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 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!

Ciao!

Dukan Recipe – Sautéed Veggies with Beef

Posted on April 2, 2012 by flamidwyfe

When I was in Hong Kong last week I found organic coconut oil on sale. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Paleo diet for while I’m in Consolidation. I have no plans on ever eating wheat again. EVER. So i think Paleo will work well for me. One of the oils you find in Paleo recipes is coconut oil. It is zero carbs, but a bit high in fat. I typically won’t eat something if the fat is more than 9 grams. This coconut oil is 14 grams of fat per Tablespoon.

So, this is technically NOT a Dukan recipe, but it is a good fat, and if you’re using very lean beef, it should be fine. This is definitely Atkins, low carb and Paleo friendly.

Sautéed Veggies with Beef
Serves 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes

Ingredients:
6 oz very lean beef, cut into 1″ chunks
1 Tbs organic coconut oil
1/2 large onion, cut in large chunks
2 tsp soy sauce
**To make this Whole30 compliant use Coconut Aminos**
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, diced
1/2 cup mushrooms, cut in chunks
Handful of fresh spinach leaves

Melt 3/4 Tbs coconut oil over medium high heat and brown the meat. I can’t describe the amazing aroma this created in my small kitchen 🙂

Remove beef and drain… Set aside.

Melt 1/4 Tbs coconut oil over medium heat and sauté the onions and ginger for 2 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and sauté for an additional minute. Add soy sauce. Stirring frequently.

Add the beef back into the pan, stir. Cook 1 more minute.

Add spinach on top…

Give a good stir, cover 1 minute and Serve!

This was super easy to make and it was yummy!

Enjoy 😀

Dukan – Days 219 & 220 – Dukan Recipe Cuban Flank Steak

Posted on March 27, 2012 by flamidwyfe

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

Monday:
Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total Weight Loss: 81.2 lb/36.91 kg
Tuesday: No change – same, same

Tuesday food (since I have no recollection of yesterday… LOL, I DO know it was PP)
Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs
Lunch: Green leafy salad and tin of tuna
Dinner: Cuban Flank Steak… recipe below.

I have to say, this is YUMMY!!! And if you leave out the mushrooms and only add onions, it’s a PP meal.

I got the recipe idea from although I didn’t use flank steak and mine come cut in chunks already, which is how I have to eat them, given I don’t have an oven or a grill.

Serves 1

8 oz. of Top Round, flank steak or in my case Chinese Beef Top – Cubed
Marinade:
Juice of 1 large Lime
1/8 cup of Olive Oil
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
**To make this Whole30 compliant use Coconut Aminos**
1/2 tsp favorite hot sauce or chili powder… I used Daddy Mac’s Awesome Sauce (my son-in-law makes this with his home grown habanero peppers!)

With dinner:
1/2 Large onion chopped in chunks
And if a PV day, handful of mushrooms

Prep time: 2 minutes
Put meat in bowl or zip top baggie.
Put the rest of the marinade ingredients in there.

I thought about this marinating in my fridge ALL.DAY.LONG!

Shake, shake, shake and put in the fridge for 8 or more hours.

Cook time 11 minutes
Remove marinated meat from fridge.

When I took the lid off… yum… the smell was incredible!

Put 1 Tbsp Olive Oil in skillet or wok.
Heat to Medium-High.
Put the meat in and cook for 5 minutes.

Turn meat over.
Put the onions in and cook for 3 minutes.

Notice that lime is still in there 🙂

Toss the mushrooms in, if you’re making it a PV dinner, and cook for 3 minutes. I used Enoki mushrooms which are kind of like al dente pasta when cooked… sorta. And they basically have NO CARBS!!!

Plate and Enjoy!

My pics may not be stunning or artistic, but you can tell this food is GOOD!

I’m off to Hong Kong for 3 days tomorrow (Weds – Friday) to renew my visa and get a little R & R. I’ll try to keep you updated from there!

p.s. C25K is moving right along… I am running 2 nights on, 1 night off and not having any problems with it… I’m enjoying it! 😀

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 219 – Off to Marketing We Go!

Posted on March 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PV (protein/veggie) day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg (this is actually 2 days)
Total Weight Loss: 81.2 lb/36.91 kg

I’m nearly recovered from my birthin’ babies week. Oh how we get used to 8 – 5, going to bed at 10, waking up at 6… SLEEP 😀 It almost feels a bit like jet lag. I can’t imagine what it must be like for the woman going through labor!

It’s been a glorious weekend here in regard to the sun. Shining, warm, bathing this lovely, polluted town in light. I even saw the moon last night! It was the first time since my last night in Florida back on February 8th! It was what I call a cradle moon… pretty in the sky!

I had to speak at a marketing event yesterday afternoon. Our branding and marketing department actually have MORE STAFF than we have NURSES… I’m not joking. But they do a great job putting on big events, at least once monthly! I spoke about “The Enchantment of Water Birth”… same PowerPoint I’ve been using for months now… we just change the title and sub-titles… the last event was “The Magic of Water Birth”… LOL… my Personal Assistant, Kitty, doesn’t even ask anymore… she just changes it.

And speaking of Kitty… here she is…

Seconds before I snapped this shot, Kitty was SLEEPING on my shoulder... she's too cute, popped her head up, smiled for the camera, laid her head down and went back to sleep 🙂

Random funny thing that happened yesterday afternoon. We were stuck in traffic coming back from the marketing event and stopped in front of the Chlitina shop (the one next to Slavery.. I’m not makin’ this stuff up!) and the staff were all outside doing line dancing. I tried to snap a picture, but the video was on instead… you can view it here: Chlitina Dancers it’s only a few seconds long, but you’ll get the point… I was listening to music on my iPhone at the time and in my ear was David Cook’s “Life On the Moon”… totally describes my life in China to a tee 🙂

Day ended with a visit to the hospital to check on K and Baby H and then home for dinner, which was Pork, mushrooms and asparagus and then a nice run around the neighborhood, where I even got a shot of yet another neighbor out strollin’ in his pajamas (call me a PJ stalker, but it humors me and keeps me sane in this crazy place, LOL)…

Out for a stroll in his jammies... Tough to get clear shots in the dark and while running, but you get the idea 🙂

Running is getting easier and easier for me… I’m totally loving it now. Running 2 nights in a row, then take a night off… on that night I go to the gym for 30 mins and have the muscle head help me work on my arms, abs and thighs.

So that’s the weekend update. I’ve added some other pics from along the way this weekend… Enjoy 😀

Ciao!

Street food from Saturday night... new meaning to the words Fish Sticks 🙂 YUMMY!!!

Our yoga instructor did prenatal yoga with audience participants.

The Emcee wore a gold suit and was quite the comedian! The orchestra was lovely!

Chiara and Alessaundro (aka NuNu) were there. Chiara gave a speech about her wonderful water birth... She was the first water birth in Hangzhou, and I was lucky enough to be her midwife! NuNu will be 1 on May 6th!

Dukan Recipe – Pork & Mushrooms

Posted on March 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Made a yummy dinner for a PV (protein/veggie) night.

Pork & Mushrooms

5 oz of lean pork, cubed
1 c of chopped mushrooms
1 c of asparagus, cut into 2″ pieces
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp ground garlic
1/2 tsp lemon/pepper seasoning
A smidge of salt

Place oil in pan. Place pork cubes on oil and bring heat up to Medium. Sprinkle the ground garlic and lemon/pepper on the pork. Brown the pork on one side, about 3 minutes.
While pork is browning, prep your veggies.
Turn the pork over to brown other side and cook for one minute.
Add the asparagus and the mushroom to the pan. Put the lid on and cook for 4 minutes.
Plate and serve.

I wouldn’t be able to do this diet so successfully if it wasn’t for quick and easy cooking! Most of my meals require less than 15 minutes from prep to plate!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 213 – Dukan Recipe – Chicken with Olives

Posted on March 19, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PV day 🙂

Today marks the 7th month since I started this life changing journey on August 20th.
Here are the stats: (you have to read all the way to the bottom to get the final stat) 😀

Aug 20, 2011 / March 20, 2012
Chest: 42 / 36
Waist: 45 / 33
Hips: 56 / 42 (LOL, my HIPS are smaller than what my WAIST was!)

Daily weight Gain: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight Loss: 79.0 lb/35.91 kg

😀 I knew that would happen… LOL… 2 steps forward 1/2 a step back… Hakuna Matata, I had a pretty good day. Worked 1/2 a day to make up for working all day on Sunday.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: Citrus Pork and Onions (recipe posted yesterday)
Dinner: Chicken with Olives – recipe posted below

Water: 2 liters
Exercise: Walk to and from work 2 miles roundtrip
C25K run: 2.13 miles

RECIPE: DUKAN CHICKEN WITH OLIVES
This recipe comes from my favorite Dukan recipe blog Hapa Couple. I changed it up a little bit to make it Dukan Cruise friendly and because some of the items on their list are not necessarily available here in China. Additionally, I don’t have an oven, so mine was cooked on the gas burner. Also, their recipe is for 4 Servings.

Servings: 2
Ingredients:
1 Tbs Olive Oil
2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts – cut into strips or cubes
1/2 large Red onion – I cut mine chunky
5 cloves of garlic – minced
1 green pepper – I cut mine chunky
1 14oz can of whole tomatoes – chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth (mixed 1/2 c hot water with 1 cube and stirred)
2 Tbs of Skim milk mixed with 1 tsp corn starch
8 – 10 whole green olives (stuffed) *couldn’t get these, so I sliced mine off the pit

Place 1/2 Tbs Olive oil in pan on med/high heat and add chicken. Brown on both sides, remove to a bowl.

Place 1/2 Tbs Olive oil in pan on medium heat and add onion, garlic and pepper, cook for 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.

Pour in chicken broth, stir and cover for 2 minutes.

Add cooked chicken into mix and reduce temperature to low. Simmer 7 minutes.

Pour in the cornstarch mix stir, Add Olives, stir. Simmer 2 minutes.
Enjoy!

You could put this over zucchini pasta it’s zucchini cut to resemble pasta and parboiled… OR you could put this over shiritaki noodles.
We ate it as is, kind of like a stew and it was delish! I also prepared a fresh, organic green salad that had the yummiest combination of greens in it… and a splash of olive oil… Yum

Delish dinner!

And the final stat that I promised at the top. I haven’t mentioned on my blog my starting weight OR my current weight at any point. Few people knew (up til now) how much I weighed when I started on Dukan.

WEIGHT:
AUGUST 20, 2012 = 255
MARCH 20, 2012 = 176

I still have 11 pounds to reach Dukan’s True Weight of 165 lbs and 21 pounds to MY goal of 155.

I can’t say it enough times… the support I get from all of you; my family, friends and new blogger friends has been the key to my success. I am humbled by your kind words and cheering!

Blessings and Ciao!
Sandi

Dukan Recipe – Citrus Pork & Onions

Posted on March 19, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, I find myself with another 1/2 day of work… this is because I worked all day yesterday because of a birth and they owe me 😀

Anyhoo, found myself at home deciding lunch should be more fun than 2 tea eggs and some ham slices, so this is what I whipped together. I’m eating it while I type and it is yummy!!

Citrus Pork & Onions

4 oz. of lean pork, cubed
1/2 large red onion, cut in big chunks
1 TBS olive oil
1 lime
1 tsp garlic powder (I have a grinder… see pic)
1 tsp Trader Joes Lemon Pepper seasoning
1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Prep: Put garlic powder and lemon pepper seasoning in a small dish, by doing this you don’t get too much moisture on your grinders and end up with grinders that don’t work… a lot less frustrating! Also, roll your lime before you cut it between your palm and the counter top… you will get more juice!

Put olive oil in pan or wok and heat to medium/high. Place pork cubes in and place lid on for 2 minutes. Sprinkle half of the seasonings on the meat and replace lid for 1 minute.
Place your onion chunks in with the meat and add the rest of the seasonings.
Squeeze the juice of the lime onto the meat and onions and give it a stir.
Throw on the mustard, give it a stir, replace lid for 2 minutes.
Plate up!
Oh my is it good… the sauce at the bottom of the bowl is yummy!
Enjoy!

My Ingredients:

Yum!

Nutrition Facts… I put this recipe in at FatSecret.com and this it what it came up with:
Calories – 321 Protein – 27.05g Fat – 16.37g Carbs – 16.68g (3.2 dietary fiber)

Enjoy!

Dukan – Days 211 & 212 – Whooshing

Posted on March 18, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, I had a blog break yesterday due to a momma calling in labor while I was typing out the morning blog 😀

Saturday was a PP day on purpose
Sunday was a PP day because I was at the hospital until 9 p.m.

Two whooshes have me elated, yet worried… LOLl
Saturday:
Daily weight loss: 1.3 lbs/0.60 kg
Total weight loss: 78.1 lb/35.51 kg
then Sunday:
Daily weight loss: 1.3 lb/0.60 kg
Total weight loss: 79.4 lb/36.11 kg

Saturday food:
Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, coffee
Only worked 1/2 a day so had a yummy lunch: I stir fried 2 tea eggs, 1/4 onion, 5 garlic cloves and 3 slices of bacon with some Italian seasoning… life doesn’t get better than that (I trimmed most of the fat from the bacon, and only allow myself bacon 2x a month… it’s my favorite food GROUP).
Dinner: Chicken breast stir fried with onions and garlic stems
Snack: 2 egg omelet with 2 TBS bran and diced onions

Water: 3 liters
Exercise:
Walk to work 1 mile/1.5 kms
Walk home from work 1 mile/1.5 kms
Walk to 35mm for 2 cafe latte’s with skim milk: 1.61 miles/2.6 km
Walk home from cafe the scenic route along canal: 2.6 miles/4.18 km
C25K run: 2.14 miles/3.44 km
**I think I got my exercise in on Saturday 😀

Sunday food:
Breakfast: 3 oz of steak and 2 eggs (I ate instead of blogging, once the patient called!)
Lunch: 2 tea eggs
Very late dinner: Chicken leg and 2 tea eggs (patient’s hubby got for me)… Spicy!
Snack at 11 p.m.: 2% Greek yogurt… My food order came from Shanghai and they didn’t have fat free in stock, so sent 2%… in all actuality, the 2% has less carbs than the fat free… I’ll sacrifice!

Water: 1.5 liters
Exercise:
Walk to work: 1 mile/1.5 kms
Supporting a woman in labor for 10 hours (walking her, massaging her, supporting her… it’s work!)
Ran with 2 year old in arms about 50 yards to hail taxi at 9 p.m., with my backpack and his overnight bag on my back!!! I’d say this was more exercise than running a 5K … lol

Lovely baby girl born at 535 p.m., all happy and well and then Soren’s mommy came in with some tummy trouble and I took him home with me for a few hours so she could be treated and I could have fun! We played games on the iPad and read… as stated before, he’s a pretty cool 2 year old to hang with!
Here he is playing Animal Safari, you can see Bert and Barbie the bunny snuggling behind him…

So… that was my 2 days… going in an hour late this morning since I worked all day and then some on my day off and I have a bit of a headache 😦 The weather is getting better, for the most part… it is raining out there this morning, but in the last 7 days we’ve had 4 sunshiny days, and that makes me a wee bit happier!

Ciao!

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
~ Maria Robinson

Repost from Hapa Couple – Chicken with Olives

Posted on March 15, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Hapa Couple is one of my favorite sites and she had this recipe on their blog today. Please visit their site for more amazing Dukan meal ideas AND the gorgeous pictures that they take of their recipes!
This recipe is NOT Attack or Cruise friendly… but definitely ideal for Consolidation or Stabilization.
To MAKE this Cruise friendly you can make this zucchini “pasta”… Which I have made and it is YUMMY!!! And substitute the white wine for low-sodium chicken broth… going to TOTALLY make this on the weekend!!!

Dukan Chicken with Olives

Chicken with Olives
We loved this recipe. It reminded us of a southwestern inspired pasta. (BTW, we love Flamidwyfe’s blog and noticed she like a lot of other food bloggers post pics of their dishes during various cooking stages…so when possible, we will try to do the same!)

It was another busy weekend, but we were able to try two new recipes from two of our new food blog finds! Our uncle is coming to town and he’s staying with us so we spent a good part of Sunday prepping his room and doing some spring cleaning.

We chose these recipes because a storm system which brought chilly weather, amazing lightning displays, a lot of rain (as in some areas were flooded and received over 30 inches of rain within a matter of a few days) and even marble sized hail…we wanted something warm and “comfort foodish”.

This first recipe by the Pioneer Woman went well with whole wheat linguine but would also go well with brown rice, quinoa or by itself! We definitely had to Dukan this recipe as the Pioneer Woman cooks with a butter, etc.

Onions, bell peppers and garlic cooking
RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 15 minutes (or more if you’re removing a lot of fat from your chicken)
Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours (most of the time is baking time)

1-2 T. olive oil or non-stick spray
6 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, fat removed (if you’re feeding big eaters, 8 pieces would be better)
1 medium red onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced (recipe calls for large pieces, but the male half doesn’t like them in large pieces)
1 – 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, juices squeezed out and minced (recipe says chopped, but again, the male half won’t eat tomatoes like that)
1 c. dry white wine (or low sodium chicken broth)
kosher salt and pepper
1/4 c. non-fat half and half with up to 1 T. cornstarch mixed in (depending on how thick you like your sauce – we used 1 t. since we didn’t want it too thick)
1 c. whole green olives (stuffed)
12 oz. cooked whole wheat linguine, cooked al dente

Tossing chicken with pasta
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. We don’t own an oven proof skillet, so we made ours in our non-stick pan, then transfered the food to a square pan for baking. Heat 1 T. oil in pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides. Transfer chicken to your baking pan. Add more olive oil to the pan if needed, reduce heat to medium and add bell peppers, onions and garlic. Cook for a couple minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour in wine and stir. Pour sauce over chicken, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove pan from oven, remove foil, add olives and half-and-half mix. Shake pan gently to mix, cover and bake for another 15 minutes. In the meantime, cook your pasta. We tossed the chicken sauce with the pasta before serving.

This could be adjusted to fit into Cruise if you use the chicken broth and no pasta.

Enjoy…we sure did!