3 Day Refresh - This is insanity...

  Well, not quite.  There's no way I could have held up to any of the Insanity workouts while doing the 3 Day Refresh.  The program is based on about 900 calories a day, which sounds impossible.  But it's not.  It certainly wasn't a day at Disneyland, but it wasn't the worst or craziest thing I've ever done - not even close.  I still got breakfast, lunch, dinner, 2 snacks and all the water I could drink, plus 3 optional cups of tea and 1 optional cup of broth.  I opted for the tea and broth every day, but more on what I ate later.  Let's break down the plan first and how I retrofitted it to work for me.

  So the concept is essentially a detoxifying cleanse, but with food.  Sounds crazy, right?  It is - at least a little bit anyway.   No dairy, meat or carbohydrates on this plan - and certainly no refined sugar!  Your diet consists solely of veggies, fruits and healthy fats.  The actual program comes with a detailed list of what you can have in each category and how much.  I winged it and decided on my own what was appropriate, but I did use the book to determine how much of each thing was "allowed."  And for some things, it's a LOT - a cup of watermelon or catanloupe, 12 strawberries, 2 cups of spinach, etc.  For other things, it's a measly serving - 1/2 an apple, 12 green beans, 1/2 a banana, etc.  That was a running joke actually - "Mom, I'm eating my 12 green beans for lunch today...oh, and I put 8 almonds on it."  I actually kept forgetting my healthy fat, so I worked them in as what I call "handful snacks" which are helpful for me when I'm starving but not ready to have a meal yet and it's too close to that meal to eat a real snack.

  First off - you wake up and have 12 ounces of cold water.  I preferred super chilled water.  It sucked on super cold days, but it really does get things moving.  I am keeping this as a regular part of my routine now.  It's just one of those "duh" things that totally makes sense and I should have been doing all along.

  For breakfast, you get to drink Shakeology.  I don't HAVE Shakeology, because as a single mom of 3, there is no way I can afford $140 a month for a shake I drink once a day.  I know it's loaded with 70 superfoods and all kinds of body-happy things and it's like having a salad that tastes like dessert, but I haven't spent $140 on something nutrition related in... EVER.  Instead, I purchased NatureAde's Soy Meal Replacement Shake in chocolate.  It wasn't exactly the same and it wasn't superior, but it had enough of the essentials that it served as a good (and affordable!) replacement.  The first morning, I blended it up with raspberries and the 2nd two mornings, I blended it up with 1/2 a banana.  Now, normally I blend these shakes with 4 ounces of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but since this was a no-dairy plan, that was out so all I used was water and the fruit.  I added ice on 2 of the days to thicken it and drank it thinner one day.  It was delicious all 3 days.  I can't vouch for ShakeO because I've never had it, but this kept me full enough until my next step, which was...

 My version of "fiber sweep."  The plan comes with a packet that you mix with water and drink. Easy enough for those with the plan, but I got creative.  The "fiber sweep" has about 60 calories in it so I pair half a teaspoon of flax seed and 1 teaspoon of Metamucil with 4 ounces of water and 4 ounce of light plum juice.  It went down easy, tasted great and it made a difference.  Step 2 down the hatch.  This is considered your "morning snack."  I usually followed it with a cup of tea - my favorites are the Zhevia "weight tea" collection which cold brew in a bottle of water, so it's an easy win-win on the go.  They have cranberry ginger, raspberry mint and superfood mixed berry.  They're a bit spendy, but they do stave off hunger and are very tasty. Plus, you can often catch them on BOGO at Winn-Dixie if you have one, so $5 per 30 servings versus $10.

Lunch was usually about 2 hours later and it consisted of 1 fruit, 1 veggie and 1 healthy fat from the "approved" list.  Obviously, I didn't follow by the letter, so I just chose 1 fruit, 1 veggie and a healthy fat.  Day 1 was 15 small grapes (about 1/2 cup), 5 baby carrots (yes, 5!) and 2 tablespoons of hummus.  By the end of it, I was eating the hummus off my finger because I was long out of carrots.  Day 2 was 12 green beans with 8 almonds and 1 cup of Honeymoon melon, diced.  This was a delicious, filling and light lunch and I was surprisingly full at the end of it.  it was so good, I repeated it for Day 3. Which brings me to "vanilla fresh" also know as the "drink of death" by many Refreshers.  It's a high-protein drink shake that you drink twice a day - supposed to be with lunch and dinner.  I didn't have the real thing, but my replacement tasted absolutely AWFUL and I am told that the real thing does too.  Likely has something to do with the high amount of protein (20g) in it.  It gave an awful aftertaste that NOTHING could mask and I tried... powdered peanut butter, cinnamon, almond extract, lime juice... it was all terrible... warm or cold, I gagged it down meal after meal.  You have to drink 6 total over the course of the Refresh and it is my LEAST favorite part of it by far. 

I directly followed lunch each day with 12 ounces of water - usually a "flat tummy water" recipe I found all over Pinterest.  You put half a cucumber sliced, half a lemon sliced, some fresh grated ginger and mint leaves in water and let it steep overnight.  I drank it all day the first day and half the day the second.  By the end of the 2nd day, it was a bit too strong for my liking and I switched over to other fruit infused waters.  For the 2nd half of Day 2, I drank strawberry and kiwi infused water.  For Day 3, I drank cucumber and Honeymoon melon infused water.  It was a nice way to add deliciousness without a lot of calories, or artificial sweeteners. 

About 2 o'clock each day, I opted for a snack, followed by 12 more ounces of "flat tummy" water.  While the earlier versions of the plan don't allow for fruit as a snack, the later version does so I did.  Day 1 I had half a banana with peanut butter (also not officially on the plan, but it's a nut butter like almond butter which is on the plan and it's 1/4 of the cost.).  Day 2 was 12 green beans with almonds.  Day 3 was actually a little different because I completely forgot my snack, so I ended up having it AFTER dinner as dessert.  Baked a small MacIntosh apple with mixed nuts inside and cinnamon sprinkled on top.  It was an amazing end to the whole thing as it was the last thing I ate last night when I finished.  And it's going to be a keeper going forward into the 21 Day Fix.

By 3, I had another cup of tea which usually followed a nap.  Having 3 kids who like to get up at 5 AM isn't always conducive to weight loss or being in a generally good mood, so by 1 or 2, I'm as ready for a nap as my almost 3 year old is.  I did find myself sleeping more while doing this.  Probably because all of my energy reserves were being tapped out. 

I played the dinner game a bit off-plan, but it still worked out for me.  Thankfully, my family kinda veered off normal dinner to make things I don't particularly like.  I also ate at a different time to try to avoid craving what they were having.  The actually plan calls for another "vanilla fresh" shake plus a choice of their pre-selected dinner options - veggie stir fry, asparagus with almonds, etc.  I am a veggie-phobe, so all of their meals essentially had something in it I didn't care for or straight out hate.  I adjusted their recipes some and made up my own as well.  Thankfully, most of my experimentation worked out well because it was not a time to be playing around and tossing foods when I had so little to begin with.  Day 1 the family had spaghetti, so I tried to do something similar.  I grated up some zucchini and boiled it, then topped it with a homemade sauce of pureed spinach and tomatoes.  It was gross and grosser. The zucchini was mush and the sauce was flavorless, thin and tangy - NOT what I like in a pasta sauce.  I choked it down though.  At least I got to enjoy 6 green beans with it.  At least I enjoyed the organic "optional" vegetable broth with  Mrs. Dash in it (Tomato, Basil & Garlic). Day 2 was better.  I diced up half a pear, 5 strawberries and half a cucumber into a "salad", then drizzled it with lime juice.  My "optional" broth included some diced spinach and Mrs. Dash (Southwest Chipotle).  It was a little too spicy, but it was food and I wasn't going to waste it.  There was quite a bit of nose-holding on this plan to get stuff down.  Day 3 was a good bit better because I made vegetable soup with green beans, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach and my vegetable broth.  Ate it with no problems, even though it got a little cold while getting the kids fed.

I still worked out, almost "normally", even though it's advised for you to either not work out at all or do something like yoga.  However, I am training for a 5K, so sitting out 3 days (2 of running) wasn't an option.  Night 1 at the gym wasn't too bad.  I was a bit tired, but nothing I didn't overcome easily enough.  I did my mile in 14 minutes even, which is by no means impressive but it wasn't too terrible.  I then did my arm rotation, but skipped a couple of machines and lowered the weight by 10 pounds.  I kept all of my repetitions in though.  It took longer than normal and wore me out, but I did it.  Day 2 was just core work, so thankfully it didn't take too much exertion.  The hardest part was the leg raises, but I took it easy and only did 15 since it requires a good bit of upper body strength and I was feeling weak.  Day 3 was impressive but completely exhausting at the same time.  I got my "real" running shoes in the mail right before I left, so I finally had proper footwear to correct my overpronation (more on that and my 5K training in a later post).  I managed my mile in 12:53 which is on-par with my training and completely blew me away since it was the last night of the Refresh and I was starving, grumpy and tired.  Managed my leg rotation without any modification.  If anything, I felt energized from my run and I worked HARDER on legs. A big bonus was that I typically consume over 50 ounces of water during a workout and found myself consuming over 150 ounces of water each day with the Refresh, which probably helped me detox even more efficiently.

Every night, I ended the night with a cup of hot chamomile tea with stevia (an allowed "free" flavoring) to help me wind down from the day and to put a little extra on my stomach before bed.  On run nights, I took a scalding hot bath and settled in with a book for an hour to wind down and let my muscles relax before going to sleep and I still managed about 6.5 hours of sleep each night.

All in all, it's a good program but half the stuff in it is NASTY.  My alterations seemed to be better in some regards, on par in some regards and maybe worse on the protein shake.  I will likely jump-start each round of 21 Day Fix with the 3 Day Refresh from here on out.  Here are my before and after measurements and results:

February 22, 2015:
Chest: 46
Natural Waist: 41
Belly Button: 47.5
Hips: 51.5
Left Arm above Elbow: 13
Left Arm at Armpit: 16
Right Arm above Elbow: 12.5
Right Arm at Armpit: 16
Left Thigh above Knee: 19.5
Left Thigh at Crotch: 29
Right Thigh above Knee: 20.5
Right Thigh at Crotch: 28
Weight: 264.5

February 26, 2015:
Chest: 45.5 (-0.5)
Natural Waist: 39 (-2.0)
Belly Button: 47 (-0.5)
Hips: 50.5 (-1.5)
Left Arm above Elbow: 12.5 (-0.5)
Left Arm at Armpit: 16 (-0.0)
Right Arm above Elbow: 12.5 (-0.0)
Right Arm at Armpit: 15.5 (-0.5)
Left Thigh above Knee: 19 (-0.5)
Left Thigh at Crotch: 27 (-2.0)
Right Thigh above Knee: 18.5 (-2.0)
Right Thigh at Crotch: 27.5 (-.05)
Weight: 250.8 (-13.7)

So all in all I lost 13.7 pounds and 10.5 inches in 3 days.  Now onto the 21 Day Fix to see if we can keep these results, improve my mile, and push further towards my ultimate goal of 175 pounds.   Along with my current gym rotation (Mon- Arms/5K Training, Tues - Core, Wed - Legs/5K Training, Thurs - Core, Fri - 30 Min Circuit/5K Training, Sat - 5K, Sun - Yoga) and the 21 Day Nutrition Plan (another one I kinda hacked to work my way with what I have available), I hope to be able to run a 40 minutes 5K in April and be at my goal weight by December 31. 

3 Day Refresh - I am not a rabbit...

Welcome to my blog about getting fit on a budget... there are lots of tools out there in this corporate-fueled world to help you lose that stubborn weight!  But I'm a single mom... of 3 boys... with no extra funds to make it happen the easy way.  It doesn't mean it can't be done.  It doesn't mean that these products/people/programs are a waste of money.  It simply means I don't have the option of someone cooking all of my meals for me, or fancy guides that tell me what to eat, or someone on my butt all the time telling me how to move my body and how many times and with how much resistance, etc.  These hurdles don't mean it can't be done.  They simply mean I have to work a little harder for it, be a little smarter about it and take full accountability for my successes and failures.  That cookie (or 3) I ate last night?  That's completely my fault and all on me.  That mile I ran in under 13 minutes for the first time in my life?  That's all on me too.  I am certainly willing to take whatever help I can get, but what I can find is usually limited to Pinterest and good-ol Google.

So this is my story - how I am going to make it different this time.  How I am not going to give up when it gets hard.  How I am going to take the reins and finally do this.  This is MY version of popular programs and nutrition plans and protein shakes and yada yada, all that gibberish that means nothing to the layman, but everything to the fitness world.  I have thoroughly researched and have essentially "hacked" several popular programs in order to make them work for me - on my budget, at my skill level, with my time allowance.  I am going to make it work for ME.  I don't care if so-and-so lost 45 pounds in 3 months with (insert program here) or (insert nutrition plan here).  All I care about is how I can tailor to work for me, for you... for everybody and anybody.  Here's what I have:

1. 2 sets of dumbbells - 5 pounds and 2 pounds.
2. Yoga mat.
3. Good running shoes (actually, those are in the mail, I'm running in crappy ones right now.  If you plan to get crappy ones too, don't.  Make this your one expensive purchase.)
4. A gym membership (It was a gift, but I use it and tailor the "workouts" to fit into the gym setting.  It was cheap and it's paid in full, so no "monthly membership" fee.)
5. Basic kitchen tools.
6. Access to the internet - I'm not even kidding, I have found the vast majority of the 3 Day Refresh, 21 Day Fix and Focus T25 on the internet via other blogs, Pinterest and YouTube.

Now onto my point.  I started my own version of the 3 Day Refresh by BeachBody today.  I will call it 3DR from here on out.  It is a fairly simple nutrition "cleanse" if you will.  You drink a bunch of "specially formulated" drinks and eat like a rabbit for 3 days to force it to detox without starving.  The first problem is the fact that I am NOT a rabbit.  I don't like salad, or any raw vegetables for that matter (with the exception of cucumber).  If it isn't cooked or juiced into something, I don't eat it.  Not for lack of trying.  I have tried lettuce over 50 times in my life of all varieties and every time, it goes in and comes right back out.  It's a texture thing for the most part.  And I HATE dressing, so I can't even drown it in something palatable to choke it down.  I don't mind cooked spinach in sauces/eggs and I blend some kale/spinach up daily in my shakes.  I eat vegetables, but my choices are limited.  I was raised with green beans, corn, carrots and sweet peas.  That was it.  Seriously.  Two of those aren't even technically vegetables, so that leaves me with green beans and carrots and I will only eat them cooked.  Finding the rest has been an adventure.  I will now eat carrots, green beans, spinach (in eggs or smoothies/juices), kale (smoothies), tomatoes (pureed), onion (fried, but we won't go there since onion rings are most certainly not a vegetable), cucumber (RAW! I'll eat this raw, but I won't touch a pickle) and most squash.  I am working on cauliflower and broccoli still gives me the heebie-jeebies, but it's a work in progress.  It's only 3 days and I only get a few vegetables a day anyway.

So the 3DR plan.  Drink Shakeology for breakfast with some fruit.  This morning, I blended my raspberries into my shake.  Tomorrow, I plan to have Honeymoon melon on the side.  Easy-peasy.  The shake itself is a soy protein, so it is vegan.  I can't afford Shakeology.  If I could, I absolutely would.  It is filled with superfoods and specifically engineered to give your body optimal nutrition.  Unfortunately, $140 a month just can't happen.  That's more than was spent for my whole year's gym membership.  So I use NaturAde's Chocolate (I have Vanilla too but that's another story) Soy protein.  It's pretty good stuff.  I use half a serving when "Fixing" (21 Day Fix and I'll cover that Thursday) and a full serving when "Refreshing."  It taste allright, better with fruity goodness blended in.  It's not quite the salad in a glass that Shakeology is, but it hits home some major nutrients and I can usually blend some actual salad into it to make up the nutrients it's missing.  This options costs me $10 a month for each flavor.  When I'm Fixing, I mix it with Unsweetened Original Almond Milk.  When I'm Refreshing, I mix it with water and ice and vanilla extract (or others pure extracts - almond, orange, mint, etc.) and/or fruit.

Throughout the rest of your day, you drink a lot of water, gag down some protein shakes and some extra fiber and eat several tiny meals.  My lunch today was 15 tiny grapes, 5 baby carrots and 2 tablespoons of hummus.  Dinner was 1/2 cup of zucchini topped with pureed spinach and tomatoes and 6 green beans with a cup of organic vegetable broth.  The family?  Spaghetti and meat sauce topped with Parmesan cheese, garlic bread and green beans.  My meal elicited the sad panda response from everyone, but especially me since I had to hit the gym afterwards and get in my mile and arm work.  This is going to be brutal, but it's only 3 days.  You can do almost anything for 3 days... including cry... which I might...