I don't want to write continual posts on this, so this will be just one long one wrapping everything up... Grab a cup of coffee because this could take awhile...
Wow I can't believe I actually survived the Ultimate Reset. If you ever youtube ultimate reset you will see a lot of individuals testimonials after day 21 and how it was the hardest thing they've ever done and they learned so much, blah blah blah... I have no vested interest in Beach Body so I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything, but let me tell you, everything they tell you was 100% true for me.
If you're just joining, here is explanation of what it is, why I did it, and week 1 results: HERE.
I'm here to tell you right off the bat, everything was ENTIRELY worth it for me- I lost 11lbs, can finally start to see my abs better, my skin cleared up, I get more restful sleep, I have more energy, and my mood is always 'perky'. It wasn't easy, so lets get the hard part out of the way at first--
Emotional Roller-coaster: They warn you in the book to pick a time that is not stressful or you have a lot of events going on as well as to start on a Wednesday so when you hit the hardest part (days 3-5, it will be the weekend and better easier to deal with your emotions) Silly me I started the day after I broke up with M. All Tuesday night I was crying my eyes out so that when I woke up on Wed my eyes were swollen shut, I had a raging headache and wasn't allowed caffeine, and I had zero motivation to prepare meals. I felt so lonely having "lost one of my best friends" that my drive just wasn't there. (unbeknownst to me at the time he really did want to remain friends so thankfully I still have him in my life, so that part got better)
Once I got the hang of it after a day or so I went from: "this is great" to "i hate my life" to crying at how I'll have no life for 3 weeks to finally "I can do this!" All these emotions were in the first week, so its safe to say that hands down week 1 is the hardest as you get the hang of all the meal preparation, timing of your meals, and to be honest, being a hermit.
Meal Preparation / Timing: The difference with Ultimate Reset vs. other programs, which in my opinion made it harder, is the timing of everything. I know I recapped before but a brief run down:
Pills in morning with full glass of water 30 min breakfast
Pills in afternoon with full glass of water 30 min before lunch
Wait at least two hours after lunch to take alkanize (powder mix in water and drink to help neutralize ph)
Wait at least 30 min if you want a mid afternoon snack
Wait at least 2 hours, take your pills with full glass of water, then wait 30 min for dinner.
I'm excellent at taking pills, but this required a lot of planning for the day--- If I knew I would be at office later then I had to adjust my whole day- having lunch a little earlier so I could do my snack a little earlier so then dinner wouldn't be too late. I had to rush home from work and immediately start preparing my meals.
All your meals are planned out for you exactly along with the recipes. I constantly had to look a few days ahead at the recipes and go to the grocery store to stock up on ingredients that I apparently missed the last time--- I probably went to grocery every 3 days or so.
One mistake I did that I will pass along if you decide to do this: When I first got the book I went through all the meals and made a grocery list (didn't look at the recipes- mistake #1)--- what I didn't realize is that when you purchase ultimate reset you create a username and password which allows you to log into the website and have access to more information. On there is ingredient list of EVERYTHING you'll need as well as how much. I overbought on so many items because I didn't need that much-- this would be a huge time and money saver to utilize this list.
There were 3 things I didn't like: One meal called for salmon (i don't eat fish so I did chicken), there were several meals that called from tempeh- I tried it once--- cried my eyes out, tried it again with seasonings and finally threw in the towel deciding that any other recipe that called for tempeh I would use another protein source. Lastly was seaweed- twice you were to make nori rolls--- i just skipped the seaweed and ate everything inside the rolls in a bowl. It also called for seaweed in your miso soup- left that out too. Aside from that I was pretty diligent about following as best as I could. As time went on I was more flexible with myself. One meal called for a certain type of squash, I couldn't find it anywhere so I looked up benefits of the said squash and saw that a sweet potato had a lot of same benefits so I went with that.
Social Aspect: As stated above, everything was about timing and meal prep, so the entire 3 weeks I never did anything during the week except go straight home and start dinner. I was lucky on the weekends by having friends who were actively doing the whole 30 so we had game nights with compliant snacks- it was such a change of pace to hang out with them and not have a beer in hand (one of the guys is my drinking buddy). I don't know if I could have survived the weekends without them so I highly recommend having some type of social support.
No Exercise- the old saying is true "you don't know what you had till its gone"---- MAN did I miss exercise. There were so many beautiful days where I just wanted to leave my desk and go for a lunch run, but I couldn't. I went stir crazy and eventually it led to me making the decision that anytime in future that I had a workout planned and wanted to skip, that I would remind myself of the feeling of when you are forbidden to work out. (so far it's helping)
The last hard part goes without saying- Discipline: I think one of my GREATEST strengths is that I am very well aware of my weaknesses and what I need to improve on. Discipline and consistency are two attributes I am continually trying to get better at. If I have someone telling me exactly what I need to do (this is for anything, eating, training, work, etc) than I will be an excellent follower.... leave it into my hands, thats when I fall apart. Hands down this is the #1 reason why I decided to go this route for getting back on track with diet vs. any other. I knew the fact that all my meals were planned to a T and all I had to do was make them would work well for me, and it did. With that being said it was great. What was hard was the ability to say 'no' and not cheat because it's "just one time". Where I work is relatively healthy (voted #1 healthiest place to work in Nashville!), however we also like to have fun. At least 3x a week there were treats being passed around and I had to have enough will power to say no. It was hard at first, but once I was seeing results it made it easy. I consistently reminded myself that its only 3 weeks.
Now on to the fun stuff that I absolutely loved:
Creativity: I started to get a hankering for sweets, but since I can't have them I stalked pinterest to find clean eats that didn't have a million ingredients that were pricey (umm almond flour and coconut flour- why so much?) I found that the more time I spent in the kitchen, the more I really enjoyed making things and finding different healthy combinations that were REALLY tasty! Instead of chocolate, candies, or cookies- I've found that what satisfies my sweet tooth is spoonful of almond butter with shredded coconut on top... it's like crack, seriously.
Constant Energy- No not the jittery kind where you feel like your hearts about to explode. I'm talking constant alertness and not hitting that afternoon lull where you're reaching for a pick-me-up of caffeine or sweets.
Better Sleep:- It actually took me longer to fall asleep since I wasn't tired, but when I did sleep I was dead to the world. When my alarm would go off I wouldn't hit snooze and actually get out of bed right away since I was well rested--- this was HUGE for me
Portions / Eating smart: I've found (and this is still true today after being off this regimen for 3 days) that my portions are a lot smaller. Although I still get hungry, it doesn't take me a large amount of food to get full. I attribute this to eating a lot of nutrient dense food-- people forget that the whole purpose of eating is to get vitamins, minerals, antioxidants from our food--- when we eat processed 'junk' that is devoid of nutrients, we have the ability to eat more because our body isn't satisfied yet as it is waiting for the 'good stuff" This alone is what is wanting me to keep up this way of eating.
Regularity: Everyone's favorite topic! This one didn't happen overnight- infact I was surprised that even during the cleanse part of this regimen that I wasn't going to the bathroom more. It wasn't until about 1.5 to 2 weeks in that I started going multiple times a day. The human body is actually designed to go to the bathroom everytime you have a meal--- yup that means 3x a day, yet some people struggle with going once a day. Once my digestion cleared up I have been consistent at 2-3x day easily- its such a great feeling to know my system is all working properly!!
Last but certainly not least--- WEIGHTLOSS: I'm going to start right away with I know i'm not fat. I'm tall and I'm proportioned, however it's still weight on my joints. I can range between 155lbs - 170lbs, and to the unsuspecting eye, you might not notice a difference... to me naked in front a mirror though, there is a huge difference. I had great success the first week, was stagnant the 2nd, then lost the rest the 3rd week. I'm confident that if I didn't start to make my clean sweets I probably would have lost more, but I'm happy with results thus far. I will say what is weird for me- I wear size 30 waist, but in actually where you measure across your belly button is a bit wider on my body.
Starting Measurements: Ending Measurements:
Weight: 170lbs (highest in 3 years!) 158.5lbs
Bicep: 11 in 10.5 in
Hips: 44 in 40 in
So if you do the math, in 3 weeks I lost 11.5lbs and 9.5 inches. Waiting the extra few days until my 'time of the month bloat' had subsided allowed for another .5lb and 2 inches! (I hate that I balloon up like that)
Although I don't like them, here is my before stomach shot (my most problem area)
Wow I can't believe I actually survived the Ultimate Reset. If you ever youtube ultimate reset you will see a lot of individuals testimonials after day 21 and how it was the hardest thing they've ever done and they learned so much, blah blah blah... I have no vested interest in Beach Body so I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything, but let me tell you, everything they tell you was 100% true for me.
If you're just joining, here is explanation of what it is, why I did it, and week 1 results: HERE.
I'm here to tell you right off the bat, everything was ENTIRELY worth it for me- I lost 11lbs, can finally start to see my abs better, my skin cleared up, I get more restful sleep, I have more energy, and my mood is always 'perky'. It wasn't easy, so lets get the hard part out of the way at first--
Emotional Roller-coaster: They warn you in the book to pick a time that is not stressful or you have a lot of events going on as well as to start on a Wednesday so when you hit the hardest part (days 3-5, it will be the weekend and better easier to deal with your emotions) Silly me I started the day after I broke up with M. All Tuesday night I was crying my eyes out so that when I woke up on Wed my eyes were swollen shut, I had a raging headache and wasn't allowed caffeine, and I had zero motivation to prepare meals. I felt so lonely having "lost one of my best friends" that my drive just wasn't there. (unbeknownst to me at the time he really did want to remain friends so thankfully I still have him in my life, so that part got better)
Once I got the hang of it after a day or so I went from: "this is great" to "i hate my life" to crying at how I'll have no life for 3 weeks to finally "I can do this!" All these emotions were in the first week, so its safe to say that hands down week 1 is the hardest as you get the hang of all the meal preparation, timing of your meals, and to be honest, being a hermit.
Meal Preparation / Timing: The difference with Ultimate Reset vs. other programs, which in my opinion made it harder, is the timing of everything. I know I recapped before but a brief run down:
Pills in morning with full glass of water 30 min breakfast
Pills in afternoon with full glass of water 30 min before lunch
Wait at least two hours after lunch to take alkanize (powder mix in water and drink to help neutralize ph)
Wait at least 30 min if you want a mid afternoon snack
Wait at least 2 hours, take your pills with full glass of water, then wait 30 min for dinner.
I'm excellent at taking pills, but this required a lot of planning for the day--- If I knew I would be at office later then I had to adjust my whole day- having lunch a little earlier so I could do my snack a little earlier so then dinner wouldn't be too late. I had to rush home from work and immediately start preparing my meals.
All your meals are planned out for you exactly along with the recipes. I constantly had to look a few days ahead at the recipes and go to the grocery store to stock up on ingredients that I apparently missed the last time--- I probably went to grocery every 3 days or so.
One mistake I did that I will pass along if you decide to do this: When I first got the book I went through all the meals and made a grocery list (didn't look at the recipes- mistake #1)--- what I didn't realize is that when you purchase ultimate reset you create a username and password which allows you to log into the website and have access to more information. On there is ingredient list of EVERYTHING you'll need as well as how much. I overbought on so many items because I didn't need that much-- this would be a huge time and money saver to utilize this list.
There were 3 things I didn't like: One meal called for salmon (i don't eat fish so I did chicken), there were several meals that called from tempeh- I tried it once--- cried my eyes out, tried it again with seasonings and finally threw in the towel deciding that any other recipe that called for tempeh I would use another protein source. Lastly was seaweed- twice you were to make nori rolls--- i just skipped the seaweed and ate everything inside the rolls in a bowl. It also called for seaweed in your miso soup- left that out too. Aside from that I was pretty diligent about following as best as I could. As time went on I was more flexible with myself. One meal called for a certain type of squash, I couldn't find it anywhere so I looked up benefits of the said squash and saw that a sweet potato had a lot of same benefits so I went with that.
Social Aspect: As stated above, everything was about timing and meal prep, so the entire 3 weeks I never did anything during the week except go straight home and start dinner. I was lucky on the weekends by having friends who were actively doing the whole 30 so we had game nights with compliant snacks- it was such a change of pace to hang out with them and not have a beer in hand (one of the guys is my drinking buddy). I don't know if I could have survived the weekends without them so I highly recommend having some type of social support.
No Exercise- the old saying is true "you don't know what you had till its gone"---- MAN did I miss exercise. There were so many beautiful days where I just wanted to leave my desk and go for a lunch run, but I couldn't. I went stir crazy and eventually it led to me making the decision that anytime in future that I had a workout planned and wanted to skip, that I would remind myself of the feeling of when you are forbidden to work out. (so far it's helping)
The last hard part goes without saying- Discipline: I think one of my GREATEST strengths is that I am very well aware of my weaknesses and what I need to improve on. Discipline and consistency are two attributes I am continually trying to get better at. If I have someone telling me exactly what I need to do (this is for anything, eating, training, work, etc) than I will be an excellent follower.... leave it into my hands, thats when I fall apart. Hands down this is the #1 reason why I decided to go this route for getting back on track with diet vs. any other. I knew the fact that all my meals were planned to a T and all I had to do was make them would work well for me, and it did. With that being said it was great. What was hard was the ability to say 'no' and not cheat because it's "just one time". Where I work is relatively healthy (voted #1 healthiest place to work in Nashville!), however we also like to have fun. At least 3x a week there were treats being passed around and I had to have enough will power to say no. It was hard at first, but once I was seeing results it made it easy. I consistently reminded myself that its only 3 weeks.
Now on to the fun stuff that I absolutely loved:
Creativity: I started to get a hankering for sweets, but since I can't have them I stalked pinterest to find clean eats that didn't have a million ingredients that were pricey (umm almond flour and coconut flour- why so much?) I found that the more time I spent in the kitchen, the more I really enjoyed making things and finding different healthy combinations that were REALLY tasty! Instead of chocolate, candies, or cookies- I've found that what satisfies my sweet tooth is spoonful of almond butter with shredded coconut on top... it's like crack, seriously.
Constant Energy- No not the jittery kind where you feel like your hearts about to explode. I'm talking constant alertness and not hitting that afternoon lull where you're reaching for a pick-me-up of caffeine or sweets.
Better Sleep:- It actually took me longer to fall asleep since I wasn't tired, but when I did sleep I was dead to the world. When my alarm would go off I wouldn't hit snooze and actually get out of bed right away since I was well rested--- this was HUGE for me
Portions / Eating smart: I've found (and this is still true today after being off this regimen for 3 days) that my portions are a lot smaller. Although I still get hungry, it doesn't take me a large amount of food to get full. I attribute this to eating a lot of nutrient dense food-- people forget that the whole purpose of eating is to get vitamins, minerals, antioxidants from our food--- when we eat processed 'junk' that is devoid of nutrients, we have the ability to eat more because our body isn't satisfied yet as it is waiting for the 'good stuff" This alone is what is wanting me to keep up this way of eating.
Regularity: Everyone's favorite topic! This one didn't happen overnight- infact I was surprised that even during the cleanse part of this regimen that I wasn't going to the bathroom more. It wasn't until about 1.5 to 2 weeks in that I started going multiple times a day. The human body is actually designed to go to the bathroom everytime you have a meal--- yup that means 3x a day, yet some people struggle with going once a day. Once my digestion cleared up I have been consistent at 2-3x day easily- its such a great feeling to know my system is all working properly!!
Last but certainly not least--- WEIGHTLOSS: I'm going to start right away with I know i'm not fat. I'm tall and I'm proportioned, however it's still weight on my joints. I can range between 155lbs - 170lbs, and to the unsuspecting eye, you might not notice a difference... to me naked in front a mirror though, there is a huge difference. I had great success the first week, was stagnant the 2nd, then lost the rest the 3rd week. I'm confident that if I didn't start to make my clean sweets I probably would have lost more, but I'm happy with results thus far. I will say what is weird for me- I wear size 30 waist, but in actually where you measure across your belly button is a bit wider on my body.
Starting Measurements: Ending Measurements:
Weight: 170lbs (highest in 3 years!) 158.5lbs
Bicep: 11 in 10.5 in
Chest: 37 in 34 in
Waist: 34 in 32 in Hips: 44 in 40 in
So if you do the math, in 3 weeks I lost 11.5lbs and 9.5 inches. Waiting the extra few days until my 'time of the month bloat' had subsided allowed for another .5lb and 2 inches! (I hate that I balloon up like that)
Although I don't like them, here is my before stomach shot (my most problem area)
After shot- Clean eating helped with flattening everything down, but exercise is what is going to help with decreasing actual width of my stomach (which is mission #2)
It's funny because when I look in the mirror the changes look huge, however looking at these comparison photos, its more like 'meh'
This process was nothing earth shattering, but definitely changed my perspective on food, working out, and just how MY body operates. Let's hope I'm able to keep up most of these changes.
For the time being I'm finishing the month out with no dairy, meat, sweets, alcohol. I have introduced my keurig coffee back in, protein shake, and eggs. Once February hits I'll slowly work on re-introducing meats and the occasional sweet and alcohol. Dairy is something I don't do on an everyday basis- I use almond or coconut milk for cooking / coffee and every so often add shredded cheese to salads or eggs- this will be something I'll try to hold for awhile and see how things are going by the time my first race hits on Feb 23!
If anyone has any additional questions that I may not have addressed, feel free to ask away!
Don't forget, today is last day to enter Valentine Exchange- To all those who entered, I'll be emailing out your Valentine over the weekend
Don't forget, today is last day to enter Valentine Exchange- To all those who entered, I'll be emailing out your Valentine over the weekend
