Day 2 – National Health Blog Post Month

Day 2 is Write about the weirdest thing about your health…

I’m going to start off by saying I’ve had a couple of amazing days this weekend up in Orlando with my friend Cathy and her daughter Sarah. I also want to type a nice long paragraph so that the weirdest thing about my health doesn’t show up on Facebook… LOL, you’ll have to click on the link to read it… Now on with the topic πŸ˜‰

For the most part, my body has responded amazingly well to the Dukan Diet and now Paleo Diet.

So, this is something we’re not “suppose” to talk about, but I’m going to. The weirdest thing about my health, now that I’m on a wheat and gluten free diet is…

I DON’T FART πŸ˜€ Yup, I don’t pass gas, I never get rumbly tummy and I never get the “oh my God I’m going to die IBS pain. Who knew that by cutting the wheat, you would cut the cheese no more!?!

What’s weird about your health? My weird thing is a good thing, I’m sure!

Ciao!

It’s Magical!

20121104-230004.jpg

Photo Bomb on Thunder Mountain

20121104-230038.jpg

Cathy and Me!

20121104-230104.jpg

Me, Cathy & Sarah…

20121104-230135.jpg

Day 1 – National Health Blog Post Month

So, this month is National Health Blog Post Month and I’m going to attempt to put out two posts a day for this month πŸ™‚

The first assignment – β€œWhy I write about my health”

I write about my health because I began my amazing journey 15 months ago by starting the Dukan Diet. I decided to post daily to hold myself accountable to myself, my family and friends and it has grown to so much more!

I’m most proud to say that I’ve maintained my weightloss within a 5 pound range for SIX MONTHS!!

Do you write about your health? If so, why?

Ciao!

Here’s a few pics of my amazing week I’m having…

Yoga on the beach, photo by the Amazing Mona

20121103-232543.jpg

Halloween Day at work…

20121103-232825.jpg

Me and Angie Z…

20121103-232859.jpg

Me and BeBe…

20121103-232922.jpg

Dukan – Consolidation Day 165

Today is the 165th day of Dukan Consolidation for me… I will be in this phase for 500 days and the point of Consolidation is to teach your body that this is the weight it is suppose to be. And I have to say I’m duly impressed with how well this phase works!

I’m following the principles of the Dukan Diet, but eating Paleo, as I do not want to add wheat or any other gluten back into my diet. I also am eating more good fat in my diet (from nitrite free bacon, coconut and macadamia oil, etc) and dairy (full fat) which isn’t technically allowed on either diet, but I’m a cheese girl. The result? My weight has maintained between 143 and 148 the entire time I’ve been in Consolidation!! I’m having celebration meals once per week, but keeping wheat out. Most of my celebration meals consist of a teeny bit of sugar, my one treat. And most weeks, it’s a normal healthy dinner and a dark chocolate bar for dessert. I have no cravings for crap food… Except for the 3 minutes I mourned the loss of crispy spicy KFC chicken. I whipped out my trust iPhone pics and looked at the KFC me and decided I am better than that!

I strongly recommend reading the book Wheat Belly, Mel from NZ recommended it to me in January and I devoured every word. It explained A LOT! And the subject has come up on a couple of my favorite blogs this past week (Shannon and Sonia) πŸ˜€ I never want to have that OMG my stomach is going to explode feeling again. EVER and since quitting wheat, I don’t! It’s that simple.

In regard to exercise, I’m still restricted from running for another 5 days, but I’ve been walking daily and last night did my first yoga class since my surgery, hoo boy did those over the head stretches feel tight! Speaking of surgery, I’M LOVIN’ my arms!!!

Here’s a peek at what I had for brekkies and dinner this week. Pretty typical of my daily intake. Lunch has been broiled chicken or meat and cheese roll-ups.

20121024-083916.jpg
Bacon and eggs with veggies πŸ™‚

20121024-084043.jpg
Sirloin Steak and stir-fry veggies… Mmmmm!

Now I’m off to practice a tricep move mentioned on Anna’s blog. Kaye has challenged me to take a pic and post it πŸ™‚

How is everyone else doing weight and fitness wise? Happy hump day πŸ˜€

Ciao!

You Did What?!?!

So I did this…

20121022-095939.jpg

About 18 hours after my surgery. I was blitzed out on the ketamine used for anesthesia and I have no memory of doing it. Here is what I put on Facebook. The left column is before and the right column is after…

20121022-100141.jpg

Since I couldn’t put pants on, it’s my guess that I ran in my tank and boy shorts… I guess no one noticed since it was so early in the morning! My daughters had great fun making up the 911 calls… “Um half naked zombie running over the bridges downtown with bloody bandages”.

The good news is that I hit a personal record (PR or PB in running code). LOL, too bad I have no memory of it. What I think is the funniest is that I had the mind set to turn RunKeeper on and off πŸ˜€

Ve behaved myself since! No running until next Monday, but I’ve been walking the bridges nearly daily.

How is everyone’s Monday going?

Ciao!

Goodbye Flabby My Old Friend

I can’t believe it’s been 21 days since my arm surgery! I’ve been a very bad blogger 😦 Coming home has been amazing and overwhelming.

The surgery on my arms is called a brachioplasty or arm lift. It removes the excess skin from your upper arms.

I have to say that the pain is less than the liposuction I had in May. It’s different, but not as bad. The first 3.5 days I have NO recall of. The anesthesia used was Valium and Ketamine. The Ketamine causes amnesia and it sure worked for me!

So here is a before and after. This “after pic is Day 12 post op:

20121021-094442.jpg

And this is a close up of my left arm. There is still some swelling, but I’m very pleased with the results. My surgeon is Dr. Donato Viggiano. He is awesome and I highly recommend him.

20121021-095335.jpg

How is everyone else doing? I promise to get back on track with posts about Dukan, Consolidation, Paleo and running (which I can’t do until next week) 😦

Ciao!

Crazy 3 weeks!

What a crazy 3 weeks! I don’t even feel I’ve been home that long, but on the other hand I feel like its been a whirlwind!
Lots of ups and downs and all arounds!
I got home after midnight on a Friday, surprised by my daughters who both came to pick me up!
I left Saturday morning and drove across the State to Sarasota to pick up BeBe…

20121014-073905.jpg

From there I drove north to Tampa for lunch with my friend, Tammy and then another 2 hours north to my mom’s for an overnight.
We left early the next morning for North Carolina. My mom’s best friend Sandy was our first stop and I left her there and went to stay with Sandy’s son Mark and his partner Eric. We had 3 days packed with mountain hikes, shopping, awesome food and hanging out.

So I’ll end this post with a gazillion pics of that trip…

20121014-081059.jpg

20121014-081539.jpg

20121014-081608.jpg

20121014-081646.jpg

20121014-081720.jpg
Gluten-free chocolate torte!!!

20121014-081823.jpg

20121014-081853.jpg

20121014-081923.jpg

20121014-082002.jpg

20121014-082027.jpg

20121014-082052.jpg

20121014-082108.jpg

20121014-082138.jpg

Now rushing out mom’s door to head across State to see friends and then back to Stuart… Waiting to get off the roller coaster… WEEEEEEEE!

Update and Standing while Eating

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, sautΓ©ed 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 πŸ™‚ 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 β€˜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 β€˜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 πŸ™‚

20121010-235712.jpg

Goal – 150 km in September – MET

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…

20120930-225615.jpg

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 πŸ™‚

Ciao!

Dukan – My Last Walk to Work

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 πŸ™‚ 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! πŸ˜€

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!

Dukan – Sunday Celebration and weekly wrap-up!

Consolidation Phase Day 128 of 500!
Weekly Weight: 146-149
Goal Weight: 155
So Consolidation DOES work πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ™‚

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 πŸ™‚ 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!

hot pot, hangzhou

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!

midwife, china water birth

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!