It's all apart of life's pageant

Commit 2 Fit | Life Challenge Eight

I apologize for the late post on our LAST week! Can you believe that we made it this far?? You have all done so well!

We are on the home stretch now, so for week eight - the last habit, we are going to add a cup of vegetables to at least two of our meals. Just like last week where we were adding fruits this week we are going to add vegetables.

Why are we going to do this?

• Vegetables contain several nutrients to help prevent disease and help promote a healthy body
• Eating vegetables is helpful for losing body fat!

Here is an example of a daily meal pattern:

1. Protein + carb (shake or bar)
2. Protein + fruit
3. Protein + fruit
4. Protein + veggie
5. Protein + veggie
6. Protein

Remember not all vegetables are created equal

Starchy vegetables (higher in carbohydrates - count these in your carb count!)

• Potatoes
• Peas
• Squash
• Yams
• Sweet Potatoes
• Corn

Non-starchy vegetables (choose from this list - these are 'free')

• Cucumbers
• colored peppers
• leafy greens
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• carrots (these are high on the glycemic index - down size your serving)
• radishes
• tomatoes
• asparagus

Make it Happen

1. Stock up on fresh vegetables that you enjoy. Get enough for one week
2. Variety of colors!
3. Cut up several servings of vegetables in advance and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This makes it easy to grab a serving quickly, with no preparation
4. When planning your meals, it might be easiest to 'assign' two meals that you consistently add one cup of vegetables

If you haven't been a vegetable eater - keep this in mind: your tongue will actually crave what you feed it. In the beginning of this week you may feel like are having to force feed yourself the vegetables, but after awhile you will notice that you will crave certain vegetables. Hang in there!

Be sure to send in your points for the last few weeks - Good luck this week!

Commit 2 Fit | Life Challenge 7

Everyone is having such great results! Okay here is life habit seven - Choose fruit as your carbohydrate for at least two (minimum) of your meals

WHY are we going to do this?

• Fruit contains several nutrients to help prevent disease and help promote a healthy body.
• Eating fruit as your carbohydrate (versus starch - anything with flour in it or starchy veggies) can be helpful in losing body fat.

What is our daily pattern going to look like? Here is an example just so we can get our arms around this...

1. Protein + regular carb (i.e., shake or breakfast bar)
2. Protein + fruit
3. Protein + fruit
4. Protein
5. Protein
6. Protein (for those that are having this 6th meal)

Remember: meals are two to three hours apart and TWO fruit servings per meal is the minimum. You can add it to more of your meals if you choose.

Basics of fruit - not all fruits are created EQUAL! Some fruits spike our blood sugar higher and faster than others. And if you remember from other life habits we want to make sure that our blood sugar stays level than spiking all the time. That spike produces insulin which in turn leads to body fat.

Good Choices - its okay to have, these are higher on the glycemic index. Decrease the serving size of these.

• Bananas (1/2 or 1/3 serving)
• Grapes
• Red apples
• Watermelon
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Oranges

Better Choices - concentrate here

• All berries
• Peaches
• Green apples
• Grapefruit (not good for those on high blood pressure medication!)
• Plums
• Cherries

Always have the fruits with your protein!

Make it HAPPEN

1. Stock up on fruit, particularly the 'better' fruits
2. Frozen berries and peaches are an easy way to stay prepared
3. When you plan your meals pick your protein first, then add a fruit
4. For your two fruit meals, you won't add another carbohydrate to this meal. This will keep you under the 30 grams of carbohydrate per meal life habit.

Favorite meal idea recipe

• 2 scoops protein powder (I use the Advocare muscle gain protein powder)
• 4 oz of water
• 1 cup of frozen blueberries

 

Commit 2 Fit | Challenge six

So sorry this post is late! Had a super busy weekend - full of food, music and running. WHEW- we are moving on to week six! You are going to replace all white flour/grains (processed flours with WHOLE GRAINS.

Why are we going to do this?
Processed flour (grains) will sabotage your efforts to burn body fat. Whole grains are filling, contain nutrients, and are higher in fiber. So much better for you!

White flour + Eggs + Sugar = fatty thighs, hips and stomach

Be careful this week with labels - it can get very tricky, what we think is 'whole grain' may very well not be or have other ingredients that we are trying to stay away from. For example a bran muffin... has white flour, eggs and sugar. For many of us we are thinking how bad can a bran muffin be?? It's brown and brown is good for you, right? Here's the truth - we want to be successful, we want to get rid of body fat that we don't like, clean out our arteries and BE HEALTHY!

Be a LABEL LOOKER - check labels for 'unbleached' and 'bleached flour'. See the above label for Wheat Thins (I love these crackers!) they look and sound pretty good right? "Wheat Thins crackers harvest five-grain". But look a the ingredient list...the first few ingredients are the unbleached and bleached flour. Also take a look farther down - malt syrup. This adds to the taste but also gives the cracker the nice brown color.

Look for whole grains this week - 100%! There are a lot of products out there that taste so good we are not going to have to sacrifice taste. Here are some more labels to review and a few good products to look for

 

Stoned Wheat Thins - Again like the Wheat Thins, these 'look' okay but when you read the ingredient list there are two things that stand out Enriched Flour and Partially Hydrogenated oils. This is NOT something that we would want to choose.

Ezekiel 4:9 bread - This would be a great choice and you can find this bread in the health food store or health food section in the cold storage.

Brown Rice Spaghetti noodles - good choice! I have slowly switched all of our pastas over to brown rice or whole wheat.

Honey Whole Wheat bread mix - Sounds good right? Remember to always read the labels and my rule of thumb - the shorter the list and if I can pronounce everything on it, most likely it's going to be a good choice!

Make it Happen

1. Start by throwing out all processed flour products (muffins, crackers, bread, white pasta, chips, tortillas, white rice)
2. Choose whole grains, preferably those foods made from brown rice and whole oats.
3. Corn products made without additional processed flours are okay (i.e., corn tortillas)
4. READ labels!
5. Skip any bread and croutons served at a restaurant...even if it's 'brown', this doesn't mean it is whole wheat. Molasses is used to create color. Wheat sprinkled into white flour isn't a whole grain.
6. Remember, starches are fuel, and aren't the only carbohydrate source. Fruit is a great option for your carbohydrate sources.

GLUTEN - There are many of us that are gluten intolerant and don't even know it! Seven out of ten people are adversely affected by gluten. If you want to find out if you are sensitive to wheat and other sources of gluten TAKE IT OUT and choose only rice and oats (and gluten free products) and re-introduce wheat gluten after 4 to 6 weeks. Watch for the return of symptoms. There is a difference between gluten intolerance and celiac disease. Here are some symptoms of gluten intolerance:

• raccoon eyes - the dark circles around the eye area
• fatigue - trouble concentrating
• water weight gain
• stomach pooch - bloating
• active stomach - gurgling, cramping, etc
• runny nose

Remember that gluten is in most sauces! For those of you that are on the Advocare shakes and bars - they are gluten free.

Be sure to get in your week 4 & 5 points to me.

Commit 2 Fit | Omega 3 ideas

Okay, here a quick run down of some of the foods you should try to eat regularly to boost your omega-3 intake:

• Fish such as albacore tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, lake trout
• Oils such as flaxseed oil, soybean oil and walnut oil
• Nuts such as walnuts
• Soy nuts
• Seeds such as flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds
• Beans such as kidney beans, soybeans and navy beans
• Tofu
• Eggs from chickens fed flax and greens
• Summer and winter squash
• Leafy greens and coniferous vegetables

I find it difficult to get the needed Omega allowance so I take straight Omega 3 fish oil. I am going to disclose to you what I take.... I don't recommend this to anyone without consulting your doctor! But I take a teaspoon of fish oil with a small glass of orange juice - the size of a shot glass. Not something that you want to enjoy, you just want to get it down. I also put it in my smoothie!

The fish oil that I take is marketed for horses. Yes, I wrote HORSES. They make a human form but it's more expensive than the one they have packaged for horses. A friend of mine turned me on to this - she raises horses and has been taking her Omega 3 oil like this for years! The company is called Wellpride and you can check them out here. One of the reasons I take the actual oil is because the pill form made my stomach really upset, I am not sure why but with the oil I am fine.

Commit 2 Fit | Life Challenge Five

So excited to share week FIVE with you today! We are going to be adding Omega-3 fats to our diet. Yes, I said FAT... of course there is always a catch right?

Why are we going to eat fats?
Omega-3 fats are essential for an overwhelming number of physical processes - there are way too many to list. One of them does include weight management. Very important for shedding body fat you need to make sure you are getting good healthy fats.

How much Omega-3 fats do I add?

• 1,000 mg per day minimum

Before we go into too many details I think we should review dietary fats 101. Just to make sure we are all understanding the difference between good fats and bad fats.

• Saturated fats - we don't want these in our diets in high quantities
  • The higher the saturated fats in our diet the higher the risk for cardiovascular disease
  • This is the type of fat that comes from animals - cheese, milk, butter, beef
  • We are going to decrease your intake of saturated fats - is it okay to have cheese and milk once a week. And not a problem to have beef once a week. It is not recommended to have these fats on a daily basis. You are not going to lose a point for doing that, but for overall good health and results I would keep it to a minimum.
• Trans fats - these are processed, fats that have been manipulated through chemical processes
  • Includes hydrogenated shortening - this is in A LOT of packaged processed foods
  • We are not going to have any TRANS-FATS
• Healthy fats - vegetables and fist
  
  • Omega 6 & 3 fats
  • We are going to concentrate on increasing these good fats

What are Omega 6 & 3 fats?
Omega 6 - high levels of Omega 6 fatty acids are mainly found in vegetable sources and are essential for health.

• Olive oil
• Advocados

Omega 3 - high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids are mainly found in fatty  cold water fish

• Salmon
• Albacore
• Halibut
• Flaxseed oil
• Walnuts

As a society in the last couple of years, we have been educated very well on saturated fats and how we want to decrease our intake of these. Naturally we have gravitated towards Omega 6 fats - like using olive oil in our foods. However we are still very low as a society on Omega 3, we are not eating enough fish or flaxseed oil - so that is what we are going to concentrate on for the rest of the challenge (and your lifetime!)

When the body is in short supply of these essential acids, a myriad of problems can arise including fatigue, immune weakness, gastrointestinal disorders, heart and circulatory problems, reduced growth rate and more. I am anxious to hear from any of you that suffer from any of the auto-immune diseases such as Lupus or Fibromyalgia. Because it has been documented that those that suffer from these have a large deficiency in Omegas.

So one thing that I want to point out to you is the Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. This is important! In our bodies our health is optimized by a 1:1 ratio or 2:1 ratio. Meaning we need equal amounts of Omega 6 to Omega 3  - this is optimal. However let's take a look at some numbers from Japan

As a society Japan tends to be really healthy. They do not have the issues of obesity, nor the diabetes problems that the US has. As you can see the US has an unbalanced ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 and we really need to balance this out by adding Omega 3.

So what do we need to do? ADD OMEGA 3 FATS!

Choose from the following Omega 3 healthy fats for your POINT (min of 1000mg)

• Walnuts - 1/4 cup
• Flaxseed oil (1 TBSP) this is a good choice for those of you that do not like fish! Needs to be refrigerated. I buy mine at Trader Joes
• Flaxseeds ground (2 TBSP on your oatmeal or in your cereal)
• Fatty fist (4 oz)
  • salmon, halibut, herring, albacore
• Egg yolks with Omega 3 (2) these come in a package, just be sure it contains Omega 3
• Supplements - easy way! (1000mg - Advocare has OmegaPlex)

Trans fats - just want to review again to make sure we all know what they are when you are reading labels. You do NOT earn any points for eating Trans fats!

• Fried foods
• Hydrogenated fats
  • processed foods like crackers, processed peanut butter (solid at room temp), coffee creamers
• Margarine
• Shortening
• Pastries, muffins, cakes, pies
• processed cheese
• most chips

The above label is an example of looking for those bad fats. Just because it doesn't have color or frosting on it doesn't mean that it's good for you! :)

And just a reminder - we are going to limit the amount of saturated fats.

Make it happen

1. Start by throwing out foods that contain trans-fats that are in your home right now. Go through the cabinets, refrigerator, freezer, pantry and any other place you keep food. Donate to your local food bank!
2. Grocery shop for the a few different Omega 3 fat sources of your choice
3. If you take Omega supplements, you can count your pills as your Omega 3 serving.
4. Suggestions for getting your Omega-3 fats:
   1. add flaxseed oil to your shake or add ground flaxseed
   2. use flaxseed oil on your salads and cooked vegetables
   3. add walnuts to your salads or eat a handful as part of a meal
   4. salmon filets are available at most grocery stores

I am hoping that through this challenge we are all learning some really good life habits. Even though we are not implementing them at 100% we know what we should be doing and there is a goal in sight. I believe as adults we owe this to the younger generation - to be aware of how to take care of ourselves. We are the examples - it breaks my heart when I see young kids battling Type 2 diabetes! If we don't start changing our eating habits and becoming 'label lookers' our children are going to pay a huge price.

Here is an analogy that I would like to share with you... it's like your body is a house, you keep it well maintained on the outside. You have wonderful trees, plant beautiful flowers every year, groomed lawn, etc. Everybody that walks by thinks it looks fabulous! But you never clean the inside - the toilets are dirty, there are dirty dishes everywhere, litter box isn't cleaned out, etc. You are going to eventually have some kind of health risk right? Viruses, ecoli, bad bacteria, and ultimately some serious problems. We have to take care of our insides as well as the outside for good overall health!

This week is going to be a great new week - be sure to get your week four points into me. I am going to post the stats up to week three once I hear from some of you.

Please share some meal ideas that you are having - especially if you are eating out. Enjoy life!

Commit 2 Fit | Life Challenge Four

We are half way through the challenge! Give yourself a pat on the back and look forward to what I think is going to be an easy week. Although if you have some deadlines you are dealing with at work it may be a little tough. This week we are going to leave at least of two hour window of an empty stomach prior to bedtime.

WHY?
We are going to have our bodies enter sleep in 'burn' mode, rather than 'store' mode. Hopefully we will see improved digestion and overall gastrointestinal health.

MAKE IT HAPPEN

1. You must eat your first meal early enough to fit in your 5-6 meals each day, while still spreading them apart by 2-3 hours
2. Stay hydrated to avoid 'fake hunger' from dehydration. Keep your water bottle bedside!
3. Drink hot tea or your cranberry water mix if you have night cravings first.
4. In addition to water, tea and cranberry water, you may drink one serving of some kind of re hydration drink. What you want to look for in this type of drink is something around 50 calories, and less than 12g of carbohydrates.
5. By following the balanced meal prescription we have been trying to follow, you won't find yourself overly hungry in the evening.
6. It is normal to go to bed 'slightly hungry'. This is a good thing, but don't let your last meal be several hours before bedtime.
7. If you are seriously hungry before bed, you are either dehydrated or didn't eat enough calories in your first 3 or 4 meals. Drink some kind of re hydration drink.
8. Those of you on Advocare Catalyst - take 3 capsules before bedtime to enhance your results!

How you are going to get your point for this?
Drink water, tea, cranberry water or re hydration drink as your only consumption two hours before bedtime.

There are 28 possible points this week: 12 cups of water, five to six mini meals per day, making those meals protein+carbohydrates and this weeks habit.

Once everyone turns in their life habit 3 points I will do a status post - I can see there is going to be some competition for third place!!! Be sure to turn them in -

Since we are talking about bedtime, I leave you with this precious picture of Jesse. He knows how important sleep is! Yes, that is MY pillow and yes all three of them sleep with us. It's the only place I don't mind the dog hair - weird eh?

Good luck this week and look forward to hearing from you!

Commit 2 Fit | Proteins & Carbs

Happy HUMP day and week three of Commit 2 Fit challenge! Week three always seems difficult so it helps to have meal ideas to keep you going.

I want to post this image again to make sure we know what the serving size is and to make sure you are reading labels

Protein and Carb meal ideas:

• Egg white omelets - low in calories and high in protein! Scramble four egg whites with baby spinach, mushrooms and 1 oz of swiss cheese [200 calories and just about 3.5g of carbs] Add 1/2 berries for additional 30 calories and 7g of carbs. You can also try:
  • salsa with slice of avocado
  • smoke salmon
  • diced tomatoes
  • feta cheese
• Deli pinwheels - roll 3oz deli ham and 1oz of cheese in romaine lettuce leaves [200 calories 2g of carbs] Add an orange for 11g and 60 calories
• Tuna salad on lettuce - 3 oz water packed tuna, lemon juice, chopped celery, 1 tbsp of plain yogurt. 5g carbs and 180 calories

Any more ideas?

Commit 2 Fit | 300 Calories

Five small meals [300 calories] a day is difficult! The timing and what to eat combined, oh and let's not forget the water... it's enough to send you screaming into the night. What prevents me from throwing in the towel? Well I do feel better and I like that I am challenging myself in deciding what to eat.

Before the challenge I always found myself eating what was easy and something that I didn't have to think about. Now I have to plan [which I should love to do] what I am going to have and start thinking about cooking around 5PM.

Back to the planning - remember to choose foods from 3 categories: complex carbs, lean proteins, and healthy fats.

Breakfast

• low fat whole grain toaster waffles w/1 tbsp of reduced calorie syrup and fresh blueberries
• whole egg scrambled w/two egg whites and vegetable of choice [one bell pepper, brocolli]top with 2 tbsp of salsa. Serve with one whole wheat toasted english muffin
• Smoothie: 1/2 cup of skim milk, 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 tbsp of flaxseed, 1 tsp honey and 1/2 cup fresh berries - blend.
• egg mcmuffin toaster and with egg beaters it is just under 300 calories

Lunch

• whole wheat sandwich thins, only 100 calories, few pieces if lean lunch meat & veggies for a yumo sammy
• Burrito: whole wheat torilla, 1/3 cup of black beans, 1 oz low fat cheese - heat in microwave for 2 minutes. Top with shredded lettuce low calorie salsa
• 1 cup of Hormel Turkey chili with beans and small side salad

Dinner

• Veggie burger - on a low-calorie wheat bun. Broil the veggie burger. Serve together with 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1/2 cup lettuce and tomato, and piece of fruit on the side
• For something quick definitely check out the frozen meals like Lean Cuisines and Weigh Watchers. Those that are watching your sodium intake this may not be a good choice for you.

Here are some other great resources for 300 calorie meals:

• Diet Blog - shows actual photos
• From Daily Spark - love the photos showing 'this vs. this'
• Allrecipes.com has a 300 calories or less per serving - remember this is SERVING SIZE ;)

And if you can find the February issue of Real Simple on the stands it is worth picking up!Their section talking about superfoods is exactly what we are trying to follow.

One of their ideas is to roast broccoli in the oven and it delicious - I even combined it with brussel sprouts. I tossed them both in olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper...

Then roasted them on a baking pan at 375 degrees - less than 20 min but you want them tender, then sprinkled a little bit of parmesan on top!

Happy Wednesday!!

Commit 2 Fit | Life Habit Two

Eat FIVE [300 calories] small meals a day

We are on a second week of developing good habits! Before we get into the details of this weeks challenge let's cover some fundamentals and basic understanding of weight loss.

The teal column on the left represents the calories you ate - 1500. Moving to the right you can see what happens as you burn or don't burn enough calories. Keep in mind that everyone has a different metabolic ate, but with this challenge we are trying to develop these new habits that help increase your metabolism.

What happens when you burn 1800 calories?

The second scenario - you are going to lose weight! You are going to burn up some body fat - the body is going to be looking for that 300 calories to burn away. This is another reason why I take the Catalyst so my body doesn't go looking for muscle to burn, it burns the fat first.

The third scenario is what we are trying to avoid - surplus of calories, weight gain. I know that some of you are wondering how to figure out how many calories that you burn. Without getting into anything scientific and you going in for testing this is a generic example of calories burned:

• Average woman that works out 3 times a week, she burns 1500 - 2000 calories a day
• Average male that works out 3 times a week, he burns 2200 - 2500 calories a day

Remember this is a generic number - bottom line what you put in your mouth, you have to burn off!

The challenge this week: you are going to eat a samll meal every two to three hours.This life habit that we are going to implement this week is VERY important for your overall results. Some of us are really going to see some results when you start this!

What is a small 300 calorie meal? Make a fist - a fist and half is a good general rule of portion size, it is about 300 calories. We are going to follow the fist and half portion for this challenge not the two fists.

Here are some examples of 200-300 calorie meals:

• Half Turkey sandwich (light insides - have you tried the Orowheat double fiber english muffins?
• 2 eggs with yolks + 1 slice of whole grain bread (no butter)
• Yogurt + 1 TBL natural peanut butter
• Open face sandwich with meat, veggies, light mayo
• Advocare Meal Replacement shake
  
• Advocare Bars (many varieties: meal replacement, breakfast )
• 1/2 cup of brown rice (cooked) + 3 oz of chicken
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal (no milk, butter, or sugar) + 1 scoop of protein powder Muscle Gain Powder
  
• 3 oz of tuna fish (no oil) + 6 small whole grain crackers
• 3 oz of ground turkey meat + 1/2 cup of whole grain pasta
• 25 raw almonds + 1/2 piece of fruit + 1 scoop of protein powder Muscle Gain Powder
• 3 oz of salmon
• 3 oz of chicken + 1/2 cup of grapes
• 2 hard boiled eggs + low fat mayo + mustard + 1 piece whole grain bread
• 1 small apple + 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

Vegetables are considered the 'free' food and don't count in your 'fist' portion size. What really impacts your calories are butters, dressing, sauces, etc. Use light versions or very little of these.

DON'T forget about your 12 glasses of water a day!

Please share your ideas for these small meals - we are going to need them over the next seven weeks we have left!

I have planned that my typical day is going to look something like this:
    7:00 AM     Meal Replacement shake
    10:00 AM   some kind of protein bar or Breakfast Bar
    12:00 PM   small meal
    3:00 PM     small meal (something with almonds or bar)
    6:00 PM     small meal
    8:00 PM    optional small meal for females - if you are hungry, if not skip this

What does a typical day look like? Based on this graph I am definitely in the 'typical' range. So this will be a good challenge this week to get me to change it up to the ideal scenario! It is very important to have your meal within an hour of waking up - you need to eat! You have to start in the morning if you are going to continue to eat these small meals throughout your day. Plus it is a great way to jump start your metabolism in the morning - your body will start burning calories immediately. Do not deprive your body.

You can see how your blood sugar is going to stay even/stable throughout the day. That is what we are looking for. In the green you can see how most of us eat - notice first thing in the morning we sabotage our weight loss by not eating anything until 9am. But when dinner time comes around we are STARVING and we eat even more after dinner because we deprived ourselves all day. Look at the calorie intake of the ideal situation versus the typical in this example. The 'typical' example is actually called the SUMO Wrestler diet, believe it or not. I don't think any of us are going for that look on purpose!

Sumo Wrestler diet:

How do you keep your metabolism burning HIGH all day? Think of the twigs that you toss on the fire to keep it going as your food. So we have to be giving our metabolism small amounts of food to keep it going.

You are probably thinking there is no way that I have time to eat 5 meals a day! I believe we need to change our perception of what a 'meal' is. It's not always sitting at a table, with a napkin and silverware. Most of us don't have time to do this - we need to look at these meals more as snacks and they are not going to be eaten in the perfect social environment every time.

Let's Make it Happen!

• Plan ahead: write out a meal plan for each week. See the examples above.
• Make a grocery list and stock up on exactly what you'll need - feed your family this way too! Did you notice that most of your kids eat this way already??
• If you are going to work, pack your meals
• Eat within one hour of waking up so that you can fit all of your food in (plus it will enhance your results)
• At first, you might have to eat "by the clock" to break old habits, especially during the first half of the day. Because if you are eating those big meals at dinner/night you are not going to wake up hungry - your stomach probably hasn't even finished digesting it. When you even out your calories you are going to wake up hungry.
• A good rule of thumb is you need to at least have half of your small meals in before 2pm. Make a note of this somewhere - set it on your phone or your computer calendar.

Remember to either post your last weeks points here in your comments or send them to me privately at [email protected]. If you don't want your results posted on the blog PLEASE let me know! Also there are 14 possible points this week - one for the water and one for the small meals. This challenge builds upon itself each week.

We are all committed to feeling and looking better! Let us know if you have any questions, concerns or input.

Commit 2 Fit | H20 Tips

Heading into the weekend and just wanted to tell you that we are all doing so well! here are a few things to remember...

1. Definitely start as soon as you get up in the morning
2. Feeling like you live in the bathroom will subside over time - your body is probably in shock because you haven't hydrated it before! In the long term just think of all the bacteria you are flushing out -
3. Don't forget about a nice cup of herbal tea.
4. If you live outside of the US and are participating in the challenge I understand that you are a day ahead - no worries, just start your week on Tuesday.

Have a Happy Weekend!