21 Day Fix (but really 30 days)

September was a big month for Ian and I. We signed up together for a 30 day Beachbody challenge group. The program we used is called the 21 Day Fix with Autumn Calabrese. The program gave us 7 different workouts for each day of the week, plus a meal plan with portion containers and a 30 day supply of Shakeology protein shake mix. Even though the title of the program says 21 days our group did the challenge for 30 days. It was hard, but really great for us to do together. 

I am SO proud of us for completing the challenge without a single missed workout (6 days a week for 4 weeks). Most days we got up at 6am and did our workout together. I loved having Ian to keep me accountable and push me when I did not want to get out of bed. I definitely got stronger throughout the month. By the end I could do almost every move for the full time, which is pretty good considering how I looked the first week or two. lol

Now let's talk about the food. This was really the hardest part by far. I have been consistently active for a few years now. The workouts did push me, but the hardest part was resetting our diet. What I love about the 21 Day Fix meal plan is that you can eat whatever you want to make within your portions and from the list of approved foods. The approved foods are pretty broad, including cheese, oils, dressings, bread, rice, potatoes, lean meats and, of course, fruits and veggies. I like that we could still eat what we wanted. It was most challenging to cut out all the processed food and sugar. We weren't perfect on the meal plan, but we were really good and made a lot of healthy changes. One of my splurges was buying myself an air popcorn popper. The kids love it too! Here are a few of my favorite 21 Day Fix meals that I will be including in our regular rotation of meals.

This was my favorite 21 Day Fix recipe. These enchiladas are delicious, easy and healthy!

Another favorite was this pork carnitas. So delicious. I love being able to cook a whole bunch and freeze bags for a quickie meal another day. I was going to use a pork loin, but ended up finding a package labeled as "carnitas" so I got that instead. Worked great. :)

My favorite breakfast...spinach and feta omelet with chocolate Shakeology.

This meal was amazing. Ian's fabulous grilled chicken with these delicious ricotta, bacon, spinach stuffed peppers, salad and fruit.

 In my opinion dinners were the most difficult to plan. Especially dinners the kids would eat, but we managed with only a few nights of making sandwiches or hot dogs for the kids. :) Thank goodness for Pinterest. I scoured Pinterest for 21 Day Fix recipes and tried a bunch. The ones above were my favorites, but none of them were really bad. Some were just more bland or less of a hit with the kids.

Lunch for me was usually a salad with some kind of protein (grilled chicken or ground turkey), a lettuce wrap (my favorite was a Greek version with grilled chicken, cucumber and feta), or corn tortilla tacos (if I needed some carbs at lunch). Breakfast was almost always Shakeology with either eggs or steel cut oats. We finished up our challenge group the first weekend in October, but we are starting another round next week.

Results. I am not posting our before and after pictures or measurements because I'm still just not that confident about my body in a sports bra, but we did see some good results. I lost 5 pounds and 3 inches. Ian lost 15 pounds and 6 inches. Go team! If you are interested in the program odds are you know someone on Facebook who is a Beachbody coach, but if not I'm happy to refer you to our friends who coached us.