#Mamavation~ What's your inspiration?

Do you ever feel like your on a constant roller coaster & that life is passing you by...quickly?  That is how I've been feeling lately.  As well as one of the many reasons why I haven't been as active as I would have liked with the other Mamavation moms.  I really feel like the last two weeks went by as quick as one day normally does. I often wonder how do we, as moms, do it all.  The cooking, cleaning, supporting our spouse, all the kids after school activities, and if were lucky take a little time, besides grocery shopping, for ourselves.

Which brings be up to the topic of the week.....whats your inspiration.

I don't feel like any one thing or any one person is my "inspiration"  but, rather the entire net-work of people I have met thanks to Mamavaion as well as AdvoCare.  Its all the wonderful people who I have met & saw with the same struggles that I have had who inspire me on a daily bases.  Some of those individuals had more struggles & while others had less, but no matter who you were or what your goal to accomplish for the week was, none of us gave up.  We all work every day to pick each other up on the bad days & to cheer each other on during the good ones.  I've been one who has given up one too many times in my past. At the beginning of the year one of my resolutions was to never ever again be the one who sees a road block & to use that as an excuse.  Instead, I told myself,  I would be the person who finds a way around, that road block, & get to the finish line.  So far, with that thinking & by admitting the faults that I have, I am now closer than ever to the final stretch.  I owe that all to you.  Each and everyone of my readers & online friends work together, with out ever knowing it inspiring me to be the best person possible. 

As some of you know over the past 3 months (72 days) I took part in Advocare 24 Transformation challenge. and also given an amazing opportunity to join AdvoCare. By joining the company, I was able to see, and learn for myself what the company was all about.   I don't want to use this as a sales pitch, (don't worry, that will come soon) but rather I want to tell you that my results are great! During the challenge I was given support from a dear friend, Jamie, as well as from a local gym TNT fitness, now I want to point out that I did not workout at this gym.  Simply Derek Toshner, the owner, is a true believer in the products, and he uses them himself. With both Jamie & Derek's guidance I learned the value in food.  I began eating a cleaner diet, which most of you know that already, but I also realized that I was not getting nearly enough protein in my system. I did take a few supplements, such as meal replacement shakes, which I now LOVE.  These shakes were my lifesaver on the days when time was running short & I normally would have skipped the meal.   They also reminded me about the good fats vs. bad fats and how to sneak veggies into almost any dish.  In fact, Jamie gave me a cookbook where every recipe from your main dish to your desserts have a vegetable incorporated into the recipe.  Derek also shared with me his 8 rules for healthy living (which a lot are like the ones from Mamavaion .... Such as NO alcohol...ya that was a hard one.
1) 1/2 body weight in water or tea daily
2) 2 fruits a day
3) 4 cups vegetables a day
4) 1 gram fiber for every 50 calories
5) increase the omega 3
6) increase protein to 1/3-1/2 body weight in grams daily
7) Keep a journal for habits
8) 8 hours of sleep

I'll be completely honest when I say that it took me until around month 2 to finally get the hang of everything.  Taking the vitamins and the Dietary supplements was the easy part.  Working out and keeping the journal was the hard part.  Once I became accountable for the food I was ingesting, I started to see all the results that were promised.  Sure, I cheated once in a while, such as on St. Patrick's day I enjoyed a few drinks.  But I was more aware of it, and was sure to compensate the following day.  I'm not going to sit here & tell you that it was only these products though that helped me get the results you are about to see.

I also had an fantastic option of joining some of my fellow mamavation moms to do a 2 week workout challenge that was created by Mr. Bookieboo himself.  This challenge definitely helped kick up the workouts for the last two weeks of the Advocare Challenge.  By eating healthy, doing all the workouts I was able to drop 5#s alone in the two weeks of the Mamavation 2 week challenge. (please note that the "before" pic is not the original one taken for the AdvoCare challenge, try as I may I couldn't locate it so these are "before pics taken about 3 weeks in)

So....drum roll please.....

So...if you are keeping tabs this means I have lost a total of....

24 pounds!!! and 23 inches!!!

I am still speechless.  It takes a lot to get me that way & these result are amazing.  As you know, I already faced several hurdles along the way.  My brother suffered a brain injury, I was sick, in a car accident and just dealing with life in general.  If I can get these results with all those obstacles nothing will stop me.  Starting the Monday after Easter I am jumping in again, with the hope of dropping another 24 pounds.