Dukan – Day 236 Epic Fail day

Posted on April 12, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wednesday started out as a PP day.

Daily weight GAIN: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 85.8 lb/39.91 kg

Oh, where to start… I’m probably being WAY harder on myself than I should!

Breakfast in my room: 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: A beautiful bowl of chicken and veggies, lovely presentation, but maybe 1 ounce of thinly sliced chicken, which being a PP day meant all I could have…

Those slivery, garlic looking things are from the lotus plant. I only ate the chicken.

I then taught a 90 minute child birth Ed class and a 60 minute staff development class. This pic is from the staff development class. The little old bitty with the word ‘LOVE’ over her head ~~wouldn’t shut her pie hole~~ , errr, wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise when talking about water birth… I asked her, “exactly how many water births have YOU conducted” she said, “none and I will never”. I said, “that’s, OK because the patients prefer midwives to do their deliveries”… She didn’t speak another word 😀
I can always tell by body language who is there to learn… The midwives took pics of every slide and 2 of them recorded it. They asked questions for nearly 40 minutes afterwards!

I want to give a shout out to my amazing daughter, Tiffany LeAnn and her hubby, Joey. I use their very intimate pictures from Jose’s birth (with their permission) in my presentations. The 2nd PowerPoint I use is just pics from their birth with the song “I Can Only Imagine” playing. They may not know the words, but the music does its wonder and brings tears to most people’s eyes. Joey and Tiffany… You are contributing tremendously in educating the women and midwives of China in normal birth and water birth… Thank you SO much for allowing me to teach through your experience!

And then my epic fail… OK, epic is an exaggeration… LOL, but it felt epic! We went for Arabic food. Just being in the restaurant made me miss Abu Dhabi… I swear sometimes I miss Abu Dhabi more than home in the States! I’m actually tearing up as I write this… Anyway, the place is run by 2 Arabs a Lebanese guy and a Syrian guy and it was DAMN GOOD ARABIC FOOD!!! My intent was to only eat the Mixed Grill and extra Chicken Shish Taouk, but also had the Lamb Kofta smothered in a sesame sauce and fattoush and hummus. Too much food, but no wheat or sugar… BUT, the Tabbouleh was to DIE FOR… Seems innocuous, but their is bulgur in Tabbouleh. And Bulgur is a wheat product and wheat is like friggin’ HEROIN to me. Not to mention it makes my tummy bloat and hurt and causes lower GI stuff!
Here’s a pic of the dinner… It was glorious, alhamdilallah! Notice the star of the show is the ~~heroin~~ Tabbouleh.

So, I’m feeling groovy, happy, speaking Arabic with Mohammed our waiter, getting winks from the Syrian co-owner who sends over a heavenly tea pot of yummy mint tea, when it happens… He sends over THE DESSERT PLATE… Nope, not gonna do it, not gonna rmrmrmmaamrm… Sigh, sorry, had chocolate in my mouth… What was I saying?!? EPIC FAIL… And MOONDAY Continue reading →

Something a little different… Tagged!

Posted on April 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I am WAY behind on many things in blogdom. I’ve had a fairly busy travel schedule this past 3 weeks and I apologize! I was given several blog awards that I still haven’t been able to get around posting (blogging on my ancient, ornery lap top is much easier than, my shiny iPad or worse, iPhone!)… I also want the blogs that I follow know that I read every word in your blogs and always, at the least, click the LIKE button… That is my WordPress peeps! Blogger makes it VERY difficult to acknowledge you’ve been there OR leave a message 😦 But, I’m reading those, as well!

Today I opened an awesome post by http://laborofwonder.com/2012/04/09/fine/
She’s a young busy mom who cooks homemade gluten-free food for her beautiful family. I like getting to know more about others, so here’s some stuff about me : D She tagged me in her post, and this is my response…

1. What is the worst advice you’ve ever been given? Did you take it?
To switch professions (midwifery)… Heck no… Once a midwife, always a midwife, you just figure out better and different ways to do it!

2. What are your top-3 favorite meals?
Steak & Asparagus
Salmon & Asparagus
Shashimi with LOTS of wasabi

3. What fact about you are you most embarrassed about?
I could have been a way better mom.

4. What’s the worst name you’ve ever given a pet?
~~None is~~ Miss Kitty, not very original. She lives with my mom now, she renamed her PITA (Pain In The Ass)… Seriously… Lol

5. What is something you do that drives your significant other crazy? If you have no significant other, substitute a parent or friend.
No significant other… I used to drive my friends nuts by answering questions with song lyrics… It was a Hard Habit To Break! 😀

6. What was the last thing to really make you laugh out loud?
Reading this guy’s blog… The Sandy Tongue
He’s rude, he’s crude, he’s says the most politically incorrect stuff, but I love reading his posts!

7. What was your worst first date ever?
Egyptian guy in Abu Dhabi, told me after one hour that he wanted to take me home to Egypt to meet his mother! Um, no… LOL

8. What is the rudest thing a stranger has ever said to you?
Drawing a blank… I usually tell people to eff off and then remove it from my mind.

9. What was your favorite childhood toy?
My Salty Dog… He was made of jean material, I have no idea what happened to him.

10. What was the last stupid/crazy/un-you thing you’ve last done?
Do I *have* to answer this one? Let’s just say my reaction to the lady who blew her nose on my EFFING HIKING BOOT in the taxi que at the Hangzhou train station a few weeks ago, will probably never do that again. I’m lucky I wasn’t taken out by the mob… Instead they parted and let me and Kitty through… I’m NOT proud of myself 😦

11. Pick your own question… What is your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
This is a toughie for me… But I’d say my family’s village in Italy. Pennapiedimonte. Nick and I traveled there in August 2009 and it was amazing!
The village hugs the side of the mountain…

This is what we saw from our bedroom every single morning… The sun coming up over the Adriatic Sea… Breathtaking!

OK….
Post the rules (and here they are:)
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
Create 11 new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
Tag 11 people and link them to your post.
Let them know you’ve tagged them.

Questions I want to know about you:

1. Why do you blog?

2. What is your biggest accomplishment?

3. What is one awesome place you’ve visited and would like to go back? Why?

4. Tell me about your 7th grade English teacher…

5. Describe your living room…

6. What is your dream vehicle? Why?

7. What is one thing your momma doesn’t know about you?

8. If you could change one thing, what would it be?

9. Three wishes…

10. What is your favorite day of the year? Why?

11. Why do you follow my blog?

Who I’m tagging and who you should check out… I follow these bloggers cuz they’re awesome!

Susan at A Promise To Dad

OK, have at it! I’m off to teach a class… I have 3 minutes to get down 5 flights of stairs 🙂

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 235 & 236 – Guangzhou

Posted on April 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PP day and Tuesday was a PV day 🙂

Monday:
Daily weight loss: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 86.5 lb/39.31 kg

Tuesday: No weight change

So Monday was a busy day… Worked at my hospital in Hangzhou in the morning, then Vivien, Kitty and I went to The Vineyard to watch the Geelong Cats play (Australian Football, ROCKS!!!) and then when the game was over I headed to the airport for an evening flight to Guangzhou. I’m here for a week doing staff development (water birth, normal birth, international standards training and JCIA) and I’m doing parents-to-be classes, as well. I can’t tell you how much I LOVE teaching about birth and health & safety and infection control!

Monday food:
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
lunch: tin of tuna
Snack: 1 tea egg
Dinner: at the airport Steak

I’m staying in the hospital and this is my room…

Pretty posh and nicer than a hotel! The hospital cook is making me food to order, although I needed to inform him this morning to lay off the MSG…I got all red and broke out in hives and had numb lips after dinner last night 😦

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a lot of fun. I got up early to search for tea eggs from a street vendor. When I returned the cook sent up eggs.. Lol.
I then did rounds with the doctors and went for a walk to the Carrefour (a French grocery store that I used to shop at in Abu Dhabi)… found Greek yogurt, yay!
On the way back, I noticed the fountain in front of the hospital… NO WORDS…

Lunch in the board room with all the hospital big wigs… I had steamed fish with ginger and steamed broccoli raub… Yum!

At 3 o’clock I did my first parent Ed class and was warmly welcomed!

Lots of great questions from the audience about normal birth and water birth and I did a demonstration with the birth pool. Lots of fun!

Dinner brought to my room was beef with carrots (I didn’t eat the carrots) and a side of very yummy steamed regular broccoli.

I then went out for a run. Finished C25K Week 7 Day 1… Challenging with the ton of people meandering… Slow run given the circumstances, but a run no less… Kind of felt in training for the zombie run I’m doing with Miriam and Connie in November! Dodging people, cars, trucks and bikes!

A quick shower and I finished the night off with a pot of fat free Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda.

I hope everyone is having a good week!

Ciao!

Parting shot… From my room’s balcony… I love rooftop gardens… Anyone see the cat?

Dukan – Day 233 – Easter

Posted on April 9, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PP day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.2 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 85.8 lb/39.01 kg

Back to my normal weight loss 🙂 Still plugging along. I had the morning off for church and had a great time. A few things to note… people think that China is an atheistic country, when in fact, most people here are religious. The largest percentage being Buddhist. It is estimated that there are over 50 million Christians in China. And I have to say the church was rockin’ Easter Sunday morning. And yes, it’s a REAL church with a big ole cross on the top of it… just across the street from the Buddhist temple 🙂

The music was gospel with a bit of reggae and blues... totally awesome!!!

The really awesome thing about attending church outside of my home country is the diversity of the fellow church goers… you don’t see that so much in churches in the U.S…. it was the same in Al Ain… people from all over the world in church with you… it makes it so much more fun!

The kids group... rockin' the house at Easter services.

I then walked 2 miles to the bus stop for Bus 900 to take the 1 hour and 18 minute ride to work. Wasn’t too bad… I love people watching.

I then had another marketing event to ~~live through~~ smile through 🙂 Steve, Romina and I got up and sang “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”… the crowd loved it and the kids sang it in Mandarin… pretty cool.

I then went home and got another run in… I’m really trying HARD not to overdo it, but I love it so much! I can’t explain it better than that… took my time, worked on pacing, since I am now running for longer periods without stopping… I think I’m doing pretty well…

http://www.runkeeper.com

Breakfast: One baby bell low fat cheese roundy thingy, 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 1 tea egg, tin of tuna
Afternoon snack: 1 tea egg
Dinner: Stir fry pork loin with onions and garlic cloves… yum

Exercise:
1 mile walk to and from work
2 mile walk to the bus stop
2.98 mile/4.79 kms Run

I hope everyone had a nice Easter Sunday or Passover weekend!

Ciao!

Parting shot… PJ’s AND high heels in the tea egg line this morning!

PJ's and High heels at 651 a.m.

Dukan – Day 232 Cruisin’ Along

Posted on April 8, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 85.6 lb/38.91 kg

Just cruisin’ along at the end here. Had a marketing event in the evening and I’ll load up the pics from that at the end.

Breakfast: 2 Tea eggs
Lunch: Leftovers from night before
Afternoon snack: 1 Tea egg
Dinner: steak fajitas without the fajitas at the Mexican restaurant. Yum.

Exercise: Walked the mile to and from work and then ran later in the night.

Left knee holding up well, I’m very pleased 😀
It feels good to be out there running again two nights in a row.

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter/Passover weekend!

Ciao!

They are huge on marketing events here. This is the final celebration weekend of the MONTH celebration of being open one year.

Dukan – Day 231

Posted on April 7, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PP Day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 1.1 lb/0.50 kg
Total weight loss: 85.2 lb/38.71 kg
I’ve lost 1/3 of my weight since August! 33.40% to be exact.
I’m in the 160’s!!! And have 4.84 lbs to go until I reach Dr. Dukan’s True weight and 14.84 lbs to go to reach my goal.

The full moon last night was gorgeous:

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs and bacon
Lunch: tuna
Dinner: stir fry steak with onions and garlic

Exercise: I RAN and I was FINE : D

No pain in the knee while running!

I hope everyone is having a good Easter weekend!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 230 – Tummy Tuck consult

Posted on April 6, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PV day because of travel 🙂

Daily weight loss: 1.5 lbs/0.70 kg I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I LOST THIS MUCH, but I ain’t complaining… More on that in a bit.
Total weight loss: 84.1 lb/38.21 kg AND SIX STONE (for my Brit friends) SIX!!
I have 5.94 pounds to reach Dr. Dukan’s True Weight for me… Which in August, when I faced losing 90 pounds, I thought impossible… WELL IT’S NOT! 😀
I have 15.94 pounds to reach what I think I should weight (155)… Which will be exactly 100 pounds less than I weighed on August 20, 2012… You do the math.

With all the weight loss, there are some extra bits here and there, although its not as bad as I thought it would be for someone my age (48). So Kitty (my Personal Assistant) and I traveled 4 hours by train to Wenzhou for a plastic surgery consult. Here we are at the train station…

Here’s Kitty ~~drooling~~ sleeping on my shoulder… The girl can sleep 23 hours a day and anywhere! It’s amazing…

First, I want to say that my hospital is paying for my surgery. My hospital and the hospital in Wenzhou are owned by the same company… My hospital is paying for it to (ready for this??) “make me more marketable”… Me? I was going to pay for it at some point, so it I’m good with that, LOL.

My requests:
1. Full abdomioplasty
2. Liposuction the (now teeny) bit of fat on my back
3. Liposuction above knees, inside knees, back of thighs and calves

My bosses request (the CEO):
1. Laser resurfacing of hands and face

The consult went well. The surgeon is 31 and has done 10 full abdomioplasty ops. He will be supervised and assisted by someone with 20 years experience. As crazy as it sounds, I like this guy. He was honest about his age and experience. He looks 14 🙂 Kitty said we should ask for a better doctor… Lol… I love that girl!

When he examined my abdomen he told me there was hardly any fat to lipo from there… You can imagine how that made me feel! He also said he would not do all of the above requests by me at the same time because of the risk of hypovolemia from too much liposuction (all the tummy fat is in my legs, lol!) I tried to goad him into it and he flat refused… I like that about him, as well.

So, what I’m getting done on April 30th:
1. Full abdomioplasty
2. Liposuction above knee and inside of knee
3. Liposuction the teeny bit of fat on back
And MAYBE (depending on fat loss and blood loss) a bit from the back of my thigh, he will decide at the time

The rest will be done later… I really hate my calves 😦 But I get the risks.

What I got done yesterday:
Round 1 of laser resurfacing of face and hands and lower arms.
The premise behind the laser resurfacing is to activate collagen below the skin. I’m going to post a close up pic of my face and tell you this… MY FACE LOOKS LIKE THIS FROM 25 YEARS of SMOKING… I haven’t smoked in nearly 7 years, and my face still looks like this…
MESSAGE: DON’T SMOKE and if you do… QUIT!

Now that I look at it, I really need to do something about those eyebrows!!!

Getting lasered was interesting… It heats up your skin, they use some gadget to check your skin temp, apparently 41C is optimal… Very little discomfort.

And then the 4 hour train ride back. Long day, worth it!

About the weight loss this week… I’ve been very surprised because I haven’t run. I haven’t even walked at night. I’ve walked the 1 mile to work and the 1 mile home from work, but that’s been it. I have gotten tons of water and my bran in… So I’m waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me!

I’m going on a test run tonight… Will be cautious and not stupid. It’s dry and 70 and perfect. My knee doesn’t hurt when I walk, just when I try to sit… Bizarre! I’m using a compression brace on it and will continue to do so. I did some light weights at the gym this afternoon (3 reps of 15 at just 20 pounds) and that seemed fine, as long as I don’t bend it more than 90 degrees.

So, that’s my update. I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 229

Posted on April 5, 2012 by flamidwyfe

In very late from consult, so quickie update….

Wednesday was a PV Day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.7 lb/0.37 kg
Total weight loss: 82.5 lb/37.51 kg

1. The 160’s are very close!
2. Plastic surgery consult went well, full update in morning blog tomorrow 🙂
3. Sneak peek… Doc said I had very little fat to lipo from abdomen… I love him 😀
4. Didn’t get enough calories in today, but did take some food… Need to work on that better!

I’m off to bed, spent a total of 8 hours on high speed trains today!

Ciao!

Gorgeous old stone bridge contrasted against new buildings in background. Seen from train this morning.

Kitty and I at the train station…

Dukan – Day 228 – Quick update

Posted on April 4, 2012 by flamidwyfe

On iPhone, so quick update!

Daily weight loss: 0.2 lbs/0.10 kg
Total weight loss: 81.9 lbs/37.21 kg 32.10% of my body weight since August 20, 2011!

Going for plastic surgery consult tomorrow for a tummy tuck and liposuction of the legs. I’m excited and nervous, but happy the consult day is finally here!

Made a yummy chicken dinner tonight for Vivien and Romina, will post recipe tomorrow… Off to bed, WAY past my bedtime!

Ciao!

Parting shot: This is how you open a can of green chilis when you don’t have a can opener 🙂

Dukan Recipe – Vietnamese Pork

Posted on April 3, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PV Day 🙂 I posted the dinner I made last night.

Daily weight loss: 0.2 lb/0.1 kg
Total weight loss: 81.6 lb/37.11 kg

This is the dinner I’m enjoying while typing this up!

Recipe: VIETNAMESE PORK
Serves 2 (I boxed my other half up for lunch tomorrow)

Ingredients:
10 oz of lean pork loin, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 Tbs fresh ginger, I cut mine in little chunks for some bite 🙂
1/2 large onion, cut in chunks
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs oyster sauce (if you don’t have use 3 Tbs soy sauce)
**To make this Whole30 compliant use Coconut Aminos**
1/2 tsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, crushed
A few bits of cilantro

In a zip close Baggie put soy sauce, oyster sauce and ginger. Shake bag gently.

Place cubed pork in bag. Zip closed and shake gently. Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add garlic and simmer 3 minutes. Then add onions for 1 minute.

While garlic is simmering, remove pork from fridge. Remove meat from marinade and drain.

Toss meat in with the garlic and onions, turn heat up to medium-high and stir fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.

Plate, top with cilantro and ENJOY!