Monday was a PP day 😀

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 48.6 lb/22.11 kg

Wow… 100 days since I committed to the Dukan program. And it’s been an amazing 100 days! I bought the book back in July at the urging of my friend Lucy. I threw it in my carry on when I went on holiday home in August, but didn’t look at it, because I was going on holiday!!! I met with John Geraghty on Friday, August 5th in Jupiter. I went to school with John and he is a Life Coach with his own company Courageous Authenticity. We discussed many things, my weight being one of them. John encouraged me to look within to find the source… and I did… THANK YOU JOHN!!!

So, on my flight from Miami to London, I read the entire Dukan Diet book. I didn’t skim, I didn’t speed read (which I usually do) I read.every.single.word. Every one! And then on the flight from London to Abu Dhabi… I read it again. And I understood it. And I understood why this diet is DIFFERENT from other diets and especially different and MUCH MORE healthy than the Atkins Diet. That was on August 16th. My “official” weigh in on my new scale (which has now traveled to 4 countries in 3 months!!!) was on Saturday, August 20th, but I started the diet on Monday, August 22nd.

Now a little history of what has gone on in this 100 short days… hold on to your hat… it’s been a wild friggin’ ride!

• I returned to Al Ain (a city about 150 kms from Abu Dhabi) and found that I couldn’t stand working for my crazy boss anymore and sold all my stuff and accepted a job in China. This was probably the most stressful place I’ve ever worked in my life! Sad thing is that so many other amazing people have quit because of her, but they keep her around 😦
• My precious daughter, Jennifer, had a cancer scare… I praise God every single day that it WAS NOT cancer… Thank You, God!!! But for a few weeks we were on pins and needles.
• I packed up 3 years of memories from Abu Dhabi, shipped 9 boxes and my painting and easel to China and flew on September 16.
• I stayed in Hong Kong for 5 days processing my visa and processing my life… and I stuck like glue to the Dukan Diet!
• I moved to Hangzhou, China… a 45 minute bullet train south of Shanghai to work at a maternity hospital.
• 30 days later I had to travel back to Hong Kong for a visa run… good thing I like Hong Kong!
• Back in Hangzhou, I started training the hospital staff for JCI accreditation (an international accreditation that shows the hospital operates under international standards).
• Flew to Thailand to vacation for 2 weeks with my friend Cathy from Illinois and my friends Karen and Dominique from the UK (they work in Abu Dhabi)… best vacation EVER!!!
• Then back to Hangzhou and this week I’m flying BACK to Hong Kong to meet my friends Lucy and Ethel (flying in from Abu Dhabi) and spending my birthday weekend with them in Hong Kong.

During this time I have not fallen off the diet, AT ALL. I say this because in the past I have found every single excuse in the book to stop a diet. I’m the QUEEN of excuses… seriously. And I hope by showing that a million things can happen, you can move from one foreign country to another and go on holiday and have a crazy boss and live in a country where no one really speaks your language, and, and, and…. STAY ON THIS PROGRAM! Why? Because it works. Why? Because you see the results. Why? Because pants that I bought too tight 6 weeks ago, I can take off without unbottoning and unzipping. Why? Because I FRIGGIN’ FEEL GREAT! And I still have a long way to go… about another 38 pounds, but dammit… I’m going to do it.

Dukan is a life style change… it isn’t some drops on the tongue, it isn’t fasting, it isn’t gorging on whatever protein and fats you want. It makes sense… HEALTH SENSE and I like that.

Gotta get off of here… need to pack for my flight to Hong Kong and prepare a policy for work tomorrow morning and maybe make a Skype call or two…. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone out there that has supported me. And everyone that reads the blog. It encourages me more than you can know. I was leery about getting on here and talking about losing weight, but it’s been cathartic and that’s a good thing!

Ciao for Now 😀

Quote of the day: Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself…. I’m recreating myself! xoxoxo

Pic of the day… I found this while walking home from work. I took the long way… I wasn’t going to, but wanted the extra 10 minutes of walking… I’m so glad I did… Nature is so perfect… LOVE LEAF…

Love Leaf

Sunday was a Turkey Day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.2 lb/0.1 kg
Total weight loss: 48.2 lb/21.91 kg

Today was a great day! I got to cook for my Italian friend Chiara and her Chinese husband Joe and Joe’s family a full on American Thanksgiving. Chiara lived in the U.S. as an exchange student and was just as excited as I was about making a Thanksgiving dinner. Joe’s family is a very traditional Chinese family and this was a step outside the box experience for them 🙂

For breakfast I had 2 Tea Eggs… went for an early morning walk and picked up the tea eggs on my way back upstaiars.

Then Chiara and Joe picked me up around noon and off we went to their house. Let me start by saying they don’t have REAL ovens in China… the Chinese stir fry just about everything and what they don’t stir fry the boil or steam, so no need for ovens!  So I was using a very teeny table top oven (I’ve seen toaster ovens nearly this size!) and my turkey was 13 pounds!!!

My first surprise was that when I went to remove the insides his head was stuck up his ass!!! I let out a scream… LOL

You don't find THIS in a Butterball Turkey!!!

Ugh!!! Anyway, onward I went and I stuffed my bird with my favorite ingredients and some ingredients of the garden there in the back yard…

Garlic from the garden in the backyard

And basil

So garlic stems, fresh basil, a whole onion, a whole garlic pod and my secret ingredient, which isn’t so secret now… a whole cut of pear! That’s all I put inside.

It's what is inside that counts!

And then I tied his legs up to help him fit better in the oven… poor guy! Had to use sewing thread because there was nothing else available 🙂

I'm tied up right now!

I covered him in olive oil, ground sea salt and ground lemon pepper and stuffed all 13 pounds of him in the little oven.

Can I have a little more leg room, please? Note my finger holding him in!!!

Then off to prep the veggies. Most of the veggies in tonight’s meal were from the family’s vegetable garden… how awesome is that?

Fresh veggies! YUM!

Then after 3.5 hours, the bird was cooked….

He's Done!

And we ate… and they LOVED it and that makes me very thankful!!! Life is so much more fun when you get to share it with others… learning new cultures and showing my culture has helped me grow as a person… While we were having dinner, other family members and friends that lived nearby stopped in and tried the food… it was a hit! Here we are eating my Thanksgiving dinner…

The Whole Family

Home by 9 p.m….. and happy!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Be nice to people… It’s a wonderful legacy to leave behind!

Saturday was a PP day!

Daily weight loss: 0.2 lb/0.1 kg
Total weight loss: 48 lb/21.81 kg

So this is my 100th blog post… how awesome is that? As of today, I have 23 people who follow (by subscription) my post each day… I AM HONORED THAT ANYONE WOULD DO THAT!!! I also have several other people who follow it everyday, but aren’t “subscribed”, but do send me positive feedback… I am also HONORED for that those people follow me. My blog has been read nearly 9000 times… I know that isn’t a lot in blogville, but it is a lot for me!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, 500 mL water, coffee
Lunch: 2 tea eggs… no time to go out and get lunch today, since I cruised in a couple of hours after my normal start time… hey! it was a Saturday! 🙂 500 mL water, coffee
Dinner: Beef slices with cilantro on top and some garlic stems, Diet coke
Snack: 1/2 pot FF Greek Yogurt with cinnamon, bran and splenda, 250 mL water and finished the night off with a yummy cup of Earl Grey Tea with splenda and skim milk.

I think I figured out why I think I whooshed this week… my calorie intake is quite low and I actually think I need to increase it. I looked up the calorie intake of the food from yesterday and it was 699 calories total. Although I am definitely not hungry and I considered NOT eating that 1/2 pot of yogurt because I didn’t have the desire, I made myself to get the bran and to get the additional calories.

Don’t know what to do about it… I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it… I just don’t want my body to think I’m starving it and then it punishes me by stalling out on the weight loss 🙂 I figured that out a long time ago!

One more thing… I am going through my boxes that I shipped here from Abu Dhabi and this morning I came across a “little black dress” that I bought 2 years ago… it was on sale, 4 sizes below my size, but I loved it and I promised myself I would get in it… I GOT IN IT! And it is adorable… going to try to find some nice black stocking to go with it… with my Anne Klein gray pumps, it will be gorgeous… can’t wait to wear it out! Maybe for my birthday next weekend!

Well… off I go… I hope everyone is having a fab weekend!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: It’s not that life has been easy, perfect or exactly as expected. I just CHOOSE to be HAPPY & GRATEFUL no matter how it all turns out! 🙂

Friday was a PV day.

Daily weight loss: 1.5 lbs/0.70 kg
Total weight loss: 47.8 lbs/21.71 kg

I have NO idea why I’m “whooshing” but I ain’t complaining. This time last week I was on Phi Phi Island in Thailand eating a meal that was not Dukan friendly (but kept restraint) and we had Thanksgiving a day ago… I was a good girl… 7.04 pounds in one week? WOO HOO!

On Day 64 I set out for the following 3 goals:
1. Lose 40 pounds by November 8 – met that goal 11/7
2. Lose 45 pounds by my birthday, December 3 – met that goal 11/24
3. Lose 50 pounds by my visit home January 16 – I’ve got 2.2 pounds (1 kg) to meet that goal…
So I’m a bit ahead of schedule… funny how I’m waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me! I have no idea why I feel that way, but I can’t be whooshing forever, this isn’t the reality of dieting 😀   Thank God I’m a realist!

Breakfast: You guessed it… 2 tea eggs! 750 mL water and a coffee
Lunch: Beef slices and funky spicy mushrooms, 500 mL water and 1/2 Diet Coke
Dinner: Thanksgiving “leftovers” that I bought at the buffet on my way to my real dinner on Thanksgiving… see yesterday for explanation 🙂 And damn was it good! So, a hunk of succulent turkey breast, a small piece of ham (cut off the glazed top!), some mushrooms, 2 zucchini rounds and an itty bitty piece of parmasean… and damn was THAT good! 500 mL water and other half of diet coke.
Snack: a 1/2 pot of FF Greek yogurt with splenda, bran and cinnamon and a cup of Early Gray tea

Good day at work, cute little baby girl in the morning and worked on staff education the rest of the day.

Life is good!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Sometimes, you’ve gotta look back at your past, and smile at how far you’ve gotten! 🙂 – Anonymous

Second quote of the day… one of my favorites and it goes well with this one:
Yes, the past can hurt but the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from it – Rafiki… The Lion King

Rafiki... my favorite zen master 🙂

Thursday was a PV day… and Thanksgiving Day at home.

Daily weight loss: 1.3 lb/0.6 kg
Total weight loss: 46.2 lb/21.01 kg

Well thanksgiving here in Hangzhou, China is just another day… so off to work I went! I walked the 1.5 km to work and it was only 43 degrees Fahrenheit! I am not sure at what point I will say, “HELL NO” when I go out the door. The funny thing is, I’ve been here since September 20th and I’ve never taken any mode of transport to work, so I have no idea how to get the bus… hehehe

Breakfast: Tea Eggs x 2
Lunch: Tea Eggs x 2… no time for a walk to the lunch place because I had to go to a marketing event in a community about an hour from the hospital. I like doing community events because I get the opportunity to tell a room full of women that normal birth is just that NORMAL and that c/sections hurt like hell to recover from… the rate here in China is 65%!!!!!!!!
Back to work at 430 pm and then off to another marketing event downtown at the Montessori School… a REAL Montessori school… it was lovely. Afterwards, I popped my head into the restaurant in the building there and lo and behold there was a HUGE turkey and very few diners… the buffet was 238 CNY (about $37) but we were going out to dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving… but they weren’t serving TURKEY!!! (more on that later!) so I did exactly what any red-blooded American would do, and paid $37 for some turkey and a few veggies and a teeny wedge of parmesean cheese… TO GO. (I’m actually eating it as I type this blog… left overs from last night… how traditional!) Then off to Starbucks for a coffee before catching a taxi to the restaurant we were eating at… The Vineyard.

The Vineyard’s head chef is an American from Boston via Dallas and Denver. Nice guy that comes around and says, “hey”… I love that kind of service. He reminds me of my son Nick, so I think that made me feel more at home, as well.

This is the menu that was served:
Starter: Bread Basket
Lightly-Toasted Home Recipe Bread
with Herb Butter Spread and Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar
Soup
Rich and Creamy Mushroom and Sweet Pea Bisque
with Roasted Onion Croutons and Scallion Oil
Salad
Mixed Greens and Seasonal Vegetables
with Warm Bacon and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Main Course
Chicken Roulade with Savory Home-Style Bread Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes and Brown Pan Gravy
Oven-Roasted Vegetable Medley
Sweet Yams with Marshmallow Topping
Dessert
A Duet of Mini Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Sauce and Whipped Cream

This is what I ate:
3 delectable tablespoons of the mushroom soup… AMAZING! The scallion oil was orgasmic 🙂
3/4 of the salad… the dressing was delish!!!
The chicken, with the crap in the middle scraped out (I’m sure it was also delicious, but I must call it crap, in order to feel good about it… LOL)
All of mine and most of Chiara’s oven roasted broccoli
1 teeny tiny taste of both the apple tart and the pie tart
A Coca Cola Light
A large glass of water
A cup of coffee with splenda

I don’t feel deprived at all… the reward… I got up this morning and weighed 1.3 pounds less than the day before… how does that happen???? I love my scale… 😀

Besides having an amazing holiday dinner with friends, the other fun thing that happened is that the resident cat begged about 9 bites of my chicken off me and being the animal sucker, lover that I am, I gave in… then she took a bath and a 1 hour nap on the seat beside me… Good Times!

So, that was my Thanksgiving in Hangzhou, China… how did your Thanksgiving go, and for you fellow Dukaners, how did you hold up to the temptations???

Enjoy the pics below!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: You can’t have a positive life, with a negative mind! – Anonymous

Kitty, Chiara, Me and Joe

Kitty under the table... not my PA Kitty... a real one! lol

Kitty licking her chops after I shared my Chicken with her!

Taking a nap after her bath!

Wednesday was a PP day.

Daily weight loss: 0.9 lb/0.4 kg
Total weight loss: 44.9 lb/20.41 kg

Well, I’m still moving in the right direction, so this is a good thing! Back to work today and right away I was teaching a class on Communication. Happy to have the distraction of work to keep me occupied.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs… yum!
Lunch: Sliced beef with cilantro (the ladies at the buffet were happy to see me back!)
Snack: pot of FF Greek Yogurt (FF stands for Fat Free.. hehe) with bran and splenda
Dinner: 2 small pieces of Talapia with cajun spices… yum!

My appetite is practically non-existent, but I know I must eat. I am still walking 1.5 kms to work and home each day with a 30 minute evening walk after dinner. This week I will get my assistant to go across the road to the gym with me to sign me up (I don’t speak Chinese so my assistant is INVALUABLE!!! This is Kitty:

Kitty... best assistant in the world!

So that’s been my day… it’s actually Thanksgiving, but that’s tomorrow’s blog… I behaved myself, I’ll tell you that much! Makes me proud… thank GOD turkey is on Dukan!!!

Ciao!

Tuesday was a PV day.

Daily weight loss: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 44 lb/20.01 kg! I didn’t realize I hit a milestone until just now! WOOT!

Well, this morning Cathy and I got up early to catch up on emails and Skype our people and then get ready to head up to Shanghai for Cathy’s trip back to the States.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs (I missed these while on holiday, oddly enough!!!) Cathy had a puffy pastry with meat and veggies inside… she didn’t like it that much 🙂

Taxi ride to Hangzhou Railway Station for the first leg of our trip. High Speed, first class tickets (they’re only $13… LOL) and off to Shanghai we go… 48 minutes to get there at 300 kph! Weeeee!

Upon arrival at the train station, we jump on the subway to get to the Ji’nan Temple stop, because that is where I can buy Fat Free Greek Yogurt!!! Can’t find it in Hangzhou anywhere! Cathy sacrifices her backpack so I have something to carry my groceries in.

Then up to the 8th floor of the mall above to get shashimi… YUMMY!!! I had tuna shashimi and a salmon shashimi salad… HEAVEN! Cathy had a shashimi box lunch… is it possible to be addicted to wasabi???

Then we tried our luck at finding jade, but that wasn’t happening, so we hailed a taxi to take us to Shanghai Pudong Airport. Once there we got Cathy’s bags wrapped, Cathy checked in and then we headed upstairs to the Italian cafe for some coffee and ended up having some pork snacks and tomatos with buffalo mozzorella… I know, not on my diet (the moz) but there are no carbs… so I partook of the riches 🙂

Then a tearful goodbye to my dear friend Cathy. It’s funny how you meet someone over the internet, who lives 2000 miles from you (we met on a midwife listserve that we still belong to in 1997 or so) and not meet in person until 2000, go sometimes years without seeing each other, but fall right back into that amazing true friendship that you get with some people. Cathy and I are like that. I had an amazing holiday with her, Karen and Dominique! We’re already planning the next one!

I took the subway from Pudong airport all the way to the other end of Line 2 to the Railway station (nearly 2 hours!!!) and then the high speed train back. Reading my Celestine Prophecy book (3rd time I’ve read it) to keep my mind off of missing my mates!

Got in the taxi and cried the whole way back to my flat. Silly, I know, but I think it’s a combination of missing friends, missing family, missing home and “oh shit, the vacation is over” feeling! I’ll get over it. Next week Lucy and Ethel come from Al Ain to Hong Kong to celebrate my birthday with me and then to Hangzhou to hang out for a bit. I’m so looking forward to that!

I had a small piece of talapia and 4 spears of asparagus for dinner, then half a pot of FF Greek yogurt… then off to bed… long day!

Ciao!

Monday was a PV Day.

Daily weight loss: 0.7 lbs/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 43.4 lbs/19.71 kg

Slept in til 800 a.m.! Then up to catch up on emails, Skyping and facebook.

Breakfast: 2 egg omelet with garlic stems… yummy!

Then off for the 1 mile walk to the hospital I work to show Cathy the place and to meet my coworkers. Walked back to my flat and then we got ready to head to the West Lake area.

After an hour+ in the taxi, trying to get to the Brazilian steak house, we realized we would be late for the Chinese Water Opera on the lake if we didn’t get moving, so we had the driver take us to the other side of the lake. It was wonderful!!! Cold sitting outside, but beautiful.

Then off to find food. The Brazilian restaurant was closed, so we headed over to MoCo Coffee Western Food and had steak… it was yummy 🙂

Then back to the flat and a long Skype conversation with my friends Shauna and Tom… I love having the ability to video chat with people on the other side of the world… Great 2.5 hour chat 😀 To bed way too late, but worth it!!!

Now getting ready to go back to Shanghai to take Cathy to the airport… I’m gonna miss her soooooo much!

Ciao!

Sunday was a PP day… and boy did it need to be!

Daily weight loss: TWO POUNDS!!!/0.9 kg … WOO HOO!!! 😀
Total weight loss: 42.7 lbs/19.41 kg AND 3.05 STONE (for those of you from the UK)

So we took a 3 a.m. flight early this morning from Phuket to Shanghai… not nearly LONG enough… I know that sounds crazy, but a 4.5 hour flight is not conducive to a good sleep! We then had to take the subway in Shanghai 1 hour 25 minutes to the Train station on the complete opposite side of the city. Then the high-speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou was 42 minutes… flying like the wind! Then a taxi ride to my flat…. from the time we left Phuket to the time we arrived at my flat exactly 12 hours.

Breakfast: Eggs and Ham in the Shanghai airport with a cafe latte.

No lunch… since we were traveling.
Early dinner: Blackened “Australian Small Calf”… we’re assuming that is veal… hehehe that had the hottest black pepper ever!

Long walk to the restaurant and a nice long walk home… then just relaxing, catching up with our loved ones on Skype and the internet and we both were off to lala land pretty early!

Our trip to Thailand was awesome…. I had the best time with Karen, Dominique and Cathy. We did some amazing things, saw some amazing things, ate meals with people who were affected by the tsunami in 2004… saw how resilient human beings are… when disaster strikes. You pull up your boot straps, rebuild your village, love your neighbors (including the neighbors from across the world) a little more and continue living. We stayed in 3 communities severely impacted by the tsunami… all of them are flourishing and our tourism there helps them flourish a bit more!

The people of Thailand are kind and welcoming… the tour company we used, Buffalo Tours was 5-star! Eve, the travel rep I worked with, was phenomenal, patient, changed things, changed them again and always did it with a smile. She put together a private tour for the 4 of us that we will never forget! Thanks SO MUCH, EVE!

Now, Cathy and I are off to check out Hangzhou… I hope you all have a blessed sleep!

Ciao for now!