You’re reading this because you’re curious about the 21 Day
Fix. I don’t blame you, you should be! I just finished running my first Fix
Challenge! I had a group of 8 people
join me and I can’t wait to share their results and tips with you! As I went through the challenge, I made sure
to write down my favorite meals to share with you. I kept it pretty simple, but delicious!
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you know I
started this journey back in June. I
wanted something to change in my life and the only person who was stopping me
was the person looking back at me in the mirror. If you’re wanting to make changes in your
life but are afraid you’re lacking the courage (believe me, it takes courage)
then I have a few tips for you.
Once I had food under control, I jumped in
and joined a challenge. Since I had
already been making healthy food choices, I knew a free 5 day challenge would
be no problem for me! This was just the
motivation I had been praying for. I was
in a group with women I didn’t know and we were sharing tips, recipes and
encouraging one another. It was amazing! I'm so glad my friend invited me!
I knew how to eat clean, that part was
easy! But what I was missing was portion
control. It turns out, over eating,
clean or not isn’t good for you and can keep you from reaching your goals. Not only did I need help with portion
control, I needed to push myself physically.
Enter, 21 Day Fix.
When people hear portion control they automatically assume
they’re going to starve for 21 days. In
fact when I opened my box and saw my containers for the first time I thought, “dear
Lord what have I done?! How am I supposed
to coach people through this!” But any
challenger you talk to will actually say they found themselves eating MORE than
they normally do. This was most
definitely true for myself! I did find
myself hungry quite a bit the second week so I took advantage of my extra red
and green containers or would save a yellow so I could eat yogurt and granola
before bed. I know you’re not supposed
to eat close to bedtime but there were times I couldn’t sleep because I was
hungry. If you find that about yourself
too, eat for crying out loud! Of course make
sure you’re drinking enough water (half your body weight) because sometimes dehydration
is disguised as hunger pains. But for
me, thirst isn’t what keeps me up at night, so I ate something.
Out of 8 challengers, I had 5 successfully complete the
challenge. The workouts were hard to get
in for some so they focused on their eating.
Most everyone lost 5 pounds their first week….except me. I lost inches. A lot of inches! Of course I wanted to see the numbers drop on
the scale but I was more than thrilled to see that I had lost 3 inches in my
stomach and one inch in my waist. Yeah I’ll take that. The first week I lost 7.5 inches and by the
end I had lost 9 inches. Another
challenger lost 8.75 inches her first week.
She has been following the program to a T and has seen more inches than
weight lost, but that’s not a bad thing.
Results look different on everyone.
The most one of my challengers lost was 12 pounds! I’m so proud of how hard she worked! She stayed faithful in her eating and even
found herself getting up and moving around more at work. She started participating with her kids she
works with instead of just supervising them.
How incredible is that? Not only
is she doing something for herself but she’s also making a difference in the
kids she works with. Healthy choices
have a ripple effect. Like all choices,
they affect everyone around you and healthy choices are no different.
These are the results from my first challenge. What you see in quotes below is from my actual challengers!
These are the results from my first challenge. What you see in quotes below is from my actual challengers!
There are some incredible resources out there to help get
you started. The first place I went (and
you will too if you haven’t already) was Pinterest. Thank God for Pinterest! I created a board and shared it with my
challengers. I included recipes, tips
and links to fun trackers! There is no
need to reinvent the wheel especially when someone has already put a lot of
time and effort into making something so great!
I already mentioned that I spent the 21 days writing down what I ate so
I could share it with you! You’ll see my
Meal Ideas below. I’m not good at
planning out every single meal for every single day so I would pick a few meals and then make variations. But
that may not work for you! If I was
working full time or my husband worked different hours, I’d definitely need to
buckle down and plan more meticulously.
Follow my Pinterest board to find some great trackers, meal plans and guides!
Here are links to all the trackers and planners that you need!
Click on the image for the PDF of meal ideas!
These are our favorite recipes we prepared during the Fix. We had lots of different variations of these recipes through the 21 days. For example, it's easy to turn the pitas into pizzas and we had mahi in either taco form or served over rice. I've given descriptions of each of the items below! One thing I did not include in my meals is container portions. They can vary from person to person so I'll let you decide. You don't have to eat a full container at each meal. You can divide it up into small portions throughout the day. I had a whole purple container of the mango salsa, you may want just half of one to go with your fish. It's up to you! Just make sure you write it down in your tacker!
Mahi-Serve with corn tortillas or on a bed of rice. We cooked fish in foil packets on the grill or in the oven with Carribean seasoning or a little lime vinaigrette (lime juice, garlic, honey, olive oil). When I served mahi with rice, we would put a yellow container of rice in a packet and put fish on top. Wrap and cook at 425 for 15 minutes or until fish reached temperature.
Mango Salsa-Chop one mango, one red pepper, 1/4 red onion, 1/2 jalapeno and handful of cilantro. Mix and squeeze lime juice and lightly salt.
Pesto Chicken Pitas-I would take small whole wheat pitas and spread with half orange container of homemade pesto. Then top with chicken, spinach and tomatoes. Then drizzle with a half orange container of homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Top with feta. To make a "pizza" version, add half a blue container of mozzarella on top of pesto and bake. Then add toppings.
Pesto-Fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, toasted walnuts, garlic. I never measure! I usually do a big handful of basil, 1/2 c of cheese 3/4 c oil, 1/4 c of walnuts and 1 clove of garlic. There are lots of recipes out there!
Chicken Sausage and Veggies-Seriously one of my favorites. I cut up chicken sausage (nitrate-free/gluten-free/organic), zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato/yam, red onion and red pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Toss to coat everything. Then sprinkle a thin layer of Parmesan cheese over the top and back at 425 for 20-25 minutes. This is a great dish to make in bulk. It's also quick and easy!
Yogurt with Berries and Almonds-This was my go to breakfast! One red container of yogurt, 1 purple of berries and one blue (or orange) of almond slices. You could also use one yellow of a lightly sweetened granola. Be picky about granola. I used Udi's gluten free because I knew it was clean with only 5 ingredients or less. Other brands have other additives, so be on the look-out!
Chicken Guacamole Burgers-You can use turkey but chicken is our favorite type of burger! Place on top of bed of spinach and thick tomato slice with a blue container of guacamole on top!
Guacamole-One avocado, 6-7 cherry tomatoes, 2 T chopped red onion, 1/4 jalapeno, cilantro and lime juice.
Grilled Sausage and Veggies Skewers-Perfect for summer! I love the many ways to prepare sausage and veggies! I picked a turkey kielbasa sausage and skewered it with onions, peppers and zucchini. For this one I basted with Stubb's BBQ sauce which is Biggest Loser recommended. It has few ingredients, not a lot of sugar and is delicious. I did not use this BBQ while I was on the Fix though but do consider it pretty clean.
Asian Lettuce Wraps-diced grilled chicken, shredded carrots, edamame, green onions, avocado dressed in a zesty Asian dressing. 1/4 c Rice vinegar, 1/4 t sesame oil, 1/2c olive oil, 2 T soy/tamari sauce, fresh garlic and ginger, 1 T white cooking wine and honey.
Chicken Meatballs-I loaded this particular recipe up with chopped spinach and carrots. You can make meatballs a variety of ways! To keep them clean, avoid white bread crumbs and ease up on the cheese. This recipe had chicken, spinach, carrots, Italian seasoning and eggs. I dropped the ball on a foiled cookie sheet and poured a little homemade marinara (the only kind we have in our house) and a little mozzarella cheese. I didn't put any cheese on mine. Bake for 20 minutes at 425 or until it reaches appropriate internal temperature.
And because not every diet is complete without a little caffeine, here is my favorite clean iced coffee and iced chai!
See, real food? Does it look like you're going to starve? NO! This thing is so much easier than you think! So are you ready? What are you waiting for? If you're ready for a new you, a new attitude, a new pant size, click below to order and get started! The only thing keeping you from a new you is YOU!
