A Review of Chalene Johnson’s 131 Method Diet Program

I don’t know about you but I have struggled with my weight and body image my entire life.  I don’t know if this is something everyone struggles with? Maybe you do too, but at 41 years old, I’m kind of sick of this recurrent theme looping through my sense of well being.

Growing up and into early adulthood I was never seriously over weight, but I felt like I was always struggling to stay lean. My love hate relationship with “diets” started in college with shakes out of a can and continued through adulthood with shakes in packets, diet/exercise combo plans, magic pills or drops and juice cleanses.  At times I probably bordered on a mild eating disorder. All of the crash diets and programs worked for short periods of time, but no matter how healthy I ate (or how little) or how much I exercised, eventually they all stopped working.

In 2013 my doctor recommended an elimination diet.  It was then I found I had a sensitivity to gluten, dairy and corn. I cut these foods entirely and immediately my weight began to stabilize a bit.  I felt better; slept better; and had more energy.  I started searching for likeminded people and discovered the Paleo movement.  And while eating Paleo initially was a wonderful discovery I eventually began stressing over the need to make everything I ate from scratch and what was once something that made me feel healthy and more energetic quickly turned into a sense of failure, stress and anxiety.  Plus even though I was eating well and avoiding gluten, dairy and corn, I found my weight creeping back up and I was exasperated by the thought that I was struck with a lifetime of chicken and lettuce and brutal workout schedules.

Then last summer (June 2017) I happened across a video in my Facebook feed from Chalene Johnson. Charlene is one of my favorite Beachbody Workout instructors, and she was explaining she was struggling with many of the same issues I was.  And she was fed up with the same endless loop of restrictive eating and punishing workouts.  She began testing a new eating program based on how everyone’s individual body works differently  – a mix of your body’s response to hormones, digestion, exercise, sleep and overall health.  What the heck, I thought. Might as well try this too. I signed up.

That test program is now called the 131 Method and  I have been following it for a year.  For me something just clicked.  And it works. I have tailored my nutrition plan to work for me. My plan is different than anyone else’s plan. It isn’t specifically Paleo or Keto or Whole 30 but it is tailored to my body’s specific needs and is based on real, whole foods that don’t cause me inflammation.

The 131 Method is not a short term “diet” per se. It’s about changing your eating habits for a lifetime and it is designed to evolve with you over time. 131 focuses on:

1. Eliminating inflammatory foods and testing for individual sensitivity to certain foods
2. Healing gut inflammation
3. Reducing water weight
4. Balancing hormones to burn fat, not just sugar
5. Balancing stress hormones, hunger hormones and sex hormones
6. Understanding your body’s hunger cues
7. Introducing diet phasing to prevent plateaus

131 is broken into 3 phases, each lasting 4 weeks. During each of these weeks, Chalene gives you access to videos and podcasts with  information on how to progress through the program. There are also expert interviews and recipes for each week, and as the program expands Chalene continues to update her content and resources.

I cannot stress enough – I have never felt alone on this program.  131 gives you access to a community of other folks working through the program together.  You have access to an RN and a nutritionist that can truly help you make this a “study of one” that you can’t fail.  For me it has been life changing.  It has been the best thing I have done for my health in my adult life.

For more information, check out the 131Method here.