I had a little gain this week so it looks like I'm starting over again. Story of my life. The virus I had last week was possibly Zika virus. I was bit by a mosquito inside our house, dratted thing! I did kill it when it landed on my arm, but didn't realize it had bit me already in a couple places. A few people thought my illness sounded like mosquito bite symptoms. No way to really know without a blood test, but the good part is that if I did have Zika, I won't ever get it again. I am now immune. ha, ha!

Rie I hope you did well on the 10K and got the result you wanted! Anyone who runs is heroic in my book.

Hey everyone!

So the 10K has been and gone, phew - it was a tough one! The weather wasn't pleasant, it was cold and a bit windy but I had dressed for the occasion so I didn't freeze. The course was hard, the first mile was ok but from mile 1-2.5 (ish) it was a gradual incline with a steeper incline towards the end of that section. There was a nice break after that crap where the majority was down hill, that's where I really picked up the pace to make up for lost time on the hills! The 10K was 2 laps of the same course which sucked since I had to tackle that hill twice, bleh. It was hard keeping up a pace when it was such a slow incline!

The good news is, I beat my Bolder Boulder 10K time from last year! I did the BB10K in 1:12:49 but I did the FroYo 10K in 1:10:35, woohoo! I was aiming to beat my BB time so I'm super happy I did, especially with such a hilly course. I got my free FroYo which was delicious then headed back home since it was freezing! I ran it with my BF's sister who has done marathons so she was great for support. I had to walk a couple of times on the second round of the hill action, she was very motivating and I'm glad she was there. I probably would have walked longer!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

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magistra - Isn't the Zika virus something quite serious? I'm glad you're feeling better now.

Rie - congrats on your 10K and on beating your own record - very impressive!

Riestrella, thanks so much for the info, life sounds chaotic for you at the moments, moving will be exciting, good luck! I have missed alot of the forum so missed why you are moving?

Week 3 Charts everyone!

Overall Chart:


Chicks up for a Challenge:

flower1 - Thanks! Though I didn't beat my all time PR, which is 59 minutes. But I'm slowly building up to that

Koshi - Thanks, I'm excited too! I moved to America to pursue a career in the film industry, I eventually want to be a filmmaker (writer/director/editor) but for a job I'm a freelance video editor. I'm in Colorado living with my BF's parents, it was always a temporary space for us since we wanted to move somewhere where the film industry is booming. We ended up being here a year saving money, so now we're so excited to be moving forward! We're moving to Atlanta because it's a) cheap to live compared to NY and LA and b) there are loads of film production work there right now since it's so cheap to film there. This time in 2 weeks we'll be packing up our truck!

I think, maybe, the scale has started to move downwards. I appear to have lost a pound since yesterday. Keeping my fingers crossed the plateau might be ending. I'll have a better idea tomorrow, but hopeful and excited!

Hey ladies.

Well the green card interview did not go so well. I've already ranted about it on multiple platforms (friends, family, immigration forum!) so I'll try and keep it brief. Basically the woman we got was not friendly which really threw us off. BF also snickered at one of the ridiculous questions they asked me ("were you ever a member of the communist party?" for example) and she stopped and said "what's so funny?" He immediately apologised but I think we never recovered. She seemed skeptical of the evidence I brought, for example I brought in a bank statement for our joint account and she said "you only brought one?" The idea of the evidence is to prove we're a genuine couple who have assets in both of our names. We mentioned we were moving to Georgia and she asked about the lease and made me feel bad that we didn't bring a copy even though BF hadn't finished signing it!
At the end she said "if I feel comfortable approving you then you'll hear in 1-2 months." First of all the if I feel comfortable line really rubbed me the wrong way. We've been together 6 years and known each other for 14 years, the evidence was all in front of her if she looked harder! Jeez. Secondly 1-2 months?! I've heard of people being approved on the spot and walked away with a notification that their green card is being processed! Sounds like she just didn't like us, maybe the BF's comment really got her back up and she's decided to put our application to the bottom of her pile.

I really wanted this to all be over but now I might have to wait months to hear; it's infuriating. She kept making a point of making sure mail would be ok going to our current address "in case I need more evidence". Ugh. She just didn't seem positive that she was going to approve us and kept making it seem like she wanted to see more evidence. We had joint bank accounts, health insurance, car insurance, tax returns, photos and a flight itinerary of a trip we took. Our drivers licences both had the same address on too. Can't believe people who have known each other for a fraction of the time we have walked away with an approval while we're left hanging over one woman's power trip.

Anyway. Needless to say I was off today. Had a Subway, soda, cookies..just general emotional eating. I'm going to try and move on with life the best I can but today sucked.

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Vehuel - Fingers crossed!

Rie, sorry to hear you had such a rubbish day! Hugs to you. It's crap when bureaucrats seem determined to make you feel small - makes you wonder why they need to make others feel uncomfortable in order to get their jollies!

Quick update: WE GOT APPROVED! Turns out the lady just wanted to make us nervous, we were approved today! So, SO relieved! Thank you for your kind words and well wishes everyone

Rie So sorry you had to go through all that. I'm glad it worked out. Maybe that woman is unhappy with her own life and she has to take it out on other people. Makes her feel like she's in control. It's too bad.

Oh and the Zika virus is dangerous for pregnant women and for some people it could cause complications which could be fatal, but that's probably rare. For most people the symptoms are kind of mild.

Whoo! Great news Rie. Don't know why they had to make your feel nervous though! In the meantime, it's official, my plateau is over as I am another half pound down today. So even, allowing for daily fluctuation, I am definitely losing! Very happy as it was really getting on my nerves!

Sorry just saw this. I had Gastric Bypass 7-10-15. Before that I low carbed and calorie counted, but with a thyroid that just refused to work my doctor recommend Gastric Bypass. I went from 324 to 287 on my own but it took over a year and it bounced on and off thats when my dr said enough was enough.

*burp* guys...I am not looking after myself properly leading up to this move! It has to stop! I'm gonna be in the 170's at this rate.

I've been eating fast food, going out to meals, drinking soda, eating snacks...the works. All justified in my head because of the move i.e. "I won't get to eat this for a long time!" or even "I'll start eating clean in Atlanta!" But that's not the right way to go about this!!

Tonight I had BBQ...3 huge sausages with BBQ beans and sweet potato tots. So good, but so bad!

I HAVE been exercising the last couple of days, which does NOT pardon my poor eating habits but at least I've been moving. I did a dance class yesterday and a barre class today. Oh man, I sucked in barre today, the instructor at the end asked me how the class was and I said "HARD! I just did a 10K so I guess my legs haven't recovered" and she said "oh yeah, I thought that you usually do much better, I knew something was up!" My legs were shaking constantly.

I'm in the process of making my first meal plan for the week after I move into my new place! I figured the first few days are gonna be crazy so we'll probably just grab something to eat out and about, but starting the following Monday I'm going to eat on plan . I'm trying to go back to my method of trying to get the right amount of protein, veg and limit how many servings of grains I have too (my biggest problem area). I forgot how challenging it is meal planning this way! It's very intensive since I plan ALL my meals, but I know I need this level of structure or I'll start to wander off and eat something unhealthy.

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magistra - Aaah, I see, I'm glad you only experienced mild symptoms.

Vehuel - Glad to hear you're losing! Though my advice would be go easy on yourself, stress can be a cause of a stall sometimes!

Rebecca - Thyroid issues sound like nasty work, sorry you had to have gastric bypass surgery but glad to see that the weight has come off!