I have been feeling a little off lately, not sleeping well and bloated, so I decided to do a 3-day refresh. This is a Beachbody program that involves lots of fruit, vegetables, water and fiber over a 3 day period. This is not a cleanse but more of a reset to balance your digestion and hydration. I started mine on Tuesday. So what did it entail?
- Start each morning with 8-10 oz of filtered water
- Breakfast: Shakeology blended with water + one serving of fruit
- Optional morning tea (one hour after breakfast)
- Fiber Sweep digestive drink (one hour after tea)
- Lunch: Vanilla shake blended with water + one serving of fruit + one serving of vegetable + one healthy fat
- Afternoon snack: One vegetable + one healthy fat or raw juice (at least one hour after Lunch)
- Optional afternoon tea ) one hour after snack)
- Dinner: Vanilla shake blended with water + Dinner recipe list
- Optional evening tea
The program provides the list and serving sizes of the fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. It also provides the fiber sweep, vanilla drink and Shakeology along with an instruction book, recipes and a post-refresh maintenance guide.
Tuesday morning I woke up at 6am and drank a large glass of water. Then I had a vanilla vegan Shakeology with mixed berries added to it. Around 8:45 am, I had a glass of green ginger tea. (I found when I have done this in the past, the tea really helps with any hunger pains.) A little after 10am, I drank the Fiber Sweep. For best results, you really need to put this in a shaker cup and make sure it’s mixed thoroughly. Otherwise, it’s thick and clumpy. This is definitely my least favorite part! It has a lemon flavor to it but it’s best to drink it fast. Then around 11:45, I had my lunch of a vanilla drink, one fruit, one vegetable and one healthy fat. I added cinnamon to my vanilla drink (a “free” flavoring” and only a few ice cubes so it was more like a drink and not a shake). For my fruit, I was going to have 1/2 an apple but both red apples were rotten in the middle! Luckily we always have plenty of strawberries and a serving size on the Refresh is 12! Carrots and hummus round out what is actually a decent lunch.
At 2:30 I sautéed some zucchini in avocado oil for the veggie & healthy fat. Dinner was at 5pm and was a nice little veggie stir-fry with another vanilla drink. I kept with the cinnamon since it was so good at lunch. The dinner choices are all plant based and range from different steamed or roasted veggies or various salads. There’s also an option to have vegetable broth with fresh herbs. I wasn’t hungry or wanted anything else so I didn’t have tea in the morning of afternoon.
Days two & three I ate the same breakfast, lunch and dinner but I switched out steamed cauliflower for my afternoon snack with a scoop of nut butter for my healthy fat on Day 2. I didn’t feel hungry at all these days and didn’t have any tea.
Generally, it is recommended that you only do a light workout or none at all over the three days because you are only consuming about 900 calories, but I did my normal 40 minute leg workout on Thursday and I added my Recover drink after my workout. BOD has a 3-day yoga program specific for use during the refresh.
So overall, what did I get out of this? Even during the first day, I could feel the bloat dissipating and by Day 2, my digestion was much better and my bloat was completely gone. Night 2 was the best night sleep I have had in over a month. Overall, I also lost 4 pounds. I also feel like my sweet tooth cravings are diminished. I never felt deprived or overly hungry. It was much easier than the 21-day Ultimate reset that I did back in March! This is something I would be more than happy to do if I ever feel “off-track” again.
Going forward, I am looking forward to having healthy carbs and protein again but I feel this was a good building block to help me get back on track with balanced macros and helped to cure my cravings. If you are interested in trying it out, you can purchase it here.
Healthy Girl Lawyer 