Challenge Day 1

Well, today was the day. I started my Advocare 24 Day Challenge in the hopes of slimming down from the holidays and football. Yes, what better way to welcome in a Seahawks Super Bowl loss than by giving up alcohol, coffee, and carbs. I am not going to be bitter about it though, it is what it is.

So this morning, I awoke for my new challenge for step 1, the Fiber Drink. My good friend who I order my Advocare products from told me, "I heard the peaches and cream flavor is much better than citrus." Yes, nothing like taking a packet of sawdust and instead of having it be citrus flavored, it's now peaches and creme flavor. I should be looking on the bright side and thanking my lucky stars it wasn't Peaches and Herb....haha aren't I funny.

On to breakfast. Unlike a Master Cleanse or a juice cleanse or any other type of cleanse, you actually have to eat during this challenge. I whipped myself up a scramble filled with spinach, green onion, and yellow bell pepper accompanied by some steel cut oatmeal. My scramble was supposed to be an omelet but something happened in the flip sequence so it became a scramble- Julia Child would have told me I lacked the conviction to flip my omelet but I say, I was so freaking hungry I just wanted to  get the damn thing on my plate!

Good thing I decided to take the day off since I found myself running to the bathroom every 3 minutes. My 1 hour episode of Downton Abbey On Demand took me about 2 hours just from all of the getting up and going. I hope this counted as exercise and I hope we have enough TP for this cleanse. While trying to drink one gallon of water today has its advantages, healthy skin and less headaches, one of the disadvantages is you get to see more of your bathroom than you probably would like. Today I realized I need to scrub my shower door and the towel rack needs adjusting, cue "The More You Know" jingle here

Snack time! Now, I don't have a photo of the morning snack (mostly because I wanted to eat it) so you'll have to take my word for what I had, a small apple with some Justin's Almond Butter.

I was planning on going to the gym today and swim but felt they would not appreciate me constantly getting in and out of the pool in order to use the facilities, so instead I sat on my duff and looked at food on Pinterest...because you know, I already have to think about food constantly while on this program so why not think about it some more?

Lunch consisted of some chicken stir fry over brown rice. In the past I would have put a lot of yummy soy sauce over my rice but being in cleanse mode, no soy sauce. It takes some getting used to not salting my food but I have to keep thinking thin!

Please excuse my messy plate, I was mid bite and almost forgot to take a photo-again, so I quickly put my fork down and snapped another photo on my phone and then went back to stuffing my face. You would think eating every 3 hours would make you full and not ready to eat the next meal but no, you in fact are so ready to go for your next meal that you might chew off your own hand if you wait a minute longer. So not wanting to gnaw off my appendages for sustenance, I just dig right in and immediately make a mess.

Snack #2 consisted of 1/2 cup of raspberries and some more almond butter. I know I need to take it easy now on the almond butter since it's only Monday and I might get tired of it quickly. I'll figure that out later.

Sorry about the big shadow over my plate, my pictures of food taking abilities are seriously lacking. We have 23 more days of this challenge so I hope to figure it out by then.

17 more trips to the bathroom later and it was time to make dinner. I was going to take a crack at this kale and white bean soup I found online. Even though the recipe says "vegan" i made it not vegan by using chicken broth and putting in a cut up chicken sausage in there. Here is the recipe if you want to make it Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup

Now, in addition to throwing in the chicken sausage, I also was a little heavy handed with the crushed red pepper flakes and needless to say, it made me sweat a little. All that alcohol from yesterday's football watching was coming out through my pores from soup eating, I wonder if this is what the recipe creator had in mind? Probably not.

So after all of my dish washing and meal planning for the week, I have come to the realization that this isn't going to be easy and it's going to take some hard work. Yes this post didn't have much humor in it as they usually do (I can only write so many bathroom jokes), but that's because food is something I have always struggled with and something that I don't like admitting to my friends, let alone people on the internet reading this.

I promise tomorrow we'll have more humor added and less pictures of my phone casting a shadow on the items.

Now off to drink more water while I watch The Bachelor.