3 Day Refresh Review

Happy Monday my lovelies. Here is the promised and honest review about the 3 day refresh. I did it last Monday, September 21st - September 23rd. What I loved about this cleanse was that you are allowed to eat food. This is not like one of those juicing cleanses where all you can have is liquids. If it was, I probably would have quit the first day. I am proud of myself for sticking to the plan. I did not expect any miracles because it was only THREE days but I really needed a kickstart before I recommitted myself 100% back into my healthy eating and fitness routine. Since it it is on sale this month, I figured now is the best time to try! You basically get the whole program for $10 when you purchase a challenge pack and can get it here if you are interested. Price goes back up October 1st. Now, I will break down exactly how this all went down.

Day 1: I woke up and the first thing I had was my large 10 oz glass of water like instructed. About 50 minutes later I had my vegan chocolate shakeology made with water and ice. We are allowed a serving of fruit as well and I chose a banana which meant that I was allowed half a banana. I chose to blend it into my shake so that I had a creamier more filling drink. This was my breakfast for all 3 days. About an hour after I had green tea sweetened with stevia. Then, I had the fiber sweep which I failed to photograph because this was the grittiest of all drinks. My tip is to mix it with extremely cold water and to drink it fast, chug it. It doesn't taste terrible, it tastes like lemon, but the texture may not be the best. Honestly, it was better than other fiber drinks I have tried in the past but still not my favorite. Totally doable though. I scheduled my workout to be after i drank the fiber sweep every day and it worked out perfectly. I am doing the 21 day fix extreme and I restarted it on Day 1 of my cleanse. I thought it was weird that I had so much energy but I kept going. You are supposed to drink half your weight in ounces of water and I made sure to do that throughout the day. That is key. Yes, you will be running to the restroom 3 times while you are watching the premier of a show like Blindspot but.. it's worth it. Nowadays you can press pause and rewind anyway! For lunch we were allowed a serving of fruit, a veggie, a healthy fat, and the vanilla refresh drink. I was a little nervous about the drink I blended it with ice and water and I was pleasantly surprised. It was yummy. The next 2 days I added cinnamon and nutmeg to it since they are free allowed spices and it made it even better. For my fruit I chose strawberries, which again you are allowed to mix with the vanilla refresh but this time I chose to actually eat them. One serving = 12 medium strawberries. For my veggie I chose cauliflower and I made it into a "rice" mixed with some cilantro and lime. For the healthy fat, i used coconut oil. An hour later I had my tea again. An hour after that, I had my snack which consisted of a healthy fat (2 tablespoons of hummus) and a veggie (2 stalks of celery). I liked this snack so I ended up repeating it everyday of the refresh. An hour later I had some more green tea. An hour after that it was time for dinner which I was excited for! I had cucumber and tomato salad from the dinner recipes it comes with and it was soon yummy. We are allowed veggie broth as well so I heated some up and added some spices to fill myself up more. Finally, we had to drink another vanilla refresh which of course was yummy. I followed it with decaffeinated herbal tea about an hour later and then went to bed.

How did I feel? Well day one had me running to the bathroom A LOT. I am happy I work from home for this reason. My boyfriend, Cristiano, did it with me and said he was normal in that department. Everyone reacts differently but for me that is what happened. My energy was higher and I felt good. I didn't feel uncomfortably full or bloated like I do when I eat junk which I loved but, I was craving a nice juicy cheeseburger.

Day 2: The only differences for day 2 were my lunch which I made a spinach and apple salad with some olive oil and my dinner. I made a veggie stir fry from the dinner recipes that came with the program. Day 2 is known to be the hardest day and people start experiencing head aches because of sugar and caffeine withdrawals. I was part of a challenge / accountability group on Facebook and a lot of people talked about that. Lucky for me, I chose to drink green tea throughout the day so I didn't experience headaches. I also didn't need to use the restroom as much on day 2 only for after water runs this time :) My burger craving didn't follow me to day 2, but I did want cake.

Day 3, FINALLY! Again, I followed the plan. I repeated Day 1's lunch except instead of coconut oil for the healthy fat, I mixed in some avocado. YUMMY! For dinner, I used the spinach salad recipe from the book and it was so filling. I almost could not finish it. Energy was still high and no headaches. I was expecting to have one but it never came. On the last night, I became so gassy. Abnormally gassy and this worried me. I thought because of all the gas I goofed somewhere and I wouldn't get results. I went to sleep a little unsure but slept like a baby.

Results... I woke up and jumped out of Bed Thursday morning to weigh myself. I took my pics and was shocked! 4 pounds down, flatter belly, happy smile on my face. I wish I had taken measurements but I am okay because the pictures show a difference. Cristiano lost 6 1/2 pounds but boys tend to lose weight faster because of all the testosterone. Although.. jury is still out on him. I am not sure if he kept the plan 100%. He has a lot of temptation at work. For now, I will say that I TRUST that he did until he tells me otherwise. Will I do it again? Absolutely! I learned so much about what my body needs. Doing a vegan plan is not for the faint of heart but for 3 days, it is totally doable. i learned that I am not always hungry, sometimes I am just thirsty and water is all I need. I learned what it feels lie to eat right and that makes me no longer crave junk because I associate that overfull feeling with those delicious fatty and unhealthy foods. Am I never going to indulge? Of course I am! I am just going to be smarter about a majority of my choices and follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I will eat clean and health and 20% will be treats in moderation.

I want to hear from you! Have you done a cleanse or even the 3 day refresh? How did you do and what did you learn? Alright everyone, I hope you enjoy your Monday. I am currently trying the new Performance line and will post a review after using it for a while. I will probably review it once I complete this round of 21 day fix extreme. Stay beautiful and healthy everyone!

XO, Chris