The results are in....

Today was the last day of my cleanse.  I, by no means, was perfect.  I tried and for the most part I was successful.  There were days that I stuck to the plan and then there were days,,,well, I didn't!  But what I can say is that I lost weight.  I have lost inches. And more importantly, I feel better.

I still struggle every day at every meal.  I struggle on the way to work.  Do you know that I pass 2 McDonald's, 1 Starbucks, 1 Sonic, 1 Dairy Queen, 2 Shipley's, and a handful of mom and pop restaurants on my way to school? It is a constant battle just in the 30 minute drive to work.  

I have learned that meal planning is the key.  I tried both ways.  I meal prepped all of my lunches and snacks the first week.  Things went smoothly.  There weren't as many temptations compared to the second week.  The second week I did not plan or prepare for the whole week.  Most days I made my lunch that morning. One morning I woke up late.  My thought process on eating went out the window.  I rationalized what I could eat that day.  I will get a salad from across the street.  That is not too bad except I will get Ranch dressing and there is cheese.  Then I thought for breakfast I will stop and get fast food.  The moment I thought of stopping tI thought about getting a frozen coffee.  Then I thought about me snacks.  I had none ready.  It was the first time that I could see how this spirals out of control.  I stopped and reassessed what I could bring from home.  I made good choices and made it through the day with minimal damage.  

I have learned that I am not great at blogging every day.  I tried.   But life got busy.  Here is my last comment before I give you my results.  I was not perfect.  I had days that I made huge mistakes and others that were flawless.  I have even started learning about macros.  But every day I got up and tried again.  I didn't wait for Monday to "start over".  I started over the next meal.  It made it so much easier having a group of people that working towards to the same goals.

So with that being said here are my results.  After cheats and no exercise.  Here is it is:

Starting Weight: 168.2
Final weight: 162.8
Starting Pants size-14
Ending pant size-12

Arms-.5 inches gone
Waist-1.5 inches gone
Belly(across the belly button)-3 inches gone
Hips-.5 inches gone
Pounds-5.4 pounds gone.

I saw a quote that said, "They are not lost.  They are gone. I have no desire to find them again."

I know as a society that we look at the scale to see what our number is.  I know that I do.  But we need to start looking at the whole picture.   I lost pounds and I am excited about that.  But I can't help but to wish for the number on the scale to be smaller.  But to see the inches gone, my clothes fitting better, feeling better, and all of the compliments makes it all worth it.

My husband said, "I'm gonna have to start loving less of you."  After figuring out what the heck he was talking about and having a good chuckle, I felt good.

So, wherever you are in your healthy lifestyle journey keep going.  Find a friend and keep going.

If you would like to know about Advocare leave me a message on here or on my Facebook page.  If you would like to order or look around you can go to my site.

I gotta go.  The doorbell just rang.  My Advocare order just got here!!!