Thursday, July 11, 2013

Advocare 24 Day Cleanse and Do Challange

I think in one of my first blog post it is important for me to talk about the cleanse I did back in March. Through my good friend Ken Dailey I learned of the advocare 24 day cleanse and the Jibboom "Do" challenge. I saw good results and felt it was time to shake up my diet and make some changes. I got in contact with Jibboom and got the products ordered after going to a seminar on the DO challenge.

A week later I had my products and the challenge was on. It is fairly easy to follow as there is a solid food list that allows one to eat a protein, a fat, and a veggie. The meals were 5 times a day so the nice part about this cleanse is that you aren't by any means starving. The advocare 24 day challenge is basically broken into two phases. The first phase is days 1-10 where there are 3 key items. The herbal cleanse is used to detox the body and help get all the garbage out. It really was manageable the only part was taking down the fiber drink but if one just powered through it wasn't so bad. I also started taking omega plex during this same period which this consist of essential fatty acids. The first phase also includes spark which is a flavorful drink that supplies one with amino acids. This helps give one energy and focus and I found that I enjoyed the spark more then coffee which was an option. I also would drink the spark right before I would exercise and while my energy levels were a little low as I was getting use to becoming a fat burning machine the spark seemed to help me exercise very well. I never really felt all too low in the first ten days but certainly noticed the lack of sugar in my diet and also the lack of beer. By day 7 I was sleeping deep and like a baby though so my energy was quickly rising.

The second phase is days 11-24 and this where things got a little more flavor. The change in products offered comes at the perfect time. One item that I took every day was the MAX C+ which helped control my appetite. This really helped me not break away from the 5 meals. This is also the time when the meal replacement shakes are introduced which can be an entire meal and offered a welcome addition to the rotation. On top of this I continued to use the spark energy drink which of course never gets old. I also continued and still to this day use the omega plex. A few things that jumped out at me during phase 2. I was now more rested and sleeping better then ever which helped me have the most energy I have felt in some time. I also noticed that I was losing weight rapidly and felt a lot lighter on my feet. I had a few little nagging injuries from all my running milage had also gone away and frankly I noticed my muscles were looser and moving better. Finally I noticed that my athletic performance was taking off and I was starting to move faster and faster.

I continued following the diet part for a additional 6 days before weighing myself again finally. I was down 16 pounds and feeling lean. I had turn myself from a sugar burning mac truck into a fat burning ferrari. I learned a lot by going through the challenge. It taught me better how to manage my portion sizes and just nutritionally live a much healthier lifestyle. One would think once the challenge is over that I would stop losing weight but nope I am a fat burner now and I continued to eat smart. 3 months after doing the initial cleanse I am now down 30 pounds and destroying all of my pr's at running. Since I am an ultra runner I don't race often but every run I do in the area I have taken lots of time off my pr's. A run up Mt. Rose use to be 2 hours now I am down to 1h55m. A 14 mile run with 2000 feet elevation gain use to be 2h35m and is now down to 2h20m. Those are just two examples but the proof is in the kale. I have also noticed that I am now much smarter fueling while I run as well which I still use advocare products for.

I have taken my nutrion to new levels thanks to advocare and I am now ready to take on the Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance 100. I will eat a large steak and lots of sweet potatoes the night before the race and I will feel confident that I am going to have sufficient sustained energy that will allow me to run all day.