21 Day Fix Review

As I’m sure you’ve gathered from this blog, I’m a Beachbody coach. (If you haven’t gathered this then you really need to explore around the blog a bit more… go on… this post can wait…) So naturally you would think that I would be promoting every single Beachbody product as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. This is not that kind of a post.

For the past three weeks I’ve been following the 21 Day Fix program. Here’s a quick overview: The 21 Day Fix is a program created by fitness trainer and bikini model Autumn Calbrese. It combines an easily laid out nutrition plan with 7 separate 30 minute workouts. You calculate your caloric intake, use the colour coded containers to ensure you are eating the proper amount of food for each food group, consume 1 Shakeology per day, and complete one 30 minute workout per day. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Here’s what I love about this program:

1. Weights - Autumn incorporated weights and tailored the timing to suit a weight lifting workout. When lifting weights you want to do reps with rests in between to rest the muscles. The timing and alternating of the exercises was perfect. I felt as though I would just reach the point of failure and then we would either rest or move onto the next muscle group.

2. Time – The amount of time that I needed to dedicate to getting results with this program was incredibly small. I could get my workout in before my kids woke up and once I set which containers I was going to use for which meals/snacks I just filled them and ate.

3. Portions – Something I’ve always struggled with is stopping myself from eating once I’m full. I find that if the food is especially tasty I will just keep eating even though I know I should stop. By filling the containers and not going back for seconds I was able to only eat my fill.

4. Results – Before the fix I was stuck at a plateau for one whole month! I had already reached my goal weight but had set a goal to lose 1.5” more off my hips… and I DID! Over just 3 weeks I lost 4 Lbs, gained 0.25” of muscle on each arm, lost 1” off my waist, lost 1.5” off my hips, and lost 0.5” off each thigh. IN 3 WEEKS!

And the part you didn’t see coming, what I didn’t love about this program:

1. Results – I lost more weight than I wanted to. Right now you’re all thinking: “hah! Lucky!” But in all seriousness… doing this program put me at a BMI of 17.6 (normal range is 18.5 – 24.9). This meant I was underweight. I kept expecting it to start going up because of muscle weight gain but it never did. In my last week I moved up to the next calorie range so I wasn’t operating at a deficit and I ended up losing 3Lbs that week. The nutrition plan is great for losing weight but just ensure you are aiming for a healthy weight and not losing more than you should.

2. Simple Meals – The containers are great for people who are looking to keep meals incredibly simple. They do, however, make it very difficult to cook fun and fancy meals. Some of my favourite dishes to make combine several ingredients and I don’t usually measure anything. If you like to cook extravagantly then you may find this to be challenging to follow. But it is only 3 weeks long…

3. Family Cooking – I don’t just cook for myself. I also cook for my husband and my toddler at the same time. I’m not a restaurant so I don’t cook each person their own single serve meal. The fix is definitely made for someone who is going to be making their meal and their meal only. Just try making a batch of chili and then tell me how many red, green, and yellow containers it is! There is a cheat sheet that has a few “homemade meals” listed in it and shows how many containers to count for each but I found that my “recipes” were nowhere close to what they were counting so I just guesstimated a lot.

4. 7 Days a Week – This is just me being picky but having just finished T25 which has 5 workout days on and then weekends off I was a bit bummed that I would have to give up my weekends off. But I did it and it wasn’t that bad, especially since Sunday was yoga which is practically a day off.

Well, there you have my two cents on the 21 Day Fix. Overall, it was a decent program. The results I got were 90% of what I wanted to get and buckling down for 3 weeks was not so bad. I gained a lot of knowledge about portions doing the program and have since left the containers in the dust but I do monitor how much of each food group I’m eating in a day. One other thing I’ve been tracking is how I feel. Doing the fix and using Shakeology has made me less bloated and not feeling sluggish like I normally did. On my week off I am making note of the foods that make me feel “icky” so I can cut back on them and feel good all the time!

If you would like more information on my experience with the 21 Day Fix just comment below or send me an email! If you are ready to commit to this program or any other Beachbody program, click here.