It's all apart of life's pageant

Who's up for a cleanse/detox?

Not the title that you were hoping for today was it? LOL! Many of you from the challenge have contacted me and are asking about good maintenance and what's next. I do plan on doing the challenge again in 2010 but thought it might be a good idea to do a cleanse before schedules get too crazy - can you believe October is just around the corner?

I have decided to do a 10 day cleanse for a little pick me up and rejuvenation that will start on October 19th and would love to have a support group! I am hoping that this should give you plenty of time to research the cleanse that you would like to do and get the necessary items in your home and take out the UN-necessary ones. 

Which cleanse to do?

There are several programs out there, I am going to review which ones that I have done and why I do or don't like them. Remember this is from my own personal experience.

Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness - The book is great, I love how she talks about living an aware life that includes meditation, exercise, conscious eating, self work, and having FUN. I definitely recommend this as a read. But the cleanse is an intense 21 day complete body cleanse. I lasted a week. I was a mess - I didn't feel good, in fact I felt very ill. It's all apart of the cleanse experience, I am sure, but I didn't want to feel like that for 21 days. I think I could probably do this type of cleanse now - but a year ago it was not a good option for me. I recommend doing this cleanse if you have already done one in the past and if you are an experienced vegetarian. If this is your first time doing a cleanse keep reading...

Goop, Gwenth Paltrow Detox - I loved doing this detox (cleanse) and will incorporate some of the meal ideas for my cleanse. You can see my first post here of the cleanse. This is a seven day program - which you can extend for the 10 days that we are going to be doing. I will tell you that I didn't do all of the recipes, I re purposed the ones that I liked and made modifications. The brocoli and arugula soup was very filling and I repeated that recipe for soup -  I didn't do the cucumber avacado soup. I also didn't do the juices, just for convenience I did my Greens First mix. This detox/cleanse helped me kick the diet coke habit in the butt!

Advocare Herbal Cleanse - This is the one that I will be doing, incorporating the dietary recipes from the above Goop detox. I really like how it is organized (checklist of what you take each day), but most of all I love how the Probiotics are included and essential to this cleanse. Probiotics are the good microflora (you have seen the Activia commercials right?) that supports intestinal health and funcion. Advocare recommends doing their herbal cleanse every 90 days, at this time I am averaging every 180 days. Here is are the dietary guidelines for this program (this will bring back challenge memories for some of you):

• eight to 10 servings of vegetables and fruits - if I can't get this in I will supplement with my Green's First drink
• Drink at least eight glasses of water each day - we are already doing this right??
• Eat starchy foods such as breads, rice and pasta in the whole grain form. Avoid processed starches such as white bread and white rice.
• Reduce your dietary intake to as low an amount as possible. This means reducing or eliminating the use of butter, margarine and high-fat salad dressings. It also means cooking with water or vegetable broth rather than oil or butter.
• Scrupulously avoid all friend foods.
• Be sure to avoid sugar (table sugar or sucrose). Eat a piece of fruit instead! This is why I planned this BEFORE Halloween...

Please let me know if you have any questions - so who's on board?

Here's a little giveaway... When you comment on this post letting me know that you are joining me, that will enter you in a random drawing for an Advocare Herbal Cleanse system! I will do the drawing on Monday, September 28th - so that gives you almost a week to think it over. I do expect that the person who wins the system must actively participate in the 10 day cleanse!

Enjoy life!

Chicken salad recipe from Cindy

2 chickens, cooked and shredded
3/4 cup diced celery
1 cup grapes, halved
1 cup mandarin oranges
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons chopped onion
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Herb Italian spices
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Mix all ingredients and toss lightly. Chill before serving.  Serve w/lettuce and whole grain roll. 

I haven't made this yet but I am looking forward to the first warm day that I can enjoy it!

I have a very busy two days ahead of me - heading out of town always brings it up a notch...Happy Monday!

Weight Watcher Weigh in

Today's weigh in...down 1.4 and that puts me at 132.6. I wanted to let all of you know that I am not going to be focusing too much on the 'number'. It is going to be more about the way I am feeling, inches lost (how my clothes are feeling) and % of body fat lost. The body fat number is what I am going to be watching.

I am going to be emailing the top ten right now for mailing addresses!!! Do me a favor and report back here on how you like the shakes -

On the topic of weight loss I thought I should cover what products that I use from Advocare and why.

Advocare Meal Replacement Shakes - I have these when I am either traveling or short on time. As I explained to some of you, yesterday was a good example: rushed morning, needed to exercise and get on a conference call - which meant no time (or I didn't want to make the time) to make my smoothie. So instead of skipping breakfast (bad) I made a quick shake and I add a scoop of my Green's First. Easy - was able to drink it during my call, all was good. Now fast forward...working away, head down in work and when I finally look up I realize that it's 1pm, I have a call at 1:30 pm and I have to finish some content before then. NO time for lunch and I am too hungry to skip...make another quick shake (no Green's First) and have an apple. Perfect. Dinner is a regular dinner- but now I am trying to eat it at least two hours before I go to bed. No more late eating! Learned that one from Cathy. Bottom line is I always make sure that I have good options - either the smoothie or the shake. Weight Watcher points: 4

One thing to add with the shakes - you need to have a good way to actually shake it up! I highly recommend this Blender Bottle for any dry shake. You need to be able to shake this mixture up fully so you don't get a chalky or clumpy texture.

  Advocare MNS Max 3 - There are 14 strips each having four packets. Two you take in the morning 30 minutes before and with breakfast and two you take 30 minutes before and with lunch. I take this as my dietary supplements: Vitamins A, C, D, E, B-6, B-12, folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, omega-3 fatty acids, astaxanthin, calcium, citrus flavonoids, green tea extract, lutein, lycopene, guarana, biotin, oolong tea, taurine, lactobacillus acidophilus, bifdobacterium, bifidum, artichoke, magnesium, zinc, chromium. This is sold as a weight loss management but I feel that it offers more than that, it adds to your overall health. It is on the expensive side but if you price out individual bottles of each of the listed vitamins then having to figure out how much, then putting them into some organization...it is well worth the money to buy it this way. I can easily take the packets I need with me wherever I go. The only drawback is that the packets that say 'take with lunch or breakfast' they mean just that. Do NOT take them on an empty stomach. You will be nauseated - believe me, I did this and felt awful all day.

Advocare Catalyst - I take this to help my muscles recover from my training sessions. It really helps for this - there have been some days where I know if I didn't take these capsules I wouldn't have been able to walk! Now some of the other gals at the training gym say that this is butt burner. I don't have a butt so I definitely don't want this burning off anything back there - but hopefully it's burning off the back boobs and other places! It would be great for those of you that are just starting to work out again and are sore the day after and even worse the next day. When you are that sore sometimes it discourages you to go back and exercise, so starts the vicious circle!

  Advocare Spark Energy drink - I haven't been drinking this since I cut the caffiene out of my diet. But I do have the packets on hand when I need a jump start with out the amount of caffiene as a coffee drink. This has about 120 mg. I usually take this with me when I travel and I have to adjust to time zones.

Advocare MNS® Max Appetite Control Kit - This is a 14 day supply kit that you can try out all the above products EXCEPT it does NOT include the Catalyst.

As with anything these Advocare products do not work alone - you still need to incorporate exercise and drink lots of water. I know, I wish it was a wonder pill too! Right now I am going to Yoga two to three times a week (minimum of once a week), training twice a week for an hour and riding my exercise bike 30 to 45 minutes a day doing interval training five days a week. These are also the products that have worked for me and the ones that I feel good about promoting. When I try new products and see good results I will let you know. Right now I am trying out the ThermoPlus and want to see how it performs.

The first 10 people that post a comment I will send a packet of the Meal Replacement Shake to try! Please let me know if you have any questions regarding anything that I have recommended. Happy Wednesday!

Poppy Seed Chicken recipe

The WINNER is ANGELIA!!!! please contact me [email protected]

This is a Wessells family recipe and one of Kirk's favorite dishes. I don't make it very often - you will see why when I list the ingredients. This dish is a cure for the comfort food craving and is a good casserole to take when you need something for a potluck.

• 5 to 6 skinless chicken breasts
• salt
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 - 8oz can of cream of chicken soup
• 8 oz sour cream
• 2 tbl of lemon juice
• Ground pepper
• Ritz crackers
• 1 stick of butter
• Poppy seeds

Boil the chicken breasts in salty water and a couple of celery stalks - boil, then simmerfor a couple of hours.

When the chicken breasts are ready you will want to take them out of the broth and into a large mixing bowl. While still hot - shred the chicken up. I have a shallow stainless steel mixing bowl that I love for this kind of mixing.

Daily Routine - H2O

 

The WINNER is: AMY W!!!! please contact me [email protected]

One of these three water bottles is always with me - downstairs in the office, bedroom, car, or briefcase. I used to have a hard time remembering to drink water. This caused several health problems for me. Not to mention my skin was a wreck with all the travel I was doing. Now I just make sure that one of these bottles is with me at all times. The Weight Watcher program is very adamant about drinking your daily water and when you don't, it definitely reflects on weigh in day. One of the things that I learned at WW about water is that usually nine times out of 10 you are thirsty, not hungry. So instead of reaching for something to eat, first drink a glass of water and see if you are still hungry.

During my January week long detox I was able to kick my Diet Coke habit. I have been amazed that I have lasted this long but I am over the cravings. My trainer said that for every soda drink that you have you should take 500 mg of calcium. I am really glad that I don't have to carry that around with me! I also quit drinking coffee almost two years ago. Now I drink water from the tap (actually my refrigerator dispenser), hot tea, almond/rice milk, and juice.

Update: Here is another alternative to the SIGG bottles - Nalgene. These are BPA free plastic and come in some great fun colors! They are about half the price (depending on style) and you can get them online or at any outdoor type store. We take these hiking with us because they are lighter weight - I may need to find one to fit in my purse!

I am definitely not always on track - I love the occasional glass of wine when we go out or my favorite cocktail of Chopin Vodka & Soda. It's only 80 calories!

In the summertime, if I have planned ahead, I will buy some cucumber and mint leaves to put in a water pitcher. I had this at the spa and was so refreshed, I couldn't get enough. Other additions to water are lemons and orange slices. I am looking forward to this summer since Stacy introduced me to the GurglePot. How fun is this going to be! Please visit their site and just listen to the gurgle - it really does sound like that!

Today's giveaway is:

• a white SIGG bottle to jump start your water drinking
• and three books from MM: Thinking of You, Paper Cachet and Ribbonrie

Leave a comment to be entered in the random drawing for the above giveaway! Winner will be announced tomorrow before 10 am PST.

Daily Routine - Breakfast

WINNER of the 'breakfast' package: SusanB!!!!! Contact me at [email protected]

Update: Thank you for all the posts and great questions - I have updated this post in red  with some great information that I forgot to include.

I have received several inquiries about what my daily routine is. It's not rocket science but it works for me! When I can encompass everything into one day - it really is a good day. Sometimes I can only do half of the things and it still can be a good day. This week I am going to share with you the for sure things that I try to include in my daily routine. Then I will end each post with a fun giveaway!

Eating breakfast. Just a couple of years ago I was one who always skipped breakfast. I was either in a rush to get out of the house, wanted to sleep in (I am not a morning person!) or I thought it was cutting calories. All of those reasons were very poor excuses and once I worked in breakfast it has become second nature. This didn't happen overnight - I worked it into my schedule, at first only 3 days a week. I also came up with three different solutions depending on how I felt when I woke up or how much time I had.

First I always try to start with a warm glass of water with a half of lemon squeezed in it...

Quick - need it to go or just starting out...
Advocare meal replacement shake . I have been using this product for years. My trainer recommends it for people with busy schedules and also people who are trying to lose weight. It was actually a good way to work 'breakfast' into my day without a lot of work. It also came in handy for busy days and I didn't have time to stop for lunch. Which btw was very common for me to do; not only skip breakfast but skip lunch and then guess where I was headed at one or two pm??? The drivethru!

The shake solution also works for me because I don't have to have ingredients in my fridge. For those days that you need a really quick solution and don't want to skip that most important meal.

It has another convenience of portability! These packets go with me on every trip - so I can make really good decisions while on the road. That is usually where I fall off the wagon and find it hard to get back on when I get home. I highly recommend a shaker bottle, one that travels well. I use the Blender Bottle, but I know that Tupperware has a good one too. What I like about the Blender Bottle is the smaller 20 oz size and it's BPA Free.

This year I decided to become a distributor of Advocare because I buy so much of it and I really do believe in the products. I will talk more this week about the other stuff that I use.

Update: For fellow WW people the Advocare shakes are only 4 points!

Have a little time to enjoy your morning...

This is a smoothie recipe that my nutritionist gave me and it is one of my favorites. There are so many variations and twists that you can make with this. Using a hand blender (this is what I have):

• 2 heaping tablespoons of Whole FAT yogurt (yes, whole fat - less sugar and you eat less of it! I am big fan of Nancy's organic) Now if you are trying or don't do dairy you can add 1 cup of almond/rice milk. Remember my detox days from January??!
• Handful of berries (1/2 cup) I use frozen fruit because you want it 'slushy', my favorite is blueberries (costco) and mango (trader joes)
• 1 to 3/4 scoop of WHEY protein powder (do not use soy based) I use the vanilla Trader Darwins Whey Protein Powder from Trader Joes because it is very inexpensive. Sorry, I know not everyone has a Trader Joes...just make sure whatever you get has no soy and don't pay over $12 for 16 oz
• 1 scoop of Green's First - this is something that I added to this recipe, not neccessary. I get this from my esthetician and it insures that I get all of my vegetable/fruit servings and then some. It has helped my skin over the last three years!
• Add a little bit of water - less than an 1/8 of cup, this is just to make it a little less thick
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or flax seed oil. I do the flax seed oil because of less caloires and I need to get my Omega 3s
• BLEND
• Then stir in 1 teaspoon of Psyllium whole husks, you can get this in the health food section. It is a fiber supplement. ONLY add this if you are committed to drinking your daily water intake for the day.

This is not a snack smoothie! With the whole yogurt, oil and protein powder you will be FULL, I promise. Play around with this recipe and once you do it once or twice you won't have to look at the directions and it should only take five minutes to make. This smoothie is what I usually have when I am not traveling. I have also been known to have it for lunch too!

Update: For fellow WW people this smoothie ranges in points depending on your variations, five to seven points.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we are frantically running around trying to cook master pieces let's not forget what this holiday means. This was taken from the GOOP newsletter today:

Today is a day when we are meant to give thanks - which seems quite general. In your opinion, what are we giving thanks for and how can we genuinely activate that feeling of gratitude?

Dr. Karen Binder-Brynes replies:     
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it is a day for the gathering of family and friends and typically involves the sharing of delicious food, laughter and conversation. The holiday originated with long-awaited harvests which the early American settlers experienced in their new country. After struggling to find their way and establish themselves, the colonists were finally able to celebrate the bountifulness of their new world. The word bountiful resonates with me when I think of giving thanks this time of year. Virginia Satir, a preeminent family therapist, describes the feeling of well-being her family experienced when the big kettle in their midwestern farm kitchen was brimming with food scrumptiously stewing and filling the room with wonderful aromas. The full pot came to symbolize the well-being of her family

The human spirit is incredibly strong, bountiful and miraculously resilient! Even in hard and trying times such as these, it is important to fill our hearts and minds with childlike wonderment at the miracle of being human. Look around this holiday season and SEE the light in children’s eyes, HEAR the laughter in your homes and SPEAK of your love to your family and friends. Fill your inner kettle with love and hope and you will know what it is to be thankful. Happy Holidays.

– Karen Binder-Brynes, Ph.D.
Dr. Karen Binder-Brynes is a leading psychologist with a private practice in New York City for the past 15 years. See her website for more information.

Today give thanks for right thought, give thanks for right speech, and give thanks for right intention. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving day spent with family and good friends.

Weight Watcher Wednesday Weigh In

DOWN 1.2!!! Last week it was all about portion control (except one dinner) and I am back doing yoga three times a week. This week I am going to really watch my water and make sure I am drinking the minimum.

Blog reader Jeannie had a great idea for portion control:
Make sure your meal/snack fits in the size of a sandwich zip lock bag. And anyhow, they say you should eat 5 times a day to increase your metabolism - its like eating every 3 hours!! Sometimes it feels that you're forcing yourself to eat but then its good for you.

And another good idea that she had, that I totally forgot about:
I force myself to drink a large class of water before i snack or eat my meal. This works! Sometimes our bodies cannot tell the difference from being hungry or are we really just thirsty?

This week has been all about cooking - must be the cold WET weather we have been having. Monday night I made acorn squash, Kirk was at a meeting so this was my opportunity to have it. If you have never tried acorn squash try this easy peasy recipe over at Pioneer Woman. I cut back on the butter and brown sugar and omitted the maple syrup. This is all I had for dinner - it was like having desert too!

Last night I tried out another Pioneer Woman recipe for Pot Roast. WOW - like she says: "...being tender and melt-in-your-mouth delicious." I cooked my chuck roast for about 4 hours and it was melting in your mouth. My picture does not do this meal justice...

I have a Le Creuset French oven (the pan) that I LOVE almost better than my slow cooker. What I really like about this oven is that you can do all searing on the stove top then put all the ingredients in and pop it in the oven. ONE pan is used instead of two!

My portion control for this meal was a serving of meat the size of my fist, carrots, onions and one spoon full of mash potatoes. Accompanied by 1.5 glasses of red wine; Rancho Sisquoc Cellar Select Meritage 2005.

So with the holidays approaching what are you going to do so you don't overeat for the next 8 weeks? I think having some really good portion control is going to go a long way. We can do this! :)