Changes to my Diet Plan

 

I am incorporating Advocare products in my diet again. I am also going to follow their eating plan the best I can. I am somewhat following the 24 day challenge, but without the cleanse phase and I am not using all of their products. Below, I am going to give you a break down of what my day today will be like.

8:00 am : Spark and Color packet of MNS Max 3
8:30 am: GNC Lean Shake
10:30 am: Apple with 1/2 packet of Justin's Maple Almond Butter
12:15 pm: Color Packet of MNS Max 3 
12:45 pm: Prepared lunch consisting of a pita pocket filled with canned chicken breast, romaine lettuce and red onion. Also a veggie salad with low cal dressing. Both White Packets of MNS Max 3
4:00 pm : 1/2 cup of Red Grapes and 14 raw almonds
5:45 pm: Pre-workout N.O. Xplode mixed with BSN Amino X (I mix them because I think N.O. Xplode is gross. I also use these because my Fiance bought them and they are just sitting on the top of my fridge)
6:15 pm : Cardio Zumba workout for 45 minutes
7:15 pm: Dinner of 4 oz All Natural Chicken Breast  with mixed veggies, black beans, and pico de gallo. I take my Omega-3's at this time as well. CoQ10, Fish Oil and Flaxseed Oil. I also take muscle recovery supplements such as L-Arginine and L-Glutamine at this time.
Throughout the day: Drink Water constantly. I probably drink easily over 100 ounces of water a day. 

So, that's my little improvised version of the plan advocare uses. Now below I will show you what they say to do. They consider this the "Max Phase" in the 24 Day Challenge:

30 minutes before breakfast: MNS Color Pack and Advocare Spark (optional: Catalyst and ThermoPlus)
Breakfast: Advocare Meal Replacement Shake
Snack: a small amount of one of the 24 day challenge approved foods
30 minutes before lunch: MNS Color Pack (optional: Catalyst and Carb-Ease Plus)
Lunch: Both MNS White Packs. A protein, Veggie and Complex Carb
Snack: a small amount of one of the 24 day challenge approved foods
Immediately before dinner: Optional Carb-Ease Plus ( only take once a day)
Dinner: Omegaplex pills , Protein, Veggie and Complex Carb
Snack: a small amount of one of the 24 day challenge approved foods
Bedtime: Optional Catalyst
Throughout the Day: Advocare recommends the following equation to figure out how much water you should be drinking:

Body Weight (in pounds) divided by 2 = ounces of water you should consume per day. So, for me that is 188/2 =  94 ounces of water per day. It sounds hard, but once you start doing it, it is second nature to constantly have a water bottle by you.

So, as you can see, it’s pretty close to the Advocare plan. I’m just using some things I have on hand rather than all of their products.

Here's to hoping I get the quick (but healthy) results I am searching for!

What I still buy from Advocare after the 24 day Challenge is over

Hey everyone!

I've been eating pretty well this week and I've been a little more active than normal. I still feel like I need to get back into doing Zumba though and I want to try going hiking every weekend. It's perfect hiking weather in AZ right now! We are going to Sedona over Valentine's Day weekend to check out possible wedding spots. I hope to be 10 pounds less by then so I need to really get on it.

I wanted to share with you what Advocare products I still continue to buy even after I failed the 24 Day Challenge.



Advocare Meal Replacement Shake in Berry. $44.95 for 14 pouches. The way I look at it is about $4.00 a day for breakfast (that's including about $10 for shipping).  This is hands down THE BEST meal replacement shake I have ever had. I even bought more because I found myself missing them. It gets the job done. Here's a short list of why I love it.

1. Tastes Amazing!
2. Only 220 Calories
3. I actually feel full most of the time. Occasionally I will have a banana within an hour of drinking the shake.
4. 24 grams of protein (Very important when your diet mainly consists of veggies and fruit)
5. Packed with tons of vitamins
6. Fits in with my on-the-go lifestyle

There really is nothing that I do not like about this meal replacement shake. I tried the Vanilla one and all I can say is "Bleh!". Don't do it. I couldn't even finish half the box. I have heard if you mix PB2 (a powder form of peanut butter) in with it, it will taste better. I'm just not willing to dish out the money for it. You just need 9 oz of water and a shaker bottle in order to make the shake.



Advocare Spark Energy Drink . $22.95 for 14 pouches. This is a great replacement for coffee and it gives you tons of energy. It tastes better than a lot of the energy drinks available in cans. I am a coffee lover though so I do find myself missing coffee and have actually been drinking coffee since I ran out of Spark. They offer it in a variety of flavors. Seven total flavors actually. I have tried a few different ones, but I find that I like the Fruit Punch the best. That is quite surprising for me since I normally hate fruit punch flavored drinks. If you feel like you never have energy to do anything, much less exercise, you may want to grab a box of Spark.  I buy the box since I like the convenience of grab and go individual bags. Oh and something super important that I should mention is that Spark is sugar free and only 45 calories. Just think of how many calories you would save in one week by substituting your current caffeine fix with Advocare Spark!



Advocare Catalyst. $31.50 for 90 capsules.  While I do not feel that I have exercised enough to really merit loving Catalyst, I can say that I like the idea of what it does. Typically you would take 3 capsules about 10-15 minutes before working out and without food. It's an amino acid dietary supplement that supports muscle tone and enhances strength and energy. When you are a calorie restricted diet, you can actually start losing some of your muscle mass if you aren't eating often enough. Catalyst will help you preserve your muscle mass, repair your muscles, stay focused, and give you a boost while you're working out. The few times that I have remembered to take it before working out, I have felt like it's made me more focused and more willing to persevere and work out longer.

There's tons of Advocare products that I would like to try in the future . When I do, I will definitely let you know how they work out for me. I'm not affiliated with Advocare and I bought everything with my own money. However, if I really get into using their products in the future, it's not out of the question that I could become affiliated. The opinions about are honest and I believe them to be true.

If you were to try just one thing from Advocare, I would recommend trying the meal replacement shake.
Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you soon!

Why I failed... yet again

Hey everyone!

I know I keep going a super long time in between posts and I am sorry, but I am a busy girl!

The 24 Day Challenge that I was on ended in failure. I am not blaming it on advocare or saying it is bad by any means. I think the idea of it is great and there were many days that I felt amazing and even got compliments that I was losing weight. My downfall was I felt hungry and it was very structured. I can not be hungry and I can not follow something that is super structured. I stopped doing the challenge and since then I have gained 10 pounds and I was back up to 185 .

The most recent thing that I have stumbled upon is called Eat to Live. When I say stumbled, I really mean stumbled! I was reading an article on MSN about how older men getting women pregnant could be a reason for children being autistic and the next thing I knew I was reading an article about how animal proteins are a factor in cancer and the last thing I remember I ended up at Amazon reading someones review of the Eat to Live book. Wow, the internet can really lead you on a tangent, but it really is amazing!

So...where am I at now, right? Well, the Eat to Live book by Dr. Furhman took me a while to read (I said I am busy!) so I couldn't get started right away which was sad. However, you need to actually read the whole book to grasp exactly how important it is to eat this way. I have been eating this way for only 2 full days now and I have lost 5 pounds and the scale claims I weigh 180 now. I am going to track this and take pictures. I promise I won't leave you hanging!

24 Day Challenge: Day 8

I just realized right now that I was following Day 8 instructions yesterday when I was on Day 7 and I was doing the same thing again today. I got one day ahead of myself somehow. So the other night when I was wondering why I had extra pills, that would be why. I really didn't have extra pills, I had lost a day in my head. I am not sure what to do, so tomorrow I am going to do the white pills (no fiber drink) and then at night the brown pills. You see, the difference is on day 4-7 you take the white pills in the morning and the brown pills and Omegaplex at night. Then on days 8-10 you take a Fiber Drink and the White Pills, but by this time you should not have any brown pills, so you just have your Omegaplex with your dinner and that's it. I feel pretty dumb :(. I really hope this doesn't have a bad effect on how much I could have lost, but won't lose as much now since I ruined it.

Anyways, I am doing very well on the challenge these past few days. I have not cheated at all. The only bad thing I did was yesterday I skipped my second snack. I just wasn't hungry at all and did not want to eat it for some reason. I weighed myself today and I am 179 LBS after completing 7 days. That is 6 pounds in 7 days! I'm starting to feel a little better now I am back in the 170's (even if only by a pound lol). I was going to share how my day has been so far, but I messed up, so there's really no point. It's not like I want you to follow my mistake. I will tell you that I ordered a Half size Caesar Salad from Jason's Deli today for lunch. By the time I was done tweaking it to take out the things I couldn't have, I was left with a bed of lettuce including a ridiculously small amount of chicken and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I paid $6.25 for THAT?! Well, I guess it would've been worth it if I hadn't taken off all the yummy stuff. Either way, I was hoping for more chicken.

Alright, that's enough complaining. Off to being happy now :) 

24 Day Challenge: Day 7

I had a busy (for me) weekend, so I had to try to find ways to fit in my diet. I can tell you right now that it was tough! I definitely failed in some parts, but if I look at it in a different light...what I now consider a "bad" day is what I used to consider a "good" day. Now how is that for some change? At least my perception of that has changed.

Here is a super condensed break down of Saturday and Sunday:

Day 5, Saturday: Woke up at 7:45 and had Spark with the White Pills. Did Zumba on the Wii for 20 minutes. Had a Meal replacement with Omegaplex at 8:45 am. Skipped my snack .12:20 pm Spark. 12:50 pm Was going to have tuna wrap for lunch, but after mixing the tuna and celery, I realized the brown rice tortillas were moldy already :(. So...I used regular multi grain wheat bread. Around 6 pm I had a salad at Chuck E Cheese. I was at least good there and only had a proper salad and resisted the pizza and even the birthday cake. After Chuck E Cheese, I left to meet my friends at a bar to celebrate one of my good friends birthdays. Throughout the night I had a Southern Comfort with Lime, a Tall can of Michelob Ultra, and two Red Bull and Vodka. I know I am not supposed to be drinking, but I was at least trying to make low carb or low sugar selections :-/ . Even getting home at 2 am I remembered to take the brown pills before bed (yay me!)

Day 6, Sunday: 10 am Spark and white pills. 10:55 am - had meal replacement. Around 1:00 pm Dereck went and got McDonald's for his nieces and himself. He offered to get me something healthy, but I declined and said I would find something at home. We were getting ready to go to the movies and the girls left a ton of their food out. I was starving and wasting that much food would've really bothered me. So...I ate 3 of their chicken nuggets and a small handful of fries. That must have lit up my insides because before I knew it I was ransacking the cupboards looking for things I could eat. I had about 5 of those quaker quakes, a small handful of almonds, then a banana. We had missed the time we needed to leave to make it to the movie, so we decided to go to Toys R Us. On the way we stopped at the gas station and I hopped out and got myself an Arizona Green Tea and a bag of Popchips. The Popchips were only 100 cal and 3g of fat. They really didn't seem that bad. I definitely shouldn't have gotten the green tea. I think it is safe to say that I didn't quite follow the plan this day, but I was still really trying to make healthy decisions. For dinner (which was served around 7:45) I had Grilled Chicken, Grilled Asparagus, and Salad.

Whew! That's a lot of writing. Here is a pic of my lunch from today. Yum!

24 Day Challenge: Day 4

You guessed it....(or maybe you didn't?) I am still keeping at it. Yay! This is not a diet, this is a lifestyle change and I feel that it is one that I can stick to IF I see the results I want. As promised, I weighed myself this morning. Before I tell you the results I want to tell you my thoughts about it. First, the day before I started the challenge I ate a pretty good amount for dinner and leading up to dinner. I ate an entire foot long sub and before I had that I ate chips and chocolate and gummy bears. I was pretty bad. I know that weight can fluctuate within a few pounds each day and I am definitely keeping that in mind. Also, I had only recently creeped up to 185 so I kind of considered that temporary and not totally my initial starting weight (in my head at least. On paper 185 is my starting weight because that is what the scale said). Alright, with that being said...After 3 complete days on the 24 Day Challenge...the beginning of Day 4 I am down 5 pounds and the scale says 180 . <<<Were you expecting an exclamation point there? I kind of was too, but I can't quite get my finger to do it. I do not feel accomplished yet.

Here is what I had for dinner last night. I am not totally sure if it is 24 Day Challenge friendly or not, but it seemed to fit in to me.

Tuna Wraps:

*5 oz White Albacore Tuna
*One stalk of celery chopped (I never cook, I have no clue if one strand of celery is called a "stalk" or not)
*1 TBSP of Canola Mayo (I realized after that Olive Oil Mayo is almost the same, so I could've saved my money and just used what I had in the fridge)
*Romaine Lettuce
*Brown Rice Tortillas (Trader Joe's)

It's pretty simple. Drain the Tuna, mix with the mayo and celery. Put some lettuce in the tortilla and slap the tuna mixture on it. I ended up making two wraps because I didn't want one mondo wrap. Here's the thing, I am not sure if the Brown Rice Tortillas really qualify as brown rice or not. I am also not sure if it was a no-no to add the mayo. I can tell you that I felt very full after eating it. Also, I am not sure if it was just because the brown rice tortillas were supposed to expire that day, but they were very crumbly. I might try it with a vinaigrette in place of the mayo next time and see how that turns out.

Last thing, somehow I lost my Step One instructions and I can not find them anywhere online! I had to pack everything for today based on memory. Eek! I have a terrible memory, but for some reason I totally remembered what I needed for the day.

I may not post tomorrow since it is the weekend, but I will try to remember to follow up on Monday!

24 Day Challenege: Day 3

Still going strong! Yay. I think I am going to weigh myself tomorrow morning. I am just so curious. If I haven't lost more than a pound so far, I am totally fine with that. I know this is the cleanse stage and I need to wait to see real results. Everyone at work today got Jimmy Johns (ya know...the sub place that has those annoying commercials about how fast they are) on the house and I declined in an instant. Sure a sub would be great and I have always wanted to try Jimmy John's , but I had a delicious and filling salad of Lettuce, Chicken, and Black Beans awaiting me in the fridge. Knowing that I paid for this program and I have done so good thus far, it was relatively easy to turn down a free lunch.

Here's how the rest of yesterday went for me:

7:30 : Finally having dinner even though I was supposed to have it at 6:00. I had to stop at Trader Joe's after work to grab some healthy stuff I needed to make my dinner and for some snacks for the next few days. I used a recipe I found online and tweaked it to fit my needs. * I have to mention that I literally NEVER cook. I didn't even know you are supposed to drain meat when you cook it. Believe me now? Luckily Dereck was in the kitchen and said "you gonna drain that?" and I said " Oh, I didn't know you are supposed to?". Thank God for Dereck or I would've definitely gone over my fat content for the day* Here is a link to the website that I found the original recipe on , http://cleaneatz.tumblr.com/ . I can't find the recipe on the site again though. I made a huge amount of this because I was hoping it would come out good the first time and I could continue eating it throughout the week. Here is the recipe:

Turkey Lettuce Wraps:

*2 Lbs Lean Ground Turkey
*1 packet of Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix
*15 oz can of Trader Joe's Organic Tomato Sauce
*3/4 Cup of water
*3 cups of chopped onions and red bell peppers ( I chopped them, mixed them together, then scooped it up)
*Iceberg Lettuce ( you could use Romaine too. I plan on trying that later this week)

OK, so I love this recipe because even someone like me can totally handle it. Just Brown the ground turkey in a skillet. Once browned, drain it! Then add in the taco seasoning and mix thoroughly. Then add the onion and red pepper and mix. Then add the tomato sauce and water. Mix around again and turn the heat to low/med. You will let this simmer for 20 minutes. I stirred occasionally just to be safe.

That's it! I just scooped it up into lettuce and attempted to roll it up. I did use an extra amount of lettuce on one wrap and it rolled up very nicely, so next time I will make sure to use that amount on all of them. The best part...my boyfriend who loves red meat and is not doing the challenge with me actually texted me today saying he was craving more of it. YAY!

Wow, this is going to be a long post. Therefore, I will end with saying I am doing very well on the challenge today. I plan on trying out another "recipe" tonight and I will let you know how it tasted tomorrow :)

24 Day Challenge: Day 2

Today is going just as well as yesterday! I think I might have messed up on my lunch a little though. I used a "recipe" that I found for a lunch for the 24 day challenge and it wasn't until after I had determined that as my lunch that I realized it doesn't really qualify. Dangit! I am not going to beat myself up about it because I am still doing pretty dang good. I have already drank over a gallon of water too.

Here is how my day has been so far:

6:45 am : Spark , then Fiber Drink, then glass of Water
7:15 am: Drink Meal Replacement on the way to work (forgot to take my 2 Omegaplex)
10:00 am: 1/4 Cup of Almonds (no salt or sugar) with 1/2 Cup serving of Banana mixed with Oranges (remembered that I forgot Omegaplex and took it with my snack)
12:00 pm: Spark
12:30 pm: 3 pieces of Foster Farms Lean Turkey (measured almost 4 oz) with a couple slivers of avocado and Uncle Ben's Brown Rice cup.

So here is what is wrong with that lunch...
    You are supposed to have a Protein, Carb, and Veggie for lunch. I had a Protein, Carb, and Good Fat. I also had the entire cup of Brown Rice and you are only supposed to have half a cup. Also, the Brown Rice is not supposed to be instant. Instant Brown Rice has oil added to it and you are supposed to stay away from that. Basically, I ate too many carbs, had a good fat when I wasn't supposed to have a fat at all and I had no veggies.  I dished the rice and avocados into the turkey meat and rolled them up for some little turkey rolls. It didn't taste half bad!

My Plan for the rest of the day:

3:30 pm : 1/4 Cup of Almonds and 1/2 cup of mixed berries
Bwtn 5:30 and 6:30 pm: Lettuce wraps made out of Romaine Lettuce, Ground Turkey and filled with onion, red peppers, and celery
Before Bed: 3 Brown Pills from the Herbal Cleanse Packet.

I'll make sure to continue posting my thoughts and feelings while on the challenge. Thank you!