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. 

Journey to a Healthy Makeup

My last post - Toxic Beauty - covered my recent reasons into changing my beauty products to safer, less toxic brands.  I also covered what makeup I currently (then) used, as well as how they ranked on the toxicity scale.  If you haven't already, I encourage you to take a look at that blog post.

Now that I have had a chance to research, purchase replacement makeup products, and try them out I wanted to give you my opinions of what I have tried thus far.  So...here goes...

There were a few brands that sparked my interest in all my research.  I was looking for companies that didn't include ingredients in the dirty dozen list, and makeup that ranked as a 3 or lower on Skin Deep's cosmetic database.  The main goal was to reduce the amount of hormone disruptors my body was taking in as I already have a hormone imbalance due to PCOS. 

My makeup needs:

1. I have sensitive skin (probably having something to do with my hormone imbalance), so makeup can easily cause a lot of redness around my nose and cheeks, or cause breakouts on my forehead.  I already have pretty red, blotchy skin and break out regularly on my chin.  I also have horrible under-eye bags/circles that I need to cover each morning and scarring on my chin from PCOS.  So, I need a foundation that evens out my skin tone and a good concealer for my under-eye area and blemishes. 
2. I cannot live without a good charcoal colored eye-liner.  I'm not a fan of liquid, I really wanted a pencil that is soft and easy to apply.  
3. Shimmery eye shadows, not too vibrant, but ones that actually show up and don't crease up halfway through the day.
4. A good mascara that doesn't flake or clump.

Here is a summary of the makeups that I tried out and what I thought of them:

Foundation-

• Terra Firma Cosmetics Hydrasilk Mineral Foundation
  

  

  Terra Firma Sample Stack - Foundation/Blush

  Terra Firma caught my eye because it was a local company, had GREAT prices, and didn't include the ingredients I was trying to avoid.  I purchased the sampler, which includes 4 shades of foundation, a finishing powder and two blush colors.  This was a GREAT deal at $16.00.  I loved how they offer the option to try samples first since ordering online can be tricky. 
  
  The first 2 days of wearing the foundation and finishing powder together my skin felt like all the moisture was being sucked out of it.  This was so uncomfortable and itchy that the second day I washed it off within an hour of putting it on.  I tried again the next day, but didn't put on the finishing powder.  No itchy dry skin after that, so there must be something in the finishing powder that my face didn't like. 
  
  WHAT I LOVE- The coverage of the foundation is AMAZING for a mineral powder.  My skin tone was evened out, skin looked great, and it is buildable.  I also love the price and that they are local to me.
  
  VERDICT - I still prefer liquid foundation, so I'm not completely hooked.  I do love how it feels and looks, so if I don't fall in love with a liquid then I will consider using this full-time.
• Juice Beauty Perfecting Foundation
  I fell in love with Juice Beauty's products the moment I stumbled upon their website.  The reviews looked great, the prices were what I would expect ($35), and I was intrigued by what everyone was saying about how it smelled.  I know, smell is a stupid reason, but still it was intriguing.  I also had a family member that LOVED their foundation and other products, so based on her reviews I wanted to give them a try. 
  

  

  Juice Beauty Foundation and Finishing Powder

  
  This is a liquid foundation, which is what I was hoping to find, but when you put it on it dries pretty quickly so you would want to use your fingers rather than a brush to apply it.  It goes on smooth, smells citrusy (so nice and awakening in the morning!), and feels great all day.  I have had a couple mornings where my skin looked like I had too much makeup on, or it accentuated a dry spot more than I wished, but I've noticed it reacts differently to what type of moisturizer I put on first. 
  
  WHAT I LOVE- The coverage is good, evens out my skin tone.  It feels great on my skin and smells great. The finishing powder does an amazing job of giving that air-brushed look.
  
  WHAT I DON'T LOVE- Not as buildable as I wish it was, but that's what I use concealer for if I need to.  I've also gotten inconsistent results, so I'm still working with it to determine if it's my moisturizer or if I need to just exfoliate more. 
  
  
  VERDICT- I am using this every morning and like it.  Not sure if I love it yet.  I'm planning on using the rest of the bottle up and if I am hooked by then I will reorder.  If not, I will look elsewhere. 

Concealer-

• Terra Firma Hocus Pocus Undereye Mineral Concealer
  I purchased a sample baggie of this powder after reading great reviews on it.  This did NOT cover my undereye circles at all.
• Juice Beauty Correcting Concealer
  I purchased this at Ulta and took it back the next day.  It was watery and sheer, didn't cover my dark circles at all. 
• Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer
  This is a creme concealer that comes in a squeeze tube.  It is thick, so you only need a dab for the undereye area.  I LOVE this concealer!  It covers so well for undereyes and blemishes without looking cakey and lasts all day.  This is my new favorite makeup product and it's worth every penny!

Blush- 

• Terra Firma Mineral Blush
  I haven't every really used blush because of my redness in my skin, but I really wanted to learn how to contour, plus some came with the Terra Firma sample stack so I gave it a try.  I have to say, I LOVE the "In Love" mineral blush color so much. I use it every day.  This is something I will continue to purchase.

Eye Shadow-

• Tarte Amazonian Clay Eyeshadow Palette
  I had a hard time finding a palette of eyeshadow to get that was safe for use. Tarte offers several choices, I chose the palette that included olive, peach, gold and espresso.  I do like this palette, however I have a hard time with getting the colors to stick around all day long.  I think I will continue to add to my eye shadow collection as I get more money, trying out other brands to see what I like the best.  This was a good get-me-by starter for the time being. 

Tarte Concealer, Eye Shadow, Eye Liner and Mascara

Eye Liner-

• Tarte Skinny SmolderEYES
  I have been HOOKED on Clinique's quickliner since high school, so I knew finding a replacement might be difficult. I needed something that was easy to apply and I love charcoal (not black!) which proved harder to find than I thought it would be.  
  
  This eyeliner intrigued me as it had GREAT reviews, looked like what I was used to using already, and came in a charcoal gray color. 
  
  WHAT I LOVE- I love how easy it is to apply and how it looks.  It goes on so smooth.
  
  WHAT I DON'T LOVE- I have to sharpen it often, about 2x a week. I purchased it a month ago and I've used at lease half of it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't use a TON of eyeliner, usually just on my top eyelid.  I also have to be sure to apply a light eye shadow over it if I apply it to my bottom lid so it doesn't smear during the day.
  
  VERDICT- I do love this eye liner, but I might try some of Tarte's others as they have many to choose from.  I wish it lasted longer.

Mascara-

• Tarte's Gifted Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara
  I received this as a free sample with my purchase, so of course I was going to try it out!  I also couldn't find a mascara I wanted to try with Juice Beauty and didn't end up splurging for Terra Firma's yet. 
  
  WHAT I LOVE- This mascara is a perfect, all around mascara!  No flaking or smearing.  Doesn't look clumpy.  Washes of well. And I love the container! It's an earth-friendly wood container.  Works better than the Clinique or department store mascaras I've always used.
  
  WHAT I DON'T LOVE- Nothing!  It's perfect!
  
  VERDICT- This is a keeper for sure!

Overall, I think I was pretty lucky to have found so many keepers.  My skin is happier.  Purchasing these brands, you can get JuiceBeauty and Tarte at Ulta.  Tarte is also at Sephora.  Terra Firma you can get off their website, or in some beauty stores (look at their site for locations).

Terra Firma - http://terrafirmacosmetics.com/index.html
Juice Beauty - http://www.juicebeauty.com/
Tarte - http://tartecosmetics.com/

Have you tried any other "safe" makeups that you would like to share?  I encourage you to comment below with your experiences!