I found it!

For years I had been an infomercial watcher/buyer. It was a weakness I had. I had owned so many boxed weight loss programs I could open a store. I had used very few of them. By the time the 6 - 8 weeks came around and I actually owned said program I was not motivated to try it.

This time was different. 

I had purchased the 21 Day Fix from beachbody. I had used beachbody programs in the past and they always really pumped me up but this one really focused on the eating part which was where my big problem was. The previous programs I'd tried focused on the workout and the eating plan seemed like this 'oh ya, read the book to see how to eat healthy' afterthought. So I didn't read the books, I did the workouts, until I quit from not seeing results because I overate my workouts. (Yes you CAN ruin what you do in the gym in the kitchen). 

This time was different.

The book was small - ok, that's not intimidating. I had seen the infomercial a hundred times so I already kind of knew what it was about. I flipped through the pages and the eating plan wasn't a stupid crazy plan where I had to eat 8 beets, 12 tomatoes, and a head of cabbage a day either. So...hmm....maybe I could do this. It was only 21 days. I could do anything for 21 days and if I really gave it 100% of my effort it's either going to help me stop this train wreck or ....well, I had nothing to lose. Since I have to do this alone and there was no scheduling problem or distance to drive, there was simply deciding that I wanted it. 

This time WAS different! 

I started by simply following the eating plan. I hated working out and in the past I had always fallen into this weird pit of working out = need to eat more cause I'm starving all the time. But so far I couldn't even eat all the food that I was supposed to eat each day and I felt like I had it down so....I needed to add the workouts. The workouts were hard and I knew I had a LOT of room for improvement. I couldn't even do what the modifier girl did. I was tired and sweaty from the 2 minute warm-up and I couldn't even do the full jumping jacks. I liked the fact that when I followed this eating plan I had enough energy each day to do the workouts which means it took less "willpower" of which I had none. I just followed the plan -- day after day -- I started an online group and posted how I was doing, asked others if they wanted to join me (crickets for a while) and just kept following the program. This wouldn't stop me though. The workouts weren't sabotaging my eating which was awesome! It did make it so that I ate all the food that was called for in a day. 

By week 2 I realized that this was working! I wasn't overeating, I wasn't lacking energy and dragging my tired butt upstairs to workout, I actually was seeing myself being able to do more and more, I was getting stronger, I had better balance, this was working!!! It's like this lady created a program that when you actually just do what she says you get what she says you'll get - Wow, what a novel concept! 

By week 3 (the end of 21 days) I had lost 11 lbs and my clothes were fitting better! I realized that I could do it. I was doing it! This isn't difficult....I found the recipe. Over the course of a few rounds I started keeping track of my measurements and I was seeing amazing results there too. For the first time in 20+ years I believed that I had this licked! I knew the recipe and if I followed it I would get the result because it was no longer a guessing game, it was a for sure win. Now it was up to me.