The Journey of Parenthood…

Casey and Jordan’s 24 Day Challenge

I know everyone has heard my story about the nursing version of the 24 Day Challenge! A group of 8 of my family and friends just finished up with their legit 24 Day Challenges. Between 8 people there were 80 pounds lost!!! EVERYONE seriously fell in love with the products and I thought it’d be neat to hear some of the different stories…Casey wrote this blog post about her and Jordan and their results with the 24 Day Challenge:

My journey with Advocare really began when my husband, Jordan, mentioned it to me. He and Emily had talked about it and he wanted us to try to do the 24 Day Challenge together. I will be the first to admit that when he first proposed the idea to me I was SUPER skeptical. Mostly I was skeptical because I’m just not a dieter. I went on a mini-diet before our wedding and lost a few pounds but hated denying myself food.

My skepticism continued until we went on our girl’s weekend beach trip. Emily told us that she was doing a version of the challenge for nursing moms. She told us how good it was making her feel and how her headaches had gone away. As soon as she told us how much she was liking it, and I could see how she was starting to lose weight and how good she was feeling (she had WAY more energy than usual for sure!), I was totally into the idea.

I was still hesitant to do it because, like I said, I just hate diets. I knew it would be SO much easier to do it if Jordan and I did it together and there was no question about it, he was on board for the challenge! I also know that pretty much everyone in our family was going to be doing it together so, of course I didn’t want to be left out 🙂

What really made me decide to give it a try, more than even the weight loss I saw Emily have, was hearing her say that she felt so much better and had so much more energy. This REALLY appealed to me. I’m a high school teacher and I get super burnt out by the end of the school day. By the time I get home from work, after being on my feet all day, I am pretty much DONE. Poor Jordan doesn’t get to see me in a pleasant mood too often because I just want to go to sleep as soon as I walk in the door!

I have also been wanting to get on some kind of vitamin program. Not only for my general overall health but also to start preparing my body for a baby (don’t worry…not in the near future!). I had also gained about 8 pounds since the wedding (love weight right?) and I knew Jordan and I could both use a boost in getting healthier overall.

On August 15th we all started our 24 Day Challenge! The weekend before Jordan and I went grocery shopping to stock up on the foods that were best suited for us to be successful on the plan. We tried to follow the suggest grocery list but were also practical about what we could realistically do (I knew from day one that there was no way I was giving up my daily coffee!). Honestly though when I do the challenge again I think I may try to give up my beloved coffee fix! After completing it and seeing how much energy I had (thank you Spark!) I really do think I could go without the coffee!

One of the best parts of the Challenge was actually the difference in our grocery bill!!! We bought so many fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods which actually tend to be more expensive. We were really able to save some money! And by doing it together we weren’t tempting each other to eat foods that we shouldn’t have been eating 🙂

We began the Cleanse Phase and the first few days were a little difficult. I truly did feel like my body was detoxing all of the bad food I used to eat. I did find myself craving fried foods (which how sad is that to crave fried foods? lol) and also craving Cokes which I usually drank a couple a week. After the second or third day though those cravings were GONE and I felt AMAZING. I never, not once, felt hungry while on the challenge. I loved the plan of eating smaller meals more often through out the day. While I never felt hungry, I also never got that nasty overfull feeling I’d often get from overeating. I saw a big lift in my energy levels and stopped getting the sinus headaches I used to get in the afternoons.

Jordan was super into it and was doing even better at sticking to the plan than I was! It was SO great that we were both doing it together because we were able to help encourage and motivate each other. After the first week I was completely adjusted to the plan and routine and it wasn’t difficult at all. I even started packing hummus and natural peanut butter on whole wheat bread thins everyday for lunch with some fresh fruit. I actually found myself looking forward to my lunch each day!!!

Jordan checked his weight more regularly throughout the challenge (he’s more competitive than I am!) and at just one week into it he had already lost 5 pounds!!! I waited until I was 2 weeks into the challenge and I lost 6 pounds at that point! That was SO amazing to me because all I really wanted to lose was around 8 pounds (what I’d gained since the wedding) and I was already almost to my goal in just two weeks!!!

Our quick results were big encouragements for us. We tried to finish strong…but it was tough with my birthday and a trip to the beach all during our last week of the challenge…However Jordan still ended up losing a total of 13 pounds and I ended up losing 6.8 pounds total! We had a competition with all of our family and friends who started the challenge at the same time we did and Jordan came in third place overall and was the first place male (he wanted me to mention that lol). The exciting thing to me was the inches I lost…I lost 8.25 inches total! 3.5 of those were around my waist and I also lost 2 inches around each thigh!!!! My clothes are fitting so much better and I really feel good about myself!

I cannot tell you how happy I am that we made the decision to give this a try. Not only are we healthier, skinnier and happier but we have found something that works for us and our lifestyle. We are continuing to use products to meet our goals. Jordan is going to continue to drink the meal replacement shakes each morning for breakfast (he LOVES them) and is going to keep using the products from the Max Phase of the Challenge (along with Catalyst!) to continue his weight loss goals. I’m going to continue using omegaplex, probiotic restore ultra and coreplex with iron as I want to get my body in great baby-making shape for the future! The coreplex with iron is awesome as it is loaded with folic acid and the omegas are full of DHA! Of course we are both also going to keep drinking our Spark! I love how much energy and focus it gives us and I know Jordan likes coming home from work to a wife who is actually awake for a change! 🙂

I truly believe that Advocare can help everyone meet their personal goals…losing weight, feeling better overall and getting a healthier lifestyle! We joined the membership so we can get a discount on all of our product purchases…I’m glad we did it right from the start so we could use the $50 in free products during our challenge (loved having that extra Spark!) and started getting our savings right away. 

You can sign up for your membership here: https://www.advocare.com/12089568/BecomeMember.aspx

And if you’re interested in doing the Challenge for yourself you can purchase it here: https://www.advocare.com/12089568/Store/ItemDetail.aspx?itemCode=99050&id=A&flavor=b

Casey’s Before and After Pics (you can click on all of them to make them bigger!):

 

Total lost during the Challenge: 6.8 lbs and 8.25 inches!

Jordan’s Before and After Pics:

Total lost during the challenge: 13 lbs!!!

I’m super proud of Jordan and Casey and excited to share Courtney’s results story with you next!!!

Emily Parker
Latest posts by Emily Parker (see all)

1 Comment

  1. Crissy
    September 18, 2012 / 2:07 pm

    they are both such hotties 🙂

    Reply

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