Days 8 & 9

I decided to combine days because not much was different between the two days other than food choices.  Both days I did the meal replacement shake for breakfast and ate some kind of leftover for lunch.  If I had a snack, it was fruit.  On day 8, we went to Qdoba for dinner.  It was hard to not take a bite of the girls' quesadillas but we resisted.  Mark and I each got bowls with brown rice, black beans, chicken, tomato salsa, corn salsa, green sauce, lettuce and guac.  I ate about half of mine and chose to save the rest for lunch on day 9.  It was really good... I love Mexican food when I'm in the mood for it.  Mark is basically always in the mood for it.  For dinner on day 9, I made the egg omelet/frittata thing I made the other day and added some skillet cooked red potatoes.  They were really good and I had to restrain from taking another helping of them because we are supposed to eat more veggies than both protein and complex carbs.  For the girls I made one of their favorites (and normally mine too), a cheese omelet.  That and the potatoes was a great meal for them.  Only one more day of the cleanse portion of the diet.  Hopefully some more weight will start falling off soon!

Day 7- A Full Week Complete!

I'm proud to say that Mark and I have completed a week of the 24 Day Challenge!  It was relatively easy except on days I couldn't come up with tasty meals or had sugar cravings.  I didn't miss coffee really, but I do enjoy hot herbal tea, particularly on very cold days, which we have had quite frequently lately, so I am looking forward to being able to drink that again.  I don't know if it's not allowed, especially if it isn't doctored up with cream and sugar (I drink tea straight), but it isn't listed in the suggested foods so I have decided not to drink it.

So day 7 went pretty well- I did the shake for breakfast and ate a leftover pepper for lunch.  I was tired again because little mister was up a lot in the night so I took an afternoon nap.  Dinner was a serving of Organic Vegetable Lentil and Roasted Red Pepper soup we found at Costco yesterday.  It pretty good, but took a few bites to get used to.  I liked the broth more than the things in it.  The challenge allows for three snacks throughout the day and I ate a banana between breakfast and lunch and then since I napped in the afternoon, I didn't eat that snack, but I did eat an apple with almond butter for an after dinner dessert.  I didn't exercise and I need to increase my water intake.  Tomorrow we add the morning fiber drink back into the mix and do that for three more days thus completing the 10 day "cleanse" phase of the program.  I will weigh then and let you know those results.

Until tomorrow!

Day 6 Down

Hi there!  Today was a better day, mainly because I enjoyed my meals much more.  I had the meal replacement shake for breakfast and then for lunch, I made an omelette/frittata thing with stuff I had in my fridge.  First I wilted some spinach and kale and then added some more of the healthy 8 veggies, halved grape tomatoes and five eggs into the skillet.  It was such a pretty combination of greens, reds, yellows and purples (from the radish in the healthy 8 mix).  I missed the cheese I would have added had I not been on the diet, but all of the veggies added enough flavor to make it taste good.  I will definitely make that meal again!  For dinner, I found this recipe, but I changed a few things.  I used the last of my frozen lean beef instead of turkey, mixed in more of the healthy 8 mix (I am getting a lot of use out of it!) and added half a jar of TJ's spaghetti sauce (it was left over from the night before so I wanted to use it up).  I really enjoyed again, all the colors and added flavors that the healthy 8 mix brought to it, and I thought that some spaghetti sauce would give it some needed moisture, which is did just a bit.  I had to force the girls to eat their dinner, but Mark got seconds and I thought it tasted pretty good for being so healthy.  Luckily there were two peppers leftover, so I will be eating one for lunch again tomorrow.  I really think putting effort into meals instead of just grabbing a chicken breast and a salad (those things get really old to me very quickly) helps me not to get down about the dessert or whatever it is that I can't have.  I may make stuffed peppers this way again in the future- I would definitely make them again if my kids didn't dislike them so much.  It's hard to make healthy food and then listen to complaining the entire time you sit down at the table to eat it.  But parenting struggles are for another post.  As for now, I'm saying goodbye to day 6!

Day 5 In The Books

Day 5 is done!  Only 19 more days to go!  I have been slacking on my exercise for the past couple of days and day 5 was no different, unfortunately.  I will try to get to the Y for day 6.  I would like to sign up the girls for swimming lessons there anyway, so hopefully that will motivate me enough to go... ha.

Mark was home in the morning again so he made scrambled eggs for breakfast.  I snacked on a banana and for lunch I had a grilled chicken breast and some Healthy 8 Chopped Veggie Mix from Trader Joe's on the side with Cilantro Dressing, also from TJ's.  It was decent, but since I ate the veggies raw, all the chewing got old.  What a thing to complain about, I know, but my jaw was tired by the end.  Just writing that makes me laugh at how silly it sounds.  I needed the after lunch Spark pick me up after being up several times tending to my sweet, but fevering baby.  It helped perk me up until dinner time, which was also almost entirely from TJ's- spaghetti with red meat sauce.  I used local lean beef that we had in the freezer (a couple of years ago I bought 1/4 a cow with some friends and I'm finally nearing the end of my deep freezer stash).  I added the beef to TJ's organic mushroom spaghetti sauce and then for good measure, I threw in a handful or two of the veggie mix I had for lunch.  Instead of regular spaghetti noodles, I used TJ's brown rice quinoa noodles.  The kids didn't know the difference and it was good to have those extra veggies in the sauce.  We ate dinner at around 6:30 and I didn't even feel hungry by the time bedtime rolled around at 11.  It was a successful day!  Thanks for reading!

Time for Day 4

I'm just going to write a quick update today.  I will be honest- I struggled a bit today.  I ate an abysmal dinner- tuna mixed with avocado and grape tomatoes.  It was healthy, but so gross I couldn't finish it.  The last bite I ate took a long time to chew and I came very close to gagging.  Normally, I really like tuna.  Occasionally, I even crave it.  I typically make it like most people- with mayo and relish, eaten with crackers or on bread.  This time I avoided mayo in order to stick with the diet guidelines and I used canned tuna because that's what I had, as opposed to a packet, which is what we normally keep stocked.  I'm not sure if it was the can vs. the packet or the avocado vs. the mayo, but it was much fishier than I like and I think that's what made it hard to eat.  Blah.  It left me feeling frustrated and annoyed that I have to eat this way for 20 more days.  Like a good girl that follows the rules, though, I made it through the day again without cheating.  So far, I'm only down a pound.  Here's hoping for a few more!

Day 3 Recap

By now I am sure you are really excited to read 21 more of these posts, ha ha.  Let's get to today's info...

I decided on a meal replacement shake for breakfast after my mango strawberry Spark and peaches and cream cleanse drink.  It was better this time around because my expectations were not at high.  I ate a banana for my snack and then ate the grilled chicken and salad from the night before for lunch.  I had to get up earlier than normal to take Blair to school so I was feeling tired after lunch.  Another dose of Spark and my energy levels went back up.  My snack was some blueberries and a clementine.  For dinner, I made one pot Mexican quinoa, which turned out pretty good!  I didn't have cilantro, lime juice or jalapeños, so I added yellow and orange mini sweet peppers instead and it was still tasty!  I'm happy there was some left over so that we can eat it again for lunch!  Also with dinner I took the Omegaplex pills included in the challenge kit.  Mark thinks they give him a fishy, oily taste when he burps, but I didn't notice that at all, which was a relief as I'm not really into fish.  I decided to eat a kiwi for dessert/snack and finished off the day with my cleanse pills.  I should probably do a better job of drinking water- I am supposed to be getting half of my body weight in ounces of water and I'm pretty sure I'm not quite meeting that goal.  I've felt really good without my coffee, probably because of the caffeine in the Spark.  I usually get migraines every week or two but so far none!  Part of that might also be because I got a new pillow that has been very nice for my neck!  I would recommend it!

Overall, I'm not hating the 24 day challenge at all!  I feel very confident that I can complete it with relative ease and I am excited to see what my results will be!

Thanks for reading!

24 Day Challenge- Day 2

Today was a snow day for my oldest- more like a cold day.  It's been in the negative temperatures around here lately and that must be a good reason to cancel school.  Ah well, Advocare was still in session even if school wasn't.

I went to bed last night feeling a little hungry.  I didn't cheat, though, and decided the challenge is definitely doable in the diet sense.  Exercise is also encouraged, so I am going to try to carve out time for that as much as I am able.  Since I didn't have much free time for it yesterday, I counted the time I cleaned the house for our company as my workout.  Lame, I know, but there were points where I was scrubbing floors on my hands and knees so that justifies that.

This morning, I got up feeling pretty good and began my new routine of Spark followed up 30 minutes later with the cleanse drink (still tolerable, but truthfully the last swig was a tad gross) and breakfast, which was a scrambled egg and a piece of bacon- clearly not the typical diet food.  I probably wouldn't have included bacon with an egg normally but Mark was home this morning and cooked it for me that way- what a guy!

A little while later, I "cleansed" (TMI?) and went about my day.  One note on the cleanse portion- it's very mild!  In the evenings you take three horse pills that must be gentle laxatives or something and then in the morning you drink the cleanse drink and about 20 minutes and one trip to the bathroom later everything is taken care of and life is good.  No stomach wrenching pain or multiple bathroom trips, completely opposite of the lemonade master cleanse, which I (very stupidly) attempted while teaching high school English many years ago.  What a NIGHTMARE that was- running to the bathroom between every class if I made it the whole way through the class at all, painful burning each time- I swear it was the cayenne pepper- feeling starved and sluggish, ugh.  It was truly so horrible and I only lasted 3 days before calling it quits and going out for Mexican.  Maybe the cayenne wasn't enough and I am a glutton for pain.  Anyway, if you haven't experienced TMI by now... well, wow.

So back to Advocare and today!  I snacked on a banana and then ate some leftover vegan chili from last night for lunch.  If you are ever looking for a good meatless recipe that has a good kick and flavor that will fill you up, check out that recipe.  Very good and healthy!

This afternoon I didn't eat anything else and went to the YMCA to see how far I could run.  It was ugly.  I managed a mile on the treadmill in a relatively slow jog pace (5.3 mph).  That's all I could run.  I walked another mile at an incline of around 5 and that's all she wrote.  I have a long way to go before I am ready for the half marathon I want to run in May.  Official training for that doesn't start until February sometime, but I need to get comfortable running 3 miles before I begin the training schedule.  One day at a time.

When I got home from the gym, Mark had made dinner- roasted vegetables, grilled chicken, salad and whole wheat pasta.  I only managed to eat about 4 bites of pasta, the portion of vegetables and half of the chicken breast before feeling full.  I put the rest of the chicken onto the salad and will eat that for lunch tomorrow.  I feel good about my meal, but I will probably take advantage of the last snack allotted and have some fruit because I'm craving a sweet treat like I typically would eat after dinner.

So there you have it!  I was down .5 lb this morning, but I'm sure that will fluctuate here and there over the course of the challenge.  Day 2 is almost in the books and so far, so good!