Dukan – Day 175 – Back in the Swing of Things

Posted on February 10, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PP day 1 of 4.

Daily Weight Loss: 2.4 lb/1.10 kg (the exact opposite of yesterday!) 🙂
Total Weight Loss: 65.1 lb/29.61 kg

So yesterday I completed Day 1 of 4 Pure Protein Days to kick start me back in to ketosis after a fabulous vacation. I had my first day back at work, and it was a breezy day, I saw snow for the first time in Hangzhou (the snow waited for my return!) and I went to bed, once again before 8 p.m…. UGH!

4 a.m. Small cup of FF yogurt with 1/2 TBS bran, 1 TBS flaxseed meal and splenda.

Early to work given I had been awake since 4 a.m. and had nothing else to do at my flat. Raining hard during the walk, but that just made me walk faster. I stopped at the tea egg vendor and picked up my 5 tea eggs for the day and was so excited I ate one of them while walking in the rain!

Handover and then bathed 2 babies… got to sing “The Rose” to one of them, as this was on the classic piano CD… the babies love my singing, as off tune as it is. Pretty much caught up on emails and planned out my education presentations for the rest of the month, and had my 2nd tea egg around 10. My darling personal assistant, Kitty, returns on Saturday… can’t wait to see her. Vivien and I had a quiet day in the office, and that was nice. At around 830 Vivien starts yelling for me to come out of my office… it’s snowing. Big, fat snowflakes. Nothing stuck, since it was just above freezing, but everyone in the hospital was happy to see it. I have no idea why… I really despise the cold and the snow… LOL Quite the contrast to the weather in Florida this past week.

Lunch at my favorite halal restaurant was sliced beef with cilantro and some garlic stems and a tea egg. Yum!

Slow afternoon… I had a hard time staying awake. Ate another tea egg for some energy and then left work to walk home in the SNOW. The SNOW! As I was walking in the SNOW I kept thinking that I couldn’t believe I was living where it SNOWED. Last year this time I was living in Abu Dhabi, where it’s WARM and SUNNY all the time. It’s quite a difference.

Skype chat and a catch up on emails, dinner was stir-fried pork seasoned with cumin, curry and lemon pepper (quite a nice combo I might add) and garlic stems.

At 745 I was tying up my running shoes and falling asleep while doing it. I thought if I went out for a run it might wake me up… instead, I took my shoes off and went to bed. There is no sense in fighting it.

Ciao!

Quote of the Day: The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
~ Lao Tzu

You have to look real hard, but you can see the fat snowflakes 🙂

Light Snow

Travel – On My Way Again

Posted on February 7, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, I’m sitting at Denise’s, 24 minutes until Jenni picks me up to go to the airport. I love that one daughter picked me up (Tiffany) and another is taking me back. It has been a LONG 3 weeks and packed to the gills with fun, family, friends and traveling.

My vacation didn’t start or end the way that was planned, but that’s OK. I’m a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl. I’m also intuitive and trust my girlfriends and by doing so you learn a lot about yourself and others.

Jammin’ Jensen 3 Thursdays in a row was the best. I have some AMAZING friends! The trip to my mom’s up in Gainesville and my hike with Mary at Devil’s Millhopper. The park with Sydnie, Shane, Sofia, Jose, Celeste, Lelani, Asa Kai, Lina and Koa… All babies I welcomed into this world, and their mommies was a fun morning and a highlight of my trip. Morning walks alone or with my friend Jamie kept me active. Walking across the many bridges that surround this wonderful place I call home as the sun came up, nearly every morning of my vacation, was magical. The weather had been PERFECT and only today did the storm clouds begin to roll in. I know this is in protest of me leaving 😀

My lunch down in north Miami with the birth workers. Missed several of them, especially Janice. I just don’t seem to get enough time for everyone. Visiting with my niece Charity, who is a midwifery school graduate, following in the footsteps of her Aunt (me) and her great-great grandmother Sofia. She sits her board exams in a week and I ask for prayers and positive energy be sent her way. She’s amazing!

Ping pong with my baby Sadie, her beating me 3 out of 4 games, BBQ at Jenni and Chris’s, 2 visits to Melborne to see my amazing son Nick, backgammon on the beach and the Super Bowl on Sunday (my team won!!!) made for a fantastic vacation.

I’ll miss home and everyone here, but I’ll be back in August… Off I go!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: One should eat to live, not live to eat. ~Cicero, Rhetoricorum LV

Dukan – Vacation update

Posted on February 3, 2012 by flamidwyfe

So a quick update since I’ve received numerous emails about not blogging 😀

I’ve lost weight. I met and exceeded my goal to lose 70 pounds by February 11th. I’ve stayed true to my Dukan life-style during my 16 days so far on vacation, with the exception of a glass of wine x 2 and a bit more bacon than I should be eating… LOL

I’ve been walking with a friend nearly every morning before sunrise, which has been awesome, it’s cool, dark and quiet… About 4 miles or so.

I’ve seen just about everyone and have really enjoyed my visit home. Trip ends in a few days and I’ll be back in China and back on my tea eggs and back to daily blogging.

Ciao!

Quote of the day: You can always take the easy way out & give up but real strength comes when you decide to keep pushing no matter what the circumstances are. ~ Unknown

Early morning drive from Gainesville back to Stuart…

Early morning view after morning walk…

My niece Aja serving drinks at the Seafood Festival…

Lunch in Miami with some birthing buddies, including my niece Charity…

Dukan – Day 160 – Awesome Vacation and I still have a week!

Posted on January 28, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 1.3 lb/0.6 kg
Total weight loss: Will update when back in China on MY scale and with my progress sheet.

So to update everyone from the past week…
Wednesday…
The walk that I went on was at Devil’s Millhopper sinkhole in Gainesville. I went with my friend Mary and it was great! It is 220 stairs down to the bottom. So we walked to the bottom and then back again and hiked the rim twice. Nice morning for walking. Then off for lunch in Ocala with an old friend. Then out to Bronson to say Happy Birthday to my niece Tasha and meet her 3 year old, Abigail. Too stinkin’ cute! Then back to cook dinner for my mom.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and a slice of turkey
Lunch: 6 oz sirloin and asparagus
Dinner: Turkey sausage with onions
Snack: FF yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal

Thursday…
An early morning start at 555 am back to south Florida for a dental cleaning appt at 10. Got there with 5 minutes to share 🙂 A nice visit with my daughter, Jenni at Panero’s, then a long 2.5 hour hike with my friend Jamie in Johnathan Dickenson State Park. Saw an alligator, literally 2 feet away, in a retention pond very cool, but scary 😀 then met the crazy friends at Kona’s for Jammin’ Jensen.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: Turkey slices and 2 small pieces of nearly fat free (1.5g) of sharp cheddar.
Dinner: Seared tuna on a stick and grilled pompano with mixed steamed veggies.
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal

Friday: up early, long walk through Stuart, across the bridges, down by the river walk, all before the sun comes up! Then I drove up to Melborne to visit my son. An evening visit with my friend, Tammy then to bed early.

Breakfast: 2 hard fried eggs and bacon
Lunch: turkey slices and a couple of small pieces of nearly fat free cheese
Dinner: chicken sausage (spicy and not, out of the cases), stir fried in a small amount of olive oil, with cumin, cinnamon, mushrooms, diced tomatoes and chilis. Then had 4 bites of bacon wrapped cobia nuggets at Tammy’s… Could not resist!
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal.

So, I’m apparently eating fine, since I’m losing. Still holding off on a total weight loss until I get home to my scale and progress sheet. I’m having a great vacation and nothing can beat that!

Ciao!

Quote of day: If you do not tell the truth about yourself
you cannot tell it about other people.

~ Virginia Woolf ~

Devil’s Millhopper

Me and Tasha

Abby

Fat Free Dairy Challenge – Guest Post by Charlotte

Posted on January 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

This is a guest post by Charlotte… We’re doing a Fat-Free Dairy challenge.

http://charlottesdukandiet.com/archives/the-fat-free-dairy-challenge#comment-1623

The Fat Free Dairy Challenge!
Jan 25 2012

Morning weigh in: 99.0kgs

Total days since last transgression: 9

Daily LOSS:0.7 kgs / 1.54lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.8kgs /10.56 lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 2.9l – tea, coffee, 1.5l of water, and diet coke

Breakfast

mug of coffee
oatbran porridge with sweetener
microwaved eggs
Lunch

Stirfried chicken thigh with cabbage, XL philly and herbs & spices
Afternoon snack

handful of peanuts
Dinner

Roast chicken from Asda, refried with a little Nando’s piri piri sauce (J did that – simple and yummy!)
Fat free fromage frais with raw cocoa powder and liquid sweetener
Exercise

Again, no more than 20 mins walking (but my bike is back in action, yay!)
First things first – my bike is now repaired! New virtually puncture-proof tyres have been installed (via Edinburgh fabulous mobile bike-repair service, “2 Wheel Support”) and I plan to get back in the saddle from tomorrow morning – and I can’t wait! Taking the bus to work for 2 days has been SUCH a waste of time, literally. It takes me an hour to get to work on the bus, but just 30 mins on the bike. Plus, it’s cost me a fiver in bus fares and I’ve had next to no exercise. Hurray for bikes.

Diet-wise, I had another good day today – it’s funny how the longer I go without transgressing, the easier it gets! It also helps that I’ve put a column on my spreadsheet for tracking how many days I’ve gone without transgression. Yay!

So, Sandi and I were talking today (via email, her in Florida and me sneakily at work) about conducting an experiment, and we’d like to get you involved.

You see, she and I both independently come to the conclusion that sugar-free fat free dairy (ie fromage frais or yoghurt) is not only a tasty treat, but is actually actively beneficial for our weight loss. For my own part, I look back at when I was doing really really well on Dukan (basically June-September 2010) and the thing that stands out for me is that I was, almost without fail, having at least one serving of fat free yoghurt or fromage frais every day. It’s actually surprisingly consistent. I’ll need to go back and analyse each blog entry in more depth to try and work out whether it merely decreased my appetite and therefore I ate less, or whether it really has an independent effect.

Sandi has had a similar experience.

So. Perhaps it’s time for us to be a bit more scientific about this, and increase our sample size? You are all strong, dedicated women and men, fellow bloggers and dukaneers, all. And January/February are particularly difficult months for dieting. Sandi and I think that you should join us, and start taking a serving or two of fat free yoghurt, cottage cheese or fromage frais every day, like medicine! If we all do this together and compare our results, I reckon we’ll have some useful semi-scientific (rather than purely anecdotal) evidence to pass on to the rest of the Dukan community.

If you’re up for it, blog about it! Spread the word to your own readers who may also be bloggers! Or if you’re just a lurker, try this experiment with us and post your results in the comment section of whatever blog you read regularly. I’ll be setting up a page dedicated to this, so that I can keep a close eye on what’s going on with my own experience.

So who’s with us? 🙂

Dukan – Day 157

Posted on January 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a PV day.

No weigh in. My mom has a manual scale and if it’s correct I’ve gained about 2 pounds, regretting not packing my scale and hauling it to Florida.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and then off to pick my mom up from rehab to bring her home.
Lunch for both of us: Chicken sausage with sautéed onions and a handful of mushrooms.
Snack: practically fat free Turkey slices and what I’ve vowed to NOT eat today, 3 slices of low fat provolone cheese.
Dinner: Stir fried sirloin with onions, mushrooms and asparagus
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal.
Total water: 2.5 liters (1500mL with Crystal Lite added… No carbs, fat and barely any calories, my life has been changed, lol)

Its nice just hanging out, but I didn’t get enough exercise in today. I’ve done the research on the flax seed versus the oat bran and they are pretty equal. I can’t find the oat bran meal here and the stuff I bought made me feel like I could just go out and eat grass… Yuck! I think if I have true weight gain, it’s from the cheese. I’m trying to stay away from the Atkins mentality… I’ll be in search of a better scale on Friday, when I’m back in Stuart.

Now I’m off for a morning hike… Will tell ya all about it tomorrow 🙂

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.
~ Ella Fitzgerald
My take… I’m loving my new look, I’m inspired by my fellow bloggers, the only thing that could go wrong is if I did give up… Not gonna do that!

Dukan – Day 155 & 156 – MDA Walk-A-Thon

Posted on January 24, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PV day and Monday was a PP day.

Daily weight loss: 0.5 lb

It’s been difficult tracking my weight loss as I didn’t bring MY scale, bought a cheap one that doesn’t seem accurate and now I’m on a non-digital scale… I will see the totals when I get back to China and post them, but I’m following the diet and feel like I’m doing fine.

Sunday was an early morning because I was going with Ken and Shannon to the MDA walk-a-thon in West Palm Beach. Had to climb over all the girlies sleeping on mattresses on the floor and try to sneak out quietly at 0600. Breakfast was a large coffee from Dunkin Donuts, 600mL water with lemon and a couple of bites of very low fat cheddar cheese.

The walk was great. We walked with Team Lea, an on air host with WZZR and the walk took us through the Palm Beach Zoo… Formerly called The Zoo at Dreher Park, this place was my play ground growing up, as we lived just down the road until we moved to Stuart when I was 8. And the best part… I ran into one of my families who I was blessed to assist with a water birth and breast feeding help… The Brown’s… Here is a pic of their family getting ready to walk…

Then we stopped at Ken and Shannon’s where I got to play in Ken’s amazing game room… My favorite video game EVER… GALAGA!!!! Here’s an awful pic of me playing, but I fell right back into the championship stance from all those years ago 🙂

Then back to Denise’s to watch 2 very disappointing games 😦 Nuff said.

Dinner: Chicken sausage and peppers and onions for me and Denise… Yum!
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with ground golden flax seed… Much yummier than oat bran.

Monday, another early morning (530 or so) strapped on my new Brooks running shoes and headed out for a lovely 5 mile walk over the bridges and through downtown Stuart. I love it out there in the early dark hours! Watching the colors of the horizon change, it really is a great way to start the day!

Breakfast with Denise and Jenni was bacon and eggs then off for a rental car and a trip north. First stop to see my son Nick in Melborne…

And his dog, Buttkis…

Cooked him lunch of pork chops and grilled onions, then the trip to Gainesville to see my mom who had back surgery on the 13th and is coming home Tuesday from rehab… YAY!

Coffee with Mary at Starbucks and then to my mom’s house for a reunion with my cat, Miss Kitty. She hasn’t left my side since I walked in the door!

Dinner: not real hungry so ate a couple of pieces of beef jerky. More than met my water requirements, but no bran or flax today.

Having a lovely holiday home!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Cut not the wings of your dreams,
for they are the heartbeat and the freedom of your soul. ~ Flavia

Dukan – Day 154 -Slumber Party with my Girlies

Posted on January 22, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was a PP day.

Daily weight loss: +1.1 lb

Today was a fun day! Slept in to 520 a.m. Woo hoo! Denise and I went to the B & A flea market in Stuart, where I picked up a Life-Purpose-Passion t-shirt from Dave Williams.

Then had a burger at 5 Brothers Burgers with Denise. Then off to the party supply store for slumber party supplies and then up to Tiffany’s house to hang with the GRANDKIDS for a while. We went to a park where the kids ran around and rode their bikes and I got to see my pseudo-daughter, Ashley, and my pseudo-GRANDKIDS, Faelynn and Aireanna.

Then back to Denise’s to cook for the slumber party. I made Pork Lomo for dinner, using the recipe from The Hapa Couple, substituting the beef for pork. YUMMY! I am really enjoying cooking. There was tons of naughty food and I blessedly was able to resist. I even slept with a plate of THIN MINTS next to my head. The other thing I realized is that besides a cup of coffee in the morning, I drank nothing but water all day 🙂

There were 7 of us, and besides our new friend Shannon, we’ve all been friends for more than 35 years… How awesome is that? I started falling asleep at the beginning of The Sound of Music, and of corse got teased about it… Curled up on the couch surrounded by my girlies and slept feeling so happy and loved… I am so blessed to be able to hang with the best girls in the world!

Having a great vacation home!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Best friends know all about you and love you anyway.

Dukan – Day 152 & 153

Posted on January 21, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PV day and Friday was a PP day.

Weight loss: Thursday I was down 600 grams from the Monday weigh in, today I’m up 400 grams from the Monday weigh in. All in all not bad for traveling 34 hours, on 4 planes and 13 time zones and I’m still trying to get my body’s time straight.

I left Hangzhou Tuesday morning at 140 pm and arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 1140 am Wednesday. 4 long flights including landing in a snow storm in Seattle and an overnight in New York City.

Wednesday, dinner out with friends and an amazing chat and a chance to see one of the women who blessed me 11 years ago by allowing me to midwife her, and then to bed by 11, up at 432 a.m… And out the door for a nice 4+ mike walk in downtown Stuart with a friend who is also an early riser. Some shopping and lunch out with my daughter and son-in-law at Longhorn where I had steak salad, then off to Jammim’ Jensen to hang with my besties…. So nice to be with friends you’ve known your whole life!

Friday… Up at 447 a.m., I guess this is better than 432! Out the door and a walk over the lower and upper Roosevelt bridges. A one hour 10 minute walk and then coffee with a friend while watching the sunrise… My home town really is a great place to visit! You decide for yourself…

View of the new bridge while crossing the old one.

View to the east while crossing the new bridge for the 3rd time…

Coffee and sunrise…

Bacon and eggs for breakfast and then early matinee watched the movie Red Tails good movie. Lunch was sausage and onions and a few peppers and by the time dinner rolled around I was falling asleep on the couch, so ended up eating hard salami, which although no carbs has too much fat… What to do? I think I was sleeping at 900! A big shout out to my best friend Denise for letting me crash on her couch… You are the BEST xoxoxo Now off to start my day (I slept until 520!!!!!)

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Everything will be fine in the end, if it’s not, it’s not the end ~ Unknown

Dukan – Day ???

Posted on January 19, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Just a quick update… I’m exhausted and my body has no idea what day it is. I’m off to the store in a bit to get a scale. I ate well on my flights, last night steak and asparagus with friends.

This morning a 1+ hour walk before sunrise with a friend, oh how nice to breathe cool clean air! Great walk! Will write an update blog later today!

Ciao!