Lose Weight Like Crazy Even If You Have a Crazy Life!: Life Lessons and a Breakthrough 30-Day Nutrition and Fitness Solution

I dedicate this book to my family, each and every crazy member. Without all of you, I would not be the me I am today. Thank you for the love & the lessons. A special thank-you to my dad who taught me to follow my dreams no matter what anyone says.

CONTENTS

Foreword

by Jennifer Hennessey, who lost 110 pounds

Preface

Introduction

LET’S GET CRAZY HEALTHY

Welcome to Team AC and the program that will change your life!

The Lose Weight Like Crazy Plan At A Glance

YOUR C.R.A.Z.Y. CHEAT SHEET

Part I

My Crazy Life

Why I have no business being in the business of fitness and nutrition

Chapter 1

BATTLING WEIGHT ISSUES AT EVERY SIZE

Commit to 30 days, go all in, trust the process, and watch what happens.

Chapter 2

OVERCOMING PHYSICAL SETBACKS

Let’s get out from behind the eight ball.

Chapter 3

WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK?

You can’t start the next chapter in your life if you keep rereading the last one.

Chapter 4

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO GO FORWARD

How I found my passion after losing my confidence.

Chapter 5

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR

Find the courage, lean in, and push through it.

Chapter 6

THE ANSWERS ARE ALREADY INSIDE YOU

If you are searching for that one person who will change your life, look in the mirror.

Chapter 7

I DON’T BELIEVE IN FAILURES, I BELIEVE IN REDIRECTS

Your next disappointment may actually be leading you to your greatest achievement.

Part II

Your Crazy Plan

How to kick-start your food and fitness program: The 6 easy steps to lose weight like crazy.

Recipes

CRAZY EASY, CRAZY DELICIOUS!

23 mouthwatering recipes to get you started on your journey to lose weight like crazy.

Workouts

GET FIT, STRONG & HEALTHY

30-minute, at-home cardio and total-body sculpting routines.

Acknowledgments

Index

Foreword

I LOST A CRAZY AMOUNT OF WEIGHT

Autumn Calabrese changed my life.

I am 35 years old and I would say 27 years of my life have been spent in a battle with my weight. You name the diet—I have probably tried it… more than once and failed at it. Nothing ever came easy, nothing ever made sense. I would try something new and got bored of it—which then led to gaining even more weight.

Growing up I was made to feel bad about myself because of my weight and eating habits. I would be forced into certain diets that never made me feel good. They left me feeling either sick, starving, or extremely bloated. There was never a consistent pattern in any of the diets I was on. It was either eat a pound of broccoli and fish, or you can eat greasy burgers and mayo but no bun. How was any of that sustainable or going to make me be able to lose weight the healthy way? It wasn’t.

I feel like I’ve been on a diet for as long as I can remember. My mother created fears about weight and taught me, You can never be too thin. I’ve battled with this idea my entire life, which has led to dietary changes and always seeking a quick fix. To me the word diet has always been a punishment and was never made a choice. It was never something I did for myself, but to appease the views of others.

All of the other diets I have been on have always been about losing weight and never taught me the value of nutrition and healthy eating. They were just a means to facilitate an outside appearance that would have been seen as acceptable by those closest to me.

In 2018 I became the unhealthiest I’ve ever been. I am a wife, and a mom of 2 amazing boys (Owen, 6, and Caden, 2). I would eat fast food 4 or 5 times a week and then throw out the bags to hide the evidence from my family. I had become lazy in making healthy meals that I would just throw together without thinking of nutrition. I had fallen back into so many bad habits that led to me feeling sad all day long. I hated the way I looked, how I felt, and, more importantly, the path I was heading down if I didn’t change what I was doing.

November 2018 was when my life changed forever. It was when I asked for help and was introduced to Autumn and The Ultimate Portion Fix. I needed to know what people were doing to get these amazing results. I needed to know all about it—NOW!

I jumped in. I watched all of the Ultimate Portion Fix videos, read all of the program materials, and used the workbooks and logbooks provided. There was no cutting out carbs or fruits like so many diets make you do. This made sense. There was no weighing my food or counting calories. I didn’t have to give up foods that I love. I just had to pick healthier versions and proper portion sizes—something we all know but are never fully aware of how to do. I wish I would have known about this years ago—but what was important was that I had the tools I needed now.

The first few days I measured, I prepared meals ahead of time, and I used the tools Autumn had given me to set me up for success. Did I have doubts? Of course! I had doubts this was going to work for me—because nothing in the past had. But, I continued to measure, I continued to portion my meals and eat exactly how I was supposed to. My cravings for sugar slowly went away and it got easier. I was learning to cook healthy meals for my family! I realized this wasn’t like anything I had ever done. I was able to eat all the food I normally would, but now I was using these containers as my guide and they taught me how to eat all over again.

Did I have a glass of wine? YES, but I would substitute a yellow container for it. Did I miss having sweets? No, because I was still able to make a delicious dessert from the long list of recipes on Autumn’s cooking show FIXATE, all developed by her brother, Chef Bobby Calabrese. Meal prepping had become so easy because all I had to do was measure everything in the containers.

I lost 110 pounds and 18 inches off my waist!

— Jennifer H., 34, Independent Team Beachbody Coach, Toms River, NJ

Day 1: 256 lbs.

Day 330*: 146 lbs.

I took this day by day, meal by meal. Month after month I would see the weight coming off, but more importantly, I felt the healthiest I ever have. Those containers travel with me if I leave the house, and they will never leave my pantry. I owe my health and so much of my happiness to Autumn and those containers, which is why I will never stop following this program. It has become so much more than that—this program has truly been life changing.

It has not only changed my life, it has changed my family’s life. My older son will ask me if he is making a healthy choice or ask to be involved in cooking dinner. I am able to teach my sons what I know about nutrition and eating the best foods to properly fuel their bodies. I know what foods make me feel good and it’s my job now to teach them the same thing. For so long I thought that eating healthy meant it tasted bland and boring—this isn’t the case. Portion Fix is so much more than a container system—it is a life-changing program. It has given me so many resources that are continuously changing to create new and delicious meals for my family.

In one year I lost 110 pounds following Autumn’s Portion Fix program and pushing play on her workouts. I used the tools that were given to me and followed them. There were no shortcuts, there was no easy way out. I knew I needed to change my old habits to see new results—long-lasting results. So, that’s exactly what I did! I filled my containers and I listened to Autumn. When it got hard, I would remember her talking about our whys. Why was I doing this? To lose weight and be healthy. Why did I NEED to do this? Because I didn’t want to die young. I wanted to grow old with my husband and watch my boys grow up. Those answers are ALWAYS in the back of my head.

My boys watch me push play to Autumn’s workout programs every day and see me have fun doing it! I am able to make them delicious, healthy meals, and what is even more amazing is that they are aware of making healthy choices. A year ago, they were watching me sit around on a couch all day feeling sad and eating junk food. Today, they have the best version of me and it’s all because of those 6 amazing containers.

—Jennifer Hennessey

* Results vary based on starting point and effort and following Beachbody’s exercise and healthy eating plan.

Preface

When I started writing a book on how to lose weight like crazy even if you have a crazy life, I never could have imagined that just months before its launch we would be in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It’s by far the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. This brings new meaning to the title of this book. When the virus started in Wuhan, China, it felt like a world away, something that we would hear about but wouldn’t actually affect us here in the United States. First came the advice to wash our hands, and cough or sneeze into our elbow. Then came social distancing, next we were asked to work from home if at all possible. Before we knew it, schools were closing, businesses were shutting down, and then the shelter-in-place orders swept the country. As I said, this is a global pandemic; the world is trying to adjust to a new normal while we work to get a handle on this crazy situation. There is fear and anxiety around the unknown, frustration from being cooped up indoors. People have lost their jobs, lost their loved ones, lost their positive outlook on life. We are being forced to figure out how to work from home, how to be teachers to our kids while working from home, how to take care of our elders without endangering them. The principles I’m teaching in this book are more important than ever. Losing weight like crazy amidst a crazy life isn’t about 6-pack abs or bulging biceps; those things are fun but it’s truly about taking back control of your health. I don’t know how long this crisis will go on, I don’t know what life will look like in the coming months and years, but here is what I do know:

1) Now, more than ever, it’s imperative to take care of our health, to exercise regularly and fuel our bodies properly. Not just for our physical well-being, but for our emotional and mental well-being, as well.

2) This too shall pass.

We have the opportunity to come out stronger on the other side of this, just like with all crazy hard situations, but we have to take control of the things that we can right now. I’m being asked to write articles on what or how people can eat to be healthier, to create workouts that people can do at home that can be posted and shared. Life will always throw us curveballs, hopefully they won’t be asteroid-sized ones like this very often but we always have 2 ways of handling the hard. We can lean into it, embrace it, and allow ourselves to grow and become better or we can buckle under it, succumb to it, and allow it to defeat us. I don’t know about you but no matter how many times I get knocked down, I get up and come back swinging. I’m not going down without a fight. If you’re here to fight for your health and your happiness, then I’m here to help.

—Autumn

Introduction

LET’S GET CRAZY HEALTHY

What’s up, Team AC.

Yes, you are now officially part of my team, and on my team, no one is left behind. Thanks for picking up my book. Just by taking this small step, you’re saying you are ready to make big changes, to let go of the excuses and embrace the solution to living a CRAZY healthy, amazing life WITHOUT having to follow a CRAZY diet.

Let me tell you why I wrote this book for you:

To teach you that healthy eating isn’t actually all that hard.

To show you how to eat what you love and lose weight like crazy (or just be crazy healthy).

To prove that even with the craziest life, you CAN do it.

Ever since I was a kid, my life has been nothing short of crazy. Don’t believe me? Read on. But, despite all the crazy, I’ve ended up here: a fitness and nutrition expert, certified health and wellness coach, and one of the best-selling Beachbody Super Trainers in the company’s history. When I launched my first program, 21 Day Fix, it sold on its first day what Beachbody had projected to sell in its first week. In its first week, it outsold projections for the first month. And after its first month, we sold out and were on back order for 3 months! That was my first fitness and nutrition program. CRAZY! Since then, I’ve had a string of hits that you might know of: 21 Day Fix Extreme, The Master’s Hammer & Chisel resistance training system, Country Heat, a low-impact, country music–based dance workout, 80 Day Obsession, Ultimate Portion Fix, and my cookbooks and cooking show FIXATE.

I should also let you know that I’m a single mom, and to live this amazing life takes a lot of work. To put out 8 fitness programs, 2 cookbooks, an ongoing cooking show, and a continually updated nutrition program in the last 7 years, all while taking care of my son and maintaining my own health, that ain’t easy, but it also ain’t impossible. It just takes a plan. A plan that I’m going to share with you. This is a beautiful, awesome, messy, blessed life that I am living, but make no mistake, it is still crazy!

I tell you all this not to brag about my accomplishments, but to shed light on your amazing potential in your own crazy, busy life. I’m also sharing the details of my present life to put my past in perspective, so you can see where I am NOW as you’re about to learn where I came from, because that, too, is a crazy story.

You can ask me to do something or show me how to do something, but don’t ever TELL me what to do. I don’t like being TOLD what to do. I’m the youngest of 3 kids. My brother Bobby, sister Calie, and I were raised by our single dad in Collinwood, a little Italian neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland. Everyone knew Bobby Cal and everyone knew his kids because my dad owned the local pizza place, and in a little Italian neighborhood that kind of makes you a local celebrity.

My dad was an entrepreneur, and his pizza shop, Bobby Cal’s, was not his first restaurant. He’d owned another just before I was born, in a small town called Barberton, but lost it when the local auto plant shut down and the town went into recession. My dad was a fighter, though, and he had mouths to feed, so for the next 2 years he ran a catering company out of my grandma’s basement kitchen. This was the ’80s in Cleveland, Ohio. Clearly that wouldn’t fly now, but my dad made it work until he’d saved enough to reopen his restaurant once again. Watching him work long hours, watching him hustle, watching him build his dream is what ultimately taught me that I could do the same. My dad always said, Do something you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. Great advice, but here’s the thing, my dad isn’t just a dad. He’s an Italian dad. His way is the only way.

So, while he taught us to dream big, he kept a short leash on my siblings and me. My brother, Bobby, worked in our restaurant at a very young age, 9, maybe 10 years old. (That’s funny looking back at it now. My son is 10 and barely knows how to turn the stove on!) Bobby would go to the restaurant, and my sister Calie and I were left to take care of the house on the weekends. At 7 years old I didn’t like being told I had to stay home and clean the house and do the laundry with my big sister. I wanted to play. During the week we all had responsibilities in the restaurant before school and after. I would make the antipasto salads for the to-go cooler, put the slices of cheesecake in their containers, make pizza boxes or restock the chips and soda. This was not for allowance, people. This is just what I was TOLD to do before and after school. I learned a work ethic at a very young age, but I also learned to eat pizza, pasta, cheesecake, and soda almost every day!

In grade school, I was never a straight-A student. I didn’t particularly enjoy school, probably because I went to a Catholic school, and if anyone is known for TELLING you what to do it’s the nuns at a Catholic grade school. I would daydream about being an actress, a dancer, or a model. I would play Madonna, Paula Abdul, and Janet Jackson and dance around the house nonstop. It drove everyone crazy. My dad would always say, You’re so peaceful when you sleep. I didn’t know what that meant until I had my son, who is just as energetic as I was. Oh my gosh, where does that energy come from, and how do we get it back?

Anyway, I wanted to dance, I wanted to do everything, go everywhere, see everything. But we pretty much stayed in our little neighborhood bubble. I would go to school, do my homework, do my chores. When we’d go out to play it was always, Only down to Stevenson Street and no farther than Mandalay! Be back at the house by sundown. OK, I was a kid and, yes, kids are basically told what to do, but I never liked it.

There were a lot of rules, a lot of things I wasn’t allowed to do. Playdates rarely happened, a sleepover was next to impossible to schedule. I don’t really remember going to friends’ birthday parties. Like I said, Italian dad.

My dad made all 3 of us pick a musical instrument to play, and he signed us up for music lessons at the Cleveland Institute of Music. I didn’t really pick; my dad picked the violin for me. I was 6 and my hands were too small to play a real violin, so my teacher started me with a crackerjack box that had a ruler taped to it so I could learn the hand positions. Bobby played the saxophone and clarinet, and Calie played the piano. We HAD to practice every day for an hour. When we were done with our chores, my dad would send us upstairs to practice. If he didn’t hear us playing, he would yell up, I don’t hear you. That’s 5 more minutes! Looking back, I wish I appreciated it more but, again, I HATED being TOLD what to do.

That idea of hating being TOLD or talked at has stuck with me, and it’s actually one of