Day 3 Monday ~1/31

8:10am- 3rd & last for a few days morning fiber drink with 8-10oz of water mixed in (70). 20 grapes (80) & a banana (105) 1/2 Spark (22)

Lunch 12:15pm~ Salad, lettuce 2 cups (40) green olives w/ pimentos (50) HB egg (70) Smoked salmon (80) & Lite Italian Vinaigrette dressing (20)
1:30pm snack Clementine (35)
4pm late afternoon snack banana (105) (677 so far)
All classes were canceled or skipped due to crappy snow or too much work & had to stay late. Wow, is it time consuming to write down & track all of those calories... I'm going to have to stop as I don't have time to do the math. ;) No just writing down what the calorie amount is for each & every item & looking them all up. I'll still track them but 1 thing I've noticed is that w/o dairy & bread in my current 10 days it's REALLY REALLY hard to get up to over 1,500 calories a day. I'm not sure I'm getting enough to be honest with my rabid Zumba schedule.
Dinner 8:30pm~ 1.5 cups browned pearl couscous topped with 1 cup with frozen fresh tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, parsley, garlic & onions & 1 TBS of extra virgin olive oil. 1 cup Frozen Green beans, nuked. Salad with imitation crab (aka fish) egg & cran & berry organic dressing. No dessert, not hungry for it, not even for fruit.
I also took my 3 cleansing pills & water before bed.
I've been feeling good having little to no issues with "cleansing" the system if you get my drift. Actually, I've been doing much better than in the past with mushrooms which have on occasion been a real issue for my system & giving me gas. I think I have less now than last week that's for sure. I'm sure the hubby is pleasantly surprised that amazingly with decreasing eating processed garbage that my system = less gas. Possibly the lack of dairy also might have something to do with it as well? I've had more energy & felt better too. Only thing that still lurks in the back of my mind is that I'd really like some processed foods (breaded or fried tortilla toranados) or grilled cheese sandwich, or a scoop of ice cream... or a piece of chocolate. you get the idea... But what has helped is that I had been decreasing all of those & getting my will power under control ahead of time. Those 1st 2 weeks of decreasing what you eat & how much of it you eat are the very hardest 2 weeks.

Oh I'm sure I've lost at least a few pounds already, I don't obsess myself with the scale. I'll get on it tomorrow night & again on Saturday AM on the SAME scale, but at different times of the day. I have found that I weigh less at my Wed PM than I do at my Sat AM weigh in. I took measurements on Day 1 so we'll find out how that is day 15 more than likely as a mid checkup the 24 days are up Feb. 21st. My clothes are getting looser & will have to put some away last weekend as even being tied up some are falling down.

Day 2~ SUN 1/30

8:40am- 1st morning fiber drink with 8-10oz of water mixed in (70). 1/2 pt blueberries (80) I wasn't hungry still but it says to eat about 30 min after taking it. 1/2 Spark (22) 53 min. of instructing & attending Zumba.(-400)

Snack Noon ~ Apple (80)

Lunch 1pm~ Salad, lettuce 2.5 cups (45) green olives w/ pimentos (50) HB egg (70) tomato (30) Smoked nova lox salmon (80) & Lite Italian dressing (25) avocado 1/2 (114) (596 so far)

3pm I feel full.

 No snacks not really hungry... 

6pm hungry & trying to figure out supper snack banana (105)

8:35pm eating: 1.8 pieces of Swai fish steamed. I put a little bit of  marinade on it. (200) 

frozen peas & fresh mushrooms (200) No butter & just a little of seasoning salt on it. I had a lot of peas & mushrooms about 2.5 cups. &  Uncle Ben's whole grain, white rice (150) dallop of mashed potato (couldn't stop myself (35) dessert~ grapes (68) total for the day (1354) (-400) (954). I feel full. I remembered to take my 3 herbal cleansing pills tonight & am off to bed 10:30pm.  Felt a little tired mid-afternoon but was uplifted by getting a few new clothing items on super clearance in smaller sizes. :) I also went to Goodwill & found some pants that tie up if they get too small. I had to put some items back at Kohl's as they were too big which made me very happy. Starting a put away too big clothes pile & need to get out my too small didn't fit pile in 2 weeks. I'm too busy next weekend to do it with Zumba Basic 2 certification. I also signed up for Zumba Toning cert. Feb. 20th too! Found out you can only certify for 2 classes in the 4 days as the Sat./Sun/ is all additional workshops & not certs. Only will have Zumba Gold aka. Zumba 101 which I hope to possibly get in March, Zumba Aqua (perfect for July in Orlando) and ZumbAtomic (kids Zumba) left.

DAY1 of 24 day challenge SAT~1/29

My weigh in this morning reflected what I ate last night, I went from 159 Wed. night to 161.4 this morning. (I need to weigh in after using the bathroom apparently & am assuming that I went back down to at least 160) I'm not going to let it get me down thought as my BMI went from 34.4 to 30.2 from what I recall in less than 2 months. Putting me from the edge of very poor in to the lower end of just poor BMI. I still lost inches since my last measuring 2 weeks ago. My right arm is apparently .5" smaller around than my left arm. She even measured me twice, apparently my left arm is a fatty.
8am- 1st morning fiber drink with 8-10oz of water mixed in (70). I mixed it good & hoped for the best as a lot of things taste like crud, or chalk. I didn't get a bad taste from any of it which was pleasantly surprising It didn't taste bad at all. Not my favorite but it wasn't the taste it was like drinking bread or probably a better way of putting it thinned down malt-o-meal. 2 16oz. glasses of water followed. & then 1/2 pt blueberries (80) I wasn't hungry but it says to eat about 30 min after taking it. I had a pleasantly full feeling most of the morning & didn't feel bloated or anything during my 30 min. of instructing Zumba in the Circuit at Curves.
Drove up to BRF for my next 1 hour class but no one showed up (don't worry I still got paid). 1 had a wedding & others well were MIA so who knows. Had an egg (70) & apple (80) for a snack at noon.
Lunch 2pm~ Salad, lettuce 2 cups (30) green olives w/ pimentos (50) HB egg (70) 1/2 medium tomato (14) 1/2 portion of tuna marinaded in lemon & pepper sauce (80) & squirt Italian vinagrette dressing (18)
3pm I feel stuffed stupid again. Water as instructed by the plan.
• What I didn't eat but would have if not on cleanse (would have had lite yogurt for snack instead) & choc. milk for lunch. Also, would have had Bleu cheese stuffed olives & french/bleu cheese mix dressing.
 No snacks not really hungry... which is kinda unusual.
6pm hungry & trying to figure out supper
7pm eating: 2 pieces of this new fish I found in the grocery store called Swai fish steamed. I put a little bit of  marinade on it (no dairy products in it) (230) with the marinade & some seasoning spices It was INCREDIBLE. I'm not joking I've had possibly catfish & a few others that were better but it was amazing. I was initially hesitant to get it as it's "cheap" fish which usually equates to crappy tasting or bland. Totally not the case. This is a new excellent addition to my dietary list. :)
 This is a fresh water fish that produces a wonderful mild flavored flaky, white meat. It is primarily raised in S.E. Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand). A versatile fish, you can bake, & poach it. Because of its mild flavor, it lends well to sauces and various spices. And if that hasn't sold you on it, how about $3.50 to $4.50 per pound? This is an unbelievable low price when you consider Halibut, Salmon, or Sole running 3-4 times that amount. To top it off, it is very nutritious as well, with only 100 calories per 4 ounces, 2 to 3 grams of fat, and about 50 mg. of cholesterol. These figures are even lower than chicken.
frozen peas & fresh mushrooms (200) No butter & just a little of seasoning salt on it. I had a lot of peas & mushrooms about 2.5 cups. &  Uncle Ben's whole grain, white rice (180) dessert blueberrys (44) & a banana (105) (1326) total for the day. I feel full. I remembered to take my 3 herbal cleansing pills tonight & am off to bed 10:30pm. I just drank water today, no Spark & no vitamins. Felt kinda drowsy mid-afternoon but was uplifted by getting a few new clothing items on super clearance in smaller sizes. :) Didn't find any new shorts which I'll need soon. All the places had were capris, sweats or running shorts which don't work well for Zumba. :( Guess I'll have do do more shopping at some point or I won't have many workout shorts left to wear.

FRI~1/28

Got my Advocare 24 day challenge in the mail yesterday. :) going to start it on Saturday as I still have some dairy in the house to wrap up or it will go bad 10 days from now. Took 2 omega 3's, & my regular multi. 1/2 cup juice (45) so that's gone now. 9:45am~1/2 grape spark packet (my fave flavor so far) (22)
& 10:20 I forgot to eat... yeah mark it on your calendar I actually forgot to eat breakfast until now, choc. swirl oatmeal bar (90) 1 cracker & spread cheese for snack (45)
Lunchtime12:15pm~ leftover shrimp & brown rice (220) 3/4 cup cottage cheese 4% (yeah, well it was a 25¢ deal) Usually, I do 1% I can't choke down skim cottage cheese (150)
Shake 'N Shed Zumba 5:15pm-6:15pm will assist with a few songs & then instruct Zumba "sculpting targeting" songs for 35 min from 6:25-7pm... don't have my toning cert. yet so I can't call it "Zumba Toning" until 2/20. Apparently, another class that no one shows up for. We're only going to take (-200) off as I didn't push it & took some mini breaks since I didn't do that many songs during the class up front. That & my legs & butt are still sore from yesterday.
9:10pm dinner. (single serve) again (80) I went to the store & found the calorie count (no corn for 10 days once I start the 10 day cleansing on Saturday... Same with milk  (skim & 1% choc mix)(180)  no fried foods so I'm having a naughty meal... some of this was left over from our failed NYE party we had bought some items for. The weather totally bombed everything out so well we have food that is good but not good for you in the house taking  up space. OK I was naughty... if your dieting you might want to skip this part... Tyson Anytizers chicken pepperoni minis 3 of them (200) 4 breaded mac & cheese bites (220) chicken glazed hot wings (440) Bleu cheese dressing (270)? quite a bit was still left on the plate then Stacy's "Tootsweet" Nicktador chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. Not sure how many calories are in it... i'm guessing (200) as it wasn't like a jumbo cupcake or anything. Hope she might be able to comment on it & give a more exact caloric count on it. 2,162 total for the day (-200) 1,962 after taking off my exercise.
Thus still being under the 2000 for a normal diet, but not in the loss zone by any means. I was also stuffed stupid again after eating the above at least my stomach didn't hurt last night or today.

THU~1/27

had 3/4 cup fruit juice (apple raspberry) this morning. (60) & stopped by KT and got a roller bite (210) Don't think I'll need any salt for the rest of the week with the sodium in that... Spark this morning (45) 10am snack~ 1 bleu cheese stuffed olive (50)
12:15 Zumba 45 min Private teaching session (-300)~ talked bosses mom into a session today. ;)
1:20pm Lunch~ yogurt nonfat light triple berry torte (like the best flavor I've tasted yet!) (100) Oscar Mayer flatbread buffalo-style chicken ranch (310) Unfortunately, since it's processed the sodium was kinda up there. No snack not hungry...
5:35pm Instructing Zumba ~55min at SNAP Fitness. (-400)
Got my Advocare 24 day challenge in the mail & the distributor kit. :)
8:25pm Dinner 1.5 servings of Trader Joe's mushroom risotto (225), corn (single serve) again (80) (no corn for 10 days once I start the 10 day cleansing on Saturday... Same with milk  (skim & 1% choc mix)(180) will go bad 10 days from now, so had another glass tonight. Trader Joe's Mojito Salmon (310)
Not sure if I'll have room for dessert yet...Ok so dessert was a bust tried this 86% dark choc (125) I had 1 piece & don't know what possessed me to take the other square... taking the rest to work. That stuff didn't taste good. I'm sure someone will eat it there... or at least not make the same mistake as I did & buy it again. :(  (1795) (-700) approx. for exercise count. They say about 500-1,000 cal. an hour with Zumba I feel that the expenditures I've taken are on the low side 1,000 is a little too far on the extreme end I think. Which means the total count might be around 1,005 for the day. I'm just stuffed, never should have had that 2nd piece of choc & should have just thrown it away. Too late now it was down the hatch. I'm still thirsty so I'll drink some more water.

Wed. 1/26

Feel good considering I got to bed unusually late last night. Took vitamins this morning, Drinking water. Not really hungry for breakfast, 90 cal. mint choc. granola bar, 9:20am.
hungry for lunch 12:22pm @ Bamboo House. Lunch portion of lemon grass, steamed shrimp (approx. 240 cal.) & brown rice (75 cal.), miso soup (36 cal.), & 1 piece tuna/avocado roll (70 cal), 1/2 of the rice, shrimp & veggies & brown rice (approx. 270 cal.)  went in a to-go container for lunch tomorrow.  Picked out the peppers which are just vile to me... not a picky eater is the ongoing joke from the hubby. Too spicy of a sauce so I scraped most of it off & left most on the plate. My bladder thanks me for not ingesting most of it. Really was good food, just wouldn't get that sauce again. I'm guessing about 420 calories with what I did eat for lunch. 4:22pm Mott's strawberry applesauce (90 cal). wish I had an Oreo instead which would have been the same calories. Noticed the HFCS in it. :P Oh well perhaps tomorrow.
 Lucky me, I still have York dark chocolate covered pretzels in the car. 5pm I had 1 (40 cal)
Did 1 hour of instructing Zumba in the Circuit at Curves in Holmen.(-400)
Then drove & instructed another hour of Zumba at Shake N' Shed fitness. (-500)
9pm 1 bean & beef burrito (300 cal) low fat sour cream dallop (30 cal) corn & light butter sauce serving (80 cal?) that's what I get for buying stuff at discount w/o packaging. Glass of skim & 1% choc milk (180 cal) blue berries (80 cal). Off to bed early tonight. Last night got too late blogging. 1,311 calories for the day. Great, well under the 2K recommended for normal people & still about 119 under 1,500 for dieting people. I currently still feel full at 10pm. Oh yeah, as for drinking I drink lots of water throughout the day so at least 2 qts. gets consumed I'm just not going to write it down as it's a total assumption that I'm doing that everyday if not more than that. The best news of the day, weighed my mid week on the same scale & got a good number of 159.0 :) now that made my day. I guess if you take off the exercise it would have been around (415) cal. for the day? That just doesn't seem right.

My Background novella on how I got here.

I probably would have agreed before 2010 that vitamins in general were just "expensive pee" as I had always commented to my mom who always insisted on taking a "multi-vitamin." I feel the same way about the flu shot. I've had it a few years but have seen & regardless of what they say people who get sick from it directly in relation to having it done. Apparently, mom was truly, possibly on to something. Ha... I'm good as she doesn't read this yet.
 I was a size 0 prom dress for Jr & Sr. HS prom... yes that was typed in correctly as a ZERO. I'd always been active with CC, track, running, hockey both as a goalie & skater for years. I still skate & ref but haven't found much decent time to play hockey in La Crosse being female. Most of the ice time will put me to bed after it's all said & done sometime around midnight or even later if I went. Just getting too late for me.
   I was on anti-depressants & such thru about 2003 & then finally started feeling "normal" again & went off of them slowly. Looking back I feel that it might have just been a lack in proper metabolic balance.
 I was on them before that, sometime in 2000 (106lbs.) from what I recall. I had a real rough time thru college having female roommates. I was doing far too much sleeping (I think I averaged some days about 15 hours) amongst other reasons. My life was pretty much (sleeping, working, sleeping, school, sleeping, hockey & oh yeah sleeping.)
   Most of 2004 was pretty good still sleeping more than usual (117lbs). Then in 2005 I started feeling tired again, it wasn't a horrible tired at the beginning but got progressively worse. It was like 10 hours just wasn't enough. Napping when possible was totally on my to-do list. I had started doing Zumba in Nov. 2008 (166lbs.) as hockey just wasn't as easy to do in the area. I was still active but not the workout hockey person I was in 2003-2004 I was putting in almost 20 hours a week on the ice.
Going back a few months, I did go to the doctor in 2008 as I was tired of wanting to take naps all the time & tired of being tired. Pun intended. They found nothing wrong with my blood count that wasn't out of the ordinary for having extra weight on.  I also went in as I put on 30lbs. in 3 months... yeah you read that correctly...putting me up to 166lbs. my diet at the time didn't change much for me to have any reason to believe that this was caused by anything other than a thyroid or some medical disease or something to put on this much weight in this short period of time. They said it was dietary changes & that was what was possibly causing me to be tired... I'm like for 4 years really? I wasn't happy when I mentioned I was tired people kept asking me if I was pregnant or something. I'm like doubt it, as it would have been a 4 year pregnancy. I said possibly tape worm or some parasite or something is sucking me dry.
Nothing was found as a reason as to why I was feeling tired most of the time. The doctor found nothing out of the ordinary other than elevated blood pressure but still within normal ranges which they said would go down if I lost weight. No advice on how to fix anything other than "regular sleep schedule"
When starting Zumba I was doing it at least 3-6 times a week paired with casual jogging & walks most mornings or afternoons. Exercise has never been my problem for me to do.
 It wasn't until this past spring that I started taking a multi (I like the adult gummies) & then early summer taking a B-complex (bio-spec ad focus) that I started feeling like I had the energy to not feel dragged out & nappy all the time. I always said Oh perhaps more water would help... or more exercise... or dietary changes. I've kept testing the theory that I wasn't the "expensive pee" over the past months that was truly helping my energy levels.
 I have come to the conclusion that the doctors are right when it comes to 3 things regarding dieting:
#1 that water is very important
#2 that exercise is very important
#3 that a proper reasonably balanced diet is needed.. ok it's very important.
All 3 are needed to obtain losing or holding your "happy weight" constant.
#3 is my biggest nemesis, my relationship with food is about as good as my current relationship with exercise which is not where it should have been. Gaining 10lbs. in a week on a 24/7 AUCE buffet was just a horrible idea for a honeymoon in early 2010. It was an a awesome week & I loved every bite of it but I had to work like heck to get those horrible pounds off. I did make a lot of good choices of food just a lot of choices is the key words there.
By Halloween 2010 (right when I was getting certified as a Zumba instructor) I weighed myself (which I had been avoiding most of the year) at 178lbs. I'm like that's it this has gone far enough. None of my clothes fit. But it was seeing on a forum post that "your best marketing & advertisement is your body" that truly pushed me over the edge. I mean really, if I can't sell the idea that Zumba does help you lose weight.. really I'm not doing much of proving that with my weight... that keeps going up & not down. I decided that I really needed to stop my stress work eating & just eating (as much) in general. I had my energy back (as I had started taking my vitamins again in spring 2010 on a regular basis) but even with excessive exercise #3 was still kicking my butt. So it was time to get #3 under control.
   The 1st 2 weeks were the absolute worst of it. I'm fairly certain they are long gone & I never want to see them ever again. I never would have had the energy to do my current schedule had I not started putting essential vitamins back into my system. I don't usually take my B-complex on the weekends unless I know I won't get a nap in, sometimes I just take 1/2 & just to prove it to myself when I don't take it at all even with a good amount of sleep both weekend nights by 2pm I'm ready for nap time like clockwork if I go without.
   That brings us into 2011. With #1, 2 & 3 getting into a balance I've lost 18lbs. already. However, I know I couldn't have done it without #4 which was what they didn't tell me. Not a chance. I would be sleeping already tonight & sleeping in as late as absolutely possible in the morning without it. 1 thing I've noticed with Spark already, besides only needing Spark (which has the B in it) or the B-complex I don't have the slight drag butt the following morning like I do when I just take a B. Which is weird as I usually am a 10 min. snooze person still but do make it out of bed. I also know I'll need to go off of Spark & on to the caffeine free version (which I wish they had in other flavors than just orange) but not quite yet. At least I've not had a single urge to drink the artificial junk which has been quite a vice on me for the last decade called Dt. Mt. Dew. I thought I had kicked it over & over again... yet wasn't drinking it anymore for the caffeine actually the flavor... which is almost more vile & disgusting... darn garbage being free to drink at work. It has been proven with the sugar & i'm sure all the other stuff I can't pronounce in it fake colors & flavors that it makes you make bad food choices. They have free water too, but I've never liked the lack of flavor, I just can't do it all the time w/o some flavored beverage. Thought about going the tea route & do drink it on occasion but another person I know proved that kidney stones were the result of too much tea & not enough water.  The herbal and extract qualities of it are good to have on occasion. Milk well that's just not great to have after 25 which is why a lot of people get lactose intolerant with age. We weren't meant to drink that after being weaned off of it. If people are doing it just for the calcium in it there are other foods & drinks that have calcium in them & vitamins too. That however isn't absorbed as much as you get older either.
  It's all about what the human body absorbs & retains in the system. Lots of things like iron, B, C, etc. don't stay in the system for a long time they are kicked out what isn't absorbed or needed. Which is what your kidneys & liver do. Get rid of the unneeded or toxic crap. However, if there isn't enough of something... your body does let you know in it's own way. as it can't obtain or say what it needs clearly. That's our job to figure it out. Or reading studies trying different things. Lets see if #4 is more rounded out will make a difference... Oh forgot to mention I also take cranberry vitamins for bladder (which has helped tremendously over the past few years) & this summer Omega-3 fish oils.. this I haven't had a direct proven visible result from yet, not sure what I could look for as a viable result... so might be taking an "expensive pee" on this one. MIL insists that it's good for us so we'll keep it for now.
Anyways, got to get to bed or I will be tired & it won't be a good thing.

Gearing up for the Advocare 24 day Challenge!

Pre-days to the 24 day challenge: advocare.com/11019398
Sunday~ 1/23 1 hour of Zumba with Wanda
Had my grape Spark this morning. Skipping the B-complex vitamin (all of that is in the Spark that I should need for the day) was pretty good ate healthy & a reasonable portion but it still was too much food... skipped dinner as I was too full & it was a late lunch.
Monday~1/24  20 min of Zumba with Jonathan before teaching 1 hour at Shake N' Shed
Still feeling pretty good took my B-complex but didn't need soda at all or feel the urge for it.
Eating habits were totally in check :) Still had a bit too much for dinner, but skipped dessert all day.
Tues~1/25 Had my grape Spark this morning 9am. Skipping the B-complex vitamin.
Same reason as above.... 8pm & no drag butt.
Breakfast 10am~ .5" slice of mini loaf zucchini bread & low fat margarine (thinly spread)
Lunch 12:10pm~ was a 420 cal. sandwich & yoplait light 100 cal. BBerry pie. :) snack 4pm~ 1 Double stuft Oreo. (70cal.) Nutritional value.. nilch i'm sure but really wanted one.
Dinner 8:15pm~ 2.5 cups lobster ravioli (no cheese) (approx 480 cal.) & veggie pasta with red mushroom sauce & a few black olives, small side salad with a Tbs. of bleu cheese (90 cal) & 2 green bleu cheese stuffed olives (100 cal). (I know, i'm bad) wanted a little splurge. 1/2 cup scoop brownie ice cream (180) cal.   Nah... see this is why i'm doing it... 1/2 cup fresh blueberries... perhaps that's why i'm not losing more didn't realize there's that many calories in ice cream even if you only have that small of an amount. :(
That sucks.
I did instruct a 30 min. of Zumba in the Circuit at Onalaska Curves. Got my daily time in today.