Shift Shop & Running – Week 1 Recap

I started a new fitness challenge last week, and for the first time in a year, I’m NOT training for a marathon! I decided to commit to the newly released 21 day program, Shift Shop, which is created by new trainer Chris Downing to help anyone break through a plateau. It’s been a over a year since I committed to the nutrition program of one of the Beachbody programs (besides the 3 Day Refresh) and I was up for the challenge after putting on about five pounds post Mountains 2 Beach marathon thanks to less running, more parties, and two vacations.

Shift Shop is a three week program and each week is different, so I thought it made the most sense to recap each week for you as I go. Plus, it’s kind of like my weekly marathon training recaps in that it keeps ME accountable knowing that I have to report back to you guys!

Shift Shop Week 1 Workouts With Running

For me, strength training and running come hand in hand. I started this blog when I decided to do both P90X and train for my first marathon. After I had my daughter, I did 21 Day Fix while running. Now, I’m doing Shift Shop while also running four days a week.

Each week of Shift Shop has six scheduled workout days with two twenty-five minute workouts that alternate: Speed 25, a 25 minute cardio workout (think high knees, burpees, bear crawls, etc.) and Strength 25 (requires weights and moves include squats, lunges, push-ups, rows). I really enjoy the workouts because the moves are fairly simple so anyone can do them, yet they are also hard. You can make the program easier or harder depending on your effort and how much weight you carry in the strength workout. There is also a modifier and Chris explains both the regular move AND the modified move before each. The second and third Strength 25 workouts of the week are supposed to be followed by the 12 minute Shift Core ab workout. There is an optional Mobility workout or rest day on Sunday.

I committed to all scheduled workouts for a few reasons: 1) I’m a coach and I want to experience it along with my challengers, 2) I’m in my running off season and 3) this is my first time doing Shift Shop and I want to see what kind of results I can get from it. I was able to get in 4 runs and all 6 workouts, including the ab workouts. However, I did not get in the optional mobility workout in. An easy way to modify Shift Shop to accommodate your running would be to drop 1-2 of the workouts and make do 4 Shift Shop workouts along with your run. You could even just do the strength training workouts, 1 cardio day and your runs since you’re probably getting plenty of cardio from your running. Below is a graphic that shows exactly which workouts I did which days.

The speed work I did during my Shift Shop/running combo week was a 6 mile run with 10 x 400s at 5K pace and my long run was 12 miles.

The Shift Shop Nutrition Plan – Week 1 (& Modifications for Running)

The nutrition plan was by far the most intimidating part of this program. The plan can be used with or without the portion fix containers, but I used them of the week to make measuring easier. It’s been a while since I measured out these things! The Shift Shop nutrition plan includes a calculation which takes into consideration gender, height, and weight and gives you a calorie bracket. I ended up in the lowest calorie bracket, but because I’m also running and because I know I’d be really hungry on 1,200 calories a day (I eat A LOT), I bumped myself up to bracket 2. I also added an extra blue/fat serving per day. 

I really committed to this program, but I did make exceptions. I always plan for one cheat meal per week, but instead of using it as a meal, I ended up having wine Saturday night and beer Sunday, but otherwise did really well!

The container count for Week 1 is actually almost identical to the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan, but the biggest difference is the Yellows/Carbs list is A LOT shorter. And each week, it gets shorter and shorter. During week 1, the only carbs allowed are potatoes and legumes. That means, NO bread, NO oatmeal, NO rice, NO quinoa and NO tortillas, which are all staples in my diet. At first I looked at this plan and thought NO way – I eat either bread or oatmeal every morning for breakfast! But then I reminded myself that this is a 3 week SHIFT plan, not a lifestyle. I can do anything for three weeks!

So I did my best. With a lot of planning, I was able to mostly stick to the plan with a couple minor exceptions: I had oatmeal two mornings because I was cooking it for Siena and Mike was out of town (two separate meals and dishes did not sound fun) and I had a tuna sandwich on whole wheat on Saturday for lunch because I was starving after my long run (despite preparing a really yummy approved breakfast bowl afterward) and didn’t have much food left in the house!

I was excited to see that the Shift Shop program not only comes with a really long list of delicious recipes but also a complete meal plan and shopping list!!! Although I didn’t utilize the meal planning portion, I know that SO many people struggle to follow the nutrition plan because the meal planning and grocery shopping element scares them so this is huge! The recipes I did try were really good and I will be trying several more in the weeks to come.

Shift Shop Week 1 Results

I seriously can’t believe how much better I felt after a week on this program. After letting my healthy eating habits slip too much, it was just the refresher I needed. Not only that, but it has forced me to come up with new meal ideas and try new foods. I really enjoyed it and although I couldn’t resist weighing in to see if my body was responding the way I thought it would. It did and I already lost four pounds in just one week. Some of that is water weight I’m sure, but it’s a good sign that this nutrition plan has put me back on track.

Does Shift Shop sound interesting to you? If you want to try the program yourself or join my next accountability group, contact me here!