21 Days Later...

The 21 DayFix isn't magic, it's not going to give you rock hard abs, and make you lose all your belly fat in just three weeks. However, it does give you hope and a damn good place to start.

I'm not going to lie, it was difficult. There were somedays where I just wanted to throw my container out the kitchen window and just gorge in my sadness. (Which, is terribly ironic. You eat when you are depressed about your weight.) I cheated three times and though they weren't bad cheats at all, I still felt guilty and drank like a gallon of water after.

Im really happy with the diet plan and all the things it taught me; especially portion sizes and bad carbs vs. complex carbs. It also taught me that ground turkey isn't an enemy and kale is seriously a superfood. If you would of asked me 20 days ago how I felt about Shakeology I would say, "yeah, it makes me feel good, but I have to basically choke it down." But since the last three days of the fix are specifically planned out, sans Shakeology, I am craving it. I can't wait for tomorrow morning to have my banana, strawberry!

Another thing I was really proud of myself was that I never skipped a workout. Everyday, no matter how ugly and down I felt or how cold I was, I got up and worked for that whole 30 minutes. Autumn Calabrese does. not. mess around. I'm so proud of my improvements in the work outs and I'm obsessed with interval cardio training. I only lost 6 pounds, but I also gained a lot of muscle! (my booty feels awesome)

I really really recommend this program. Because it is so short it really can get you on a good trail. Seeing results, even minor in a fast amount of time is really encouraging to keep you going. I'm far from done with my journey, this is a lifestyle now. I have a really great base understanding of food sizes and what to eat and exercise and DRINKING WATER. A fitness journey is never easy and I really want to stress that it's okay to slip up, to have a moment of "fuck it". Just keep working, do extra, don't give up.

If you have any questions feel free to comment or if you want more day to day specifics like what I ate, how the workouts went, I blogged the first seven days individually below this post:)

See you in the gym;)

Here is my before and after:)

Day Seven

It was nice to get back to the regular gym today. Our housekeeper came this morning so I thought It was a really good time to go to the gym. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical that started out to just be an easy way to relieve stress (I was even reading a book) that turned into the Tour De France mixed with the two mile olympic trials. Man, was I sweating after. When I completed that I just did all the arm and leg machines, saving abs for my yoga fix session later on.

The yoga fix was a pleasant surprise. At first I was horrified, I mean she jumped right on into sun salutations which were my mortal enemy during my yoga PE class last semester. Downward Dogs are like the bane of my existence (but, God, do they feel good). It turned out to be pleasantly difficult and I was reminded how much I enjoy yoga.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs

Snack: Shakeology

Lunch: Chicken, black beans/wild rice, red peppers/snow peas

Snack: Medium sized apple

Dinner: Extra lean sirloin, corn, salad

Day Six

I remember back in the day doing deliveries with dad basically meant delicious, terrible food. He would always buy me lunch and there would always be a tasty snack in there somewhere too.

Today, we got up at seven, I made myself butter-less, saltless, scrambled eggs, packed my lunchbox with roughly three meals worth of food and headed on my way. Man, was it hard. each store had a warm, delicious looking deli packed with deepfried deliciousness. Dad, even chowed down on a couple drumsticks in front of me!

However I stood on strong! When we got back from our exhausting day of arrends I pulled myself together, gathered my energy and kicked ass on my very first ever Plyo workout. Holy homemade  guacamole was it hard. Jump after jump after jump, but man was that sweat rolling. I freaking loved it.

After that I decided to be a little adventurous with my Shakeology. I added half a banana and it was probably the best decision of my life. That super food smoothie was the nicest treat I could have asked for, and technically it wasn't even a treat!

I did, however treat myself today. After hanging out with a friend this afternoon I was feeling particularly cranky and hungry so I cut a stalk of celery in half and put a teaspoon of Skippy peanut butter on it. Now, I know, this isn't exactly a groundbreaking cheat. I am allowed to have peanut butter but it is supposed  to be natural, chunky. It was only one teaspoon, though and I only had one. I felt as if I had earned a bit of a treat and as far as cheating goes in all of the opportunities I have had lately, I made a pretty good choice.

I definitely figured out that I like being close to home during this challenge. I don't know if that's a good thing and hopefully I'm better straying after a few more days, but being in my own house and having a set rhythm has made me feel 100 times better and healthier.

I survived the day though and this was my food:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs

Snack: Blueberries

Lunch: Grilled chicken, carrots, edemame

Snack: Shakeology w/ banana, celery with peanut butter

Dinner: Lean ground beef, wild rice, steamed green beans!


So alas, I have made it through day six. I'm pretty freaking proud of myself thus far and I'm so so sorry if I'm bugging the crap  out of you! If you have any questions about what I'm doing feel free to contact me!

Haden quote of the day (and it's actually by him too!):

Day 5

Autumn Calabrese is my new favorite human. Please please please go click her name to watch her about me video on youtube. She is the creator of the 21 Day Fix and seriously so cool. Her instagram is honestly what is keeping me going so strong I think.

Today was a good day. I was a little off meal wise because I woke up pretty late. My rhythm lately has been workout then breakfast. It is honestly what seems to work best for me energy  and performance wise.

I decided to roll back to full body cardio to try and perfect some of the moves. It went so well. I felt so good about my workout and I honestly can't look back and be like, "wow, I really could have tried harder. It also amazes me how quickly 30 minutes goes by. I'm really enjoying the workouts, I adore Autumn and her little quips and definitely her interactions with the people in the room with her.

Had two food distractions today. One was pretty little and easily shoved into the deep dark recesses of my past. Dad had a pretty rough day  and got himself a redbull. I wanted to just take it from him so bad. It would have been so easy to just take a sip, so justifiable. I know, though that if I would have I really would have kicked myself for it and felt let down.

Went to the movies as well and was surrounded by my all time favorite snack. Butter and salt smothered popcorn. I live for that shit. It was the most weak I felt so far and I had to chew gum, drink basically my whole bottle of water and gnaw on my carrots to distract myself from the distraction.
 Breakfast: Scrambled egg, grapes
Snack: Shakeology
Lunch: Tuna, whole grain crackers, steamed carrots
Snack: blueberries
Dinner: Salmon, Rice, Salad

But, alas, I made it:)

Haden quote of the day:
"Most people don't run far enough on their first wind to realize they have a second."

Day Four

Oh my,  today was rough. All I wanted was a donut--which is weird because donuts are definitely not my treat of choice, not even close. Somehow I made it through the day without said donut and I am damn proud of myself. Only two weeks ago I was justifying EVERYTHING.

I did the lower fix today which was all leg focused and man was it a doosey. My legs are pretty strong so I definitely gave it more than my all to really challenge myself. My squats and lunges were low and the jumps were powerful. I definitely felt it later on playing basketball! (I shot like five air balls).

Food today wasn't bad at all and I did well, I was just in terrible mood for some reason and was so just over the day. Mowing for three straight hours may have done that to me.

Breakfast: shakeology

Snack: cottage cheese

Lunch: grilled chicken cubes, steamed carrots and broccoli

Snack: apples

Dinner: ground beef, Lettuce (served as a tortilla kinda), black beans, grapes

Other than all that today was pretty uninteresting. I didn't have any distractions other than my utterly random donut craving and it has been four days and I stilll haven't tried to cheat or even needed to cheat! Yay!

Day 3

Ah, another day of distractions! We went to a friend's party today where there was just food galore. It was killing me! However, I stuck to my guns and didn't even take a single bite of anything around me! I was so proud of myself! Here are a couple simple tricks that really helped me stay on track:

1. Timing it so I can eat one of my meals when there is other food around. Today, for example, the party was in the afternoon right around lunch and afternoon snack. I made myself a plate, like everyone else was doing and ate right along with the majority of my food. That way I didn't feel left out or the need to longingly look at other people's food.

2. Having a water bottle in your hands at all times. I take my water bottle everywhere with me. So when I'm tempted to eat, I just keep sipping on my water!

3. Kind of along the above note, if you see everyone around you chowing down on the delicious cake or oreos with whipped cream on top (kids will eat anything sugary, won't they), simply infuse your water with fruit and mint to sweeten it up or drink Ice Tea instead:)

Leaving the party I felt so much better about myself because I both stuck to my challenge and I didn't feel full and icky with food I really didn't need.

The workout today was a struggle for me in multiple ways. One being that it was specific to my arms and abs. Because of a disability  with my left side, specifically right arm it is both very important and very hard to do strength exercises. The program definitely tested me. Another struggle I had was the lack of sweat. Even though I know it was a good workout, I felt like I hadn't worked hard enough because I wasn't intensely moving the entire time. To make up for this, I played basketball for about twenty minutes.

Today was definitely a good day, I'm starting to really get the hang of planning my menu and knowing what works where. Right now I'm feeling a little bloated (I have a food allergy to peppers), so I'm trying to ignore that a bit and not irrationally associate it with the program.

I had a good day of eating today!

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs (no butter, or salt/ cooked in pan with no-stick spray)

Snack: Shakeology (I infused it with lemon juice! SO GOOD)

Lunch: Grilled chicken, brown rice, watermelon 

Snack: Cottage Cheese, carrots

Dinner:  Salad with edemame, Walnuts, Steamed Broccoli

Snack: Grapes

Here is my Haden quote for the day!

Day Two

So here I sit, basically immobile. Autumn Calabrese has kicked my ass. (literally, my ass has never been so sore.) There are very few things that I love less than that feeling though. I did the 21 Day Fix full body cardio again which I decided to do because I 1. bought weights and 2. wanted to try and hone in on mistakes I made yesterday. The weights made it WAY harder and I had to modify some of the exercises. I felt really great afterwards though!

Today was definitely a huge test of my food will power. First, I had to sit at the farmers market for 5 hours for work. Completely surrounded by homemade baked goods and other delicious foods. I was so proud of myself and completely stuck to what I brought with  me to eat. The next challenge I faced were the two graduation parties I attended with just piles and piles of pulled pork and amazing cookies and cakes. My secret was not staying in each party very long, I didn't want to test my will power too much.

The food I ate today was:

Breakfast: Shakeology

Snack: hardboiled egg (I should have had two but I didn't know)

Lunch: tuna, whole-grain crackers, snow peas

Snack: grapes

Dinner: grilled chicken, black beans, 

Snack: apple slices with cinnemon

For the color coded key go check out the last blog:)

I'm really proud of myself that I made it through all the distractions today! I'm very excited that my will power is already getting better, even with garlic, pesto olive bread right next to me!

At one point in your life you either have the thing you want or the reasons you don't. -Andy Roddic

Day One

Today was the first day to my Beach Body Challenge and I will say this, I am obsessed. I find myself only wanting to tell people about every little aspect of it, especially my food and menu!

I was up pretty late last night so I allowed myself to sleep in a little bit, which I was afraid would offput my meals for the day. I had a menu set, so I decided to just go with the flow and see what happened.

I began the day with the workout which was the 30 minute full body cardio. I LOVED it. The set up is great, though difficult. I didn't have weights today so I had to follow the modified workouts when it came to the ones that required weights. Honestly, though I was sweating at the end, I definitely am beyond modified workouts and am so excited to try it again tomorrow with weights. The ab aspect of the program kicked my ass and I struggled with neck pain. In order to compensate and still get a workout I did some other ab workouts for the allotted time that don't hurt my neck. (V sit ups, Crazy Ivans).

The eating and planning to eat was so much fun for me. (Yes, I get it I'm a total lame-o)
Each container represents a different food group and I get different amounts based on calorie intake and so as I plan out my six meals a ay I have to place those all in different places.

So my meals today were:

Breakfast: Shakeology 

AM Snack: Blueberries

Lunch: Grilled Chicken, Steamed Carrots

Snack: edemame beans, yellow peppers

Dinner: Lean Pork Chops, Brown Rice, Broccoli 

Key:
Red- 4 containers (protein)
Green-3 containers (veggies)
Purple-2 containers (fruits)
Yellow-2 containers (not really sure what this food group is)

Anyway, my first day was super successful and I'm just so excited for what this challenge is going to do for me, I already am seeing more and more clearly on a healthy scale.

I was lucky today was good, but I know that they aren't all going to be this easy and fun. It's going to get hard and there are going to be distractions and moments of weakness. I just have to stand firm and remember how badly I want this and how good I feel when I accomplish it. I am the only one that can stand up and do this for myself, but I also am so glad that I have a lot of people backing me up and helping me do this for me.


Also, my friend Haden (he is kinda a fitness guru) is giving me a quote a day throughout the challenge and this was today's:)
"the difference between the impossible and the possible lies with ones determination"

I have always been known for my determination, even ridiculed for it at times. I'm ready to dedicate it to this.

Pre Journey

I have always been an active person.

Working out has always been something I needed to maintain any kind of sanity and decent moods.

However, I have never really every been happy with where my body was at, which can make working out very discouraging. Results and seeing results is important.

Food, like many of us, is my weak point. If I work out really hard, I always find ways to justify eating something crappy or drinking my calories back.

After having long talks with both a fitness coach/friend and another good friend I was encouraged to try something different, challenge myself, surround myself with people in the same position.

This week I will be starting the 21 Day Fix through BeachBody which is focused on portion control and core strengthening. I'm excited about this workout because of how short it is and the promise of results in that amount of time.

In the time I will be doing this I will have a huge support team backing me up and keeping me on point. At the end of my 21 days I will be in a healthy habit and ready to continue my healthy lifestyle.