Goodbye 40’s my old friend ā™«

Well…. this decade was a roller coaster, for sure! Tomorrow at 11:11 p.m. I hit FANTABULOUS FIFTY! I’m super excited about this milestone.

My 40’s were crazy. Love, loss, travel (lots and lots), delivering babies on every continent except Antarctica, 3 of those years living in the Middle East and another whole year living in China.

Dukan weight loss, learned to run, 5Ks, new friends, renewed friendships, ended friendships. Grandbabies!!! 6 of them born in my 40’s!!!

I had a fabulous party on Saturday night. I am so blessed with amazing family and friends in my life…

Cynda and Me

Cynda and Me

 

Teri and Natalie

Teri and Natalie

Me, Nick and my Mom

Me, Nick and my Mom

Mom, Me, Hope and Tiffany

Mom, Me, Hope and Tiffany

Jenny, Eric and Aydan

Jenny, Eric and Aydan

Mom, Me and Lisa... My mom is a hoot!

Mom, Me and Lisa… My mom is a hoot!

Denny serenading us!

Denny serenading us!

The gang!

The gang!

Me and My 3 and the littlest grandbaby, Steele.

Me and My 3 and the littlest grandbaby, Steele.

I’m truly blessed and can’t wait to see what the next decade has in store for me.

Bring it on, 50!!!

Ciao!

Dukan Attack Days 1-4 and PV Day 1

I’m doing the Dukan dance šŸ˜€

I was up 17 pounds over my Dukan True Weight, 27 pounds over my goal weight and when I had to suck it in last week to put on those size 8 jeans I worked my ass off to get into, I took control and jumped back in.

Problem… been eating too many gluten free replacement foods. Like Mary’s Gone Crackers. Oh, and maybe a bag of Fritos Originals once a week, or so. And maybe a glass of wine or two a week. And it adds up… I maintained at the 148-152 for over 6 months and then I got complacent. And I don’t mean eating poorly… because I don’t eat poorly at all, ever… I mean adding in too many carbs and probably too much fat and not paying attention.

Funny enough, I’ve had PLENTY of exercise. Although I haven’t been running, I walk 4.5 miles 4x a week. And bike ride more than 10 miles on Sunday. And I gained 12 of those pounds above in Australia where I was more active than ever! Hiking, climbing, snorkeling and swimming nearly every single day. And walking each night with the family I was staying with after dinner. Carbs… they don’t like me.

Weights for the week:
6/17 – 82.5 kg – 182 lb
6/18 – 81.2 kg – 179 lb
6/20 – 80.6 kg – 177.75 lb
6/21 – 80.0 kg – 176.4 lb
Nearly 6 pounds off in 5 days… happy girl šŸ˜€

Food today:
Breakfast: 2 hard fried eggs and 3 slices lean bacon (yes, I know bacon isn’t Dukan… not giving it up!)
Lunch: 4 slices of london broil roast beef slices & 4 slices of low fat Cheddar rolled up together
Snack: 2 boiled eggs
Dinner: 7 oz. chicken breast stir fried with onions and spices
Snack: Fat Free Greek yogurt with 1 pkt Splenda and 2 Tbs flaxseed meal

Feeling better about things… back on track. Gotta look fab for my 50th bday which is a short 5 months away šŸ™‚

How is everyone else doing?

Ciao!

Happy 2013!

Wow… what a CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY year! 42 Take offs and Landings… 91,000 air miles logged. From huge airplanes (Boeing A380) to a small 9 seater. China, Hong Kong, U.S., Japan and the Bahamas.

I completed the Dukan diet in May, having lost 111 pounds! And for the most part have kept it off. I bounce up a few pounds, readjust and it comes back off.

I went from not being able to run for 45 seconds to running 5K and completed one. I am now training for a triathlon next August with bloggy friends Cindy, Sandra and Anna and can’t wait!!!

I’ve also done yoga and a program called D.I.R.T.Ā regularly… D.I.R.T. kicks my ass!

Last year I brought New Years in with my dear friend Lucy in Hong Kong…

New Years Eve in Hong Kong Dec 31, 2011. With Lucy Rowney.

New Years Eve in Hong Kong Dec 31, 2011. With Lucy Rowney.

Crazy how much has happened in the past 12 months! Crazy how blessed and fortunate I am to have the people in my life that I do. Crazy how lucky I am to have an amazing job with two crazy women that I adore and love working with!!

December 2012Lorie, Me and Miri

December 2012
Lorie, Me and Miri

The next adventure? Planning a conference for birth workers in Ecuador for July this year and planning my own little trip into Peru to visit Machu PicchuĀ afterwards. It’s going to be an amazing trip!

What are your plans for 2013?

I hope all of you have a blessed, amazing, healthy and prosperous 2013!

Ciao!
Sandi šŸ™‚

 

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…

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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…

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Gluten-free chocolate torte!!!

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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!

Arm Reduction

So this one will be brief… Monday I had brachioplasty. Basically I have had these lovely tone arms from yoga and exercise, then the flappy stuff underneath. It’s gone. I feel like yuck, recovering, did too much 24 hours out and paying for it this morning with swollen hands, headache and a fever 😦
So will update the blog this weekend when feeling better!
Ciao!

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Creating a Powerful & Inspiring Vision for your Life – Step 1

I’ve been doing a lot of blog reading these past few weeks and listening to a lot of podcasts. I am researching ways to better my life and have a positive impact on starting my new business when I get home in EIGHT DAYS!!! I know, I’m not excited about moving home AT ALL! šŸ˜€

I came across this blog while clicking through links on a different blog The Wellness Warrior.Ā Her post about the 3 Steps To Creating a Powerful and Inspiring Vision has me filling out pages and pages in my journal! So here goes Step 1 of that process. Perhaps it will inspire you to create a vision!

The first question is why is it so important to have a vision? Well I am a firm believer in what you put out into the world happens. Kind of a “if you build it, they will come” kind of thinking. BTW, I love that movie! When you envision something as happening, it often will. I often go to sleep thinking about what I’d like to see in the future and then dream about it. I am able to manipulate my dreams (not sure how that works, but it works for me) and come out with multiple endings to my visions. I have been creating intentional dreams the past couple months of how I’d like to see my business work out and often wake up and write ideas down in the Blue Sparkly Notebook. Otherwise, they are lost forever, or at least until it springs back up in my mind and I’d rather not miss the opportunity. Not to get too far off track, but I am also able to wake up, write things down, go to the bathroom and lay back down and resume my dreams… When my mom would come to wake me for school when I was a little girl, I used to tell her to give me 5 more minutes so I could finish my dream, and I would!

So, Step 1 is: Get clear on what you want. I used a simple formula that my friend John posted on his Facebook wall a couple months back… I’ve been using this nearly daily while writing out my plans:

This is a very simple formula, but it laid the foundation for me to start thinking about where I wanted to go with my plans AND my life.

After you’ve answered those questions, you dig deeper…
If I was not afraid, what would I do?
If I had all the money I needed, what would I do?
If I knew I would be loved and supported unconditionally, what would I do?

I’ve taken these questions to heart and written them out in my journal… each one has a WHOLE page dedicated to the answers. I also have 2Ā subcategoriesĀ for the answers:
LIFE & WORK!
Here’s a couple notes I’ve made next to these:
#1: Jump feet first into the black water called “a new business and career” and not have any qualms about it (WORK)
#2: Go to Sierre-Leone and devote 3-5 years to lowering the maternal mortality rate (LIFE & WORK… or is that LifeWork?)
#3: Dance barefoot and naked in the rain (LIFE)

And then you dig even deeper…
1.Ā Why do I want what I want?
2.Ā What do I think this will give me?
3.Ā What qualities do I want to experience on a daily basis?
4.Ā How do I want to feel?

These have been more difficult for me to write out… as you must be very open to ideas you may find absolutely impossible… and I’m a concrete thinker! You also have to think from a “self” point of view, instead of thinking about how you will be helping others, you have to think about what it is YOU want to get out of it.

In answer to #1 I’ve written that I want to focus on health & fitness because I feel amazing and want to share that amazing feeling with others. I have also written that I want to find a sustainable career that will help others while helping me continue on my plan for eventual retirement.

So I’ve given you a lot to think about with this exercise šŸ™‚

If you had an unlimited resource of money, what would you do?

Ciao!

 

Self Love Exercise – Part 10

Take time to write in your Radical Self Love Journal… & be sure to carry it around with you!

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There’s no better feeling than carrying around a notebook full of your dreams, goals, prayers & wishes. Journalling has been going on for a long time for a very good reason: it helps us realise who we are.

This has been a fun series to write about! It has brought about self-awareness for me and expanded my way of thinking. One of these is that I carry around a note book that my former personal assistant Kitty called the “blue sparkly note book”. I keep it in my back pack and pull it out when an idea or a thought occurs to me. I have horrible short-term memory so it helps me to also remember little things I’ve promised to do and have a place to jot down when it’s done.

self love, self esteem, self confidence, journaling

I am starting a new business when I get home later this month (I fly 1 week and 5 days!!! WOOT!!!) and my blue, sparkly note book has been a great place to journal my hopes and expectations for the business, business ideas that POP into my head, business ideas that I get from friends and family and bloggy friends.

I also use the journal to write down how I’m feeling about myself. It’s a great place to pat myself on the back, write down affirmations and gratitude. I also write down prayers, hopes and blessings for those around me. Prayers for friends on trips, helping others, going through surgery, running races, going through triumphs and trials… they are all written in my Blue Sparkly Note Book.

self love, self esteem, self confidence, journaling

Until we LOVE OURSELVES, we cannot properly LOVE OTHERS.

Do you keep a journal? What is the last thing you wrote about in it? Mine is a blessing for a fellow blogger who is running a triathlon today (Saturday)… good luck Sandra šŸ™‚

Ciao!

Edited to add a pic of my Blue Sparkly Notebook šŸ™‚

journal, blue sparkly notebook, self love

My Blue Sparkly Notebook!

Dukan – One year anniversary

So this isn’t going to be the spectacularly huge post I promised 😦 I’ve had dodgy tummy for 2 days and I’m just not up to it. I think I drank some non-bottle water Sunday night and my normally iron stomach isn’t happy.

I did, however, go out with Rose and Jack yesterday for a spectacular touristy day, despite making a hundred trips to the bathroom! I’ll blog on that later in the week when I’m feeling better, as well.

I typed this up while riding the subway yesterday on the way to the Safari Park Zoo…

Wow! A year! A year since I took control of my life. A year where I changed my
body, my health, my job, moved countries, visited Thailand with friends, met the
most amazing friends in the blogosphere, found out who my true friends were,
learned to deal with resentment and regret, hosted a few expected and unexpected
people in my flat in China, cared for some extraordinary expats during their
pregnancies and birth, and realized finally that I CAN do anything and I’m
AMAZING!

A year where I lost 111 pounds in under 10 months. A year where I learned to run
and improve my yoga. A year where i participated in my first 5K. A year where I
committed to do a triathlon to celebrate my 2nd year of rebirth. A summer where
I’ve maintained that weight loss!

A year of teaching water birth and international standards of care in China,
where at 5 hospitals women now have that option! A year where I decided it was
time to go home. Spend more time with my kids and grandkids, stay connected with
the birth community at home through eduction while developing my next career
move.

A year where I went from this:

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To this:

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A year with ups and downs and all arounds!

A FANTABULOUS year! Thanks, so much, for sharing the journey with me xoxo

Ciao!

Running, blog stats and random stuff

I’ve had a pretty exciting week from a personalĀ perspective. I set two personal records running in the past 3 days. The first was my fastest run at 8:26 avg. min/km or 13:34 avg. min/mile. This is a full 1 minute per mile LESS than before I had my surgery in May!Ā The second was that I ran more miles in July than any previous month! Below is my RunKeeper stats…

The brick color is walking, the green is running and the purple is hiking.

I’ve either walked, ran or hiked 544 kilometers since March. That’s 338 miles šŸ™‚ Woot!

Another awesome thing that happened this week is that at some point I reached 50,000 hits on my blog! AndĀ I’veĀ logged nearly 3500 comments! It makes me so happy that so many peopleĀ haveĀ stopped by. I started regularly writing this blog in August to share my journey with family and friends and it has become so much more and that makes my heart swell with happiness!

And that leads to the awesomest things thatĀ haveĀ happened this week. Actually it happened today… 4 people that I personally know, all of us on 4 different continents, contacted me today (yesterday for some of you) to tell me they are starting the Dukan because they want to be healthier andĀ they’veĀ seen my success. All 4Ā haveĀ read my blog and I only knew that one of them was. I wish all 4 of you luck!!! I know you will succeed because I know all of you put your mind to something and accomplish it! 4 amazing women… starting on this journey… Good luck and remember that I’m here if you need anything!

I’ll finish by saying that August brings in the last month of summer. It also signals that IĀ haveĀ 51 days left in China. I can’tĀ believeĀ I’veĀ been here nearly a year already! I get one more trip to Guangzhou where I get to hang with my Int’l crew down there, Rose, Jenny, Liza and Dianna. And get to mentor a friend from the Middle East, Aisha! And then back to Hangzhou to finish out my contract… I’m going to miss myĀ ViviMokaLakaĀ so much! She’s the one that brought me here in the first place. I’m going to try to take as many photos as possible in the next 7 weeks.

But I miss home and my kids and my grandkids and my mom and my family and my friends and the beautiful sunriseĀ overĀ theĀ RooseveltĀ Bridge first thing in the morning. And there’s no place like home.Ā I’veĀ had a fun 4 yearsĀ livingĀ abroad šŸ™‚ But on to new projects and fixing up my AirStream!

I hopeĀ everyoneĀ has a wonderful Wednesday!

Ciao!