A healthy me | Olivia

If you're friends with me on facebook, you have probably heard about a cleanse I recently completed. I am not exactly sure what inspired me... I have had a hard time taking off the baby weight from Oliver with exercise alone so I talked to my trainer about doing a cleanse to get me jump started into healthier eating.

My husband and I completed the Advocare 24 day challenge and had some great results! In 24 days, I lost 6.5 pounds and a total of 13.5 inches! My husband had killer results, he lost 16 lbs. and a total of 11 inches. During the cleanse, which consisted of fiber drinks, vitamin supplements, and probiotics, our diet was very restricted. We were limited to lean meats, fresh produce, and lots of protein from eggs and natural peanut butter. Nothing processed or fried, no dairy, no sugar, low salt, no carbs, and no coffee or pop. This was quite a challenge for us! We quickly wondered what we could eat. It was a very big adjustment for us and a complete lifestyle change.

The whole process for me was a huge eye-opener when it came to what foods we were putting into our bodies. Pre-cleanse I pretty much ate anything I wanted. I wouldn't say I was the healthiest of eaters but I thought I knew health food from junk food and enjoyed the occasional fast food drive thru visit. Now that we are done with the cleanse and I have such a better education and awareness of the food we eat, there is NO way I could put even half of that food we used to eat into my body. I think our society is out of control with the junk and it is so wrong that to eat healthy in this country it is so expensive, yet the over-processed junk with ingredients I can't even pronounce costs pennies.

I could preach on and on about my thoughts but if you are tired of the junk and would like to start becoming more aware, take the time to educate yourself. An easy first step would be to start reading labels on the foods you buy. If it has too many ingredients and anything I can't pronounce I don't buy it. You would also be surprised at how "health food" is deceiving. I looked at some flax seed multi-grain pita pockets the other day and saw that the sodium levels were 500+ mg per serving! I'm not going to lie, eating a clean diet is expensive and takes a lot of work to constantly prepare fresh food. But aren't you worth it? If you are willing to buy a $250 pair of jeans that go on the outside of your body, you are worth $250 of good, clean food to put inside of your body. I love that my husband and I are teaching our kids about what is healthy and they are seeing first hand how fresh food is prepared. So much of bad eating habits stems from our parents, and sadly it gets passed down from generation to generation. These life lessons are taught but remember, it is never too late to start and to change.

I want to end on this note. So much of dieting is inspired by losing weight. We all feel like we have pounds to lose and when you think about it, they were pounds probably put on from unhealthy eating. When you truly change your lifestyle and eating habits, it is no longer a diet and food is not the enemy. When you think of it in terms of wanting to take care of yourself in the best possible way, wanting to devour a box of Twinkies no longer comes into play. You know how bad they are and wouldn't even touch them. I hope this post inspired someone to make some changes in their life that they deserve.

If you aren't watching already, check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It airs Tuesday nights at 7 pm Central time. It is chock full of knowledge and I guarantee you will get riled up about what the food industry is doing to our kids!
If you want to learn more about the Advocare products I used, take time to connect with me.