Challenge: Day 3

Day 3

Breakfast: 1 Fried egg, part of a piece of toast.  That fiber drink sure does fill me up!

Lunch: Since I forgot my leftovers yesterday, I got to have those today for lunch.  It was leftovers from a dinner of beans and rice from the 24-day challenge cookbook.  Delicious!

Dinner: We had a family BBQ. This was our first time being faced with a potluck event full of delicious foods that we had to avoid, not to mention dessert and homemade ice cream!  Jacob and I had some kabobs (steak and veggies), I also had a hamburger patty cut up with lettuce and mustard and some fruit salad.  Future tip, when we have a potluck type event I am bringing a good hearty salad so we won't feel so deprived.

Snacks: The normal veggies, fruit and trail mix.  The evening snack I whipped up a berry protein shake using a half-scoop of vanilla muscle build protein powder. 

How I felt: I felt good today.  Less painful gas cramps than yesterday.  My energy dropped at the end of the day after dinner.  I think this was because of all the fruit I had (sugar crash!) and the heat naturally makes a person tired after a while.  

Challenge: Day 2

Day 2

Breakfast: Fried eggs (we use coconut oil, NOT butter and it makes perfect eggs!), slice whole wheat toast and some sliced apple.

Lunch: I forgot my leftovers at home, so I ended up picking up a Starbucks salad that was around 300 cals.  It was delicious, but I was still bummed that I forgot my leftovers.

Dinner: It was friday, and payday, and I had a birthday gift certificate from a local higher-end seafood restaurant that was expiring in two days so we decided to go there and get a healthy option.  I had baked salmon with veggies.

Snacks: I had some of my homemade trail mix as well as some carrot sticks.

How I felt: I felt great energy-wise.  I did have some cramps from gas throughout the day, so I know the extra fiber from the fiber drink was working on something. 

Preparing for the Advocare 24-Day Challenge

Preparation and planning is the key to success with the challenge.  The challenge is a GREAT way to learn how to eat clean and healthy, and at regular intervals.  Here's what I did to help me prepare for mine and my husband's challenges.

Tools:

From www.chooseyourchallenge.com

• 24-Day Challenge Cookbook - a great starting point to get recipes and learn what ingredients to use and foods to eat.  
• Grocery List - this is a great listing of safe foods to eat during the challenge
• Trim Timeline, Tips & Measurements - This is a good sheet to use to guide you through the challenge as well as a place to jot down your starting measurements and weight.

From Advocare's Challenge Site

• Advocare Assessment Form - This is similar to the form mentioned above as it allows you to log your measurements and weight and it is from Advocare's official site.

I started by sitting down with the challenge cookbook and marking all the recipes that sounded like something we would actually enjoy.  Once that was done, I began writing out the week's foods for breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner.  Having a written plan, posted on my fridge, makes it fool-proof for both me and my husband to follow.

Next, I went through my meal plan and the recipes to create my grocery list and went shopping.  Now we have all the food for the week (I did have to go back halfway through the week to get more fruit).

Tips:

• Buy the larger bags of carrots/celery and cut them up ahead of time and portion them out.  This makes it easy to grab a portion for a quick snack or to take to work.
• Before you go to bed, look over your meal plan to see if any meat needs to be thawed in the fridge, and to pack your lunch if you're working the next day.  I also like to look at it to feel prepared for the next morning's routine.
• Have lots of healthy snacks!  Buy more than you think you will need.  The last thing oyu want is to be starving and making poor snacking choices.  
• Clean out your kitchen before the challenge.  Remove/throw away/hide any "bad" foods so you won't be tempted.  If you are the only one in your home doing the challenge, maybe have a "safe cupboard" where you have all your healthy snacks and only go to that cupboard.  You could reverse that as well and move all the snacks you should avoid to a separate cupboard for you to avoid.
• Get up early enough to not only make breakfast, but to have your Spark and fiber drink without feeling rushed.  Make this an excuse to create a new morning routine for yourself that you can enjoy- to read the paper, do your devotionals, etc.  

Good luck in your journey!  Feel free to ask questions and share any tips that have helped you out along the way.  I am blogging about my daily journey, so take a look around for posts on how I fared throughout the challenge.

24 Day Challenge - Day 1

Advocare 24-Day Challenge

Day One 

Let me start this off by first introducing how I got involved in this 24-day challenge.  My husband was intrigued by the company, Advocare, and their values.  He also had put in some research into their products and compared them with other similar companies.  So, now he is an Advocare distributor (here's his site) and started his 24-day challenge 6 days ago.  He has already lost 2" off his waist and 4 pounds, has enjoyed the food and is feeling great.   

The largest misconception I have seen with the challenge is that most people think it's one of those meal replacement shake diets.  Actually, it's not!  You learn to eat clean food at regular intervals to stabilize your metabolism.  You eat plenty of food, and take supplements for the other nutrients your body needs.  It's a great plan and will help me and my husband begin eating better for the rest of our lives.  So, keep reading to see how I have progressed through the first day of the 24-day challenge.  The key to this challenge's success is preparation and planning.  I'll do a separate post on how to prep to be successful. 

The first day can be pretty intimidating, especially if you're not used to eating breakfast or having much liquid in the morning.  Luckily, I am used to making breakfast, but still drinking water and lots of it is difficult for me to do that early.
With that said, I was pleasantly surprised with Advocare's products as they were tasty and easy to stomach.  Here's how it went:

Morning Schedule:
4:30 a.m. - Got up to get ready for work.

5:30 a.m. - Drank Fruit Punch flavor Spark.  It was delicious and is my favorite flavor so far.  (I've tasted Cherry and Watermelon so far)

6:05 a.m. - Took fish oil supplement and drank the fiber drink.  It actually wasn't gross or hard to drink.  I may sound surprised because it looks like a gel with malt-o-meal in it.

6:35 a.m. - Ate breakfast.  This consisted of a fried egg (used coconut oil, butter is a no-no at this stage), whole wheat toast with a thin layer of peanut butter, and half a sliced up apple.  Drinking the Spark and fiber drink, I already felt full, but I managed to eat all but a little of the toast and a couple slices of apple.

Snack 1:
I had a small snack around 9:30 a.m. that consisted of homemade trail mix.  I picked up bulk walnuts, almonds and raisins from the grocery store and mixed in high-quality organic dark chocolate that I chopped up.

Lunch:
Salad with clean chicken fajita mix (recipe made from the 24-day challenge cookbook) and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. 

Snack 2: 
I had packed celery and carrots, so I had a serving of the veggies with a tablespoon of Adam's peanut butter. 

Dinner: 
I had prepared the chicken breasts the night before so they could marinade all night & day.  I used the Zesty Chicken Marinade in the Challenge's cookbook.  THIS WAS SOOO GOOD!!!  I had cooked up some quinoa and steamed broccoli on the side.  I love to drizzle balsamic vinegar over the broccoli and quinoa. 

What I noticed today:
The Spark left me alert and more awake than my 1 - 2 cups of coffee do.  I had a morning full of meetings and was able to stay awake and was able to think through issues, hold deeper conversations, and focus more on my work.  I had no crash, which would normally happen right after lunch. 

I also was pretty full throughout the day.  I normally get shakes every 2-3 hours and am starving.  This was not the case today.  So, for day 1, I am pleasantly surprised and pleased.