Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Challenge Day 2: Revelations and Explanations

Day 2 started off with fiber before spark.  Why didn't I remember this yesterday?  Instead of being ravenous today, I had to remind myself to eat!  It's a good thing too because I had to take my 3 year old in for a 2 1/2 hour assessment to determine eligibility for early childhood services.  Yep--I have a second child in special needs programs now (though he's probably going to outgrow it pretty quickly, based on post-evaluation conversations with the evaluators).

I was talking to a friend who tried spark for the first time today, and the conversation went like this:

s it less sugar and stuff than a latte?
Like is it healthier for you
Way less!
Okay
Yes. By far. It's better than coffee with creamer, sugar wise, so it's got to be better than a latte.
Well I mean that might be a helpful transition thing for me
Oh it's got vitamins and minerals??
yep. I love it for the B vitamin boost (happy stuff for adrenals) and the insitol ( the belly fat fighter) grin emoticon
full disclosure: I haven't been able to find out how much splenda/sucralose is in each one.
I've looked for months!
Lol
I just have to decrease sugar intake
And get healthier
I understand--it's just something I take pretty seriously too, since my kid is sensitive to all food additives and I became a nutrition facts reading sleuth 4 years ago wink emoticon
And I realized that most people who think that I'm a crazy stickler about what I'm putting into my body don't know that part of the story.  It's fine--I always forget that others aren't as label-reading crazy (and I'm fighting to get more information beyond what's on the label for particular items!) as I've become, and the reasons why.  This link explains a lot of it in detail:
http://forwardtowardsfaith.blogspot.com/2012/06/riding-food-dye-wave.html

In short, though, I'll put it this way--when my oldest son was 2 1/2 and super hyper (before he was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD), someone suggested that because benedryl wound him up, mountain Dew might do the opposite for us...and then he stayed awake for 72 hours.  He's had rash and IBS-type flare ups, too, and the holistic doctor we visited to try and get a handle on things suggested that I keep a food journal and then a food elimination diet for awhile. Not only did we discover a lactose intolerance, but also strong behavioral reactions to white breads (perhaps a sugar issue?) and yellow 5/6.  Yellow 5 can sometimes simply be on a label as "color added" or occasionally in things like "annato extract"--things that have more than one ingredient themselves but can be 'ok'd when written as if they're a single ingredient.  We've become much more careful about reading labels well to avoid meltdowns or inability to sleep (but it still happens on occasion).  When we put him on the diet, I felt AWFUL about taking so much away from him that I did it myself and discovered that I'd developed lactose intolerance as well and my eczema corresponded to particular things I was eating as well.

All of this to say that this is another reason I use Advocare products--yes, there are some things with added flavor and the occasional color (though mostly beet extract and the like), as well as some splenda in it, but nutrition-wise?  It's SOLID.  They're very careful to not say that it's gluten free or without contacts to allergens because there may be some cross contamination, but as a label-reader/safety/health-obsessed person, let me tell you that for a mass-marketed product, I have been incredibly impressed that my research has yielded very little negative press for the products.  I can list them all on one hand (or less).  It's not your high-end, bio-engineered to suit your individual needs supplement, but it meets a LOT of needs for a lot of people.

More than that, they do have an entire medical advisory board that's happy to talk about the products, their impact, and choose to ensure quality and vouch for the quality of the products:
https://www.advocare.com/science/

Like I said, this may not be important to most people, but it makes a world of difference to someone like me who has fought allergies and behavioral issues due to food reactions inside their houses!

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