January has passed the halfway point. Our household is in full, new year swing. We’ve been organizing some things, restarting some activities that were on winter hiatus, and my husband and I started the Advocare 24-Day All-In Challenge last week. He started on the 11th with the rest of the nation and I started the 12th [because I was too busy trying to have him ready to go–him working overnights & having lots of self-imposed food restrictions that make absolutely no sense to normal humans made it more onerous than I had imagined it could be]. Luckily, my youngest daughter is all about helping in the kitchen and adding her very agile hands to making sure Mom is ready to go when it’s time to take her to school. I would not have started Tuesday if not for her.
But, we’ve been on track since and have successfully avoided the fully anticipated, yet always horrendous, 3-5 day overwhelming carb cravings. I always wonder why, after living through that detox, I choose to eat sugar and gluten by the truckload again, but I have. Right now, though? I’m seven days into my twenty-four and feeling particularly good about it.
The workouts this week [Sunday, Saturday & Thursday shown above] have been pretty intense, but very rewarding. I feel like I’m finally back to where I was before feeling “off” in December and maybe even a little more proficient at certain things than I was before feeling sick. Now, I just need to work in Pure Barre again and I’ll be set.
As for food, we have had some really good meals and some that are simply there to feed the machine. But, that’s honestly what it should be about more often than not and we are programmed to make it so much more.
My very favorite part of doing another challenge has been reintroducing the joy that is Spark into my life. I’m in love with Grape at the moment. I have a canister of it & take a scoop with me to work. One day this past week, I left my blender bottle sitting at home on my countertop.
Bummer.
But, I had taken beef vegetable soup to work in a small Mason jar. If it’s good enough to shake up salad dressing, it’s good enough to shake up Spark.
And, would you LOOK at that ice situation I have going on in my glass? I knew when I accepted my new job in the fall that it was going to be a great place to work. When I saw the ice-o-matic machine in the break room? I felt like I had won the lottery. It’s the little things, people.
Last January when I used Advocare for the first time and accepted the challenge, I was not working out regularly. I definitely notice a difference already and it will be interesting to see what changes come this time given that I do workout several times each week.
On today’s agenda: roasting two gigantic turkey legs and turning that into an ingredient for turkey vegetable soup; making egg muffin cups for grab-n-go breakfasts; and whatever else I can think of to be more organized for the remaining four days of the week.
I know we aren’t supposed to weigh ourselves yet, but I rarely follow that advice because instant gratification [which is how I end up overweight, I’m sure] and all that. As soon as I feel different, I weigh myself. I did yesterday and I’m down 4 pounds from right before the start of the challenge. Not too shabby.
