Day 548 (T-17) - 21DFX review

Recently I've been crazy with my sons' baseball schedules, so I'm a little behind on this one.  But I finished 21DFX almost two weeks ago and wanted to share my thoughts.  First of all, I will start by saying that I did the "countdown to competition" version.  Which is nuts.  But when I commit, I commit.  So I did the hardest eating plan possible.  Every third day was a "normal" eating plan, but the two there in the middle were hard core.   No fruit, no fats, one good carb all day.  I made the mistake the first day of trying to eat the allotted 8 egg whites (1 protein serving)  in one sitting.  And then almost hurled.  So I had to break the meals into about 8 meals a day in order to eat all of the protein that I had to get in.  And I'm not going to lie, it was HARD.  The thing that I missed the most was fruit.  I never realized how much I depend on fruit as a huge part of my diet.  But I was only allowed to eat fruit every third day.  And on those mornings, I found myself literally hopping out of bed and doing a fruit dance.  Truth.  Ask Jay.  I also missed ice cream and butter, cheese and avocados.  But not nearly as much as fruit.

The workouts are great.   30 minutes.  Lots of sweat. Constant motion.   That's what I like in a workout.  So I definitely plan to continue to keep using them.

So... did it work?  I would say yes.  But I was actually happy with the results after 2 weeks and maybe shouldn't have kept going with the eating plan for the third.  Or if I ever do it again, maybe I will try the regular meal plan instead of the competition one.  I'm saying this because during the third week, I actually think that I dropped too much weight.  And I was on the plan to maintain my weight.  Not to lose.  But I lost.   The other reason that I'm skeptical is that the lost weight came right back after I stopped the crazy eating.  Which may be good for me, but not great for anyone who would like to use this as a weight loss option.  I guess it would give a great kick start to weight loss, but you would have to keep up with the regular eating plan afterwards if you wanted to continue to lose after 3 weeks.  Or even just to keep it off.  

Will I do it again?  Not as I did it this time.  But I would definitely consider a modified version - especially for an event or at the start of bathing suit season each year.  ;)

Results:

proof to my future self that I once had abs

these are the pics of too much weight loss - but that's the reality of the situation - and don't worry, it's back on.  :)