21 Day Fix: Almost Through Week One!

My apologies for missing my Monday post! We are running running running every weekend, and with the holidays coming up it feels like we are booked solid for the rest of the year. I love this time of the year, but it is a crazy reminder that there aren't many weeks left in the year to cram in all of the fun stuff we plan.

But here I am, with one day left in Week One of this round of 21 Day Fix. Yoga is tomorrow, and I will not lie...my body is CRAVING some yoga. I definitely worked hard this last week, but I can't believe I am already feeling a million times better, my energy is coming back, and I am already seeing changes in my body. It's so crazy how effective this program is if you follow it as written.

Here's a quick rundown of the workouts I've done so far and my opinion of them. The workouts are 30 minutes each, broken into rounds with exercises that you do for 60 seconds:

Total Body Cardio: cardio, but with weights, targeting quite a few muscle groups. Not a fan of cardio, but I love weights and this is a crazy challenging workout that had me walking funny for the better part of a week. Love that soreness. It was a nice "Day-One-Hi-How-Ya-Doing-I'm-Gonna-Kick-Your-Booty" sort of introduction.

Upper Fix: lots of moves that tone and strengthen your arms and shoulders. Love resistance training, and this definitely pushed me to get that burn. Spaghetti arms when I was done.

Lower Fix: still walking funny from Total Body Cardio, but I pushed through this one. Lots of lunges and squats. I am one of those weirdos that actually enjoys leg day, and this was a great workout.

Pilates Fix: DEFINITELY not one of those workouts where you say, "Ehhh, this'll be an easy one." NOPE. Planks, lots of ab work, lots of booty work. So much burn.

Cardio Fix: I am not a fan of cardio. Never have been. But I will say that knowing each set is only 60 seconds makes that light at the end of the tunnel seem so much closer. You can do anything for 60 seconds, right? Right.

Dirty 30: by far my favorite. This workout hits everything. Give me weights and I am a happy girl.

And like I said above, tomorrow is yoga. I am going to eat that up.

My DVDs also came with a bonus workout - 10 Minute Fix for Abs which is included on the disks, and Plyo Fix, which is a separate bonus disk and is, well, a plyometric workout. I am not a fan of plyo, but am interested to incorporate those two bonus workouts during Week Two.

I love love love Autumn Calabrese as a trainer. She doesn't seem too frou-frou, she comes across as totally real in the videos, and she is super motivating. When she encourages you to push and not give up during those last 20 seconds...you don't. Because you believe her encouragement.

As for my meal plan, I find it much easier to stay on point during the weekdays, but not because I go off the deep end during the weekends with my eating. My weekdays are much more structured and strict, and I know at what points in my day I eat. It's the same every day. And I like that. During the weekend, we are constantly on the go, so remembering to eat is key. Luckily I have my meal plan saved on my phone, so even when we are out and about I was able to reference it to plan accordingly. I might not have followed the plan as written to a T, but was able to reference how many containers I had left for the day and went with that. 

And for real you guys, I get to eat a LOT of food.

With all that said, when I eat well, I eat well, so I don't know if this is a sustainable way of eating for me with the containers and all. HOWEVERRRR, if your eating habits and portion control knowledge are just so-so, then using the containers will work BIG TIME. I am using them now because I know I need to be strict on myself because the month-long binge and workout-free time I just came off of did me absolutely no favors. Love the workouts, and will use the containers and meal plan when I know I need to buckle down and get super serious.

All in all I am feeling great. I am challenged every day by the workouts, know how and where I can improve, feel super energized, and feel good knowing that I am eating whole foods that can fuel me through the day.

Looking back at my goals, I did manage to meet almost all of them, except for one. That no alcoholic beverages rule. With the 21 Day Fix, the meal plan allows wine as a treat in moderation. Except I had a few beers on Sunday night at a birthday party. That is NOT Fix-approved. My eating was on point, but the beers brought me down. And it's funny, because even though I only had two drinks I still woke up on Monday morning feeling crappy and puffy. 

So as I come up on Week Two, my goals remain the same as Week One, except I am sticking to that no alcohol rule. I would also like to incorporate 10 Minute Fix for Abs into my week twice and Plyo Fix once, essentially doubling up on my workouts at least three times in Week Two.

High fives for yoga tomorrow!