21 day fix. day 1.

i was coerced into doing this thing called 21-day-fix. okay, i wasn't really coerced. i had noticed that a facebook friend of mine kept looking more and more amazing, and she was posting all kinds of sweaty pictures of her workouts, and her posts were more and more positive. i asked her what she was doing and it turns out she did the fix and then became a coach for the program. so i asked to be a part of one of her challenge groups so i could try it out. that's my definition of "coerced".

i signed up for the fix mostly so i could get a little accountability and a lesson in portion control. you get a couple of dvd's with workouts, a recipe book and food guide, some other reading material about everything that is wrong with our super-sized portions, and this protein/superfood powder called shakeology. i swear this stuff must have a church somewhere devoted to its worship with how much everyone talks about it. i opted out of the shakeology package since the cultesque following really freaked me out. plus, i really like the raw and vegan protein powder that i use and just invested in a gigantic tub of it. don't feel the need to pay $100 for a 2 months'-worth sized bag of SHAKEOLOGY-OMG-SHAKEOLOGY!!!

there's always room for one more 'hey girl'

anyways. i am going to try really, really hard to blog every day to add to the accountability of the fix. you're supposed to commit to 21 days of this portion controlled eating gag and every day workouts. i wouldn't say that my eating needs "fixing", per say. in general we eat pretty well in our house. but after seeing the fix food containers and what my actual portion sizes should be, it is obvious that i'm just eating way too much food.

i may not have not chosen the greatest time to take this on, since we are going to be camping off the grid for half of next week and i'm currently trying to get my running mileage up. but i am determined to stick to the plan and workouts while on vacation, and keep up with my running on the lesser intense workout days.

so. here's what i got in the mail:

a container for each type of food, this intro guide,
plus the dvd's and other light reading (not pictured).
i'll spare you what the badger said when he saw all of this.

the different colors are for different foods (protein, veggies, fruits, carbs, and healthy fats), and you figure out how many containers you get per day based on your weight. this kind of a system is amazing for my OCD. lately i've taken to biting my nails off and turning everything into a spreadsheet. now i get to obsess over fitting my food into these itty bitty containers? yippee!

so today was day 1 and i'm gonna recap it for you. i went to bed early last night so i could get up and get in the workout before work. i then woke up at 2:30 a.m. and laid awake until my alarm went off at 5:30. i got up, hit snooze, got back in bed and went through my usual excuses - "i'll do the workout later... i can start this tomorrow... what's one day anyways?". i'll tell you what one day is. one day of excuses like that turns into 2 years of excuses and 20 pounds that i'd rather not be hauling around. so. i got up. i figured, i'd already laid awake for three hours, there was no way i was going to actually fall asleep at 5:30.

the smeared eye makeup, puffy unders and fist make me look like i do crossfit.

the workout was called 'total cardio fix'. it was only 30 minutes and i found it just challenging enough. i was able to keep up with the moves, but should definitely invest in some weights other than my 20 pound dumbbells and 10 pound medicine ball. for lighter weights, i used two costco-sized jars of pickles. "do what you can with what you have". nailed it.

after that, it was time to eat! now, this is new for me. i rarely eat breakfast at home, nor do i really eat all that much for breakfast. breakfast is typically 3 cups of coffee and a shower, and then i haul myself to work and eat there. and that is a bad decision. all the cinnamon rolls! the bagels! the oozy, drippy and warm peanut buttery toast! did i mention that i've put on 20 pounds with these kind of habits? no more i say, no more!

i was sitting down to eat what felt like a truck load of food at 6:30 in the morning, in the quiet darkness of my house while the badger and the twins laid silently sleeping. it was pretty nice. my 6:30 a.m.'s typically involve pushing a toddler off of my face and trying to figure out if the dog ate another pair of my "nice" underwear in the middle of the night.

2 eggs with garden kale, onions and tomatoes. sliced strawberries. oatmeal with peanut butter.

i have my personal trainer to thank for the tomatoes-in-eggs idea. good gracious is that delicious! i couldn't finish the strawberries, so i packed what i hadn't ravaged to take to work with me.

9:30. already time for a snack! apparently i'm supposed to eat less food more often.

oh yeah, did i mention that they threw in this cult thermos too? yup.

contrary to the blatant product placement, this is not a SHAKEOLOGY-OMG-SHAKEOLOGY!!! smoothie. i used my own vegan protein powder and added some cocoa powder, 1/2 a banana, a medjool date, some cinnamon, ice and water. it was amazing. and i couldn't believe i got to drink the whole thing. i felt like i had just eaten breakfast.

12:30. lunch! this was the best part. i kind of invented my own healthified tuna salad based off of some recipes i've seen here and there. i'll share the recipe some other time, because this is getting long and insipid.

ww tortilla, tuna salad and some freggies. that's right, fresh + veggies = freggies.

now here's where i started to get into trouble. i always have something sweet after lunch, which typically turns into a little something i've dubbed "m&m o'clock" in which i plow through my afternoon while face-palming way too many peanut m&m's. it's not pretty. immediately upon finishing my lunch, i wanted something sweet and i wanted it right f*cking now! i thought back to the fix stuff i read and my OCD tendencies and remembered that i'm supposed to drink, like, 8 gallons of water a day or something. so that's what i did. i drank a big mason jar full of icy cold water. and the craving went away. huh.

3:00. snack time again! i know, right? you're totally thinking "geez, lady. did you do anything other than eat all day?" no. not really. i didn't take a picture of my snack because i was too hungry and i just decided to live my life instead of photograph it. it was a pear and some raw almonds. low point of the day.

5:30. i got home from work and wanted to eat everything in site, including the tree bark in our front yard which looked oddly appealing. this time of the day is also a huge challenge for me. i'm exhausted, the kids are understandably clingy, the badger needs to check out from being with them all day, and i usually start with a glass of red wine (a big one) or a beer. no more, i say - no more! now, you are allowed booze on the fix, but today i had planned to use up my allotment so as not to have room for booze. how to break a habit in one simple step: just stop f*cking doing it. you're welcome.

5:45. no wine. no beer. starving my face off. we began dinner prep, which is also usually an embarrassing time for me. i'm usually snacking on chips and salsa, or veggies and hummus, or whatever sharp stinky cheese is in the fridge. no more, i say - no more!

6:00. dinner is still at least an hour off, and i'm starting to get light headed. so i got out some leftover tuna salad, had about 2 teaspoons of it on some celery sticks and felt better. but then the badger pulled these babies out of the fridge and it all went to hell.

to be fair, it's not a bag of cheetos. it's pickled beets.

i think this was the only sugar i had all day... is that even possible?

7:15. we finally got our sh*t together and got dinner on the table.

it's a sh*tty picture of chicken marinated in one of the fix vinaigrette recipes,
roasted zucchini, red quinoa and a salad.

i tried to eat slowly and enjoy the food in front of me and remember to be grateful and thankful for this ridiculous abundance. and i couldn't finish. i left about 1/2 of the quinoa on the plate because i was full.

and here it is. 9pm. i'm done eating for the day and asides from the torrid affair with the pickled beets and the 5:30-tuna-salad-celery incident, i feel really proud of myself.

i'm hoping for a better night's sleep tonight. tomorrow is a 2 mile run and some upper body workout.

sincerely,
ashley "this ain't my first rodeo" rebekah