Goof ball

HAHAHA (The ghost of the NFL Draft past)

Brett Favre 1991

Advocare 24-Day Challenge! The day 24 finish line! (Results picture)

Good morning readers! Happy Friday. YAY! If you read yesterday then you already know that it's the end of the challenge. Today is the grand finale. I feel great. I feel like this was a very good thing for me. Through these past 24 days I was reminded that I have to take care of myself first in order to take care of my family. It's okay to make myself a priority from time to time. I think it can be easy for parents to forget that.

As promised, here are my results. Everyone is diffent and if you do this challenge yourself, your results may vary. Duh. Also, if you do the challenge I found this great website with tips that may help.

Day 1.

Day 3.

 Day 17. Down 8 pounds. Lost 3 inches from waist.

Day 24. Down 10.5 pounds. Wowza! I have lost 4.5 inches from my waist alone. I swear it all came from my lower stomach. That is the area I needed the most help with and have focused a lot of gym activities on that the past 24 days. The Advocare website said that the average person on the challenge loses 10 pounds and 12 inches. I'm average!

 

So there you have it. Now I am off to have a great day at work and then spend my weekend soaking up time with the loves of my life.

Float on... 

Advocare 24-Day Challenge: Day 23!

So I've been doing the Advocare 24-Day Challenge. You can read about the challenge itself here. Today is day 23! It has included a 10-day cleanse phase and a 14-day max phase. YES! I've almost made it. Tomorrow will be my last day.

Side note - I'm not reviewing the product for anyone or any company. Just doing it to share with you!

I did it because I needed some help. Normally I am a pretty healthy person. I've been a vegetarian for years and I love to workout, but I had fallen into a rut and was literally eating a bowl of Goldfish crackers and a string cheese for dinner at night. Literally. Not so healthy. I was taking care of everyone else in my family but me. I also may or may not have been baking cookies far too often : ) I wasn't getting the nutrients I needed, not to mention I was seriously lacking protein. I felt like a big pile of goo with no energy.

As a mom of a 1-year-old and an on-the-go husband, I simply canNOT be a big pile of goo. Nope.

Advocare, through it's comprehensive supplementation and nutrition program, restored my discipline. It made me fall in love with fresh fruits and vegetables again. It made me put myself first more often and gave me natural energy. I have loved it. Here are a few pictures of my progress. Tomorrow I will have the final day 24 picture.

Day 1. Self-took bathroom picture. Classy! That lower gut has got to go!

The scary fiber drink during the cleanse phase. You mix it with a few ounces water and chug as fast as possible. Doesn't it look like cornmeal? It's thick and gritty, but has a citrus taste and isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Scouts honor! It was the worst part, but the Spark energy drink (that you can barely see in the Ziploc bag) was a pleasant surprise. It was fruit punch flavored powder that you mix with water. It tasted amazing. I could drink it every day for the rest of my life and be happy. It's that good.

Day 3.

Here's what I have eaten for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. I normally don't eat eggs, but made an egg-ception (see what I did there?) for this challenge to get a quick blast of protein before workouts. I've been eating every few hours and haven't felt hungry. I've noticed that at night is when I have been craving junk the most because that was what I had been eating before starting the challenge. For dinner I'm doing brown rice, black beans, whole wheat pasta, veggie burgers, etc. Just trying to keep it clean and simple. (I made the most awesome clean french toast casserole last week with egg whites and whole wheat/whole grain bread!) I'll be honest... I've cheated twice in 23 days. By "cheating" I mean I caved and ate some of Charleigh's Vanilla Wafers. I don't even like Vanilla Wafers that much. I haven't drank any beer or wine. I've worked out 3-4 times a week. I've been drinking about 100 ounces of water a day. Basically I am a fish now.

                                                                           
Day 1 (again) compared to day 17. Day 17 = down 8 pounds. 3 inches from waist.

Like I said, tomorrow I'll show day 24's picture and results. I ain't going back to my old dinners of Goldfish crackers and string cheese after the challenge, but I'll find a happy medium. Float on...

25 Things I plan to teach Charleigh

I've seen these lists of things to teach your child floating around the internet. There is a lot of good advice out there, but I've got some things of my own that Charleigh will (hopefully!) learn from me. I've got a lot of teaching to do ; )

 

25 things I plan to teach my daughter...

 

1. How to write a hand written note for no reason.

 

2. To write a thank you note each time a gift is received.

3. Please and thank you.

4. Beauty on the inside trumps ANY outer beauty.

5. Homemade cookies are ALWAYS better than pre-made store bought.

6. How to mow the grass.

7. How to dance the funky chicken! Because your grandma taught me and we can nail it every single time! Let's also put "living room dance parties" under this catergory.

8. Animals are our friends. You don't have to be a vegetarian like me. You can be a meat and potato kind of gal like your papa, but respect and care for all animals.

9. How to create the perfect ponytail. If I can ever figure out how. (Kate Beckinsale has mastered it)

10. How to change a tire and jump your car battery.

11. Put your family first. ALWAYS.

12. A good paper book is better than any iPad, Kindle, or whatever fancy electronics come out by the time you can read.

 13. How to throw a football.

14. Water color paints are the best paints.

 15. The importance of Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, and No Doubt. Yeah, you read it right.

16. The unimportance of Nickleback, Justin Bieber, Creed, and Kenny G!

17. Ironing sucks. Buy clothes that don't require ironing. ("Extreme ironing" might be okay though. Ha!)

18. How to save money. (So you can afford clothes that don't require ironing)

19. How a sense of humor can get you through the rockiest of time.

20. The outdoors is where you should spend as much time as possible. 

21. One credit card is enough.

22. How to admit when you are wrong.

23. How to lose graciously.

24. Camping is fun.

25. How to float on...

 

Real painting and pudding painting.

Hola amigos and amigas. Happy Monday to ya! Let's make this week a good one. The weekend went too fast like it always does. Friday night we were glued to the TV while we hoped and waited for the Boston suspect to be caught. The police, fireman, FBI, special agents, CIA, and everyone involved are all incredibly brave and I am thankful to them that no one else was hurt. Saturday we went to our first O's game of the season. Charleigh lasted 5 innings! I didn't expect her to do that good since she normally goes to bed 6:30-7pm, but she showed me. Sunday I had a morning football game and then we did stuff around the house. 

 

Greg painted 2 walls in our bedroom a deep dark plum color. I will decorate the rest of the room in black and white everything. We are digging it!

Charleigh and I also had craft time on Sunday. I've been trying to find fun activites for her age range that aren't expensive. (She will be 15-months tomorrow!) I found a children's website that suggested painting with pudding because she is still in the oral stage and everything ends up in her mouth.

It was a brillant idea!

And no, I didn't eat any pudding ; ) I've been doing the Advocare 24-Day Challenge. Today is day 20! YES! I've almost made it. Friday will be my last day.

Float on...

Living room before and after!

Moving day!

That was some serious orange paint.

Our old ugly love seat and that orange paint again.

Setting the dining room up.

Time to paint!

Adios orange. Rod and Greg hard at work.

 Ta da! Still a work in progress, but this is the dining room now.

Charleigh even got her own kitchen off the dining room.

 Here is part of the living room. The wall decal came from Amazon and the canvas pictures from a Living Social deal.

 The kitchen didn't need much work, just a few touches of our own.

Float on...

Awkward

Before I start blogging about nonsense and silly things, I'd like to say my heart goes out to everyone in Boston. This situation is just tragic.

"Even if things get heavy, we'll all float on..." - Modest Mouse

Let's move on and keep it light today, shall we?

You know what is awkward? When you are driving down the road and you see a pot hole coming up. You've got plenty of time to avoid it and as you are approaching it, you go to swerve and... you hit it... dead on. HA! This happens to me every damn time. I blame inertia!

(At least I wasn't riding a bike?)

You know what else is awkward? When you go to introduce someome to someone else and even though you know their name, you draw a blank and create quite the sticky situation. Shout out! Hi Greg! Remember that? LOL.

Float on...

Clean Eating Blueberry French Toast Casserole

 Need a quick, healthy, AND delicious dinner idea? Why not make breakfast for dinner! I made the best french toast casserole. You'll need all the ingredients you see above (not pictured unsweetened almond milk) Take a loaf of organic whole wheat bread and cube it up in a pan.

 Add cinnamon and blueberries.

Pour 8 eggs whites, 1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, and 1/4 cup organic maple syrup or honey over the bread and let it all soak up for about 15 minutes.

 Bake at 350 for 45 minutes and waa lah! My family went nuts for it!

And Charleigh was double fistting it! Ha! Bon appetite! Float on...