Gear Review – FireLight Amber Fire Piston by Wilderness Solutions

Last week Mr. Mail Man brought me my 21 Day Fix program! To say I was excited is an understatement! I love my Shaun T (, etc.) but I wanted a program that focuses on nutrition as much as it does exercise. While the taught me all about the power food has over my body, it was way too intense for me to carry on with AND you are not allowed to workout during the cleanse which is not okay with me! Enter, The 21 Day Fix by Autumn Calabrese, fitness professional and bikini competitor.

It’s simple, really. You are given a nutrition guide and 7 color coded containers. The number of containers you are allowed to eat per day will depend on your caloric needs (which you calculate using a formula in the book.) For instance, I am able to eat 4 reds, 3 greens, 2 purples, 2 yellows, 1 blue, 1 orange, 2 teaspoons, and an unlimited amount of the “Free Foods.” Each container houses a different category of food and you are given a long list of options. For example, in the red container you can eat fish, red meat, turkey bacon, lobster, etc. The foods at the top of the list are the most nutritionally dense, but all foods serve a purpose.

This is what my breakfast looks like every morning (even before the 21 Day Fix.) I was pleasantly surprised to find that my usual serving fit into the containers!

What I have learned so far:

• I was eating way too much of a good thing. If I’m being honest with myself, I already knew that. I kept convincing myself that I could eat and eat and eat because I was eating well. We eat relatively healthy in this household as is, so it has been a huge wake up call for me.
• The containers fit way more food than I originally thought! I went into this program with an open mind because I remember hearing Autumn Calebrese say that the first reaction people had was, “I AM GOING TO STARVE!” It didn’t take long before they realized it was actually a LOT of food. I had all of my containers today and I was completely satisfied. I have challengers who had a bunch left over and were stuffed. So it is very personal and definitely not “one size fits all.”
• The workouts are much more difficult than I imagined they’d be. Being that I have done super intense programs such as Insanity and Focus T25 (and LOVED them!) I was worried I wouldn’t get a tough enough workout. Uhhh… WRONG! I told my husband tonight that out of all of the Beachbody programs I have done (and I’ve done the majority,) I haven’t had a single workout target my gluteus as well as this one. I stand by that statement.
• Sometimes I am so busy that I completely forget to eat! Being on a schedule has reminded me of the importance of eating every few hours and making sure I am getting in enough of each food group and not too much of others!

Now for the meals! I spent some time coming up with a week’s worth of meals so that I had no excuse to slip up.

And then here are my meals for the rest of the day.

My first snack was at 10 (as per usual.) On a typical day I would just have my Shakeology, so I was thrilled to learn that I was able to add some fruit to the side!

Lunch was around 12 and my second snack was at 3.

To give you an idea of what one meal might look like, this was my lunch: Fresh lobster, tomatoes, olives, lime, all purpose seasoning, onions, and a side of hummus.

Dinner was at 5:30.

I finished my day feeling satisfied and excited for tomorrow! I love that I am only one day one and I am already getting a feel for what my serving sizes SHOULD look like. I truly, honestly, from the bottom of my heart believe that this is a program like no other. It’s making it easy for you to know exactly what you should be eating and simplifies your workouts by keeping them at only 30 minutes long!

If you would like to continue following my journey on the 21 Day Fix, be sure to “follow” this blog and find me on Facebook where I post daily (www.Facebook.com/FitForLifeWithTaraCreel.) If you are interested in learning more about this program, I’d be more than happy to help you to the best of my ability!

Having Fix’ing!