I woke up this morning and started working right away on the computer. I was drinking coffee and doing my thing and totally lost track of time. A few hours later, my stomach reminded me that I was FAMISHED because I usually eat breakfast right after I wake up. I wanted to the quickest thing possible so I threw together some water, ice and vegan chocolate Shakeology in my shaker bottle, and 10 seconds later, breakfast was served. While I was drinking it, I thought to myself, "What did I do before Shakeology"? And then, "I totally need to write a blog post about this"!

The reason I thought I should share this with you is because the, "What did I do before Shakeology?" thought made me laugh to myself. The reason it made me laugh was because I was the biggest skeptic! I thought that drinking your food was the stupidest thing. Why drink food when you can EAT! <-------(This is my inner fat kid speaking haha) 

What changed my mind? 
I just started doing a Beachbody workout (Insanity) and saw all the information about Shakeology. I read about it, did some research, and it seemed like a good thing so I ordered some. The first day I mixed my shake with water, tasted it and thought it was GROSS. I said, "See, this is why people eat meals and don't drink them"! But I knew I had spent a lot of money on it so after a couple of weeks of guilt (because I had convinced my boyfriend we HAD to have it), I gave it another try. This time I mixed it with some almond milk and some fruit. What a difference! I told myself, "That wasn't half bad!" After drinking it for a few days I began to feel the effects...I felt more energetic; I didn't crave as much junk food. Most of all, I loved that I could have a meal together in 5 minutes or less that was easily portable!

Shortly after that I became a Beachbody coach. When you find a product that is so awesome, you want to share it with the world! It's just like your favorite mascara or jeans. When someone says, "You look great, what's your secret?" you love to tell them, especially if you you got it on sale! Well, it's the same thing with Shakeology...I LOVE this stuff and yes, I happen to make a little money off of it, but what I want most is to share how AMAZING this stuff makes me feel because I want you to feel amazing too!

Now, I ask myself at least once a week, "What did I do before Shakeology?" It's kind of amazing. I have been drinking it for over a year now and have seen a huge increase in energy, and, what I think is most incredible, is that I have been sick a lot less! But really the best part (for me) is having a quick, go-to meal that I don't have to worry about the ingredients or how many calories are in it.

If you are a skeptic like me, I invite you to just try it! It has a money-back guarantee, so there's no risk. You can order here.

If you want to know all the nitty-gritty details about what's actually in Shakeology and what it does for you, hit up my Shakeology page. 

Happy Shake-ing! 
<3 Kristina

I was so nervous about today. It's easy to stay on track when you are doing something like the 3-Day Refresh. With the Refresh, they tell you exactly what to eat and when. They tell you exactly what to drink and when. Now that I'm finished, how will I know what to eat and drink?! 

Okay, so I'm being a little dramatic, but programs like the 3-Day Refresh and Ultimate Reset take the guesswork out of eating! It's much easier to stay on track when you don't have to worry about what you are eating and where it is coming from. That's why you meal plan! Before I did my grocery shopping, I planned my meals not only for the Refresh, but my entire week. Here's a look at what I planned for my first day AR (after Refresh):

Breakfast: 2 Eggs with broccoli
Snack 1: Shakeology and watermelon
Lunch: Whole wheat tortilla with hummus, spinach, tomatoes and tempeh
Snack 2: 1/2 apple and 6 almonds
Dinner: Brown rice topped with zucchini, pinto beans, salsa and avocado

The funny thing about meal planning is that life doesn't always care how you plan. My friend asked if we could go to breakfast at Snooze this morning so I had to improvise. I planned and eggs and broccoli, but this is what I ended up having:

I only ate half of it because it was so much food! I ate fruit with my breakfast instead of having it with my first snack and toast instead of my whole wheat wrap at lunch. I turned my wrap into a salad instead:  

Today was a great example of how you can plan all you want, but things will come up and you just make the best of them! I was still able to stay within my diet plan while being able to enjoy an impromptu breakfast with a friend.

Exercise - PiYo Sweat 
Holy shit, this workout is called SWEAT for a reason! The puddle on my yoga mat at the end of the workout was proof of that! This has been the longest workout so far and it was NO joke. Again, this was not hard in the way that Focus T-25 is hard (like you can't breathe), but in a wow-I-didn't-know-my-body-could-move-that-way and a how-long-can-you-pulse-a-lunge-for hard. I am beginning to realize that the easier workouts are probably leading you up to these more intense, fast-moving workouts. I can't wait to see what some of the other workouts look like! Until then, I am definitely looking forward to sleeping in and my rest day tomorrow.

Finally, here is what you all have been waiting for: my 3-Day Refresh results! I want to remind you that this is just THREE days, and the point (for me) was to get back on track with a healthy diet. I accomplished exactly what I wanted and FEEL amazing!

Day 1 Stats:                                     Day 3 Stats:
Weight: 114.2                                 Weight: 110.0     
Waist:  33 1/2                                 Waist: 32
Hips:  35 1/2                                  Hips: 35

More questions? Check out the official 3-Day Refresh website here.
If you want your own 3-Day Refresh results, start here!

Final thoughts: I would absolutely do this again and would recommend it to anyone. This was the perfect way to "break the cycle of bad eating" that I so easily fall into because I love to eat out so much and do it without starving myself!

<3 Kristina

The nice thing about a routine is that once you get into it, it makes everything else so easy! You know exactly what's going to happen next. I still didn't get much sleep but today seemed pretty easy.

Food: 
Breakfast-Vegan Chocolate Shakeology and blueberries.

Mid-Morning-Fiber Sweep. I added a bit more water today and chugged it as soon as I gave it a few good shakes. MUCH better! I'll have to remember to do that the next time I do I do the Refresh.

Lunch-An apple, celery, peanut butter and a Vanilla Refresh shake.

Snack-Cucumber and hummus.

Dinner-Vanilla Refresh shake and sir fry again.

Exercise: 
PiYo-Define-Upper Body-I think it's hard to get a real feeling for a workout the first few times you do it because you are still trying to learn the moves. Because I did this workout before (I tried it on Saturday when I bought it at Summit), I knew what to expect. The workout was still pretty easy, but I think I got more of a workout because I knew the moves. 

Feel: 
I felt great! I wasn't hungry at all today. I was exhausted around 4pm, but I think that was more from lack of sleep. I took a walk around the block and it definitely helped perk me up.

Takeaways for Today: 
I can't believe today was the final day! That was almost TOO easy. I'm really glad that I prepped my food for the rest of the week (I'm following the PiYo meal plan) so that I can continue eating healthy. For me, this is not about losing weight, though that is a nice perk. More importantly, I know that I FEEL better, physically and mentally, when I eat well. I have so much more energy and I get more stuff done!

Tomorrow, I will post my final results and thoughts about the 3-Day Refresh. If you can't wait that long to get started, order yours now! 

<3 Kristina

Well, today wasn't any easier than yesterday! Last night, I had a second wind that came on at bedtime, so after about six hours of sleep, my alarm went off way sooner than I wanted it to. 

I crawled out of bed and stepped on the scale. Down three pounds already! Don't get me wrong, I know I didn't lose three pounds of fat, but it still feels good to have the number going down. I made it through my second PiYo workout and was feeling much better once I had finished. With the rest of my water down the hatch, I got ready for work and drank my Shakeology. Looks like a routine already!

Food: 
Breakfast-Vegan Chocolate Shakeology and half an orange.

Mid-Morning-Fiber Sweep. I tried to add a little more water today and drank it right away. Still gross...like drinking snot. At least it doesn't taste bad. I remembered to drink it a little earlier today so that I wouldn't be famished by lunch.

Lunch-Watermelon, celery, peanut butter and a Vanilla Refresh shake. Sound familiar?

Snack-Carrots and hummus.

2nd Snack-So they didn't put this in the guide, but I got home from work and had all the signs of low-blood sugar (I know how I feel during long bike rides where I don't eat properly and this felt exactly like that). At first I thought I was just really tired; I wasn't thinking straight, I had really low energy and was just out of it. I drove home from work and parked my truck about a foot and half away from the curb and even though I recognized the issue, I still said "screw it" and went inside. A little part of my brain told me that I should probably eat, so I listened and ate some watermelon. Holy moly, what a difference! I immediately perked up and went back outside to re-park my car (this time not in the middle of the street haha). 

If you are doing the Refresh and feel woozy or unwell, please don't fear eating! Just make sure it's something that is Refresh-approved. I promise that the 50 calories of watermelon I ate (or whatever you choose to eat) is not going to ruin the results!

Dinner-I'm not sure if it was because I had the watermelon or what, but I am STUFFED. Sounds weird when all I had was the Vanilla Refresh shake and a salad.

Exercise: 
PiYo-Define-Lower Body-I am still trying to get used to the fact that you don't really get your heart rate up in this program (at least not for the 3 workouts I've done so far). I definitely have it in my head that it's not a good workout if you don't want to collapse and die on the floor (Thank you, Insanity for that view on fitness haha). However, I am TRUSTING the process and following the plan exactly. The workout wasn't difficult like P90X is difficult, but I definitely sweated some.

Feel: 
I battled the same headache and brain fog today. I wonder if it's from lack of sleep or lack of calories, or some of the other reasons I talked about yesterday. Otherwise, I felt pretty good! I'm a little sore, but I am not positive it's from the PiYo workouts because they don't feel like much of a workout! It's weird though, my legs feel almost achy. However, I wouldn't deny that it could be all the stretching that my IT band and hip flexors are not used to! I had really low blood sugar around 4pm and almost felt like passing out, but I ate a little snack and I was good to go. I still didn't crave the snacks at work which is AWESOME!

Takeaways for Today: 
I am going to eat my afternoon snack a little later. The cucumbers from yesterday seemed like more food than the 5 baby carrots I got today, even though it was the same amount of calories. Volume works! 

Only one more day! 

<3 Kristina

PS-Looking for the link to order? Here it is! 3-Day Refresh

Day one of the 3-Day Refresh and I woke up feeling...EXHAUSTED. I just got back from a long week in Vegas at Beachbody's Summit (their annual convention) and took a long nap when I got home. This threw my sleeping schedule out of whack so I didn't get to sleep until WAY after my usual bedtime. This caused me to accidentally trun my alarm off and slept an extra 30 minutes from when I meant to wake up. Rough start! 

I also chose today as the beginning of my PiYo journey. It seemed like an easy enough program that I could still have a good workout without being worried about having enough calories. They suggest you do mild to moderate exercising while on the 3-Day Refresh, so I thought PiYo would be perfect.

The first thing you are supposed to do is drink 8-12oz of water. I filled up my glass and drank while I took my before pics and measurements and put in my PiYo DVD. After my workout I got ready for work. I am glad I did all my prep on Sunday so that I didn't have to worry about anything but peeling an orange, shaking my Shakeology with water, and grabbing my lunch bag when I left for work.

Food: 
Breakfast-Vegan Chocolate Shakeology and half an orange.

Mid-Morning-Fiber Sweep. YUCK! I seriously DISLIKE chia and I waited a few minutes too long to drink this. I will add more water and chug it right away tomorrow.

Lunch-Watermelon, celery, peanut butter and a Vanilla Refresh shake. The shake tasted like other protein shakes I've had. Not bad, but not great.

Snack-Cucumbers and Hummus.

Dinner-Stir-Fry and Vanilla Refresh Shake.

Exercise: 
PiYo-Align: The Fundamentals-This is the intro disk that shows you how to do all the moves. Not really that much of a workout, but that was okay considering how I was feeling.

Feel: 
I've had a slight headache and brain fog all day which could be from caffeine withdrawal, lack of sleep, sugar withdrawal or all of the above. I've peed like a million times. However, I wasn't ever hungry except for when I waited way too long to drink my Fiber-Sweep and had to wait another hour before I could eat lunch. AND I didn't even crave any of the snacks that we have at work, which is UNHEARD of. Pretty stoked.

Takeaways for Today: 
Don't wear pants that need a belt tomorrow. It takes WAY too long to go to the bathroom! Food was great. It didn't seem like a lot but I definitely felt full.

I can't believe one day is already gone! This is a snap. 

Do you want to try the Refresh for yourself? You can get it here.

<3 Kristina

The 3-Day Refresh is Beachbody's newest addition! Similar to the Ultimate Reset (just a lot shorter), this three day cleanse is the perfect way to jumpstart some healthy habits and lose some quick pounds!

The plan is so simple, there are only 6 steps.
1. Drink as much water as possible.
2. For breakfast, drink Shakeology and eat a piece of fruit that you choose from a list.
3. During mid-morning, drink a supplement called "Fiber Sweep."
4. Pick lunch from a list of fruits, vegetables and healthy fats (you get to eat one of each). In addition, drink the provided "Vanilla Fresh" protein shake.
5. For an afternoon snack, eat one vegetable and one healthy fat.
6. Dinner is another "Vanilla Fresh" shake, plus a vegetable-based dinner option.

If anyone knows me, I cannot live without my food! I've never done a cleanse before because I can't stand the thought of not eating real food for days at a time. In fact, I think that sounds downright stupid. Who wants to be starving all the time? This program knows that eating throughout the day not only keeps your energy high, but also keeps your metabolism going for awesome results. Winning!

Check my other posts for three days of intimate reviews plus final results!

Want to order? Find it here. 
<3 Kristina

Today was the yoga workout. I was excited for a rest day and a chance to stretch my muscles. It felt GOOD! 

It was a standard yoga video. There were a lot of the traditional yoga poses I see in many of the Beachbody workout videos. None of the poses were too advanced and if you've done a little yoga before you will have no problem following the video.

I burned about 80 calories (57% from fat though, according to my heart rate monitor).

I knew today was going to be a bit of a challenge because it is my brother-in-laws birthday brunch. If you know anything about me, it's that I LOVE BREAKFAST FOOD.  So I made sure to eat a banana with some peanut butter on it before I left the house so that I wouldn't completely gorge myself when I went to breakfast (one purple one teaspoon).

He chose The Original Pancake House. There was a 30 minute wait with not a lot of waiting room on the inside. They offered complimentary coffee while waiting, which was nice. What was not so nice was their STYROFOAM cups. BOOOOO. Did you know that those will never decompose in a landfill? I shudder to think about how many of those they go through in a weekend.

Anyway, I was PRETTY good. I ordered the oven-baked veggie omelette. I have never had oven-baked eggs like these...they were so FLUFFY! I ordered it with a side of french toast and ate one piece. I also had to taste the pancakes, of course. I had just a few bites, but you could really taste the yeastiness/sourdough flavor. They were also extremely fluffy.  Haha, reminds me of this, but with food: 

Anyway, I figured my breakfast was equivalent to one green, 1.5 reds, 1 yellow and one teaspoon (Well, maybe more than one yellow, but I'm going to let it slide this time).

Then I ate:
-Vegan chocolate Shakeology, strawberries, yogurt, and water. Not as good as the one I make with almond milk, but pretty close! Might be better with peanut butter, I think I'll have to try that tomorrow.
-Carrots and hummus. The blue container of hummus far outweighed the amount of carrots that we are allowed to have, so I added the rest to my dinner (see next).
-Whole wheat tortilla with hummus, mustard, turkey and lots of lettuce. I still don't like deli turkey, but I gave it a shot.

I didn't get to my orange container (AGAIN). It figures that orange is my least favorite color too.

Week one results in tomorrow!

Weighed in at 105.4 (wrong way, scale)!

<3 Kristina

Today's workout was The Dirty 30. I was terrified because I didn't really have any idea what that meant. 

I shouldn't have worried because it was fine. It was a full body workout with both heavy and light weights, plus core exercises like plank. I mean, it wasn't EASY, and I sweated a ton, but I wasn't dead at the end. 

Today was different because I waited until the afternoon to workout instead of doing right when I woke up.

I burned about 200 calories and this workout was a little shorter than the rest at only 28 minutes.

Today was the first day I wasn't STARVING. I slept in a little bit and I am not sure if it's because I wasn't sitting at a desk all day or because I worked out later, but I'll take whatever it was!

As I said yesterday, a lot of the food I planned to eat at the end of this week was bad, so I had to improvise on a lot of my food. 

I ate:
-Banana with peanut butter
-Shakeology with peanut butter, strawberries, almond milk and water.
-Cottage cheese with a piece of raisin toast
-Salad with deli turkey and dressing
-Yogurt with strawberries and cinnamon

I had one red, one green and one yellow left before I went to work. We were crazy busy and I was running around all night. By the time I was done, I was STARVING. I had one bite of lasagna and a piece of pizza in place of my three containers. Not QUITE equivalent, but instead of making excuses I am just going to own it and say that is just how it turned out. This is real life and I am doing the best I can with what I have to work with! :)

Weighed in at 105.2.

<3 Kristina

Today's workout was Cardio Fix (not to be confused with day one, Total Body Cardio).

After my bad eating day, I felt like I had to do SOMETHING to balance it out. I happened to get off of work a little bit early, so I decided to do another workout when I got home. I was thinking about doing my favorite Focus T-25 video which I knew would burn a good amount of calories, but then I had a better idea. The program has an optional "doubles" week during your third week, so I decided to do whatever that workout was. When I got home and looked at the booklet, I was happy to find it wasn't Pilates, but not exactly thrilled that it was Upper Body. However, I figured that because I didn't know what the next two days were going to bring, I should probably do what the program suggested.

I burned around 325 during my morning workout and 200 calories during my evening one.

Today was kind of a shit show because all the food I had planned for the second half of the week I either hadn't prepared or it had gone bad during the week. That left me scrambling this morning to try and figure out what to eat for the day.

I got to work and remembered that it was my CEO's birthday and we had bought a bunch of treats for breakfast. Of course I caved.

I ended up having:
-2 eggs with hot sauce and whole grain toast
-1/3 of an almond croissant
-Yogurt with mixed fruit
-Salad with chicken and dressing

I was going to make stir-fry for dinner, but a girl from my work had left early and told me that she left her salad in the fridge and that I could eat it if I wanted it. I knew I had a whole night ahead of me at my second job and I was already hungry again, so I ate it. It was sooo delicious but large and full of beans and sunflower seeds. AKA, just like the salads that I am USED to eating for lunch, but for this program, definitely over my allotted portions of green, yellow and orange. 

Sigh...maybe I'll get a hang of this one of these days.

Weighed in at 104.8.

<3 Kristina

Today's workout was Pilates. I've never done Pilates before, but imagined it to be somewhat like yoga. This video was very similar to yoga I have done before, except the breathing here was short and fast vs. long and slow. 

It was great to have a rest day now that the soreness in my legs is starting to subside. The stretching felt really good, though I don't feel like I was able to fully do some of the movements because I am still so stiff from my workouts!

There was a good amount of core work between planks and abs. I am surprised that we have worked abs 4 days in a row.

I burned around 130 calories today.

Today was bad on the food front. It was one of those days where you can't get full! I knew I was in trouble when I ate my second meal before I even left the house for work this morning.

I ate:
-My usual Shakeology with soy milk.
-A piece of raisin toast
-Almonds
-Greek yogurt and mixed fruit
-Stir-fry with chicken
-A few snacks from work (pub mix and dried fruit and nut mix)
-Salad, veggie burger, cottage cheese, dressing
-Another Shakeology
I drank black coffee, green tea and lots of water.

I think all my food added up to about an extra red, blue, yellow and teaspoon today. I don't know if it's because I have no willpower or I'm actually hungry.

Tomorrow we have a birthday breakfast at work for the CEO. It's going to be hard to resist!

Weighed in at 105.2.

My goal for tomorrow is to stick to the plan (because apparently I haven't AT ALL yet) and to take more pictures! 

<3 Kristina