Dukan – Recipe – Curried Stir Fry – Pure Protein Meal

Posted on July 31, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I’ve had a lot of requests for recipe ideas lately. Tonight I made a beef steak curry stir-fry. I make really quick & easy meals because I’m limited on what I can do in my little Chinese kitchen.

BEEF STEAK CURRY STIR-FRY

Serves: 2
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. Coconut Oil*
5 cloves garlic, smashed, chopped, diced, however you like it
1 large red onion, chopped (I like mine chunky)
Ginger, about the size of your thumb, chopped or diced
16 oz (550 grams) beef steak, cut into 1″ pieces
2 Tbs. curry powder, more if you like!
1/4 tsp Cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste

Ingredients

Place coconut oil in wok or frying pan on medium and toss in onion. Put 1 Tbs. of curry and the cumin on the onions and stir for 1 minute. Add the meat and stir for 30 seconds then add the rest of the curry, stir and turn down to med-low for 5 minutes, cover. Then add the garlic and ginger. Stir every once in a while for 3-4 more minutes.
Serve.

See… easy peasy 🙂

*Coconut oil is NOT part of the Dukan Diet. No oils are. However, I used olive oil and coconut oil nearly daily throughout my 10 month weight loss journey and still lost 111 pounds. It is up to you whether or not you want to use it. In 1 Tbs. of coconut oil you will find: 0 Protein, 0 Carbohydrates, 13.5 mg Fat… worth it, in my humble opinion! As with anything, use in moderation.

Enjoy!

Site to check out: Cooking Traditional Foods… she has great recipes and ideas on her site for eating healthy!

Dukan – Consolidation Day 80

Posted on July 30, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Daily Weight: 147 lbs
Goal Weight: 155 lbs

Spent the night last night in Shanghai and after dropping off Suz at the airport I headed back by subway to the train station and then the train back to Hangzhou.

My driver, Jerry, picked me up at the train station and took me to the Wet Market to buy meat and veggies… so much cheaper than the grocery store!

I then got home and started packing boxes for my move home in September. I packed two boxes and will ship them on Thursday… September 20th… leaving for U.S. date 🙂

Breakfast: Buffet at the Courtyard Marriott… I had a 3 egg omelet with onions, peppers and mozzarella cheese.
Lunch on the train: Beef jerky and a handful of almonds
Snack: Yogurt with Splenda and cinnamon
Dinner: Stir fried pork with onions and asparagus. Dipped that in Tamari (which is soy sauce without wheat in it) and wasabi… Oh My Was That Good!

Dinner Cooking 🙂

Dinner Plated!

Now I’m off for a 5 km run and then bed. I hope you all enjoy your Monday!

Ciao!

Dukan – Sunday Celebration Meal!

Posted on July 29, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I love Sundays because they are Celebration Meal day for me! I’m in Shanghai bringing a friend to the airport, so staying overnight.

I had a marketing event this morning where I spoke about natural birth and water birth to over 300 parents to be!

Then off to the train station with Suzanne and Steve.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, 1 ounce pepper jack cheese, 2 slices lot bacon.
Lunch: a burger with onions and nothing else
Snack: handful of almonds
Met my good friend Federica for dinner…
Dinner at greek Taverna… Nirvana? I had hummus, cucumbers, Greek fries, a Greek salad and grilled feta cheese. Finished of with a pot of Greek yogurt with a smidge of honey!

Long walk back to hotel… Crashing!
Ciao!

Dukan – A Good Day – Dukan Consolidation Day 78

Posted on July 28, 2012 by flamidwyfe

11 weeks and 1 day into Dukan Consolidation Phase and doing great!
Today was my once weekly PP day, since I was unable to do it on Thursday.

Today’s Weight: 147 lb/66.8 kgs
Goal Weight: 155 lb/70.5 kgs

Back to work in Hangzhou after a trip yesterday to Shanghai. Got an early start on fine tuning a PowerPoint presentation on water birth for tomorrow (Sunday). I walked to work, as usual.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, 3 slices of lean bacon, coffee
Morning Snack: 1 ounce of Pepper Jack cheese
Lunch: 2 tea eggs, 3 slices of lean bacon
Afternoon Snack: 1 tea egg, 1 ounce of Pepper Jack cheese
Dinner: Lomo Saltaldo… oh MY was it good!
After Dinner Snack: Fat Free greek yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal… I’m eating that now as I write this blog 🙂

Exercise Today:
Walk to work = 1 mile
Walk home for lunch = 1 mile
Walk back to work = 1 mile
Walk home from work = 1 mile
After dinner walk = 2 mile
Total = 6 miles

Water = 3+ liters of water today.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Ciao!

Parting shot… Baby Moon-Moon this afternoon… I love my babies!

Dukan – Consolidation Day 73

Posted on July 23, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wow! 73 days! I can’t believe it. And you know what? My weight has been between 144 and 147 each and every morning for about 6 weeks now. Woot!

Daily Weight: 146 lbs/66.22 kgs
Goal weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kgs

I’ve been eating very well. Mostly 3 egg omelets for breakfast, meat and veggies for lunch and dinner. I’m loving all the veggies and a sweet potato 3x a week. I’m doing a PP day once per week and a celebration meal.

I’m on week 2 of being in Guangzhou working, so eating out more than I like, because I’m not suppose to cook in my room. And I’m on my 2nd 2 day trip to Hong Kong in as many weeks. Hong Kong is a $20 train ticket and only 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Guangzhou. It is heaven. Although maybe not right now as you’ll see from these pictures…

About 10 minutes after arriving in Hong Kong yesterday, I stripped off my clothes, put on bathing suit and headed to rooftop pool… It is a small pool, just 15′ x 4′. I was perplexed as to why the wooden chairs and table weren’t there, but laid out my towel and took this glorious picture…

About 25 minutes later I noticed an abrupt change and looked up to see this…

And then the rain started… So inside I went. While waiting for the elevator I noticed this…

So WTH does that mean you ask? This…

So, I went from this…

To this…

Pretty quickly. But that’s OK because I still got a good walk in last night and a run in this morning and I’ve been forced to RELAX by just chilling in my room here at the hotel, which saves me money because it’s too yucky to be out shopping 😀 So all’s good!

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Ciao!

Dukan – Emotional Eating

Posted on July 18, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Emotional eating… Something most of us do at some point in our lives, but can easily get out of control. I emotional ate just now, for the first time since last August. It’s been an emotional few days. The 20th anniversary of my dads death, watching the first 11 episodes of Season 5 Grey’s Anatomy, topped off by my first headache in 11 months (I’m sure caused from crying… over both of the aforementioned things) and the cream on the cupcake? Hearing George Michael over the mall Muzak. Memories of my first birthday in Abu Dhabi flooded my memory. Oy!
So, I bought headache medicine (Bayer in the blue box), chased it with a double shot cafe latte and headed to the movie theater on the top floor and purchased a small container of popcorn. To make it even worse… It’s kettle corn! So sweet popcorn, yay!
It was good. I ain’t lying! And I feel better! Headache gone 🙂

Will I comfort feed again? Probably. Will I do it regularly? Nope. I love how I look and feel.

I will continue to eat good food, run 5 times a week and do yoga. I ran in Hong King yesterday morning, until a storm brought lightning! I love running in the rain, but not rain with lightning 🙂 Slow run since the ground was slick and I was being as careful as possible!

Want to end on a sweet note. My little baby from last week came in for a visit today…

Isn’t he a cutie?

Ciao!

Dukan – Consolidation Day 65

Posted on July 15, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was Bastille Day and I chose it to be a Celebration Meal Day!

Daily weight: 147 lbs/66.8 kgs
Goal weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kgs
Weight still hanging in there… It’s amazing 🙂

Traveled to Guangzhou on Thursday. Will be here for 2 weeks.

Friday assisted a woman who wanted a water birth. The patient and her husband gave permission for our marketing department to film the event. Unbeknownst to me there was a reporter from a national online pregnancy magazine in the room as well, blogging live and uploading pics from her iPhone (apparently with the patients permission, lol). The funny thing is, I thought she was our staff and kept telling her to put her phone away 😀
This photo is courtesy of the magazine website…

Saturday was Bastille Day. So far this summer I have celebrated British Day, the 4th of July and Bastille Day all in China. We were invited by the French Chamber if Commerce to a huge beach/pool party at a local hotel. Goodie bags when we arrived included a bikini, that fit I might add! We had a great time. I decided that I would make this my weekly celebration meal. I had BBQ meat and grilled veggies and my celebration food was two teeny scoops of decadent French milled ice cream… Coffee (my favorite since I was an itty bitty) and BLACK SESAME… Holy scamoly! We danced the night away to a live band that played some awesome music and a had 2 glasses of French white wine that caused me to have a headache 😦

This is Rose (my Guangzhou Personal Assistant) and Liza who works in the Int’l Department at he hospital.

Sunday was a routine day in the office. On my morning break I wrote my guest post for AGoodRun. I submitted it for publishing tomorrow… How exciting is that?? And in the late afternoon we headed to the Bud Theatre for a marketing event. I did a water birth presentation for over 400 parents to be… It was awesome. Immediately following my talk there was a live theatrical performance of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. I believe it’s a Swedish story… Hearing it in Mandarin made it even more fun 🙂

I also got to pass out the prizes that we awarded. After the show ended Rose, Liza and I went to the Oriental Palace Arabic restaurant for dinner… Again… Lol. I love the friendly atmosphere and the food is gorgeous!

I’m off to Hong Kong in the morning! So off to bed I go!

Ciao 🙂

Dukan – Consolidation Day 60 – Two Months!

Posted on July 10, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been 2 months since I reached Consolidation Phase! Two months and I’ve actually lost weight, not just maintained. Which says a lot about this amazing lifestyle change… it’s for the long term. It doesn’t abandon you once the weight is gone.

A former colleague, Rachell, is on Dukan and has lost 19 Kgs (nearly 42 pounds). She looks AWESOME! One of the comments under the picture she posted that she was on Dukan and one of the people commented back, ” I must look into it, do you eat anything?”… This is the general mentality we have about diets… that you must not eat… well I’m here to tell you that on Dukan you eat and eat and eat… but you eat GOOD, HEALTHY FOOD. Nourishing food. It’s a lifestyle change and if you stick to it, it continues to keep you fit and healthy… while you eat and eat and eat! 😀

Daily Weight: 144 lbs/65.45 kgs (yes, mother, I know… lol)
Goal Weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kgs.

So, this is something interesting. When I started the Dukan Diet way back in August of last year, Dr. Dukan asks what you think your weight should be. I said 145. He said 165 was my True Weight based on age, # of pregnancies, menopause and other factors. So I agreed to set my goal at 155. Which is what I reached 60 days ago. I am now 11 pounds below that goal and just 1 pound below what I thought my weight should be. I feel good. I’m eating and eating and eating (you get the point)… but my exercise has increased from being a couch potato 10 months ago to running 5K five times a week, yoga 2x a week, mountain hiking on Sunday mornings, walking a mile to and from work every single day, etc. I have increased my calories, as well. Trying to match my motion burning energy 🙂 So, in all actuality, I’ve lost 111 pounds… what a cool number that is!

For a glimpse into my typical Sunday… here we go…

Up at the crack of dawn… no alarm, drives me nuts, as I’d love to sleep in just a little, teeny bit, but nope, my body goes to sleep at 10 pm and wakes up just before 6 am every morning, work or not!

Breakfast: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and 2 Tbs. Flax seed meal, cup of coffee and 750 mL water with Crystal Light. Strap on my hiking boots and off I go to catch bus #900. Towards Guyuan Park, where I get off to walk to the entrance of the mountain hike.

Along the way to the mountain gate there are many paths to choose from to get there…

And then, as I came out of the park to cross the road to the gate, I encountered this…

No end in sight… but the construction workers waved me over, moved the walls and let me pass through… YAY!

More paths to choose from 🙂

There are 838 steps to get up to here…

West Lake in the background… the view is stunning in person. I drank another 750 mL water while on the hike.

And this is the path I take, thanks to Runkeeper!

838 steps up, 483 ft elevation… nice climb! I paused up at the top for pictures and about a 25 minute guided meditation.

After finishing the hike, I walked down to the first traffic light in front of the University to meet my driver Jerry and found Teresa’s… how in the WORLD had I not found this place in the past 10 months is beyond me!!! I texted Jerry and told him to meet me there and we had brunch… it was Mmmm Mmmm good. The iced coffees were a perfect way to cool off after the long hike!
Brunch: Avocado & Bacon salad. Two tea eggs (smuggled in). 2 Iced cafe lattes with splenda and about 500 mL water.
Groovy restaurant…

Then Jerry took me to the mall to do a little shopping… I was able to find 2 bras that FIT, which is a score here in the land of little women! And after a few hours of shopping, we ended up for a late lunch at The Vineyard… Jerry wanted to know how I could eat so much… YES PEOPLE… YOU GET TO EAT ON DUKAN!! WOOT!
Late lunch: Philly Cheese steak with grilled peppers and extra grilled onions, no bread please and no french fries… side salad instead and several glasses of water. Jerry had french fries… I sniffed them, no appeal, whatsoever!

Then Jerry dropped me off at home. And around 730 p.m. I made the deviled eggs from yesterday’s recipe and while making them, I had salmon shashimi with wasabi & gluten free soy sauce (Tamari). I also ate 6 halves of the deviled eggs… YUM! Drank another 500 mL water and took a 2 mile walk around the complex after dinner and then fell into bed at 10 p.m…. wonderful day. I love being so active!

What do you do on your days off from work???

Ciao!

Dukan Recipe – Goat Cheese & Bacon Deviled Eggs

Posted on July 9, 2012 by flamidwyfe

These are amazingly yummy! I got the idea from Health-Bent and modified it for my own needs. This recipe is good for PP, PV, Consolidation and Stabilization Phases of Dukan. PP and PV if you take out the bacon… there are NO carbs in the recipe, but the bacon has fat. I allowed myself 2 days of bacon a month the entire time I was on Dukan… I lost my weight 🙂 So it’s up to you. The bacon MADE the recipe… just sayin’ 😀

Goat Cheese & Bacon Deviled Eggs
Servings: 2 (I ate some last night and the rest for breakfast this morning!!!)
Prep & Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
6 eggs – Hard boiled *Instructions below
2 ounces of goat cheese
4 ounces of bacon
3 Tbs. Dukan mayo **Instructions below
Few pinches of Paprika
Salt
4 scallions, thinly sliced

Hard boil the eggs.
Cut your bacon width wise, into very thin strips and cook them until they are crispy in a pan. Place on paper towels to soak up the grease and let sit.
Peel your eggs, cut them length wise and scoop out the yolks into a bowl.
Mix together the egg yolks, Dukan mayo, goat cheese, 2 pinches of paprika and salt.
Use a spoon to scoop the egg mixture back into the egg whites.
Sprinkle with a bit more paprika.
Sprinkle with green onions.
Sprinkle with the bacon.
EAT… nom nom!!!

Check out my pics below. I want to preface the pics by saying I don’t have a camera. My Canon broke and these are iPhone pics… I’m also not a photographer, LOL… so these will have to do!

*How I hard boil perfect eggs:
Put 6 eggs in your pot. Put in cold water, just enough to cover. Put on the stove on High. Once it begins to boil time it for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and start running cold water over the eggs for 2 minutes. Allow to set for 5 minutes, then peel. The peels should come right off!
**My Dukan Mayo:
2.5 Tbs of Fat Free Greek Yogurt, 1 Tbs. Dijon Mustard. Stir… Simple… I love simple!

LOL… I forgot to mention that I ate salmon shashimi while cooking it… Mmmm, Mmmm good!!!

My Dukan Mayo

Lick the spoon… it’s worth it!!!

Holy Goat Cheese, Batman… these were GOOD!

Dukan – Consolidation Day 56

Posted on July 6, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a stressful day 😦

Daily Weight: 147 lbs/66.8 kgs
Goal Weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kgs

I sure don’t like stressful days. Makes me want to nosh around on food… thank goodness I only have healthy choices around me, but even too much of a good thing can be a not so good thing!

My stress centers around changes to my work schedule without consulting with me. They just toss me to the wind sometimes and see where I land. I am about the easiest going, “fly by the seat of your pants” kinda gal, but when it seems to be changes made with the wrong intent, it gets my hackles up.

Then after the schedule change stuff, I went on morning rounds and had to stop due to the stress of dealing with people who give misinformation. Formula (baby poison in MY humble opinion) is passed out like candy here. Women being told that they don’t have any milk in their breasts… it does my head in.

So… two things I’m concentrating on to get me out of my funk…
1. My job ends here in 10 weeks and 5 days and I will go home, for good… maybe, at least for now… and…
2. I won’t be doing birth work full time when I go home. I will be starting my own diet and fitness business. I am very excited about this.
Oh… and a 3rd thing… because they’ve changed my schedule to go to Guangzhou July 12, I will be near Hong Kong and being near Hong Kong means I can go to a movie theatre and watch ROCK OF AGES… now THAT will make me happy and get me out of this funk… I saw it in the States last month and I want to see it again! I’m listening to the soundtrack to ROA as I am typing this post!

After work I walked to the grocery store to pick up some veggies for the dinner I made for Vivi and Olivia. Vivi is my new personal assistant, having replaced the amazing Kitty, and Olivia is a translator in our office. I wanted to have them over for dinner for helping out with Tits the Cat while I was at home on vacation. Their request… an American dinner. So I made them steak, carrots with splenda and cinnamon and mashed potatoes with aged cheddar… I didn’t eat the carrots or the potatoes… although they both appeared to be big hits, given the fact there was nothing left over! I also made a nice salad with greens, red cabbage, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

Vivi and Olivia

An American dinner for my Chinese friends 🙂

While the carrots and potatoes were boiling, I showed the girls how to use the wii for bowling. Neither had bowled before. They did pretty well for their first game. While I was finishing up supper, they bowled their second game and Vivi scored a 201! She did almost as well on game 3… note to self… stop teaching people how to play, they’ll beat you! LOL

All in all a very nice night. The girls cheered me up. I walked them down to the corner and got Vivi in a taxi home. I then did a walk around the neighborhood.

Food:
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, coffee
Snack: 10 almonds
Lunch: left over pork from the dinner out with Jerry… when I heated this up in the staff canteen here at work, the chef came over with chop sticks and had a few bites… lol. I’m working REAL hard on the lack of personal space… real hard!
Snack: 1 ounce aged cheddar and 10 almonds
Dinner: Steak w/ onions, salad and a tea cup of wine
Water: 2.5 liters
Exercise:
10 minute morning flow yoga, Walk to work (1 mile) Walk from work to grocery then home (1.9 miles), walk around neighborhood before bed 1.2 miles)

So… deep breaths, positive outlook, awesome soundtrack, meditation… in and out… 10 weeks, 5 days… ahhhhhh

Ciao!

One last pic… my little baby from Tuesday… his mommy IS exclusively breast feeding… that’s a rare thing here! 🙂