Weight Loss Update

I know I've totally neglected this blog but I have good reasons.  We are making our dreams a reality and accomplishing goals!  Yippee!!  In April I was able to leave my corporate job to stay home with my girls and run my photography business full-time.  In May we joined a gym and started working out.  I've lost 20 pounds since January and I feel great!  But, my weight loss has stalled and I need a jump start to lose even more.  Time for another 24-Day Challenge!  The picture below is phone-quality but at least you can see that I'm getting results since January.  Life is good!

AdvoCare Fiber Muffin Recipe

Here's a recipe for AdvoCare Fiber Muffins.  These can be substituted for drinking the fiber drink during the 10-Day Herbal Cleanse Phase.  When I did my first cleanse, I had a hard time drinking the fiber drink because of the texture.  I found this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try.  These were a much better way for me to get the fiber in my body!

AdvoCare Fiber Muffins

DRY INGREDIENTS:

6 packages fiber drink mix

1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Mix dry ingredients together.

WET INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup honey

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 egg whites

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

½ cup milk (soy preferable but not required)

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient mixture and blend together.  Fold in 1 large chopped apple.  Spoon into muffin tin sprayed with non-stick spray.  (This makes 12 muffins.  You may pile the batter up as they do not raise much.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Cool muffins.  Place 6 muffins in a bag and freeze for the last 3 days of the Herbal Cleanse.  Eat 2 muffins a day for the first 3 days and 2 muffins a day for the last 3 days.  This recipe makes enough muffins for one person—double everything in the recipe if making for 2 people.

Where is your money going?

After a grocery shopping trip in December, I looked at our counter full of groceries and felt very depressed.  I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture of the insane amount of "junk" that we had just purchased.  We didn't think anything of it when we were at the store -- this was normal food in our diets.  I quickly analyzed the quality of the food on the counter and realized that every single thing was a product that would only do harm to our bodies.  We had nothing nutritional on the counter -- it was all processed "crap" that we would enjoy for a few minutes in our mouths and nothing more.  This was a big turning point in our decision to change our lives.  We analyzed what we were spending on food that our bodies didn't need to survive and decided we could focus that money in a new direction to change our lives for the better.  I challenge you to take a moment to analyze your pantry, grocery cart, or counter and think about where your money is going.  Are you spending that money putting nutritious food in your body or is your money being wasted on vending machine snacks or other junk food that will do harm instead of good?  Food for thought...

AdvoCare 24-Day Challenge Results

After 24 days of a whole new outlook on food and the nutrients we are putting into our bodies, we not only feel MUCH better, but we have also shed a few pounds and inches.  Unfortunately with our busy lives we weren't able to exercise during these 24 days; however, the next time we do a challenge (in 3 months), we are going to focus on exercise to see the difference in results.  While our weight loss wasn't "dramatic" in 24 days, we steadily took some weight off and did it in a healthy manner.  AdvoCare isn't a quick fix diet pill.  It is putting good nutrition into our bodies and retraining ourselves to eat healthier and live better.  Without further ado, I present to you our weight loss results for the past 24 days using the AdvoCare 24-Day Challenge Supplement Pack.

I am down 6.3 lbs & 12 inches and Ethan is down 10 lbs & 7.25 inches!  We certainly have a LONG way to go on our "quest for complete health" but this is a wonderful jump start to our weight loss goals and we couldn't be happier!  I like to think about weight loss in terms of butter to keep me motivated.  There are 4 sticks of butter in one pound.  So, I've lost over 24 sticks of butter in 24 days and Ethan has lost 40 sticks of butter!  We are going to continue using many of the AdvoCare products to keep our momentum going - MNS packs, Catalyst, ThermoPlus, plus meal items like shakes & snack bars.  If you want to jump start your health goals, give us a call and we can help you lose weight with AdvoCare! 

Our Story

Stuck in a rut.  That's how we describe our lives right now.  We both work FT jobs, own a photography business, and have two kids to run after.  We both are physically unhealthy and need to do something drastic.  We are so busy that it's hard to find time to exercise.  When we do have a free moment we are so exhausted that we just want to rest.  We keep spinning our wheels, working harder and harder but we don't seem to be reaching our goals.  We are physically, financially, and emotionally drained.

In 2011 we had a number of medical issues and setbacks in our lives.  We had been praying that God would show us an answer to our situation -- a way out of our "funk."  At the end of 2011, we were at such a low point and we knew that something HAD to change in order for us to be happy again.  That's when we received an AdvoCare Impact magazine and Spark samples in the mail from our good friends, T.J. & Casey Overstreet.  As we were reading through the success stories in the magazine, we looked at each other and said, "This is it!  This is the answer to our prayers."  The families in the magazine started out just like us and made a successful life using and selling AdvoCare products.  

We were a little skeptical at first thinking that this seemed too good to be true, but we personally knew T.J. & Casey and trust them completely.  They successfully run their AdvoCare business on a part-time basis while Casey stays home with their three boys.  It worked for them and the many others in the Impact magazine, so we knew it could work for us too.  We researched the company and the products and discovered that AdvoCare has been around for 18 years and operates their business completely debt-free.  This is a good company with good products.  Even before we tried the products, we knew we wanted to make this our business.  We can lose weight, help others change their lives, and earn money while doing so.  What a great job to have!

After taking a hard look at our current situation and knowing that something had to change, we decided to make a commitment to ourselves and for our daughters that we would drastically change our lives in 2012.  We are committing to not only a new year's resolution but to a new life resolution.  Join us on our journey in our quest for complete health -- physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually.