Advocare Cleanse results. . .

I love love love doing the Advocare 10 day herbal cleanse. 

It consists of a program of clean eating.  In the morning you take a probiotic 30 mins before breakfast.  You drink a fiber supplement with breakfast and then in the evening when you go to bed you take the herbal cleanse capsules.  The eating program is really easy actually.  You just eat clean.  And honestly I eat often and I'm satisfied.  I struggle with a really strong sweet tooth so the first few days can be rough.  It can also be rough to be around sweets or foods I can't eat during the cleanse.  But it's 10 days and I'm here to tell you that *you* can do anything for 10 days.  It resets me, detoxes me from sugar and sets me up to maintain a good eating program following the 10 days.  The eating has become habit and because I feel so good I maintain it.  I have more energy and I sleep better when I eat like this.   

Anyways, here are the results.  I'm down 7.8 lbs, which is pretty typical of what I lose during the cleanse.  I lost 1 inch *each* on my bust, waist and hips for a total of 3 inches overall there.  I also lost 1/2 inch on each thigh.  Do you count both of those and end up with a total of 4?  Or do you only count on thigh for 3.5 inches? I have no idea!   

You can see my daily weights above.  It takes a while to see a difference in fat % and I'm not sure how accurate those hand held monitors are, but I lost 0.5% of body fat.  Normally I would only take that measurement every month or so because I feel like too many factors, like hydration, come into play and it's hard to get a consistent reading.  

I'm really pleased with these results.  I still want to see 176, but I feel like I got control of the scale creep.  I just hope that I can maintain it for some time right now and continue to lose.  I do the cleanse about every 90 days or so.  When I have 10 days with no real social commitments that will sabotage me.  Advocare says not to do it more often than every 90 days.  So I do it 3-4 times a year. 

Other than that life has been way too filled with drama that has been stressing me out but right now I'm not comfortable talking about it.  Unfortunately I find the position my life is in right now to be rather embarrassing and uncomfortable.  I woke up Tuesday morning thinking that life was a dream.  Then I realized it wasn't.  I sometimes wonder how I got here.  But in anycase, I'm trying to distract myself and plan a hot date with my 5 year old nephew this weekend.  We want to take him to see Pete's Dragon.  Has anyone seen it? 

Cleaning it up!

On Monday I started the Advocare Herbal Cleanse.  I do this 3-4 times a year.  They recommend not more often than every 90 days.  I love the cleanse!  It gets me back on track.  I eat a lot of food.  But it's clean.  No cookies, pretzels, cupcakes. . .  And I was becoming a sugar monster!

The amount of *crap* I was stuffing in my mouth was shocking.  I'd eat just because honestly.  The stress doesn't help.  Once I clean up my food choices, I feel so much better!  Less fluffy - goodbye bloat!  I have more energy and I sleep much better.   I might be less moody too, but that's hard to judge cause my stress level impacts that quite a bit.  

After 4 days of eating clean, I'm down 5.6 lbs!!!   Today is day 5, so almost half way there. 
(read the weights from the bottom up!)

I had let my weight creep up too high for comfort.   My goal has always been to see 176 and I never quite make it.  I get to 178 and start going back up.  I'd like to finish the cleanse in the 170's . . . even 179.8 (my scale only weighs in even increments. .  179.9 isn't possible) would be ok!  It would be a big boost to motivate me to keep my eating clean.  Right now I'm rocking and rolling.  I'm determined the weekend will be no different than this week.  I like routine in my eating, so if I can maintain this routine and eat the snacks when I normally do I will be golden. . . I hope!

This week Advocare released a new spark flavor. . . .

I've had two so far and it's yummy.  The flavor isn't as strong as I'd hoped.  I like the strong flavors so I can add more water. . . but it's still really good.  It will be high up on my list of favorites. 

Have a great weekend!  

I had a goal. . .

I'm so freaking excited today!!!   When I started the Advocare Herbal Cleanse on April 9th, I set a goal. . . that goal was to see the 170's on the scale before I leave for KY on April 27th (this coming Wednesday).  

179.8 (my scale only does even numbers behind the decimal) would be fine.  I didn't care.  I just wanted to see 170's.  My long term goal was to see 176 as that would be 35 lbs lost since I started Advocare.  I would have reached that in August if I hadn't got sick.  Life since then has been rough and the weight crept on.  I wanted to hit 176 and reassess where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there. 

So I started the cleanse at 188.2.  Yesterday was tough day and I didn't eat dinner. I wasn't even all that hungry so I guess it didn't matter.  I never skip meals, but it happened.  I didn't get home till close to 9pm and I wasn't feeling up to making something.  

This morning I got on the scale not knowing that to expect.  I could have easily gained.  The body is funny like that.  Not eating isn't necessarily a "good" thing where the body is concerned. 

But I saw this on the scale. . . 

GOAL!!!!!    I'm stunned.  I'm shocked.  I got on that dang scale probably 4 times.  It said the *exact* same thing each time.  (Maybe one day I'll set the date on that thing huh?).   That's a loss of 2.6 lbs from yesterday.  So I'm not sure that this will remain and I could blow up tomorrow.  But I saw it.  I saw the 170's!!!!   Whoop whoop!!!!   It feels good.  Now I'd like to hold that and actually be in the 170's on Wednesday morning when I leave.  I hope I can, but I also know that I have a few things coming up that might make it challenging.  If in fact this is a bit of a fluke then it will certainly be a challenge.  If it's not, then there might be hope.  It's funny how I can gain 2-3 lbs overnight and it can take days to get it off.  It's very very rare that I drop more than 1 lb in one day.  But boy does it feel good!!!   

Happy weeekend everyone!

10 day cleanse results!

I haven't been posting because I've been waiting for my cleanse to be over.

On Sat April 9th, the hubs and I started the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse.  You can do this as part of the 24 Day Challenge or you can do it solo.  As you know in Jan we did do the full challenge.  The recommendation is to cleanse every 90 days.  Some people do the challenge every 90 days.  We have been eating pretty much like you do on the 24 day challenge 90% of the time, so we just did the cleanse.    I'm going out of town next week and we found 10 days where we didn't have any events.

The consists of 10 days of clean eating.  You *eat*.  You don't starve yourself.  You eat three meals a day and 2-3 snacks.  It's all clean, avoiding things like dairy, sugar, alcohol, condiments, bad carbs. . . we eat very little carbs.  You can have whole grain breads, but we don't. I know for myself that I will have better success if I don't.  But I do eat grain like quinoa every day.  Since I run, I really need the carbs to keep that energy level up.  I eat three snacks as I have that extra/optional one after dinner, before bed.  That's my snacky time and I just can't give that one up.  But snacks are clean: fruits and nuts.  That kind of thing.

My start weight was 188.2.
My hubs start weight was 207.8

My final weight this morning was 182.6.  That's a loss of 5.6 lbs.  I'm happy with that.  I wanted more, but I did the best I could and this is what my body gave me.  I lost half inch off of: hips, waist and both thighs, for a total of 2 inches lost.  I really want to see the 170's soon so I'm going to keep up with the clean eating and see if I can get there before I go to KY next week. 

My hubs however ended up in ONDERLAND!!  His final was 199.8.  I don't think he's been in the 100's in his adult life.  He was much larger before I met him and lost weight prior to meeting me in 2006.  But I know that he has always been in the 200's the whole time we've been together.  He's pretty excited!  He also lost a total of 2 inches: 1 from both the chest and hips.  He's kind of shrinking before my eyes.  I think he's loving it.  He was resistant to any kind of "cleanse" or limiting food groups/eating before.  But he's loving the reaction he's getting from people and I know he feels better.

The thing I love the most about the cleanse and clean eating in general is that my weight is more stable.  I don't have wild fluctuations of going up a few pounds in *one* day.  Here's my daily weight since the start of the cleanse (from the bottom up!)

You will notice that my fat % went up.   But gosh darn, those monitors are something else.  Any change in hydration can affect it.  It seems to take much more than 10 days to see results.  So I'm not too worried about that.   I've been stuck since Saturday morning at the exact *same* weight.  That's becoming a bummer.  And even more of a bummer is that it's my TOM starting today.  So I suspect I will fly up 3 lbs in a day or two from that bloat.  That's one thing clean eating can't control.  The bloat from Aunt Flo!  Ha!  

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I thought since I haven't posted in a while, that I'd share some images from this weekend.

First - my horse, Eli is lame.  I don't know what he did and I don't know if it's related to his neck arthritis.  But there's no riding right now and I don't know when I'll call the vet yet.  I leave town next Wed so I may address it when I get back, unless it gets worse.  This is a sad face selfie.  I was excited to try a horse selfie with my new phone because the front camera is wide angle.  It's much easier to fit a horse head in the photo!

On Saturday I took my nephew to his baseball practice.  His Dad was working and his sister was sick, so his Mom couldn't take him.  I love that boy! He's so funny and so well behaved. 

He's a true farm boy and he loves working with his dad in the field (his dad does field work for someone when not working his *real* job @ John Deere).  So on the way home from baseball practice we stopped to check on my husband in the field.  Have I mentioned on here that my husband farms?  Probably not, cause in reality farming sucks and it sucks all your money down the drain. 

Sunday morning, before my husband went to the field, we went for a run. Whew - he's just too fast for me.  I really have to up my speed to run with him.  I know it's good for me, but as summer comes and the temperatures go up, it's getting harder.  I hate hot weather running.  But I sure am proud of myself when I'm done and see that speedy pace! :)

On Sunday, my nephew was at my Mom's house and she sent me this photo.  She said he noticed the tractor a mile away and starting getting excited that it was my hubby.  I thought this photo was about the sweetest thing I've seen in a while. 

Hope all is well with everyone that reads this!  Post a comment once and while and say hi! :)

Crinkle. . . crinkle . . . crinkle. . .

Crinkle crinkle.  What is that noise?  Oh that's the sound of my husband opening one of these:

What?!?!  Seriously.  We are doing the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. Candy canes are not on the menu.  What the heck?   It was about 9:30 pm last night.  We just got done watching 2 more episodes of Orange is the New Black and were going to bed.  He was going to feed the kitties and give Sophie her medicine.  And I hear the crinkle of the plastic.  Umm. . . nothing in plastic is on the menu. 

"What are you eating?" I ask.  

He gets defensive and says "It's just a candy cane! It's only a candy cane". 

He didn't use cuss words for once if I remember right.  I was mad.  Should I have been mad?  I don't know.  We are doing this challenge together.  A candy cane didn't temp me but the crinkle of the paper did.  It's like during the various times when I'm not drinking soda and I a coworker has a fountain soda . . . I can hear the ice.  My mouth starts watering.  So the crinkle made me think of chocolate. 

And yes I went to bed mad at him.  Do I expect perfection on the challenge?  I don't know.  Maybe.  I expect it of myself.  I don't even eat my vitamin C and vitamin D vitamins right now cause they are gummies and have a coating of sugar.  No artificial sugar in my system!   So yes I guess I expect the same from him.  But above that I expect that he doesn't eat these things in front of my face.  If he isn't committed he can cheat during the 12 hours a day that I'm not home.  That's what I expect. 

When I invest the money in the challenge (it's not cheap!) I give it my full commitment.   I paid for his challenge cause I ordered and my credit card is linked to our Advocare account.  I suppose I should have had him pay for his.  Then maybe he would realize the expense and be more committed. 

I think the other thing that bothered me is that he didn't *need* that candy cane.  What?!  He was mindlessly eating.  Through the challenge you learn how much you mindlessly eat when you want to reach for something you "can't have".  It's eye opening.  

So yes, my feathers are ruffled over a candy cane.  And I don't even know how to talk to him about it. 

But I'm rocking the challenge and the scale and I are friends again!  I won't post anything about my weight till I'm either a week in or at the end of the 10 day cleanse mark.  You never know what the scale will do, but these last 2 days have been *happy dance* moments when I saw the number on the scale.  

Advocare 24 Day Challenge . . . Day 1!

Whoop!  Today is day 1 of the Advocare 24 day challenge.   I stuffed my face like every meal was my last meal this weekend.  I blew up.

Holy yikes!  This makes me want to cry.  I undid a lot of hard work the last half of the year.  I used getting sick as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted.  I went through stages of panic and depression during that time and food was comfort.  But I could have got it under control.  I totally could have.  I just didn't.  Then the holidays came and I did ok.  But then New Year's came and I had 11 day till the challenge.  So what I did I do?  I ate everything one last time.  Like I'd never ever be able to have it again.  So I earned that 196.  I know it.  I own it.  I'm moving on.  (the fat % was 32.8% but I forgot to take a photo.  That's up too. . . )

We prepped food this weekend.  I made scrambled eggs for my breakfast every day.  My husband made chicken for my salads.  We made some quinoa and fruit salad.   So it's on!  We got this under control.

That was my breakfast this morning.  I'm drinking my spark right now.  I decided to have mandarin orange to shake things up and it's pretty good.  A bit like tang from the old days, but I was stuck on fruit punch so I needed to change it up.

Last night before we went to sleep. . . the last thing my hubby said was "I can't wait to start our cleanse tomorrow".  Whoop!  He had to come into this in his own time.  He's done the cleanse with me before but I think just to humor me.  I feel like he really *wants* to do it this time.  And this will be his first time doing the full 24 days.  So I'm very excited to see how he does.  I'm super happy that he wants to do this and was looking forward to it as well.

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One last thing . . .

I bought an Amazon Fire Stick over the holiday sales.  Finally set it up this weekend.  My internet doesn't seem to be fully up to snuff with streaming (we live out in the sticks) but it's working well enough.  Last night we watch three episodes of . . . 

Whoa!  Wow.  First of all when practically the first scene is 2 women having sex. .  .and your husband says "what are we watching". . .   ha!  Nah it's all good.  I can't wait to watch more!!!  I can't believe I finally got on the Netflix bandwagon.  I feel so grown up. 

Results of the Advocare Herbal Cleanse take 2

Saturday morning was the completion of my second Advocare Herbal Cleanse.  Whoop!  I cannot tell you how much I love being excited to get on the scale.  During the cleanse my weight never goes up.  It does stay the same - *exactly* the same, but in 2 rounds it has never gone up during the cleanse.   I love that.  I love not looking at the scale with dread.  

(drum roll). . . .  I lost 9.8 lbs!  I lost an inch off of each: waist, hip, thighs.  

My starting weight was 191.4.  I will admit that I wanted to kick the scale for not giving me that extra 0.2 for a grand total of 10 lbs.  But that's just my anal self wanting to see 10 lbs in 10 days.

I don't have a starting fat percent cause I don't always remember to use my fat monitor. But on the 3rd day of the cleanse I did use it and I was 32.2 % fat.  So about 1% down in fat %.  I will take that!

In a weird twist of scale freakiness, my husband lost exactly 9.8 lbs too. :)  He didn't take measurements much to my dismay.  Men! Hmph.  I can visibly see he's smaller, but I sure wish I knew my how much.

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This weekend was a bit tough.  I had a planned lunch with my friend on Saturday.  No big deal.  We went to a deli and I got a bowl of soup (very low calorie vegetable soup) and half a sandwich (not cheese - just chicken and a chipolte sausce).  I drank water.  But then we were at my husband's mom's house that evening for Mother's Day.  We were leaving to go home for dinner when she said "I'd take you out to dinner but you don't eat anything".   UGH!!  Did I want to scream.  My husband and I said at the same time "we eat".  I hate being judged on what I eat.  I hate it.  It's a huge pet peeve of mine and I think it's rooted in jealousy.  We eat.  We eat a lot.  We just don't eat crap food.  So off we went to dinner and we bought her dinner for Mom's day.  The choices where we live were limited and we wanted to go fairly close.  So I ended up with a chicken wrap which was ok.  I left some of the tortilla and I got some fries.  I admit I kind of ate the fries to show her I ate.  Which doesn't make me any better.  I left half the fries on my plate though.   And I left feeling full but not overly full.  I was up on the scale Sunday morning. . . . 

So Sunday we went to Ballpark Village in StL to get a free pink hat!  They do giveaways during Cardinals away game to generate more business when the boys aren't in town.  This is the hat - it has bling!!!  Pretty sweet for a free hat. 

 I ran 3.25 miles that morning.  Skipped breakfast and we at the Budweiser Brewhouse at the village.  Unless I wanted a dinner size breakfast of steak or chicken the healthy choices were limited.  But I got this salad. 

I used less than one of the little cups of dressing.  I gotta say that was a kick ass salad.  I always end up with a lot of toppings on my plate cause I need lettuce in every bite and the ratio is always off. But this salad rocked - there's bacon, chicken, apples, some kind of candied nuts and dried cranberries I think.  It was so good.  Not totally clean, but acceptable given that I ran I think.  I ate every single bite of this baby.  All the toppings were so good I didn't care if there lettuce in my bites or not.   My hubby and I had one beer at the bar before leaving.  I gotta admit I felt bloated after the beer.  And I was a bit sad that I poisoned my body with it after cleansing for 10 day.  Yes that's the anal part of me coming out.  

I was worried about the scale this morning.  Not going to lie.  But I was 181.8.  So just 0.2 up from Saturday.  I consider that acceptable.  My next goal is (well 181 will be 30 lbs so I guess that's next) 175 - that's the dream weight I wanted to hit when I started this in Jan.  But once I get there I think I will set a new goal.  That's still considered a high BMI for me according to the charts.  So I'd like to lose a bit more, but if I hang at 175 for a while that will be a-okay with me. :)

Progress on the cleanse

Today is day 6 of the Advocare Herbal Cleanse.  Yesterday I hit my lowest weight of the year.  Heck of last year too. 

I totally did a happy dance on the scale.  6.2 lbs lost since I started the cleanse.  Today I weighed 185.2, 185.6 and 185.8 . . . three times on the scale.  I gave up and called it a wash.  Tomorrow hopefully I'm in the 184's. 

I'm wearing my favorite Silver jeans.  I wore them at Rolex as that was a huge goal of mine. I  wore them there in 2012 and not again since cause I couldn't fit.  I kind of still can't fit as they are lower waisted and give me a slight muffin top, but they look rocking everywhere else so I deal.  I wear a thin jacket all day at work anyways. :)

On FB someone asked me how hungry people are when they do the cleanse.  The point is to eat and eat clean and healthy.  Not starve.  This was my breakfast on Saturday morning:

2 eggs, turkey sausage and quinoa.  M-F at work I eat 2 scrambled eggs and quinoa.  I prep the eggs on Sunday and reheat them at work when I eat breakfast. 

Here is a lunch from this weekend.  I just threw it together cause it sounded good: 

That's quinoa, a can of turkey and a hard boiled egg.  Can you tell I love quinoa.  We make it in chicken broth instead of water.  It adds a little taste to it.  This lunch was smaller than I'd normally eat probably.  I eat a ginormous salad every day at work.  But I was busy this weekend and didn't have a lot of time and I wasn't all that hungry.  

I'm really loving the cleanse again. I liked it the first time. Cravings for sweets are minimal.  If I see it I want it, but I don't think much about it.  Last night I put some Albanese chocolate and gummies (the best gummies in the world) into containers for air tight keeping.  My friend lives near Albanese and brings me an order to Rolex every year.  It was hard to play with all the chocolate I had and not shove some in my mouth.  But again I was handling it.  It was in my face.  Out of sight and I don't think much of it.  

Today there is birthday cake at work.  I'm ignoring it.  I sit downstairs.  It's upstairs.  I won't go upstairs unless I absolutely have to.  And hopefully by the time I would need to the cake will be gone :)

I see my blogs appear to be getting read by a few people consistently.  At least I assume it's the same people.  But I haven't had comments for a while.  If you are reading and you have any questions, please ask!  I'm truly in love with my new lifestyle!  I have to go see my thyroid doc soon.  I'm trying to wait till I see the 170's before I make the appt.  I kind of want to shock her with my weight loss! :)  Though I think she'd be impressed with where I am now.  Her scale will weigh me heavier - afternoon, fully clothed, etc - so I'd like to lose 10 more lbs if I can.  175 is a huge goal for me and my body might resist it for a bit.  But I'm on this journey to stay.  I don't see any detours. 

Spark it up!

It's day 3 of the 10 day cleanse.  These last 2 mornings on the scale have been good. :)  I really like the cleanse and I really like clean eating.   However, I realize that I was eating worse than I thought cause these three days have been kind of tough.  I snack just cause I want to.  I eat chocolate just cause I want to.  So it's good that I'm detoxing. 

I'm working my way along with being an Advocare distributor.  One of the things I did was create a variety box of Spark.  I love Spark.  I like all the flavors but I drink a mango strawberry one every morning.  It's more "juice" like if you will, so I like it in the AM.  

When I first tried Spark I bought a variety box.  Advocare doesn't make a variety box.  I bought all the flavors and mixed them up myself.  14 packs, 6 flavors . . . at least 2 of each in each box.  I'm not having a ton of luck selling them though which blows my mind cause the lady I bought mine from last year sold all of hers in the blink of an eye.   

But I'm going to keep on pushing on.  Regardless I love the product.  I love what it's doing for me.  And I have my own little Advocare store going on cause of the stock I have on hand!  

If by chance, I have readers that do not know me on Facebook, and you want a variety box let me know.  I would consider shipping all the packs (without the box).  

If you want to learn more about Advocare - click HERE!

10 Day Cleanse

Today I'm starting to Advocare 10 Say Cleanse.   It's the first phase of the 24 day challenge and it can be done solo or as part of the challenge.   This is a very busy time of year for us, as my husband is starting field work.  So I got him to commit to the 10 days, so we are doing the cleanse solo. 

I'm embarrassed to show my current weight.  I can't believe how much I've gained in one lousy week. 

The last weight I posted was 185.4 and my BMI was 26.6 ("normal").  When I left for KY I was 186 that morning.  

Gosh that photo is totally not readable.  It's 191.4.  Ugh!  I'm so sad about this.  I can't wait to rock the cleanse and I hope to get to the low 180's asap.  Fingers crossed!  I know it will be a challenge as it's only 10 days and I am a lower weight than the last time I started this gig.  I'm optimistic though.