Advocare 24 Day Challenge Round 2 - Week 2 - 6/15/14 - 6/21/14

This is the beginning of Week 2. It was a rough week/weekend for my challenge because we celebrated my birthday with brunch at my mom's on Saturday. It wasn't all that bad but not entirely Challenge friendly. We had fried taters and onions, ham and cheese quiche with a hash brown crust, fruit salad, cinnamon rolls and homemade ice cream cake. I only had a little bit of ice cream cake. The rest was given to us to bring home so it's patiently waiting in the freezer. Then Sunday we went out to Ruby Tuesday's for my birthday/father's day with my dad. I did good and planned ahead. I had the hickory bourbon chicken, fresh grilled zucchini and roasted spaghetti squash. I also had a carrot cake cupcake and two bites of cheesecake. Overall a very reasonable meal.

My mom and grandma bought me an adorable owl necklace for my birthday! Seriously. It's perfect.

When my dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted money because I want to go to Fleet Feet, have my running watched and have them recommend a pair of running sneakers for me. Average price for a good pair is about $120 so I figured I'd get enough birthday money to cover that and I did. I haven't gone yet, though. When you ask my dad for money for your birthday or Christmas, he comes up with creative ways and makes you work for it.

My brother and sister-in-law got me an adorable owl timer. Seriously, it could only be cuter if it hooted instead of chiming.

So far I am down 6.5lbs. I haven't measured inches, yet, and probably won't until the challenge is over. Ideally I'd like to lose another 6 before the challenge is over but I'm not sure how realistic that is. That would put me at 150lbs and 26 overall pounds lost since I began this weight loss journey. I am currently about halfway to my "goal weight", which I may lower as I get closer.

This shirt used to be too tight!

At the end of last week I was really craving cookies and apparently 6/12/14 was national Peanut Butter Cookie day. Tone It Up posted a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie recipe and as I was reading the ingredients, I realized there was nothing in them that I couldn't have on the challenge with the possible exception of chocolate chips. They were SO good and satisfied my sweet tooth. Instead of using chocolate chips, I used 4 Tablespoons of cocoa powder. They're a soft cookie and are delicious.

I posted on May 12, 2014 about that Make Ahead Paleo by Tammy Credicott cookbook that I won from Paleomazing. I pulled a few recipes for this week. The first is "Breakfast Muffins" which are okay. I'm allergic to some of the ingredients and don't like others so I replaced walnuts with slivered almonds and used zucchini and carrots. They're similar in taste to carrot cake because of the cinnamon, cloves and ginger used.

The second recipe is fajita burgers, which I will post later because I don't have the recipe with me.

For lunch this week I made Jamie Eason's Turkey Meatloaf Muffins again. This time, instead of using the chipotle pepper or similar spice, I just used chili powder. For the hubs I made them using taco seasoning instead of the spices in the recipe.

My Grocery List:
Carrots
Cucumbers
Green Peppers
Zucchini
Chicken
Various marinades
Lettuce
Ground Turkey
Celery
Slivered Almonds
Strawberries
Grapes
Brown Rice
Quinoa
Wild Rice

My Day:
Breakfast:
2 Breakfast Muffins or Meal Replacement Shake

Morning Snack:
Grapes

Lunch:
Turkey Meatloaf Muffins (I left out the spicy seasoning and used chili powder instead)
Red Leaf Lettuce
Strawberries

Afternoon Snack:
Carrots, Cucumbers, Green Peppers and Hummus

Dinner:
Grilled Chicken or Fajita Burgers
Steamed, grilled or roasted veggie
Brown Rice

Evening Snack if needed:
Peanuts