Morning all! Today on my workout schedule I had Yoga X from P90X3 so I subbed in Sweat from PiYo Instead. WOW! It was sweaty, yeah perfect description! It goes fast so maybe after a couple times I will have the flow down a little better. And she had the nerve to sneak in burpees! Chalene you so & so you.

"21 day fix looks complicated" (whine whine) Um, does this look complicated?? SO MUCH easier than weighing food/counting points/calories and sitting around for hours logging food into your phone! Did you ever try to log a salad into your app? it's infuriatingly slow.

Sriracha Chicken Lettuce Wraps: I usually hold out on trends or popular things, don't ask me why. When everyone is raving about a movie I usually end up thinking it wasn't that great, or a band, or any trend really.  When Sriracha sauce shot to the forefront as a condiment darling I refused to fall for it.

I finally caved, now that I see it on the tables of every hipster restaurant. It's not life changing, it's a solid good tasting hot sauce. It's perfect for this recipe, if you're in the mood for some heat and Asian flair. And it's yet again pretty intricate, very difficult.

  1 red grilled chicken chopped
1/2 yellow brown rice
1 green raw zucchini chopped
dress with lime juice, drop of toasted sesame oil and sriracha sauce, mix

serve in butter lettuce or on top of a salad

 

P90X3 Challenge Group. Join in! How, how can you say no to that face? All Tony wants you to do is join a P90X3 challenge group before the sale ends this May.  I have been doing P90X3 for about 6 weeks now and telling you about my journey.  So far from eating clean and hanging out with Tony 30 minutes a day I lost about 12 pounds.  I was terrified to try P90X3 because the other 2 programs looked so intense and Tony looks so crazy.  But the workouts are a great mix of tough, challenging and doable.  There is always a way to modify, or just stop if you have to.  

Why join a challenge group with me?

You get support

You get a meal plan that works!

You get accountability  

You get recipes

You get shakeology 

You will be working out in the luxury of your own home

You will check in with all the others who are doing this along side with you in a private forum

I truly want to help you see to it that your goals are met.  I have a deep compassion inside this sarcastic shell.

Have you ever started a fitness program or diet and quit before you met your goal? How about getting a gym membership but never going or buying equipment you never use? Joining a challenge group makes all the difference. When you are doing planks and squats and pushups in your house you know your fellow challengers are suffering with you that day.  You know you have to check in daily and let everyone know you did your workout and you ate clean that day.  But we are not angry people.  When you need the support to keep going, to follow the meal plan we are there. 

So do it already, make today the day that you begin your journey to meet your health and fitness goals. Fill out my contact form to be a part of my challenge group.

 

I have another incredibly hard recipe. But it will be worth it.  This salad is so perfect for a hot summer night when all you want to do is grill off something. Make it a couple hours ahead so all the ingredients can get to know each other, when they are happy you will be happy.

1 package of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large green zucchini

1 lemon

4 scallions

salt & pepper to taste

Chop all veggies, squeeze entire lemon over add salt & pepper to taste. For 21 day fix measure out one green of this salad, add 1/2 blue of feta cheese and/or toss with 1 yellow of brown rice or couscous for one serving.

21 Day Fix - My review and results:
First maybe a little background information. You might be wondering what those blobs of rainbow colored plastic are in the above photo. Those are color coded tupperwares that represent different food groups and their size reflects the portion of said food group.
The program comes with those tupperware, a meal plan book and workout dvd's 30 min each doing things like weights, intervals, cardio, pilates, yoga etc.
Basically the meal plan book gives you lists of acceptable foods, calorie requirements which are based on your weight and a formula they give you.  I was in the lowest calorie group.
You get to eat each container worth of a food group a certain amount of times a day.
For example
4 red containers which are protein YAY!
1 blue tiny container which is for cheeses, avocado, hummus BOO!
2 purple for fruit
2 yellow for carbs
3 green for veg
1 orange for salad dressings seeds
even tsp for nut butter or cooking with oils

So this may sound crazy confusing but when you get the package and read everything it's really simple.  I loved using this program. It is so much more easy than Weight Watchers, Calorie Counting apps, eyeballing your portions, logging everything you put in your mouth? Ever try logging a salad in WW or My Fitness Pal? It's never ending!! Plus I made a cheat sheet, which only MY challengers will get a copy of.  It's really helpful.

This is how I logged things for  the day. I used the memo app in my phone to add what I can eat each day and also my weekly treats as I ate things I just erased them. and refilled each morning or beginning of the week.

What is a day like on the 21 Day Fix?
Shakeology with 1/2 purple of apple and 1/2 green of cucumber
2 eggs (red) 1 green of veggies on 1 slice of whole grain bread
1/2 fruit with tsp nut butter
1 red of chicken breast, 1/2 blue avocado, over lettuce & salad fixings plus 1 orange of salad dressing
1/2 blue hummus and veggies
1 red of flank steak with 1 yellow sweet potato and grilled asparagus

Now this menu doesn't look like any new revelations but its the portion control from the containers that makes all the difference for me. Also knowing how much of each food group I can have a day helped me tremendously in my daily eating. I won't overeat my healthy fats which I did alot, or overeat fruit, even protein, you will eat enough protein for your workouts instead of not enough which happens. This plan is fool proof and stupid simple. End of story!

My results? 9 pounds! In three weeks.

P90X3 Second Block Quick Review: Today was MMX workout done right in my living room. I am really so uncoordinated it's ridiculous. I can't even handle these punch kick sprawl combos imagine if I tried dancing? Disaster.
Early in the morning, before my workout my friend wanted to come visit and go for a walk with me and the kiddies.  I was so happy she came to see us. Gorgeous day out got in some time to talk about what horrible things I do.  That's what I love about working out a home. Usually it's one of the first things I do, but because I can push play instead of schlepping myself to a gym, I got some good girl time in and did my workout after.
Now I am eating my favorite thing, spaghetti squash lasagna.  But I must admit: I am hardcore craving tres leche cake. Like a fiend, like a crack monster. It's bad. Not sure what I will do about this. I know it's ok to indulge a little once in a while, I am learning this moderation thing, but I have 25 lbs to lose, so I think an indulgence for me should be no more than once a week right now.
How often a week do you think a cheat meal is ok? Anyone get in a workout today?

 Troubles in yoga-ville

Today on my schedule: p90x3 yoga workout. I'm doing a hybrid of p90x3 workouts with 21 day fix food plan.
Getting the moves down since its my 5th time and I really like it. Then my Zen was broken towards the end. A mosquito came sauntering in as they always do. I clumsily slammed my hands and missed my evil target about 246 times. Tony was in the background talking smack about tree poses. I never got that little vampire. When I returned to my poses, I saw an ant, my other summer adversary merrily crawl by, I had to just watch him......frozen in my triangle pose.

The past three weeks on the 21 day fix could not have been possible for me without these cookies. They are from the 21 day fix meal plan book and they are scrumptious. Even though I indulged in these babies a few nights a week, I still lost 9 pounds in three weeks.  Yeah I think I am pmsing, can't stop thinking about chocolate.

To fight temptations or not? Last night I had a party to attend. Early in the day I made the (wise?) decision to save my carbs for a couple glasses of wine. Back in my south beach diet days I did this all the time - drank on a bread free stomach. 

As I laid my eyes on the food selection I didn't care about having the pasta or rice etc. Not that I think these things are the devil. I just am trying to save things like that for when I REALLY want it. For instance if there were huge slices of chocolate cake I would've plowed my face through it like a backhoe. So I chose the string beans, lemon chicken and salad. 

Former me would've used this party as an excuse to have 2 plates of pasta and cake and wine. I did make the terrible decision to have a third glass of red wine but did not inhale it like the first two. Instead I left some in the glass. Fast forward to when I got home. I felt really nauseous and this happens to me often when I drink red wine, but i didn't drink a lot so or so I thought.
 
Anyway my stomach was just too messed up. I needed to "soak" up the alcohol. I don't know if this phenomenon is real or just some urban myth but I had to have some bread, so I had half a hot dog bun, along with a hotdog that my husband had left on the counter from dinner and a 21 day oatmeal cookie. Then I laid down and fought off puking in the bed for a couple minutes. Soon magic happened: the bun soaked up the alcohol, I guess, because I felt a lot better.
 

What do you all think about this? Ever get sick from not having a solid drinking foundation?