Ultimate Reset Day 15

Ultimate Reset: Day 15
The No More Cucumbers for Me, Please

Today was the first day of the last week. I’m not gonna lie, I’m glad the Detox supplement is not on this week’s supplement menu, cause, though I did start getting used to it, I just prefer plain water. Plus this week’s focus is different. It’s called “Restore” for a reason. The main difference between this week and the previous one is that this week we add healthy bacteria (pre- and probiotics). Now is a great time to do so as my whole system has been cleansed, intestinal and gut health has improved, so my body is more accepting of these good bacteria. They can simply do their jobs better.

With all that said, today was the day when I just got fed up with cucumbers. I know why they are in the Reset. First of all, they are 96% water, which clearly helps during a detox. They also have other health benefits, such as:
– they “are a rich source of cucurbitacins which blocks cancer cell development according to scientists” (myjuicecleanse.com)
– they help clear the pores of the skin by pulling the dirt out
– electrolytes in cucumber help restore hydration at the cellular level
– they contain “a hormone which is needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin which has been found to be beneficial to diabetic patients” (http://www.naturalnews.com/036769_cucumbers_health_benefits_rehydration.html#ixzz369kFOWCs)

Yet, their daily consumption for the past two weeks has led me to just simply not want them anymore. I don’t think I’ll be eating cucumbers for months now. Well, maybe when we make sushi with my husband. I still want to do that. But maybe not. 😛

How do you like cucumbers?
 

Ultimate Reset Day 14

Ultimate Reset: Day 14
The At the Two Week Mark

I have one week left from the Reset and I’m feeling great. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have as much energy as I usually do, because I am eating less and am not working out. I’m not having my coffee. But my body internally is feeling great. I don’t have any bloating – which is important to point out because my husband had the same food over the weekend and he had some…. gas issues (TMI? Sorry 😀 ). So my gut health has definitely improved. My skin is nicer – I don’t usually have breakouts anyway, but you can see that it’s glowing. My focus is better.

Lunch was hard because I had to blend yesterday’s squash with tahini filling into a soup, and that just confirmed that I do not like tahini. So I had the optional snack: a miso soup (not pictured). But dinner was amazing, all colors of the rainbow, and the edemame corn dish is definitely something I’m gonna be making again in the future as a side dish.

Ultimate Reset Day 13

Ultimate Reset: Day 13
The I’m Cold

Okay. So it’s the weekend (day 13 is a Saturday) and my husband is home, Sophie is home, it’s summer time, we’re living in Southern California, so what should we do? Enjoy the pool, right? My husband has been warming it (it’s not a huge pool), so the water is really comfortable. Except that I’m really cold. It’s very normal during a cleanse. But not fun, for sure. 😛

Today was different because for breakfast I had mashed chickpeas, avocado and steamed spinach. And that really fancy plate (my friend called it supersonic, I did add an effect to it), is my usual salad with beets added, except that my husband prepped my plate. That picture got at least twice if not three times as many likes as my own pictures. So he’s a lot better at making the plate. 😛 ❤

One thing is for sure though: I do not like tahini. It has a bitter taste to it and, yeah. I just don’t like it. Do you know of any yummy tahini recipes? Because I’d love to try them…

Ultimate Reset Day 12

Ultimate Reset: Day 12
The Not My Week for Friendships

So this week I had some friendship issues. And it was really hard on me. I always say there are two sides to a story and then there’s the truth, but I know feelings got hurt on all sides. It’s not anything I believe can’t be worked out, but it’s definitely something that needs to be talked about. One is still unresolved, the other one is thankfully fine. But it took its toll. I’m probably more in tune with my emotions as well, maybe a little more sensitive; but… It was not a fun week.

I wish I still had all the beets I got from our vegetable and fruit delivery service. Because I finally know how to prepare the beets. They’re nothing special, really: I just put in the oven with a little bit of water tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt, bake at 400F for 45 minutes. That simple and so delicious, served warm or cold.

And it’s finally cherry season. I love cherries. What’s your favorite fruit?

Ultimate Reset Day 11

Ultimate Reset: Day 11
The I’m Definitely Getting Mentally Stronger

If there’s one thing everyone that knows me knows around me is that I love sweets. I’m trying to give Sophie (and my whole family) a variety of foods, and breakfast is my favorite meal. So I created “Pancake Thursdays” (I posted a few of them, you can do a search for them and see my creation with recipes – my pancakes are a bit different than the usual ones, and they’re delicious). So, day 11 happened to fall on a Thursday. My breakfast was fruits, Sophie’s breakfast was my “go-to” pancake: almond butter pancakes. And I resisted. She loved it, and I knew I would love it too, but I resisted.

There wasn’t really much else to this day. I had a pedicure (it’s such a mommy luxury, really), and did grocery shopping while Sophie was with her sitter. Sophie is so easy to get along with, she loves everybody, young or old. She has a great personality. Sometimes I just tear up simply because I love her so much. She has so much love in her.

Not even sure how this story just came to my mind, but it did, so I’ll share. Sophie loves pouring water…. Everywhere. She loves cleaning it up too. But sometimes you have to watch because she acts like she wants to drink but what she really will do is take one sip, let you settle into your comfort that she’s just drinking it and then bumm, turns it upside down and it’s everywhere. It’s just water. So when we were in Hungary, my mother-in-law was having lunch at one of the malls, and a little girl, similar to Sophie’s age (22 months) was having lunch with her mom. And she did the same, turned her cup upside down and all the water landed on the table. And the mom smacked her right in the face. It makes me so angry just to hear this story. I don’t believe in physical discipline at all. But especially such a small child for something so minor. I’m not a child psychologist or developmental specialist. But I am 100% certain there is a reason they do this and it’s part of their learning path. No rant follows. There could be one, but there won’t be….

Ultimate Reset Day 10

Ultimate Reset: Day 10
The Should I Keep Going?

Today was a bit tough. I stepped on the scale in the morning, and it was down five pounds in only a week and a half. I looked in the mirror and I felt tiny. I know, what a problem to have. But the truth is, and I had to remind myself of this, I am doing the Reset not because I need to / want to lose weight. I need to get leaner and build muscle, but I was happy with my starting weight. I am doing the Reset to give my body a healthier restart. Ridding it of the environmental toxins, cleaning out animal products and the residue they leave in the body. The Reset helps reduce LDL (bad cholesterol), reduces inflammation, soothes the nervous system, provides mental clarity, not to mention how educational it is. Most of us tend to get settled in a certain way of eating – even it if’s a healthy way of eating, there’s always more to learn, more to explore. New flavors, different food pairings…. So I told myself that I’m not on this journey to lose weight (it happens naturally, caloric intake is reduced). And I told myself to keep going.

Normally, I’d recommend to anybody to have a support/accountability group. It’s tough going through this alone. And I’m not alone. My husband is supportive of it, though he’s not doing it. He eats the dinners I make, sometimes even for lunch the next day, but for him, it’s not enough. I’m really surprised at myself how much self control I have. To not fall for the temptation of him eating… fish, bread, cheese, sweets, you name it. It’s a journey very well worth it. I do feel like my body is getting retuned.

And with that said, I realized that thinking I want to do P90X3 a week after finishing the Reset is just…. well, not smart. 🙂 My body won’t be ready. So switch gears, July 7th, I’m starting PiYo It’s a 60 day program that uses no weights at all. The name suggests it’s Pilates and Yoga mixed, but it really isn’t. It’s more than that. It’s a very dynamic, high intensity, yet low impact program – no jumps either. So for two months after the Reset, that’s my plan – and I’ll be posting my workout calendar soon too. If you’re starting a new routine on July 7th, please let me know and let’s motivate each other. (It doesn’t have to be PiYo, though that’d be fun too).

Ultimate Reset Day 9

Ultimate Reset: Day 9
The Wife Wants to Date Again

It’s not enough that I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast plate (I probably was too hungry :P), hence the picture of Sophie in the kitchen… I had the wrong breakfast. Quite frankly, I did not look in the guidebook and had fruits for breakfast. I was supposed to have miso soup and avocado and chickpeas and all those goodies… Oh well. I like fruits.

Today was a bit easier as I had more than just a salad for lunch. Yesterday’s dinner was for lunch and I really liked it. Just beans and rice, sounds simple, but it’s actually perfect. Here’s why. With a very few exceptions, plant based proteins are considered incomplete, as they do not have all the essential amino acids (building blocks of protein) that our bodies cannot synthesize and therefore we must get from our diet. But if we consume well paired incomplete proteins within a 24 hour period, they become complete proteins. One such pairing is beans and rice. See? It’s all perfect. 🙂

And dinner was again a huge success with a sweet potato and roasted red pepper bisque. As a mom, I measure a meal’s success by how Sophie reacts. And she loved it. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t eat anything the next day, no matter how much she liked it the night before.

My mood was okay as well, wasn’t especially high or low. I’m sleeping really well and feel like I can focus better. Cleanses are not simply for the body, getting rid of toxins, recharging our systems, soothing the nervous system; they’re also for the mind. Sure, we get clarity, but whatever your belief might be, it’s a great time to reflect and seek answers. In a way, as the body is “muted”, the mind becomes more alert, the heart becomes more open. And in that respect, I feel like I cannot take full advantage of the Reset with my day-to-day-routine. I’d love to meditate more. But there’s a time and place for everything. I do feel more open though. But my focus is more on my love life. It’s easy to be just moms. To take care of Sophie, make sure she has outside play time, has good food, etc; do the groceries, to keep the house clean (more or less), to take care of the dogs. But I’m also a wife. So I started looking into where we could go. Clearly, our options are limited. We can’t stay overnight (our parents live in Hungary, and our sitter works nights in a restaurant). But I love breakfast, so I figured for the first “date” a brunch would be perfect. So the date is set. I can’t wait. ❤

Ultimate Reset Day 8

Ultimate Reset: Day 8
The “I feel like I’m starting all over again”

Ah, this day was not easy. For a few reasons:

1. there is a new supplement this week called “detox” which looks a bit like mud and the taste reminds me of something from my childhood that is not a positive memory. It has a citrus flavor to it, but, yeah, not for me. I’m trying to drink more and more before every meal (so three times a day), but for now, it’s tough.
2. we picked up my husband from the airport at lunch time, so I had to have lunch at 11:30am – which wasn’t too bad, though I really wasn’t hungry yet. But on the flip side, we picked up my husband from the airport!! We hadn’t seen him for four weeks while Sophie and I were in Hungary and only a few days after we came back, he had to leave for Europe for ten days. So it’s nice to finally have him back.

But it did feel like my cleanse is just starting all over again. Surprisingly, having only fruits for breakfast did not have the negative effects it used to. First off, it was never filling enough, second, I would cramp up (I used to have to take crackers with me to school to calm my overacidic tummy). But the fruits were filling and there was no tummy ache whatsoever. I’m thinking it’s because week one helped my body find its natural (and more alkaline) balance, so my body could handle fruits the way it’s supposed to.

Not pictured above is a snack I had (because of the early lunch), miso soup. It was good. Even my husband liked it. I did, for a second, feel like the day was going to be harder to go through, because my husband can eat whatever he likes, luckily he eats a healthy diet, but he could have from the muffins, for example. But it was okay. That split second hardship was quickly gone.

Oh, and that’s what the salads really look like when I eat them. 😛 I was in a rush and couldn’t make a pretty plate. 😀

Ultimate Reset Day 7

Ultimate Reset: Day 7
The Week One is Done Pride

Hah!!! I did it, week one is done!! With all the foreseen obstacles – Sophie’s different diet, her feeding me (turns out, pretending like I’m eating still works with her), all the chocolate I brought from Europe being in the kitchen cabinet – I did it!!! I even made Sophie’s favorite muffin, high fiber blueberry muffin, and I did not have a single bite. And it looked delicious.

I’m not gonna lie though, starting my day with an oatmeal is always a great morning. I love oatmeal. What I don’t like is yogurt by itself. I love it as a pancake topping (mixed with some milk for an easier texture, sweetened with vanilla stevia). So I swapped the suggested yogurt with cottage cheese. I know they’re not the same, but the snack guide says you can have yogurt or cottage cheese, so I figured this swap was allowed.

I’m a little nervous for week two, as it’s different from week one. You’ll see how tomorrow. 😛

I still miss my workouts. I’m already planning my big come back. I’ll do Zumba for a week, then get started with my guy, Tony Horton on P90X3. Yep, that’s exactly what I’ll do. 😀

Ultimate Reset Day 6

Ultimate Reset: Day 6
The “Eh”

Day six was…. eh. Nothing special. No extremely high energy, no extremely low energy. Just one of those days. We had fun with Sophie at the pool, watched TV in the evening, really nothing special.

So a bit more about the food today.
Tempeh is not going to be my favorite. It has an interesting flavor and texture. Don’t get me wrong, I ate it, and it wasn’t bad at all, but it’s like the beet pancakes I made a few weeks ago. It was nice to try, and if the Reset calls for it I will eat it, but it won’t become a staple item in our menu.
I was afraid of the soup that was for dinner. When the Reset came out, I remember reading about how some people could not eat it, and how awful it tasted, and how inedible it was. And when I read the recipe, I thought I wouldn’t like it either. After all, all it has are cashews, steamed zucchini, water, salt, and liquid aminos. All blended together. Well, to my surprise, it was really REALLY yummy. Even Sophie liked it, and she is very picky, especially about vegetables. Phew. Lucky me. 😀 (and the root veggies were amazing too, another dish I’ll be preparing frequently).

There’s nothing else to add, really. I’m feeling great. And very proud that I am able to resist the foods Sophie is eating, and am not tempted. It’s very much a mental thing as well. I am working on my willpower too, and that is more than just a simple detox, right?