Monthly Archives: January 2019

Jurassic Quest comes to New Jersey!

Posted in Activities, Kids and Moms by

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A few weeks ago my 6 year old son and I visited “Jurassic Quest” at the Edison New Jersey Expo Center. Was it worth the entry fee? Yes and no. I got the VIP pass for my son because he is so into Jurassic Park right now, I wanted him to experience all there was to see at the expo and make sure he was able to do everything. The thing is, it seems like they boasted the “VIP” pass as so many extras, when in reality, I do not think we even did anything “VIP” the whole time there.

The main attraction was the walk through of Dinosaurs which was amazing! It had over 30 prehistoric dino’s right in front of our faces. They were huge awesome animatronics that spanned 3 feet in some cases, and growled and roared just like you’d expect if you were back in the land before time.

In this area was a chance to “ride” a dinosaur. They had 6 set up, and this is one are that VIP came in handy because otherwise we would’ve had to buy a ticket. We still had to wait in the same line, no special line, but just flashed the wristband to climb aboard the T-Rex. I really thought my son would want to “ride” all of them, but he only chose the T-Rex and wasn’t really interested in the others after. It isn’t much of a ride, it is more of a photo op experience.

Check out the amazing area they had set up and all of the cool scenes!

Walking out of the walk through area, we saw a cool ring setup but couldn’t really get close enough to see in it. There were so many people just piled around it, there was no way to squeeze in although I would’ve found a way if my son really wanted to. I stepped on my tippy toes and was able to see if was a guy walking around showing a “baby dinosaur”. I assume it was nothing more than an adorable animatronic from photo’s I’ve seen of the events at other venues, so my son decided he didn’t care to see it, but as a VIP paying extra, I think it should’ve been a separate showing or at least a section for VIP’s to go in and out. Check out the video posted by Jurassic Quest on their youtube;

My son did enjoy the giant inflatable slides and bounce houses that were a perk of VIP, but there were lines for all of them, and after going on each once he was done.

There were some cool 4D photo sections, but VIP did NOT include them and they cost extra. We didn’t do it as my son wasn’t interested.

Everyone got to take part in the craft section which was really cute and worth the 30 minutes we sat there for him to glue the pieces all together. He left with it proudly!

The store section before we left was quite like a flea market the way everything was layed out, but the prices were nothing like one. They had a lot of cute stuff but be prepared to pay A LOT for anything you get including the cute adorable “walking” balloons like they had in the Jurassic World movie. We didn’t buy one because they were $20, but my son did buy a $26 T-Rex small figure…

All in all, he had a great time and I would definitely go again if he is still into Dinosaurs when it comes back to town. We only spent about 2 hours total there, but it wasn’t to far from my house so it wasn’t bad. Being that the VIP was only $10 more, I guess I would do it again since it included the slides and the photo ops, but I think parents should be free since kids are not permitted without an adult.

 

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Daily Goodie Box January 2019

Posted in Kids and Moms, Product Reviews by

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2019 is here! And that means all new, 2019 products to test! My son has been getting into doing reviews and I thought this would be fun for him.  Check out what’s in the January box in the video at the bottom!
Daily Goodie Box. It’s more than just Free Samples!
If you’re interested in any of the products in this box click the links below!
Karma Wellness Water – Immunity Booster
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Shrewd Food – Brickoven Pizza Protein Crisps
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Tiger Balm Active – Muscle Spray
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Rustic Maka – ILLUMINATE Activated Charcoal Whitening Tooth Powder
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CUSA Tea – Premium Instant Tea
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Blister Balm –  Protective Lip Treatment
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Intermittent Fasting 16/8 – Does it really work?

Posted in Activities by

It’s a new year, and there are many “New Year/New Me” resolutions flying around. I haven’t had a resolution in a while (see my quitting smoking post) due to the fact that they usually fail when you do not know the real reason your doing it and forced a timeline in to fit it into the New Year week. If it’s something you really want to do, you would do it anyway, not because of a new year rolling in.

Seriously, has anyone ever succeeded in keeping a New Years resolution?

Anyway, my reasoning for starting the intermittent fasting (IF), 16/8 specifically, is that my bootcamp I have been a part of for over a year now has a new challenge going on. A team challenge where a bunch of people join a team (side note; go team ThinItIoWinit!) and try to reach a common goal. They will be tracking the teams by average weight loss for 12 weeks. I do not need to lose weight, nor does the rest of my team; hence the name, but I do want to tone and be healthier.

My uncle is a trainer for a big gym in NYC, and has mentioned the 16/8 to me many times in the past. It basically re-balances your metabolism. Somewhere along the line I got into a habit of eating much more during the day than I need to. I replaced the cigarette addiction with a food addiction. I never used to be a breakfast person, but then I heard that breakfast is important for fuel source, etc… For some it may be, but for me it added to my caloric intake, and really made me feel more sluggish during the morning. I am not good at following a diet, or special meal prep plans as others are, and I actually gained weight when adding protein shakes and bars to my daily meals (the every 3 hour plan).

So this is an attempt for me to find a way to stay fit, be active, and still enjoy the foods I like while toning. My weigh in on last Friday 1/4 was 126.6. Next weigh in is Monday 1/14 and I am going to guess I will have lost 1 lb so far. I will update as the weigh in’s come.

Week 1 Intermittent fasting;

Monday 1/7 Went to the morning bootcamp class – I made a conscious decision to understand only I can control my actions and excuses were just that, excuses. I went to Dunkin’ Donuts as usual in my morning routine, but I replaced my hot coffee with extra cream and sugar drastically with green harmony leaf tea with extra lemon. I felt a little shaky without the sugar or fats, but I made it through. 7pm-11am no food- only water and green tea.

Tuesday 1/8 – Today was worse. I was fine during the first hour or so, but I started to feel very hungry and my stomach was burning. I assume it was shrinking, possibly “eating itself” I say. We had sandwiches for lunch from work, turkey cheese on a roll for lunch.

I had eaten a little later because my dinner wasn’t done by 6pm (my eating end time goal) so I ate until 7pm instead.

Wednesday 1/9 Went to the morning bootcamp class – This was probably the hardest day yet for fasting. I woke up hungry, and was even telling myself “get a coffee light and sweet, you’ll be fine it’s only a coffee” but I faught it and got a green tea with ZERO sugar and only a fresh lemon. As the morning progressed, the hunger was worse, I felt nauseas but after the first few hours it got a little better. I was in a rush to eat my cheddar bagel twist right at 10am, I ate a sandwich witht turkey and cheese for lunch and leftover corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It was a really hectic evening after work and I was running around until 9pm at night so I am sure I burned my dinner off quickly.

Thurday 1/10 – I am much more lenient on the food addiction today, I can tell already. I feel much better in general, my stomach isn’t burning as much although growling a bit. I think it shrunk already actually in just 4 short fasting days. I haven’t ate since 630pm last night and I am still going strong at 11am. It actually reminds me just of quitting smoking cold turkey. Day 1, 2, and 3 were the hardest and then it got easier as the days went on and the habit changed. We will see.

Friday 1/11 – This day went by so fast in the morning before I knew it, it was lunch time! I did not eat too healthy today. I got a sandwich with breaded chicken and peppers. Stopping eating at 7pm on a weekend was really hard, but I did it!

The weekend was the hardest. Saturday I had to work 6am-8pm away from home, so it wasn’t too bad, but I did sneak in my light and sweet coffee a half hour early during my drive to Philly. Sunday… well it was hard but I stuck to my guns and did it.

I am not going to update daily for 12 weeks, but I’ll update as I get my weigh ins and provide some details on what happened.

Monday 1/14/19 first weigh in 6am – I am down 1.8lbs (2 probably really but I had my heart monitoring belt on). The week prior was really tough, but I did not eat super healthy which is key. I was able to eat WHAT I want, just not WHEN I wanted. The number one thing I cut out as my morning coffee with milk and sugar. I replaced it with green tea with lemon instead.