffic lights 🙂 The darker tile is the Blind Person walkway, it is on every sidewalk in China that I’ve walked on. And the lane next to the sidewalk is the bicycle, e-bike, scooter lane. They have their own lane separated from the car traffic.

Last year I walked on my first day of work. I was a month into the Dukan Diet and I weighed 236 lbs/107.5 kgs. I was walking every day in Abu Dhabi for the prescribed 30 minutes. On that walk to work which is 1.5 kms/0.92 miles I decided that I was going to walk to and from work EVERY SINGLE DAY for the whole year of my contract. AND DAMMIT… I DID! I walked every single day to work for 12 months. My estimate (taking into consideration vacations and trips to work in other cities, where I also walked to work) is that here in Hangzhou I walked to work approximately 200 times. That’s 200 miles! Woot!

I have to admit that there were days that I was SO tempted to hail a cab or take the bus (it’s a .35 km walk to the bus stop, then it’s just one bus stop up)… there were 7 weeks in February and March where EVERY SINGLE DAY it was 41F and raining and it sucked… but I walked, because you set goals and you reach them and you feel like I do right this minute! 😀

I also walked home 90% of those days. The only days I didn’t was days that I was going into the city for groceries or dinner and caught a cab or bus. So my best guess is that I probably walked to and from work about 380+ miles over the course of this past year.

Did you get in your 30 minutes of movement today???

Ciao!

Recipe – Paleo – Coconut Flaxseed Bread Tweaked

Posted on September 17, 2012 by flamidwyfe

So I tweaked this recipe to make it even better. Well, actually, at first because I didn’t have enough of the original ingredients AND I had coconut milk that I wanted to use this week, since I’m moving back to the States on Thursday (WOO HOO!!!). Tatiana came to dinner and had the first batch and said this was, “MUCH BETTER!”… Sweeter and moister. So here goes:

COCONUT FLAXSEED BREAD – IMPROVED

COCONUT FLAXSEED BREAD
Serves: 8
1 serving = 1 slice

Ingredients:
3 Tbs coconut creme powder or coconut flour
12 Tbs flaxseed, ground
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
6 pkts of Splenda (or 6 tsp of your favorite sweetner)
5 eggs
1/4 c coconut oil
1/8 c coconut milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (not quite sure that’s what I used, lol… this is China, had to guess at it in the little store)

Preheat the oven (in my case the toaster oven) to 350 F.
Grease up a loaf pan with coconut oil.
Mix the dry stuff together, Mix the wet stuff together, Mix the dry and wet together 🙂
Pour into the pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Loaf is done when you stick in a chop stick (hey! I live in China!) comes out clean!
Enjoy!

This loaf came out browner, sweeter and moister than the last loaf.

dukan bread, paleo bread, low carb bread, atkins bread

Coconut Flaxseed Bread

Nutrition info per serving: Calories 150, Protein 5.5g, Fat 13.8g,
Total Carb 2.8g, Net Carb 0.4g

Dukan – Sunday Celebration and weekly wrap-up!

Posted on September 17, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Consolidation Phase Day 128 of 500!
Weekly Weight: 146-149
Goal Weight: 155
So Consolidation DOES work 🙂 I can’t believe it’s been 128 days since I met my goal weight! This summer has flown by! I am very consistent with my weight, still weighing every morning and still VERY happy with the results!

This past week has been busy! I am moving back to the States on Thursday after living abroad for 4 years. I have been packed for over a month 🙂 I know, a bit OCD, but what to say. I’ve got 2 large suitcases and a large box as checked luggage (things I didn’t want to risk never seeing again if my shipped boxes disappear into the stratosphere or something.) It’ll be worth paying extra for the peace of mind.

Exercise this past week included running 4-5K 3 times. Walking 4-5K the other 4 nights. I also did 30-45 minutes of yoga 4 times the past week. I hiked the mountain 1 time this past week and hope to do it Tuesday morning as one last hurrah 🙂

I met Hanna and Diana and Jacob (next photo) on the street a couple of weeks ago. They are from Sweden and here to attend the University just down the block from my flat. Jacob had on a Miami Dolphins hat, so of course I stopped them 🙂 They’ve been to dinner a few times and I wish I had met them sooner!

Jacob

The weather in Hangzhou has been PERFECT this past 4 days. Sunny and a cool breeze. I’ve had the flat windows opened and the whole place is fresh. The summer heat was oppressive! So it’s a nice break.

Let’s see… what did I eat this week. Lots of tea eggs, as per usual. Lunches consisted of leftover roasts (both pork and beef), salad, cheddar cheese and almonds. Dinners were steak stir fry, pork roast, beef roast, shrimp stir fry and my new favorite way to cook veggies; veggies (broccoli, asparagus, carrots and garlic stems) steamed in coconut milk… OH MY you have no idea how good THAT is… a must try! I also had a dinner out with friends at a local sushi restaurant and a hot pot dinner… guests for dinner almost nightly, trying to cook up all the food in the freezer AND say good bye to friends, new and not so new.

Pork roast… Mmm!

Out for sushi with Baby Milva!

Out for dinner with Joe, Chiara and baby Nunu!

You throw in the meat and veggies and it cooks in the hot pot… the liquid on the left is spicy, spicy!!! Mmmmmm!

And I did my last water birth lecture in front of a hundred people or so in a nearby town. I hope my message got across to some folks and they have gentler births!

Me and Liang… on our way to my last water birth lecture. She’s the lead midwife supporting water birth at Hangzhou AIMA.

So, that’s my wrap up! How did your week go? Is it cooling down where you live?

Ciao!

Bucket List Update

Posted on September 10, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Bucket List 2012

3rd quarter update. I didn’t do a 2nd quarter update, so this is from April to now! The updates are in BOLD!

1. ~~Reach Dukan “True Weight” of 165 – Getting SO close!~~ Met on April 23
2. ~~Reach “My True Weight” of 155~~ Met on May 8
3. Nurture relationships – DOING, Ongoing
4. ~~Fix my tummy~~ – consult April 6, Lipo May 9
5. Run 5k without stopping – I’ve done this twice in the past week! Signed up for my first 5K for June 9th in Ocala – Ran the 5K, continue to run 5k+ 5x a week
6. ~~Enjoy my job more – DOING~~ – Quit the job, last day Sept 19
7. ~~Accomplish teaching the 6 IPSG’s to the staff~~ – DONE
8. Accomplish 100% compliance on at least 4 of the IPSG’s! – This one is a toughie! I did get a 100% on Handwashing at the Guangzhou Hospital.
9. Accomplish teaching the 13 JCI Standards to the staff – First class in 2 weeks – Got through 5 of them
10. Visit the Philippines
11. Visit Singapore
12. Visit Thailand… Again
13. Continue my daily random acts of kindness, blog it – trying… Sometimes it’s just a smile or a nod – Ongoing, had 3 univ students, new to Hangzhou, over for dinner 🙂
14. Blog everyday, can be challenging if VPN goes out – I’ve posted more blogs than days of the year, so far! – I’ve missed a day here and there, but have more posts than days of the year, so I’m on track.
15. ~~Get rid of all the “stuff” I don’t need… In my storage unit AND in my flat!~~ – Gave away more than 10 bags of stuff from my storage unit when I was home in January AND threw out 6 bags of stuff. Reduced my stuff in my China flat from 9 boxes to 3 boxes! I’m barely bringing any stuff back from China!
16. Live as green as possible – Hard to do in China, but I walk EVERYWHERE! The only exception is if I am going to train station or airport. I even walk to and from my friend K’s house a couple times a week (3.57 miles each way!) Still doing this, and my housekeeper recycles the plastics.
17. Start an indoor herb garden – had some basil, lasted a few weeks, planning on container gardening when I get home in a couple of weeks.
18. Run 10k without stopping!
19. Read 100 books – I’ve read 6, on my 7th, most have been on iBooks. – On book 39!
20. Start yoga classes by March 1st – difficult in Hangzhou, doing wii yoga, took class that kicked my ass, but was fun, in Hong Kong. Will go back to studio in a month on my next visa run. I joined YOGAmazing online and download my sessions from there.
21. Take yoga at least once per week – Doing it on wii, 30 mins/3 times a week – gave wii to my driver Jerry for his daughter and to thank him for taking such good care of me while I lived here 🙂 I am doing YOGAmazing 3-5 x a week on my iPad.
22. Run at least 3 times a week – I’m running 2 days on and 1 day off, so definitely meeting this goal – running 5x a week
23.save 25% of my annual income… This will be challenging given my propensity for travel I accomplished this with my February pay and my March pay, managed about 17% through August.
24. Travel coach – Yup! I’m actually sitting on my 9th flight of the year, in coach… Although I did get a free upgrade on 2 flight segments going home in January… And I used my British Air miles to fly back to China from Miami in February… Only had to pay taxes – I haven’t paid for an upgrade. Got another free upgrade on my way back to China in June. Customer loyalty and dressing p for flights pays off!
25. Plan a 50th birthday cruise for my mates and aim to get at least 100 people to go! – Cruise planned… Not sure of the numbers – Planned, about 25 people coming
26. Get another tattoo.
27. Attend a rock concert
28. Paint 2 big canvases and complete my little canvas series – painted a medium and 3 smalls since March.
29. Surprise someone I love by giving her the series (I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog… But she’d totally guess it was her, if she did) – Did this, she was pleased 🙂
30. Start my own blog site with help from Charlotte, one of my Dukan buddies. – work in progress
31. Try not to send emails or make phones calls on the nights I take sleep medicine – So far, so good – So far, so good
32. ~~Celebrate a holiday that I don’t usually celebrate!~~ – Chinese Spring Festival, British Day, Bastille Day and Ramadan
33. ~~Figure out how to set up my wii again~~… I love the yoga and the boxing – DONE
34. ~~Take 2 backpacking trips~~ 1 down, one to go, DONE
35. ~~See more of China since I live here!~~ – been to Taizhou, Wuzhen and I’m going to Guangzhou next week! I’VE DONE A FEW NICE TOURS.
36. ~~Take an overnight train in China~~… – DONE – IT WAS HELL!
37. Open up my heart and take some chances – Yeah, not in China, this one will have to wait, unless someone amazing pops up.
38. At least 80% of my quotes of the day will be by women I respect – most of my quotes have been by women
39. ~~Send in my absentee ballot for the Presidential election~~ – going home, will vote in person!
40. Drink 1.5 liters of water per day – DOING – usually 3+ liters
41. Weigh myself every day – DOING
42. Get a minimum of a 30 minute walk in per day – DOING
43. Take my bran every single day – DOING switched to flaxseed
44. Pray and meditate for good health each day, purposefully – DOING
45. Pray for the health of those I love, purposefully – DOING
46. Continue reading john shore.com and Pastor Bob every time they post a blog… Their wisdom fills me up. – DOING
47. Don’t make excuses – I haven’t allowed myself… I’m really proud of thus far meeting this goal – DOING
48. Work on being less angry – Um, I AM working on this, still working on this
49. Just for today, I will refrain from improving anybody but myself. – DOING

Recipe – Low Carb – Roast Dinner

Posted on September 10, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Last week I met 3 Swedish students that are here in Hangzhou to study a semester at the local university. I’m an extrovert (I’m sure most of you figured THAT out by now!) and the young man in the group was wearing a Miami Dolphins cap, so of course, being the Dolfan that I am, I said hello! By the end of the conversation I had invited Jacob, Diana and Hanna to my flat for dinner on Friday. Tatiana, one of my colleagues, also joined us.

On the menu:
Roast (this one was a prime rib hunk of love!)
Spaghetti squash (that turned out to be pumpkin, lol!)
Roasted vegetables – Onions, yam (which ended up being Taro) and carrots **TARO IS *NOT* LOW CARB… just so you know.
Fresh salad

I cooked the roast for 3.5 hours in the toaster oven and it was PERFECT… I had to fight the urge to not consume it before the guests arrived! The meat fell apart with the fork. In the container with the roast I added the onions, taro and carrots.

I also put the “spaghetti” squash I cut in half, cut size down in a different pan and added the balance of the onions, taro and carrots and baked in the toaster oven (after the roast was done) for 50 minutes. This is when I realized that the “spaghetti” squash wasn’t and went to plan B 😀

Plan B was removing the flesh from the pumpkin, mashing it, adding in 4 pkts of Splenda, a Tbs of ghee and a tsp of cinnamon… OH MY GOODNESS was this yummy!

I threw the salad together and welcomed my guests… we had a lovely dinner! Here’s the pics!

After everyone left I did a quick clean up and then went for a short 3 km run around the block… perfect way to end the evening!

Hunk of prime rib love… Mmm! You should always brown each side of the meat before roasting in the oven.

Just browning this made the house smell delish!

Carrots, celery, taro and onion… perfect compliments to a roast!

Seasonings… keep it simple!

Taro in all it’s purply glory… It’s quite starchy, but has a lot of bang for it’s buck… it’s full of fiber and tastes a bit nutty.

Ready for the toaster oven!

My Un-spaghetti squash… it was yummy anyways!

Falling apart with a fork!

The veggies after I removed from the roasting pan… Nom!

Making Mashed Pumpkin

Mixed Salad… I love adding purple cabbage for color and taste!

Dinner ready for the guests!

Hanna, Tatiana, Diana and Me… Lovely dinner companions!

One of the awesome things about living abroad is the people you meet. We have choices in life. We can go about our business and walk around with our eyes averted or we can keep our eyes open and look for new friendships. I choose the latter. I have met so many amazing people from all over the world these past 4 years living abroad… treasures, every one of them and lots of stories I have of my journey, as I head back home for good in 10 days.

Do you extend yourself to strangers?

Ciao!

p.s. added a pic of my Blue Sparkly Notebook to the last post 🙂