Trininista - Day in the Life

Who wakes up at 3am? I do.

Life happens. Most days I am too tired or indifferent to blog. It's also been pretty routine lately. So routine that I can share a "Day in the Life" type post with you.

So every morning, whether I am going to workout or not, my alarm clock goes off at some variation of 3.00am. On non-workout days it is 3.45am and sometimes as late as 4.00am. But generally, as I fight the bulge, the alarm goes off at 3.10am.

It is at this point, I drag myself off the bed and change into my workout wear, brush my teeth, make sure I have everything I need. This last bit is very important since I workout near and in the office and so change there as well. In the past, I have left critical things behind - jewellery, shoes, mascara and even pants. Yes, one night I had ironed the pants and hung them on a separate hanger as I was too tired and the next morning, I drove all the way to the office and realised I had no pants. The options were slim - work in sweaty gym pants, sit in just my knickers, go home for pants or just go home. Taking into consideration the traffic in Trinidad after a certain hour, I called my then boss and said I had an emergency and would be taking the day. lol. But I had a great workout.

Queen's Park Savannah in the day
Photo credit: TTCS/D. Teelucksingh

So once I have confirmed I have everything - gym bag with toiletries, shoes, makeup, accessories, my outfit for the day, laptop, lunch bag - I get on the highway and head to the office. Park, go walk/run around the Savannah, praying I survive. Between my general lack of fitness, my knee and the carbon monoxide even at 4.30am, I am always grateful that I finish in one piece. Some mornings I take the workout to the gym, which conveniently is literally behind the wall next to my desk - these are the mornings it is either raining or I am strength training.

Shower. Change. Head to desk. Have breakfast - hard boiled egg white on whole wheat; coffee; a glass of wheat grass drink (blech) and my vitamins. Then I start working. This is usually at 6.30am by now and can involve a range of things - speech writing, report writing, endless calls to our creatives at our agency, endless endless meetings, editing and uploading intranet stuff, editing website stuff and getting the provider to action ASAP, social media stuff, newsletter stuff, internal comms stuff, external comms stuff, proposals, budget monitoring, chasing down stuff, proofing stuff, editing stuff, photo selection, strategy planning and writing, lately a lot of event chairing, which also involves external engagement and hob nobbing (which impacts the fashion choices the night before), endless teleconferences with other critical teams, and all usually running past 4.30pm.

If I leave at 4.30 on the nose, I then sit in traffic for a lifetime, listening to my fave radio show and laughing my head off in my air conditioned car. If I leave at 6pm or beyond, it is then an easier albeit later commute, once it is not raining. 

Get home, scrape up dinner which can be as good as a hot meal or as bad as popcorn or cheese balls. Go through the maddening process of choosing an outfit for the next day and making sure everything is packed, including my pre-prepared lunch and breakfast (I do this on Sunday - make and package both meals and stuff them in the fridge). Pack gym bag, making sure I have the right shoes for the outfit of the day, right accessories. Watch a little tv, pass out usually during said tv show. Shower. Get to bed anywhere between 9.45pm - 11.45pm. This is the part my doctor lectured me about, in addition to being too fat and not getting enough exercise. But I am also not getting enough sleep which also impacts the other two so I have been really working on being in bed by 9.30pm.

This is a typical day. On Fridays, we have happy hour, which involves a cocktail or 5, or which can be a day off as I do get every other Friday off as well. I am now actively trying to use these off Fridays for things other than errands - make them ME days. And I am also looking to add a workout in the afternoon - adding to the chaos that is already my life. Can you believe it? lol. I may never blog again! lol.

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Men - From One Awful Extreme to Another

Yesterday I saw the most ridiculous thing - a not-so-young creature,  in a shirt that was clearly picked out from the children's section, and it was so tight I wondered if the creature could breathe. Not to mention, the overly tight skinny pants which showed the "fullness" of the letter "I" shape.

The creature was a man.

Men's fashion has gone to the other end of the spectrum - from overly baggy, loose clothes - complete with pants falling off the waist - we have now evolved to men in slim to skinny fit clothes. And there is a difference - slim fit I can tolerate, cause it is not meant to be tight but instead is meant to accentuate the man's body.

Men's Slim Fit can be very sexy, if done correctly

Skinny fit in my opinion should be limited to teenagers, still finding themselves, and male models. The end.

Men's skinny fit is not it

This is not a sexy look. I don't think so anyway, so if it works for you and your man, great. The man yesterday was not a tween. This was a full grown homo sapien, with flecks of grey hair, so what were you doing, man?

Slim Fit shirt - very sexy

Like women, age appropriateness is key. The skinny fit look, while great for teenagers and angst-ridden 20-somethings, may not work if you're clockin' 50 - no matter how debonair and handsome you may be. Just don't do it.

Also, I would not wear an outfit that accentuated all the parts of my body I need to work on, so why on earth would a man, not in the best of shape, want to stuff his pudgy bits into a too-tight shirt?

Please, get some guidance on what works for you, size-wise, age-wise etc. Thank you.

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Fat Girls are the Talk of the Town

Everywhere you turn, someone is talking about a "fat" girl, or about being "fat". And "fat" these days is anything above size 0, making me morbidly obese by contemporary standards.

On the one hand, you have those who are being verbally stabbed to death because they have put some weight on. Exhibit A - former Miss World and Bollywood actress, Aishwarya Rai - before and after. I mean, from the elephant sound effects in this video to the articles online about her "flab", this is just horrible.



Aishwarya Rai's Shocking FAT Pics by desimad

I am glad that she has not even bothered to respond to these ridiculous articles and blogs about her weight. She just had a baby for crying out loud. Her husband seems to still think she is pretty awesome. So what is the issue here? One blog even said, and I tried to find the article again, the average woman throws off the baby weight and goes back to being slim after the baby and Aishwarya is just fat and lazy. That kinda blew my mind. The average woman? Really? I think too many people mix up celebrities who turn up on the red carpet 3 months after having a baby, looking like a pencil, after 3 solid months of work with Gunnar Nelson or some $500/hr trainer, with real women, with households to run, no nannies etc.

Stupid.

Then Tyra comes out today to say that had she started modelling in 2012, she would never have made it as a model, as at a whopping size 4, she would have been too heavy to be a supermodel. There is something not even mildly disturbing about that, in that it is very true unfortunately.

Miranda Lambert came out and said she is happy when she is a toned, not flabby size 8, something I can appreciate because on my own journey against the flab, I seriously have no desire to be a toothpick. I am not trying to impress anyone or look like anyone. I just know what makes me comfortable and this size is definitely not it. Like Miranda, I think I have a healthy appreciation for my body type but still want to be healthy and feel good about myself.

So the female body is and will always be under scrutiny - some will accept who we are, whatever our lbs say, and some will tear us to shreds.

This is what your husband may
look like in a couple years

But noone ever talks about the obese men. Noone seems to be making disgusting, insulting videos about their weight gain. Noone talks about how they go to the dogs after a couple years of wedded bliss and too many weekends on the couch, eating home cooked meals and watching football.

It does not matter that women get pregnant and God forbid put weight on and even worse, keep some of it on. What do men do?

Noone talks about the "letter b" syndrome - the shape your once trim husband takes on after a couple years, from a fit letter "I" to a lower case "b". For once I would like to open up my web browser and have the focus be on men's butts and bellies.

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Kicking Ms Rosy's Fat Ass

Cramps are noooo fun, friends.

Rosy.

Rosy is just a cute way of saying "fat". So this weekend,  when someone I knew said, "Oh, you look so rosy", I did not take it as a compliment. lol.

I have been pretty consistent with the workouts but maybe a bit too consistent with the cocktail hours! Therein lies my problem at the moment. But the 4.45am workouts continue. This morning I broke into a jog like someone who loves running, kinda like frickin' Rocky - when in reality I LOATHE it - and then a little while later, I was on a corner, with a cramp. lol. But I finished strong - and I was very proud of myself.

Tomorrow I am going to take advantage of an empty gym to face my other nemesis - the elliptical. I used to spend sometimes 2 hours straight on that thing - and the last time I got on it about 2 weeks ago, I could barely make 15 minutes. Time to kick Ms Rosy's ass!

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Flirting World Championships

The Three Bears...of Flirting??

Girls' night last Friday reminded me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Enter our bartender/waiter aka Goldilocks - although he was a tall, chocolate, bald brother. He  started as just the bartender, which he is, but the allure of the Three Bears before him had him doing double duty.

Ahhh...the bears...

...three swanky and stunning bears -  J Bear, K Bear and Trininista Bear.

On the one hand, you had J Bear who has no real appreciation or grasp of the power...the art...the science of flirting. She does not flirt. She is very left brained; very analytical; very matter of fact. The guy brings a drink and she says thanks. lol. Even if he is waiting for a hint that he can do that thing bartenders do - to get you to spend more money - small talk, flattery, smiles, etc. Nope. She does not tease, she does not twirl the straw coyly, she does not give a little pepper and wit in her responses. No hooded eyes, no pouts. No tracing the glass with a manicured finger. Nope. She picks that drink up and ...drinks it. lol. She comes dead last in the heat.

Then you have K-Bear - a flirting maniac. I mean, she would flirt with Jesus. She takes flirting to a whole other level - where there are no boundaries and as she describes it, where it is simply "light entertainment". It is fun seeing her in action, but in the case of Goldilocks, she cast the bait, reeled him in and just when he thought he would be plopped onto the boat, she threw him back in the water. I felt really bad for the poor guy. lol. He really had high hopes. She comes first in the heat, but may be disqualified for a false start, and does not care that she is.

Then you have me - T-Bear. I flirt for fun, yes, but I still have some guidelines. I will not flirt with the old, obviously hard up 60-something expat, all alone at the end of a week-long conference, sitting next to me at the bar, maybe looking for some tropical action. K-Bear would. I think that's mean, especially if the guy has high hopes! I flirted with Goldilocks as far as was rational and kind. Poor kid - he did not need the heartbreak. However, if the prey is to my liking, my standards and fitting my criteria - well, let the games begin. I don't always see flirting as sport. Sometimes it can be, but sometimes you want it to have a purpose besides making some poor boy cry at the end of the evening. Or cultivating the beginnings of a stalker. lol. In the race, I am not last, not first, but running a comfortable race, deciding whether I want to chase down the next round of heats.

In the end, we had loads of fun. A true Sex and the City evening. Long overdue and after a tough week, well deserved.

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Fat Busting Miracle!

Yummy watermelon!

I have not had chance to mention that I have finally…FINALLY…resumed my workouts. Though it has been tough going with my knee (I am now on medication), I have managed to be somewhat consistent. So when the alarm sounds at 3.25am (yes, you read that right – 3.25 in the morning), I am up (unwilling, I might add), showered (yes, I must shower before going to sweat), changed, bundled up (laptop, lunch, purse, gym bag, work outfit) and out the door. At 4.30…4.45, I am with the dozens and dozens of other fitness buffs, sweating it out around the Queen’s Park Savannah. 


This morning though, it started raining just as I got out of the car. While I am on a mission to bring sexy back, I am no gladiator or do-or-die warrior and was not willing to chase down weight loss in the rain. So instead I went to the gym – which I loathe, cause our company gym is in the middle of the floor, thus no windows, and I feel trapped. After about 20 minutes, I was outta there, but it was still 20 minutes more than what I could have done had there been no gym at my disposal.

My healthy lasagne and awesome salad

Anyway, been eating right too – with the exception of a couple cocktails and some chicken wings on Saturday night, I have not been snacking on crap, but instead snacking on pears and watermelon chunks. I have been a very good girl, friends. I even did a fitness friendly lasagne, which used half lentils, half beef; mushroom soup instead of cheese sauce. It was lunch for the past couple days. 

Really want to look cute again...and feel cute.

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