Sunday, September 6, 2015

21 Day Fix Extreme and Shakeology

Over the last few years, I've started to learn a lot about Beachbody.  You've heard of it as they are the company behind P90x and Tony Horton.  That's all I knew at first.  But then I started to hear about Shakeology.

I don't remember why, but I decided to try it back in 2013.  Possibly from reading reviews?  Maybe wanting my P90x results to be better?  Anyways, I bought a month's supply of the Vegan Strawberry.  It was the most disgusting thing I ever tasted.  It was like drinking amoxicillin.  I choked down every last spoonful of that bag because it was so expensive (over $100 for the shakes!).  I seriously drank it over the sink each day in case I puked.

With the rise of social media on Facebook, I started to hear about Beachbody's 21 Day Fix and "new and improved!" tastes of Shakeology.  Not only updated flavors, but also, in addition to the vitamins and minerals in Shakeology, they added probiotics and digestive track cleanser (yup, makes you poop!).

It seemed Beachbody coaches came out of the woodwork.  People at work, people at church, friends of friends.  I'd get random messages in my Facebook account of people asking if I'd like to try Shakeology.  I tried quite a few (vegan chocolate, regular chocolate, vanilla) and they were SO much better than before.  Not the most tasty of choices, but not bad.

In the past year, I joined a couple of summer weight loss Facebook groups, which, at the time, I did not realize where being run by Beachbody coaches.  I grew tired of hearing them tell us how great Shakeology was.  How it curbed their cravings and how they felt amazing.  But the groups were very helpful with giving ideas for exercise or meal plans, so I stayed in them, bypassing the propaganda.

Finally, I got to the point that I heard so much about the 21 Day Fix program that I had to check it out.  People I knew were losing (and keeping off) 15 lbs in 21 days.  Last month, they were doing a promotion that I could get the 21 Day Fix program (workouts, pamphlets, recipe books) for $19.99 with the purchase of Shakeology.  It seemed like a good deal.

I'm a huge Jillian Michaels fan and just completed her 8 week program called Body Shred.  It took me 12 weeks to complete (yes, life happens) and I did not follow her meal plan, and I lost 9 lbs and several inches.  It gave me biceps and calf muscles!  I would highly recommend it.
But I digress, the 21 Day Fix program didn't seem like enough for me.  If I could get my butt kicked for 8 weeks by Jillian, I could do any workout video. That's when I saw the 21 day fix extreme. I watched those videos and I knew I could do them because all of the moves I had seen before in Jillian's workouts.  I knew this was the right one for me.

I splurged and ordered it.
Side note: I was very disappointed with their checkout process (had to submit my order twice to get it to go through and countless times I had to try to submit it) and wrongfully sent "Your items have shipped!" e-mails (three days after that, I got another e-mail saying "Your items will ship soon."  whaaa?!).

The 21 Day Fix Extreme consists of two parts: Shakeology, clean eating diet and the workouts.

Shakeology
I started the Shakeology right away because I was excited to see what it would do.  I should not have taken it a few hours before volleyball, because my stomach was making some WIERD noises while we were playing!  The next day, I got a headache and started to feel funny (like my head was fuzzy, I got a rash on my face (!) and I was tired).  I kept up with it for a few days and I didn't seem to be getting any better.  I wasn't sure if it was the shake mix or if I was getting sick.  I took the Shakeology roughly 7 times over a week and a half, but decided to go three days without and see if I felt better.  I do think I ended up with a cold (runny nose, scratchy throat) so they were possibly related.  Tomorrow, I'm going to try to add Shakeology again (a friend just recommended to me to try half a scoop).

The Workouts
As I mentioned above, I've been working out with the 'tv's toughest trainer' (aka Jillian Michaels) so the first couple of Autumn Calabrese's videos weren't too bad.  She gives you breaks for water!  And tells you it's ok to march in place for just a few seconds!  This was awesome!  Don't get me wrong.  This is no joke, but she is realistic.  I laughed my way through the Extreme Yoga workout (my kids were constantly saying "Mom, you're doing it wrong."  "Mom, you aren't doing anything like they are."). Yoga is not for me.

Clean Eating Diet
I started this a few days before the exercises (with the cold, I wasn't up for exercising quite yet).  It took me about 4 hours to come up with 3 days of recipes!!  My husband joked that it would take me 21 days to finally get the recipes.  It was tough.  Thanks goodness for the internet!  I started a Pinterest page with recipes and good 21 Day Fix websites. There is so much out there!
I was coming off a 3 week sugar bender.  I had many days in that 3 weeks of over 3,000 calorie days. I was seriously out of control.  I didn't know what to do and this seemed like the best fix.

Day 1: August 31st (following 21 Day Fix diet to a T; no workout; Shakeology)
Day 2: September 1st (following 21 Day Fix diet...more leeway; played volleyball instead of workout; Shakeology) Down 3.4 lbs after 1 day.  Crazy!!  This should have made me want to keep sticking to the plan 100%, but instead made me think it was ok for that glass of wine and potato skins...at a restaurant...and it was two glasses of wine.  21 Day Extreme Turkey Chili is DELICIOUS!
Day 3: September 2nd (following 21 Day Fix diet...much more leeway; no workout, Shakeology) Down 1.4 from yesterday.  Holy cow!!  This was amazing!  Ended up eating a hot fudge sundae...but followed the rest of the eating plan 100%
Day 4: September 3rd (following 95% 21 Day Fix diet; Lower Body Extreme workout; Shakeology) Down 1 lb.  I count a reese's peanut butter cup as the reason I'm down 5%.
Day 5: September 4th (following 95% 21 Day Fix diet; Cardio Fix Extreme and 2 mile jog; no Shakeology)   At this point, it's been 4 (complete) days and I'm down 7.4 lbs!  AMAZING!  It's an eye opener of what all the processed stuff causes your body to hang on to.  All of this 7.4 lbs is salt and toxins that got cleared away in just 5 days!  Stupid peanut butter cups.
Day 6: September 5th (following 40% 21 Day Fix diet; ran 4 miles; no Shakeology) Weight was maintained.  I was wondering when it was going to stop dropping so drastically.  Problem today is that I have a pool party to go to and there are lots of desserts.  I resisted for a WHOLE hour before digging in.   What a calorie binge that evening was....
Day 7: September 6th (followed 21 Day Fix diet for breakfast and dinner; no workout; no Shakeology) Gained 2.2 lbs back...tomorrow is going to be worse because I ate movie theater popcorn and a Coke tonight.

That's where I am now.  Shakeology has really cleaned out my digestive track (tmi??), which has helped the weight loss, but I'm not convinced it's doing much else.  When I wasn't on the 21 Day Fix diet and doing Shakeology, it did not curb any cravings nor gave me energy.  I still wanted to sleep at 3pm and 7pm.  It seems, this first week, Shakeology combined with the 21 Day Fix diet is what  works wonders. I have more energy at the end of these 7 days when eating real food.

One week review:
Very tough to find the time to get this up and running. It's a lot of research.  I barely use the containers they sent because I've gotten recipes from he web or the book that comes with it.  One of the coaches I know told me that the best thing she learned through the program is portion control.  That's what I want to take away.

So why am I blogging about this?  Because, in a month, two months, next year, whenever, I want to remind myself that our bodies were made for clean, unprocessed foods.   That I can go a whole day without wanting to take a nap.

#21dfx