This post highlights what it's like to do the 4&2 plan with Take Shape for Life according to my own experiences. This program is for people who want to lose weight and typically exercise over 45 minutes, 4+ days a week.
Day 1:
Exercise: 1 hour U-Jam.
Meals: It's typical that a new routine is hard to adjust to. For me, I realized that it's not easy eating every 2-3 hours without planning ahead. But I did pretty good for the first day. My lean and greens were simple due to time and what I had available. No cooked veggies today, and yet no salad because I chose two "lean" options which meant no healthy fats needed... And I don't like salad without dressing. The last item of the day was the cookie dough soft bake. I never cook it. Just eat it like cookie dough... Yum.
Day 2
Exercise: both kids ill. Didn't exercise because my daughter was super sick and slept most of the day. That means the kitchen temptation was always prevalent.
Meals: Meals were still very tasty though. Started with the berry cereal, then had a spinach and mushroom omelette with one full egg and the rest egg whites. After lunch I had cookie dough, then honey mustard pretzels with 2 laughing cow light wedges (1 healthy fat). For dinner I had salmon with cauliflower rice (cooked in chicken broth and drained for flavor) mixed with mushrooms sautéed with a little olive oil and srirachi sauce (2 condiments). Ended the day with a mint bar... Had some almonds as my optional snack but was still hungry. I know that's normal, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
The rice really was very good when mixed with the mushrooms with srirachi sauce.
Day 3
Exercise: kids were sick, didn't get to exercise.
Meals: Today was hard and I was constantly hungry. Aside from the food below, I had some almonds and a small pickle as my optional snack for the day. Also tried a pancake as a crepe with vanilla extract and ricotta cheese. It was delightful. The salad had tuna with mayo, and the other meals is the asparagus salad found on the Medifast lean and green meals online.
Day 4
Exercise: sunday... No exercise
Meals: I tried the crepes again, but this time I mixed the blue berry soft bake with the pancakes (like I always do to make yummy pancakes. Not sure what went wrong but all four batches got botched up and tore. O well. It still tastes good. Didn't feel like cooking anything else so went for easy lean and greens.
Day 5
Exercise: 1 hour Zumba
Meals: Ate the last crepe. Didn't look pretty but it tasted good. Was on the go so had cucumbers and string cheese for one of my lean and green meals. Later on, had a mint bar, then chicken breast with sautéed veggies, follows by cinnamon pretzels and another mint bar.
Day 6
Exercise: 2 hours Zumba. Crazy physical day. Got in 19,000 steps for the day.
Meals: feeling so much better now that I am eating right and getting the sugar out of my system. Felt good especially during my two classes. Here's what I ate : caramel crunch bar, Berry cereal, salad with chicken, hot cocoa, chicken with side salad from McDonald's, cinnamon pretzels with laughing cow cheese wedges.
Day 7
Exercise: None. Now other child is really sick. Only 7000 steps today
Meals: running out of "on the go" meals (and 5 days til my next order comes). So I cooked up 8 servings of spiced pancakes mixed with the blueberry soft bake. Hence why I had them for three of my meals. Also had eggs with a side of asparagus and sautéed, curry seasoned cauliflower, Some honey mustard pretzels and a green salad with eggs, ham and avocados for dinner.
FIRST WEEK WEIGHT UPDATE
Lost 5.2 lbs this week and feeling good.
Day 8
Exercise: none. Walked to park with kids.
Meals: today felt weird. I was actually full a lot and couldn't finish all my food. Not a normal feeling for me. Started with the Berry cereal and later the Pineapple Mango smoothie. My lean and greens were rotisserie chicken with cucumbers and 1/2 an avocado. Then I had plain greek yogurt flavored with crystal light along side a bowl of zucchinis and peppers with buttermilk ranch dressing.ended the day with pretzels... Didn't get my last meal in cause I was so full. Will work better with that tomorrow.
Day 9
Exercise: 1 hour Zumba
Meals: today was a good day and I stayed on plan really well. Even made spaghetti using cans of diced tomatoes, ground lean sausage and zucchini noodles. Had peppers and greek yogurt in the morning, then pancakes, pretzels, and chocolate chip soft bake.
Day 10
Exercise: none. Just a walk around the neighborhood.
Meals: today was hard. We spent the day at the in-laws and had a birthday dinner of pizza brownies and ice cream... So I packed my lean and greens and meals for the day. I ate the spaghetti sauce with spaghetti squash for lunch and dinner (didn't take a pic though). Went really well... Until the pizza came out. Wasn't strong enough yet for that. Had a tiny sliver of a piece. Darn. Immediately back on track though.
Day 11:
Spent the day at in laws and didn't take pictures. It was a good day though.
Day 12:
Exercise: 1 hour U-Jam, 17,000 steps
Meals: pancakes, eggs cooked with peppers and onions (condiment), hot chocolate, pretzels, and greek yogurt ham and spaghetti squash. Can't wait to get my box of new food. Getting sick of pretzels.
Day 13
Exercise: 1 hour Zumba, 18,920 steps
Meals: was hard today. Realized my weaknesses are pizza and Mac and cheese. Not that they are amazing foods, just stirs up memories from childhood, I guess. Tried the beef soup today. Plain seemed to lack creativity, but cooked it on the stove with onion powder and a little steak seasoning and it was really good.
Day 14
Today was not a good day. Let's just say I discovered something interesting. My bad eating choices are directly related to my habit in fnt of the screen. The more shows I watched the worse my choices become. By mid afternoon I decided not to go down that path and get back on track with one of my favorite lean and greens. This one used zucchini noodles, shrimp, a can of tomatoes and a few other things. Here's the original recipe.
Day 15
Debated about waiting until after Saturday to restart (since I have a 3 hour Zumba event that day)... But decided I didn't want to wait. Feeling great today and taught a 1 hr Zumba class today.
Meals: had pretzels, mint bar twice, eggs with spinach and mushrooms and my favorite lean and green for dinner. Ended with a berry smoothie.
Day 16
Exercise: 3 hours Zumba
Meals: I made it! I survived. Phew. Mint bar, Berry smoothie, ham and cucumbers (wanted something light before I went to workout. For dinner I had the noodle stuff again, but there wasn't any shrimp left, so I added mozzarella cheese for that stringy goodness. Ended the day with two bars. So glad to have my new shipment. I was getting sick of pretzels.
