Why I picked Advocare

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen quite a few new hashtags: #24daychallenge and #advocare being chief among them.

So, yes. I am doing the 24 Day Challenge. Yes, I bought the supplements. Yes, I'm now that crazy chick not drinking a beer with my Georgia Football.

I've actually been curious about Advocare for a little over a year, and, after not liking how my jeans fit for the last time, I bit the bullet and signed up for the 24 Day Challenge once I noticed a friend selling it.

After a week on the challenge, I'm pretty happy with how I'm feeling, eating, and - yes - shrinking. I'm not weighing myself or measuring myself until the end of my challenge because I think the scale is stupid, but I am definitely already noticing changes.

Here's three reasons why I picked Advocare (and why Advocare may be a great pick for you):

1. I'm competitive. As I explained to my distributor, Cari, I feel like I'm competing with the Challenge every day. I feel accomplished when I exceed my water total or turn down the fries I'm not supposed to have. I feel like I'm winning when I prep my meals or kill a tough workout. The nature of the Challenge, as well as the length, makes it a perfect fit for my competitive nature.

2. I needed a kick in the butt, but not a quick fix. While the 24 Day Challenge requires you to adhere to a supplement program, it doesn't promise a get-fit-quick scheme without also changing your diet and incorporating consistent exercise. This forces me to acknowledge and change my habits in order to be successful on this program.

3. The suggested nutrition is solid, and it doesn't require you to starve yourself. This is big. Advocare advocates (that's fun to read out loud) a whole foods, primarily plant-based, non-processed approach to nutrition. I. Love. This. This means the nutrition plan can be tailored if you are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian, whatever. It teaches you to eat whole, nutritious foods, a nutrition strategy that is both widely accepted and easy to maintain.

I'm looking forward to posting some of my favorite recipes, observations, and success. Mostly the success part :)

People are judgy

People are judgy.

They're judgy about other people's clothes, their opinions, their jobs, and their diets.

I don't know if you've noticed, but people are the most judgy about what other people eat.

As a former diet-a-holic, I get it. It's human nature to get yourself psyched up about your new eating plan. I mean, the process lends itself to it -- you decide you want to lose weight/get fit/look like a supermodel, you do your research (or watch commercials), and you pick your diet of choice.

Then, once you've picked, it's time to throw yourself in 110%. You read the books, you buy the food, you toss out everything with sugar or calories or carbs from your fridge. And then, you feel want to share the new plan that you've found with everyone you know.

I love when people get excited about making healthy changes to their lives. Letting other people in can be inspirational to them and serve as accountability for you -- if everyone knows you're working to improve your health or fitness, they'll be able to share in your excitement, which will help you stick to your plan. Plus, it's always awesome to share articles, research, and results. Teaching others and sharing articles of substance isn't something we do often enough.

But what about when all-or-nothing approach leads us to cast judgement on the eating choices of others? Whether it's on social media, in a friend group, behind the backs of strangers, or just in our own heads, why do we so often cross that line between teaching and judgement?

You know, the "she's not actually eating Paleo because she eats Greek yogurt," or "how can you call yourself a vegetarian when you eat fish."

I'm going to drop some truth here: There is not one "correct" diet. 

There are expert opinions both for and against nearly every existing diet plan or diet choice. You could literally justify nearly every nutrition plan you could create with research from "the experts." And, just because you've been highly successful eating Paleo or following Weight Watchers or cutting out all meat does not mean everyone else will be too.

Each of us has unique nutritional needs and unique experiences that shape our ability to respond positively to any sort of diet change.

Since it's National Nutrition Month, I'm going to challenge you to focus on your own nutrition and discover your perfect diet (as in, what you eat on a daily basis). Be open-minded, and try out an eating style you've never tried before. Learn from others. Test different eating plans, listen to your body, and figure out what makes you function at the highest possible level for your needs.

And take off your judgy pants when it comes to what other people eat -- unless they are living on Oreos and Reeses. I'd challenge them to find expert research on that one.

It's National Nutrition Month, so it seems as good a time as any to kick off a series about food: what we eat, how we eat it, why we diet, and what's really the best food for you. This post is the first in this series.

On food guilt

We've all seen ads like this one:

As someone who has dealt with binge eating before, I know what it feels like to feel guilty after eating certain foods. Granted, it's probably a little bit different when you've just eaten half a pizza or a large bag of M&M's in one sitting (throwback to senior year of college), but I think at one point or another, all of us have experienced guilt after eating something we "shouldn't have."

Diets can do that to you because they create a mindset of deprivation. Your list isn't of what you can eat, it's of what you can't eat. Carbs. Bread. Candy. Fried food. Pizza. When you're operating under the dieting mindset, it's totally normal that you're going to experience guilt when you "lose your willpower" or "cheat."

But, you guys, can we stop it? Please? Because the reality is, you make a lot of food choices every day: what time will you eat breakfast, what will you eat for breakfast, how much will you eat? Do you want to add condiments to your sandwich or sugar to your coffee? Making those choices, which you're pretty much going to have to make every day, shouldn't be stressing you out more than the real decisions you have to make in regards to your family, your job, or your friends.

You know what feeling guilty does to you? It makes you stressed out. It makes you emotional. And, if you're like 22-year-old-Jen-who-secretly-binge-ate, it probably makes you continue to make "bad" food choices.

The fact of the matter is, if you're making healthy choices 80% of the time, the other 20% isn't going to impact you. And, you're going to be motivated by how making healthier choices makes you feel. By adding more nourishing foods to your life, you're going to find yourself not craving the not so nourishing foods a whole lot less.

Diets don't work. They don't work because you cannot constantly live in a deprivation mindset. It's negative, it's counterproductive, and, gosh darnit, it's going to drive you crazy. Instead, take some advice from one of my favorite food documentaries, Hungry for Change, and focus on what you can add. More greens? More bananas? A smoothie full of fruits and veggies in the morning? Each of those things is going to make you feel great, and may even curb some of your cravings.

But if you want cookies or ice cream or pizza, eat it, and don't feel guilty about it. You're not "cheating" on a diet, you're making one of a hundred food choices you're going to make in a week as part of your healthy lifestyle. That's it.

We juicin' everything up in here

Last week, I bought a juicer. And not just any juicer, but the Breville Compact Juicer. THE juicer.

I figured it's probably the only way to keep up with my growing addiction to green juice, spurred in large part by the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

Clearly, I couldn't wait to break in my new toy, and if you follow me on Instagram, you've likely already seen these gems:

My first Mean Green juice... a delicious treat post-5k.

Veggies ready to go for three servings of Mean Green and three Apple-Beet-Carrot-Ginger juices for my dad.

This was my first time ever working with beets. I couldn't get over how pretty they were! I mean, seriously, check out the color and patterns!

The prep and finished products of yesterday's juice-stravaganza. I am totally loving the mason jars, and they're fun to drink out of.

So I got onto a juice kick after watching some food documentaries, but I certainly am not planning on juice cleansing. I just like solid food, and I think that it's really up to each of us to develop our own food philosophy. Right now, mine is looking like: limited processed foods, dairy, and gluten, lots of fruits and veggies. Juice fits in, and it certainly can't be doing any harm to up my intake of nutrients. Who knows if detoxing is a real thing or not, but it certainly can't hurt to get more greens!

I figured I'd leave you with the Mean Green juice recipe I've been loving the last couple of days. Taken right from Joe the Juicer, who lost 80 pounds juice fasting!



This is my mean green face.



Mean Green Juice

Ingredients:

• 6 kale leaves
• 1 cucumber
• 4 celery stalks, leaves removed
• 2 green apples, (optional, apple of choice)
• 1/2 lemon, peeled
• 1-inch knob ginger root

Directions:

Add all the above ingredients and juice. I juice the green stuff first, then the apple, then finish with lemon and ginger. I also find that by juicing the kale with the cucumber and celery, you get more juice. Just my two cents!