Kids Belts – Toddler Belts – Dapper Snappers Blog

I am many things; mom, wife, friend, kids belts inventor, and so on, but there is one thing I am not, I am not a runner. I don’t understand it. I’d even go as far as to say if I ever had to run for my life, I’d probably die. As I’ve said before, my assistant has gotten into running. She’s even gone as far as to run 3.25 miles straight, without stopping. I know what you are thinking, “What’s wrong with her?” Ha ha! I joke! I think it’s great and she went from barely being able to run in 30 second intervals to running a whole 5K in 6 and 1/2 weeks. How’d she do it? Well, she just happened to let me in on her secret.

Yep, its an app… You should have seen that one coming! My fondness for apps has outweighed my hatred of running. I downloaded the Run Training App and it looks really helpful. I decided to recruit some of the other moms at Bugs school to start this with me. I’m hoping that together we can push and encourage each other to go farther and really do this.

This App has some really great features (Note: this app does cost $2.99, but there is a free version that you can use 6 times prior to deciding if you want to purchase it). The first feature that I really like is the Mode section. That is where you can choose how you want to train. There are 4 main modes (all modes keep track of your time, distance, pace, and calories burned):

1. Free Mode – Allows you to just get out and run.
2. Route Mode – Allows you to set up a routes for different places that you may run.
3. Training Mode – My favorite mode. This is where you can choose what you want to train towards, ie. 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon (Good night! Why on earth would you want to put yourself through that???) What’s nice is that in training mode it gives you voice cues as to when to run and when to walk.
4. Goal Mode – This mode allows you to set up either a distance goal or a time goal and then announces when you are halfway there.

This app also keeps track of a calendar for you and every time you run it logs it on the calendar without you having to take an extra step.

You can go back and look at your history and see how each run compares to the previous one.

The last thing I’ll mention is a cool sort of techie feature. It keeps a map of where you ran so you can actually see how far you went! I think that’s super cool because I am a visual person. You can select the street view, satellite view or a hybrid view.

Overall, even though I’m not a runner (no matter how many times my assistant says “Oh, you’d be surprised! You’ll love it!”), I really like this app and I think that it will be a great asset on my overall journey to health this year!

Blessings,

Earlier this year, in my kids belts blog, I admitted that my new year resolution is to work on my health. My overall health, not just weight, but with that being said, weight does play a roll in better health. Last week I started a running program (maybe I’ll review that app next week), so that is working on my strength and cardio, now I need to work on cutting calories and fat and all that fun stuff. Well, hubby and I wanted to go out to dinner a few nights ago (I know, eating right and eating out are a dangerous combination) and we decided on Red Robin… Yummm.

Once we were seated, I did the responsible thing (bleh… I know) and asked for their nutrition facts. What I was given both surprised and delighted me. You all know by now that I have an iPhone app addiction, so when the waiter said that there’s an app for that, I was sold!(PS they have an online version too, check it out)

I downloaded the Red Robin Customizer app and it is super cool.

The home screen of this app has two options: Create a Meal or My Saved Meals. When you click on “Create a Meal” it takes you to the Red Robin menu. You can choose any item, from burgers, to wraps, to chicken sandwiches, to appetizers to sides and so on and so on… Say you want a chicken sandwich, click on chicken sandwich and then surf through their options. Let’s pick the Chicken Caprese Sandwich. You can click on the “customize” button and suddenly, the sandwich separates by ingredient. you can then delete an item, or switch an item out by sliding the item back and forth. It’s so cool! As you are doing this, you can switch back and forth between that and the nutrition. Once you get the sandwich to the calories you want, you can then add on to the meal with a side, dessert and beverages. You can also save that meal for next time so you don’t have to take the time to do it again.

I have to say, this will totally take the guess work out of eat out at Red Robin. I wish every restaurant had one. My word, could you imagine my phone if they did?? It would explode!!!

Blessings,

I have an iPhone App addiction, I know this… I have embraced it because it’s really useless to fight it. I love the variety of apps out there, games, entertainment, books, utilities, social networking… and so on.

As I have mentioned before, besides being an awesome kids belts inventor, I am also a mom and as such, I try my hardest to be the best mom I can be. I am not perfect my any means, but I do have spurts of greatness… One thing I like to do, is cook for Super Dude and Bug. I found a website a long time ago (and have even shared recipes from there, read this blog post) called Weelicious and fell in love. They offer tons of recipes for all ages (seriously, even baby food!) and they are usually quick, easy and relatively healthy.

My assistant brought it to my attention that there is a Weelicious App. I know, I don’t know why she did that either, but she did and yes, I love it.

This app has so many features that it’s hard to know where to start, but one really cool feature is the videos. The videos are tutorials for how to prepare the recipe and she posts at least one a month. I like this because I can review the video before I prepare the dish so I know what to expect.

Then I can go in and check out the recipe which can add  to my favorites so it’s super easy to find the next time and how cool is it that it will even make my shopping list for me?? They must know that I will lose a paper list. While on the recipe page, you can scroll to the bottom and read comments and reviews for that recipe.

Speaking of recipes… I think they have something for every palate, every taste bud, every age and even variations for food allergies. I really like the fact that they not only separate them by category (including, but not limited to holiday categories, age categories and meal type categories), but they also have a search feature if you are looking for a specific ingredient.

Then, there is this “More” tab, which includes even more great stuff. It breaks down the food groups and gives you recipes that fit into them. There are tips for getting your kids to eat, trying new things, and feeding plans for babies. The health tab is amazing because it shows you all of the vitamins and minerals, explains why we need them and where you can find them!

Overall, I love this app (in case you couldn’t tell). I can’t think of anything I would change or add. If you are a parent with a smart phone, I highly recommend this app. Did I mention that it’s a FREE app? That makes it like a bazillion times better!

Blessings.

So, my new obsession is Hanging with Friends. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a cutesy version of hangman. It’s super addicting especially if you are at all competitive which I am and currently my assistant is beating me. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, I mean, shouldn’t she at least let me win?

There are times throughout the day when I need a mind break from working on my kids belts and my go to distraction is now this game. It’s nice because it keeps me thinking and stratigizing (is that a word?) in way that is different from my day to day thinking and stratigizing. A good deal of what I tend to do at work is stare at a computer screen. Whether it’s designing a new pattern (which can be awfully mind-numbing at times) or answering emails or seeking out new ways to spread the word about Dapper Snappers, while I love it, it is monotonous. As a result, I like to break up the day with a game or two of Hanging with Friends.

Here’s how it goes, once you have started a game (either with a random person or a friend), you use your random tiles to create a word. You get points for the letters you use in your word. The points are used to purchase your lifelines (see more below). Your opponent then has anywhere from 4 to 8 chances (depends on the length of your word) to guess your word. Once they have guessed your word, or have run out of chances, they get  to put together a word for you to guess and it all starts over. Once one of you has missed 5 words, the game is over. Simple enough.

They just came out with some new updates that I love and some changes that I’m not so fond of. I love the fact that you can now see how your opponent tried to guess your word, that way I can see what letters they tend to choose first and stay away from them. That’s where that whole stratigizing (if I use it more than 3 times, does that make it a word?) thing comes into play. Then there are the lifelines (sometimes free, sometimes 20 coins) that come in handy as well. There are several to choose from:

When guessing your opponents word:

• Suspects – reveals 4 letters, one of which is actually in the word.
• Extinguish – removes 4 incorrect letters from your tray.
• Revive – will remove one strike from you.

When creating a new word:

• Tune-Up – lets you swap out letter tiles for randomly-drawn new ones
• Conjure – gives you one magic blank tile that can become any letter you want

One of the things I don’t particularly like since they updated the game is that the bonus tile (DL, TL, TW) seems to more often than not just be double letter. Before there was a good mix of all of the bonus tiles, now, not so much. I know it’s because they want to limited the point you earn, which in turn limits the number of coins you earn. That way you will purchase coins to be able to use your lifelines. It’s not fair. But, alas life isn’t fair and that one little gripe isn’t going to keep me from playing the game.

So that’s how I kill time, when I know I should really be doing something constructive… oh well, there’s always later!

Blessings,