Travel – Not Quite Back in the Groove

Posted on June 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Exhausted. Knackered. Achy.

Weight? Who knows, but the pants still fit… scale is missing in my “delayed” luggage. I did stick to my diet while on my vacation and since I’ve been back in China.
Exercise? Worry? Does that count? I can’t run, since my running shoes are also in my “delayed” luggage… along with clothes and underwear! I did walk all over Shanghai yesterday and to and from work on Saturday morning and to work, home for lunch and back to work so far today racked up 3+ miles.

That about explains the 3 ways I’m feeling right now. Even after having an 8 hour sleep
last night. Jet lag sucks… BIG TIME. So, I’m not quite back in my groove, but feel that an update is overdue, for sure!

I left Florida on Thursday morning at 1145 a.m. for a flight to New York’s JFK. As I blogged before, they actually have Wifi on flights in the States now… how cool is that? Nice 1.5 hour layover there then off to Beijing, except the flight is delayed and they are talking about me not making my flight to Hangzhou, blah, blah, blah… I actually said to the lady at the counter, “seriously, please don’t tell me that… I have travel anxiety related to timeliness!!!” I decided I was going to try not to fret over it… what will be, will be. They made up some of the time, but the transfer time was close in Beijing and I had to go through immigration, collect my bags and then recheck my bags and get on the flight. I had 47 minutes!

I sailed through immigration and went to the baggage carousel… one of my bags was the first one on the carousel!!! What luck! LOL… until after 25 minutes, the bags stopped coming and I realized that A. I had 15 minutes to haul my butt to my connecting flight and B. my 2nd bag was missing… PANIC set in. I ran to the missing baggage office and they put my baggage number in and found that my bag was still in New York… tears were shed, I’m a cry baby when I’m tired, and I ran to check my bag for the Hangzhou flight and actually made it on the plane… because it too was delayed.

I get to Hangzhou at midnight, collect my one bag and head to the lost baggage office to file a claim. It is now officially Saturday morning (I’ve missed all of Friday being in the air) and I have to be at work at 8 a.m. Through more tears I realize that the bag I have is NOT the bag with my clothes and my Brooks Addiction running shoes and MOST importantly MY SCALE… can anyone say MELTDOWN!?! She files the claim with the Air China office in New York and says, as she hands me the paper… it’s just “delayed” baggage, not “lost”… with the sweetest little smile. It’s hard to be angry with her 😦

I get a taxi home and fall into bed after loving all over Tits the Cat, who has apparently missed me immensely. He insisted I carry him around like a baby for half an hour! I got into bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 558 a.m…. ugh! Made coffee, checked email and got ready for work… at work by 730 a.m. On my way to work I picked up tea eggs… I was so happy to see my favorite tea egg lady…

Those are the tea eggs in that ginormous crockpot!

I think the exhaustion hit me around noon. I felt like someone was sitting on my head! But I made it through most of the day. At 3 I decided to leave and called my friend Alice, a midwife from Florida who is visiting her son here in Hangzhou. They just happened to be at my favorite restaurant in town, The Vineyard, and I took a taxi there to meet them. It was so wonderful to see her. I think it’s been 15 years or so since I’ve seen her in person, but she is the one who inspired me to walk the Camino 2 years ago.

In bed Saturday night before 10 and up at 458… UGH! No problem, got up, made a breakfast of steak and onions and showered and dressed and headed out the door to get the train to Shanghai! A fellow blogger, Mona, was in China for a summer assignment and we were going to meet in person! How awesome is that? I love her photography on her blog and even though I was knackered as all get out, it was worth the trip to meet her!

Mona on the Bund… The Pearl in the background.

Walking to the Bund.

We met at her hotel and walked to the subway. We took that down to the Bund, which is the waterfront walk on the Pearl River. It was an overcast day, but we still had a good time! After walking the Bund we google mapped my favorite restaurant in Shanghai the Blue Frog. Unfortunately the address was incorrect and we ended up walking a heck of a lot more than we intended… no worries… the lunch and company was worth it!

On the walk we saw lots of cool things and some random things like the fresh piece of asparagus on the stairs of a walk over and this beautiful cherry in the gutter…

Cherry in the gutter… streets of Shanghai

After the trip back to Mona’s hotel, I taxied up to the subway and then took Line 2 to the Family Mart… the grocery store that I can get my Fat Free yogurt. Bought 8 containers and a few other items and then took the subway back to the Shanghai train station… it was a wonderful day!

Bye-bye Shanghai

Back to my flat… call to Air China “delayed” baggage office… “good news Ms. Blankenship, your bag is on the flight to Beijing! You should have bag tomorrow noon”… well, my assistant has just called and been told it’s still in New York… I’m trying not to panic. I’d like to have my clothes, my shoes and MY SCALE… my Vivien tells me it will come, “this is China, it’ll happen”… I take a deep breath, come back to my office and pray… yes… this is China… things do happen.

As I finish this post I am listening to the soundtrack of Rock of Ages… the music makes me HAPPY 😀 I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie. I know that it got crappy reviews, but they were wrong. It’s a funny, happy inducing movie and thinking of Tom Cruise (lovingly referred to as TC) singing and dancing “Pour Some Sugar on Me” gives this 48 year old giggles and smiles… If I was in the States… I’d probably have seen it 3 times already!

And now… Vivien has just walked into my office and said MY BAGS ARE GOING TO BE HERE, IN OUR OFFICE IN 2 HOURS!!!!!!!!!! OK, trying not to hold my breath, trying not to be too optimistic, but they asked her for directions to the hospital. Dear Lord, I pray it’s MY bag… lol.

With that… I’m outta here… if anyone has a secret to getting rid of jet lag quicker, I’d be ever so grateful!!!

Ciao!

“I’m hot sticky sweet, from my head, my head to my feet”… Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard… redone by the yummy TC 😀

RECIPE – DUKAN – THAI GRILLED CHICKEN & SHRIMP

Posted on June 20, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Dukan Consolidation – Day 40
Daily Weight: 148
Goal Weight: 155

DUKAN THAI GRILLED CHICKEN & SHRIMP

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 pound shrimp
4 garlic cloves
Large bunch cilantro
2 Tbs GF Soy Sauce or Asian fish sauce (GF = Gluten Free)
**Use Coconut Aminos to make this Whole30 compliant**
1.5 Tbs toasted sesame oil OR 1.5 Tbs Olive oil and 2 Tbs roasted sesame seeds (I couldn’t find sesame oil, so made my own!)

Place all the ingredients, except the chicken and shrimp, in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth (took about 40 seconds in a blender using the pulse button).

Place chicken breasts in oven proof baking dish and pour the marinade over the chicken. Place in fridge for 15 minutes.

Prepare your grill or preheat your oven to 375 degrees. When done, the internal temp should be 165F.

I baked in oven as follows:
Cooked for 40 minutes.
Pulled out and spooned the juices on top
Back in oven and added the asparagus dish to the oven

Asparagus, 1 tsp of organic sweet, salted butter, 2 crushed garlic cloves

After an additional 15 minutes, pull out the asparagus, add the shrimp to the chicken dish, drizzle a teeny bit of olive oil on shrimp and put oven on BROIL for 8 more minutes.

Bernadette and Kevin loved it. Going to miss going back to china and being restricted to a burner and pan again.

I fly back to China tomorrow. I’ve had a wonderful time in Florida and North Carolina. 3 more months and I’ll be home for good!

Also, took mom to the train yesterday for her trip back to Newberry. Here’s some pics from our trip…

Love letter from my grandson Shane to my mom, his GiGi… He’s the sweetest boy!

Sydnie and Shane with GiGi.

Me and my mom… I feel so blessed to still have her!

Ciao!

Quick check-in

Posted on June 16, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Today’s Weight: 146
Goal Weight: 155

Busy vacation. Worked the last two days teaching basic and emergency birth skills to birth assistants, doulas and midwifery students and had a great time!

Eating well, visiting friends and family…

Tomorrow I’m running, going to the beach, movies with Jenni and shopping with the girlfriends.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Ciao!

Dukan – Consolidation Day 31 – Celebration Meal

Posted on June 12, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Today was my first official Celebration Meal!

Daily Weight: 149
Goal Weight: 155

Started my day off right with a run through Sandy’s hilly neighborhood…

I then made a yummy omelet with onions and goat cheese Gouda and bacon for mom and I…

Then after catching up on emails and blogs I decided to go out for a drive in Hendersonville. Picked up a Dunkin Donuts coffee and rode around town while chatting on my cell to my peeps in Florida 🙂

I ended up at The Fresh Market and nearly cried with joy at the variety and choices and the fact that I could read the LABELS!!! Bought made to order Shashimi…. Yum! Then found my way back to Sandy’s house.

Diner at Mark & Eric’s. My first official Dukan Celebration Meal! It’s my first because I’ve been traveling and unable to make my own and I wanted it to be special, and it was! Mark made paella with scallops, chicken and pork… YUMMY!!! The picture does not do it any justice!

And Eric made goat cheese pudding… Good Lord have mercy, I can’t describe how amazing this was!! He put a few raspberries on top and served it with Godiva coffee… Mmmmm!

I got my doggie cuddles in with Sophie and Bella…

FANTASTIC DAY!

Ciao!

Travel – Weekly Round-up!

Posted on June 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, what a week! Going to do a breakdown with pictures.

Current Weight: 149
Goal Weight: 155

Sunday, June 3 – flew Guangzhou to Hangzhou. Flew between the clouds…

Went straight to hospital and saw 3 patients, rushed home, had reunion with Tits the Cat…

threw clothes in washer, started to unpack, knock on door… It’s….
KITTY!!!

I also got to hang out with Velina, Robin and their gorgeous baby and show off the beautiful necklace that Sheila, Greg and Lily gave me…

Finished repacking, went to bed…

Monday, June 4
got picked up by driver to head airport. Hangzhou to Beijing, Beijing to JFK… Here’s a shot from over Siberia… It really is frozen tundra!

Get into JFK pretty much on time, only to wait 1 hour and 40 minutes for my bags. Major panic, get through customs, race to airport train to go to AA building, still need to check in, recheck bags, get through security and they are already boarding… Major panic… People get me through quick, I’m trying to breathe, and I get on 2nd to last… Phew! Then we sat on the Tarmac for one and a half hours! Argh! Finally up, up and away and this gorgeous sunset off the coast of NC…

Finally got to Miami and Miri’s smiling face there to pick me up!

Tuesday, June 5
Up before the crack of dawn and out for a run… I love my hometown!

Then I had a haircut and color…

And sushi with my niece, Amanda 🙂 Then off to visit the kids and grandkids, then a run/walk with Michele and Michael and dinner.

Wednesday, June 6
Up early, breakfast with Tiffany and then out to Okeechobee to visit my friend Julia, who is not only a super awesome friend, but is hands down the best massage therapist in the world! Two hours of myofascial therapy, craniosacral therapy and some lymph work. Lunch with her son at Golden Corral and then back to her office for another hour or so of traditional massage. It was all amazing. Then back to Port St Lucie to pick up Sydnie for the night.

Thursday, June 7
Breakfast with Sydnie…

And dropped her off to school. Then back to motel and Jenni, Sadie, Tiffany and Joey came over to spend time in pool with me. Wore a bikini, LOL… That seems weird to me.

I then headed 90 miles south to check out a 1973 Airstream Land Yacht… I bought it!

Then raced back up to home to pick up Sadie from camp so we could go to Jammin’ Jensen with my friends… Just writing this makes me feel like I haven’t had a holiday, lol! Here’s some pics from the awesome time I had with my friends…

Then over to our friend Denise’s house, since she had neck surgery and couldn’t come out to play, we took the party to her…

Then off to bed with Sadie, so I can get up early to head 5 hours north in the morning!

Friday, June 8
Up early, drop Sadie to her mommy and hit the road. First stop, 2 hour drive to Daytona to see Shauna, Mouna and Fiona. Lovely visit. Then another 1.5 hours to Ocala to register for the 5K and get my BIB… How exciting! My first BIB!!

Then another hour drive up to get my mom and an hour back to Ocala to meet my friend Teri, who came down to support me 🙂 Dinner Outback, visit with my nephew and his wife and kids and then to bed!

Saturday, June 9 – RACE DAY!

What a rush! My friend Gail told me I’d start out to quick and she was right… My first kilometer was in 7:12… I slowed my pace, walked some, ran, met a lovely lady named Trisha, picked up discarded cups (I know, I know) and finished. It was awesome.

Then breakfast and back to hotel to pack and hit the road… 9 hour drive to North Carolina with my mom to her best friend Sandy’s house. This is the lady I was named after 🙂

Sunday, June 10

Beautiful , cool, rainy morning in North Carolina. Mom, Sandy and I met Eric for breakfast and then Eric and I went for a hike up Mt. Pisgah.
Hike Statistics
Difficulty: Moderate
Total Length: 3 mi
Trail Tread Condition: Moderately Rough
Climb: Climbs Moderately
Lowest Elevation: 4980 ft
Highest Elevation: 5730 ft
Total Elevation Gain: 750 ft
Trails/Roads Used: Mount Pisghah
Hike Configuration: Out-and-back
Starting point: Mount Pisgah Parking Area, Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 407.6
How to Get There: From Asheville, take the Blue Ridge Parkway south to the Mount Pisgah Parking Area, on the left, at milepost 407.6. Park at the second parking area; the first is for the Buck Springs trail.
Great hike!

Then back to Sandy’s and I grilled steaks and leeks for dinner…

So, that’s the wrap up! I’ll try to be a better blogger and update again tomorrow 🙂

Ciao!

Quick 5K Update

Posted on June 9, 2012 by flamidwyfe

5K done!!! Finished 313 out of 347 🙂 20th out 41 in my age group 45-49 ladies.

Full update fter I’m in North Carolina tonight!

Dukan – Consolidation – Day 20/500

Posted on June 1, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was Consolidation Day 20 of 500 🙂

Daily Weight: 149 (please don’t yell at me, Mom!)
Goal Weight: 155

Early start for me because I’m going to Dongguan to one of our hospitals there to do a comprehensive health and safety audit and to give 2 lectures on International Patient Safety goals. I love visiting the hospitals in our group (my company owns 20 maternity hospitals in Southern China) and I always feel warmly received… This was at the main entrance when I arrived…

A big shout out and thanks to my Guangzhou PA Rose, who sent out this picture to the branding department at Dongguan so a more up-to-date me is on the posters 🙂

These hospitals have amazing branding and marketing departments and the are FINALLY using new pictures on the posters. Here’s a poster from April 2011. The pic is one that they were still using a month ago!!

That’s my Vivien in the picture above. She’s the Director of the Hangzhou International Medical Care Center… My home base hospital. Pic was taken April 2011. I’ve changed a lot, Vivi still looks awesome!

So, after getting a nice tour of all 7 floors of the hospital and enough tray brewed Chinese tea to have a good buzz going, I was off on my own to do the audit. These are some of the challenges that I came across. What I love about finding these things is that they are wonderful for educational purposes and a way for me to be a change agent. Having the support of the administration of the hospitals is key.

Can you guess what’s behind this picture frame?

You’re correct if you guessed fire fighting equipment!

Sure looks pretty, unless there is an emergency! At least they don’t have any hiding behind couches like this one…

One thing I really loved was that these posters were everywhere in the hospital…

And they take it seriously with a zero tolerance policy. This is the first Chinese hospital I’ve been in that I could not smell cigarettes! All of our hospitals have a no smoking policy, but the nurses are too polite to say anything. This hospital has empowered the nurses to say no! So exciting!

A big issue I have with H&S here is Sharps containers. I either find yellow bags in cardboard boxes or like this…

They put yellow bags inside the Sharps container and when it’s full, they take it out and put it with the medical waste. I can’t imagine the needle stick injuries that occur 😦 There is a very high Hepatitis B rate here and I shutter to think how high it must be in the healthcare practitioner field. I am currently trying to get our company to convert to snap on top Sharps containers. They are very good at complying with my suggestions!

This is another really cool thing I found today. One of the elevator doors…

After the inspection I did 2 health and safety presentations. The first was on patient identification and the other on the “time out” procedure. And then, as a bonus I showed them my Water Birth in Pictures presentation which is my daughter Tiffany’s 4th birth. A huge hit. Lots of questions, everyone loves that presentation 🙂 Heck I love it. I’ve presented it probably 20 times and I still beam with pride at Tiff’s beauty in labor and the moment she and Joey bring the baby up out of the womb.

This is right before I left to go back to Guangzhou. Me and the Admin from Maria Maternity…

Crazy drive back to GZ and I hurriedly changed clothes and ran to the subway because I had a 7 pm appt with Joey, ~~the torturer~~, errr my personal trainer. It hurts my triceps to type this post! Lol. We focused on arms and abs for an hour. I then went out to run. It was 84 degrees and 96% humidity… I didn’t get too far…

Note that the stadium I’m running around is to the southeast of where the GPS has me running in circles, lol? Anyway, I pooped out. I couldn’t get any kind of rhythm going, so I jog/walked/limped to the subway and went back to my room.

Food:
Breakfast: Low fat Greek yogurt with flaxseed and Splenda
Lunch: broiled fish, garlic stems, broccoli raub with big chunks of ginger
Dinner: 2 chicken sausages, low fat cottage cheese
Snack after workout: 20 almonds and 2 oz low fat sharp cheddar

Ciao!

Dukan – Consolidation Days 11&12

Posted on May 24, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a gym day and Wednesday was an off night.

Daily weight: 153.38 lb/69.72 kg
Goal weight: 155 lb/70.5 kg

Tuesday was filled with rewriting PowerPoint presentations and then out the door at 5! I got to the gym and did 15 minutes on the treadmill and the a one hour BodyBalance class… It kicked butt! It is by the same people that do BodyPump, but it incorporates yoga, Pilates and tai chi into one pretty intense hour. I’ve decided after the class that I cannot wear my pressure garments during workouts. They prevent me from using my abs and I need to use them. I’m on the lookout for compression garments that don’t have hooks and aren’t s hardcore to wear while working out.

After the class I took the subway back to my side of Guangzhou and walked 1.2 miles to the Arabic restaurant where I had mixed grill and hummus with cucumbers to dip in it.

Then a 1.7 mile walk back to the hospital.

Wednesday was a great day, as evidenced by the water birth post 🙂 After the birth Jenny and I took the subway downtown so I could have western food. And I had my first CELEBRATION meal… Not that I did much different, but I had a burger, no bun, with bacon, cheese and mushrooms and a side salad. For dessert I had a créme brûlée and cafe latte. Nice dinner… I had the jitters from the dessert… Lol. Not sure I’ll do that again any time soon. I then hopped the subway back to the hospital.

Today (Thursday) is 2 weeks since my surgery… I can’t believe how fast it has gone by! I am still bruised, but feeling better. I have weird nerve ending kind of stuff going on and the back of my legs still smart, but they are healing. Rose, my assistant took this pic this morning. Oddly, I have bruises on the bottom nowhere near where the lipo was and they hurt!

Another odd thing I notice when looking at this picture is that my hip width is smaller than my shoulder width. I’ll do measurements when I’m back in Hangzhou June 3rd. And for those of you who don’t know… Shane, Sofia, Sydnie, Sadie and JR are my grandkid’s names. Celeste has a special place on my ankle 🙂

Dukan – Tea Eggs with a twist

Posted on May 15, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I traveled by train this morning from Hong Kong back into mainland China to Guangzhou. I’ll be here for 2.5 weeks doing water birth training (we have 2 ladies waiting to go into labor) and helping to open their International Medical Care Center. I’ll also be doing staff development training in international standards of care. Should be a fun couple of weeks!

I’m still recovering from my lipo 5 days ago. At times I feel like I’m in a fog. If I sit or stand too long my legs swell up. And I miss running, dammit! I’ve searched the Internet all day for info on compression shorts for my run June 9th, because I can’t wear the ones I’m in now! 😀

I’m making Tea Eggs on the balcony of my room. When I went to get the ingredients earlier, I found FRESH LAVENDER!! So I threw in a TBS of that to the mix! I can’t wait to have an egg in the morning!!!

My room smells yummy! Here’s the original recipe… Add your favorite extra! I bet vanilla bean would be awesome or cardamom. Mmmmm!

Tea eggs

Ingredients: 8-10 eggs, 1 tsp. Salt, 3 cups of water, 2 TBS coconut aminos (you can use soy sauce, but it is no gluten free or Paleo friendly), 1/4 tsp Salt, 2 TBS black tea leaves (you can get this in bulk), 2 pods Star Anise, 1 cinnamon stick.

In a large saucepan I placed the eggs and 1 tsp of Salt. I then covered it with cool tap water and brought to a boil, then turned down and let simmer for 20 minutes. I then put them in a colander and let them drain and cool for 10 minutes. When they are cool I roll them VERY GENTLY across the counter to form little cracks… DO NOT PEEL
In a large saucepan mix all the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the eggs. Bring that to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours. You then turn off the heat and add the eggs. Let them steep over night, at least 8 hours. You can reuse the liquid. I put mine in the fridge in a tight sealed bowl and bring back to a boil and let the eggs steep again. I have reused this liquid 3 times, then tossed. Also, you can store the eggs up to 4 days in a tight container as long as you don’t peel them. Mine NEVER last that long, lol, I eat 5 a day.

**Edited to say that I also put the eggs back in the pan after cracking them, throw in 3 of these tea bags Cardamon Cinnamon Herbal Tea Bags and one of these Spiced Chai, a TBS of Coconut Aminos and simmer for 2 hours. That’s what I’m doing today (12/02/17) and my WanderLust Beach Bus smells FANTASTIC!

Ciao!