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!
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!
Important read! I no longer have headaches, joint pain, IBS, heartburn and a bunch of other stuff AND I lost 111 pounds. I dare you to stop eating wheat for just one month and see!
Have  you had ANY of these ‘maladies’ in your life? Taken a pill for them? On a daily regime of prescribed medication or treatment, for your symptoms, right now?
Has the doctor told you that after a week, a month, a year, you can stop treatment and you will…
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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!
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 🙂
I’m sitting at the airport in Shanghai writing my last blog post from here. My next one will be from the U.S… Some random thoughts…
I can’t believe I’m really moving home! I’ve lived abroad 6 weeks shy of 4 years!
I can’t wait to give my daughter Jenni a hug at the airport! I love being picked up!
I can’t wait to give Tiffany and the grandkids a hug… Lots of hugging!!
I can’t wait to give my mom a hug… That’ll wait until Sunday 🙂
I can’t wait to start homeschooling my granddaughter Sydnie!
I am going to miss a lot of people in Hangzhou… Saying goodbye was tough! To Jerry, my amazing driver, thank you for knowing me so well that you were spot on picking me up this morning on time and delivering me to the airport 3 hours ahead of time. You are AWESOME!
I am so fortunate that I have a part time job waiting for me at home AND will be starting my own business! So excited!!
I have a chihuahua waiting for me… Bebe! I’ll be picking her up on Saturday morning and I’m so excited!!!
And in 4 days I’ll be hiking in the Appalachian mountains for a few days!!
Life is good! Boarding in 10 minutes so up, up and away!!!!
Ciao!
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!
People always tell us to start our mornings with a good breakfast, and having been through this amazing journey, I couldn’t agree more. But there are other things we can do to start our day off on the right foot!
In her book What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Laura Vanderkam writes, “Seizing your mornings is the equivalent of that sound financial advice to pay yourself before you pay your bills. If you wait until the end of the month to save what you have left, there will be nothing left over.
Here are some things that I do to get my day going in the right direction:
1. I get up early. I don’t have to be at work until 8 a.m. and it is a 15 minute walk to work. Having the experience of jumping out of bed and dressing and running to a birth in the middle of the night, I could totally wake up at 725 a.m. and make it to work on time 🙂 Instead, I wake up at 615. Go into the kitchen and get the water boiling for a cup of coffee or tea and weight myself. I then get my cup and I’m back in bed by 620, curled up with my iPad and stick to 20 minutes checking mail and catching up on Facebook. Then I shut it down and get ready for work. I’m usually out the door by 715 and at work by 730. This gives me 30 minutes of silence in my office before the staff comes in.
It took me awhile to wrap my head around getting up an hour earlier for work, but it relieves me of any anxiety about being late and starts my day off just right!
2. Review your goals… the early morning, when you have a little extra time, is a nice way to review your goals that you’ve written in your journal. These goals are the ones we talked about last week… personal goals, work related goals and dream goals. Envisioning them first thing in the morning can help you work towards those goals and have a positive mental attitude throughout the day since you HAVE goals!
Have you started your “vision” journal yet?
Ciao!
So the other night when I made the Coconut Flaxseed Bread that I posted about, I had this half a can of coconut milk left over and had no idea what to do with it… then it hit me… why don’t I pour it in the veggies that are steaming… Mmmm Mmmm Good!
Thai inspired steamed veggies!
VEGGIES STEAMED IN COCONUT MILK
Total time: 20-25 minutes
Serves: 6
1 head of broccoli
4 medium carrots
A big handful of asparagus
1/2 c water
1 c coconut milk
Cut veggies into bite size pieces.
Put carrots into pan and pour water over them.
Simmer on med-low for 10-15 minutes (until they are just becoming tender)
**Add a little more of water, if needed
Add the rest of the veggies to the pan and pour the coconut milk on top.
Stir well.
Steam for 5-7 minutes.
Serve.
Enjoy!
Per serving: 74 Calories, 5 g protein, 2 g fat, 13 g carb
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.
Coconut Flaxseed Bread
Nutrition info per serving: Calories 150, Protein 5.5g, Fat 13.8g,
Total Carb 2.8g, Net Carb 0.4g
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