Xyngular 8-Day Challenge: Preparation Day

I’m starting a series of posts to track the progress of a new challenge that Shawna and I are taking.  At the behest and encouragement of my sister, Jeannette, we are beginning an 8-Day detox and health challenge using several products from Xyngular.

Specifically, we’ll be sharing the “Ignite Pack“, which comes with:

• Lean (meal replacement shake)
• Xyng (boosts energy and focus)
• Accelerate (boosts metabolism, suppresses appetite, increases stamina)
• Super Fruit Global Blend (antioxidant fruits, antioxidant promoting nutrients, and adaptogens)
• Cheat+ (calorie blocker, regulates blood sugar, controls cholesterol)
• Flush (organic cleanse, improves digestion, removes toxins, decreases bloating)

During the challenge, days 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 will be “shake days”, during which we will have the Lean shakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  We’ll also have a protein snack at mid-morning and in the afternoon.

Days 3, 5, and 7 will be “eating days”, during which we will have one morning shake, one healthy 500-600 calorie meal at lunch, and a protein-focused (low/no carb) dinner.  We can have as much protein as we want on these “eating day” dinners, but we are to avoid carbohydrates as much as we can.  We also have a protein snack at mid-morning and one in the afternoon if we need it.

Each day we will start the morning off with 1 Xyng tablet and 2 oz of the Super Fruit Global Blend.  Each lunchtime shake or meal will be followed by 2 Accelerate tablets, and each evening we will take 2 Flush tablets just before bed.

In order to be successful with the challenge, Jeannette suggested that we use the day prior to our challenge as a “preparation day”.  We discussed several options for our protein snacks, our 500-600 calorie lunches, and our protein dinners.  For the snacks, we’ll probably stick to something basic like turkey breast and hard-boiled eggs.  For the lunches we’ll probably make a little “paleo lasagna” dish that we’ve created.  We’ll probably use this meal to add in our fruits and veggies (mangoes, grapefruits, broccoli, kale).  For the dinners, I’m thinking we’ll probably explore the barbecue places up here in Omaha.  It’s no Kansas City, but Omaha’s no stranger to meats, so I’m hopeful.  PLUS, we’ll be in KC next weekend, so we’ll have to grab us some Oklahoma Joe’s at some point.

Since our calorie (and food in general) intake will be significantly reduced during this week, Jeannette advised us to splurge the day before we start the challenge, so that we won’t be hit with cravings the first couple days.  We’ve been trying to eat more healthfully for the last few months, so we weren’t exactly sure what to do for this.  After giving it some thought, we decided to pig out at our new favorite Thai restaurant up here in Omaha, Thai Orchids.

In the spirit of pigging out, we each ordered a dinner entree and decided to split an order of Thai fried rice.  Shawna ordered the U-don Style Dinner which was a Pad Thai dish that came with two Thai spring rolls and two veggie rolls.  I ordered the Cashew Chicken.  The portions were huge, but that didn’t stop me from ordering a second side of steamed rice to stretch the Cashew Chicken even farther.  The Thai fried rice is probably one of the best fried rice dishes I’ve ever had.  The combination of basil and tomato together with the cilantro were amazing and it even had the flavor of being fried on a grill like the rice at Kobe’s Steakhouse (home of my previously favorite fried rice).  It was incredible.

I warned Shawna before we ordered that we couldn’t have any leftovers because we wouldn’t be able to eat them for a week, but we did end up taking some of the fried rice home.  It wasn’t wasted, though.  I ended up eating it as a snack while we were waiting for the reverse happy hour to start at Blue, Shawna’s favorite sushi bar.  We had about two and a half hours to recuperate between Thai Orchids and Blue, and it was just enough time.  We ended up ordering a couple drinks and four sushi rolls, which, surprisingly we finished.

By the time we got home it was 12:30 and we were wallowing in the regret of our over indulgence.  We decided that, being stuffed, it was better to go ahead and take our measurements and weights for the challenge before going to sleep.  Shawna has asked me not to divulge any of her information until we see our results, but here are my numbers going into the challenge:

• chest: 52″
• waist: 53″ (wasn’t really sure what to measure here, so I just measured the biggest part of my gut)
• hips: 47″ (this was the narrowest part of my abdomen, just above my legs and below my gut–strangely, I wear 42″-44″ pants, not sure why this is different)
• thighs: 27″[right], 26″[left] (definitely didn’t know how to measure this, so I just measured the widest part of my legs, don’t know why the two were different, lol)
• arms: 16.5″ (just above my biceps, unflexed)
• weight: 325.2 lbs (mind you, I weighed myself at 318 lbs earlier that morning–I guess we did pig out!)

After having to remove several articles of clothing to get accurate measurements and being drunk on sushi, we decided that we would take our “before” pictures the next morning.

I don’t really have any goals for the 8 days as far as these measurements go.  Between March and June, I’ve gone from over 350lbs to 318lbs, mostly by eating clean and detoxing.  I guess I would hope that I’m able to lose the 8-12 lbs that the program advertises.  We’ll see what happens.  I did start exercising regularly again this past week.  I spent about an hour on our elliptical three different days.  Since I can’t really call a week a “routine”, Jeannette suggested that I not do any “extra” exercise during the program.  We’ll see how much I can lose with out it.  I am looking forward to starting that up again after the challenge, though.  Ideally, I’d love to be able to get down to 220-230lbs.  I honestly don’t think I could get lower than that without losing muscle.  So I suppose a good start would be to get halfway to 300lbs during this challenge.  That’s 13lbs and just above the range that the program advertises, but we’ll see what happens.

Either way, I’m excited to be trying something new and hopefully it’ll be a nice jump start to my journey toward “affordable” life insurance premiums! [Dave Ramsey would be proud, ;-)]