Dukan – Consolidation Day???

Posted on May 29, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I’ve lost count of the days since I’m in Hong Kong, but all’s well in the Consolidation Phase.

Daily Weight: 152 lb/69 kg
Goal weight: 155 lb/70.5 kg

Monday:
Early morning train into Hong Kong for shopping and rest 😀

Shopped until I dropped! I bought a pair of Nike running compression pants in Tight Fit. They feel SO much better than the freaking garment I’ve been wearing.

I had a 1 hour foot massage at Joy Foot Club…

And a 25 minute head, neck and shoulder massage. I then went and did more shopping 🙂 I also went for a 3 mile walk.

I finished my Monday with a Skype chat with Kira, Dan, Søren and Helena which made me very happy! 🙂 I love Skype! A few days ago I got to chat with both daughters, sons-in-law and all 6 GRANDKIDS!

Breakfast: Almonds and Edam cheese
Lunch: Street pork… Mmmmmmmm
Dinner: Rocket salad with artichokes
Snack: FF Greek yogurt

It’s Tuesday afternoon now. This is what I’m doing this very minute…

Typing 2 blogs while getting a pedi… Cheeky, I know 😀 I just finished a one hour full body massage… A light massage, cuz I’m still tender in spots!

This morning I got up at 545 am and went out and did this…

Those are from the entire trek… This is the run portion…

Great morning, followed by some shopping and now pampering… After my toes are dried I’m walking to the subway and getting back to mainland China… 6 days and I fly HOME!!!

Ciao!

Recipe – Dukan – Pan fried Tilapia – Day 263

Posted on May 8, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PP Day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 1.1 lb/0.50 kg
Total Weight Loss: 91.8 lb/ 41.71 kgs

Well, back to where I was last Friday (my lowest weight). We’ll see what tomorrow brings. This is a recipe post, so here we go!

Pan Fried Tilapia
Serving Size: 1
Total time spent in kitchen… Less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
2 lovely Tilapia fillets
PAM pan spray (I used 2 TBS coconut oil, which is not Dukan)
2 TBS bran meal or flax seed meal (I used flax seed)
1 TBS Italian seasoning
Salt to taste
2 large leeks, cut in chunks
1 smallish red onion, cut in chunks

Ingredients

Put bran/flax seed meal and Italian seasoning in flat plate. Stir to mix.

Coating

Heat pan to medium. Coat both sides of fillets until well covered and place in hot pan.

Sizzlin’ hot!

Cook for 3 minutes and then flip over carefully.

Mmmm, Mmmmm Good smells in the kitchen!

Cook for one minute and then add the onions and leeks to the pan and cover. Cook for 3 more minutes.

I’m not on a DIET… I’m on a LIVEIT!

Remove the fish from the pan and plate. Continue to saute the veggies for a couple more minutes.

I pinched a piece off while waiting for the veggies… YUMMY!

Plate the veggies and eat… This is the first time I’ve tried using the flax seed meal like this. I usually get my fiber in by stirring it in my yogurt… I’m disappointed that I waited all this time to try it! YUMMY! Enjoy with those you love… I did!

Wonderful dinner!

Went for a run after dinner in the pouring rain, which was awesome! There was practically no pedestrian traffic in my complex and no smokers, which just kills me when I run through a cloud of smoke (yes, I’m one of those ex-smokers!). AND… I GOT MY FIRST RUNNERS BLISTER! LOL. I know this wouldn’t make most people happy, but darnit, I feel like a real runner now! WOO HOO! 😀 I now know to wear my wool socks if I’m going to run in the rain… lesson learned. I run two different programs while I run. Bridge to 10K (B210K) and Runkeeper. The B201K to coach me through the run and the Runkeeper to track my total workout and be able to map it with the GPS. Runkeeper is also tracking my daily, weekly, monthly and annual distances! Since March I’ve run/walked/hiked a total of 201.6 miles!

Bridge to 10K

RunKeeper

RunKeeper Map

And this is me… at the end of the B210K run… I still had about 7 minutes of cool down to do, but couldn’t resist stopping for a shot… the high from running is better than any drug. Seriously… why the hell didn’t I do this a long time ago? Elation – that’s what it is 🙂

Happy, Wet, Elated, Satisfied, Amazed, Accomplished… etc 🙂

That’s the Monday report!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 258

Posted on May 3, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wednesday was a PV day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0 – stay the same day
Total Weight Loss: 91.8 lbs/41.71 kgs

I’m going to keep this short… my momma always said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”… LOL

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 1 tin of tuna and 1 tea egg
Dinner: Shrimp with mushrooms and garlic stems with cumin and curry powder
Snack: pot of FF yogurt with bran and Splenda

Exercise:
1 mile walk to work
1.5 mile walk from 35mm coffee house to home
3.66 mile/5.97 km run in the evening…

May 2nd run… B210K Week 1 Day 2

And as easy as that, my blog is done for the day. Here’s hoping the week ends on a high note!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 257 & Liebster Award

Posted on May 2, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a PP Day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total Weight Loss: 91.8 lbs/41.71 kgs
**yesterday’s daily weight loss should have been 0.7 lbs, not 1 lb… I must have put transposed the numbers, so if anyone is following that, there has been an adjustment 🙂

Tuesday was May Day… May 1st and it is apparently a public holiday here, so I had the day off… paid. That was nice!

I woke up at 545 a.m. on my day off… UGH! Although I had been sleeping for nearly 8 hours I really, really wanted to see if I could stay asleep… yeah, no. So up I got, jumped in the shower, made a french press carafe of Peet’s Coffee… yum, and laced up my hiking boots with the intention of hiking up the mountain again. Then, while on the bus I decided I wanted to hike around West Lake. The lake is beautiful, it was early morning, shouldn’t be too much foot or bike traffic yet. So I got off the bus and according to my trusty GPS on my iPhone, waited for bus 81. And waited and waited. I finally figured out there was no such thing as Bus 81 😦

So I started walking towards West Lake. I got to a sweet little park and had a couple of tea eggs. I thought I’d need the energy for the 9 mile walk around the lake… while I sat there I got a text from Kira and decided I needed some Soren love, and headed her way, instead!

On the way, I stopped at Pacific Coffee and picked up an iced latte w/skim milk. And took this picture of myself…

Gotta work on that pooch!

I had a fantastic day hanging out with them… ALL DAY! Sat on the couch, cuddled with Soren, pet the cat, chatted with Kira, helped her pack up Soren’s bedroom and watched about 14 episodes (I’m not kidding) of Steven Seagal: Lawman. I actually enjoyed it! Dan brought us iced lattes in the afternoon and then we had Arabic food for dinner…. yum! An all around fun day!

I then walked the 3.41 miles home. That’s 5.48 kms 🙂 Nice walk. Here’s the results…

Nice walk home. The weather has been pretty decent the past few days, temp wise. After I got home I finished reading The Last Lecture and followed up on some emails… chatted with my daughter, Tiffany and off to bed at 10 p.m. I hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Ciao!

LOL… I forgot about the Liebster Award… 😀 My blogging friend Anna nominated me for this award and had this to say about it:

FIVE BLOGS THAT ARE ‘LIEBSTER’ TO ME…

1-Flamidwyfe’s Blog https://flamidwyfe.wordpress.com/ Sandi blogs about her adventures and spectacular success on the Dukan Diet while living in China and being a midwyfe. She is an awesome example of putting your dreams out there and living FULLY!! Also, I wouldn’t even be a blogger if it weren’t for Sandi xo

Five facts:

1. Each of my kids thinks that I favor the others over them… and at various times through their life cycles I have favored them. They are all VERY unique individuals. Right now my favorite is my “baby”, Tiffany LeAnn. She is an amazing human being on many levels and I am most proud to be her mom.

2. I consider myself Evangelical AND and from the Christian Left… some think that’s an oxymoron 🙂 I also love the teachings of Buddha!

3. I’ve been divorced for nearly 19 years… he’s a friend on Facebook. He’s the 2nd husband, who wasn’t a jerk and is still alive, thank God!… LOL. It’s important for people who divorce to put their kids FIRST… I think we mostly did that (there will always be a screw up or three along that path!)

4. I miss living in the Middle East more than I ever could have imagined! Everything about it.

5. I’ve done quite well with removing toxic people from my life and keep them out. It makes for a much cleaner living 🙂

5 blogs I nominate:

1. http://inspiringandhealthyrunninginlondon.wordpress.com/ … her running all over the world inspires me to lace up my shoes!

2. Mel at http://wwangel.wordpress.com/ My first runner’s blog… she ROCKS and is so encouraging to me… thanks Mel!!!

3. Abbi at Lil Monkey’s Mama… today’s post was especially thought provoking!

4. http://lipomachia.wordpress.com/ … a woman who has taken control of her diet after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Not only has she gained control over her blood sugar, but has lost weight to boot! She’s amazing and I’m in awe of her transformation!

5. And http://notimetow8.com/ … his weight loss and his running of his first 5K are spurring me on to keep training for MY 5K… Well done!

If you have been nominated, here is what you do to keep it rolling:

Each Nominee Should:

Choose five, up and coming blogs to give the Liebster award to. Blogs must have less than 200 followers.
Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Post the award on your blog.
List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve received the award.
Share five random facts about yourself!

Dukan – Day 256 – Slip Slidin’ Away

Posted on May 1, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PV Day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 1.0 lb/0.44 kg
Total weight loss: 91.6 lb/41.65 kg
8.4 lbs to go to reach my goal weight!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 2 slices ham & baby bell cheddar round
Dinner: 2 pork chops with onion, bell peppers and mushrooms
Snack: pot of FF Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda

Worked today. Office stuff. My surgery was rescheduled on my request to next week because Saturday is International Midwives Day and I’m planning a celebration at the hospital with the marketing Dept.

Exercise:
1 mile walk to work
1 mile walk home
1.2 mile walk to mall to buy two massive suitcases
1.2 mile walk home from mall dragging said massive suitcases
25 minute run, didn’t set GPS, but I think I got enough exercise in, LOL

I am finally feeling “normal” sized. I am in size 10 pants and medium tops. It’s a good feeling. 8 pounds to go. How awesome is that?

Ciao!

Nothing better than spending a half hour cuddling a newborn. I get PAID to do this 😀

Dukan – Day 255 – Mountain Hike

Posted on April 30, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PV Day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.7 lb/0.30 kg
Total Weight Loss: 90.7 lb/41.21 kg

Well thank you to the scales… I was pretty happy to step on them this morning and see a loss!

I was up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning, had an omelet with onions and green peppers for breakfast and slid on the Chaco hiking sandals and headed out the door. It has warmed up here and I wanted to get my hike in before it was too hot. It had rained the night before…

The path leading up to the base of the mountain.

So I wanted to be very careful. I also took my time. I am still having some shortness of breath while climbing, which is frustrating me to no end, given I can run 40+ minutes without stopping… WTH??? Anyway, I kept reminding myself to slow down and took a slow and steady pace up the mountain.

Some of the stones have writings on them.

I like walking on the rough path because I think it helps with balance. You really have to concentrate (or at least *I* do) to stay balanced. A lot of the walkers go on the dirt paths on each side.

After walking/climbing for 1.6 miles, I turned around and headed back. I came upon this group and offered to take a pic of their group… they refused and asked me to become part of their pic 🙂

The guy in the blue shirt helped me out about 25 minutes later 🙂

I’m working on trying to get toner… I actually really don’t like my arms in this shot! I want to thank my friends, Teri and Terri for pointing out that I was wearing SANDALS and not my HIKING BOOTS… Anyhoo, I continued on my hike back… it’s really wonderful walking on the ridge of a mountain. Here’s the route…

It's a nice route up and down the ridge and back.

And as I was walking down the steps to the base, and actually… at THAT MOMENT, thinking about how well my Chaco sandals worked on the slippery, rainy stones, I fell on my ass! HARD! Having had multiple surgeries on my knees, I’m a PRO at falling. I seriously am 😀 A fact I am proud of. Falling on your ass, instead of putting the weight into your wrists, prevents fractures… EXCEPT MY ASS DOESN’T HAVE ANY PADDING ON IT ANYMORE! Or at least it’s greatly reduced! OW! And this is what your butt looks like with a big, deep, ouchy bruise on it…

LOL... you only live once... ViviMokaLaka is the best buddy you can have for documenting your life on film and YES, I have tats... more than a few and my mom has seen all of them.... Oh... and my ass is much smaller than it was 9 months ago... I never would have posted a bruise on THAT ass!

So, going back to the man in the blue shirt sitting next to me in the group shot. He ran up the steps, quick as lightening, to help me get up. I thought that was very sweet. And then he yelled at me, in Mandarin for hiking with sandals on… I showed him the bottom of the sandal in a plea for understanding, but he wasn’t having any of it! He then gave me HIS walking stick and told me (in Mandarin) to follow him the rest of the way down and to walk sideways so I wouldn’t fall again. What a sweetie 🙂 I made it down the rest of the way without any trouble… LOL

Here’s how the hike went:

Nice hike! I know that 909 feet isn't a huge climb up, but it's pretty impressive to me 🙂

So, that was my hike. I then met a couple of friends at 35mm Coffee shop for an iced latte, then went home and showered. I then walked to the hospital to give baby Lyla a bath and some lovin’. Just as I was leaving, Reuben from The Vineyard, was bringing a special request dinner into the room… He’s the guy that made me the special dinner on Saturday night to keep me PP for the day… he’s an awesome chef… reminds me of my son, Nick.

Reuben with Olivia

After seeing that yummy food, I went home and had a pan grilled chicken breast with onion, anoki mushrooms, regular mushrooms and garlic stems. Yummy!

Since I had done the hike, I didn’t run… instead read a little more than half of “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. Awesome book, lots of wisdom.

So that’s it… nice, fully Sunday. Great way to end the week. I’m really enjoying my Sunday hikes!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 252 – Recipe: stir fry leftovers

Posted on April 27, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight GAIN: .3 kgs… As I predicted would happen!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 3 slices of boiled ham and 1 tea egg
Dinner: Chicken breast and left over veggies in the fridge
Snack: pot of FF Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda

Exercise:
1 mile walk to work
1 mile walk home from work
That’s it. Exhausted!

I finished reading SweetHeart by Chelsea Cain… Riveting!

Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Serves: 1

Ingredients:
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 large onion, cut chunky
1/3 red pepper, diced
4 asparagus spears, cut into bite sized pieces
Handful mushroom, chopped
6-8 green olives
2 Tbs hot saucy kind of stuff… Mine is in Chinese… Its like a hot pepper salsa, it’s yummy!

Coat pan/wok with non-stick spray OR 1 Tbs coconut oil. Turn stove on med-high heat.
Place chicken on hot oil carefully. Place lid and let sizzle for 3 minutes.
Turn chicken over, replace lid for 1 minute.
Toss in red pepper and onion. Replace lid. Cook for 3 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium.
Place asparagus and mushrooms in, stir. Replace lid for 2 minutes.
Place 2 Tbs of salsa in pan and stir in well.
Replace lid, turn heat down to med-low. Simmer 2 minutes.
Serve and Enjoy!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 247

Posted on April 22, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was a PP day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lbs/0.20 kgs
Total Weight Loss: 89.3 lbs/40.61 kgs Just 300 grams from my Dukan True weight and just 10 pounds until I reach my goal weight of 155.

Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs
Lunch: 1 Tea Egg, tin of tuna with dijon mustard
Dinner: Pork Chop with onion and garlic stems (so glad I was able to go into town and get some, I’ve missed the garlic stems so much!)
Snack: Pot of FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and bran

Exercise:
1 mile/1.5 km walk to work
1 mile/1.5 km walk home from work
3.11 mile/5.1 km run in the evening

I taught two Childbirth Education classes today. My morning class was for expats and the afternoon class was for our Chinese clients. I love that I get to do so much education!

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! The weather here has been perfect!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 242 – Back on Track

Posted on April 18, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a Pure Protein Day… #2 out of 3 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 1.1 lb/0.50 kg (that’s actually from 2 days)
Total Weight Loss: 86.3 lb/39.21 kg
Still 100 grams over my lowest weight which was last Tuesday.
I have 3.74 lbs/1.7 kgs to be at Dr. Dukan’s True Weight… but I’m going to drop 10 pounds below that, so I actually have 13.74 lbs/6.2 kgs to go… so doable 🙂

Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs
Lunch: 2 Tea Eggs and a tin of tuna in water
Snack: 2 ounces of low fat cheddar
Dinner: Stir fried Chicken breast with onions and garlic cloves, seasoned with curry powder… yum!

Exercise:
0730 – 1.5 km walk to work
1200 – 1.5 km walk to home for lunch
1315 – 1.5 km walk back to work
1715 – 1.5 km walk back home
2015 – 5 km run around neighborhood in 43:27… my best time… I haven’t been able to get this number under the 44 minute mark! While doing this I completed C35K Week 8 Day 1.. just 2 days to go!

Finished a FABULOUS book called HeartSick by Chelsea Cain… recommended by my friend, Betsy… thanks Betsy!!!! I’ve already started on her 2nd book SweetHeart.

Sound asleep by 1015 p.m…. the weather has been very nice in Hangzhou!

Ciao!

Quote of the Day: “Learn to listen, instead of desperately wanting to be heard” ~ Ma Jaya

From RunKeeper iPhone app:

I had to keep reminding myself to pace...

My gated condo community has a loop road that just happens to be exactly 1 mile/1.5 km... how convenient 🙂

Dukan – Day 236 Epic Fail day

Posted on April 12, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wednesday started out as a PP day.

Daily weight GAIN: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 85.8 lb/39.91 kg

Oh, where to start… I’m probably being WAY harder on myself than I should!

Breakfast in my room: 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: A beautiful bowl of chicken and veggies, lovely presentation, but maybe 1 ounce of thinly sliced chicken, which being a PP day meant all I could have…

Those slivery, garlic looking things are from the lotus plant. I only ate the chicken.

I then taught a 90 minute child birth Ed class and a 60 minute staff development class. This pic is from the staff development class. The little old bitty with the word ‘LOVE’ over her head ~~wouldn’t shut her pie hole~~ , errr, wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise when talking about water birth… I asked her, “exactly how many water births have YOU conducted” she said, “none and I will never”. I said, “that’s, OK because the patients prefer midwives to do their deliveries”… She didn’t speak another word 😀
I can always tell by body language who is there to learn… The midwives took pics of every slide and 2 of them recorded it. They asked questions for nearly 40 minutes afterwards!

I want to give a shout out to my amazing daughter, Tiffany LeAnn and her hubby, Joey. I use their very intimate pictures from Jose’s birth (with their permission) in my presentations. The 2nd PowerPoint I use is just pics from their birth with the song “I Can Only Imagine” playing. They may not know the words, but the music does its wonder and brings tears to most people’s eyes. Joey and Tiffany… You are contributing tremendously in educating the women and midwives of China in normal birth and water birth… Thank you SO much for allowing me to teach through your experience!

And then my epic fail… OK, epic is an exaggeration… LOL, but it felt epic! We went for Arabic food. Just being in the restaurant made me miss Abu Dhabi… I swear sometimes I miss Abu Dhabi more than home in the States! I’m actually tearing up as I write this… Anyway, the place is run by 2 Arabs a Lebanese guy and a Syrian guy and it was DAMN GOOD ARABIC FOOD!!! My intent was to only eat the Mixed Grill and extra Chicken Shish Taouk, but also had the Lamb Kofta smothered in a sesame sauce and fattoush and hummus. Too much food, but no wheat or sugar… BUT, the Tabbouleh was to DIE FOR… Seems innocuous, but their is bulgur in Tabbouleh. And Bulgur is a wheat product and wheat is like friggin’ HEROIN to me. Not to mention it makes my tummy bloat and hurt and causes lower GI stuff!
Here’s a pic of the dinner… It was glorious, alhamdilallah! Notice the star of the show is the ~~heroin~~ Tabbouleh.

So, I’m feeling groovy, happy, speaking Arabic with Mohammed our waiter, getting winks from the Syrian co-owner who sends over a heavenly tea pot of yummy mint tea, when it happens… He sends over THE DESSERT PLATE… Nope, not gonna do it, not gonna rmrmrmmaamrm… Sigh, sorry, had chocolate in my mouth… What was I saying?!? EPIC FAIL… And MOONDAY Continue reading →