Today I am one week past my end of the Ultimate Reset.

What is the Ultimate Reset:

To me it was truly a complete nutritional and mental way to change the way I eat. It was also just a nice break from having to think about how I eat. The Ultimate tells you how to do everything, down to what to eat and when.

Why would you do the Ultimate Reset:

I did the Ultimate Reset for a few reasons. One simple one was simply the challenge of doing it...however the real reason I did it was because I hit a plateau...I lie. I hit a straight up increase in weight. Every day I weighed more than the day before. I needed a jump start. I had been paleo and even though I was eating healthy I wasn't eating enough. I was nursing and frankly my body was out of whack. I planned to stop the nursing and thought what a great way to reset.

Look at what I got to eat for breakfast!

And so, what happened?

Well, I know what everyone wants to know. Did I lose weight? Yes! Did I lose as much as I wanted to? No. Did I start losing and keep losing? Yes! But that doesn't really answer the full question. I felt energized and exhausted and really like I was giving my body a jump start. I took the extra time I had from not exrecising and spent more time with my kiddos in the morning. I also did a LOT of food prep.

What did I learn during the Ultimate Reset?

The most delicious salad!

1. I attach food to events. Its Cinco de Mayo. Must make Mexican Food. Its the Kentucky derby? Must have good appetizers. The list goes on and on.

2. I love coffee. I drink coffee when I'm sad. When I'm happy. When I'm hungry. When I just ate. When I'm tired. When I'm excited. I always want coffee. I don't even drink caffeinated coffee. I just want it!

3. Making a beautiful fantastic salad does not take that much time and can be delicious.

4. I require a lot less food than I thought to be able to function.

5. There are a lot more ways to make my favorite vegetables than I thought. I need to add more vegetables to my life and to every, single meal and snack that I eat. Also, making a beautiful salad like the one above is not hard to do.

6. I missed being hungry. I just was not hungry enough before the Ultimate Reset. I wasn't eating enough and I was exercising too much. My body was so out of whack.

What did I learn now that I'm a week out from the Ultimate Reset?

1. I don't crave food like I thought I would and the food I was sure I would miss I don't really want much. My husband sat down with some ice cream tonight. I LOVE ice cream but its not a special occasion. I had a spoonful, was more than satisfied and moved on.

2. The Ultimate Reset provide fantastic recipes and for 5 days after the reset I stuck mostly to those recipes.

3. I like eating cleaning. I like eating lots of vegetables in big bowls without tons of processed food and so does my body. My body runs better that way and I am going to continue to eat that way.

My food to go.

4. I can eat healthy anywhere and with any distraction. During this 3 week period I traveled and visited family that I normally look forward to partly because of the phenomenal food. I just packed my food and ate what I needed.

5. I still need to drink more water! I thought I drank enough until I was drinking a gallon a day and felt great! Time to start tracking my water and eat a lot more of it.

Biggest Takeaways:

I have had two huge takeaways.

1. If I heard it once I've heard a thousand times. In order to lose weight you must eat. You eat to lose! Not starve to lose. My body is happy when I nourish it with whole foods. Even in the last week I feel light. My weight hasn't change since the day after the reset but I feel better. My exercises are stronger and I am stronger.

2. I am an emotional eater. I want to wallow and celebrate with food. That's not foods purpose. That is what a good book or a good workout is for. Food is to nourish me. End of story.

And that is the end of my Ultimate Reset story but really it is just the beginning.