This doesn’t get easier – you get stronger.

(quoted from BeachBody coach Autumn Calabrese during one of her 21 Day Fix workouts)

I am SO behind on blogging lately. I have a multitude of posts I want to sit down and take the time to write out well, but work has been insanely busy & my personal life has been crazy and I just haven’t made blogging a priority. It’s so interesting to me how all of my passions in life go in phases…you know, everything from blogging to fitness. HA!

On that note, here is my much delayed recap of my first attempt at the 21 Day Fix program.

Full disclaimer – I stuck with it really well for 2 weeks and did fair to middling the 3rd week, so I’m definitely not a poster child for the program. That being said, I can see how different people would get different benefits out of the program. This is just my feedback!

Pros:

• Stronger pelvic floor (i.e. less queefing when I work out, have sex, leaking when I sneeze, etc. You get the picture! #TMI #sorrynotsorry) This is a combination of my Fit2B workouts and the 21 Day Fix workouts I’m sure. Not the glamorous side of working out, but definitely a positive. 🙂
• Stronger everything (arms/legs/core/etc). I realized when I started this workout regimen how incredibly soft and weak I’d become, and slowly but surely that is changing. My hip flexor area (think saddle bags) is particularly weak, so I’m trying really hard to focus on completing the exercises with correct form to help fix that.
• Awareness of how often I wasn’t meeting my fruits & veggies quota for the day. I’m consciously eating a vegetable with nearly EVERY main meal now (usually spinach with breakfast, mixed greens with lunch, and some sort of roasted veggies for dinner). It’s great to be back in the habit of it! I’m also upping my fruit intake while trying to keep it lower on the glycemic index scale (think berries instead of bananas for example).
• Back in the habit of working out (5-7 times/week).
• Eating less cheese. Using it as a garnish instead of an ingredient, as a wise friend said to me.
• Great workout regimen that included cardio & strength training day in and day out that was always done in 30 minutes.
• Inspired to eat lots of new, great fresh meals (posted here). I’ll try to caption them with their ingredients and block breakdown someday soon as well.

Cons (kind of):

• I realized that my portion control is already really good, so the containers weren’t of much help to me, beyond forcing me to ensure I was eating a better mix of carbs/fat/protein (40/30/30).
• Working out 7 days/week really isn’t feasible for me in the long term. I get that the point of this program is to jump start your healthy living journey, but I don’t like that I felt like a failure when I only worked out 6 times on two of the weeks. Raising two little kids while working full time outside of the home means that workouts happened at 5:45am, and that was REALLY tough for this morning-hater.

So yeah… I honestly didn’t take pictures or measurements at the end of my 21 day fix, and I didn’t lose any weight, but I can tell that I’m feeling stronger and getting back into healthier life patterns. A close friend of mine from high school posted this on her new FB group this week, and it really spoke to me. I need to find a way to work this into my life and make it work!