I have done the plank before in the past but due to bad form, I injured my back for two months and I hadn't tried it ever since. I was scared to honestly because I didn't want to hurt myself again. Fortunately though I started out slow and worked my way up - sort of - and this helped me achieve a huge milestone for me. 

    To do the plank, one gets in a push up position, making sure their back is leveled and arms are straight. You can either lower yourself on your elbows or simply stay upright - I found doing the plank on my elbows was much harder so I stuck with doing it upright instead throughout most of my challenge.

    The plank challenge is self explainable but essentially everyday you increase your plank time. Some do a 30 day plank challenge but I personally didn't want to do that and only stuck to 20 days; plus, my arms started to get too defined and didn't like it!

    On day one, I could only do 10 seconds of the plank and it was the most intense 10 seconds of my life! I felt so defeated that I did the plank multiples times the first few days just to get my muscles/body used to it. After day three, Dimitar encouraged me to jump straight into 1 minute and while I was skeptical about it, I went with it. 

    I was able to do 1 minute but I constantly had to take breaks - and when I say breaks, I mean positioning my body up into a triangle to release weight from my arms. I did that for several seconds before going back into the plank position until the time was done. This was the only way I was able to do the plank, otherwise I would have struggled so much. 

    Every day after that, I consistently increased my time by an extra 5 seconds. It was hard and I had to take many breaks whenever I felt like my arms were going to give in, but it helped me challenge myself while at the same time taking it slow. While many people aim for 5 minutes on a plank challenge, I didn't want to push myself that far; just doing a minute for me was a huge accomplishment!

    By the end of my 20 days, I was able to do a minute and 20 seconds. There were days where I tried to push through a minute without breaks and those days really left my arms burning. I noticed about a week in that my arms felt toned and the sleeves on my shirts felt tighter. I also noticed that my stomach area was more toned, along with my buttocks. While I'm sure I'd have to continue doing the plank to see drastic results, I'm still very pleased. 

    I think doing the plank is a great total body work out that will really target problematic areas just as long as you stick with it. For me, those problematic areas were my arms, stomach, and inner thighs. I'm actually thinking about doing the plank every day just to keep my muscles toned in combination with my current workout routine.

    Since I have a nice vacation planned for August, I really want to look and feel my best and doing the plank has helped me realize how strong I really am, but also has helped me feel more confident with my own body. Should everyone try the plank? Of course!

Until next time! xoxo - Sarah

    Summer is here and do you know what that means? It's vacay time! A time where you can overload on Vitamin D, forget the world for a bit, get super tanned, and relax with no shame. For me, it's also a time to celebrate my birthday which just so happens to be in August. Since I have been feeling burnt out these past few years from practically everything, Dimitar and I have decided that we'd plan a trip to Florida to enjoy ourselves. 

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    If you're like me, the whole trip planning process is so exciting. I love everything from searching for the best flights, finding out the latest attractions to visit, and putting together a trip planner so that it all comes together into one big memorable experience. After all, to me life is all about experiences - not material things - so we should go out of our way to make life enjoyable. 

    You may be asking, why Florida? Well...why not? For starters, my boyfriend and I passed through Florida a few years ago when we went on our trip to the Bahamas, but we didn't really have a chance to see much of Florida itself. After the little that we did see though, it made us both want to make an official visit, which brings us to today because we are officially going to Florida!

Florida Bayfront

    My rule of thumb for finding the best deals on flights is to look at least 3 to 6 months in advance. I also try to find the most affordable tickets that have the least amount of layover time; CheapOAir, Kayak, and Google Flights tend to have great deals. Before any trip, I always make sure to track flight prices too in case the prices go down and I can get an even better deal - I love it when that happens! 

    Fortunately, since I live on the East Coast, traveling to Florida around this time of year comes at a decent price; about $130 for a round-trip. I'm sure it could have been a lot cheaper if I had booked even sooner, but I was rather happy with this price. JetBlue, our Airline, is actually one of the few Airlines now that has a low checked bag fee, while even fewer have the first one being free. *sigh* I can still remember the days where the 1st checked bag used to be free...

Bayfront Park

    I did have a hard time trying to choose between Airbnb's though. Some were beautiful but weren't ideally located. Some had great amenities but were over our budget. I finally decided to go with a hotel that was literally in the middle of everything which would make shopping and moving around so much easier. The great thing about Miami is that there are a ton of bike rental ports around the city so we can get around easily without having to spend too much money on Ubers.

    I also have a few attractions in mind that I am excited to see as well - and yes, this trip will be vlogged for my YouTube channel! I went ahead and organized all of the attractions according to their distance, that way we can choose which one to go to first depending on how close it is to our hotel. I've also planned out each day which will help us make the most out of our trip. It sounds hectic, but the beach is literally my top priority!

Our booked hotel

    All in all, if you're looking to travel during the summer time, now is the time to do it! Take advantage of every day you are gifted with, live your best life with more experiences, and spread love and positivity where ever you go. 

Until next time!  xoxo - Sarah

    Happiness to me has always felt like a fleeting idea; something I could only fantasize about or see in the movies. Since my childhood was filled with constant hardship, I naturally grew up wondering how or why I was faced with such difficulties compared to the kids around me. 

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    These questions burned within me for such a long time that it took years of battling with the world and everything going on from within me to realize the bigger picture of it all. Through such conflicts, I realized from a very dark place inside of me that love was always the missing piece.

   I may not know you personally, but I do know that you want happiness and if you're like me, you refuse to believe that a life of hardship is all this world has to offer you. After all, if life was nothing but pain and cruelty, it would sound more like a prison and what would the purpose of life be if that were the case? 

    Well, thankfully, life isn't a prison, and over the years I've come to see life as a game of chess. When you play chess, the objective is to complete the game through a series of strategic strategies, by capturing your opponents pieces so that you'll eventually take over the king and queen and win. 

    The thing is, with chess there are at least thousands of different moves one can use so your ways of winning are numerous; just like life itself. Depending on your desires, actions, and responses to the world around you, your life will give you the many different outcomes. It's important to remember that the next time you feel stuck - you are in control and you do have options.

    To play chess you have to maintain your composure to think clearly if you want to win - just as you would in life if you were to be faced with challenges that you want to overcome. The best way to get through anything I've learned, is through love. It is the foundation to everything.

    Loving myself helped comfort me when I was in foster care and I felt alone and abandoned. Loving myself helped me leave toxic relationships and pushed me to believe in myself when no one around me did. When my mom passed away unexpectedly, loving myself helped me take baby steps towards healing so I could live again. 

    The lack of love has been the root to all of the pain in my life and I guarantee that if you were to look deep within your own life, you would find a missing piece that needs a bit of love and attention too. 

     When your thoughts, emotions, and actions are all in sync and funded with love, naturally your life will become brighter and clearer. You can't control what life gives you, but you can control how you respond and since life is like a game of chess (not a box of chocolates!) - you have thousands of different ways to succeed. 

    If you wanted to pursue a dream that you have had on your mind for a while now, you can make it happen if you feed your dream with love - everything else will come naturally and on it's own. If you find yourself stuck and in a rut, giving yourself love will help you get through the hardship and make you stronger. 

    This is why I firmly believe that the world is made up of love - the very thing that we as a universe struggle to get on the same page about. When you look at the world as a whole, you will see communities torn apart by division or you will see countries fighting one another due to not having compassion for themselves or the people. 

    When a child is born, they're born into this world completely dependent on their parents for everything, including love. But a love from a child's parents cannot be replaced which is why a child's upbringing and happiness can be determined by the amount of love and support it receives from it's parents. Love, as we see, is shown to be the foundation to everything - the answer to happiness. 

    When you take the time to focus on any goal you have or to improve your life, you do so because you love yourself enough to give back to yourself. When I struggled with losing weight, and I have majority of my life, it was because I didn't love myself enough to focus on eating better and exercising my body. I didn't love myself and it reflected physically in my life. 

    Just as a child depends on it's parent's for love and care because it is small and vulnerable, as we grow older and become more involved in life, the inner child in us all depends on us for the same care our parents gave to us. In every aspect of our lives we have to give back to the child within us so that we thrive and see what we are truly capable of. 

    We as human beings are curious by nature and when you get rid of the complexities and negativity of it all, it truly boils down to us and how much love we give to our own self-development. It's only then that we will see how beautiful life really is. 

Until next time! xoxo - Sarah

YouTube: Frog Pamper Moony Plus

    Look. I know you're looking up at the above photo and thinking to yourself, "Now that is a one chubby frog," and I honestly couldn't agree more - which is why these frogs have become my new obsession! I seriously cannot get enough of them. Dimitar is constantly giving me looks because all I send him on Instagram are photos of these chubby frogs - he definitely knows what's coming. 

    Just for the record, I have never ever been into frogs because I never was drawn to them. Just recently though I stumbled across a post on Instagram of one of these chubby frogs and at first I thought they were cute. Well, you know how Instagram works (you like one post, they send you a bazillion more) and next thing I knew, I had become obsessed. 

    If you're wondering what these adorable frogs are called - like I had - they're called Common Rain Frogs; specifically, Breviceps, or short-headed frogs. I'm truly convinced that if everyone in the world were to own one of these little guys, it would bring world peace! I mean, just look at them!

Wikipedia

    Common Rain Frogs are mostly found in Southern Africa where the climate is known for being hot and dry. They live most of their life underground, only to come up to the surface for food, water and to find a mate. They're a thriving species too which brings me joy and relief; if it were otherwise, I think it'd lose hope in mankind (jk, I could never allow myself get to such a low point).

    These frogs are quite extraordinary though and aren't like most frogs. Most frogs are known for hopping from one place to another, but not these frogs. These frogs were gifted to have short legs (like me) forcing them to strut around instead. To make matters even funnier, is their round bodies that help them disguise themselves to look like rocks when on the surface. But don't be fooled - they may be round and have short legs, but they're fast! Also, these frogs are born not as tadpoles like most frogs are, but as already formed frogs; it's truly fascinating! 

    I've come to honestly love everything about these frogs because they're nothing like a frog. I have nothing against frogs, but the whole hopping aspect doesn't appeal to me. These chunky little guys though have completely won my heart over - they still eat bugs but I can handle it if it means getting to be near these little guys. Dimitar is scared to the thought of me getting one because he knows if I had my way, I'd have a room in our home dedicated specifically for my pets - no joke!

Chunky Rain Frogs

    My days are a lot better when I can start it off with a dose of Rain Frogs. Watching them rub their eyes clean or message their plump belly's, or climb over other Rain Frogs to eat is so comical; it really makes me see frogs in a whole new manner. And don't get me started on their yawning! I have never seen a frog yawn and it's literally cuteness overload for me - so much that I have a background saved on my phone of a Rain Frog yawning. Seeing that first thing in the morning really makes me smile.

    I love Rain Frogs so much even that I have gone out of my way to draw them. Normally, if I am really drawn to something, I like to draw it - pardon the pun! Drawing is my way of closing the deal, or finalizing my admiration for these plump little frogs and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Could they be my spirit animal, you may ask? It's quite possible. 

    Since little is really known on how to care for these babies if you do own them as pets, I have done a great deal of research on how to properly care for one. I managed to come across a YouTube channel called Frog Pamper Moony Plus and it's a Japanese channel dedicated to caring for frogs - mostly Rain Frogs. Even though I don't understand the language, I have learned so much already from this channel which has reassured me that I can one day get one - for now I can only admire them from a distance and continue learning more about them. 

Until next time! xoxo - Sarah