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Carb-cycling and Countdown to Competition

Alright, what's Nicole doing next???

Well, you gotta keep moving forward to go somewhere right? 

My next goal is to move past my mindset that I can eat whatever I want and still maintain my weight. While that's true, I have goals that push me further than where I'm at currently. 

In order to do that, I've decided to give the Countdown to Competition track of the 21 Day Fix Extreme a shot. It lasts for 21 days but I'm not stressing out about that. I'm simply taking it one day at a time, and one workout at a time (as Autumn would say!). 

This track has the challenger carb-cycle. I have looked into carb cycling before but tracking my macros had always been a little challenging for me and I was looking for something easier. Basically you have two super low carb days and then a re-feed day. This is a day when you are eating more carbs and fruit is added in too. But don't confuse this with a cheat day; meals are still clean and portions are controlled (we don't want to ruin all the hard work of the two previous days!!)

I am on the 1500-1800 calorie track so my days look like this:: 2 days of 7 Red (protein), 1 yellow (carb), 4 green (veggie) and 3 tsp (coconut oil for me). Then 1 day of 4 reds, 3 yellows, 4 greens, 4 tsps (more lenient), 1 blue (healthy fat like avocado), 1 orange (dressing or seeds), 3 purples (fruits, whoop whoop!!). 

The fact that I get a break from the strictness has been very nice and makes it do-able for me. I've been through my first three day rotation and I've got to say that I'm feeling REALLY GOOD!!  My energy level is pretty normal and I don't feel sluggish in the morning anymore!  
I know now that if I eat some rich or especially with dairy that the next morning I'll wake up nauseous. With this program, I don't worry about that at all, because dairy is hardly in the program. 

I've been meal prepping A LOT!!!!!  My kitchen has been constantly on go. That's mainly by choice though. I prefer my food as fresh as possible so I've been meal prepping the night before for the following day if I have to work. You can certainly prep a few days worth at a time, but I know that I tend to waste food when I do that. 

The other factor that can be challenging is that it's A LOT of food!!  Trying to fit in 7 reds (proteins) for those two days is hard!!  The standard plan sticks with animal protein; however, I choose to incorporate Greek yogurt and my shakeology to cut down on the amount of meat I need to eat. 

So here's to Day 4!!! My mindset is strong so far and I'm hoping that will continue!!  I attribute that strength to how my perspective changed after completing the 3-Day-Refresh. It was the confidence booster that I needed to know I was capable of accomplishing more!!






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