I've completed the first week of the USANA RESET Challenge: Destination Transformation.
Starting weight: 233.2. End weight: 232.2. Loss: 1.0 pounds.
Measurement changes: none.
The average loss for the JumpStart phase is 4.5 pounds. So, what happened? Life happened. The exact morning I started this, a high priority deadline came up. Then a system emergency. And another possible apocalypse, and another... most of them weren't real threats, but the alerts kept me on edge the whole week. I picked a heck of a week to start this, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to go get a double bacon cheeseburger with onion rings, Jamaican beef patties, and fish & chips - all at once, with Krispy Kreme for dessert. Comfort foods, including primal gnawing-on-your-prey foods - exactly what got me into this mess to start with. But I held fast, stuck with a Stage 2 (Transform) Phase program, and came out with what I think is a pretty good start. It takes some imagination to picture the Oatmeal Raisin bar as your prey, but I made sure those oats don't know what hit them.
Except for Thursday, I maintained a daily regimen of two shakes, two snack bars and one meal of solid food. OK, technically Friday too, but I can explain that. On Thursday, Jeannie and I had an extraordinarily stressful day and just needed to get the heck out of Dodge for a while; I'd also had some very uncomfortable meetings that stressed me out and conflicted with my eating schedule. So we went to Barrel of Crack (Cracker Barrel) and chose among their lesser-evil selections; I had grilled catfish with lighter-ish veggie sides: carrots and slaw. I resisted the Hashbrown Casserole of HipGrowing+1. I forget what Jeannie had; she'll blog about it on http://southernfriedtofu.blogspot.com.
OK, so Friday, you see, it's the darndest thing*... I woke up groggy as usual, having decided to work from home... because, by Thursday I was close to a Career Limiting Move (CLM). I made the most amazing Egg Nog Nutrimeal recipe... and completely forgot the Nutrimeal - didn't even notice it for hours. Because of that, I was more hungry even after my snack, and Jeannie said maybe I needed solid food... so I had a Lean Cuisine type pasta frozen lunch. 300 calories, solid, should work, right? Sort of, but I still felt 'off.' I went to go make my dinner shake and found the Vanilla Nutrimeal packet there unopened. That explained it. I've been able to go 75-90% liquid before, but only if I keep the blood sugar levels guided by a steady, calculated regimen. The reason I'm choosing something like USANA's program is that they've calculated it for me... no artificial sweeteners or weird fat-burning/blocking herbs. And unlike the SlimFast diet that I tried five years ago, I can hang with this for weeks at a time.
On the physical activity front... I officially started my Tai Chi class at the Shaolin Institute. Monday and Wednesday evenings I get what most would call a mild upper body workout, but remember, I sit at a PC all day - the most my arms move is from keyboard to mouse to coffee cup. Between that, the ultra-slow Tai Chi Walk that develops fine balance, and the "horse stance" ... ow, yes, I'm pushing my comfort zone. We're also working on meditation and breathing. Monday was a tremendous benefit, and I came home all kinds of chilled out (stress level 3 on a 10 scale). Wednesday, in order to get to class I had to leave a work apocalypse in progress (so glad I have a team to back me) and my stress level was probably 8. I think class reduced my stress down to 5, and the breathing techniques helped the next day. I think I may need to add some snack calories or Rev3 to help out my energy in Tai Chi, but before I do that, I'll ask some people who know this stuff better.
So looking back at the week as a whole: It was a pretty rough week, but I still had a net loss. I didn't cave, give up and say "F it." I added to the positive things, and reduced the negative. I call that a win.
There's still room in the RESET Challenge for my friends. If you want to join and have a chance at the $200,000 prize pool, just let me know. You can still win prizes if you join halfway through, but your chances are best if you start early.
* Guatemalan friends, "it's the darndest thing" is Southern for "fijese."
[Compliance wants me to include this so they don't get sued]
*These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure,
or prevent any disease.
Individual results may vary. RESET weight-management system lowers
your daily caloric intake and recommends moderate exercise for best
results. Typical results are 4.5 lbs in five days.
It is suggested that you take these products to your physician and
secure his/her advice if you intend to change your diet, begin an
exercise program, are pregnant or lactating, have allergies, are taking
medications, or are under the care of a physician.
Children under the age of 18 should not participate in the RESET
program, except on the advice of their physician and/or dietician.
Way to modify under pressure. That's what we have to do sometimes. It might not have been what you expected, but like you said, you still lost. Stay positive and stick with it. You'll see the results pay off, as you know from past experience.
ReplyDeleteSounds like quite a week! Good job remembering the positive and not getting hung up on the things that didn't go according to plan. Looking forward to keeping up with your progress (and I'm sure this will be of help/inspiration to others as well). Thanks for blogging about it.
ReplyDeleteGood Job! I am not as strong as you are... I can't go from eating whatever I want to the Usana Reset Transform Phase. I have to do the Usana Reset Phase 1 Jump start to kick my addiction/cravings for refined/processed sugars/starches/foods first. The first time I did the Reset was in 2010 and just did Phase 1, the 5 Day jump start. I was not able to get all the foods, water, vitamins down so I stopped on day 3. I did my 2nd Reset Phase 1 perfectly about a month later as well as added some extra walking, did not eat anything but my fruit past 8pm and lost 11 pounds in those 5 days! Not to mention afterwords I thought I would treat myself for being so good and tried to eat one of my comfort food items, which at the time was a TGI Fridays blackened mozzarella burger but could not eat more than two bites! It was crazy that for the first time in my life, my mind was literally transformed and I actually noticed how greasy my used-to-be favorite burger was and got nauseous at the thought of eating it! Here it is 2 years and a 5 month old baby later and I am so excited to do the full 12 week program. Already, after my first week of the Reset Phase 1 jump start I lost 7.5 pounds...which should have actually been more but I cheated and only exercised twice, missed a shake one day and a bar another AND had a glass of wine!! But now, due to being greatly motivated by losing that much weight while cheating, I am going to do the next 11 weeks as best I possibly can!! Biggest hurtle for me is eating everything, like right now I have only had breakfast so I really need to get on the ball! Going to throw my fruit into a shake for lunch to catch up and set an alarm to eat something every 2 hours lol! Thank you for taking time to share your journey with us and good luck, you seem determined and will do great!
ReplyDelete