My Ultimate Reset Week 2

At the end of week 2 of the Ultimate Reset, I ended up down 8 pounds total! I am super excited because I did have a couple slip-ups (I may have acted in a moment of weakness and stolen a few bites of my daughter's macaroni and cheese). However, overall I have been feeling really great and have thoroughly enjoyed my meals this week. My favorite recipes from this week:

Sweet Potato and Roasted Red Pepper Bisque  Ingredients: 
1 sweet potato (aka garnet yam)
¼ red bell pepper
1 cup vegetable broth or water
1 tsp. finely grated peeled ginger root
1½ tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. miso paste, diluted in 1 tsp. hot water
Tamari or Bragg® Liquid Aminos
Himalayan salt
herbal seasoning (to taste)
Directions: 
Peel and cube sweet potatoes. Cook in boiling water until tender. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, roast a whole red bell pepper on gas stovetop or grill, turning frequently until evenly charred on the outside OR in your oven at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or until skin is charred. Put pepper in bowl and cover with towel for 10 minutes to steam. Clean off skin and seeds by running under cool water. Remove seeds, cut in quarters, and chop one quarter into ½-inch cubes. (Set remainder of pepper aside for another use.) Place sweet potato, pepper, broth or water, ginger, oil, and miso in blender. (If you want chunky soup, set aside some chunks of pepper.) Blend thoroughly, adding more liquid to achieve desired soup consistency. Transfer to a pot and gently heat on low until hot. Add tamari or aminos, salt, and seasoning as desired. Serves 1.
 Nutrition 220 calories 7 g fat 1 g saturated fat 0 mg cholesterol 530 mg sodium 35 g carbohydrate 6 g fiber 3 g protein 509 mg potassium And of course...beets! I knew I liked them, but now I LOVE them!

As always, I hope this has been helpful. My journey hasn't been easy, but it's been worth it!!! I cannot wait to share with you my results and fav. recipes from week 3! If you'd like to order the Ultimate Reset, check it out HERE!

My Ultimate Reset: Week 1

Week one of the Ultimate Reset has been great! I have been on this journey with my husband and today is day 7. I must confess, my husband is doing the full-on reset and I am doing a modified version. Since I am still breastfeeding, I cannot take the supplements. Detoxing will release toxins into my breastmilk (yuck) and so I can’t nurse Sophia AND take the pills. I will do the reset WITH supplements once she is done nursing. For now, I am sticking to the exact schedule as far as food and water intake and following all other instructions. I believe it is still working to rid my body of the junk that has been building up and I am leaving behind bad habits, which is my ultimate goal. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk SCHEDULE: The Ultimate Reset is demanding! Plain and simple- you need time each night (or a whole day on Sunday) to prep your meals for the week. The recipes are easy, but they are complicated because they require multiple steps and a lot of chopping veggies and fruits and measuring things. You have to be precise on the reset and you can’t “eyeball” your measurements. This is a change for me since I’m so used to just dumping stuff in and then tasting as I go when I cook. In addition to the food prep, you need to be able to set yourself up for success. My husband and I set our phone alarms to go off when we need to drink water (and he needs to take the supplements). These are precise times because certain supplements need to be taken a half hour before a meal, two hours after a meal, etc. You also need to make sure you are getting in enough water each day- about a gallon for me a day! And, the water needs to be DISTILLED water! I found gallons of distilled water at Target for 88 cents a piece, so that’s not bad since I need 21 of them and my hubby needs more PLUS we need some for cooking! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk FOOD: You will eat strange foods. Period. You may or may not have heard of all of the foods on the grocery list they provide- but be open-minded and give them a shot! I am now a fan of so many new foods and I now have an arsenal of recipes that I plan to make regularly even after our reset is over. My husband, who grew up a meat-and-potatoes guy, is also surprised at how many of the recipes he likes. I am now a huge fan of tempeh and plan to incorporate it into my dishes beyond the reset. I will also be adding in a “meatless Monday” to my life after the reset because that will give me a chance to eat my favorite dishes from this program regularly. Here’s a pic of some of the food I’ve been eating this week:

I also want to share my favorite dressing recipe and my favorite recipe from week 1. Check them out!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk MOTIVATION: Believe you can and you will! You CAN do this and you can be successful. If my husband can stick to this, without cheating (even on his BIRTHDAY!), then so can you! No excuses. This is going to be so great for our health, we already feel so AMAZING, I am going to be raving about this for a while. That is motivation enough! Trust me ;) However, if that’s not enough, Beachbody provides an Ultimate Reset private Facebook group for all participants to help each other with questions and encouragement. You also can sign up for daily emails explaining information about the phase you are in and get support through the online portal they’ve created. It’s literally AMAZING support! PLUS, there are plenty of YouTube videos to help with questions, reset cooking tips, etc. These are GOLD! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let’s talk CONFESSION: Bless and release. It’s a good motto to have...and during the reset you need to let go of any anxiety and negative feelings you are holding onto towards yourself and others. Also, if you slip up (it happens- I slipped and had a bite of a cookie and a sliver of birthday cake), you can’t freak out and beat yourself up about it. I felt bad, but I realized that what’s done is done and I need to move forward. I am pledging to no more slip-ups from here on out and I KNOW I will succeed because of the support I’m getting and the determination I have. Also, I have to say, I have lost my taste for those treats anyway. When I ate the sliver of cake, the aftertaste was HORRIBLE. It tasted like CHEMICALS! I could immediately tell it was highly processed and full of preservatives and toxins and I DO NOT want that going into my body ever again. In fact, after the reset I will probably be making my own desserts from here on out and only using clean ingredients (the blog Chocolate-Covered Katie has some great recipes for this if you want to check it out!) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let’s talk about YOU! If you think this is something you want to try because you want to experience these benefits, feel free to find me on Facebook and shoot me a message, or email me, or just order now HERE! I would love to help you through this amazing experience!

My Grocery Staples and Upcoming Reset

My husband, Brian, and I are planning to start Beachbody’s Ultimate Reset on Friday. If you haven’t heard of this program, you are missing out on something serious for your nutrition! The Reset is a way to detox your body without starvation (I can think of a few other detox/cleanses that require you to eat literally nothing for days...this isn’t the same thing!). It is a three-week long program and it’s intense because it requires that you eat at certain times, drink distilled water at certain times and also take supplements at certain times to reset your body back to it’s natural, “factory” settings (<-- haha). While some people might find this to be crazy (I mean, what’s the point, right?), I find it to be exciting. I am excited for the benefits of this program- I am basically promised better sleep, better eating habits moving forward, possible weight-loss during the reset, and increased health among other benefits. My current eating habits aren’t too far off from the foods that I will be eating during the reset, other than the fact that I normally will allow myself a treat (none for the three weeks of the reset!) and I eat meat (on the reset, I won’t be after the first week). This will be something new for me, but I am looking forward to how I am going to feel once I am eating vegan. I have a suspicion that I will feel a lot better. Here’s a look at my current grocery list staples that I always seem to get:

A lot of these items will be allowed to stay on my list during the reset, so I’m excited about this! I also know that I will be adding new items to my list like seaweed, so that will be something different- but I am open to change and experiencing new things! Here’s to hoping that my reset shopping experience goes well tomorrow and prep equally well on Thursday. I will keep you updated and blog about my reset experience during my 21 days.

Quick Dinner Solution

Busy moms, listen up! I've re-discovered an easy dinner solution that allows me to put fresh, healthy meals on my dinner table in MINUTES! What is it? You ask. It's made by Ziploc and it's called Zip 'n Steam. 

Your veggies, potatoes or protein can be ready in minutes by putting them in the bag, adding a tablespoon of water, adding seasoning, and popping it in the mic for anywhere from 2-6 minutes, depending on what it is and the portion size.

I'm steaming some broccoli and carrots tonight to go with my crock pot chicken leftovers. Dinner is ready in 4 minutes! It's definitely a lifesaver with Sophia crawling around and wreaking havoc. 

I hope you enjoy cooking with this in a pinch as much as I do! Enjoy!