Work Out With Me Friday! : 6 Min Abs

Work Out With Me Friday!

6-Min 6 Pack Abs

You will need: Interval timer

• You can download the iPhone app called Interval Timer for FREE
• Use this website: Interval Timer
• Simply use a stop watch / timer and keep an eye on your time!
• OR if you have and extra $20ish laying around you can order one off of Amazon Here. 
• These are nice because they clip onto your top or pants and you don't have to think about anything. Sounds silly but, nothing makes a workout feel twice as long than constantly looking at and messing with the clock. They're great for HIIT. 
• I like the brand GymBoss because you can do smaller intervals such as 30 seconds. Some only go to down to 1 min. Read up on what you buy before you buy it!

Set your interval timer to: 

• Interval 1: High Intensity -  0:30 sec
• Interval 2: Low Intensity -  0:10 sec
• 10 sets

Do each exercise for :30 seconds, resting for :10 seconds in-between each one.

1. Slow Alternating Bicycles 
2. Plank
3. V sit
4. Mountain Climbers
5. Scissor kicks

Repeat!

Disclaimer!!! I am not a certified trainer! (obviously) I just want to share my workouts with other people. I'm trying to get into better shape and would love to help other people do the same. By posting my workouts on youtube its motivates me to stay active and add variety to my workout plan while helping me keep track of my progress.

Wasting Time - Says Who?

My mother said something to me this morning that was a perfect example of our relationship. And made me reflect back on my life and realize something that came full circle. We look at things so very differently, there is just no common ground. She's not a bad mom, we are just very different, oil and water. We agree on some things, but not much that actually matters. She had been listening to a show on NPR about social media. As I walked into the kitchen and she said to me.

 "I just don't understand why people feel the need to blog about stupid things like their breakfast." not knowing I have recently started a blog.
"What you determine as stupid, someone else might find interesting or helpful" I responded.
"But who cares what you're eating for breakfast? I don't!"
"Someone might." I said.
"Yeah but most people don't care what you're doing or eating its a waste of time" she said.

She just doesn't understand that people "blog", post things, or do anything for that matter, for all sorts of reasons. To teach, to learn, to have fun or simply just to share. Whether it be thoughts, ideas or a legacy. To share something that they care about in hopes that other people, even if its just one, may like or care about the same thing. To her, its stupid. If she doesn't like it or understand it, it MUST be a waste of time.

This has been my life. I stopped sharing most parts of my life with her a long time ago because of this very thing. But it was too late. She just doesn't understand me, so she never approves. Theres always something wrong, I'm always overlooking certain things and I'm never right. This killed my self esteem growing up. Its still does now, I just don't let it bother me as much. It mostly just makes me sad. Sad that I can look back on my life thus far and pin point certain things, certain opportunities and certain dreams that I let pass me by because I felt inadequate. Or I thought my mom would have had 'something' to say about it. I didn't realize while it was happening, but, I turned into a shell of myself. Keeping what I liked and enjoyed to myself. I ignored people I didn't know and kept quiet. I surrounded myself with very eccentric people successful people, so I didn't have to be. Because I was afraid of what people would think and how they would judge me if I stood out. 

Now I find myself, 25, and I'm not unhappy with who I am. But, by NOT sharing how I feel, what I want, who I am and what I like, even if its just my breakfast, for so long. I indeed feel like I've been wasting my time.

So, what someone may deem as a complete waste of time, could be the most fulfilling thing you could do with your time. Don't let them discourage you, just because they don't understand you. You'll find yourself in your mid 20's feeling like you lived your past 20 something years, but you weren't actually living. Just sort of.....existing.

Finding The Right Dog Food - Taste Of The Wild High Prairie Puppy

Caution: Shit talking below. ;) No, seriously I'm talking about poop.

Anyone who has a puppy/dog knows that there are an overabundance of different dog food brands. But what brand should you buy? Everyone has their own opinion on which food is "the best" for your pet. To be quite honest, I had no idea what I wanted to feed Finn. All I knew is we had to get him something. And it couldn't be outrageously priced.

Finn's food history
When we first adopted our furry little friend, the lady we rescued him from said he was eating Purina Puppy Chow. Now, I was positive I didn't want to feed him this. Because, well... no offense Purina or anyone who likes Purina, but there's no denying that there are much better foods to feed a 10 week old puppy. So, we went to the pet store and decided on Iams Puppy. It was more expensive, therefore, we "thought" it was a good food. Since the switch from Purina Puppy to Iams Puppy, Finn's poop had either been rock solid or explosive diarrhea. That poor pup very rarely had a normal poop and his butt looked raw every time he took a shit. At first, I associated it with switching his food so abruptly and him just being a puppy. Once the bag of Iams Puppy was getting low and Finn's poor butt had suffered enough. I finally decided it was time to do some research. I really wanted to get him a grain free food. It's just better for them. You don't see wild dogs munching on grain and corn. Why should a domestic dog? The issue is, our cat is fed grain free food because of his sensitive stomach and it is EXTREMELY expensive. Grain Free dog food is even more expensive! So, I was somewhat concerned we were going to go broke feeding our pets. With bags ranging from $40.00 - $75.00!  After a lot of research and a lot of comparing prices and ingredients I decided to order Taste of The Wild High Prairie Puppy and give it a go.

On Chewy.com, we ordered a 30 - lb bag for $43.79. Its almost the exact same price as what we were paying for the 30lb bag of Iams BUT the ingredients are 1000 times better than Iam's. With real meat and no grain or corn fillers I thought this would be a great choice and hopefully fix Finn's butt issues. The only thing that I can see that isn't "perfect" is the use of meat meals instead of just meat. But overall, I rate these ingredients very  high.

When switching him over I planned on the process taking about 2 weeks of gradually increasing the TOTW and decreasing the Iam's. Poor Finn. My poor pup had explosive diarrhea for a good week. He never had any accidents, it wasn't 'that' bad, but when he had to go he REALLY had to go. So after 2 solid weeks of my pup having terrible poops and even worse gas I was about to pull the plug and go back on the food search. I read on the Taste of The Wild website that giving your dog a little plain non fat yogurt may help so I did and it did help a little but I also wasn't about to feed my dog yogurt of the rest of his life. He was out of Iam's at this point and only had TOTW left. So I reluctantly fed him the food, dreading his next poop. As I'm sure he was too. But, to my surprise. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't solid but it wasn't anywhere near his terrible diarrhea which had become normal. So that night, I again fed him TOTW. His poop got even better. Its now been 3 weeks and I can safely say Finn's poops are so good he could win an award! I have a happy puppy with amazing poops and he doesn't nearly have to go as often! We are both happy and so is his little bum.

Looking back I probably should have slowed down the process and waited for his poop to get better before continuing to add more TOTW and less Iams. But, I associated the diarrhea with TOTW not Iam's when really, the Iam's was the problem all along!  But hey you live and you learn! If you're looking to try a grain free food but don't want to spend more on your dog's food than you do for your own I would recommend trying Taste Of The Wild. I'm sure there are "better" foods out there, but we have to be conscious of how much we spend.

Tucker The Cat's TOTW experience
*I recently switched my cat from Solid Gold to Taste Of The Wild and I'm happy with this as well. He loved Solid Gold but they recently changed their ingredients AND the price! The ingredients didn't matter as much to me as the cost. It still has good ingredients. But the price pretty much stayed the same, ranging from $35.00-$37.00 a bag. But the amount went from 15lbs to 12lbs per bag! Three pounds of cat food goes a long way so...I wasn't happy about that. The Taste Of The Wild cat food that we got him is only $25.00 for 15lbs! It hasn't made him sick (which most foods do) and its $10.00 cheaper. We'll be continuing to buy TOTW for both the dog and the cat.

Is there a better food you would recommend for dogs or cats that is roughly the same price? Let know!!!