A Renewed Healthy Lifestyle

It’s that time of year: beach season. For most of us, Memorial Day was the official kickoff to summer, which means that swimsuit season is officially here! This is the time of year when people take dieting to the extreme, using unhealthy methods to firm up before they suit up. This is also the time of year that I cringe while listening to other people’s ‘slimdown strategies’ because they are generally not so good for your body!

I’ve always liked to lead a healthy lifestyle, but I admit that even I step it up when summer comes around. However, a healthy lifestyle does not mean ‘crash diet’ – it means always (not just for a few months out of the year) incorporating healthy foods and exercise into your life.

For me this looks something like this:

Breakfast:

-Tone It Up protein pancake OR Advocare Meal Replacement Shake

-Vitamins and Advocare MNS Max3 supplements

Snack:

-15 raw almonds or fruit

Lunch:

-Spinach salad with chicken breast, veggies, hummus, and salsa

-Strawberries, grapes, and cantaloupe

–Advocare MNS Max3 supplements

Dinner:

-Lean protein (chicken, ground turkey, pork tenderloin, shrimp, tofu, etc.)

-Green vegetable (usually broccoli, green beans, or stir fry veggies)

-Occasionally a starch, like potatoes or brown rice

I decided to incorporate the Advocare 24 Day Challenge into my diet in May, and I just completed the challenge on Sunday. I feel amazing and definitely toned up over the past 3.5 weeks! The first 10 days of the Challenge are an Herbal Cleanse, which detoxes you and prepares your body to properly absorb the nutrients in the supplements during the Max phase. After just 10 days, I definitely had more energy, and I felt better, too! By eating clean and placing an emphasis on fitness, Advocare can help jumpstart your metabolism – and a nice side effect is toning up a little bit, too!

I’ve always taken the bare minimum when it comes to supplements – just a multivitamin. So, needless to say, I was a little intimidated when I received the Advocare supplements…because I had a handful of capsules to take every day! I know some people don’t buy into the whole supplement thing, but I definitely think there is a benefit to incorporating supplements into an already-healthy lifestyle. Obviously, no vitamin or supplement should ever replace a healthy diet, but it can definitely add a little bit of “oomph” to your healthy lifestyle!

Technically, the 24 Day Challenge works best if you eat 100% clean for the entire 24 days. However, I started the Challenge the weekend of Mother’s Day, so I can’t say that I ate perfectly ‘clean’ food 100% of the time. I did try to eat the healthiest choices possible, though, and ate only small portions. I’d say that I’ve kept up my 80/20 rule during the challenge – 80% healthy, 20% (less) healthy. I never eat really BAD food, but that just means I might eat multigrain tortilla chips or bread occasionally. I never eat fried food – it just isn’t worth it to me. Nor do I like the taste of it or how it makes me feel.

I’ve been considering Advocare for a while now, because I’ve heard so many great stories about how using supplements in conjunction with healthy eating and fitness can really help you achieve optimal health. I decided to continue taking Advocare supplements after the challenge ended because I really like how much more energy I have! When it comes to health and fitness, I tend to spare no expense. I generally hate spending money (unless it’s on clothing…just occasionally, babe!), but I’m willing to spend on health and fitness without guilt. It’s SO worth it!

I’m also going to focus more on strength training again – I got into a habit of running a LOT and not doing as much strength work as I used to. I’m getting ready to join a new gym that’s super close to home so that I’ll have access to all the weights I could want…plus, I can diversify my workouts a bit and get back into Spinning and BodyPump! I think maybe my renewed focus on optimal health and better workouts is wearing off a little on my husband…he ran a few times last week AND let me sign him up for an 8k that I’m running in a few weeks! A healthy lifestyle is contagious, what can I say. 🙂

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