WE ARE WOMEN!!!

 

Not something I usually choose to blog about, for I made this blog to specifically help others in their journey through fitness and health. But something has really been on my mind lately and I really feel the need to share it with you all. 

We ladies spend a lot of time, money, and passion on our appearance. We love to read a good blog/magazine what ever it may be, about what the newest and hottest style is. Or a product that makes your face look smoother, weight loss tips, diets, exercises that burns the most fat, on and on and on. We woman care a lot about our bodies, how great we look in yoga pants, and over all feeling better as we change our life style to a healthier one, but of coarse we ALL love cup cakes. I do not care who you are. I will not believe you if you say you don’t love cup cakes. ESPECIALLY when a boy break our hearts, we turn to something even better … JUNK FOOD. Yes, food will always win over stupid boys. 

But something we Ladies seem to be forgetting in life is that not only should we be trying to have healthier skin, bodies, hair, nails, etc, what about a healthy heart, mind, and soul??? Why is this not in Magazines, why do we not see or hear of it more often? Having a positive and happy heart is such a great start to fitness and health. Who the heck are we if all we do is look at another woman and think of nothing but negative things to say? Who are we if we live in an unhealthy negative mindset? It causes stress, and stress leads to unhappiness, sleepless nights, weight gain, and depression. So how can we even do this crazy thing called “life” with all that nonsense going on? No one, or no obstacle in life can determine your happiness except YOU! Its all your choice. Its crazy to think how much control  our minds have huh?

Sadly, the majority of our stress comes from our past. Some of us have been through WAY worse than others. Some have been through the worst of the worst in life, but please tell me how stressing about the past has helped your future??? EXACTLY, leave it in the past. Only an idiot can trip over something that's behind them (I’ve been an idiot one too many times). People have hurt me and people have hurt you. It seems to be unfortunately rare for those who hurt us to apologize.  So how and why should we forgive someone who isn't the least bit sorry? Well don’t do it for them, do it for yourself. FORGIVE THEM. Why? because you deserve the peace in your heart. You have cried over them, stayed up all night in anger about them, and guess what? You are not even on their mind? They are controlling you with no effort. Silly to think about really. But yes, we are woman and we have all made that mistake. And in result of people hurting us, we pay it forward in a negative way by being so cruel to someone else, and it just keeps going on and on. 

So how do we stop it? How do we help ourselves? We have all this unnatural medication in this world today to “help” us. Anxiety, Depression, you name it. Doctors are making millions. “Here is a pill, take it every day and your problems will go away”… Am I dissing anyone that's taking medication? Not at all. I've been on a lot of them myself actually if you want the truth. Until you realize that your mind has so much more control than those pills do, it will never go away for ever. I hope no one gets offended by this but I say it in a blunt way because that one sentence someone once told me “Your mind has more power than those pills you're taking daily.” was LIFE changing. And that person who told me that was not even trying to help me out in the least bit. BUT LITTLE DID SHE KNOW, HAHA. Why didn’t the doctor tell me this? He could have helped me a long time ago. 

I am not in to putting people on blast on social media, So I have blacked out names because my point here is to not call out certain individuals but to make my point here of how we woman have become to one another these days. Skimming through some of the comments I receive on a weekly basis here are just some recent ones….

This is what woman think of when they see another human… Another human they have never even spoke to.  It really does blow my mind sometimes. Did it use to hurt me? Yes, but once I became happy and positive myself, things flipped and I began to hurt for THEM. Yes!!! when I read this stuff, it makes me feel sorry for them. What are they going through in life that has made them so harsh/negative/cold hearted. And yes, I will say I have been rude to others myself, we all have. But they hurt me first so I got them back. Nope I didn’t get them back, I actually just put myself on their level… LOW, THE LEVEL IS LOW LADIES. Which after all, when I sat and looked at all the negative comments and all the positive comments, the positive out weighed the negative by a long shot. And most of the time that is how it goes, its just OUR choice which side to look at, the negative? Or the positive? 

One thing I really love about life is that not everyone is short, muscular, blond hair, blue eyes, loves to tumble and has the name Mackenzie.(explaining myself) because that's me, I don’t want every other woman on this earth to look EXACTLY like me with the EXACT same dreams and goals in life.  And you're you, NOT me. I love how different we all are. I mean there would seriously be no point in posting a selfie on social media anymore. You would already know exactly what it would look like by just looking in the mirror. We would actually have no social media because you would be doing the SAME thing I’m doing so why should I keep up with you and vice versa? And those goals and dreams we work so hard for daily would be nothing if we all achieved the same thing. Could you imagine a world with no goals? Life would be so pathetic and boring. No excitement or interest in any way. That's why we as WOMAN need to learn that your goals are not mine, your interests are not mine, and mine are not yours, and THAT is what makes life so incredibly beautiful. Not only will uplifting one another make us feel better as a individual, but it will make someone else feel better and it will all just keep going back and forth feeding off of one another. What is the point of saying such nasty things about one another, did it help you in any way? Did it help them in any way? Uplifting one another brings YOU up….

So yes, by the end of this blog it all goes back to fitness and health. If you are wanting to change your life and become more fit and healthy, start with your mind. Clean out your heart, fill it up with happiness and positiveness because you CAN'T go forward if you're stuck in the pond of sinking sand full of negativity. Your fitness and health journey will fail. You will not only feel better to get out of bed in the morning and hop on that treadmill, you will take stress out of your life and add many years to it. If this blog inspires one person to change their mindset and become more healthy minded, I have achieved everything I wanted to by typing it. 

-XOXO Mackenzie McKee. 

How becoming a mother saved my life

            As many of you know I became a mother at a very young age. Was this my plan? No, but it happened. If I could go back in time and tell myself anything, I would have told myself to respect myself more and tell my boyfriend I'm waiting tell marriage. And that is the best advice I could give you as well. Sometimes it takes people who learned things the hard way or even the wrong way to give others the best advice. And through my life experience that would be my advice to all young girls. PLEASE RESPECT YOURSELF AND WAIT TELL MARRIAGE. It will save you a whole lot of stress, heart ache, trouble, and the way people view you. 

      At the age 11 I was diagnosed with something that forever changed my life. Type one diabetes. For the rest of my entire life I will have sick days, have to take 3-6 shots a day to even stay alive, check my blood sugar 5-8 times a day and so on. WHAT? I remember thinking that day. I have diabetes. Cool As long as Im alive.... My whole middle school years were a blur and full of a lot of sickness. I didn't care to take care of myself and it was a miracle if my sugars were under 400. 500 was my normal and I learned to live with it. I have little memory of sitting at the doctor MULTIPLE times and him telling me, "your just killing yourself". But since my sugar was 500 at the time, how was I supposed to understand what he was saying? I walked out rolling my eyes. I notice my eyes would sting a lot and I was losing my eye sight. I noticed I went from being the best in the gym to someone who was too weak to do a cartwheel. This wasn't me but my mind was functioning so improperly I couldn't stop it. I lost my brother who had downs syndrome in the eight grade and my way of handling it was to let my blood sugars go as high as possible so my mind would be too dumb to think about it. You know how that works, some people handle it by drinking, doing drugs.. It was my high. It was my new way of handling life. 

    I continued this for years and one day met this ornery, but cute man. And yes shortly after meeting we found out we were having a baby at the ages of 16 and 17. My sugars still running high I will never forget the doctors telling me at my first app. "If you continue this life your living, this baby of yours will die, and soon you will too. You will go blind, and start losing limbs, feet, legs, hands, than your life". The next room a lady doctor told me it might be ideal if I just go ahead and get an abortion. That would have been the LAST thing I would have done. The part about myself wasn't so scary but killing someone else... Like... MY OWN CHILD, was terrifying. Not only was I about to become a mom at 16, I had to completely change my way of living and watch my every move of what I stick in my mouth. Not to mention if you've ever been pregnant you know chocolate and carbs in general become a lot more appealing than they were before. It was a hard time in my life. Josh didn't know how to grow up just yet and I was working, going to high school, and cosmetology school at the same time. I would check my sugars every two hours and my last hour of school was an athletic hour so I would run a mile everyday tell five and a half months pregnant than I would power walk. This was a way to keep my sugars under control. I couldn't believe how well I could focus in life. I couldn't believe how good I felt and how I had more energy being pregnant than I did not being pregnant. I thought when your pregnant you become more tired, more non focused, more miserable.  Long story short I watched my sugars like a hawk and on September 9th had a beautiful baby boy and named him Gannon Dewayne McKee. Yes it was a high risk pregnancy and he was born almost 5 weeks early weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces. BIG BABY. but he was alive and healthy. 

        I remember nursing my baby boy one night shortly after he was born and starring down at him and instantly start bursting into tears. I had realized that all though I was only sixteen and having an unplanned baby at this age was very frowned upon, but this little boy saved me from death. How was I ever going to learn how to take care of myself and why it is so important. Yes I took very good care of myself while he was still in my belly to keep him alive, but now he is here, I am his mother, and I must take very good care of myself to stay alive for him. He truly changed and saved my life. 

      My baby Gannon is 3 years of age now and since then me and his daddy got married and had a baby girl who is now 1. I will never go back to the awful and careless way I was once living. I will always do my best to take care of myself. There are days when my hormones are changing, my body is preparing to get sick, or my blood sugars just don't wanna behave that day, but I always strive to keep a good blood sugar. Having this disease has defiantly been a rough ride,  but has made me who I am today. This is the reason I strive day in and day out to live a healthy life style and help others to. 

Life of a traveling type one diabetic

     Although I am a wife and mommy of two, I would say my husband and I have a rather crazy exciting life. We like to get out and be on the go. By get out I don't mean get a brake from the kids and party but more of TAKE the kids and chase our dreams. As many already know my husband is a bareback rider and hits 1 to 3 rodeos a weekend. And I am a fitness model in training and also on a oic5 all-star cheer team. So as far as "getting out and chasing our dreams" id say were doing a pretty good job. But the more and more we travel, the more and more I realize JUST how hard it is to manage my blood sugars while on the road.

       At home Im on a pretty tight schedule that took lots of work to get it down exactly what works with my blood sugars. Like I said EVERY diabetic is different. But as for me, I start off my day with a blood sugar check and taking a shot, I then HAVE to do about an hour of cardio JUST to manage a good blood sugar throughout the day. Then after taking the kids to daycare I make sure to bring two small healthy meals to eat at work and do a blood sugar check a good 2 or 3 times while at work. After work I then go get the kids and the whole family eats supper AFTER I check my blood sugar again and take another shot. We then have some fun family time at the gym so I can go to sleep with a leveled out blood sugar, and after the day ends and the kids are in bed... I once again check my sugar and take a shot. So no.... I don't ever get a break from the whole pricking my finger or taking a shot. Not to mention throughout all these meals I'm counting carbs and making sure to eat enough protein in my day. If your a type one diabetic and your reading this I know you will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

       So now that you know kinda what my diabetic hectic schedule looks like you can see why traveling can be a little challenging. This past weekend I had a NCA cheer competition 5 1/2 hours away from home which was an absolute blast and my husband rode 30 minutes away from there at the Fort Worth Texas Rodeo. When traveling you think (its lunch time lets pull through a fast food joint) NOT TOO MANY HEALTHY OPTIONS.... we started the weekend off by of coarse driving in the car which requires SITTING for hours and hours. Which also leads to boredom and leads to snacking while not burning off sugars which then ends up with HIGH BLOOD SUGARS... yuck.... So after getting there your drained from the drive and as soon as you see a comfy hotel bed you just can't help but to relax. We then wake up the next morning to start the day off and if you've ever done all-star cheer you know it takes a good while to get ready. So instead of doing my cardio I exchanged that time for hair and makeup. MISTAKE!!! I show up at the competition with a 400 blood sugar because I  decided one day of changing up my routine shouldn't be that big of a deal. I instantly regreated it because now I have to compete with a high blood sugar and won't do my best. Not to mention I felt like crap. It is now supper time and its time for me to take a shot and eat. I take my shot and simply walk around to find something to buy at all the food stands they had set up. Surly they had something diabetic friendly right??? WRONG.... everything was nothing but carbs, carbs is all I saw. I finally decide a ham sandwich will be the best choice and scarf it down before we hit the warm up room. Not feeling my best right before we compete my blood sugar was 380. eww..... So this all being said for day two, giving myself a nice little break was not an option. I went back to the hotel that night and did some jumping jacks to burn off the high blood sugar that was killing my day. And decided I must eat something carb-less and healthy. So a salad it is. And let me tell you something about that salad (it was amazing).... It had this really good dressing too. No way I will get sick tonight. I go to bed with my husband telling me I'm a cranky mess and realizing the head ache and crappy feeling had not gone away. I remembered the name of the salad and look it up. AWESOME the delicious dressing was made of pure sugar.... ehh FAIL...

      Who would have thought id get sick off of a salad. This fun traveling life is not so easy but my stubbornness perked up the next morning and told myself "I'm gonna kick your butt today diabetes" So I did my morning cardio after checking my blood and taking my shot RIGHT in the hotel room and followed up with my make up and hair. I go to a convenient store and buy beef jerky, nuts, and a protein bar to eat for my meals and take with me to the competition. I check my sugar before the warm up room and WHAT DO YA KNOW my blood sugar read a perfect 115 and I competed that day like a boss. Boy was I proud that day to tell my stupid disease that it can't and won't stop me from anything..... "I HAVE DIABETES, DIABETES DOES NOT HAVE ME" take that pancreas :)..... It is now supper time and my husband wants to go to the waffle house:/ ehh, waffles. I had done so good in my day why would I wanna mess it up now. As he ordered his carb full hash brown and sugary waffles caked in syrup, I enjoyed my eggs and sausage and made sure they didn't sneak in some kind of sugary dressing this time... Self control can be hard but I would take a good blood sugar over a good meal and destroying my body any day. If you are a type one or know of a type one please stop and remind them or yourself that YOU are important and someone NEEDS and LOVES you. Don't let your disease take control of your mind or body and destroy it before your eyes......

check out my latest sexy leg workout at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6nIYJTdh0M

WHY drinking water is important!!!!!

Up until recently I never understood why drinking water was so important. Its boring, and if my body isn't craving it at the time.... I'm not going to just sit and drink a cup of water. I would say I've spent my life on a cup or two or maybe three of water a day. The more I get into the fitness world or even just the word of health, I notice a lot of people saying "drink more water" so out of curiosity I began to research just HOW much water a body should be consuming in each day and WHY its so important to drink more water.
      Ive read a lot of different opinions as too how much water you should drink each day, but they all really seem to be about the same amount. I stick with the 8x8 rule. Health authorities commonly recommend at least eight-8 ounce glasses of water each day. So roughly two liters or half a gallon. At first this was hard for me to do. But after the way it made me feel and all the benefits from it I now look forward to drinking water. I start my morning off every morning with a glass of water then drink one with every meal and also before bed. Yes I count and yes I make sure to get at least eight in a day. So now that we know how much we should drink lets get back to the question of WHY its so important. 


     10 benefits from drinking water 

1.)  Calorie and weight control
Numerous studies have found a connection between water intake and shedding a few pounds. Lets be honest we ALL want to be at our best weight, ESPECIALLY us women. How does this work though? water simply makes the body feel full, and as a result from that you will consume less calories. Staying hydrated can serve as a appetite suppressant. Sometimes we think we are hungry when really were just thirsty.

2.)  Fluid balance
About 60 % of our bodies are made up of water,  without drinking enough our bodies will not function properly. Drinking enough maintains the bodies fluid balance, it helps transport nutrients into the body, digest food, regulate your body temperature etc. 

3.) Prevent cancer
Many studies show keeping yourself hydrated can reduce bladder cancer by 50%, colon cancer by 45% and possibly even breast cancer.

4.) flush out waist and bacteria
Nobody wants their body to have a bunch of yuck in it. However most of the time we dont even know just how much yuck is in our body. All that waste is flushed out with urine and sweat. If we don't drink enough water, we are not flushing out all the waste and it will collect in your body causing various problems. Also staying hydrated adds fluids to the colon and allows things to come out more often and more smoothly :)... nobody wants to be constipated. 

5.) Clear, healthy, glowing SKIN!!!
Our skin is the largest organ in our body. Keeping your skin hydrated not only fights off the toxins in the body that causes your skin to inflame, resulting clogged pores and acne problems, but it also improves the color and texture of your skin by keeping it building new cells properly.

6.) prevent headaches
NOBODY likes suffering with headaches. It can ruin a perfectly good day along with a perfectly good mood. Sometimes dehydration can cause horrible headaches. If this is the case, try drinking a glass of water next time you have a headache. 

7.) perform and focus better
We all like to stay focused in our day, more water can help stay concentrated and more alert in your day. Dehydration can lead to weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and more.

8.) joint pains
Aching joints and muscle cramps can occur if the body is dehydrated . Drinking water reduces pain in your joints by keeping the cartilage soft and hydrated.

8.)less cranky
Dehydration can really affect your mood and make you confused and grumpy. Make yourself and those around you happier by drinking more water to enhance your mood....

9.)stay alive
You will simply die without water. Its THAT important. Studies show you can only live a few days without water, MAYBE a week. So imagine what your doing to your body by not keeping it hydrated daily. Most of us need to consume more water than we actually do but just don't realize it. Love your body enough to keep it healthy and hydrated. 

10.) sickness fighter
Who wants to be sick? not me. Water helps with decongestion and of coarse dehydration, helping the body bounce back after being sick. 

   

shape, color, or size, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!

           I would just like to start this blog out by saying "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL" why??? because this world is full of different people. That is the beautiful and unique part about us humans. We all have that certain look that we feel happy and beautiful in. For instance I wanna be as muscular and fit as possible, I like my hair blond and big, I like my skin tan, I like to wear cowgirl boots and bling jeans, etc.... but YOU might feel beautiful being curvy, your hair black, you don't like to tan, and your happy playing piano and not running. AND THATS ALL OK, BOTH OF THEM.... because the most important thing is that YOU ARE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR OWN SKIN AND YOU ARE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU DO!!!!!!!.

                    One hard thing in life for us women to figure out is a mans mind... Well too bad you will never figure it out because they all want love yes, but they all love a different type of body. I have over heard men say they like their women petite, I've heard them say they like them large, I've heard that they like big butt and boobs and I've also heard that they like small chest. I grew up NEVER having boobs, even when I put on weight, was pregnant, nursing, not working out..... NEVER HAD BOOBIES.... I've wondered if that made me "not beautiful" but being a cheerleader standing only 4'10 and weighing under 100, I just thought they didn't belong on me. As I got older I noticed all my friends have these things called "boobs" and I am almost 18 and still wearing a training bra...but what can I do right??? I let it bother me until I got married and moved into a small farm house with very little warm water. So me and my husband had to take a shower together in order to both get a hot one. I didn't really like standing in front of him naked for what kind of man would wanna stare at a flat chest. He all the sudden looked at me in the shower one day and said "I like your boobs, small and perky:) and I think your beautiful" I know it doesn't sound like much but it changed my whole mind set. This man LOVES MY SMALL CHEST!!!!! whatttttt! It just goes to show that no matter what shape, size, or color you are.... their is someone out there for EVERYONE and you are beautiful to SOMEONE.... and man that makes life special...



       
  As I'm training to be a fitness model , I often run across a lot of both respect and hate. Woman will say things like "EWW" or "GROSS HOW MANLY" when in my eyes this is exactly how I wanted to look, this is what makes me feel beautiful, and you bet I worked my butt off to look like this. And I have even seen "I would rather be fat than look like you" no it doesn't hurt me and it is more of a compliment because if I look like a man I must have muscle:).... But it just makes me appreciate the skin I'm in and I hope you appreciate and are happy in the skin YOU ARE IN. Never let anyone make that decision for you. If you are happy fat... be fat. If you are happy skinny, be skinny, If you want purple hair, GO FOR IT... There is no rule book on this earth for HOW we should look. The sky is the limit and you can do ANYTHING you want as long as you let no one stop you. It is YOUR body, YOUR clay... shape it how you want it. #overcomer