Fit Teacher Mama: Beachbody 3 Day Refresh Review

I had been wanting to try the 3 Day Refresh for some time. I knew my body had hit a plateau and I need to reset my system. Plus I was going on a road trip where I knew I would not be eating great and would need to flush my system. I had heard great things about the 3 Day Refresh from friends and fellow coaches who had tried it and thought it might be the boost I needed to get me over my slump. So, I ordered the set (minus Shakeology since I already have that) but waited a bit to do it. I guess I was waiting for the right time to do it. In hindsight, there really is not RIGHT time other than just a few less busy days that you can focus on meals. I can tell you that there are many WRONG times to do it but I will come to that in bit.

Before I got through each of my days, here is a quick rundown of what the 3 Day Refresh is. The refresh is a very simple eating plan that incorporates fruits, veggies, healthy fats, Shakeology, and the other 2 Refresh components: Fiber Sweep and Vanilla Fresh Shake. Each day is mapped out for you with exactly what to eat in specific amounts. It doesn't seem like a lot of food at first but once I started eating that way it want bad. The plan offers a lot of alternatives for the fruits and veggies as well as options to prepare dinners.

So let me dive right into each day. There are 6 basic times that you will be eating or drinking something during the day. With an optional 3 more. The other 3 options are unsweetened herbal or green tea, one in the morning after the fiber sweep, one in the afternoon after the afternoon snack and one in the evening after dinner. These are the basics to each meal:

Wake up and drink water immediately. Not a problem for me. I already drink an 18 oz glass of water before my morning coffee. Notice that you dont see COFFEE on this anywhere. They recommend that you dont have it at all and if you do, no sugar and no milk. You may use Stevia.
Shakeology for breakfast. Again, no problem for me. I already do that most of the time or have it for my after workout supplement. You can have fruit with it too, either in the Shakeo or by itself. The only issue I had with it is that I always make my Shakeo with Almond Milk and you can only use water for these. Adding the fruit to it helped but just wasn't the same.
Fiber sweep. Nothing that is a straight fiber drink made with flax, chia and psyllium seed husk is going to taste good. We have to get used to that fact. Tip: use water as cold as possible in a shaker cup and drink it fast. It has a citrus taste to it, which wasn't bad, but if not mixed well it can get thick and hard to take.
Lunch: Vanilla Fresh Shake, Fruit, Veggie and Healthy fat. The Vanilla Fresh Shake is different than the vanilla Shakeology, and it also has to be made with water. It has 20 grams of plant based protein, 22 essential vitamins and minerals, probiotics for digestion and helps curb hunger during the 3 day. It tastes just a little different than regular vanilla but was definitely tolerable. I dressed it up with some of the guild free option they give you like cinnamon, vanilla, orange extract and lemon extract. You also get a fruit option with lunch that can be added into the shake to improve taste and texture. The last thing you get for lunch is a veggie option and a healthy fat option such as hummus or coconut oil, if you choose to stir fry some of your veggies like I did. I also tried asparagus for the first time doing this. I had been wanting to try ti for a while but dont really know how to cook it. So I used some coconut oil, sauteed them in a pan until tender and put a little Salt Free Mrs. Dash on for seasoning. Pretty good. The next day I did basically the same thin with spinach. I dont really eat spinach by itself. I love it on pizza or in quiche or omelets, but not by itself. This way, with the Mrs. Dash was tasty. I also think there is some thing special about coconut oil. It makes things taste better.
Afternoon snack is a veggie and a healthy fat. Most of the time I had either celery or carrots with hummus. It was easiest for me and it is something I already have. You just have to be very careful with measuring out only the amounts the plan allows.
Dinner: Vanilla Fresh Shake and 1 "Dinner Recipe". Another shake for dinner, but it does fill you up and as long as you dress it up with guilt free options, they won't get boring. The "Dinner Recipe" is a list of recipes in the program guide that are made for only 1 person. All ingredients are already measured out so you dont made a huge bowl of something then have to only dish out your portion. One of them is a veggie stir fry. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't use the recipe. I have stir fry frozen veggies in the freezer that had the exact same ingredients as the recipe so I just stir fried them in some extra virgin olive oil (also in the recipe) and added a little Salt Free Mrs. Dash and they came out great. The second day I made the recipe for Tomato & Cucumber Salad but I made at large batch and had it two days with some for my hubby to spare. It is one of his favorites.

One of the things I struggled with the most the first day was a schedule. I chose to do the tea options because I wanted to get as much in my body as possible and avoid being hungry. So I set alarms for myself on my phone and labeled them with whatever I was supposed to eat or drink at that time. It really helped but in the end I modified my times a bit, especially in the morning.

WATER: Be prepared to drink a lot of water with the 3 Day Refresh. Adding up all the water in the the shakes, fiber sweep and all 3 tea options is a whopping 72 ounces. They recommend you drink more in addition to all that. I usually took in over 100 ounces a day. Beachbody recommends that you should take in half you body weight in ounces of water per day every day. This is one think I struggle with but definitely got more than enough on the 3 Day Refresh.

EXERCISE: Because the 3 Day Refresh is calorie restrictive, intense exercise should not be done. This is a recommendation in the program guide but I learned it the hard way. They suggest light exercise such as walking or even just playing in the yard with the kids. I however had a moving job to do on my third day that HAD to be done. I am moving schools and I have to pack and move my classroom. So I pack up my car with as much as I could fit and took it to my new school: all by myself. I didn't really strain myself a lot but I guess it was more than my body could take after three days with no exercise, no meat, no dairy and less than 1000 calories per. I ended up with a terrible headache that afternoon that stayed until about 9am, then next morning. So my recommendation is DO NOT EXERCISE or overexert yourself. I was still meeting my step and calories goals on my Fitbit the other days so excessive exercise it not necessary.

COFFEE: The plan recommends no coffee, but its not really the coffee that can mess up the plan, its the milk and sugar that go in it. It says that coffee with Stevia sweetener is allowed, so I tried that the first day. Never again. This is my own personal preference. I love my coffee with Splenda (or Stevia) with Hazelnut creamer in the morning. It is one indulgence I refuse to give up no matter how healthy I eat. I only have one cup, so I indulge. With the 3 Day Refresh I gave it up. After trying black with Stevia the first day, I gave up completely for the other 3 days. It is all or nothing for me. If you are a black coffee drinker already then this is one thing you do not have to worry about but it was huge for me. When I went to bed on the third day the though that kept going through my mind was "Man, I cant wait to have my coffee in the morning." I really didn't care about anything else. Just my coffee. I am aware now that I may have a slight problem. LOL

WRONG TIMES: I said that I would cover a little bit about when NOT to do this. Try to plan to do it when you are going to be home or just not running around all day. There are so many meals and snacks to deal with, it would be difficult to take it with you on the run. I had the opportunity to go shopping with my brother, but I postponed it because I knew that I would want to go out to eat with him and it would be impossible on the 3 Day Refresh. Plus I simply didn't want the hassle of taking it all with me for an entire day. The program guide recommends for most people to do this on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday so that people are off work to concentrate on it. There are always going to be excuses for not doing it and will never be a perfect time. Just put it on the calendar, do the prep work, warn you family and DO IT.

CONCLUSION & RESULTS: Well my overall impression of the refresh is a good one but I think if I did it again I would have to learn to eat more veggies. The plan says that if you do feel too hungry, you can add more veggies to the plan, but not fruit. Now that I know what its all about and what it can do for my body, I will know how to approach it when I do it again.

As a result of the 3 Day Refresh I lost 2.5 pounds a total of 3.5 inches. I feel more energized now I actually think my stomach has shrunk a little. I made a veggie omelet for breakfast on my first day off the plan and couldn't finish the whole thing. Today I am back to eating pizza for lunch, but dont worry, it is still 21 Day Fix approved on a flatbread with tons of veggies.