21 Day Fix Week 1 Report

I decided not to keep up with the daily reports of what I ate, because the types of food I ate got pretty repetitive. Monday began week 2 and I figure it would be best to give a weekly wrap up.

Beginning weight on Day 1: 141.6
Beginning weight on Day 7: 137.4
Total weight lost: 4.2 lbs

I'm pretty excited at the results. A little over 4 pounds in one week. I'm going to be honest and say this is 100% of the diet portion. It's been a rough go with the baby lately, her reflux is getting worse and sleep is hard to come by for her. So imagine the loss had I actually done the exercise portion of the program, which I intend to start today.

Now for my thoughts. I am still craving my normal junk. I kept hearing "Give it a few days, those cravings will go away." While they died down quite a bit, I find myself lingering over any kind of junk food, from a PB&J sandwich to cookies to the ice cream my kids get after dinner. I still can't wait to get through this program because I just want something good. I am trying to get out of this mindset because if I don't attempt to keep these changes being made, I will just end up gaining the weight back. I'm finding a lot of what I've heard about this diet not to be true. I've also read that people find all of this energy after a certain amount of time on good for you foods, that they don't feel groggy or foggy and feel better. I don't feel any different. I'm not bounding with all of this energy from more fruits and veggies and a lack of processed junk. This could be blamed on the complete lack of sleep and chronic exhaustion.

I'm not going to lie, the lack of choices is getting old. I've started to branch out and try new things but they have all turned out to be completely terrible. I will go over that more next week. I am eating less in the way of veggies because I'm sick of the few that I will eat. Managing 4 servings of baby spinach, cucumbers and spring lettuce, because it's all I can stand to eat, every day gets very old, very fast. This isn't a spectacular program for someone who hates vegetables. I'm continuing to make the effort, trying to explore new ways of making vegetables, hiding vegetables even, to try to get them in, so I'm not giving up. There has got to be a way.

One thing that has bothered me about this program is how they hype up ways you can indulge. You can enjoy a glass of wine. You can enjoy chocolate. No, you really can't. Replacing food a couple of times a week with a glass of wine isn't indulging, especially if you are already struggling with sticking just to what you are allowed. And enjoying chocolate?

That is a "serving" of chocolate. A teaspoon full. That is not indulging, that is teasing. And with the limited amount of food, I can choose 10 chocolate chips or a smear of peanut butter. Peanut butter is a bit more filling. Shown here has been my breakfast the past couple of days, a gluten free waffle with peanut butter. I only wasted one of my teaspoons on chocolate chips one time, it just wasn't worth it.

I know it might seem like I'm complaining about this program, and I am, but this isn't meant to be easy.

I had to make a decision as to what was harder, eating like I had been eating and being completely unhappy with the way I looked, hiding my body under sweat shirts and staying out of pictures with my kids, or eating well, in proper amounts, and feeling better about myself. It's harder being heavier than I'd like to be. So while this is an extremely rough transition for me, I feel it's easier than the alternative. I'm already fitting back into the pile of shorts I have in my closet. We head to Florida in 5 weeks and I was afraid I would have to wear pants because I refused to buy shorts in a bigger size. I am seeing results and as much as I want to fight these changes, that's really the bottom line.

21 Day Fix Day 3

Starting weight on Day 1: 141.6
Weight on Day 3: 138.8
Total lost: 2.8 pounds

Day 3 was a lot better than Day 2. I was pretty darn hangry on Day 2. While I still wasn't skipping down the stairs in the morning for my day of sad food, I didn't have the sense of dread I felt during Day 2.

Breakfast:
1 piece of whole wheat bread(yellow), 2 teaspoons of peanut butter(teaspoon), 1/2 a banana(purple)
Tally: 1 yellow, 1 purple, 2 teaspoons

I had a mid-morning snack of a pear(purple).
Tally: 1 purple

For lunch I remembered I was allowed to have cheese. The day before I used up all of my remaining yellow containers one two pieces of bread at lunch. Being a carb lover, it wasn't worth it. I prefer to spread my yellows over the day. You can put cheese in the blue containers, so I had 1 whole grain tortilla(yellow), melted 1 blue container of shredded cheddar cheese, topped it with sliced turkey breast(red) and a bit of spring lettuce mix(not enough to count since it might have added up to two calories). It made my mouth happy, because I love cheese.
Tally: 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue

By the afternoon I was starting to feel shaky again. I had a decent sized snack. I finally took a picture of my decent sized snack.

You can see the container sizes better. They do look small but it's actually more food than it seems. I had cottage cheese and sunflower seeds.
Tally: 1 red, 1 orange

I still had quite a few containers left come dinner. I wanted to try to branch out with vegetables but it's not easy for me. I can't just cook broccoli and eat it. Not happening. I did a salad again but tried to add different things aside from cucumbers, spinach and spring mix lettuce. I hard boiled 2 eggs and chopped up some turkey pepperoni(both red), chopped up cucumber and added it to my spinach/spring mix, as usual, but I also chopped up a couple of baby carrots and a small bit of broccoli to mix in. Not much at all but baby steps. All good things, all good things. I once again used my last two teaspoons for dressing(again, this may or may not be 21 day fix legal, but I can't have a sad salad). It wasn't so bad and I didn't even notice the stuff I mixed in.

Tally: 2 green, 2 red, 2 teaspoons

This left me with 2 green and 1 yellow. I used the yellow for a snack of Special K Multi Grain after dinner. Mmmmm sweet carbs. I didn't use the remaining green containers.

So my summary of day 3...It wasn't as bad as day 1 and 2. 2 was my worst day, without all of my processed junk and the sugar my body is addicted to, I was pretty grumpy. My scale is reflecting the work I'm putting in. I can't say I have all of this energy and am feeling like a new person, I still have a baby that wakes several times a night so no diet change will do that for me, but I'm not so angry at the whole process. Days 1 and 2 I was angry at the process, I think there was talk of throwing bricks at people. I still look forward to this being done and eating some kind of happy food.

21 Day Fix Day 2

Today was a bit harder than yesterday. I knew what was coming, my body was craving sweets and carbs and any kind of comfort food. The foods on this list, they are not comfort foods. But comfort foods keep my scale from moving and I need to get my body out of the cycle of tons of junk each day. I automatically had that sinking feeling, I really wanted something tasty to eat and I knew it wasn't happening. It was almost a depressing start to my day.

Starting weight: 139.6 Down almost 2 lbs, but I think that is water weight. I tend to eat a lot of sodium, day 1 saw almost no sodium and tons of water, so I think it just helped with water weight. I'll take it though, wooohoooo for being under 140!

Started with coffee as usual. The baby was "only" up twice between midnight and 7am. This was a good night for us.

Breakfast: 1 bowl of steel cut oatmeal(1 yellow). Nothing to sweeten it. Again, whomp whomp.

Tally-1 yellow

Snack-1 pear and 1 blue of unsalted sunflower seeds. I messed up and put the seeds in the blue container, they should have gone in the orange, so I did eat a bit too much.

Tally- 1 purple and 1 blue

Lunch-I wanted a sandwich for lunch, so I used my last two yellow on 2 slices of whole wheat bread. Kind of a waste. Made a turkey sandwich, I put olive oil based mayo on it, using 2 teaspoons. I honestly don't know if that's ok, it's not on the list, but I couldn't do a dry turkey sandwich, especially as dry as whole wheat bread is.

Tally-2 yellow, 1 red

Come snack time I was feeling shaky again, so I had a decent sized snack. I had spring mix and baby spinach(1 green) with cucumber(1/2 green) with a bit of dressing(1/2 orange) and 1/2 a banana(1 purple).
Tally- 1 1/2 greens, 1/2 orange, 1 purple

For dinner, once again, my family got something else and I got my own little sad meal. I had 2 red containers left so I had 1 tilapia fillet, 2 scrambled eggs(because I didn't have time to boil them), 1 salad of mixed greens(yes, again) with blueberries on top and a bit of dressing.
Tally- 2 reds, 1 1/2 green, 1 purple, 1/2 orange

So for the end of the day, I had 1 green leftover.

My thoughts on today. Today was harder than yesterday, especially mentally. I wanted some kind of comfort food, some kind of sweets, in a bad way. I was pretty resentful over this whole plan. I really want to throw bricks at these people who tell you how wonderful a diet like this is. It's not. As you can tell, the vegetables I will eat are very limited. I haven't gotten sick of salad and spinach yet, so I haven't gotten desperate enough to branch out. Today was really hard because my husband came home with donuts. I wasn't pleased with this because he knows I'm struggling with this diet. He had them leftover from work. He even brought a Boston Cream donut home, my favorite. Not cool. Not cool at all. I got it out. I sniffed it. I let my 9 year old eat it because it was his favorite too. I stayed strong. I didn't want to, but I did. Only 19 more days.

21 Day Fix Day 1

I decided to start this program on Monday, a fresh week, a fresh start. I planned my meals out Sunday night. I can tell you, meal planning helps. If I don't know what I'm eating ahead of time and get hungry or my blood sugar drops, I am frantic for food and will grab anything. There is a higher chance of failure. As I've mentioned, I love food. Especially carbs and sweets. Chocolate, cookies, bread, cakes, cereal, I love it all and more. There is NONE of that in this program. They have ways you can substitute for a treat here and there but honestly, what it takes up(you consider it one of your colored containers) isn't worth it. I've seen so many people talk about this plan being so much food and that's somewhat true, but the food is not filling and so within 2 hours I'm shaky and needing desperately to eat. I have often found myself so hungry. I am an eater when bored so it could be partly that. So I will give you the run down of day 1.

Day 1: Starting Weight 141.6 lbs

Based on my calorie intake, I am supposed to eat 4 greens, 3 purples, 4 reds, 3 yellows, 1 orange and 1 blue, as well as 4 teaspoons(teaspoons are for certain good oils or nut/seed butters). The containers are small, although they aren't always as small as they seem.


I woke up dreading the day. I made my coffee(coffee is ok during this plan). I put my creamer in it. Creamer is not ok during this plan. I don't care. I need my coffee and I need my creamer in my coffee. I wanted a nice bowl of cereal but no. I settled for a piece of whole wheat bread(I despise whole wheat bread), 2 teaspoons of peanut butter and a half of a banana. It wasn't so bad.

Tally: 1 purple, 1 yellow, 1 teaspoons.

I had 1 blue container of pecan halves for snack around 9:30am. It was underwhelming but kept me ok until lunch time.

Lunch time rolled around and I had a pretty decent sugar crash. I have wonky blood sugar, I attribute this to eating so many sweets. I'm not diabetic or hypoglycemic by any means but if I go too long without eating, my body lets me know. I get shaky. On my normal diet, I don't need a snack between breakfast and lunch and only rarely do I get shaky like that by noon. Yesterday was different.

For lunch I had a salad made of baby spinach and a spring mix of lettuce, topped with 3 slices of chopped turkey(2 greens and 1/2 a red) and 1 hard boiled egg(1/2 red), as well as a red container filled with cottage cheese.

Tally: 2 reds, 2 greens

Afternoon snack was a pear, for 1 purple.

Come dinner time I was starving!! I was also angry. Withdrawals from sugar and being hangry wasn't a good combo. Add in making a separate dinner for my family(no way would my family eat like this), and I wasn't thrilled. I made and plated my kids' dinner(we did eat some of the same things, but not all) and then measured mine out. Even though I had my meal planned, measuring takes forever and when you are hungry, it really kind of sucks.

My dinner was 1 1/2 chicken breast tenderloin, baked(1 red), 1/2 a baked sweet potato(with nothing on it, no butter or cinnamon, whomp whomp), another salad of baby spinach and mixed greens(stick around and you will notice a pattern) with sliced cucumbers(2 green) and I subbed my last 2 teaspoons with a bit of homemade dressing. I can't eat salad without some kind of dressing and I can't put peanut butter on salad, so I swapped.

Tally: 1 red, 1 yellows, 2 greens(finishing greens for the day).

So after dinner I still had 1 yellow, 1 purple and 1 red left. There was part of my problem with being so hungry. I didn't eat enough during the day. I overestimated dinner, thinking the chicken would take up more room as would the sweet potato.

I was excited to have a "snack" of 1 yellow of Cheerios and 1 red of cottage cheese about an hour later. I skipped the last purple.

So my thoughts on my first day. It wasn't horrible, but I had to tell myself over and over that anyone can do anything for 21 days. There were so many times that I just wanted to eat something not so 21 Day Fix approved but each urge had to be fought at that time. So far, so good.

21 Day Fix- AKA 21 Days of Sad Food

I hear a lot of people talk about eliminating the word diet and using the term lifestyle change. I'm going to be honest. I don't want a lifestyle change. So this is a diet. I really like food, food that tastes good. Fruit and veggies, they don't taste good. No matter how you dress it up, it's not fun. I would like a healthy balance though. I can deal with somewhere in the middle.

I'll start by saying I am a picky eater. Super picky. So this program is hard for me. I'll give you a brief run down. As I mentioned in another post, I don't sell this stuff. I don't ever want to sell this stuff. When looking at this plan, looking for reviews, the only ones I could really find were from Beachbody coaches. The 21 Day Fix is a Beachbody program. The people who try to sell you Beachbody(which is a company that puts out shakes and exercise videos) are called coaches. So of course all the reviews from coaches would be glowing. They want you to buy it from them. I'm not one of them. I want to give you a real review, so if you stumble upon my blog searching for reviews, hopefully it helps.

The 21 Day fix involves containers. Different foods go into the containers and you eat a certain number of each per day. Figuring out how many is done by your current weight. They give you lists of foods in each group. I have a hard time with the green group because I can stand all of 3-4 things on the list. The book even says to be an adult and eat your veggies, but I will fully admit that there is a lot of me taking a bite, chewing with my nose plugged and swallowing quickly. There is no way around that. I can deal with everything else, although none of it wows me. There are dressing recipes to use on your plethora of vegetables but honestly they aren't all that great, I made two of them. I started yesterday, and I'll give you a day by day recap from here on out. 

Making a Come Back 2.0

Or is it 3.0 by now? Some blogger I am. I had all kind of gusto 4 months ago when I started PiYo, on my road back to fitness. I was 6 weeks out from having baby number 4 and ready to get back on the wagon, back to running for my life. I had big plans, just like my pregnancy. I was going to be different during pregnancy. I was going to stay active and eat well. Losing weight after delivery wouldn't be hard if I didn't gain 40 lbs again. Well I got active all right and I didn't gain 40 pounds. I actively stuffed my face with Pop Tarts and I put on 50 pounds.

6 weeks after birth, I was still about 28  pounds heavier than I'd started and wanted to be at. At first PiYo went well. Then my life didn't get easier. Babies are supposed to get easier with age. Sleep more. Nap. Not want to eat around the clock. Mine didn't do this. I was blessed with my first high needs baby. Instead of exercising after the big kids went to bed, I'd start 4-5 hour nursing sessions. She liked to nurse constantly or scream. She did not take a bottle. She did not take a pacifier. My husband couldn't calm her, only I could, and only with two certain features attached to my chest. My choices were listen to her scream with my husband for 30 minutes while I exercised or give in to her protests. Some moms will say "Girl, you do you, you need this, she will be fine. Let her cry." That is not my MO as a parent. It works for some people, not so much for me. So I quickly ditched exercising. I focused on my diet, watching calories. I lost 8 lbs. Go me! But eventually that lost it's luster and I stopped counting and stopped losing.

4 months later, here I am. Still sitting 20 lbs over my goal weight. Still hiding from family pictures. I am tired. Parenting a baby can be difficult. Add 3 older kids who need everything from help with homework to help with wiping after using the potty and it's busy. Parenting a high needs baby is even harder. She doesn't like being put down. Naps run 20-30 minutes 95% of the time. She does not like being put down to play for more than 10 minutes. She sleeps poorly at night, usually up 6-8 times between 7pm and 7am. The high needs baby, the 3 older kids, working from home, well exercise didn't take a front seat. Yes, I know I would feel better doing it. Yes, I should put that time first. But when the baby is tolerating not being held, like right now, I take that time to work, a job that I need to keep to pay the bills. Baby A's reflux meds aren't going to pay for themselves!

But I can't do that anymore. Well, I can pay for reflux meds. And work. But I can't put off my health and fitness anymore. I'm not happy. I know I am far from large, but this is not a comfortable size for me. We are leaving for Disney World in 6 weeks, for our first family trip since 2012. In 2012, our 3rd child was 10 months old. I was the exact same weight I was now. I despise looking at those pictures and know I will avoid family pictures if I know I look like that.

I also know that I'm still nursing and I can't do anything drastic to drop weight. but I've got to do something between now and then. Without all the time in the world to exercise, I know I have to attack my diet. Before, I could exercise like crazy and eat all the crap food I wanted. It worked for me. I could out exercise a bad diet. Now I can't. I love food. Junk food. Processed food. Fried food. Eating healthy, especially veggies, that is a sad life for me. Some people go on and on about how wonderful real food is. It's not. In no way, shape or form will baby spinach every be as wonderful as an Oreo cookie. Anybody who tells you differently is lying to themselves, and you. Sure, the benefits of the spinach is better, but taste, the Oreo wins. And taste is important for me.

But unfortunately, my scale doesn't like taste. My body doesn't like taste. On top of my issue of weight, my immune system has gone haywire. I need a rest, but an easy enough reset to tolerate with my extreme lack of sleep and that won't affect my ability to properly feed the baby. So the 21 Day Fiz it is. In my next post, I'll tell you more about it(no, I'm not a Beachbody Coach, nor do I ever want to be one!!).