It's OK to ChEAT...

It's ok to cheat...

 ...ON YOUR DIET that is!

 Geez, get your head outta the gutter! 

It's been known that almost all diets don't work and usually don't last.

But how about having a diet that you can actually eat the foods that you like... like that Sweet Tea as my cousin Cindy so much loves, and I'm not gonna lie I do too. Or even that sweet tooth for something chocolate or salty.

My best advice is pick that one day that is either usually your toughest day at work or your busiest day of shopping, baseball games, basketball games, cheerleading camps, or maybe a night out with the girls (or that special boy). 

I don't know about you but I'm not good at rules... I'm the type of girl that if someone tells me I can not do something, I'm gonna do it anyway.  Just as my parents I'm sure they spent many nights up wondering if I'd turn out okay or if I'd ever be able to support myself, or heck even finish college!

So with this said I set myself boundaries (not rules) here they go:

1. I must eat good for 6 out of the 7 days in the week. 

and by good I don't mean a salad every day...  don't you get bored with eating rabbit food all the time, and don't you end up covering it with Ranch anyways? By good I mean my 6 small meals a day including a filling breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

and I don't miss my workouts unless it's just impossible to get there.

2. Pick one day of the week and STICK with it!

my day is Saturday, I choose Saturday bc that is the day i'm usually in Mphs, at a basketball tournament, or at the River (I'm a sucker for biscuits and gravy) plus I have all week to look forward to it.

3. I cheat ALL day for all 6 of my meals.

Now since I'm cheating all day I DO NOT let myself over enduldge... I take a little of whatever I want here is my usual Saturday routine,

breakfast: half a biscuit with gravy on the top, fried egg, and one slice of bacon 

1st snack: dark chocolate

lunch: Bologna miracle whip, peanut butter, tomato sandwich on white bread with salt and pepper (don't hate until you try it, it's my cheat day haha)

and this is for you Cindy....

some sweet tea... BUT i use half unsweet and half sweet.... 

after not drinking it all week it taste sweeter than normal sweet tea!

2nd snack: some salty chips... but I get a handful and put the bag up

dinner: Usually half a steak, baked potato (with the fixings), and a salad or my father in law makes fried fish and fries if we are at the river

finally my favorite... I end the day off right...

 3rd Snack: 4 cookies and milk

4. Wear loose clothing on your cheat day

If you cheat wear loose clothing on your cheat day, you ARE gonna get bloated and it will last pretty much all day.  Your body wont be use to all the salt or the added sugar if you did good during the week. 

And for the final one

5. Don't regret it!

This is YOUR day to enjoy the things you like! If you don't do this then the entire time that you are dieting (which for some of us seems like everyday of our lives)

you will be miserable watching everyone you love being able to eat pretty much whatever they want.  And what you don't know in the long run when you get to that goal weight whatever it maybe your body will adjust better to you being off the diet because it was still able to get a taste of the "good life" as I call it. Not to mention you wont just indulge yourself into all your weakness food making you gain all your weight back faster than it took to loose it.

So... enjoy this, let it be our dirty little secret... 

What happens on the blog, stays on the blog, hehe 

(corny I know)

I'm already dreaming about what's to come on Saturday.... what day are you working towards?

Tip of the day:

Try eating a juicy fruit before every meal... it helps the food go down a lot easier and your metabolism starts working before you get the fattier food in! Not to mention most of us don't get enough fruit in our daily intake anyways...

The Cow vrs The Turkey

Have you noticed how in the Race to who can be the healthiest and fittest the argument about ground turkey and ground beef always come up.  If you ask the person next to you which they think is best they would pretty much, automatically say Turkey.  That is not always true.  The sad thing is even I know this and I still want to choose the turkey every time i'm at the market. 

Anyway, here is the difference:  

Ground beef and Ground Turkey are both processes in a fat to lean ratio (it's located on the meat package usually in the red or white square)

on this package it states that this meat is 85% lean (for you "blondes" out there it's 30% fat).

If you were to take a 3 1/2 oz serving of ground beef and ground turkey at 85% lean the ground beef would have 215 cals and 18g of fat, however the turkey would only be 180 cals and 12.5g of fat. 

SO...

with that said be careful what you buy because if you are just running to the market and you see the ground turkey sitting across from the ground beef, check out it's ratio. The market may not have the leaner ground turkey available and you might be better off to get the ground beef. Usually the best place to get ground turkey that is the leanest it can be which is 93% is at the Whole foods store, one which is in Memphis. It contains more white ground turkey than dark and will sometimes be listed as ground turkey breast (just doesn't have as much flavoring in it b/c it's not fatty. 

Hopefully this gives some of you a little relief! I know you get tired of hearing

 TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY....

whose the real winner here... it's no longer a fight between the cow and the chicken, now matter how much you like that cute little Chick-Fil-A cow (even though that little fast food chain is known as the healthiest Fast food chain in America). It's all in the labeling! Beef can actually be just as healthy had the Turkey is.  You have to make the decision when your standing in the meat department which is better for you that is available at that time. 

With that in mind... what's for dinner?

Tonight it's chicken here, however we had everyone over last night for a birthday dinner and had

 Turkey Tacos! 

Everyone loved them! However nobody even knew and they all said they loved them! Here is my recipe for my famous Taco's

(it's super easy)

I get 2lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey 

(like I said which ever is at the market at the time)

Mccormicks Low Sodium Taco Seasoning

Whole Grain Tortilla Shells Or Taco shells 

(Whole Grain Taco shells are hard to find BUT you can always get tortilla chips) 

mozzerella cheese

 ( the whiter the cheese the healthier it usually is)

lettuce

diced tomatoes

and who can resist a little sour cream :)

I will say I was in a rush yesterday and running around the world and forgot a couple of things... they were still pretty good!

A little bit of Cardio...

A little bit of cardio goes a long way!

  Today's society is all about running and high intense workouts. Which don't get me wrong, all of these are good ideas and great for those who have been working out for a while, even for those who are beginners that never get off the couch! Just doing something after being sedentary is better than nothing at all! When someone comes to me and says "Hey I need your help" even though I do run a fitness facility and LOVE to advertise it and push it, my number one goal is to make you WANT to do what I'm about to tell you...it's my all time favorite workout and probably the most old school workout that you could ever do its called WALKING (my all caps words mean that I'm putting emphasis on it, not yelling). 

Walking at a moderate pace for 30-60 minutes burns stored fat and can build muscle to speed up your metabolism. Walking an hour a day is also associated with cutting your risk of heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes and stroke. 

One thing that most weight-lossers (don't make fun of my made up words, you'll learn a lot of these) don't realize is that you build muscle when you work out, well maybe they know that but they don't know that you want to loose the fat before they build the muscle on top of that or else it is harder to loose that unwanted fat that you have.  

I tell the girls at Bootcamp all the time, I love that you are training for 5ks and I love that you have the passion of running... but are you running for time, or was your number one reason on starting to run because you wanted to loose weight?  If your legs are bigger and you want to loose them walk it off, If your stomach is hard or your carrying that extra baggage around your waist, and you want to get rid of those love handles, walk it off.  

Don't give up your running, and enjoy those 5k's but let your walking out weigh your running. I promise it will make a huge difference. Once you start loosing the weight you want then add the running into your walks, and weights 2-3 times a week to tighten up that loose skin that comes along with loosing the weight. 

Now if you are already at the weight you want I have one phrase for you.... 

RUN FOREST RUN, 

tone up that body... and enjoy the wind in your hair!

Unfinished Business...

You know how you meet those creative people and you always think... hey I could probably do that. Well I'm one of those ppl, not the creative one but the one wishing that in the back of their head, maybe even in their next life, they could be that creative. I have all these unfinished projects around the house that I start and then I never finish, but what can I say at the time I start them I am SOO excited about it (in my best high school voice). Kinda like this blog, it's been sitting here since this time last year, I mean I last posted about J graduating college and moving on to the next stage in our lives. Well we've moved, J's coaching 7th grade basketball and is the ALE teacher at Blytheville Intermediate School and me, well.... I have finished FINALLY and now own my own business, a dream of mine since I was little! I am the bright, enthusiastic, annoying, person you don't want to see when your eating at a restaurant, or in line at the concession stand, fitness instructor at Manila Bootcamp. Those who know me well, know this is what I love to do. I currently have 5 classes a day 3 days a week and starting next week will be adding class number 6 for the high school cheerleaders. Some ppl dread going to work, I love it... I wear shorts and tank and some comfy tennis shoes. It's me being me (I don't do the dressy stuff very well) so here it is, this unfinished business of a blog, is now gonna become my Fitness Journal, Healthy food loving, Exercise advice giving, and everyday happening in the life of a Wise... as told by a WISE woman! Hope you enjoy!! Look forward for my post tomorrow on "Recovery" coming out of a week of Cardio Blast workouts! Love you all!

Advice of the day: Your only 1 workout from a good mood!

Playing catch up!

It's been so long since I've posted... and so much has happened!

Well since November, both kids had a great Christmas and we started the 2011 year out with Jordan finishing up his last semester of College. He student taught at Pocahontas High School and helped with the boys high school basketball team.
In April we hit a huge speed bump in life... Our little Jayden was been diagnosed with an ear infection. We went through many sleepless nights and also scary times when she was life like. I knew that something else was wrong with her, she never smiled, never talked, was throwing up and wouldn't eat anything. It was like her little body was just waisting away. I took her back up to the doctor in Pocahontas and he told me that she must have just had a reaction to the meds and gave her some new ones which once they didn't do anything to help her after two days I told them I was coming back up there that something was definitely wrong with her and that it wasn't just an ear infection!
I was denied... they said that I didn't give the medicine enough time to get into her system and by this time I was furious! So I myself turned on my flashers and speed all the way to St. Bernard's Hospital and admitted her to the ER. They immediately told me she was very dehydrated and and did all kinds of test. Once some of her blood work came in and all her counts were low they called into Lebouhner hospital and had a helicopter come pick her up and send her to Memphis.  She was such a trooper, she didn't cry once they had her on the helicopter and she had to ride all by herself so we jumped in the cars and headed to Memphis. Clueless of what was gonna be the out come of our little girls condition.
Once we got to Lebouhner it was a relief in some ways because of how helpful everyone was and they wasted no time. We soon knew she had HUS, Hemolytic uremic syndrome  is a condition that results from the abnormal premature destruction of red blood cells. Once this process begins, the damaged red blood cells start to clog the filtering system in the kidneys, which may eventually cause the life-threatening kidney failure associated with hemolytic uremic syndrome. I was so scared... but after dialysis and blood transfusions the took amazing care of her and had her back to normal within a week. It was a scary process but in some ways it reminded Jordan and I how important our family was!
In May Jordan graduated and then the beginning of June we moved to Manila so that Jordan could work for his dad until School starts back, which we will hopefully hear about a job soon and be moving into a bigger house!
Now that we've slowed down a little bit I hope that I can stay up to date on my blogging!

This picture is what she looked like when we first got to St. Benards.

This is straight off the helicopter  into Memphis, swollen even more.

Her first treatment of Dialysis and a blood transfusion at the same time

Eating on her own for the first time in 3 days

Mommy and Daddy watched movies while she rested and slept... we felt so blessed to be in such great hands!

After she was getting better and was able to have everything but her central line for dialysis out JJ came to visit and the rode in the wagon (they have these all over the hospital) We were able to get out in it the last two days we were there.

So proud of J for graduating!

Been a month since....

Things in the Wise house have been pretty crazy this past month and I have yet to had to time to relax and post on my blog so... this post is going to be a quick catch up.

We have finally opened the new Building for Suntanz and that is a big stress reliever... I felt like I was working 24/7 on top of another 24/7 job of being Wife and Mommy. It looks great and we have had amazing feed back from the customers. We've been a lot busier here lately than we have in a while, especially during slow season but we are gearing up and putting on our Christmas smiles and hoping we have a BIG HOLIDAY rush with all our new products that we have now.

 My personal favorite being the Stephanie Dawn bags that we got. They are just like Vera Bradley, made by the same manufacturer that they were when they were made in the states and the same exact material, just way more affordable. They even make the same things just different patterns!

And I am also making custom picture frames and mirrors, along with coasters.  Here is one Picture Frame that I've made.

After the first week of Opening a tragedy in our family happened and Jordan's dog Duke, which became more like JJ's, that he had gotten for his birthday a year ago tried to jump the fence while we were in Manila and visiting family and got his collar caught on the fence and hung himself. It was awful and I'm glad that the kids didn't see it, our neighbors called to inform us of what happened and my father in law buried him for us. I didn't imagine what toll it would take on the boys. I knew JJ would be upset but I wasn't prepared for how much Jordan would be upset. That next Morning JJ got up and once he was ready to leave for school he let himself out to the back yard to tell Duke bye like he normally did and grabbed his ball and was yelling for him. I went out to get him and he was sitting in the dog house asking for him. I didn't know what else to say except for that Jesus needed a good dog like Duke to play in his backyard so that all the kids in heaven could have a good puppy to play with. His words to me were "Jesus send nother." I couldn't do anything but cry.And you ask what my response was.... yes baby Jesus is sending you a new one right now... He's gonna pick you out a special one!

This is the day that we brought Duke 1 home.

 A day in the life of Duke 1

 Playing Fetch with the boys... JJ loved throwing Duke the ball

 And always thought that he had to feed him.

Needless to say Jesus knew what he was doing cause that next Thursday we picked up Duke the 2nd. He has the same Daddy as Duke 1 did and looks JUST like him! JJ will not call him just Duke, he insist that his name is Baby Duke, which he is a LOT smaller than Duke 1 was the last time we saw him.

JJ is finally allowing "Baby Duke" to get in the dog house and just the other day told him that he "guessed" Duke would be okay with him playing with his ball. They are pretty happy together, although Jayden is still trying to adjust to the hyper little puppy!

It took JJ just a little while to realize that it was okay to have a new puppy.

Other than that we are gearing up for the holidays and looking forward to spending it with the family! No worries I wont wait so long to write again! Happy November!

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."

    -Billings



Harvest Fest

Here is a view from our weekend adventure. JJ's friend Karly that I keep on Tuesday met us there with her Mommy and it was a blast! It was great being able to let the kids just run around and not having to worry, we even let JJ and Karly choose which way we went through the corn maze. Lets just say we went in a lot of circles! The kids were so worn out they even let me sleep in a bit this morning! JJ's favorite part of the entire night I think was the Face painting, he wouldn't let me wash his spider off so this morning there was "nother sider on his pillow" (in his words). Jayden enjoyed the hay ride the most, mainly cause she liked eating the hay! haha.  We even got to bring home pumpkins!

 Karly Jayden and JJ in the corn maze, we had to rest a bit!

 Jayden Love, she was so good all night even when it started getting late.

 JJ and Karly's face painting. JJ got a spider and Karly a bat

 Enjoying the hay ride. Not much of the hay was left after these two got out of it. They tossed it everywhere!

 Always smiling for the camera!

 On the ride home with their pumpkins

Anytime we can find something kid friendly the whole family can enjoy it's fun. I love watching my kids grow a little more everyday!