21 Day Fix

Disclaimer:  I am NOT a BeachBody coach, nor do I have any desire to become one.  I have used one BeachBody program in the past, and I wasn't impressed based upon MY preferences and needs.  I'm committed to using the 21 Day Fix for at least one round, though I will most likely go through two or three rounds until I reach my desired goal.  I'm choosing to use this program because I believe it fits my needs for regimented exercise and portion control.

I've been considering this program for awhile now, but my food choices over the last two weeks put the nail in the coffin, so to speak.

I have decided to pursue the 21 Day Fix (a BeachBody nutrition and fitness program) and today is Day 1.

The program uses a variety of 30 minute workouts (one assigned per day, with the option of two per day over the last week of the program).

More importantly, the program focuses on portion sizes.



Take a gander at these:

They're my food guide for the next 21 days.  Each color coded container applies to a certain food group (or type of food) and measures accordingly.

Based upon an included equation, I'm guided as to how many servings of each container to eat every day.

I fall in the first category of 1,200-1,499 calories per day, which means that I'll try to consume the assigned containers in that first column every day.

I printed out these meal guides from the BeachBody site, and can use them to tally my daily containers.  I also jotted down the assigned workouts along the left side of each day so that I can use the sheets as my main daily information source.

I made these notecards this morning to keep in my purse as a grocery shopping and on-the-go guide.

Not everything in the food guide provided with the program made it onto the cards.  For example, I'm trying to eat gluten-free hence the lack of whole-grain bagels, pasta, crackers, etc.  Not going to eat it=not worth the space on the cards.  More importantly, you don't see celery on my green card.

In case you're unaware of my stance on celery, here you go:

Celery is the devil.  I abhor celery.  I recoil in pain and fear at the mere smell, sound, and/or taste of celery.  When it comes to celery I pull a Nancy Reagan and just say NO.

NO celery on my green card.  Nada.  Never.

The program comes with a TON of pieces of information and workout DVDs in addition to the portion containers.  The two inserts I'm concerned with are the main eating plan/food guide (pictured above with the cards) and the start guide pamphlet (below).

Here I find my workout calendar.

And my chart for tracking my measurements.

Which have been smartly covered up with my "thumbs down" gesture.  Those measurements are not incredibly encouraging, but I suppose we all start somewhere.  Also, I took "before" photos which will only see the light of day next to an awesome "after" photo.

Well, technically Mr. Pihl took the "before" photo of me, but you get what I'm saying, right?

 Anywhoodle, I'm legitimately excited for this program.  More accurately, I'm excited for the "after".  Open a new tab right now and Google image search "21 Day Fix results".

I'm tellin' ya.

I'm excited to revamp my idea of portion sizes.  That's a major weakness of mine.  I overeat or under-eat.  All the time.  I battled a pretty serious eating disorder my senior year of college, and have yo-yo'ed ever since.

So, on that happy note, it's snack time.

For the record, I'm NOT eating that feather at the top of the photo.