21 Day Fix: Starting Over

Today I am starting another round of 21 Day Fix, but because I'm doing things so differently I feel like I'm actually starting over.  I was really successful with my first round and ended up losing 11 pounds in 3 weeks, so I was very happy with those results.  I posted the picture from above after finishing my first round and was surprised to see how much change I could see in my face.  The biggest difference I noticed was how much happier I look in the picture on the right.  It's amazing how much can change in such a short amount of time, both physically and mentally!

The second round I completed was in December and I didn't do quite as well.  I basically stopped trying mid-month and didn't even finish out the 21 days. At first I was really disappointed in myself, but then I remembered that I'm trying to not be so hard on myself, so I gave myself a break until after the holidays were over.

The round that I am starting today will technically be considered my second round "do-over" since the last time didn't go so well.  I plan on doing things differently this time around, so I'm going to go over some of those changes to give you some tips & tricks that might work for you if you're trying to get healthier.

Meal Planning:

When I first started 21 Day Fix I decided that I wanted to create meal plans for myself ahead of time so that I would know exactly what I would be eating every day for the whole week.  I color coded the plan and printed it so I could see it on the fridge every time I went to get something to eat.  I probably followed the plan for about a day and a half, until I realized that I might not want to eat oatmeal for breakfast or that a salad might not sound good for lunch.  

So, this time around I am going to do things differently.  I still made a grocery list based on the approved foods from 21 Day Fix, but I won't be planning out exactly when I'm going to eat each food.  I'll still use the containers to track my portions, but I'll be counting them as I go instead of planning them out ahead of time.  This time I will be using the 21 Day Fix app on my phone to keep track of my containers, which will make things much easier for me and make sure I stay on track. 

Letters to Myself:

Before the Tone It Up Bikini Series last year I decided I wanted to write myself encouraging letters to read each week along the way.  That's what you see in this picture.  I'm going to do the same thing for this round of 21 Day Fix so that I can give myself pep talks before I start each week.  They're basically all going to say things like "you can do this" or "don't give up", but I'm hoping that reading them each week will remind me why I'm doing this and help me to stick to it.

Workout Tracking:

This is an idea I got from Pinterest.  Basically you use page flags to write down the number of days you want to workout and then stick them somewhere so that you can peel them off each day you complete a workout.  In my example above I did five days a week and each week is a different color.  

​I've found this to be highly motivating because it makes me feel good to peel a flag off every time I workout.  It's also a nice visual reminder because it gives you an idea of how much further you have to go.  I'll be doing this for the next 16 weeks before my next cruise, so I'll have 5 flags a week for 16 weeks.  I'll probably do them separately for each round of 21 Day Fix so that it doesn't feel so overwhelming!

Cheat Meals vs. Treat Meals:

When I first started 21 Day Fix I decided that I would have one cheat meal every week where I could eat whatever I wanted.  It actually worked out pretty well because it allowed me the freedom to dream about eating something unhealthy all week and then enjoy it on Friday night.  The only thing I'm changing about this is that instead of thinking of it as a cheat meal I'm going to start referring to it as a treat meal.  Because technically I'm not cheating by eating something outside the plan, I'm actually making a logical decision to eat something I've been craving all week and therefore "treating" myself.

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And so those are some of the ways I'll be changing my approach to following 21 Day Fix.  Let me know if any of these ideas were helpful or if you have any tips or tricks of your own that you would like to share!