In December, my dear friend, Amy, asked me if I would be interested in doing the Ultimate Reset--a 21 Day Cleanse that detoxes your body from the inside out. I thought about it for about five seconds and said NO!
I am at my goal weight. I don't need to do that. I don't want to lose more weight. I don't want to limit my foods. I had a lot of excuses. I said NO and figured that would be the end of it.
Instead, I kept hearing her voice in the back of my mind. I watched a few other colleagues do it. I began to move from a firm NO to maybe there is something to this.
Then, in February I was diagnosed with pneumonia and even after a week of antibiotics and steroids, I was still struggling to breathe doing basic mom tasks and fatigue was a huge problem. My mindset was struggling in a big way. I was doubting myself in all areas. I was sick for weeks. I had to DO something.
I remembered Amy's invitation in December and all of our talks about her cancer recovery and the role food played in how she felt. I wondered if maybe food could play a role in my asthma and respiratory problems that have vexed me off and and on for the last couple years. One of my clients informed me she was going to do the reset. She was the last factor. I didn't want her to do it alone. I would join her. I decided to go for it.
Within a week, I had ordered my kit and I had even recruited, Amy and a couple more friends to join us. So, the five of us began our Reset the second week of March.
Nori Rolls
Lots of Fresh Fruit on the Reset
Lots of Miso Soup too! Yummy Stir Fry over Brown Rice.
I will be honest, the first week was pretty easy. I was excited and felt better almost immediately. I had more mental clarity and more energy! Plus, I was at my parent's house for part of that week and my mom and dad cooked my kids fav foods and I stuck to my plan without having to cook two separate meals!
The second week was HARD. You start drinking a detox supplement and detox is definitely accurate. My body was detoxing, my mind was detoxing. I was more emotional than a teenage version of myself. Seriously, I was weeping at the drop of a hat and really off my game.
Several supplements were implemented at different times throughout the 21 Day Reset
The meals continued to be easy to prepare and delicious, but now I was cooking two separate meals, three times a day. It was a huge commitment. The hardest part was that my day literally revolved around when I would make my meals, when I would take my supplements, when I would eat. Because eating even took longer! The meals were very large and it is not an overstatement to say eating lunch could take me close to an hour from start to finish. I was exhausted.
I definitely LOVED eating all my meals from mixing bowls.
It was as week 2 wrapped up that I broke and my emotional eating won. I ate nearly an entire bag of barbacue kettle chips AND some candy I had bought for my Sunday School class. I stole from my hard-working Sunday School Class, you guys! I was WEAK SAUCE! And as if the mental guilt wasn't enough, I physically felt AWFUL! When you eat super clean for two weeks and go overboard on crap, you feel like, YOU GUESSED IT! CRAP!
Thanks to my text message thread of beautiful friends. I got the support I needed and picked myself up to finish out the third and final week without huge incident. Unless, you count the cucumber-avocado soup that was the worst meal of my life! I should have just eaten them separately and called it a day!
In the end, I am so thankful I took the leap to do this! Within days I was breathing better than I had in months. My digestive system felt amazing. Mostly I know it felt amazing because now that I've integrated some of my normal foods back in I have found some major contributors to discomfort, including DAIRY! Thank heavens for cashewmilk! Seriously, any time I have tried even a small amount of a processed carb, I have a stomach twisting itself up in knots. The pain and discomfort are unbelievable. I am so grateful for all that I learned and gained from this experience. I think now that my gut is squeaky clean, it will help keep me on track and really tell me when foods are no bueno for my body.
Power Greens NOT for the faint of heart
I loved learning new recipes and food combinations that I can continue to implement to feel great from here on out. I hated the power greens, and if I ever feel I need to have more greens, I'll just blend them right into my superfoods shake!
I haven't put meat back in yet. I didn't miss it and have now NOT had meat for a month. I have cooked meat for my family and I am just not interested yet. We'll see how my body responds when I give it a whirl in the future.
Throughout the reset I did yoga. You are not supposed to engaged in rigorous exercise for the 21 days
If you are struggling with serious dietary issues or your body just isn't performing at its peak, this might be an affordable answer to your problems. I would love to talk to you more about my experience! P.S. If you do want to lose weight and inches on the Reset you totally can. I lost a few pounds, but worked hard NOT to. I ate the men-sized portion and added avocado whenever I could. :)
However, the group of women I did it with lost about 30 pounds combined and I am so proud of all of us for doing this!
