Monday, March 24, 2014

Advocare thus far...

So I thought it'd be fun to do a recap of what we've eaten, how we've felt, etc. while on Advocare for the first week. Yesterday I ordered a container of Spark because I'm pretty sure we'll run out by the 24th day. Especially since sometimes we have 3 a day!  I guess it's better than coffee or soda, right?  :) I really hope this inspires and gives you some ideas as far as eating plans go. That's really been the hardest part for me because I'm a big foodie (obviously, considering all the junk in my trunk.) Finding meal plans and recipe ideas has been a challenge for me.  Especially making sure it's a meal that we'll all actually enjoy.

Here are the meal plans I used for the first week:

Day 1

Breakfast:
Spark, 2 eggs, half a pack of oatmeal, fresh pineapple, and the fiber drink
Mid morning snack:
Fruit punch Spark, and celery sticks with almond butter
Lunch:
A tuna salad (mixed with 1 tbsp of garlic hummus) sandwich on 2 slices of whole wheat bread
Afternoon snack:
1/4 cup of raw pecans
Dinner:
Grilled salmon with broccoli

Calorie totals that day:  1554, 115 carbs, 93 g of protein, 29 g of fiber, 1423 mg of sodium

Day 2 - when I weighed this morning, down 2.2 lbs.

Breakfast:
Spark, 3 eggs, half a pack of oatmeal, fresh fruit, and the fiber drink
Mid morning snack:
1/4 cup of raw pecans
Lunch:
A tuna salad (mixed with 1 tbsp of garlic hummus) salad.  Threw in some lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.  Very filling and full of protein.
Afternoon snack:
Orange
Dinner:
Delicious stuffed bell peppers from this website (my first time making stuffed peppers):  The Gracious Pantry - clean peppers
Snack before bed:
Orange with some tajin seasoning sprinkled on

Day 3 - when I weighed this morning, down 2 lbs.

Breakfast:
Spark, 3 eggs, half a pack of oatmeal with some almond butter for extra protein, fruit salad, fiber drink
Mid morning snack:
Spark and 1/4 cup of raw pecans
Lunch:
Left over stuffed pepper from the previous nights dinner
Afternoon snack:
Orange (hey see a trend here?  The beau brought them back from Sebring races and I hate letting produce go bad)
Dinner:
Taco salad with 93/7 ground beef, lettuce, diced chiles, tomatoes, black beans, quinoa & brown rice, and avocado.  SO good & SO filling.  Did not even MISS the taco shells!

Calorie totals that day:  1600, 114 carbs, 101 g of protein, 26 g of fiber, 1774 mg of sodium

Day 4 - when I weighed this morning, down 2.2 lbs.

Breakfast:Spark, 3 eggs, half a pack of oatmeal with some almond butter for extra protein, fruit salad
Mid morning snack:
Spark
Lunch:
4 oz. of rotisserie chicken, a whole avocado, and 6 oz. of steamed broccoli & cauliflower
Afternoon snack:
Orange
Dinner:
Grilled herb chicken, recipe here: Grilled herb chicken , baked asparagus with a tiny bit of olive oil & seasonings, and half a baked potato with some sauteed mushrooms on it.  I sauteed the mushrooms in some chicken broth & a ton of seasonings.
After dinner snack:
Strawberries & apples with almond butter

Calorie totals that day:  1540, 107 carbs, 91 g of protein, 23 g of fiber, 1293 mg of sodium

Day 5 - when I weighed this morning, down 0 lbs.

Breakfast:
Spark, 2 eggs, half an avocado, a slice of whole wheat toast
Lunch:
93/7 hamburger patty (patties made by my Momma,) on a whole wheat bun with lettuce & tomato & a tiny bit of ketchup, fresh strawberries, and mediterranean quinoa salad from Skinnytaste:  Quinoa salad
Dinner:
Spicy shrimp with chiles and garlic, recipe here: Spicy chile & garlic shrimp, green beans, chicken flavored rice.  Regarding the shrimp, I have read that you're supposed to avoid "bottom feeding seafood" such as shrimp but that's just not realistic for us.  I want to be able to maintain this diet change so we will definitely go "off plan" here and there.  To that, I add:  we worked 7 hours doing yard work this day.  So we did allow ourselves a few beers after all of our hard work.  I had 3 Miller lites and DAMN were they good!

Calorie totals that day:  1437, 121 carbs, 81 g of protein, 21 g of fiber, 1692mg of sodium

Day 6 - when I weighed this morning, down 1.3 lbs.
Breakfast:
Spark, 2 eggs, strawberries, a slice of whole wheat toast
Mid morning snack:
Spark
Lunch:
A chicken sandwich (leftover breast from Friday night) on a whole wheat bun (left over from yesterday's lunch), and some more mediterranean quinoa salad.
Dinner:
Salad, le seur peas, chicken pasta, and mustard flounder: Mustard flounder . Even our 6 year old loved it, so I KNOW it is a winner.  Also had 3 beers as we had another full day of yard work.  See, don't deprive yourself!  Nothing good comes from it.

I will say, even after dinner I am pretty hungry already.  We are getting ready to watch a movie so I'll probably make a healthy snack for us.  Fruit or veggies dipped in hummus.

Calorie totals that day:  1479, 123 carbs, 95 g of protein, 20 g of fiber, 1528mg of sodium

Day 7 - when I weighed this morning, down 0 lbs.
Breakfast:
Unfortunately I ran out of eggs yesterday morning and didn't make it to the store.  So I just had half a packet of oatmeal, 2 tbsp of almond butter, and an orange.  It will definitely be a snack kind of day, I can tell already.
Lunch:
Tuna salad made with 2 tbsp of hummus on a bed of lettuce.  Need to make a trip to the grocery store.  I also had some rotisserie chicken
Snack:
Spark & grapes
Dinner:
Lime chicken, steamed fresh veggies, half of a plain sweet potato.  Everything was DELICIOUS!  I got the chicken recipe from here:  quick lime chicken (I did omit the cilantro as I hate it.)

Calorie totals that day:  1303, 137 carbs, 114 g of protein, 21 g of fiber, 2886mg of sodium

So, today is the end of our first week.  I'm down 7.7 lbs. and I feel really good. I don't have OMG ALL THE ENERGY, but I haven't in years, so I wasn't really sure that I would.  

Logging my foods on myfitnesspal (un: NicolePatriot) has really helped me meet my calorie goals as well.  I want to make sure I am following the nutritional plan, but also getting enough calories.  As many of you know, I do not believe in 1200 calories a day.  It is not healthy or maintainable.  I have found that Advocare is very much geared towards clean eating.  Unlike other "diets" such as the HCG diet where you take some magical drops and eat only 500 calories a day, I think the clean eating approach is much more sustainable.

And because no post is complete without food pictures, here are some of the dinners I made: 





Friday, March 21, 2014

Advocare.

Well, the beau and I started Advocare on Tuesday.  So far, he's lost 6.6 lbs and I'm down 6.4 lbs.  I don't even know how it's possible.  BUT the scale doesn't lie.  At least when I'm losing it doesn't lie. When I'm gaining that's a different story.  We're on day 4 of the cleanse portion and it's been pretty easy to stick with.  Although by day 2 I was craving sweets & crunchy salty things like a mofo.  We remained strong though.  The beau said the candy dishes at his work have been the hardest thing to resist.  We are eating clean, drinking Spark, drinking the fiber drink (only the first 3 days and last 3 days), and taking vitamins.  

Upon waking up you drink the spark drink.  30 minutes later you drink the fiber drink with breakfast.  For breakfast we've been having 3 eggs each, oatmeal with almond butter, and lots of fruit.  I have to say, it has been really nice sitting down for breakfast together every morning.  We get a little bit more time together.  With the crazy schedule that I'm on (class until 9 most nights) it doesn't leave a lot of "togetherness" time.  Then I pack our lunches and snacks.  This week our lunches consisted of whole wheat tuna (mixed with hummus - no mayo) sandwiches, salads, and left over stuffed peppers.

I am pretty excited to see what happens the rest of the 20 days.  My Dad lost 26 lbs. in the 24 days and has kept it off, so that feels promising.  I think the clean eating is the biggest reason for the loss. 

Anyways, I guess I am done rambling for now.  Hope you all have an awesome weekend :)




Sunday, March 16, 2014

I'm officially insane.

You might want to go ahead and have me committed now, before I commit myself. Totally kidding.  BUT, it was about 15 or so days ago the beau and I were talking about our upcoming nuptials in May 2015.  He throws out this crazy idea that we should just do it now.  Why wait?  He's "never been more sure of anything in his life."  And the wheels started turning.  And before I knew it, I was agreeing to this craziness.  It started off that we were going to do a surprise wedding.  I'd read about them, and it definitely seemed to fit our personalities.  However, once I actually started trying on dresses, I realized that I needed my Mom.  We had to at least let our parents in on the secret.  So we did.  Then we let the bridal party and groomsmen and siblings in on the secret.  And then it turned into us just designing invites to send out to family and friends.  We figured our out of town family might not come if they thought it was an engagement party but they'd probably come if they knew it was the wedding.  

So as of today we have 47 days until the big day.  We have done quite a few things but we still have soooo much more to do.  It's kind of making me twitch, thinking about it. Especially because I'm working full time, taking a full course load, and now planning a last minute wedding.

Any pointers, ideas, tips?  Thank you in advance.  :)

Much love,