Get up and moving!

Are you sitting in from on the TV, eating your favorite bag of chips, watching your favorite show? It is because you bored and have nothing else to do?

Well here's an idea GET UP AND WORK OUT!

Whether you go to the gym or work out at home there are so many opportunities for you to tone your body. If you work out at home there are videos online that can help you without needing any equipment. If you want to go to the gym but can't afford it. The YMCA has a great program for that!

I'm going to first start of with showing you some ways you can tone your body at home without equipment. Below are four simple workouts you can do everyday to tone your body.

Squats:

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart. Lower your hips and bend your knees (almost like you're sitting in a chair. Your thighs should be parallel with the floor as you are bending your knees.

Make sure your knees do not go beyond your toes. Hold this position for a few second the stand back up.

Recommend: 3 sets of 10.

Triceps Push-Ups:

Place your hands on the floor and keep them under your shoulders. Holding your body straight, bend your elbows close to

your body. Lower your chest between your hands and push
back up into the starting position. If you're having trouble
completing a push-up, place your knees on the floor to make things easier.

Recommend: 3 sets of 10.

Skaters/Leaps:

Get into a semi-squat position and leap sideways to land
on your right foot. Immediately push off in the opposite
direction and land on your left foot. Make sure you perform
these skaters continuously.

Recommend: 3 sets of 15.

Plank Crawl:

Start in a push-up position with your hands directly under your shoulders. Lower yourself down one arm at a time into a plank position on your forearms, while keeping your elbows
directly under your shoulders. Push back up one arm at a time
into your starting push-up position. Alternate the arm you lead
with and maintain a straight body throughout the movement. Lower
your knees to the floor to decrease the difficulty level.


Recommend:10-15.









Below is a GREAT online workout! It only takes ten minutes of your time and leaves you feeling satisfied! Great part is you can do it anywhere and don't need equipment.

Try it out!

Now lets talk about some exercises that can be done with equipment. Running and lifting weights is a great way to start losing weight and toning your body.


Running on the treadmill is a great way to tone your legs and loose stubborn tummy fat. You should always start out with a walk before you begin your jog. Start walking for two minutes then when you feel ready begin your job. You should jog for 10-15 minutes and the begin to walk again. When you start to feel for comfortable you can begin to run faster and for longer.


Another way to tone your legs on the treadmill and doing short sprints. To do this you would walk for 30 seconds and run for 45 seconds. You should start out by doing 5-7 at a time.












Here are some great excises that can build muscle. You will need to dumbbells and a medicine ball. For beginnings start out with a lighter weigh, once the workout becomes easy for you, you can begin to get heavy dumbbells.

















Tanya Batts is a personal trainer at Gold Gym. She also has posted many videos online teaching people the proper way to use weights and machines at the gym. Here is a short video from her explaining how to use dumbbells and a weight bar.




Check out more of her videos and subscribe to her channel!

History, it's everywhere!

If you like learning about history and seeing beautiful art, like me, going to museums is a great things to do and it’s even cheap!

Museums allow you to get up close to the greatest masterpieces that our history provides. Walking through gives you the chance to learn about different societies, ideas and values.

One of my favorite Museums in Pittsburgh is the Carnegie Science Center. The Science Center has four floors full of different exhibits, theaters and themes. It also includes a USS Requin Submarine that is open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Across the street from the Science center is SportWorks, which uses sports as examples for physics, anatomy and biology. The Science Center along with SportsWorks is highly interactive and is fun for all ages! Visit the Carnegie Science Center for directions and more information on what’s new!

One museum that I found interesting was the Mattress Factory Museum. The museum contains contemporary art. All of the exhibits are created on-site by the artists. At this museum all of your sense will be engaged by means of variety of media. Each exhibit includes educational programs, hands-on projects, workshops tours, and so much more! For more information concerning the museum visit Mattress Factory Museum.

Below is a list of links to the different museums in the Pittsburgh area:

• Andy Warhol Museum
• Children’s Museum-Pittsburgh
• Carnegie Museum of Art
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• Phipps Conservatory
• Photo Antiquities-Museum of Photographic History
• Air Heritage Museum

Not only are there great museums in this area but, below is a list of the top five best museums in America:

1. Art institute of Chicago: Chicago Illinois  
2. The Getty Center: LOS Angeles, California
3.  The metropolitan museum of art: New York, New York  
4. The National WWll museum:New Orleans, Louisiana
5. National Gallery of Art:Washington DC, District of Columbia

  I also found the top five museum in the world:

1. Art institute of Chicago: Chicago, Illinois  
2. National Museum of Anthropology: Mexico City, Mexico 
3. State Hermitage Museumand Winter Palace: St. Petersburg, Russia
4. The Getty Center: LOSAngeles, California
5. Accademia Gallery:Florence, Italy

While I was researching best museums to visit in the U.S. and in the world mostly all of the websites pointed to the Art Institute of Chicago located in Chicago Illinois. The reviews for this museum are outstanding. The museum is home to some of the worlds greatest art collections, which includes the trademark “American Gothic” painting by Grant Wood. It also holds over 300,000 other pieces and has 30 rotating exhibits. Next time you’re in Chicago be sure to stop there!

I was surprised to see that the Musee Du Louvre was ranked the 19^th best museum in the world. I went to the Louvre when I travel abroad to Paris, France. It doesn't compare to the museums that I've been to in Pittsburgh and Washington DC. There were some many beautiful works of art there like:  Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Liberty Leading the People,  Psyche Revived By the Kiss of Love and so much more! I highly recommend if you are ever in Paris to stop by the Louvre!

Here are some of the picture I took while I visited the Louvre:

I look this picture right before I enter the Louvre. The outside of the building was beautiful!












This was the first thing I saw when I entered the museum. It was a very interesting piece to say the least!











                                                                         When I first saw the Mona Lisa I did not expect to see this! At first I couldn't find a way to the front.















After about an hour wait I was able to get his close up of her. This picture doesn't show it but I had to stand behind a red rope and couldn't get within more than ten feet of her.

Think you got what it takes?

Invite a few friends over and challenge each other with some creative games based on the hit TV show.

Ten 60 second challenges stand between you and $1 million (US). Think you can do it? You've got a MINUTE to Win it!

Okay, there probably won't be a million (US) dollars at stake but, you will have a chance to gain bragging rights.

The hit show a Minute to Win it has people across the world enduring in challenges at home, at parties and even at work. The television show, hosted by Guy Fieri, forces a team of two to partake in ten 60-second challenges using everyday household items. As the duo completes each challenge the difficulty level and money begin to increase. At any time the contestants can "stay or play or take the cash and dash".

Some of the games I like to play are:

• Mad Dog
• Card Ninja
• Nosedive
• Sticky Situaution
• Pink Elephant
• Hut, Hut, Hike
• Bobblehead

Example of Mad Dog:

Materials needed:

• 2 Tic-Tac Boxes (Completely Fully)
• Ruler

How to play

Step 1: Place the Tic-Tac boxes standing lengthwise on both ends of the ruler.

Step 2:Remove a piece of the lid

Step 3: After the clock starts the player has to pick up the ruler with their mouth and move their head to empty both boxes of mints.

Step 4: The game ends when 60 seconds is up or the player removes all of the mints from both boxes.

Here's a video of Mad Dog.

To find out how to play these games and more view the Top 20 Minute to Win it games!

Take a hike..

Something I have grown to love doing is going to the park, whether it’s the local park or a national park. I've always liked going to parks but, my true interest in experiencing their true beauty was during my freshman year.

Going to parks was the thing to do my freshman year. It was a great way to meet new people who not only lived in the dorms and commuted to campus, but also people who had friends in the area. By the middle of the semester we referred to our park adventures as “family outings.”

It was something different every time we went. We would do things like:

• Take Walks
• Hike in the Woods
• Pick-up Games (mostly soccer and basketball)
• Star-gazing
• Release
• Play on the playground
• Picnics

Our favorite park to go to is Raccoon State Park shown in the picture above. It is a bit of a drive, roughly 20-30 minutes depending on traffic. This park is good for hiking and observing nature at its finest. Anyone who wanted to go would meet up before hand and would drive there together. This brought us all closer because we wouldn’t be doing anything but hike and share stories. ( Here is a link to Raccoon State Park officle website.)

The reason why this started to become the thing to do was because it is highly inexpensive. The activities we did at the park were mostly free of charge! They only thing we had to pay for was gas but, we used the car-pooling tactic.  If it was your time to drive and you had five people in your car, everyone would throw in $2-$5 (U.S. Currency) you would have enough gas to get there and back.

Parks I recommend going within a 15-20 mile radius of Penn State Beaver (located in the Monaca area) are:

• Economy Park

- Great fielded area and swimming pool

• Brush Park

- Great are for picnics and fishing

• Raccoon State Park (Our favorite park)

- Great hiking trail

• Moon Park

- Great playground

• North Park

- Great disc golfing course

For directions, reviews, etc for these parks and more check out Parks for more information. 

The parks might change but, the relationships built won’t.

Everyone Does it

Binge, when most people hear this word they think binge spending or binge drinking or even binge eating but, not me. When I hear the word binge I think: Netflix. It may not have been your first thought but, now that you’re thinking about it, you know it’s true. You do it, your friends do it, your crazy aunt who is always the loudest and quite possibly drunkest at family reunions, heck even your mom does it! EVERYONE does or at least has binge watched Netflix.

Some of my favorite things to binge watch on Netflix:

•         Breaking Bad
•         Walking Dead
•         How I met your Mother
•         New Girl
•         Black List
•         Any Random documentary
•         Every movie starring Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling

Currently, I’m hooked on this series called Once Upon a Time. The show is a hit drama based off American fairy tales who are battling with things like greed, love, loss, and happy endings; who doesn’t love a good drama filled show? Once, as many call it, was first aired in October 2011 having over 13 million viewers. The show has since taken off with the current season having over 15.5 million views. (Visit their site for more information http://storybrooke.net/)

Doesn’t this clip just make you want to stop what you’re doing right now and start watching it?!

This is my favorite go to thing to do when I’m bored. I even like to sneak an episode in while during my study breaks. Imagine how much less bored you’ll be. You only have to pay $8.99 a month to rid of your boredom hours, days and even months, unless you’re lucky enough to have a roommate who lets you use their account!

Imagine yourself in their shoes.. or tank for that matter.

While I was grocery shopping this past week, I found myself in the wandering into the pet aisle.  Weird thing is I don’t even own a pet. I've always wanted a cat or a dog of my own, but my apartment complex doesn't allow for one.

As I’m walking by all the toys and cute clothing for my imagery dog I come face to face with about ten tanks containing a variety of different fish. Right then I knew I was going to be leaving with one.

Once I’m being checked-out I realized I didn't get what I came there for because I was so interested in the new fish I got. I decided what ever I need could wait, I had to get Jaws in his tank fast.

Now you make think how can a boring old goldfish entertain me while I’m bored? Well, here’s the answer: Imagine yourself in their shoes… or tank for that matter.

It’s crazy to think. Can you picture yourself alone swimming in a tank for of water for your entire life?

This made me start to feel sorry for Jaws (he suits his name well) so I went back to the store and bought another fish named Fred. I know soon I will probably own an aquarium of fish.

This is a very inexpensive way to keep yourself from being bored. I spent $25 dollars all together.

Fish: .75 cent - $3.00

Tank: $5- $15 (depending on size)

Food: $5

Things for inside tank: $10  

It can keep you from being bored because you have to remember to feed them every day and clean their tank once a week.

Jaws and Fred aren't as interactive as a dog or cat would be but, they still make for interesting pets. I really enjoying having them.


To learn more about taking care of fish visit http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Care-of-Goldfish for more information.

Boredom.. IT SUCKS.

Being bored is one thing but, being broke and bored is another. I know I am not the only one who is familiar with this unpleasant experience, which is why I'm here to help you.  I am currently a senior at Penn State and I have experienced this awful phenomenon more times then none. Between paying tuition and book fees to paying rent for my first apartment I've learned I can't frivolously spend money anymore. I've come up with many different ways to pass the time and enjoy myself with spending little to no money.

One of the best ways I have found to rid of boredom without spending money is to get a job.YES, making money will minimized the time you spend counting the little specks on your ceiling tile. This may not pertain to some of you who are out of school and already working but, for people like me who's living is dedicated to going to classes, LISTEN UP. I have never had an outside job while attending classes which worked for me because I didn't have the obligations that I have now (like paying rent and bills -_-). I also had the option of walking down the hall to my friends' rooms to pass the time. Now that I live off campus I found that I am encountering boredom more often. I applied for two jobs one on campus and one off campus. If I get the jobs I will not only fill my time between classes but also my time on days I don't have class (Thursdays, weekends, etc.).  Because I will be attending classes and working I won't have much time to spend the money I earn, causing me to save money for something like a new car!

This might may be the most enjoyable way to spent your time but you'll realize you'll be bored less and it will allow you to gain more experience that you could possibly use in the future.

Come back to see the other tricks I have up my sleeve of concurring boredom on a budget. You might just find yourself being the proud owner of a goldfish.