Day 3 - taste bud mourning

Day 3 observations

I'm tempted to just to type all the food I wish I was eating. That's the kind of day I had. I'm missing cheese, chips, pasta, pizza, wings, french fries and beer. But most of all - SALT. I made a new breakfast today of eggs with onions and peppers. This would have been delicious if it had salt or feta cheese mixed in. I know this is apart of the cleanse process and I will be able to eat salt and cheese again; I just have to make it through another 21 days. I am also chickened out - I need to make a new protein because chicken just isn't doing it for me anymore. I do have to say I'm not hungry - that's not the problem. It just the flavors that I miss. My energy level has been great too. I worked out today at the gym and set a PR on the treadmill for a 5K - 27.54! So while my body is doing a happy dance with all this great nutrition, my taste buds are in mourning. I know it's a balance and I just have to hang in there. On to day 4!

Day 2 - keep your hands off my food!

Day 2 observations:

My husband will tell you I am not a 'food sharer.' I will never be the one at a restaurant who will say, "Hey, let's split our meals so we can each have half." Nope, I want what I order and I want all of it. Must be a second child thing. But I digress... I have had to learn to share my food - I can not eat any of my 'challenge' food in front of my kids without them begging for some. Literally, I made 8 hard boiled eggs at the beginning of the week and I ate 3 and the kids ate the rest. I was cutting up red peppers yesterday and Audrey and Gabe kept coming over and stealing them! And when I made my dinner of black beans, Greek yogurt with taco seasoning (tasted just like sour cream), chicken and corn (just a smidgen), my husband wanted to have a bite of mine versus the super gooey, creamy mac and cheese I had made for them! I am realizing that this program is not only great for me but I am modeling good nutrition for my family - and it's contagious.

Day 1 - pros and cons

Ok - here are a few things I have learned at the close of Day One:

Pro - I wasn't as hungry as I thought I might be. The amount of liquids you drink between the spark, fiber drink, meal replacement shake and water had me feeling full most of the day. It was almost to the point I had to remind myself to eat. That's a good thing!

Con - With all the liquids I was drinking I had to go pee - A LOT. I felt like I did when I was pregnant and was going to the bathroom every hour. Just make sure if you do this challenge you have easy access to a bathroom all day long.

Pro - I had all my foods ready to go so I easily was able to go to the fridge and grab lunch or snack. I had even portioned some of my chicken so I would just grab a bag, throw on a little Mrs. Dash and eat. Which brings me to my con...

Con - I am missing my friend salt. Mrs. Dash on a hard boiled egg just doesn't taste as good - or really very good at all. I am hoping my taste buds adjust to the lack of salt and things will not taste as bland.

Pro - My energy level was consistent throughout the day. NO crashes - hurrah! I even cleaned out my daughters closet mid afternoon - usually the time of day when I'm a total slug. I am sure this has to do with a more steady stream of good nutrition in my body - and of course that nectar from above called SPARK!

Con - The fiber drink was highly unpleasant - the best way to describe it is it tasted like a plain triscuit that was blended with water and some orange flavoring. YUCK. But I just reverted back to my college days and chugged it. See, I knew that skill would come in handy again some day!

General disclaimer - It was a lot of pills - I think 12 total. And they are large, not small like an aspirin. So this may not be the challenge for you if you have pill swallowing difficulties.

So that's it. I made it through DAY ONE! Not bad given I had to sit at my adorable nephew's 8th birthday party and see everyone around me eat pizza and drink beer. I just kept telling myself focus on the end goal! Bring on Day Two!

Day 1 - why am I doing this?

Today is the day. My challenge begins. And with it, I say goodbye to cheese, wine, carbs and pretty much all things super delicious for 24 days. Why, you ask, would someone do such a stupid thing? Well, my sweet and trustworthy friend Katherine Caputo told me about this challenge and talked about how life changing it was - and I believed her. You see, although I worked out fairly regularly and had even run two half marathons within the last year, I had gotten into some pretty bad food habits. This, I assumed, was why the scale barely moved even after my half marathon training  So here was the deal - coffee was pretty much streaming through my veins all day long, which was causing me these super fun roller coaster highs and crashing lows. In addition, I would have these panicked moments of hunger, accompanied by shakes and nausea; most likely the result of large amounts of caffeine and my blood sugar dropping  Although my diet wasn't horrible, it wasn't perfect either. Cheese was my 'go to' food when these hunger pains would strike or at night after the kids went to bed. Of course it went nicely with my large glass of wine that was my 'I made it through another day of managing chaos' reward. Most times, one glass turned into two and a small slice of cheese turned into half a brick. I'd wake up feeling tired, dehydrated and would resume my IV of coffee. I knew this wasn't a healthy way to go about my life, but I had a solution. I would exercise my butt off and then I would not have to worry about what I put in my body, right? I could overindulge here and there and not have to feel guilty and that damn number on the scale would have to move! So I amped up my workout routine. I did a 30 for 30 challenge. I worked out every day for 30 days for at least 30 minutes a day. Jillian Michaels and I became close friends and I could recite every thing she was going to say on her workout DVD before she said it. I noticed some muscle toning, but the scale barely moved and I still had those fun crashes during the day. What the heck!? Was I going to have to workout all day long to see that number change and to lose that muffin top that taunted me every time I put on a pair of jeans?! After bitching and moaning about this phenomena to my dear husband (who can lose 5 pounds just thinking of dieting), he finally said to me, "it is what you are putting in your body!" I wanted to scream - or cry. It wasn't like I was eating McDonalds every day - was I going to have to starve myself?!? But what he meant was feeding my body solid nutrition and vitamins - fueling it properly. He, being a very serious athlete and marathon runner, had done more reading about what fuels your body than any other person I knew. But when he would talk to me about it, my eyes would gloss over (sorry, babe). It was all too much. What he put in his body wasn't right for me and I just didn't have the time to figure it out - not when my 2 year old son was falling down in a mall and needing 6 stitches or when my daughter emotionally melted down for the thousandth time during the day. And then God had little Miss Katherine Caputo walk into my life and say, "here is your answer!" She told me about Advocare, described the plan, and I knew I had to give it a try. I did my research, Tom did his, and we agreed that this company and product was top notch and if I was going to do it - this was the product to use. So long story short, here I am on day one! I am going to use this blog to write about the challenges (it isn't called a challenge for nothing) as well as my successes. I hope by day 24 I feel energized, happy, have a clear mind and soul and look better than ever. And if that scale finally moves - that would be great too!