I’m kind of rolling my eyes as I typed out the word “tips” because I’m still thanking my lucky stars that June did well on our flight from Aspen to LAX.

She had a complete and utter melt down on previous flights to Texas and the only other time we’ve really flown with her {insert: Covid baby} was when we flew with her before she was walking, talking and expressing her options.

I did a ton of research online after our miserable flight in July 2021. We flew to Texas to see my family and June lost her s-h-*-t on the flight there and the flight back. She was kicking, screaming, wailing in the middle of the aisle. She pushed me, resisted any bribes, efforts or love from Grant and I. It was a mess.

But, I do have a few takeaways to share just in case there’s some mama out there who is reading this and feeling my pain.

1. Don’t Fly Between 2 and 2.5 years of age {sort of}

Kidding. Sort of. At least this was the age that was most difficult for June. I think the main take away is “Don’t Fly Between x and y” ages with your child. Do a gut check. You know your kiddo better than anyway. I knew, deep down, that June was going to lose it last July. I just knew it. But I pushed us to fly to Texas anyway and guess what? We all paid the price. This particular age was right when June was learning how to talk and communicate, yet not 100%. So we could somewhat understand each other, but she couldn’t really reason with us quite yet. Now that she’s through that developmental phase, we can really communicate in a better way. We explained ahead of time what she could expect on the airplane. We would have her repeat the steps of the travel day and ask her a dozen times, “What do you do on the plane?” and she would say “Stay in seat. Wear my seat belt.”

2. Have New Activities/Toys

I used to pack so many toys that my bag would weight a TON. This time, I packed 3 new activities that I knew June would love. They were also things that I had done a lot of research on. A lot of blogs suggested the below toys and I must say, they really kept her occupied. The key is to not let your toddler see any of these toys until you on board the plane. In fact, pull one out if you need to bribe them to put their mask on, put on their seat belt and settle in. Thankfully, June did that part seamlessly. I pulled out this weekly pill box organizer with these Pom Pom Balls stuffed inside as we were taking off. I told her once we were in the air we could play with it. This stretched out the entire moment.

It’s all about slowing down and stretching out all of the activities.

Another amazing recommendation was this LOL Surprise Doll. Parents: If your toddler doesn’t know about LOL dolls, save them for the plane. The novelty will eventually wear off but June is obsessed with these.

One of June’s favorite movies is The Grinch so I just knew she would love playing with this small set I found on Amazon. She played with this for nearly the entire flight and I joined in on the make believe.

3. Shows Shows Shows

We aren’t the household that deprives our kid of screen time (I’ll take all the judgement you want). We introduced June to a few new shows that she really took to over the holidays and I made sure to download them to her tablet for the flight. I also showed her videos of other kids wearing headphones and she was super excited to get her own pair {I let her pick out the color!}.

June’s favorite shows/movies are: Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Grinch, Peanuts Movie, Charlie Brown, Do Re Mi.

4. New(ish) Snacks

Someone, somewhere, recommended this snack dispenser and boy oh boy was it a HUGE hit for June. She thought it was a toy! Also, bring suckers for take-off and landing for ears popping!

In hindsight, I think what really worked for us was the timing. June is at a pretty sweet age where we can explain, reason and communicate with her so it’s much easier to avoid red-zone meltdowns. We also pulled a last minute decision to ditch her car seat and let her sit with the seatbelt. Grant really thinks that this was more comfortable for her, which inspired her to stay in her seat the entire time.

Whatever it was, I’m praying and hoping that her new in flight attitude sticks around because it made for much friendlier skies for us and fellow passengers.

Do you travel regularly with a toddler? Please leave any tips below for our future travels!

We were a year in to the pandemic when Catt asked me to go with her to hot yoga.

“Just come! You’ll love it. The room is so hot, it feels great,” she said. All I knew is that I hated yoga. But I was also exceptionally restless from a year of quarantine and looking to do something, anything, to get out of the house in a safe way.

So, I went.

It was February 11, 2021 and Catt took Lina and I to Urban 728 Yoga where we took a private with an instructor named Joe. Little did I know it at the time but this studio would quickly become my home away from home for the next year, where I would spend at least three to six days a week visiting.

After my first class, I didn’t get the buzz quite yet. But, I agreed to attend once a week with the girls because it was a nice, healthy, fun thing for us to all do together. I honestly figured I could bail after a week or two.

Me, Catt and Lina at of our first classes.

After a few months, we slowly moved from the main room in to a much smaller room where Joe holds private sessions.  And the more I went, the more I craved going. I wish I could remember the exact moment that it all started to “click” for me. Before each practice, Joe would ask “How are you?” And whomever was in the class, whether it was just me in a solo or all four of us in a private group, the conversations would often times lead into 20-30 minute discussions about life, love, loss, struggle and triumph.

I slowly learned how to bring my personal life stories in to my practice which, in return, has allowed me to bring my practice with me everywhere I go.

Maybe I wasn’t full ready to love, or even like, yoga before 2021. Maybe I didn’t have the right guidance to teach me how yoga isn’t really about the poses or flexibility at all. But I honestly used to hate yoga. The breathing, sometimes moaning, would drive me absolutely mad. I’d roll my eyes at the cult-like obsession people seemed to have with going to yoga. I just didn’t get it. I also didn’t understand how people thought this was truly a form of exercise. I preferred running, pilates, kick-boxing or dance cardio or anything else over yoga. I always thought it was just a bunch of stretching and moaning because I never really had anyone teach me that it is so much more than that!

I was always drawn to the idea of meditation but I couldn’t sit still. The reason why I think hot yoga works for someone like me, with my ADHD mind, is that it combines so many various elements all at once that I am literally forced to only think about one thing: breathing.

If we do not control our breath, the breath controls us. Before this year, I didn’t realize how much emphasis you need to put on your breath to really understand how yoga works.

The room is hot, really hot. The music is loud but not so loud that it overtakes Joe’s voice which shares inspiration, wisdom, and empowerment. All of the teachers at Urban 728 Yoga are excellent and have their own style of teaching. I’ve slowly started to venture in to other instructors and even taking the online classes which I strongly recommend. There are a lot of things that can serve as a distraction from breathing, but if you allow that to happen then you simply won’t make it through the entire 60, sometimes 90, minutes of class.

Sure my mind has wandered towards “What’s for dinner?” But if I let it hang out there too long, about 3 poses later I’ll be struggling to keep myself from falling flat on my face or giving up. The challenge is making it to the end of the class.

There have been days that I want to think about anything but breathing in yoga. My mind loves to work in triple over time to mask and bury down, deep down, any past pain or triggers. I’ve spent 38 years learning how to avoid feeling complicated, painful feelings and when I’m in yoga all of those things are slowly starting to unwind, untwist, and unfold.

The deeper I go in to a pose, the more I breathe, the more of my past feels like it is releasing.

Have I pushed myself too hard at times? Absolutely. I’ve walked away from sessions thinking “I’ll never do that again!” but I usually have a smirk on my face when I’m thinking that, because I know better.

For me, I think the biggest take away from my past year is learning to trust my body again. After giving birth to June back in 2019, I suffered a great deal of trauma to my body that I had deeply stored. There were a few sessions that ended with tears streaming down my face. That’s when I started to really see and believe how much my mind and body are connected. I had been storing my emotional pain in my body.

If I’m being honest, back then I really believed that my body was broken. I had been repeating a script to myself for two years that “my body cannot do what it was made to do.” When faced with the reality that I have secondary infertility, I went down the pity party rabbit hole asking, “What is wrong with me?”  If I was in a yoga class and saw someone doing a pose or stretch I couldn’t do, I would chalk it up to yet another thing that my body wasn’t letting me do. But instead of beating myself up over why all of this was happening to me, the narrative slowly started to shift to why all of this was happening for me.

Yoga has offered a holistic healing for all of the layers of my being. My body knew what it needed to do to heal itself, yet my mind kept getting in the way with distractions from the pain. And when I say “healing” I do not necessarily mean that I am cured or “fixed” or that I have gotten “better” in any way.

For me, healing means letting go of the things that are not who I am, and letting go of the expectations to be something that I am not.

I realize now that I’ve only began to scratch the surface of what it means to heal trauma that is buried within the core of our bodies. But I can already see a true difference in my mind, body, and soul after spending nearly a year dedicating myself to practicing yoga. I have slowly began trusting myself and my body, day after day. It’s a slow and gradual process that I don’t think really has an ending and for that I am so incredibly grateful.

This post simply would not be complete without dedicating it to my incredible teacher, Joe Komar and Catt for introducing me to this magical practice.

So, do you hate yoga? I did too. I encourage you to maybe give it another try some day.

And just like that, another year is over.

Is it just me or did 2021 fly by with the blink of an eye. One minute Covid-19 was running rampant, the next we thought it was all over, and then we closed out the year with yet another wave of this awful pandemic ruthlessly making it’s way across the world.

As I reflect back on 2021, I have a few things that I’m very proud of and a lot things that have room for improvement. Rather than beat myself up over the things I wasn’t able to accomplish last year, or feel sad over what we weren’t Abel to do, I’m closing out 2021 feeling very thankful for everything that we have. This year and last felt like a survival mode. I really “cut the fat” on things in my life that no longer serve me. I also streamlined my energy and focused on things that are worth my time, energy, and effort.

One thing that I did for 2021 versus years past was I gave myself a word (or a phrase) of what I wanted that year to be.

For me, 2021 was the year of wellness.

I did a big deep dive down the health habit hole. I checked off all of the my Dr’s visits, which let to 2 MRI’s, a physical therapy journey and finally finding a solution for my adenomyosis and learning more about secondary infertility. I took up yoga, which has truly been serving me in the strongest way possible both mentally and physically {more on that soon!}

As we venture in to a new year, I’m planning to mirror the same alternate idea to setting a resolution with a word/phrase/intention.

From this day forward, I will make choices that my future self will be proud of.

Because every single moment of our lives we are faced with a choice: to smile or not to smile, to take the trip or to stay home, to accept the project or decline politely, to play with your daughter or clean the house, to call your parents or keep watching Netflix, to workout or not to workout…. SO MANY CHOICES.

Every thought, word and deed is creating your future. So, my intention for 2022 is to make each of my choices count as much as I can so that when I look back on my life I am happy, proud, and feel confident with the choices that I made. Here are a few things that I have already brought into my daily practice that will help support this.

Trust Your Intuition

The more time we have to sit still, the more in tune we can get with our intuition which is our strongest superpower. Any time I was invited to an event or gathering in 2021, I took a pause to really think about whether or not I wanted to attend. In the past I was always go-go-go to work events and gatherings because I felt like it was something I “had” to do or something that I “needed” to do. But my gut always dreaded it a bit. I would much rather be home on the couch with my daughter or spending time with my family. This isn’t to say that I do not enjoy the occasional social setting, I’m just really zeroing in on the times I take time to do so.

Be Honest

Being truthful with yourself and with others about why and how and when you are spending your time. I am no longer interested in putting the needs of others ahead of my own. Outside of Grant and June, I will be honest about the time and space that I need to live up to my fullest potential.

Set Boundaries & Expectations

I have found that the more boundaries and expectations you are able to set up early on, the better. The minute a plan or conversation gets started is the minute I will jump in and say “No we will not be able to host that dinner” or “Yes, we would love to volunteer our time.” There is nothing worse than getting too far down a rabbit hole of commitment with your time that you end up setting yourself, and others, up for disappointment.

What are your intentions for 2022? I would love their them in the comments below!

What a whirlwind trip that ended up being one of the best yet.

As always, we stayed at a villa through our friends at Wimco. This year we stayed at Villa K which had an amazingly large pool and beachfront access which is super rare in St. Barth. We absolutely love the team at Wimco. They helped us organize everything from groceries waiting upon our arrival to a magnificent boat day that we’ll always remember. Their concierge team also has their hand on the pulse as to what the latest and greatest spots are on the island so we always feel “in the know.”

At the bottom of this email is our itinerary and below you’ll find all of my photos from the trip as well as things that I wore.

If you haven’t made it to St. Barth’s yet, I highly suggest putting it on your list. It’s hands down one of our favorites places to visit {this marks our 4th time!).

The below is an itinerary that Grant made and it was absolutely perfect. We love getting a chef the final night so that any early departures don’t have too bad of a hangover and can pack while we wait for dinner.

Friday 

Arrive at leisure

Lunch at Pearl Beach

7PM Drinks at Bonito

8PM Dinner at Petite Place

Saturday 

1:00 PM Lunch at  La Cabane at Cheval Blanc

– Stopped by the Dior Pop-Up Show at Cheval Blanc

9PM Dinner at La Guerite

11PM Dancing at Bagatelle

Sunday 

-Shops around Eden Rock

2PM Lunch at GySea

4PM Table at Nikki Beach – Sunset

Sunset swimming at Nikki Beach

8PM Dinner at Eden Rock

Monday 

Half Boat Day at 1PM

7:30 PM Private Chef at House

It’s finally here!

The cover of my book, LIKING MYSELF BACK, has officially gone live at retailers across the internet {see bottom of post}. I will continue to add to this list as our additional retailers become available!

I cannot wait to share more about this journey with you all and I’ll be sharing tour information as soon as it is available!

The book will officially release May 3, 2021.

LIKING MYSELF BACK

Entrepreneur and lifestyle influencer Jacey Duprie shares her inspiring journey of going from farm girl to fashion icon and her lessons about personal growth and self-made success.

With millions of followers and a thriving lifestyle brand, Damsel in Dior,  Jacey Duprie is one of today’s top fashion influencers. Her beautiful Instagram photos capture a life of glamour, luxury and elegance. But Jacey’s life offline has been far from perfect.

In this candid memoir, Jacey reveals that behind her gorgeously curated photos was a woman struggling with deep insecurities. She shares intimate details of a difficult childhood growing up in rural Texas with an alcoholic father and her own battles with PTSD and mental health. Through resilience, hard work and self-reflection, Jacey eventually triumphed to become the strong, empowered woman she is today.

In Liking Myself Back, Jacey takes readers behind the scenes into the seductive world of fashion and influencing, and reveals how she overcame hardship to achieve her dreams. With raw emotional honesty, Jacey shows that conquering self-doubt and embracing your imperfect, authentic self is not only possible, but is the true key to happiness.

I’ve been dreaming of staying at the Carlyle in New York for too long to admit.

The famous Bemelman’s Bar has drawn me in dozens of times with its moody jazz nights and luxurious bar. It’ the epitome of New York City nightlife to pay a visit to this iconic establishment. Staying the hotel has always been a bucket list for me and I was beyond excited when the property invited me to experience the Carlyle on my first trip to the city in over 2.5 years.

In a nutshell: It exceeded any and all expectations. The staff was incredibly warm and welcoming, the room had so many exquisite personal touches and everything from the delicious food to beautiful spa were the top of the top when it comes to what I love in a good hotel. I was upgraded to the Central Park Suite which looked like something that movies are made of. The views were some of the best views I’ve ever seen. With sweeping landscapes of Central Park that kissed the NY city skyline. It was incredible!

I hope to return one day in the near future because it’s official: the Carlyle New York is my #1 choice.

I spoke a little bit about the cleanse that Grant and I are doing on social media and a lot of you seemed quite interested in hearing more.

Diets are really my thing, but a few times a year I will do a 10 day reset for my mind, body and soul. It usually naturally presents itself to me at the start of every new season. It’s kind of interesting how nature almost naturally pushes me for this quarterly reset.

10 days is usually the goal I set for myself because it feels very manageable and very realistic. If I’m feeling strong, which I usually am, I take a free day to eat and drink and not worry about my plan and then  re-up for another 10 days.

Here’s a quick run down of what we like to do. Please know that this is not for everyone. This is just what we have found works for us!

10 Day Sugar Free

By sugar, I mean processed sugar. Basically anything that has a label must read 0g of sugar on the back. You’ll be surprised by how many things you eat have hidden sugars in them which can really add up to your overall intake. Sugar messes with your overall mood, energy levels and metabolism. We definitely allow ourselves to enjoy natural sugar {i.e. fruits} but no processed sugars during the 10 days.

One of my best friends produced the movie, Fed Up, which does a deep dive in to how we are all addicted to sugar. I strongly recommend watching this documentary to give you a very strong toolbox of inspiration, motivation and guidelines to doing the 10 day “Fed Up” sugar free challenge.

Not only do Grant and I both feel better after doing the 10 days, we always come out a few pounds lighter too (which doesn’t hurt!).

Healthy Grains, No Unhealthy Carbs

I love me some carbs! But for me it’s a very slippery slope and before I know it I will find myself sweeping through the Popeye’s drive through for a quick popcorn chicken snack. During our 10 day reset, we try to eliminate as many heavy carbs as possible. I think it goes without saying that we do not allow any fast food during this time.

Rather than white rice, we eat brown rice. Instead of packaged oatmeal in the morning, we enjoy a smoothie or take the extra 5 minutes to make grains from scratch with almond milk.

Honestly, the entire process just takes a bit more planning but we always feel better eating cleaner and leaner.

No Raw Fish

This has been a newer addition to our 10 day reset: No fish, no raw meats, and nothing uncooked! Grant and I have a Chinese herbalist that is focusing our attention on getting a nice gut cleanse plan for Grant which means eating more soups, broths, and cooked salmon, beef and chicken.

In the past, we would typically load up on sushi thinking that it was doing wonders for our system. She has course corrected us and I’m excited to see what it results in.

No Alcohol

Enough said.

Move, Move, Move

First comes food, then comes movement. 9 times out of 10 the quickest way to increase your mood and energy, along with shed a few inches off the belt, is by improving your diet. You can work out every single day of the week but if you eat cheeseburgers for dinner it’s going to be counterproductive.

Once we have our meals planned out, I do a deep dive into my work out plan. I already naturally work out 5 days a week, so during my 10 day reset I like to do something a bit outside of the box. Maybe I’ll try a new class or two that I’ve never done, or increase my workout times.

For this 10 day, I’m really hoping to do hot yoga more. I don’t want to set an expectation. I’m just promising to do more. 

Clean, Clean, Clean

We pick one room or one area of our house every other day of the 10 days and tackle it. It’s amazing how quickly stuff, just stuff, will pile up around the house. I like to use this time to not only do a deep clean, but really dive in to my home organizational skills and order bins and drawer organizers that I’ve been meaning to check off of my to do list.

My favorite are these adjustable drawer inserts as well as these adjustable dividers. I love the modular system for bathroom drawers too.

Clarity Cleanse

I always love to revisit one of my favorite books a few times a year, The Clarity Cleanse. If you haven’t read it, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s just a nice little reminder to continue in my practice of supporting emotional cleansing and allow negative emotions to pass rather than attach.

Phew! I think I covered it all! Was that too much? I just wanted to give you guys a full rundown of what our life looks like during our 10 day reset as I’ve mentioned it a few times but never really explain.

Is this something you guys do? Leave a comment below!

October is National ADHD Awareness Month and it’s no secret that I’ve lived a life up against this disorder.

I hate that word: disorder. The dictionary defines “disorder” as a “state of confusion.” But I do not feel confused at all. Sure, sometimes I may feel confused but I do not live in a constant state of disorder just because I have ADHD. It really frustrates me that we call ADHD a “disorder.” However, in medicine, a disturbance of normal functioning of the mind or body is considered a disorder. I suppose my mind does not function “normally,” but I am okay with that.

It’s always feels a little daunting to me when I up in a “Things I’m Afraid To Tell You” type of post. When I sit down to write these, I cannot help but think about the troll who is convinced that I have bi-polar disorder. I’m sure it’s the same person writing this message to me over and over again. Or, perhaps is coming from a few different people. I can assure you that I do not have bi-polar disorder {which by the way is very difficult to diagnose}. I have been seeing doctors and therapists my entire life. For some reason when I open up on social media about my mental illness struggles, I always get a spectator or two who is simply here to judge, poke at what may seem like my weaknesses and try to get a rise out of me.

I am here to tell you one thing: ADHD is not my weakness. It is my strength.

It really annoys the heck out of me that people have shamed others and look at people with ADHD as if we have some sort of plague. The moment I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child I was immediately pulled into a special learnings class, took tests alone in the hallway outside the classrooms, put on medication and was told I was “different.” What was I supposed to think? That this was a good thing?

When I first met Grant he was aware of what ADHD was and he thought he knew what it meant. But it wasn’t until living with me for many years for him to really understand the daily nuances and little ticks that make life with ADHD, and life living with a person who has ADHD, quite the struggle. But what I love most about Grant was that once he started to realize what those little struggles were, he started to point out all of the many strengths that also come along with having ADHD. My hyper focused brain is like superwoman on days I’m “firing” with ADHD. I’m able to get more work done in a day than most do in a full week. Grant also pointed out that I have very high energy, I’m creative and intuitive. I had been so wrapped up in the many negative traits that are associated with ADHD for so long that I failed to see the positive ones.

Luckily I have had amazing resources in my adulthood that have helped me understand ADHD and ways I cope and manage it. I have shared a lot of social posts and blog posts about how I’ve learned to live with ADHD. However, I have shared very little about the things that I really struggle with. So, in light of National ADHD Awareness Month and bringing more awareness to this disorder, I thought I would share more about my story below.

I Hate Medication

I no longer take Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Lexapro, or any other type of stimulants. I have never liked the way medication makes me feel and always knew in my gut (gotta trust that intuition) that medication was not the best route for me. Over the years, I’ve found that if I work out daily or at least move my body with a walk, that it really helps calm my mind and keep me feeling stable.

People with ADHD are “Hyper”

This one really crawls under my skin. “You have so much energy!” is something that I have heard a lot of people say to me. Honestly? I don’t have that much energy. But it really seems like when I’m excited about something or I’m working really hard on a project, that I get labeled as having “high energy” ADHD. I can actually be downright lazy when I’m not interested in something. I hate the stigmas that attach to ADHD. The minute you tell someone you have it is the minute that automatically slap you with labels of “high energy.”

No, You Do Not Have ADHD

Doesn’t it seem like everyone and their dog has ADHD? I don’t know when it became so popular to just rattle off “oh ya I have that too” when someone opens up about their neurobiological disorder. Don’t get me wrong, I love that people want to relate and make those of us with ADHD feel a bit more “normal,” but it can also feel a little undermining at times when everyone says they have ADHD.

The only way to know for sure is to see a doctor, or two, or three.

I’m Exhausted

Sometimes my hyper focused energy is so exhausting. On days, like today, I’m sitting in my pajamas at 2pm, teeth unbrushed, face unwashed and I’m feeling a little sick. I will continue to push myself to work for another hour and then maybe take a 30 minute break before dragging myself to the grocery store. What I really need is rest. I need to recharge. But my mind won’t let me. It’s a weird rush of energy I get when I’m working on something I am passionate about. So, I continue. This is probably my least favorite thing about ADHD. There are simply some days that I cannot turn it off. The only thing that helps me on these days are taking a nice, deep breath and knowing that this day will not last forever. This moment will pass. This is just a tough day.

The Things That Help Me

A lot of yoga, working out and mindfulness have been my saving grace to helping with my ADHD symptoms {click here to read more about my symptoms}. I have also been seeing my therapist for over 6 years steadily. I am constantly reading about and learning more on ADHD and try to stay up to date on new studies and findings. Incorporating my ADHD into my every day life with Grant so I’m less afraid to talk about it has also been helpful. We continue to point out moments that I’m “firing” and the frustration and/or annoyance lessens as a result.

Do you struggle with ADHD? How do you cope/manage? Leave a comment below and continue to help spread awareness this month!