Health & Wellness

Ed & Nicole have been pretty focused lately on their own health & wellness and we thought we'd share what we've learned. Let's start with vitamins. How many people take a multi-vitamin? When choosing a multi-vitamin, who are we listening to? Until I actually started looking into it, I thought I was doing good by taking the Centrum set that fit my station in life. They have commercials, they are available nearly everywhere and Costco carries it. I have absolutely nothing against Centrum in particular, but rather use them as a symbol of the commercially available vitamins. Overall, I'm sure they are better than what I get from a fast food diet, but really, I'm not sure they are really much better than a 'fast food vitamin'. (That's my own term.) They are kind of a shotgun approach to getting what your body needs. They contain a wide variety of vitamins and minerals that I'm not convinced provide my body what it actually needs. There just isn't a clear focus outside of selling vitamins. One thing that seems fairly consistent is the benefit of fish oil. Of course, now I've found out that not all fish oil sources are created equal.

Let's take a look at diet. We've tried several commercialized diets in the quest to maintain our ideal body composition with varying results. Being a small business owner has its challenges in regard to maintaining a healthy diet. Oddly enough, the chicken nugget, pizza diet didn't do wonders for us! We've tried many commercialized diet / nutrition plans. The most effective being the paleo diet, which focuses on lean meat, natural vegetables & fruit and healthy fats. This diet provides a very stable level of contentment and energy, but even purchasing grass fed beef and free range chicken, it's hard to know that I'm really getting exactly the nutrients I need. So I do believe that some level of vitamin and supplement is necessary for optimum health.

And then one day, one of our customers at Adventure Kids introduced us to Advocare. The hallmark of Advocare is their 24 Day Challenge. The challenge is simply ingenuous to me. There is a purchase from Advocare, which consists of Spark, Herbal Cleanse, Omegaplex (Fish oil) and MNS Max (Metabolic Nutrition System) and meal replacement shakes. Spark is probably the most fantastic thing I've ever put into my body! It's a powder that you shake with water for a hydrating, energetic vitamin drink that provides loads of B vitamins and amino acids along with a bit of caffeine. I did mention earlier that fish oil supplements vary. Dr. Oz actually did an independent study of fish oil supplements and the Advocare brand (Omegaplex) was one of only TWO that got his blessing! The meal replacement shakes sounded to me like a waste of time, BUT they don't even come into the plan until after the first 10 days and are actually doing EXACTLY what they are intended to do for me. They provide equal levels of protein and carbohydrates and satisfy me for the first few hours of the day! The supplements though aren't the entire plan. The challenge lays out a nutrition plan that is nutritious and healthy, focusing on lean proteins, vegetables, fruit and fats. In my mind, the food is fairly similar to the paleo diet, only there are some carbs added and the plan has me eating some sort of meal every 2 or 3 hours. It's very well laid out and the instructions are very easy to follow. Three weeks into my 24 day challenge, I find myself nearly 20 pounds lighter and having actually gained muscle mass! My energy levels are regulated, like they were on the paleo diet, except that my energy level is INCREDIBLY high! Last Saturday, I got up, taught my kids' karate class, cleaned up the back yard from the winter, mowed, played baseball with the kids for a couple of hours, washed BOTH cars and barbecued dinner for the family! The results are in and Advocare has my personal endorsement! But why listen to me? Advocare doesn't have any commercials. The products aren't available at Costco. Who is it that really is producing this product? Reviewing their website, www.advocare.com, you'll find that they are guided by a large panel of doctors and health experts, many from some major universities across the country. They are also endorsed and USED by many professional, amateur, and OLYMPIC athletes! I don't really have the time to get a degree in nutrition and supplements, but I do have to say that if a program is good enough for athletes, it's probably going to have the things I need to be as healthy as possible. Advocare is sold by distributors in the community whose sole purpose is to help their clients achieve success. They are trained to help people along the way rather than simply sell some products they don't believe in and you never see them again. I'm actually so impressed with Advocare that I've signed up to become a distributor of their products. Some of them will be available at Adventure Kids for parents who are looking for a specific benefit (such as increased energy, weight loss, general health, etc.) And so, to answer the question I posed earlier about who to trust - How about an average person who has enjoyed great success, has seen others do the same and is supported by a panel of top notch doctors and athletes? Oh, don't worry, Adventure Kids is still our main focus - we're just offering a way to help our families enjoy the fantastic energy provided by this particular health & wellness plan.