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| Results at the half-way mark |
I’m a little over a week and a half into 21 Day Fix Extreme and I am shocked by how much I’m loving it so far. I wanted to give you a run-down of why I am enjoying it so much and how it’s helped me in the hopes that this may give inspiration to anyone out there looking to make some healthy changes, especially because I was someone who was *terrified* to start it (I’ll explain why below)!
My starting point and why I chose to do the competition plan:
Going into this, I didn’t have a whole lot of weight that I wanted to lose. The 3 Day Refresh that I did in January took care of the few pounds that snuck on over the holidays and I had been feeling great ever since (http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/02/3-day-refresh-results-feeling-amazing.html). My weight was actually down a smidge since then.
With the 21 Day Fix Extreme, there’s 2 meal plans you can choose from: the competition plan or the extreme plan. The extreme plan is similar to the original 21 Day Fix (minus the treats and some of the bottom-of-the-list stuff) so it’s clean eating but well-rounded. The competition plan cycles between 2 days of a high-protein, low-carb diet and 1 day of the extreme plan. Both utilize the color-coded containers for portion control. So with the competition plan, you just get way more red containers (protein) and less yellow containers (carbs). Fruits and nuts are also excluded on these days.
Your food servings and number of containers are based on a calorie calculation in the guidebook. My allotment per day worked out to be as follows:
Competition days: 3 green (veggies), 0 purple (fruits), 6 red (proteins), 1 yellow (carbs), 0 blue (healthy fats), 0 orange (nuts/seeds), 3 spoons (oils and nut butters)
{Example of my competition average day food is pictured later in this blog}
Extreme days: 3 green (veggies), 2 purple (fruits), 4 red (proteins), 2 yellow (carbs), 1 blue (healthy fats), 1 orange (nuts/seeds), 2 spoons (oils and nut butters)
To reiterate: competition plan you alternate 2 days of the competition diet with 1 day of the extreme diet; for the extreme plan, you would just have the extreme diet every day.
I decided to do the competition plan for several reasons:
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I like to be a guinea pig for my customers. The extreme plan was similar enough to the original 21 Day Fix, which I’ve done, so I felt like I already had a pretty good idea of that plan. The competition plan was different than anything I’ve ever done. It definitely seemed like the more challenging plan so I wanted to see how do-able it was for the average person so I could give my customers accurate recommendations.
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I was curious as to how lean it would actually make me and figured why not give it a shot once! As Autumn would say, “you can do anything for 21 days!”
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Autumn has explained (and the guidebook says this too) that both plans are interchangeable if you change your mind. So I knew that if the competition plan was too difficult, I could switch to the extreme plan instead
Why I was so scared to start:
The competition plan requires me to eat 6 servings of protein a day. That’s a LOT for me!! I don’t eat a lot of meat or animal products normally so a lot of my protein usually comes from plant-based sources. But since things like rice and beans, quinoa, etc count as carbs on this plan, I was very limited in my options. So I knew I’d have to suck it up and start eating more chicken, eggs, fish, and red meat… more meat in 3 wks than I normally eat in 3 months! Fortunately Shakeology counts as a protein serving on this plan. But I was terrified about having to eat all of the meat and animal proteins… it just didn’t seem appealing to me AT ALL! Fortunately, it turned out to not be so bad. I thought I’d be sick of all of it by the second day but that didn’t happen. The recipes that I tried were AMAZING (described below) so that helped a lot. And the necessity of variety in order to eat 6 protein servings/day forced me to try a bunch of the new recipes that I ended up loving!
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| How I keep track! |
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| My list of options for competition days |
Program preparation and initial food prep:
The grocery shopping and the initial food planning was probably the hardest part of the entire program (mainly because I try to avoid going to the grocery store more than I have to). I had to sit down and plan out what I wanted my average competition day food to include so that I could extrapolate that for a week or more and buy what I needed. This also required me to plan what new meals I wanted to try for variety so I would know what food to buy for those. Here’s a list of the foods I decided to make and prep for so that hopefully this makes this step easier for you.
As for groceries, the big things I ended up getting in my initial trip were 30 frozen chicken breasts (5 bags of 6 chicken breasts each), 5 dozen eggs, and 7 yams (I decided yams would be my go-to carb on competition days). I knew I would be able to store these things through the duration of the 21 days so I was able to purchase them all in advance. Weekly, I bought the veggies I would need for that week, 1.5 lbs of lean beef stew meat (I made the beef stew each week), and 1-2 serving of fresh fish to bake. I think I ended up doing a pretty good job in my estimations except for the chicken, which I probably only needed about 3 bags of to get through the program. At least it’s frozen- I’ll definitely use it eventually.
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| The kitchen counter of a girl who was SUPER prepared for the next 3 wks 🙂 |
Delicious food I’ve whipped up:
ALL the recipes from the book were phenomenal and I will be incorporating them into my regular meal rotation. I have been cooking up a storm with this plan, trying new things left and right! Cooking out of my normal comfort zone has been really empowering! Here are a few of the good ones:
Amaaaaazing beef stew!! I’m super proud of myself because I *never* cook with red meat- it’s always been way beyond what I consider my cooking skills to be (with the exception of the hamburger helper I used to make in college haha). If I say it’s easy, it’s SUPER easy!!!
My very first poached eggs!!! Man, do I feel like a champ!!!!! Bonus: it looked just like the guidebook said it would!!
Baked sole with himalayan sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, a little bit of dill, a lot of thyme, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, with lemons baked right on top. I ate this baby right out of the dish.
I love my shakeology any way it’s mixed but trying this new “recipe” turned out to be a delicious treat!
Unexpected fun surprises:
– There is a different workout each day of the week so you repeat the schedule 3 times. That means that by week 2 you realize that each workout you’re doing, you only have one more time you have to do it! WIN!
– I learned a fun fact about eggs while I was watching youtube videos to learn how to poach an egg. Did you know that if you want to know how fresh your eggs actually are, the 3-digit code represents the number of days into that calendar year that the eggs were packed on? So 040 means these eggs were packed on Feb 9. How cool is that?? Props to Whole Foods for keeping fresh foods in stock because I bought these on Feb 11th!
– Mashing up a yam that has been cooked in the microwave and melting some coconut oil on it is the most delicious tropical treat! Tastes similar to fried plantains. I needed 1 yellow and 1 spoon servings when I decided to try this. So glad I did!!
What the day-to-day looks like:
Right off the bat, I made a beef stew, crock pot chicken, and egg cups. None of this was hard and only took me about 2 hours. The food I prepped here lasted me most of the first week.
Once I got the initial prep out of the way, it was SMOOTH SAILING! All my food is cooked and ready to go. Each day I know what I’m going to eat since I basically eat the same things every day so I just heat it up when I’m hungry and that’s that! I’ve made another batch of crock-pot chicken and beef stew since I started and some fish along the way but that’s all been SUPER easy to keep up with.
The competition days were tougher to get variety (although trying new recipes REALLY helped), but in general, the competition days actually turned out to be easier because I was eating all day long and never hungry! It also felt easier to get into a routine than the extreme days because you basically know you’re going to be eating meat and veggies all day and that’s all you really have to think about. It’s surprisingly simple! Here’s a sample of my average competition day:
Mental aspect:
The thing I love/sometimes hate/but appreciate most about 21 Day Fix and 21DF Extreme is that it doesn’t leave room for excuses. With no rest days, I can’t swap out workouts and rest days like I do with some of the other programs; I can’t put it off until tomorrow. I can’t indulge in a cheat weekend and tell myself I’ll get my nutrition on track next week. And I don’t *waste emotional energy* debating about it because I don’t question it, I just know I have to do it. So while that may seem like a tough thing, it actually gets me out of my head and forces me to just get to it. I’m all about long-term, sustainable changes, but I also appreciate a program like this that’s going to give me the kick in the butt that I know I need and get me back in full-force action (and I can count on it because I know it’s going to work!). I love that. I love that I can go into this program each time with total trust and KNOWING that all of that is going to happen. Talk about motivation!
What I don’t like about it:
The only thing I really don’t like about the program is the pilates workout. For some reason, I really struggle to use the resistance bands in some of the exercises where you’re on your hands and knees. I don’t think the band or the exercise is the problem, I just don’t think I have the strength to get the full range of motion I’m supposed to be getting so I find it really frustrating. But I ended up just abandoning the band for the moves where I didn’t feel like I could stay in proper form while using it. I know a lot of other people doing this program, some seem ok with the band for these moves and some seem to struggle with it like I do.
Restaurants:
I find it easier to avoid restaurants altogether while I’m on this program, but I’ve had several occasions that plans have required me to be at restaurants while on the fix so here’s what I did:
– Eat N Park for a family brunch: There was stuff that I technically could have eaten here that would have fit with the plan (like a salad or hard boiled eggs) but at this particular restaurant, that just didn’t seem appealing to me so I ate before I went and just got coffee while I was there so I could still sit and talk with my family
– Pamela’s with a friend (breakfast foods, heavy on the butter): I felt like there was hardly anything I could trust here so I just took my own lunch. My friend was getting a side dish of potatoes so she let me order that for her so I wouldn’t have to tell the waitress “nothing for me” then I busted out my secret meal hehe. The waitress definitely noticed but I don’t think she cared at all. If she had asked, I would have just politely said I had food sensitivities (which I do anyway).
– Going away party for a friend at a local bar (bar food and alcohol): This was in the evening so it was easy for me to eat before I went then drink water with lemon the whole night.
– Kiku Japanese Restaurant: This one worked out GREAT! I was able to get sashimi, which helped me get 2 of the protein servings I needed for the day! I also ate a few of fish that come on top of rice since I hadn’t had my yellow/carb serving of the day.
What the people in our challenge group are saying:
We have a facebook group for our customers and other coaches who are doing this program so we all can support and encourage each other, compare notes, make suggestions for struggles, and celebrate successes. Everyone is LOVING it so far!!!
My results so far:
I am blown away in so many ways.
– Weight-wise, I have lost about 3 pounds by the halfway point and I have been feeling leaner and tighter all over.
– My friends at the going-away party that I mentioned were all noticing and complimenting me. My clothes were fitting much better and I was able to break out my tighter jeans and a slightly more risque’ going-out tank top from college years for the party, which was fun 🙂– I’m feeling great on the inside too. I seem to be digesting better than ever (which is a huge deal for someone who has a lot of food sensitivities)! I honestly can’t believe how good I feel! Somebody in our facebook group described it perfectly- “our insides are feeling cleaner and lighter!” They sure are!
– I was feeling a lot stronger even by then end of week 1. Check out my surprise bicep muscle that popped up along the way!
– I am VERY happy with how fit I look and feel. Feeling amazing!!
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| “Before” pictures (I try not to smile for these but I can’t help it)! |
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| Progress so far. Feeling great!! |
My final results can be found here: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/06/21-day-fix-extreme-final-review-weight.html
Hope this helps!! Contact me if you have any questions or would like some support and motivation through this program!! Have a great week!
Hope this helps!! Contact me if you have any questions or would like some support and motivation through this program!! Have a great week!
More info on the programs:
21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge Pack:
http://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/BCP21E160?referringRepId=183908
21 Day Fix Extreme Base program:
http://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/21DFEXTREME?referringRepId=183908
21 Day Fix (original) Challenge Pack:
http://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/BCP21D160?referringRepId=183908
21 Day Fix (original) Base program:
http://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/21DayFix?referringRepId=183908
*Note that for the 21 Day Fix original and Extreme programs, I recommend the challenge packs that come with the shakeology. For me, I felt like Shakeology was essential for getting through the programs in terms of energy, fuel, keeping me satiated, and to get enough servings of protein in!
Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.