Hello friends! I hope you are well! Today I’m sharing the fitness and nutrition program that I started about 10 weeks before my wedding, the 21 Day Fix! I’ll be sharing what it is, some before and after pictures, what a typical day of eating looked like for me, and the tools I found helped me along the way! Okay, let’s get started!
*affiliate links provided for convenience*
what it is
The 21 Day Fix is a series of workout videos and a potion controlled meal plan that you follow for 21 days, and they claim that you can lose up to 15 pounds. It’s by Beachbody, the same company that has programs like P90X and Insanity. The workouts are 30 minutes each, and the meal plan comes with containers for different food groups (vegetables, fruit, protein, carbs, healthy fats, seeds and dressings), to which you get a certain number of each container per day. Basically, workouts + portion control = success. You can find the base kit here.
finding your container count
Using their chart, you can do the calculation to figure out how many of each container you get per day. Once you hit your goal weight, the calculation changes slightly and you would most likely move to the next level (more containers), called “maintenance”.
the workouts
The basic plan (there’s also 21 day fix extreme) comes with workouts for each day of the week, plus a bonus 10 minute ab workout. The workout schedule looks like this:
Monday- Total Body Cardio Fix
Tuesday: Upper Fix
Wednesday: Lower Fix
Thursday: Pilates Fix
Friday: Cardio Fix
Saturday: Dirty 30
Sunday: Yoga Fix
For week 3, you have the option to double up on workouts, which I never did. The only equipment required was a heavy and light set of weights or resistance band, yoga mat, and towel. Easy peasy!
The workouts are basically an exercise for 60 seconds, and 15 second rest. There are different numbers of rounds in the different workouts, but you repeat all rounds. It goes by pretty quickly!
I like Autumn and all of the workouts, I find she pushes you. I committed a lot better to these workouts that the Tone It Up ones I had been doing previously, and I could feel my body getting stronger! I feel like that speaks to the quality of the workouts, but also the fact that I was closing in on a deadline (wedding day).
getting started
To get started with the 21 Day Fix, you can purchase a kit with the containers and workouts, or a few different combinations of that. You can use Beach Body On Demand to stream the workouts, and purchase copycat containers on Amazon. I talk about this more in the next section, but I would recommend purchasing the cookbook with the workouts and containers if it’s something that you are interested in.
The plan itself doesn’t require a ton of prep, you just have to get used to thinking of the food you are eating in a container sense. So for instance if I can only have 2 carb containers a day, I might have 0.5 at breakfast, 0.5 at lunch, and 1 at dinner. You just have to plan a bit.
tips for success
There are a couple of tools that helped me stay on track and try some new things as well!
First off, the 21 Day Fix app is free to download, and you can enter your containers per meal so you can keep track of how many you have left. You can also keep track of what day you are on, and your starting and ending measurements and weight.
The Fixate Cookbook was helpful as well, but I would only purchase this with the kit and not separately, because it’s more expensive!
Pinterest! There are SO MANY free recipes and meal planners for the 21 Day fix. The recipes are generally broken down by container count as well, which makes it really easy. I got to try some new things while staying on track!
good for getting wedding ready
I would really recommend the 21 Day Fix to brides, especially if you just want to tone up a bit before the big day. I didn’t hit my goal of how much weight I wanted to lose, but I saw a big difference in the 10-11 weeks I was on the plan.
I lost 11 pounds in just under 4 rounds. I didn’t take an “after” picture until after the wedding, so here is what I looked like on my wedding day!
typical day of meals on the plan
Keep in mind that I am a pescatarian, so I don’t eat meat, but eat fish and dairy. Below is what a typical day on the plan looked like for me, and what the container counts would be for each meal.
Breakfast:
Protein Pancake with peanut butter and banana.
Pancake= 1/2 carb, 1 protein (recipe is 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 oats, 2 tbsp PB2, 1 tbsp unsweetned applesauce)
Peanut Butter = 1 tsp
Banana = 1 fruit
1/2 yellow, 1/2 red, 1 purple, 1 tsp.
Snack:
greek yogurt with berries = 1 protein and 1 fuit
I used the protein container to measure yogurt, and fruit container to measure fruit, combined it in a seperate container). I usually eat half in the morning and half in the afternoon.
1 red, 1 purple
Lunch:
Spinach salad with chopped peppers and tuna/ hard boiled egg/ or Salmon
1 vegetable container of spinach + 1/2 vegetable container of chopped peppers, mushrooms, cucumber (basically what I have on hand), 1 protein container if I was having salmon, 2 hard boiled eggs or 1 can of tuna.
1 1/2 green, 1 red
Dinner:
Salmon with Vegetables and brown rice
I love a good tray bake of mixed vegetables, with light seasoning and it’s nice and easy! Peppers, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, whatever I have on hand! If I still had a blue container left, I could grate some cheese over broccoli.
1 1/2 green, 1 red, 1 yellow ( or 1 1/2 if I want to use up all of my carbs), 1 blue
Possible evening snack
Okay, this is where it gets a little sad. If I feel like I need something after dinner, I’ll toast an english muffing and put some peanut butter on it. But here’s the sad part. Half a card container= 1/4 english muffin. So if I’m feeling like I really want to stick to the containers I’ll cut the half in half, and if not, I’ll eat half. You have to do what works for you!
Total containers for the day:
3 green
2 purple
4 red
2 yellow
1 blue
1 orange
2 tsp
= 0 leftover!
before/after pictures
Okay, now on to the results! I’m a little nervous about putting this out there, but you have to see the results right?
Here’s the before:
And here’s after 4-5 rounds (things got a little crazy around the wedding!)
And before and after:
If you’d like to hear me talk more about the 21 day fix, check out the video below:
I don’t want to post this giving the impression that I never slipped up, because I did. And as the wedding got closer, I wasn’t as strict tracking my containers. But it worked for me, and I still saw results! I’m not quite at my goal yet, and I’m going to keep on this until I get there. But, I also am going on vacation soon, and I’m going to eat what I want! I don’t necessarily think that I will keep up strictly on this plan forever, but I think once I reach my goal I will start to bring other (normal) foods back into my diet.
I am not a physician, so make sure to consult your doctor before committing to the 21 day fix.
Thank you so much for joining me today! If you have any questions about the 21 Day Fix leave them below, and I will do my best to answer them!
