Monthly Archives

May 2016

10 Easy Life Hacks You Need In Your Life

by Nellie May 31, 2016

life hacks you can't live without!

HACKS AND TIPS TO BE MORE RESOURCEFUL IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Scotch Products event, I always keep scotch tape handy because–children–but I was absolutely blown away by the things I learned and how lived without this information all my life. 10 Life Hacks You Need In Your Life

Here are 10 amazing life hacks that you NEED to know! You’re Welcome. 🙂

Nail Art: After painting your nails, and making sure they are completely dry, you can cut a small segment of scotch tape and place it over your nail in a desired pattern. Then you can paint the nail a different color–and remove the tape for design perfection.
Flower arrangements: Have you ever gotten a beautiful bouquet of flowers only for them to fall lazily in the vase when you got home? Taking scotch tape and making a criss cross pattern makes the perfect slots for flowers! They also magically stay upright and pretty. 🙂
Labels: Has anybody else joined the mason jar craze? I sure have. A nice way to keep track of who’s mason jar belongs to who is to put scotch tape on it and label your jars/wine glasses and remove them super easily afterwards!
Laminate all the things: The easiest and most USEFUL product is a laminator–who would have thought right? All you need in this life is a laminator and a dry erase marker (and maybe a few other things). You can laminate a menu for weekly changes, place settings, artwork and SO much more! Plus the little machine is less that $25!
Scotch Tape for cleaning? YES! Keep dust from building in between keys on your keyboard by using tape to pick up crumbs. Just brilliant.
More Laminator fun! Personalize bedroom décor using the Scotch™ Thermal Laminator to protect kids artwork, photos and posters. Create a gallery wall, interchanging textures and photos to bring dimension to your room décor.
Going nuts? Never misplace a screw or bolt again by taping all nuts and bolts together or to the products of which they belong.
Red Eye Problems on the camera? Perfect the selfie by placing tape over a camera flash to avoid red eye.
Keep those flowers forever: Personalize bedroom décor using the Scotch™ Thermal Laminator to protect dried flowers and add them to decorative paper and frame it for a beautiful piece of art!
Need a personalized bookmark? You can use the laminator to create your own personalized bookmark which come in super handy for people like me who try to remember page numbers instead of using actual bookmarks!

Hope you found this list useful! For more about Scotch Brands check out the website!

[Tweet “Did you know about these 10 Simple #lifehacks from @scotchproducts?! #HandsOnWithScotch”]

Did you know about these hacks? Did any of them surprise you? How do you use your Scotch tape?

11 comments

fitness fun

5 Easy Injury Prevention Tips For Runners

by Nellie May 25, 2016

Stay off the injured runner list with the best injury prevention exercises for runners.

I’ve been blessed in my short but exciting running career to have no major running injuries. (Knock on all the wood ever made) even throughout marathon training last year I’d be really beat up but nothing really stopped me from completing my next training run.

Today I’m linking up with my favorite runner bloggers for another installment in Workouts For Runners. The popularity of the first three posts has been overwhelming! I suppose that is what happens when great minds collaborate for awesome content!

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Today I’m going to share with you 5 easy tips for injury prevention.

Stretching/foam rolling: I am the queen of stretching. I do it in the morning, at night before I go to bed, during the day (especially when things get rough in the office) stretching is so key for easy recovery and simply getting your muscles to work in the way that you need them to.
Crosstraining: it’s only a matter of time before your body becomes used to the movement of running. I am a huge fan of strength training because there are so many different ways to strength train that you can make sure you are using different muscles during different workouts.
Pay attention: I know this sounds insanely obvious but if any of you are like me there could be a lot going on in your life and you might want to go out on a run to figure things out. You Putin your music and you are in the zone and just like that you trip over an object that seemingly came out of no where. Paying attention (especially when running in urban areas!) is so so important. Beware of debris and other items that could potentially trip you up!
Don’t ignore: so you have an ache from last weeks run that won’t go away. Yet, every time you run, you feel it a little bit more. Sometimes, the nagging feeling goes away and we can run pain free again. Sometimes the pain doesn’t stop and it’s time to see a doc. Ignoring the pain could make things so much worse than addressing the issue head on.
Warm up: now this is something I’ve been working on a lot since I’ve started running. Getting up, going to the park, and just running as fast as you can in the easiest way to get your body in trouble. Take your time, start of slow then run when fully warmed up.

Check out 4 more awesome injury prevention tips and workouts below:

Sarah @ Run Far Girl

Laura @ This Runner’s Recipes

Angela @ Happy Fit Mama

Carly @ Fine Fit Day

[Tweet “Here are some easy injury prevention tips for runners! #runchat #bibchat #runners”]

Have you ever suffered from a running injury?

9 comments

healthy living

How Fitness Helps Manage Anxiety

by Nellie May 23, 2016

Fitness is a HUGE help when it comes to managing anxiety. Also sharing 3 tips to help get you through when things are completely overwhelming.

I’ve had anxiety for a few years now. Not really sure where or when it started but I deal with it on a daily basis. On some days it is barely there, and on some days it’s almost crippling.

My anxiety stems from several things but mainly just life. I worry about my children (a lot), their health, their social adaptation to school. I worry also about my job, if I’m in the right place or do I need more? Let’s just put it this way, if I am emotionally connected to it, I likely have anxiety over it.

As I haven’t visited a doctor to discuss (yet), I’ve been using fitness to help me calm the worry. To be completely honest most days I am so tired (or lazy) that working out seems like the biggest task ever. The excuses begin coming in like rapid fire and all of a sudden I’ve convinced myself to skip a workout. Then I remember that exercise not only calms my anxiety it wears my body out so that I can sleep at night.

A few months ago when my anxiety was at its worst, I’d get up at 2am and worry about significant and insignificant things. The worst part was that I never went back to bed–with an early wake up call of 5am, this would only compound the problem and led to very tired work days.

As an African American woman I am not ashamed to say that I suffer from anxiety. Mental illness is very rarely discussed in our community and we need to start talking about it–like yesterday.

This is all brand new for my husband who has been with me 18 years. I try to give him warning on bad days by telling him my “anxiety is on fleek” so he knows that I will likely be trying to fix all the problems that ever existed in about 30 minutes. On those days there are three things that really help me to relax and regain control of the situation.

Here are three tips to help manage anxiety

Going for a run/walk. Fresh air, for me, is a very natural drug. Being inside, cooped up is enough to make you crazy without even realizing it. Since I can’t leave the building every hour at work I simply walk over to a window and just take a deep breath. It does wonders.
Stretching: stretching before bed almost always means I am going to sleep better. Basic stretches like getting the tension out of your neck with neck rolls or reaching up to the sky as tall as you can have made a BIG difference in the way I sleep.
Write: I have tons of private notes that help me through tough moments. When I start worrying about something I either write a plan to make it better or simple poetry to share how I’m feeling at the moment. It’s super helpful and therapeutic.

Have you or someone you know ever had anxiety? How does fitness help you daily?

8 comments

brothers

3 Yummy Cocktail Recipes From FairyTales Hair Care

by Nellie May 22, 2016

This post is brought to you by Momtrends and FairyTales

I love a good homegrown business, and especially a business that is started by a woman, and EVEN more when said business is started by a woman in Brooklyn.

Photo of ALL Fairy Tales Products

I attended a fun event last week by the ladies at Momtrends celebrating the awesome products of the FairyTales hair products line. I had been familiar with the line as my mommy friends have recommended the products to me multiple times. They smell SO good and I feel confident using the products on my babies because the products are free of harsh chemicals, pesticides, toxins, paraben and sulfates.

FairyTales-7166

The event was held in a beautiful loft downtown manhattan just a few steps away from the One World Trade Center. The theme of the party was to create your own cocktails based on the types of FairyTales products. Even though I don’t drink–all of my friends do, so I will be keeping these on hand for our barbecues this summer!

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FairyTales hair care line is most famous for their lice control products. If you are anything like me the word lice makes you want to hide under your covers, especially with camp season right around the corner! FairyTales has a Lice Good-Bye kit that gets rid of lice naturally!

Plus they have great shampoo and conditioner kits that are perfect for the summertime swims, especially those kids are heavy pool swimmers (like mine!) and kids that spent a lot of time in the ocean. The shampoos and conditioners remove sea salt, chlorine green and daily build-up with gentle fruit extracts. The vitamins and minerals restore softness, boost shine and protect hair. FairyTales-7135

We got to hear from founder Risa Barash about her line that she started that quickly became popular by word of mouth. FairyTales products have been around since 1999 and are continually growing. The best part is that they are sold pretty much everywhere from Amazon to Target. FairyTales-7153

I highly recommend the FairyTales hair care line not only because it smells amazing, but the owner is the real deal. I am all about supporting my fellow mompreneurs and this is no exception!

View this post on Instagram

On top of the world at the #fairytailsmix event

A post shared by Nellie @ Brooklyn Active Mama (@glamnellie) on May 17, 2016 at 4:36pm PDT

Here are the 3 FairyTales cocktail recipes! Enjoy!

Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 10.12.02 AM Rapunzel Red Ringer Sweet Cocktail 1.5 oz Premium Vodka 6 Raspberries, muddled 1 oz Fresh Ginger, peeled and muddled 2oz. Grapefruit Juice Muddle raspberries & peeled ginger in a shaker. Add vodka, ice & grapefruit juice. Shake well. Serve in rocks glass. Garnish with rosemary sprig and candied ginger! @fairytalesince

You can find out more about the FairyTales hair products line including the Lice Prevention, Sun and Swim, No More Knots and more check out their website!

[Tweet “Three delicious #drink #recipes from @FairyTalesInc! ad #cocktails @momtrends”]

How are you preparing for the upcoming camp season? Do you use special shampoos for your kids? Have you ever had to deal with lice?

5 comments

fitness gear Uncategorized

6 Things Having A MaxTrainer Has Taught Me

by Nellie May 18, 2016

The amazing folks at Bowflex provided me with a MaxTrainer M5 machine in exchange for this post, all opinions and thoughts are 100% mine.

Can you believe the 90 Day Fit challenge is officially over?! Seems like literally yesterday we started but it also shows how much and how quickly things can change in just 90 days.

When I started the challenge I was so excited to get my MaxTrainer because having such a dynamic machine in your home left no excuse! I had no idea that I’d end up getting sick for 2 plus months and losing my grandmother all in the span of 3 months.

The MaxTrainer helped me stay on track with my fitness and here’s how:

maxtrainer2

Whenever I feel antsy at home and it is a weird hour or I simply don’t want to leave my house–I can turn on my favorite reality show and get to work
After spending the day in the hospital, I would come home and be extra emotional. Some days I didn’t want to move and somedays I had infinite energy to burn. The MaxTrainer was perfect on those days
I was home for Spring Break with my kids and my eldest baby had a small outpatient surgery during that time. I couldn’t leave the house as my husband was at work. I was able to jump on the MaxTrainer daily while they ate breakfast. I likely would have gotten nothing done otherwise.
I’ve had some super hectic days at work where a lunch time workout was not an option, I knew that I could prepare dinner, put the kids to bed and get a quick interval workout done and knock out for bed.
Good role model for the kids–pretty much 80% of the time I worked out on the MaxTrainer I had my kids nearby playing. My eldest always fetches me more water (even though I have a full bottle ready) and my youngest often reminds me that I’m sweating!
It taught me that every workout does not have to be hours long. Even getting in the smallest of sweat sessions can make a ton of difference in your day (and your heart!).

maxtrainer1

I want to thank all of you that joined in the 90 Day Fitness Challenge, especially the amazing ladies in my private facebook group! Also thank you to the amazing folks at Bowflex for making this all happen!!

If you are thinking about getting a machine for your home I strongly recommend the MaxTrainer M5–whether you have 14 minutes or one hour–you will get an incredible workout top to bottom, every single time!

Do you have gym equipment in your home? What do in your go to workout when you don’t have any time?

7 comments

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May 2016

Did you know about these hacks? Did any of them surprise you? How do you use your Scotch tape?

Check out 4 more awesome injury prevention tips and workouts below:

Have you ever suffered from a running injury?

Here are three tips to help manage anxiety

Have you or someone you know ever had anxiety? How does fitness help you daily?

Here are the 3 FairyTales cocktail recipes! Enjoy!

How are you preparing for the upcoming camp season? Do you use special shampoos for your kids? Have you ever had to deal with lice?

The MaxTrainer helped me stay on track with my fitness and here’s how:

Whenever I feel antsy at home and it is a weird hour or I simply don’t want to leave my house–I can turn on my favorite reality show and get to work

After spending the day in the hospital, I would come home and be extra emotional. Some days I didn’t want to move and somedays I had infinite energy to burn. The MaxTrainer was perfect on those days

I was home for Spring Break with my kids and my eldest baby had a small outpatient surgery during that time. I couldn’t leave the house as my husband was at work. I was able to jump on the MaxTrainer daily while they ate breakfast. I likely would have gotten nothing done otherwise.

I’ve had some super hectic days at work where a lunch time workout was not an option, I knew that I could prepare dinner, put the kids to bed and get a quick interval workout done and knock out for bed.

Good role model for the kids–pretty much 80% of the time I worked out on the MaxTrainer I had my kids nearby playing. My eldest always fetches me more water (even though I have a full bottle ready) and my youngest often reminds me that I’m sweating!

It taught me that every workout does not have to be hours long. Even getting in the smallest of sweat sessions can make a ton of difference in your day (and your heart!).

Do you have gym equipment in your home? What do in your go to workout when you don’t have any time?