CHALLENGE!

This week I have realized that I like challenges, just not too many at one time.

This cleanse I am on is a challenge...
First let me start with the facts, I started a 24-day challenge.  The first 10 days are a cleanse specifically and the end is just training you to get in a habit of eating well.  So Day One you measure and weigh yourself, list accountability partners and goals.  Funny thing about accountability partners is I'm my biggest accountability.  I don't worry about someone else knowing if I "cheat"( or whatever an accountability partner is for in this) I worry about disappointing myself.  The directions on the cleanse say to be 80-90% true to the plan... for a person like me it probably should have said be 100% and I would have been.  But in the end it said 80-90% so that is what I set out to do and that's what I'm doing.  Coffee with a dash of milk in it are my 10-20% leeway. I don't suppose a cup of coffee is really even 10% but it's my "cheat".  I could have given it up... but I don't want to.  I like it.  So the upside in this adventure of 7 days so far, is that I have stopped taking my allergy medicine (hope it's not a fluke but so far so good). Woohoo! The first two days of the cleanse I had a wretched headache but now I feel pretty good.  The thing about the challenge is I don't really feel like it's a challenge... maybe cause I distract myself with other things like finding awesome recipes that I can eat and trying them out.  As long as you are having fun it can't be that bad! Also, I can eat all the veggies I want so I'm not hungry.

Zucchini - Turkey Burger

Last night I made the best Turkey-Zucchini Burgers (patty wrapped in lettuce - not a bread bun) that I found on the Advocare website!  Ummm delish!  YAY for new awesome meals.  So far in 7 days I have had two adventures with "eating out" the first was Phil wanted sushi delivered so he ordered his rolls and I ordered stir-fried veggies (spicy), of course they aren't really fried and brown rice came on the side so I just ate the veggies and since brown rice is an accepted complex carb I had a couple bites of it but put the rest in the fridge for another time (success I think).  Then Sunday I went with a couple I was doing an engagement session for to a little cafe for brunch and they had breakfast al-a-carte and so I ordered a hard boiled egg and sliced apples!  SUCCESS!

So you may be thinking what do you not eat.  Well I'll tell ya.  No sugar (unless it's already naturally in the fruit), no cheese, no pasta, no breads, no chips, no mayo or ranch, right now no chicken or beef, no lunch meat, no soda, no cereal, no yogurt.

What I do eat:  salad, fruit, veggies, tuna, salmon, good ground turkey, sun flower seeds, almonds, almond butter (small amounts - no weird extra ingredients), pickles, olives, spices (pepper, sea salt, garlic, onion, cayenne, basil, oregano), lemons and limes (flavors so much so wonderfully), hummus (homemade...no weird ingredients mixed in), frozen fruit for smoothies (no weird preservatives or sucrose), meal replacement shakes from Advocare

I mentioned last week that fill in the blank Friday was changing and that I wasn't sure what form it would take.  I threw out a few ideas and at the same time committed to take a photo a day throughout June.  I'm not very good at taking a photo a day apparently because I keep forgetting.  Yesterday was supposed to be a drink and the day before a hat.  I didn't take either.  Such a shame.  But I did take the first couple and I do want to continue.  Today is 6 o'clock.  I missed the AM version of this because I got to sleep in a little today so I will have to try at remember at PM.
So adding the challenge of a photo a day I think was a bit much.

Here is my picture from June 5.  Sign

I was working on creating a map for my sister's wedding invitations and I needed to create a hwy sign so I googled what they looked like and Viola!