Think the 21-Day Fix is just for women? 

Think again! Today I wanted to share Scott's 21-Day Fix transformation which is pretty amazing for a couple reasons. 

1. He started it the day after Christmas, which meant he was following the plan during New Year's and also a weekend trip to see friends from out of town, and he never fell off track
2. He was already super fit and eating clean to begin with

I couldn't be more proud of him for sticking with it... but the entire experience also cracked me up. I saw him go through the EXACT same emotions that so many of you go though. 

• He totally didn't think 30 minute workouts would get him results... and then I got to quietly smile as he limped around the house the first week talking about how sore he was ;) 
• He wasn't hungry.... so he thought I had calculated his containers wrong because he had expected to be starving
• On Day 19 he told me it wasn't working and he wasn't getting results.... I laughed and told him to be patient and wait until he saw his before and after pics side by side
• On Day 20 he weighed himself (even though I told him to wait until Day 22) and then he was upset because he had lost 10 lbs, and thought he lost all his muscle

BUT... he stuck with it and followed it to a T and was super impressed with his results. In fact, the first thing he did was hop up on his pull-up bar to see if his strength was still there. He got a big surprise when he found out that not only was his strength still there, he was actually able to do MORE pull-ups than usual. And it only took me a year to convince him to try it. :)

If you're feeling stuck, you've plateaued, or you just don't even know where to begin, fill out THIS FORM and I'll get in touch with you shortly to begin your 3 week transformation! You deserve to feel this good!! And as always, feel free to share this with anyone you think would be interested! 

Yes! I have to give my husband all the credit in the world for not only finding, but making these veggie burgers. He found these on No Meat Athlete's website last week and couldn't wait to make them! And the best part is we already had most of the ingredients on hand. 

NMA Grill Worthy Veggie Burgers

• 1/2 lb dried lentils 
• 3 cups water 
• 1 large red onion, diced 
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 portabella mushroom caps, gills and stems removed, chopped 
• 2 cloves minced garlic 
• 1 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper 
• 2 tbsp tomato paste 
• 1/2 tsp thyme 
• 1/2 cup red wine 
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar 
• 2 tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce 
• 1 tsp liquid smoke 
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 
• 3/4 cup ground flaxseed 
• 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten (can also use whole wheat flour)
  

Rinse the lentils and cook in the water until they are tender and water is absorbed, about 30-35 minutes.

Fry the onion in the oil until soft.  Add the mushrooms and garlic; fry until fragrant.  Stir in the tomato paste, salt, thyme, and black pepper.  Let fry for a few minutes.  Stir in walnuts and let toast.  Slowly add wine, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, and liquid smoke.  Stir in the lentils.

Remove from heat and stir in flax seed and vital wheat gluten.  Keep stirring to strengthen the gluten and get the burgers chewy.  Form into ten patties and refrigerate for an hour.  You can freeze them now to cook later, or preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle baking sheet with cornmeal and arrange patties on the pan.  Bake for 20 minutes, then fry in a pan on medium heat with a little oil for 2 minutes per side.  If you just want to fry them without baking, lower the heat and fry for 3-4 minutes per side.

So how many containers are these if you're doing the 21-Day Fix? Here's the break down and also HOW I got that break down, so you can do this for your own recipes in the future. :) 

The first thing you need to do is figure out how many of each container the ENTIRE recipe is. To do that, I measured each ingredient out according to the recipe, and then measured it in the appropriate color coded container. So for instance, I measured out the 1 cup of walnuts called for in the recipe, and then I put it into blue containers to see how many it would be. I was able to fill 3 blue containers with walnuts. I did the same for the flax and got 5 orange containers. And when I added up the onion, mushrooms and tomato paste (it only used a tiny amount of tomato paste, so I counted it as 1 green) I got 4.5 green containers. 

All in all, the ENTIRE recipe was:
4.5 greens
11 yellows
5 oranges
3 blues
5 tsps

Since the recipe makes 10 servings, I simply divided each # by 10 to find out the values of each burger. 

EACH burger is:
1/2 green
1 yellow (can also be counted as 1 red for vegans) 
1/2 orange
1/3 blue
1/2 tsp

I used the remaining 1/2 green and 1/3 blue to add some lettuce, tomato and avocado to my burger, and added a small roll for an extra yellow, but you could also eat this burger in a lettuce wrap. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Be sure to comment below and let us know what you think! 

I LOVE helping people and answering their questions if I can, and over the years I've been asked some pretty fun, crazy and just weird questions. So much so that about a 2 years ago a friend of mine said I should start doing an Ask Julie Anything post, and I'm finally doing it now! 

It all happened kind of accidentally. I kept getting asked the same one question over and over, so I wanted to put it in a blog post so I could just share that post every time someone asked me. That morning, I thought it would be fun to have my facebook friends try to guess the question, and in return I had people asking me all kinds of things, and I ended up having a lot of fun answering them! 

It all started with this facebook post..

Here's how it went down after that:

Rory: Why don't you eat bacon? What does tofu really taste like? Do I have to be vegan to get results like you? ;)
Me: Haha Next time you're in town, Rory, I'll take you out for vegan food. :)
Rory: K. I'm scared but I'll do it.
Me: Scared you'll like it? ;) 
Rory: Hahaha no. Do you have any idea of how picky of an eater I am?
Me: You don't think there are picky vegans? lol

Shane: Where do you get your protein? grrrr! lol
Erica: It's gotta be about the protein. Although I already know the answer. But I get asked this ALL the time.
Tatiana: Where do you get your protein? ;)
Me: Nope! Not the protein. That's too obvious. :)

Stephanie: Is it how much money you make being a coach? Or are people not that nosy? Hehe ;)
Me: And not how much money I make. My teams knows if they ask I'll tell them. And earlier this month I posted that I just replaced my former General Motors income from Beachbody so that kind of gives you an idea. :)

Jenn: Why did you choose to be vegan??
Me: I never intended on going vegan in the beginning. I gave up dairy M-F as a test to see if it would help with sinus problems. It worked! Around the same time Scott stopped eating meat, so we both did our research, couldn't find a reason not to go vegan, so he gave up dairy and I stopped eating meat and the rest is history!

Jenn: Do you get bored working from home?
Me: I could never get bored, I meet new people every day!

Suzanne: Hmm, how about how long do you workout for each day to achieve your amazing physique??
Me: 30 minutes! Sometimes an hour.

Shawna: When/if you and Scott are going to have kids....??
Kasia: when are you going to have a baby?
Me: Lol NO kids!

Wendy: I bet it's "How much do you weigh?" people are kinda obsessed about that one...
Me: No, but that's a good one! I'm actually surprised I don't get it more often. My weight is all over the place. At my heaviest I was probably close to 160 (I say probably because I wouldn't weigh myself then, and that was years ago). Now it varies depending on what workouts I'm doing. When I did Body Beast I was around 140, after a cleanse I did I was 130, and right now I'm 135... all about the same body fat, which is why I tell people to take progress pics. The scale lies!

So what was the question I get asked the most (other than where do you get your protein)? You can find out here! 

After that first post I had so much fun answering everyone's questions that I decided to do another Ask Julie Anything day this week, where I answered some of the questions in a video which you can find below! I've been getting a lot of questions lately about my fitness journey, how I became a coach, and how long it took me to build up to coaching full time, so I'm going to be putting all of that in one big post coming up soon. In the meantime, you can check out a little bit about why I became a coach here and you can learn more about becoming a coach yourself here. 

I hope you've all enjoyed my Ask Julie Anything days as much as I have! Leave the questions you'd like me to answer in the comments below, or add me on facebook and you can ask me in a message there! 

Oh my gosh this couldn't have come at a better time. My husband is a genius! I'm going to be traveling a lot these next two weeks, and staying on track with nutrition while traveling is hard enough as it is, especially when you can't get through security with a bottle of water to mix with your Shakeology. And then, these. These amazing little chocolate cakes of superfood goodness. Not only are they super easy to make, they're also super healthy, 21-Day Fix approved and only use TWO ingredients! (Ok, three if you count water.) 

All you need to make these is chocolate Shakeology (we use vegan chocolate) and ripe bananas. 

Chocolate Superfood Cake bars
4 scoops chocolate Shakeology
2 ripe bananas
water (just enough to mix)

Makes 4 servings
(for my 21-Day Fixer's, they're one red and one purple each) 

Mash 2 ripe bananas with a fork.

Add 4 scoops of chocolate Shakeology to the banana mixture.

Mix banana mixture and chocolate Shakeology, adding just enough water to blend.

Line a small Tupperware container with parchment paper. Press mixture into container to form. 

Flip Tupperware container over to remove mixture and cut into 4 squares.

Dehydrate overnight on low temp to preserve the nutrients in Shakeology.

I told you they were easy! Enjoy! :)

We all know that to get the results we want with the workout we choose, we need to follow the meal plan that came with our workout. Easier said than done, I know. But this can be especially difficult for people who follow a vegan, or 100% plant-based, diet. Sure, you can substitute tofu and protein powders for the animal proteins in the meal plan, but who wants to be living off of tofu and protein powders for the next 90 days? And is it going to be something you'd want to continue after you finish the program? (By the way, that's a good way to figure out if what you're doing is a sustainable lifestyle change. Ask yourself, "Would I eat like this AFTER day 90?") 

Every time I do a new program I try to follow the meal plan 100% (while still remaining vegan) because it's the best way to find out just what kind of results someone can expect from it, and it's the fastest way to get results. I just finished up the 21-Day Fix this weekend and was able to easily do it vegan, and I even did a round of Body Beast, including the competition prep week, vegan. (THAT was a challenge!) 

Over the years I've definitely seen a change in Beachbody's meal plans. They're now focusing more on quality of food, and less on quantity, and they're taking into consideration people's different dietary concerns and allergies, whether you are lactose intolerant, gluten sensitive, Paleo or vegan, and so far the easiest to follow meal plan for vegans is from P90X3! (Other than the 21-Day Fix, that meal plan is in a category of it's own because of it's portion control system, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! It's seriously so simple.)

The P90X3 meal plan gives you a simple calculation to figure out which level of calories you need, and each level is broken down into carbs, protein and fat. For myself, I fell under "Plan A", which is roughly 1,500 calories, and each day I was allotted 5 proteins, 10 carbs and 5 fats. One of the most notable things with the P90X3 meal plan is that you are not stuck substituting things for the protein category, so no tofu and protein powders (unless, of course, you want to!) Vegans are able to replace as many protein portions with a carb as you like, the only recommendation is to evenly distribute the grains and beans/legumes. How great is that! 

Here's what the P90X3 shopping guide looks like for vegans! 

And here is what a week of meals look like! 

Whether you're vegan or not, I'd love to help you reach your health and fitness goals! Feel free to connect with me on facebook and follow me on Instagram and let me know what I can do to help YOU! 

As promised, here is my week 2 update for the 21-Day Fix! First of all, I seriously can't believe how fast this is going. Two weeks already! 

Since my first post, I've had a few people express concern over the size of the color coded food containers. Yes, they LOOK small, but trust me, they hold A LOT more food than you'd think! In fact, everyone in my 21-Day Fix accountability group has commented at some point that they're amazed at the amount of food they're able to eat on this plan, and still lose weight! That's because they're fueling their body with nutrient dense foods. 

This week I bumped myself up the the next  level of calories, which allows me a couple extra containers. I've also been experimenting a lot more with my food. I'm still doing a lot of smoothies and stir fry's, but I've also been adding other things like sushi, sweet potato and red pepper bisque, kale, quinoa and avocado salad and brownie bites. (Yes! Brownie bites!) Now that I'm in the swing of things, food prep has become second nature and I'm able to adapt some of my favorite recipes to fit the plan. 

This week was also the first week I used one of my "Zings", or substitutions. You're allowed three Zings a week, and they include wine, chocolate and there are even a few cookie recipes you can use. I was pretty boring and I used mine for soy milk in my decaf coffee. It's actually been an interesting two weeks, I haven't even wanted to cheat on the meal plan and I haven't had any cravings at all (which is TOTALLY not like me!) It's also been super easy to follow the meal plan using printable charts that can be found here. 

This week also came with some pretty EXCITING NEWS for VEGANS! This week we got the green light to add beans, lentils and quinoa to the red foods category! This news came at the perfect time, too. After two weeks of protein powders and tofu I feel like I've swallowed a brick! I'm also pretty happy I get to add some more fiber back into my diet. So this is what the updated vegan 21-Day Fix food list looks like!

I'm getting much better with the workouts, too. I'm getting the moves down, I'm not as sore, and I'm already seeing RESULTS!!! I can honestly say that I have never in my life worked my abs as much as I have this past week, which is good news because I'm heading on a Beachbody cruise in just four short weeks. After two weeks of doing the 21-Day Fix, I'm down 2.8 lbs, putting my total weight loss since Christmas at 9.4 lbs!

So now that I'm entering into my final week, a few things are going to change. First, I'm going to add in the Plyo Fix bonus workout. This is a free workout you get when you order through your coach (me!) and can be added in any time you feel like doing a little extra cardio, or you can use it to replace Cardio Fix, which is what I'll be doing at least one of the days. Second, I'll be switching over to the 3-Day Quick Fix meal plan for my final three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is a 3-day bikini prep meal plan that is optional for your last 3 days of the 21-Day Fix. It is a typical competition meat and veggies diet, so I'll be pulling out the tofu and protein powders again for those three days. 

This week also came with some other great news! After the 21-Day Fix SOLD OUT only 3 days after being released, back orders started shipping this past weekend. If you'd like to learn how to FUEL YOUR BODY properly for optimal weight loss and energy, reserve your spot for my next facebook accountability group by messaging me on facebook or filling out the form found here and I will get back to you shortly! 

Wow! This past week has flown by! This past Sunday I started a brand new program called the 21-Day Fix. For those that don't know, the 21-Day Fix is a 21 day fitness and nutrition program that focuses on portion control to help people learn how to eat clean, lose weight and build lean muscle. Some of the results coming out of the Test Groups have been amazing! People are losing an average of 10-15 lbs in 21 days, and there are several people who have done multiple rounds and have lost over 100 lbs!! 

I know that a lot of people who follow my journey are vegan like myself, so I am so excited to share with you how I put together my meals every day!  

The meal plan is sooo easy to follow. It gives you calculations to figure out how many of each color container you get to eat in a day. Each color represents a different category of food. There is also a category which uses a teaspoon (which is not included in the package, but hey, who doesn't own a teaspoon?) Basically, you pick a food from the provided list, and if it fits, you eat it! The meal plan also includes a couple "Zings", or "cheats", which allow you to have chocolate, cookies and even wine while on the plan. The containers LOOK much smaller than they are. Once you add the food and get them arranged on a plate, you find that they actually hold quite a bit of food!

The fitness plan includes 8 workouts which range from cardio, cardio with weights, upper body, lower body, yoga, abs, pilates, and even one called Dirty 30, a 30-minute total body workout. All workouts are 30 minutes in length, with the exception of the ab workout, which is 10 minutes.  I got a little carried away at first when I saw there was a doubles schedule (two workouts a day) and it wasn't until day 3 that I noticed that the doubles schedule was actually only for week 3. (Oops! I'm leaving for a Beachbody cruise in 6 weeks so I have abs on the brain!) Thankfully that same day I found out that if you're already used to working out, that you can start the doubles week from day 1. You would just need to readjust the amount of each color you get in a day (and it tells you exactly how to do that. Simple!) 

Below is a list of all of the vegan options for each color container. So many choices! For non-vegans following the plan, your red category is much larger, and there are a couple additional items in the blue category. Paleos, your yellow category would need to be adjusted (I think, I honestly don't know much about Paleo eating). 

And THIS is everything I was eating during week 1! I've color coded everything to correspond with the color of container to make it easier on you. Just a disclaimer: I eat weird. Even before I was vegan, I was totally ok with eating the same foods and eating them in strange combinations. You could totally put these together using recipes and make some amazing meals out of them if you're into that kind of thing. I promise I'll work on doing more of a variety (stay tuned next week for my sushi I made today!), but for right now, it's a lot of smoothies and stir fry's. Nice and simple!

I use both vegan chocolate and vegan tropical Shakeology. If I'm making a smoothie I'm more likely to use tropical, and if I'm just mixing it with water, I almost always use chocolate. And I use a variety of protein powders. This week I rotated between chocolate Vega Sport Recovery Protein and chocolate Sun Warrior raw protein blend. 

And here are my results so far! After week 1 I am down 1.4 lbs! It may not SEEM like a lot, but I FEEL much lighter, more toned, and holy abs batman! I swear, Autumn (the trainer) adds an ab workout on to everything. I don't think I've ever done this many planks in my life! But I'm definitely not complaining, just getting me closer to my goal of having abs by my 35th birthday! 

For this next week, I'm going to reevaluate my calories and bump myself up to the next calorie range, so I'll be getting a few more color containers each day.  I'm also going to experiment more with different recipes, including the salad dressing recipes that come with the plan. 

I'm going to be putting together an accountability group for others who are interested in doing the 21-Day Fix themselves. It's a small, private facebook group where I'll post daily posts to help keep everyone on track for the 21 days. My first group is set to officially kick off tomorrow and SOLD OUT in only 3 days! If you'd like to be in my next 21-Day Fix accountability group, please fill out this form and I'll get back to you asap! 

If you have any questions about the 21-Day Fix, it's workouts, meal plan or results you can expect, post them in the comments below or message me on facebook! 

How many times have you told yourself one, or all, of the sentences above? So many times that you're starting to believe them? Do you know that YOU have 100% CONTROL over ALL of them, and until you realize that you're believing your own EXCUSES? 

I have definitely been guilty of saying many of these things to myself in the past, and now these are things I hear from others DAILY. Have you ever looked at me and said to yourself, "I wish it were easy for me like it is for her?" If you have, then I'm glad you're reading this! I'm going to tell you a little secret.... It most definitely was NOT easy for me at first, and I STILL struggle now! It's easy to look at someone and see them as they are NOW... and totally overlook the JOURNEY they took to get them there! So here's a little glimpse into my journey.  

This weekend I'm running my first 5k of the year, and I happened to stumble upon this pic from my first 5k ever. I wasn't always a runner. In fact, the first time I ever ran I was in my early 20's and I was wearing jeans. No joke. I had just started dating Scott and I wanted to impress him because he was a runner, so one day while working overtime at General Motors I left out the back door on a break to go running. I ran as far as I could, then turned around and walked back. The next day when I went out I knew I had to go at least as far as I did the day before, and I did! Then I started running at home with Scott. At first it was a mile, then two, then we signed up for our first 5k. On the day of my first 5k I smoked two cigarettes and ate an entire bag of Reeses Pieces in the car on the way to the race. If you notice in the picture, I also weighed a lot more then than I do now, sometimes over 15 lbs more (I wouldn't weigh myself when I knew my weight was up, so that number could be closer to 20 lbs). 

Over the years I've continued running, even doing two full marathons. It's been 10 years since I've had a cigarette and 5 years since I've had Reeses Pieces. My weight still fluctuates, and I still have good body image days and bad body image days, but overall I am in such a better, happier, more consistent place than I ever have been. Baby steps got me to where I am today, and I continue to use baby steps to help me grow daily. None of this was done over night. I didn't wake up one morning as a non-smoking vegan marathon runner. It took TIME and PATIENCE! So please, next time you look at someone and say to yourself "I could never do what they're doing" just remember, they once thought that exact same thing about themselves. 

Enjoy your journey! :) 

I've been getting so many messages with questions about P90X3 that I've decided to answer them all in one spot! 

Q: When does P90X3 come out?
A: December 10th!!!

Q: How long are the workouts?
A: 30 min. long with the exception of Ab Ripper X3 which is 15 min. 

Q: What are the workouts like?
A: There are 16 workouts total, ranging from circuit training and weights, plyometrics, MMA, yoga and pilates.

Q: What kind of equipment do I need?
A: You need hand weights and either a resistance band or pull up bar.

Q: How long is the entire program?
A: It's 90 days, broken up into 3 phases, and there is also an additional, optional phase that can be done after the first 90 days, which is 4 weeks long.

Q: Do I need to have done P90X and/or P90X2 first? 
A: Nope! 

Q: Is there a vegan meal plan?
A: Yes!!! There are vegan options!!! :)

Q: When do I need to order it to get it by Christmas?
A: December 15th at midnight

Q: Are there any specials going on for it?
A: YES!! For the month of December, already discounted P90X3 challenge packs are on sale for another $25 off. This means you get an entire month of Shakeology for over 1/2 off... that's less than I pay! 

Q: What if I also want to become a coach?
A: You can get the same amazing deal for the challenge pack, and your one-time coach sign up fee will be waived, saving you even more money! 

I'm going to be doing it myself the SECOND I get my hands on it and I'll be putting together a facebook group for others who are doing it with me. To be one of the first people to know when it's released, sign up for my free coaching HERE and I'll keep you up to date!

How to do Body Beast on a 100% plant-based, vegan diet. Say what? YES! It is possible to build muscle AND follow a traditional bodybuilding diet while still remaining vegan, it just requires a little creativity! Since the bulk of most traditional bodybuilding diets are based around meat, eggs and dairy, most people would think it's not possible to make them vegan. But I'm about to show you how easy it can be! 

When Scott and I did Body Beast last fall, we wanted to follow the meal plan as close as possible, while still remaining 100% plant-based. While it did require a little tweaking and some calculations, we were able to follow the plan and had AMAZING results! See for yourself! 

The Body Beast meal plan is broken down into three phases; Build, Bulk and Beast. For all three of the phases, there are calculations to figure out your daily caloric needs, each phase's meal plan is broken down into different portions (ie. 5 starches, 2 legumes, 4 veggies, etc. per day) and (most importantly!) it also breaks down the your day's nutrition into the macro nutrient counts (protein, carb and fat %'s). While you could follow the Portion Charts, it would be extremely difficult to make proper substitutions for each category, and especially difficult to maintain it for a full 90 days. So we're going to focus on the macro nutrient counts. 

Following the macro nutrient counts is much easier than it sounds. There are so many nutrition tracking apps out there. All you do is enter or scan your food, and it tells you everything you need to know. We used the myfitnesspal app. (My user name is JulieJeep. Feel free to add me!) You can adjust your daily calorie goals on myfitnesspal from the app, but to adjust the macro %'s you need to log in from a computer. Just go to www.myfitnesspal.com and once you're logged in go to Goals then Change Goals and select Custom. From there you can adjust your daily % goals for protein, carbs and fat, as well as your calories. You can also adjust your daily sodium goals, which will come in handy if you decide to do Body Beast's one week Competition Plan once you finish the Beast phase. (Which we did!) 

So now that you know how to track your nutrition, here's how to veganize the supplements! There are a few different Body Beast supplements; Hardcore Base Shake, Fuel Shot, MAX Creatine and Super Suma. Only the MAX Creatine supplement is vegan, so this is what we used to create the others. I should also add that we continued to use vegan Shakeology daily while doing Body Beast. 

I hope that helped break down each individual supplement and how to make a vegan version. Here's how we put it all together to make the Body Beast Post Workout Drink!

If you've been thinking of doing a muscle building program like Body Beast, but aren't sure where to start as a vegan, or would just like to connect with other like minded people, sign up for our free coaching here and we'll get you added to our facebook accountability group! Trust us, we know what it's like to be a vegan surrounded by a bunch of non-vegans in the fitness world. We'll help you get through it!