Life's Whirlwind Adventures

I've begun a new challenge. A new old challenge. I am going to be using the Arbonne 30 Day Healthy Living System to kick start my new year.  This means cutting down the refined sugar, the simple carbs, the salty snacks and all that liquor, ok liquor, I don't really drink that much so really, that's not a huge problem. The 30 Day Challenge is a way to reset your life by using the Arbonne Essentials System of Protein Shakes, Detox Tea, Greens Balance and more to help you make healthy choices without going into the full purge that some detox systems have you do.  It's about eating whole foods, real foods, and being mostly plant based.  It asks you to give up caffeine (this will be the hardest part), liquor, sugar, simple carbs and such and drink more water, eat more veggies and take in proper nutrition. I've done this system before in the past and I have had success, and I have many friends that have done this system too and have seen phenomenal results.  I h...

So I haven't really gotten back into my blogging but I am working on it so here is my update, on my 12 week challenge a 1/4 of the way through. I had a rough start, I caught some nasty flu the first week so I couldn't do many workouts and eating, well that was pretty much out of the question for a whole week. I did get two workouts in and I lost quite a few pounds I just wasn't really sure it would stay off since it came from being sick. The second week was better but I was still dealing with illness and my lower back has been killing me for four weeks.  I had trouble bending or putting my legs straight so I had to modify most exercises but I made it to the gym three days and I was starting to feel stronger and better. The third week went amazing, I still feel incredibly busy, but we are making it work so I am positive it's developing into a routine. I made it to the gym 4 times this past week and meals have been going great. Even with Thanksgiving happening I do ...

The last time I was on a challenge like this, the meal plans were provided but I struggled with making substitutions because I didn't know what could work for a substitution and some of the meal suggestions were yucky, well not yucky but not to my taste. This time around we are working with macros, so we can eat the foods we like and build our meal plan that way, but we have to track our macros. Not our calories, but our macros.  So this is a new thing for me, but I was able to go out and shop and now I have meal prepped for the week.  I have a plan for suppers, I have my lunches, breakfasts and snacks packed and my SIX cups of free Veggies.  SIX CUPS!! I like veggies, but I like veggies and dip and dip is not on the menu! I guess it could be if I watch the sugar content and let it count as a carbohydrate or fat whichever is higher on the nutrition label.... but that seems like a lot of work for so little reward.  I've figured out my macros for the day will inc...

I'm actually going to write about this blog before I update all my summer blogs, I just feel like for my success I need to be writing my blog entries on this challenge in a timely manner as it will increase my accountability, and it will hopefully get me back into the habit of writing. So after leaving you all in the dark, unless you follow me on other social media platforms, of what happened this summer here's a look at what I am going to be doing for the next 12 weeks. My very good friend Tamara joined Fit Body Boot Camp around 8 months ago, and she's had amazing results, her husband got on board as well and has seen a huge change, he doesn't work out at the gym but does his own workouts at home.  Men don't seem to have the same problems with losing weight that women experience, biology sometimes does not work in our favour ladies. I considered joining a couple times, but the only time I have been successful, like really successful at losing weight I had don...

I started my 30 days again.  But this time I was really following the meal plans so that I could track how effective this plan was for me. My starting weight was 205 pounds, I had gone up a few pounds, but I was ok with that.  Fluctuation isn't the worst and all things considered my clothes were still fitting very well.  I was also a total of 344.25 inches which is still lower than they had ever been so you know I believe the scale lies and also I was heading into my monthly cycle. I had a couple Instagram posts showing my packing of my foods so that I had an easy week, it was a lot of prep work but really it wasn't that much and made my mornings getting to school so much faster so worth it.  My mornings are a blur, getting up working out, doing my hair, make up getting lunches packed for the kids and getting the kids ready to leave the house.  It is go go go here, so anything to make it easier I will take it. My first week was amazing, everything was going...