Advocare 24 Day Challenge: Days 4-7

I did a post about what I ate the first few days, and thought I would continue, if for no other reason than as a reference point for myself for future cleanses. In days 4-7, you don’t have to take the fiber drink in the morning; you add two teeny tiny probiotics pills instead. Definitely a welcome change!

Day 4

• Breakfast: 2 hard-boiled egg yolks mashed with mustard and sriracha, with the whites chopped up and mixed in. This may be my breakfast for the rest of my life. I am in love with this breakfast.
• Lunch: I went to Crossfit during lunch because I had Happy Hour plans for after work. When I got done I had a Meal Replacement Shake (I mixed half of a chocolate pack and half of a vanilla packet together. It was very good) and an apple.
• Dinner: Happy Hour was actually dinner. I had a spinach salad. It came with bacon, but I asked them not to include the bacon. It did have baked goat cheese on top and I did leave that on. Totally worth it!
• After-dinner Snack: I made some homemade hummus for later in the week and had to try it out with some peppers and celery. I’ve been trying to make homemade hummus for YEARS and have never been able to make it taste as creamy and delicious as store-bought. It turns out the secret is a good blender! I bought myself a Vitamix a few months ago and that hummus was AWESOME!

Day 5

• Breakfast: Fail. I was running late and needed to get in to work early, so I skipped breakfast. Which led to . . .
• 1000 calorie lunch: I was so hungry by the time lunch rolled around. I had a big salad with my lemon-tahini dressing; a cup of Weight Watchers summer squash soup; more homemade hummus with carrots and celery; a cup of raspberries/blueberries/blackberries.
• Dinner: My mom was hosting Bunco and invited me to sub. I went off-plan for the night and had the shrimp, crab, and artichoke casserole she made over rice, salad, two pieces of french bread, havarti cheese with crackers, and vanilla icecream for desert. It was good, but man did I feel BAD when I got home later. The casserole had half and half and cheese in it and all of that dairy did NOT agree with my mid-cleanse stomach. Also eating so MUCH food was a problem.

Day 6

• Breakfast: My favorite eggy breakfast!
• Lunch: I was talked into going out to lunch for a coworker that was leaving. It was the same place I had been for happy hour earlier in the week, so I got the spinach salad again. This time I didn’t leave off the bacon. Honestly, I could have done without it, it didn’t make it THAT much better.
• Snack: Homemade hummus with sweet peppers and a carrot
• Dinner: I went to my boyfriend’s parents’ lake house for the weekend. His whole family was there to celebrate his birthday. They had a frozen lasagna prepped for dinner. Luckily his sister was in town and knew I was doing this cleanse, so she prepped some awesome veggie side dishes. We had eggplant, tomatoes, and kale chips. I had a tiny piece of the lasagna because the rest of his family was sort of pressuring me to eat it, and I was a guest in their home, so I didn’t want to be rude. This was a tough situation that I had to finagle all weekend.

Day 7

• Breakfast: Still at the lake, but I brought my hard-boiled eggs with me!
• Lunch: Tuna salad with chickpeas and herbs
• Snack: My boyfriend’s sister made her awesome guacemole. I chopped up some carrots so I could eat some (mostly) guilt-free. Dinner was suuuper late, so I had some cashews and almonds around my normal dinner time
• Dinner: The planned dinner was porkchops with canned green beans and corn on the cob with lime butter. I had a few bites of my boyfriend’s porkchop and half of an ear of corn (I did not pass up that lime butter). I was given somewhat of a hard time again, but I felt like I was eating enough to not be rude. I loaded up on the green beans and a tomato/onion/cucumber salad his sister had made. There was cookie cake for birthday celebration desert, but I’m not much of a sweets eater, so it wasn’t a big deal to pass this up. (Not to be snobby, but the fact that it was grocery store cookie cake as opposed to Great American Cookie Company helped make the decision easier!)

Thoughts on days 4-7: These days were a little harder to navigate. I had social obligations that I didn’t want to miss out on. At the same time I didn’t want to alienate anyone but sticking so rigidly to my cleanse that I couldn’t enjoy time with friends and family. I think I will do a follow-up post on this issue later. Back to the fiber drink tomorrow!