Technology Fit

My sister in law confuses me. She likes to run...without music. I do not understand how she is able to do it. I have to have music in my ear when I'm attempting to run, jog, exercise. I have used several different apps in the past to help get myself in better fitter shape. Just as I've used different apps I've also had different products too.

Before I had a piece of technology to help it was the classic pencil and paper. Log your food and log for work out. Then I got an iPod Touch. My world changed. All of a sudden I had apps that would help me. Log your food in this app. Watch how to do weights on this app. Track your bike ride on this app. Apps..glorious apps everywhere. Then I realized as I was losing the pounds on myself my iPod was starting to become bloated. 

I see a lot of mobile devices in my line of work. What I see a lot when I talking to people about their device is that after a while it feels slow. Sometimes it is due to age but 8 out of 10 times their devices is bloated with data. For example if you have an iPhone 6 that has 16GB of data storage a few of those gigabytes are set aside right away for the software to run your phone. So now that brings us down to about 12GB of space. That is still a lot if you maintain the space. Devices work best when they have breathing room. I usually recommend a minimum of 2GB of free space. Photo's and video take up a lot of room. A LOT OF ROOM. It is probably one of the things I see the must. 600 photo's or more taking up space. and of the 600 photo's you probably only want 120 of them. Cleaning up your photos gives back precious space. Delete them from the phone or what I like to do is download them into my computer and delete them there, I find it to be faster that way. 

How about Songs. When is the last time you took a look through your play list. This is another thing I try and keep up on. I actively keep 3 playlist on my phone. 1 for the gym and 2 for the car. With the addition of iTunes radio and other music streaming services you may not realize that you are not using your playlist anymore. If your not using them get them off the device. 

Then there are apps. As I write to you today I have 50 apps on my phone. I like to review the apps on my phone every couple of months. There are apps I'm more likely to use in the summer than the winter. If I'm going on vacation I have more travel apps on my phone than when I'm just doing my usual business. Sure there are a lot of app that you use frequently and I'm not saying you have to take things down to a bare minimum but I'm suggesting that maybe you don't need to have every app on there. I use a guideline I made up myself. If I haven't used the app in about 1 month then I don't need it on my phone.

Also a reminder all this is true not just for our mobile devices but for our actual computers too. Your laptop or desktop machine store massive amounts of data. Quick! When was the last time you when through and deleted email? Not just the spam or the junk but emails. Imagine if all those emails were printed out and laying around the house. Can you see that in your house? The nice thing is that usually with your computer you have the option of upgrading your hard drive to add more space. Your computer likes some breathing room just like you. 

Our phones( and our computers) are a machine, just like our body, and it needs to be taken care of to run at its peak. Sure, on vacation we like to let ourselves go a little bit and enjoy the trip - taking pictures and downloading new apps - but we don’t live everyday life that way. Watch what you put into your phone and make sure to trim the fat when its needed!

Technically.... in the Kitchen

One to my favorite places to to use technology is in the kitchen.  I've brought my laptop,  an iPad and  my phone in the kitchen to use as a reference while cooking. Just recently we delegated a first generation iPad to the kitchen. While the iPad itself is considered out of date, it doesn't run the current iOS. However some Apps still function on this old piece of technology.

So what still works? Well first the web browser still functions with no problem so I can pull up an cooking website or blog I want. I was also able to download older versions of apps like Pinterest, How to Cook Everything and Allrecipes' Dinner Spinner to name a few.  I was very pleased to be able to access Pinterest so I can access all the great recipe links that people share there. I also have my Kindle App from which I can bring up cookbooks that I have purchased from Amazon's website. The the ones I've downloaded I was able to get as a free download. 

Of course before I even get to the kitchen I try and have my meal plan already in my calendar with links to the recipe I'll be making. I try and list the main dish with 1 or 2 side dishes that I would like to make with it. Sometimes the recipe link is the main dish sometimes a link for the side dish.

While the iPad is a great technology to have in the kitchen it isn't the only one. I also subscribe to a grocery home delivery service. Doorganics is a local company at delivery fresh local and organic food to your home. I took the option to get deliveries every 2 week. The Thursday before my delivery I get an email with a list showing what is planned for my delivery. I can login to their website and change the order or add too it.
I also rely on my digital scale. Everything from measuring the correct amount of flour from Great Grandma's recipe to the correct portioned size piece of steak to have for dinner. 3 ounces isn't as big as you think it is! 

Of course some of the basic apps on your phone can be helpful too. The clock app has a built in timer and when I cooking a lot of items for let say Thanksgiving, I've even used the Alarm setting in the app to keep watch on multiple items. Lastly is the camera that is built into my Phone. Yep I'm one of those people that shares their food. I usually post it on my Facebook page with a link of the recipe. Occasional the picture might be shared on Instagram but I promise it is few and far between. 

*Price changes frequently

Technically...getting Groceries

A few years ago I would have to get the Sunday Press in order to start the process of building my grocery list. What foods were on sale this week and what dinners will we eat because of what was on sale. While my questions haven't changed the process did change slightly.

When I got my first iPod Touch back in 2008 on of the very first app's I downloaded was Grocery IQ. The app allowed me to build my shopping list and have several lists according to which stores I wanted to shop at. It continues to be one of my favorite apps. I can save certain items as favorites. When I search for an item it has auto-suggest. So if I'm looking for a yogurt it will suggest very cherry or vanilla. I can also search for coupons and then email them  to myself so I can print them out. If I'm sending the hubby to do the grocery shopping I can email the list to him. You can also build the list online with their website and it will auto-sync with your mobile device. 

I mainly shop at Meijer. I like my one stop shopping and being a Michigan based company I have no problem rooting for the Home team. If you follow Meijer on Facebook you can get a preview of the upcoming ad every Friday. It helps me get a start on my meal planning and sometimes I will wait to buy something when I know it will be on sale in just a couple of days. Family Fare also does this but releases it on Saturdays. Meijer also has their own app. Use it with your Perks number and you have digital coupons at the touch of a finger. My house loves a good Mperks weekend when you can save 5, 10 and even 15%. It a little Dutch girl's dream. Don't forget to jump on to Meijer's free WiFi when you are in the store to use either of these apps. The Mperks app was just recently updated to be added to Passbook for you Apple lovers, like me.

After I've made my trip through the market I may or may not have had the thought about picking up a bottle of wine to help me relax after all that stressful shopping. Vivino is an app that my BFF told me about while she was stationed overseas in Germany. Use the app to snap the picture of the wine bottles' label and the app pulls up information and gives you a rating. The more you tell it about what type of wines you prefer the more helpful it is. I've also used this to snap a picture of a wine list in restaurants. The app will give the ratings of the wine on the list. 

Monster, Me....

This past weekend MH & I had a very rare night out. We attended the Premier showing of "Monster, Me" at UICA. We happened across this project after MH was referred by a friend regarding some of the master features that it needed. Our good friend, who I will refer to as Dollar ($), gave the creator MH's contact info and after a few meetings what was a 55G film was trimmed down nice and neatly to 9G of smooth animated movie goodness. The story was an original idea from the film makers daughter. It's a lovely story and well done with animation. The premier had all age groups and reminded me of a short film you might see at the start of a Pixar movie. For more information check out the films web page here.