Day 15

Day 15:

I'm really craving sugar today. I went to a birthday party yesterday and my friend made these gorgeous delicious looking red velvet cupcakes and I was dying to have one. I didn't, but I'm still really craving sugar. I just kept eating vegetables, over, and over again until I couldn't eat another sugar snap pea to save my life.

I've done OK with exercise this week, worked out saturday, still need to do something more about it today. Some stressful family events occured that made it a little more difficult to stay on track in terms of excercise but I feel like I've still done pretty well. I did 30 minutes of Zumba tonight, burning 340 calories!

I stocked up on some more vegetables and meats, and I cooked up a batch of Quinoa to have on hand. Since I was feeling a little bit stagnant in my challenge, I read up on some of the tips from the advoarmy website. It gave me some revitalization & hope for the next 10 or so days.

On the plus side, I'm down between 5 and 6 lbs. Yay! When I first weighed in, I was at 139.8lbs, now the scale reads 134.6. I don't get as out of breath doing my excersise either, I'm actually starting to crave it. Just what I wanted, I sure need my fitness to keep up with my children.

Day 13

So when I first started this thing, I thought I'd be ever the ambitious one and blog every day. Ha ha! With two kids, work and trying to work out on top of it, it didn't happen. But the good news is that I've been able to stick with the eating plan 90%. Sometimes life happens and you have to accomodate for it. For example, yesterday we had a work event, and they had greek food - chicken swarma, rice and greek salad. I had some of the chicken, a little rice (I'm sure it wasn't brown rice) and lots of the salad.

So no, it didn't fit completely with the confines of the meal plan BUT it's OK. I'm also out of the cleanse phase and into the lean phase. I've been having the meal replacement shakes which taste good, and they keep me full for the most part. It works out well to have a quick breakfast since I like my sleep and I want to be out of the door in the AM.

I'm also getting better at Zumba, I was getting like 35% on my technique score on the connect and now I'm up to 77% Wooo Hoo!

Anyways, all is well. I've officially lost 5lbs too. I'm hoping this means that I don't have to jump up and down anymore to fit into my jeans, lol.

Day three - still strong

Today felt much better in terms of energy during the day. I loaded up on 2 spark drinks in the morning and didn't feel a need for an afternoon  pick me up. It's very busy at work, so keeping caffinated and energized is a must right now. So is keeping track of all my snacks and making sure I stay hydrated.

Today is day 8. I find that it's really helpful to carry my 24 day challenge guide around with me and write down what I eat. I know I'm only 31 but I'm starting to feel old because I had trouble remembering what I ate in the morning if I didn't write it down :)

Today I had a zipp fizz in the morning, and a spark late morning. I had a massive green spinach salad with fresh peppers, cucumbers, advocado and smoked salmon. I added some brown rice on the side. I couldn't finish the salad, it was really filling and kept me going.

By dinner though, I was definitely hungry and had some leftover chicken sausage pasta with spagetti sauce and whole grain penne pasta.

I finished off the night with 7 songs of Zumba, which burns approximately 400-500 calories. I'm feeling really good, and tired. But it's also 11pm at night by now, so that's to be expected.

I'm 1/3 of the way through! Kind of looking forward to the lean phase and what happens next! I've lost somewhere between 3-4lbs right now and I feel like this challenge is just what I needed to get myself motivated.

Today is day 5. I'm actually doing pretty good. I get the ocassional craving, but they've gotten less frequent and I have a ton of energy.

This is what I ate today:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas
Snack: Dried peaches (no sugar added)
Lunch: Grilled chicken strips from jack in the box, side salad with basalmic vinegarette
Dinner: Salmon Filet with brown rice & steamed green beans
Snack: All natural black bean & blue corn tortilla chips (about 15) and a cup of fresh salsa

I've had tons of water today, cleaned and did some manual labor, and did Zumba! That's 4 days of excersice this week! Woo Hoo, I feel so good, and so accomplished.

Day 2 of the challenge

Today I woke up, feeling pretty good but I was really tempted to stay in bed. I thought I'd get some extra rest until my husband brought in my one and a half year old who was WIDE awake.

So this week is a busy one at work where I need 100% of my brain and body, SO I cheated a little bit and used a Zipp Fizz energy drink in the morning instead of Spark. It has similar ingredients, no sugar, and twice the caffiene. By mid morning though, I was still feeling a little sleepy so crazy me - I decided it was a perfect time to take some spark.

Let's just say I was a bit hyped up on caffiene and had tons of energy. I'm not saying it was the best move, but it definitely gives me a reality check of where my body is and how much coffee I was drinking to function at a normal level :(

Here was my menu for the day:

Breakfast: Plain whole grain oatmeal, 2 TB natural peanut butter & a banana.
Snack: Banana
Lunch: 4 oz chicken breast, quinoa pasta, raw carrots and peas
Snack: Salad with advocado, cherry tomatoes and balsalmic vinegarette
Dinner: Chilli made with 97% lean grass fed beef, spooned over a plain baked potato.
Snack: Premier Protein shake (30 grams protein, 160 calories)
* I know the protein shakes aren't advocare, but I have them on hand and I get them from costco. It's a quick fix when I need some hearty protein & they taste great.

For activity, I did 8 Zumba songs 32 minutes (I think) via connect. My legs are tired. I think I will NOT do more Zumba tomorrow, I may give my legs a break we'll see.

I checked my weight today, I'm down 2.5 lbs which I know could be water weight - it could be real. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 1 of the 24 day challange.

I made it. There were moments, there were cravings, and I really wanted to eat Taco Bell. I was tired all day long, spark - please spark some energy in me!

But I didn't have any crazy caffiene withdrawl headaches. Starbucks tried to call out to me as I passed by the drive thru though.

Here's what held me over:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with rasperries + premier protein chocolate shake
Snack: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 cup of sugar snap peas.
Lunch: raw sugar snap peas, whole grain spaghetti pasta, tomato meat sauce (no sugar added)
Snack: 1/4 cup raspberries, 1 apple & 2 TB peanut butter
Dinner: 4 oz chicken breast, 1 cup quinoa pasta that was cooked in chicken broth, salt, pepper, onions and diced mushrooms with 1 cup of raw sugar snap peas
Snack: Banana with 2 TB peanut butter.

For my activity, I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes of Zumba from my xbox kinect.

Until tomorrow.

Shelan

4 days before the challenge

I'm embarking on a small adventure of sorts - it's part of a delayed new years resolution that included getting fit and healthy and running a 5k marathon. Since it's march, and I'm nearly 31 I thought it was about time I got started. I can't say exactly what spurred it on, but I was probably like most of you. Feeling a little unmotivated, hitting a plataeu, and starting to grow out of my wardrobe.

After the birth of my children, fitness and exercise had become a regular outlet for me and truly changed my life. Being active helped me deal with stress feel energized and good about myself. Hard work, a lot of prayers and healthy eating enabled me to lose the baby weight. However, somewhere between then and now I fell off the "healthy wagon."

I had heard about the 24 day challenge through my Zumba instructor at my gym. I've never done a true cleanse before. Most of the cleanses I've read about require you to give up things, and that didn't sound fun. Most cleanses say you should "avoid" or eliminate coffee. Seriously? Have any of these people met me? I'm in the business of working with people EVERYDAY. My job requires the utmost patience sometimes, not to mention compassion. I tend to be cranky without my jolt of java in the morning. How would I ever survive? LOL. However, as I laid aside the 5th pair of pants that nolonger fit me, I decided to give in and give the 24 day challenge a try.

I'm not in it to lose a bunch of weight and be rail thin. I want to be strong, I want to be able to do at least one push up, and I want to be in great shape. I felt so good mentally and physically when healthy eating and workouts were a regular part of my day! I'm ready to get back there, and for some crazy reason I decided to be brave and document my journey. Here goes nothing, 4 days pre-advocare 24 day challenge.