It Ends Tomorrow...

Well, I'm just about done with the 24-Day Challenge and obviously, I've been very lax in blogging about it. Oops.

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot to report, so I'll give an overview. It's a lot of popping supplement pills (and gagging on them because of the taste which is weird, because I don't usually gag on meds) and being hungry. I did try out the muffins I had discussed previously. They were sweet potato muffins made with coconut flour. No sugar in these things - no sweetener at all aside from the sweet potato. They weren't bad, but they were really bland. Maybe it's because I substituted coconut oil for ground flaxseed, I don't know, but I only ate them a few days as snacks because they weren't that tasty. They needed a sweetener. Or something. The good news is that each one was only about 57 Calories, so three of them usually made up one snack and I felt like I was getting more to eat that way.

I also experimented more with "Larabar" recipes and had some good results. I followed one recipe for apple pie bars. They were pretty good, but not quite what I was hoping for. You could hardly tell there was apple in there. Sure, my cup of dried apple was a bit meager, but still. I also made a new batch of the oatmeal raisin ones I'd made before, this time doubling it, but I didn't have enough moisture for it to ball up like it should have. Instead, it just leached all the oil out of the peanuts and made them really greasy. Now I know, add some water. I also adapted the apple pie recipe to my own variation which used apples (a whole cup this time), raisins, oatmeal, peanuts, and cinnamon. These are by far my favorite and I hope to make more. Next time, I'll probably decrease the peanuts and increase the oatmeal by the same amount to see what happens. These tasty babies added up to 145 Calories, so I'm happy for that. I'm hoping to try some piña colada ones with some pineapple I dehydrated and coconut flakes I have, so we'll see if I ever get around to that.

Ok, so here are my meals for the past way too long. =)

Day 13
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Hard-boiled egg
- Pre-Lunch - Spark Energy Drink
- Lunch - Fruit Smoothie - banana, strawberries, blueberries, kale, gelatin
- Afternoon Snack - Sweet potato muffin (x3)
- Dinner - Tilapia filet, green beans, roasted beet

Day 14
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal Raisin
- Lunch - Market Salad from Chick-fil-a (no blue cheese, homemade Italian dressing)
- Afternoon Snack - Sweet potato muffin (x3)
- Dinner - Smoked Turkey Breast, green beans

Day 15
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Smoked turkey breast, strawberries, grapes, honeydew
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Fajitas, pinto beans

Day 16
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Egg & bell pepper scramble
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Dinner - Roasted chicken thigh over whole wheat spaghetti with homemade marinara and broccoli

Day 17
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Lunch - Leftover catfish, fresh tomatoes
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Pie
- Dinner - I made tacos for the fam, but I didn't want to make tortillas I could "legally" have, so I had a taco bowl of brown rice (with corn and peppers), taco meat, and pinto beans

Day 18
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Pre-Lunch - Spark Energy Drink
- Lunch - Salad - romaine, carrots, boiled egg, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, homemade Italian dressing
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Pork loin, carrots, kale

Day 19
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - Leftovers from taco night - rice, taco meat, pinto beans
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Dinner - Roasted chicken thigh with apple & onion sauce, green beans, peas & carrots

Day 20

- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - banana
- Lunch -Salad - romaine, carrots, boiled egg, bell peppers, diced apples, cucumber, homemade Italian dressing
- Afternoon Snack - (skipped, oops)
- Dinner - Salmon, sweet potato butternut squash soup

 I made up some soup to use up veggies that I had from my co-op since I had another veggie pick up the next day and several of the veggies weren't going to last too much longer. This soup was made with homemade veggie stock, sweet potatoes, roasted butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, and garlic. Tasty stuff, and only 141 Calories per 2 cup(ish) serving!

Day 21
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - Market Salad from Chick-fil-a - this time, they forgot to keep the blue cheese off, so I picked out what I could. I ate this one dry to try to avoid excess calories that I took in from the blue cheese (and I'm realizing that my homemade dressing just packs too many calories.
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Cinnamon (my new favorite)
- Dinner - Salmon, green beans, carrots (leftovers)

Day 22
- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Mock Larabar - Oatmeal raisin
- Lunch - We braved going out to eat at TGI Fridays. I ordered the Dragonfire Salmon and ate only half of it. I have no idea if there was sugar in the salsa they put on top or the cole slaw they served with it, but the whole dish was 600 Calories, so I'm hoping not.
- Afternoon Snack - Mock Larabar - Apple Cinnamon
- Dinner - Dragonfire Salmon leftovers, plus extra broccoli that hubs brought home from his lunch

Well, that brings us to today, day 23. I'll summarize today later (if I remember). Over all, I'm not doing too bad. I had some slips on caloric intake, going over my allotment on my FitBit, but overall, I've stayed under my caloric expenditure, so that's good. I also forgot an afternoon snack several days which is surprising considering how hungry I get in the afternoons, but what can I do?

Just another day and a half and no more challenge. The calorie counting and FitBit will continue well after, however. Until next time. =)

Half-way Mark!

Well, it's the end of day 2 in the Max Phase of the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge. That means that it's officially the halfway mark. It seems weird to say I'm halfway done. From here on out, I have less time in front of me on this challenge than I've completed, and that's pretty cool. It really feels like it's gone by fast. Despite being super hungry a lot of the time and the initial caffeine addiction I had to get over, it hasn't been that bad. Ok, the hunger really sucks. Of course, if I'm being fair, I could be eating more, I'm just trying to keep to my FitBit meal plan and calorie allotment, so that makes the challenge harder.

I started looking around for plan approved baking recipes and I've found some different treats I want to try out. One that I did try was some homemade Larabars. If you aren't familiar with Larabars, they are fruit and nut bars, natural ingredients, no preservatives and all that jazz. I made some oatmeal raisin ones that were quite tasty. Not terribly low in calories, but not so much that they were a deal breaker as a snack. The recipe called for oatmeal, raisins, walnuts (I substituted peanuts), salt, and vanilla. I added a bit of cinnamon because it seemed like a good idea. It's all puréed together until it makes a sticky "dough" which gets formed into bars - if you want, that is, really, you can do any shape you want. The recipe makes 3 "Larabars" at about 180 kcal each. Well, mine were about that. Maybe the peanuts are especially high in calories because the recipe said they are 175. No matter, with no added sugar or fat and no refined grains, it's allowed in the plan, so I'm happy. And they were tasty. That's the best part. Wee man ate one and loved it, so I'll have to keep the recipe even after this program is over.

So, that was the most exciting part of the day. I'm hoping to try some muffins tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Here's the meal plan for today:

- Spark Energy Drink

- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake

- Morning Snack - Pear

- Lunch - Catfish and carrots (leftovers)

- Afternoon Snack - homemade "Larabar"

- Dinner - Baked chicken thighs, green beans, carrots, kale

Despite my huge helping of veggies, the hunger set in not long after dinner. It's depressing, really. Oh well. Calorie count is still at a deficit and under allotment. I just have to keep that in mind. Bed soon... Tomorrow we go again.

Starting Phase Two

I've skipped a few days of blogging, so I'll summarize those as well as introduce the second phase which I started today.

So, the last three days were more of the same as I've described. Nothing terribly exciting. I'm lacking some serious creativity in the meal planning area, so it's a lot of the same stuff. Of course, given that I've gotten peppers on sale and then got peppers in my co-op basket, I've been eating a ton of peppers. You'd think I'd be tired of them by now. That and salads, but no. I'm not. Ok, maybe a little tired of the same things over and over, but I eat what's around and try not to be picky. After all, the lack of creative meals is my fault. In any case, the past several days looked a bit like this:

Day 8
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Smoothie (banana, strawberry, pear, chia seeds, gelatin)
- Morning Snack - green pepper strips
- Lunch - baked eggplant with fresh tomato sauce (sauce made with tomatoes, mushroom, onion garlic, peppers)
- Afternoon Snack - hard-cooked egg
- Dinner - bell pepper and egg scramble

Day 9
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - Salad (lettuce, green and red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, boiled egg, homemade Italian dressing)
- Afternoon Snack - Banana
- Dinner - Baked rosemary catfish, carrots, broccoli

Day 10
- Spark Energy Drink
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake, Banana
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - hard boiled egg, green and red pepper strips, tomatoes
- Afternoon Snack - Spark Energy Drink, blueberries
- Dinner - (ordered in) Sirloin Steak (this probably was a bad choice), baked sweet potato, house salad

So today, I started what I called "pill pushing." The second phase of this challenge is the "Max Phase" where I guess your body is supposed to be recharged to work better or something. This phase includes a ton of supplement pills. You take pills before breakfast, before lunch, at lunch, as well as the ones you were already taking at dinner time. It's crazy. Of course, part of it is also because I'm taking some optional supplements that were left over from when Hubs was doing it. There aren't enough of them to take them the whole time, but I'll take them until they are gone. They are after all, optional. In any case, other than the crazy quantities of supplements, my meals are roughly the same. Oh yeah, except, the guide pretty much says that the Meal Replacement Shake is breakfast every morning for the next two weeks, so there is that.

Ok, today's meals:

- Spark Energy Drink
- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake
- Morning Snack - Banana
- Lunch - Sweet Potato Veggie Soup (that I made on Saturday), hard boiled egg
- Afternoon Snack - Popcorn
- Dinner - Salad (lettuce, yellow and orange peppers, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, egg, homemade Italian dressing)

Alrighty. That's enough for today. I'll try to do a better job of chronicling this whole thing, but I may have to do the multiple-day summary again. Who knows. =)

One week down!

AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge Day 7: Complete.

I must have been really tired last night because even though posting to my blog was on my mind, I fell asleep anyway. Oh well.

Yesterday was a much better welcome than previous days. I didn't start and end the day with a headache, so I think I'm finally over the hump on my decreased caffeine intake. Yay!

It was a bit of an annoying day. I had my veggie pick up yesterday from Bountiful Baskets. I really like participating in a co-op because you don't get a choice of what you get and assuming you maintain the same guilt I do of letting "good money go to waste," you feel the need to use what you get and that includes things you are unfamiliar with, things you've never worked with, things you've never tried before, etc. It really expands the variety of fruits and veggies you eat, so it's really cool in that respect. I even ordered a bit extra this time because of my increased veggie consumption as a result of this challenge. I ordered my usual basket and in addition, I ordered a few additional packs. One was a juicing pack which had all kinds of cool things that I have no intention of actually juicing like cucumber, carrots, pineapple, and parsley (among others - I was surprised how nice of a size this pack was). I also got the Italian pack which I'll admit was a bit disappointing. Still worth the money paid, definitely, but it had a lot of herbs and I was hoping for more veggies - it still contained an eggplant which I was really excited about, as well as yellow squash and mushrooms which I could do without. I'll figure something out for the items I don't car for. I usually do. At the very least, it can go in a veggie stock for a nutrient packed base for any number of meals. What annoyed me though, other than the Italian pack being smaller than I hoped, was that the truck for the veggie pick up was late. I got an update in the morning while getting ready to go by text which is a nice change from having to look it up on Facebook. The truck was late. A little while later, another update that the truck would be even later. So basically, we waited around. Had I known it was going to be that time, I could have attended a birthday party we were invited to which was early in the morning. We could have gone to get the veggies afterward. But no, we waited. When the time came to go get them, the truck had just arrived and so we had to wait longer. We hadn't gotten an update that it would be even later than the last up date told us. I really dislike waiting around there because the boys are a bit wild and don't wait well in a line. Oh well. It certainly could have been worse.

Unintentionally, I did a total liquid meal day. The only solid items I had were my snacks. Weird. I wanted to see how a smoothie fit into the meal plan. It definitely means that I ate a ton of fruits - more than the daily recommendations from myplate.gov (the site is listed as a reference for meal planning for the 24 Day Challenge if I haven't mentioned that before). It turned out ok though. My calorie count was under my allowance for my FitBit meal plan, so yay! Also because of my meal choices, I was also low on protein. I had been going over on the protein recommendation on myplate.gov, so it's not a huge deal, but I certainly don't want to do the liquid thing to often. I should spread it out. Despite having mostly liquids during the day, I wasn't really that hungry. Probably because I stretched out meals. The morning Spark, Fiber Drink, and smoothie were spread out more than usual and I tried to drink my liquid meals really slowly so it took more time. It mostly worked except for at night. I got hungry after dinner pretty quickly.

The smoothie was not one of my best. It also really tested my Ninja, though I'm not sure why. I think I didn't have enough of a liquid content in it. That, and the avocado I added really thickened it. I've added avocado before, but I think the amount of avocado was a bit too much in comparison with the other items in the smoothie. I had a banana, half an avocado, a few small chard leaves and a small broccoli leaf, frozen strawberries, fresh blueberries, chia seeds, and some gelatin. It got too warm because I was trying to get it really blended up and the friction of the blending so much turned it warm. It was really thick. The flavors of the berries just did not come through. I certainly won't use that recipe again.

My dinner was veggie soup. I actually meant to make sweet potato soup. Because I had eaten some baked sweet potato the other night, I needed to use up the rest of the potato. I have no clue how long they last once they've been cut up an there is some left over, so I wanted to use it up. It turns out that my sweet potato to veggie ratio in the soup was lower than it should have been so, it was more of a veggie soup. No biggie though. It was still pretty tasty, just not what I planned. The soup contained  veggie stock, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and yellow squash. It was only lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, but the pepper really came through and gave it a nice kick.

Anyhoo, here are my meals for yesterday:

- Spark
- Fiber Drink
- Breakfast - smoothie (banana, avocado, chard, broccoli leaf, strawberries, blueberries, chia seed, gelatin)
- Morning Snack - hummus (eaten straight off the spoon)
- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake
- Afternoon Snack - banana
- Dinner - Veggie soup (veggie stock, sweet potato, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, yellow squash)

And I'll send you off with a lovely pic of that beautifully orange soup (divided into jars for easy serving - one jar per serving):

25% Done!

Ok, so, end of day 6 on the 24 Day challenge means I'm a quarter of the way through.

Today was pretty good. It flew by. I was working on some projects for the kiddos (educational games, activities, worksheets, etc) and trying to get laundry and dishes done. I feel like I blinked and the day was over. No nap out of either kid which meant emotional meltdowns out of both of them this afternoon.

I am doing better with what I've decided is caffeine withdrawal. I had a headache this morning, but it hasn't returned this evening - don't worry, I'm sure it'll show up before I post this write-up tonight. Still dealing with hunger issues. Calorie count today was within my budget even with my giant dinner. Honestly, I was hoping to eat a lot and fill myself up. No dice. I was hungry several hours later.

Alrighty, today's meals:

- Spark

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - oatmeal with blueberries

- Morning Snack - hard cooked egg

- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake

- Afternoon Snack - popcorn

- Dinnner - egg scramble with broccoli leaves and red and green peppers, baked sweet potato chunks

Ok, well that's today. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

More Milestones?

24 Day Challenge day 5 complete. I'm at the halfway point for the cleanse phase.

Today seemed hectic. I ran errands and worked on worksheets for the boys. Meals got delayed, my afternoon snack forgotten. Oops. Oh well. Still had hunger issues today but got too distracted to eat. Could have been the cause. Oh well. At least I didn't deal with headache issues for most of the day until the evening. I overshot my calories again, but I'm still under what I burned. Not by much though.

Ok, today's meal plan:

- Spark

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - Meal Replacement Shake with banana mixed in

- Morning Snack - hummus on whole wheat tortilla

- Lunch - Salad with romaine, carrots, red bell peppers, tomatoes, hard-cooked egg, and homemade Italian dressing

- Afternoon snack - forgotten

- Dinner - Mexi dips, chicken on while wheat tortilla

Here's a pic of dinner: 

I did a chips and dips tray for a movie night with the boys. I added some chicken, but the dips are salsa, guacamole, beans, and cheese dip. Of course due to the challenge, I didn't eat the cheese dip (Velveeta dip, the rest were homemade from real foods). In place of the chips, I did a taco with the last whole wheat tortilla I had and then I used some of the chicken strips for dipping.

Good night! The adventure continues tomorrow.

End of Day 4 in 24

I feel like I've reached a mini goal. Mostly it's in my head. Or entirely. 1/6 of the way done. Starting a new phase. Kinda. Still the cleanse phase, but with probiotics. Which I forgot to take. Doh.

So bad headache again waking up. Went away after a bit. Only other issue is hunger. And another headache. This afternoon I started to get that dull pain, this time all over my head and my head started feeling cloudy. I drank an extra Spark and it helped temporarily. I think. But the hunger. After lunch, after afternoon snack (of course, dinner was really late), and after dinner. Once again, going to bed hungry. Joy of joys. Also, once again, I'm under calories burned, but over on my daily allotment for intake. No bueno.

Ok, today's meals:

- Spark first thing

- Fiber drink

- Breakfast - egg, red pepper, broccoli greens scramble and strawberries

- Snack - popcorn

- Lunch - salad with romaine, tomatoes, carrots, red pepper, hard cooked egg, and homemade Italian dressing 

- Snack - banana

- Dinner - steak, green beans, sautéed spinach 

Day 3

Still surviving. I was a total zombie again waking up this morning. Headache again, too. Not sure if it's related to the plan or just poor sleep I've been getting.

I need to figure out a way to ration my meals and figure out what lasts longer. I just have issues with being hungry. Of course, today, it was in part because we went to run errands today and it took about two hours for the boys to pick out toys for their gift cards. I made the mistake of leaving without eating my morning snack. We got back at a time I'd consider late for lunch. At least the delay  of meals meant that I was good until dinner. Of course, evening again, hungry. Ugh. Not liking this. On the upside, for a third day in a row, I've kept under my calorie allowance on my FitBit "meal plan."

Headache coming back. Meal planning then bed, I suppose. Oh, and here are my meals for today.

- Spark first thing

- Fiber Drink

- Breakfast - egg and chard breakfast taco with whole wheat tortilla and strawberries

- Morning Snack - banana

- Lunch - Meal Replacement Shake

- Afternoon Snack - hummus on whole wheat tortilla

- Dinner - chicken soup

Number 2, Day, That Is...

Giant headache when I woke up this morning. Of course, I had gotten one just before bed. Killer headache, the kind that makes you want to stay in bed. If I didn't have to get the kid to school, I would have.

So, Spark drink first thing. I hoped the caffeine in it would help with my headache. There has got to be some special method to mixing this stuff up. I can't get it all to dissolve and I'm left with nasty chunks. That means that I either end up chewing on them or adding water. I ended up doing both. My headache did finally go away. Who knows if it was related.

Since I was in a rush this morning, I prepped the Fiber Drink and breakfast shake one right after the other. I was shocked at the difference in the peaches and cream fiber drink compared to the citrus. WAY better. No more rat food in a cup. It's much more like the Spark, but a bit thicker. I can handle that for the next 8 days. I threw in some frozen strawberries to mix with the breakfast shake. Hubs picked up a Ninja system last night so I got to play with my new toy - single serve blending, insanely quick, no pouring, heck yeah! I'm loving this new gadget!

I did some shopping today to pick up some veggies. Our house was sparse of fresh fruits and veg since our Christmas trip. The co-op I participate in was also out for the holidays until this week, so I'll get a whole bunch more on Saturday. I went a bit overboard ordering extra items, but considering I'm really boosting my fruit and veg intake, I figure it's worth it. Plus, as I said, we were out in that department, so I also consider it restocking.

Some bad news though. I realized that I ordered the wrong thing for the challenge. Rather than getting the Herbal Cleanse, I accidentally ordered the Fiber Drink by itself. That means I don't have the extra pills to take at night. I'll finish up the probiotics that I have from when hubs was doing it (when those start in a few days) and then I'll use some probiotics I have at the house. Coach said it'd be ok and that way, I wouldn't have to return and reorder and throw off the schedule. She said the Fiber Drink would still help and that sometimes people will do use just that. Crisis averted.

I was pretty hungry come snack time. The banana did not hold me over at all and I couldn't wait for lunch. Lunch didn't keep me full that long either. I had a nice salad which was awesome on the calorie count until I added the dressing. Even homemade Italian dressing is not free from calories. But at least it's tasty and since the veggies were minimal in the Cal department, I could afford the salad dressing. But yeah, before too long, I was super hungry again. I tried to distract myself and managed to make it a few hours. I pulled out the hummus I made last night (using the Ninja) and slathered that on some lettuce and munched away while the kiddos had some on crackers. Not a bad first try on the hummus, but I didn't get the chickpeas fully cooked. I have that issue with beans. I really need to soak them, but being able to cook them from dry in the pressure cooker is just so convenient.

Not surprisingly, my snack didn't hold me over for very long. I was excited about dinner, though. I had grabbed some peppers at the store and planned to do fajitas. I decided I'd attempt to make tortillas with whole wheat flour instead of all purpose since whole wheat is actually allowed on this challenge. I was surprised at how well they turned out. I typically hate the taste of whole wheat foods, as I mentioned in my post a few days ago, but I must have been bitten by some radioactive spider that made me attempt this. I was pleasantly surprised.

The bad news is that despite the filling dinner with surprisingly decent whole wheat tortillas, I'm hungry again. Today has been a day full of lots of hunger. It's bothersome. I'm going to see if doing a big breakfast again will help tomorrow. I also got in the new set of shakes I ordered so I can try out Chocolate Mocha. Sounds tasty. We'll see. That will be my lunch. I'm going to need to figure out more filling snacks because it's not fun being hungry and making yourself wait until the next meal. Again, though, I kept to my calorie allowance according to my fit bit plan. This time, I was just over by several calories in regards to my allowance, but I'm pretty sure I'm still under expenditure, so that's especially important. I also have some more time to burn a few extra calories and adjust my allowance so I'm no longer in the red on that. Anyhoo... another day survived. I'm going to see if I can figure out a meal plan for tomorrow, then it's off to bed. But not without first knowing the outcome of the BCS National Championship, that is.

D-day

So, here it is. The start of my 24-Day Challenge. I actually spent quite a bit of time texting my "coach" last night working out some of the details. I finally figured out what all I was going to do and I even worked out a meal plan for the entire day.

So this morning starts out and first thing, I get an energy drink. This is a good thing because of my "need" for coffee. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and I actually didn't feel like I was dragging early on. It did lack that soothing warm sensation though which is especially nice now that the weather is turning icy.

Next up comes a fiber drink. I'd be ok if I never had to consume it again. But I do. For another 9 days. It's not that it tastes bad, but it makes me think I'm drinking rat kibble crushed up, mixed with water and just enough gelatin to make sure it oozes down. Yeah. Taste, not so bad. Texture, no thank you. Then you have to chase it with a glass of water. Sounds like a good plan to rinse out, but after that, you feel full so you don't even want to think about breakfast. Until you do.

I was actually excited about breakfast. Scrambled egg with Swiss chard mixed in, grapes, and oatmeal. Of course, the oatmeal was far from ideal - no milk and no sugar. Oh well, it was filling. I almost wasn't hungry at snack time. My snack was a hard boiled egg. 

I kinda put off lunch, partly because I wasn't hungry and partly because I was afraid I'd be hungry later in the day. For lunch I drank a meal replacement shake. The taste wasn't bad, but I need to mix it up better next time.

Noah and I went to a movie and I watched him munch half-heartedly on the popcorn he begged me to buy while I drooled at it. Not really, but it would have been nice to enjoy. I was starving when I got home and was so ready for my snack - more grapes.

The grapes didn't hold me over for too long. Dinner couldn't come soon enough. I made salmon and I really piled on the veggies with oversized portions (for me). Dinner was tasty and I finally felt full again. Temporarily. I'm hungry now. 

I'll probably go to bed before too long, it's after 10:30 and sleeping will hopefully make me forget the hunger. One thing that's exciting is that for once, I was actually under my calorie allowance on my FitBit which hasn't happened since I set up a "meal plan" (basically just a weight loss goal/calorie intake calculation). Now I need to decide what to do for my meals tomorrow. Good times. We'll see how another day goes. So far, things aren't looking too bad.

Coffee and Zebra Cakes

So, it's been forever since I actually posted to my blog. It's in part due to being busy, but also, despite the busyness, I don't consider a whirlwind of playdates and grocery shopping to be terribly enthralling. Considering my lack of ability to ingrain humor into my writing, you my readers (yep, I actually have a whole two followers!) are being spared the details of my day-to-day life.

But, alas, I now feel like I have something to write about. And it very much has something to do with that seemingly random title. Visualize the wonder that is coffee and zebra cakes:

Yes, that is actually coffee. I know to many the color seems off, but when you have my sweet tooth, the bite of coffee is a bit too much so in order to get that glorious caffeine surge and the whole body warming effect on a cold morning, I add a bit of coffee to my sugar and cream (and that's real heavy cream, not some diluted half & half or artificial creamer junk). Yum! In my mind, this is the color coffee is supposed to be.

So, why the obsession with coffee and zebra cakes (which make a really good combo by the way, move over coffee cake, you are no longer needed)? Well, I've had this for breakfast the past two days. Great start to the day, if you ask me.

I suppose that then begs to question, why did I have this for breakfast? Well, I'm about to embark on a journey for the next month (or so). I am joining the ranks of the many new year resolutioners. For those of you that know me well (which one of the two? Both? Can I be that lucky?), this is SO not my thing. I'll explain:

The program I'm doing is the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. If you are unfamiliar with the company, they are an MLM (multi-level marketing) type of company that makes health and wellness products like you'd find at your local GNC - you know, protein shakes, supplements, etc. The 24 Day Challenge is intended as a kick-start to better eating habits. It uses a set of their products in a 2 part program (cleanse & max phases) to help flush out your system and recharge it to work better. At least, that's the idea. During the challenge, you eat a restricted diet of lean meats, fruits, veggies, complex carbs, and low-fat dairy. Nothing processed, refined, or artificial is allowed or it needs to be restricted. Basically, it's your conventional weight-loss health plan. With supplements.

Ok, well, it doesn't sound so bad, why is this not my type of thing? Well, the problem is that I'm scientifically and especially nutritionally minded. Here are some things I tend to avoid in my normal, day to day life:

• Chemically produced artificial supplements - I'm all about getting vitamins and minerals in the most natural form possible. Most supplements don't fall in that category. Artificially made (aka, synthetic) vitamin and mineral supplements just don't get used by the body as readily, which is why many of them can have astronomical levels of them and you don't end up overdosing. Part of this program includes consuming quite a bit of supplements.
• Artificial sweeteners - I prefer the real deal, hooray for sugar! Sometimes honey or pure maple syrup. If I want something healthier, I opt for coconut sugar or even stevia extract. Either way, my sweeteners are the real deal, some refined, but real nonetheless. Many of the products I'll be consuming are sweetened with the equivalent to Splenda. Don't worry, the irony of the real food diet and synthetically packed supplements and artificial sweeteners isn't lost on me.
• Vegetable oil - I prefer real fats, like butter. Butter is my friend. As a healthier alternative, I also use coconut oil and olive oil (nut oil and fruit oil, not vegetable). This program will allow me to use coconut oil and olive oil (as well as pretty much any other veggie oil available - gross) but I have to say, "so long" to butter
• Low fat foods - Fat means flavor. When foods are low fat, they tend to fix the flavor issue with added salt. That means you can take in too much sodium and mess up your electrolyte balance, retain water, etc. I'm not all about a high fat diet, but in moderation, I'm a fan. Fat doesn't just get added to your thighs. Your body does have to break it down first. The problem then, is not the fat, but the excess glucose in your system once it's broken down. Your body will convert it back to fat if you don't use the glucose (aka energy) and fat gives you a lot of glucose. During the program, meats need to be lean and dairy needs to be low fat.
• Cleanses/detoxes - I am so against these on so many levels. I truly, in the furthest depths of my soul really dislike these (by using dislike, I'm being nice). I'm completely, utterly, and vehemently against them. Why? They don't work, at least, not in the way that proponents of them would have you believe. Our bodies adapt, it's what they were made to do. Anytime you cut things out of your diet, your body goes through withdrawal because it had been depending on it (for whatever reason). It then has to readjust to utilize what it is getting (either in place of what was lost or what's left in your diet). This will happen regardless. You don't need fancy diets or supplements, it's not proof that you were addicted to something, the body just has to adjust. Any perceived improvement is psychosomatic or a result of you feeling better after the withdrawal symptoms resolve. Certainly cleaning up your diet isn't a bad thing and can make you feel better in the long run, but there is no reason to shock your body into it. I can and will happen over time and without the nasty withdrawal symptoms if you make gradual changes. But yes, the first 10 days of the program, I will be going through the "cleanse phase" - joy. <-- dripping="" here.="" insert="" li="" sarcasm="">
• Whole grains - Now this seems weird, I know. Everyone knows that whole grains are better. And to be honest, I'm not really against all whole grains, mostly just whole grain wheat and whole grain rice. Give me the white, processed, stripped product any day. I'm not a fan of whole wheat bread - even worse, whole grain, multi-grain bread - gross. To me, this is all about a palatability issue. They are gritty and dry and don't have a great flavor (the same reason I'm not a fan of seeds and nuts). That being said, I do actually keep whole wheat flour in my kitchen and have used it in combination with regular white flour for breads and muffins. It just dries things out so much, you have to be really careful so that foods are still edible. I'd rather avoid breads and things made with all whole wheat than switch to eating them. I'm cool with whole grain oatmeal though. And corn is ok. I'll willingly eat popcorn. =) So, yeah, because I can't have refined grains, I'm going to have to alter my diet a bit. Fortunately, breads and pastas aren't a huge portion of my diet anyway, so it's a minor adjustment in that area.

I suppose the next thing left to answer then is why on earth I'm doing this when it goes against so much of what I know about nutrition? Well, there are several reasons:

• We had most of the program products in our pantry. A while back, hubs wanted to do the program. He ended up getting sick about a week in, completely unrelated to the program, so he stopped. He never really picked it up again. I have a solidly ingrained need to not let things go to waste, so this gives me an opportunity to not let that money go to waste.
• A friend was starting the program with some other friends. I consider it a way to get some moral support and someone to keep you honest, so to speak. I don't know that I'd be able to keep up with the whole program if I didn't have someone to keep me going.
• I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds and cleaning up my diet. Lately I've been a bit too lax with the treats and given my recent addiction to coffee in addition to that (and you see how I like my coffee), I've added on a few pounds. I kinda need a kick in the pants to straighten up my act and eat better.
• It helps support my friend's business. The friend that is doing the program sells the products so it helps her with her business, and I'm all about supporting home based businesses where I can. After all, I have my own home business(es) and I'd like my friends to help support me as well.

So there it is. I'm keeping in the back of my head that it's only a month. I can do this for a month. I fully believe in my body's ability to adapt, so even though many of the diet components and conditions aren't what I'd consider ideal, I'll rely on my adaptability and keep on moving. I'm also glad that the program is broken up a bit so you kinda have mini-goals. It's like a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. And hey, if I loose a bit of weight due to the reduction in caloric intake, I certainly won't be complaining.

My idea then, is to chronicle this little "adventure" here on my blog. We'll see how successful I am with that considering I've gone, what, almost a year without writing a post? Yeah... I might be setting my sites on journaling this process a bit high, but we'll see...