21 Day Fix is a workout and meal program through beachbody. I don’t consider it to be a diet, it’s more so all about portion control. It comes with different colored containers for protein, carbs, healthy fats, veggies, fruits, and dressings/seeds and you are allowed a certain number of each container every day. If it fits in the container, then you can eat it. So for example, I get 4 reds (protein), 3 green (veggies), 2 purple (fruit), 2 yellow (carbs), 1 blue (healthy fats) and 1 orange (dressing/seeds) plus 2 teaspoons that could be peanut butter, olive oil, etc. It can seem really intimidating at first. Like how are these little containers going to keep me full? I will say though, that they actually do because you are constantly eating every few hours if you do this the right way. Trust me, you are not starving yourself and in fact, you are ensuring that you are giving your body the right amount of what it needs each day. Also, there is so much that you can eat. It comes with a book which helps serve as a guide and it gives tons of examples of what you can put into each container, so everyday you can switch up your meals and it doesn’t have to feel so boring like you are always eating the same thing.
On most mornings I eat 3-4 egg whites with spinach, mushrooms and a little bit of low moisture mozzarella cheese. I’ll add in some avocado if I have that. Both avocado and cheese are the blue container, so you can do half of each. I also have oatmeal with a teaspoon of peanut butter and either strawberries or banana. Sometimes I will switch things up and make my carb a wholegrain waffle (no butter, no syrup) or a slice of my favorite bread (flax & sunflower seed). I might even do 2 regular eggs instead of egg whites and I love turkey bacon too! For snacks, I do greek yogurt, almonds, all kinds of fruit, raw veggies with hummus, peanut butter on a multigrain rice cake, cucumber roll ups with sliced turkey breast, etc. These are just to give you some snack ideas. You can also check out my pinterest board for more ideas. I do my best to eat my carbs and fruits before 6pm. I cut out all sugar, even in my coffee. I only do a tiny bit of skim milk. My goal is to just drink it black, but not sure if that will ever happen. Lunch and dinner are mostly protein and veggies, but I’ll throw in a carb with lunch like quinoa/brown rice. I like mixing an egg in there for extra protein too. Dinner is typically chicken breast, ground turkey, fish, or any other protein I am craving at the moment. I absolutely love using my spiralizer to make zoodles (zucchini noodles) as a healthier alternative to pasta. This works great with shrimp and turkey meatballs. This makes me want to do some healthy food posts! I also have the Fixate cookbook, which gives a bunch of different recipes that you can make while doing 21 Day Fix. There are even some yummy desserts. Let me know if you would be interested in me sharing some of those on the blog. You do not have to count your calories doing this, however I find it helpful to log what I eat into the MyFitnessPal app. I personally prefer to know my calorie intake each day.
Now in addition to the food, there is also Shakeology, a protein-rich nutrient-dense formula. I have to admit that I have not ordered this yet. My friend sent me a few samples to try and it was actually really good and it comes in a bunch of different flavors. Loved the chocolate one! This is supposed to help reduce food cravings and provide healthy energy. I have actually heard amazing things about it, it’s just a bit expensive to be ordering it every single month. I plan to order it soon though at least once to see the differences that it makes for me. Speaking of drinks, you can still have that glass of wine during the program if you like. It would replace one of the yellow containers. For me though, I do find my results to be more effective when I cut out alcohol altogether on the program. I was doing so well with this, but I did drink when I was in Charleston. I have a bunch of events and a wedding this month so I know it will be tricky, but I am going to make sure everything is done in moderation.
The other half of 21 Day Fix is the workout program. It comes with 2 DVDs with a total of 7 workouts. You do one every single day for 30 minutes for the full 21 days. There are no rest days, but there are active recovery days where you do yoga and pilates. These are not high intensity workouts so you are giving your body a little bit of a break each week. There is also 21 Day Fix Extreme. It’s the same concept, but the workouts are a bit more intense. I have done both and definitely got more results from the extreme version. Last summer when I first did this program, I lost 3lbs and 8 inches. If only I had kept going I would already have hit my fitness goals. I decided this time around to start out with the regular 21DFX to get my body used to the workouts again and then I plan on switching over to the extreme. Before Charleston, I did one full round. I didn’t cheat and I worked out every day except for one, when I was not home at all. I noticed this time around that I was very bloated because I was retaining a lot of water. This actually meant that I was not drinking enough water. A rule of thumb for me now going forward is that for every cup of coffee I drink, I will follow that up with a bottle of water. It also didn’t help that I traveled directly after the first round and obviously ate and drank the whole weekend. I sort of feel like I have to start all over again, but I am ready to get it done! I also plan to add in more cardio at least 2-3 times a week with either running, walking or soul cycle. Feel free to follow me on snapchat: natymichele where I will be sharing more frequent updates on the next round!
Hope this post was informative and helpful for you. I definitely want to start doing more fitness posts and even food ones too. Would you guys like that? After another round or two of this, I want to try out some new programs as well. If you have any requests, feel free to let me know!
Now go head and get your fitness on girl. 😉
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