Monday Motivation: Notebooks and List Making

The notebooks in my bag today...

I carry notebooks with me all the time, I still get a thrill every time I buy a new one and think of all the things I will scrawl on the pages. I use my many notebooks for lots of things. I use my jotters for writing down my random ideas after a drive or sleeping, to organize marketing campaigns for work and to write long and short scripts. But, the biggest use of all of my blank sheets of paper is to make to-do lists. I am the Queen of Lists.

I used to be compelled to write my lists every day, I still do this at work each day but I have scaled back to weekly, monthly and yearly lists. Most of the items on my list are aspirational; they help me reach a larger goal. Others are smaller tasks or chores that need some slight nudge or push to get done. 

The single list I find most beneficial to my health is my eating plan for the week. I jot this down in my schedule during weeks when I really need to get back on track with clean eating. I reward myself with a predetermined treat if I meet my daily or weekly goals. 

Even though I love the way it feels when my pen hits the paper to start planning, I am looking to get rid of my manic array of notebooks. After buying my Fitbit I stopped carrying around my gym notebook, it now lives in a pocket of my gym bag just in case. I do not miss it, but I do miss looking back at my lifting progress. For my fitness blog please click here. 

I have always been a fan of keeping a physical planner, but I feel it will have to go as well. Last month I treated myself to a new laptop and I want to make the most of it in conjunction with my iPhone and other gizmos. 

So here is my question to you, what is your favourite app that keeps you organized? Better question, what motivates you? My lists and my little rewards are clearly my motivators, what makes you tick?  

A photo posted by Kate Bruce (@kategbruce) on Apr 29, 2015 at 8:31am PDT

My First Trip To Disney World!

It has been a little over a week since I left the place "where dreams come true" and re-joined the real world. Returning to Nova Scotia in full-fledged fall was a shock to the system, when we left for Florida we had been experiencing unseasonably high temperatures for Canada's Ocean Playground in October. I'm talking a week

long stretch in that had hit 20 degrees every day. I don't think we have had a truly nice day here in the sunny Annapolis Valley since we returned... gross. 

Back to the magic... Our trip to Disney World was amazing! It was my first time visiting Florida and it turns out going at the end of October is the perfect time of year (for me anyways) to go. Everyday was sunny and in the high 20s or low 30s and I don't think I felt a drop of rain after stepping off the plane! 

The entire trip was fabulous; we spent everyday of our seven-day trip exploring the four Disney parks. There really is so much to do we were fully immersed and could have used an extra day. Our longest day was Saturday (the first day we were at the park) we started at the Animal Kingdom when it opened and finished the day off with "Extra Magic Hours" at the Magic Kingdom until about 2am. It was a long day, so we napped after lunch. Taking advantage of the extra hours was key, we felt like we accomplished so much in one day so we did not have to rush as much the rest of the trip. 

So much of the "magic" actually happened before we ever left Nova Scotia. If you are a seasoned Disney Adventurer you may not be a fan of the new "My Disney Experience" app and system for reserving "Fastpasses" and experiences but it was a huge help and a nice guiding hand for our trip. We never waited more than 30 minutes to get on a ride and that only happened once in the Magic Kingdom for the hottest ride at Disney, "The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train". To be fair 30 minutes is a very short wait to get on this red-hot ride; we experienced it at about 1am during the "Extra Magic Hours". The only unfortunate thing about the new "My Disney Experience" app and planning website is that things can be fully booked up (like the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) before you start planning your trip! This happened to us so we knew that it was do-or-die to get on the ride and we took our one shot when we could in the middle of the night. It turned out that as I was trolling the system the night before our last day of vacation someone else cancelled Fastpasses for the ride so we snagged them and got to ride New Fantasyland's crown jewel a second time. 

Speaking of New Fantasyland lets take a second and talk about the addition to the Magic Kingdom that is bringing the crowds back to Disney World to re-experience the magic. I am so happy that my first visit to Disney World was after the New Fantasyland expansion. We truly experienced New Fantasyland from hanging out in Gaston's Tavern to telling Belle a story as part of "Enchanted Tales With Belle" we did it all! I strongly recommend booking meal Fastpasses and pre-ordering food at "Be Our Guest". We only did quick-service dining in the Magic Kingdom and our meal in the Beast's castle was by far the best quick-service meal we had! (You can check out the Fastpass system for "Be Our Guest" here) 

Well now that the magical part of the trip has been discussed lets travel back to the adult world. As a twenty-five year old woman I would have to select the World Showcase as my favourite part of the trip. We were lucky enough to experience the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival while we visited, making the World Showcase even more interesting. With the added booths it truly made it feel like you were walking around the World. We had the majority of our table service meals at Epcot's World Showcase; it was like dining in a new country every night! For a look at some of the restaurants we visited you can check out my profile on Trip Advisor. 

We also enjoyed The Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios. We felt as though The Animal Kingdom was a true half-day park for us but we also felt that it was home to the best roller coaster of any of the parks, Expedition Everest. Yes, we liked it more than the Mine Train! Hollywood Studios also had rides that we loved, but overall had an empty feeling... like there was a lot of space ready to be transformed. The "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster" and "Tower of Terror" were rides that we absolutely loved and had us coming back to Hollywood Studios day after day. We also had one of the BEST meals of our trip at Hollywood Studios at "Hollywood & Vine". Yes, this was a little questionable as the restaurant is the host of the Disney Junior character dining experience and we really did not care to see any of the characters because we are adults without children, but the menu looked amazing! The food selection did not disappoint. Though the kids rain around willy-nilly chasing the characters and mowing down chicken nuggets, I totally recommend this restaurant (and the lobster mac & cheese) to everyone! 

"Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" was another highlight of the trip, getting to dress-up and run around the Magic Kingdom trick-or-treating made me feel like a giant child! World Showcase may have been my favourite adult part of the trip, but my inner-child loved the Magic Kingdom! We brought a massive haul of candy back to our hotel room and still had a full bag leftover when we arrived home. The photo opportunities were really neat with rarely seen Disney characters and the atmosphere in the park was spooky... It was busier than I expected on a Tuesday night with ten days to go before Halloween, next time I would try to go in late September to beat the crowds. 

Overall we had an awesome time at Disney World. It was the first time in a long time that I have skipped the gym and discarded my healthy eating habits. I was feeling a little sluggish towards the end of the trip after being fuelled by sugar and sweets for an entire week, but that is part of vacation, right? On a side note, everyday we took on average about 30,000 steps! Tracked with the brilliant "Breeze" app it was fun to keep track just how much we were walking and then figure out the distances. 

We celebrated #Halloween last night at the #MagicKingdom. Adult trick or treating, parades, fireworks and very short ride lines. It was so much fun! #disneyworld

A photo posted by Kate Bruce (@kategbruce) on Oct 10, 2014 at 6:33am PDT

Fitness App: Breeze Motion and Activity Tracker for iPhone 5s

I am pretty excited right now, spring has sprung in the Kootenays and people are back into being outdoors! We have had beautiful April weather so far this month, until recently it felt more like summer it was so hot!

Don’t get me wrong; the weather is very exciting here. While other parts of Canada have been finishing winter we dove straight into summer. But, I am super excited to have a new smart phone after a couple of months off the tech-sauce.

Now that I am back on the grid I have been checking out new apps. Now that I am back in a fit phase to get ready for summer I have been concerned with the amount of steps I have been taking. Working at a desk most of the day I do what I can to stand as much as possible, but I still think I take a relatively low amount of steps in a day.

My new iPhone 5s has been helping me out with tracking steps. I downloaded the new app called Breeze to see how many steps I would be taking over the Easter Long weekend.

So far I am impressed, Breeze uses the motion coprocessors in the new iPhone 5s that are used for tracking the motion of the phone to track your movements throughout the day.

Whether you are walking around the house or going for a trek into the mountains, Breeze will keep tally for you! The app averages out your daily steps and sets goals for you based on the steps you have taken in the previous days. It even coaches and motivates you to continue walking and adding to your daily step count (without being annoyingly pushy).

Breeze can total the total amount of steps you have taken as well as the total time you have spent

moving and it can also determine how you are moving (running vs. walking). The app keeps telling me it can tell me what animal I move like (I’m hoping the highland cow pictured here is not my spirit animal) too! The polls are still out on this, when my iPhone gives me an answer I will let you know what I move like.

The only thing is that I keep expecting there to be more with Breeze. More than a simple motion meter to keep track of my steps and the exact route I take on my weekend walks. The app is absolutely free so there is not much more I think I can ask from it, but it feel like it should be building into more… calorie tracking etc.

I think this is what the Lose It! App should aspire to develop their pedometer into. To be honest with you, I will not be upgrading Lose It! for more stats for $$$ when I can use the beautiful Breeze app for free.

If you are interested in upping your body movement check out Breeze! I am aiming for the common goal of 10,000 steps a day outside of the gym.

Right now the Breeze app is only available on iPhone 5s.

We used Breeze to track our steps while at Disney World and everyday we took over 30,000 steps! It was so nice to have the info from the app telling us how many steps we took and the amount of time we spent moving around, it made us feel better about all the less than healthy food we ate that week! 

Wake Up and Smell the Bacon with Oscar Mayer!

From:
 http://mashable.com/2014/03/05/oscar-mayer-bacon-app/

Waking to the smell of bacon is one of the small joys in life. To me it is right up there with coffee. I’d say it passes coffee as the greatest smell of the morning, why? Well because it is much more dangerous to try to set a timer to cook bacon.

Now that I’ve got you all hot and bothered for morning bacon and swiftly taken away hope with the realization that it is probably not the smartest idea let me lure you back in.  

The geniuses at Oscar Mayer have your back. Yes, the meat innovators have come up with a new app that replaces the your phones beeping with the sound of bacon sizzling and (get this even more amazing part) the smell of bacon!

Unfortunately you have to win the luxury of waking up and smelling the bacon everyday and you must be an American citizen to even have a chance at winning the app. You can download the app, but you will have to win the nifty aroma spritzer that plugs into a phones headphone jack.

If you’re a US citizen get over to Oscar Mayer’s website now and take the quiz, you could be waking up to the second best morning treat! Technology! 

My Face on Meth

Jenny Fines posted her photos using the 'Rehab.com' app called 'Your Face On Meth'. I thought I would give you a sneak peak into why I will never do meth. It is truly disturbing, kind of like a cross between a the "tanning mom" and a zombie.


You can give it a try here... let me know how it works out for you.
http://www.rehabs.com/explore/your-face-on-meth/