Beachbody 21 Day Fix – week 2 & 3 review

Surprise. surprise – I finished the 21 Day Fix workout plan.  And… well I don’t plan on stopping this workout anytime soon.  I absolutely love this workout.  I love the variety.  I love that it can be as quick as 30 minutes a day.  I love that I’m drenched in sweat when the workout is done… And that I feel just sore enough the next day.  People who know me would probably be like well… she just enjoys working out.  Which genuinely isn’t really the case.  I think I could be a perfectly happy couch potato if I didn’t have concerns about all the health impacts, setting a good example for my kids and lets be honest fitting into my clothes.

Meal Plan:

My meals for week 2 & 3  remained pretty close to what they were for week 1.  Thanksgiving day fell within those weeks and I just gave myself permission to enjoy the day and eat whatever I wanted.  I didn’t go crazy with serving sizes but I did eat a little bit of everything that I wanted. Since I am making a point to eat something every couple hours I can’t say that I’ve ever been overly hungry over the past few weeks.  My energy level has stayed consistent throughout the day which is something I struggled with prior to this plan.  I do drink a chocolate shakeology shake once a day – usually mid-afternoon.   I indulge in all the foods I like to eat (pasta, pizza, etc) and wine – but I pay attention to serving sizes and don’t eat them daily.

There are probably some people who would manage the meal plan differently and could see significant weight loss with it.  I’ve chosen to stick to the guidelines but not cut out the things I love but rather keep the serving sizes in check.  This is my way of knowing that it’s something that won’t just be a 21 day effort but that I can do ongoing.

Workout Plan:

I described all of the various workouts on my last post so I won’t rehash those.  What I will elaborate on are the changes I made for week 2 and week 3.

• In the workouts you are supposed to have a lighter set and a heavier set of weights.  In week 1, I had used  3 pound and 6 pound weights during the workouts.  For week 2:  I wasn’t ready to increase the heavy weights but the 3 pound weights seemed too light.  So I just used the 6 pound weights for all of the weighted exercises.  Then in week 3:  I used 6 pound and 10 pound weights.   The 6 pound weights were challenging in week 2 however the 10 pound weights kicked my a$$ in week 3.  With the 10 pound weights I have had to slow down the moves and not complete as many reps as I could with the 6 pounds.  And the last few exercises in each set really burn.

• Added the 10 minute Ab fix: So I thought previously that there were 2 ab workouts on the 21 Day Fix DVDs, but it is actually the same ab workout on each DVD.  It is a 10 minute ab workout broken up into 2 sets.  So you do the first set of moves for 5 minutes then you start the whole process over for the next 5 minutes.  At the end there are 2 bonus moves that add on maybe an extra minute to the workout.  I must say that after the first 5 minutes I’m like Thank God that’s over and then I push myself to do the next 5 minutes.  By the time the bonus moves come around I figure “well crap I’ve come this far might as well finish it“.  And that it pretty much what goes through my head every time I do the video.  It has not gotten easier but it is ONLY 10 minutes.   Some days, I complete the ab workout right after the regular workout and other days I do it before I go to bed at night to break up the workouts.

So even with all I have done there is still a bonus DVD of Plyo workouts that I have not even touched.  Mostly because I’m envisioning it to be similar to the Insanity workouts that I’ve done in the past… and I’m just not mentally ready to start that up again. I will.  Soon.

So the results of the 21 day fix.  Weight loss is only 4 pounds total- which I have to admit was a little shocking to me at first.  Mostly because I could tell my clothes were fitting better than prior to the workouts.  So on a whim I got the measuring tape out and remeasured my waist (not sure if I mentioned this in week 1 but you will need to write down all your measurements).   And my waist is 2.5 inches smaller than it was 3 weeks ago – and personally I’ll take that over the number on the scale any day 🙂

I plan to continue using this entire plan for the foreseeable future.  I’ll keep everyone updated if there are anymore significant successes (or failures) to note.  And of course I’ll write about those plyo workouts once I finally convince myself to do them 🙂

We would love to hear your comments if you are doing the 21 day fix too or have another program that you think ROCKS.

 ***Note: This article was originally written on 12/10/2014 but for some reason the system didn’t post thus the lag in the week 1 article and this article.  ***