Welcome!

     Hello, and welcome to my blog!

     Smart Kiwi is a blog with almost anything you can imagine. Travel? You got it. Latest technology? No problem. Recipes? Of course. I, myself, like to learn. I like to find out new things, and build upon my previous knowledge. The easiest way for me to do this is to simplify the new information and write it out, which is exactly what I intend to do with this blog. I take time to perfect every single post (I'm a bit of a perfectionist) so that both you and I can fully enjoy the experience of learning. Every DIY, every recipe, we will go through together. Side by side.

     I would so very much enjoy your feedback, because without you, my blog would be nothing. If you want to see more yoga routines, I'll give you more yoga routines. I'll also make sure that they're truly worthy of your time, test it out, and give it the official Smart Kiwi stamp of approval! So go ahead, try something new, because you can count on my to deliver quality blog posts to guide you through it! Happy Kiwi-ing!

Daily posting + Quality writing = Happy reading for you!

Word of the Day: Eloquent

Hey Kiwi's! I'm starting something new. Word of the day! I'm doing this to expand my and your vocabulary, plus it's kind of fun searching up weird and wacky words! 

I'll be using multiple dictionaries and such, so that you can see many different definitions and examples and maybe even be able to use the word in everyday speech.

I'm thinking about throwing in prefixes and suffixes. Maybe even words in other languages! For now, I'll stick with English words. 

Eloquent (el-uh-kwent) 

-adj.

1) vividly or movingly expressive

2) having the power of fluent, forceful, appropriate speech

3) expressing oneself readily, clearly, and effectively

4) fluently persuasive 

ex. "John gave a very eloquent speech at the conference"

ex. "Her speech was so eloquent that she persuaded me to join the organization"

Hope you enjoyed! If you have any suggestions on how I can make this better, just comment! Bye-bye!

Let's go running!

So I recently joined a running team (well, not too recently, I started this post a while ago and just never got around to finishing) and I've been scouring the interweb for tips and tricks to become a better runner! From tips on how to get more air in your lungs to great stretches, I've got you covered.

1) Be a belly breather!
I promise you, it'll help so much. Whenever you chest breathe, you're just tensing your shoulders and wasting valuable energy that you could've used to run. Chest breathing is a bad habit, and like most bad habits, it's hard to get rid of. Try focusing on your breathing through out the day, make sure you're belly breathing. Slowly, but surely, you'll transfer it over to your running. Now while you're running, make sure to take deep breathes. Really take your time to breath.

1 1/2) Nose breathing.
While we're on the subject, remember to nose breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth. I noticed whenever I nose breath while running, I can run longer without getting as tired. This is true since when you nose breath, you can get more air into you lungs quickly and efficiently. Like belly breathing, it'll take time to get used to nose breathing. I suggest taking a nice quick jog while nose breathing to get you used to the idea and try not to mouth breath, especially in colder weather, since the dry air can cause asthma-like symptoms. That is not what you want on your nice, morning run.

2) STRETCH
Stretching is essential! Something you don't even think about doing prior to a run. It helps your muscles to get loose and prevents injuries like muscle strains. Dynamic stretches are better for pre-running. Incorporate movement into your stretches. For example, in my running group we do a thing called sweeps. It's where you stick one foot out with your toes pointing toward you and you reach down to the floor and "sweep" upwards. Or another stretch like walking lunges. Yoga is also a great way to get loose, my favorite is this one. Here is a PDF with many great pre-run stretches, both static and dynamic.

compliments of skinnymom.com

3) Shoes are a runners best friend
Okay, so let me tell you a little story. For the first two weeks of my running career, my feet were KILLING me. My arch hurt, my ankles, my knees, everything. Me and my coach had a conversation that went a little like this:
 "These shoes are horrible, where did you get these?"
"Dick's Sporting Goods..."
"No, no, no! Don't do that."
"What? Why?"
"Because these shoes are not fitted to your foot properly. You need to go to a specialty shop to get a shoe fitting."
"Well, alright."
So later that day I went to my local specialty running shop (you can find your's at this here website) and got my very first shoe fitting. They measured my foot, put me on a treadmill so that they could see how I walked and ran, and got me my perfect shoes! All in under 30 minutes. To this day, I haven't had arch pain, knee pain, ankle pain (besides my sprained ankle, but that's a different story totally unrelated to the shoes) are all gone! The shoes can be slightly pricey, but it's well worth it if you plan on being, or are, an avid runner.

4) Hydrate yourself!
No, Gatorade does not count. Unless you have been doing vigorous, high level exercise, you do not need Gatorade. Water is just fine. Even better than Gatorade, actually. I suggest you wake up to and fall asleep to a glass of water. It's the best way to start getting yourself on track. Drink some water with every meal, even snacks. Don't wait until you get dehydration symptoms (things like headaches, dizziness, dry mouth, and dark urine are the most common) before you start hydrating (I learned that the hard way). Drink before, during, and after a workout. You can even add some lemon and cucumber to your water, as it adds needed nutrients and gives your water flavor! And avoid alcohol before exercise (or in general, but that's more your choice) since its a notorious dehydrator. Here's some other ways to spice up your water! I realize these are detoxing recipes, but hey, why not hydrate and detox at the same time?

5) Make a schedule

Sample schedule thanks to Dr. Phil

Maybe even an award system! Maybe you love cheesecake, so set a minimum amount of miles or exercise hours per week and reward yourself with a slice of that delicious Godiva cheesecake (man, that sounds really good right now). That way, you get your exercise done and get your cheesecake and eventually your brain will associate exercise with cheesecake so you'll be more compelled to exercise. Okay, I got off track. So about the schedule, set one! In your phone, on a calender, as your laptop background. Anything that will get you to see it. Maybe put some pictures around it, like your dream body or that cheesecake I was talking about earlier. Something to associate exercise and reward with each other. There are plenty of websites that can even generate a workout plan for you (oh, what a world we live in!).

6) And finally, your mind is powerful
Never underestimate the power of your mind. It's a powerful tool. I like to think of the Law of Attraction in this case. If you think about it, you will attract it. I don't mean I you briefly think about exercising, your dream body will magically come to you. Having the right attitude is key. Don't go around thinking you're a fat slob who will never look like those pictures (if you believe it will happen, it will happen. If your believing it'll happen isn't enough for you, remember that I believe in you), you need to have a winners mentality to get anywhere in, well, life! If you need to, come up with your own mantra. A mantra is just a sentence or statement you repeat to yourself  to get your subconscious to believe it. Here's a sort of "recipe" for creating a mantra. I believe, as do many others, that meditation is key in order for you to be successful in your running. It calms the mind and body. Creates looseness. Mind-body connection is very important in exercise.



Running is a great way to get into shape, no matter who you are. Whether its a light jog, interval training, or flat out sprinting! Choose your deal, get on a schedule, and follow it! Mix that together with a healthy diet and you'll have your perfect bikini body before the end of the year! Good luck to you all:)

Tsum Tsum's!

Okay, so I decided to do a review of a new Disney app called Tsum Tsum which translates to "stack stack" since the real life toys are shaped like stackable bricks. Basically, the story is that some toys in a Disney toy store where playing at night and now you have to get them to their right place since they're so tired. I'm not really getting that vibe from the actual game play, but it's still a super adorable game! 

In the beginning it shows a cute little clip of the story, you know the one where the toys are playing but then realize they need to get back to place. 

After the clip is shown, it takes you to the homepage which asks whether or not you want to log in to your Line account or play as guest (word of advice, if you choose guest and then decide to log in it'll erase all of your previous data)

The game is quite simple, yet very addictive! All you have to do is connect Tsum's together, the bigger the connection the more points you get. 

Once you've connected enough Tsum's together, an event called a "Fever" occurs ! Don't worry, it's a good thing! You get a bonus for every combination you make. 

This is your final score (well not yours, mine, but you get the idea). Once you're on level three, you get daily missions which upon completion give you 500 coins. 

Okay, on to the actual review! Overall, this game is adorable and slightly addictive. The only cons I have to this game is the wait time for "hearts" which allow you to play more rounds, and that you have to have a Line account to have your score recorded. Only minor inconveniences. My favorite part of the game is the cutesy graphics! The music is also very cute. I really recommend this game, but be warned it is addictive! 

Hair Volume, Thanks to A Model Recommends!

Hello, readers! Sorry I haven't written in a while, I've been a little busy. Don't fear, I'm here! Alright, so today I wanted to write about is how to get hair volume from flat hair!

I was searching around for this for a while, especially on YouTube. I found a great, great YouTube channel called A Model Recommends hosted by Ruth Crilly. She has lots of great how-to's and product reviews. If you aren't much of a YouTuber, she also has a website! For some reason I can't post the link, but a quick Google search will get you there.

Anyway, so onto the volumization (I just invented a word, haha) process.

Okay, so all of the products she recommends are from KMS. According to her, this is a very quick process. According to her hair, it gets you massive volume!

To start out, put in a few pumps of KMS' Silk Sheen Styling Cream all through your hair and blow dry. This makes your hair nice and smooth, a perfect canvas for almost all hair styles! But wait, I'm not done.

Next, after it's dry, you would put in one or two KMS' Silk Sheen Polishing Serum all over the surface of your hair to get rid of frizz. Once it's in, you would add KMS' Add Volume Root Spray to, as the name implies, your root. Really work it in. Tilt your head and blow dry!

Once dry, add in KMS' Hair Play Sea Salt Spray for the crazy volume. Just spray it all over your hair, tilt your head, and blow dry! Go back and add more product to it, tilt your head once again, and blow dry. According to the video, every time you do this your hair grows a few inches! You just continue on with this until you get your desired volume.

 Ms. Crilly says in her video, that the sea salt spray works great, but it kind of dulls blonde hair. I have a suggestion for that! I use Kerastase Elixir K Ultime. It makes my hair smooth and shiny, so I imagine this would work for this situation as well.

I'll post the links later, if it allows me! Good luck!

So I've Deided to try Coding...

Hello, everyone! Sorry for not writing for a few days I just kind of got lazy, but I'm back! So today I decided to do a more "tech-y" post. Lately, I've been interested in coding. I've been scouring the web for how-to's and tutorials, and I thought "Why not share this with my readers?" So here I am, sharing it with my readers, haha.

1) Tuts+ (here's the link)

So Tuts+ is a great site with plenty of tutorials on anything from coding,  to photography, to designing! I especially like their easy and fun tutorials for Adobe Illustrator (I know that's not what the post is about, but I just wanted to throw that in). It's very thorough in its instructions, and you can always comment and ask if you don't understand something! The best part is you don't have to sign up, there are plenty of free, easy tutorials!

2) Dash (find it here)

I really, really like Dash. It teaches HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. It's super easy to understand, plus you don't need any sort of programs like Dreamweaver to get started! You learn right there on the website. My downside to this is that you have to sign up, it's not that much of an inconvenience I just personally don't like signing up. Anyway, here's a screenshot of the tutorial:

3) HTML-5-tutorial (here it is)

Okay, so this one is a little bit wordy, but it really teaches the material. If you don't like reading too much, this won't be for you. I like it though, and I do recommend it (why else would I even mention it?) It has a glossary, in case you don't understand what they're talking about. Overall, nice website.

5) Microsoft Virtual Academy (the site)

This is a video series on HTML5 and CSS3 for beginners. What I like about this is that all the topics are broken up into its own video so if you already have some experience you could just skip down to what you want to learn next. The videos are sort of long (about thirty minutes on average), but you gotta remember that this is much easier to comprehend then if you sat down and started to read a book on it. This series has a total of 21 episodes,  all staring (I guess the word would be staring) Bob Tabor. You can sign up, it's not necessary, but it does help in tracking your progress and such. They also have this file you can download, which can help you self assess yourself and give you some extra practice. It includes material from all of the lessons, with material for before you start the lesson and after. It's not essential, but it's like a supplement to the core lesson.



Alright, that is it for now. If I find any other tutorial website on coding, I will be sure to add them on. If anyone else knows any other good HTML tutorials, please feel free to tell me about them and I'll be sure to test them out. Thanks for reading!

Yoga, good for the body and soul.

     I love yoga, its my absolute favorite. It's like a cleanser for your body and energy. I have complied some of my favorite yoga routines (and yoga websites), and I sure hope you love it as much as me!

1) From doyogawithme.com, its a pre-run yoga routine that I do, if not obvious enough, before I run. Here's the video link; http://vimeo.com/26634653

Its by a yogi named Fiji McAlpine, she films this at a beach so you can hear all the peaceful waves. It really relaxes me. I like to meditate a little before and after I do yoga, but with this one I only meditate before since I like to run right after my muscles warm up.

2) From yogajournal.com. They have a yoga sequence builder, which I love because I can customize it to my specific needs. You can save and print your sequence, even share them! I just like to have fun with this one.

3) Skinny Mom has a great list of yoga poses. The link is http://www.skinnymom.com/2014/02/17/70-yoga-poses-to-tone-and-strengthen-your-body/ It categorizes each based on what muscle(s) it works, which is great!

I'm not quite done with this post, I just wanted to publish to get you guys started! Good luck on your journey to spiritual enlightenment.

Namaste