Taken in England, May 2009.
Sadie in the meadow.
Photo by Aleisha Marie
Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit
11
Tag Archives: postaday2012
Dukan – Consolidation Day 108
Monday was Consolidation Day 108 🙂
Today’s Weight: 146
Goal Weight: 155
Still lovin’ that 🙂
Back to work in Hangzhou. Kind of a frustrating day. Went to the bank to make a deposit and they wouldn’t let me because I didn’t have my passport… to make a deposit… sigh. Then I went to the post office to ship off the last 4 boxes to the States and the guy went through all my stuff to make sure it was packed well enough to not break anything and DROPS the package with my Chinese china!!!! Breathe IN, Breathe OUT… I flew off the handle… I couldn’t help it… I am not perfect, I threw a tantrum. They quickly finished me up, I apologized a million times to my driver, Jerry, who is the most patient person in the world (besides Kitty)… he smoothed things over and got me the hell out of there before, well before I got into trouble!
My granddaughter Sadie represents the 3rd generation of epic tantrum throwers 🙂
My daughter Jenni, however, was the Queen of them!
Then back to work where I managed to upset the apple cart by providing a not so glowing audit about hand washing that had the doctors doing better than the nurses. I was on a roll!
Went home and had me some dinner and felt better 🙂 I also am tutoring a Chinese midwife in Medical English and passing the NCLEX-RN exam. So we worked on that last night.
Sunday I got in a 5K run in under 40 minutes after not running for 9 days due to my bout of food poisoning, but I pushed myself and did it… which makes me feel so good 🙂 I then went up to my flat and did 30 minutes of stretching, yoga and exercise bands. I have SO much energy when I’m done running… it’s amazing!
I also got a few pictures from Rose, my personal assistant in Guangzhou from my multiple stays there this past 5 months. Here’s a couple I want to share:
Water birth training in April 2012. Guangzhou.
Grand Opening of the Water Delivery Center in Guangzhou Elizabeth Women’s Hospital – April 2012
I’ve been saying that I haven’t felt like I accomplished much in the past year. Maybe I set my expectations too high for myself… I’m a perfectionist. But when I look at these pictures I do realize that I’ve accomplished quite a bit. The hospitals keep referring to me as their International Water Birth Expert… and I’ve come to realize, I really am! I mean who better to be called that than someone who has delivered hundreds of babies in the water (all over the world, including on 4 continents!) and has taught water birth all over the world? The 5 hospitals here in China that I’ve done the water birth trainings in have collectively performed over 100 water births in the past year! I am proud of their accomplishments and that the midwives and doctors at these 5 hospitals have accepted water birth as a “normal” way for women to deliver their babies. And delighted for the women and babies who have experienced this amazing way of birthing!
Breakfast: 2 slices of bacon and 2 tea eggs
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and flaxseed meal
Lunch: 3 ham slices with 3 slices of Pepper Jack cheddar… Mmmm!!
Dinner: Stir-fry pork with onions and asparagus (cooked in coconut oil).
Snack: Beef jerky… eeek that out a couple little pieces at a time to make it stretch (thanks, Suzanne for bringing me the 3 bags!!) ** Kira… Titters LOVES jerky!
I hope everyone is having a great week! I have 23 days until I fly home… for good… or for now… LOL
What type of exercise or movement did you do on Monday??
Ciao!
Self Love Exercise – Part 3
Write down a characteristic for 5 people you admire.
1. Hillary Clinton. I love her for many reasons, but my favorite characteristic is her ability to take a bad situation, deal with it and move on. Whether that is personally, professionally or politically.
2. Gandhi. His thinking was to not end violence with violence, but to solve the problem peacefully, get to the core of the issue. He never compromised on this.
3. Dalai Lama. His belief that all humans are intrinsically kind. To have that kind of faith is amazing!
4. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bravery and Courage. It took a lot of courage to stand in front of the crowd and deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech and many other speeches in the south. He bravely stated he would fight to the end, and he did. So I would also add honesty!
5. Margaret Sanger. Compassionate. Her compassion for others led her to fight for women’s reproductive rights and the right to birth control for six decades.
Who do you admire? What characteristic do you like the best about that person?
Running With Dreams
“A runner must run with dreams in his heart.”
– Emil Zatopek
I run with dreams in my heart. My first goal in running was to run more than 45 SECONDS without falling and/or crying. It took me a week of calling the “Voice of C25K” every name in the book, to be able to do that… that was back in January. 8 months ago. I had been walking, in fact FAST walking, but I hadn’t run. And I truly couldn’t run 45 seconds without gasping for air. Some of the things I said to myself then:
- I’m never, EVER going to be able to do this
- EVER
- This sucks
- I hate you C25K lady… you’re a liar!
- It’s been MORE than 45 seconds, dammit!!!
And then I got on with it. Because I’m not a quitter. And I set my next dream, which was to finish Couch to 5K (C25K). And then I signed up for my first 5K in March… scheduled for June 9th in Ocala, while I was home.
I completed Week 8 Day 3 of C25K on April 22nd, just one day after meeting my True Weight goal! Triumphant! Crying HAPPY, HAPPY tears. There were 24 different runs in C25K leading up to the completion. I ran 22 of them in the rain and most of them in the rain and under 50 degrees Fahrenheit! Oh, in the hot summer, do I long for those days now… 😀 This was me after completing a run in the rain:
Lots of emotion finishing a run!
Then on May 9th I had my liposuction surgery done and couldn’t run for 2 weeks. I didn’t feel like running, either! I did walk… every single day, because that’s what you do to keep the weight off!
On May 24 I ran for the first time in 2 weeks and couldn’t take in enough air. Just didn’t seem like I could get a full breath in! Ack! I was running a 5K in a couple of weeks!! But run I did… and I kept running, even though I wasn’t able to run more than 10 minutes w/o slowing my pace to a walk.
June 9, I ran and walked my way through my first 5K! I didn’t do as well as I wanted. I just couldn’t catch my breath and took off from the start too fast. I HAD A BLAST! I met a lady in her 50’s doing her first 5K and we chatted while we ran a few minutes/walked a few minutes. We then ended up walking and picking up trash… LOL. My time was 48 minutes. I had been averaging 44 minutes before my surgery.
Well, last night I did this…
Yes…. a 5K in 37 flippin’ minutes!!! WOOT, WOOT!!!
Here it is in miles… LOL
A record for me 🙂 And the RunKeeper reevaluated and gave me more calories burned!
I actually walked for about 5 minutes to cool down after reaching 5K, but I stopped my RunKeeper on purpose to preserve this moment 🙂
This is what I wrote to Anna this morning:
I bawled my eyes out when I realized I hit 37 minutes 🙂 My Chinese neighbors must think I’m nuts… LOL. Although the security guards have watched me transform over the past year and always say encouraging things while doing a thumbs up (I presume they are encouraging me… lol). Running is super emotional for me, for some reason. When the C25K lady says “walk now” at the end of the long runs I get very teary… last night was a bit different… I KNEW I was WAY ahead of my norm… and I wasn’t winded. I knew it because I take the same boring route every night and was getting way past the usual 5 minute updates from RunKeeper. I actually did 5.3 kms, but purposefully stopped it right as it rolled onto 5K to see how I did… I then let out a series of woots and then cried, with a huge smile plastered on my face. 😀
I find running very emotional. Not sure why. But it’s an awesome emotional, not a bad one! These are things I say to myself now, when I’m running:
- It’s only 40 minutes
- Just get your shoes on and walk out the door
- You can stop whenever you want (I never do!)
- Yes, Yes, Yes!!! You’re doing it girl
- You’ve got this
- You totally rock
- WOOOOOOOOOO! I DID IT!!!!!!
You get the picture. I say these out loud. They are affirming. They are gifts to myself. They push me to the next level. They, apparently, are working 😀
My new goal/dream… running a triathlon with Anna, Sandra and Cindy in August 2013. What a great way to celebrate the year I turn 50! I am so looking forward to seeing this dream come to fruition!
Ciao!
Dukan – Consolidation Day 86 – Sunday Runday
Sunday was an awesome day… food wise, Dukan wise and exercise wise!
Daily weight: 148 lbs/67.2 kgs
Goal weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kgs
I started my morning early with a half hour of yoga and some housework. Then at 0900 out for a walk/run. It was HOT! Here’s how hot…
Feels like 101F… bring it on!
So I did this route… which the GPS is off a bit… I walked along the little river, across the bridge and back… so just move my route (in your head) down a bit… LOL
And these are the scenes along my walk…
The path leaving my complex going towards the river.
The construction site has taken over 1/2 the Buddhist Temple and torn it down… they moved the Big incense burners across the walking path to the river side.
The construction site hasn’t taken the temple half… yet… I sure hope they don’t!
A real working lock!
Guarding the lock.
I could smell a funky smell, like manure, and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from!
This lovely lady was fertilizing the lush greenery along the river walk… Thank you! You make my walk much more beautiful!!!
Continuing on…
I then crossed over the river to come back on the other side.
Incoming barge… an old way of transport with all new construction in the background!
Close up of the wake from the barge.
As I crossed over the bridge once more, I got wolf whistled at… LOL. That made me feel good and gave me the energy in the melting heat to finish…
Out of the 1:20 I only ran 35 minutes. It was just too darn hot… but it gave me the chance to slow down and enjoy the scenery!
Food:
Brekkies: 2 tea eggs… good protein fuel to get started!
Snack when back from walk/run: 2 ounces of an amazingly good aged cheddar that crumbles when you bite it… Mmmmmm and some Jerky… thanks, Suzanne for bringing that!
Dinner at 430 p.m. at Surbhi and Andy’s… OH MY GOD!!! My very favorite Indian dish,  Palak Paneer, made just for me! Yummy, authentic Indian food. I am SO grateful for the people I have met on my 4 years of living abroad! I also had a little bit of rice, dal and aloo! Of course this was a celebration meal 😀
When I got home from my 1 hour 20 minute bus ride… standing (now that must have burned some calories) and dancing to my own tune (Rocking out to Rock of Ages soundtrack in the bus… smiling and dancing, sure makes the locals give me a little space) I opened my email to this picture…
Yummy, juicy, delectable Helena… who is almost 5 months! I am SO lucky that I get to be there when these little cutie patooties are born! Can’t wait to make a trip to Boston to cuddle you!
And before bed a pot of 2% Greek Yogurt with Splenda and flax seed meal. Yum!
Awesome day all around… How did your weekend go?
Ciao!
Dukan – A Year Goes By in the Blink of an Eye!
One year ago this weekend was my 30th class reunion. A turning point for me.
One year ago yesterday, on Friday, August 5, 2011… I met with a fellow high school alum, John Geraghty to chat about steps to take to change my life. John is a life coach… to me, a life saver. The tools that John gave me that day were stored in my iPad memo section. Books to read, ideas that he gave me… sage advise. I admitted to John that I weighed 255 pounds. No one else knew. You can read more about starting my Dukan journey here and how I felt about my meeting with John.
The following night, Saturday, was the night of our big dinner. My dear friend Denise’s daughter Aleisha was our official photographer and took this picture that seriously changed my life…
Yes… that’s me in the purple.
When I saw this picture the following day, well I can’t even begin to tell you the myriad of emotions that it brought up… and still brings up.
And so my journey on Dukan begin… not quite a year ago, that anniversary is August 20th, but this weekend… exactly one year ago, changed my life.
With Terri and Michele August 2011
With Leslie – February 2012 – 50 pounds lighter! Half way there!
With Teri at my first 5K – June 2012 – 100 pounds gone!
With Denise, Bernadette, Jennifer and Kevin – June 2012
I consider myself very blessed to have the wonderful and amazing friends and family that I have! You all have made this journey much more fun! See you all in September!
And to all of you who follow this blog… THANK YOU… your support has been awesome! I love how supportive our community is 🙂
Ciao!
Dukan – Consolidation Day 85 – Aussie Football Rocks
Wow… 85 days on Consolidation! And you know what… I’m sticking to the plan and my weight is stabilized… I will be in Consolidation for a total of 500 days so I’ve got 415 to go!
Since starting in Consolidation I went from 155 down to a low of 144. I have consistently been between 144 and 148 for nearly 2 months now. Awesome! This morning 146.
Breakfast: Cream cheese pancakes ** without syrup, not able to find sugar free here! Ate them in bed with a cup of coffee before getting ready for work.
This is Titters, my cat, wishing I’d share some of that pancakey goodness with him…
He put his back to me because I wouldn’t share!
Lunch: A yummy salad with red cabbage, cukes, tomatoes and bacon and edam cheese!
Before I carnivored it up 🙂
Afternoon Snack: 2 tea eggs
Dinner: Philly cheese steak without the bread and a small side salad.
Exercise:
Walked to and from work twice as I walked home for lunch.
Ran 5K in record time the night before… loving that I can breathe again. It’s been 12 weeks since my surgery and I’ve only been able to take full breaths for the last 2 weeks… general anesthesia is the culprit, me thinks.
After work I went with Vivien to an Aussie friends house to watch Australian Rules Footie… I am totally into it and the commentary during the game from those watching is great fun and instead of running 10 feet and having a time out, they just keep going and going and going… it’s going to be hard to go home to the States and enjoy the NFL… lol! The end of this game was AMAZING!!! Tom Hawkins (Tomahawk) #26, kicked the winning 6 point goal with 0 seconds left on the clock!!! Bringing them to their 9th victory in a row… I guess Cats really do have 9 lives! So, Rory, my partner in fun for the guest running blog I wrote a few weeks ago, presented me with my official fan Geelong Cats T-shirt! I totally feel like part of the gang now 😀 Thanks, Rory!
I AM A FAN!!
The Tomahawk
At the end of the night my local daughter, Vivien, walked me downstairs and I talked her into a self pic… lol… I’m going to miss this girl when I move home!
ViviMokaLaka – August 2012
I look a little different than I did a little more than a year ago when I took this pic…
ViviMokaLaka – April 2011
Ciao
**I bought the amazing cookbook from this blogger. Her recipes are awesome and easy to follow! I highly recommend the book and can’t wait to get in a REAL kitchen with a REAL oven and make more of the stuff in the book!
Running, blog stats and random stuff
I’ve had a pretty exciting week from a personal perspective. I set two personal records running in the past 3 days. The first was my fastest run at 8:26 avg. min/km or 13:34 avg. min/mile. This is a full 1 minute per mile LESS than before I had my surgery in May! The second was that I ran more miles in July than any previous month! Below is my RunKeeper stats…
The brick color is walking, the green is running and the purple is hiking.
I’ve either walked, ran or hiked 544 kilometers since March. That’s 338 miles 🙂 Woot!
Another awesome thing that happened this week is that at some point I reached 50,000 hits on my blog! And I’ve logged nearly 3500 comments! It makes me so happy that so many people have stopped by. I started regularly writing this blog in August to share my journey with family and friends and it has become so much more and that makes my heart swell with happiness!
And that leads to the awesomest things that have happened this week. Actually it happened today… 4 people that I personally know, all of us on 4 different continents, contacted me today (yesterday for some of you) to tell me they are starting the Dukan because they want to be healthier and they’ve seen my success. All 4 have read my blog and I only knew that one of them was. I wish all 4 of you luck!!! I know you will succeed because I know all of you put your mind to something and accomplish it! 4 amazing women… starting on this journey… Good luck and remember that I’m here if you need anything!
I’ll finish by saying that August brings in the last month of summer. It also signals that I have 51 days left in China. I can’t believe I’ve been here nearly a year already! I get one more trip to Guangzhou where I get to hang with my Int’l crew down there, Rose, Jenny, Liza and Dianna. And get to mentor a friend from the Middle East, Aisha! And then back to Hangzhou to finish out my contract… I’m going to miss my ViviMokaLaka so much! She’s the one that brought me here in the first place. I’m going to try to take as many photos as possible in the next 7 weeks.
But I miss home and my kids and my grandkids and my mom and my family and my friends and the beautiful sunrise over the Roosevelt Bridge first thing in the morning. And there’s no place like home. I’ve had a fun 4 years living abroad 🙂 But on to new projects and fixing up my AirStream!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!
Ciao!
Dukan – Recipe – Steak Stir Fry
I had some veggies in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I threw this little dinner together!
STEAK STIR FRY (sorry, I live in China, have a teeny kitchen and a wok, stir fry is what it is!)
Serves 2
1 pound steak (500 grams) – cut in chunks, strips, however you like it!
1/2 large onion – chopped
1/2 carrot- sliced thinnish
1/2 red pepper – chopped
Asparagus- chopped
2 Tbs Coconut Oil (see the * from yesterday’s post)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Put 1 Tbs of coconut oil in pan. Put in onions and carrots, sprinkle with Italian seasoning and cook on medium low for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Put your steak on top, add the rest of the coconut oil and stir. Put on the lid and simmer for 6 minutes. Stir occasionally. Take lid off and stir fry the red pepper and asparagus in with the rest of it… Stir fry for 3 minutes. Put lid on for 2 minutes. Serve. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Sautee those carrots and onions gently!
Throw that meat in there!
Add in the rest of the veggies!
ENJOY!
Ciao!
Dukan – Recipe – Curried Stir Fry – Pure Protein Meal
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!
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