I did it!!

Sorry for not keeping up with my Advocare Challenge posts but it is over now and I am incredibly happy with the results. I ate healthy, non processed foods~ only slipping to munch on a handful of jellybeans a couple of times. Followed the five small meals a day format which was great because I was never hungry. I love being on "diets" that don't leave you hungry. I lost a good amount of weight in the cleanse phase (the 1st ten days of the Challenge) which surprised me. I expected to lose maybe 5 pounds over the course of the entire process but lost 6 pounds in the first ten days! I also lost a couple of inches off my waist and up around my rib cage. I only measured around my rib cage, at my waist (baby belly pooch/love handle area) and around my butt on Day 1 but by Day 11 I took measurements of my arms, thighs, chest, and calves to track more of what I lost. I am glad that I took those measurements because I didn't lose a single pounds after Day 11 though my body continued to change. It was hard to ignore the scale because I am one of those people that gets on it every morning to make sure I am in my comfort zone.

Eating: It was great that my husband decided to do the Challenge with me because we really worked together on our meals. We would cook lots of meat and make big salads on Sunday evenings and use that to make our lunches and quick dinners throughout the week. We both work and I made more of an effort to get to the gym 4 times a week during the Challenge so dinners needed to be quick and easy to through together at 8pm after the kids are tucked into bed. We grilled steaks, made rotiserrie chickens in the crock pot, baked tilapia and salmon, grilled chicken and veggies. It was delicious and so much better than those frozen diet meals I was nuking every day for lunch. We experimented with new foods like quinoa, chia seeds and flax seeds. Made flourless banana/oatmeal muffins, and I got over my fear of protein shakes.

Exercise: Immediately after starting the Challenge I felt a huge difference in my stamina and endurance at the gym. I'm sure it is a mix of the Sparks drinks, the vitamins, eliminating the junky, processed foods from our diets and the mentality that I was doing something really good for my body. I used to go to the gym for classes twice a week and run a third day, normally a 5k. I enjoy running and having the quiet time to think but was constantly making deals with myself~ one more lap around the circle and you cna walk for a little bit kinda deals. I had only run more than a 5k once in my life and ended up with a hurt foot for a month afterwords. But the first week that I was on the Advocare products I noticed that I wasn't making those deals with myself anymore during my runs and that I WANTED to keep going once I hit the 5k mark, so I did. I started out by running 8k, about 5 miles. Then added another day of running so I was running 10 miles a week. Then I bumped it up to a 10k, or 6.2 miles twice a week. And my last run on Sunday was a 7 mile run. I am so excited about my increased endurance and I am now convinced that I should train for a half marathon in Oct. Advocare and clean eating has helped push me from struggling through a 5k to busting through a 11k and setting a new goal for a 21k run! I am so thankful for that. I also have a ton of energy to kick some tail in my Circuit Breaker class on Monday nights. I finally got the Hubs to go with me to the weekend class last month and he is now as obsessed as I am with it. The teacher is amazing and encouraging in a "not taking any bs or excuses" kinda way and she has us doing exercises that we wouldn't normally do on our own. I actually look forward to a 90 minute butt kicking, sweaty people packed MONDAY night workout now<< that is insane!! In addition to the running and Circuit Breaker, I meet two of my best girl friends on Friday morning for an hour long spin class. It is so nice to start the weekend off on a healthy foot and the teacher plays some great music!

 Results: I lost 6 pounds at the end of Day 10, gained a couple back at the beginning of the Max phase then lost those two pounds again by the end of the Challenge. I lost a total of 10.5", including 2" from my tummy, 2.5" from my chest, 1.5" from my ribcage, 2" from my hips and a little from my thighs, calves, arms. I am currently at a weight that I last saw while I was in college, a couple pounds lighter than I was when I met Tom. I am in much better shape, my bathing suit bottoms are all too big, my pants are all baggy, I don't feel like I am trying to hide rolls and pudge in my shirts anymore. I am overjoyed with what I see when I look in the mirror. Here are my before and after shots....

 

I LOVE this picture!!! You can definitely see the difference in my stomach and in my shoulders! 

Side view~ Check out how much smaller my bottom is! Those bikini bottoms are too big now. :) My arms are less flabby too. 

You can see some definition in my shoulders and back here, thanks to the insane amount of pushups we do in Circuit Breaker....seriously I can not only do 100+ pushups but I can do all sorts of flavors of pushups: Superman, Spiderman, plank, explosive, frog, you name and I can do it! 

So what is next you ask? We have completed the 24 Day Challenge and all the shakes, herbal drinks and supplements that came with it but we are not done. They, and by "they" I mean all the Advocare reps and blogs out there, say that this is a lifestyle change and as corny as it sounds I totally agree. In just 24 days I saw what healthy eating choices and exercise can do to my body and I want to not only maintain what I have achieved, I want to keep it going!! So we are continueing with the protein shakes in the morning, stocked up on Sparks because seriously that stuff is AMAZING, and I just ordered some more Catalyst and some Thermoplus which are great when you workout along with the 24 Day Challenge. Hubs is so excited with our results, he surprised me with a beach trip to celebrate our bathing suit ready bodies. Just the two of us jetting off to Aruba for 5 days. :) :) :) We leave in 11 days so we are keeping up our diet and exercise to be in the best shape we can be in when we arrive in paradise. I have no doubt that we will take full advantage of the all inclusive resort for those 5 days but when we return we are jumping right back on our clean eating and exercise bandwagon.  

I Can Do ANYTHING for 24 Days!

I keep seeing before and after pictures of friends on Facebook who are doing this new diet program. Well, they say it is a lifestyle change but it does include a restrictive diet so let's call it what it is. The Advocare 24 Day Challenge is a two part program, the first being a cleanse phase, the second is a Max phase {whatever that means}. It is a combination of supplements, meal replacement shakes, energy drinks and a clean eating diet. Clean eating means NO: Alcohol {yikes- no wine?!?}, dairy, sugar, nutrasweet (Splenda is okay but sparingly), salt, or complex carbs {white potatoes, bread, rice}. You eat five times a day and only eat veggies {raw or steamed}, fruit, lean protien {salmon, tuna, chicken- not fried, turkey, ground turkey, VERY lean ground beef}, "good" carbs sparingly- sweet potatos, brown rice, quinoa and black beans and "good" fats sparingly- All Natural peanut butter, hummus, uncooked olive oil, avocados. So I talked to Honey and he decided to try out this Challenge with me, not that he needs it. Really neither of us need to lose weight, we just want to be tighter and toned and healthier. So, here we go with Day 1.
Note: I read somewhere that it is best to only have fruits and veggies the first day and to not exercise.
Starting weight: 133 (Up 1 pound from my normal weight due to the pizza, beer and candy I binged on knowing I couldn't have any for 3.5 weeks)
End Goal: Lose 5 pounds and get a tighter, toned tummy in time for summer!

Woke up Drank a Sparks- surprisingly good and definitely felt the jolt of energy but no jitters Followed by the Herbal Cleanse Fiber drink- Nasty, gagged, made the mistake of mixing the powder packet with a full glass of water so I had to drink a full glass of it
Breakfast- grapefruit and berries
Am Snack- banana
Lunch- steamed broccoli and half an apple
PM Snack- MISSED bc I was at the grocery store- CRAP! I'm messing this up all ready!
Dinner- grilled portabella mushrooms (brushed with lemon juice then seasoned with LOT of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning (salt free and Advocare friendly)
After Dinner Snack- 1/2 an apple

What I learned- 1. Do your grocery shopping before you start! There were Girl Scouts selling those fabulous little cookies outside the entrance to my store and it was TORTURE, PURE TORTURE to pass them up. Also, the chip aisle was a tough one to pass and I don't even eat chips often. I guess just knowing I couldn't have any made them seem that much more appetizing.
2. Shop the sales and freeze what you can. I bought a TON of squash and zucchini on sale, like more than we can eat in a week, so I chopped them up, put them in ziplock bags and froze them for next week.
3. I miss coffee the most.

The Dirt on Little Ole Me

I was always a skinny girl growing up and never gave much thought to diet or exercise but time has a way of catching up with you. In college I waited tables which had me on my feet for 8 hours 3-4 times a week. Working was basically my exercise until I met and fell in love with my Honey. He is a gym rat and encouraged me to hit the gym as well. So I started working out when I could, no real schedule. Fast forward a few years and Honey is now my hubby and I am working at a desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I put on about 5 pounds but didn't let it phase me. Fast forward another few years, Honey and I have welcomed Princess in to our family...and I was not enjoying what pregnancy did to my body. I was 15 heavier than when I got married and it was all settled in my mid section, arms and thighs/butt. After 18 months (yes, twice as long as it took me to pack on the pounds) I was sick and tired of the way I looked so I decided to sign up for a couple 5K races to keep me motivated to run in the gym. It took me a couple of weeks to get in the groove but I was hooked! Running is addicitve and so is watching the pounds fall off due to all the cardio I was doing. So 2 years after Princess arrived, I arrived to my prepregnancy weight again. Then, BAM! Here comes Number 2! I was better with my second pregnancy, I ate more fresh fruit and veggies, less Big Macs and milk shakes and I gained a healthy 27 pounds. 12 days after Lil Sis arrived I was out pounding the pavement again and then added a 6 week bootcamp to help tighten the tummy muscles. 5 months after Lil Sis was born, I was back to my prepregnancy weight again. I longed to get back to my college weight so I ramped up my diet- eating mainly carbs at breakfast, microwavable lunches with an apple then a salad with low fat dressing and some soup for dinner. I managed to get back to my college weight but I didn't stay there long, my weight floating back up about 3 pounds to it's comfortable spot. I was happy with that, I AM happy with that number. I do weigh myself every morning {shameful, I know} but that is just to see if I am inching up and need to tighten the reins on my diet for a few days. Even though I am happy with that number on the scale, I do wish my tummy were more toned and tight....so a couple of months ago I stepped up my exercise routine. I had been doing cardio (running a 5K) then adding in 15 minutes of ab work 2-3 times a week. I got curious one day about a "Circuit Breaker" class at my gym so I tried it out....I wanted to puke, no I thought I was going to puke about half way through my first class. Then I was sore for three days after, but I LIKED it! SO I went back the next Monday and it was a little easier and with each passing week it got easier. I started seeing more definition in my arms and shoulders because we do A LOT of pushups and some tightening in my abs. And the thing about exercise is once you start seeing results you are more and more motivated to see more results. So my current gym schedule is Monday- Circuit Breaker class, Wednesday- Pump Class then run 2.5 miles on the treadmill, Friday- Hour long Spin Class.

Hello Out There Blogworld

Hello out there Blogworld!! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Haley. I live in the beautiful state of Tennessee {you never would have guessed that, huh?} and this here {we Southerns love to say things like "this here", "y'all" and "fixin' too"} is my fitness blog. Now, I am no expert in fitness, I am not a trainer nor have I ever had any sort of training or education about health or nutrition so take what I say here with a big 'ole grain of salt {there's goes my Southern creeping out again}. This blog is meant to record my attempts to get bikini ready in the next few months through clean eating and busting my tail at the gym.