Beachbody Programs That I have Done

A little over a year ago, I bought my first Beachbody program. I got it during a huge sale they had in June. I was 290 pounds. I got Les Mills Combat because I liked Martial Arts workouts and this one was pretty inexpensive for what came with the program.

Prior to doing Les Mills Combat, I was doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and various DVDs from my library. I had little focus and lacked an overall plan. I was losing weight slowly, but the whole process was a bit stressful for me because I had to constantly come up with a plan. I had a tendency to pick one thing to do for a week. For example, I would do Leslie Sansone workouts for one week and the next I would do JessicaSmithTV.com workouts.

I was skeptical about doing Beachbody programs for a few reasons. I wasn't sure if I could stick with the same program for two months. I thought I would get bored with the workouts. I also thought the program might be too hard for me at 290 pounds. However, doing a 60 day program gave me 60 days worth of blog posts, so I wanted to give it a try.

I'm so happy that I did. I didn't get bored with the workouts and they weren't too hard for me. They were challenging, but there was a modifier that I could choose to follow if I needed to. I have since fallen in love with Beachbody and I'm now an addict. I love that you get a bunch of different workouts with each program. You also get a calendar that tells you what workout to do on what day. That is huge for me. Once I pick which program is next for me, I don't have to think about what to do next. That takes a ton of stress off of me. I used to sit at the computer for hours just trying to come up with a plan for the following week. Sometimes, I would procrastinate so long that I wouldn't have time to actually workout! Silly, but true.

Once you complete a Beachbody program, you earn a free t-shirt. (It's socks for Cize and shorts for Brazil Butt Lift) It's like getting a trophy. I can't bail on a program because I want my trophy! So far, I'm too big to wear any of my trophies in public, but eventually, I'll lose enough weight that I can wear them in public.

Looking back over the past year, I haven't been on point with my nutrition as much as I would have liked. I started out in July of 2014 at 290 pounds. As I sit here typing this is August of 2015, I'm at 266. Wow. That's only 24 pounds lost in a year. However, I'm so much stronger today than I was a year ago. I can do things I couldn't do then. I can climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I climbed to the top of Tumalo Mountain! No way I could have done that a year ago. I'm less tired and more happy. I'm back on track with my nutrition now, so the fat is just going to melt away now!

I know here are plenty of other people like me out there who are significantly overweight. You may have watched an infomercial on a Beachbody program and wondered if it was something you could do. I'm here to say that you can do it if you set your mind to it. You don't necessarily have to follow the calendar exactly. If you wake up the next day and your body hurts so bad you can't even sit on the toilet, you probably should take a rest day, but don't give up. It's okay to take it slow if you need to.

I wanted to put a list together of all the Beachbody programs that I've done so it was all in one place to make it easier for people who are trying to decide which program to do. They are listed in the order that I did them.

I will update this list as I complete more programs. I'm currently doing Cize The End of Exercize. It's another dancing workout! It's pretty challenging for me, but I'm loving it!

Les Mills Combat

Les Mills Combat is a mixed martial arts program. It comes with eight workouts. Two of them are strength training workouts that use HIIT, but the rest are all martial arts workouts.

I loved the martial arts workouts, but wasn't a huge fan of the strength training ones when I first did this program. They were hard for me, but I got through them. I wanted to die during them and I was sore later, but they made me stronger. There was a lot of kicking and punching in these. There was some jumping, but they have a modifier who doesn't do any jumping.

I did a mini round of Les Mills Combat a few months back, and the HIIT workouts weren't as bad the second time around. These are great workouts to get you started along on a fitness journey. However, you should act fast since this program is being discontinued. Once they sell what they have, that's it.

Check out my post about my 61 Day Experience with Les Mills Combat to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full round of Les Mills Combat.

This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out in it and make it pretty intense for someone who is more advanced.

PiYo

PiYo is a mix of Pilates and Yoga. It's a Chalene Johnson creation. She also did Turbofire, Turbo Jam and Chalean Extreme. PiYO has 10 workouts. PiYo also comes with a free TurboFire workout.

PiYo is promoted as a no impact workout. However, to make it no impact, you need to follow the modifier in certain sections. There are a ton of squats and lunges in this program. I think it's important to mention that just in case someone reading this has knee problems.

There are two workouts that are supposed to be more cardio based and then the rest of them seem to be about strength training and stretching. The cardio ones are Drench and Sweat. I have to say that I was not a fan of either of these during my first round, but they were much easier to get through during my mini round. She moved pretty fast during these! I really enjoyed the other workouts in the program.

I didn't lose much weight with PiYo, but I got a lot stronger. I didn't have my nutrition under control. The program comes with a nutrition plan that's very similar to the 21 Day Fix, but I just wasn't ready to put much effort into nutrition. I tried to cut out as much junk as I could, but I was way pickier back then in terms of what I would eat and I just couldn't mentally handle going all out on my nutrition while still doing the workouts. It's easy for me to workout. It's not easy for me to come up with a meal plan. If it was just me, it might be easier, but I have a husband as well.

Check out my post about My 56 Day Experience with PiYo to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full found of PiYo.

This program is doable for a beginner, but she shows you things that you can do to make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced. 

21 Day Fix

21 Day Fix is a very popular Beachbody program. It comes with an amazing nutrition program as well as a workout program. If you buy it from a coach, you get eight workouts that are 30 minutes plus a 10 minute ab routine. If you don't buy it from a coach, miss out on one of the 30 minute workouts.

You do one of the 30 minute workouts every day for 21 days. There are no rest days during the 21 days, but one of the days is Yoga, so that's pretty much an active recover day.

The nutrition program that comes with this is based on a color coded container system. There's a list of foods that are acceptable on the program. As long as the food fits in the container, you get to eat it. If you run out of containers, you just wait until the next day to eat it. I think I lost 7 pounds during this program. I could have lost more, but I had some salt issues towards the end. I can't eat salt. It really kills my weight loss.

One of the workouts is just about cardio, one is Pilates, one is Yoga and the rest incorporate weights and cardio mixed together. There is a modifier in all of the workouts. This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out and make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced.

Check out my post about my 21 Day Experience with 21 Day Fix or read my journal for my first round of 21 Day Fix.  

Body Beast

Body Beast is a weight lifting program. It's geared towards men. Plenty of women do this program, but it's marketed towards men. He talks like everyone doing it is a man. Some women are bothered by this, but I didn't really care.

The program comes with 13 workouts if you buy it from a coach. You only get 12 if you don't use a coach. It also comes with a bonus P90X3 workout. There is one cardio workout with this program, and the rest are all about strength training. There are three phases in this one. The first phase has one set of workouts, the second phase has a different set of workouts and the final phase mixes the workouts from the first two phases.

I gained weight during this program. My nutrition was a mess. We had a lot of family stuff going on and I just couldn't get my nutrition under control. I ate ice cream, cake, cookies and a lot of restaurant meals. It was a rough time. I was pretty much hungry all the time doing this! I was also sore all the time. This program made me so much stronger though. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through Coach to 5K if I hadn't done Body Beast.

Check out my post about my Three Month Experience with Body Beast or read my journal for my first round of Body Beast.

Rockin' Body

Rockin' Body is a dancing workout. The format is kind of cheesy, but that's what makes it so awesome. If you think you can't do dancing workouts, it's only because you haven't tried this. Shaun T is an amazing teacher. This is all based on walking, knee lifts, front kicks and side steps. He teaches the steps in an easy to follow manner! I can't dance, but I loved this program!

This one comes with seven workouts. If you buy the upgraded package, you get two more Rockin' Body workouts and two Hip Hop Abs workouts. One of the workouts is a strength training workout, but the rest all about dancing. Shaun T described the strength training workout as deceptively hard. I didn't think there was anything deceptive about it. It was just hard! It was great though.

Check out my post about my Four Week Experience with Rockin' Body or read about my journal for my first round of Rockin' Body.

Review of Fixate 21 Day Fix Cookbook Almond Chocolate Protein Squares

Almond Chocolate Protein Squares

The recipe for these Almond Chocolate Protein Squares came from the Fixate Cookbook from Beachbody. It has 101 recipes that are all 21 Day Fix approved. I'm currently not doing the 21 Day Fix meal plan, but these fit in pretty well with my Weight Watcher's points and I want to try these out for when I do go back on the 21 Day Fix meal plan. 

I didn't have several of the ingredients for this recipe, and I doubt many people would have them. I had to get the oat flour, whey protein, almond flower, unsweetened almond milk, almond butter and dark chocolate chips. I had the salt and the vanilla extra. :)

These were super easy to make and they are no bake so they are great for a warm summer day! Once you mix all of the ingredients in the food processor, you pour it into an 8x8 pan and freeze it. After it's been in there for awhile, you take it out and pour the melted chocolate over it. 

This recipe counts as 1/2 a yellow container, 1/2 a red container and 2 teaspoons. It counts as 5 Weight Watchers points according to my app. The squares are pretty small. You get 16 servings out of an 8 x 8 pan which means these things are tiny! I was thinking that they would be too small, but the size actually worked out pretty well for me. 

Neither one of us really liked these the first night. They weren't very sweet and the texture was weird. They hadn't completely frozen at that point. It was a few days before I tried it again because I just wasn't sure if 5 points was worth it. I had to eat them though because I spent too much money on ingredients not to eat them. When I had them again, I actually really enjoyed them. I'm not sure if it was because I hadn't had anything sweet for over a week at that point or if the texture was just better because they had frozen solid at that point.

I had hubby try one that was frozen solid and he enjoyed it better that way as well. I actually couldn't get enough of these after that. There were a couple days where I found myself with extra points so I had two in one day! I discovered that letting them sit for about 5 or 10 minutes softened them up just enough so they were easy enough to bite, but not enough that it gave them a weird texture. 

I'm going to make these again that's for sure. The book says that you can swap out the almond butter for peanut butter, cashew butter, seed butters or hazelnut butter. I'm going to see about finding a less expensive butter! It might be peanut butter and I might get a giant thing of it from Costco!

If you want the recipe, send me a message on Facebook or buy the cookbook! 

Want to learn more about the 21 Day Fix?

21 Day Fix is a nutrition and exercise program that lasts 21 days. It comes with seven 30 minute workouts that include cardio and strength training. It also comes with a 10 minute ab workout. If you buy it from a coach, you get an extra 30 minute workout for free. The nutrition system includes color coded containers. Based on your weight, you get a set number of containers to eat each day. Once you've eaten all of your containers, your done for the day. There are different sized containers for "veggies" (I used quotes since a lot of them are actually fruits, but they are the things that most people consider veggies like cucumbers and peppers), fruits, grains, proteins, fats and dressings. The containers help to make you understand portion control and getting a balanced diet. If it's on the list of foods you can eat and it fits into your containers, you get to eat it. If it doesn't fit, just put it off until the following day. There are plenty of treats that you get to eat as well.  Things like Peanutty Peanut Butter Squares and Almond Chocolate Protein Squares. 

Beachbody 21 Day Fix Complete Review

What is it?

The 21 Day Fix is one of Beachbody's amazing programs. It has a unique take on how to get proper nutrition and it has 30 minute workouts for every day of the week. 

What you get

With this program, you get seven 30 minute workouts (eight if you buy from a coach), a 10 minute workout for abs, a nutrition plan that includes the containers you see above and a shaker bottle, and a tape measure to measure your progress. If you complete the program, you also get a T-shirt.

The Workouts

Total Body Cardio - This workout uses weights and cardio at the same time. All of the moves get your heart rate going while also working your muscles pretty good. The first day I did this one, I was sore for four days! I had been working out for close to a year. I've done Les Mills Combat and PiYo plus a lot of other stuff, but this thing killed me! You can read a play by play of this workout on my post from Day 1 of 21 Day Fix. 

Upper Fix - This one is all about the upper body, but we didn't just sit there doing bicep curls and tricep extensions for 30 minutes. No no no. This is the entire upper body, it's not just about the arms. There was more shoulder, chest and ab stuff than arms really. You can read a play by play of this workout on my post from Day 2 of 21 Day Fix. 

Lower Fix - This one is all about the legs and glutes! It was hard! My first day was especially hard because I was still sore from Total Body Cardio! This has lunges and squats galore! There is also a section on the floor. Floor work sounds like it should be easy because you're on the floor, but this was far from easy! You can read a play by play on my post from Day 3 of 21 Day Fix. 

Pilates Fix - I had never done Pilates before this workout. It was crazy intense. This may have been the hardest workout for me. There is some leg stuff in her that was just torture on day 1. I was still sore from Total Body Cardio plus the prior day was Lower Fix. We were on the floor for this entire workout, but it was crazy intense. You can read a play by play of the workout on my post from Day 4 of 21 Day Fix. 

Cardio Fix - This one was straight up cardio. No weights, no strength moves, just pure sweat. It was intense and I got a good calorie burn. It was hard. I had to modify some stuff. It was good though. I needed to get my heart pounding! You can read a play by play of the workout on my post from Day 5 of 21 Day Fix. 

Dirty 30 - I'm not really sure how this one got it's name, but this one is amazing. Everything is compound moves and the moves alternated with something on your feet and then something on the floor. You can read a play by play of the workout on Day 6 of 21 Day Fix.

Yoga Fix - There are no rest days, but day 7 was Yoga which was great because after a week of crazy hard core workouts, I was ready for a nice calming yoga workout. I was a bit skeptical because I'm really picky about my yoga, but she did a good job with it. It was calm and relaxing. It started with some strength moves and then went into stretching. You can read a play by play on Day 7 of 21 Day Fix. 

10 Minute Fix for Abs - This was a 10 minute ab workout. It was all about crunches. My abs were pretty sore the day after this workout! It's only 10 minutes, but it's intense. You can read a play by play of 10 Minute Fix for Abs.

Plyo Fix - This workout is the free one you get if you order through a coach. If you don't have a coach, you can sign up with me as your coach so you can get the free DVD.  Plyo Fix is all about Plyometrics. That's stuff like jump squats, jumping lunges and those push ups where your propel your hands up off the floor. Crazy stuff for someone who is 259 pounds, but I did most of it! I modified the jumping lunges, but I did the rest of it. I didn't jump very high, but I jumped. My Tuck Jumps were ugly, but I jumped! You can read a play by play of Plyo Fix. 

21 Day Fix Eating Plan

The 21 Day Fix eating plan is based on a container system. There is a formula to figure out how many of each container you get to eat in a day based on your weight. For me, I got 6 green, 6 red, 4 purple, 4 yellow, 1 blue, 1 orange and 6 teaspoons. The book has a list of all the foods that go into each container. The green is veggies (lettuce, broccoli, carrots) and all the fruits that we think of as veggies (cucumbers, peppers, eggplant). Red is proteins including chicken, lean beef and yogurt. Purple is fruit that we traditionally think of as fruit (grapes, oranges, apples) and berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries). Yellow is grains (whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, quinoa, rice). Blue is healthy fats (nuts, cheese, avocado). Orange is more healthy fats, but they are different (seeds, olives, dressings). The teaspoons are healthy oils (olive oil, walnut oil, nut butters).

I had a bit of an adjustment period. I was a bit hungry during the day, but then at night, it was like I could eat all this stuff because I had all of these extra containers to eat up. Once I switched it up and moved some of those containers to earlier in the day, I wasn't nearly as hungry. I did feel a bit restricted though. I didn't want to go out to eat with my husband because I didn't really know how the food would translate into the containers. I just didn't go out to eat for 21 days. The point of this is to form a habit and stick with it beyond the 21 Days, but I actually stopped the nutrition part of it after the 21 Days. I wanted to do the nutrition plan while I was doing the workouts because I wanted to try it out, but I like to mix things up with my nutrition as well. I found myself in a rut with 21 Day Fix. I was eating the same things day after day after day. I don't get bored with eating the same food, but I know that my body can adjust to constantly eating the same things so after my 21 Days was up, I switched to Weight Watchers. I'll do the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan again, but I wanted to try something different. This journey is all about finding what works for me and to find what works for me, I have to try a lot of different things. I'm not saying the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan is bad. I think it's amazing, but I did the 21 days that I set out to do and now I'm trying something different. 

I logged what I ate every day and posted it. They are all tagged with 21 Day Fix if you'd like to see what I was able to eat in a day. I also logged my "cheats," but I didn't count any containers for them.

My Results

I lost 7 pounds during the 21 Day Fix. I could have lost more, but I had some salt issues in the last week. If I eat to much salt, I don't lose weight. I retain water like crazy, but once the water is gone, I haven't lost any weight. It sucks, but that's the story of my life. I lost a half inch in my chest, a half inch in my right right and a half inch in my left bicep. Weird, but true. My numbers aren't very impressive, but I hadn't lost any weight in a few months. I finished 21 Day Fix in January and I think it was the previous September when the scale had moved last, so while 7 pounds isn't crazy impressive in 21 days, I was thrilled. 21 Day Fix was what I needed to jump start me back into weight loss. I wasn't perfect with the nutrition either. I ate raisins in my salad and I ate my Graze.com snacks each work day, but I still lost weight. You don't have to be perfect to lose weight with this program. You just need to be better than you were. I hadn't had any problems working out for the previous few months, but I had problems controlling my nutrition. 21 Day Fix helped me get that under control. I was eating healthy meals, but I was eating a lot of junk food for snacks. Doing this program got me to kick my sweet tooth (again). It's just what I needed when I needed it.

Want to Learn More? Watch the Video!

Beachbody 21 Day Fix: 10 Minute Fix for Abs

10 Minute Fix For Abs

This was the last workout that I hadn't done from 21 Day Fix. It wasn't part of the calendar, so I didn't do it while doing the 21 Day Fix. I think it was part of doubles week, but I didn't do doubles week. next round, I'll probably do doubles week. 21 Day Fix consists of two DVDs plus the free disk if you buy from a coach and the upgrade disk if you go for the upgrade. 10 Minute Fix for Abs is both of the basic package disks. This comes in kind of handy when you are like me, and hate swapping out the DVD in the DVD player. I have no problem working out for an hour, but when I decide it's time to work out, I don't want to have to deal with swapping disks around. It's pretty silly, but that's the story of my life. 

Okay so this workout is short and fast, but effective! I did this workout yesterday, and I'm really feeling it today. I had a hard time doing my Biggest Loser Yoga workout today because my abs were pretty sore from yesterday. I didn't realize how much ab stuff my Biggest Loser Yoga workout was going to have. I would have picked something else to do! I'm getting side tracked here......

Back on topic......The workout doesn't have a warm up or a cool down, but it's only 10 minutes and she packs so much into those 10 minutes that there really isn't time for a warm up or cool down. This was all about the crunch and the different variations of it. I'm not a huge fan of the crunch, so it wasn't a really fun workout for me. 

This doesn't follow the same format as the other workouts. It's 10 minutes straight working the abs. No breaks. There is a timer counting down the workout and there is a counter counting down the reps. Each move has 20 reps and you do each exercise twice. I don't remember them all, but here's what I remember........

Crunches with legs straight up in the air (or you can lower the legs down towards the floor to get more lower abs involved)

Crunches with feet off the floor and knees bent to 90 degrees

Crunches with one leg straight up and the other bent to 90 degrees (each side gets 20 reps)

Bicycles (they don't have Crunch in the name, but it's still a crunch variation really)

Crunches with your  knees bent to 90 degrees and then laid down to the side
Legs straight up in the air and you reach a hand towards the opposite foot 

Overall, I was impressed with how much my abs actually hurt the day after doing this workout. It was only 10 minutes. Just about everyone can find 10 minutes to workout. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my rather unimpressive screen shot. Interesting that I took 59 steps when I was on my back the entire time, but whatever. I'm pretty sure I burned more than 18 calories too. According to the BodyMedia device, I burn 1.6 calories per minutes sitting here typing. I had to have burned more than 1.8 while doing this crazy little workout.

Review of Beachbody 21 Day Fix: Plyo Fix

21 Day Fix: Plyo Fix

This is the free workout that comes with 21 Day Fix. You only get it if you order through a coach. If you don't have a coach, you can use my Beachbody Coach Link. I didn't do this workout during my first round of 21 Day Fix because it wasn't part of the regular workout schedule. It might have been part of the Doubles Week, but I didn't do Doubles Week. I was pretty scared to do this workout. I'm not a big fan of Plyo stuff. For those of you who don't know what Plyo is, I'll save you the Google search. It's basically anything that involves propelling yourself off the ground. So jumping squats, jumping lunges, push ups where you push off the floor and your hands lose contact with the floor. That pretty much sums up all of the stuff I hate in a workout, but I had to do this. 

This workout followed a similar format as the rest of the 21 Day Fix workouts. It had 6 rounds. Each round had two exercises that were repeated. Each exercise lasted 30 seconds (down from 60 seconds in the others). There was a 30 second rest between each exercise (up from 15 to 20 in the others). The shorter exercises and longer rests made this doable for me. I did modify some stuff, but I did my best to go hard core. I did this after a rest day so that helped!

You have the option to do this with subtitles or not. You also have the option to do this with the music on or off. I skipped the subtitles and kept the music. As always, it starts off with a Shakeology commercial. 

There are no weights in this workout. You just need water and a towel. The thought of the day was You Can Do Anything. 

The warm up is the same as the other 21 Day Fix workouts. It's about 3-1/2 minutes. We started off running in place, then moved to jumping jacks, then windmills forward and backwards, then we did side bends and finally toe touches. We did all of that again. She emphasized that we needed to get our arms up all the way over our head. She referred to T-Rex arms. It always makes me laugh.

The first round was Squat Jumps and Single Leg Squat Jumps. The Squat Jumps weren't that bad. it was only 30 seconds. I've done longer with squat jumps in Les Mills Combat. The single leg ones were a bit rough. I couldn't balance on one leg and jump and land and not kill myself. One leg wasn't bad, but my left leg was just not working for me. My right leg ended up on the floor, but my weight was all on my left side. The right was just to keep me from falling. This round wasn't that bad.

The second round was Tuck Jumps and Frog Jumps. Tuck Jumps are just so hard for me. I was trying to be quiet so my husband could sleep so that didn't help, but Tuck Jumps just suck. So Tuck Jumps for those who have never done that. In these, we went down like a squat and then jumped up and pulled our knees up as high as we could. It's basically the move you need to do a Box Jump, but we didn't have a box to jump onto. The are just hard! Frog Jumps were interesting. So you squat down with your toes turned out and your heels kinda close together. You squat down and look like a frog. Then you jump up. The modifier didn't jump. She just came up onto her toes. I kinda liked these because it was fun to watch all of them look goofy doing them. It was also nice because these people looked like they were dying during this stuff.

Round three was Burpees with a push up and a jump at the end. The modifier stepped back instead of jumping back. She didn't do the push up and she didn't jump. Then we did Plyo Push Ups.  She had us just push off the ground with our hands, but one of the people did them with their toes coming up as well. Autumn said that made it easier. I didn't try it. Something about the hands and the feet going up at the same time was too much for my brain to grasp. I kept forgetting to do the push up with the burpees since I just got done with my PiYo mini round and the burpees didn't have the push ups in them.

Round four was Moguls. It's hard to describe, but we did skier arms as we jumped up and angled to the right and then jumped up and angled to the right. Imagine a Moguls skier. We were supposed to look like that. Then we did Skater Jumps. I'm just not a fan of skaters, but doing them for 30 seconds was a piece of cake. We did these for 60 seconds in one of the other workouts. I loved that these moves were only 30 seconds. If the 30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest is too easy for you, you could always increase the work and decrease the rest. Just keep moving until like the 15 second mark of the rest period and only take the 15 seconds. You could even go non-stop if you're really in good shape and don't need the breaks.

Round five was Jumping Lunges and Twisted Lunges. The jumping lunges were just regular lunges facing forward the whole time and we jumped between them. I didn't really do them the way they did, but I didn't modify them all the way and just do regular lunges. I had this hop in there, but it wasn't really with both legs. I can't describe it. It's interesting though because during the second round one of the other people did the same thing I was doing. The twist one started by facing one wall and then we jumped and twisted so we were facing the other wall. I didn't bother trying to jump for these. I just stepped. My knees can only handle so much.

Round six was Full Body Hops. We were in push up position and we hopped to the right and then hopped to the left. Well, they hopped around. I couldn't get all of my limbs to move at the same time. My legs kinda did a double hop and then my hands stepped over and then I went back the other way with the same kind of move. It was kinda weird, but whatever. Then we did Sumo Squat Jumps. This one is self explanatory. It wasn't that bad either after doing these during Les Mils Combat. Those were worse to because we were doing in and out with those.

The Cooldown was just under 3 minutes. We did some deep breathing, some shoulder stretches, tricep stretches and quad stretches. I'm getting more limber so the tricep stretches actually stretched my triceps. I've never really felt it in my triceps before when doing these, but I do now. We also stretched our chests out. We also did a Figure 4. I had to hold onto the wall for this and the quad stretch.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance during this workout. I was pretty nervous about it, but I wasn't really sure what to expect either. I knew plyo lunges would be in there, but I knew that there had to be more involved too since it was a 30 minute workout. I was pretty happy with the 30 seconds work and 30 second rest. I was also pretty happy that a lot of the people in the workout had to modify something at one point or another. This workout made me rethink my ability to do 21 Day Fix Extreme though! I'm still going to get it, but it might be awhile before I actually do it.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I only got 6 minutes of vigorous because of the 30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest thing. I think I should have had more vigorous minutes! This thing was insane! Although, I did do some modifying. I'm still happy with my performance! 

My Mission to Accept Yogurt into My Life - Raspberry Yogurt Parfait

I've been on a mission to life yogurt. It's been a year or so in the making. I've actually found some ways to incorporate yogurt into my life. While doing the 21 Day Fix, I decided that I also wanted to get oatmeal into my life. What better way to do both than a yogurt and fruit parfait. I mixed a yellow container's worth of oatmeal with a red container's worth of homemade Greek yogurt. I layered frozen raspberries in it and put it in the fridge for the night. I had read some stuff on the Internet about doing something like this so I decided to try it. 

This was not a win for me. I barely managed to finish this. I'm not sure if I used too much oatmeal or what, but the texture of the oatmeal in the yogurt was just not something I liked I actually gave up on it twice, but I went back to finish it since I didn't want to waste it. I hate wasting food. I really want to like this, so I might try it again with less yogurt and maybe a different berry, but it will be awhile before I try it. I almost didn't post about this because it was really not my thing, but I really liked the picture. :)

21 Day Fix Day 21 Food

Day 21 Food

Breakfast: Shakeology with Greek yogurt. 2 red

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich, an apple and 2 hard boiled eggs. 1 red, 2 purple, 2 yellow, 3 teaspoons

Snack: Cheese and Green Juice. 1 Blue, 3 green, 1/2 purple

Dinner: Pork loin, green beans, spiralized carrots with an orange glaze. 2 red, 2 green, 

Dessert: Homemade vanilla yogurt, peanut butter sandwich, peanuts. 2 yellow, 3 teaspoons, 1/2 red, 1 orange

Totals:

Green 5 - Red 5-1/2 - Yellow 4 - Purple 2 - Orange 1 - Blue 1 - Teaspoons 6

I didn't have a solid plan for today and my schedule was all messed up since it was Sunday and hubby came home early from work. I was pretty much starving when it was time for dinner, but dinner took forever to cook. I made it through the diet plan with minimal cheating. Okay well, maybe more than minimal if you count a Graze.com snack each work day and raisins in all of my salads, but it's not like I had pizza or a cheeseburger and fries or anything. I'm pretty impressed that I was able to stick with it as well as I have. I never planned to be super strict with the plan, so I'm okay with the graze stuff and the raisins. 

21 Day Fix Day 21 Yoga Fix

Day 21: Yoga Fix

Today was Day 21 of the 21 Day Fix! It was my last day! Woot Woot! It went by really fast. I still don't have any of the workouts memorized. Today was Yoga Fix. I did this for the first time on Day 7 of the 21 Day Fix. I wasn't a huge fan the first time, but it definitely grew on me. I love yoga. The first time I did it, the strength poses in the beginning seemed to last a really long time, but this time they seemed pretty short. I really enjoyed doing this one this time. I got a good stretch going. I'm getting so close to being able to "kiss my knee!" I'm really excited about that. For my size, I really shouldn't be able to stretch as far as I can! 

I'm done with this round of 21 Day Fix, but I still have to do the free workout, Plyo Fix, and the two 10 minute workouts that came with the program. I didn't do the doubles week. I kind of wish I had, but I'm also glad that I didn't. I really liked that I only had to workout for 30 minutes a day. I never felt stressed out by this program. I never felt like it was eating up too much of my time or I was giving up something in order to do it. If I had done doubles week, it would have meant doing another workout in the evening and I don't get much down time as it is. It would have made evenings stressful with working out, editing and figuring out dinner. I'm pretty sure that I'll do another round of this at some point. I'm thinking of doing just a week of this in between other programs. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I wasn't expecting much out of the screen shot since it's Yoga. 

21 Day Fix Day 20 Food

Day 20 Food

Breakfast: Shakeology with Greek yogurt and two oatmeal raisin banana cookies. 2 red, 1 yellow, 1/2 purple, 

Lunch: Big (not giant) salad with raisins and homemade dressing and 2 hard boiled eggs. 1 red, 2 green, 1 orange

Snack: Graze.com popcorn, 1 oatmeal raisin banana cookie. The popcorn isn't on the list, but I just don't care. I like my Graze.com snacks and I'm going to eat them. 1/4 purple, 1/2 yellow

Dinner: Lemon Almond Pesto over zucchini noodles with a chicken breast, and cheese. 1 green, 2 red, 2 teaspoons, 1 blue

Dessert: Homemade vanilla yogurt, peanut butter butter sandwich. 4 teaspoons, 2 yellow, 1/2 red

Totals

Green 3 - Red 5-1/2 - Yellow 3-1/2 - Purple 3/4 - Blue 1 - Orange 1 - Teaspoons 6 

I was low on my greens and my purples today. Life goes on. 

21 Day Fix Day 20 Dirty 30

Day 20: Dirty 30

Today was Day 20 of the 21 Day Fix. It was Dirty 30! I did this one the first time on Day 6 of the 21 Day Fix. I really like Dirty 30 even though it's some hard stuff. I like that we go up and down throughout the whole workout. Each round has something on the floor and something standing up. I didn't do so well with the renegade rows. I couldn't do them all in Plank position. I ended up going down to my knees after 30 seconds or so. I did the first round of tricep kickbacks with the heavy weights, but I went with the second round with the lower weights. I knew that my form wasn't going to be good with the higher weight. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I thought I would have gotten more activity minutes on this, but oh well. 

21 Day Fix Day 19 Food

Day 19 Food

Breakfast: Shakeology with Greek yogurt, 3 teaspoons peanut butter, 2 banana oatmeal raisin cookies. (someone ate all of the bread and I needed some grains to keep me full) 2 red, 1/2 purple, 1 yellow, 3 teaspoons

Snack: Graze.com snack. I think it was Tropical Daiquiri. I know it's not part of the plan, but I just don't care.

Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple: 2 purple, 1 red

Lunch: Shepherd's Pie. 1 red, 1/2 green, 2 yellow

Snack: 2 oatmeal raisin banana cookies and green juice. 1 yellow, 1 purple, 3 green

Dinner: Giant salad with raisins and homemade dressing and a chicken breast. (I know I'm not supposed to have the raisins, but I'm okay) 2 red, 3 green, 1 orange

Dessert: Homemade frozen blueberry yogurt, 3 teaspoons peanut butter, cheese. 1 blue, 1/2 purple, 1/2 red, 3 teaspoons

Totals

Green 6-1/2 - Red 6-1/2 - Yellow 4 - Purple 4 - Blue 1 - Orange 1 - Teaspoons 6

21 Day Fix Day 19 Cardio Fix

Day 19: Cardio Fix

Yesterday was Day 19 of the 21 Day Fix! So close to being done with my first round. It was Cardio Fix. I did this one for the first time on Day 5 of the 21 Day Fix. This is a challenging one for me. It's all about the cardio. There were no weights in this one. I'm not a huge fan of cardio that doesn't involve punching and kicking. I was determined to get through the cross jack section of this, but I failed. I made it through 40 seconds of the first round and 30 seconds of the second round. I didn't make it through all of the skaters while jumping either. I slowly started to modify them as time went on.  This wasn't one of my favorite parts of the 21 Day Fix, but I really liked the format and it made it a lot easier to get through. I was able to do the first 30 seconds of the Up and Downs. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I forgot to hit start on my phone so half of the warm up wasn't in this. Oopsy. 

21 Fix Day 18 Food

Day 18 Food

Breakfast: Shakeology with yogurt and a peanut butter sandwich. 1 yellow, 2 red, 3 teaspoons

Snack: I had a Graze.com snack today. I had a protein flapjack. It was yummy. It's not part of the plan and I'm okay with that!

Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple. 2 purple, 1 red

Lunch: Shepherd's Pie. 1 red, 1/2 green, 2 yellow

PM Snack: 2 oatmeal, raisin, banana cookies and green juice. 3 green, 1 purple, 1 yellow

Dinner: A giant salad with raisins, homemade dressing and a chicken breast. 2 red, 3 green, 1 orange

Dessert: homemade blueberry yogurt, 3 teaspoons of peanut butter, cheese. 1/2 red, 1/2 purple, 3 teaspoons, 1 blue

Total

Red 6-1/2 - Green 6-1/2 - Yellow 4 - Purple 3-1/2 - Orange 1- Blue 1 - Teaspoons 6

I wasn't hungry again today. This meal plan is working for me as far as keeping the hunger at bay and getting me through the day. I didn't lose any weight yet this week, but I was retaining water for the beginning of the week and I have had way too much sodium in the shepherd's pie. I didn't think of the sodium content when I decided to make that stuff. UGH! I know I can't eat salt and still lose weight. 

21 Day Fix Day 18 Pilates Fix

Day 18: Pilates Fix

Today was Day 18 of the 21 Day Fix! Only three workouts left! Today was another day where I just didn't want to get out of bed. I needed the alarm to wake me up again and then I just laid there and procrastinated getting out of bed. I finally managed to get out of bed and then I sat on the couch playing with DuoLingo. Eventually, I got up and did the workout. This is my least favorite of the 7 workouts, but I don't dislike it. There are some really challenging parts of this workout, but I got through it. I was able to keep my legs moving during the whole leg segment that killed me on the first workout. You can read the play by play on my post about 21 Day Fix Day 4. I made it through the 60 second plank hold. I didn't make it through the plank hip drop thing. I did it on my knees and still needed a break. I didn't do so well with the 10 second plank 3 second rest either. My abs were just toast by then! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I'm not surprised about the lack of activity minutes since I never got off the floor. :)

21 Day Fix Day 17 Food

Day 17 

Today was Day 17! The days are going by so quickly! 

Breakfast: Shakeology with yogurt and peanut butter sandwich. 1 yellow, 2 red, 3 teaspoons

Snack: Graze.com Apple Cosmo. It's dried fruit, but it's not part of the plan, but I don't care.

Snack: 2 Hard boiled eggs, 1 apple. 1 red, 2 purple

Lunch: Shepherd's Pie. 1 red, 1/2 green, 2 yellow

PM Snack: 2 oatmeal, banana raisin cookies and my green juice. 3 green, 1 purple, 1 yellow

Dinner: Giant salad with homemade dressing and raisins and a chicken breast. 2 red, 3 green, 1 orange

Dessert: 3 teaspoons peanut butter, cheese, homemade frozen yogurt. 3 teaspoons, 1 blue, 1/2 purple, 1/2 red.

Totals

Red 6-1/2 - Green 6-1/2 - Yellow 4 - Purple 3-1/2 - Orange 1 - Blue 1 - Teaspoons 6

I'm over on red and green and under on purple, but I don't care! 

21 Day FIx Day 17 Lower Fix

Day 17: Lower Fix

Today was Day 17 which was Lower Fix. I did this one for the first time on Day 3. You can read about it on my 21 Day Fix Day 3 Lower Fix post. Today was the first day that I really just didn't want to work out. I normally wake up before my alarm goes off, but not today. I shut it off and just couldn't get up. I eventually got up and almost convinced myself to just workout after work, but I got up and I got it done. It's really funny that I was so dreading doing the same workouts for three weeks in a row, but I got into this one and couldn't remember anything that was coming. I kept trying to remember what else we had left, but all I could remember was the bonus round at the end. I felt like I had PiYo memorized, but with these, I just can't remember them. 

I did pretty well with most of this. The split squats were pretty torturous, but I only took one break on each set. The first leg was because I was slipping off the mat. The second leg was just crazy hard, so I needed the break. The bonus round was really hard last week. I survived the first leg, but the second leg needed breaks like every 5 to 10 seconds. This time, I decided to start on my left leg. I managed to get through it without a break. My right leg lasted about 30 seconds and then I needed a break. I needed another couple of breaks after that too. The second leg is just sooooo much harder. 

This was my last time doing this workout for this round. I'm almost done! Only four more workouts and then I'm done! I had planned on starting Pump on February 2nd, but a friend is going to let me borrow her Body Beast so I think I'm still going to take two weeks and do Les Mills Combat, but I think I'm going to do Body Beast on the 2nd. My husband bought a weight bench and I want to use it! It's amazing! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my screen shot from the workout. 

21 Day Fix Day 16 Food

Day 16 Food

Today was Day 16 for the 21 Day Fix. It went pretty well. I wasn't hungry like I was last week. Adding the sandwich to breakfast and switching lunch and dinner seems to have helped.

Breakfast: Peanut butter with a slice of Dave's Killer Bread and Shakeology with homemade yogurt. 2 red, 3 teaspoons, 1 yellow

Snack: Graze.com Hot Cross Yum. It's not part of the 21 Day Fix diet, but I just don't care. 

Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple. 2 purple, 1 red

Lunch: Shepherd's Pie. 2 yellow, 1 Red, 1/2 green

PM Snack: Oatmeal, banana and raisin cookies and green juice. 1 yellow, 3/4 purple, 3 green

Dinner: Giant salad with raisins and homemade salad dressing and a chicken breast. I know that raisins aren't part of the plan, but again, I just don't care. 2 red, 3 green, 1 orange

Dessert: Cheese, 3 teaspoons peanut butter, homemade blueberry frozen yogurt. 3 teaspoons, 1 blue, 1/4 purple, 1/2 red

Totals

Green 6-1/2 - Red 6-1/2 - Yellow 4 - Purple 3 - Blue 1 - Orange 1 - Teaspoons 6

I'm still low on my fruit, but I'm okay with that. I'm a little over on my red and green, and I'm okay with that too. 

21 Day Fix Day 16 Upper Fix

Day 16: Upper Fix

Today was Day 16 of 21 Day Fix! I've only got 5 workouts left! This is going really quickly. I thought I would get bored doing the same seven workouts for three weeks in a row, but after doing Total Body Cardio and Upper Fix three weeks in a row, I'm not bored! Woot Woot! I think this is an awesome program! The workouts are 30 minutes long and they are doable! 

Upper Fix seems longer than the other workouts because it follows a slightly different format. We still get 60 seconds of work and 20ish seconds of rest, but instead of having four rounds with 2 exercises each that we repeat, we have 2 rounds with five exercises each that we repeat. I'm not sure why that makes it feel longer to me, but it does. I did pretty well with this workout. The push ups were hard to get through. I only did a couple on my toes and I didn't get very far down at all. My goal was to do a real push up by the end of the last year. I still can't do it. Oh well. I didn't make it through either of the planks for the full 60 seconds. I made it through one of them last week, but this week, I bailed at about the 30 second mark on both of them. 

I still haven't gotten DOMS in my biceps from these workouts. I haven't decided if that's because I have such uber strong biceps or if the workout just doesn't have much bicep stuff in it. I think I'm going to try doing different types of bicep curls after I'm done with 21 Day Fix. I don't want to fry out my biceps while I still need them for the Fix, but after it's done, I'm going to do a couple weeks of Les Mills Combat and I won't really need my biceps for that! 

The ab sections of this workout are so challenging! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot for the workout. I'm surprised that I had 5 minutes of total activity and 3 minutes of vigorous activity. 

21 Day Fix Day 15 Food

Day 15 Food

Today was Day 15! I'm so close to being done with this round! 

Breakfast: Shakeology with yogurt, 3 teaspoons peanut butter, 1 slice of Dave's killer Bread. 2 red, 1 yellow, 3 teaspoons

Snack: Honey almonds with pretzels from Graze.com. It's not part of the plan, but I don't care. It wasn't hat many calories.

Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple. 1 red, 2 purple

Lunch: Shepherd's Pie. 2 yellow, 1/2 green, 1 red

Snack: Banana, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and green juice. 3 green, 1/4 purple, 1 yellow. (My cookies were pretty small today)

Dinner: Giant salad with a raisins and a chicken breast and homemade dressing. 2 red, 3 green, 1 orange

Dessert: 3 teaspoons peanut butter, blueberry frozen yogurt, cheese. 1 blue, 3 teaspoons, 1/2 purple, 1/2 red

Totals

Green - 6-1/2 - Red 6 - Purple - 3-1/4 - Yellow 4 - Orange 1 - Blue 1 - Teaspoons 6

I changed things up a bit today and went with shepherd's pie for lunch and a salad for dinner. I also had the peanut butter sandwich at breakfast. I think that really helps.

21 Day Fix Day 15 Total Body Cardio

Day 15: Total Body Cardio

Today was Day 15 which was Total Body Cardio. This is the workout that made my hurt for four days the first time I did it! If you want to read a play by play of the workout, check out my post from Day 1 of the 21 Day Fix. The second time I did it went much better. This was my third and final time with this workout for this round of 21 Day Fix. I'm not doing the doubles week. I thought about it and I have a room that I could use for it, but I'm enjoying my 30 minute workouts. I'm enjoying seeing results and I don't want to mess with it. Plus, I don't really have time at night to relax as it is so I don't want more stress.

I was hoping that I would be able to do the Surrenders without modifying them, but it didn't work out as planned. I was able to do the right leg without modifying, but the left leg just didn't work. I still held the weights, but I had to use my elbow on my knee to get the lift. I was also really hoping to make it through a full minute of the scissor leg thing, but not so much. I made it about 30 seconds and then just couldn't do it anymore!

Today was my first day using my new workout room! We've got a nice cushioned floor, a bunch of fans and the TV with DVD player. Love it!

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I'm bummed cuz I forgot to set up my BodyMedia workout tab on my phone! Grrrrrrr! I did a screen shot of the website though so you can see the workout arc. I got out of the habit of doing these with PiYo. I tried to do them with I started 21 Day Fix, but I kept forgetting.

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