Lessons From Advocare

Tomorrow is day 24 of Advocare. I say GOOD RIDDANCE. This time I have really struggled with sticking with the plan for the last 10 or so days. I think it’s for a multitude of reasons but here are the two main ones.

Firstly I’m much happier with my body than I was the first go round. I’m still working on it, but for the most part, I think I look great. I now have a much better understanding of why Roommate can’t be on a diet for even an hour. Now that I like how I look for the most part, it’s really tough to deprive myself. Yes, skinny tastes better than chocolate, but if I can have skinny and chocolate, you better bet I will.

Secondly, after the first 12 days, my weight loss stopped completely. I lost 10 quick pounds, and I’ve camped out there. I tried increasing my work outs, to no avail. Not eating the foods you want, working out consistently, and being dizzy every time you move with any speed is only okay if you’re losing pounds. When you’re plateaued, it sucks and does not feel worth it.

Not that I’m in anyway sorry I did Advocare. I lost 10lbs, which is not something I want to discount, I also feel good, I feel clean and more energized. Advocare reinforces some really important habits, and I will probably do it again. Below are some of the most important things I learned (or was reminded of) from doing Advocare.

Will Power

I know it’s cliché to say, but it’s so true. When you practice will power you have more of it. Walking past the candy dishes and pretty much everything that roommate eats is hard at first, but it does get easier. I know that on Thursday, when I can eat anything I choose, I will still be making healthy choices. Those healthy choices will involve more cheese, but they will still be healthy. It is no longer hard for me to walk by store bought treats and little silly candies that I don’t love. All those little calories add up, and they aren’t worth it. I’d rather save those calories for something I really enjoy.

 Mindfulness

This is a Buddhist principle that I think should be applied in all aspects of life, but Advocare really brings it to the front in terms of nutrition. It makes you mindful of your body, and how different foods make you feel. It also makes you mindful of what you’re eating and when. On Advocare you only eat fruit (sugar) and carbs in the earlier part of the day. When you’ll have the rest of the day to turn those sugars into energy and propel your body. Then your body won’t turn that sugar into fat. Apply that to life off of Advocare – the bowl of ice cream before bed doesn’t sound so worth it any more

Portions

This was one I definitely needed a reminder about, and I’m so glad that I did Advocare again if only for this one lesson. Advocare is very strict in terms of weighing and measuring everything. By doing this for 3 weeks, I now am able to eyeball a serving portion, and cut out excess unnecessary calories. One of the days last week, I was making my lunch in our café. I was having chicken and brown rice and spinach. A serving of a starchy carb like rice is 4oz. It’s about a half of a cup, a little smaller than the size of my fist. It just so happened that a co-worker was having rice and meatballs. Because of advocare, I know that she could have a lot of meatballs, since her body can’t store that protein as fat, and she should cut down on the rice, since any of those carbs not used quickly as energy will be stored for use as energy later, as fat. She easily had 4 servings of rice on her plate and maybe 5 meatballs. And probably didn’t even realize how incorrect her portions were. Again, mindfulness, Advocare taught me what a serving size is, and also to be aware of it.

 Side bar – next time I have Thai food, I will ignore all of the above. Curry requires that I eat copious amounts of rice. But at least I will know!

 

 Purpose

This one should be obvious, but I think our foodie culture often pushes this out of our head. The point of eating is to give your body fuel. If it tastes great and you love it, bonus! But that’s not the point of eating. I am often guilty of making food choices not based on my physical needs, but on my emotional ones. I’m having a rough day, I’m allowed a cupcake to cheer myself up. I worked out extra hard, I’ve earned that pasta dish.

 That is not the point of food. So I make new rewards, and they don’t have to be expensive. I’m having a rough day, I call my mom and pout about whatever is making me unhappy. I worked out extra hard, well, for me that sometimes reward within itself. Being able to actually complete an unassisted pull up makes me feel like a bad ass. And that is quite the reward. If I want a tangible reward, I go shopping, a lot of times at the goodwill. I get to dig the racks, cure my shopping itch, find something great and rarely spend more than $20.

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I’m nervous about going off Advoare again, but not for the same reasons I was last time. Last time I was worried that maybe all the weight loss was just water weight, and that it might all bounce back. That didn’t happen, and this time I’m confident that I weight loss I saw was fat loss, and that if I go back to my before Advocare habits, I will go back to my before Advocare weight loss, which was just maintaining.

My concern is that I dropped 10 pounds so quickly and have stayed camped out right there. I’m worried that I’ve hit some sort of a wall and I’m not going to lose any more weight at all. And I definitely want to lose about 10 more pounds, and tighten up my stomach and my triceps.

I’ve wanted my whole life to have a flat stomach and now that I’m so close, I’m paranoid that it will forever be just out of my reach. Rationally I know this isn’t true. We can shape our bodies into anything that we want. But irrationally I worry that I just don’t have that shape, and genetically I will never be able to achieve this. Because of genetics’ roommate eats only sugar and carbs and has a flat stomach.

Are my genetics going to prevent me from doing this? The real question is, am I going to let them?

I know that only time is going to answer this questions. I also know that it’s only going to get harder from here. I’m the smallest I’ve been as an adult. That means that fat that’s left has been there a very long time. So I shouldn’t expect it to fall off as easy as the rest did.

I know about healthy eating habits, I know how to go to the gym consistently, and I know how to stay positive. So now I just need to apply everything I know, as well as some serious core exercising, and look forward to that flat stomach I’ve always wanted.