Tag Archives: weight loss success

Dukan Dinner – Asparagus Pork

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I’ve had a very creative and busy day… this makes 2 recipes in one day for me 🙂 I got the idea for this meal from A Hapa Couples Dukan Recipes specifically their Dukan Asparagus Chicken. But I had a big piece of pork in the fridge that needed to be cooked so I used that instead… I followed their recipe to the letter… Oh My was it GOOD!

Pork marinating and cut veggies.

Marinated meat simmering

Veggies cooking.

Instead of just asparagus, I added in 3/4 of a large onion and some garlic stems.

It was a fabulous dinner… it’s for PV (Protein/Veggie) days, Consolidation and Stabilization

I also had a nice long run in the 41F rain! And even after my C25K was done, I did 4 more reps of running/walking… just because… I’m really, really enjoying running.

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 198 – Back in Hangzhou

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Monday was a PV day.

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.20 kg
Total weight loss: 74 lb/33.61 kg

I have no idea how I lost weight while out of town in Taizhou. Having eaten pork intestines, pickled octopus and various and assorted other things… I was careful not to eat anything in gravy, and I even had half a piece of fruit that was like an apple and pear together… but the scale was kind to me… thank you scale!

Whirlwind couple of days on a trip that was a surprise… holding on to the fact that I caught 2 babies keep my spirits up. Coming back yesterday was challenging, I’m not sure which event launched me into a “Michael Douglas in Falling Down” mode, but I felt like a volcano ready to erupt… was it the guy hocking loogies in the restaurant? (everyone here hocks up loogies openly… loud and proud, and spits them on the floor, wherever they might be… men, women, children) or was it the fact that my employer forgot to pick me up at the train station and I had to get in a 1+ hour que to get a taxi… Or was it the lady in said taxi que that did the Haitian nose blow onto my FRIGGIN hiking boot… my reaction parted the crowd like the Red Sea and we moved right up to the front of the line 😀 Or, it could have been the fact that I couldn’t get a taxi to go to a friends house because they do shift change at 5 p.m. and it was GOD FORBID 4 p.m…. her flat is a 15 min. taxi ride… SO I WALKED THE 3.5 MILES… or it could have been witnessing, for the 1000th time, a kid who’s grandmother is hovering her over the sidewalk while she craps, then wipes her and leaves the tissue on the sidewalk… Yeah… FALLING DOWN… argh!
I also walked the 3.5 miles back to my flat… so I think I got my exercise in for the day!

So the sun is TRYING to peak through the pollution, and it’s time to walk to work and confront them about the fact that they sent me on a 2 night trip, with no extra clothes or panties AND forgot to pick me up at the train station… should be a fun mornin’ 😀

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 195 – Cruisin’ Along

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Today was a PV day.

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.20 kg
Total Weight Loss: 73.3 lbs/33.31 kgs

Just cruising along here. Little tiny bits at a time. When I’m out running I imagine it all flying off of me and getting fitter and healthier.

It’s been a rough week, but I’ve hung in there. Usually when I hit a rough patch I eat things that aren’t good for me. That was the old Sandi… the pre-August 20th Sandi… I am so proud that I haven’t back slid into the bottomless pit of feeding my rough patches. To be honest, it feels good not to do it!

Overheard, by me, while running last night… “You’ve got this girl”… “Woo Hoo, that’s 5 minutes!”… “You WILL be fit and healthy”… “Yes, Yes, Yes… I think this is the last patch of run for the night”… “oh wait, nope… this one is… ugh”… “Put on your big girl panties and get on with it”… and finally, “Yes… I DID IT!” When the C25K lady tells me “1 minute to go” I rejoice and last night shed a few tears, during the cool down… last night I was pounding it out in the pouring rain in my waterproof jacket and a crocheted hat that Sandy O’Connor Huntley made me and loved that I was soaking wet. Running in the rain is cathartic… as I passed the gym in my complex for the 3rd time and the people were in the heated room on treadmills I thought, “girl, they ain’t got nothin’ on you”… LOL A bit cheeky I am these days.
So awesome workout… I preceded my run last night with a 20 minute yoga routine on the wii and 20 minutes of balance exercise, then a kick ass game of wii bowling… I scored a 172 🙂

Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs (what else would I have??)
Lunch: 3 ham slices and a tea egg
Dinner: Pollo Saltado… damn was THAT good… I’ll do a recipe blog while on the train tomorrow night… don’t ask… part of my rough week b.s.
Snack: Didn’t get my yogurt in… it was too late when I realized it and I wasn’t hungry
Water: 2.6 liters… woot!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: “Put on your big girl panties” ~ First heard by me years ago by my midwife friend Deb Wage of Nashville.

I Make Small Steps

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“I make small steps daily toward the vision for my life. You may not notice the change now, but over time it will be undeniable” ~ Marc Payan

April 2011 AND December 2011

When you start out dieting, especially when you’ve dealt with obesity for most of your adult life, you don’t envision yourself at your goal weight, or close to your goal weight. I started out in August because of a lunch meeting with a former classmate and a picture of me at my 30th class reunion, from behind. Not a glimpse you get very often. I had pretty much “accepted” myself, as is. I could not have been more wrong. A series of events occurred while I was home in August that showed me how wrong it was to “accept” me for who I was… who I had become was obese, sluggish, out of breath and not healthy. My lunch meeting with John Geraghty was an eye opener. He set me straight on the fact that it’s not OK to accept yourself as unhealthy. THANK YOU, JOHN!!! What I loved about our meeting is that John LISTENS, and he listened to me and let me reason myself into reality. I took notes, I bought the books he recommended and I took what he told me to heart and brain.
Then the reunion and the picture from behind… of my BIG behind. And then THE BOOK. My friend Lucy encouraged me to buy the Dukan Diet book in Abu Dhabi, and I did, and I threw it in my luggage and IGNORED it for my entire time at home. Then I saw the picture of my big behind and put the book in my carry on. I read the book on the flight from Miami to London EVERY.SINGLE.WORD. And then I read it AGAIN on the flight from London to Abu Dhabi… it was like a light bulb went off!
Then I started doubting myself… was I setting myself up for failure? Then my brain kicked in and said, “um yeah… HEART FAILURE!”… So I did it… starting August 20, 2011… and took small steps… one step at a time, one day at a time… and it took a while to notice the changes… but now…
THEY ARE UNDENIABLE 🙂

Dukan – Day 188 – You’re Giving Two Speeches

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Today was a PP day.

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.20 kg (4th day in a row that I’ve had 0.4 lb loss, strange!)
Total Weight Loss: 72.2 lb/32.81 kg

So off to work I go this morning… no confrontation at the tea egg line, this is a good thing for me and you can see the relief on the lovely, smiling faces of the tea egg ladies 😀

After morning rounds I am told that I’m going to help with bathing babies as they are short of staff (for new comers, I’m the Quality Manager for a maternity hospital in China, helping them improve to international standards and I’m a midwife by trade, not practicing here (or at least that’s what it’s suppose to be… LOL). Anyway, bathed a lovely baby boy while the marketing department snatched dozens and dozens of pictures of him for the parents. He also had a swim in the tank, settled when I sang him The Rose (my go to song to make babies stop crying) and then I gave him a lovely massage. Taking my time so I’d only have to care for one bambino!

After that, Kitty (my personal assistant) and I went back to our office and she comes into my inner office with a 4 page document to show me which events next month I have to attend and which ones I’m speaking at. Speaking at?? “Yes, she says, You’re giving two speeches”… “What do they have to be about”, I ask. And she replies, “Oh, don’t worry, they will make for you”… Lovely. So someone will write my speeches in Mandarin and then Kitty with translate them into English for me, then I will read them out loud in English and Kitty will translate verbally to the audience in Mandarin. I love this place. I am their marketing doll and I really do enjoy it! I have to do very little, but show up, look pretty, speak and smile. I imagine this is kind of like being a beauty queen 🙂 Kitty has informed me that this is all in honor of our hospital being open for 1 year and we will be celebrating from March 3 – April 4th… The Chinese know how to party it up!

Lunch at my desk, 2 tea eggs and 3 slices of ham.
Dinner… funny thing, I forgot to take meat out of the freezer, something I rarely do, and ended up stopping at the street vendor on the way into my apartment complex. She sells what looks like chickens and I thought I’d get one, sans the head (they serve it with the head here), and have that for dinner. She explains that they are free range ducks, this is why they are smaller than what I’d be used to from the U.S.. Well, ducks and Dukan don’t go together because of the fat content, but I need to eat so I buy one. She expertly shaved the meat off the bone and presented it to me in 2 little containers. It.Was.Yummy!!! Really yummy! But my tummy felt heavy for about an hour after I ate.

I went for a run, did 35 minutes and 17 seconds in the pouring rain, but I’m really starting to enjoy it. Kept up my 7 mins. run/2 mins. walk ratio and it seemed easier this time around.

Yogurt with bran and splenda for snack and off to bed… trip to Shanghai on Friday!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: “Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness” -Edward Stanley

Dukan – Day 184 – Six months in and Feeling Awesome!

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Sunday was a PV day.

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.20 kg
Total Weight Loss: 70.9 lb/32.21 kg

So it was six months ago today that I began my Dukan Diet journey. And I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that I did! By sticking to this diet and by not straying (with the exception of a rare few times) I have managed to nearly lose 71 pounds in 6 months. I feel GREAT! Great doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. My knees don’t hurt. I bound up and down the stairs at work. I use the stairs everywhere I go (like in the Shanghai subway yesterday). I walk 1 mile to work, clock in and take the stairs to the 4th floor. In August, I would have been winded before getting to the 2nd floor. Now… no problem!

Yesterday I woke up early, caught a ride to the train station and spent the day in Shanghai. It’s a 42 minute bullet train ride and worth it. I had lunch with Federica and Will and did a little shopping. Picked up a couple of pair of jeans (one size 12, one size 14) and then coffee with them and the trip back. Makes for a long day. Makes for a short night of sleep, but through the yawns this morning I feel as if it was worth it. Worth it for my mental health and worth it to get a couple of pairs of jeans in normal size for a bargain 🙂

Speaking of jeans… I promised before and after butt pics. This first picture was what really made me realize I needed to do something immediately about my weight. This is at my 30th Class Reunion in August 2011, a couple of weeks before I started the Dukan Diet… I’m in the purple sweater… Good Lord!

Oh My!

And this was this morning… We took a couple of shots from a distance but because I’m wearing all black, they just didn’t show anything. Vivien insists I use this one… it’s a close up, but I’m loving my waist definition. And… in the pic above my hips were 56″ (cringe)… they are now 44″… that’s TWELVE INCHES LESS! And my waist has gone from 45 1/2 inches to 35 1/2 inches… TEN INCHES LESS… All I can do is 😀 So here’s my close up… LOL…

Dukan Diet = Smaller ass and waist 🙂

I have received so much encouragement from family, friends and fellow bloggers that I am amazed and humbled on a daily basis. It really is what has pushed me to continue down this amazing path of wellness.

Again… thanks for all the encouragement and for those of you on this journey… YOU CAN DO IT!

Ciao!

Quote of the day: It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect it’s successful outcome ~ William James

Dukan – Day 148

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Today was a PP day.

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 64.7 lb/29.41 kg

I had a crappy day 😦  I had a migraine all day and woke up with nausea that led to the “V” word and then I felt a tad better. I did, oddly enough, have a very productive day. I created and finished a flow chart in Visio and wrote 4 policies… just sat at my desk pounding them out and got them done. Ended up taking migraine medicine x 3 throughout the day.

Breakfast… none… I wasn’t in the mood for throwing up eggs!
Sipped about 400mL water through the morning
Had 2 cups of Chamomile tea that made me sleepy… LOL
Lunch: 2 tea eggs and 500mL water
Dinner: Tofu w/o seasonings stir fried with onions and garlic stems
Cup of mint tea

Finished packing my bags for my big trip and went to bed early. Tuesday can’t get here soon enough… I can’t wait to hug and kiss…

Celeste:

Celeste Alena

Sydnie…

Sydnie Renae

Sadie…

Sadie Rose

Shane…

Shane Cristian

Sofia…

Sofia

Jose…

Jose

And the rest of the gang… but especially those 6 munchkins who call me “Momma” 🙂

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be!
~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Dukan – Day 121

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Monday was a PP day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.0 lb & kg
Total Weight Loss: 53.7 lb/24.41 kg

So no change on the scale which is fine by me… staying the same is better than gain! Back to work today and don’t feel like I had a weekend off. Because of a schedule change I  had 1/2 day Friday, worked Saturday and off on Sunday… but I had running around to do, so after the massage I was off to the mall and didn’t get back until nearly 6 p.m…. then my next day off is Friday!!! Anywho… it was a nice day at work. Got 3 policies written and edited and sent off to Kitty for translation, so I feel accomplished 😀

Breakfast: You got it… 2 tea eggs
Lunch: Beef slices with cilantro and garlic stems and a bowl of CHICKEN SOUP… oh my gosh was it yummy and oily… LOL I left the carrots and ate the rest. The broth was so good!

Chicken Soup from the halal restaurant

Dinner: Stir fried sirloin with onions and garlic stems and I threw in 1/8 cup of low-fat mozzarella… it was kind of like having a philly cheese steak w/o the bread!
Snack: FF Greek Yogurt with Splenda and bran

All in all a good day. A couple things in there that may have influenced my lack of scale movement, but I’m not worried. I drank 1.5 liters of water and walked to and from work (a mile each way). The best part of the day was getting a picture from Danee Daniels with her and my niece Charity in it… I have no idea where they were or what they were doing, but they were together (with Dana, as well) and those have to be 3 of my favorite midwives in the world 😀 Thanks for posting, Danee!

Danee and Charity... hanging with Dana 🙂

Ciao!

Quote of the day: “If you wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” ~ Toni Morrison

Dukan – Day 115

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Tuesday was a PV day.

Daily Weight Loss: -0.7 lb/-0.3 kg
Total Weight Loss: 51.1 lb/23.21 kg

Well… I seem to be stuck in a rut! I’ve been playing with the same 1 pound for a week! This morning I am evaluating what it is that’s going on and I think it’s a combination of a few things… I’m still consuming more coffee and tea than usual (Lucy is visiting and makes me a cup… how can I say no??). And I am not getting in enough water. Otherwise, my food intake has been great, as has my exercise.

The one thing that I really like about the Dukan Diet is that you weigh yourself daily and this gives you the opportunity to reflect on what could be affecting your weight and you can correct it.

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs, coffee
Lunch: Fish and garlic stems, tried to get water, but it had sugar in it 😦
Snack: Coffee
Snack: Earl Gray (when I got home from work)
Dinner: Stir-fried tofu, broccoli, onion and garlic stems.
Snack: Pot of FF Greek Yogurt with Splenda and bran, Earl Gray tea (anyone seeing a pattern here???)

So today I’m going to commit to one cup of coffee this morning and a cup of Early Gray tonight and that’s it… the rest is water… wish me luck 🙂

Ciao!

Quote of the day: Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Dalai Lama

Dukan – Day 2 Attack Phase

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Well I found out a lot about myself these past 2 days… I really don’t like plain yogurt, I really, really don’t like non-fat plain yogurt, fromage frais tastes the same as non-fat plain yogurt, but… I can eat it if it means losing 7 pounds in 4 days!!!

Today’s menu included eggs, more eggs and even more eggs… LOL. It also included a oat bran pancake (Dukan gallette), Luc Lac Beef… which after marinating all night in garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce and oyster sauce was DELISH! I had non-fat yogurt mixed in with the juices from the marinade and TONS of water.

Tonight I had 2 small sirloin steaks, stir fried in a teeny amt of vegetable oil and with onions and garlic thrown in at the last minute… I am STUFFED!

One thing I have noticed is that I am not having any upper abdominal bloating and discomfort since I am not consuming any gluten products. So, even though I’m stuffed, I’m not uncomfortable.

I consumed more than 1.5 liters of water today in addition to 2 diet cokes, a cup of coffee and a cup of Earl Gray tea. I can’t believe I’m actually drinking as much water as I am! It’s been tough for me to adhere to drinking water rules in the past, the result is hourly trips to the bathroom, but I realize this means I’m flushing bad stuff out!

So that’s the end of Day 2 of the Attack Phase of the Dukan program. I’m feeling great! Now I’m off for a nice 20 minute walk…