Trina's tips

I have been on my "eat better but don't be stupid about it" plan for the past 3 days and it hasn't been that bad. Yesterday I did have a bit of a splurge. My job took the kids to McDonald's for a field trip (?) and I got a hot fudge sundae and small fries. However, I counted the calories and had a pretty light supper to compensate for it. I am kinda doing my own plan, having a slim fast meal bar for breakfast, a lean cuisine or soup or something light for lunch ( I recommend the Healthy Choice Zesty Marinara Mixer), a slim fast shake for a mid afternoon snack and then a bowl or two of cream of wheat for dinner. This comes out to about 1200-1500 calories depending on the day. I am still fighting off the remnants of my ear infection so I have not worked exercise back into my routine however I have a pretty active job so I feel good about burning a decent amount of calories. Next week I will get back into going to the fitness center at least 3 times per week for one ...

So I tried on my dress for the first time in several months yesterday while I was at my parent's house and uhhhhhh.... my boobs are too big for it. So now I have made up my mind to work very hard at shedding 15-20 lbs in the next 10 weeks. That will put me about 8 weeks from the wedding so if I fail ( I sure hope I don't!!!) I can go out and get a dress my chest can fit in. I'm also having a few issues with my invitations. I printed my first draft after I received my paper and showed it to my mom. She said it was too plain and really it is not what I pictured. So now I have to work on that some more.

I currently am under the weather a bit with an ear infection. I am going to attempt to return to work tomorrow after being out all week. While I was out, there were yet again more changes in personnel. Things happen so quick around there it is making my head spin! I have not been to the gym in about two weeks. At first (and still) it was because my code is not working to let me in the door. I notified the correct people about this and it is being worked on. Now even if I had the ability to get into the door, I would not feel like doing anything. I gotta get back on track soon!

First of all, Happy MLK day. Let us not forget how the hard work of this great man and others in his generation who paved the path for President Barack Obama. Today I was thinking of many wonderful changes this country is going to be experiencing in the near future. I know it's been hard for so many people during the last year. My wish is that we all take the time to reflect on what we can do to be better citizens and people. The financial market meltdown has (hopefully) shown us that material things are not what makes us good people. As part of my job, I work with middle school aged children in a after-school program. It saddens me to hear them say they don't care that much about what is going on in politics right now. I get angry when they say a peer is less of person because they are not wearing Baby Phat or Derreon. I want them to realize that there is more to life than things. Yes, I know that they are only children but then again it's different for them than it was fo...

Cinnamon raisin toast- Yum! Watching Living Single re-runs. My fav show! Crossing items off my to-do list When the kids I work with really appreciate what I do for them Having a clean car- inside and out Polka dots Finding great coupons in the paper that I can actually use when I go grocery shopping Goofing off with my friends

11. Wear makeup more often 12. Learn to be more of morning person 13. Learn a new craft 14. Be more consistent with keeping my house cleaned everyday 15. Take a course on wedding planning

A lot of people have created a list of 101 things they’d like to accomplish in 1001 days. (about 2.75 years, or 2 years and 9 months.)I think I would like to jump on that bandwagon myself. Here are my first few items. I will keep you all posted on when I accomplish goals. 1. Pay off a minimum of 75% of my credit card debt. 2. Loose and keep off 25 lbs. 3. Sell my condo. 4. Move into a 5 bedroom house. 5. Participate in a marathon, as a walker. 6. Grow my relaxer out and cut off my hair. 7. Visit DC and see all the cool historical sites. 8. Maintain regular meetings with my girls. 9. Become an ESL teacher. 10. Go through all my boxes of random stuff and put them in order. Ok, I think that's a good start to my list. More to come later.....

Yay for progress! So far this week I have lost 4 lbs. I feel really good about that. I am about to go work out for the third time this week. I currently walk a mile in about 18 minutes which is an improvement over my 21 minute mile a few weeks ago. I am also making progress in planning the wedding. I have came up with a vision of the wedding that blends practicality with fun and class. D and I def. don't have the money to have the biggest, baddest wedding ever. But what we do have planned is sure to be charming, cute, heartfelt, and a good time to be had by all. Really, I think the wedding will be amazing because we expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 guests and our budget is way under average and that includes EVERYTHING. Most people don't count the wedding bands and the honeymoon and the hotel rooms. But our budget includes these things. I don't take "it can't be done" for an answer. I am creative enough to find a way. But I think what makes me uniqu...