This year, I joined Beach Body on Demand. It allows me to stream the workouts of my choice in my own home at my own convenience for one annual fee. The cool thing about it is that I can mix and match or change my program of choice at any time, as I wish.
I started out doing 21-Day Fix, and that was my reason for getting the subscription in the first place. My husband agreed to do the nutrition portion with me, and I did both the nutrition and the exercise…the complete program. I did really well and got toned up in no time! I bought a cheap set of portion control containers at Walmart to use with the program…they are color coded and include duplicates of each size so you have plenty of them to work with when doing your meal planning. I got to my goal weight, losing about 5-7 pounds. But more importantly, I lost about 11 total inches on my whole body! My clothes fit, and I could even get into the swim shorts I bought and planned to return because I couldn’t even get them on when I started!
I kept going with the exercise program but dropped the nutrition portion once I got to my goal weight. I did put weight back on (about 9 pounds), but I was satisfied that I was at a great level of fitness, and I felt energetic and strong. At some point in your life, you have to accept that being fit and toned is more important than a particular number on the scale.
I completed the exercise plan about 5 times through, upping my weights to heavier ones for the last 2 rounds. However, I developed bursitis in my left shoulder, and the doctor told me some modified exercise was in order while I tried to get it to heal up without steroids. She had me take Aleve every day for 2 weeks to help the inflammation and manage the pain. I went back down with my weights again, but my shoulder kept getting worse. By the end of the two weeks of Aleve, it was actually more painful than when I started. That’s when I decided to take advantage of my Beach Body on Demand membership to switch up my exercise program to something different that didn’t involve any weight-bearing exercises at all. There are a few programs on there that use dance as exercise rather than weights, so I decided to try out one of those.
I don’t really like country music, but when I previewed the program called Country Heat, I decided that it looked like the right level of cardio exercise for my fitness level, so I went with that one. I’ve been doing it for about 2 weeks now! I have to admit that I really love it. I get super sweaty, get my heart rate up pretty well, and I burn even more calories than I did on 21-Day Fix, largely because it involves constant movement rather than interval training. It’s so much fun that the time just flies by! I’m using the deluxe workout calendar, so some days double up and are closer to an hour than just the usual 30 minutes, but I don’t mind it at all. Those double days include a regular 30-minute dance routine followed by a 25 minutes conditioning routine that combines dance and traditional fitness exercises. I feel great, and I’ve actually lost 3 pounds in the last 6 days! And I’m still doing my own thing for nutrition.
On 21-Day Fix, I found the meal prep to be a necessity to remain consistent with the program, but the meal prep was taking up a lot of time I didn’t have, which meant staying up really late and getting less sleep. I had to cook at night for the next morning so my hubby could take his meals to work for the day, and it was wearing me out since the plan uses 3 meals and 3 snacks every day.
So when I reached my goal and dropped the nutrition portion of the program, I subscribed to the eMeals meal planning service. I have to say that we all love it! My whole family loves the variety of recipes, and we’re trying lots of new things that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise tried. It’s been great! There are lots of recipes to choose from, and we can mix and match from a variety of meal plans to create a customized plan just for us. I love how it makes a shopping list for me based on my selections, and I can have it send that list to the Walmart Grocery website where I can finalize my selections and check out for the free grocery pickup service. I plan once a week, place my order, and usually pick up my order on Monday morning when I drop my daughter off at school. Then I’m set for the whole week!
Between Beach Body on Demand and eMeals, I can work out and meal plan in the most convenient way possible, and it saves me time from needing to go to the gym or shop in the grocery store with the endless checkout lines. I’m loving it all!
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