Fix'in it

So I've completed my first week of the 21 Day Fix and I must say that I've already noticed a big change in myself...not necessarily in the weight, but in how I feel.  Here's how my week went:

I spent last Sunday reading the materials and getting myself familiar with the foods I would need, buying some groceries to stock up on my healthy options, and then planning for the week.  I wrote out a meal plan for every day M-F, leaving the weekend up in the air for some spontaneity.  I found myself planning a lot of the same things day after day, but I was also limited to what I had already bought and was still trying to figure out how it worked.

Throughout the week I deviated from my food schedule a little, but mostly just exchanged some meals between days due to unforeseen daily challenges like when I burned a potato in my microwave (yep, that really happened) or when I didn't have much time to cook and needed to find something quicker.

The plan is fairly simple to follow, though.  Based on your weight you get a certain number of each container to eat each day and initially I actually found it a little difficult to get them all in!  I felt like I was eating ALL THE TIME, but the difference was that I was eating good foods, not bad ones.  The first two days I failed at eating all of my containers, but I got almost all of them in and wrote it off as me still trying to get the whole thing figured out.  Wednesday and Thursday, though, I was a rock star.  I got all my containers in except for 1 (eating 6 proteins a day is hard!).  Then things fell apart a little bit....my allergies got the best of me on Friday and I woke up miserable.  I ate some strawberries for breakfast, some carrots at lunch, and then I left work at 3:30 and immediately fell asleep and slept until 9:00pm!!  I made myself get up for a little while and though I wasn't feeling that hungry, I knew I needed to eat something a little more substantial so I ate an egg sandwich.  I'm sure I could've made a little bit better of a choice, but I was not in a state to do much cooking and had planned for a Friday dinner out, so I didn't have anything ready-made.   Saturday and Sunday I was feeling more like myself, but still just didn't feel like eating and didn't have the energy to do much.  So, I came nowhere close to eating my containers, but at least I only had healthy options on hand so I didn't make any bad choices.

The 21 Day Fix also comes with a set of workouts to do - one 30 minute workout for each day.  Let me tell you, these workouts are NO JOKE.  I realize that I'm not in great shape right now, I haven't been running in over a year and I haven't gone to Zumba in over a month, but HOLY. COW.  These suckers kicked my butt and I couldn't even do everything full out...I had to use the modified option on several of them.  Monday was total body cardio and I thought I would collapse at the end...and the next day, oh the next day, I hurt...all over.  It was like I couldn't walk like a normal person.  I saw my reflection walking at one point and it didn't look like I was walking weird, but I felt like I couldn't walk right.  I couldn't bend my knees too much, flexing my thigh myself felt like a death sentence, and don't get me started on standing up and sitting down.  Oh yeah, and I had to seriously increase my water intake so of course I also have to pee like every hour...in pain...sometimes using the handrails in the handicapped stall to help myself sit down or get back up again.  NOT. FUN.  Tuesday was upper body workout and thankfully it wasn't too bad, but I had to improvise because I didn't have any hand weights, so I used the next best thing...two big cans of tomato puree. :-D  So, I didn't really push myself too much with the weight, but I did the best I could with what I had.  Then I saw that Wednesday was leg day and I wanted to cry.  I thought about not doing it for a hot second because despite taking a long hot bath on Tuesday night to soak my sad legs, I still hurt...a lot.  But, I committed to doing this and figured that I would do it and just do the best that I could that day.  Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected and I think that instead of hurting more, it actually stretched some of the soreness out because they felt much better on Thursday.  Thursday was Pilates, which was pretty cool - I did mostly modified workouts, but this was also possibly the first workout that I didn't end feeling like hurting Autumn (the workout guru).  I clearly felt like I had worked my muscles, but no soreness afterwards.  Then, Friday hit and you know how that went....I wish I'd looked at the workout schedule on Sunday, though, cause it was yoga and I feel like I probably could have had the energy for that.  But, that was my fault for not looking at all.

 I'm looking forward to seeing how week two goes and feels different.  I did some even further planning for the week to give myself an even bigger help.  I went to the store and bought some more foods and did my weekly meal plan, but this time I even took it a step further and already cooked some of it.  I have a whole carton of already hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, several individual servings of oatmeal cooked, a container of quinoa cooked, and two different kinds of chicken.  I have all my fresh fruits and vegetables split up into individual servings so they're easy to grab.  I'm not a morning person (I like my sleep) and having only an hour for lunch when you have to cook it yourself can be stressful.  Having things already scheduled, prepared, and just needing a quick minute in the microwave saves me so much time and energy and seems to really make it easier for me to make the good choices.

Oh, and the Shakeology drinks aren't too shabby, either - I got a package of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry and have been experimenting with them...thus far the chocolate is my favorite.  I've been adding different frozen fruits to them to mix it up.  The strawberry one still has a clear powder-y taste to it even after it's made, but the chocolate and vanilla don't seem to as much.  They certainly make a pretty tasty afternoon snack.

As I said before, I'm already noticing some changes - I have a better attitude most of the time, more energy, and while I still hate getting out of bed in the morning, it seems to be a little easier than it was before.  I'm trying to work in a little bit more variation into my diet this week and am hoping that the workouts (which will repeat through this week) will be a little bit easier this time around....maybe not much, but hopefully at least a little.


Initial weight: 254.4
Week 1: -2.6
Total weight loss: -2.6
Current weight: 251.8
I'm pretty happy with this result - I think it would've been better if I had been able to work out for those three other days, but I also didn't each much so maybe it balanced out, I don't know.  Regardless, I'm 2 1/2 pounds lighter than I was this time last week so I'll take it!