21-Day Fix -- Days 1-3

I finally started the 21-Day Fix and boy am I both psyched and a little intimidated!  I wanted to share with you my thoughts along the way and instead of doing one big, long post at the end of the week, I decided to do a post every couple days.  So, here's Day 1-3.....

Monday - Day #1
I'll admit that when I started today, I did it half-assed.  As excited as I was, I still wasn't fully ready yet to commit.  I really didn't have any plan in place -- especially when it came to meal planning and I'll admit that it was hard.....eating without a plan.  I didn't even do the workout, instead working out at the gym with My Marine.  After lunch, though, I did sit down and thoroughly plan out my meals for the week with the help of Google and Pinterest.  If you search "21-Day Fix menu plans", you'll be surprised at the wealth of information you can find!

In the end, I came up with a plan that I think will work for me.  There's a lot of repeats and I'm ok with that.....and I keep telling myself, "It's only for 21 days!"

 

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Tuesday - Day #2
Woke up this morning ready to ROCK!  Got the girls off to school and headed to the gym for my regular workout which included 45 min. of circuit training/weights (chest, back and abs) and then 45 min. of HIIT elliptical.  Picked up Nudgie from Kindergarten and while she was having lunch and watching the Mickey Mouse Club, I popped in the 21-Day Upper Fix (which focuses on upper body and some abs).  Let me tell you.....I LOVE THIS WORKOUT!  I did underestimate the moves and used some lighter weight than I normally would use, but next time -- WATCH OUT because I'm bumping it up big time!  If you're curious, click HERE for a quick video of the Upper Fix workout!  I showed My Marine the workout when he came home, and he gave me some additional tips for adding more weight to this workout too, which I can't WAIT to try!

Meals for today were pretty simple.  I had one little "cheat" with a couple of strawberry yogurt covered pretzels.  I told myself that if I finished them up they wouldn't tempt me anymore.  Yeah, right!  Here's what my were meals for today.....

Breakfast:
Strawberry shakeology with raspberries and blackberries (1 red, 1 purple)

AM Snack:
Greek yogurt (1 red)

Lunch:
Leftover turkey meatballs, salad with dressing (1 red, 1 green, 1 orange)

PM Snack:
1 apple with Earth Balance all-natural peanut butter (1 purple, 2 teaspoons)

Dinner:
Leftover turkey stuffed pepper w/ brown rice and cucumbers (1 red, 2 green, 2 yellow)

At the end of the day, I realized that I didn't use any "blue" - which is nuts/cheese/healthy fats.  I'll have to make sure I work on that one!

Overall, Day #2 went much better than Day #1!

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Wednesday - Day #3

Woke up very sore this morning.....abs and chest especially!  But it felt good....it feels like ACCOMPLISHMENT!  And I was excited to see what Day #3 would bring for me!  Dropped the girls off at school and headed back to the gym again.  I really wanted to do more upper body and focus on biceps/triceps, but the free weight area was a little too crowded for my taste.  (I'm ALWAYS very self-conscious in the gym!)  So I decided to do a leg workout with some abs and back work.  Big highlight was that I got to my personal high of 130lbs on the leg press.  I know I can do more, but I tweaked my knee running on Monday and didn't want to push it too much.  Then I did 45 min. HIIT elliptical.  Once I got Nudgie settled with her Nutella sandwich and Looney Tunes, I headed downstairs to do the 21-Day Lower Fix.  Oh....My....Goodness!!!!!  This workout kicks BUTT -- and I mean it LITERALLY!  My legs were shaking so much afterwards that I literally had to almost crawl up the steps!  I will say that I had to modify some of the lunges because of my knees, but overall I still gave 100% and got the full effect!

Meals for today were good too.  There were times (right at lunch and then right around 3pm) that I started to hear my stomach growl or felt like snacking on something....but once I ate my lunch and my PM snack I felt much better.  (Oh, and drank LOTS of water too!)  I also decided to add some photos of my meals so that you can see how much I really am eating.  The containers look small, but once you put everything together on a plate -- it really is a lot of food!

Breakfast and AM Snack:
Breakfast - Strawberry shakeology + 2 cups water/1 cup ice (1 red)
AM Snack - 1 honeycrisp apple (1 purple)  (I know it's clear container, but I used that so that I could snack on my way home from the gym!)

Lunch:
Tuna salad with dijon vinegrette (1 red, 1 green, 1 orange, 1 blue)

PM Snack:
Cottage cheese with raspberries and blackberries (1 red, 1 purple)

Dinner:
Shrimp veggie stirfry over whole wheat pasta (1 red, 2 green, 1 yellow, 2 teaspoons olive oil)

As you can see from the pictures, they are bigger portions than expected!  And believe me, I was FULL!  I still felt that craving for something sweet after dinner like I normally do, but I drank more water and focused my energy towards something else and it seemed to pass.

I've already marked down my starting weight, but I also have to remember to take my "before" pictures today so that I can truly see if there's a difference.

Stay tuned for Days 4-6!