3 day Quick Fix vs the 3 Day Refresh, an honest review

0 Comments



 I've spoken about this before,  back in September I decided to give Beachbody a try and  dive into the 21 day fix eating plan. I then sort of sampled the  fix work outs along with combat and some of the P90X work outs and the 100's of others available on Beachbody on Demand or #BOD in the social media world. I could go on for hours about how much I LOVE having access to all these programs  right on my computer, and how great all the programs are and why, but I'll leave that for another post.
Part of the 21 day fix is the 3 Day Quick Fix.   In the program it schedules it in  your 19th, 20th and 21st days, which really helps round out your 21 day fix.  In the challenge group I belong to, my own coach likes to  get new people STARTED with it... When I  show you what the general plan is you will see what the whole point is. It is a cleanse but its a pretty high calorie cleanse, most are 900 calories this one I counted out at at least 1200 , you eat so  frequently you are never really hungry. It is CLEAN, so no added salts, sugars or artificial sweeteners and flavors.  It is VERY low carb BUT there  are carbs in the plan, its mainly  high in lean protein and  then some greens to balance it out, NO FRUIT.  So you can see why  if you finish the 21 days off with this you will see ultimate weight loss results, or  how it could be good to cleanse the pallet  to start it BEFORE the fix. It actually surprised me how many people miss this section in their 21 day fix booklets. Am I the only one who read them when they come?
This great easy guide is thanks to Team Carpe Diem!

Prep: I'm not normally the biggest  food prepper, though that's not because I don't find it an asset, but because I do work from home I find certain things I don't need to prep and would rather have cooked fresh.That being said I  almost always prep my  cut veggies and I pre cut  fruits like melon and pineapple, and I often will prep some of my meat.   For the 3 Day Quick Fix, you HAVE to prep, there is no way you could  cook  every 2 hours. It took me about 1.5 hours to prep all my food.  My kitchen probably looked like a tornado went through it, but I had  my ground turkey on one burner (I cooked about one lb ), my chicken was in the oven cooking while I cut up my  sweet potatoes.. I  sliced them into about 1 inch  slices and stuck them on parchment paper and then threw them in with the chicken on the other rack, At this time I also had my fish in a large fry pan  and a pot with   veggies steaming, Some of the veggies I used were  spiralized zoodles so I  pre-cut those but didn't cook them. It is recommended that you steam fresh veggies however  it is ok to  have them raw . I found  awesome containers at the dollar store that   were  an ok size to put each meal in and labeled them. I also set a timer on my phone so I was reminded to eat every two hours.
a look at all my prepped containers  5 rows of 3 (breakfast was not prepped)

DAY 1: I will be honest I  found day 1 no problem, I think like anything you go into it ready to attack it, I got a work out in  ate all my meals and felt great. I  actually set alarms in my phone to tell me when to eat so  everything was spaced out evenly. The only thing I DID struggle with day one was  the oats, I really hate oats, i chocked maybe 1/4 of them down and decided I wasn't eating them for the rest of the  cleanse. It was also hard for me to give up my tea with milk and sweetener  , what I ended up doing was making my tea and putting the recommended coconut oil in it which  was ok,  not amazing or life changing but manageable
Day 2: As mentioned I skipped my oats,  which wasn't a really big deal for me , I ended up with a head ache by mid day and decided to do some yoga to try  and help rid my self of it,  I kept it simple and did the 21 day fix yoga, which is fairly basic  but a good stretch none the less. I got most of my meals in but mid way through the day I was REALLY starting to not enjoy my  broccoli. I ended up going to bed earlier  in hopes of riding my self of the head ache.
Day 3: Again skipped my oats, and  ended up taking a rest day and not doing my work out,  I was REALLY REALLY sick of broccoli   by noon and started eating  just my peppers and  I did eat my zucchini noodles because those I paired with my fish and when I reheated them I would toss garlic and  squeeze lemon and it made them taste pretty yummy, so that and the chicken and sweet potatoes were my favorite meals. I ended up skipping my last two meals of the day also because I was just over whelmed with food,
Day 4: Weight in and measurements..I had heard that almost every one looses 3 to 4lbs and keeps it off. A large part of why I wanted to try this was because  I had hit my initial goal weight, and it was something I NEVER thought would happen  and be maintainable so I wanted to see if 1. I could sneak under it and if it would stay off, and how much weight being on the smaller side  that I would loose.   For me This  cleanse was less about weight loss and more about inches.. I  only lost 2lbs so not the standard 4 but not bad either, but the inches in my tummy and hips I lost were  visibly noticeable.

Results : Weight Loss: 2lbs Waist: 1 inch, Hips: .75 of an inch, Right arm : .5 of an inch  over all the lack of bloating was what I noticed most, and this 3 day fixed closed out my  3rd round of 21 day fix so in total I lost in 21 days 6 lbs and 6.75 inches not too shabby for 21 days!

Review: I didn't LOVE this particular cleanse I think if I was going to do it again it would be before an event, Like a wedding or gala in which I wanted my dress to look its best. That being said I found day 4 when I wanted to have my caffeine and  have some  red meat, I felt really sick that night, so  If I was going to do it for an event I'd give my self a day in between to recover.
I would also tweak the veggies I cooked, I loved my zoodles, and my peppers. I think I would through in some onion and mushroom, and I would cut down on the broccoli and asparagus and add some cauliflower in and maybe try  cucumbers in vinegar for one of my veggies,  more variety would definitely be helpful. Would I recommend it? Yes actually..I do think if you can follow most of it you will have  decent results and be happy you did it, I also think if you were some one who had  a bit more weight to loose this would get you started. Some times when we start a journey we need that quick boost to give us the confidence we need to continue! So yes I would absolutely recommend it. But only if you're going to follow  90% of it.. To me skipping my oats twice and missing 2 meals was ok ,  What isn't ok  is skipping the eggs or the other protein, you need that!  Also eating every couple hours and drinking water is key, if you don't want to do that, this isn't for you. This  plan works because its flooding your system with lean protein, light carbs and  clean veggies and flushing your body with water, which will boost your metabolism That is why and how it works!
3 DAY REFRESH LOSE WEIGHT AND FEEL GREAT!


SO NOW lets talk about the OTHER 3 day cleanse, the 3 Day Refresh, this is the cleanse that used Shakeology and a couple other shakes/drinks along WITH food to provide you with what are supposed to be great results!
This is what the kit looks like, I already had Shakeology so I didn't order the full kit, if you do NOT have Shakeology already you will need to order the full kit!


Prep: There is significantly LESS prep work involved in this cleanse, the main reason for that is that most of your meals are in liquid form and come in the kit. There are a few food options through the day, and they don't require much prep work, I would suggest writing out a plan thought, I did prep my dinners for night 1 and night 2 the night a head because I was working  all day and around dinner time so I didn't want to be starving . Day 3 was my day off so I just made dinner as usual.

My messy meal plan for the 3 days

Inside the booklet are your recipes for what your dinners could be, and what your portion size for your snacks are, as well as guilt free seasonings and  and other little tidbits. The tea options I did drink a couple times but not as often as they suggest you could, I didn't have time for  starters and I also really don't enjoy herbal teas. The tea needs to be decaffeinated, which MOST herbal teas are BUT for the record Chai tea is not!
An idea of what the  cheat sheet in the book looks like!
From Zehrs its pretty decent for a herbal tea, they have a great website which I liked because the box doesn't say decaf though the website does!
Day 1:  You can see above what my plan was and day one I stuck to it  exactly other than  the tea.  It was very easy to follow, I was  VERY busy with work so I ended up having my last snack at about dinner time and my spinach salad closer to 8:30 pm which was fine by me! There is an option to have 1 cup of broth (organic) I didn't have any or feel I needed it. A friend had told me she tried the salad thinking it looked the most filling (and it was) but the dressing was terrible. The dressing called for EVOO and Lemon Juice squeezed, I don't think she read the book because one of your guilt free flavorings is apple cider or red wine vinegar.  So a splash of red wine vinegar made this quite delish. I did prep my salad the night before, my favorite way to store a prepped salad is in a mason jar all veggies on the bottom and lettuce on top, I could have put my seeds in but I forgot and just put them on the side, I did pre mix my  EVOO and  lemon  , it will start to solidify a bit  after 24 hours, so just take it out  and let it sit at room temperature for a bit.  Because you drink one of your Vanilla Fresh shakes for dinner as well , I would  put dressing on salad drink your shake then  eat the salad, it just lets it marinate a bit. I did a mix of romaine and spinach for my salad. They Advise on this cleanse to not work out or to do light exercise, as it is lower calories, I believe about 900 a day depending on what meal you  choose, I was supposed to do BodyBeast Legs so I passed on that since legs are a larger muscle group and  managed to to back instead, and I was fine.
Spinach salad option, very filling!
Day 2: I followed again pretty much the same plan BUT for breakfast I left the banana out of my shake and had grapes instead and didn't have any teas. I also prepped the night before the cucumber salad because I wanted to have it marinate a bit more over night. Again I was super busy as work , so my lunch time  Vanilla Fresh I got at about 3pm and then I had my snacks of 2 celery sticks and PB  about 45 mins later right before my client came at 4 and Dinner was about 6pm. Initially I had wanted to run out and grab broth because i skipped my veggie option at lunch I thought I could slice carrots and put them in the broth for a soup, but  we got busy and that didn't happen so I had my veggie option as a snack after dinner maybe about 7:30 8pm I was maybe a bit more hungry but not enough to keep me awake, which is usually my test... If I'm hungry enough  I can't sleep. If I had to compare day 2 on both cleanses this one was much better, no head aches! I did skip my work out  but I was really too busy to get it in, so it was a bit of that mixed with I  wasn't sure I should push to hard. If i hadn't been busy I think I would have tried to get it in
Cucumber salad meal option



Before I go on about Day 3 , I want to pause a moment and talk about the Fiber Sweep.  First, do NOT let the name scare you! That has to be THE worse name ever! This fiber drink will NOT have you running to the bathroom, it is NOT a laxative!  So do not worry, you can still go to work, or to the store it will be fine. I heard some pretty mixed reviews about the effects of it, and its time for TMI, sorry skip this if you don't want to know this stuff! My friend who did this cleanse said that she didn't do AT ALL in the 3 days. I read that in another review. I read a million reviews before I tried this cleanse to get the tricks and the do's and do not's! What they DID say was day 4 everything did "sweep" and  clean out and all was right in the world again.   For me, I was actually been Pretty normal with  few issues.  I was  a bit bloated feeling on day 2 and slightly less on day three.  In the booklet there are * beside the veggie options  for the lower gas producing veggies.  So I don't know maybe in choosing those you may experience some constipation? I'm not sure That part is all  personal body chemistry.. All I can offer is drink as MUCH water as you can, you need to flush your body of everything! As I mentioned I researched this cleanse A LOT. It is very different from the Quick Fix because you are drinking  most of your meals not eating them, BUT the idea is the same, clean eating, frequent meals and high protein.  I have posted a little video FROM the Official Beachbody youtube channel. There was also another 45 min video I watched, geared more towards coaches (which I am) and they explain that the fiber sweep has Chia seed in it, SO  you need to make sure your water is cold and you drink right away, OR it will thicken like Chia does. I was a bit worried about the taste but it  is fine , it tastes similar to an ice tea, very lemony. I feel like any one who has has had children has probably had to drink that terrible orange pop or the chalk type drink  pre c section before, so if you can drink those this is like ice cream compared to that! Also watch out because there is a typo in my  booklet   I think its the vanilla fresh shake?  or maybe its the Fiber sweet but it says 140 ml of water is what  is to be mixed and then in brackets (1 cup)  one cup is 240 mls its just a typo, as its written correctly  in other spots in the books! 





Day 3: I went back to having my fruit in my shake (If you looked on my  meal plan I choose banana, one serving is 1/2 a banana I had  3 or 4 that were about to turn for the worse so I opened them all up and cut in half and shoved in the freezer so they worked perfect for this cleanse, I hate to waste).
Me with my mid morning and LAST fiber sweep of the 3 days! hooray!
1/2 way done!
The first part of the day went well, I had a day off  and I actually did my Body Beast arms work out, and  did a ton of laundry. Not sure if it was because I was off work, but I was starving by dinner, I probably felt the worse on day 3 of all the days!  Again maybe I shouldn't have done my work out, or maybe I've just had too much time to sit and think about it, I also ate dinner at a normal time and not late because I wasn't working. Could have been the meal I chose for day three, it was definitely yummy the Carrot Moroccan Salad, very easy and quick I would totally make it as a side dish, on a reg night to get some veggies in!

Moroccan Carrot Salad


Results: I probably should have worn the same thing, but I had to take this and weigh in and measure BEFORE I took kids to the bus and ate and worked etc. So sorry you guys get my  bus clothes (plus a shirt ,I typically wear one to the bus). My results were ok, I lost just under a pound, and an inch in my waist,  1.5 inches in  my hips and .5 of an inch in each leg. I've had 3 c sections so there is probably only so much that can be done in the tummy area, and I'm basically at my goal weight (I actually am just below my first goal, and am now coming up with new ones).

Review:  I've been told the best results  come in the next few days, so I will  check my weight daily for the next few just to see whats going on and may measure  in 2 days again.. I always wonder how your body magically knows it's done a cleanse, so I may give my self time to de-bloat from all that liquid! Over all not bad, this cleanse was easier for me to do, and over all I felt better on it, HOWEVER I think I noticed a more visible difference with the other 3 day quick fix. Take from that what you will, keeping in mind  my opinion may change as I continue to weight in over the week.  Over all I would maybe try this one again, but would like to see some one who has a bit more weight to loose try it and stick with it, and see what their results are!





Cheers, Happy Cleansing guys!!

xoxo

Samantha


About Post Author

Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus.

You may also like

No comments:

Instagram

Instagram
samantha1373's slideshow album on Photobucket

About

First and foremost,I'm a mom of three. My other identities include fashionista in the beauty industry, and cheerleader and fitness coach for BeachBody. I also and a runner, and am dabbling into the work of cooking clean and healthy 21 Day Fix approved meals for myself and my family. I love dogs and books, as well as trail walking and adventure seeing. I love to scout out all the beauty Southern Ontario has to offer.

Popular Posts