Vinyl Project gifts

Here are a few of the projects I did the week before I left home.  I love the heat transfer vinyl!  It is so easy to use.

Advocare cleanse tips

Ok so i haven't updated this in a while because I am finding that doing a blog with two small children and a list of projects is a little hard! At the moment I am visiting my parents and they convinced me to do the advocare 24 day challenge. My parents both started with the 24 day challenge in January and have each lost a considerable amount of weight. My father has never been super heavy, but had started to put a few pounds on and decided that he wanted to get into shape for hunting, etc. he has lost 33 lbs in the last 5 months and looks fantastic. I will post a before and after of him when i get to a computer ( I am on my ipad). My mother has also lost over 20 lbs and gone from a size 8 to a size 0. So they are my inspiration for doing this. I don't have a ton of weight i would like to lose, but i am tired of the leftover 5 lb baby belly, and to be honest i am in my thirties and need to learn how to eat properly. I am the first one to admit that i have an eating disorder....not anything that would be clinically diagnosed, but i have no will power if there are cookies in the house. I will sit down with 5-8 cookies and a glass of milk and eat them all, i used to be able to do this with little consequence, but find that as i get older and after having kids i can no longer do this and not see them on my ass later that day. So now that i have rambled let me get to the cleanse portion of the 24 days.

I was very concerned about being able to do the cleanse because I LOVE milk, cheese, yogurt, and I detest vegetables! The good news is that even though I couldn't have dairy, refined sugars, or wheat products, I did it and never once felt hungry! The no alcohol and caffeine didn't bother me because I don't normally drink them.

They say that you aren't supposed to expect to lose weight on the cleanse, but i went from 130-128 lbs. I also didn't exercise on the cleanse because the kids gave me a cold. Here are my tips and what I did:

I drank my spark every morning when I got up and on the days i needed to take the fiber drink, i only mixed it with 6oz of water and chugged it then chased it with another glass of water.

I didn't use the meal replacement shakes or bars on the cleanse. I did eat a lot of 1/2 c portions of steel cut oats, or oatmeal with chia seeds in it and used vanilla, cinnamon and a little stevia as my flavors. Also had the eggs a few mornings.

I made salads ahead of time! I prepped and am still doing this....5-7 days worth of salads in mason jars. It is the best tip i can give you! That way you never have an excuse not to eat your salad.

I also made sure that there were always boiled eggs in the fridge to add to my salad, eat alone as my protein snack or make a quick egg salad out of!

I personally never took the spark in the afternoon, but prob cause i don't need or crave caffeine.

I technically cheated and ate dry roasted peanuts as my nut snack instead of almonds or cashews because i don't like the options i was given.

I also used any salad dressing i felt like, i just made sure i only used a little on my salad at a time.

Keep a water bottle with you at all times, and i kept frozen oranges, and lemons in the freezer to add to my water.

When you gt your meat, cut it into 4-6 oz serving sizes and then freeze. That way you can pull out a portion and cook without having to worry about it being too much.

Here are some links to recipes i have used: make substituions if needed, with almond milk, chia gel, stevia, etc.

salads in mason jars:  I don't put the dressing in them becuase I am eating these at home, and I would suggest putting any veggie you like in them.  Seriously the BEST TIP EVER!!!!

Grilled Avacado:  Cut an avocado in half, sprinkle with olive oil and lime juice, and place face down on the grill for five minutes. Then fill with salsaand add a little more lime juice, and salt.

eggs fried in avocado (leave out toast)

lemon herb egg salad: use canola mayo

Breakfast cookies: use stevia and almond milk as subs

mint/herb water: 2L water, 1 medium cucumber, 1 lemon, 10-12 mint leaves. steep overnight in fridge and drink every day.

baked cauliflower: make sure they are all brown and crispy if you don't care for it to begin with or it will be mushy!

Avocado Egg salad: use canola mayo and no yogurt!

Link to my pinterest board on advocare