During our East Coast Road Trip in June, we managed to knock off another item off our Summer Bucket List and that was to visit a state park. We visited Jones Beach State Park in New York. It started off as a cold and dreary day, but eventually the sun came out and warmed us up on the empty beach. It was a fun and relaxing day of playing in the sand, catching up with family, and for the brave ones, a little bit of splashing in the cold waters of the Atlantic.
We have a lot of family on the east coast, including Jason’s parents who live in NY, so we’d been wanting to go visit for a good while now. But, for one reason after another we hadn’t been able to go until this summer! So, of course it was the highlight of our Summer Bucket List! Like I said, there were lots of people to see and so much I wanted the kiddos to experience, so a road trip was just the thing to do. We narrowed the trip down to 11 days and crammed as much as we could into those days.
We flew into Philadelphia International Airport and rented a Jeep Patriot for our trek across the east coast. Even though it was pouring down rain, we managed to tour Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, and of course get a Philly cheesesteak for lunch! We stayed with my cousin and her family in Dover, DE that night and ate at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants there. The next day was rainy too, but we headed to Rehoboth Beach, DE and let the kids get on just about all the rides at the boardwalk’s Funland and have their fist taste of Thrasher’s boardwalk fries. Before the end of the day, the sun came out & we were able to enjoy playing in the sand a bit before heading back to Dover.
We said good-bye to our family in Delaware and drove to Washington DC, where we met up with my best friend from high school and her family. We toured DC for 2 days together before they continued their road trip down to Virginia Beach and we headed north to New Jersey. We took a side trip to Annapolis, MD for a super fun Pirate Adventure tour on the Chesapeake Bay. This was definitely a major highlight for the kiddos & us too 🙂
We made it to Jersey City, NJ in time for dinner with the family at a yummy Cuban restaurant. The next day was spent touring NYC and an awesome dinner with family at Tony D’Napoli’s in Times Square! The next day we headed to Long Island, NY, where Jason’s parents were anxiously awaiting the grandkids! Another cold rainy day didn’t stop us from going to the beach and having a great time! We had the beach nearly all to ourselves. The next day, Jason and I headed to NYC for a weekend getaway without the kids, while the grandparents spent an epic day with them at another beach and the aquarium.
The last days of our trip were spent back with Jason’s family in Long Island relaxing, going to the movies, and packing up for our long road trip back to Philadelphia to catch our flight back to home to Vegas. We made a fun stop before heading to the airport to take a photo with Rocky!
In review, we drove hundreds of miles, visited 5 states and Washington D.C. spent time with a ton of family and friends, and had an awesome time during it all! Can’t wait to start planning our next family summer adventure. Well, maybe we won’t wait till summer…
xo,
Jessie
I’d heard that exercising gave you energy and even helped put you in a good mood . Now, let me be the first to tell you, I was a skeptic. I could not in a million years image how something that was so dreadful and loathsome could make you feel good. Yes, that is how I honestly felt about working out and don’t even get me started on what I thought about the gym!
So, is it true? Does working out give you energy & put you in a good mood? Well, duh! I mean, the scientific facts do not lie. However, I don’t think it really gives the full picture. You see, just because I popped in a cardio DVD every once in awhile did not put me in a good mood. As a matter of fact, if I’m going to be really honest about it, it sometimes (read: usually) it put me in a bad mood. Why? Because it reminded me that I was out of shape, having to use my rescue inhaler 10 minutes into the DVD. Because I worked out from home and ended up being tripped, stepped on, or interrupted by my kiddos. Because if I waited until they napped, they would inevitably wake up early or would refuse to nap all together. And,let’s face it, nobody can properly workout with a crying toddler in the next room.
Ok so are wondering when the motivational part is coming? Here it is. I gave up. Yup, I gave up trying to workout at home and joined a gym. I joined the Las Vegas Athletic Club out of desperation and it was one of the best decisions I have made! You see, it turns out that I needed “my time” more than I care to admit! Although terrified to walk into the big intimidating building, here are a few things that helped me get started. 1) I worked out with a friend or my husband until I got brave enough to go on my own. 2) I tried lots of different classes until I found a few I really liked and Zumba was not it! 3) I put it on my schedule. In time working out became part of the routine. It did take a good amount of time, maybe 4 months or more for me to figure all this out, but once it became a habit, a regular part of my day, I started to see results. Not only in weight loss, but in my energy levels and mood. I noticed that I was able to wake up earlier and tackle some work before the rest of my family woke up. I also realized that on the times I couldn’t make it to the gym, I was cranky by the end of the day. I had less patience and really needed a drink (yikes! Did I just admit that to everyone?!?)
Of course, I’m not saying that everyone needs to go join the gym right now. I’m just sharing my story and what worked for me personally. The point is that you can’t give up. Exercise and a proper diet will give you the results you want. You just have to be willing to make some adjustments, commit to it, and find something you enjoy. It will take time to find what works for you, but once you find it, you’ll know. I’d love to hear what you’re doing to get regular exercise into your routine? Don’t be shy 🙂
xo,
Jessie
When we first started putting our summer bucket list together, my 4 year old Elysse whispered in my ear that she wanted to “get” her brother with silly string on the last day of school! We kept it a surprise from him, which, if you’ve ever asked a 4 year old to keep a secret, you know it was tough! She was so excited when the last day of school finally came and we went to pick him that afternoon. We waited until we were close to our car and out of the school playground to spray him with the silly string! The mission was a success! He was totally caught off guard and we got him good! I think the other kids were jealous their mom’s didn’t spray them with silly string too, but I can’t be sure 😉
After we got home I gave him his own can of silly string and let them have a true silly string fight. This time, I had my camera and caught some of the action! It was a great way to get our summer started! What kind of fun stuff are you and your family doing this summer?
This summer has been ridiculously hot in Las Vegas! 120 should never been the temperature inside your car! Sadly, the excessive heat & getting sick after just getting back from our vacation has kept us indoors more than we’d like. But, we’re still excited to be participating in our 3rd Summer Bucket List Challenge created by The Happy Family Movement.
This is a great way to have an intentionally fun summer with your
family and spend time together. Our kiddos really look forward to it
every year. The four of us will think of fun activities to do together
and then once we have our list ready, we put it up on the wall so we can
see it everyday and then start planning out the fun! Here’s our list
for this year! We’ve already marked a few things off our list and will be blogging all about them soon! It’s not too lat to sign up too, just click HERE ! What fun stuff are you and your family doing this summer? I’d love to hear about it! xo
So, last week I was so excited about starting Whole 30 and really stepping up my clean eating and Paleo lifestyle. Jason even said he’d do it along with me, so that was a major plus. I planned on doing some meal prep on Monday morning to help make things easier and get Jason some good lunches set up. And then, I got sick. And then, my 4 year old got sick. And then, my 8 year old got sick. Yup, last week at the Emeric household was kinda nightmarish. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the gym all week. Did I get started on Whole 30? I tried. But honestly, with all of us sick with the stomach bug at some point last week, it just was not something I could handle. Meal prep went out the window and Jason wasn’t ready to do it on his own, having not done Paleo consistently before. When I managed to eat something, I did eat healthy Paleo foods most of the week, but then I broke down. I asked Jason for some “comfort food” aka red wine, carne asada nachos from Roberto’s & Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. Talk about being an enabler, Jason! Oh wait, that’s another excuse, isn’t it? Wow, my food list seems even worse now, seeing it all typed out! My main excuse? I was exhausted from taking care of sick kiddos and I though the food would make me feel better. Did it? Not really. I was still exhausted, stressed, and now I was feeling guilty for having eaten all that junk. Did it taste good, though? You bet!
So, those were my excuses for not keeping my promise of starting Whole 30 and falling hard off the “healthy” bandwagon! I’m really disappointed in myself for making such a bad choice but I feel really determined now to get back on track. I know, I know, I said that in my last post, but there’s something about today that has me feeling super pumped. Maybe it’s the coffee. Either way, here’s to starting this week off with a bang! xo
We headed out on our 11 day vacation up the east coast earlier this month. We had a great time visiting with friends and family and taking in the sights! Before we left, I was very nervous about not keeping up with my exercise routine and of course, eating healthy. There was a ton of food on our list that we just had to have- food that we don’t have here in Las Vegas or that is just way better on the east coast. I told myself I would make healthy food choices and only have small tastes of the junk food I wanted, ie. Mr. Softee, pizza, boardwalk fries, etc.. I admit, it was a long list!
So, how did I do? Not so great. I had really good intentions, but temptation got the best of me and I didn’t really make as many healthy food choices as I should have, I over-indulged in junk food, and didn’t practice much self-control. Can you believe one of the days we were on our trip was National Donut Day, plus I hadn’t had Thrasher’s Boardwalk Fries in over 10 years! Is this a good excuse? Probably not, but it’s what I told myself to justify it. (See, I told you this blog would be about the ups & downs and keeping it real!) I will say that although I wasn’t limiting myself like I should have, my portions of junk food weren’t as big as they would’ve been a year ago and I did manage to work out 4 days of the 11 days we were away. That helped, right?!? And, even though my food choices weren’t the best while on vacation, they were still my choices and I’m ok with that.
Life lesson? Don’t be too hard on yourself while on vacation, but don’t be too lenient either. Set some guidelines for yourself before you go, even if you don’t stick to them 100% you’ll still do way better than if you just let yourself run wild. Believe me, I know. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick to your healthy ways, just move on. Most importantly, make sure you get back on track as soon as you get back home. Don’t stay in vacation mode too long or it’ll be much more difficult to go back to healthy eating and exercising. This I also know from experience. Vacations have always been the death of my weight loss programs in the past, but not this time. Knowing where I’d failed in the past, made me even more determined to get back to my Paleo eating habits and working out regularly. Before we went away, I told myself I’d start the Whole 30 program when I got back. Here’s a quick description of the program straight from their website, it’s a ” short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you restore a healthy
metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and
put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food.” It’s based on the Paleo program, just a little more intense and no cheating allowed! I’m excited to be starting this today for many reasons but mostly, because my husband, Jason, will be joining me! He hasn’t been doing Paleo like I have for the past 8 months, so this is a big deal! I’ll be blogging about our Whole 30 experience once a week, so stay tuned! If you want a daily dose of my Whole 30 progress,follow me on instagram !
I do not claim to know it all, because well, I know I don’t know it all. I’m no fitness guru and definitely not the perfect mom, hence the title to this shiny new blog, “I’t’s a Messy Life”. Yes, my life is messy and I’m pretty sure yours is too. And if it’s not, why haven’t you shared your secrets with the rest of us?
I started to make some life changes in February 2012 and you can read more about my story HERE. It was a rough start, with no direction, no clue what I was doing, and definitely no plan. I tried every class at the gym, I thought if I worked out I could eat more because I was burning more calories (ha, reality check, that is not the case!). Slowly but surely I found a routine, I started changing my eating habits, and the weight started to come off. But the best thing was that I started to FEEL better! I actually enjoyed working out because it put me in a better mood and gave more energy. You working moms know how much energy is needed to get through the day, right?!?
There has been no magic pill, no easy way out, just lots of sweat (literally) and determination. It didn’t hurt that I’d signed up for Tough Mudder and was scared to death about….well, dying. Thankfully, I didn’t die. I got my orange headband and free XX beer and found a new me in the process.
This new girl takes pictures of her Paleo (and sometimes not Paleo) food on Instagram, checks in every time at the gym, and even poses flexing her biceps. Who am I? Yup, my old friends don’t recognize me and my husband says he has a new wife (I don’t think he’s complaining, though).
This journey is just beginning. I am just now starting to see and feel the benefits of healthy eating and exercising. I’m not perfect. My life is messy. There are days I’ll eat those nachos, I’ll work too much, stress out, and feel like a horrible parent. That’s where this blog comes in. I’m hoping this will be the place I can share my stories, ideas, challenges, failures, and dreams! I’ve got big plans for this little blog and I hope you’ll stick around and join me in the ups and downs of life, fitness, Paleo eating, and parenting.
xo,
Jessie
It's a Messy Life 