Day 1

Today is the magic day number 1 of my 24 day challenge!  When I got home from work, I did my exercise and then took measurements so I can track my results! I did learn to do the treadmill before doing the Advocare Can You 24 DVDs because my legs were tired and I couldn't keep up a good run!
Dinner tonight was baked chicken, steamed asparagus and strawberries!  Yummy!  One of the great things is that when you eat simple, fresh foods they are also usually allergy friendly!

I also went to the store to get lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  A tip is when you bring things home, cut and wash them right away if they will keep.  For example, I washed, cut, and baggied celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and washed grapes.  It's easier to eat healthy if it's right there waiting for you!

Here's my new "before" pictures!

I'll try to keep updates coming!

www.advocare.com/canyou24/

www.advocare.com/130346245

Countdown!

The countdown is on until I start my 24 day challenge from Advocare and my workout routine!  Here's what I've done this week to prepare and make sure I have a successful challenge!

1.  I did each of the Advocare Can You 24 Workout DVDs so I know what the workout will be.  There's nothing as frustrating as starting a new workout, really wanting to push hard and not being able to because you don't know what they are doing!  My arms have been a little sore not even pushing it, so I'm not going to add extra arm exercises at this time.

2.  I have started making a grocery list.  I have already stocked up on chicken breasts when they were on sale (see previous post) and I had a few other things in my cupboard such as brown rice and nuts.  My grocery list includes: eggs, asparagus, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, assorted berries, grapes, apples, kiwis, ground turkey, black beans, taco seasoning, and carrots.

Getting my family prepped- ensuring they know what day I'm starting and that we'll be eating good clean food all the time again unlike the last few months we've been slacking.
On Sunday or Monday we will take new before pictures and measurements and I think I'll do my husband too.  He's not doing the challenge or exercise, but last time he lost a lot of weight too just from dinners and his leftovers for lunch being so much healthier!  So I'd like to see how much he gets rid of too!

If you purchase the 24 day challenge from Advocare, it comes with this awesome booklet that gives you everything you need to be successful.  It tells you what to eat and when, when to take supplements, how much water to drink.  Good foods, foods in moderation and foods to avoid. 


This is the book



Food suggestions

Daily guide- this is the first 5 days which is in the cleanse phase

I'm excited to get started and see results! 

Arms?

So, with a half of a week until I start my challenge, I'm debating whether or not to put specific arm exercises on my calender.  I want to get rid of my chicken wings, but I don't want to give myself too much to do each day where I may get burnt out, and I definately need to work on my core.  Of course the DVDs have some arm exercises, but I'm thinking about adding some weights. 
I think I'll go to pinterest to see what I can find, maybe there's a calender like the ABs that I can download and adapt to go with the exercise. 
In a few days I'll be off to the store to shop for the challenge!  Getting excited for more results and to get toned before summer!

Exercise Calender

So I had a night off, so I was able to make my calender for exercise that my own combination of the Advocare 24 day challenge DVDs, the AB workouts I downloaded, and treadmill times.  Here's my calender-I appologize for the formatting.

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
	Melt 1 Diastatis Abs 10 minutes treadmill	Core Stretch 15 minutes Treadmill	Sculpt 1 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes Treadmill	5K on treadmill	Shred 1 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes Treadmill	15 minutes treadmill or rest
15 minutes treadmill or rest	Melt 1 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes treadmill	Core Stretch 15 minutes treadmill	Sculpt 1 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes treadmill	5 K on treadmill	Shred 1 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes treadmill	15 minutes treadmill or Core Stretch
15 minutes treadmill or rest	Melt 2 Diastasis Abs 10 Minutes treadmill	Core Stretch 15 minutes treadmill	Sculpt 2 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes Treadmill	5K on treadmill	Shred 2 Diastasis Abs 10 minutes treadmill	15 minutes treadmill or Core Stretch
15 minutes treadmill or rest	Melt 2 Start May Abs 10 minutes Treadmill	Core Stretch 15 minutes treadmill May #2	Sculpt 2 May #3 10 minutes treadmill DAY 24	5 K on treadmill May #4	Shred 2 May #5 10 minutes treadmill	15 minutes treadmill or Core Stretch May #6
Repeat except Continue the May Abs until day 30!	Advocare DVD Printed AB Workout Treadmill

What do you think?  I plan on starting Monday April 15th, so a little over 1 week away!  :)

Music!

So I am wanting new tunes to pump me up on my treadmill during the next challenge.  My old workout mix on the I-pod had:

Domino- Jessie J

Fat Lip-Sum 41

Falling down- Atreyu

Brackish- Kittie

Life is a Highway- Rascal Flats

I like it like that- Hot Chelle Rae

Bleed it out- linkin park

Everything to everyone- Everclear

Given up- Linkin Park

Self Esteem-The Offspring

Kick out the Jams- The Presidents

The Anthem- Good Charlotte

Smooth Criminal- Alien Ant Farm

What the Hell- Avril Lavigne

We're not going to make it- The Presidents

Flood- Jars of Clay

What makes you beautiful- One Direction

When worlds collide- Powerman 5000

We are who we are- Kesha

Dirty- Christina Aguilera

Drive By- Train

Call me Maybe- Carly Rae Jepsen

Brokenhearted- Karmin

Good Time- Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen

Everybody Talks- Neon Trees

Some nights- Fun.

Yesterday I downloaded a few new tunes and I ran for 2 miles jamming and singing to them...

MMMBop- Hanson

Jump- Kris Kross

Semi-Charmed Life- Third Eye Blind

Good Vibrations- Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Party Rock Anthem- LMFAO

Pump It- Black Eyed Peas

Toxic- Brityney Spears

Girlfriend- Avril Lavigne

Jumpin, Jumpin- Destiny's Child

Troublemaker- Olly Murs

Promiscuous- Nelly Furtado

Now I need some more good ideas to add to my playlist, any suggestions?

Banana Bread Take 3 and Chicken

So,  today I tried another banana bread variation because Eli has been asking for banana bread since his was gone after Easter.  This time I tried...

3 smashed bananas
1 egg replacer per Ener-G egg replacer directions
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 Tablespoons hot water
1 cup sugar
1 and 1/4 cup of King Author AP Gluten Free Flour
1/4 cup of the "butter" melted- It's Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread

Mix it all together and bake about an hour.
This is what it looked like...

Smelled okay, but texture was WAY off!  It cut funny and didn't taste good at all to me.  Eli liked it, but he doesn't know better!  :)  Back to the drawing board.  Canola oil was much better than that buttery spread.

The other thing I did this morning was buy a bunch of chicken breasts- it was on sale at Kroger for $1.79/lb!  So I bought a ton of chicken, marinades and freezer bags.  The only thing my husband asked is if it was that price why I didn't buy more!

So I packaged several plain chicken breasts in single freezer bags because Eli can't have the marinades- they have soy and some have wheat and nuts.  Then I made about 6 packages of single breasts with marinades for me for lunches and the rest I put 3 breasts in a large back with marinades for dinners for the family.  This is all in prep for when I start my Advocare 24 day challenge!  I eat a lot of chicken anyways, but when you eat mostly chicken, turkey and fish every day you need a little variation in life!  So flavors is the best and lower calorie way to do it! 

Other things before starting my challenge is to make a new play list for the I-pod to pump me up for workouts and to make a calender with exercises for each days.  I downloaded a calender from Advocare with a 24 day challenge plan, but I want to keep my treadmill workouts and not only do DVD workouts so I want to change it around a little for me.  :)

I started a pinterest page to look for food ideas, recipes, and exercise ideas and several of these pages I've pinned to so far has "best workout songs" so I'll be spending some time on I-tunes soon!  Any ideas, let me know!

Manners and Kicking butt!

So first, on the manner's front.  I was disappointed for our Easter get togethers with Ella's behaviors.  She has been doing better at home and in public with us, and I haven't heard anything bad from school, but we got together with my family Saturday and she was rude, loud and in peoples faces.  All things we had talked about.  Then on Sunday, we talked ahead of time that she was going to impress people with how good she was, then crazy Ella came out again.  :(  I know it was excitement and being around cousins, but I hope by the next time the family gets together she's better.   Home is still going okay, and we are on the last chapter of her manner's book that we're reading together.

Next- Kicking butt!  Today on the treadmill I did the equivilent of a 5K in 33 minutes.  My speed ranged from 5.0 to 7.0 other than warm up and a 4 minute rehydrate time in the middle where I did 3.5.  I did it all at 3% incline and burned over 400 calories.  The speed I let my music dictate- I started one song at 5.0 then the next song went up to 5.5, then 6.0, and so on.  After the song at 7.0 my shoe came untied and I was halfway so I slowed down and took a water break and breather, then started over again.  I feel great!  My hope is after we move to Florida to do a Disney race-  RunDisney has marathons, mini's and 5Ks at different times of the year and Lyle and I are going to do one (he just doesn't know it yet!  LOL)