As I understand it, the food containers originated with 21 Day Fix (another Beachbody program with Autumn Calbrese). The idea between the containers is to help people combine their foods, eat the right foods, and eat at the right time. I’m not sure all the rules around it with 21 Day Fix, but I know the container system with 80 Day Obsession is much more strict.
Here is a little breakdown of the containers:
- Red – Protein
- Green – Vegetables
- Blue – Healthy fat
- Purple – Fruit
- Orange – Seeds and dressings
- Spoon – Teaspoon of oil or nut butter
- Yellow A – Starchy Carbs
- Yellow B – Grainy Carbs
So this is what each color stands for. Part of what we get with this program is a set of colored tupperware, which are the containers. So for a protein, I get however much of my chosen protein (ex. beans, edamame, tofu, etc.) that I can fit into the red container.
For the vegan plan yellow is broken into A and B, for the regular plan there is just one yellow. We also get a list of what food fall into what category, and there is a hierarchy, for example quinoa is a better carb grain that brown rice. And a few things don’t count as a full container, for example if I have a banana as fruit I only get half a banana (even though more than half a banana would fit into a purple container). There are some other examples like this. I am able to check the list and figure this out. The first week or so was a real struggle to see what went where and figure things out. But now we are really getting the swing of it. I imagine this was even easier for people who’ve done 21 Day Fix.
Autumn gives us 7 meals per day (one of these meals is Shakeology, which my partner argues is not a meal because we drink, so you be the judge). There is a workout block, which is timed precisely, we eat 60-90 minutes before working out, then have a Shakeology shake (with half a banana) within about 30 minutes of finishing our workout, and eat a post workout meal 1-2 hours after our workout. All of the other meals are simply spaced 2-3 hours apart. As a side note, for your shake you can sub in 8 ounces of unsweetened almond milk for any spoon throughout the day. Other than that, you can’t move your “containers” (ei food groups) around at all.
On a non-workout day I get to take the workout meals and just mix them in wherever, just eating every 2-3 hours.
How do I know what containers I get?! Before starting we do a calculation. Based on our weight and whether we want to maintain our weight or lose weight the calculation is different. Once you finish your calculation you will fall into one of six meal plans (labeled A-F). There are two options, vegan and non-vegan. So, I fell into Plan B and I am vegan, so I downloaded the info for Vegan Plan B. (Luckily my partner is also Plan B, so we get to eat the same things every day, otherwise I imagine this can get very complicated). Below I am posting a picture of what containers we get with each meal.
The truth is I have been wanting to portion control and do timed nutrition for a long time, but I haven’t been able to do it without some structure. This provided me the structure. Before I would “portion control” by eyeing a slight smaller first helping, and then loading a ton more on my plate for seconds because I couldn’t make myself stick to it. But this structure gives me accountability (and another meal in a couple hours, so I don’t feel like I’ll be deprived).
Hopefully this will help to make the food pictures make more sense. Feel free to message me or post any questions about the containers.
Now that we have that out of the way…..
Monday! Day 1 of week 4, the final week of Phase 1 (there is also Phase 2 and Phase 3). Autumn tells us the workouts will totally change for Phase 2. For Phase 1 we do the same exercises every week, but she mixes up the order and reps to keep our muscles on their toes. So this is it, as we finish each workout this week it is the last time we will be doing those moves (at least until we do 80 Day Obsession again).
Total Body Core was today. Where I could I went heavier, but we were back to 15 reps, which is the most consecutive reps that we do. My muscles were exhausted after the workout, but I wasn’t completely exhausted. Some of the moves were a serious struggle, and I went hard because I wanted to give it my all. I am still feeling stronger and fitter. Throughout my days I’ll choose stairs over the escalator, and feel good!
I’ve posted pics of meals from today and Sunday, since there are no more Sunday posts. We experimented with different types of noodles. We have brown rice noodles and zoodles (zucchini noodles). Both were very yummy.
Today I was on the go. I packed up a couple of meals to get me by until I got home. Then I opened up my baked chickpeas, and they were just moldy chickpeas!!! This was supposed to be my protein for a green/red. I ended up buying a green juice and having them add a hemp protein scoop. Luckily in San Francisco this sort of thing is an option.
