Here we are again at another Monday. If you're like me, Monday is so hard to get moving. Another full week ahead at a job I am not in love with. This thought brought me the idea to write about what my dream job would be if I could have it. Monday wouldn't be so bad if you absolutely loved your job.

Do you all remember Samantha Brown? She hosted a show called "Great Hotels" on the travel channel. I loved that show. Samantha would travel to hotels all over the United States and do all of the things it was known for. Everything from eating the signature dish in the restaurant to visiting the local area. It was pretty awesome.When I watched the show I always thought, "wow, that is a pretty sweet job. How can I do it?" I love to travel. I would go somewhere new every week if I could. My dream job would definitely include traveling to great places with great spaces for sure.

Now I would of course take this to another level. I would need to spend at least a week at the hotel because I would need to see everything in the area. I would want to experience not only the hotel but the foundation to why that hotel is special and why the area makes it special. I would have my camera in hand to take photographs and capture the magic the location has to offer. I have a passion to take beautiful photos of beautiful places. I strongly believe every picture tells a story and not one person can tell the same story of the same setting.

Since I am planning to stay a week at each location I will surely meet new people. You will meet locals and other travelers alike. The locals want to showcase their home and show you more of it. Travelers will want to tell you about their homes and where they are headed. This is the perfect way to build new relationships and also connect with new places and spaces to visit.

If I could get up every Monday and be in a new place to explore with my camera and new people to meet, I would have my dream job. This would make me happy. This would make my blog happy as well. Lots of tails to be told, and lessons to be learned. Now all I need is someone to sponsor my travels and I would be set to create. If only dreams came true...

Happy Monday all! Make it a good one!

I decided it would be fun to link up with the Sunday Social with Neely and Ashley! Get to know me a little better by taking a look at my answers to the questions.. then answer them yourself!




 1. What was your college major? Did you ever change majors? I started with a Business Administration degree and ended up focusing on Marketing. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Marketing.  I am also a certified Optician.

2. Best purchase you’ve made lately? It would honestly have to be the 3 bras I scored from the Maidenform flash $8.00 bra sale! You can't beat 3 bras for under the cost of what one would cost!

3. Something silly we don’t know about you and go… I love to make up words to songs on the radio as I am driving. I belt my little heart out with my new made up words. Yes people do stare sometimes. hehe.

4. Favorite Holiday? I am really starting to love Memorial Day. It represents so many things and you normally get really nice weather!

5. The first thing you do when you wake up? Turn off my alarm which leads to me checking social media since my alarm is my phone.  (Super bad habit by the way.. )

Happy Sunday All!!

Welcome back to another week of Fit-Trish: A series dedicated to fitness on a budget. This week is going to a be a little bit different to past weeks. It is 6:30am and I have decided to re-write my post today because I wanted to discuss something that's been slowing me down in my fitness journey.



I have been writing this series now for 5 weeks. I am starting to feel discouraged in my weight loss journey. Not because I am not following my plan I made for myself, but because I am not seeing the results yet. Now you are probably thinking, "Really? It's only been 5 weeks girl?!" Let me explain.

Stress has a huge chunk of my daily life,I know I have written about this before, but I feel it is a very important part of a lifestyle change . Stress can do some funky stuff to our bodies, and weight gain is one of them. I woke up early this morning to research stress and what it's doing to my body physically. I did this because I have noticed my stomach seems to bulge out more lately than it did before I started being healthy.

I came across an article on Women to Women called "Weight Loss and Adrenal Stress." This article is geared towards women and it really hits home. Stress causes weight gain when the adrenal glands are over worked. The body prepares for disaster and starts storing fat and calories. This ultimately leads us to crave more good, lose energy, and that leads to weight gain. This weight gain normally is localized to the stomach area. The adrenal glands will release cortisol in excess amounts when we are stressed. It will stay elevated in our bloodstreams causing our glucose levels to stay elevated in our abdominal calls. This is what is causing the larger waist.

I thought I was doing a better job at managing my stress. Maybe I was for a little while, but I can definitely tell its elevated again and I feel helpless in making it go away. I wrote about some of my stress related symptoms here. Most of those symptoms seemed to have gotten better, but not noticing my stomach growing rather than shrinking gets very discouraging.

I am going to follow these steps listed in the article to see if I can start to maintain and balance the cortisol levels in my system.

• When you eat matters: Eat smaller meals in regular intervals. Don't starve your body.
• Have healthy foods on hand: Better snacks choices help reduce the cortisol overload.
• Supplement your daily diet: Take a daily multivitamin which helps control cortisol.
• Disconnect: Shut off all electronic devices by 8pm and relax with something like a good book..
• Sleep: Get to bed by 10pm. Make a goal to sleep 8 hours so our body's recharge and regulate.
• Exercise: Try to take a 15 minute walk after meals. This makes our bodies and our minds happy.
• Have fun: Enjoying your time is very important in maintaining stress. Do it often!
• Don't forget to breathe:  Deep breathes help to calm your body down. 3 or 4 deep breaths often make us feel better.
• Just let it go: (No not the frozen song.. ) At the end of the day remember yourself. You cannot EVER make everyone happy. You must make yourself happy first. Help where you can, but if you are not happy, you can't really make someone else happy. Always remember that!

Now that is a great list in which I am going to follow this weekend and see how it goes. My best friend will be in town with my goddaughter who is 4. We will be doing all kinds of fun things so it will be easy to disconnect and have some fun. I am going to fight my work stress and let it go.

Have a great Friday everyone. I hope this helped some of you fighting that pesky stomach bulge. Stress is a very real thing and it really does a number on us. Let me know if you are planning to follow these steps or if you have your own methods of dealing. I'd love to hear them!