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21 Days To Improve Your Life
21 Days To Improve Your Life
ericcinho@therealfitness.org
This plan was put together to try to help you improve your life in just 21 days by creating
healthy habits and just slowly changing your routine into a more healthy one.
It contains:
• Habit building training: During this three weeks we will implement one healthy habit per week
by doing simple actions daily. The three habits that we are going to implement will be: Drinking
more water, stop using your phone right before bed and start doing yoga on a daily basis.
• 21 Days diet plan cheat sheet: You will have the normal option and the vegan option. Note that
this diet plan should be used as a guideline, don’t obsess to follow it exactly, always give
yourself a little flexibility.
• 21 days workout routine cheat sheet: A bodyweight routine that you can do at home and a
weights routine that you could do at the gym. Both routines will be divided in 3 workout days and
two cardio days so they are both 5 days routines.
• Exercise summary.
As always, check with a doctor before making any fitness or nutrition changes. Always listen to
your body and modify as needed. Note that the exercises listed in the workout routines are
specified in sets and repetitions per set. The weights that you use should depend on your fitness
level, strength and technique, so please be sure not overestimate your capabilities, since it could
result in an injury. Start small and then work your way to heavier weight liftings.
If you are recovering from an injury, emphasize clean eats and meet with a local personal trainer or
exercise physiologist to set up a specific plan.
Please keep in mind that these are healthy food suggestions, but portions and serving sizes should
be adjusted to fit your unique needs.
The very first thing that you need to do to make sure you complete this 21 day plan is to set up
systems to keep you motivated and accountable. I’m going to list 4 things that I think are
indispensable to achieve long-term success, but feel free to add any other system that you think
would help you complete this plan.
Habit training
This training will be divided in 3 weeks. Every week we will focus on one
specific habit, but we will follow up with it during the next weeks while we
focus on other habits. The goal here is to be able to introduce three healthy
habits into our daily routine. I will use drinking more water, stop using your
phone before bed and yoga practices, but feel free to use this same
method to build up any other habit that you want to implement in your life.
The habit building is really not that complicated, is all about consistency
and setting up systems. And those are the tips that I will give you in this part
of the plan. So let’s get into it.
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used to this, it could take a little time to internalize, but once you’ve build it, you will strive for water
and you will feel so much better during your days.
So how do we build this habit? Well it has three phases: the first one is more passive and the other
two more pro active. This is how I recommend you to tackle this habit building:
Day 1: Put a glass of water next to your bed. When you wake up, don’t even think about it and
drink the whole think. You can even do it while you are still in bed. Easy and quick. Be sure to put
the glass on the table the night before, so there is zero chance of you forgetting about drinking in
the morning.
Day 2: Same thing. Glass of water on your bedside table the night before, and drink the whole
thing on the next morning.
Day 3: Continue to do the glass of water first thing in the morning. On top of that, look for a small
water bottle and take it to your job. Try to drink all of it during the entire morning. Put it somewhere
you can see it and you won’t even have to think about drinking it.
Day 4: Continue to do the glass of water first thing in the morning. Today, instead of a small water
bottle, look for a normal one and half fill it up. Bring it with you to your job and drink it entirely
during the morning.
Day 6: Continue to drink a glass of water when you wake up. Today, fill the bottle entirely. By now
you will already have the tick to dink every now and then while at work. But if you started this habit
building on a Monday, it means that today it’s Saturday, so maybe you aren’t going to work today.
No problem. Just carry the water bottle with you on whatever you are doing. Put it in your car if you
are driving somewhere or in the dinning room table if you are at home. Make sure it is in a place
where you can easily see it and try to drink it all. It will require a little attention from you today, just
because you won’t have it entrant of you all the time, but you will probably be more used to drink
every now and then already.
Continue to proactive do this last step until you do it without even thinking about it. This is one of
the easiest habits to build up, because drinking water is almost effortless, you just grab the glass/
bottle and drink. So, continue to build this habit through the next weeks.
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we achieve it? By slowly building the habit. This one will be a little more hard than the water and it
will hardly depend not only in willower but also in strategy.
Days 1 and 2: We are going to try to not look at our phone while we lay down in bed. Pretty simple
right? We are allowed to look at our phone until we lay down. After that moment, we can’t look at it
until the alarm goes on in the morning. You could do this by charging your phone on the other Side
of the room, or even outside your room. This may not seem as a big step, but it is actually settling
in your subconscious that the bed is a place where no cellphone are allowed.
Days 3 and 4: Today you will put your phone aside 15 minutes before you go to bed. You can put it
aside before you do the very last steps prior going to bed (going to the bathroom, putting on your
pajamas, etc.). 15 minutes. I know you can do it.
Days 4 and 5: Here is where things get interesting. You are going to put your phone aside 30
minutes before you go to sleep. I know this is the hardest step. My recommendation is to use some
app that allows you to block your phone so you can’t use it even if you want to. There are a lot of
different apps that allow you to do it. I personally use “offtime” which is an app that turns my phone
into a useless brick for as long as I settle it. You could try some of this apps and activate them 30
minutes before you go to sleep. If I were you I would settle the app to work for 2 hours, so either
you go to sleep 30 minutes after you activate it, or you have to wait those 2 hours in order to use
your phone again. I know it sounds a little drastic, but, this method is really useful. Obviously, you
can rely on your willpower to achieve this, but be sure not to lie to yourself.
Days 6 and 7: Now, we get to the hour. You are going to put your phone aside an hour before you
go to sleep. It is important that you have something to do in that hour: talk to the people that live
with you (if you have a partner, a roommate or live with your parents), practice a hobby, read,
meditate, do yoga (which is part of the next habit) or just relax. Try to fill up the time, so you really
are disconnecting.
Practicing yoga
Yoga is a very wide topic and it covers a philosophy that talks about the importance of taking care
of your body and your mind. I personally have experienced the great benefits that yoga can aport
you physically and I think doing a little yoga practice everyday is a great way to end or start your
day. It can help you in many ways, depending on what your goals are (lose weight, relief anxiety,
relax, strength, sleep better, etc). If you are skeptical about yoga, here you have an article on why
you should give it a try.
The thing with this habit is that building it
is less progressive than the last two.
What I mean by this is that I don’t think
you can start by a small routine change.
The first step will be to do a 10 minutes
yoga workout, so it is not as small as
drinking a glass of water in the morning
or not using your phone on bed. But I
also think this is the habit where you can
see the benefits the quicker. So I hope
this is enough to keep you motivated,
because that’s what worked for me.
A good way to implement this habit is to
do this yoga practices in the time
between you put your phone away and
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you go to sleep. This way you could be working in building two habits at the same time and actually
each habit will help build the other one. But obviously this is just a suggestion you can do this yoga
practices at every time during the day.
Day 1: Think this habit through. Why do you want to start doing yoga? Which benefit of yoga are
you looking for? Which yoga practices are best for that specific goal? You can find all of this
information in my blog therealfitness.org or consult google for extra info. Decide which practice are
you gonna perform and schedule a time of the day when you will do it. Put your yoga mat in a
reachable place and prepare to start on day 2.
Days 2, 3 and 4: Start by a small yoga practice, maybe a 5-10 minutes one. This is just to get your
feet wet, to know what it is to do yoga. Watch some video tutorials if you need to. Start to
acknowledge your body. If you have already practiced yoga in the past, you can skip this step.
Days 5, 6 and 7: Move to a full yoga practice. This will vary a lot depending on what is your goal.
For example if you are just trying to get a better sleep, you may not need more than a 10 minute
before beed stretch session in order to achieve it. Then do that. If you are trying to lose weight or
to gain strength for example, you may need something a little more intense or long. Try different
routines until you find the one that better suits with you and stick with it. As you progress you will
be able to introduce your own routines and poses, but always listen to your body and don’t rush it.
Again, this is a guideline, don’t stress if any of these progressions is too quick for you. Take extra
day in every step if you need to. The important thing is to be consistent. And don’t be hard on
yourself if you skip one day. Is not that big of a deal, but make sure that you get back on track the
very next day. I have what I call the 2 days rule (I may have read/watch this somewhere a long
time ago, but I honestly don’t remember where): If you stop doing something for one day, is a
breathing pause; if you stop for two days, you are quitting. Be sure not to quit, because it will be
really hard to get back on track. Try to don’t lose momentum, and once you’ve builded the habit,
you won’t even have to worry about it anymore.
For the diet plan we are going to divide it in two parts: the weekdays and the weekend. During the
week days you will have a more settle diet, while the weekends will be a little more flexible, and
you will even have a cheat meal (this means that you can eat whatever you want). I will suggest
you to make this meal on Saturday night, but you can change it to whenever it fits your schedule
better. Remember, this is not supposed to be a really strict diet, it is just a guideline.
The amounts will vary depending on your current physique and your goals. In this meal plan I’m
also going to give you a vegan option, so this plan can be used by as many people as possible.
A recipe book for this plan will come up shortly, but if you have any questions on how to make any
meal proposed, feel free to email me and I will send you a recipe to follow.
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Week 1 Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snack
Monday Overnight Oats Lentils with rice Smoked Salmon Sliced Bell peppers
(preferably brown Salad (100 gr)
rice, but white rice Vegan option:
is fine) Salad with flax
(Save leftovers) seeds
Tuesday Overnight Oats Grilled salmon with Chicken taco Hummus and
asparagus and lettuce wraps chopped veggies
sweet potato Vegan option:
Vegan option: Tempeh taco
Sweet potato with lettuce wraps
hummus and (save leftovers)
broccoli
Wednesday Overnight Oats Couscous with Chicken taco Sliced Bell peppers
meat and lettuce wraps (100 gr)
vegetables Vegan option:
Vegan option: Tempe taco lettuce
Couscous with wraps
vegetables (leftovers)
(save leftovers)
Thursday Overnight Oats Lentils with rice Pureed vegetables Turkey Sandwich
(preferably brown and a piece of fruit Vegan option:
rice, but white rice Salad sandwich
is fine) (tomato, cucumber,
(Leftovers) lettuce, spinach)
Friday Overnight Oats Chickpeas with Chicken breast with Fruit Macedonia
spinach and quinoa mash potatoes (bowl with as many
(Save leftovers) Vegan option: fruits as you want )
Seitan with mash
potatoes
Sunday Protein pancakes Home made burger Two eggs omelet Kale chips
top with a serving (be careful with the with tomato and
of nut butter and/or sauces, don’t use cucumber.
pure maple syrup too much) Vegan option:
Vegan option: Tempeh salad
Vegan home made
burger
(be careful with the
sauces, don’t use
too much)
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Week 2 Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snack
Monday Overnight Oats Chickpeas with Grilled chicken Sliced Bell peppers
spinach and quinoa salad (100 gr)
(Leftovers) Vegan option:
Salad with nuts
Tuesday Overnight Oats Grilled salmon with Mediterranean lentil Fruit Macedonia
asparagus and salad with (bowl with as many
sweet potato cucumber, olives, fruits as you want )
Vegan option: peppers, tomato,
Sweet potato with kale and parsley.
hummus and
broccoli
Thursday Overnight Oats Chili with meat and Zucchini noodles Sliced Bell peppers
rice with avocado pesto (100 gr)
Vegan option:
Chili with rice
(Save leftovers)
Friday Overnight Oats Black beans with Smoked Salmon Turkey Sandwich
rice, broccoli and Salad Vegan option:
sweet potato Vegan option: Salad sandwich
(Save leftovers) Salad with flax (tomato, cucumber,
seeds lettuce, spinach)
Saturday Avocado toast with Chili with meat and Cheat Meal 1 or 2 squares of
eggs rice dark chocolate
Vegan option: Vegan option:
Avocado toast with Chili with rice
olive oil and a (Leftovers)
handful of nuts
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Week 3 Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snack
Monday Overnight Oats Black beans with Chicken breast with Fruit Macedonia
rice, broccoli and mash potatoes (bowl with as many
sweet potato Vegan option: fruits as you want )
(Leftovers) Seitan with mash
potatoes
Tuesday Overnight Oats Chicken breast with Ratatouille with Hummus and
beans and quinoa chopped veggies
couscous (Leftovers)
Vegan option:
Seitan with beans
and couscous
Thursday Overnight Oats Chickpeas with Chicken breast with Turkey Sandwich
spinach and quinoa mash potatoes Vegan option:
(Save leftovers) Vegan option: Salad sandwich
Seitan with mash (tomato, cucumber,
potatoes lettuce, spinach)
Friday Overnight Oats Grilled salmon with Mediterranean lentil Fruit Macedonia
asparagus and salad with (bowl with as many
sweet potato cucumber, olives, fruits as you want )
Vegan option: peppers, tomato,
Sweet potato with kale and parsley.
hummus and
broccoli
Sunday Protein pancakes Home made burger Zucchini noodles Kale chips
top with a serving (be careful with the with avocado pesto
of nut butter and/or sauces, don’t use
pure maple syrup too much)
Vegan option:
Vegan home made
burger
(be careful with the
sauces, don’t use
too much)
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Workout Plan Cheat Sheet
As it is said in the introduction, I’m going to give you a bodyweight and a weight lifting routine. You
can either use only one or mix up both.
This workout plan is designed to be done 5 days per week, but if you are just getting started you
could space it a little more. Instead of 5 days per week do 5 days per week and a half. Anyway I
encourage you to try to complete the 21 days plan.
This workout routines are thought as a progressive plan. This means that the workouts in the first
week will be easier than the ones in the last one, but also that you will be prepared to those last
workouts because you will have improved your overall shape.
This plan is divided in two kind of days: Workout days and cardio days.
Since this plan is set for only three workouts (bodyweight or weightlifting) per week, it is going to
use a full body approach. Ideally, we should work every muscle groups twice per week, but since
we have limited workouts, every workout day will be full body day, with emphasis in one of the
three big muscle groups:
The cardio days are going to be based on just building up cardio endurance. For that we are going
to use 2 kind of cardio workout:
• Interval training
• Maintenance cardio
You are supposed to rest 2 days per week. In my opinion it is better if you don’t take two days off
back to back, just because you will destroy your momentum and it will be harder to come back and
also because then you will have to do 5 straight workouts. But if that’s the way it better fits your
schedule (maybe resting the weekends), go for it. Just try to commit to come back and to workout
five days in a row.
This workout plan is supposed to help you get your feet wet and start building the habit of working
out consistently. Since it is a progressive workout, being the last week the most challenging one,
after you are done you can use the last week’s routine as your routine following up.
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Week 1
machine)
⁃4x10 Bench Press
⁃10 Push-ups
⁃3x10 Leg extension and leg curl
⁃15 Squats
antagonistic super set
⁃10 Sit-ups
⁃3x8 Pec-dec machine
⁃5 Shoulder push-ups
⁃3x8 Shoulder press
Day Cardio 1
2
10’ Warm up running/biking/eliptical
2 minutes rest
4 minutes rest
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Day Workout 2 (Pull focussed) Workout 2 (Pull focussed)
4 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static bicycle
machine)
or elliptical machine)
⁃10 Supermans
⁃3X8 Pulldown machine
⁃5 Burpees
⁃3x8 Leg press
⁃30” plank
⁃3X8 Arm curl-press
Day Cardio 2
5
10 Minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minutes rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minute rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
Day Workout 3 (Leg focussed) Workout 3 (Leg focussed)
6 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static
machine)
bicycle or elliptical machine)
⁃15 Squats
⁃3x10 Back Squat
⁃12 Lunges
⁃3x8-12 Push-ups
⁃20 Bicycle crunches
⁃3x10 Lunges
⁃5 Squat jumps
⁃3x10 Hip thrust
⁃15 Step Up
⁃3x10 Sit-ups
Do the entire circle 3 times. Try to rest
30 seconds in between exercises and
rest 4 minutes in between sets.
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Week 2
machine)
⁃4x10 Shoulder Press
⁃12 Push-ups
⁃3x10 Leg extension and leg curl
⁃15 Lunges
antagonistic super set
⁃10 Climbers
⁃3x8 Cable Fly
⁃5 Shoulder push-ups
⁃3x8 Bench press
Day Cardio 1
2
10’ Warm up running/biking/eliptical
2 minutes rest
4 minutes rest
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Day Workout 2 (Pull focussed) Workout 2 (Pull focussed)
4 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static bicycle
machine)
or elliptical machine)
⁃12 Supermans
⁃3X8 Reverse grip pulldown machine
⁃35” plank
⁃3X8 Arm curl-press
Day Cardio 2
5
10 Minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minutes rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minute rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
Day Workout 3 (Leg focussed) Workout 3 (Leg focussed)
6 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static
machine)
bicycle or elliptical machine)
⁃15 Squats
⁃4x10 Back Squat
⁃12 Lunges
⁃3x8-12 Push-ups
⁃20 Bicycle crunches
⁃3x10 Bulgarian squat
⁃5 Burpees
⁃4x10 Hip thrust
⁃15 Lunges step up
⁃3x10 Sit-ups
Do the entire circle 3 times. Try to rest
30 seconds in between exercises and
rest 4 minutes in between sets.
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Week 3
machine)
⁃4x10 Bench Press
⁃12 Push-ups
⁃3x10 Leg extension and leg curl
⁃20 Squats
antagonistic super set
⁃25 Punches
⁃3x8 Pec-dec machine
⁃5 Shoulder push-ups
⁃4x8 Shoulder press
Day Cardio 1
2
10’ Warm up running/biking/eliptical
2 minutes rest
4 minutes rest
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Day Workout 2 (Pull focussed) Workout 2 (Pull focussed)
4 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static bicycle
machine)
or elliptical machine)
⁃15 Supermans
⁃4X8 Pulldown machine
⁃40” Plank
⁃3X10 Arm curl-press
Day Cardio 2
5
10 Minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minutes rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
3 minute rest
10 minute running/biking/eliptical
Day Workout 3 (Leg focussed) Workout 3 (Leg focussed)
6 ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill or jogging
outside, static bicycle or elliptical ⁃10’ Warm up (treadmill, static
machine)
bicycle or elliptical machine)
⁃20 Squats
⁃4x10 Back Squat
⁃12 Lunges
⁃3x8-12 Push-ups
⁃15 Sit-ups
⁃4x8 Bulgarian squat
⁃6 Burpees
⁃4x12 Hip thrust
⁃15 Step ups
⁃3x10 Sit-ups
Do the entire circle 3 times. Try to rest
30 seconds in between exercises and
rest 4 minutes in between sets.
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Exercise Summary
Bodyweight:
Push-ups
Squats
Chair dips
Sit-ups
Shoulder push-ups
Incline push-ups
Lunges
Climbers
Shoulder taps
Punches
Weight Lifting
Bench press
Row
Pec-dec machine
Shoulder press
Triceps extension
Cable fly
Burpees
Bicycle crunches
Plank
Bridges
Leg raises
Lunges step up
Donkey kicks
Push-ups
Incline Chest machine
Reverse pulldown
Lunges
Cable lateral raise
Hip thrust
Arm curl-press
Calf Raises
Wide Row
Sit-ups
Cable face pull
Bulgarian squat
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