Starting the 21 Day Fix!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am an independent Team Beachbody coach.  I decided to sign up as a coach about a month ago.  I initially became interested in Team Beachbody because a friend of mine, Kendra, had been posting about her business and success with Team Beachbody programs on Facebook.  I had also heard great things on the Internet about the 21 Day Fix program, and decided to try it out.  When I ordered the program, it was on backorder.  While I waited for it to arrive, I joined Kendra's clean eating challenge for the month of April, and decided to become a coach, as well.  Finally, my 21 Day Fix package arrived, and I could not wait to get started!

The 21 Day Fix is a program designed to promote clean eating, teach portion control, and make fitting exercise into your daily routine a breeze.  There is an eating guide, which outlines what types of food to eat regularly, and which to consider "spluge" items.  Accompanying this guide are some color-coded food containers, which provide portion control for various food groups.  Additionally, you receive a set of 7 30-minute workouts on DVD.  All of this works together to create healthy habits and abolish old habits which are keeping you from achieving the health and fitness you want.  Sounds great to me, and I've seen some amazing results from this program already among my Team Beachbody family!  I chose this program because I definitely feel the need to hit "reset" on my health & fitness habits, as years of grad school and infertility/family-building stress have negatively impacted the habits I built after college.

I chose to begin the program this week, after taking a week-long "vacation" after the April group challenge Kendra hosted.  Yesterday, Tyler and I sat down to create a meal plan & shopping list for the week.  This is a daunting task at first, as you have to consider how many of each colored container you are supposed to consume each day.  As I said before, each food group has its own colored container, which is a different size depending on the portion size for that group of foods.  The number of containers assigned varies depending on which calorie threshold you choose.  I have chosen to take a slightly less aggressive approach to my weight loss than what is recommended in the Fix literature, so I am aiming to consume 1500-1799 calories per day.  This breaks down to 4 green containers (veggies), 4 red (proteins), 3 purple (fruits), 3 yellow (carbs), 1 blue (dairy & nuts), 1 orange (dressings & seeds), and 5 teaspoons (oils & nut butters).  I also need to drink about 73 ounces of water per day.  Achieving the optimal balance of calories and food groups takes some planning, and you've gotta commit to the plan, or else life can get in the way quickly!

Day 1 Breakfast: 1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow, 1 teaspoon, 24 oz. water, 8 oz. coffee!

 Tomorrow I will be posting our meal plan for the week, but first I want to share our before pictures and measurements with you - full disclosure so you can get an idea of our full results in 3 weeks!

In addition to the before stats on this graphic, my chest measures 35", and my arms measure 11.5" & 11.75". for a total of 176.5".

Tyler's extras are thighs: 24" & 24.5". and arms: 11.5" & 11.25", bringing his total to 185.5".












We are really looking forward to creating healthy habits together in order to benefit our whole family.  We can't wait to share the journey with you!  Check back tomorrow for this week's meal plan, as well as our thoughts on Monday's workout!