RESULTS ARE IN! (edited to add pics!)

SKI TO SEA:

In our leg, which was canoe: we placed 253rd overall and 23rd for division.

Our team placed 360th overall which is great, and finished 20th in our division.

It was an amazing experience I hope to do again. I'm so happy I was able to accomplish such a huge feat hand in hand with Jason. We did so awesome for it being our first time!

24 DAY CHALLENGE:

I made it through my 24 day challenge and did well overall. It was definitely a trying experience at times, but it was well worth it. I finally broke my plateau and am hoping by continuing the MNS portion I will lose/gain even more (if that makes any sense at all).

I lost 6 pounds, 6.4% of my body fat and 4.5"

DAY 24

LAST DAY!!!!!

It's the last day of my challenge. I may do one extra day because I have an extra day's worth of supplies, but it's totally not mandatory anymore! YAY! I made it! Wahoozie!

In the beginning it felt like it would take forever, but it really has flown by. At times it was rough and emotional and challenging. You'd think maybe I'd have expected that, it is in the name for pete's sake! I tweaked the plan a bit to suit me better. And cheated a bit here and there. BUT i think it's helped change my way of thinking about food. I know I can go a month without eating out. I know I can go without indulging in every craving. I will be replacing my bad choices for healthier options (you finally won the whole grain pasta war, jason!). I've learned a little bit more about what foods to eat and when. Overall, this experience has taught me a lot and that makes it worth the time and effort. Money well spent.

I'm a little bit worried about my weigh-in taking measurements. Not for any good reason, I just feel like I have reverse body dysmorphia (let's pretend that's a real condition) because I feel like I look better in real life than I actually do. I see pics of myself and think "Who's that? Surely it's not me. I look way better than that!" But whatevs... that's a okay problem to have I guess. Anywho... I may have my stats taken today, or maybe first thing friday. I just really hope that my numbers reflect the way I feel!

I used gum to curb my sweet tooth. I've never chewed so much gum in my life-I constantly felt like a Valley girl!

 CHEATS
*spoonful of PB most nights for a late night snack
*1 jolly rancher at a weak moment
*low carb tortilla on a burn day
*dressing on my salads(the best I could find,2TBS at most/watered down)
*potatoes in my breakfast scramble on race day + larger portion
*changing up my ratio to 2 burn days:1 refuel day

We have a date planned for Friday to go to Red Robin for fries smothered in ketchup and to see the new Snow White movie with Charlize Theron. Also, I have one of Lizzie's famous peanut butter cup brownies in a tupperware that's been taunting me from my counter since our BBQ on Monday! MMMMM!!!!!

is she on nyquil?

tomorrow is ski to sea. i have a cold. no fun. hope i get more rest tonight than i did last night. i really need it. on a positive note... i found biceps in the mirror today whilst doing my hair. that is all. goodnight.

Failures and Triumphs

So today was the last mid-session fit test. Steps. I was so super pumped up about it that I decided to go at 7am (which is unheard of for this non early bird). My goal at the beginning of this session was to do core workouts at home on off days so that by midsession my situp fit test improved enough to get me to 650. Well, my situp fit test was yet another bust, so I had to make it up in steps. 308 of them. I was going at an awesome pace and for one reason or another, only mustered up 302. I was beyond pissed at myself. I had a very short pity party, about 2 minutes worth, in which I shed a few tears. But brushed myself off and turned that into a celebration instead. I pulled off breaking 300 steps, which is totally awesome! Also, I beat my high score of 589 AND raised my total fit test score from 533@ the beginning of this session to 644 this time. That's 111 points people!!  PLUS... I now have some added motivation to meet my goal by EOS. The right way. By working on my weakness on off days, which is my core strength.

To sum up the way I'm feeling about not meeting my goal, AWESOME & MOTIVATED!!

Happy Monday!

I'm off to a great start of the morning and week. I woke up and stretched, greeted my boys with a smile and powered through my fiber drink, got on the computer and saw that my sweet baby brother had accepted my friend request on Facebook. And not only did he accept me, he actually asked to "add me as his sister" for the whole world to see! I know I shouldn't be moved by such a small thing, but I teared up a little over it. Siblings SHOULD automatically do those things. I guess I kind of feel like he's all of a sudden proud that I'm his sister? Whatever. I'll take it!

I need to make beanbags for the Sockhop toss game today and clean the house, but I'll throw on my favorite Pandora station and rock it out. Later is my favorite fit-test, pushups! Not that I'm particularly great at pushups, I'm just not as pathetic at them as I am some others. Like situps.

I hear a babygirl babbling. She may look like me, but she almost always wakes up on the right side of the bed. That's all daddy!

because blogs without pics are boring

rough

today has been rough. i've been cranky and moody. i'd like to think it's not anything to do with my current diet, but i'm pretty sure it is. i was ticked this morning at my mom for being late, which was probably just because that in turn made lunch late. i was literally bummed that i missed my afternoon snack (it's seriously what i look forward to from 10:30am on). i was seriously near b-word-y at dinner because it was not ANYTHING i'd be excited about. this better all be worth it in the end!  GRR!  i think it's time i go to bed and try again tomorrow.

DAY 1

**This post is basically just for my personal record, but if you're interested in the challenge and what it's all about... by all means, go crazy and continue reading!

Today was day 1 of the cleanse portion of the challenge.
*I don't think I've ever drank so much water in a day in my life! A gallon in a day is absurd, but it is needed to help flush out all the grossies.

*The fiber drink makes me gag. Like nearly as bad as a glucose test, though in a different way. It is gritty and pulpy and slimy and not awful tasting, but not good either. Tomorrow I will try it as a "smoothie" and blend it in ice and drink it with one of Jason's ginormous milkshake straws. Maybe not as much will hit my tongue that way!

*I have a very sensitive gag reflex... but eating when I'm not hungry does it too.  I'm used to getting a craving and indulging when I'm not hungry, but it's really hard to eat food you don't necessarily like much when you aren't hungry.

*Having everything pre-made and portioned out makes it SO EASY. The only thing I ever had to think about today was the schedule, which I know will get to be second nature in a few days.

*I have found that I look forward to my snack times. I love fruit and nuts, so this is my favorite part ;)

*I was measured and weighed today and was up a pound and down a percent (I think) for body fat since September. I'm glad I haven't done it since then, because man alive, is that discouraging! I know I'm changing physically. Slowly, but still... the numbers don't reflect it :(  Now that I know this information, it makes me excited to jumpstart my metabolism with this challenge!

I love a good challenge!

After hearing lots of fellow gym members' testimonials about Advocare's 24 day challenge off and on for nearly a year, I've decided to buck up and give it a go. I start tomorrow and I'm pretty excited/nervous.  Jason and I spent literally the whole day and night from 8am-10pm, prepping our food for the week. Less a 30 minute Costco trip, 2 hrs at mom's doing yardwork, and 2 hrs in town for our first softball game (that we WON) and dinner/family yahtzee game. That's 8+ hours of prep in 3 shifts!! I do believe we have WAY too much food, though. we'll see how much we'll have wasted come next sunday.

click on photo to enlarge

Dinners for the week include *shredded chicken tacos (mine will be in a lettuce shell)lots of veggies and black beans/rice *turkey meatballs w/ roasted veggies and wildrice/quinoa mix *turkey breast dinner salad and rice (twice) *chef salad *chili *stirfry w/ rice 

The biggest thing I'm hoping to get out of this is healthier eating habits. I wouldn't call myself a junk food junkie or anything, but I know I could benefit from some of the things this program makes you stick to. Plus, Jason would be SO happy if we cut out white flour from our diets completely. As it is, he buys his own pancake mix and has made every attempt to get me to not puke in my mouth at the mere mention of whole grain spagetti noodles. He's so evolved (eyeroll). Also, if we get into the habit of preparing all our meals for the week on sundays, it would ease a lot of dinner related tension. Jason would never get mad that I don't have dinner waiting for him, but I know it's his longtime daydream. Those are my two goals going into this. I honestly haven't really had any expectations physically. I did make sure to have Jason take "before" pics, because I was told I probably should.  IF there is noticable change bodily, I will post them with "after" pics when my 24 days is up. Which will happen to be June 1st. Along with that, I will get my weight and measurements taken tomorrow and again right after.  Again... IF there's a change, I will post those too.

*note to self: in said "before" pics, you were wearing your size M white cami, not the L, and your nude bra (to keep the pics fair)

Not much is cuter...