Days 4 & 5/24 Advocare Challenge

 

Day 4

Monday was awesome!  I easily got up in the morning, had my Spark and my Catalyst and went down to our basement(ish) level to get my workout on.  I started with Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution workout….Workout #3, Week Four.  Thirty minutes later (I LOVE this length) I was done with my strength training/HIIT workout and move on to a thirty minute interval run on the treadmill.  I burned a little over 600 calories!  Great way to start my day!

Izzy really wanted to show you the DVD I was using for the workout.  You’ll just have to pretend that it was workout #3 and not what it says.  What can I say?!  Most mornings, she is like this while I work out…

If I could work out in the dark, she would be happy.  Actually, if I could hand feed her while she slept, she would think she was in heaven.  This cat’s nick name is "Fat Cat” or “Chunky”.  She’s very active too…just very massive.  In the background you can see my treadmill and how it’s sandwiched in between the couch and the fireplace.  The fireplace better NEVER be going when I’m on that treadmill.  Oye I would die.  As it is, I have a huge fan aimed at my back and another small one at my face.

Moving on to more awesomeness, I progressed through the work day and getting home, staying on track.  Oh wait…my hubs surprised me with a lunch date request!One thing I want this Challenge to do for me is to set me up for success for the rest of my life.  You know, “A lifestyle not a diet” way of eating.  So because he’s my hubby and I love him, and because his schedule only allows for him to do this maybe twice every year, I gladly accepted his invite.  We went to a favorite restaurant of ours, “Thai Orchid”, because it was in walking distance and it wasn’t Subway.  We ordered #31 which is chicken with peppers and onions and a sweet chili paste.  I asked them to add broccoli and I helped myself to a half of a cup of brown rice.  Oh, and yeah, I did have two bites of the hubs’ spring roll.  I’m glad I allowed those two bites, and the lunch date even, for that matter.  It reinforced that I can eat healthy, still go out to eat, and indulge a little, but stay on track.  Also, the two bites I had weren’t that amazing and I was confident I wasn’t missing out.

I stayed up until 9:30 which is unheard of for me! 

Day 5

I didn’t pop right out of bed, but I certainly didn’t stay there and skip my workout.  Actually, I was awake at 4:18am and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  What’s up with that?!  Tuesday was Workout #4, Week Four of my JMBR and I was going to do another interval run afterwards.  I got Jillian’s workout completed but talked myself out of the run.  I just didn’t have the energy (or so I told myself) and my legs felt pretty tight. (I should foam roll or use the stick.)  The way my workout schedule is set up, I’ll easily be able to complete my running workouts for the week.

I noticed that I was extra hungry for lunch and dinner than I have been the last four days.  I think it’s a combination of a lack of sleep and my more intense workout.  I got to bed pretty early….which would come in handy for the 3:30am couldn’t go back to sleep episode.

Lunch was delicious, even though it looks like it’s topped with cat food and goop, aka pink salmon and hummus.  It’s awesome, don’t knock it!

Day 2 & 3/24 of Advocare challenge

I have to admit…I was a little scared of the weekend and how I was going to manage with my Advocare challenge and all that I had going on. 

 

DAY 2

Day 2 was Saturday, and I popped out of bed at 5am to get a run in before my 13teen had to go to her volleyball tournament.  If you know tournaments, they are usually all day events.  So I packed my bags with my healthy foods and snacks.  I was tempted a couple of times to dip into the big bag of pretzels, but I realized I was doing it out of habit and nerves.  Those girls have some real skill and the matches get so competitive! 

The day was super productive and I never once had a lag in my energy like I usually get on a weekend.  Keeping my blood sugar stabilized was a good part of that, I’m sure.  The hubs and I had a date night and we went out to dinner.  Our options here in this smaller town are kind of limited, but I ordered to the best of my ability.  Our waitress was super cool in letting me be picky about my order.  I ordered a grilled chicken breast with just the veggies and no oil, butter, or salt.  It really was delicious!  Oh and I did eat one small steak fry with ranch off of my hubs’ plate.  I didn’t feel deprived at all!

DAY 3

Day 3….was a little different…Sunday.  We went to bed rather late on Saturday and I didn’t even sleep all the way to 7am.  I was looking forward to sleeping in too!  So, I was dragging.  We went to Church and afterwards, made our usual stop at Freddies which includes a trip to Peets.  This time, I just got a peppermint tea, no milk or sugar.  I had some issues with energy that day so the Advocare does not make up for a lack of sleep.  Still….it was a better Sunday than I’ve had compared to other ones where you feel like you need a nap or you’re going to die!  Oh and I made some delicious fish for myself for dinner.  It was so yummy that my 15teen said, “That smells sooo good!” (And she wasn’t being sarcastic!) My hubs took a bite and said he would eat it too!

PS I can’t wait to share with you what is happening on the scale!

Now for some really awesome pictures taken by a really awesome photographer!!  Oooh so impressive!

Horrible lighting when I’m trying to show my 13teen that I’m wearing the new neon yellow/greenish sweater she helped me pick out.  I suck at this game!  My date night outfit…I was wearing pants.  Promise.

That’s Izzy.  Inside a bag, in the middle of a Christmas wreath.  I still have decorations waiting to get put away.  And a pot that needs a plant, by the looks of it.  Yeah, I killed what was inside.  My 15teen and I were playing Just Dance 4 on the Wii and well, Izzy was not impressed.

Thanks for viewing my pictures.  I know that’s why you read my blog!

Day 1/24 Advocare Challenge

Or, as I like to call it, “The Day I Survived Without Coffee.”

I started on a Friday, the day after my order arrived.  I know, crazy girl you’re thinking!  I thought I was crazy too because I always start things on a Monday.  Or at the beginning of a month.  Or the year.  Never, and I repeat NEVER on a Friday!  The lure of increased energy propelled me forward.

I was worried I might get hungry and the food I ate wouldn’t hold me over.  I was wrong.  I only got hungry right before lunch and then right before dinner.  Not the kind of hunger that usually makes me go crazy and reach for a cupcake though.

Because I started so quickly, and because the hubs and I have been sharing one vehicle for the last two weeks, I wasn’t too prepared and prepped so I hit up Subway for a salad for lunch.  I added my own tuna on top.  I’m going to try not to have to do that again.  It wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great.

I was worried about the afternoon and that I might get cranky and feel tired and again, the need to reach for a cupcake….or another unhealthy snack that abounds in the workplace. I was wrong on that too.

In the evening, right before bed, I wanted something sweet.  I’m pretty sure it’s out of habit though I recall feeling maybe a little hungry?  So I made myself a bowl of berries with a half a cup of almond milk.  It hit the spot!

Day 1 was a success!

Why Advocare for me?

I had been hearing about Advocare from different bloggers and real live people that I know and even work with.  I saw with my own eyes some really great results.  BUT, I dragged my feet.  I thought that I wanted to do it on my own, without taking any supplements and just eating healthy foods and exercising.  Here’s the silly thing though, I WAS using a meal replacement protein shake that I got at my local GNC.  I was also spending oodles a month on vitamins, trying to do the research, and trying to make sure I was taking what I was supposed to be taking to be healthy.  I firmly believe that we need to be taking vitamins to support our bodies and that in today’s age, it is extremely hard to get that from an even perfect, organic lifestyle.  Who has time or energy to be perfect?

Let me back track too and I’ll do that with a quick snapshot of my life in terms of weight loss/working out.

• 2001 I got serious about losing weight that I put on after having two babies
• I quickly lost 70 pounds on Weight Watchers and just walking
• I went up and down without about 10-20 pounds for years
• Got serious about losing those last “whatever” pounds in 2007 – started running and lifting weights and using Herbalife
• 2008 I got to what was my goal weight of 155 for my 5’10'” frame
• That marked a 100 pound weight loss from my known highest weight!
• From 2008 to today, lots of stuff changed.  Marriage, blended family, a move, a new job, three marathons completed….I gained 30 pounds and have been stuck with my weight.

Okey doke…so I kept going back to the question of, “How did I make it work back in 2008?  I was strength training….and, ding ding, I was using Herbalife products.  I weaned myself off of the stuff because I learned about the dangers of soy…and their protein was soy based then.  (Not sure if it still is?)  I also started replacing the supplements with stuff I could buy locally or find on the internet that was cheaper.  Not very convenient or easy though, and now you all know that I put 30 pounds back on.

Enter Advocare!  I told you that I had heard about this company but I didn’t give it much thought.  Until one day last week, I said, why not?  I could really use the ease and simplicity of being told what to take and what to eat.  I could really use the extra energy.  And I could really use the motivation that I got, knowing that I’ve seen results, so why couldn’t I have those results for myself?  It has to work for me then too!

As I write this, I’m on day three of the 24 day challenge.  It’s a 10 day cleanse phase (I’m eating real food and still able to exercise! And not stuck in the bathroom either, FYI) followed by two weeks of uh…I’m not sure as I haven’t gotten that far yet.  All I can say is that I’m amazed that I already have this much energy.  No jitters either…let me just nip that one in the bud.  If you know me, then you know I don’t survive without two strong, black, cups of coffee a day.  Day three of no coffee for me and I’m alive and happy!

Follow along on my challenge.  See what you think?  If you’re wondering what Advocare is…click here.  Don’t think I’m out to sell you anything.  I signed up for the discount and free stuff that came with it.  Just watch me and see what happens if you’re curious.  I’m pretty sure you’re going to get jealous though. heehee!

A breakfast idea

I thought I’d share with you a really quick and healthy breakfast that I’ve been eating a lot of lately.  It’s not rocket science but in case you’ve been struggling and looking for something that is healthy and will keep you full until lunch, then lookie at what I got for ya!  I would have a picture of this meal if I didn’t always forget to take pictures every where I go. So just pretend.  It will be good for you.

Not Rocket Science Egg Scramble

• Two eggs, prepared how you prefer (Scrambled for me!)
• 1/4 of an avocado, chopped up
• Two slices of low sodium, Canadian bacon or an all natural ham with none of the gross nitrites/nitrates in there.
• and two tablespoons of salsa (get as natural and organic product that you can afford. You could also substitute a small Italian or Roma tomato but I was finding that I was adding syracha for more zip…which has sugar in it.  So I like the salsa the best.)

Cook the eggs, through the ham in the hot pan after you’re done with the eggs…throw everything in a bowl and enjoy…with a spoon, it’s easier than a fork.  Trust me. 

Confession: I also eat popcorn with a spoon.  It’s easier and I don’t feel like such a popcornivore.

Pretend that’s me, but I’m eating popcorn instead of a carrot.  And pretend that I don’t have whiskers like that. Oh and that I’m not a hamster.  I’m not.  You knew that right?

Are there any other weird spoon eaters out there? 

PS Try spreading jam or peanut butter with the back of a spoon instead of a knife.  Trust me, you want to do this!

Weekend wrap up

 

LAZY

You should see all the drafts I’ve written for blog posts and have abandoned.  Namely because I get distracted easily by shiny objects or people that go, “Moooooooommmm?????”  Did everyone have a nice long weekend?  Did you get Monday off?  I did!  I think my Saturday and Sunday were a little too jam packed and that’s what caused me to get absolutely nothing done on Monday.  Well, I did watch 6 episodes of “I Married a Mobster.”  Please don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.  I’m sure my hubs appreciated the random, out of the blue text of, “Does the mafia still exist.?”  He was a bit curious as to what shennanigans I had going on.

KITCHEN ANTICS

Saturday I was busy in the kitchen and was really wanting to tackle a few new-to-me recipes. I made a batch of Curry Creamy Butternut Soup and OOOOh my goodness it was amazing!  Was…I mean, IS…the kids won’t touch it so I’m eating it for the rest of the week, I think. (I lied…I put a quart of it in the freezer.) My hubs grilled up some chicken, Indian style, and we added that to the soup…took it to a whole new amazing level.  He said it tastes very similar to lentil dahl.  I think we are going to serve it over some steamed rice tonight.  Can’t wait! UPDATE – Served over rice, even MORE amazing!

I made some edamame hummus and while it was tasty, I don’t think I’d make it again.  I like chickpeas way too much.

VOLLEYBALL

My youngest is quite the volleyball player and it’s so much fun to watch her skills develop.  For the next 6 weeks or so, our life is on extreme volleyball alert with a tournament almost every weekend.  I kind of don’t like it and love it all so much at the same time.  That makes sense right?  I whined about having my alarm set so early on a Saturday morning (practice) and a Sunday morning (Had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the tournament) and then I reminded myself, “Hey nitwit, you make yourself get up earlier in the summer for your long runs.  Whoops!  The things we do for a good sweat!  Oh and in this household, we think this is a pretty funny shirt.  And no, we don’t really hate anyone, but it’s funny.  There’s at least one person on the opponent’s team that usually drives you up the wall for one reason or another.  We have some funny stories!

 

RANDOM

I have some exciting news to share with you in a couple of days so don’t ditch me now!

Also, I’m still waiting to hear from Tracy, the winner of “The Happiness Project.” Please email me by Friday, the 25th or I will need to draw another winner.

And lastly….

Working on my fitness…

I’m trying something new to help me get up and get my sweat on in the morning with my workouts.  I use my phone as my alarm clock and alas, this is not a new idea, but I’ve been placing it across the room in our bathroom.  It forces me out of bed to turn it off, plus, I can’t wake up in the middle of the night and check the time.  That often leads to me stressing about how much time I have left to sleep. 

We’ll see if this continues to work.  I managed somehow to turn it off, but then I stood in the bathroom for almost a half hour…next to the heater, drinking a cup of coffee and reading emails/blogs/Facebook before I decided to work out.  Hey at least I was awake!  There is a lot of truth in the saying:

I’m walking a delicate line people!

How I’m currently sweating?

Strength Training – Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution – I’m in week two, alternating between workouts one and two

Cardio Training – Running.  Using the Couch to 5k program and just working on some speed.  Currently in week two.

And I leave you with this because…because I can:

Found somewhere on the internets.

Oooh, now that was fun!

The winner of the book I’m giving away, “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin, was drawn at random from the eligible entries and is….

#6 Tracey

YAY!  I want to look for more stuff to give away now. haha!

Tracey, email me with your address please so I can ship this out: irunanddostuff@gmail.com

My very first giveaway!

I haven’t talked much about my resolutions or goals for 2013.  Yes, I set them. And yep, I’ve already broken them.  But, I worked on a fancy math formula all day and calculated that there are exactly 357 days left in the year for me to get it right.

In a nutshell, my resolutions/goals for 2013 are:

• Floss daily
• Take my vitamins daily
• Lose 30 pounds
• Run my 4th marathon
• Turn 40 and be in awesome shape (Which that relates to lose 30 pounds.)

In other exciting news, and by exciting I mean SUPER DUPER PEE YOUR PANTS NEWS!…I’m going to do a giveaway.  This is a big step for me.  It’s my first one!  I don’t know what the rules are, and haven’t researched them yet, BUT…I want to give you a book!

A dear friend of mine sent me a book, I bought one to replace it for her and she said no, it’s a gift.  Instead of forcing her to take it back, I decided I would give it away.  The new one…not the one that I loved on.

The Happiness Project is the book that I’m talking about.  I don’t write book reports and I’ve never joined a book club, nor have I ever properly reviewed a book before.  However, I dearly loved this book so much that I preordered Gretchen Rubin’s second book, “Happier at Home” to be delivered the day it came out.  It came, I read the first page and then life happened. 

But now, I am using both books in conjunction with my other resolutions/goals.  A double whammy effect I guess?  In the books, Gretchen talks about her project and the resolutions she made to help her achieve success in key areas of her life.  I’m following her examples pretty closely as I’m trying not to complicate it for myself too much. Both books are also divided out by each month, so every month, there are a few new key areas to focus on.  Again, I like this as it doesn’t overwhelm me to try and do something all at once.

For the month of January, a couple of my resolutions are:

• Sleep More
• Suffer for 15 minutes (meaning, set a timer for 15 minutes and work on a task that you have been dreading or stressed out about.)
• Act more energetic (This one is tough.  It means I have to pretend I am something I’m not.  Like this morning….horrible mood…and I pretended that I was excited about all the little things that were happening.  Funny thing is that my brain didn’t translate the sarcasm and I actually did start feeling better!)

I guarantee you that you will love “The Happiness Project” as much as I do, so you really must enter my very first and hopefully not my last, giveaway!  Yay! 

Giveaway rules

The giveaway ends January 13th at 9pm PST and is open to US and Canadian residents 18 years or older.

To enter, you simply need to comment on this blog post, and the winner is chosen randomly.  (Easy peasy, right?)

Additional entries: Subscribe to my blog, follow me on twitter @Irunanddostuff, and/or like my Facebook page. (Please leave a separate comment below for each additional entry.)

Secret Sweatpants

I have what they call “writer’s block.” Except I can hardly be called a writer.  Blogger’s Block?

I think when I sit down to blog, I just have so much to say (none of which is important) that it overwhelms me. So to make things simple…here are some things you may or may not wish to know:

• I had a productive weekend and took down all the Christmas decorations.  I’m trying very hard not to pout that our home looks so Un-Christmasey.  I don’t know what it was but I was just in love with our decorations and sparkly things this year.  More so than in the past.
• I slipped on the ice and bruised up my knees and my left arm something fierce.  I wish someone had videotaped it because I’m sure I would wet my pants from laughing!
• I started…err restarted Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution this week. 
• I am currently caught up on all seasons and episodes of The Walking Dead.  Now to patiently wait until February 10th when Season 3 starts up again….I’m not a patient person.
• Today, I am wearing secret sweatpants to work.  They look like tights, but they ARE LINED WITH SWEATPANTS!  Or fleece, if you want to be specific.  They are even plum colored which I would say is a fancy color of sweatpants.  I really must go buy them in black too.
• Everyone should own a pair of secret sweatpants!
• I have my own giveaway…my very first give-away….that I’m going to announce tomorrow.  Pinky promise.  So stay tuned!
• Lastly, in case you didn’t know…..

Really?

New Year’s Day 2013

I’ve written quite a lot within this post already.  And I’ve deleted it all, many times over.

While this someecard is rather negative….I still think it’s incredibly funny.  And I solemnly swear to myself that I won’t let this happen to myself over the next year.  Pink promise!

I love New Year’s Day…I love resolutions.  I love the fresh start.  And yeah, I know you can have a fresh start at any day, moment, blink of an eyelid, yadda yadda.  And then I hate it because I vaguely remember the resolutions I made last year and realize that they didn’t get kept.  See the above card.

So, I just wanted to say, Happy New Year and here’s to a fabulous 2013!!  I’m going to turn 40 this year and in my little bird brain, that’s a big challenge to me.  I do not want to enter my 40 decade overweight.  If this is my biggest dilemma, I don’t really have any issues, right?

I’ve got some resolutions and goals planned and best of all, I’m promising myself that I will stop wasting time.

And I’m promising myself that I WILL figure out how to do those Overnight Oats in a Jar….or OOIAJ.  My attempt last night resulted in a super watery mess of nastiness this morning.  Well, it tasted ok, but the consistency was just horrid.

Anyone have success with OOIAJ and care to share what they do?  I think my biggest mistake was using steel cut oats (quick cooking, steel cut oats though…so I thought it would be ok.)

Who else keeps typing 2012 instead of 2013?

Oh and please forgive me for typing this post in haste, for it making not one ounce of sense, and for thinking that anyone is even reading it and that I would have to apologize for even writing it.  Oh, and forgive me for using the word “and” way too many times.

Peace!