My 3-Day Refresh Experience

I’ve been struggling to actually lose weight this summer.  Between putting our house on the market, showing the house/keeping it show-ready, selling our house, finding a new house, moving out of the old house, and moving into the new house, it’s been hard to stay tight on my nutrition.  I’ve been maintaining my weight all summer, which is fine, but I’ve been so close to my goal that I’ve been really frustrated.

I have seen a lot of ads for the Beachbody 3-Day Refresh and was curious.  The marketing promises that you will lose weight and inches without starving yourself in 3 days.  I started out pretty skeptical.  For the record, I don’t believe there is any need to “cleanse” your body.  If you have a functioning liver, you’re good.  I was interested in the 3-Day Refresh for 3 reasons–hit my goal/find out if you really lose a few pounds in 3 days, see if I would really not be starving, and to help me get my mindset changed from vacation mode to disciplined routine.

The program follows a pretty simple process: they send you shakes to make throughout your day and you supplement those shakes with some fruit, veggies, and healthy fats.  No bread/starches, no dairy, no meat.  The plan states that each day is around 900 calories, depending on what combination of foods you choose from their lists.  Obviously, that is not enough calories for a normal, healthy diet, so I decided to not work out for those 3 days.  I did move/unpack the last day, so that was the only “workout” I did.

I won’t bore you with the play-by-play of what I ate, but I wanted to share my general thoughts.  The plan calls for one Shakeology drink per day, with one piece of fruit.  I chose to blend my fruit into the shake since that’s what I normally do, but I think that it may have been better to chew that fruit to get more satisfaction from eating it.  I loved the Shakeology portion of my day, as usual.  Lots of energy, focus, and tons of nutrition to start the day!

My mid-morning snack was a Fiber Sweep drink each day.  Ya’ll, I was pretty afraid to drink it, for fear that I would be running for the bathroom at some point that day, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn’t the case for me.  The drink wasn’t delicious or anything, but it had a nice lemon flavor that was refreshing.  It kept me fuller than I expected, but I was still very ready for the next meal before it was time to eat.  I will say that the fiber drink had some noxious effects on me the first day/evening, but the second and third days were much more pleasant for those around me. 🙂

Lunch and dinner both consisted of the protein Vanilla Fresh shake and veggies.  Lunch had a healthy fat and fruit, and a mid-afternoon snack of a veggie and healthy fat helped keep my hunger at bay, too.  The Vanilla Fresh was pretty tasty.  Not the same vanilla flavor as the vanilla Shakeology, but good blended with ice.  Like the fiber drink, the Vanilla Fresh filled me up more than I had anticipated, but not enough to keep me from feeling really hungry snack time.

 For me, the second day was the worst.  I don’t know if it’s because my dinner wasn’t that filling that day, or because I knew I had another day left, or because I watched my husband eat delicious carbs all day, but that second day, I was very hungry and very irritable.  Overall, I was really hungry.  Dude.  SO. HUNGRY.  I tend to be a hangry person in general (Google it), so I was prepared to be hungrier than the ads called for.  I tend to be hungrier than most people, and this was no exception.

My energy levels were pretty good during the three days, even the day I moved.  The food and shakes all tasted good, and I never felt light-headed or sluggish at all. I slept well all three days and felt fine to move boxes and unpack our new home.  The day AFTER I finished the program, though, I felt terrible.  When I woke up that morning and walked the 10 feet from my bed to my bathroom, I got very dizzy and very lightheaded to the point that I had to hold myself up on my bathroom counter and realized that I had legit blacked out for a minute or two.  That freaked me out.  I had a normal breakfast and was fine after that, but it was scary for a minute!

As for my results, the program really delivered on their promise.  Unfortunately, my scale was packed when I started so I don’t know exactly what I weighed at the start, but it should have been around 138, meaning I lost around 4ish pounds in 3 days and at least a quarter of an inch from my waist, thighs, and arms.  In just 3 days!  Obviously, a lot of that (if not all) is water weight and it isn’t a way to lose weight for the long run–I was 1.5 pounds up the next morning after eating my normal diet for one day.

I have some mixed feelings about this program after finishing it.  I was super hungry and irritable from being hungry, so that wasn’t very enjoyable.  All the food tasted good, and I didn’t feel like I had to force myself to eat or drink any of it.  I was happy with my results–it made me feel like my hanger was “worth it”, so to speak.  But, I didn’t like how I felt that 4th day.

If a customer or friend asked me about the program, I would really only recommend it if they had a specific event they wanted to get ready for, like a wedding, a reunion, or something like that.  It is definitely not just for fun, and it is not a way to lose weight for the long run.  It was helpful in getting my mindset ready for a more disciplined eating plan, so it might be a good way to jumpstart a program for you because of it’s small food list to choose from and specific directions.  And it definitely worked, which is more than I can say for other “quick fix” programs out there.

Have you ever done the 3-Day Refresh?  I’d love to hear your experience with it!

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