First Stitch Fix - Month 1

Get Your Stitch Fix Here

I was so excited to try this service I stalked the tracking for three days.  I am a creature of habit and I buy the same style and then when I find something I like I buy it in multiple colors.  I don't think I'm alone on this.  I knew this would get me out of my comfort zone! 

So you might be asking yourself, "how do they know what style you like or what size I am?" Well let me tell you friends, you fill out a simple survey online.  You fill in your size and what sizes you typically wear.  They also show pictures of a bunch of different styles and you let them know if you like them or not.  Also, it asks you the price range that you like to spend.  So you can put more expensive for work clothes or you can put the cheaper the better for all of them! 

Of course when it arrived I threw myself on the floor with the box and ripped it out.  Who wouldn't?! It was like Christmas morning.  

I got 2 tops, a sweater, cross body purse, and a pair of jeans! 

I loved all of them, however since I've been on my weight loss journey I think that I am bigger than I really am. So, sadly, a lot of the clothes were too big.  What a bummer because I LOVED it all! I did decide to keep one shirt and the purse.  The purse is my favorite color! I got to wear both of them on Saturday when I went to a birthday party.

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad (21 Day Fix Approved)

I am seriously always searching for new lunch and dinner ideas.  I get so tired of eating the same things.  Especially for lunch... salad after salad.  Time for something new and exciting.  I also LOVE LOVE LOVE buffalo chicken and blue cheese. 

I grilled my chicken outside when I was prepping for the week.  You could cut it into pieces and cook it on the stove or in the oven.  However you prefer to have your chicken cooked!  

I made two lunches with this recipe. 

Ingredients 
Chicken
Cabbage Coleslaw mix (1 green container) 
Broccoli (1 green container)
Quinoa 
Hot Sauce
Blue Cheese 

Directions: 

Cook your chicken - I grilled mine, but you could make it on the stove or in the oven.

Cook quinoa according to directions.  I cooked 1 cup of dry quinoa and had a lot left over when I measured using my yellow container (21 Day fix friends)

Steam your broccoli

Heat up coconut oil (or whatever oil you like to cook with) in a large pan.  Add your cooked broccoli and cabbage coleslaw mix to the pan with hot sauce.  You can decide how much hot sauce you would like based on your preference.  Let this cook together for a few minutes. 

Portion your food - one yellow container of quinoa, 1 green container of broccoli and slaw mix, then I cut up chicken and filled my red container and added it, lastly I filled a blue container with blue cheese and topped it with a little extra hot sauce. I prefer spicy. 

I let it cool in the Tupperware container for a while before storing in the refrigerator for lunch.

I heated it in the microwave for about 2.5 minutes stirring occasionally.  

This was very filling and tasted excellent! I highly recommend this recipe!

Looking for more information on the 21 Day Fix or any other Beachbody programs send me an email at ashleyfrancisfitness@gmail.com or my website CLICK HERE

Jambalaya Recipe (Chicken, Sausage, Shrimp & Veggies 21 Day Fix Approved)

Ingredients:
Chicken
Sausage (or chicken sausage)
Shrimp
Celery
1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
1 Zucchini
1/2 Yellow Onion
1 Can diced tomatoes
1 bag brown rice (Uncle Ben's Boil in a Bag)
Garlic

Spices:
2 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Garlic Powder
3 tsp Cajun Spice
3 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Thyme


1. Heat oven to 350

2. Place tin foil in a raised baking dish (usually make brownies in mine) where you can put the chicken and sausage and cover the top with another piece of tin foil.  Bake for about 25-30 min

3. Start by dicing your onion into small pieces. I used 1/2 an onion. Check out my chopping onion blog for a trick to do this quickly with no tears LINK HERE

4. Heat pan with about 1 tsp of coconut oil

5. Cook your rice according to the directions on the box/bag.

6. Place 2 tsp of minced garlic and chopped onion in the pan.  I had the heat on medium so that it wouldn't burn as I chopped the other veggies.

7. Chop about 5 Celery stalks then add that to the pan and stir everything together.

8. Chop the Red and Green pepper and add to pan.

9. Chop one zucchini into round disk then chop the disks into half and add to the pan


10. Stir everything together.

11. I bought shrimp already steamed at the grocery store.  I peeled and added them to the pan at this stage.  You could buy frozen shrimp and cook them to add.

12. Add your can of diced tomatoes and stir

13. I then added all of the spices listed above into the pan and stir it up really well. Place the lid on the pan to let it all simmer together and helps add a little water with the steam.

14. When the meat is finished cooking take it out and cut on your cutting board and add to the pan.  Stir everything together and let cook together for about 5 minutes with the lid on.

15. You can stir your rice in with everything or you can measure it out and mix it in your bowl.

For fix friends you can measure out 1 Red, 1 green, and 1 yellow or however many servings of everything you need.

I used regular sausage because it is what I had in my freezer.  If you wanted to you could use chicken sausage! 

ENJOY!

Do you want to eat clean and lose weight with simple portion controlled eating?  Email me at ashleyfrancisfitness@gmail.com or visit my page MY PAGE and check out the 21 Day Fix! I'm here to coach, support, and encourage you along the way!

Chopping an Onion - Trick

Have you ever had a problem chopping an onion?  

For me my eyes water like crazy and burn! I learned this awesome trick and have not had ANY issues!! It's amazing and it takes 1/4 the time it took me to chop regularly.  

I hope this helps you too.  

Start by cutting the ends off your onion and pealing it.  

Next cut horizontal lines in your onion about 1/2 way down. 

Next cut vertical lines 1/2 way down in your onion creating a "box" with the cuts

Then turn your onion on it's side and slice

MAGIC! You now have diced onion in about 2 minutes!!

Turkey Sausage, Pineapple, Peach, Eggplant Quinoa Bowl

Another new recipe.  I just love trying and inventing new things.  It makes dinner just a little bit better.  I'm so glad that I can share with all of you.  I am always open to suggestions on how to tweak a recipe or spice it up, so please feel free to leave feedback.  

Tonights dinner was inspired by turkey sausage that is pineapple and bacon flavored. Purchased at Costco.  I used pineapple bacon flavor, but I think a spicy one would be a a little bit better.  I am going to try that next time.  I also think you could do everything in the oven/on the stove if you can't get outside to grill. 

I think it would be amazing with fresh fruit, but Food Lion did NOT have anything.  Therefore I improvised and bought canned fruit.  

Ingredients 
1 package of Turkey Sausage 
1/2 jalapeño
1 can pineapple (or fresh pineapple if in season)
1 can of peaches (or fresh peaches if in season)
1 egg plant 
1/2 cup Quinoa (or brown rice if you prefer) 
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder

First things first... turn your grill on or your oven, however you chose to cook your sausage.

Start by chop up your vegetables.  Slice your eggplant and place it in a large bowl with olive oil garlic powder and onion powder.  Slice and dice your jalapeño.  Next, place your Quinoa and diced jalapeño in a small sauce pan that has a lid.  Cook your Quinoa according to the box.  For most Quinoa it's at a lower temperature for about 15-20 minutes until most of the water is gone.  

While that is cooking your Quinoa, place your sausage and eggplant on the grill checking until it is finished. Place your sausage and eggplant on the top rack to stay warm.  Place pineapple slices on the grill and peaches.  I have a special vegetable cooker that I placed the peaches in so they wouldn't fall through.  You could simply heat the peaches up in the microwave before mixing everything. 

Once everything is finished cooking, slice your meat, fruit, and eggplant.  Measure everything in your 21 Day Fix containers. Add everything together in a bowl or on a plate.  My portions were 1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow, and 1/2 a purple and 2 tsp. 

Enjoy! 

Do you want to eat this way and lose weight? Email me to find out more! ashleyfrancisfitness@gmail.com

It's not a diet... it's a way of life :)

Shrimp over Zucchini Noodles

This meal was super easy to make!! 

Ingredients

1 lb of Shrimp (raw or steamed in the store)
2 cups Spinach
1 Zucchini
1 container of cherry tomatoes 
Garlic (minced)
1/4 onion



21 Day Fix Friends - you can measure before you cook this with you containers so you know how many greens and reds you are using!  

I started by pealing the shrimp then I steamed them in a pot for about 5-10 minutes.  While the shrimp was steaming I added olive oil, about 1-2 teaspoons of garlic (you can add as much or little as you would like), and the container of cherry tomatoes to the pan.  I chopped about 1/4 of a yellow onion and added that to the pan.  I let that heat for a little bit.  

During this time I sliced my zucchini in half.  Then I used my Spiralizer to make noodles with the zucchini.  You are going to want to cut the noodles with scissors or tear them apart because they are REALLY long! 

Then I took a potato smasher and smashed the tomatoes in the pan. After I did that I added the spinach to the pan and let the spinach wilt a little bit.  Once it started to wilt I added the shrimp to the pan.  Then I added the zucchini noodles.  Stir occasionally until the noodles are cooked.  Add pepper / salt as you see fit. 

I'm thinking next time I will add some basil.  Also, when I made the recipe before I bought the shrimp that was already steamed at the store and it had a LOT more flavor.  So think about that when you are making this.  When I make this again I will purchase the already steamed shrimp! 

If you want more fitness or nutrition tips you can follow me on instagram: a_franchise or email me at ashleyfrancisfitness@gmail.com

www.beachbodycoach.com/chuckles3515

21 Day Fix Extreme Results

That's a wrap folks! Well at least for the first round of the 21 Day Fix Extreme. I started the second round today.  No breaks between rounds.  This is a lifestyle not a diet. 

Let me break it down for you:
Monday: Plyo Fix Extreme
Tuesday: Upper Fix Extreme
Wednesday: Pilates Fix Extreme
Thursday: Lower Fix Extreme
Friday: Cardio Fix Extreme
Saturday: Dirty 30 Extreme
Sunday: Yoga Extreme

If you have never done a workout with Autumn, then you don't know that she LOVES leg day.  She has snuck leg exercises into all her workouts.  That's right, even upper fix there is a sumo squat hold with a bicep curl!

If you have completed the regular 21 Day Fix, these workouts are similar that you do them once and then you repeat them in rounds.  However, they are not all 1 minute and there are more explosive movements.  Also, you do not get as long of a rest time between each exercise. 

Autumn really stepped her game up on this one.  She has a lot of moves that really tone your arms and legs.  I am going to incorporate her ab workout this round. So once I finish round two I will be sure to share.   All of these workouts involve multiple muscle groups and involves weights.  Additionally, Autumn has added a resistance band to her workouts.  The band is used in upper fix extreme, lower fix extreme, and through the entire pilates fix extreme workout. 

Pilates Fix Extreme with a band.  The first time I did this I wanted to give up, throw the stupid band out the window! I think I spent half the time figuring out how to get in the right position without losing the band.  By the third time, I was starting to master the workout.  I could quickly switch from my back with the band, to all fours, then to my stomach without losing the band from around my feet! 

Throughout all of these workouts there is a time when I say, UGH REALLY AUTUMN YOU WANT ME TO DO THAT! But, I push through.  

My results: 
Weight: -6 lbs
Chest: -1 inch
Waist: -1.5 inches
Hips: -.5 inches 
Calves: -.5 inches 
Thighs: same
Triceps: same

The nutrition guide is what really helped give me the results.  I have not been very good with sticking to a meal plan.  I usually give in to the temptations especially carbs.  This time I stuck to the meal plan, and have 3 cheat meals.  The first Saturday was Valentines day.  I saved my fruit for dessert and we had chocolate covered strawberries.  The following Friday, I really really really wanted Ice Cream. I shared some with Mark.  Then week three on Friday we went to dinner with another couple and I had wine and mashed potatoes.  I also might have had one or two extra teaspoons of peanut butter here and there.  I have a peanut butter problem.  I am already planned for this next week!

I followed the countdown to competition plan.  This means that on certain days I don't get to have certain things.  This was really hard for me at first, but why not go all in when you are going to stick to the nutrition (minus my few cheats).  For my weight I had to have 6 servings of protein, 1 carb serving, 3 vegetable servings, and 3 teaspoons of oil.  I followed this for 2 days then went back to the Extreme eating guide which allows fruit, healthy fats, and extra carbs.  At first I had a really hard time with this because...

a. I love cheese 

b. I love fruit 

c. It was a lot of food to eat in one day

Seriously though I was never hungry on this plan.  Sometimes I had a hard time eating all the protein servings. 

The nutrition guide is on point.  It lists all the foods you can have.  The program comes with different containers that you portion your food with.  No more counting calories! If it fits in the container and is on the list you are good to go!  Also, in this nutrition guide there are new recipes! I haven't made any of them yet because I wasn't sure how to fit them all in with the countdown to competition eating plan, but when I am back to the Extreme eating plan I will be making some!! 

I can't wait to see what round 2 has in store for me :) 

If this is something you would be interested in trying - or the 21 Day Fix (not extreme), please feel free to email me at ashleyfrancisfitness@gmail.com