Favao - Week 2

Hit a couple snags this week. What with my leaving for a week this upcoming week (Sept. 23-28) I have had to work major hours this week. Tuesday I worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then came back around 11:30 p.m. and worked until about 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.
 

Needless to say, I had to indulge and grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew and a Poptart to eat during my third shift time.
 

That being said, I feel I have been doing well with making better food choices, and an orange and piece of string cheese has become my mid-afternoon staple snack.
 

I’m back up to a full scoop of the body cleanse, and it is nowhere near as bad as it was when I first started. My thought on that is when I first started, my body probably had a lot more toxins in it that needed to get flooded out. Now, with taking the cleanse regularly and putting good food in my body, it is probably less intense because there isn’t as much bad foods in my body. Within an hour of getting up I am flushing the baddies out of my body and am feeling well and ready to go, sometimes an hour and a half, but it is pretty quick.
 

The first week’s food is absolutely delicious, I love grilled chicken so the Mexican salad and the dinner with BBQ sauce and sweet potatoes are right up my alley.
 

Yesterday I ran out of the pre-made meals, so I went off of the scheduled lunch and dinner today and will be eating other healthier meals tomorrow as well. The reason I am not preparing another week’s worth of meals is because I will be going off the Favao plan for a week.
 

On Sunday, Sept. 23 I leave for Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for a media and the military workshop. While there I will be eating with the Army boys. While I cannot control what will be served, I can control portion size and hopefully be able to make good choices. With that being said, I will return next Friday (the 28th) and will be back on the Favao way, supplements and all.
 

Even with my couple snags this week, I have seen a decrease. When I stepped on the scale this morning, it read 183.5 – a decrease of 2.5 lbs. from last week’s weigh-in.
 

So far I am two weeks into the program and 6.5 lbs lighter. I’m definitely a believer...

Favao - Week 1

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Rachel Wittrock. Growing up, I was a full-time athlete, competing year-round in swimming and track, and later cross country, and even three years in marching band. When I graduated high school in 2005, I was 5’7’’ and 140 pounds. About my fourth year in college I started gaining weight, and when I graduated in 2010, I was 170 lbs.
 

Then I joined the workforce, working as a reporter for a weekly newspaper. I went from working out 25 hours a week to sitting at a desk for more than eight hours a day, five days a week. Within six months I had put on 20 more pounds, and for the last two years I have struggled to lose weight. The barbs were even more painful when people would ask me when my baby was due, not to be mean but because they honestly thought I was pregnant. Even though it was a mistake, it hurt.
 

A couple months ago, I attended a weight management program, where a registered dietician demonstrated how sugar is a huge culprit in preventing weight loss and how many people can consume more than 50 tablespoons in a day.
 

A couple ladies in my town then spoke to me about this weight management program, called Favao. It is not touted as a weight loss gimmick, but rather as a lifestyle reset. At the end of August, I called one of the women and said I wanted to sign up.
 

On Thursday, Sept. 6, I received my startup package, which came at a $260 price tag. Included were a month’s supplies of a body cleanse, metabolism booster, fiber and protein, as well as a 239 page booklet listing workouts to do and 12 weeks worth of grocery lists and meals to cook, as well as at what time to take them.
 

Every day I begin my day with a shake, which includes the protein and fiber powder, half a banana, oats, ice cubes and water. I also take two metabolism booster pills. I follow the morning regimen, while in a slightly different order.
 

Instead of having my shake at 7 and burrito at 9, I eat the burrito in the morning while I am home and then take the shake to work and sip on it until about 11. Closer to 12:30 I have a snack of string cheese and an apple. I usually eat my lunch around 3 at work, then finish the day with supper at 7. I end my day with an 8-oz. glass of water with my body cleanse mixed in.
 

My first week I didn’t follow the regimen exactly, I missed three days with the body cleanse and did not eat the specified meals for lunch and dinner because I was unsure of how to prepare the meals (I am cooking deficient).
 

However, on Thursday, Sept. 13 the lady I have begun to think of as my sponsor helped me with the food preparation for the next week, so I should have a much easier time of sticking to the meal plans for the next week.
 

I was also very sick the first day I took the body cleanse, when I used the full scoop. I have since learned that about 3/4 of a scoop is the right mixture for me, but I will skip it if I know that I will be rushing in the morning and don’t have time to ride out the minor stomach ache that I do encounter. (While a stomachache may seem like a bad thing, trust me, it means the product is doing its job. After just a week I find that the stomachaches are less severe and do not last as long.)
 

In spite of my ups and downs, the product and following the meals are working.
When I weighed in on Friday, Sept. 7, I weighed 190 lbs.
 

One week later, I have lost four pounds and weigh 186 lbs. (all measurements with clothes on) Not bad for one week.
 

As I continue on my 12-week journey with Favao, I will continue to blog about my experiences and results.
 

There will be one glitch in the system: From Sept. 23-28 I will be at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for a media and the military workshop. While there I will not be able to control what I eat very much, but I can make smarter decisions about what I eat from the foods available and how much, and I am confident it will not throw off my journey too much.
 

To see what happens next week, check back on Sept. 21.