21 Day Fix Day 9: Cutting it short

Today was another tough day. I wasn't feeling well again, and totally forgot last night to lay out the pot roast. That wouldn't have been too terrible, but I didn't remember that it was on the menu so that means I didn't get it into the crock pot until 2:30pm! Yipes! I put it on high, which I hate doing. It dries it out too much for my liking.

Meanwhile, lunch didn't sound good - egg salad using the dressing we made last week - so I modified, but still didn't get enough to eat. I ended up using up my snacks well before the pot roast would be done because of how late I started the pot roast.

Then the cravings really hit. I was sweating, cranky, tired, hungry... and full of reasons why I just didn't want to do this anymore!

I couldn't trust myself to leave the house - and that made me worried because I started my training for my new job last week, and sometime this week I'll start working outside the home (the training is online) - and mostly at grocery stores surrounded by food. This eating plan really requires access to a refrigerator and/or microwave (all that darn fresh produce) - you can't really just grab something while you are out, or throw together a sandwich.

By the time Chris came home, I was already kinda yuck... but then he confirmed that his work is sending him to India - and he leaves Saturday! It requires two days of flying there, two days of flying back, and while he is there he'll be working around the clock and eating what he can when he can.

After much discussion, we decided that we will be ending the official eating plan on Day 12, which is when my menu runs out. At that time, we will switch to a more modified version where we will eat the regular things we like, but categorize them and portion them with the container measurements as much as possible. :) Meanwhile, he'll just be getting exercise while working and plans to walk around the airports when he is there, but I'm going to keep up the 21 Day Fix workouts along with my personal training.

When he gets back, we'll see about going back to a stricter 21 Day Fix plan again. The hard part is that with his work, he travels a lot (more than I do as a travel agent!) and that can make it difficult to work out and follow a meal plan, especially this one that requires so darn much prep work!

What does this mean for results? It's hard to give a truly accurate picture when you can only follow the plan halfway (well, a little less than), but we both plan to weigh in and measure on Wednesday since that is when I have personal training before running out of meal plans and where I got my initial weights and measures. That will at least show whether or not the plan was starting to work, it just might not be very impressive yet.

Needless to say, I'm disappointed yet relieved all at once. I feel like this has been extremely difficult for me, food wise. But that is an area that I always struggle with, and probably always will.

But I'm not going to throw this all away - I'm going to work hard to find a good moderation and try to keep working on my weight loss journey. Who knows - maybe when Chris gets back he'll have three weeks home in a row and we can give this another try!

21 Day Fix Day 8: The Mystery of "Dirty 30"

All week long, we have been looking forward to the workout today - not necessarily because we like to work out (though I must admit, we are definitely getting to like it more and have made it a much more regular part of our routine) but because this whole time we have wondered what the heck the "Dirty 30" workout would entail!

Our guess was that it would be some kind of ab workout, since there wasn't anything labeled that would be abs only.

WRONG!

The workout today was definitely one of the harder ones - it was a full body toning/muscle workout. We are very thankful that tomorrow is a rest day - boy are we sore after that one! But we also agreed that we are both feeling stronger, regardless of whether or not we have lost weight. While the food has been 50/50 successful, the workouts - while hard - have been something that I could see us doing long term.

Speaking of food, today we planned on quesadillas for lunch and some Mediterranean pasta for dinner. However, when we got closer to dinner, the thought of tuna made me feel queasy (sometimes it does that to me - it's the only seafood I eat, and even then I usually have to WANT to eat it) so we swapped for a different day that was grilled chicken with a green bean salad and sweet potato fries since the counts worked for what we needed.

Sadly, tonight's dinner didn't work out as planned, and this was the first time that I feel the 21 Day Fix eating plan wasn't sufficient. How do you plan ahead for a meal that goes wrong? You don't want to buy a bunch of extra produce that you might have to throw away, and we can't just fall back on what we used to do - either order a pizza or make sandwiches!

Yes, pizza is listed on the restaurant list - you can have I believe one slice, but it counts for 2 yellow and 1 red or blue, etc. But then the problem is that suddenly you have the rest of a pizza sitting in your fridge, and trust me as a binge eater I would literally hear that "calling" to me to eat it, leading to a binge!

So, both Chris and I choked down what we could of chicken that was dry and didn't hit the spot, burnt green beans (the green bean salad called for stir frying the green beans) and sweet potato fries that were undercooked and mushy. Then I had some deli meat (to help supplement my red shortage) thinking I could always pop out and buy another container, and some mint tea. Chris boiled a couple of eggs for himself.

I have a feeling we are both going to be hungry tonight while we try to sleep, and very hungry when we wake up! If I could change something about this plan, I'd work in some kind of contingency for when meals go awry.

21 Day Fix Day 7: Almost to the breaking point

Throughout this plan, both my husband and I have been battling some food demons. Let's face it - our bodies are in a little bit of shock, getting rid of so many junk foods and adding so many natural foods all at once!

It also doesn't help that I tend to struggle with intense food cravings and periods of binge eating. Chris has fewer problems with those issues, but even he isn't immune to these feelings.

Today started off well enough, but I began having some stomach cramping around lunchtime. Eating made it worse; I tried resting but no real help there. So I forged ahead with the workout, and surprisingly it did help! I think I just ate some strawberries that weren't fresh enough - by Day 6, the things we hadn't run out of were a little questionable (at least, the softer things like berries). Chris had said his tummy was a little off the day before, so I think that's all it was. A little mint tea with a bit of honey helped, too!

But then Chris did a naughty thing - don't worry, this is safe to read lol! - he mentioned one of my trigger foods. OUCH! So of course, in my OCD, food craving, binge eating brain, I started wishing I had some.

Wishing is one thing, but then we had to run errands, and of course suddenly I was surrounded by LOTS of my triggers - what can I say, some gals have a thing for shoes, I have a thing for food! And kittens...

Not only that, but one of the items we wanted to buy got sold out literally right before we purchased it, so we had to go to a couple of other stores to find it. By then, it was past 6pm, and even though I had eaten my snack of peanuts and an orange, I was getting VERY hungry!

I became like I imagine most addicts become - I was irritable, shaky, and desperately wanting to cheat on this diet. It's amazing how quickly I wanted to throw all of my hard work out of the window!

The good news? Chris made sure I didn't cheat. We got home, made our dinner, and even though that means we didn't get around to eating dinner until 8pm (yeah, that means we're staying up later and gonna have to sleep in a bit tomorrow) we stuck with the program!

One thing that is helping both of us right now is that we keep reminding ourselves that it's only for 21 days. What does that mean for the long term sustainability of this program? I'm not sure. We tried broaching on the subject once I was safely full and not crazy anymore, but then it got a little overwhelming and for right now we want to take it a day at a time. I think we will most likely keep many of the elements, but might add back in some of our favorites (like butter).

So for those of you following along - STAY STRONG! And definitely do this with a partner - a friend, a spouse, a sibling, a parent, whatever. It will help you when you get into a weak place and want to cheat (hopefully).

Oh - and I didn't get a chance to scan my menus for this week, since I'm not sure if any of you are bothering with them (and honestly, you might have better luck on this plan if you make your own meal plans with the foods you like). But if you truly want them, let me know and I'll try to get them posted tomorrow.

21 Day Fix Day 6: Winging It

Today was the day I was dreading for the first few days - Day 6, which I didn't fully meal plan for! Since I wasn't very familiar with the plan when I was first starting out, I decided that I would fully plan 5 days and then the 6th day I just planned the breakfast and part of lunch. 

Guess what? Winging it wasn't so bad! We both were able to find leftover foods that fit the categories we needed to fill. 

That also means that I had to do grocery shopping again. Chris and I managed to finish our next 6 days of menus last night, so I had a list ready to go this morning. Even though our menu planned had meals with leftovers (and in my opinion, were better planned), I actually ended up spending MORE!!

But before you start chucking this plan out the window for being too pricey - it was partially because Baker's had a TON of produce on sale this week, so I bought several items not on our list! That includes a big bag of grapes, some fresh broccoli, a loaf of Udi's bread that was on clearance, and hormone free chicken breasts because they only ended up being a couple of dollars more expensive than regular chicken breasts. Final cost was just over $156. 

There's also one other factor that needs to be weighed when I look at that grocery price - before this eating program, we ate out a minimum of once per week, sometimes more. That probably factored in not just money at restaurants, but various delivery fees OR gas/mileage to get to/from the restaurants. 

So really, I think so far I can swallow the costs so far. It's not great that I haven't had a regular paycheck in a few weeks, but on the bright side today I started my NEW part time day job so soon that won't be a problem!