Review: 21 Day Fix, Part I -- Likes and Dislikes

I had this as one post but there's three separate parts of the 21 Day Fix I'd like to talk about. This is Part I. 

As you may have noticed, I've been doing BeachBody's 21 Day Fix. I finished my first round. A few days into starting my second round, life got in the way so I felt like all my progress was stalled. But it wasn't. I actually lost three pounds in the last week even though I've not kept up on all my workouts, ate a few things which aren't approved on the Fix, and chugged a bottle of soda.

For those of you who don't know what the 21 Day Fix is, here's a breakdown.

1. Portion Control.
2. Daily 30-Minute Workouts.

That's it, in a nutshell. Simple-stupid, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. I've made a list of what I like, personally, about the program. Since I can't leave it with just my likes, I've also made a list of my dislikes. I'm symmetrical like that. ;)

Likes: 

• I love, love, LOVE the containers. They don’t seem like they would make that big of a difference but they really do. I love being able to say, “I get to eat XX of these every day.” I can see it in my mind’s eye and I’m starting to be able to eyeball portions. I’ll still stick with measuring them out, though!
• The workouts are difficult but not too difficult. They’re easy enough for a beginner to understand yet hard enough to be challenging. And there’s a modification for every exercise. If they're getting easy, don't do the modifier, add more weights, or wear a weighted vest. 
• I get to try a lot of new recipes.
• I still can eat out with my friends (practically everywhere, even icky fast food if I wanted [which I really don't]) and I can still have carbs like pasta, bread, pita, bagels (whole-grain, whole-wheat; which I’m totally fine with and prefer), or tortillas (corn or wheat flour).
• I don't have junk-food cravings. (Seriously. I have a Snickers in my car that's been eyeballing ME, not the other way around!)
• I can still have full-fat cheese like brie or chevre (goat cheese). I LOVE cheese.
• Because I’m cooking for one with the portions of one, most meals are quick and there’s none to minimal leftovers.
• I can eat pizza. And it’s not of the “cauliflower/spinach/zucchini” crust variety, either. Though if that's the sort of thing you like, have at it!
• I’m eating chocolate*. Every. Single. Day.
• I’m trying new things I've wanted to try, like coconut oil, shredded coconut, and coconut milk (wow, that’s a lot of coconut!).
• Every day is a new workout. I only have to do Dirty 30, Pilates, or Total Body Cardio three times in one round. Getting bored isn't likely to happen soon. 
• This is an easy "diet" plan to follow! 
• I'm not hungry. I usually have leftover containers at the end of the day.
• I had pudding for breakfast. (It was actually Chocolate Shakeology and Greek Yogurt, but it looked like pudding!)
• I'm not limited to stupid salads. Which I hate. Because, really, who wants to eat lettuce when you can have bacon?
• I can have turkey bacon. And it's just as good (if not better, in my opinion) than bacon bacon.

Dislike:

• I don’t like yoga day. I couldn't get through the first 5 minutes of the workout. Not because I couldn't do it but because it disinterested me. Also, I've never understood why someone would want to have their first time introduction to yoga through an at-home DVD. The instruction is limited and no one can correct you and tell you if your pose is right or if it needs to be moved just a smidgen. Also, you can't focus on the TV and do downward dog at the same time. It just doesn't work! I will substitute Pilates on yoga day, since that day is about recovery and both are low impact with minimal cardio.
• There’s a “meal plan” that isn't really a meal plan. The book that comes with the challenge pack only really has a general list of foods you can eat and which container they correspond with. In theory, it’s alright. But they don’t really have a “follow something like this” menu. Luckily, there’s Pinterest and a mountain of recipes to be had! After a few days, you figure out what can go where and how many of each container you can eat daily. But when you're first starting out, you're like, "Holy crap! What am I suppose to cook?" It's a bit overwhelming. After the first round, I've figured out what I like/dislike and what I'm willing to eat every day (oatmeal, blueberries, and peanut butter!). 
• Food Prep and grocery shopping are my least favorite things ever. Even before starting the program I hated planning a menu and figuring out what I was going to eat for the week or for two weeks. It's fun to think, "oh, this looks good!" while I'm on Pinterest. It's another thing to plan the meals, figure out what ingredients to buy (since we don't want to waste and are only doing meals for individual servings, this can be difficult), and what things can be frozen. 
• Because I’m cooking for one with the portions of one, I sometimes don’t quite know what I’m doing. 
• I have a hard time using all of my containers from each category. I know it's not about "how much can I eat" and more to do with "all of these containers equal a healthful, balanced, daily diet." I need to figure out how to use my orange container. I'm thinking more snacks will have to do with olives or trail mix from now on. 
• My days off are my hardest days. Working nights makes it worse because my sleeping schedule is all sorts of crazy. I can't quite figure out if I should "restart" my day when I wake up or after 24 hours.

The bottom line is this program works. It's simple-stupid and I wish someone had shown me how to eat this way before I graduated high school. I've never cooked single portions before! I come from a big family, always cooking for six in mind, always planning for leftovers. Not anymore. 

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