Challenges

I’ve observed that throughout the Beachbody Ultimate Reset, I am going to be presented with a number of challenges to test my commitment, each challenge getting harder than the one before:

• Challenge 1 / Week 1:  The Reset at work.
• Challenge 2 / Week 1:  The Reset at a conference.
• Challenge 3 / Week 2:  The Reset at a retirement dinner.
• Challenge 4 / Week 2:  The Reset at a 24-hour Oscar-nominated best pictures marathon (in a movie theater).
• Challenge 5 / Week 3:  The Reset during mourning and a funeral service.

Day 2

Day 2 of the Reset was my first day taking the Reset to my 9-to-5 job.  The experience was surprisingly easy, though the preparation the night before was a little trying.  I am going to be preparing my lunches the night before, and as much of breakfast the night before as possible.  I hate mornings (which is something I hope will improve during the Reset), and really don’t want to set my alarm any earlier that I already do, so I’m trying to do as much prep work the night before as possible.

You are only supposed to drink distilled water (mineralize supplement added) throughout the Ultimate Reset.  I normally keep a Brita in my office, but since that doesn’t suffice, I was on the hunt for a jug of distilled water to bring into work to keep in my office to drink throughout the day.  Luckily, a CVS drug store is right across the street from my office building, and they carry gallon jugs of distilled water (unlike my local Whole Foods)!  I will probably be stopping into CVS each morning to grab my water for the day.

As you may have read in an earlier post, due to technical difficulties associated with day 1, I had to switch the recipes for days 2 and 3.  No big deal.  On the Reset, you can swap meals throughout the program so long as they are the same type of meals (e.g., swapping a day 1 breakfast for a day 2 breakfast) and in the same week.

So, on my day 2, I had the same breakfast as day 1 (2 scrambled eggs, steamed spinach, and toast – pictured in the “Day 1” post).  My lunch was a lentil-lime salad, which was easy to prepare; the rest of the microgreens salad from day 1 with toasted pumpkins seeds; and a dressing of choice.  I chose to make a batch of the Creamy Garlic Dressing to use for salads.  It is really good.  Next time I make it, though, I might add a couple of extra cloves of garlic because I can never get enough garlic.  My day 2 dinner was comprised of nori rolls with tempeh and veggies; a Japanese cucumber salad; and miso soup.

Notes on Dinner:  The nori rolls with tempeh and veggies are essentially sushi.  You are rolling your own sushi minus the raw fish.  Luckily, I’ve taken a sushi-rolling class before, so this was not a big deal for me, but for folks who have never rolled sushi before, I suggest watching a Youtube video on how to roll sushi before attempting this.  The nori rolls were excellent.  I had actually never had tempeh before (that I know of) let alone smokey tempeh.  I think smokey tempeh is supposed to be a vegetarian substitute for bacon.  And while I think that comparison is a bit of a stretch, the smokey tempeh was surprisingly delicious.  Though my sushi rolls did not turn out pretty (notice I’ve taken no picture of them!), the meal was really good, and I look forward to having them for lunch today.  I will try to roll them better today so they can be photographed.  I loved the Japanese cucumber salad recipe, and the miso soup is solid.

Day 3

Day 3 was my second challenge throughout the Reset:  The Reset at a conference.  This day, I attended a conference at a Ritz Carlton Hotel for work.  It started at 8 a.m., and we weren’t scheduled to have lunch until 12:45 p.m. — a pretty long interval.  Before I left home for the conference, I had my breakfast, which was pretty easy to make in a time pinch in the morning.  Breakfast was oatmeal with blueberries, and plain organic yogurt.  The recipe book called for the yogurt to be sweetened with either pure maple syrup or stevia, but seeing the price of maple syrup, which I would only use sparingly throughout the program and don’t really otherwise use in my non-Reset life, I opted only to purchase raw agave nectar to sweeten things.  I don’t know if I’ve ever had agave nectar before (outside of a cocktail), and I really liked it!  Better than honey, actually, and I think I will keep using this for my few-and-far-between sweetening needs post-Reset (as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth).

The night before the conference, I prepared lunch – a Greek salad with chicken and pine nuts.  At the conference, while everyone enjoying a nice fancy Ritz luncheon, I ate my Greek salad in the hotel lobby bar.  I got to do some work during lunch, so that was fine.

Since this was Friday night, and I normally stay up much later on the weekends than I do during the week, I really spread my meals out throughout the day.  Breakfast was around 7 a.m., lunch wasn’t until 1 p.m. (due to the conference schedule), I had my afternoon supplements (i.e., alkalinize and mineralize) around 5:30 p.m., had a snack of 1 cup of shelled edamame around 6 p.m., and the dinner was around 9 p.m.  

Dinner was a southwestern veggie taco.  So far, this was the quickest, easiest dinner I have made on the Reset.  Many of the other dinners comprise several dishes (soup, salad, sushi).  This was just one thing – a taco.  

A Note on Portions:  The portions throughout the Reset (week 1 at least) have been out of control.  I have been following the recipe guide’s portions, and some of the meals are just huge.  The southwestern veggie taco was huge.  You are instructed to only use one 6-inch corn tortilla (think: small), and then proceed to stuff this solitary 6-inch corn tortilla with 1 1/4 cup black beans and brown rice and 1/4 cup of corn kernels.  Impossible.  I’m not complaining, though.  I had plenty of the mixture of black beans, brown rice, and corn on the side, which made me very happy to eat after I devoured the taco.  I took a picture of this one, which I understand does not look very appetizing, but believe me, it was good!  Keep in mind all of the extra black beans, brown rice, and corn mixture is not pictured, so there is a lot more food in this meal that you see here.

Day 3 Dinner