The pups have their own diaper bag... and have since basically day one home with me. It makes our life so much easier to be able to just grab the bag, toss a few things in it and be out the door. I've had this bag for a few years and it is my favorite so far so I wanted to show you the features in case anyone was also looking for a 'doggie diaper bag'. 

If you are interested in getting one they have gone down in price significantly since I purchased mine (yay!).

What Gets Packed:

• Travel Sleep Containment: Unleashed Pets Portable Foldable Pet Playpen
  
• Water Bottle: H2O4K9 Stainless Steel K9 Water Bottle
• Travel Bowls: Dexas Popware for Pets Elevated Pet Feeders
  
• Travel Waterer: Petmate Pet Cafe Gravity Waterer 0.25 G
  
• Food Storage: Gamma2 Travel-tainer
  
• And... 5-6 Days of Food, Medications, Leads & Harnesses, Toys, Potty Pads, Toothbrush, Medication Droppers, Brush, Sweaters (Or, Travel Dependent, Life Jackets, Etc.), And Their Car Seats
  

​Until Next Time, ​

I moved my financial updates into video format in May and completely forgot to also post them on the blog. I'm so sorry guys, please forgive me! I've been doing pretty well but had a few bumps along the way that caused me to restructure the way I am attacking my debt pay off goals. 

I'll make sure to get them posted over here as well going forward. The next one will be just a few weeks away actually! I'm excited to show you September's progress. :)

​Until next time,

Today I wanted to jump online for a few minutes to show you a little bit about how I manage lighting in my classroom.

I have a number of different lighting options in my office, and on the road, when I am working online. As the majority of my supplemental income is earned via telecommuting and is language learning based it is extremely important that the students be able to easily understand me as well as mimic me- which means they have to be able to see my face very well. If I want repeat students then I have to have decent lighting. Here are a few options, at various price levels I have tried so far:

• Auziwa Selfie Ring Light
• Adjustable Floor Lamp
• Product Photography Lamps
• Daylight Bulbs

Other options would be a soft box or a full size ring-light. 

I have used a number of different options in the 2+ years I have been with VIPKid and the number one key is just to get rid of shadows and make sure that you are well lit. Anything that gets you to that end- whether it be one of the above options or just a table lamp with the shade removed and a daylight bulb installed, which I have done- will work. 

Until Next Time, 

Fasting is not a new thing in general and it’s not a new thing for me personally either. I’ve fasted for surgery, for blood work, and I’ve done intermittent fasting on and off for the past year. I’ve never been a breakfast person so it wasn’t a difficult switch for me to do once I got into ketosis. This time was a little different though as I went for three full days. The longest I had ever gone in the past was 24 hours or so.
 
I hadn’t intended to fast for 72 hours when I woke up on Friday morning but nothing seemed good to me, and I certainly wasn’t interested in my packed lunch. In the past I would have likely just thought about what could fit my macros and then gone out and purchased something but as I am trying to save money I decided to just wait until I got home to eat. After all, I wasn’t hungry and I had food in my lunchbox if that changed. Once I got home I got busy with odds and ends… cleaning the house, teaching classes, writing up student feedback and etc. and completely forgot to eat. When I realized I’d gone well over 36 hours the next afternoon I figured I may as well push it and see if I could do a 72 hour fast. I had heard of really good results when it came to autophagy and general wellness for a 72 hour fast and I still wasn’t particularly hungry so figured now was the time to try it.
 
Most of the time during this fast I wasn’t hungry. There were the occasional urges to eat but they were from boredom or that it was the right time with two exceptions so were easy to ignore and go about my day. The first exception was when I was teaching a class all about food. Talking about food and being hungry for 25 minutes made me think hard about going and making something to eat in my kitchen but, as it was the first of 5 classes that night, I was back to being not hungry by the time I was finished teaching for the night and just went to bed without dinner. The second exception was right at the tail end of the fast. I had been cooking hamburgers for meal prep so the house had smelled like burgers for hours and, I’ll admit, I started watching that timer count down to 72 hours during that last hour or so.
 
The experience was actually really good overall. I felt very relaxed all weekend, got in a simple workout routine, cleaned my house and slept really well. I will definitely try to incorporate at least one of these per quarter if not more often as I hope to see some results with tightening skin (from the autophagy) as I continue to lose weight. I would not suggest going from a carb heavy diet directly into a fast though, it would likely be miserable, at least from my experiences with intermittent fasting and OMAD I can imagine that I would not have made it to the end.
 
Results of the fast? I started Thursday at 231.4 and ended Sunday at 226.4. That’s a five pound loss, which is amazing. Not all of that stayed gone after eating my first meal, as expected. The next day I weighed in two pounds heavier and the day after one pound down from that weight. So I would say that it leveled out at four pounds lost for the fast after taking into account that first day’s fluctuation. From the autophagy side of things I didn’t notice much of a difference but hope to as I have more loose skin to get rid of. Fingers crossed!
 
Until next time,