Get Up!

Posted on February 18, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Inspired tonight by my walk home. The sun was out all day and it has significantly improved my mood 😀 I realized on way to work this morning that my iPhone hadn’t been restored after downloading the latest iOS 5 update last night. The only song on my iPhone was the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feelin'”. So walking home tonight, in the good mood I’m in (I’ve lost 70 pounds, I’m going to Shanghai for the day tomorrow and the sun is out) I played it and basically sang and bounced my way home. The locals think I’m a whack… 😀
Two lines that inspired tonight’s Words For Thought…
“Jump off that sofa
Let’s get get OFF”
“Look at her dancing
Just take it off”

So, what did I take off? 70 pounds! How have I done it? Staying true to the Dukan Diet and WALKING… EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! Sometimes just 30 minutes, sometimes a couple hours. NO EXCUSES… It’s just walking. WALKING… Doesn’t cost anything, don’t need a gym membership, don’t need special shoes. I’ve walked my ass off, literally… Tomorrow I’ll show my before and after ass, you’ll see what walking can do for YOU! Now get off the computer and take a walk 🙂

Be In It For The Long Haul

Posted on February 15, 2012 by flamidwyfe

When I started the Dukan journey on August 20, 2011 I didn’t think that I would be nearing the 170’s in February. I thought about what a daunting task losing 90 pounds would be. And that 90 pounds would only bring me to Dr. Dukan’s “Ideal Weight” for me, not MY ideal weight.

But, start I did. And what a fabulous journey it has been. I’m down 67 of those 90 pounds already. That is more than 30 kgs! I’ve lost more than 25% of my body weight in less than 6 months. And I’ve done it by eating WELL and eating RIGHT. That is one of the things I love about the Dukan diet over any other program I’ve been on. It’s a LIFE TIME plan. It doesn’t take you to your ideal weight and leave you there. It’s a change in your life style and it helps to get you there and stays with you. It is also healthy eating. Low fat and low carb. A perfect life time diet for me, as I’m committed to staying off of wheat and gluten for the rest of my life.

So no matter what your future plans are… losing weight, learning something new, taking on a gym program, complete the Couch 2 5K… the year will pass anyways, whether you start and/or accomplish your goal or not…. So take a chance and be in it for the long haul!

Just Don’t Give Up!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I saw this saying today and it really struck a chord! It is so easy to give up and much tougher to see the light at the end of the tunnel and stay on track.
Months ago I would think “Well, I’ve lost 25 pounds, but I still have 65 to go” and think of excuses to not carry on. But I persevered and kept going and today I’m proud to say I’ve lost 67 pounds and ONLY have 23 pounds to go! Don’t make excuses! Don’t give up! You are 1 pound closer to your goal and tomorrow you’ll be even closer!

What’s on your playlist?

Posted on February 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Name 5 songs on your play list in the comments, I might add them to mine!

Here’s 5 of my favorites, currently on my play list:
1. How To Save a Life – The Fray
2. One and Only – Adele
3. Numb – Linkin Park
4. Conspiracy, Time To Reflect & Endurance – Trevor Jones – G.I. Jane soundtrack
5. Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol

Come on… Tell me what yours are 🙂

Dukan – Day 175 – Back in the Swing of Things

Posted on February 10, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PP day 1 of 4.

Daily Weight Loss: 2.4 lb/1.10 kg (the exact opposite of yesterday!) 🙂
Total Weight Loss: 65.1 lb/29.61 kg

So yesterday I completed Day 1 of 4 Pure Protein Days to kick start me back in to ketosis after a fabulous vacation. I had my first day back at work, and it was a breezy day, I saw snow for the first time in Hangzhou (the snow waited for my return!) and I went to bed, once again before 8 p.m…. UGH!

4 a.m. Small cup of FF yogurt with 1/2 TBS bran, 1 TBS flaxseed meal and splenda.

Early to work given I had been awake since 4 a.m. and had nothing else to do at my flat. Raining hard during the walk, but that just made me walk faster. I stopped at the tea egg vendor and picked up my 5 tea eggs for the day and was so excited I ate one of them while walking in the rain!

Handover and then bathed 2 babies… got to sing “The Rose” to one of them, as this was on the classic piano CD… the babies love my singing, as off tune as it is. Pretty much caught up on emails and planned out my education presentations for the rest of the month, and had my 2nd tea egg around 10. My darling personal assistant, Kitty, returns on Saturday… can’t wait to see her. Vivien and I had a quiet day in the office, and that was nice. At around 830 Vivien starts yelling for me to come out of my office… it’s snowing. Big, fat snowflakes. Nothing stuck, since it was just above freezing, but everyone in the hospital was happy to see it. I have no idea why… I really despise the cold and the snow… LOL Quite the contrast to the weather in Florida this past week.

Lunch at my favorite halal restaurant was sliced beef with cilantro and some garlic stems and a tea egg. Yum!

Slow afternoon… I had a hard time staying awake. Ate another tea egg for some energy and then left work to walk home in the SNOW. The SNOW! As I was walking in the SNOW I kept thinking that I couldn’t believe I was living where it SNOWED. Last year this time I was living in Abu Dhabi, where it’s WARM and SUNNY all the time. It’s quite a difference.

Skype chat and a catch up on emails, dinner was stir-fried pork seasoned with cumin, curry and lemon pepper (quite a nice combo I might add) and garlic stems.

At 745 I was tying up my running shoes and falling asleep while doing it. I thought if I went out for a run it might wake me up… instead, I took my shoes off and went to bed. There is no sense in fighting it.

Ciao!

Quote of the Day: The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
~ Lao Tzu

You have to look real hard, but you can see the fat snowflakes 🙂

Light Snow

Dukan – Day 118

Posted on December 16, 2011 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PP day 🙂

First… thanks to those that stop in… I reached 10,000 page views while I was sleeping last night… that is AWESOME!

Daily Weight Loss: 0.7 lb/0.30 kg
Total Weight Loss: 52.4 lb/23.81 kg

Well… finally kicked that pounds ass! It can be quite frustrating to get on the scale for 10 days and stay within the same pound. 1/2 pound up, 3/4 pounds down, but finally did it. Getting closer and closer to my January goal (just need 1/2 a pound!) It seems to be getting tougher, but I’ll persevere. Logically I realize that I should only be losing 1-2 pounds a week at this point… but the I WANT IT NOW me wants it NOW 😀

My friend Lucy, who is visiting for a month, is officially starting the Dukan with me today. She’s kind of been in a forced Dukan menu for 2 weeks, has lost nearly 2 kgs and figured she may as well go all in. So, no more rice at lunch for her! We shopped last night for groceries and they were pumping in the baking bread smell hardcore… I am sure that stores and restaurants (like McD’s) have special ventilators that waft that stuff out of the store into our brains and make us want to buy their crap! Well, dammit… it didn’t work! I did however have to repeat Moonday’s Philosophy over and over.

I have kept my progress on a spreadsheet created by the amazing Charlotte, and will start one for Lucy today, as well. The spreadsheet has been an amazing way to track my progress and see the overall picture… thanks SO MUCH, Charlotte xoxo

Now off to work, where we have a Christmas Party this afternoon… should be fun!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. ~Plato

Ooops, yesterday was really Dukan – Day 111

Posted on December 11, 2011 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was a PV Day

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Not sure, in Shanghai for weekend

So did a marketing event for the hospital this morning, had a meeting with CEO, which left me feeling a bit confused, and then headed for the train station for a few days of R&R in Shanghai. I also have to do my work visa stuff here on Monday.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: chicken leg at train station.. LOL, seriously 🙂
Snack: Chai latte with Splenda… BUT, realized this morning that it’s got sugar in it! 😦
Dinner: Vietnamese style sizzlin’ steak, with 2 pieces of broccoli and a thin slice of carrot
Snack: 2% Greek yogurt (store was out of FF) with Splenda and bran

Walked and walked and walked in the cold… Had a nice afternoon and evening walking and shopping in Shanghai!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Weight loss is like hiking, it is hard to get started & is hard along the way, but once you reach the top, YOU WILL NEVER REGRET THE JOURNEY!

Dukan – Day 106

Posted on December 5, 2011 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PP (Pure Protein) Day… I will do 4 of these in a row to kick my butt back into ketosis after 4 PV days in a row 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 1.1 lb/0.50 kg
Total Weight Loss: 49.1 lb/22.31 kg

After 4 days in Hong Kong, it was nice to sleep in until 8. Didn’t have to be at work until noon. Yay! I took a 15 minute walk in the cool (41F) air, then picked up tea eggs for Lucy and I. So for breakfast I had 2 tea eggs and 2 small slices of ham… yum!

Then a walk to the hospital where I saw a patient and then over to the International Hotel where I was to give a marketing talk about our LDR (Labor,Delivery,Recovery) Room… OK, so no one told me this was basically black tie!!! I’m in trouser with blue and white stripes, my favorite dark blue wool hiking shirt with a sleeveless white top with blue embroidery and my black boots. I feel a tad bit OK about it since Winnie, Mickey, Minnie and some pink Pig are roaming around, as well. I also didn’t get the memo that there would be about 250 – 300 people there! There was beautiful music, a 4 string quartet, a solo pianist and a jazz sax player (who was awesome!)… and then 2 presentations, mine and the head Dean of the hospital, who talked about water birth… then we auctioned off a water birth package and I gave out books. Fun day! I drank 2 750 mL bottles of water during this 3 hour event 😀

Afterwards, Lucy, Kitty and I start looking for a taxi so that we can get to the grocery store downtown. I have no groceries in the house, at all! They are all full and after 30 minutes of trying, I get frustrated because I’m hungry RIGHT NOW, and if I don’t eat I may stray! So we abandon the idea of shopping and go to the steak house… where I get “Australian Baby Cow”… LOL, I presume this means veal raised in Australia, but who knows…. it was yummy and came out on a sizzling cast iron plate.

Walked home and before bed a pot of FF (fat free) Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda and a nice warm cup of Earl Grey Tea while Skyping and then off to bed…. Nice day J

Ciao!

Quote of the day: To explore what it would mean to live fully, sensually alive and passionately on purpose, I have to drop my preconceived ideas of who and what I am.

– Dawna Markova

Thailand & Dukan Days 84 & 85

Posted on November 14, 2011 by flamidwyfe

Ugh! I typed this yesterday and it didn’t save it…
Saturday weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Sunday weight loss: none
Total weight loss: 41.7 lb/19.0 kg

So, I’m going to summarize with pictures… But first, this is what I’m looking at this instant… It’s 648 am on Monday in Kuraburi, Thailand having coffee on the veranda off my room at the resort in the rain forest… Take a look:

🙂 Nice, huh?

We went on A two day community stay. So often we go on holiday (vacation) and hang on the beach, go to bars and see the “touristy” stuff, but we don’t see the real stuff. Well we did. We made soap with the Ladies cooperative, formed after the tsunami devastated their village, taking more than 60 lives, including 16 children who were in school at the time.

We went to the monkey reserve just behind our home stay house, where they rehab monkeys that were taken as pets, back into the rainforest.

We made thatched roof sections with the ladies co-op and had amazing, authentic food, some of which we helped prepare…it was an amazing 2 days!

Our sleeping accommodation.

Papaya

Birds used for singing competitions.

We’re now back at the resort having early morning coffee. In a couple of hours we’ll be swept off to Elephant Hills Resort…. LIFE IS GOOD AND I AM GRATEFUL. More tomorrow if there is Internet!

Ciao!

Dukan – Diet Day 80

Posted on November 8, 2011 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a PV Day.
Daily weight loss: 0.2 lb/0.1 kg
Total weight loss: 39.8 lb/18.1 kg

Tough for me to calculate by hand! I’m so used to using the spreadsheet Charlotte created, but won’t have that with me for the 2 weeks I’m in Thailand. What in will have with me is my scale, my container of bran granules and my pee sticks 🙂 crazy, I know, but dammit, that scaler keeps you in line. When I gained a couple of days ago I knew I had to evaluate what I did wrong to gain, fixed it and got back on track… So yes, I’m bringing the scales. Bringing the pee sticks to make sure I remain in ketosis. I think one of the meat dishes I ate over the weekend had some carbs, maybe the pork balls I was scooping out of the soup… This also keeps me in line.

So, I’m off on my next big adventure! This holiday (or vacation as we call it in the states) is going to be very adventurous! Today I meet my friend Cathy, from Illinois, at the Shanghai airport and we overnight in Shanghai, take her to see the sights tomorrow. Then a late night flight to Phuket, where we meet my friends Karen and Dominique who are Brits who live in Abu Dhabi. Should have a great time… 4 midwives from all over the world, traveling to Thailand 🙂

So, stay tuned. I’ll be doing weight loss and holiday updates from there.

Ciao!