30 Day Workout Challenge.. Yes another one 🙂

    Hi everyone and Welcome Back... Lots of stuff has happened since I have posted like a new roof / porch, multiple projects around the house getting worked on and lets not forget COVID. All of this together has given us lots of stress and worry over a long period of time. Trying to exercise to keep in shape and do projects around the house, has been what I call, Yo-Yo fitness. Sometimes you feel too tired to work out or there is too much stuff to move around to get the weight bench and weights out. I even have bands that are good for some exercises but uncomfortable for others. I decided to try and get back into shape without weights or bands, using only body weight and modified body weight exercises. I have relooked into mobility training, full body training and how Hollywood stars train for roles. Most of what I found shows the stars training with simple moves and not straight to weights with multiple sets training, nor running for miles or training to exhaustion. Armed with this information, its a great time to pick a good routine to restart with, and we have several.

Getting in shape should be a whole body feeling. It is not always practical to get straight to a body building routine of bench pressing or bicep curls and a ton of isolation movements. It seems a good start is bodyweight exercises that push your limits. If you cannot pick yourself up or pull yourself around with just your own weight, are you in good shape ? That's one of the a few reasons to start a 30 day challenge with body weight moves and the KISS method. Keeping It Short and Simple and not needing any equipment is a way most anyone can get started to get back in shape right away.

Now what do I do ?

My research found lots of routines to try including those to get your stomach flat or you buttocks tight. Those routines, however great, will not give you a full rounded workout. Look for something that would get you feeling warmed up quickly and make you sweat. You never want to try a full routine right out of the box because you don't want to hurt yourself right at the start. I ended up finding the routine below and tried it twice, separate days apart and felt good about it. When I tried the routine, I took my time with it and didn't rush and didn't do the full reps but did just half the count each time. I felt confident that this was a good routine to start with, it gave me that good full body feeling.

Below is the routine and link for this 30 Day Challenge and this routine is one of the TOP 10 HIIT in the article. I felt this routine was the best to try and felt the most rounded.

1st SET

• 30 Jumping Jacks
• 20 Squats
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

2nd SET

• 30 Mountain Climbers
• 20 Lunges
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

3rd SET

• 30 Pulsing Squats
• 20 Burpees
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

4th Set

• 30 Bicycle Crunches
• 20 Cross Jacks
• 10 Pushups
• 30 Second REST

Repeat ALL, starting at Set 1

https://www.experimentsinwellness.com/best-hiit-workouts-at-home/amp/

I addition to the routine, I plan on doing two more things. The first thing is to cool down for 5 minutes so as to get the heart rate back to normal. This should give the body time to normalize itself before moving on. The second thing to try is to Meditate. Consider it just one more rest and reset if you will. Just as much as you work out and rest your body, your mind should be given that comfort too. When it comes to meditating, many use music, silence or a special candle. I am going meditate for 5 minutes and try all 3 over the course of the 30 days and see which one fits best. In order to help concentrate, use a timer, watch or phone app to count down the 5 minutes. I wanted to use my fitness tracker to see how my heart rate fares from day one to day thirty but it has wondrously decided to glitch out and become useless recently. My tracker has worked great for at least 3 years now and has recently decided to randomly shut down, start to track a fitness routine, indefinite heart rate monitor and deplete the battery fast. My tracker use to last days but now it last hours so I will be on the lookout for a new one.

Day one of this 30 Day Challenge starts tomorrow July 5th. Thanks for hanging in there till the end and I hope you are going to try this too. Be sure to come back to hear about my progress and Best of Luck if you do too.

New MAC MINI

I have a new toy. A new MAC MINI. I have been trying to learn Android programing on my DELL but it is too old to keep up with the Eclipse software and the Android Virtual Devices that I would try. I actually timed how long it took to start a Nexus 7 AVD and it was about 7minutes just to start it up. The MAC MINI that I have now is running OS X With a 2.3 GHz Intel i7 with 8gig of DDR3 RAM. So far so good. Running Eclipse and other software has been great. They only real issue I have had are related to getting use to the MAC OS. I already have an IPAD 2 and have been used to that but this is not quite the same thing.

It is strange to see the power coming out of such a small machine. My Dell XPS is about 10 times bigger in physical size but has less processing power. I have to give my Dell props. It is over 5 years old and is still running strong. It has seen its change of video cards as well as a hard drive update but after those changes, it was up and running and going strong. I still use it and so does my family, its not like its gone but it was time for a change for me.

You might be wondering, why the MAC MINI and not an IMAC or even a Chromebook. I looked into getting a Chromebook but I could not find someone that was using one to do Android programming. I do like the IMACS but I also like upgrading when I can. The MAC MINI allows for a user update to memory and hard drive where as not all of the IMAC line does not. The 21inch IMAC does not allow user updates but the 27in IMAC does allow some user update. I also had an extra screen and extra keyboard to use. The biggest choice I thought I had to make was, magic mouse or trackpad. The winner there was the magic mouse and I find it is awesome.

I look forward to getting to know my MAC MINI better and running more programs on it.. IWork's, iMovie, Evernote, Parallels and more.  Its the beginning of a long road.. paved with an Apple..

Happy Halloween

Its Halloween.....Today is the day for kids to go out for some candy and scares. Cos-players can abound everywhere for contests, parties and just to dress up. So go on out there and enjoy yourselves and have a great time.

 Here is a nice pic I found from DeviantArt.net. Check it out and others there.

And what about some Transformers cos-play videos.. Nothing says Happy Halloween more than being your favorite bot and then Roll Out :-) Check out the YouTube video below and more here

This is also a cool video.. 

I'll leave you with a bonus.. The bots getting down

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Loss of Some Good Google Services

I have been personally using google services for quite some time now. There are different services out there by many companies and some simply are better than others, that's just saying things fairly and keeping perspective. I will say that Google services, like Google Docs, Google Plus and Google Maps are constantly being added to and developed further. If there is anything that you want to see in a product is Development. I used others that are flashy and glitzy and that's where it ended. They promised future enhancements and they never came through. Some things do come to an end at times and we are never all happy about the same ending. Who wants their favorite TV show to come to an end, how about the best season your having or even a relationship. Nope, I bet everyone has at least one of those that they don't want to see with an ending. But products have their way of ending, either with evolvement, termination and sometimes both.

Unfortunately, some of Google's services are showing their endings. Lets take something that was used long ago, Google Notepad. It allowed us to keep simple notes and store them but without much flair. It was simple and useful but ultimately was retired and its replacement was to use Google Docs. Google Docs had more functionality then and has even more functionality now. We can create Documents, Presentation and Spreadsheets. The spreadsheets are still coming along. Most recently Google Keep was introduced. Its kind of like the older notepad. Someplace where you can put your notes in and store them for a bit and get at them readily on your mobile device.

Lets talk about Google Reader. In my opinion, one of the best places to follow stories on the web. Yes you can kind of follow stories on the web through Google Plus but its not the same at the moment. It might get there one day but its not there yet. Instead of having a true alternative, we are forced to use other services. Not really a good idea to have your followers find an alternative product like Feedly.

The iGoogle site was somewhat similar to Google Reader in a way. It allowed you to see your email, the weather, some items from reader, current movie times and more. I say it was similar because it was many different things in one area to view almost all at once but alas it is also being retired.

I am also going to miss Google Latitude. I used it to verify my mobile location, where my friends were/are at and simply helping to find one another. I liked it and it felt less intrusive than Facebook and other services that seemed so much more public. I am starting to use Waze more and hope that it shows more features like Goggle Latitude, especially since Google now owns them, so we are going to have to wait and see.

Last two things that are on the current "short list," among other things is Google Catalogs and Google Checkout. Google Catalogs was a nice idea. I had a few favorite catalogs that I would look at and some that I had not seen in quite some time. I never did feel the urge to buy from it. Why you ask, because it was not so easy. I felt that it was just a way to look at stuff and not purchase so what benefit did it play to Google, not much that I can see. Google Checkout is being removed but believe it is because of the push for Google Wallet. Seems like most places I turn to are looking at different payment methods. The easier it is to pay with something and still be secure the more users have a tendency to use it, it kind of makes sense.

We don't always know what companies are planning or thinking. Look at all the Samsung Galaxy devices, Apple iPads and upcoming smart-watches and see innovations at work. Development has a way of bringing things new to us and bringing older items to a rest. Lets hope that with every item that is retired, a new product that out ways with more benefits comes to bring new life.

The official Google blog regarding what is to close as of March 2013 is below.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html

iPhone 5 or Galaxy S III

My dear wife, my oldest and I are due for new phones soon. My honey has had her eye on an iPhone since they came out. Problem is, we are with T-Mobile and they don't sell the iPhone. ( That's another story entirely ). We are due for a renewal soon and that usually comes with a new phone. I know my honey is getting the iPhone, that's a given. My honey deserves it. My oldest is going to get a new phone too but that choice will be easy. Most likely iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. That choice depends on the deal at the time. Myself on the other hand will be going by choice and by cost. I don't want to spend more than what we spend on the  iPhone for my honey but if I can save some money I will do that as well. Its not easy putting down  money for 3 phones with Christmas right around the corner. So I am looking at the Pros and Cons of the iPhone as well as the Galaxy S III. I am also comparing them price wise, which right now they are about the same.

The two devices are really good. Good cameras, solid devices, and good software. The iPhone has been out longer and is more polished at the moment but the S III is a very strong competitor. 

Along with the phones is the choice of Carrier . Verizon or AT&T. I know that Sprint has the devices as well but around my travel area Sprint does not have the best of signal. Right now, Verizon has the best signal compared to AT&T but they are also more expensive. Do I risk the chance at dropping a call but saving a few dollars. Hmm.. What a thought that is... Everyone knows that you pay for that answer at the moment you need the phone the most.

So help me out readers.. what are you thoughts.. iPhone or Galaxy S III.. Verizon or AT&T...

iPhone  or SII