Weight Loss & Healthy Life Archives ~ Lou 16

The 7 Day Detox I Love!

7 day body cleanse — 7 Day Body Cleanse from Arbonne

This 7 day detox is perfect if you have an event/holiday coming up and don’t have time to do a full 30 day detox.

Although I personally think the 30 days to healthy living and beyond is the way to go I know sometimes we have a wedding or a beach holiday to go to and we’ve lost track of time and it’s only a week or 10 days away.

This 7 day detox will allow you to get rid of a lot of bloating that you may have. It’s said that the average person holds 5-20 lbs (approximately 2-9kg) of toxic sludge in their systems – yuk! Imagine if you get rid of that – less bloating, flatter stomach and you would have to feel amazing wouldn’t you?

This detox is also a great idea to do before starting a healthy eating plan as it gives you a boost you need at the beginning of any change in the way you eat, so what is it?

The 7 Day Body Cleanse (to give it it’s correct name) is a delicious lemon-ginger flavored formula that you make into a drink and sip throughout the day. It was designed to help detoxify your body and prepare it for a weight management regime.

It contains Ginger, Aloe, Glutamine and Choline which basically helps –

Detoxify the body while supporting the gastrointestinal system.
Assists with gentle elimination of toxins.
Supports healthy bowel movements.

Sounds Good? What Do You Need to Do Next?

Click this link to buy the 7 day body cleanse.

While waiting for the cleanse to arrive plan your meals for the 7 days, for maximum results you want to avoid processed foods, sugar, gluten, dairy, alcohol and coffee. Planning your meals and snacks ahead of time makes it more likely that you will stick to the plan (remember, it’s only for 7 days).

When the body cleanse arrives you can plan to start your detox from the next morning.

Mix the sachet with 1 litre of warm water (from the hot tap) and shake before sipping. You want to sip this throughout the day. Now before taking a drink throughout the day you will need to shake it as sediment does settle on the bottom. I use my Arbonne water bottle to make mine in and drink it from!

What Can I Eat if I Have to Avoid EVERYTHING!

There’s actually a lot of things you can eat, but I must admit I would find breakfasts difficult if it wasn’t for my protein powder which allows me to make smoothies and/or smoothie bowls. You don’t need to use it, but a good quality pea, rice and cranberry protein like the Arbonne Essentials Protein Powder that I use helps keep me full all morning and tastes delicious.

You don’t need it though, here’s a couple of recipes, one with the protein and one without …

Black Forest Smoothie

200 ml water
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 tsp cacao powder
1/2 avocado
8 frozen cherries

Blend all the ingredients together for a really thick smoothie that you can eat with a spoon. I serve this up in a bowl and top with a few nuts and some fresh raspberries when they’re in season.

Summer Blue Smoothie Bowl

2 tbsp blue spirulina
2 frozen bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
2 tbsp coconut yoghurt

Blend all of the ingredients together and serve in a bowl.

Main meals are easy, for lunch (depending on the season) you could make a batch of vegetable soup to eat or have a big chicken salad.

Dinners that I enjoy include steak with sweet potato fries and half a plate of salad, chicken in a creamy tomato sauce (made with coconut milk, basil and sun dried tomatoes) served over zucchini/courgette noodles or stir fry chicken and vegetables over brown rice.

If you’re interested in purchasing the 7 day body cleanse feel free to message me via my Facebook page first to see if you can save money.

What Are My Thoughts On The 7 Day Body Cleanse?

I loved it! I had already done the 30 days to healthy living a couple of times before the 7 day body cleanse was available in Australia (where I live). I took mine as part of the 30 days to healthy living (they recommend using it in week 3) and I loved the result.

I was amazed at how much toxins must’ve still been in my system when I took this, I felt a lot lighter (and I was!) after taking it. It tasted fantastic and I had lots of energy.

I am a little way off of my goal weight so I’ll be continuing with the 30 days to healthy living myself, but when I reach my goal I can see myself taking the 7 day body cleanse before going on holiday or a special event where I want to look great. It’s also something I will keep on hand for if I overindulge and feel a little sluggish (Christmas comes to mind!).

NOTE: The products mentioned are all available through Arbonne. I am an Arbonne Consultant so if you purchase through my shop – louannecox.arbonne.com I will be compensated (at NO cost to you). Message me through Facebook or Instagram with any questions

Reminder: In case you’re new here all Arbonne products are available with a 45 day money back guarantee so if you don’t like them you can send them back for a full refund – you literally have nothing to lose, it’s basically a free trial!

My First Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living Plan – The Final Days

If you’ve come here from my previous posts about my journey then you’ll already know all about the Arbonne 30 Day Plan. If you haven’t then you might want to check out these posts first –

What is the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond Plan

My Pre-30 Day Plan Journey

Week One of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Two of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Three of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Four of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Following are my journal entries for the final 2 days of my 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond journey, if you have any questions about the journey or want to start your own then please contact me via my Facebook page or in the comments section below (they are not published until I approve them so if you leave your contact details I will NOT publish them, I’ll just contact you).

January 29^th 2018

So near the end and I’m still not feeling very well, talk about bad timing! I was up and down during the night so I didn’t go for a walk this morning. I did make myself a herbal tea to take back to bed this morning and thought all I needed was a few hours sleep.

My stomach still felt dodgy when I got up, but I thought I should try and have some breakfast anyway (I really didn’t feel like it though). I had a vanilla meal replacement shake made with almond milk, scoop of fibre, baby spinach and a spoonful of almond butter.

Before I made my breakfast I did weigh myself and I’ve lost one kilo!

A green apple with almond butter in the late morning as I suddenly felt like I needed to eat something, followed by a fizzy as water was tasting funny to me (this sometimes happens when I’m sick).

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

My tummy started protesting again after lunch so off to bed for about an hour and then a fizzy when I got up.

By dinner time I was feeling quite a bit better and I had roasted sweet potato topped with some baby spinach and then vegan chili and topped with some fresh tomato and spring onion.

January 30^th 2018

The last day of my first 30 day plan – woo hoo! Up early to walk the dog and then home for a delicious breakfast of vanilla meal replacement shake made with almond milk, scoop of fibre and a handful of baby spinach.

It’s hard to believe I was feeling so bad yesterday as I feel really good today full of energy.

I enjoyed my Arbonne herbal tea while on a training call this morning and then I had to get everything ready to go off to work.

My lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

My afternoon tea was a handful of nuts and a fizzy.

Dinner was an omelette with sweet potato, baby spinach, tomatoes, spring onion and garlic.

I’m planning to have a week and a half off of the plan (I’ll probably do an 80/20 version) as it’s my 25^th wedding anniversary in a week and it’s easier to celebrate if I don’t have to avoid this and that! I will then start on my second 30 day plan because I love how I’m feeling, how I’m looking and I anticipate doing this plan for a few months until I become the best version of myself.

How Did I Go On The 30 Day Plan to Healthy Living & Beyond?

It’s Not Just About The Numbers (although they ARE good!)

Okay well I absolutely loved the 30 day plan as I’ve got my energy in general, even my husband has noticed that. I am not having the bad mood swings I had been having. My hormones are feeling more balanced (mood swings etc) and I haven’t had a hot flush since I’ve been on the plan which is awesome!

My concentration levels are also a lot better which is always a positive thing.

The scales don’t lie either from the 1st January through to the 31st of January (I weigh myself in the mornings hence why although I finished on 30th Jan when I went to bed I weighed myself in on the 31st) I lost a total of 5kgs exactly (11lb).

I also lost a total of 26.9 centimeters around my body (10.6 inches) which is fantastic as this is what other people are noticing.

Would I recommend this plan to anyone? Hell yes, I think everyone should try it just so that they can feel this good! I will be starting another 30 day plan on 12th February 2018 which I will be blogging about on my Facebook business page – I’d love to have you follow me there.

My First Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living Plan – Week Four

If you’ve come here from my previous post about my journey then you’ll already know all about the Arbonne 30 Day Plan. If you haven’t then you might want to check out these posts first –

What is the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond Plan

My Pre-30 Day Plan Journey

Week One of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Two of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Three of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Following are my journal entries for week 4 of my 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond journey, if you have any questions about the journey or want to start your own then please contact me via my Facebook page or in the comments section below (they are not published until I approve them so if you leave your contact details I will NOT publish them, I’ll just contact you).

January 22^nd 2018

Well I went for a walk this morning and then it was weigh in time – I put on 400g, although I wasn’t surprised as I didn’t feel like I lost anything this week. It was a bit disheartening but then I measured myself and I lost a total of 5.2 cm including 3 cm around my waist so that will help me through the final stretch!

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement shake made with a scoop of fibre and almond milk.

Morning tea was a boiled egg.

Lunch was a delicious chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance, frozen strawberries & blackberries

Mid afternoon I had a fizz stick.

For dinner I had steak. I got hubby to cook my steak (he always cooks steak for some reason) and once it had rested I cut it in half and left half for a salad tomorrow. I had used my spiralizer to make sweet potato noodles although these were a different shape to the zucchini ones and I roasted them as suggested online. For my vegetables I sautéed off some garlic and then added chopped capsicum, spring onions and a medley of cherry tomatoes (halved and quartered). To this mix I threw in some bok choy to sweat down and mix in – a different way of having this veg which actually tasted really, really nice. Oh before I threw in the bok choy I had added some Italian herbs to the pan, I also added some Italian herbs, along with salt and pepper to the sweet potato.

January 23^rd 2018

Breakfast this morning was a vanilla meal replacement made with almond milk, a scoop of fibre, handful of spinach and a few frozen strawberries.

I felt like I needed something to eat and realized it was lunch time so no morning snack for me today! Lunch consisted of a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance and a mix of frozen strawberries and frozen blackberries.

This afternoon I had a fizz stick and then another one about an hour later – I had suddenly felt like a frozen coke (no idea where that craving came from) so I had the second fizz stick instead and felt good.

Like a flash it was dinner time and no snack this afternoon either – obviously I’ve been too busy to think about eating!! Dinner was a beef salad bowl made up with the half a steak from last night thinly sliced, mixed salad leafs, cucumber, mixed capsicum, mixed tomatoes, roasted sweet potato and about 5 or 6 blueberries scattered in the bowl for a surprising pop of flavour!

I actually feel quite slim today and mum rang and commented on a photo that I had sent her saying that I was looking a lot slimmer so that made me feel good. My energy levels have been really high again so I really think the few days last week must’ve been the result of work stress or an anomaly.

January 24^th 2018

This morning we took a different route with our walk as I’m still feeling a little unnerved after Monday’s walk, it really felt like someone was watching me as I walked through the bush trail. Roman and I stayed on the streets this morning and it felt good, I missed my walk yesterday.

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement shake made with almond milk, baby spinach, fresh strawberries and blueberries. It was a nice taste, but I think I prefer using frozen berries in the shake.

My tea was luke warm when I drank it this morning, but I still enjoyed it! I had a fizz stick mid-morning today – I think that’s the first time that I’ve had one in the morning, but I just felt like something as I was trying to figure something out on the computer that just wasn’t working like it was supposed to!!

My stomach suddenly growled and I realized it was half an hour later than I normally have lunch (and I haven’t even had a morning snack!), as my stomach was growling I made a snack to have with my shake. My shake was a chocolate protein made with water, greens balance and a mix of frozen blackberries and frozen strawberries. I also had half a dozen fresh strawberries with almond butter as well.

After getting my bolognaise simmering and just increasing it’s flavour and I had my vegan tomato pasta sauce simmering along nicely as well I decided that I needed something a little sweet (it is too hot to be cooking!) so I had a few blueberries. Looking forward to dinner though.

I was going to make zoodles for my bolognaise, but I really couldn’t be bothered after cooking pasta for the family so I had my bolognaise on some sweet potato that I had in the fridge – heated up in the microwave. It was a nice combination actually. I didn’t add any vegetables on the side because I had a lot of them in the bolognaise already.

January 25^th 2018

The humidity at 5.30 was through the roof so no walk today! I had problems breathing just standing on the deck.

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made with almond milk, fibre, baby spinach, frozen strawberries and a spoonful of almond butter – it was very nice. This was followed by my delicious Arbonne herbal tea.

Lumch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance, a mix of frozen blackberries and strawberries.

Afternoon snack was some really juicy blueberries, I love it when you buy a punnet of them and the taste just bursts in your mouth!

Also had a fizz stick.

Dinner was steak and veg – I meant to have rice as well, but I forgot to put it on to cook! To be honest I probably only had about three mouthfuls of the steak as it was too bloody for me (certainly not like my husband to stuff that up!). The veg were really nice and filled me up. So what veg? I was basically cleaning out my veggie bin, I sliced up some capsicum and a spring onion first, then I got out a small bunch of bok choy and pulled the leafs off – there was a little ‘stem’ at the bottom and a couple of really tiny leafs in the middle so I sliced them and added it to the capsicum and spring onion.

Next I grabbed a bag of mixed leaf salad and chopped it up (sometimes you have to be adventurous and cook your salad, it’s quite nice!). Next I quartered a selection of cherry tomatoes to ensure there were lots of different colors – who doesn’t want to eat a rainbow?

I sauteed the capsicum mix for a bit before throwing in the salad mix, stirring a bit and then the tomatoes followed along with a generous sprinkle of dried oregano. A little mix and sizzle and I popped the bok choy on top, then simply stirred it in until the leafs were wilted (the stems were still nice and crunchy). The combination may not be conventional, but take it from me it was very tasty!

January 26^th 2018

It’s Australia Day so we have a day off! Well the husband and I do, our daughter has to work, poor thing. So what did we do with our day off? Defrosted the freezer! It was a really hot day so after moving it outside to let the heat defrost it (after we’d packed our monster esky that we borrowed) and cleaned the sides of both the fridge and freezer and the floor where it had been housed it was first fizz stick of the day time!

Let’s back up first … no walk this morning, but breakfast was a chocolate protein shake made with water and fibre – a nice change to have no berries.

After the morning activity and fizz stick it seemed like no time at all before it was lunch time! Lunch consisted of a vanilla meal replacement shake made with almond milk, greens balance and a spoonful of almond butter. This was a lovely change from berries, but I did eat a few blueberries for my afternoon snack, it also looked very much like a green smoothie!

Dinner was clean out the leftovers! I used up the black bean chips from my nachos last week (gotta love these clips that keep packets fresh once opened, we always use these on our corn chips), I heated up the leftover bolognaise from the other night – one layer of chips, layer of bolognaise, a scattering of chopped up salad leafs, another layer of chips, layer of bolognaise, scattering of chopped up salad leafs all topped off with a fresh tomato and spring onion salsa. It was delicious and probably the first time I’ve ever had bolognaise nachos!

January 27^th 2018

I got up and went for a walk this morning even though it was humid, about halfway through I was tempted to cut it short, but instead I just slowed my pace down and kept going – very proud of myself!

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made with almond milk, scoop of fibre, baby spinach and a few frozen strawberries.

This morning we had to go out so I grabbed an Arbonne Sea Salt & Chocolate Protein bar to eat along with some water.

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, scoop of greens balance and a combination of frozen strawberries and blackberries.

A fizzy in the afternoon.

Dinner was a dish I kind of made up as I went along based on tomatoes and cannellini beans using things that I had on hand and the result was an enjoyable meal that both my daughter and I enjoyed (we also froze some down for another day –

Lou’s Tomato & Leftover Vegetables Cannellini Beans

I had only half an onion left so I diced that up and sautéed it along with a clove of garlic (minced), once the onion was translucent I added a small grated carrot and stirred it all around. I added some smoked paprika (about a tablespoon), sprinkled some dried oregano (a tablespoon? I didn’t really measure it), a small amount of cayenne (maybe ½ a tsp as I didn’t want it too hot).

Next I threw in a tin of diced tomatoes and I filled the can up with water and added that to it as well, I also added about ½ cup of cooked brown rice which was left over from a previous meal)

I had finally diced up some zucchini so that was thrown into the pan next along with a few leaves of fresh basil (which I had chopped up).

I seasoned with salt and pepper and then added a can of cannellini beans (rinsing beforehand) and tasted the sauce.

I took a large handful of baby spinach, chopped it up and threw in the pan along with ½ chopped spring onion, another clove of minced garlic and a couple of pinches of mixed Italian herbs seasoning.

I let it simmer for about ¼ of an hour allowing the flavors to mingle together and have fun before I took about 350-400ml of the mixture out into a container and using my stick blender I whizzed it up and re-added it to the pan.

Once blended up the mix went very orange as opposed to the more dominant red and the addition of the rice in the mix gave it a creamy look. I mixed it all in thoroughly and let it simmer on a low heat for another 10 minutes before serving.

I think this would be perfect with a loaf of crusty bread, but as I couldn’t eat bread I popped something else on top of mine –

I basically took the other ½ of spring onion, a few cherry tomatoes (chopped up) and I also chopped up one brazil nut (to add crunch), mixed it all together and added it to my bowl as a topping!

January 28^th 2018

My breakfast shake used up the final scoop of my chocolate meal replacement (from earlier in the month) with 2 scoops of vanilla meal replacement and this was made up with – almond milk, scoop of fibre, baby spinach & 2 tsp of almond butter. It was really nice, although a little on the sweet side.

This was obviously followed by a morning cup of Arbonne herbal tea. Now I believe I’ve said before that I usually get a second cup (and by cup I actually mean mug) of this tea out of a bag – do I have news for you. There was a nutrition workshop the other day and one of the presenters told us that you could get up to 4 cups of herbal tea from one tea bag, so I guess I’m not being quite so cheeky after all!

Late morning I had a green apple with almond butter.

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

This afternoon I was planning on making a vegan curry for dinner, but I had a bit of a stomach upset which really made me feel sick so I had a bit of a lie down and a lovely fizzy to help keep me hydrated. I really should get some of the phytosport hydrate as that would’ve been really good to have.

I did start to feel like eating about 5.30, but definitely NOT a curry! I decided to sautee some garlic and spring onion before throwing in a large handful of baby spinach to wilt, while that was wilting I reheated a few roasted sweet potatoes that my husband had made for me this morning. Once the spinach was practically wilted I took it off the heat, popped a lid in it so it would finish off wilting by itself while I fried an egg.

I put the sweet potato on the plate, topped it with the spinach and then a fried egg on top that still had a soft yolk to soak through everything.

It tasted really nice – I do enjoy an egg when I have an upset stomach and this actually didn’t make me miss having toast!

Still not feeling too good as the evening wears on though, I decided to have another fizz stick this evening as I thought the minerals would be a good idea in lieu of any electrolytes in the house.

My First Arbonne 30 Day Plan to Healthy Living – Week Three

If you’ve landed on this page from an earlier post then you’ll already know what the Arbonne 30 Day plan is all about, but in case you haven’t here’s a few links you might want to check out first –

What is the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living & Beyond Plan

My Pre-30 Day Plan Journey

Week One of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Week Two of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Now here’s my journal entries for this week, but they come with an apology I actually didn’t do a good job of writing in my journal this week, sorry about that. At least you know they’re genuine, I mean I can’t be the only one that misses things from their journal can I?

January 15^th 2018

Well it was a lot cooler today and our walk was very pleasant, when we walked along the bush trail part of our walk there was a tree across the trail from the high winds of yesterday. It’s funny because I do have to do a couple of things and I’ve been thinking about them quite a bit over the weekend, but my mind keeps throwing up obstacles – I wonder if the world is trying to tell me just to get over the obstacles like I went around the tree? Anyway when we got home it was weigh in time …

I lost a whooping 400grams this week! This is why it’s always a good idea to take your measurements as well because your weightloss isn’t always going to be in the kilos like it was for me on week one.

I lost a total of 8.6 cm this week – the biggest winner were my hips where I lost 3.7 cm. Definitely a cause for celebration and knowing that I was still loosing centimetres (which are what gets noticed) helps to stop you feeling deflated if the scales don’t give you a big drop!

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made up with a scoop of fibre and water.

I actually forgot to write anything past breakfast in here (I’ve been at work!), but I had a shake for my lunch and my twist on a turkey and sweet potato shepherds pie. I used a turkey shepherds pie recipe from our private online support group (I don’t think I made any substitutions to it) for the ‘base’ part of the shepherds pie and then I adapted the sweet potato mash. I personally love sweet potato, but not so much as a mash so I used my mandoline and sliced the sweet potato and laid the slices on the top like you do with a hotpot – I covered it with foil for half the time it was in the oven and then removed the foil. I loved it, very nice indeed.

January 16^th 2018

I had turkey chili on some black bean chips with fresh tomato and spring onion salsa on top for my dinner – delicious. Technically I shouldn’t have had the black bean chips as they were processed, but all of the ingredients were on the approved list and it was just so nice to feel like I was having nachos with the family (I must admit I would have enjoyed them even more if I was allowed cheese!)

January 17^th 2018

Breakfast consisted of a vanilla meal replacement shake made with a scoop of fibre and water.

A boiled egg was for morning tea.

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

In the afternoon I had a fizzy and a few nuts.

Leftovers, apple and almond butter made up my dinner.

January 18^th 2018

Vanilla meal replacement made with water, fibre and a spoonful of almond butter – not my favorite with the almond butter!

Nuts

Chocolate protein powder made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

Fizzy

Eggs and salad

January 19^th 2018

I decided to shake things up today – I’m going to have my main meal at lunch time as the last few days I’ve really be craving carbs in the afternoon even after having my fizz stick.

We had a short walk and I came home and bagged up a couple of garbage bags of leafs from the front garden which hardly left a dent but did provide a different type of exercise!

arbonne herbal tea — I always have a cup of Arbonne herbal tea in the morning!

This morning I had a vanilla meal replacement and I added water, a scoop of fibre, a scoop of greens and a handful of frozen strawberries – this is yummy! I’m really hoping that the scoop of greens in the morning will give me a boost as I’ve been feeling tired for the last few days. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the plan just that on some days when I’ve been at the office my brain doesn’t switch off early enough at night so I don’t get enough sleep. The last two mornings I’ve actually gotten up at 7 and 7.30 respectively instead of 5.30!

Lunch was some turkey with a little brown rice salad (leftover brown rice, cherry tomatoes, baby capsicum, spring onion) and a large green salad (spinach, cucumber, lettuce, kale). It felt really nice to eat something at lunch time instead of having a shake I must admit.

I had a fizz stick in the afternoon and then about 4.30 I had a green apple with almond butter (planning on having my evening shake late as we have a late night tonight).

My evening shake was at 7.30 which is very late for me to be eating (I usually try not to eat after 7), but probably won’t get to bed until midnight at least so..

The evening shake was a chocolate protein shake made with water, a handful of baby spinach and some frozen strawberries, it was really delicious.

January 20^th 2018

This morning I totally overslept, I’m surprised by how tired I’ve been the past 3 days, not sure why this is. My husband isn’t sure that I’m eating enough which is making me tired and I’m wondering if it’s because of someone I work with who totally saps my energy as I’ve been finding myself (pre-30 day plan) feeling exhausted for a couple of days after my 5 days shift and needing to just relax and collect myself.

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement shake made with a scoop of fibre, handful of spinach, a few frozen strawberries and almond milk – very nice.

We were out during the day and my daughter forgot to bring a snack so I only had half a green apple for morning tea!

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with almond milk, scoop of greens balance and some frozen strawberries – I found I didn’t really taste the strawberries so if I use almond milk with chocolate again I won’t bother with berries.

I had a fizz stick during the afternoon.

Dinner was some gluten free and preservative free greek lamb sausages with roasted sweet potato and a medley of veg – I sautéed some capsicum and spring onion, then I threw in some quartered and some halved (depending on the size) cherry tomatoes, a sprinkle of dried oregano and once they were warmed through I popped in a very large handful of baby spinach and let that wilt right down. It was a delicious meal.

January 21^st 2018

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made with almond milk, a scoop of fibre, a small handful of baby spinach and some frozen strawberries.

Morning tea was a green apple cut into slices with a side of almond butter. Whether you’re on the 30 day plan or not try dipping green apple into almond butter it is a d e l i c i o u s snack!

Lunch was a chocolate protein shake made with water, a scoop of greens balance and some frozen strawberries.

I had a fizz stick in the early afternoon and a boiled egg in the late afternoon (husband and daughter were eating M&Ms so I don’t think I was really hungry when I had it I was just trying to avoid the temptation!)

A quick evening walk and then dinner was a turkey salad bowl – turkey, roasted sweet potato, carrots, mixed lettuce leafs, cucumber, a fresh salsa on the top consisting of baby capsicums, spring onions and cherry tomatoes.

Now that week three is over, let’s check out week four!

My First Arbonne 30 Day Plan to Healthy Living – Week Two

If you’ve come here from my previous post about week one of my journey then you’ll already know all about the Arbonne 30 Day Plan. If you haven’t then you might want to check out these posts first –

What is the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond Plan

My Pre-30 Day Plan Journey

Week One of my 30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

Following are my journal entries for week 2 of my 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond journey, if you have any questions about the journey or want to start your own then please contact me via my Facebook page or in the comments section below (they are not published until I approve them so if you leave your contact details I will NOT publish them, I’ll just contact you).

January 8^th 2018

Hubby’s back at work so I was up at 5.30 to take the dog for a walk (I think he’s enjoying the exercise!). It’s definitely a better time to go walking than 7 as it’s lovely and cool and the sun has yet to get a bite to it.

Home and it’s weigh in time and I’m so excited that I’ve lost 2.4kg – how awesome is that? I’ve also lost cms all over my body, but the biggest measurement that is spinning me out is a loss of 3.5cm around my waist! Speechless!

In celebration of this achievement I had a chocolate meal replacement shake for breakfast made with water and a scoop of fibre. Breakfast was followed, as always, with a delicious Arbonne herbal tea.

A boiled egg was my snack and I’m having a second cup of Arbonne tea (I used the same teabag though because I’m a little cheeky like that!)

I’ve just realized that the vegan chili that I was about to take out of the freezer for dinner tonight has corn in it which we’re not supposed to eat so that’s annoying. I guess I’m making another chili for tonight.

Lunch was a chocolate meal replacement shake made with water, a scoop of greens balance and a handful of frozen strawberries – yum!

Okay this afternoon I had a fizz stick and then made a throw together vegan chili for tonight aka make it up as I go along! It was based on the Bonnie Bean chili in the recipe book, but as I wasn’t expecting to have to make it I didn’t have half of the ingredients so I improvised – hope my daughter likes it – she’d having hers on vegan corn chips while I’ll have mine on baked sweet potato – can’t wait.

Eating a green apple to keep me going until dinner time, the perils of getting up earlier is that you’re hungry earlier in the day!

So for dinner tonight I made the sweet potato nachos , popped on some of the vegan chili (which was a little hotter than I planned!), topped it with a little bit of salad, homemade guacamole and a fresh mixed cherry tomatoes and spring onion salsa. It was delicious.

January 9^th2018

I really didn’t feel very well this morning and was going to miss out my walk, but then I saw an inspiration post on facebook from someone who has just started her 30 day journey this week and I rallied myself. I’ll admit it was a very short walk, but it got me moving.

When I got home all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed with a lovely cup of tea – proper English Breakfast with milk.

I didn’t though, instead I made myself a chocolate meal replacement with water and fibre and a cup of Arbonne herbal tea. I think it might be a hard day today ~ sigh.

Okay today wasn’t quite that bad, I had a boiled egg for a morning snack and lunch was a chocolate meal replacement made with water, greens balance and a few frozen strawberries.

During the afternoon I also had a fizz stick.

For dinner tonight I decided I wanted steak as I haven’t had red meat in a while so maybe that’s why I was feeling ‘strange’ this morning. Hubby cooked me a rather large steak (he always cooks the steaks) and I had half of it with some roasted sweet potato and veg. The veg consisted of red onion, red, green and yellow capsicums, green beans, cherry tomatoes, kale and spinach oh and garlic. Basically I sauted the onion and garlic until the onion was soft then I added the capsicum and green beans (although I steamed the beans for 1 minute in the microwave first), then when they were all cooked and looking like a fiesta in the pan I threw in some cherry tomatoes which had been cut in half and warmed them threw before popping in a handful of a kale and baby spinach mix and letting it wilt down – it tasted really yum!

January 10^th 2018

This morning we did our walk really easily so I’m thinking it might be time to take it longer, but I’m working for the next couple of days so I might not until Saturday.

Breakfast was a chocolate meal replacement shake made with water and a scoop of fibre. I’m feeling very on fire today! I put some washing on and was doing a few household chores when I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t had my tea! I can’t believe that I forgot that twice in one week, anyway situation remedied and I enjoyed it while watching videos on facebook LOL.

Morning tea was a boiled egg and lunch was a chocolate meal replacement made up with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries.

I had a citrus fizz stick this afternoon and dinner was vegan bolognaise over rice (sounds weird, but it actually tasted nice) with salad.

Tonight I prepped my dinner for tomorrow as I’m back to work so by the time I get in the door I’ll probably be ready to eat my arm off!

I’m feeling really good in myself today, this is definitely a great plan and I just want to get everyone on it so they can have this energy and feel empowered with only being in week 2, yet knowing that you’re losing weight because you feel lighter and your eyes can see your body shape changing….it really is wonderful. Okay gushing over LOL

January 11^th 2018

Well we got up and did our morning walk and it’s going to be a warm one today, talk about working up a sweat! Anyway I’m glad I did it although the dog is still panting and we’ve been home for a while now so that’s a worry as I really can’t get up earlier than 5.30 especially on a work day (sigh).

Breakfast is a delicious chocolate meal replacement made up with water and a scoop of fibre. After I make my lunch time one to take to work I think I might be finished and I’ll have to see what the protein one is like.

My herbal tea is steeping and I have got to get my lunch time shake made and snacks prepped before I go to work today so (insert Arnie accent) I’ll be back!

So today at work there was birthday cake in the afternoon, Tiramisu at that and I did not partake – so proud of myself.

Lunch was a chocolate meal replacement made with water, greens balance and frozen strawberries, I also had a boiled egg for a morning snack and a few nuts and blueberries during the afternoon along with a fizz stick just after three.

Even though there was a pile of work waiting for me when I got in my energy levels stayed high all day and I didn’t come home as exhausted as I have been which is great.

Dinner was the yummy beef salad that I prepped last night and it tasted so nice, really hit the spot.

This evening my daughter has just made me a second cup of the Arbonne herbal tea and I’m thinking I’ll probably have an early night.

January 12^th 2018

I really didn’t feel like walking this morning so I didn’t! I had a horrible headache (bit late to be getting withdrawal or toxin headaches I would’ve thought so probably something else, but…) so I drank some water and ate a few almonds (apparently almonds can help with headaches).

I am working today and Fridays I usually have to do a bit of walking so I don’t feel too bad about the idea of skipping this morning, although my dog is not very happy with me poor baby.

Delicious vanilla meal replacement meal for breakfast this morning made with water and a scoop of fibre. Arbonne herbal tea is nicely brewing as I write this and another day of work looms ahead, but it is Friday!

This morning at work I had a few nuts and blueberries during the morning and lunch was a chocolate meal replacement made with water and greens balance. This afternoon I had a green apple with almond butter.

Dinner was an omelette. I sautéed some red onion, mixed capsicums (red, green, yellow) until soft then threw in a handful of kale and baby spinach along with some roasted sweet potato (to heat it up) , once the kale and spinach had wilted I added the eggs to make my omelette. It was nice, but the first time I’ve ever had an omelette that didn’t contain cheese and it really didn’t hit the spot for me.

January 13^th 2018

Up at 5.30, hubby had to work so I thought I might as well get up and go for a walk which was really nice this morning. Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made with water and a scoop of fibre. This was followed by a mug of Arbonne herbal tea.

Well I finished up my chocolate meal replacement powder (well there may be one scoop possibly 1.5 scoops left, but …) so for lunch I tried the chocolate protein powder. Most people add extra goodies to the protein shakes, but I haven’t been shopping yet so I made mine up with water, scoop of greens balance and a combination of frozen blackberries and frozen strawberries – I like it!

I enjoyed a fizz stick in the afternoon and was planning on a delicious variation on a shepherd’s pie recipe from our group, but it was so hot and humid I decided instead to boil some eggs and I had a salad with a couple of sliced eggs for protein and the rest of my roasted sweet potato for complex carbs. The salad consisted of a little kale and spinach, some cucumber, medley cherry tomatoes, rainbow salad mix (basically matchsticks of beetroot, carrot, leek etc). It doesn’t sound very inspiring, but it really hit the spot. Hopefully it’s not as hot tomorrow as I’m going to be cooking up a few dishes to make things easier as I’m working next week.

January 14^th 2018

Well I didn’t wake up until 7 this morning which was surprising, we’re due for record breaking temperatures today as well so the walking was definitely off of the table! I decided to try the chocolate protein powder for breakfast this morning with nothing added to it except the fibre support and water just to see what it was like.

I was surprised with the taste, the consistency was thinner than that of the meal replacement shake which was understandable and yet the taste was more chocolatey in flavour and almost tasted creamier which I found strange. I have brought almond milk to have it with, but water tastes absolutely fine so I’m not sure what I’ll be doing!

Morning tea was a boiled egg.

Lunchtime was a chocolate protein shake made with a scoop of greens balance, frozen strawberries and water.

I had some mixed nuts for afternoon tea and a fizzy while cooking dinner.

Dinner was what my daughter calls her vegan mince with brown rice. The vegan mince is made up of onion, leek, garlic, zucchini, mushroom, lentils, can of tomatoes and Italian herbs to season. I also added a handful of kale and baby spinach.

There endeth week 2, be sure to check out week 3 to see what my weight loss was and check out the rest of my journey on this plan.

My First Arbonne 30 Day Plan to Healthy Living – Week One

Wondering what this 30 day plan is all about, check out the Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond Plan. Are you thinking of doing the plan yourself? This is my diary entries for the first week, I thoroughly recommend the plan although I must admit that I didn’t do it cold turkey.

Read about my pre-30 day plan journey here.

This is just my diary entries, if you have any queries then please ask me in the comments or head over to my facebook page.

January 1^st 2018

Well it’s day one of the plan ‘proper’ as they say. I have lost 0.2kg since my last weigh in (but please remember it was Christmas!).

Last night (or I should say early this morning) my daughter was out for NYE and there was some drama which saw her get home quite late this meant that I went to bed about 1.30, 1.45 so I overslept this morning and didn’t go for a walk as by the time I got up it was too hot and humid for walking.

I started my day with a vanilla meal replacement shake with fibre added and I just made it up with water – delicious!

I’m feeling very excited about the next 30 days even though my husband has decided to make what smells like a very delicious cooked breakfast this morning!

I have also had a mug of Arbonne herbal tea. I make it before I have my shake and leave it seeping, then when I rinse out my glass I pull the bag and enjoy the drink – I really do enjoy having this first thing in the morning.

I’m keeping the tea bag as I found out the other day that you can easily reuse it again and it’s strong enough for a second mug during the day. As my mum is staying with me and she has more cups of tea during the day then I have been having (thanks to my cutting down and increasing the water intake in place of it) it’ll be handy to have a second one to keep her company if I feel like it.

Lunch was a chocolate meal replacement with a scoop of greens balance, water and 6 frozen cherries – you’re supposed to only have berries, but I have been enjoying having the cherries and I thought I’d just continue to do so, hopefully it’s not too bad to be doing this.

Off to the shops once everyone has finished their lunch and we can pick up some goodies for the next few days – no morning snack although that’s only because I was up late as after about 4 hours I get a pit in my stomach the shake doesn’t usually let me go much longer so I need to decide which snacks I’m having in the morning and which I’ll allow myself in the afternoon.

I had a few mixed nuts and half a dozen blueberries mid afternoon and then made myself a pomegranate fizz stick with double the amount of water it recommends. It didn’t make me feel sick like the first time I had one so obviously I need to dilute it more – I diluted it in about 800 ml, I think a litre would have been better, but it was the size of my glass so…

I can’t wait to make dinner – I’m not following the meal plan in the facebook group because to be honest I didn’t like the look of it, plus I’ve still got people staying so the next few days are meals that meet all of the requirements but can also be adapted for other people very easily.

Tonight for dinner I made chicken in a creamy sundried tomato sauce – no I didn’t actually use cream – the creaminess came from coconut cream and the result was amazing.

This is the recipe I based it on, I chose to cut the chicken breasts up into chunks and I also quickly steamed some green beans for 1 minute in the microwave and added them to the sauce when I added the cooked chicken back to the pan.

My family absolutely loved it as I served it up with brown rice and some broccolini for them. For myself I had less rice and also had a handful of spinach on my plate. There were some left over and I think I’ll eat that with some roasted sweet potato and maybe some broccoli or a salad.

Feeling great for the first day – roll on day 2!

January 2^nd 2018

Went for my walk today and we come across a tree blocking the path – did I let that get in the way? Not at all, I’m SMASHING 2018! When I got home my legs felt quite shaky as though I’d walked/run way further than usual which surprised me.

I have since seen (living in Australia I’m getting the tips in the facebook group later than everyone else as when they’re starting their day I’m finishing mine!) that we shouldn’t really be pushing ourselves on the exercise front until day 3 or 4 as our bodies are working hard to eliminate the toxins.

I’m going to carry on with my walking, but I won’t increase it too much and I won’t start any other exercise until after mum goes back which is day 6. It’s also a very humid morning which doesn’t help with the walking.

For breakfast I had a chocolate meal replacement shake with a scoop of fibre (made with water) and an Arbonne herbal tea.

I made a second cup of the herbal tea (from the same teabag) a couple of hours later.

Mixed nuts and a few blueberries made a yummy morning tea and then for lunch I had a vanilla meal replacement with frozen blueberries, a scoop of greens balance and water – not sure about the blueberries and greens balance with the vanilla I must say.

For dinner I used our spiralizer to make zoodles aka zucchini/courgette noodles and a vegan bolognaise – delicious.

The bolognaise was made with onion, carrot, garlic, can of lentils, can of diced tomatoes, Italian herb mix, homemade vegetable stock, passata and then towards the end I chopped up some baby spinach to add to the mix.

I had a citrus fizzy after dinner as I had forgotten to have one earlier in the day!

Feeling pretty good, roll on day 3.

January 3^rd 2018

Increased my walk slightly today (every little bit helps), I’m not sure how far it actually is probably only 3 kms but I’m feeling really good for starting my morning with it.

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement with a scoop of fibre made up with water – I’m certainly enjoying my breakfast shake followed by an Arbonne herbal tea.

There are lots of different shake recipes available so that people don’t get bored, but to be honest most of the time I always ate the same for breakfast anyway so why should I need to try different recipes in the morning?

The humidity has gone this morning after the rain last night and although I think it will be another beautiful day it’s so much easier to walk when you can breathe – today’s going to be a good day!

For morning tea I had a warm boiled egg (I did a couple of extras to put in the fridge for the next couple of days.

Lunch was a chocolate meal replacement shake with a scoop of greens balance and a few cherries. Now I got some frozen cherries in December when I saw a protein shake recipe that included cherries, but in the group they said you could only have berries, green apple, lemon or lime as fruit so you might not want to copy me – but it was delicious and I’m not letting my frozen cherries go to waste!

I remembered my fizz stick this afternoon, took it before we popped out to an appointment and meant to have a snack when I got back, but I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t have an afternoon snack today. I have to say that I’m still not that keen on the pomegranate flavour, but by diluting it more (as my cousin suggested) it’s definitely more palatable – my husband tried some today and it reminds him of some sort of medicine he had to take years ago which could be why I’m not too fond of it. The citrus is definitely my favorite.

Dinner today was a chicken taco salad bowl. I made chicken taco’s for my husband and mother and vegan fajita pieces for my daughter to have in tacos and I used the chicken as part of my salad bowl. It also had roasted sweet potato, guacamole, spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrot & cucumber. Love it!

January 4^th 2018

I’m expecting today to be tough as we’re having a day out which usually involves lunch out and snacks in the car as we’re going up the coast. What I didn’t realize is that most people have problems on day 4 – great timing huh?

Anyway my breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made up with water and a scoop of fibre followed by the Arbonne herbal tea.

I’m going to be taking a chocolate meal replacement (already made up) with water, cherries, greens balance. I’m also taking water, a fizz stick sachet, a boiled egg, some nuts and a green apple.

No walk this morning as we are going to look at a lighthouse today and I’m not sure how much walking that will entail, I could still do a walk this evening if the exercise today isn’t much – we’ll see.

Okay so today wasn’t as bad as I thought – I had a boiled egg for my morning tea and then the chocolate meal replacement shake that I had made up in the morning. I drank this while my mother and daughter were enjoying lovely looking vegan lunches at a café, but I actually wasn’t too worried about it (very proud of myself).

I also had a fizz stick in the afternoon, but I didn’t need the nuts or apple that I took along so that was good.

We got back late afternoon so took the dog for a walk, probably about 2/3 of the walk we usually do.

Dinner was the leftover chicken from Monday served on a bed of zoodles which I had tossed a few pieces of roasted sweet potato (from last night) through and some cherry tomatoes cut in half. If was really nice.

After dinner I was hanging out for a piece of bread and butter and really wanting carbs! No one said a great body came without a challenge though did they?

January 5^th 2018

Up very early to take mum to the airport today, once I was dressed the dog started doing his excited cry because he thought he was going for a walk (poor thing was left at home!). When we got back to the airport I decided I would take the dog for a walk as it was only 7, I probably only did about 2/3 of the usual walk (a bit like last night) as I had only got to the intersection down from our house and my legs felt like they’d turned to jelly. I pushed through, but did change the route. It was probably due to the fact that I had been up since 5 and hadn’t had anything to eat or drink except water.

I got my vanilla meal replacement shake (made with water and a scoop of fibre) into me once we got home and then enjoyed my herbal tea.

We then had to go out for an appointment and as we were coming back (just after 9) I was hanging out for a nice cuppa – very surprised this craving didn’t come until day 5! I really feel like I’m struggling, to make it worse I walk in the door to my daughter eating toast. I don’t know what it is about toast, but the smell just makes you instantly want some – I know I’m not alone in this!

Anyway I decided to make myself a fizz stick and I also had a boiled egg – I am woman, hear me roar! This seems to be a mantra when I’m struggling, I said it to myself yesterday and again today, not sure why it popped into my head, but I’ll take it if it helps me!

Lunch was a chocolate meal replacement made with water, greens balance and some frozen cherries – delicious!

This afternoon I had a few nuts as a snack and also another fizz stick around 4.30, the lack of enough sleep last night is making me tired and hungry!

I am so tempted to cheat today it’s not funny, but I’m holding on thinking of how great I’m going to look and feel at the end of the 30 days – I know I would be feeling a lot better if it wasn’t for too little sleep, maybe I need to work on a vision board for moments when I’m feeling weak – have you tried this idea, apparently it’s really good for helping you to focus. I tried it years and years ago when we were saving for our first house, but I don’t think I found it very helpful … I might do now though ((shrugs))

Dinner tonight was leftover chicken taco on top of a plate of salad with roasted sweet potato in it for the complex carbs – delicious. I also think that I’ll probably have the same tomorrow as there was more left over than I expected and hubby didn’t feel like it tonight instead he had some leftover pork from his dinner last night (I don’t eat pork).

Feeling a lot better since dinner time as I really can feel a difference in my body, I’m really excited to see what my weight is on Monday and as for what I’ll look like by the end of the month ,,, I’m not wishing my life away, but I’m so keen to get there.

January 6^th 2018

My feet feel like they need a foot massage this morning and it is Saturday so we’re having a rest from walking – the dog has been watching me like a hawk in case I try and go without him!

Breakfast is my vanilla meal replacement shake with a scoop of fibre and water, I’m thinking of mixing it up tomorrow – stay tuned!

I also have a delicious herbal tea to wash it down with.

For my morning snack today I put a spoonful of almond butter on a plate and then sliced up a green apple and basically dipped the sliced apple into the almond butter – very nice and a very pleasant change.

Lunch time I thought I’d change it up a bit as well. I only added 200ml of water to the blender instead of 250ml, chocolate meal replacement powder, greens balance and then I got a few fresh blueberries and strawberries (quartered) – I put half of the berries in the blender and kept half to one side. Once I blitzed it up I poured it into a bowl to find it wasn’t really thick enough for a smoothie bowl LOL! – I popped the remainder of the fresh berries on top along with 3 almonds and a brazil nut which I had roughly chopped. It was a nice change and made me feel like I was eating as I had a bowl and spoon – might have to actually look up some of the smoothie bowl recipes next time so I can get my quantities together.

I had a fizz stick this afternoon and as we were hulling strawberries for freezing I did eat a couple of them along with a few nuts for a snack.

Dinner was chicken and salad (with roasted sweet potato) and that will be the same tomorrow – Monday will see a bit more of a variety, but I don’t mind I like chicken and salad (especially with sweet potato) even when I’m not trying to lose weight and get healthy.

January 7^th 2018

This morning I slept in until 8, talk about feeling refreshed. The secret? We were sleeping in the spare room with the fan on (ours died and the heat and humidity have been killers!). Consequently no walk again this morning although it’s now 11 am and my feet are feeling back to normal so tomorrow morning the dog will be very happy again and the walking will continue!

Breakfast was a vanilla meal replacement made with water, a scoop of fibre a few fresh blueberries and some fresh strawberries. I also had a few of the fresh berries on the side as well which made a nice change. I left my herbal tea steeping while talking to hubby and nearly forgot about it! Luckily it was still warm so I drank it down, I can’t believe I nearly forgot my morning cuppa – how quickly things change, there was a time I didn’t get out of bed before having a cup of tea (and we’re not talking herbal tea here!)

Lunch was chocolate meal replacement made with water, a scoop of greens balance and the last of my frozen cherries … no more ‘cheating’ as I’m only supposed to be eating berries! Berries/cherries shrug! So delicious, even my daughter sneaked a sip and said ‘yum’, I had to get that glass of her real quick – she’s eating food, not my shake for lunch LOL!

This afternoon I had a fizz stick and also a green apple with almond butter (this is fast becoming one of my favorite snacks!).

Dinner was a salad with a small bit of rice because there was some roasted sweet potato in the salad, but not quite enough, also some homemade guacamole and some chicken – it looked and tasted absolutely fantastic.

Weigh day tomorrow morning, I’m feeling good I just hope the scales and measurements tell the same story as I’m feeling. Check out Week Two!

My Pre-30 Days to Healthy Living Journey

I began the full on Arbonne 30 Days to Healthy Living and Beyond journey on 1st January 2018, but my weightloss journey began in earnest in December 2017, let me take you through my journey – what I did, how I felt etc

At the end of November I signed up as an independent consultant with Arbonne intending to then get the 30 day plan, but I didn’t think I’d be able to start it until January as we had a few weeks of being child free which mean dinners out, weekends away, and after our daughter was back it was Christmas … no point setting myself up for failure.

I did decide that I would prepare myself in the meantime so I started walking on the 29th November (not very far, but it was a start), I also decided that I would gradually start cutting back on my cups of tea during the day.

On Friday 1st December I skipped my walk as we were going away for the weekend and I didn’t want to overdo things. Before we left my Arbonne parcel arrived, although I didn’t have time to look through it properly.

When we arrived back home I decided to get my husband to take some before photos of me (Sunday 3rd December). That was very confronting! I knew I was carrying some extra weight, but I didn’t see myself as being as bad as the photo’s looked. The next morning I hopped on the scales and found that I was heavier than I thought, in fact I was the heaviest I’d ever been.

Talk about feeling depressed.

On Wednesday 6th December I saw a video which made me sit up – it wasn’t about the 30 day plan, but it was about procrastination and it really spoke to me. This is exactly what I wrote down on that day –

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today – this is something I really need to act upon as I feel I am the Queen of Procrastination at times so why am I waiting until January to commence my 30 day Arbonne weight loss journey? Again it’s that pesky procrastination, I say I don’t want to set myself up for failure, but is that just an excuse? What if I was sick and would die unless I was to go on the 30 day plan, cut out alcohol, sugar, gluten, dairy and processed foods immediately – I wouldn’t worry about it being December I would just focus on living!

I had really decided that I didn’t want to wait until January and it so happened that the next day was my day off so you could say that my weight loss journey began on Thursday 7th December 2017.

My Journal Entries for December 2017 – My Weight Loss Journey

A Quest for Better Health – Pre Arbonne’s 30 Day to Healthy Living & Beyond Plan

Thursday 7^th December

I’ve just made my first shake – a chocolate replacement meal with ½ scoop of daily fibre. I’m pleasantly surprised by two things –

It shook up well without needing a blender or anything – a few others that I’ve tried have left lumps so that was good.
The flavour, originally I was thinking of just getting vanilla so that I can add different flavorings – frozen berries etc, but I got one of each and the first one I’m trying – chocolate (what a shock!). I have always been disappointed when I’ve had chocolate flavoured protein powders or meal replacements in the past because the flavour just hasn’t felt right. I must say that I really like the flavour, it doesn’t have a horrible back taste like other meal replacements can have. It has the lovely taste of a chocolate milk shake without that too creamy taste that some have that can leave you feeling bloated.

I keep wanting to say it tastes clean, but if I hadn’t tasted it and just read ‘it tastes clean’ I’d be thinking what on earth are they talking about! It’s really hard to describe, but I can’t see me having a problem enjoying this every day.

For lunch I decided to try the vanilla meal replacement – I was taking this with the Greens Balance. When I first opened up the bag it smelled delicious, then I opened up the greens balance and thought ‘Houston we have a problem’, the initial smell reminded me of spirulina powder which, although good for you, tasted vile!

Now I shook this one for a little longer than the chocolate one as I could see some lumps, but not overly long (I do get impatient!), I’m not sure if it was the vanilla meal replacement or the greens balance, but it did dissolve nicely.

The flavour was better than I expected, it was vanilla with another flavour in the background that I couldn’t really put my finger on, but it was definitely not unpleasant.

It will take some getting used to with the green color though, it’s a bit like when I first added spinach to a smoothie – drinking it with my eyes closed I couldn’t tell it was there, but when I saw the green I ‘imagined’ I could taste the spinach!

I had a delicious dinner and if it wasn’t for the tzatziki it would’ve been an ideal meal for the 30 days to a healthy me strict diet regimen! Lamb marinaded in Greek inspired flavorings and served on a huge bed of salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, beans, spring onion) with the most delicious homemade tzatziki (my hubby makes the yummiest one!).

Friday 8^th December

Vanilla with fibre boost is yum, nicer than with the greens balance and a lovely breakfast. The great thing about the vanilla is that I can also throw in a few berries if I want a change or a dash of cinnamon for a bit of a chai latte flavour twist.

I really have to start going for my walk earlier as by 7 it’s way too hot as the past 2 days have testified!

Okay, lunch time and I have to say that the chocolate and greens are NOT a good mix. Not as bad as some meal replacements, but after having the other combinations I’m really not loving this one! I am thinking it might benefit from some raspberries so I might have to get the old blender out and throw in some frozen raspberries another day and see what that’s like.

Dinner tonight was a packet of the steam fresh veg that we had in the freezer (cauli, broccoli, beans and onion) with some of the left over chicken from last night and a ‘salsa’ of red and yellow cherry tomatoes and spring onion. It was delicious and if it wasn’t for the butter sauce that the steam fresh veg were in it would have been a meal that I could eat in January!

It’s probably in my head, but this evening I’m actually feeling like something has changed in my abdominal area. I definitely feel a little slimmer, last night I felt like I had actually put on weight – I was definitely a little bloated. We shall see on Tuesday and now it’s the weekend so who knows what we’ll be doing – I’m going to start tomorrow with a shake for breakfast and going up to 1 scoop of fibre instead of the ½ scoop I’ve been having. After breakfast it really depends on if we’re at home or out as to what I do for lunch and dinner. It’s that 80/20 thing (except with Christmas this month it could turn more into 70/30), but it’s better than not doing anything until January right?

Saturday 9^th December

This morning Roman & I had a slightly longer walk and I tried my detox tea, (which is actually called herbal tea, I’m not sure why I keep saying detox tea!) for the first time (it only arrived yesterday afternoon).

Breakfast was a chocolate shake with a full scoop of fibre (I started off with only a half a scoop the first couple of days) followed by the detox tea which I really liked. Now I usually drink peppermint tea at lunch time so I knew that I would like that flavour, but it also had dandelion, parsley, licorice, elder flower and sweet fennel.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had dandelion and even longer since I had parsley tea (we’re talking about 20 years) and the last time I had a licorice tea it made me feel very strange. The result – I actually really liked it and will enjoy starting the day with a detox tea instead of my usual cuppa, I just have to teach my husband how to make it.

It’s not hard, but when he hears herbal tea his response is always oh you’ll have to make that I don’t know how! Step one put the kettle on to boil, step two open up the box and take out the tea bag, step three put the tea bag in the cup, step four pour boiling water onto tea bag and leave to steep. How hard is that, why apart from not adding milk it’s exactly the same as making our usual morning cuppa! I have a great husband, but there are times I just shake my head!

Sunday 10^th December

Well yesterday we ate out for lunch and dinner, we’re really cherishing the child-free life at the moment haven’t been out this much together for ages! This morning started with a lovely herbal tea (this is quickly becoming my favorite herbal tea and it’s only the second time I’ve had it!). A vanilla meal replacement with a scoop of fibre – no morning walk, Sundays is my day off plus I thought we were going somewhere where we’d be doing a fair bit of walking, but that’s no longer the case!

Yesterday I brought a poncho so that I can walk in the rain (not sure what Roman will think of that) as well as some new walking sandals as I literally have cracked the sole of one of my present ones and they don’t seem to offer me enough support. The new ones are soooo comfy!

Lunch was the chocolate replacement meal with a scoop of greens balance and a handful of frozen raspberries – the raspberries definitely made the drink taste much better, I hardly noticed the greens balance taste.

Oh I did end up going for a short walk in the evening to try out my walking sandals, they’re on a platform of air so feel a bit different to the ones that I’ve sorta killed!

Monday 11^th December

I combined our walk from the one we were doing at the end of the week to half of the one we were doing at the beginning of the week. Home to a delicious vanilla meal replacement for breakfast (and a lovely herbal tea afterwards while checking facebook!). Who would’ve thought this chocolate loving gal would prefer the vanilla meal replacement.

Lunch today was a chocolate meal replacement with a scoop of greens balance and a handful of frozen blackberries. The first mouthful I didn’t think it disguised the greens balance as much as the raspberries did, but after a couple of mouthfuls I quite like it. Now I don’t know whether I prefer blackberries or raspberries – talk about a first world problem!

I tried the citrus fizz sticks this morning and the pomegranate one this afternoon and I have to say I’m not a big fan which is a shame as everyone else seems to like them. I have since been told to dilute them more and if I have them in 850ml – 1 litre of water I don’t mind them as much (citrus is still my favorite though!)

Tuesday 12^th December

When I got back from my morning walk (slightly increased the distance again today) I weighed myself, it’s been 1 week since I weighed myself and the start of day 6 since I started my attempt at the 80/20 plan as you know.

I’ve lost 2.1kg!

I couldn’t believe it, I’ve been telling myself that I’m imagining changes that I think are happening, but maybe I’m not – just imagine what January is going to bring. I am so excited! By the way for those of you that count in pounds according to Google that’s equivalent to 4.6lb.

Delicious chocolate, greens with frozen blackberry lunch today.

Wednesday 13th December

Lumpy vanilla shake this morning, now lets talk lumps! When I first started I told you how well it mixed together well yesterday it appeared very lumpy and I had to use a teaspoon to try and get the lumps out. I blamed it on the fact that the water I used wasn’t as cold as usual so this morning I grabbed a cold bottle of water out of my fridge and tried to make it with that. I had noticed on another occasion that it didn’t mix very well, but I hadn’t shaken it for very long so thought it was my fault.

This morning it was lumpy again and this time I had a lightbulb moment – it’s the amount of fibre! When I first started I used ½ scoop of fibre in the shake, but now that I’m up to the full scoop it’s not mixing well when shaken by hand.

I use a blender on my lunchtime shakes as I’ve been using frozen berries so from tomorrow I’ll start using it for breakfast too. Most of the people I’ve spoken to you at this stage seem to use a nutri-bullet so if you have one then pop everything in there.

I don’t own a nutri-bullet, when I was having a lot of smoothies over the summer (last year) my husband brought me a generic version of nutri-bullet and if it’s something you’re considering it’s been working well for me!

I started my walk at 6.30 this morning instead of 6 like yesterday and by the time I got home at 7 it was way too hot for walking, this is going to be a challenge!

Lunch time I went for a chocolate raspberry shake which was divine.

Tonight I’m going to be having fish with a huge salad and I can’t wait!

Tomorrow is our work’s Xmas lunch so not sure what I’ll be having and I don’t care! We’re going to a lovely Italian restaurant so after a shake for breakfast all bets are off J

Thursday 14^th December

I had the morning shake and then went into work – the Xmas lunch was awesome, but sooo big! I knew then that I would just be having a shake in the evening because I was so full. I turned out not even wanting that!

Friday 15^th December

Took the dog for a shorter walk today and had a chocolate shake for breakfast, also had a choccy shake for lunch and we’re away on holiday this afternoon so no more shakes until Monday probably – maybe Sunday night depending if we have a large lunch on the way home or not.

Monday 18^th December

What a big weekend! Back to reality this morning with an early morning walk with Roman, we incorporated the short walk that we did on Friday with our usual walk, but I left about 6.30 and the poor dog was starting to pant a bit in the last stretch with the heat – I really have to leave closer to 6 it was just hard to get up this morning.

Delicious vanilla shake for breakfast and I was hungry by 9.30 which isn’t a good sign – I had a healthy snack of a handful of nuts though and that should (hopefully) see me through to lunch time. My daughter arrives home tonight, I hope she hasn’t brought me any chocolate as I want to be good for the rest of this week at least ….. only one week until Christmas eek! Still haven’t brought hubby a gift, he can be so hard to buy for some years.

Tuesday 19^th December

My overindulging on the weekend (starting Thursday with Xmas lunch) has caused me to put on a kilo this week – not so happy.

Walked the dog – it’s about 2.1 km (I measured it with the car as best I could) which isn’t as far as I thought it was, but that’s okay. I’ll probably increase it on Thursday, maybe tomorrow I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Delicious vanilla shake for breakfast – I’m getting to really enjoy these followed by my delicious herbal tea.

Chocolate, banana and raspberry shake for lunch and a gorgeous looking salad with fish for dinner. Snacks of nuts in the morning and a nectarine in the afternoon. I was feeling quite hungry today.

Wednesday 20^th December

At 5.30 it was already too hot to go for a walk, the humidity was very high and my chest felt like it had a tight band around it already as much as I hate it I’m going to miss my walk today – the dog is guarding the front door waiting for me to get dressed poor thing!

Thursday 21^st December

I left at 5.30 for my walk this morning and I’m drenched! It would’ve been a little earlier but my daughter wanted to come so it took a bit longer for her to get ready! I must admit it was a lot easier walking with her because we were just talking away and the walk was nearly over!

Delicious vanilla shake for breakfast again, I’m getting boring aren’t I?

Having my breakfast shake and herbal tea so early means I’m ready for lunch mid morning and at this rate I’ll be eating dinner about 3 o’clock! I had a nectarine at 9.30 and a boiled egg at 11.00 so that I can then have my lunch shake at lunch time.

Friday 22^nd December

We went out to dinner last night and I was so proud of myself as I ordered the chicken, brie and bacon meal instead of the chicken, brie and bacon burger and I chose the sweet potato wedges with salad over the curly fries! I actually really enjoyed it when it came and I don’t feel like I was short changed at all and I managed to avoid the burger bun and the potato so I’m giving myself a big pat on the back.

Now I didn’t have a walk this morning, it’s the first day of hubby’s holiday so he didn’t set his alarm and I didn’t actually wake up until 6 and to be honest we have so much to do today before mum arrives that I just decided to leave it!

I had my vanilla shake and herbal tea for breakfast, although I think I drank my shake too quickly which isn’t good as it doesn’t fill you up enough if you don’t take your time with it (in my opinion anyway).

I had a handful of mixed nuts at 10am and am just hanging out for lunch now.

Monday 25^th December

Okay the past couple of days haven’t been very good diet wise, but I haven’t been nearly as bad as I would usually be at this time of the year. Today I’ve had crumpets for breakfast, a couple of mince pies and a few pieces of chocolate during the day.

Lunch was chicken fajitas and dinner was turkey nachos (a Mexican style of Christmas!) and I’ve had a couple of coronas – tomorrow I’ll be a lot better.

Tuesday 26^th December

Fancy having a weigh day falling on Boxing Day! The good news is that I lost 1.7 kg – doing a happy dance right now!

I tried a new flavour shake for my breakfast today – chocolate with some frozen cherries and it wasn’t bad. It made me think of my childhood when we would go to my aunts for Boxing Day and we always had a Black Forest Gateau for dessert.

Wednesday 27^th December

Well after a 3 or 4 day hiatus the walking was back on this morning, although we did start a bit later and the sun had a bit of a sting in it so we walked a different route! Since mum arrived I’ve only been having my breakfast shake (except for Chrissy Day when I had none) so this morning as well as my scoop of fibre I also added a scoop of greens balance into my breakfast shake – vanilla and a handful of frozen blackberries, very nice!

Thursday 28^th December

A walk again, a herbal tea and a shake with both fibre and greens added.

Friday 29^th December

Got a period last night, first one in absolutely months and today I woke up with cramps and swollen joints, hands, feet – definitely not walking!

I haven’t had the tea or any shakes instead hubby brought me a milo in bed and when I got up I had a cup of tea and some toast and marmalade.

Slowly feeling better but I’m just eating whatever today and will get back on track tomorrow.

Have to start planning my menus for Jan 1^st onwards, but I don’t have the energy to do that right now, despite feeling so blah and even though my legs feel really heavy (typical for me during my period), I actually feel quite slim around my tummy area which is kinda strange, but very nice!

Saturday 30^th December

Back on track – a walk followed by a brekkie shake and a herbal tea – the shake included both my fibre and greens balance as it’s probably going to be my only shake of the day. I’m also planning on doing my meal plan for next week which will be the full 30 days to healthy living and beyond plan.

I can’t wait – my husband actually said this morning that he could see I was losing weight which was a big shot of confidence as I thought I could see the difference, but then you start wondering if it’s in your mind.

Photo session tomorrow for my 30 day before photos, it’ll be interesting to see the difference between this photo and my previous ones, weigh in and measurements too. It’s funny but I feel like a kid counting down to Christmas it’s really exciting to be about to start the ‘proper’ journey!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my journal entries and if you want to see how I’m going then please go to –

My First 30 Day Plan to Healthy Living & Beyond – Week One

What is the Arbonne 30 Day to Healthy Living & Beyond Plan?

I will be commencing the Arbonne 30 days to healthy living plan on Jan 1st 2018, but what exactly is this plan?

This plan will give you more energy, reduce the inflammation in your body and may help with weight loss – hello! why wouldn’t everyone do it! So let’s look at the nuts and bolts of the program and then I’ll talk about results and if you’re still not convinced then you can follow my personal journey how does that sound?

Why 30 Days?

It takes 30 days for a new habit to develop and it also gives your digestive system a chance to relax.

Now if you really can’t commit to 30 days, you could have a tester by using a core pack which lasts 10 days. Personally though I think 30 days to help your only body out isn’t too much time to take!

What Does It Entail?

Well there are meal replacements and how many of these you take depends on whether you feel you need to lose weight or whether you just want to have a bit more get up and go.

For weight loss you will substitute two meals a day with the choice of our meal replacement shakes or protein shakes. If you just want to increase your energy and feel more like the old you then just replace one of your meals a day with a meal replacement or protein shake.

You also need to take a scoop of fiber and a scoop of greens balance each day. I add my scoop of fiber to my breakfast shake (it’s tasteless) and I add a scoop of greens balance to my lunchtime shake.

You will also drink a cup of herbal tea each day – I actually really enjoy this tea and I make mine in the morning to drink after I’ve finished my breakfast shake.

The other thing you use is what are called fizz sticks and you should have at least one of these a day, but you can have 2 or 3 if you feel you need them.

Great, Well That’s Easy – Anything Else?

Yes, there are things you need to totally avoid for the 30 days and they are –

Alcohol, Coffee, Dairy, Gluten, Sugar, Processed Foods, White Potatoes

These things are avoided so that you can give your digestive system a complete rest while the tea provided helps as a tonic to your liver, kidneys and digestive system.

This still leaves lots of things to eat and you’ll be provided with sample menu plans and shopping lists as well as a few recipe videos to help you think of ideas – you are not alone.

What About After The 30 Days?

Well that’s up to you, some people find the ease and convenience of the shakes is perfect to keep having for their breakfast (this seems to be people who often skipped their breakfast in the past or who eat brekky on the go).

Some people have found that they feel better when they’re not eating dairy and/or gluten or drinking coffee and they will either cut right back or stop eating/drinking whichever one makes them feel bloated. This doesn’t happen to everyone by the way, but it’s amazing how sometimes cutting back on something that you usually eat/drink a lot can make you feel so different.

The majority of people that I’ve talked to who has done the 30 day plan try and do what they call an 80/20 where they continue to avoid the above things 80% of the time and only ‘indulge’ 20% of the time. What you choose to do is up to you.

Can You Repeat the 30 Days or Is It A Once Only?

Absolutely you can repeat it, we have success stories with people losing a lot of weight by staying on it for 12 months and feeling fantastic; other stories have people being on it for 60 or 90 days in order to achieve their goal.

I plan on being on it for longer than 30 days, probably more like 90 at this stage, I have a lot of weight to lose and also am loving how more energetic and alert I feel on the plan. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever started and I just know I’m going to see it all the way through the 30 days and beyond.

But Wait, There’s More Inclusions

A private Facebook group where we share recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, support etc.

If you sign up under me I’ll also be available to be contacted and help answer queries, cheer from the sidelines and lend encouragement when you hit the 4,5 or 6 day blues (I hit the blues on day 5, but managed to stay strong).

Just go to louannecox.arbonne.com, select the country you live in (there are a few changes to the nutrition products available in each country for example in the US you can only use the protein powder whereas in Australia you have a choice between a meal replacement powder or a protein powder). Some countries also include a product called digestion plus in their kits – this product isn’t available in Australia so I can’t tell you from experience what it’s like although my cousin (in the UK) swears by it!

Next scroll down and click to sign up for the preferred clients program (preferred clients get 20% discount on all products and up to 40% on value packs). Now you don’t have to become a preferred client, but you save what it costs by being able to buy the complete 30 day pack in what we call a value pack – and it gives you the discount for a whole 12 months on anything else you want to purchase – why wouldn’t you?

Once you’re a preferred client you’ll see special packs that are available for you at a discounted rate and this includes your 30 day plan. You get to choose two different flavors of protein powder/meal replacement and two different flavors of fizz sticks. I got one of each with my first pack so that I could decide which I preferred and I’m glad I did because I prefer the citrus fizz sticks over the pomegranate ones which I was recommended.

Not sure if it’s for you? Why not pop over to my Facebook page and send me a message, I can then add you to a group that explains all about the 30 Day Plan and you can get more information before deciding if it’s for you.