review – [Narwhal + Moon]

I have decided to chronicle my first full round of 21 Day fix with fibromyalgia.

Five years ago I possibly in the best shape of my life. Weight lifting at least five days a week and almost confident enough to try my hand at cross fit. #helloanxiety I wanted to become a certified kettlebell instructor.
Then life happened. I moved home to Canada and started University. Depression set in while it took over a year for Andy to be approved to immigrate. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
I have slowly been working on my strength and stamina. I’ve had to adjust workout programs and modify some harder moves. Adding in rest days to make sure that I recover. A few months ago, one workout on Monday would have me in pain and in the bed for the rest of the week.

Day 1 – Total Body Cardio Fix

So much food, so little time to eat!!
Tired first thing in the morning, but energized after the workout and able to focus better at work in the afternoon.
Went to bed earlier than normal, thankfully Teghan went to bed early too.

Cardio. I hate cardio.

Day 2 – Lower Fix

Not as sore as I usually am after a workout.
The nutrition must be helping.

Lunges. My poor knees.
Was glad to see the end of the workout.
I slept 12 hours last night, so I don’t know if I will have enough time to get all that food in my belly.
Focusing on protein and veggies.

I am making sure that I don’t push myself harder as I am doing the 21 day fix with fibromyalgia

Day 3 – Upper Fix – 21 Day fix with Fibro

Upper Body… not too bad.
But then there was the 10 minute abs.
I tried my best.
The only abdominal muscles that I seemed to feel was up under my ribs.
I am starting to think I need to look up videos on how to engage the core.

I still feel like there is just so much food to eat.
I try to focus on the veggies and protein.

Day 4 – Pilates Fix

Oh my Lats!!
I did the lateral pull downs/overs? With 6 lbs yesterday.
Felt fine then.…but I think that DOMS may be setting in.
I didn’t think to put any cool azul or ortho ease on yesterday.

Pilates, I think I might hate this worse than abs.
I could really feel it in my muscles but the stretching was SOOO worth it at the end.
My kids, on their first day of virtual learning kept asking me if I was okay because of all the weird grunting and yelling I was doing.
I did get Freedom to put some ortho ease on my lats before working out.

Day 5 – Cardio Fix + 10 minute abs

Surprisingly not as sore as I thought I would be.
I slept pretty decently last night.
My kids are starting to break into the meals that I had prepped for myself.
Oddly, they never want to eat meals that I prep for them.

Day 6 – Dirty 30

I think this was the best work out of them all.
I was able to be focused and it flew by.
My nutrition the night before was … horrible.
I had a few drinks with my virtual office holiday party that wasn’t planned on which led to snacking and spiralling out of control.

It was a new day and I moved on.
I had a horrible gas bubble up under my ribs for most of the day which I will take as a lesson to keep an eye on my nutrition.

I loosely planned my meals and ordered my groceries online to pick up for tomorrow.

Day 7 – Yoga! Best part of 21 Day Fix with Fibromyalgia

What a day!
I was pretty much out of prepared meals since my family starting eating mine INSTEAD of theirs.
My day was planned out then I got news that my sister’s boyfriend’s Grama passed away. She was supposed to travel to get our father so he could be with us over the holidays. To be nice, I offered to go get him.
But then the I got to the store later than I wanted to pick up the grocery order, they were missing quite a few items that required me to make another stop. I kept getting distracted by my 12 year old, so I still missed a few items.

It was also snowing quite a bit and the roads were bad.
I had already committed to getting our father, an hour away. It was a struggle to get home, perishables put away, then go get him AND try to be back before dark due to the snow storm.

I managed to get my work out in, and prep some food.

The soreness has seemed to subsided and I have been able to work out seven days in a row.

Thoughts from the end of Week 1 of the 21 Day Fix with Fibromyalgia

It is a beginner level program.
Given my past athleticism, I felt so dorky following the modifications. I didn’t want to slow myself down, but I listened to my body. I had to fit pause a few extra times to rest, but I did it.
The nutrition was hard for me to nail down.
I am a picky eater so I had to get creative. So I think it limited my choices.
I think the biggest thing is just to keep going, just push play and never miss a Monday!

Who am I to offer advice?
I am a certified NESTA Lifestyle and Weigh Management Specialist.
I have also worked in the natural health and supplement industry for over a decade. Still, all of this is simply advice. I am sharing information. Talk to your physician or medical professional before making any changes or starting a new program or supplement. I am not here to diagnose, prevent, or treat any disease or illness. I am simply offering advice from a nutritional standpoint.

If you need an amazing and motivating BeachBody coach, let me know and I can hook you up with mine.

I was pleasantly surprised with this subscription box.
I originally came across it when I was writing the post about budget friendly subscription boxes for kids that also offer free resources on their sites. I went with a nature based box, but it still incorporates STEM concepts and encourages hands on learning and creativity.

When it arrived, Teghan was thrilled to see her name on the box.

I had selected the nature bag and greenhouse craft kits.
When the Toucan box arrived. Teghan’s older sibling Freedom helped with reading the directions and leading the activities. There wasn’t much input from me. While Teghan didn’t have much interest in the magazine, Freedom enjoyed it.

Toucan Box Mini Greenhouse

Teghan loved this!
We tried to get her to write her name, but she wasn’t feeling it.
We got Sunflower, Basil, and Nasturtium seeds.
It came with the cutest little booklet for her to update by drawing what she saw every few days and explained the process of seed germination.

One downside, was that the planter is too small for the sunflower to really grow. We ended up having to put the seedlings in a larger pot. I would have loved to plant them outside, but based on where we live we shouldn’t plant outside for another few weeks. Due to having cats who love to eat any and all plants, we constructed a make shift greenhouse from items in our recycling bin and my old trellises that I use when I grow cucumbers on the patio. It was a good lesson in designing and building something and reusing materials. The clear plastic, I am actually glad that it got another use. We had to use it on our windows over the winter.
Teghan was excited to watch the seeds sprout.
She also asked if the plants talked to each other.
My on-the-spot answer was yes, they kind of do… that they release chemicals that allow them to communicate.

Toucan Box Nature Bag

Teghan is very proud of this one.
While Freedom helped with the tissue paper strips, Teghan decorated the rest of the bag herself. The box came with stencils that she has continued to use for other art projects. She coloured a rainbow on the other side of the bag and used some of her stamps that she had at home.
It was hard with our schedules and finicky spring weather to plan another nature walk.

The craft came with scavenger hunt cards for different seasons.
Freedom had the smart idea before we left of making copies of the cards so we could do it again. By the time we got home, Freedom had come up with the idea of creating more cards that were more specific to our area.
I was in such a hurry to get out the door that I grabbed a copy of the summer card instead of the spring one. We tried it anyways. We only found the bird. I think this may be part of the reason why Freedom wanted to design more scavenger hunt cards.

Teghan used her bag to bring home some leaves and sticks.
She tried to construct a boat out of some of the leaves she found, but she came to the conclusion that the reason the “leaf boats” weren’t floating in the puddle was because they were “old and dead”. She has plans to try again when the trees have “new leaves for this year”.

Overall thoughts on the Toucan Box

It kept both kids engaged and encouraged Teghan to ask more questions.
My only suggestion would have been to offer seeds that don’t require as much soil depth. I know my kids, and they would have been disappointed if I had not moved the sunflowers.

I had purchased the box for half off using a coupon code, and it was definitely worth it. I believe I will be keeping this subscription box as it was a hit.

Ready to try out a Toucan Box for yourself at half price?

Would you like to try this amazing box for half off?
If you use my link, you will get 50% off your first box, and we will get 50% off of another box.

My kiddos enjoyed it, and I am sure yours will as well.