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!  

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! :)

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. 

It's vet week and some random updates. . .

It's a week of veterinary madness!  Tuesday my hubby took our three little outside kitty babies to the vet.  Wednesday they got fixed.  Yesterday morning he picked them up.  We are so glad to have them home.  Wednesday and Thursday mornings were so quiet.  Usually when I leave I look for three crazy kitties running around in the cool morning playing with leaves and various other things that kitties think are toys.  Even though they are outside kitties, their absence was felt and we were so glad to have them home.

This is Puddin'.   Or sometimes it's Puddin' Pop or just Pudds (however you spell that!).

He looks so big in that photo without a frame of reference.  But they are about 5 months old.

Yesterday I took my Sophie girl to the cardiologist for her checkup.

Sophie has been in heart failure for three years.  Her prognosis was 6 months - 2 years.  The vet called her a miracle kitty last night.  It's been just over 9 months since her last visit.  That was not necessarily good and was totally my fault.  But she is remaining steady and only needed an increase in her potassium supplement.   She gets a *lot* of pills every day to keep her alive.  It makes traveling very very difficult.  It's hard to find someone to pill your cat, much less to do it 3 times a day.

The week continues through this coming Wednesday when I take Eli to the University of Missouri in Columbia MO.   He's been off in his neck since I returned from Canada.  I had started to address it then I got sick. Since he's completely happy when not being ridden I let him chill while I focused on myself.  But come Wednesday morning we will be loading up bright and early to start the trek to Columbia.  Our appt is at 10 am and we are told it can take all day or longer.  I'm already making a packing list - overnight bag just in case, food, drinks, snacks, phone chargers!

I figure by the end of the day Wednesday I'll be broke.  It truly is a crazy vet week.  Mr Blue is the only animal I own that isn't seeing the Dr. . . yet. . . .I better not jinx it. 

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So it's been 7 week since I got sick. . . I saw my doc this week.  She said it's infectious and not autoimmune.  She is still leaning toward Lyme.  I replied that I didn't respond to antibiotics as quickly (if at all) as I should have.  She said that was a good point.  But then said what else would it be?  I replied a virus. She said it lasted long and what virus?  Well mono can last months. . .  so that was my only response.  

My pain level in my joints is almost none.  The last two mornings I got up out of bed and stood on my BARE feet.  No crocs.  I've been wearing crocs in the house at all times, except the shower.  It was so nice to be barefoot.  Today and yesterday I wore normal shoes (not crocs!) to work.  It was kind of weird . . . Wednesday evening I noticed my feet felt a LOT better and it was kind of a night and day difference.  Like a switch was flipped.  

However I still have vision issues.  And now I have some dizzy type issues.  I will feel like I'm on a boat.  The world kind of tilts back and forth.  So I'm not cured for sure.  I just hope that these last two things go away.  The vision shooters happen more than the dizzy and they are annoying.  And of course both issues are worrisome :(

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I'm fat. Yes you read that right.  I'm gaining weight.  Since I got sick and specifically since I was in the ER, I've been eating like crap.  I knew it would catch up to me.  But it took a while.  When I gained 3 lbs I didn't panic. I  was unable to exercise.  I knew I'd gain some. No big deal. Just get well enough to run.  But really I'm just being *bad*.  I eat ice cream almost every day.  Tuesday was National Ice Cream Cone Day.  I got a cone from Sonic.  I learned that Sonic was confused about what day to celebrate and they were having half price cones on Wednesday.  I went back and got another on Wednesday. 

I find some way to eat ice cream almost every day.  Yesterday I got one of those M&M cookie sandwiches at the gas station.  I have got to buckle down and get this under control.  My weight this AM?  185.2  I was around 179 when I went to the ER.  I know I was in the 170's when I saw my doc 2 days later.  It's time to suck up and get back on the clean eating band wagon. 

White pants

I'm back from my quick impromptu road trip to Churchill Downs in Louisville KY. 

I will talk more about my experience when I edit some photos from my real camera.  It was fun and I'm glad I did it, but I think my expectations were much higher. Both in terms of Churchill Downs and that whole experience as well as the Triple Crown celebration and American Pharoah's "victory lap".  Tell me what you think victory lap means in terms of a winning horse.


Churchill Downs has "Downs After Dark" which is night racing.  Apparently that's relatively new to Churchill.  The track didn't have lights for quite some time I guess. This is what my friend told me.  Saturday the theme was "White Party".  They said "wear your best summer whites".   I don't wear white.  Ever.  It's an invitation to spill something on myself.  But I was told from a friend that lives in Louisville that I really really really should wear white.  I didn't want to be the only person not in white. Hindsight is that it would have been no big deal.  Friday after work I went to Gordman's and grudgingly shopped for white capris.   I found an outfit.  The capris were a size 12.  Whoop!  That made me want to buy them even if they were white.  And you know what?  I felt like I really rocked the outfit.  I think getting ready and wearing this outfit was the most fun of the whole day. 

So maybe I'm mocking the jockey, but really I was thinking "yay!  Look at me in my size 12 white pants!"  Ha ha! :)

I honestly wish I had "hair".  Like a cute hair style.  But that is likely to never happen.  Saturday morning I did gel it up and let it dry down. I actually wore it down all the way to Louisville.  But that was all I could handle.  It was a hot day and I had no desire to wear it down once I was outside.  So back it went.  Oh well.   

I got through the night without getting anything on my white pants.  I have no clue why they would have a white theme at a racetrack.  The seats were all dusty.  I had to wipe off every seat I sat on.  No way was I walking around with a dusty butt.  

Now the big question is how do you keep white clothing white?  Do I wash these or get them dry cleaned?  I try not to buy white t-shirts cause I feel like over time they get dingy from washing.  I won't wear these much I'm sure so maybe washing will be fine.   Any advice peeps?  What products to use?  They are so comfortable and cute.  Maybe I'll wear them to a ballgame or something. 

Holy 30 pounds!!!!

Holy crap!  I don't even know where to start.  I'm down 30 pounds!!!!

I saw the number I needed on the scale on Sunday morning. I saw 180.8 (I needed 181).  But I didn't quite believe it. I didn't believe it cause I had to get on the scale multiple times to get the same number twice.  I hate that, but I took a photo.  I did my fat monitor.  Just didn't quite want to shout it out.  Then Monday I bumped up a bit and remained the same on Tuesday.  I kind of, sort of, maybe chalked that up to being my time of the month.  I was not feeling well due to cold weather making me sick.  I felt like poop most of Monday and Tuesday so I honestly didn't care what the scale said.  No joke!  Then today I got on . . . I got on 4 times. . . . *all* four times the same weight. . . 

Holy 170's!!!!  WHOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!   That's a loss of 31.4 lbs since Jan 7th. 

When I started Advocare in January I had hopes for success. I had a plan B.  Have I ever talked about that here?  I was going to do HCG again if Advocare failed.   I had talked to my Dr about it last fall and said I wanted to do it in the new year.  But I decided to give Advocare a try cause I wasn't in the mental state for HCG.  I'm SO glad I did.  I'm beyond glad I did.  This is much healthier and really much easier cause I can EAT!  

I struggle.  I talk about that here.  I probably minimize it a little bit, but the struggle is real.   Yesterday I ate sugar - chocolate covered raisins.  I'm not perfect.  I have weaknesses and bad moments.  But I never ever dreamed that I'd see the 170's in JUNE.  I had hoped to see this weight by the end of the year.  I cannot tell you all how excited I am.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and trying to formulate a plan to keep this progress going.  Not necessarily the scale progress, but I need to get off my lazy butt and do some weights.  I need some muscle tone!   I keep saying it and I don't do it.  

I just hope that this isn't a fluke and that scale doesn't skyrocket tomorrow morning. :)   

Plateau . .

I'm not crying but I am getting frustrated. I track my weight daily.  I put it in my fitbit app (which syncs to myfitnesspal I think?).  But I write it down also.  Call me old school.  

I ended the cleanse at 181.6.  I did it 181.2.  Keep in mind 181 is 30 lbs down.  I'be been hovering within a few lbs for too long!  184 was my highest, not sure what happened there.  That might have been when I pigged out on McD's and all kinds of other crap.  But all in all I've been consistent on the scale and it's frustrating!!!!

It's beautiful up here on this plateau, but seriously I'm done hanging out.  I like how I look, but I have goals.  Staying here is not part of the plan.  I've been eating really well the last 2 days. . . trying to bust through by being perfectly perfect!   It's definitely the biggest challenge I've had so far this year.  I'm determined to stay the course and get off the plateau.  I'm being patient. . . . 

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. 

Loving the clean eating!

BAM!  That's hard to read, but it's 195.2!!!!!   *happy dance*  I was so excited to see anything in the 195's.  Wow!   I was getting discouraged with the scale kind of staying the same the last 7-10 days of the challenge.  I was waiting for a big drop and I got 2 good drops this weekend.  I just cannot tell you how surprising this is.  I've always struggled with weight and I've done various things in the past, some more extreme than others.  I really was prepared for this program to fail.  I had it in my mind that I would try this first and if it didn't work I'd buckle down and do HCG again.  I did not want to, but I wanted to lose some weight.   Advocare and clean eating is a million times easier than HCG! 

I think I already explained that I'm doing the second phase of the challenge again as I have the product.   I'm trying not to be too optimistic about this, but it's hard not to be.  Mostly because this has just been so easy and rather intuitive.  Yesterday I was hungry a couple of times during the day and I was feeling kind of snacky on top of it.  Too much time in my house and I want to snack.  I ate some fruit salad that we made up . . . twice.  One time I grabbed a hard boiled egg.   I told myself as long as I'm making clean healthy choices I can eat if I'm hungry.  I always second guess eating too much fruit but I tell myself it's better than a bag of chips regardless of how much sugar is in the fruit.   
Some people are noticing my loss. Others seem surprised when I tell them how much I lost.  I'm thinking to myself can you not see?  Even in my face. . I can see it big time in my face.  Other areas I notice are not things other people would notice, but my face is!  I'm going to have to dig out some tighter fitting jeans soon.  The ones I've been wearing get really baggy as they loosen up during the day.  But this is a good problem to have right?!   

I'm still working on the small goals.  The next goal is to see the 180's. :)   We will be going out for BBQ this coming weekend.  My hubby and I chatted about it and we think we can keep that fairly healthy and we deserve a treat.  So that's the plan.  I'm looking forward to it.   I will repeat measurements on the morning of Valentine's day I think.  That will be when this repeat of phase 2 will be done.   We are running a "Runs for Chocolate" 5K that morning.  Hopefully I get up early enough to measure.  The medal we get at the end of the race is an edible chocolate medal!  Yes Valentine's day is going to be a total cheat day!

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. 

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!!!

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 :)