Advocare random thoughts. . .

Today is day 23. . . tomorrow is the "last" day!  What does last day me?  For me it doesn't mean much.   I have product to continue for 2 more weeks.  I do not want to return to crappy junk food eating.  However I will add some foods in.  I just can't believe 24 days is over already!  That was so fast!

I'm still kind of stuck in my weight loss.  That's ok.  I knew that would happen but I'm really beyond happy to be below 200.  I think that's another reason that I'm continuing.  I'd like to get closer to 190.  The farther from 200 I am, the happier I am.  Like most women I can eat the wrong thing and blow up 3+ lbs in one day.  I know me.  I will stress like mad if that scale jumps up over 200.  

Clean eating is not all that hard.  There is nothing in this plan that makes you count calories.  There is nothing that says you starve.  You eat.  But you eat clean food.  You should see our fridge.  It's stuffed with foods.  There's no room!  We have berries - blueberries, blackberries, strawberries.  We have grapes.  We have cantaloupe.  We have quinoa made up and portioned out.  We have left over cabbage soup.  We have hard boiled eggs.  It goes on . . . .it's crazy!  You have a lot of choices in eating.  You really do. 

I feel more stable in my energy level throughout the day.  I don't have that post lunch crash in energy.  I still have lazy moments but I don't have that sluggish feeling to accompany it.  

I sleep better.  I honestly feel like my sleep is better throughout the night, though it's still hard to get up in the AM.  It's almost like I need more sleep.  Not sure what that is about, but I love the deep sleeps I've been having.  Even when I have trouble falling asleep, once I sleep it's great.  I get up too much to pee thanks to all the water I'm drinking.  And I can tell when I get up that my sleep is better, cause it's harder to get up and I fall back to sleep so much quicker than normal. 

I still have cravings.  I'm not going to lie.  Yesterday I was driving home and I was thinking about how I'd just randomly eat things during the day.  Like maybe I'd stop for gas and buy a bag of chips.  Was I hungry then?  Probably not.  I just like chips and wanted a "snack".  Sometimes I'd buy a chocolate iced cake doughnut with sprinkles from Casey's.  Those are my favorite!!! I'd buy it cause I wanted it.  That's the kind of stuff that is going to have to stop in order for me to be successful and continue to lose more weight.  Maybe that can happen occasionally but it's going to have to happen during maintenance.  And I don't know when that will be or what my weight goal is.  

I'm honestly just really excited.  I feel like I finally lost some weight on my own. For those that don't know, I did 2 rounds of HCG in 2011.   That was tough but it worked.  I was going to do that again this year, but opted to try the challenge before I called my Dr for HCG.   Doing this challenge gave me confidence in myself and my abilities.   I feel like just maybe this is something that I can continue. I hope so!  I'm nervous.  My weight has gone up and down my whole life.   I want to find a happy place and stay.  I think if I can get my husband on board with more healthy eating moving forward that I will succeed. My fingers are crossed!

I'm going to say one more thing - you can do ANYTHING for 24 days.  I realize that food is an addiction like smoking and drinking.  I realize that it's hard to go cold turkey with addictions.  But you can still eat.  You just change what you eat.  Try it!  If you have to count down the days and look for the light at the end of the tunnel that's fine.  You honestly might change that way of thinking as you move forward.  Maybe you don't want to go clean. . . maybe you want to give up soda, candy, chocolate, packaged foods. . . . try it.  I bet you can go 24 days.  But if it makes you feel better commit to 7 days at first.  Small goals.  Attainable goals.  I know you can do it!  Those first 3 days always suck ass for me, but then it gets easier.  I read that it takes 21 days to break habits and make new ones.  Maybe after 7 days, you do 7 more. . . then 7 more.   :)   A few years ago I had this fantastic personal trainer.  He was my "soulmate" trainer.  I loved him!  He moved away and my gym life has never been the same.  But the one thing I carry with me what he would say when I was struggling with an exercise. . . trust yourself.   I carry with me in many aspects of life.  Especially when it comes to health/fitness.  It really got me through my half marathons and the training that went with it.  I repeated it to myself many times during this challenge.  Trust yourself!  I think you will be surprised with what you can do!

Take 5

If there is one thing I hate about weight loss it's losing the same pound(s) over and over again.  A friend of mine sent me a message the other day saying she's lost the same 3 lbs 15 times!  Lol.  I feel the pain.  I really do. That's my life right now.  I keep losing the same pound over and over.  It happened a few days last week, then I got a good drop on the scale.  It's happening again this week.  And it annoys me.  Yesterday was such a good day.  I did a 2 mile run on my lunch break.  That's not a lot of cardio, I know, but it makes me feel better and bumps my metabolism up mid-day.   I ate well.  And yet the weight didn't go down this morning.  It was kind of up.  Hard to say exactly cause yesterday my scale was a jerk and gave me 2 readings that were 1 lb apart.   I hate that about scales.  

Advocare & clean eating are going really well.  I'm just used to what I eat now. I feel satisfied.  I crave the fruit that I eat.  I would like to add more vegetables, but really I just don't like eating them raw during the day.  Oh well.   

Friday is day 24!!!  I can't believe it was that fast.   My plan is to continue for another 2 weeks as I have the stuff but maybe be less strict.  I want to add things in . . . like the Ezekial bread that I bought to try.  I want to have my breakfast smoothie a few days and see what happens.  Just kind of play around with things.  Oh and we want to have some pork.  Cause we haven't had any pork during this challenge.  My hubby is getting bored with the dinners, but really . . . we often go through stages where we rotate through the same dinners.  This is no different.  Kind of stuck in a rut.  But I'm not bored with it.  Today he's going to this new store to get some chicken sausage that is on sale.  We'd like to try some of their sausage.   So we'll have that with dinner and also some baked sweet potato fries with it I think.  We may go try a new BBQ restaurant this weekend.  BBQ is fairly healthy IMO and I think I'm ok with adding condiments back in after Friday. :)   We'll see. .  . I have a baby shower to go to on Saturday and I am hoping to avoid all candy/cake/bread :)   Wish me luck!!!

My baby is 20!

Eli turned 20 yesterday.  Well I guess technically all Thoroughbreds turn a year old on Jan 1, but I don't play that game.  So I decorated his stall on Sunday.  I baked a cake for all the barn people and brought that yesterday.  I was riding Eli last night and for some reason I just got really sad.  First I felt like he should have had the day off, but due to wet ground there was no turnout.  So I rode him lightly.  But for some reason I just kept thinking "he's 20".  I don't know why this is so hard for me.  Maybe because I feel like time is really ticking now.  Maybe because I feel like he deserves a green pasture barn where he can enjoy horse life.  My barn is more people-happy than horse happy.  There's no denying that turnout sucks royally and is not something that a horse would enjoy in any capacity.   So that weighs on my mind.  It's just hitting me a lot harder than I thought and I was almost in tears last night as I was untacking him.   I've had Eli since he was 7.  It will be 13 years on Sat Patrick's Day this year.   It's just been a long time and I've promised him a forever home.  I just feel the need to give him that horse-happy home sometime soon.  Not sure how soon is soon. . . . . 

This is Eli as a 3 year old race horse

Yes his real name is Elisha, after one of the prophets in the bible I guess.   I have always shown him as Elijah, cause people say Elisha similar to Alicia and that's too girly.  When I bought him I couldn't stand the name Eli.  But he was 7 and knew his name so I kept it.  Funny how that works.  I don't know why I didn't like it, cause it's a perfectly fine name!  And now it's pretty popular with little boys.   

Clean Eating

That was a snack that I ate yesterday.  Admittedly that was more than I'd normally eat for a snack, but I was hungry.  I ran 3.5 miles yesterday so I think eating a big more was ok.  However, the scale did go up today and that makes me sad.  I'm still not going to the bathroom though.  So either that's the issue or I ate something I'm sensitive to (that cashews?) or I didn't drink enough water.  All possible. 

Prior to this challenge I would have snacked on packaged food. . . a fiber one bar. . . a bag of chips. . . chocolate. . . all of the above cause those things make you want to eat more and make you crave bad things. 

Will I continue this? I don't know. . . I'd like to think that I will continue to make good choices.   It's really not *that* hard. 

Saturday my husband and I went to the auto show in St Louis.  There were beer vendors. . . popcorn. . . soft pretzels. . . smoothies. . .  . we bought an overpriced bottle of water and shared it.  We were there before lunch and had plans for lunch.  But I commented "If it wasn't for this challenge I'd buy a pretzel".   And I have no doubt I would have.  Would I have needed it?  Nope.  But I'd have eaten it.  So it's all about choices.  There's a time in my life for pretzels.  I know that.  I will be going to ballgames this summer and I will eat crap food.  I'm ok with that.  But right now I don't need it.  I can continue to make good choices for a while and I'm really enjoying seeing how my body responds.  

We went to Red Robin for lunch.  Doesn't that sound horrible?  I got a lettuce wrapped turkey burger with a side of fruit salad.  My husband got a lettuce wrapped hamburger (no cheese or condiments) and a side of fruit salad.  We both left happy and full, but not bloated.  I love that Red Robin offers any of their burgers wrapped in lettuce.  It's fantastic and I wish more restaurants had that on their menu.  

So . . there's this chance. . . I'm told 8 out of 10 chance. . . that I will be going to London for work for a week.  Probably sometimes in March.  I'm going to have to keep making good choices and make that scale go lower and lower.  Travel like that is destined to put some pounds on me.  Not necessarily from bad choices, but different foods, eating out. .  . salt. . . travel. . . lack of exercise.   Yikes.  I haven't yet decided if I want to go or not, but the choice isn't really mine.  Lol

Advocare Eating

So today is day 16 of Advocare.  I'm having a bit of trouble with Phase 2 still.  And I'm having a bit of trouble with taking a poop.  Yes I'm just going to lay it out there.  Yesterday I gained 0.2 lbs.  This morning I gained 0.4 more for a total of +0.6.  This is the FIRST time the scale has gone up on Advocare.  It has stayed exactly the same, but it has never gone up.  It's a tad bit disappointing to me.  I'm a perfectionist.  Yesterday I was not hungry.  Not at all.  I didn't even eat 2 of my snacks.  Not on purpose, but I didn't think about it, I wasn't hungry and I was busy at work.  I ran 3 miles last night.  And yet I still gained.  I don't know what's going on, but I know I need to poop!  I did a little bit this morning.  Just enough to stop me from downing some ex-lax!  But it's becoming a mental thing for me, regardless of whether or not there is a real physical issue.  I don't feel bloated, but maybe it would help the scale if some of the food I ate left my body?   I did order some probitoics from Advocare that will be here tomorrow.  I'm really trying to not use ex-lax during this healthy eating phase.   I worked hard to cleanse my body and taking that just seems wrong.  

So what do I eat?   Well here are the advocare food suggestions. 

During the first 10 days, but day looked like this:

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs & quinoa
Snack: a piece of fruit
Lunch: romaine lettuce salad with 6 ox grilled chicken breast and salsa for dressing (this is my *normal* lunch at work that I eat at least 4 days a week regardless of being on a diet)
Snack: strawberries and maybe a hard boiled egg.  Maybe not at the same time (we have hard boiled eggs in the fridge all the time during this challenge)
Dinner: usually a serving a meat and a vegetable
Snack: banana and cashew butter

If I got hungry I would snack on some kind of fruit or another hard boiled egg.  We have grapes and cut up cantaloupe in the fridge all the time.   I probably should eat more vegetables as snacks, but I've never been good at that.  We prep my chicken on Sundays and we have always done that.  We grill it, cut it up and put it in baggies and I'm good to go all week.   I was also prepping my scrambled eggs during this phase on Sundays. I would reheat them at work.  You have to take supplements 30 mins before you eat so I would take those on the way to work and then eat breakfast when I get here. 

For phase 2 I'm eating the same, but Advocare provides meal replacement shakes for breakfast, so that's what I'm eating for breakfast.  During this phase, on the weekends sometimes my lunch is breakfast foods of 2 scrambled eggs and turkey bacon or turkey sausage.  I'm a big fan of eating breakfast for any meal  :) 

Dinner can vary a little bit for us.  Last night we had lettuce wrapped turkey burgers and baked sweet potato fries.   One day we had steak and cauliflower.  We've made unstuffed cabbage roll soup as well as a quinoa, sweet potato and chicken soup (crock pot).   Tonight we are having stuffed peppers.  I love that recipe and we've been making it for a couple years.  I try to avoid carbs at dinner, but I'm eating a bit more of them this phase due to the trouble I'm having.  Quinoa as a dinner carb is one of my favorite cause your body processes it better than other carbs.   

If you want to see the pamphlet that comes with the 24 day challenge you can look here.

Honestly I'm trying very very hard to eat very very clean and I'm doing a pretty good job of it.  Until these last two days the weight was falling off and I've been very happy.  I'm not really sure what's going on right now, but weighing in at 200.2 was a really downer this morning.  I hope I have a big drop in the next day or so to get back to where I was.   

So this is what I've been doing.  Right or wrong - I'm not an expert.  I've not had a single processed thing since this started.  No dairy.  No fried foods.  No unnatural sugars.   The cravings for those things are less, but not gone.  I'd totally inhale a cupcake right now. . . or drink a shocktop! :)   So I will have to figure out what happens on day 25 :)  

Advocare and Onederland!

On January 7th I started the Advocare 24 day challenge with many many other people that signed up for their "All In" challenge.  Everyone started on the 7th.  I have to admit that I've been kind of hesitant to start this.  Advocare has been around a LOOOOOONG time.  When I was in high school (I graduated in 1996) I remember it being sold in the town where I worked.  This guy (yeah he was a rather good looking guy - lol) had this little store from where he did Advocare and some real estate I think.  His little billboard sign outside the store would talk about results people had. . . .  Well time passed and suddenly in the last 1-2 years it seems Advocare has exploded.  I can name soooo many people that I'm FB friends that sell this.  I've had to take them out of my newsfeed cause it was getting slammed with Advocare.   But I would go snoop. . . . and I would see results on their FB pages. . . . then  a friend of mine did the challenge and I saw her results.  So I decided to go for it.  January is the best month for me to do something like this because there isn't much going on and therefore not much temptation.  

Let me say that over Christmas I pretty much retained my weight.  I was holding between 206-208.  I was 208 just after Christmas.  The holiday was no big deal.  I didn't like that weight, but I'd been stuck there for months and as long as I didn't gain over Christmas I was happy.   Then new year's came and I held strong.  I hate that holiday anyways.  But then I decided to do this challenge and every meal was like my last meal on earth.   I just ate everything I wanted and drank soda non stop.  I was really drinking a lot of soda the past few months and I knew that was not a good thing.  I gained weight the few days leading to the challenge.  I weighed an even 211 on the morning of Jan 7th. 

I've had better results on the scale than I expected doing this challenge.  Let me say that the eating program is all clean eating.  3 meals - 3 snacks, not many restrictions other than processed foods, white carbs, dairy. . .   You shouldn't be hungry.  The first 10 days is a cleanse phase.  I lost 9.4 lbs during that phase.   Many people report losing a lot of inches even if they don't lose that much on the scale.  I measured the morning of the 7th, but I haven't since then.  I know my body and it takes a lot for inches to come off.  I always say that's because I'm 5'10" and there's so much more height to take those inches from.  So it's slower.   But I am finally noticing some difference in how my clothes fit. 

Today is day 14. . . I got on the scale and so in the first 13 days I've lost 11.4 lbs!!!!   And welcome to ONEDERLAND!! (again!)

This was my goal for the whole 24 days . . . to get below 200 lbs.  I have 10 days left and I'm so excited.  The weight is falling off.  I will say that I suspect it's more due to the eating than the supplements, but I can't be sure.  I've eaten well before and not had these results.  But probably not as clean.   My hubby is doing the eating, but not the supplements and he's losing too.  I'm finally seeing it in him.  When you see someone every day it's hard to see those changes.  My mom says she can see my weight loss.  So I'm happy about that.   I'm having some trouble with the MNS part of this - phase 2 that is.  But I'll write about that later, if I get if figured out.  For now I'm just so excited to see these kinds of results.  I have to think hard about what to do and how to transition after 24 days. . . . but for now I'm thrilled and I'm finally wearing my diamond ring that I bought a few years back when I accomplished getting to the 100's - and staying there for some time. I can't wear the ring if I'm not in the 100's and if you know me and my love of jewelry it kills me to see it sitting in my jewelry box and not being worn!