As of yesterday, Jenn and I embarked on a diet plan called The 21-Day Fix, in conjunction with the well-known Shakeology program. Founded upon the concepts of clean eating and portion control, the three-week program includes flavored shakes that are packed with essential nutrients, an extensive cookbook full of seemingly delicious meals, and exercise DVDs. To make portion control easy, the subscription kit comes with a collection of color-coded containers for the rationing of your daily allowances of proteins, fruits, vegetables, starches, and healthy fats. Based on your starting weight, you’ll be assigned a daily calorie intake, which corresponds to a certain number of each type of container. All of the food you eat has to fit neatly within each container, and the recipes are specially designed to ensure this. From what I understand so far, the exercise program requires at least a half-hour of high-intensity, no-rest activity per day. Admittedly, I’m hopelessly out of shape right now, so we’ll see how that goes.

At the end of each of the three weeks, I’ll write an update to detail my progress, describing any physical side effects that I feel as I rid my system of the unhealthy fats, processed sugars and useless carbohydrates that I normally pump into it. I’ll discuss the meals that I’ve eaten (complete with pictures), review the exercise regimen, and document any weight loss and changes in my physical dimensions which I took to start out. I will follow the program faithfully, and hopefully it will incite a proper lifestyle change as Jenn and I attempt to slim down and get a bit healthier before our wedding next April, I will give you an overall view of the program at the end of it, and hopefully I can say that it’s worth going through.

My starting weight is 188.5 pounds, which is just a few pounds shy of the heaviest I’ve ever been. My starting measurements are listed below, for the sake of an ending comparison. That’s right, you’re getting everything!

Neck: 17″

Chest: 41.5″

Left Bicep: 14″

Right Bicep: 13.5″

Waist: 39″

Stomach: 39″

Hips: 41″

Left Thigh: 23″

Right Thigh: 22″

Left Calf: 16.75″

Right Calf: 17″

I’ll meet you back here next week for the first update!