Advocare 24 Day Challenge: Day 1

Well today started off a lot worse than I would have truly wanted it to. But that's life. The wind was blowing so hard that I couldn't sleep. Our eldest woke up at 2am and stayed awake until 6am. Because we knew that if we woke her up to catch the bus at 7 she would have given her teachers a difficult time, we let her sleep in and I took her to school before boot camp. And I ended up being almost 30 min late to boot camp. Boo.

Anyways... Here is how Day 1 went:

8am: Made my spark and weighed myself before jumping in the shower. I did not measure myself since my boot camp instructor does it for us at the start and end of each session. I suggest you do as measurements are an excellent way to see weight loss! (I'm not a fan of the scale!) And take front, back, and side photos too!

 9am: Fiber drink mixed with 4oz of TROP 50 and 2oz of water. Took my catalyst too.

Pulled breakfast out and dumped it onto my plate, put kids in the car, headed to drop Evie off at school and get to my boot camp.

Breakfast Breakdown - 326 calories
One hard boiled egg (whole) - 72 calories
2 Hardboiled egg whites- 34 calories
1 cup mixed berries (straw, blue, rasp)- 80 calories
Fiber drink and OJ- 95 calories
Spark- 45 calories


9:50-10:30: 40 Min of BOOTCAMP!! Lots of running... Sprinting actually today. Not a fan but I know it's good for me so I sucked it up. Still felt like I was going to cough up blood afterwards. Oh how I wish I liked running! My little boot camp buddy makes it so much more enjoyable though! Finished 25oz of water before getting back home from boot camp!

Noon: Sat down long enough to eat lunch. I try not to sit down for too long during the day. It's a trap. That's a hard thing to avoid as a stay home mom. I don't turn the TV on either. That's another trap. Instead I sit down for 15-20 to eat and then get moving. Following lunch I prepped and started dehydrating homemade fruit roll ups, washed a load of laundry and folded two loads, prepped and made dinner to including flash freezing a portion. Finished up my second 25oz of water!

Lunch Breakdown - 477 calories
2 pieces of Natures Own Whole Wheat Sugar Free bread - 100 calories
6oz of my homemade chicken salad- 207 calories (Recipe: http://tiny.cc/qm4ldx)
28 Roasted Salted almonds - 170 calories

4:00pm: Ate my snack: banana (105 calories)

5:00pm: Went on a brisk walk with the family! 1.25 miles at 3.0mph!

6:00pm: Ate dinner. Drank my last 25oz of required water - and I'm still going!

Dinner Breakdown - 434 Calories
2 Servings of Daddy's Meatloaf - 348 calories (Recipe: http://tiny.cc/2k4ldx)
1 Cup of boiled Green beans with dash of Balsamic Vinegar - 47 calories
1 Serving of Cauliflower Mash - 39 Calories (Recipe: http://tiny.cc/pl4ldx)

7:30pm: Played outside with the kids! Motion is motion!

8:30pm: Took my herbal cleanse and my omegaplex.

TOTAL CALORIC INTAKE ON DAY 1: 1,341 Calories

My personal goal based on MyFitnessPal is 1,420 so I am a little under for the day. If I get hungry later on I will grab an apple or some fruit, but I'm fairly well adjusted to this amount so I'm feeling fine as of right now. You always need to base your diet on how many calories your body needs. My husband eats the same amount of calories for meals that I do but he usually adds in an extra snack or a protein bar to meet his goal.

One of the reasons I love MyFitnessPal is that it gives you this awesome pie chart of your nutrition for the day. My personal goal is to be at 40% protein, 30% fat, and 30% carb but that is pretty difficult for me. Today was actually a great day hitting almost 30% for protein!

 

Closing of Day 1....

I feel great! It took no time for me to get back to my energetic new way of life after indulging over the weekend and turning a bit grumpy because of it. My husband walked in from work, looked at me and said "Glad to have you back!"

Recipe: Cauliflower Mash

Cauliflower Mash
Serving: 6
Calories per serving: 39


Ingredients:

Large head of cauliflower
4 tsp of minced garlic
1/8 cup light almond milk
Salt and pepper

3
















Directions:

Boil cauliflower florets for 10-15 min or until soft. Meanwhile sauté minced garlic until slightly browned. Strain cauliflower and add minced garlic, cauliflower, and milk to a blender. Blend until just slightly lumpy.

*Be careful to not over blend it. Mixture should have a mash potato (lumpy) consistency.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe: Kelly's Crunchy Chicken Salad

Kelly's Crunchy Chicken Salad
Servings: 2
Calories per serving: 207

(My spin on my moms chicken salad!)

Ingredients:

10oz can of Tyson Premium Chunk White Chicken Fat Free (drained)
2 Tbsp Light Mayo
1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
1/4 Cup Chopped Yellow Onion
1 tsp Yellow Mustard
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and use a fork to divide the chicken and mix ingredients together well.

Divide into 2 servings.

This recipe is great on whole wheat toast or lettuce wrap!

Recipe: Daddy's Meatloaf (Lean)

My Daddy's Meatloaf (Lean)
Serving: 18 mini loafs
Calories per serving: 174

(One of my ALL time favorite meals! Awesome with cauliflower mash and green beans! This entire meal is under 500 calories.)

 

Ingredients:

3lb Lean Ground Beef (93/7)
2 Cups Quick Oats
2 Yellow Onions diced
2 Green Peppers diced
2 Large Eggs
One can of Hunt's Dinner Starters - Meatloaf
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper




















Directions:

Sautee peppers and onions until soft. Combine ground beef and eggs and mix well by hand. Add onions and pepper and mix well by hand. Add quick oats and mix well by hand. Add Worcestershire sauce, 2/3 can of Hunt's dinner starter, and salt and pepper. Mix well by hand.

Divide evenly among muffin pan (18 total) forming them into balls just barely smaller than a baseball. Distribute remaining Hunt's sauce over mini loafs.




















Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While oven heats, flash freeze mini loafs that are leftover. Leaving them in the muffin pan lightly cover with plastic wrap and place in deep freezer for several hours. Once they are frozen remove and divide them into family portions into freezer bags and place them back in freezer.

Bake mini loafs for 30 min. Cut into middle to check doneness. (I recommend placing a pan under the muffin pan to catch any grease that may drip out.)

To use frozen mini loafs place in fridge to thaw and cook according to above directions.

Advocare 24 Day Challenge Prep

So I am starting my 2nd Advocare 24 Day Challenge tomorrow. I have spent the last few days prepping. I am through day 4 of planning and I'm hoping I'll have a written game plan of Day 5-10 by tomorrow night. After going through my first challenge at the beginning of the year I learned a lot about how to make sticking to the challenge easier and most of it has to do with prep and planning. 

I essentially write out my entire food plan ahead of time including all meals, snacks, required products for the challenge like spark and fiber, and I plan out my caloric intake along with it. I count everything (except vitamins). I even put it into MyFitnessPal ahead of time. Then all in have to do is follow the plan layed out.

I also make my grocery list according to my meal plan and I do not buy anything extra... Unless it's something my kids have to have. (I still do not by cookies, chips, etc. unless it's something I know I won't eat like gummy snacks. I don't want the temptation atleast during the first 10 days.) On day 3 of my last challenge I ended up boxing up all of the "bad" foods and putting them in the garage. 

I bought bins from the dollar spot this time around and a pack of cheap baggies. Last night I divided up all of my spark, fiber, protien shakes, and pills for the 24 days and labeled them. I have 5 bins so I will do 4-5 days at a time. I put anything I can in the bins (bananas, almonds, powdered PB2) so that I have what I'm eating that day ready and divided.

I also cut up my fruit ahead of time. I find this helps me from forgetting about it or opting for something else because I don't want to cut it at the time. We don't waste as much this way. At night I prep what I can for breakfast down to measuring and pouring the OJ (I mix this with fiber) so that it makes the morning smoother. I also pack lunches if I know I won't be home or won't have time. I will be home tomorrow so I didn't bother with it today.

A note on the OJ. I am not a fan of drinking the fiber drink.. So I buy TROP 50 from the grocery store and mix the fiber drink with 4 oz of OJ and 2oz of water. Goes down faster and easier!

So on the last card of each day I put a little check list of pills or other products I need to take and I list how many water bottles of water I need to drink. I have a 25oz camel back bottle and I need to drink 3 every day to get my water intake for the day. I aim for more of course. I think it's really important to find a water bottle you enjoy drinking out of. I know that sounds weird. I hated water before I started Advocare. I would choke it down. Well I adjusted and found the right bottle and I easily drink my needed intake now. I even keep fresh lemons in the fridge and squeeze some in when I need flavor. I crave water now. All the time!

During the first 10 days I completely withhold from sweets, soda (always now), alcohol, "carbs" that are simple, and most dairy. I will use cheese sparingly because my family loves it so it's not something I feel we need to cut out all together. Just limit it.

Tomorrow I will start posting everything I do in a single blog post at night. That way you can go back and look at my meal plan and recipes and see the activity level.

This weeks dinners will consist of meatloaf, steak, fajitas, tilapia/grilled chicken, and kabobs. All recipes will be posted! Lunches for us are pretty basic and simple to allow for a more elaborate dinner. 

This weekend I indulged beyond a normal cheat meal. I actually wanted to go off our new way of eating so that I could experience the challenge the way I did the first time so I could accurately describe it. And it was horrible. We went to a movie and took a few bites of buttery popcorn and felt so full and we just didn't want it. 4 months ago we would have crushed the whole tub! I even had a beloved diet coke and it tasted horrible and just burned. So in other words... I can't wait for tomorrow!!!

If you want to join me on the challenge go to www.choosethechallenge.com/mommyhatesrunning

If you order tonight your challenge will arrive in time to start with most everyone who has already ordered (Thursday). 

While we understand the concern with the cost of the challenge we found that we actually saved more money than we spent because we no longer eat out whenever we want, our grocery trips are well planned, and we don't buy junk. For

us it was well worth the price to feel the way we feel now!

If you have any questions, please message us!!

Okay guys! Ready to roll! :)

Recipe: Avacado Taco

Avacado Taco 

Servings: 4

Calories per serving: 550

Ingrediants:

1lb 85/15 Ground Turkey

4 Avacados

One small yellow onion- chopped

20-30 grape tomatoes- sliced

Lime

Packet of Old El Paso taco seasoning

1/2 cup of Sargentos Reduced Fat Mexican Cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat ground turkey and onions on med/high heat until turkey is cooked through out. Drain and rinse. Return to pan with 1/4 cup of water and seasoning packet. Continue to heat on low until seasoning has absorbed into meat. 

Cut Avacados in half and remove pit leaving Avacados in shells. Squeeze a small amount of lime juice into each avacado bowl. Add 2 ounces of taco meat to each avacado (heaping 1/4 cup). Top with tomatoes, cheese (optional), and salt and pepper. 

To be honest, this was the first time I had ever eaten ground turkey and I absolutely loved it. Very lean and it didn't taste any different than ground beef! Avacados are fairly high in calorie but are an excellent source of good fats! Will be adding this to our normal food schedule for sure!

This recipe was adapted from several recipes on Pineterest including Clean Food Crush.

Dessert: Caramel Strawberry Crunch

Caramel Strawberry Crunch

Calories per serving: 59

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

1/2 Quaker Caramel Corn Rice Cake

1/2 cup halved strawberries

4 tablespoons of light whip cream (5 calls per tablespoon- in squeeze can)

Directions:

Crumble rice cake and mix with strawberries. Top with whip and enjoy!!

Recipe: Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

Crock Pot White Chicken Chili
Servings: 4
Calories per serving: 436

Ingredients:
1lb of boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp of pepper
1/2 large onion chopped (I suggest chopped up pretty well)
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped finely (the heat in this cooks out so this is not a spicy chili)
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans of white great northern beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups of low sodium chicken broth

Per bowl:
1/4 cup of reduced fat Mexican cheese (Sargentos makes this!)
1 tbsp of lite sour cream
(If you choose not to use one or both toppings then deduct the calories accordingly. Sour cream is 20 cals and the cheese is 80 cals)

Directions:
Place chicken in the bottom of the crockpot. Add salt, pepper, onion, jalepeno, oregano, cumin, and garlic on top of chicken. Pour beans and broth. Stir. Cook for low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken and shred or chop. Add back to crockpot. Top each individual serving with cheese and sour cream if desired.

I always suggest dividing up the servings (left overs) before eating so that you know you have divided them equally. This heats up well as left overs.

 
 This recipe has been floating around Pinterest in many different forms. I had found this on www.sixsistersstuff.com and I believe they adapted it from Taste of Home. I have changed it slightly to fit the needs of our family.