House Hunters International - Adios to the Daily Grind

House Hunters International filmed us at La Buena Vida

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY - our episode of House Hunters International, "Adios to the Daily Grind", airs at 10:30pm EST on HGTV. 
We have 20+ friends coming over to watch it with us tomorrow night. Check back for pictures, our commentary/thoughts and I'll share the video a few days after it airs.

They wouldn't let me wear my t-shirts so I hope I get a few shout outs to my business, The Sweetest Tee. Fingers crossed!

Let us know what you think of the show :)

House Hunters International

We FINALLY have an air date for our House Hunters International episode and we are very excited (and nervous) to see it.

We spent 5 days in May filming it here in Akumal. We also weighed 20lbs more than we do now and we couldn't change clothes for pretty much that whole time... Seriously though, this show is what made us realize how over weight we had gotten. We kept seeing ourselves and saying "OMG, we are going to be on TV looking like this". Then the following week we went to a friends wedding and saw pictures of us and were sure we needed to make a change.

Anyways, back on topic... On December 4th and 5th our episode will air on HGTV. They have called it 'Adios to the Daily Grind' - will you be watching?

I just hope we don't look like total jerks....

Tarah's Ketosis Experiment - Fat Burning Machine

Keith and I started following a Keto diet on May 31, 2018. To date we have both lost over 20lbs and are still moving forward with our weight loss. We are not strict Keto as we do have some days where we eat carbohydrates, but honestly it's not often. We try and keep our carbs to around 20 grams a day. 

On a daily basis we drink Pruvit, which is a drink mix that has pure therapeutic ketones it and helps put our body into a state of Ketosis so we are burning fat as energy instead of carbohydrates. "Ketosis is a normal metabolic process. When the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats..."

Today I did an experiment to see if my body was in Ketosis. At 9:45am I tool my blood glucose levels and it was at 0.6. I then drank my Pruvit at 9:50am. At 10:50am I check again and I was at 1.8, I'm officially in ketosis! 5 minutes later I did it again and I was at 1.9. So as you can see, I was still climbing. I am literally a fat burning machine!!

Woohoo!!! Burn fat, burn! If you are interested in ordering a 10 day sample pack to see if it's a product that will work for you, shoot us an email!

Pruvit Reboot #3

Our First Mexico Independence Day

Keith, Carlos, Ernesto & Tony

Most people think May 5th is Mexico Independence Day, that would be false. It is actually begins September 16th. In honor of this, we went to one of our favorite establishments in Mexico to celebrate with them. 

La Palapa is an amazing restaurant run by brothers Tony, Carlos and Ernesto. They really are the kindest people we have met. 

Many of our friends and neighbors were also there so to say it was a quiet party would be a lie - it was a full night of music, dancing, drinking and eating. 

Here's a great video to show just how much fun Keith had that night. (Don't worry, I drove us home) ;)

Learning Spanish in Mexico

We have had some frustrations in Mexico and we have found a lot of them revolve around not speaking the language. I know what most of you are thinking, "how is it you live in Mexico and don't speak Spanish?"

Well, we do know some Spanish (elementary level) but not enough to mail a package or talk to a carpenter. We decided we were at our wits end and feeling stressed out by it. We decided to take classes to try and improve our communication. Clearly it won't be fixed in a day but at least we are trying to expand our knowledge. 

We have opted to use El Camino Language School in Tulum and so far so good. We would recommend them to anyone who asks. Check them out if you, too, are interested in learning a new language.

FYI, my new favorite Spanish word I learned in class: cacahuate (as in crema de cacahuate). It means Peanut. ;)

Barcelona - The Bucket List Item

Keith is a HUGE Barcelona soccer fan - he LOVES Lionel Messi. We decided to stay one extra night in Barcelona so we could explore the area since he'd never been. I decided to buy us tickets to go do their stadium tour, Camp Nou. 

As we arrived we stopped in the shop and bought him a jersey and some fund Barca items. Then we went to start our tour and were told "sorry you can't see the main field today as we are preparing for a game tonight" WHAT?! We had no idea there was a game - no game was listed when we looked it up before this trip. Oh hells yes, we were going to that game! Keith can now check it off his bucket list!

After our tour, we bought tickets and then headed off to find food. Keith was on cloud nine!

Funny thing in Spain, their games don't start till 10pm... Needless to say we decided a nap was in order. I managed to squeeze in a manicure at the spa while he slept. ;)

GAME TIME!! 

We got to the game a bit early to watch them warm up. We decided dinner would be at the stadium. I was curious to see what they ate at games as we tend to have hot dogs and hamburgers. They did have those but they seem to enjoy eating sandwiches more than we do - like ham and cheese. Most people seemed to bring their own from home. We decided to break our Keto diet and opted for ham and cheese sandwiches.

As for the game, it was awesome. They won and Messi scored 2 of the 3 goals - see for yourself!

It was a great trip and I am so glad Keith was able to finally get to Barcelona and see his favorite team.

Our European Cruise was AWESOME

Look at us looking all cute in France

We thoroughly enjoyed our 12 nights at sea with our friends the Chillihead Beach Bums! With this being their first cruise we were excited to show them all a cruise has to offer.

Our trip began in Barcelona where we boarded our boat. Once we set sail, our first stop was Nice, France. We explored the French Riviera and Monaco - talk about money!! I have never seen such large yachts! #lifegoals
I had no idea Monaco was it's own country, so I learned something new. Did you know that?

Pisa/Florence, Italy was our next stop. We took the day to see the leaning tower of Pisa, of course! Surprise, surprise, it was leaning. 

Rome was next and we decided to do an all day tour of Rome and the Vatican. Keith was just in awe of Vatican City as he grew up Catholic. Our tour was a skip the line tour and it was by far worth the extra money as those lines are LONG. As morbid as this is, the most interesting thing to me was seeing the dead priests they have laying inside the temple. It was so interesting seeing how they have preserved the bodies to honor them. 

The Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is beautiful and was next on our stops. I have been there before so I was excited to go back. We did a tour of the whole coast which was great as we were able to see so many cities versus just staying in one. Ravello is still one of my favorites as it is such a cute town with a spectacular view. The roads are long and winding but we managed to snake our way through the hills and enjoy a lovely lunch with wine. 

Croatia was our least favorite stop as we weren't sure what to expect - I had heard it was beautiful but we just didn't see it there. Split is a very touristy area and we just didn't really see it for what the rest of Croatia probably possesses. We did a tour of the area but after it was over we headed back to the ship for lunch. We just weren't feeling it.

St. Marks Basilica

Venice was the one stop we all were looking forward to. The ship stayed overnight so we spent two days there instead of the typical 1. We did a ton of walking all up and down the streets. The best tour we did was a food and wine tour that took us to obscure places tourists wouldn't have visited. We loved it! Venice really is a great city to just get lost in - you can find so many cool buildings and streets. Keith and I really want to go back there for at least a week next time. The food we found for dinner was ok but I think we would have rather stayed up till the wee hours of the night and gone to a more local stop, but we were all starving by 5pm... Seems the locals eat more around 10pm. Next time! The next day Keith and I ventured off on our own for a local walking tour of hidden places - our tour guide was amazing and we found ourselves still finding more hidden places to eat and shop. If you haven't been, go! It's a city worth visiting!

Montenegro was our last stop and it was probably our biggest surprise. We didn't know what to expect as none of us had really ever heard of it before. It was amazing! We took a boat tour where we swam and ate and just enjoyed the very salty water of the Adriatic Sea. Floating was so easy but it was chilly. The views were amazing! We did venture into the town for a bit for some gelato and cocktails. It started poring on us so we eventually made our way back to the boat. It was a great day!

As always, Royal Caribbean was a spectacular way to travel and they never disappoint. The crew we interacted with was amazing and took great care of us. Keith and I ended up booking 2 more cruises for 2019 and 2020. Looking forward to those trips.

Keith's 45th Birthday Celebration

Keith has been wanting to go swim with the whale sharks since we first visited the Riviera Maya. June - August are the most popular months as they are here feeding. So, yesterday, for his birthday, I wanted to make sure he got exactly what he wanted. (We stopped buying gifts a few years ago and just do experiences.)

On the Monday we met with 12 friends for dinner and drinks at one of our favorite locations, the Jungle Fish Beach Club. We love the guys who run it and were thrilled to be able to support them for Keith's birthday dinner. As always, they were amazing to us and we had a great meal. Keith was offered the largest lobster I have ever seen. He ate the hell out of that thing!

As for the whale sharks, I was excited to be able to find 6 friends willing to go with us - trust me, when you say "swimming" and "sharks" in the same sentence people tend to back away.

Rob, Kris, Annette, Vince, Chris (it was also his b'day), Jodi, myself and Keith got up super early to grab our 5:20am shuttle to Cancun.

After a quick briefing, some snacks and water we headed out on the boat for about an hour. The area where the whale sharks are feeding was really busy with other boats and people. You are only allowed 2 people per boat at a time but it was still a bit chaotic. The whale sharks are spectacular and very large - they are just eating plankton and minding their own business. You basically jump in, swim around them, don't touch them or swim under them and then you are back in the boat. Everyone had 2 jumps - I opted for one but Keith did both of his and each time was just in awe of these animals. 

After we were done snorkeling, we headed over to Isla Mujeres for some lunch and swimming. 

It's definitely a birthday he will remember!



Rob put together a video of all of our footage - enjoy!! :)

A quick video of our home and why we love it here.

Mexico has been an amazing experience thus far. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people what life is like here and why we chose to leave a nice home, good jobs, and our friends and family back in the old country. So, Tarah and I have recently made a short video describing what we love, and give you a quick tour of our home. We also made this video as an application for House Hunters International. Hopefully we get picked. Wish us luck.

https://youtu.be/hyz9g6NFWUk