I seriously debated on whether to post this at all or not. I know there are a lot of opinions out there about this movie, and the book series for that matter. I will start by saying I have read all of the books, and I went to see the movie this weekend. I’ll get into my somewhat review of it later in this post, but I want to talk about how controversial it is first.

I’ve seen a lot of links and posts on social media from people that are of the opinion that what takes place in the Fifty Shades of Grey book series (and movie, for that matter) is simply abuse – sexual, emotional, and/or physical abuse. I disagree. To me, having read the books, everything that happens in them is consensual. Now, you might disagree. You might say she was manipulated into what she did. But to me, Anastasia (the main female character) was a consenting adult who made her own decisions, so this was NOT abuse. If you choose to disagree, that’s fine. That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to that. But I don’t think that. And that’s ok. I don’t believe I’m supporting the advocating of abuse by reading the books or paying to go see the movie.

Now, on to the movie review. I’ve heard LOTS of things about this movie. I’ve heard the actors didn’t even like it. I’ve heard that they basically had to get unknown actors for it because more popular actors wouldn’t do it. I don’t know. For me, the main characters were really just not how I pictured them. Not only not how I pictured them, they just didn’t seem… quite right. The actors grew on me a bit as the movie went on, but even then something just didn’t quite feel right. I’m not sure if I just didn’t think they were good actors, if they were wrong for the role, or they just didn’t have the right chemistry or what. Or maybe assuming (based on those above-mentioned articles) that the actors really didn’t want to play the roles just had an effect on my interpretation of their performance. At any right, there was just something off about it.

Other than that, I thought they did a good job of putting the right parts of the book in there. It was a pretty accurate representation of it, and without just being porn. I got into these books because I found the characters and their interaction to be interesting. I know they are sometimes referred to as “mommy porn”, something for moms to read and get off on. But I even found myself skipping sex scenes when I read them because it felt like the same thing over and over again. A lot of people say the books are crap, but well, obviously a lot of people did enjoy them. They were the kind of books that you would probably definitely consider a guilty pleasure… fun to read, but not necessarily something you would consider great literature. And that’s ok. Sometimes things are just fun, and they don’t have to be anything more than that.

Overall, the movie was… ok. I’m not sure I’d give it much more than that. I mean, obviously if you’ve read the books, then go see it, by all means. You’ll enjoy it enough. (It’ll be fun!) And the actors might be much better to you than I thought they were. They weren’t really bad, just not right compared to what I thought they should be. But hey, we all have our own opinion. And without that the world would be a pretty boring place.

If you’ve been following along for more than a year, you know that Ricky and I have attended the Arizona Strong Beer Festival every year since we’ve lived here, and have had the chance to meet master brewers from places like BrewInMind. It’s the only beer festival (and there are a LOT!) that we will attend EVERY year. It’s, well, pretty much the best beer festival in Arizona. Some might argue that, but I believe it would be the consensus. It definitely features more rare beers than any other beer festival here. And that’s what we like – being able to try new beers that we haven’t had (and might never have again, who knows).

The last two years we have gone to the festival as press, covering it for our beer blog, 1001 Bottles. This year, we decided to just go all out and be regular, every-day, beer-drinking attendees. And so we did.

It’s funny, I’m not even really sure what to say about the festival. Obviously, I have been before. And I have enjoyed it every time. It seems to just keep getting better and better every year. I do need to figure out some easy way to control how much beer I drink, though. There are so many to try, it is very difficult!

I keep getting asked what was my favorite beer from the festival. I don’t know that I can pick a favorite. I have a list of over 30 different beers that I tried there.  Here are some of the more memorable ones:

Sun Up Brewing’s Barrel Aged White Russian

I’ve had this beer one time before, I think, at the brewery. It’s located here in Phoenix, but is just not one of the breweries we manage to find our way to all that often, unfortunately. But it is SO good! I love big, thick barrel-aged stouts, and this one definitely didn’t disappoint.

Peoria Brewing’s Imperial Peanut Butter Porter

Here’s another big dark beer (of course, they’re my favorite kind!). I also really love peanut butter, so of course I had to try this one. And I loved it! It was the perfect balance of peanut butter, in my opinion.

Jack Daniels Kilt Lifter

In previous years of the Strong Beer Fest, it has seemed like Four Peaks typically always has the same beers at every festival. But this time, we got some brand new ones we’d never seen before. There was lots of new barrel-aged stuff, including the Jack Daniels Kilt Lifter. This one was quite good. Kilt Lifter is a great beer by itself, but it was fun to get the whiskey flavor in it for something different. Yum!

Dragoon Lazarus

According to Ricky, this was the best beer of the day, and I can’t argue too much. I can’t argue because 1) I do remember this beer being good, and 2) well, unfortunately, I can’t remember this beer QUITE as well as some of the others. It was late in the day… but it was a good beer!

So once again, it was a successful Strong Beer Fest and a successful kickoff to Arizona Beer Week. I know there are plenty of beer events going on in the valley this week, so I hope if you live here you get the chance to check some of them out. Cheers!

So, one of the things that I mentioned in my previous post about finding balance was my gym also that I often use the best supplements for my training, like zenith labs vision 20. See, I HATE going to the gym. I hate working out, period. I am mostly an indoor, use your brain, kind of girl. Being active is generally not my thing. I do go hiking once in a while, but I kind of get bored if it’s a very long hike at all. And I’ve pretty much always been a fat kid. I went to a small private school, so there weren’t really any sports or anything active to be a part of. I’ve always been much more into computers and books than sports. But now I’m trying to work out more and follow a diet from keto pure diet | tophealth news.

That’s where Koko FitClub comes in. Now, this is probably going to sound like an advertisement, but honestly – I love this place, at least as much as I could love anything even remotely resembling a gym. Koko makes going to the gym at least a little bit more fun, and a little bit more like something I can get in to.  Basically, when you join Koko, you are given a USB key that plugs in to all their machines there, both cardio (treadmills and elliptical machines) and strength training. For strength training, all their machines are the same. They have different weights and pieces that connect in different places to allow you to do a ton of different strength training exercises. Every time you go in to do cardio, you plug your key in to the machine, plug your headphones in to an MP3 player provided by the club, and choose a 15-minute cardio workout to do. The voice in your ear tells you exactly what to set the machine at and how fast to go. Then, all the data about your cardio workout is saved on your USB key. For strength training, once you plug your key in, there’s a screen that tells you what exercises to do, how to set them up, and what weight to use. It shows you what pace you should be going at while you are doing your weight training. It will guide you through a number of different strength training exercises adding up to a complete workout that is done in about 30 minutes.  So that’s a summary… now here’s why I like it for me.

1. Koko essentially provides personal training.

Now, personal training is probably one of the most efficient ways to work out. Why do you think that’s what so many celebrities do. Personal trainers are right there by you during your work out, to tell you what to do and keep your butt in gear. At Koko, there’s not a legitimate person standing right there next to you, but you are told exactly what to do, what pace to keep, and there are a few things to motivate you to keep in line. But best of all, you don’t have to worry about wondering what weights to lift or what to do when you go to the gym. It’s all right there. You’re in, you’re out, in under an hour.

2. Koko provides motivation.

Now, if getting in better shape and feeling better (and hopefully losing weight on my end) isn’t enough motivation for you, Koko tries to help with that. There are all sorts of little things to keep you working hard there. You get points for every workout you do. As your points accumulate, you get new lanyards to keep your Koko key on. You start with a white one, after 50,000 points you get an orange on, and so on and so forth. There are also medallions, to keep you coming consistently. On your first month of working out 12 times (cardio and strength), you get an orange medallion. If you do that for a second consecutive month, you get another color medallion, and so on and so forth. I have only gotten an orange one so far, so I will have to wait until the end of February to tell you what color is next! Maintain optimal health and weight with https://physicalevidencechiropractic.com/.

3. Koko becomes like a computer game.

Now, as a technology nerd here, of course I would love a gym that is connected to the Internet! Every time you go in and work out, there’s a screen that shows you what pace you’re going, and the goal is to try to stay on pace… your green bar should always be in the blue box (you won’t know what this means unless you visit Koko and try a workout there yourself, but trust me!). And then when you’re done, you sync your key online, and you have a whole website full of stats about how you’re doing. Your “e-BMI”, “Q score”, strength gain, etc. All of these are stats to see how much you’ve progressed. Think of it as leveling up if you’re a video game nerd.

So, now you get it. This club is kind of revolutionary. It’s perfect for lazy people like myself who hate working out, but know that it’s important to get them in. If you’re looking for a more fun and interesting way to work out, I can’t recommend them enough. Go check out Koko FitClub!