My 21 Day Fix - Round 1 Complete!

It seems like it was so long ago that I received my 21 Day Fix package from Beachbody. Though I started the workouts in early February, I started my first round of the 21 Day Fix Program (the workouts in conjunction with the eating plan) on Monday, February 24th. I was hopeful that this program would deliver, and let me tell you... it sure did!

If you've been following my posts, you know a little bit about the workouts and have seen the outline of my eating plan that I started with, along with some pictures of some of my meals so that you can tell that the portion sizes are actually quite substantial. The hardest part of this eating plan (at least for me since I fell into the category that consisted of the least amount of containers each day) is just making sure you're spacing out your meals properly so you eat all your food throughout the day... in other words, don't eat all your containers too early in the day!! I learned that I need one of my yellow (carb) containers in the afternoon so I make sure I have that saved... and maybe that was more mental than anything else. I'm a girl that loves my carbs (and wine!)

Photo Credit

I'm going to be 100% honest with you. There were days I "cheated" a little. I know... SHAME ON ME!!! I stuck to it so well the first week. And then the second week, I wanted to see what happened if I tried to play with the meals a little bit (instead of cooking my meat separately for dinner, I made a meatloaf one night, which of course did have some egg and bread in it, but I justified that it wasn't a substantial amount and had a little less rice to account for part of the carb and a little less of the meat to account for the egg in it too. It didn't seem to effect my progress, thankfully, however, I did have a celebratory dinner one Saturday night before my parents moved to Florida, as well as a baby shower to attend one day... I tried to stick to it the best I could. And despite veering a little off the eating plan a couple days, I still saw progress that I'm SUPER happy about.

21 Days Later...
* I'm down 5.3lbs
* Down 1.5" around my chest
* Down 0.75" around each bicep
* Down 1.25" around each thigh (YAY!)
* Down 1.75" around my waist (double YAY!)
* Down 1.0" around my hips (triple YAY, especially since I've had a baby... need I say more?!)

That's a total of 8.25 inches lost in 21 days just by cutting "crap" out of my diet and exercising 30 minutes a day. That's it!

Photo Credit: Janet Dick - I love her daily posts!

I also want to mention some non-scale victories too... because I think we often focus so much on the numbers we see on the scale, but that really isn't a sign of if someone is healthy.

* I've stopped using Splenda. No more chemicals. I started on Splenda several years ago (and I don't really remember how that started). Since I was tracking calories post-baby, I was loving a zero-calorie sweetener for my morning coffee. The 21 Day Fix suggests a packet of Raw Sugar or Stevia. I HATED this day one, but my taste buds actually adjusted to this pretty quickly and now I'm perfectly content with one Sugar in the Raw plus a little skim milk in my coffee (skim milk is suggested over a creamers or other milks).

* I stopped drinking diet soda. Do I miss it? Eh. I realized halfway through the 21 days that I could drink flavored sparkling water as long as it had zero calories. Dasani started selling new sparkling waters (in a can) so I picked up a case. Some days I drank it, some days I didn't. But I really don't miss it as much as I thought I would.

* I feel my body getting stronger with every single workout. I realize this sounds so cliché but I swear it's the truth. I'm not going to tell you that the workouts are easy because I would be lying (and let's be honest, who really thinks an EASY workout will give you results?!) The moves aren't challenging, and there are modifications to help you along if you need to make it a little easier to begin, so this workout is great for anyone at any workout level. What makes it hard? You're doing each move for a minute straight in most cases with the 21 Day Fix. What seems like it's not too hard initially can really become a challenge by the time the minute is up. As you start to get stronger, you can feel yourself pushing harder. Need more of a challenge? Up your weights! I will probably continue into Round 2 using my 5lb and 7lb weights, but will probably buy a set of 10lb weights soon for my heavy set and use the 7lb weights as my light set. Autumn says in one of the workouts, "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you", and I remind myself of that daily. Moves I struggled with on Day 1, I found myself almost able to make it through this week. You've got to keep pushing... you can do this, and the harder you push, the better the results.

* I've been having a "breakage" problem with my hair for probably 4-5 years now. This one section just breaks more than the rest, and my hair stylist and I have come to the conclusion that it has to do with the way I've been sleeping since moving in with my husband (who moves a lot in his sleep... I have dodged flying arms from time to time). Drinking Shakeology for 6 weeks has actually reduced my breakage drastically!! I was so excited when I went in to see my stylist last week and she asked what I've done differently because it was looking great (and she asked if I'd lost weight... SCORE!) I told her about Shakeology and she said, "Keep doing whatever you're doing, because it's obviously helping you in more ways than one".

* I have been sleeping better at night. Especially since having my daughter over a year and a half ago, I have been waking up most nights 2-3 times. I don't know if it's the workouts, the Shakeology, or maybe I'm just more tired these days chasing a toddler around the house, but I've been sleeping through the night most nights the past 3 weeks. It's wonderful -- haven't done that without Advil since before I got pregnant in 2011!

The 21 Day Fix does have a great workout program overall, but Autumn stresses that you really need to following the eating plan to see results, and I can definitely understand that. She explains in the eating plan guide how to calculate how many containers to eat daily on the Fix, as well as how many you should eat if you're just looking to maintain your weight. I want to stress that this isn't a crash diet. It's a lifestyle change.



Photo Credit

My suggestions on being most successful on this plan...
* You need to be ready and willing to commit to the eating plan. It takes a little planning but I promise, it's worth it.
* Stick to the plan as closely as you can.
* Get the junk out of your house ahead of time so you're not tempted.
* Drink Shakeology. It can be a snack. It can be a meal. I drink mine after my workout. It counts as a red container (I get 4 red containers daily in my eating plan) and then depending on what you use to make it, you need to take those foods/containers into consideration too. But I truly believe this stuff helps tremendously. It has given me energy (note: there's no caffeine. There's no nuts. There are no common allergens in Shakeology, but definitely check before buying if you have any allergies). I love the chocolate flavor... blending a scoop of chocolate with a cup of cooled coffee, a half teaspoon of vanilla extract and ice is my favorite on the fix since the coffee is a "free" food. There are so many recipes for Shakeology, the possibilities are endless. I've pinned some on Pinterest if you want to get some ideas.
* Make sure you exercise EVERY DAY. It sounds like a lot but it's a half hour. I actually added the 10-minute abs workout three days a week so some days it might be 40 minutes... and if you choose to double up the third week like Autumn suggests (which is entirely up to you), it could be as much as an hour. Most days, I only did the one workout (or the one plus the abs) because I just don't always have time to workout for an hour.
* Join a challenge or accountability group on Facebook. Whether you are new to Beachbody and would want to work with me, or if you already have a coach you're working with, I cannot stress enough how helpful the challenge group I participated in was for me. These ladies kept it real. We posted pictures of our meals, pictures of our progress, sweaty post-workout pictures, questions we had, struggles we were faced with and supported one another. It's like having a whole group of friends to workout with. And no worries about anyone in the Facebook world seeing these pictures --- these challenge groups on Facebook are "secret" so only the members in the group can see them. (Like you want all your friends seeing a sweaty post-workout picture of you??) :)

I have before and after pictures from Day 1 and Day 21. I'm going to be honest - I'm still self-conscious about posting them for the world to see but if you're interested in seeing my progress to help encourage you to take the plunge, I would be more than happy to send them your way (you can message me here or on Facebook if you're following me there). Maybe I will be more confident after Round 2 to share them on here.

Questions? Concerns? Interested? I'm here to help however I can. Thanks for reading!
You can check out more on the 21 Day Fix at www.beachbodycoach.com/alyhirst