I think the 2nd paragraph is IMPORTANT! Stop making excuses!
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Category Archives: Life
Tagged: Most Touching Moment in Asia
I was tagged earlier this week by a running blogger at Inspiring and Healthy Running to answer the question: Flamidwyfe is a midwife currently living and working in Asia. My question to you: What has been your most touching moment in Asia so far?
And here’s my answer. There are A LOT of them, given that I’ve been in a lot of Asia. But the most touching has to be last year, almost exactly a year ago, on May 5, 2011.
May 5th is International Midwives Day. Midwives all over the world celebrate the day with picnics, rallies and community/consumer awareness activities. I celebrated mine in Hangzhou, China. I work here now, but last year I came to do a water birth training conference. Last year’s theme was “Midwives Walking to Durban”. The International Confederation of Midwives, an organization that represents more than 250,000 members all over the world, holds a conference every 3 years. Last years conference was in Durban, South Africa and as a symbol of solidarity, they asked that we “walk to Durban” on Midwives Day.
I gave a lovely speech, if I do say so myself. I focused on the UN Millennium Goal #5, Improving Maternal Health. I am passionate about improving maternal health. By doing so, we improve the outcome of newborns. My speech was an impassioned plea to improve the prenatal care that we give women, including diet and nutrition education, and at the end I said, “Let’s all stand and hold hands and take a walk to Durban”… everyone in the room stood up, applauded and then took hands (after the translator said it in Mandarin.. lol) and the first one up was the CEO, Suzong. We took a 1 km walk in solidarity of midwives all over the world. Here’s 2 pics that I took, the CEO is the man just behind me… yes, that is ME in the teal top… LOL
International Midwives Day 2011 - Walking in solidarity with midwives around the world! Hangzhou, China
International Midwives Day 2011. Hangzhou, China
I can’t begin to tell you how touched I was when everyone stood up and grabbed hands. An American guy that use to work here told me that they wouldn’t “get” it and no one would stand up, much less take a 1 km walk outside… Well they did GET IT 😀 I fought back tears and felt so supported in my passion for midwifery.
International Midwives Day is this Saturday. I work in Hangzhou now. We are planning a big event on Saturday, with a speech, slide show presentation and consumer awareness. The midwives I work with here are gaining more respect each day. I am hoping that with continued international awareness midwives everywhere will be valued and respected for the work they do and the passion in which they do it.
Ciao!
Dukan – Day 255 – Mountain Hike
Sunday was a PV Day 🙂
Daily Weight Loss: 0.7 lb/0.30 kg
Total Weight Loss: 90.7 lb/41.21 kg
Well thank you to the scales… I was pretty happy to step on them this morning and see a loss!
I was up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning, had an omelet with onions and green peppers for breakfast and slid on the Chaco hiking sandals and headed out the door. It has warmed up here and I wanted to get my hike in before it was too hot. It had rained the night before…
The path leading up to the base of the mountain.
So I wanted to be very careful. I also took my time. I am still having some shortness of breath while climbing, which is frustrating me to no end, given I can run 40+ minutes without stopping… WTH??? Anyway, I kept reminding myself to slow down and took a slow and steady pace up the mountain.
Some of the stones have writings on them.
I like walking on the rough path because I think it helps with balance. You really have to concentrate (or at least *I* do) to stay balanced. A lot of the walkers go on the dirt paths on each side.
After walking/climbing for 1.6 miles, I turned around and headed back. I came upon this group and offered to take a pic of their group… they refused and asked me to become part of their pic 🙂
The guy in the blue shirt helped me out about 25 minutes later 🙂
I’m working on trying to get toner… I actually really don’t like my arms in this shot! I want to thank my friends, Teri and Terri for pointing out that I was wearing SANDALS and not my HIKING BOOTS… Anyhoo, I continued on my hike back… it’s really wonderful walking on the ridge of a mountain. Here’s the route…
It's a nice route up and down the ridge and back.
And as I was walking down the steps to the base, and actually… at THAT MOMENT, thinking about how well my Chaco sandals worked on the slippery, rainy stones, I fell on my ass! HARD! Having had multiple surgeries on my knees, I’m a PRO at falling. I seriously am 😀 A fact I am proud of. Falling on your ass, instead of putting the weight into your wrists, prevents fractures… EXCEPT MY ASS DOESN’T HAVE ANY PADDING ON IT ANYMORE! Or at least it’s greatly reduced! OW! And this is what your butt looks like with a big, deep, ouchy bruise on it…
LOL... you only live once... ViviMokaLaka is the best buddy you can have for documenting your life on film and YES, I have tats... more than a few and my mom has seen all of them.... Oh... and my ass is much smaller than it was 9 months ago... I never would have posted a bruise on THAT ass!
So, going back to the man in the blue shirt sitting next to me in the group shot. He ran up the steps, quick as lightening, to help me get up. I thought that was very sweet. And then he yelled at me, in Mandarin for hiking with sandals on… I showed him the bottom of the sandal in a plea for understanding, but he wasn’t having any of it! He then gave me HIS walking stick and told me (in Mandarin) to follow him the rest of the way down and to walk sideways so I wouldn’t fall again. What a sweetie 🙂 I made it down the rest of the way without any trouble… LOL
Here’s how the hike went:
Nice hike! I know that 909 feet isn't a huge climb up, but it's pretty impressive to me 🙂
So, that was my hike. I then met a couple of friends at 35mm Coffee shop for an iced latte, then went home and showered. I then walked to the hospital to give baby Lyla a bath and some lovin’. Just as I was leaving, Reuben from The Vineyard, was bringing a special request dinner into the room… He’s the guy that made me the special dinner on Saturday night to keep me PP for the day… he’s an awesome chef… reminds me of my son, Nick.
Reuben with Olivia
After seeing that yummy food, I went home and had a pan grilled chicken breast with onion, anoki mushrooms, regular mushrooms and garlic stems. Yummy!
Since I had done the hike, I didn’t run… instead read a little more than half of “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. Awesome book, lots of wisdom.
So that’s it… nice, fully Sunday. Great way to end the week. I’m really enjoying my Sunday hikes!
Ciao!
Tagged: Most Embarrassing Night Involving a Toilet
So, I got this message from my buddy Sandy over at TheSandyTongue. A challenge. One that, if asked by anyone else, I probably wouldn’t do… LOL. But his posts keep me in stitches. Even the ones I don’t agree with. I try really HARD not to read his posts at work, because I laugh so loud they KNOW I’m not working! So here goes…
thesandytongue on April 27, 2012 at 2:13 pm said:Edit
Hello dear, I nominated you, enjoy:http://thesandytongue.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/tmi-most-embarrasing-night-involving-a-toilet/
In the fall of 1983 I was a 19 year old mother of 2 and recently separated from husband Number 1, due to finding him screwing a 16 year old in our bed, while my 2 year old was playing in the living room and I was grocery shopping… this happened at 5 weeks post-partum.
Needless to say, I was suffering from raging postnatal depression AND situational depression.
Said ex-husband (may he rest in peace… he died from the affects of alcoholism at the young age of 44) had 2 best friends, Rick and Tom. And they decided we were going out for a night on the town. The “happening place” in good ole Stuart, Florida was The Stage East. **Please note, when I was 19, back in 1983, you could still legally drink alcohol at that age, it changed the following July 1, and my little sister (just 19 months younger than me) had to wait to 21 (not that she did… lol).
Anyhoo… I have not much recollection of that night except I had 3 rum and cokes, 2 Long Island ice teas and 2 pina coladas. We then went to an “after party” at Rick’s house. Where I apparently threw up on every surface of his bathroom, except the ceiling. Although, according to Rick, I almost hit the ceiling with it 🙂 I then passed out, hit my head on the bathtub and woke up in the hospital.
Not a proud moment, to be sure. I have never, ever been drunk since then. I have actually never, ever had more than 2 drinks in one 24 hour setting. I’m the designated driver. I would say that I’ve probably had 3 drinks this year, so far, and the last one was on the plane coming back to China where I dumped 1/2 of one of those little airplane sized Bacardi bottles into a diet coke… the other 1/2 is still in my cupboard… that was February 9th.
I wasn’t invited back out to party with that group. Rick said it took 3 of them 2 hours to clean the bathroom from the vomit and blood… more embarrassing that you can imagine.
And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Ciao!
Great quote… I have walked out of my history and am writing NEW history for myself!
“Stand up and walk out of your history.” This is a quote I found somewhere from Dr Phil. I know a lot of people have very mixed feelings about the man and his television show. One thing you have to give him is that he know how to punch line an issue with laser like focus. He cuts through all of the noise about the “stories” that people are telling him and hits at the core of the problem.
I love this quote. To me it is a kick in the pants to stop believing I can’t do something just because I haven’t done it before. At some point you have to choose to hang on to the comfort of your story or choose to change your script. Reasons or results is something my dad used to say to me. How applicable that is in so many circumstances!
Dukan – Day 252 – Recipe: stir fry leftovers
Thursday was a PV day 🙂
Daily weight GAIN: .3 kgs… As I predicted would happen!
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 3 slices of boiled ham and 1 tea egg
Dinner: Chicken breast and left over veggies in the fridge
Snack: pot of FF Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda
Exercise:
1 mile walk to work
1 mile walk home from work
That’s it. Exhausted!
I finished reading SweetHeart by Chelsea Cain… Riveting!
Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Serves: 1
Ingredients:
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 large onion, cut chunky
1/3 red pepper, diced
4 asparagus spears, cut into bite sized pieces
Handful mushroom, chopped
6-8 green olives
2 Tbs hot saucy kind of stuff… Mine is in Chinese… Its like a hot pepper salsa, it’s yummy!
Coat pan/wok with non-stick spray OR 1 Tbs coconut oil. Turn stove on med-high heat.
Place chicken on hot oil carefully. Place lid and let sizzle for 3 minutes.
Turn chicken over, replace lid for 1 minute.
Toss in red pepper and onion. Replace lid. Cook for 3 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium.
Place asparagus and mushrooms in, stir. Replace lid for 2 minutes.
Place 2 Tbs of salsa in pan and stir in well.
Replace lid, turn heat down to med-low. Simmer 2 minutes.
Serve and Enjoy!
Ciao!
Grandma to a teenager
I am 48. Thirteen years ago, on April 25, 1999 my daughter Jenni gave birth to the most perfect little bundle of joy. Celeste Alena. Jenni was 15. I was 35.
I remember walking around with the silliest grin on my face for days. I smiled so much my face muscles ached 😀 My daughter was an amazing birther, short fast labor, just like me.
We were surrounded by people who were important to us. Carolyn, my partner in birth, Lisa Wick, my midwife friend from school, there to take over if I needed to be Jenni’s mom instead of midwife, Ray, Celeste’s father, Dodi, who gave birth to a 10 lb 12 oz boy the October before and Candy, a family friend who videotaped the birth.
We reveled in Celeste’s perfectness. Her sweetness, how wonderful she breastfed, how well she slept.
Around 5 weeks old, I started feeling something was “off” about Celeste. She looked through you, not at you and she wasn’t tracking us with her eyes. Our family pediatrician told me to be the grandma, not a midwife… that everything was normal. I wasn’t happy with that. At 9 weeks old, I secured a consult with a pediatric opthomologist. he diagnosed Celeste with a retinal issue and said she was legally blind. Devastating, but doable. I was actually relieved.
At our 13 week visit to the pediatrician, we brought her the info from the eye doctor. She was humbled by it, and murmured an apology. She had been our family ped since 1981, I understood. Then as she was examining Celeste she uttered the one word that threw our lives upside down… MICROCEPHALY… I burst into tears, knowing the gravity of such a diagnosis. Dr. Rojas was also very emotional… Poor Jenni and Ray had no idea why we were upset. Microcephaly means small head/brain. Back in 1999 if you searched (there was no google) the term, it came up “profound retardation, short life span, approximately 10 years”. We were devastated.
A neuro consult 2 weeks later would give us the diagnosis of Agenesis of the Corpus Collosum, essentially Celeste is missing the middle part of her brain, the part that separates the left and right hemispheres. She is severely disabled. She does not stand, walk, sit or talk (a few words every once in a while)
She DOES bring happiness to those around her, have the most brilliant smile, loves stealing toys from babies if she’s propped close enough, has a clever streak, understands EVERY WORD YOU SAY!!!
She is 13 today… A teenager. I’m a grandma to a teenager… WOW!
Here she is, the center of our universe!
HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY, CELESTE ALENA BLANKENSHIP!!!
I love you,
You know it’s true…
Celeste Alena Blankenship,
I LOVE YOU… Momma xoxoxo
Dukan vs. Paleo… why does it have to be vs.???
I used to follow this blog… they have a lot of interesting information about the Paleo diet… However, he posted this post and one about a woman who failed to keep her weight off after completing Phase 2 of the Dukan Diet (btw… people fail, diets don’t) and I put a thoughtful, respectful response with my opinion which he moderated and refused to post. I think that sucks… If you don’t agree with what I say, that’s OK, get into an insightful debate with me… but don’t just post the comments that favor your opinion, because that just makes you small minded in my opinion. I’m sure glad there are a lot more Paleo blogs out there that value my opinion and educate me about the benefits of a primal diet.
~Sandi
We get a lot of questions asking how our way of eating differs from say the Dukan Diet or the Atkins Diet. Well the latter two are indeed quite similar in their make up and include similar foods although at different stages. However many of the foods and even non foods (as may better describe them) included are in fact detrimental to both health and well being. In addition both these diets are specifically geared towards weight loss results and fall short on considering long term sustainability as they are both temporary programs with one focus, losing weight. In particular the Dukan diet severely reduces fat intake and relies upon calorie restriction and exercise to provide results. The Atkins diet fares little better as it encourages you to purchase their own brand processed foods. We will look at the Atkins diet a little closer in this series, however for now…
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Dukan – Day 248 – I DID IT :)
Sunday was PV (Protein/Veggie) Day 😀
Daily Weight Loss: 0.9 lb/0.44 kg
Total Weight Loss: 90.2 lbs/41.01 kgs
So in 8 months and 3 days I’ve reached Dr. Dukan’s True Weight for me.
I also COMPLETED COUCH 2 5 K last night. So I reached TWO goals in less than 12 hours! 😀 😀 😀 😀
Breakfast: Bacon and egg omelet with bran
Lunch: Green salad with grilled chicken breast
Dinner: Ground beef, onions and mushrooms cooked Vietnamese lemongrass sauce. YUM!
Exercise:
2.15 mile mountain hike in the morning
3.11 mile run in the evening
I wanted to upload a couple pics, but the internet here in China is NOT cooperating 😦 I’ll see if I can upload them directly from my iPhone…
Bigger and better update coming soon with lots of before and after pics from the past year… should be fun!
Ciao!
Quote of the day: I’m determined to not die with millions in the bank, but memories in my heart! ~ Sandi Blankenship, in response to MJ 🙂
Pic I couldn’t upload earlier…
Dr. Dukan's True Weight met 🙂 I'm going 4.5 kgs less (10 pounds), as my own goal, but reaching this... AWESOME!
Dukan – Days 243 & 244 – Eight months in!
Wednesday was a PV day and Thursday was a PP day 🙂
Daily Weight Loss: 1.5 pounds/0.70 kgs (2 days)
Total Weight Loss: 87.8 pounds/39.91 kgs/6.27 stone
Wednesday was a work day. And after work I had dinner with friends at The Vineyard. It’s run by an American guy named Reuben from Boston. Weds. night is game night, and if you play a game you get 10% off! We played UNO… I won 😀
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 1 tea egg and tin of tuna
Dinner: Philly cheese steak and a side salad
Wednesday was an off night from running, so I walked 5 kms instead.
Thursday was my hospital’s spring walk. I’m going to do a completely separate blog on my adventures with lots of pictures.
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: In a small village, pork, tofu and chicken… I didn’t have the rice that was placed directly on front of me!
Dinner: Stir fried pork curry with onions and garlic cloves. I also dipped it in some kick ass hot sauce that I bought on the field trip! Hot as all get out, but yum!!
Exercise: 3.47 km cave hike, up and down & 4.75 km mountain hike, that was pretty challenging… Here’s how we got down from the top of the mountain… The Flying Squirrel…
Fun day… Just 1 kg exactly to be at Dr. Dukan’s True Weight!!! ONE KILOGRAM! That’s 2.2 pounds. It’s really crazy to think that I’ve nearly lost 90 pounds in 8 months! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… THIS DIET WORKS! IF YOU FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER, IT REALLY WORKS!
I’m off to bed… I’ll post all about cave hiking, mountain hiking and wishes coming true n about 10 hours 🙂
Ciao!
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