21 Day Fix Containers

Seven cute little containers from the Beachbody program 21 Day Fix by Autumn Calabrese are there to give you portion control. You plug in your details to their formula and BAM! There is your number and you find your plan and stick to it. All guess work and tracking calories are gone. I'm currently doing Core De Force and their meal plan follows the containers so I figured: what the hell, why not?

The containers are:

• Green (Veggies) = 1 cup or 8 oz
• Purple (fruit) = 1 cup or 8 oz
• Red (protein) = ¾ cup or 6 oz
• Yellow (carbs) = ½ cup or 4 oz
• Blue (fats) = ⅓ cup or 2.5 oz
• 2 Orange (seeds and dressings) = 2 TBSP or 1 oz

I fell into category B plan which is 1,500 - 1,799 calories a day meaning each day I had to eat four greens, three purples, four reds, three yellows, one blue, one orange and four tablespoons. Let me say this now—that is A LOT of food and there are a lot of issues at hand.

The Containers

Pros: I really liked this aspect because I was raised to just fill a plate up until happy. Seeing how many of each you should have breaks it down in a nice visual for you. It also makes you think about how much of one food group you are eating and if a certain food is worth it.

"Would I rather use two of my yellow containers for toast or for a lot of sweet potato at dinner?"

Cons: They are a nuisance! I’m sure for people who cook just for themselves they would be okay, but I cook for four people, and the meals aren’t always separate where you can measure out for each container. Best example of what I mean is, a favourite meal in our house in a chicken ranch casserole. You have veggies like broccoli in there, rice, chicken, cheese and it’s all thrown together after cooked into a casserole dish and baked off in the oven. There is no way I can measure out my containers unless I plated up everyone else's, picked apart mine to match the containers I need, put it back together, and sat down to a lukewarm/cold dinner. If It was just me on my own, or even me and my husband, I could measure ingredients out before mixing it all together in the casserole dish. Also, unless you meal prep (which I don’t) you are constantly washing them.

The Plan

Pros: My calorie target seems to be on point with what other apps and sites tell me. It isn’t pushing for you to eat way below your maintenance and takes into account that you are working out, possibly lifting weights, and you shouldn’t go below your plan.

Cons: I’ve watched Autumn’s videos and she stresses that you need to eat ALL of your containers to see results. My biggest issue is that this is a "one size fits all" plan. It doesn’t take other elements into consideration like not wanting to be so high in carbs and you can’t change anything up, like by replacing a yellow with a blue. It’s a "this is your plan, these are your containers. End of." Which brings me into my next point…

The Food

Pros: In the 21 DFX booklet (or you can google it) there is a list of what foods can go into your containers. They rank from the best to the ones you can have but should try to avoid. I liked that it wasn’t a ‘you need to eat these and only these’, you get to go through the list and cross off what you don’t like and pick from what you do like.

Cons: Said it before and I will say it again: I struggled a lot to get all of my containers in. Not just that, my body didn’t react well to it. I’m not a big fruit person so 3 purples was daunting but I did it. The result was my face breaking out and I was super jittery. Carbs are not my friends so 3 yellows was awful and I stayed away from the bottom of the yellow list. I ate sweet potatoes, brown rice, wholemeal noodles, Quinoa (all things I still eat) but I was constantly bloated and uncomfortable. Why? Because I would usually eat maybe 1 yellow, maybe 1 ½ but having to eat 3? It didn’t agree with me.

Weight

Pros: Nothing

Cons: I gained weight, plain and simple. I followed my plan as closely as I could, making sure I hit my greens and reds and missing a few purples and yellows here and there. I was working out consistently and I didn’t cheat by snacking on a bunch of crap and yet I gained 5-6 pounds. I know it’s down to the amount of carbs and fruits I was eating because my body just isn’t used to that amount of sugar. When you’re eating carbs AND fruit, that’s a lot of glucose released into our bloodstream, which drives up insulin and promotes fat storage mode rather than fat burning mode.

Lack of Fats

Pros: Again I have no pros.

Cons: Every plan is allocated the same amount of fats: 1. So where the containers gradually go up with each plan the fats stay the same and that just really annoys me. It’s like that stigma of "fat makes you fat" is there in this plan.

All in all, this just didn’t work for me—at all. Yes it’s healthy but it puts everyone inside of boxes that people with certain preferences (such as lower carb/higher fats) cannot follow. It’s too low in healthy fats and too high in the carbs and fruit. Personally, with purple being a cup's worth of fruit the amount of purples you need in a day should be lower so your body isn’t hit with so much sugar. I will admit, though, I still use the containers, mainly the yellow to measure out when I’m eating carbs.

This plan clearly has worked for a lot of people but I know that for myself and many others from stories I’ve read, it’s been a failure. Bottom line, good for portion control but the plan is rubbish.