My week in photos: I graduated!

Hey everyone,
This post is long overdue, but better late than never right? This post is all about my graduation week! It still hasn't hit me that I have graduation high school, and will be attending college in a couple of weeks. But here are my pictures from that week.

This picture is from my luncheon, I was in love with the decor 

What did you do this week?

Fit for the Fight: Exercise Options for Cancer Patients

Hey everyone!
I'm excited to say that this week we have a guest post from Melanie Bowen about how exercise can help cancer patients. If you want to guest post click the contact me link at the top and send me your idea for a guest post.
Here is more about Melanie:
Melanie is currently a Master's student with a passion that stems from her grandmother's cancer diagnosis. She often highlights the great benefits of alternative nutritional, emotional, and physical treatments on those diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness.  To read more from Melanie, visit her blog for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In her spare time, you can find Melanie trying new vegan recipes, on her yoga mat, or spending time with her family.

Keep reading for her article

My fitness Challenge:Week 3

Hey everyone, I hope you all are well.
I had my wisdom teeth removed (all four) so my dentist said to refrain from physical activity. That combined with the fact that I haven't really eaten in a while plus the painkillers and swelling has made me weak, but hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.
But this does not mean you should not continue working out so I came up with this week's exercises.
Also if you are continuing the Wall Sit Challenge (good for you!!) remember we are two days behind so we'd be starting on April 11th.

Ok, now on to the exercises:

25 Squats

25 Sit ups

40 Leg Lifts

15 bird dogs

Wall sit (corresponds with wall sit challenge)

25 squats

30 Oblique twists

*If there is an exercise you are clueless about, you can use Youtube to show you how to do it.

Have fun and work hard!

My Fitness Challenge: Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of my Fitness Challenge. Before we start, I have a confession: I missed two days last week because homework has been piling up (only 11 more weeks of school left!), but I'm ready to get started this week. Some thing I noticed was that there wasn't a good balance between abs and lower body, so this week should provide more balance.
With that said here is this weeks workout routine (in the order they will be done):
20 Squats
20 Sit Ups
1 min Wall Sit
45 Second Plank
20 Sumo Squats
30 Second Mountain Climbers

P.S. Check out this Wall sit Challenge I found and I will pretend today is April 6th, then move along.
If you want to do this with me like on Facebook or Follow me on twitter because I will be sending reminders of how long to do each wall sit along with a reminder to do your exercises.

Introducing MY Fitness Challenge

Hey everyone,
It is the beginning of a new month and my birthday is tomorrow, so I thought I would do something special this month. I enjoyed last month's "better me" challenge and I thought I'd do another one that's similar, but this one focuses on the body. Yes, this will be a fitness challenge. I'm pretty sure you have seen the 30 day sit up and squat challenge, but I looked at those and while they seem like a good idea, I know I will not have the time to be doing 250 squats in one day (at least not now, who know maybe I will later on) so I modified them. This week I will be doing a "warm up" exercise everyday, and next week I'll probable my modified versions of the sit up and squat challenges.
So this week's exercise will consist of (in the order that I will do them):

20 Squats

30 Lunges

40 Calf raises

50 second wall sit

50 jumping jacks

50 second wall sit

40 sumo squats

30 leg raises

20 squats

15 sit ups

Feel free to join me: show me your progress on twitter: @tiaj42, instagram @tiatamjam, or On  facebook: Affordable Appearance Blog

How to get the best deal on your summer vacation

"Summer vacation? I just started my spring break," I know, I know summer seems so far away (especially here where its about to Snow), but this is the second best time to start planning your summer vacation. The best time to plan your vacation is in the winter, because you will be one of the only people buying a plane ticket for July. Think about it this way, the further ahead you purchase your ticket, the less the price will be. This is because of price discrimination; airlines charge you based on your willingness to go. Let's say you purchased an airline ticket a week before, this price will be higher because they know you really have to get to that place the next week.
With that said, keep reading for some tips on scoring deals on your summer vacation.

Motivation Monday Week 2: What makes you happy?

Hey everyone!
I hope last week's tasks were helpful in your quest to being a better you, and now on to this week's tasks. Also you probably noticed that I changed this challenge from a 30 day challenge to a five week one, because my schedule is pretty hectic right now (projects, scholarships, etc)
In order to be confident, you need to learn how to stay happy and positive, especially in trying times.

Motivation Monday: Introducing a 30 day challenge

Hey everyone,
March is here which means Spring is on its way (even though it has been snowing almost everyday here). What better way to celebrate flowers blooming than to bloom into the person you want to be? In the past, I shared my goals and how I plan to accomplish them, but I think this should be more interactive which is why I created this challenge. Each week I will post tasks that will center on a weekly theme and help you become a better "you". Keep reading for what you will need

5 tips for a long distance relationship

Can long distance relationships really work? Well I'm in the process of finding out. Though my boyfriend and I both live in Chicago, he is currently at some sort of military camp for future marines, and next year I'll be moving away. So I thought I would share with you some of the tips that help me maintain a ling distance relationship. Keep reading for more information

"me" Monday: stop comparing yourself to other people

I've noticed that when I see a post on Instagram of a beautiful woman, I start to compare myself to her; "why can't my hair look like that?" "my skin looks horrible compared to hers" etc, but in order to be a better me I need to stop. At the end of the day, I will be the one who is feeling inadequate not the woman in the picture.
How do I stop this feeling?
1. Addressing it: What about this other person is causing me to be jealous? Hair? Clothes? Their lifestyle?
2: Embracing it: Now that I have figured out why I feel certain feelings, I can start working on them. This problem is based on insecurities and lack of confidence; I feel this way because I feel that I am not good enough compared to this other person. Now, I can start to let go of these feelings and work on myself.
3. Ignoring it: Negative influences will only continue being negative if I allow them. For the time being I will get rid of all negative influences, this includes unfollowing people on Twitter and Instagram, if I feel they aren't a positive influence in my life.

Relationships: don't let outsiders come between the two of you

I'm pretty sure by know you have heard of the Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade, and the alleged mistress situation If you haven't here is the rundown: Some women wrote an open letter to Gabrielle stating details of their affair (the plain tickets that Dwayne's brother bought for her, the nights in the hotel, how she would sleep on her side of the bed, etc) and Gabrielle took to Twitter to talk say that the woman is crazy. I know I'm young, but I know in these type of situations I know it is just best to just ignore the other person. That woman is just looking for attention and trying to get her 15 mins of fame, and by Gabrielle responding, she just fueled a media frenzy. I know it's hard to ignore someone when they are spreading rumors about you that you know are false, of course the natural reaction is to immediately fire back to shut them up. But by doing that, you give that person exactly what they want: attention. This is why if you are on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever social media site you prefer, and someone says something negative just delete that post. Trust me, their anger/disappointment at not being acknowledge will be way better than your anger at what ever they said.

Do not let outsiders come between you and your significant other. Just live your life and be happy, that is the best form of revenge.

"me" Monday: learning to be patient

I am guilty of being the person who when they want something, they want it right now. Like college, I cannot wait to get out there and be free, and I want that freedom right now. But after telling my boyfriend this, he said "the only way to rush time is to be patient". I'll admit I was a bit thrown off and confused because he was trying to get philosophical on me.
Anyway, I get the gist of what he's trying to say and I will be putting this on my list of goals for 2013. How will I do this, you ask?
1. Focusing on today rather than the future.
-while it is good to have plans for the future, I tend to think about them so much that I neglect things that are happening now. Example: instead of doing homework or applying to scholarships, I'll be looking at houses I want in the future, and I'll get so involved in that, my homework gets done last minute.
-I will try to make things lists of things that need to be done now, and lists of things that can be done in the future with deadline next to them so that I can prioritize.
- from this list, each day I will check what needs to be done, do my higher priority items, then I can reward myself by looking at hair blogs or something.
Is patience a hurdle you are trying to jump over? What has worked for you?

Introducing "me" Mondays

I have wanted to make changes in my life for a very long time, and become the "me" I know I can be, but I always put it off. But I figured that since I will be entering adulthood soon (turning 18 in April yay!), there is no better time than this to begin. Also, with the addition of the free workbook about my goals for the year and who I want to be (which you can find in my previous blog post here), I am ready to make changes for the better. So, each Monday I will be updating my progress, and sharing with you tidbit on how you can achieve the life you want, and, of course, with little to no money involved. What is it that I want to change, you ask? Keep reading and find out.

Making 2013 your best: Achieving Goals

I was checking out one of my new favorite blogs, Curls and Mo, and I decided to read the most recent post entitled Friday's 5 Loves. One of her five loves was a vision board, which I've been meaning to make for the longest. I felt this was a sign, and I will be creating my own vision board. I also saw that she has a weekly series of posts entitled Wealth and Wellness Week, the particular posting I was looking at was Part 2: Setting Your Goals. I've always had huge goals, but my problem was with sticking with them. To help make 2013 be your best year, she included a workbook, written by Susannah Conway.

There are two reasons why I love this workbook:
1. It is free! You can get it here
2. The book is so simple, there is no reason not to go through it and learn something about yourself to make 2013 the year you want it to be.

Check out Curls and Mo's blog

Have you downloaded the book yet? What are your goals for the year?