When you are single, childless, and one of the few people you know who moved away from your hometown, your 20-year high school reunion hits a little different. Sure, I could have skipped it, but I have a weird sense of loyalty to reunions because my late father was on the planning committee for his throughout my childhood. So, with no huge life updates to offer, I thought about the impression I wanted to make on my classmates. I figured I’d focus on self care and try to feel as good about myself as possible. I decided a little wellness challenge inspired by my social-media habits was just the thing. I do best when there is a deadline (see my experiments with Whole30 a few years ago).
A few months prior I’d fallen down a TikTok hole that led me to John Schaefer, co-founder of MNML Health. With 815K followers and more than 4.7 million likes, Schaefer was clearly a big deal. He got his start early—his parents encouraged him to work out when he was 12 after a classmate called him Skeletor. He received his first personal-training certification when he was 16, and since 2005 he’s worked with thousands of clients ranging from Sports Illustrated swimsuit models to stay-at-home moms and dads.
Schaefer’s videos are brilliant in their simplicity, and his approach seemed to be something I could actually stick with. It focuses on five key steps:
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What really attracted me to this philosophy was that I thought I was already doing at least three of those things. I’d been intermittent fasting for a few years already, just because I’m often not hungry in the mornings. I bought a spin bike during the pandemic and routinely did the strength-training classes on the app. I walk all over the place since I live in Brooklyn, so I must have been getting that many steps in regularly.
With the reunion a month and a half away, I figured it was too close to really make an impact. But I threw caution to the wind and DM’d Schaefer. I explained my madness and what I wanted to accomplish, and then prayed. Luckily, he was all in.
GETTING STARTED
Schaefer and I jumped on a Zoom call to talk about the program. Since I’d been obsessively watching his videos for months, it was like meeting a celebrity. He couldn’t have been nicer: he was down to earth and eager to help me.
I told him I wanted to take the tenets of his program and see where they got me in a month and a half. Oh, and did I mention the biggest eating holiday of the year was coming up, plus cookie season, plus I work at Delish, where I’m constantly surrounded by tempting food? He laughed at how many apparent roadblocks there were, but was down to help me tackle each one.
“Nutrition is governed by the law of averages,” Schaefer said. “Understanding this allows for a broader view of how fat loss actually happens, which creates a ton of nutritional flexibility.”
The first step was to determine my daily caloric limit by taking my goal weight and multiplying it by 12. That gave me the number of calories that I needed to stay under every day to be in a “calorie deficit,” a nutrition TikTok video buzzword. I have definitely tracked calories before, be it through Weight Watchers or just on my own, but I’ve never had a number that didn’t feel restrictive. This approach seemed totally doable with my usual eating habits.
Next we needed to calculate my daily protein goal. This is your goal weight multiplied by 0.6. I have never focused on my protein intake, so this was a part of the challenge I was most excited about. Why the focus on protein? “The right amount of protein along with strength training is the best way to build muscle over time,” Schaefer said. “The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you are burning around the clock.”
With my numbers calculated, I purchased the most ridiculously large water bottle I could find and committed myself to fasting and weight training. Shaefer got me set up on MNML’s platform, which has video workouts, recipes, and an accountability community. Schaefer even assigned himself as my accountability coach to make sure I was staying on track. He asked me to take photos of everything I ate along with screenshots of their calories. I also purchased a scale, a tub of protein powder, and Daily Harvest smoothies to kick things off.
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WEEK ONE - TWO
The first two weeks, my diet consisted mainly of eggs, chicken breasts, and Premier Protein Cookies & Cream Shakes. The meal photos I sent Schaefer also included things like a Cobb salad with chicken, birria tacos, scrambled eggs made with Greek yogurt, tomatoes, chorizo, and spinach served on a piece of Dave’s Killer Bread, and Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi with chicken and spinach.
While it was fairly easy to stay under my calorie limit, hitting the protein goal was much harder than I thought it would be. The shakes became essential, but the protein powder scared me because the scoop it came with seemed HUGE. I texted a photo of it to Schaefer, and he said it looked like a recycling bin. The powder made the Daily Harvest smoothies extra frothy, which was a little weird, but they let me hit my protein goal, so it was a win.
I lugged my big teal water bottle everywhere I went. My boss told me it looked like I was walking around the office with a suitcase. I’ve always struggled to drink enough water, but this strategy was actually working: the water bottle was too big and cumbersome to ignore.
For my first strength workout, I logged on to MNML Health’s website and tried out Schaefer’s Total Bodyweight Workout. I do a fair amount of strength workouts through my bike app, but Schaefer’s still kicked my butt. The rest of the week I alternated between a Schaefer workout and a bike ride.
Now for the 10,000 daily steps. I thought this would be MUCH easier, but I didn’t hit that goal on weekdays during the first two weeks. Weekends were much easier since I spend a lot of time walking around the city, but I maxed out at 5,000 during the week, which was embarrassing. Schaefer assured me not to stress and that the awareness of my movement was the goal. In the first two weeks I ultimately lost four pounds. It was a small start, but something to motivate me to move forward!
WEEK THREE - FOUR
This was the most dangerous period of the challenge: I was at my mom’s house in Kansas City for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. Nothing could have prepared me for all the risk factors that would make adhering to the program more difficult:
- I had to figure out how to fit the ginormous water bottle in my carry-on.
- Once I got to Kansas City and filled it up, I learned to truly appreciate the taste of NYC water.
- My mother LOVES snacks and treats, even more so when I’m visiting. While the program would in theory allow me to eat whatever I wanted for dinner if I nailed lunch, all those snacks and treats add up (and usually didn’t help me reach my protein goal).
- My hometown is not very pedestrian friendly. When I told my mom I wanted to walk to get my nails done, she was shocked and exasperated.
Despite these hurdles, I managed to stay on track calorie- and protein-wise, and Schaefer was there every step of the way with an encouraging word. I sent him photos of dishes like taco soup, a BBQ beef sandwich, Cobb salad, a Queso Burger from Chili’s, and ground beef stroganoff.
When Schaefer and I discussed my plans for Thanksgiving, he was adamant that I enjoy myself. He gave me some great advice on how to have a good time without completely falling off the wagon: “Fitness and nutrition are meant to enhance your life, not BE your life. For sustainability's sake, it's incredibly important for people to enjoy time with friends and family and not stress or feel guilty about food while doing so,” he said. “When gearing up for a big weekend, event or the holidays, create big caloric deficits leading up to the event, drink extra water and match every alcoholic drink with one, and finally squeeze in activity when you can.”
So enjoy I did—our feast included the traditional turkey, pie, and even a few Delish recipes like Cranberry Whipped Feta and Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes.
On Thanksgiving morning I did a Turkey Day-themed spin class in an effort to make up for the fact that I definitely wasn’t walking 10,000 steps that day (or any other day on this trip). I probably averaged around 6,000 steps, which for Kansas has to be a record. I continued to alternate Schaefer’s workouts (Total Body Mix-Up) with spin classes. I lost one measly pound, but considering it was Thanksgiving, I’d call it a win.
WEEK FIVE - SIX
The home stretch. I returned to Brooklyn ready to give the program my all in the run-up to the reunion. I did a Zoom workout with Schaefer, and we decided I was ready for heavier weights—a sign of progress! Most of my other workouts consisted of 20- to 30-minute full-body classes plus consistent 10-minute core classes. My weekday steps were still hovering in the 6,000 to 8,000 range, though I set a personal record on one Saturday with 16,000 steps.
As for food, I went all in with salads loaded with chicken and hard-boiled eggs from Sweetgreen. I switched my usual beef chili to turkey and was amazed by how much that lowered the calories while retaining the protein. I made this Delish Steak Grain Bowls recipe, which had a whopping 43 grams of protein and fed me for five days. I ate the same frittata (with soy chorizo, spinach, and tomatoes) for lunch nearly every day. I lugged my water bottle around the office, Broadway shows, the movies, and finally back to Kansas City for the big event.
The day of my reunion arrived. I stepped on the scale. It showed I was down 10 pounds from my starting weight!
I took stock of the past month and a half and realized I felt stronger, had more energy, and never actually felt deprived. Schaefer was right—it really was more about building an awareness around what I was eating, drinking, and how much I was moving. These are definitely the easiest nutrition and exercise guidelines I’ve ever followed, and I’m committed to sticking with them.
I felt so proud of myself. With a new confidence, I threw on an almost stomach-baring sparkly tank top, walked into my reunion, and graciously accepted compliments from my classmates about how, 20 years later, I looked exactly the same.
Lindsey Ramsey is the director of content operations, overseeing all things operations for Delish—content strategy, process, schedules, contracts, invoices, and more. When she does write, she covers pop culture, travel, and nutrition trends in the food space. She brings more than 15 years of writing, editing, and editorial management expertise to the brand, and her work has also appeared at House Beautiful, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Budget Travel, Food.com and more. She loves chicken Parm more than any human on the planet.
