My 3 Day Refresh Experience

Over the last few months, I've started to notice that my clothes are not fitting as comfortably as they used to and that a lot of my cravings have been for sugary treats and chocolate. Having a sensitivity to chocolate, this put me in a weird place for my health. I decided that with Spring Break coming up and having some time to chill and focus on my health, I would try out the 3 Day Refresh from Beachbody and see if I could get my healthier cravings back.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a Beachbody coach. No I will not be dishonest about this product to get sales.

I received my Refresh a few days before I was ready to start and read over everything in the program guide. It looked pretty straight forward but I knew that I needed a plan. I mapped out my meals and made a shopping list.

I had planned to start on Monday of Spring Break, but thinking through what my week was going to entail, it made more sense to start on Sunday and finish on Tuesday.

I already drink Shakeology every day, but the guide also suggested that I eat salad for a few days leading up to the refresh to get my system ready for the amount of veggies I would be putting into my body. I did this and I think it helped.

DAY 1:

I had my Shakeology for breakfast with 12 strawberries. I put 5 in the shakeo and ate 7 of them. Shakeology always keeps me full for a long time. It was easy to wait a couple of hours to drink the fiber sweep. The fiber sweep is somewhat filling, but not the most pleasant thing to drink. It's only 8 ounces and has a slight lemon flavor. If you can ignore the texture and drink it quickly it's not completely horrible!

Lunch on the first day was cucumbers with hummus, the vanilla fresh protein shake with frozen cherries. This was actually highly satisfying and filling.  My afternoon snack was celery and almond butter. For dinner, I ate the veggie stir fry from the recipes in the program guide. It was actually amazing. I drank my vanilla fresh and also had a cup of vegetable broth that I had heated with some fresh basil. I learned that I needed to drink my shake a little bit after dinner instead of with it so that I would not get hungry before bed. I had some herbal tea about an hour before bed to combat a little bit of hunger.

Here are some examples of the meals that I had.
This does not include my afternoon snack.

DAY 2:

Ok. I promised to be honest. Day 2 sucked. I had my shakeology with frozen blueberries in the morning. I drank green tea since I did not want a headache from no caffeine. I drank the fiber sweep a couple hours later and this time it didn't do much to satisfy my hunger.  I suffered through trying not to think about food. --This is also a mental thing for me. I normally eat small snacks throughout the day and try to keep them healthy. When I finally ate lunch, I put peaches and cinnamon in my vanilla fresh shake and had a tomato, avocado, and basil leaves for lunch. This might not have been the best choice for staying power. I was almost ready to give up. I was full but needed my afternoon snack a lot sooner than I should have. So again, I had celery and almond butter.  It helped quite a bit and I was determined to get through the days I had left. Since I needed the snack so much earlier, I was hungry again before dinner.

This is the one thing I did that I do not regret. I ate about 10 almonds. It got me through to dinner and I was able to cook for my family and make myself a spinach salad from the dinner recipes. I ate the salad and saved my vanilla fresh shake for about 30 to 45 minutes later. I went to bed without hunger that night.

I stopped taking pictures of my meals.

Day 3:

Surprisingly, this 3rd day was a little easier to get through. I went to a play with my boys, niece, and mom. She wanted to go out for lunch afterward. Here I had to be very organized. I got up about 7AM and drank my water and had my tea. (This is backwards from the way the program tells you to do the AM.) After I drank the tea, I had my Shakeology with frozen cherries. This was about 830AM. I packed my lunch which was a small red pepper, hummus and a fruit. I also brought a blender bottle to mix my vanilla fresh shake with water. I also packed a smaller blender bottle with water and the fiber sweep packet. When we got to the theater at about 930AM, I mixed and drank the fiber sweep in the parking lot before we went in. It worked out perfectly.  When we went to the restaurant, everyone ordered some food and I ate the lunch I brought. No one bothered me about it and everything worked out fine.

I did the celery and almond butter for my snack as late as I could. It was hard in the afternoon and I did end up eating a few almonds to tide me over to dinner.

I ate a cucumber tomato salad from the dinner recipes for dinner and waited to drink my shake for about 30 minutes.

And that was it!

My results:

-4.1 pounds

-1 inch in the waist

I actually did not expect to see a difference but it's there. The change in my mentality is what I was really looking for. I thought that I would wake up the day after doing this and just want FOOD!! I didn't. I had my shakeology with almond milk, cherries, and spinach. I will probably have a snack mid-morning but not a fiber drink! I was also worried that I would destroy all progress the next day and not be able to keep off the weight I lost. To be honest, I did not expect to lose as much as I did. My mind will not let me sabotage myself. I am looking forward to this refocus on my health. My new goal is to focus on tracking my food again. I do the best when I do that. I will also be starting 22Minute Hard Corps soon!

Why Shakeology?

"When it's this good, you have to get every drop!"

If you do Beachbody programs, you have heard of Shakeology. All of the trainers use it, and they mention it at the end of most of the workouts. Some of the videos even end on a Shakeology commercial. The coaches swear by it. It took me two years to buy-in and I wish I had found a way to get it into my life sooner.

I used every excuse in the book. I already had a protein powder that I liked . . . it's so expensive . . . how can a powdered drink mix be worth that much money?

The number one thing that most coaches will tell you to try and convince you to buy it is that it's no more expensive than a drink at Starbucks. Just $4 per day.

My response? I don't go to Starbucks everyday. There really wasn't a cost that I thought I could eliminate to make room for the shakes.

Another reason to get it . . . It reduces cravings. I didn't think I had many cravings.

And of course, "It's the healthiest meal of the day!" Well, I didn't really have a comeback for that one but I felt I already ate healthy foods so it couldn't be that big of a deal.

What convinced me? My energy levels and a struggle with seasonal depression. My symptoms were an overall lack of physical and mental energy. I would feel like I was going to fall asleep in my desk chair by 2:00 PM. I'm a teacher. I can't be that tired. Everything that happened, good or bad was amplified. I fought with my husband, I lost patience with my children, and I wasn't the best teacher I could be in the afternoons.

My students took notice. They started asking me what was wrong in the afternoon. Finally, I was honest with them. I told them that I struggle with my energy levels in the afternoon but that I was working on a solution and hoping that it would start getting better. (I teach 6th grade.)

At that point, I had to do what I said I was going to do and come up with a solution. I had listened to the hype and every single person that used shakeology tell me how great it is. I started asking questions. My coach put me into a coaches training group to help me make a decision about being a Beachbody coach and I saw a video that convinced me that this is what I needed to do.

See, what I had been doing was loading my body with supplements that were supposed to help with my energy levels. The problem is that after years of abuse and not eating clean, my body was no longer able to absorb the good stuff I was putting into it.

I discussed this all with my husband. We decided that I would try it out for 2 or 3 months and see if it helped. If it did, we would figure something out and make it work financially.

Here's what happened . . .

I got my first bag in the mail and started it right away. For the first week, I could tell that it was cleaning out my system. It wasn't a horrible feeling, just a discomfort in my stomach and a little gas. (sorry, but it's true) My coach and others who use Shakeology told me that I would feel a burst of energy on the 5th or 6th day. I was skeptical. How could that happen for everyone that uses it? Aren't our bodies all different? Well, it happened. By the 5th day, there was no way I was giving this stuff up. I started talking to my husband about it and letting him know how good I was feeling. By the third week, I had him convinced that it was definitely the right thing to do.

One of the biggest concerns for him was financial. Two teachers don't make a huge amount of money. We realized something in the three weeks that I had been drinking the shakes for breakfast. I had more energy at night. There weren't any days that I drove home thinking that I would not have the physical or mental capacity to cook dinner. I can clean up the living room at night, do a load of laundry, help clear the table after dinner. These are all things that I would struggle with before Shakeology. This also meant that we didn't order food or go out as often.

We had been ordering a pizza ($25) every week. There's my shakeology cost. I'd much rather make a pizza and know that the ingredients I'm using are clean and healthy . . . that my family is putting great food in their bodies than eat takeout pizza every week. As soon as I mentioned this to my husband, he actually visibly relaxed a little bit. I could see that he was starting to think about these benefits and what it meant for the family.

If I could, I would buy four bags every month and feed this to each family member once a day. Someday, I hope that I'll be able to get to that point. For right now, I'm going to keep drinking my Shakeology and taking care of my family the best way I know how. By taking care of me so that I can cook great meals and encourage them to stay active. I was one of the biggest skeptics. It took me 2 years to buy-in and now I'm so glad that I finally did.

If you want in on this awesomeness or just want more information, send me an email or comment on this post.

Gina Kupfer
Beachbody Coach
gkup25fit@gmail.com

New Beachbody Coach

My journey to be the best version of myself has a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs. From gaining weight in college, losing weight before my wedding, and gaining it all back again, I have tried a lot of different programs and diets. The best thing to happen to me was finding Beachbody.

After I had my second child, I weighed 215 pounds. I knew I could lose the weight if I went back to one of those diet programs. That's exactly what I did. I even worked out once or twice a week and thought I was doing everything right. Then I got stuck. I needed more. Instead of following a diet, I needed to change my lifestyle and mindset.

A friend introduced me to Beachbody about two years ago. I started with a 21 Day Fix Challenge pack. The best part about Beachbody is that it isn't just a bunch of workout programs. Between the information about clean eating, proper nutrition, and fitness, I was able to make changes to my life that have made me a better mom, teacher, and wife. The best part is that I do it all from home. No traipsing to the gym or running outside in bad weather.

Having this amazing experience has changed my life and now I want to pay it forward and hopefully help other people achieve what I have over the last two years with Beachbody. I made the decision to become a Beachbody Coach. If you would like to know more about what I do or join me on this amazing journey, please send me a message at gkup25fit@gmail.com.

Find me on Instagram: GKup25