21 Day Fix Meal Plan

Meal plan. Meal prep. Portion Control. I call it the 3 P's of nutrition, and you need all THREE if you want to see awesome results, and trust me peeps are getting awesome results left and right in 21 days. I'm just about done. I haven't weighed myself other than day 1, and haven't taken any other photos besides day 1. I'm ALLLLMOOOSTTTTT DONE so be sure to check back this week for my before and afters… =)

So let's talk meal planning. 

Ask yourself:

1. When was the last time I strategically planned out my meals for the week?

2. Did they cover all the important food groups?

3. Did I eat every 2-3 hours?

4. Did I consume enough water?

5. Did I portion out each meal?

6. Do I even KNOW my personal portions?

7. Did I prep enough food for the week so I don't crave or crash for bad foods?

When I got the program, I had to ask myself the same questions and it went a little something like this: 1. I can't remember -- its been a while

2. Probably not.

3. YES (I like to eat)

4. sometimes

5. no

6. sort of, but over time I would allow a little more of this and a little more of that… whoops

7. NOPE. 

So I knew it was time for C H A N G E. If you want different results, you have to be willing to try new things right?

So maybe your answers are better than mine, see it as room for improvement, of if your answers are worse, see it as an opportunity to get it right!

The meal plan from The 21 Day Fix is based on your caloric intake (based upon your weight) and then you are assigned a calorie bracket for how many containers you get per day… see the picture below. 

In the back of the meal plan booklet, there's tally sheets you can use if you prefer to keep track that way. I found that I tallied my containers throughout the day IF and only IF I didn't follow my exact meal plan I had set for the week… if you need to switch things around, you have the flexibility to do so… so lets say you skipped one of your yellow containers that you would normally have at breakfast, you could use that later for lunch of dinner if you like. 

So if I found myself craving a bigger dinner or lunch, I would opt out of a container or two and shift it over to my other meals. Make sense?

So let's say you're eating a 1200 calorie diet, you are allowed so many containers per day of each color… you can make a meal plan based off how many you get of each… 

And each container has a specific purpose:

GREEN: VEGETABLES
RED: PROTEIN
PURPLE: FRUIT
ORANGE: SEEDS AND OILS (DRESSINGS)
YELLOW: CARBS
BLUE: HEALTH FATS (aka avocado hehe)

I decided to label my containers just so I could remember easily which was for which food group… gone are the days of the pyramid of food groups and now it's about the containers!

The great thing about the meal plan is you can do whatever you want without in the selected foods for each container… and it's pretty flexible if you want to have pizza or a glass of wine. BUT you have to SUB THINGS OUT if you plan on having a little cheat treat here and there--if you want wine, you have to take 3 yellows out for the week… if you want pizza, you can have 1/4 of a 12" pie. 

I'm not going to sugar coat it, when I feel restricted, I tend to rebel. So while I KNOW the meal plan has my best interests at heart, any type of plan that says, "no you can't have this" is a big fat NO for me. And while the FIX lets you have little things here and there, since it's only 21 days the point is to focus on eating clean the whole time. My boyfriend did an excellent job with it…. I however struggled. But I see it like this, I plan on using the fix meal plan and portioned containers from here on out, so it's a learning curve. I would give myself a B when it came the meal plan. The only thing I want once a week is a cheat meal. I need balance. But that's just me. 

You can come up with some pretty great meal plans, I would suggest for your first round to make  it easy and to really cement the habit. 

Be prepared to prep food ahead of time and portion it off, while it may take more time and diligence, thats how you BUILD a good habit, through CONSCIOUS consistent effort! 

My boyfriend and I both experience an increase in energy, alertness and clarity. Our workouts weren't as draining and we felt energized after. So think of food as fuel! 

I hope this helped, just know that the 3 P's of nutrition are KEY! Think: PLAN, PREP AND PORTION! 

If you have more questions in regards to the fix, making me your personal coach, or joining my FIX Accountability group on FB (there's a bunch of us ladies in there on our 21 day journey together) 

CLICK HERE

and fill out the form, this will give me a better idea of how I can help you reach your 21 day goals and even beyond that. Can't wait to meet you!