My Journey

Week 37: Nerve Racking Time

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Just to get the numbers out of the way. I gained 3.6lb from two weeks ago. I can’t say I am disappointed. I let myself have a wild night Saturday and I am pretty confident that alcohol is the culprit. I have been good with my diet otherwise and I am back in a good routine with my workouts. So if I can stick to my diet and my workouts I should be back in no time. Much of it is probably water weight. Alcohol messes with my system EVERY time. So stay tuned for next week.

As for my headline. As most of you know, I am in the middle of applying for a Green Card. We have a family wedding in London coming up in April but my extension is running out on March 17th. So I have been trying for over a month to get an appointment as I need an extension to my extension. Crazy, I know but apparently it takes between 1 and 2 years to get the condition off of the temporary Green Card.

With the Trump news, I have been an even more nervous wreck, even though I should not have anything to worry about. But the thought of traveling and then knowing that you have no idea what this man might come up with next and I might be the one in the airport not allowed back in is truly scary.

At my meeting today, I got to ask all of my questions. Questions such as, if they call me in for an interview while I am out of the country and I am unaware of my appointment. Then what? Technically, they could throw out my case, and I have to start over, but if I am traveling there are some leniency and I should be able to apply for a new appointment. If I get my permanent Green Card (permanent in the sense that I will have it for 10 years) while I am out of the country will my temporary one be invalid and not usable once I get back into the country? No, it will still be valid as long as I have my extension.

So with all of my questions answered and our minds put at ease, we have decided to go ahead with our travel plans. I am super excited. I should get thumbs up from my job tomorrow and we can go ahead and plan. The only downside is my sister, my nephews and her boyfriend and his kids are coming on April 1st while I will still be out of the country. I am hoping to be back early April 3rd though to be here with them for their last 4 days in New York. A bit of a bummer that things are falling around the same time but I think we can make it work.

If everything else falls in place, flights, job and the like we are most likely headed to Paris and Portugal this time around (besides our usual stop to London and Denmark of course). Super exited. Never been to Portugal and I have only been to Paris for 1 day (and a long time ago) so it will be great visiting places I have never been.

Let the planning commence and soon there will be blog posts about trying to loose weight while being on vacation. That is always a challenge. So should be good.

Most of all, I am happy for Mike. He has not had a vacation since Christmas of 2015. So about time he takes some time off.

If anyone of you have been to Portugal or Paris (or lives there) please send some recommendations our way.

So exited!

Xoxo

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My Journey

Week 35: New Year, Should It Be A New You?

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Week 35: has me thinking. I work in marketing and every year in January they all have the New Year, New You promotions going on. I came to thinking… it is not really about a new you but simply improving who you already are, no?

I think, I am pretty great. I am a good person, I care about others, I love my husband, my family and friends and I take my job seriously and make the most of it even though it is not my favorite job. So all in all, I am not a bad version of myself. However, there might be room for improvements. So should it, instead be Line 2.0? Sorta like an upgrade?

I do not think it is a bad idea to put the past year into perspective to see if there is something you would want to do differently, change or upgrade. We are not perfect, we are humans after all. I have therefore been thinking about the past year, the good, the bad and the really ugly and I encourage you to do the same and comment below with your thoughts, ideas or even if you think there are things I need to improve on or things that I am succeeding in (flatter will get you everywhere 😉 ).

The Good:
I started taking my health more seriously. I went to the doctor and I followed her instructions which actually got my cholesterol to a good place (still room for improvement). I should continue this interest and involvement with my own health so I have already made a list of doctors I need to reach out to. I need to find myself a good Gynecologist (if you know of anyone in New York, let me know), I need a new psychologist (they have to specialize in Childhood Abuse, so this one might take a while and a few tries), I need a new dentist, I am REALLY uncomfortable with dentists so I need someone who is not mean and who takes into account that I will be deathly scared of him/her and lastly, but not least, an ophthalmologist (yeah, I had to google that name, no way I could spell that without looking it up first). I have NEVER had my eyes checked so I should probably get on that, since both my parents wear glasses and both have challenges in that department. If any of you live in or have lived in New York and have great recommendations please let me know (you can comment or message me).

Mike and I have really focused on being there for each other and it is paying off. I do not think, I have ever been this in love with my husband as I am currently. It is the best and strangest thing ever. The love just seems to continuously grow. I remember growing up everyone would say that you simply just get to the comfortable stage and “falling in love” turns into “love”, I feel like we are still falling, which I am so excited about. LOVE YOU!

The Bad:
Insignificant Online Fights (IOFs from now on) tend to creep up at times when I communicate online. I need to 1) get better and not sounding like a grumpy B**ch. I have had them with family, friends and random people I do not even know. 2) It is not worth the effort to be discussing subjects with someone I do not even know. I need to get better at just ignoring people that are just trying to egg me on. I always want to be right so that is where it all starts. i should find ways to distract me from these IOFs so that I do not have to deal with them and they should definitely not keep me up at night (they have done that with family members, I just love them to god damn much)…

The Ugly:
Honestly, I tend to be a bit of a b**ch. I say this in the nicest way possible but I have at times been selfish and I have not really had the energy to deal with people, especially people that demands too much of me. It has been a year with a deep depression (hence the need for a new psychologist) and therefore the energy simply has not been there. This means that friends have been neglected, family has been neglected (or some of you and I should personally apologize to my father as I have not really been able to be there for him).   This is something I hope, with my active changes for the year (eating based on what gives me energy, getting my vitamin D levels up, seeing a psychologist regularly, again, and keeping up with my exercises should help me be less b**chy and have more energy for people who really deserves my attention and love.

So there you have it. My game plan for 2017. Keep up with my health (physically and emotionally), spread the love and stop wasting positive energy on things that does not really matter. I hope you can all keep me to it and would love to hear what 2017 might look for all of you.

XOXO

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My Journey

Week 34: A Little Late but Fitting To Write On My Birthday

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For some reason, I have been putting off writing the post. Yes, I gained a little but not overwhelmingly so that was no excuse. I think, I simply needed a break from talking, dealing and associating myself with the scale.

I love the support my readers give and the comments that are sent my way but sometimes focusing every second of every day around can or should I eat this food and did I exercise enough today and if so did it warrant a treat? At times you just need a break to just not go insane.

It was great with some time without having to think about EVERY little choice and I am sure it made my holidays a little merrier. I had a great time celebrating with family and treating myself, and as usual it is one of the few times a year I see Mike in a nice suit and he looks so handsome in those things.

New Year’s Eve was as always great but I feel like the entire earth is on edge with what is to come. I must admit that I do not have many Trump supporter friends out there but I know the people exist since he will become the president of the United States in a few days. It is going to be a tumultuous, emotional and frighting time for me and I know a lot of my friends feel the same but we all have different reasons. Trump is all about the unexpected, so we are all holding our breaths to see what will happen next and crossing our fingers that the world won’t crash and burn.

As always, I have been looking forward to my birthday but with the exchange of power happening and to a man that scares so many people, it is one that has a lot of anticipation, hesitation and a need to just focus on what makes me happy in the moment and surrounding myself with good people. This fear that has slowly crept up in me since the election is definitely a huge trigger for me so any support my way if you have the extra energy and capacity would be much appreciated.

On a more happy note. I only gained 3 pounds from last time so that I can take care of easily 😀 And as I posted on Facebook a couple of days ago, Mike, finally, went through his last boxes from California and I can now get started on the next phase of nesting (yes, that is a thing! Mike did not know the term, nesting and thought I was REALLY ODD). Talking about odd… there were some odd things in those boxes. Old box of mix for Creme Brulee, a diamond ring (for a little girl, not that kind of ring… yes, I know what you were thinking), a whole box of VHS tapes. Yes, that is right, now he has to spend the next 10 years going through the tapes god forbid there is something on them that he want to watch or keep. Did I mention we do not have a VHS player and I was thinking, if you had forgotten about the VHS tapes and haven’t looked at them for 10 years, they are probably not that important. Suffice to say – Mike and I do not think a like when it comes to stuff. But going through the boxes was like second Christmas. It was a present to just get rid of the boxes but also to open them. They were like little mystery boxes and you are sorta excited to know what is inside. I have been wondering for 7 years, so think the anticipation time was a bit long.

We, also, took advantage of the holidays and we got to go to 3 museums, a play, several food related events, hang out with friends and simply just having time to be silly. I love the compilation of pictures this time.

Well, until next time…

XOXO

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