Book Review: The No More Excuses Diet

Disclaimer: I received a book to review. All opinions are my own. 

I have written before about my weight loss struggles. This is still a struggle, but I have found a friend in the diet world. Maria King, author of The No More Excuses Diet, is just like the rest of us, and has struggled with her weight. Maria is a busy mom of three boys (props to her) and founder of The No Excuse Mom movement.

She struggled with her weight through her twenties, was a personal trainer in college, and an avid fad/ yo-yo dieter. Eventually she found out why she kept failing at keeping the weight off. She figured out that excuses rule us and she set out to change that. Maria shows us with the power of 3s how to rid ourselves of excuses and finally keep ourselves going until we reach our goal, and even after.

I think Maria has made an art of combining short term goals with healthy habit-forming behaviors, creating permanent lifestyle changes. She has designed a transformation calendar to help you set clear personal goals. She even outlines a diet plan and percentages for carbs, protein, fats, and even a flexible portion. This plan can be personalized according to your specific goals. There is even a completely customizable workout plan, complete with illustrations. These workouts are designed to build strength, flexibility, endurance, and shed fat. There are 7 weeks worth of these exercises that you can do at home, with no equipment.

Packed with meal plans, grocery lists, lots of encouragement and a clear plan of action,The No More Excuses Diet is a must-read book for anyone who is ready to bust through the excuses the hold them back and take their health and fitness to the next level.

The No More Excuses Diet is my new best friend. I am currently working on my plan and I'm so excited to move on with this and start the next chapter of my life.

Book Review: The Story for Kids, NIrV

I received a book to review. All opinions are my own. 


The Story For Kids is written for children between 8 and 12, although it can be read to younger children. This particular Bible is arranged in chronological order, highlighting characters, events, and teachings. There is even art within the Bible to engage young readers' imaginations. One o my favorite features is that there are transitional paragraphs (set apart by italics) that help guide your child through the stories. There are even discussion questions especially for a small group or Bible study. It includes Scripture portions from the easy-to-read text of the New International Reader’s Version (NIrV). It includes a forward by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee. Available in hardback, paperback, and multimedia CD from Amazon.

I've mentioned before how much I love Bibles, this is no different with children's Bibles. It is very important to me that my children read the bible, understand it, and grow to love it as much as I do. When I find a children's bible, I have to check it out and learn more about it. I was very excited when I stumbled across The Story For Kids: Discover The Bible From Beginning To End. Tbomb isn't old enough to read it himself, but he had outgrown his toddler bible, so this was the next step. He loves listening to me read this bible because there are more details, so he is constantly learning something new about the stories he has always loved. He especially loved Noah. Before, he just new that basically God told Noah to build an arc, put 2 of every animal on it, and that it rained for forty days and nights. The few other details, like the rainbow, he picked up from me expanding on the story. Now, he wants me to read it to him all the times because all of his questions are answered.

Healthy Snack With CrunchPak #DisneySide

Disclaimer: I received the product in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

When I was selected as a host of the #DisneySide @ Home party, I was so excited. Even more excited that there were so many brands out there wanting to work with this party. I was especially excited about the healthy snack options that had a Disney theme.

We love getting the "foodles" for Tbomb and Kodabug. Tbomb also gets excited about the Marvel Snackers- he has to have the Spiderman. I love the dippers and the snackers. We often get CrunchPaks for drives and picnics. We grab the family bags of apples when we are going to be rushing a lot or away from home for a few days- it makes my life easier to have it all done for me. We'll just grab a few for the kids too for snacktime. They actually had them for lunch today!

Lunch fun with #Disney #crunchpak

A photo posted by cari (@cari_on) on Mar 23, 2015 at 9:24am PDT

 CrunchPak sent me some coupons to use at my party! I was so excited since my kids love these so much. I knew the kids at the party would as well. I used the "foodles" as a special treat for those kids that came early and stayed after, volunteering to help set up and clean. They enjoyed a special treat and their parents appreciated the healthy snack. A few of the parents mentioned to me that they had seen the "foodles" in the store, but had never thought about purchasing. Their mind was changed after this party. 

It amazes me how adding a character, or making the container shape fun, makes such a difference when trying to get kids to eat healthy. If they see a character they love on something, they automatically want to try it. Win!

Press Release: The White House Science Fair and SparkFun Electronics

SparkFun Electronics (http://www.sparkfun.com), a provider of parts, knowledge and passion that helps anyone explore electronics, is proud to continue its relationship with the White House with the donation of hardware to support a new innovation challenge aimed at promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The new Making for Change Showcase, from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, was announced at the 5th White House Science Fair on Monday, March 23, 2015, and hopes to encourage hands-on STEM learning, facilitate entrepreneurship and expand advanced manufacturing capabilities here in the U.S.

The annual White House Science Fair celebrates the student winners of a broad range of STEM competitions across America. The President will announce new steps as part of his Educate to Innovate campaign to get more girls and boys inspired and prepared to excel in the critical STEM fields. Building on these announcements, this year’s White House Science Fair includes a focus on diversity and inclusion in STEM.

The Making for Change Showcase, which is part of a larger effort to engage students in traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields, will challenge student teams at more than ten Historically Black Colleges and Universities (http://www.hbcuinnovation.org/) to design prototypes aimed at solving local problems in their communities. The White House reached out to SparkFun for involvement in February 2015, and the company donated the kits and hardware to equip many of the student teams as they begin their prototypes.

"We are excited to continue our relationship with the White House's efforts in improving engagement of students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields through making," said SparkFun's Director of Education Lindsay Diamond. "The opportunity to help students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities explore making and tinkering as pathways to solve local problems in their community directly ties in with our goal to improve engagement with underrepresented students. We look forward to seeing how the student teams innovate new solutions to these community challenges."

Diamond's presence at the Science Fair reinforces SparkFun's ongoing commitment to improving access to and interest in STEM education initiatives nationwide. The White House will be running an ongoing live-stream of the event at www.whitehouse.gov/live from 10:00 am to 12:15 am ET.

Book Review: Zoology For Kids

Disclaimer: I received a book to review. All opinions are my own. 

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a zoologist. It was my dream until I realized that not all animals could be saved. I changed my tune then. I still have a very deep love of animals and I try to instill that in my children. (I am in the cryptozoology field, ya know). I love seeing my children excited about science of any kind, especially if it involves animals. I was given the opportunity to review Zoology For Kids, by Josh and Bethanie Hestermann. I knew that Tbomb was a little young for the book but with his love for science, I figured there would be something for him and it would grow with him.

Zoology For Kids (Amazon) is now in a very handy spot on the bookcase, Tbomb loves it that much. I love that he loves it, and also that it teaches about animals and has fun activities throughout its pages. It helps too, that the forward is by The Kratt Brothers.

The photos are gorgeous and the "lessons" are educational and entertaining. Kids get to dive into the science of Zoology and learn about more than just what an animal looks like, eats, and survive. This book explores the animals' form, function, and behavior. I especially love the scientific vocabulary.

It also includes a history of zoos and aquariums. Through Zoology for Kids, they get to learn about the everyday lives of zoo-keepers, wildlife researchers, veterinarians, and even conservationists. I love that this book allows the kids to learn about all aspects o the Zoology world. I wish this book existed when I was a kid- I probably wouldn't have given up my dream of being a zoologist.

Even cooler than all of this are the hands-on activities outlined in the book. It helps kids learn and understand when they can do a physical activity with a lesson, as opposed to just listening to a lesson. Some of the activities include making a stethoscope, baking edible animal cells, molding a tiger's jawbone, and even design an exhibit. These activities encourage play as well.

Zoology For Kids can help children learn about the animal kingdom, the culture of zoos and the like, and to have a healthy respect for the animal kingdom. Who knows- your child might just decide to be a zoologist.

You can learn more about wildlife and the ways they are being protected by Global Wildlife. See Brian Sheth's role in this project on their website.

Device Love: MVB Disko

Disclaimer: I received a product to review. All opinions are my own. 

As many of you know, I am a complete tech junkie. I love trying out new things and have a whole arsenal of devices for all those crazy things I do. Part of this is because I'm a geek, while the other makes it necessary being that I'm a paranormal investigator and bigfoot researcher. It isn't very often I come across something that I have never heard of. When I got the opportunity to review the MVB Disko, I was ecstatic, because I'd never heard of this device.

This is an awesome little device. It features a digital voice recorder and mp3 player, it even comes with great earbuds. However, that is where the mundane starts. The features that make this device unique is what gets me excited. The MVB Disko (Amazon) allows you to copy and transfer files without a computer. This means that if you're on an investigation, you can copy a certain file to someone else without handing over your recorder. Cool, huh? It has 4GB of memory and has a micro SD slot. Even better- it doesn't take batteries. You charge it with a USB port. It is also compact and very light weight, but sturdy.

I like having this as a backup recorder to my usual one, but I love being able to transfer files without having to lug my laptop on every investigation. It is also a good way to get sound files to a whole team. Just copy them to the Disko and then onto eveyone's thumb drives. It is also great for backing up audio files.