24 Day Challenge Complete!
Well Folks, we have finished our 24 Day Challenge!
This was by far the best thing we have done for ourselves, but we were most certainly not perfect. We had a lot of success but not near what we had hoped. However, this was due to our learning curve.
The challenge itself, with its supplements and drinks, was easy to do. We felt better after our ten day cleanse, and I no longer had stomach issues after eating. I still feel amazing and am enjoying my new freedom. However, we recognized some of our mistakes as we look back on our journey...
1- We did not eat enough veggies. We did add a lot more veggies to our diet than we had previously been eating but still not as much as the challenge calls for. We also had to eat a lot more frozen veggies than fresh veggies due to our limited budget. The nice thing about it though was the variation in which we could cook and prepare everything. We ate salads, and we ate an entire 5 pound bag of carrots with hummus in under three days.... it was my favorite snack and gave me the crunch I craved. So we ate about 1/2 to 3/4 of the vegetable servings recommended.
2- We had more carbs than we should have. I am addicted to stir fry and spaghetti. So we adjusted some things and bought sauce that had far fewer calories, sugars, and sodium and swapped to wheat pasta. I discovered I hated the taste and promptly swapped back to white pasta but kept the healthier sauce option. Also, instead of adding hamburger, we added kidney beans and turkey or a lean Italian sausage. I also could not afford Quinoa like I had wanted and had to settle for cheap rice. While it was not ideal, it was a lot healthier to eat that than pizza, taco bell, or god forbid, McDonalds. We also ate a lot of sandwiches and wraps but added veggies and only had turkey instead of more fattening types of lunch meat.
3- We didn't work out. I'm sure if we would have added physical exercise we would have dropped more weight. However, with Cheryl's surgery happening just a few days before, she was unable to do much physically. The little bit of working out I did, felt pretty darn great. I ran for 5 minutes! Not running for my life kinda running but a good paced jog that I continued for 5 whole minutes. I even felt like I could have gone longer, but I was at the gym with someone else who had me do that just for a warm up. I never could have done that before this challenge.
4- We had alcohol... three times... and with alcohol comes soda. Ok, soda only happened once because we had champagne the other two times. While we shouldn't have had alcohol, we had far less each time than we otherwise would have. We drank enough for a good time but did not overdo it.
Now for the awesome part!
At the end of our 24 Day Challenge we are feeling AMAZING! We have more energy; we don't feel sick after eating; we're eating smaller portions more often; we're more conscious of what we eat and when as well as what we buy at the grocery store; we plan ahead and make our lunches and snacks the night before which is a HUGE key to success for us. While we were a bit disappointed at first with our results, we quickly realized that we had nothing to be sad about.
Advocare has taught us how to better manage our health. We didn't know how to eat healthy or even enjoy healthy food before. Now, we are excited to go shopping for healthy stuff and planning for meals. I actually think about how much I'm putting on my plate and have started learning more self-control and self-discipline. If you know me, you know that is a big deal. I never thought of veggies as a late night snack before but now I settle down with some celery and peanut butter or an apple with peanut butter and my sweet tooth is typically satisfied. If I need a bit more, we now only buy popsicles with real fruit in them and typically sugar free. No more Haagen-Dazs adding to my waistline!
Advocare has also brought my fiancé and I closer together. We help and support each other in ways we previously had not. Where we used to think fast & easy, we now think about health and encouraging each other to make better choices. and if we are craving something, we take a bit to walk away and do something else and if it continues, we get a small bit to satisfy the craving.
For example, chocolate: we split a small candy bar and savor it instead of cramming it down our throats.
Soda craving? Add a bit of club soda to our Spark and it's the best darn thing!
Popcorn? Air popper and white cheddar flavoring- no butter or extra salt.
Coffee? Black coffee with Truvia sweetener and a bit of half & half or skim milk. and yes, you can have coffee and spark in the same day. Just don't overdo either.
It's not as difficult to eat healthy as we had imagined. We actually enjoy it now. We spent the 2 days after our challenge eating some junk food that we had craved and figured we deserved a reward- well, it was probably the biggest mistake. Our minds were craving it but our bodies were quick to let us know that we shouldn't have eaten it. For the first time in over 24 days I felt incredibly sick. I slept the entire next day and felt exhausted. It only took one day of reminding me how my life used to be to jump right back into the lifestyle Advocare had taught us.
Now what you have been waiting for... RESULTS!
Cheryl & I are very happy with the changes we have made and the results we see.
Cheryl lost 14 1/2 inches off her body; 4 1/2 of which from her hips alone. Due to an issue with a scale, we do not currently have her weight but I would guess she's dropped 10-15 pounds from the way she looks.
I lost 8 inches off of my body and put on 1/2 an inch of muscle on each bicep. That makes me extremely happy! I gained just under 2 pounds from my original weigh in, but I feel that is more due to muscle. My legs, arms, and hips are more defined and my face looks thinner. No more pudgy cheeks for me :)
We are continuing with our Advocare lifestyle and only expect to continue to make amazing progress. We will be adding in exercise shortly and have added more products to our journey. Cheryl is taking the joint promotion and I am taking Carb-Ease. We will be ordering our next set of MNS (Metabolic Nutrition System) shortly as well.
We plan on doing another 24 Day Challenge after the New Year to help with all the amazing holiday foods we will devour, and it's a great way to start the New Year.
After photos and weight will be up shortly. If you have any questions about any of the products or about the 24 Day Challenge please feel free to ask. My email is danny.ashton.earll2010@gmail.com
Have a FABULOUS Day!
This was by far the best thing we have done for ourselves, but we were most certainly not perfect. We had a lot of success but not near what we had hoped. However, this was due to our learning curve.
The challenge itself, with its supplements and drinks, was easy to do. We felt better after our ten day cleanse, and I no longer had stomach issues after eating. I still feel amazing and am enjoying my new freedom. However, we recognized some of our mistakes as we look back on our journey...
1- We did not eat enough veggies. We did add a lot more veggies to our diet than we had previously been eating but still not as much as the challenge calls for. We also had to eat a lot more frozen veggies than fresh veggies due to our limited budget. The nice thing about it though was the variation in which we could cook and prepare everything. We ate salads, and we ate an entire 5 pound bag of carrots with hummus in under three days.... it was my favorite snack and gave me the crunch I craved. So we ate about 1/2 to 3/4 of the vegetable servings recommended.
2- We had more carbs than we should have. I am addicted to stir fry and spaghetti. So we adjusted some things and bought sauce that had far fewer calories, sugars, and sodium and swapped to wheat pasta. I discovered I hated the taste and promptly swapped back to white pasta but kept the healthier sauce option. Also, instead of adding hamburger, we added kidney beans and turkey or a lean Italian sausage. I also could not afford Quinoa like I had wanted and had to settle for cheap rice. While it was not ideal, it was a lot healthier to eat that than pizza, taco bell, or god forbid, McDonalds. We also ate a lot of sandwiches and wraps but added veggies and only had turkey instead of more fattening types of lunch meat.
3- We didn't work out. I'm sure if we would have added physical exercise we would have dropped more weight. However, with Cheryl's surgery happening just a few days before, she was unable to do much physically. The little bit of working out I did, felt pretty darn great. I ran for 5 minutes! Not running for my life kinda running but a good paced jog that I continued for 5 whole minutes. I even felt like I could have gone longer, but I was at the gym with someone else who had me do that just for a warm up. I never could have done that before this challenge. 4- We had alcohol... three times... and with alcohol comes soda. Ok, soda only happened once because we had champagne the other two times. While we shouldn't have had alcohol, we had far less each time than we otherwise would have. We drank enough for a good time but did not overdo it.
Now for the awesome part!
At the end of our 24 Day Challenge we are feeling AMAZING! We have more energy; we don't feel sick after eating; we're eating smaller portions more often; we're more conscious of what we eat and when as well as what we buy at the grocery store; we plan ahead and make our lunches and snacks the night before which is a HUGE key to success for us. While we were a bit disappointed at first with our results, we quickly realized that we had nothing to be sad about.
Advocare has taught us how to better manage our health. We didn't know how to eat healthy or even enjoy healthy food before. Now, we are excited to go shopping for healthy stuff and planning for meals. I actually think about how much I'm putting on my plate and have started learning more self-control and self-discipline. If you know me, you know that is a big deal. I never thought of veggies as a late night snack before but now I settle down with some celery and peanut butter or an apple with peanut butter and my sweet tooth is typically satisfied. If I need a bit more, we now only buy popsicles with real fruit in them and typically sugar free. No more Haagen-Dazs adding to my waistline!
Advocare has also brought my fiancé and I closer together. We help and support each other in ways we previously had not. Where we used to think fast & easy, we now think about health and encouraging each other to make better choices. and if we are craving something, we take a bit to walk away and do something else and if it continues, we get a small bit to satisfy the craving.
For example, chocolate: we split a small candy bar and savor it instead of cramming it down our throats.
Soda craving? Add a bit of club soda to our Spark and it's the best darn thing!
Popcorn? Air popper and white cheddar flavoring- no butter or extra salt.
Coffee? Black coffee with Truvia sweetener and a bit of half & half or skim milk. and yes, you can have coffee and spark in the same day. Just don't overdo either.
It's not as difficult to eat healthy as we had imagined. We actually enjoy it now. We spent the 2 days after our challenge eating some junk food that we had craved and figured we deserved a reward- well, it was probably the biggest mistake. Our minds were craving it but our bodies were quick to let us know that we shouldn't have eaten it. For the first time in over 24 days I felt incredibly sick. I slept the entire next day and felt exhausted. It only took one day of reminding me how my life used to be to jump right back into the lifestyle Advocare had taught us.
(Our before Photo)
Now what you have been waiting for... RESULTS!
Cheryl & I are very happy with the changes we have made and the results we see.
Cheryl lost 14 1/2 inches off her body; 4 1/2 of which from her hips alone. Due to an issue with a scale, we do not currently have her weight but I would guess she's dropped 10-15 pounds from the way she looks.
I lost 8 inches off of my body and put on 1/2 an inch of muscle on each bicep. That makes me extremely happy! I gained just under 2 pounds from my original weigh in, but I feel that is more due to muscle. My legs, arms, and hips are more defined and my face looks thinner. No more pudgy cheeks for me :)
We plan on doing another 24 Day Challenge after the New Year to help with all the amazing holiday foods we will devour, and it's a great way to start the New Year.
After photos and weight will be up shortly. If you have any questions about any of the products or about the 24 Day Challenge please feel free to ask. My email is danny.ashton.earll2010@gmail.com
Have a FABULOUS Day!
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