The Naked Truth

 

 

When you think of fitness and healthy living, what do you think of?

Fruits and veggies, right?  Well, at least that's what I think of. Pair this mindset with the current fitness craze, "juicing", and it'll have you adding these yummy juices onto your shopping list in no time. (I decided to try these babies out for myself, and if you can get past the gritty feeling they leave in your mouth-then they taste AMAZING!)

 

With all of the great flavors they offer like double berry, mango, pomegranate acai-they have the lockdown on this juice craze!  With their use of fitness/health words like, "green",

"acai", "power", and "fresh"-they capture the perfect audience.  They're even starting a line in coconut water.  But their words don't equal health.  When you get to the bare naked truth-literally-the facts just don't live up to the promises.

 

Is Naked really like drinking Mountain Dew?

 

 

Naked Juice and Mountain Dew have more in common than you might think.  Besides both being "green", they both have about 60 grams of sugar (coming from fructose-Mountain Dew's from high fructose corn syrup, and Naked's coming from fruit juice).  When you consume the amount of fructose in either of these drinks, you're consuming more than you should over the course of a couple days.  Although I think that these drink are so yummy tasting-I do not recommend drinking these very often.  They are not as healthy as they lead you to believe, but they do stick true to when they say that there are no added sugars (all of it comes from the fruits that they use).

 

Naked Juice is effectively sugar water with overstated health benefits.

But it has vitamins! you exclaim.
Not so fast...
Naked juice isn’t just fruits and vegetables juiced and bottled and shipped to your lips. That would be too easy.
Naked, like 99% of all other juice brands, must put its products through types of pasteurization and irradiation. Both of these processes have mild to significant effects on nutritional value.
By the time Naked juice gets to your lips, it’s a processed food product nothing like the real thing. The Naked marketers  may claim that you’re getting a bunch of vitamins and minerals, but how many of those are bioavailable and what’s their end quality?
Who knows?
What we do know is that when you drink it, your body can’t tell the difference between Naked juice and sugar water — or Mountain Dew. The only benefit Naked has over Mountain Dew is possibly fewer chemicals (but not necessarily --that's another story)...

Naked has one more thing in common with Mountain Dew.

 

Besides both being green and both being sugar water, Naked and Mountain Dew are both products of PepsiCo. That’s right, Naked is made by Pepsi. Does that scream quality and health? Hardly.
Whether you’re concerned with health or not, the macronutrient ratios alone of Naked juice is a recipe for weight loss disaster. Consuming that much sugar on a regular basis is not a good idea for your metabolism, your waistline, or your health.
Why bother with this stuff when you can get all of the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes — and of higher quality — from other sources without taxing your hormones and liver?
The bottom line: If you want to look good naked, stay away from Naked Juice and other juice products. Focus on consuming high quality foods and staying away from foods that are toxic to you.
To read more about the fact on Naked Juice you can click here.

Are you a naked drinker? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!

Don't let anyone dull your sparkle.
-Lex

How to Be a Hot Mom, The Low Maintenance Way

As Moms we all want to be the "hot mom" even if we don't want to admit it, we all know that looking "pinterest put together" as I call it, is all on our wishlist!

I am in NO way a beauty-aholic, I'm in fact what I like to call a  "Very Low Maintenance, fake like I put a lot of time into my appearance mom" and I never once considered myself to be envied if you want to even call it that for "always looking like I spent forever getting ready" as my friend called it, as soon as I heard that sentence come out of her mouth I swear I laughed so hard that I semi choked on my coffee. I probably spend a total of 30 minutes getting ready in the mornings and that 30 minutes includes deciding what to wear, getting dressed, hair, makeup, brushing my teeth, all while at least 1 out of 3 of my children have something that they need me to do, I am not a regular salon goer, I haven't had my nails done in YEARS I honestly probably get my haircut once to twice a year and I buy "cheapish" makeup, so now maybe you can understand why her statement caught me off guard and I laughed so much, so it got me thinking on why I should share my go-to EASY quick beauty, if you must call it that, secrets!



Shortcuts for Moms:
Use Conditioner: I shower at night and Wash it and CONDITION the Hell out of it! I usually shampoo as soon as I get in  rinse then coat in conditioner and let it sit until I'm done in the shower rinsing it out last

Towel dry: (DO NOT RUB YOUR HAIR WITH YOUR TOWEL it will cause FRIZZ) I squeeze my hair with the towel then put in a leave in conditioner or shine type product
Then off to bed YES I SLEEP WITH WET HAIR!!! I know it's not the norm but I do not in anyway want to spend forever blowdrying my hair not to mention the 80's hair I would have if I did so

Don't wash your hair everyday: I wash mine other to every 3 days, it would dry out too much, and in between washes if my curls are looking ify I go to my never fail heatless curls  or Aluminium Foil Curls (the tin foil curls are fantastic to do at night and sleep on they still hold up and look great the next day because I would much rather do it at night when kids are sleeping and sleep a little later in the mornings)

Makeup: I am a Full on believer in you can transform your feelings about the day with a little makeup!
The Days I wear Makeup I feel Like I can conquer the world
The Days I don't I feel Blah and just can't get motivated to do anything
So My Philosophy at least wear blush and mascara! It will brighten up your whole face!
My usual makeup routine takes me 10 minutes tops and I wear concealer to hid my puffy bags under
my eyes
Bronzer to semi contour
Blush to give me some color
A little eye shadow (Blend and use at least 2 different colors light and darker)
Eyeliner usually not heavy but some
and Mascara
Done!

Always Get Dressed all the way down to your shoes: I feel so much better being fully dressed and I am more likely to get stuff done being fully dressed (yes even shoes) than I am if I don't get dressed for the day

Have some GO-TO Outfits: I love to browse pinterest for new ideas but I always have some go to outfits for days I just have no inspiration for something new

Skinny Jeans + Boots + Cute Top
Skirt + Cute Top
Jeans + "Fancier Hoodie"+ Sneakers (cute ones)
Maxi Dress

And remember accessorize to make any outfit fun and put together!

Establish a Face Care Routine: I wash my face everynight with cleanser and moisturizer when I Shower I throw a face scrub on and rinse it off in the shower

Take Off Eye Makeup with Coconut Oil: I just rub coconut oil over my eyes then wipe away the makeip, it gently removes my eye makeup while moisturizing

Being a "hot mom" is something we all can do with barely any time or effort.  By following these
steps you're on your way to becoming a totally hot mama.
Tell me your steps to being a hot mama!
-Sarah (The Hot Mama)

My schedule

I am always googling or searching for other people's or examples of schedules for stay-at-home moms or homemakers I guess to see if I'm doing enough or a "good enough" job! so I finally made my own schedule that I typically follow Monday-Thursday ( friday saturday and sunday my husband is off my kids dont go to school so I do almost everything on the list just not at the same times) so here is my example schedule maybe it will help someone who has been googling others like crazy like I do :)

7:30 AM: me up, dressed, dogs out and fed, tidy up/laundry

8:00 AM: start breakfast

8:30 AM: Eat breakfast. clean kitchen kids color

9:00 AM: Plan dinner menu. Get food out of freezer to defrost, or start meal in slow cooker.

9:30 AM: Start one load of laundry. kids 1 cartoon (store days we skip this this play outside to grocery shop or DRs or whatever we might have I usually try to schedule everything for tuesdays so its sorta the same through out the weeks)
10:30: go upstairs kids dressed ,teeth, pick up rooms

11:30 AM: play outside? or inside

12:00 PM: take my Son to school

1:00 PM: lunch

1:30 PM: kids naps wake up my husband

2:00 PM: Pack Husbands lunch ,Fold and put away clean laundry.
2:00  PM: Husband off to work

3:15 PM: house clean up make our bed etc

3:30 PM: freetime maybe depends on how long the previous items took

4:00 PM: Aiden home

4:30: outside play backyard walks etc

5:30 PM: inside start dinner kids play in their rooms

6:00 PM: kids set table dinner time

6:30 PM: clean up dinner

7:00 PM: bath time PJ's teeth

7:15 PM: pick up rooms story time pick out clothes for next day

8:00 PM: Bedtime

8:15 pm: pick up anything that is out and My free time

10:00 PM: probably bed time (my husband works nights so its so quite sometimes i stay up til 11 or 12 but usually get bored lol)

Hope this helps someone now my I'm flexable if something takes longer or shorter than planned then I'm ok with the "time" of the scheduled item changing and some mornings typically tuesday we will go to the store and skip cartoons and etc to go to the store but honestly just adjust it to your needs. I find it was less stressful if i have a semi structured day even though I'm at home. I use to just sleep til the kids woke up and just winged it the rest of the day but it is so much easier with a schedule even if you just set a goal for yourself to try it for one month then see if its for you or not!

Hope this helped!

-Sarah