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Wine and Cheese Night

Happy Friday dear Internet friends! Let’s talk food 🙂

Charlie and I love cheese. Not just love – we’re talking love. Ok, maybe I love it more than he does.

Every once in a while, we decide to stay in and have a wine and cheese night. We’ll get a cheese we’ve never tried before (or sometimes an all time favorite) and get a a bottle of wine (usually a staff favorite from Trader Joe’s) and make a night of it!

It was my last chance to grab this cheese from TJ’s since it was their “February Special.”

neufchatel

 

This was my first time trying Neufchatel Cheese. The first thing that drew me to this cheese was the graphics on the packaging. Gotta love me some typography. Don’t tell me that packaging doesn’t make a difference!

neufchatel_cheese

This cute little heart shaped piece of deliciousness was so yummy and creamy. We paired it with a cheap-o sauvignon blanc that was great with its strong

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and sharp flavor.

neufchatel_closeup

Are you drooling yet? The cheese had an amazing creamy center. When you sliced the cheese it would squeeze together just enough for that creamy cheese to ooze out. OMG. We had the cheese with some home made garlic-parmesan butter and Charlie’s home made pretzels.

Can’t wait for the next wine and cheese night! *AHEM* Charlie! 😛

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New Toy: Nike Fuelband SE

nike_fuelband

Almost a month ago, Charlie and I bought the Nike Fuelband SE. I converted from using the Fitbit Flex for about a year. The transition has been great and I’m looking forward to learning more about this new device and what it can do to take my fitness to the next level!

Since adopting the Fuelband into my lifestyle I’ve noticed a few pros and cons that I’d like to share in comparison to the Fitbit Flex.

Pros:

  • More intuitive band. I love that I can see more information on the band itself than just a few dots. It shows me the time, how many Fuel points I have, how many steps I’ve taken, etc.
  • Easier to wear and clean. One of my biggest pet peeves with the Fitbit Flex was the pocket where the Fitbit devices fits into the armband. For those of you that have one, you know what I’m talking about.
    Photo from Digital Trends

    Because that pocket is in direct contact with your wrist, sweat and all kinds of gross travels into that pocket. And it’s a pain to clean. I used to use disinfecting wipes all the time to get it clean in that little pocket. Even with my tiny fingers, it’s not as easy as I’d like it to be. With the Fuelband, a simple wipe all the way around the band suffices.

  • More positive reinforcement. In comparison to the Fitbit, Nike has a ton of little badges that you can earn and when you earn it you get a mini-celebration on the app. I know this isn’t a significant selling point, but I like the idea of conquering obstacles one step at a time. 🙂
  • The biggest seller for me? Sessions. Nike allows you to track a certain amount of time. I love this feature because I have a workout routine set. Tracking my workouts allows me to see if I am continuing to grow during every work out. A good example: Because I knew what my activity level was like during my Tuesday 2 hour gym workout from the previous week, I was determined to surpass my points even if it was a little. And I did! My previous Tuesday session I earned 2265 Fuel points and the next session I earned 2704. It feels good to know that you’re continually pushing yourself to be better every time.

Cons:

  • In a lot of ways I’m a creature of habit. And to me, if I have a system that I like why would I change it? I made so much progress with the help of the Flex. So this was a tough one for me. I tossed and turned with the idea of letting go of my good ol’ trusted Fitbit Flex.
  • The Nike Fuelband doesn’t sync with Myfitnesspal. I LOVE MYFITNESSPAL. This was tough for me. The app that Nike syncs with is Lose It! and I personally think it’s a subpar app to Myfitnesspal.
  • Battery life. This comes to be expected though since the Fuelband has much more display options. I just figured that the battery life would be shorter than the Fitbit and I was right. It’s not a big deal to me though, a simple charge won’t kill me.

All in all, I can’t truthfully say that I prefer one over the other to someone else. I think it really depends on what fits in to your lifestyle, what you want to accomplish, and what features you can do with or without. To be honest both devices aren’t as accurate as I’d like but my goal isn’t exact numbers it’s overall improvement. I think that where I am in my fitness goals leans more toward the Nike Fuelband and I don’t regret my purchase for one minute.

Hope you’re all having a great week so far! Let’s get active! 🙂

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Things I’ve Learned About Blogging

I can’t believe it, I looked back at my blog archives from my old blogs and realized I’ve been blogging for 7 years. WOW, just wow. And though I’ve been blogging on and off for all these years, I’ve learned so much in all this time. Through trial and error I’ve found my voice, my writing style, a posting schedule, and all while I journey through self-realization and self-worth.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, here are some tips that I’ve learned along the way:

  1. Be yourself. The whole point of a blog is to have a medium to express yourself, your true and authentic you. You’ll attract a like-minded audience that’ll value what you have to say.
  2. Don’t worry about how many people are reading your blog. They keyword here: patience. Just do your thing. Trust me here, patience is key. Readers will come as long as you’re consistent and posting good content which leads me to my next point…
  3. Good content. This is a very subjective piece of advice. Good content means a lot of things to a lot of different people. But the main thing I want to get across is promoting yourself, your products, or your services isn’t going to cut it. Neither is copying and pasting a press release. What people want to read about is you. What you think about things, how things make you feel, your personal experiences.
  4. Share the lime light. This goes along the lines of good content. Share products and services you enjoy. Reach out to other bloggers and collaborate on a project, product, or contest. Cross promotion and taking interest in other blogs is such a big part of blogging.
  5. Come up with a schedule. Consistency is key. This is the hardest thing for me to do. I make up excuses of why I didn’t have time to post or how I’m too busy to do it. But for me, blogging is my way of venting, expressing myself, and letting loose; it’s almost therapeutic. When I don’t blog I feel like I have so many thoughts running through my head. Blogging allows me to let my fingers do the talking and it helps me to sort through all the mumbo-jumbo. Once I realized that a blog schedule would help me sort through my ideas about posts and when to post it, it helped with the consistency. I realized that I needed this time for myself, to type what I’m going through and what I’m feeling. Putting it on a schedule gives my blog consistent new content, and it has grown this blog exponentially as well as given me some me time every other day.

The truth is, blogging isn’t easy and it’s not for everyone. As a writer, you need to figure out why you do it. But more on that later 🙂

Have a great week everyone!


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