Grab Bag Get Your A** Moving:

Believe me… music can change everything when it comes to exercise. It is a language the body hears innately. Sometimes this can produce unwanted interference (no music for me in Pilates… my body and brain need to make their own music together when things get challenging).

But many times we need some inspiration. Look to Pandora to fuel your next walk/run/gym experience. Here’s what Blood Sweat and Cheers has to say about using Pandora for inspired sound tracks that will have you rocking through your next workout:

Pandora’s new intelligent workout stations know not only the songs and artists you like but the attributes behind those tunes — which it uses predict the perfect next track.

It starts with pre-programmed stations built around workout types — “Hard Rock Strength Training,” “80s Cardio” and “Yoga Workout” to name a few.

Then Pandora’s cyber brain learns from the plays on your smartphone or web-connected device, factors in your thumbs-ups and thumbs-downs and uses the attributes of your selections to spit out gem after gem.

So get the Pandora app on your mobile device, search for the stations listed in Pandora’s intelligent workout stations you find in the link above, pop on the headphones or connect to a sound system and start rockin’ yourself to health, my friends. If nothing else, do as my friend Kristi and I like to do and push the furniture aside, crank up the tunes and dance your heart healthy.

Grab Bag Namesake:

The curators at LaylaGrace.com have lovely traditional taste, and their offerings will surely have something for nearly everyone.

Specializing in Home & Bedding, Children, Women and Gifts, LaylaGrace.com has put together great collections for our viewing (and buying) pleasure.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have NOTHING to do with the naming, content or success of this site 🙂 )

Are you more into modern lines? LaylaGrace just opened a sister site for the more contemporary home decor fare, ZincDoor.com:

Grab Bag Munching H₂O:

Beautiful, healthy skin requires protection from the elements, adequate sleep for repair, and nourishment – mainly from the inside. And let’s not forget water… the panacea for all things that go bump on your forehead. But is the proverbial 8-glasses-a-day really the best thing? Not according to Dr. Howard Murad, founder of Murad skin care. Here is his take on the issue from TotalBeauty.com:

You’ve heard the eight glasses a day rule a trillion times, we know. But it turns out your body doesn’t retain a lot of that water, since it goes right through you during your frequent bathroom breaks. The secret to retaining water is by eating it, says Dr. Howard Murad, M.D., founder of Murad, Inc. and author of “The Water Secret.”

Murad suggests noshing on foods that have large quantities of H2O, such as watermelon (97 percent water) and zucchini (95 percent water). Cells can more easily absorb the water in food since it comes along with other nutrients that the body needs to absorb. As a general rule, start eating more fruits and vegetables, which have higher percentages of water than processed foods and meat.

Grab Bag Art Imitating Life:

Photorealist painter extraordinaire Dennis Wojtkiewicz has painted slices of fruit that would fool most of us into assuming these are photographs. An impressive attention to detail:

Grab Bag Brain Game:

A standard looking Word Search game, but this one requires you to search for one specific word at a time, honing your letter pattern skills:

WORD CRUNCH

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

If you haven’t seen this TV series, which started in 2008, I recommend it highly. It is well beyond television drama… this is a sociology experiment, and we get to watch.

You can stream the first 3 seasons on Netflix, the fourth season on videobb.com, and get up to date before the fifth (and last) begins sometime this year.

The best line in all of recent television history came from this AMAZING (and often disturbing) TV series, which I have fallen for in a BIG way…. 

“You don’t need a criminal lawyer. You need a criminal…  lawyer”.