*3* Day 1

With Day 1 behind me, the Advocare train has taken off!  Here's a rundown of what my day looked like, and how I felt. 

Breakfast

I made some egg bites the night before to heat up and eat on my way to the car.  This idea came from my awesome Advocare coach.  I just mixed up about 9 eggs (3 whole, the rest egg whites only), some diced cherry tomatoes, and cut up baby spinach.  I added some black pepper, a quick dash of sea salt, and little bit of water.  Then I poured it into muffin tins and baked at 350* for about 10minutes. 

In addition to the egg bites, day 1 of the cleanse phase includes a Fiber drink.  They come in two flavors-citrus, and peaches & Cream.  Our bundle came with Citrus.  As recommended, we added a splash of orange juice to the water and mixed really quickly.  Thankfully, I am able to chug/guzzle liquids pretty quickly.  It really wasn't too bad until I hit the last 3rd of my drink.  The fiber grains don't dissolve at all and it's like drinking sawdust.  The taste however, wasn't too bad-the orange juice really helped a lot!

We also had our 2 Omegaplex pills and spark before heading off to work.

Mid Morning Snack

I had just a handful of raw, unsalted almonds around 10:30. 

Lunch

For lunch I had a salad of mixed greens, with a few cherry tomatoes, cut up avocado (about a 1/4 of one), hard boiled egg, and Kraft's Lite  Parmesan Balsamic Vinaigrette.  It was really good.  I also packed a tub of mixed fruit to eat too, but I was so full after lunch that I only had a couple bites. 

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Another handful of Almonds and some of the fruit I wasn't able to eat at lunch

Dinner

Chicken and Spinach skillet.  

This recipe came from the 24 day challenge cookbook.  It was really easy to make and tasted pretty good.  We also had some green beans that were baked with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.  It was the perfect amount of food-and I felt full and satisfied afterwards.  We also took another 2 omegaplex. 

Evening Snack

Celery with 100% Natural Peanut butter.  YUMMY! No need to ever use "regular" peanut butter again.  I had tried natural peanut better before-made by Planters that is NOT refrigerated.  Super gross! It would separate after sitting in the pantry and was an odd consistency.  This time, I bought Old Home brand that is supposed to be refrigerated.  Much creamier and delicious.

Water Intake

I have always been TERRIBLE at drinking enough liquids throughout the day-and especially water.  I'm not a big pop drinker, I just don't take in enough fluids in general-I don't find myself thirsty that often.  However, water is typically the last thing I choose to drink.  I'm more of a juice or milk drinker.  Prior to the challenge, I had also started drinking "Sparking Ice" drinks, which are a zero calorie carbonated, flavored water drink.  

Before even 8AM hit, I had already consumed about 22oz of water between the fiber drink and spark.  This is probably more liquid than I typically consume in A DAY! By lunch I had finished my 750ML bottle of water (25oz).  I drank another full bottle of water before 4:30 with the goal of doing another by 6.  However, I felt like I just couldn't get any more water down-I was on water overload!!  I had another 8oz at dinner and a glass again before bed when we took our Probiotics.  Overall, I'd estimate that I had about 100oz of water.  Considering I about quadrupled my normal water intake, I'd say that's pretty good!

How I felt

I felt more energy than I typically do in the morning.  I am as far from a morning person as one can possibly get.  After finishing my spark, I felt full, and pretty happy considering it was a Monday.  I'm normally a big yawner, and I honestly don't think I yawned once all morning.  I did feel a little overly-full and bloated from all of the fluids I ingested through the day and would periodically get an upset stomach feeling for about 15-30min, but then it would go away on its own.   By 3:30 though, I was starting to feel a bit sluggish and tired.  I considered taking another spark, but there's only 28 packets for 24 days, so I didn't want to start doubling up now-or I'd run out.  

I could tell a HUGE difference from all of the water I was drinking.  I'm not usually a big bathroom goer. I can typically go all day from 7:30am to 5 or 6pm without going to the restroom-and if I do, it's only once.  My body obviously wasn't used to drinking so much water and I had to go to the bathroom every 2 hours!!

While I felt full most of the day, come about 8:30, I was REALLY hungry.  Stomach pains and gurgling.  That's when I decided to eat my evening snack.  While it helped a little bit, I still felt famished.  Not used to the withdrawal, my stomach wanted CARBS!!  Despite the hunger pains, I resisted temptation.  23 more days seems like a LONG ways away at this point.

I also read some conflicting info-or maybe I'm not understanding it right, but some reading that I've done says no carbs/wheat during the cleanse phase (or minimize to no more than 3 meals during the entire cleanse) and to only have carbs/fruit on refuel days during the last 14 days.  Other sources say that 100% whole wheat is fine during any stage, just no more than 30g per meal.  I really want to do this challenge right, so I'm taking the position that it's "better safe than sorry".