Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake YUM

I'm not usually a huge fan of chocolate. Or peanut butter. But I LOVE this shake. I've had one 2 days in a row. :) A well balanced meal in a blender, what more can you ask for?

I used my immersion blender. We live in a small 1BR apartment right now and we don't have much space in the kitchen. A lot of our stuff is in storage. The full size blender did not make the cut to the apartment. But the immersion blender works just as well if not better in some situations.

Hubby also picked up a different kind of peanut butter. Like I said, I'm not a big PB fan, but the only ingredient in this is peanuts. It's very chunky and natural. It worked great for my shake.

Also, I'm kind of addicted to this raw honey. I got it from Whole Foods and it's yummy!

Creamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

- 4 oz of water
- a handful of ice cubes (8-10)
- heaping teaspoon of peanut butter
- teaspoon of honey (optional)
- AdvoCare Chocolate Meal Replacement shake

Add ingredients in this order (it will mix more easily). Water, ice cubes, meal replacement, peanut butter, honey. Blend until smooth.

This makes a wonderful breakfast. It's creamy and delicious.

For Our Future Champions...

I am both disgusted and extremely excited to post these pics. It really bothers me to see how large I was. I didn't think I was thin, but it's so hard to see it all laid out like that. Anyways, instead of focusing on the before, I'm going to focus on the NOW! 

I labeled these pictures before and after, but they're really not afters since I'm still going strong! I know I have a long way to go, but for the first time in a long time, I have hope I'll get there!

I have been feeling so AMAZING. I finally have energy to do more that sit on my rump and watch TV all night. I don't even really crave greasy and fatty foods any more. My life has literally changed so much since we found AdvoCare. 

Hubby and I have been so impressed with everything that we've become distributors so that we can help others find success. 

He's slimmed down and even quit drinking Monster and Diet Coke (he was having 3-5 per day). So we were spending a ton of money and that stuff is awful for you on top of that. 

I am just honestly so stinking excited. 

I got a new website. It's OurFutureChampions.com, which I wanted to explain. 

Hubby and I are getting healthy. We're getting healthy so that we can be around for our future kids. We want to be able to run around at the park and practice sports with them and give them what they deserve. And that is 2 healthy parents who can keep up and will live long enough to see them grow up. 

We want to be champions for our kids. We want to be champion parents so that our kids will be champions in life. 

We found out that we could make income while sharing our success with others. We have some awesome and inspiring couples helping us. I am so grateful for them and their willingness to share their success with us. 

When we do have children, I'm so thankful for our plan to be able to stay home with our children. AdvoCare will be our vehicle to do that. 

So, we're doing it all for our future champions. 

I would love to share with anyone that has any questions. Feel free to comment or email me. 

advocarelivethechallenge@gmail.com

Who has 2 thumbs and doesn't have stomach attacks anymore??

So, for the past few years I have had insane stomach attacks. They wake me up in the middle of the night, I'm up ALL night long and in absolutely unbearable pain. I have not gone to the ER because I have a high deductible plan, but I've been really close.  In August and September, I was having them several times a week.

I tried literally anything I could think of. I tried some vitamins like ginger root, I tried baking soda, apple cider vinegar, chewing fennel (ICK), coconut oil. I tried Tums and Pepto and Prilosec and Alka Seltzer. I tried laying in different positions, heating pad, hot baths, walking, running, sleeping sitting up. The only way to get through it was to take some sleepy medicine and go to sleep. (Which made for an awesome Nyquil hangover at work lots of days). :(

The doctor had me try Prilosec to see if that would ease things up at all. It didn't help and I found out Prilosec can actually worsen the problem, so I stopped taking it after a few weeks.

The doc took a sonogram and I have gallstones. He referred me to a GI. Anyways, I was planning to pay about 3K out of pocket to have it removed. Doesn't that sound like a good way to spend 3 grand? Yep, I thought so, too.

So, I was shopping the AdvoCare site a couple of months ago and saw Digest-Ease. I'd never heard of it but thought that it may help my digestive function, which couldn't hurt. I was really NOT expecting much of anything.

Here's the awesome part - 

I have not had a single stomach attack since the day I started taking Digest-Ease. For a few weeks, I was hesitant to say anything to anyone. However, it's been about  2 months and I'm still attack - free!!!!

Don't judge me, I had to do it. 

THIS is what got my so pumped about AdvoCare. The products literally change lives and I'm proof of that. :)

Needless to say, this guy goes along with me everywhere! I just take 1 pill right before eating.

life.
changed.

If you want more info, comment on this post or you can check out the product page here:
https://www.advocare.com/130941179/Store/ItemDetail.aspx?itemCode=W6201&id=D

Back to It...

I have had an extremely difficult couple of weeks in my personal life. I fell off the face of the earth got derailed a little, but I am BACK. Sometimes all you can do is get back to normal, even if you don't feel like it. 

I have been doing the Can You 24 DVDs pretty regularly (but not my promised 5 days / week). I still love it. By the time I'm realizing how hard it is, I am DONE with my whole workout. Love love love. I can't wait for the second one, which is coming out soon!

Anyways, life is good in Challenge-Land. Hubs and I have been doing it for a couple of weeks (I took some days off of cleanse products). He is down 11 pounds and I'm down 10! YIPPEE! My clothes are loose and I am feeling fantastic!

We had white chicken chili tonight. Which is craze-amaze. One of my favorite things to eat, cleansing or not, and super quick and easy! Recipe to follow :)

Sorry I've been so awful about posting.
I. Will. Be. Better.

Here's what we do for turkey burgers. We love them and I pretty much sub with whatever we have in the fridge each time. This time we had awesome fresh cilantro from the asian market, so of course, I used insane amounts of it.

- Half large zuchinni

- 2 carrots

- 1 pound 93% + Lean Turkey

- 2 tomatoes

- garlic

- Onion

1. Shred all of your veggies except tomatoes. (I used my handy dandy shredder that I bought at Aldi for 6 bucks.) For the tomatoes, cube them into small pieces.

2. Cook veggies until tender. I use coconut oil to cook them, i use a very light coating on the pan. 

3. Season. Ground turkey is pretty bland to me. I used lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper this time around. You can use your favorites.

4. Add raw meat to cooked veggies, combine with your hands into patties and put into a pan. 

5. Cook until meat is done.

We eat these bunless. If you're cleansing and have room for a carb, you can add a whole grain bun. These are yummy, fast, and so easy to tailor to what you have in your fridge!

Cleanse Day 1

Day 1 of the cleanse is underway! I happened to have scheduled a vacation day for today, it was unplanned, but worked out so well! I had time to get everything together this morning and even worked out to Can You 24!

First thing after waking up, I took my weight, measurements, and the dreaded before pictures. Ick. This was motivation for me to eat and workout today. Nothing like seeing all of your fat rolls on film your Pre-Challenge body to get you going.

I woke up and had a Spark. I tried the Mandarin time this morning, which I haven't had before. It was delicious. :) I took my Catalyst with my Spark. If you haven't tried Catalyst, it's FANTASTIC. It's packed with protein to give you energy and is designed so that you're feeding your muscle and not your fat. 

Annnd the dreaded fiber drink. I have been told lots of horror stories about the citrus fiber drink. Maybe I'm not that picky, but I did not think it was too bad. The texture is rough, but the flavor didn't really bother me. I put 8 oz of water in my blender bottle, added the packet of fiber, shook it up, and drank it IMMEDIATELY. If you don't drink immediately, it will get thick. Like, oatmeal thick, y'all. Drink it quickly - seriously. Then immediately follow with a glass of water. 

(Sorry for the annoying picture arrangement - I'm just figuring out this tool and it is not agreeing with me on how things should look so far.)

For breakfast, I had 2 eggs, an apple and a serving of whole grain rice. Of course I took, my OmegaPlex, I take 2 with every meal. It's so awesome for your hair, skin, and nails. It's important while you're cleansing because you need to replace the bad fats with the good fats that OmegaPlex will give you.

After breakfast, I did the Can You 24 DVD. I really liked it. There are 3 levels of intensity for each workout. I have not worked out in quite a while and I didn't die, but I did feel the burn. I like that it's short, you don't need any special equipment, and it's super easy to follow along. I'm going to do this at least 5 days a week while I'm on the Challenge. 

I also had a handful of almonds for a snack and have been working on my water intake. 

It's almost lunchtime, so I'm going to have my Catalyst and Spark. More later!

Try out the Can You 24 DVD or the 24 Day Challenge Bundle here

24 Day Challenge Starts TOMORROW!

Tomorrow we'll be kicking off our group 24 Day Challenge. I am excited beyond words about getting healthy with my friends! I really need this change in my life and we are going to OWN this Challenge!

I've been overweight my entire life and I'm sick of it. I'm 25 years old and I feel awful most of the time. I'm tired and hot and bleh. I honestly feel that my weight and health keeps me from things I want.

This 24 Day Challenge is going to jumpstart my new lifestyle. I've done the Challenge before, but didn't have this amount of support and friends and family doing it with me. I lost 12 pounds and 19 inches. I did not keep the momentum going after that, but I have kept the weight off.

My favorite thing last time was that after the Challenge, I didn't crave food like I had before the Challenge.

I'm using this blog to share my journey and experiences with AdvoCare. I'll post tips and recipes we come up with along the way.

Today, I delivered the last few challenges out to our challengers. I went shopping and prepped our cleanse meals tonight with my cousin, Destiney.

I am an Aldi girl, through and through. However, we'd heard several times how the Asian markets have awesome fruits and vegetables super cheap. We decided we'd go to the Asian market first, then to Aldi. We never made it to Aldi. :) The Asian market was awesome and SO cheap. We got a ton of fruits and veggies for $40. This girl is a believer!!!

 

I rinsed everything in a sinkful of water with 1 cup of white vinegar. This is a good fruit / veggie wash and helps your produce last longer, too. 

This is the first time I've used this grater / slicer. I bought it at Aldi for $6.99. LOVE IT. It comes with 3 different plates - a small grater, a large grater, and a slicer. It's much easier than our regular grater, especially when you are doing a LOT of grating. 

We made several different variations of baked chicken with veggies and seasoning. Just throw in your chicken and whatever veggies you want and season. Bake at 350 for an hour. We had 5 pans of chicken going at once, so we left it in an extra 20 minutes or so.

 

 I used a lot of cilantro, parsley, thyme, lemon juice, rosemary, and pepper. I didn't use too much salt. Salt's okay to have on the cleanse, I just tried to season other ways.  

I also made some eggs. Instead of hard boiling, I baked them in a muffin pan. They taste better, they're easier to peel, and I hate messing with boiling them. A quick and easy snack that's cleanse friendly!

I also made some amazing turkey burgers. This is one of our favorites. I'll share the recipe in a later post. 

Off to bed for me! Psyched to start the cleanse phase in the morning! 

PS - If anyone has any questions about AdvoCare, let me know. I'm stoked to start this journey and would love to share with you. 

You can order AdvoCare products here