Day 8: A good day!

Today was a pretty good day!

• I did the fiber drink without too much trouble.
• I exercised in the morning even though my knee was sore. I did the stationary bike instead of Zumba. 
• I found a motivational quote that I really like and put it on my fridge. (Picture above.) "Change your thoughts and you change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale
• I had a salad using the leftovers from last nights Salmon kabobs. 
• I went to the grocery store BY MYSELF and didn't cheat! No soda, no deli honey chicken bites, no bakery item. 
• I made a baked turkey breast that was AMAZING!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/herb-roasted-turkey-breast-recipe/index.html
• I had a baked sweet potato for the first time and LOVED it! 
• I realized that I am almost finished with the cleanse... and I have done it with NO BREAD, NO CHEESE, and VERY little sugar. I did have a peanut butter cup the day that I had SUCH a BAD headache... but that was ALL! 

Days 5, 6, 7 ...

Yikes... I am already behind with this blog. I have to say though... the days went well. I had a few pouty moments when the "can't haves" brought me down. Being an elementary teacher, a week doesn't go by when at least one kid shows up at your door with a birthday treat. I am a CUPCAKE fanatic! Of course, the first day back to school with kids, a student shows up at my door offering me a cupcake. This was hard on TWO levels. FIRST... saying no to the birthday treat. I will usually accept a treat even if I am not going to eat it because I don't want to hurt a kiddos feelings. However I realized that if that cupcake came into my classroom I WOULD eat it... so thanked the kiddo but said I had already had my snack and was VERY full! I suggested another teacher (one who actually sings a fun song for any kid that comes in his room with a birthday treat!). SECOND, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted that cupcake! It looked so WONDERFUL! Honestly, usually when I want some kind of food I will eat it no matter what. I will even get in my car and go get it from the store if I don't have it. So this was a BIG victory.

Another hard part of being back to work is the soda fridge. The school district no longer has soda machines in the buildings. Our secretary, realizing that many teachers "need" caffeine throughout the day, bought a mini fridge and keeps it stocked with our favorite sodas. We put in 50 cents take a soda... and easy as that we have our caffeine and sugars and calories... UGGGGHHH! I haven't had one yet! I should take a picture of the soda cans that are in the sink in my classroom from before the break. (I keep forgetting to take them to the recycling bin in the lounge). We had a full five day week before break and I have 10 cans in my sink... plus I am sure I had a can or two at lunch that week that didn't make it to my room!

Funny story! The first day back with students I brought two hard boiled eggs and carrot chips for my snack. I was happily eating my eggs when I felt the urge to look up at my students. Almost all of them were staring at me with goofy or questioning looks on their faces! I had to chuckle out loud. They asked why I was eating part of my lunch! LOL! I told them that I am trying to have a little protein in all of my snacks. The next day one of my kiddos brought a boiled egg for snack. He had told his mom that my snack looked good and he wanted an egg for snack too! Look at that... I am setting a positive example.

Yesterday, I had to go to the store for more groceries. I thought my husband was going to stay home and my mind immediately went to what I could buy at the store. In the past, I have bought the chicken bites from the deli case and eaten them in the car, bought a soda in the checkout and finished it before I got home, buying a cupcake (the ones like you would buy from places like Jilly's or Small Cakes) or cookie sandwich. I think in my mind it was like "If a tree falls in the forest when no one is around does it make a sound" ... but I was more like... if no one sees me eat/drink this bad thing do the calories count. This is a big problem for me! So I started half looking forward to/ half dreading this trip to the store... at the last minute my husband decided to go! I found that I was more relieved than disappointed.


I have enjoyed my days without the fiber drink in the morning. The morning routine went a lot smoother without it! So, I start back up with the fiber drink Sunday. I am going to get up an extra 20 minutes early on Monday to make sure I can get the fiber drink taken care of!

Meals have been pretty good. Salads for lunch each day. Dinner as follows:

Thursday: Grilled Salmon and zucchini (in the oven) and Quinoa
Friday: Chicken stirfry (chicken, balsamic vinegar, zucchini, broccoli, and Quinoa)
Saturday: Salmon Kabobs (with Spanish Quinoa)

My stir fry was a result of needing to use left overs. I had a couple of chicken tenderloin strips I hadn't cooked from earlier in the week. I had left over broccoli and LOTS of Quinoa. I added the zucchini because I wanted more than broccoli! I even used leftovers to make my hubby a pot of chilli. I had already cooked ground turkey, Italian sausage in the fridge. I then added the tomatoes and beans and spices. Then I added some of the Quinoa (I still had LOTS LEFT!) I don't eat chili because I can't stand beans. My hubby was really happy though!

I find the that with the Spark drink I am not really craving much more than water. I think that is saving me big time. I will get this done! I will be healthier!

 This weight loss/ healthier lifestyle journey is NOT easy for me! People (even my husband) tell me it is just about will power. They make it seem so easy. THIS IS NOT EASY for me! I struggle making good food choices... I need the encouragement and "gold stars" that go with certain weight loss programs. I do my work out on the Wii because the I get stamps and points and it charts my progress. I feel weak because of this sometimes. This is who I am ... if that is how I have to do it... than I need to own that and use it to my advantage! 

Day 4: Challenging Day!

Today was my first day back to work. No students... just getting the classroom ready for them.

This morning was great because I didn't have to take the fiber drink... but ... this put me behind on water intake. I think this caused me to feel hungry earlier than I should have!

I held out until 9:30 to eat my snack but I just about DEVOURED it! I really enjoyed that apple and baggie of walnuts.

Shortly after snack I started hearing people talk about lunch (Crazy Dog (local hot dog place), AppleBees, El Monteray). This started me thinking about what I COULD have at those places. THAT would be NOT MUCH! I started leaning toward mexican because I thought I could order a tostada and just not eat the shell and cheese. I knew I wasn't strong enough for that. During all this thinking I began a LONG texting conversation with Sarah. BLESS HER and her patience with me today!

Finally I decided that I would go to Rib Crib with my husband (he would keep me accountable). I thought that I could manage a salad and HALF of their Super Spud. (In hindsight, I believe half of a Super Spud is probably not a good portion). On my way to meet the hubby I realized that I had a headache coming on. (That headache went on until about 6pm!)

I was not happy with lunch because I realize the reason Rib Crib sounded so good was I LOVE the Super Spud... but loaded with lots of JUNK I can't have right now! I ordered a Smoked Chicken Salad (the chicken was very yummy... but the iceberg lettuce was very unfullfilling.) I brought my own dressing which really helped. I even put a little drizzle of the dressing on my potato to help me get through it with out butter, sour cream, cheese, or BBQ sauce.

Before I headed back to school I had a Spark... I used that energy to move my students seats around. The rest of the afternoon was kind of dreadful dealing with the headache.

I stayed at work until 5:00 finishing grades and then had to go to Wal*Mart for more dressing and spinach. I also wanted to look for some tomatoes and chicken broth. This was an enlightening adventure... there are not very many healthy choices out there. However, there are MANY misleading labels! ALL NATURAL, HEALTHY, REDUCED SODIUM, FAT, CALORIES... Whatever! 

I texted Sarah again asking what a good spaghetti sauce choice would be and she told me to buy some stewed tomatoes and create my own. I was going to use that tonight... but changed my mind.

I found a Balsamic Chicken recipe and gave it a try... DELICIOUS! (I left out the sugar from the recipe.
 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Balsamic-Chicken/

I also used a recipe from Pinterest for Broccoli ... yummy.

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html


Also, we had Brown Rice... it was okay. 

I am bummed that I didn't exercise today... but I think overall I managed to pull through the day all right.

I know I will look back at this day and realize it was NOTHING in comparison to the pride I will feel in my final results. 

Day 3!

So today was pretty good!

I had enough energy to take down Christmas decorations, do laundry and grade papers, not to mention a 30-35 minute workout.

I struggled again with the fiber drink, however I keep hearing it gets better. I certainly hope so!

I did 20 minutes of Zumba today with about 10-15 minutes of Just Dance 3. I just LOVE dancing to exercise!

I really need to mix up my salads... because after a third day I am getting bored. However, I feel VERY satisfied after eating them. I think I am going to use an idea I saw on Pinterest for "canning" salads for the week. I will post the link here later if I can find it!

Dinner was AMAZING tonight. I marinated tilapia in a Citrus Vinaigrette. We also had steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. I just used EVOO and Lemon Pepper seasoning on the veggies.

This evening as I was preparing for my first day back at work after the Christmas break, I realized that I may have made a poor choice of dinner tomorrow. TURKEY BREAST! I am just not a very knowledgeable cook  ... so I failed to think about how long it would take to cook. I emailed Sarah (my Advocare Coach) and she went right to work trying to help me out.She added me to an Advocare group on Facebook and I immediately started getting encouragement and feedback. This is what I need. Wow... I really feel like I am going to be successful! I can't wait to see the new me at the end of these 24 days!

Another friend commented about my blogging and mentioned that her friend does "truthful Tuesdays". Well in that spirit and as a way to hold myself accountable I am going to post a "BEFORE" picture of myself! I am posting this so that I have motivation to stick with this so that I can post an AMAZING "in progress" picture at day 10 and day 24... and beyond! HERE GOES... the following picture is not pretty... but time to be accountable!

Day 2

The day is going well!

This morning I used the advice in the video I found (and posted in a previous post) in order to survive my fiber drink better. I was able to get through it a little better... however... I really that gulping it down isn't very easy with COLD water. Tomorrow I will use cold water from the tap.

I was very proud of my workout efforts today. I did Zumba for 20 minutes and then when I went downstairs to see how my Hubby was doing with his workout I decided to do 20 minutes on my exercise bike. My legs were jello after... but I felt good!

Lunch was a salad with cold Salmon from last night's dinner and the balsamic salad dressing from Maple Grove Farms.

I finally got around to boiling some eggs to use as snacks.

I am struggling a little this evening. I decided to make turkey taco meat with lettuce wrap. I am NOT excited. Today I missed the tortilla and cheese! I must remember that I will thank myself later!

I have my New Years Eve Tradition of Herring to look forward to later... I know it isn't on the plan... but I am going to do it anyway!

I must say right now I am kind of missing our OTHER New Years Eve Tradition of LOTS of snacky food... but I am going to power through it! I am heading to HAWAII in 39 days so I think I can sacrifice some junk food now.

Day 1: Mid day and Evening!

Okay... so I think the workout gods were trying to punish me for not working out in so long. I wanted to use my WiiFit, however the batteries were dead in the controller and the fit board. The DISK was not reading ... ARRGH! So instead I did a warm up on my Zumba Wii game and then I danced to about 8 songs on Just Dance 3! This gave me a pretty late start on the day! I did feel good after working out and I had already reached 2 miles on my FIT BIT! WAHOO!

I will say that the Spark drink really had me READY to go! I am still feeling refreshed.

I had my Lunch... DELICIOUS! I had a spinach salad with grilled chicken, strawberries, pineapple, and grapes. I also tried the Maple Grove Farm salad dressing. YUMMO!

I feel I had a pretty good day. I almost forgot to take my second round of catalyst but after texting Sarah (my Advocare expert) I was able to take them before bed.

We went to the store to buy some orange juice for my fiber drink in the morning and picked up a couple more things. I had a brief moment of frustration about things that I wanted but can't have right now. I still bought my herring for New Years Eve... I just can't give up tradition. However, I will NOT eat it with crackers this year! 

Dinner was a little later than I would have liked it. This is a big habit to break for me! We typically eat so late because I forget to defrost whatever meat I need! I had a second spark before preparing dinner and that helped motivate me to get dinner made and a couple of other house chores while I waited for the salmon to defrost. Dinner was delicious! This is a meal I have made a couple of times on Weight Watchers... so I knew it would be good!

I did have a bowl of fruit for a snack (strawberries, grapes, apples, pineapple, and mango). That was yummy. I also spent some time trying to find Cleanse friendly meals. So many healthy meals include BEANS... and I don't do beans... I also don't like spicy food, onions, or green peppers... so eating healthy is a challenge!

Overall... Day 1 = Success!

Day 1: Morning!

WOW!

I started with my Pink Lemonade Spark (SO YUMMY!) and my three catalyst capsules. NO PROBLEM!

THEN... duh duh duh... the fiber drink. I mixed it with VERY cold water and tried to drink it right away. This stuff is not easy to get down! I immediately searched the internet for solutions... here is a video to watch that I am hoping will help with day 2!

The Berry Meal Replacement Shake is DELICIOUS! I am loving it... and it is helping me forget the Fiber shake.

I am getting ready to take a picture and get my beginning measurements... and then work out time! I can feel that the SPARK has already kicked in so I want to take advantage of that! I will post later with my snack and lunch choices... and an update on how I felt after the workout!