Advocare Ten Day Cleanse: Dos & Don’ts

Maybe you’ve heard of the Advocare 24 Day Challenge?  Well, this 10 Day Cleanse is the first part of that 24 Day Challenge and you might have noticed when we have cleansed in the past we have stuck to really just doing the first 10 days of that challenge, so that is an option.  Here is a list of what you will actually need for this cleanse –

  • Box of the Herbal Cleanse

  • One bottle of Omegaplex
  • One bottle of Catalyst
  • Optional: Spark

Now let’s get into more of the nitty gritty of what your food should and should not be for the 10 days that you are on the cleanse –

Don’ts:

Refined sugars, corn or white starches

Wheat products (bread, pasta, muffins, etc.),

Dairy of any kind (milk, cheese, yogurt)

White sauces, dressings such as ranch, blue cheese

Alcohol (you can go without – it’s only 10 days)

Coffee (lattes and coffee full of milk or creamer definitely NO, but if you are a black coffee drinker then in our opinion you don’t have to stop drinking it.)

Soda

Fried foods

Hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup

Fruit juices

Cereal

Bottom feeder seafood (shrimp, lobster)

Extremely small or low doses of butter, margarine, or mayo (ideally these are never used but definitely not on a regular basis)

Do’s:

Vegetables: Fresh or frozen are preferred over canned. Stick with more greens and avoid starchy vegetables like corn.

Fruit: look for fruits lower on the Glycemic Index, but a good rule of thumb is northern fruits: apples and berries. Oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, grapes, kiwi, and bananas are OK but keep to one serving.

Healthy Fats: avocado, nuts, olive oil, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts

Meats: clean meats are best in the whole form, ground is OK, but not for every meal. Chicken, tuna, salmon, halibut, eggs, beef is OK, but is not the first choice, and turkey.

Clean Carbohydrates: sparingly during the cleanse –  Rice, hummus, oatmeal, quinoa, rice cakes.

Also OK: Lentils, legumes, fresh mint, lemon or lime juice, 100% cranberry juice to add flavor, egg beaters, mustards, relish, low mayo, pickles, spaghetti sauce with not added sugars (organic and clean) salsa.

What we both like about this cleanse is that it isn’t an unrealistic cleanse.  It is very doable and if you are trying to get rid of processed food from your diet this can very much aid you in that process.  To make this a successful cleanse try and do as much food prep early on so you don’t get in a bind later. Advocare recommends doing this cleanse once every 3 months.

Should you want to do the Advocare Ten Day Cleanse then you may go here to find all of your products.

Have you participated in a cleanse before, if so what kind? If not, what’s hold you back from trying one?

*all pictures courtesy of Advocare

**Disclaimer: Teal is an Advocare Distributor and became one because she believes in the product.  We are not being paid for writing this blog post, but want to share with you something we believe in ourselves.

Tasty Tuesday: Green Chili & Vegetable Soup and Green Juice

This post is brought to you by the color green!

So the pictures on this recipe are a little weak. Something mysteriously happened to my iphone and in the place of the finished products is a picture of strangers. How it got there is beyond me, but never the less the pictures are gone.

If you follow us on instagram you might remember from a couple of weeks ago, we used diptic to show you what we each had for lunch. This was mine! Green Chili and vegetable soup and green juice (not as scary as it sounds!)


Green Chili Vegetable Soup

Large green chili (whatever heat you like)
8-10 red potatoes (the little ones)
Garlic clove
Fresh green beans
Can of corn
48 oz Can of red diced tomatoes
1 can of peas
1 can of rotel
1 lb of lean ground beef or bison
2 carrots cut into slices

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I am not big on listing 8 million spices and their exact quantities; I did put garlic, sea salt, pepper, a little cumin, and chili powder. This is up to you. Really I don’t think it needs much and depends on the person- this is clearly my non-chef talk

To make: This is so easy! Brown the meat in a pan and place in the crockpot after it is finished. Add in remaining ingredients and cook for 6-8 hours depending on what temperature you need to set it at and what time you put it in. The meat is cooked so really all you need to do is make sure the potatoes finish.

I placed mine in mason jars and ate the soup for lunch all week.

Green juice

3oz spinach
3oz kale
½ large cucumber sliced
2 green apples
1 lemon.

To make: Cut apples in to cubes, peel lemon and slice cucumbers (note: you only have to do that part if your juicer is old school like mine and you have to cut and peel) and throw everything in the juicer. If you don’t have a juicer you can blend and then drain out the chunky parts. If I do it this way I usually blend and drain twice and you might have to add a little water. It tastes exactly the same but the texture is different.

**Advocare Note: If you make the Green Chili & Vegetable Soup during your 10 day cleanse either leave the potato out or you’ll need to count that as your one carb for the day!!**

Tasty Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken Taco Meat

A couple of weekends ago we got together with some of our friends and had a taco dinner much like our wine dinner we had back in January.  We had brisket tacos and chicken tacos, but the chicken taco recipe*** was such a breeze we HAD to share this one with you!  Especially since there are probably a lot of things you could do with the chicken once it’s cooked besides just using it as taco meat.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of taco seasoning

1 cup of chicken broth

1 pound of boneless and skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Clean your chicken and trim off that fat!  Pour your chicken broth into your crockpot then pour in the taco seasoning and let it dissolve in the chicken broth. Then place your chicken breasts in the crockpot.

Not the most exciting picture, but the chicken broth should pretty much cover your chicken breasts and who doesn’t love crockpot liners for an easy clean up??

Put it it on low and cook for 6 hours.  Once it’s finished cooking you’ll have such tender chicken it’s literally falling about trying to get it out of the crockpot.

Then serve it to your guests should you be having a taco dinner party or divide it up to eat throughout your week!

If you use this same recipe and create something other than just the chicken taco meat being sure and SHARE IT with us!! We would love to know!  Hope you enjoy this recipe and how easy it really is!

**source

Tasty Tuesday: Mason Jar Salads

I am sure you guys have seen these if you are on Pinterest at all, but I really hadn’t paid much attention to them until I got to start actually eating lunch with adults at school again! My friend from work came in with her salad in a mason jar and I wanted to try it! Here it is in steps! I am super excited about this, I used to bring my salads in a plastic bag but this seams way easier with the dressing and everything!

I bought 12 mason jars for less than 10 bucks- I am just using the extra as cups!  Then follow these steps:

  1. Place your favorite dressing at the very bottom: I used Newman’s Own Organic Balsamic
  2. Place something that can be used as a barrier and you wouldn’t mind being soaked in the dressing- I used bell pepper
  3. Layer on what you want! These salads have mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes, craisins, and ½ cup of cooked quinoa
  4. After you have placed in everything you want pile in as much lettuce as you can fit! I used an organic spring mix!
  5. Store and eat. Everything I have found says that they will keep for a week!

Nutrition info in case you were curious brought to you by myfitnesspal

292 calories

58 carbs- if this is too high for you take out the craisins: they have 25 grams

6 grams of fat

7 grams of protein

**Advocare Note: If you make this recipe during your 10 day cleanse you’ll need to count quinoa as your one carb for the day AND for salad dressing you’ll need to use either oil & vinegar or lime juice**