Product Review #2: Work Out Fuel.

So, remember when I talked about my weight loss journey? Well today I want to talk about some things I like to eat and drink before and after my workouts! I have a personal trainer that I work out with right now, everyday and I can go as many times a day as I want (I never go more than once, I would be a pile of mush).
Here are some tasty energy/protein sources that I have tried out recently.

So, first up..
Gatorade Energy Chews: I don't really know if these provide energy, I know they are tasty and Kyle was sweet enough to pick up three packs for me when they were on sale, but regularly they are really pricey and I think there could be a cheaper and more effective source of energy.

Turbo Tea: Holy cow this is so tasty. I love all things caffeine, and especially in tea form since I can no longer drink 2 rockstars a day. Once again, a little pricey so I don't think I will continue, but I am glad I tried it!

Muscle Milk Light: Ok, now, this flavor is Vanilla toffee crunch and it's to DIE for. I wish I could mail you all a sample and get you hooked. If you are looking for a tasty tasty protien bar that doesn't have that chalk after taste PLEASE go out an buy these. You will not regret it. <3

How to: Blog // 5 Things to Remember Before You Hit Publish

Hello there! I am Moe, of Five Sixteenths & I'm a post-grad (class of 2011!) Southern girl who blogs about life, art, DIY's, thrifting adventures with my boyfriend, & blogging tips + tricks.  Blogging has opened up some fun opportunities & helped me discover more about myself.  Starting a blog is a great way to branch out of your confort zone, interact with like minded people, & develop your creative spirit.  When I first started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing.  While sometimes the best things develop organically, I often looked for a good resource on where to begin & what exactly to do with my space of the blogisphere.  For the most part I felt lost with no way of discovering my blogging voice.


Reflecting back on my humble beginnings, I decided to put together everything I wish I'd known into one place - a Blogging 101 eBook.  I embarked on this project pretty recently, at the beginning of May, and hope to have it completed in August of 2012!  I also offer a bunch of articles on Boosting your Blog over on Five Sixteenths.

Today I want to share with you 5 things to remember when writing a blog post:


Keywords in the title - What is your post about? What are the key things you want a potential reader to know about the post? Consider titling your posts with words relating to topic.  For example, this post is titled 5 Things to Remember Before you Hit Publish. Which is exactly what the post is about!  Consider giving a few of your reoccurring posts the same lead in title.

On Five Sixteenths, I usually post DIY's on Monday with a lead in title of Make it Monday.  Every post also has a descriptive subtitle so that readers know what they are clicking on.  While being vague is alluring, readers want to know exactly what they are clicking on.  Their time is precious & you don't want them to click on a vague post title & then quickly hit the back button!


Link to previous blog posts - Your post is prime real estate for advertising previous posts on your blog.  Are you posting a DIY that goes along with another DIY you've posted? Link to it!  This works great in reverse as well & builds up some excitement.  I've posted the finished product in an outfit post & then posted the DIY the following Monday.  You're readers will come back because they want to know!  Linking to other posts on your blog also begins to develop your story.  A first time reader wants to get to know you so give them a reason to continue clicking through your blog.  Linking to other posts tells them exactly who you are.  I usually try to link to at least two other blog posts.  I also have a small sentence at the end of my reoccurring posts describing what the feature is & where to find more posts like it.


Tell a story - Remember to be honest & to tell a story in your posts.  Talk to your  readers like they are you friends.  They want to get to know you!  Ask yourself if you are being honest & true to yourself in this post.  Does this post reflect the you that you've mentioned on your about page?  Be an honest & respectable blogger by being genuine. 


Evaluate the Image width - Remember me saying something about your post being awesome real estate? This is true for your pictures as well!  Make sure your pictures are high quality, color corrected realistically, & wide enough to fit your post body.  Think of your blog like a magazine - you don't want too much white space.  The most successful blogs use images that take up the entire post body with a little bit of padding on the side.  Here's how I found that I like my images to be 650px in length: First, I like to use Google Chrome because it's easier for me & faster, so that is what this is based off of.  There are many ways to do it, but I think Google Chrome is the simplest..it highlights everything for you! Go to your blog & right click on a section of your post body.  Select 'Inspect Element'.  A bunch of crazy gibberish should come up on the bottom of your screen.  Mouse over some of that crazy gibberish until you see this:

That will tell you the width of your post body.  My post body is 661px wide so I make my images 650px to leave a good buffer around them.  I change the width by clicking the HTML tab & locating each width="  " occurrence.  Inside the "  " I put 650, but you will put your number.  I also delete each height="   " occurrence so I don't have to figure out the percentage between the new & the original numbers.  Blogger automatically resizes the height!


Use those labels - This is something I see under used a lot! Labels make it easier for readers to locate posts on the same topic.  It also helps you link to every post on a certain topic.  All my DIY posts are labeled with DIY that way when I want to link to every DIY post all I have to do is locate one post, click the label DIY, & copy and paste the url that appears in the address bar.

This is helpful if you want to have a button on your blog that links to all posts on the same topic!  Just like Justine's buttons on the right side there.  If you click How To: Blog, you'll be taken to all her blog tutorials!


I use Blogger for my blogging platform & my favorite part of editing a post is the preview option.  This lets me see how a post will look when it goes live on the blog.  (I am sure a lot of other platforms have this too).  When I think I've finished a post, I click preview to see how it looks.  It is then that I go through this check list & see what needs to be added & formated.  These 5 things make your post appealing to search engines & to readers, allow you to easily organize your posts, & help you generate better content.


I hope these tips have inspired you to use your blog posts to their full potential!  If you're interested in more blog tips, take a peak through Justine's library of posts or pop on by Five Sixteenths!


Share with Justine & I your must-do blog tips before you hit publish.  Have I missed anything?


**Thank you so much Moe! This post was great! If anyone would like to contribute to this series you can email me at justinelynn08@gmail.com with How To: Blog as your subject :)**

Bits & Pieces

It's Memorial Day! Happy Memorial Day! How was your weekend? Hopefully you are having a marvelous and relaxing day. Today I plan to sit a lot, watch the Dodger game, eat a turkey burger and laugh with my boyfriend. This weekend was chalked full of planning planning planning.

+Friday: I was supposed to work today, but alas it was slow and I was able to take the day off! So, I ran, did some homework, hung out at my boyfriends nice house with a great view and watched his families dogs, and did a lot of blog stuff! I have been planning planning and planning over here trying to set a lot of things in place.

+Saturday: I worked a lot on Saturday. 10 hour shift slinging pizza. Sounds for an epic day eh? Lol. Well my night was great, I hung out with Kyle and my sister, they are my favorite.

+Sunday: I randomly opened the store today, so I worked from 9-4. I got really strong awful detergent cleaner on my skin (Use gloves everyone!) And had to go nextdoor to the clinic and they treated me for free! It was so nice of them, OH, and that reminds me, a lady who was in front of me in line at Sprouts before work bought my drink! Saying "I have been bad this week, I need some good Karma" Lol...Ok lady whatever works for you! This is awesome! Then lastly, Kyle and I went to a vision meeting at the church we are trying out! It's really important to us to know where our church is going, where it's spending its money, etc.


*If you missed the print printable Calender post for yesterday make sure to check it out! I love recieving the emails all day seeing that people are printing it, makes me smile.
*I updated my menu bar to the top right of my header and took a note from Kam's blog an organzied a lot of my "How To" posts. You can click the link above, or this one.
--This week I have 2 guest Posters, and a post about my workout fuel + another quick tutorial on Thursday--
--In my personal life I have a lot of studying for finals to do, a lot of working out to do, work, selling t-shirts for Highschool Baseball at the Dodger Stadium on Friday, helping out with Kyle's dad's non-profit on Saturday. Hope everyone has a great week! Anyone have anything fun planned? It's going to be June soon!!!!

Free Printable // Calendar

I have been using a calendar for all my posts now since I am getting more organized! So, I thought I would offer to all of you the calendar I whipped up :)

Just click the "Add to Cart" button and you will be re-directed to the free download. Have a great day!

Healthy Eating: Cerviche Tacos.

It seems that everyone is on a diet now-a-days doesn't it? And not only are they on a diet, but they are very busy. So busy they spending crazy amounts of money for "on-the-go" for what they think is healthy food. I used to be one of those people. But, after months and months of reconstructing my spending habits and being smart with me money (thank God I have a wise boyfriend), I am now a beleiver of 2 things. 
1. We should do things ourselves. 
2. Buy in bulk.

Today I want to share with you an easy easy recipe that you can make on Sunday night and have for the rest of the week! (You  must like fish though). My personal trainer gave me this recipe and I am in love. 

They look so tasty right?!
Here is the simple simple recipe:

• Chop up 3 tilapia filets (You can find frozen bags for crazy cheap, I get mine at Winco for 2.99)
• Chop cilantro (its your preference to how much), tomatoes (I used half of one), pepper (I used jalapeno but you can chose any pepper you like), and half of a chopped up white onion & combine with fish in large bowl
• Squeeze limes and lemons over above mixture (2 lemons, 3 limes)
• Chop red onion and lay over top
• leave in refrigerator overnight (Note: the citrus is what cooks the fish over night! Trust me! I am not a *huge* raw fish lover, and this is not too fishy at all)

Then to prepare I just heated up the corn tortillas on the stove and spooned in my cerviche! It's so good you guys, so easy and really good for you. 

Good luck if you decide to try this! Next week I will post my healthy Chicken Salad Recipe.

Things to Know Thursday.

Personal Things:
1. I started a really clean eating diet on Tuesday. It includes Chicken Salad made with plain greek yogurt instead of mayo, Ceviche and turkey burgers, etc. There's not sugar or salt in it, so, it has taken a lot of getting used to, but everyday it's easier. I am really trying to tone up and lose some excess fat before I go onto a week long rafting trip in June.
2. I love Netflix. I am sure most of you do too, but I love that I can re-watch old tv shows, I started Dawson's Creek yesterday, my old favorite.
3. Kyle and I celebrated our 6 months on Monday :)

Blog-o-sphere things:
1. Here is a list of new blogs I have found recently that I am swooning over:

• Moe from Five Sixteenths. 
• A most I really like from here is her blogging balance post, and her thrift list post!
• Rebekka from Dear Friend.
• Just read her About page, you will fall in love too.
• Natasha from Paper Crowns.
• Now, you may all know her, but I didn't and I LOVE the story of her and her husband.

Design Survey.