Work out tip

So for those who might be reading this interested in weight loss....  if you work out using a treadmill consider upping the incline to boost calorie burning.
For example:
 10 minutes at 3 mph (a walk) with no incline burns 39 calories
 10 minutes at 3 mph with an incline of 3% (which isn't much) burns 53 calories
 10 minutes at 5 mph (decent jog) with no incline burns 102 calories
 10 minutes at 5 mph with 3% incline burns 114 calories

Totally worth the extra incline in my opinion! I do a program on my treadmill called fat blast that takes the incline up and down automatically and other than warm up and cool down is between 3% and 5% incline.  I then manually increase or decrease speed depending on my motivation or mood.  I always do at least 3.7 mph (good power walk) but when I feel like jogging take it up to 5 mph.  Today I did 60 minutes on this program, and 20 minutes in a row of it at 5 mph, then another 8 minutes later at 5 mph and the rest at 3.7 except a 3 minute cool down- this burn 544 calories!  I can eat my "cheat" food today knowing I've burnt most or all of it off already!
:)

1 month down!

Okay, so it's been a little more than a month, but I'm very excited about my results!  I've lost 5 more pounds this week, another inch off my waist and hips!  That's a total of 20 pounds!  YES!
Here's my before picture again..

This is after the 10 day Advocare Herbal Cleanse...

And this was today- after more than a month, 20 lbs, 4 inches off my waist, and 4 inches off my hips!

Feeling good and looking skinnier!  YAY!  :)

Message me if you want information on the Advocare products or a copy of the diet I followed.  It takes lots of commitment, and you need to work at the diet and exercising but it has been totally worth it for me! :)

Beef stew/chicken stew

So last night I made some beef stew. Sounded good and I haven't had any red meat in awhile. Of course Eli is allergic to beef so I had to make him his own stew with chicken, but I will say how I adapted his.

So I start by browning stew meat seasoned with Thyme.  If you're doing chicken you can grill it up at this point with whatever seasoning sounds good.  We had left over chicken breast for Eli's.

So after the  meat is cooked I throw in my onions and celery because I like the flavor it gives the meat and I like them super soft when I eat them.  If it were up to Lyle he would leave them towards the end because he likes them crunchy-but he wasn't cooking!

Then for ours I added butter to get ready to make a gravy- about a tablespoon because I don't drain the meat.  For those with allergies to wheat, the easiest way I make gravy for Eli is a corn startch gravy, usually with chicken broth then add it at the end.  If your not allergic to wheat but do have soy and milk allergies this spread is what we use for Eli.  Gluten, soy, milk free and we can finally get it in town now!

So next you add some flour, enough to soak up all the juices in the pan and a little extra, and let that cook in for a few minutes.  Then add some water or chicken/beef stock depending on your tastes, not quite covering everything and make sure you get everything stirred up well and all the goodies scraped off the bottom of the pan.

I bring that to a boil for about a minute the add all of my other veggies- carrots, potatoes in this case.  I save mushrooms until the potatoes are completely done so they don't get overcooked.  After you add the veggies add just enough water to cover them.  Boil until potatoes and carrots tender, add mushrooms and simmer until desired thickness.  We like a thick, chunky soup.  
For Eli's this time I boiled carrots and potatoes in chicken stock, added left over chicken, and added a little cornstartch to try to thicken it up hoping it would be an easier gravy than another dirty pan- it didn't work.  So boil everything you want and make a separate gravy, then simmer in gravy for a few minutes to get flavors in.  Here's the finished products.

Eli's chicken and veggies (gravy didn't really work)

Our beef stew

This would be my cheat meal for the day, because of the starchy veggies.  It was very yummy and worth it. 
The diet is still going strong and at last check in on Monday I had lost 15 lb!  It's totally working for me!

AdvoCare Products/ continued weight loss

So it’s been awhile, but   I’ve been trying to recover from my finals.  I passed my classes, one with an “A” and one with a “B”.  The “B” is weird for me because I’ve always been one to excel, but it was a very difficult class for myself and my family (because of my moods!) so I’m glad it’s over and I can look back and said I learned from it.

My latest weight loss measurements from Monday are:  down two more lbs for a total of 14!  Hips are down a half an inch, waist line stayed the same.  So not too shabby.  I’m hoping I can keep busy enough that I’m not tempted to snack and exercise even more without school work happening and keep the weight loss going through the summer. 

One test for me was yesterday baking cookies for a bake sale my mom is having for Relay for Life.  I did eat one cookie, but that was it!  So I feel I did good and it was my cheat for the day.  My friend Ty is distributor so  if you're interested in the products please order through her!  Also, make sure if you choose to do this to follow the diet exactly or else your gut won’t forgive you (think multiple bathroom stops!)  If you want the diet, product list with price or other info e-mail me and I'll e-mail it to you.  I was going to post it but it won't work without a lot of jibberish mixed in!

My distributor site: https://www.advocare.com/120311897/default.aspx
(you may need to copy & paste the link)> go to "Shop Now"
> go to "Benefit" on left hand side, "Weight Loss"
> you will order online, using a CC, super-easy!

No new recipes at this time, I’m considering after a few weeks of summer going to the library to get some ideas for low fat/low sodium/Eli friendly recipes to try!  So maybe in June after vacation!