Ultimate Reset

I have officially made it through day one post reset.

The real difference was that I had my mid morning snack and I snacked a bit after dinner.

Here is what I had:
Breakfast: 1/2 papaya, about a cup of grapes, couple strawberries, 3/4 nectarine
Snack – 1 slice Ezekiel bread and thin layer of almond butter – about 2tsp
Lunch – Large bowl of spinach, 1/2 avocado, 1 small red grabefruit, 2T mixed nuts and a dressing of olive oil and lemon. (Recipe from the Forks Over Knives Cookbook

Spinach, grapefruit, avocado and nuts

Snack – Leftover seaweed, edamame and carrot salad (SO yum!)
Dinner – Small bunch of kale braised (favorite way to prepare) leftover serving of brown rice and sauteed veggies (coconut and sesame oil – my new favorite)
Snack – blueberries and slice of watermelon (I could seriously eat blueberries till my head falls off!)

Braised Kale with brown rice and veggies

We had planned on doing a big hike but Chris’ knee started to bother him and it kept us from that so I didn’t have much exercise today.

I don’t know if it was the elevation change from our drive up the mountain today or the bread but I hit a wall mid afternoon (about 2 hours after eating the bread) I also noticed that I was slightly gassy and bloated. Other than that it was a pretty “normal” day.

It was Chris’ birthday and we went out for dinner. I think I did pretty good actually. I even managed to make him carrot cupcakes without licking the bowl or trying any! (I did freeze one to have another day!)

Yay!! Birthdays!!

Breakfast was especially pretty today, love when I get all the colors

Since we were heading out to dinner I ate my “dinner” for lunch and planned on having a salad at dinner. I was really looking forward to trying the fennel but sad to say I wasn’t overly impressed. I have a few more recipes from the Forks Over Knives cookbook to try so I’ll definitely try those next week.

There were some options at dinner that would “work”, meaning they were vegan and grain free. I opted for two small salads, a grilled kale salad and a roasted beet salad. I say this will “do” as I’m sure the dressings that were used (a papaya “relish” probably had more sugar than any of my dinners the past two 1/2 weeks.) Honestly, I like my beets better

Roasted beets, tomato and onion

Not drinking is not hard for me, although it would have been nice to have a glass of wine! What I missed the most was trying the fresh bread and tasting the fish Chris ordered.
I didn’t end up prepping anything for Day 19 at all as we were out later than normal.

Wow! BIG difference today! I feel emotionally MUCH better, a bit light headed today though.

**Maybe** part of my good mood has to do with an AWESOME post in my Jiggle Free June Challenge group from Stephen A.

Stephen's GREAT news!! Down 15 pounds in 5 days!

I showed this to Chris who read it and told me that my breath has in fact been a bit “different” during this! Well, thanks! Now you tell me! I have a good man for putting up with me through this!  xo

Anyway, I texted Stephen because I was SO excited about his FB post and I get this back from him:

“Thanks Mandy for all your encouragement and help. If you were here I would hug you. I feel so good about myself. There’s no stopping me now.”

Seriously! Give me a minute as I rub the goosebumps on my arms and wipe the tears from my eyes. That is SO going in the “don’t quit” file! There are some days that I feel like “Why do I even bother? Wouldn’t it be easier to just go about my life and not worry so much about other people and their success?” It’s notes and emails like this where I KNOW that I have made a difference and that is AMAZING. It makes me want to keep going, to share more, to help more and it makes me know I am on the 100% right path. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… No one ever told me how fulfilling being a Beachbody Coach really is. Sure it’s great to get paid for doing what I love, and we all have to pay the bills, but THIS, this lives on in Stephen’s life and it will change his wife’s life, his kids lives and the lives of their kids. I want him to play for years and years with his grand-babbies and spend another 40 years with his best friend and wife. And the thing is I have never even met him. He was simply “given” to me from Beachbody.

Then a few minutes later I was able to help another challenger join my team as a Beachbody Coach! She is ready to pay it forward and help others get in great shape! I was so pumped up with all this GREAT news I HAD to burn some energy and pressed play with Les Mills Pump. I did the 55 minute Pump Revolution and loved it! I am thoroughly enjoying these workouts. They go by fast, are fun and I love the music! Oh, I think I have a new girl crush as well!

Les Mills Pump program!

I got back on my bike today, not quite up for sunrise but it still felt great to start my day that way. A beautiful fruit bowl, 1/2 papaya, 1 kiwi, couple slices of watermelon, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup strawberries and a few cherries. YUM.

Had a really random thing happen out and about, such a cool small world story actually! We went to one of our favorite swimming holes, Wailua Falls and we always start chatting with people down there. I met this nice lady named Lisa (she noticed my P90X had and told me she had it but wasn’t following the meal plan…tsk, tsk, tsk!) As we were chatting she learned that I used to work at Cirque du Soleil and she told me she had a friend who used to work there. Turns out I know here friend as well. It always amazes me that I can sit under a waterfall in Hawaii, talking to a lady from Tennessee who runs a ballet studio and trained my friend and former co-worker that I knew in Vegas! Be nice to people, they are probably just friends you haven’t met yet

Lisa and I under Wailua Falls - small world!

After our waterfall chill out time we had lunch on the beach. The salad was really good – such a simple dressing of lime juice, honey and oil. I didn’t eat all the jicama, I’m not sure it was 100% fresh. I ended up eating a bit of leftover edamame and corn succotash when I got home since I missed out on the calories from the jicama. I’ll totally make that simple dressing again though. Who needs bottles when it’s so easy to make your own!

Jicama and Avocado Salad on the Beach in Kauai - representing Platinum Presenters!

My snack was Vegan Shakeology which kept me full before dinner, good thing too since my baked potato took closer to an hour too cook! Dinner really isn’t the time that I get hungry, it’s mostly after breakfast and before my afternoon snack. Maybe there is something to that alkalinez supplement that keeps me going, I totally notice an energy boost from it. I know it isn’t keeping me “full” and it is only 8 calories, but it sure does help.

Dinner was good, and yes, this is a purple sweet potato. They are local here in Hawaii. It was a giant potato so I figured I should just have half. Garlic veggies were good and I didn’t feel I needed the quinoa so left that out. There is an optional grain for dinners this week.

Purple potatoes and stir fried veggies!

Wow! This has gotten to be such a LONG post!

Prep for tomorrow -
Breakfast – fruit is easy
Lunch – I’m going for the Asian Salad since it was on the menu today. I’ll prep that to have it ready to grab and go.
Dinner – Looks like it is cauliflower and kale so no prep needed for that one.

Make it a great day!

I think this is the hardest part so far for me. After a not great day yesterday, feeling a bit like a stick in the mud with not being able to go out to eat normally or enjoy a glass of wine. I’m ready for it to be over and just be a bit more “normal”.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way thinking of quitting! The last two days I haven’t done my sunrise bike ride either which has thrown me off a bit. I really need that time in the morning to set the tone for the day.

As I mentioned before, I just couldn’t do miso soup for breakfast but instead of subbing with fruit I did two days in a row of the chick peas, avocado and spinach. Can’t WAIT for my fruit plate tomorrow! SO excited!!

Chick peas for breakfast??

Lunch was a lovely salad with roasted beets enjoyed on the beach.

Lunch on the beach with my beets

And dinner… I was REALLY looking forward to the squash as I LOVE pumpkin and we eat a fair amount of pumpkin soup in New Zealand. I don’t tend to cook it myself and was hoping this would be an amazing recipe that I could add to my list of meals. It just didn’t turn out as good as the picture in the book was. I really am not a fan of tahini and my pumpkin turned out a bit dry.

Dinner - pumpkin w/tahini sauce and steamed veggies

The only prep I did so far was shelled my edemame (I bought the frozen edemame in pods from Costco). Oh, I also baked all the pumpkin and will make the soup tonight instead of tomorrow so it is ready to do.
I also weighed myself today. I have been weighing in from time to time. I really don’t like scales. At all. I like my pants. If they are falling off I’m losing weight, if they are tight I need to ease up on the cookies. But for this reset I was curious. Because I didn’t think I had weight to lose. I don’t want to be “skinny”. When I started P90X 3 years ago I weighed 142. I went down to 134 when I finished and have gone between 134-139 the last few years. I’m currently at 130. I’m don’t really want to see it go lower. It just doesn’t feel right. I’m 5’7″. I don’t notice a huge difference in the way I LOOK and my clothes don’t feel too different, maybe a bit loser… ***Warning!! poo alert!!**** It kind of makes me think that there was some gunk in my system that needed to come out! And speaking of which, things are moving, regularly. I am NOT spending all day in the bathroom. My insides are definitely getting a spring clean

I made another video today. This little video covers a bit of my struggles with the Reset, some of the things I miss and that overall, this is a choice I am making.

Today I went a bit “off reset” and met a friend for coffee. Now I don’t drink coffee even when I am eating “normally” but will drink some tea. I didn’t want to just sit and drink my water and ended up getting a herbal mint tea so still no caffeine – simply water and dried mint leaves. It was nice to feel a bit “normal”. Afterwards she and I enjoyed a nice and I packed my lunch of quinoa salad and cucumber/tomato salad and enjoyed it 1/2 way through the hike. Have food, will travel

Dinner was ok… I’m still not a fan of miso soup but having it loaded with veggies was MUCH better. My swiss chard wasn’t as fresh as I would have liked and I didn’t end up finishing it all. I should look for some better options for that. I thought the veggies were pretty.

Pretty veggies cooking

I don’t have time to do any prep for tomorrow but I should have time in the morning and there really isn’t too much that needs prepping.

Also, looking back I actually would have split this week up into two different shopping trips and done some shopping and would have picked up the following things TODAY instead of at the beginning of the week:

~Beets
~Swiss Chard
~Collard Greens
~Kale
~Pumpkin
~1/2 the fruit

These items aren’t used until later on in the week and the kale and swiss chard were looking a little wilty.