Flamidwyfe's Blog

Happy New Year family and friends! I spent my New Years Eve and Day out in the mountains and wadis of the UAE.

WADI–noun, plural -dis. (in Arabia, Syria, northern Africa, etc.)

1.	the channel of a watercourse that is dry except during periods of rainfall.

2.	such a stream or watercourse itself.

a valley.

It was quiet and peaceful out there. Lucy and I took Max and Mini and saw very few people along the way. Here’s a couple of pics. One of our wadi campsite and one driving through the oasis.

As for the weight loss… I’m down 9 pounds. I have followed the Atkins to a TEE. But, last night I had a little setback and had some Indian food to feed my soul. Missing family, working hard, whatever, just a bump. Slept like a log last night after falling asleep from a carb induced coma! This is what the 9 pounds less of me looks like (btw, that means I’m 1/2 way to losing the 18 I put on since the summer! Woo Hoo!)

My only New Years resolution is to ENJOY LIFE. That’s it. We all wake up every morning with choices. No one else can influence our day if we don’t let them. So I choose to wake up every single morning and ENJOY LIFE. I hope all of you do, as well.

Well for now, ma’salama! (that’s Arabic for good-bye) Next update… soon! xoxoxo

Me, Jenni & Tiffany

Me & the new baby

Well… where do I begin? I’ve started this blog to share with family and friends my journey of living overseas, dieting and travel.

I started the Atkins Diet 2 days ago. My plan is to upload recent pics and to upload pics monthly, on the 22nd of each month, to show my progress.

As many of you know, I lost 45 pounds last year, with the help of James and Kim in Miami. I cut out bread, pasta, potatoes and rice and started seeing James 2x per week for personal training.

I moved to Abu Dhabi in Nov of 2008 and kept it off until this past summer, when I started adding that bad food back into my diet and wasn’t exercising as much, because it was hot here…. like 122 degrees Fahrenheit hot! So in 5 short months, I gained 18 of those pounds back… now they are coming off and MORE!

I have bought myself a wii and have committed to working out at least 3 times a week on it. My friend Lucy and I have used it for bowling and tennis and boxing (recommend one be in better shape than me to do the boxing… LOL).

Lucy and I will be walking the Camino di Santiago from April 23 to May 27 (or so). This is a 750+ km walk crossing the Pyrenees mountains from France into Spain and then the entire… yes, that’s ENTIRE length of the upper part of Spain. I must, MUST be in better shape by the time we leave in order to be successful. You can see where I am going to walk by going to this site: http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board/el-camino-frances/

And to finish off this, my first blog, I’ll tell you that after 13 months of interesting work on a ward at this busy hospital I work at, I moved to the delivery unit this week and had my first delivery yesterday afternoon. A little girl, weighing 3365 grams, who came out not only in the caul (the bag of waters), but with a nuchal hand up by her left cheek, held there by her nuchal cord (for those not in the know, that means her hand was against her face and held there by her umbilical cord, this is unusual, to say the least). She was also in a bag of meconium (baby poop) and had a true knot in her cord… oh for the love of midwifery. She did great, mom did great, midwife is happy 😀 Life in Abu Dhabi!

So off I go… need to make a grocery store run… Happy Holidays everyone!

xxxx

Sandi