Getting Started

Yesterday I got my 21 Day Fix (Beach Body) Challenge pack! I couldn't wait to get started. As soon as I got home I pulled the contents out of the box and found that - HOLY COW - these portion sizes are WAY smaller than I thought they were going to be! This is a portion?! I have been eating all wrong for pretty much my entire life!

Now I'll be honest, I struggle a lot with motivation. Even though I'm not happy with the way my clothes fit and I know I need to be a better role model for my children when it comes to making healthy choices, the littlest setback has been known to derail my entire effort. However, to paraphrase my friend Jody, "Anyone can do anything for 21 days!" - so I'm hoping this challenge is the right one for me.

So I'm ready to get started!

My first step was to read the book and familiarize myself with the eating plan. I fell into the 1200-1499 calorie category, so I get to eat

3 Greens
2 Purples
4 Reds
2 Yellows
1 Blue
1 Orange
2 Tsps

each day. Initially this sounded like SO much food to me, and I honestly didn't think that it would fall into the right caloric range, so I double checked it against my My Fitness Pal app. It was right on! So even though the portions look tiny, I can already tell I am not going to go hungry on this diet.

My next step was to go shopping.

I actually only go grocery shopping for my family once a month (I meal plan my entire month ahead of time with the exception of things like milk and fruit), so I had to stock up on a few things because my challenge starts Monday and I'm not scheduled to go grocery shopping until Thursday.

I hit up Hy-Vee and I got a great deal on chicken breasts ($2 each) and pork tenderloin ($1 each) - so I got 8. I grabbed corn tortillas (I'm a quesadilla fan), bananas, nuts, veggies, and something VERY new for me - almond milk!

My BeachBody coach, Erin, recommended I try mixing my strawberry Shakeology (also something majorly new for me) with some banana and almond milk (which I can substitute for a yellow container 3x/week). I've never done protein shakes before, so I grabbed vanilla almond milk and added a whole banana this morning for my first one. It was a little thick, I'll definitely be adding some water in the future, but overall it was pretty good. Especially since I had no idea what to expect.

My 3rd step was to start mapping out my food! I created a Google doc that I could easily access from my phone with a list of foods in each category - I figured this would be good for if I was out at a restaurant or visiting family, as well as for the grocery store in case I needed a reminder.

The other doc I created was a Google Spreadsheet for my mails, broken down by color. It's a work-in-progress, but feel free to check it out to see what I'm eating each day! I'll keep filling in more as I go.

I hope you'll join me on my journey through this challenge!