Advocare 24 Day Challenge - RESULTS! :)

Well here we are. . . Day 25. I know it's a 24 day challenge, but day 25 is the hardest.  There are no "rules" to follow.  Do you continue with this lifestyle or do you stuff your face and blow up all your hard work?  I continue!  I continued last year with great success.  I was stronger last year.  There were no cravings. .  . no desire to stuff my face.  That's not so true this year.  But I'm focused and trying really hard to find that strength I had last year.  I can't deny I have cravings and I'm not sure why cause I kicked that during the challenge last year.  But here I am. . .  as such, for my cravings I made Advocare protein balls, using their meal replacement shake.   I've never ever made these in all this time doing Advocare.  They turned out a bit dry and I might tweak the recipe next time, but it sure did make me feel like I had a sweet snack last night.

I realized yesterday that I took (and posted to FB) a photo of breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Geesh.  I don't know what got into me.  But this is what I ate - minus the snacks (and yes I snack - often)

A shake for breakfast, tuna "salad" (tuna, pickle relish and eggs) on top a bed of quinoa for lunch and a new recipe - Autumn Minestrone Soup for dinner.  All of these were YUM!!  When I really eat clean I crave that lunch combo all the time.  I don't question it.  I just eat it. My snacks were carrots and hummus, strawberries and cashews . . the protein ball after dinner.  And handfuls of grapes every now and again. I snack often and a lot.  If I get hungry I blow it.  Big time.

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So the results. . .

I'm down 9.6 pounds.  

I don't have a before of the fat %, but it was 32.8.  So I'm down only 0.6% in fat.  I thought that was a bit on the low side. 

As for the inches, I lost a total of 6.5 inches broken down like this:

Chest: -2
Waist: -2
Hips: -2
Thigh: -0.5

Overall I'm pleased with the results.  I had hoped for more.  And I had hoped to reach 183.  Why that number?  I was lower last year (in the 170's) when I got sick.  I bounced to 181-183 and held there for some time.  My body likes that range and I wanted to get back there during the challenge and proceed to get myself over that hump.  But I will get there. . . I am motivated. 

One thing that motivates me is before and after pics because you can "see" the difference.  I'm very suspicious of many before and after photos.  I think many are rigged in some way: clothing, camera angle. . . I wear the same clothes, take the photo in the same place in my house and do the same poses.   

You probably have to make that bigger to see, but the differences are there.   And that's motivating to me for sure!!!!
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My husband did the challenge with me.  He lost 8.2 lbs and 5.5 inches.  I can visibly see him shrinking.  I guess cause you can always see progress in others before yourself.  We are always so critical of ourselves.  

I really want to see the 170's and reach a certain hole (that I punched last year) on my belt.  So those are my next goals.  I felt like I did so much better on the challenge last year but I need to stop downplaying this year's results.  I think I struggled more this year regardless of the numbers that resulted.  Mentally is was harder and I was discouraged by that.  I love the challenge though and I love the Advocare product line.  So the goals are within reach!  I just gotta get there. 

I made this fun collage of some of the food I've eaten over the past 24 days. 

Sleeping with the power out. . .

Holy cow. . . I clearly don't sleep when the power goes out.  Ugh.  Last night around 7 or so, the power started acting funny. By 8:30 it was out.  Out out out.  Not coming back on.  My husband called the neighbor.  I texted my mom (she's less than 2 miles away but on a different line than us).  Both were out.  Both had the same issues prior to the outage.

Both of our phones had low batteries, but we had battery packs so we hooked up and got on Facebook.  What else is there to do?  Everyone was out.  Literally a widespread outage.  Our electric comes from a co-op.  They posted on FB that it was an transmission line and was an Ameren issue.  So we wait.

We go to sleep . . . you'd think in winter the issue would be lack of heat right?  Not for me.  It's lack of a fan.  I was too hot!  I toss and turn.  I look on FB.  People are saying the power will be back my 11.  Nope it's not. Then it's midnight. . . still not on.  I wake just before 1:30 am and it's not on.   I look on FB and my area is scheduled to be up "soon".

Bam!  Suddenly the power is back.

Guess who wasn't smart enough to turn the lights off?  Us.  Guess who got up to turn them all off?  Me.

By this point it's much cooler and I'm able to turn the fan on and sleep fairly well.  I'm no longer worried about everything in the fridge.   In the morning it's always freezing in the house because we turn the heat down at night.  I race to the bathroom where it's warm from the space heater (we need that cause we have issues with freezing pipes in the bathroom).  Um. . . guess what didn't come on when the power came back?  Yup. . . the space heater.  Holy freezing bathroom!  My kitty touches my bare legs with his little paws and they are freezing too!  Yikes.  

Who'd have thunk that sleeping with the power off would be so hard?  It was two fold I guess because I was worried about all our food and also because it was just too darn quiet.

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Yesterday was day 16 of the Advocare 24 Day Challenge and I was really struggling.  I decided to try something I hadn't tried before - making something with the meal replacement shake mix.

I had this recipe: 

I'm not a fan of a *lot* of PB so I used the regular chocolate shake.  The muffins don't rise but I didn't really know that and I filled 12 muffins as full as I dared. I didn't like how the batter tasted.  But I went on with the baking. . . 

I had enough batter to make 4 more muffins.  Unfortunately the power went out while they were in the oven.  My husband put them all away and I don't know which 4 weren't really done.  That should be fun to figure out.  I tasted one (ok two. . . ) of them and they weren't horrible.  Better than the batter was, but I'm not sure I'd make them again.  But maybe because they took care of my sweet craving I think. 

Fitbit Challenges and a weekend update

Do you have a fitbit?  I started with the Fitbit Flex and while I liked it I had issues with charging it.  I also didn't like the lack of a true display and not seeing the actual *number* of steps taken.  So at the very beginning of the year I "upgraded" to the Fitbit Charge.  Not the HR. . . I'm not hip on having a constant HR monitor.  We have enough electronics in our life I don't need that kind of monitor on my wrist.  I also don't pay any attention to calorie burn cause I don't feel that's truly accurate even with a heart rate monitor.   So I used my points from my Amazon card and got the Fitbit Charge for like $9 after my points were deducted.  Score!   But as is true with Fitbit, they have quality issues and I got a dud.  The battery wouldn't even last 24 hours.  So I exchanged it with Amazon and now I have a good one.

I go in spurts wearing my fitbit.  Mostly because I know what it takes to reach 10K steps in my daily life.  I have a desk job.  I go for a 20 min walk at recess every day, but ultimately if I don't do *something* after work, I will never reach my steps.  So once I figured out what it took, the charm of the device wore off and I'd wear it in spurts.  Maybe if I had a big run/race I'd wear it just to see how many steps I took.  But I did that with one of my half marathons in 2014 and what happened???   Well I got the 10K buzz from my fitbit early on in the race and then when I synced it later it gave me way way under 10K steps.  Bogus!  What a rip off.  I have no idea why it barfed.  So . . . again - this is why I go in spurts with Fitbit.

I actually bought a jawbone in Dec on a great sale at Target, but I realized I'm tied to Fitbit because I have so many friends in the app, that if I switched I'd lose those friends.  And what I do find motivating about my fitbit are the challenges.  So last week I was in a workweek hustle challenge. Who takes the most steps M-F??   Did I mention I have a desk job? However I have to say that I rocked this challenge.  I was often leading and honestly I think I would have won, but I had commitments on Friday after work that were *not* active and I couldn't reach my goal on Friday.  I was 5,000+ short.  I didn't even make it halfway.  But I did apparently set a personal record for the workweek hustle.  I didn't even know fitbit tracked this.

I was just shy of winning by about 3500 steps.  Oh so close!  I was bummed cause I really moved and tried like heck to win this.  :)

So the same person that invited me to that challenge, invited me to the weekend warrior challenge.  Challenge accepted!!!   I had a busy weekend.  I ran both days (3 miles) and was generally just moving around. And I won this one!!!  Whoop whoop!

There weren't as many people in this one but I still kind of crushed it.  The daily recommended amount of steps is 10K and you can see I stomped that.   Not all weekends are like this.  And honestly if I wasn't in the challenge I may not have ran both days.  As I said above the challenges and competing with friends in the one thing I love about my fitbit.  There is a revolving 7 day total that you can look at to see where you rank with friends.  I have a cousin that runs her butt off and is almost always over 100K steps in any given 7 days.  I'm never above her.  Sometimes you just don't have a chance :)

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Yesterday I went to a baby shower.  My brother's girlfriend is pregnant.   I decided to try my hand at making a baby blanket.  This was a bit of a challenge because I couldn't decide on a pattern.  I knew exactly what color scheme I wanted, but choosing the pattern was stressful.  I actually chose this pattern and started with 2 rows of each color.  That looked off.  So I started over and did three rows of each color.  This is the shell stitch.  I learned a lot doing this blanket.  I learned 2 stitches I hadn't used.  I taught myself to make the top row even once I was done.  And I did a border for the first time.  A double border at that!  I think it turned out well. I have no idea how it will hold up.  I cringe at the thought of washing it - will the colors bleed?   Will the yarn hold up and dry well?  Yikes.  And if I can, at every baby shower, I try to give something horse related.  The stuffed horse is super cute, baby safe and I've given it to a few people now.  I adore it! I should buy myself one.

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Today is Day 15 of the Advocare 24 day Challenge.  My weight is creeping down slower than the last challenge.  Which is kind of disappointing.  But it is going down and I'm feeling much more confident and comfortable in my clothes.  I brought my own food to the baby shower.  It was at 2 pm so I actually had a good lunch that held me over and I didn't eat all the snacks.  The key is really preparation and not allowing yourself to be set up for failure.  That's true with any eating program/ lifestyle change.  

We tried one new recipe this weekend.  Yesterday my hubby made Beef and Butternut Squash soup while I was at the baby shower.  He had it ready and waiting when I got home.  It was actually really really good.  We'd like to add a few more veggies next time.  Maybe some celery and green beans.   But holy cow - I LOVE butternut squash in soup.  I can't wait to make this again. 

Here is the recipe.  The interesting thing I thought is the outside of the beef was pink.  I don't know if it was the broth/squash that made it that color.  I cut my pieces up smaller (we'd do that differently next time too) and the insides were well done and brown.  It was kind of the opposite of how a steak would be where the inside is pink.  I was amused by that.  It's the small things. . . what can I say? 

Have a great week peeps!!! 

Advocare 24 Day Challenge: Phase 1 results

Today is day 11 and the first day of the 14 day phase 2.  They call this the max phase.   You are no longer cleansing your body, but you are giving it proper nutrition and vitamins.  You take quite a few pills in the MNS system.   I don't love that, but I do love results. . . .

So what were my results from Phase 1?

-6.6 lbs and -3.5 inches overall!!!

My inches broke down to:
           Chest: -1
           Waist: -1
           Hips: -1
           Thigh: -0.5

I'd rather have kept the chest and lost more hips, but such is life.

I didn't get a photo of my fat % monitor on Day 1.  (Running late for work as usual)  But I was at 32.8 %.  I didn't write down the BMI but I imagine it's the same. Oh and that's a high BMI - the freaking bar flashes so I forgot about that and the pic snapped at the wrong time.  I wish I was normal BMI, but I'm not.

Yesterday was a bit challenging.  We regularly have pizza day at work.  We had a few inches of snow and we had severe server issues at work - causing many people to twiddle their thumbs.  The boss declared it a pizza day.  Ugh.  They set up the tables in the hallway just outside my room.  The smells. . . oh my the smells!  But I was mentally strong and I resisted.  I wasn't about to mess up.  I am pretty strong on the challenge cause I believe anyone can do anything for 24 days.  But the day before I'm going to take phase 1 results?? That means I'm even stronger.  I resisted.  It's all about choices and eating for your goals.

But man. . . that's a lot of pizza and therefore a lot of pizza smell to resist. . . .  I did it!  SUCCESS.  Eat for your goals!  Eat to live, don't live to eat.

I can't wait to have final results in 14 days.  My weight has been holding for several days now - even creeping up 0.2 lbs today.  So . . . I think my body is resisting.  Which means I have to be strong and strict with my food choices.  I think I need to cut back on the fruit a little bit. It's my saving grace and replaces my sweets.  So a few less handfuls of grapes are in order.

Thanks for reading!

Some fun recipes over the weekend

It was a 3 day weekend this past weekend.  Whoop!  It was freezing freaking cold without snow.  If I have to be that cold it should at least snow.  It's suppose to snow today.  I believe when I see those beautiful flakes with my very own eyes. 

Today is Day 9 of the Advocare 24 Day Challenge.  Lots of people can't wait till Day 11 which is the first day of phase 2.  I don't understand because I eat the same on all 24 days of the challenge.  The Advocare Daily Guide doesn't indicate any differently.  Yes I'm an Advocare distributor and if I have one complaint about the whole thing it's the lack of definitive instruction and the way directions are spread through the grapevine.  I've heard things that absolutely don't make any sense and some things that are totally scientifically incorrect.   So that's my beef, but I love the products and what they have done for me.  But I'm pretty dang strict on the challenge.  I don't do dairy at all.  I avoid all processed carbs - no whole wheat bread for me.  Not even Ezekiel bread.  No pasta of any kind.  No sprinkling of cheese.  No yogurt.   The carbs I eat the most are fruit, quinoa and sweet potatoes.   

So anyways . . . I'm rolling right along and I can't wait to share a scale update on Day 11. 

In the meantime we had some fun with recipes this weekend.   

 First. . . on Saturday we made a soup that we made last year when I did the challenge (my hubby did not) and we loved and freaking forgot about it.  We will be making this a lot more often.  Here is the link sweet potato, chicken & quinoa soup.   YUM!  It's a crock pot recipe.  Check it out.   I'm eating leftovers for lunch today :)  It looks better in the blog photos. 

We had fish on Sunday and decided to try brussels sprouts again.  We like them but struggle to cook them.  My friend said to cook at 350 for 20 mins, then 425 for 10 mins.  That worked like a charm.  And we learned the smaller sprouts are better. The last time we tried I swear our sprouts were the size of golf balls.  They weren't very good. 

Last night we tried a new to us recipe that people doing the challenge are raving about.  Hummus Crusted Chicken. 

It was really good.  There is zucchini, squash and onion under that chicken.  We'd change a few things next time.  We would butterfly the chicken so the hummus covers more surface area.  And we'd cut back on the amount of lemon we left in the pan during baking.  If you want to try this recipe here it is. 

I've heard it's good with pork chops too!   

This weekend my hubby and I worked out three days in a row!  I took him to the gym with me on Sat and got him a 7 day pass.  I think he's going to join.  He joined the Y with me years ago and didn't last that long.  He had a lame excuse about not liking them withdrawing from his checking. . . umm. . . that's the easy way to pay and whatever.  I still don't know how committed he is, but this gym is much cheaper.  He says he wants to keep his cardio up.  We will see if he signs up once the 7 days is up.  And we will see how often he goes if he does sign up.   I love that he's trying and seems dedicated now.  

I'll be back on Thursday with an update on the results from phase 1.  If you are doing the challenge as well - stay strong and rock on!  You got this!

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. 

I love a good run

I don't really *love* running.  Are you shocked?  :)   It's weird because I love when I'm done.  If I don't run I get a strong urge to go for a run.  Which is why I'm still running.  But while I'm doing it?  OMG just kill me now.  WHY am I doing this?  I'd rather be watching TV, reading a book, crocheting, cuddling with my kitties . . . but no, I'm out here step after step trying to reach some goal I have in my head, trying to breath, trying to get rid of a side stitch, trying not to think of how far I have left, trying not to let myself walk. . . .

But. . . then there is a good run.  The one where I'm really consistent in my pace, where my body feels like a machine, where I get in this zone and I don't struggle.   Part of my run last night was that!

I hate running after work.  But I've noticed that I drag my feet in the morning.  I use to get up, get dressed and get my butt out the door.  Now I drag my feet.   I've been trying to run at least one weekday in the evening (I run Sat and Sun in the AM).  I've also been trying to get over the 3 mile hump.  I ran 4 miles on Sat.  And yesterday was drop dead gorgeous.  Sunny.  Slight chill to the wind.  Gorgeous clouds.  So I went home and changed into my running clothes. . .  and I was going to enjoy the run - not look at my Garmin and just run 4 miles however I did it.  Then I looked.  *gasp* Am I really running that fast.  I don't feel like I'm going that fast.  So I stuck with it. Mile 2 was just as fast.  So I was determined to crank out three miles at a sub-11:00 pace.

But I'm not in shape enough for 4 miles at that pace.  And even mile 3 was pushing it.  I got a side stitch. . .and well um I felt like I had to poo!  I have never had runners trots and I was not about to start now.  When my Garmin dinged for mile 3 I made myself slow down.  I'm not going to like.  I wanted to walk.  I wouldn't let myself.  I wanted 4 miles of running on my legs.

LOOK at the splits for the first three miles.  SO consistent.  It really was a good run because at least through 2.5 miles I was like a robot.  Steady pace, step after step, nice breathing. . .  I love that zone.  I'm not going to lie I had high hopes that my average pace was going to be sub-11:00 but no such luck.  I was so close!  I'm still really proud of myself for cranking that out in the late afternoon.  I felt fantastic!

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I stumbled across this quote online this past weekend.  So true.  Honestly I try not to compare myself to others.  And the mindset in the eating game is all YOU.  All ME!  I choose what goes in my mouth.  I choose how and when I workout and the effort I put into it.  I'm my own competition.  I'm my own enemy.  I'm my own supporter.  It's me!  And you know what?  I'm going to win!  Every day the food game is a battle.  I'm not going to lie - I want Taco Bell. :)  I want pizza.  I choose not to but I struggle at times.  

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I got a new bottle last night.  This was a limited edition bottle as part of Advocare's All-In Challenge in January.  I participated in that. That was my first 24 day challenge and my true commitment to Advocare.  But due to some confusion when I ordered I didn't get the All In Challenge which came with the bracelet and water bottle.  In recent weeks I've found both on eBay.  :)   

I love the "All In" mantra.   It really hits home to me this year.  If you are going to do it - go All In!  Give it your all.  Don't half ass it.  If you want the maximize results and get the most out of what you are doing (anything that you are doing) go ALL IN!!!!!!!

Advocare Results

The 24 day challenge is over!  I'm so proud of how I did.  Here's the final results. 

I'm not very fond of measuring myself.  I think it's easier to have someone else do it.  And someone that is very consistent about it.  I hope that I was.  I'm really surpassed with 3 inches off my hips.   I'm shocked.  I hope that was accurate.   I'm *really* happy with the 14 lbs.  Once I hit the 13 lb mark I had hoped to reach 15, but it wasn't in the cards.  I did take before and after pics, but I'm not sure I want to post those online yet. 

The thing about this program is that I paid for it.  So I was going to do it.  I was really pretty perfect about it.  I did not eat chocolate!  Lol  There may have been things that I could have done better. . . maybe a bit more exercise.  But honestly it exceeded my expectations.  The thing is that I wasn't ever really hungry during this program.  I may have had cravings.  I would get kind of hungry late afternoon, before dinner.  But that's the longest stretch I have without snacking and always has been.  So it's not unusual.  Overall I was just really really happy with this program.  

What was the hardest part? 

Why?  Because when I follow a program like the 24 day challenge. . . and I paid for it. . . I follow the rules.  Pretty much no questions asked.  Day 25 was my choice.  Suddenly I was "free" to eat crap.  Does that make sense?   It was my choice if I continued with the clean eating.  What do I think I did?

I had a baby shower to attend.  There were cupcakes.   I ate. . . 

NOTHING!

That's right.  I ate lunch before I went.  I didn't eat a thing at the shower.  On my way home I had a Advocare Snack bar.  I bought them with my last order, but wouldn't eat them during the challenge.  It was my first "chocolate" since the challenge started. . . if you can call it that.  It's like a little mini protein bar I guess. It didn't taste overly sweet.  I had it in my purse in case I struggled with the cupcakes.  But I didn't.   I did eat it on the way home though.  I had been wanting to try them.  I was eating well and I had ran 3 miles.   So I had the bar. :)   Day 25 went really well I ate clean and I am so proud of myself for sticking with it.  Today is day 26 and I'm still on track.  I had wanted to go out to BBQ with my husband, but we decided to wait till next weekend.  It's an ugly dreary day here and I feel like reading my kindle and doing some crochet during Super Bowl. 

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!

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!