My Review: 22-Minute Hard Corps

July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Well… I did it! I completed 22-Minute Hard Corps! While I’ve been posting in here somewhat regularly regarding my progress and the workouts, I also wanted to do a final summary of thoughts on the program as a whole.

IMG_20160611_150345 — A happy girl finished with 22-Minute Hard Corps!

The Basics: For those who are just now reading my blog, 22-Minute Hard Corps is an eight-week military-style bootcamp at-home fitness program developed by celebrity trainer Tony Horton. Workouts are only 22 minutes, and they’re a mix of cardio and resistance training DVDs.

What did I love about this program? I loved that it was only 22 minutes long. This is one of the shortest workouts out there produced by Beachbody (with 10-Minute Trainer and Focus T25 being similarly short). Having done many at-home fitness programs, I believe that 22-Minute Hard Corps is easily the most efficient workouts you can get for the time you’re spending exercising. I also love Tony Horton. He’s an awesome trainer. I loved that the moves were not normally complicated. The branding is also awesome. It honors veterans and the military by using real military veterans in the workouts, it’s filmed in all sorts of military-themed locations, and the bootcamp-style seems pretty authentic.

What did I not like about the program? The workouts can get repetitive. With only three cardio and three resistance workouts over the course of eight weeks (nine weeks if you do the optional Hell Week), I was starting to get bored near the end of the 2 months. Plus, many of the moves are similar. For example, there is some variation of a burpee in every cardio workout AND some of the resistance ones as well. Going into this program, I LOVED burpees, really I did. But Hard Corps made me never want to see one again. 😛 There are also two core/abs workouts, but you do the same moves in both workouts, you’re just increasing the number of repetitions. You also do the core workout every other day, with your cardio workouts, so the core workouts got a little repetitive too.

Was it hard? Sometimes, yes. I’m a graduate of many of Beachbody’s toughest programs, like Insanity and P90X, and Hard Corps kicked my ass at times. Cardio 2 is one of THE hardest workouts out there, primarily due to the gorilla crawls and the way they’re incorporated into the larger workout. Your legs are toast at the end. I found all of the workouts doable, but challenging, and I got ridiculously sweaty in the mere 22 minutes. Here’s a peek at each of the moves from Cardio 2, which I contend is one of the hardest workouts Beachbody has made:

Can anyone do this program? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say no. I know that Beachbody probably likes for all of their programs to be workable for people of all fitness levels and there IS a modifier for all of the moves, but without totally modifying some of the moves into completely different moves, I don’t think Hard Corps is for everyone. Some of these moves are VERY hard on your joints. I consider myself to be a pretty fit person, and I woke up one day after Resistance 3 and my knees were in severe pain from mountain squats. There are many moves in this program that put a lot of strain on your knees, elbows, and joints. It is very important that you’re doing these moves on a comfortable, cushioned surface. Get a mat. So, if you have issues with those types of moves, there is something else out there for you. Let’s chat if you need some recommendations. Here are the mountain squats that messed with my knees:

I will also note that I experienced a bit of lower back pain during this program, which is NOT normal for me. I would randomly pull a lower back muscle and need to modify for a day or two until it improved. That had never happened to me during another workout program before. I think it was because I wasn’t warmed up enough before jumping into the workouts, as the warm-ups are very short. I found that the pain happened more during the resistance workouts, so I started warming up before all of the resistance workouts with the Cold Start (10-minute warm-up) and I never had back issues again. So, I would definitely recommend incorporating the Cold Start warm-up as much as possible. It’ll make your workouts 10 minutes longer, but it’s worth it.

What is Hell Week? Did you do it? Yes, I did. I didn’t come so far to crap out at the end! If you haven’t had enough after eight weeks of 22-Minute Hard Corps, you can choose to complete the optional Hell Week at the end. The Hell Week includes 2-3 workouts a day, so 44-54 minutes of workouts a day, rather than just 22 minutes. It is very hard, and you’re wasted at the end of each day, but it’s amazing. I felt very challenged during Hell Week. Here’s the Hell Week calendar:

IMG_20160613_070602654 — *Hell Week Challenge*

Did you follow the nutrition plan? No. I’m generally pretty healthy with my diet. I drink Shakeology everyday. I’m also a weekday clean-eating vegan. On the weekends, I’ll do some calorie splurges and enjoy some cocktails, but no, I did not really change my diet at all for this program.

Did you use any supplements? Yes. I used Energize, which is a preworkout energy drink. It’s all natural – no artificial colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, and NO FILLERS. It’s vastly superior to every other preworkout drink on the market, including my old preworkout drink – Energy and Endurance. My cardiovascular endurance really improved during the program and I could push a lot harder and longer through my workouts, and I attribute some of that to Energize.

What kind of results did you get? Honestly, being in pretty decent shape already, I didn’t lose a ton of weight. I wasn’t really trying to lose weight, though, just trying to push my body to do something new and outside my comfort zone. I lost around 5 pounds, but I did improve drastically with my muscular endurance on some of the moves, like the gorilla crawls. The first time that I did Cardio 2, I could maybe do half of the gorilla crawls. By Hell Week, I could do all of them. I also could barely do pump jumpers (from Resistance 3) when I started, but could perform them no problem by the end.

Would you do it again? I’m a Team Beachbody coach, so I hate saying this, but I’m going to be honest here… No, probably not. I might do some of the workouts here and there, but I’m not really interested in doing the program start to finish again. It was a little too repetitive to me. BUT I’m very glad that I did it, as I feel like I did get a lot out of it, and that it did wonders for my muscular endurance and really helped chisel my abs, but there are other programs out there that I’d rather do first. Sorry, Tony! I still love you!

I’m interested in this or maybe some other program, but I need some support and accountability. Where can I get that? It just so happens that I am online health and fitness coach! I’d love to help hold you accountable with 22-Minute Hard Corps or some other program! I can plug you into one of my accountability groups, which are free when you purchase a program through me!

Where can I reach you? You can message me on Facebook or email me at distilledjill@gmail.com.

What comes next for you? I’m on day 2 of the Master’s Hammer and Chisel! So far, it’s awesome! Check back here for more on that. 🙂

Day 15

March 6, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Today, I enter the final week of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset – the Restore phase. During this phase, I’ll be eating mostly fruits and vegetables that are easily absorbed by the body for optimal nutritional value. I think grains are completely cut out of the diet. This phase comes after the detox phase, and it helps bring healthy bacteria back into your “freshly scrubbed” digestive tract by introducing pre- and probiotics to help restore the metabolism to maximum efficiency. This is accomplished through the final supplement – Revitalize. Revitalize comes in a capsule form, and its consumed three times a day.

While I am on the topic of supplements, I ran out of Mineralize yesterday. Since Mineralize is only pink Himalayan salt, I just went out to the grocery store and bought some. But, for those of you who don’t have the luxury of an organic supermarket in the neighorhood and need to send away for these things, make sure to have some extra pink salt on standby in case you run out.

This morning, I decided to try something new. My usual morning routine outside of the Reset is a 30-60 minutes workout, usually something intense, like Insanity, to help wake me up and get my blood flowing in the morning. I’ve never been a morning person, so, to me, this is essential to be minimally pleasant before noon. On the Reset, you are not permitted to workout because your body is receiving such an intense inner body workout. Plus, I don’t think you’re really consuming enough calories to really support your body during intense training. Exercises like yoga, tai chi, stretching, and brisk walking are fine, but no Insanity, unfortunately. This was one of the big adjustments for me, and I was skeptical whether I would be able to survive mornings without the jolt of adrenaline first thing in the morning. Somehow, I’ve been surviving. I’ve been doing free yoga videos that come on Xfinity On Demand. They’ve been great, but I really missed Shaun T. Today, I remembered that there are Recovery workouts that come with Insanity that I could do. It would probably be a step up intensity-wise from the yoga I’ve been doing, but I was willing to try it. Well, when I do Insanity, I normally substitute Core Cardio and Balance for the Recovery workout, because the Recovery workout is just too easy, doesn’t make me sweat, and isn’t enough to get my blood pumping in the morning. Well, this morning, it got the blood pumping, and I was even sweating. My muscles were literally shaking during some of the moves. My legs are already feeling sore from this morning. This makes me nervous about starting Focus T25 after the Reset is complete, but I’m going to jump on it anyway.

Also, this morning, I weighed myself for the second time of the Reset. I’m down 2.4 pounds since day 8. That means I’m down 4.4 pounds in only 15 days! Not bad for a 5’2” tall chick.

During the final week of the Reset, breakfast is fruit only. You’re supposed to choose low glycemic fruits, like berries, and avoid tropical fruits like bananas and pineapples. I’m skeptical of the ability of fruit to keep me satisfied until lunch, but I guess it worked today. One of my raspberries was shaped like a heart, which made this first day of the Restore phase extra special.

Day 15 Breakfast

Last night, I prepared lunch for today – an Asian “cabbage” salad, 1/4 sliced avocado, and miso soup. I put cabbage in scare quotes because I didn’t have cabbage. Unfortunately, the labels in the grocery store produce aisle weren’t accurate, and my husband picked up mustard greens instead of napa cabbage. It’s okay. We’ll make do. We had some extra Romaine lettuce, so instead of cabbage, I chopped up some Romaine and used that instead. This lunch had a lot of onions in it. The Asian salad had both raw red and green onions, and the miso soup had green onions. I had to run to back-to-back meetings in the afternoon, and was so tempted to grab some gum or a hard candy to get the taste/smell of the onions out of my mouth. Well, none of that is allowed on the Reset! I chewed on some herbal tea leaves (it was all that I had in the office), and that helped a little, but I still felt bad for all who I came in contact with this afternoon.

Day 15 Lunch

Dinner was awesome! And by “awesome,” I mean baked sweet potato awesome! Against my better judgement, I’m a huge fan of carbohydrates. I was very happy to see a baked sweet potato on the menu for dinner. I’ve actually never baked a sweet potato before. It was heaven. I’ll definitely be doing that again. The sweet potato was accompanied by garlic veggies – broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and red bell pepper sauteed with garlic, lemon, olive oil, and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. They were fine. The sweet potato stole the show.

Day 15 Dinner

Day 14 – Detoxed!

March 5, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Well, there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all. I just completed 2 weeks of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset! Only one more week left to go! I must admit that I’m rather terrified of the final week that I begin tomorrow. I’ll only be eating fruit for breakfast. Other meals will have more variety, but I’m skeptical of the ability of fruit to hold me over until lunch. Not only is there no meat or animal protein in the week ahead (child’s play, did that last week), but it doesn’t look like there’s even any grains in the final week. No brown rice, quinoa, or millet. Will I go mad? We’ll see.

Like the week prior, detox actually wasn’t that difficult for me. I actually liked the taste of the detox supplement, which you mix into 12 ounces of distilled water. It’s texture was a little strange, but the taste was fine – tasted like lemons. On a personal note, I, um, eliminated every day this week, which is a new habit. I did not experience any skin rashes or acne. While some people complain of constantly being cold throughout the detox week (since your blood is moving from your extremities to your internal organs), I did not really experience much coldness, even in the winter. Though, my hands have felt a bit more stiff, and I feel like I have experienced light headedness on occasion. I attribute it to the redirection of blood flow. Some people experience emotional outbursts, and I haven’t really had that either. Detox treated me well. What can I say?

My husband somehow ended up with an extra detox supplement packet at the end of this week. Hmm. I’m wondering if he skipped a supplement or Beachbody gave him extra. It’s a mystery.

As for the food, today, I started with a fresh fruit plate of apples and various berries (blueberries, raspberries, etc.). For lunch, since I never got the Kabocha squash, I unfortunately had to miss out on the Kabocha squash soup. Bummer because I love squash soups! I replaced the soup with pinto beans and rice (see day 8). By the way, the pinto beans and rice recipe is one of the most solid, easiest, go-to recipes in this book. I’ve used it at least three times this week. Great for the Reset if you don’t have much time to prepare lunch.

Dinner was a new recipe! Dinner included edamame and roasted corn succotash, and lemon pepper kale. Both dishes on their own were wonderful, though, together, it was a bit too much acidity for me (lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, etc.). The picture below shows our kale in a bowl that is way to big for the kale. Oops. Let’s just say I had an artistic vision.

Day 14 Dinner

Day 10

March 3, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Today, I completed Challenge #3!

~~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.

(By the way, if you’ve been keeping track of the dates of this blog, you’ll know that I am a little behind on my blog posts (I’m currently on day 12), but I’m going to post as if I’m not.)

This day was a marathon. Today, I made all of our meals for tomorrow. Why? Well, tomorrow, I am attending a 24-hour Oscar-nominated best pictures showcase. I attended this event last year, and it was so much fun! It is ill timed this year, as it occurs over the Beachbody Ultimate Reset. It is great to go to this event and get free refills on large sodas and popcorn with butter, eat other movie-theater goodies like nachos and candy, drink lots of coffee, and walk away feeling like a sleep-deprived gorged zombie. But, not this year! I made all of my meals, will bring all of the supplements, and stick to the Reset! No caffeine! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, today was a challenging day on the Reset because I had to modify the Reset schedule to attend an evening dinner event. I had a plate full of apples, berries, and watermelon for breakfast (not pictured because I’m sure you’re bored of seeing photos of fruit by now). Lunch was leftover sweet potato and red pepper bisque from last night (glorious even reheated) and a Greek salad (no chicken or pine nuts). Then things got a little tricky.

Tonight, I was scheduled to attend one of my work colleague’s retirement party, which was an early dinner to be held at an Afghan restaurant. Not only would finding something to eat at the restaurant be a challenge, but figuring out how to fit this into my Reset schedule was a challenge! Ultimately, I decided to swap the optional snack with dinner. So, my day would go as follows: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack (supplements remaining the same). This worked rather well!

I was pretty good at dinner. I am always happy to indulge in a boozy beverage in a social situation where others are drinking. However this time, I abstained. We ordered a bunch of appetizers for the table, and I only had about a tablespoon of hummus that I scooped onto a raw tomato. No dumplings or fried pastries for me!

For dinner, I had the vegetarian platter, which comprised sauteed spinach, eggplant, and pumpkin (no rice). There is a picture of it below. I took this photo from someone else, so this is not actually what I ate exactly. I asked for mine without yogurt since we can’t have it on week 2. Also, after having a taste of the pumpkin, I asked for a substitute and got more eggplant. God, do I love the sauteed pumpkin at this restaurant. Unfortunately, it was really sweet, and after asking the waitress, I learned that it had added sugar in it. Too bad. Anyway, the spinach and eggplant was delicious, and I don’t think I deviated from the Reset at all by enjoying these two. I hope not, anyway.

Day 10 Dinner (Not Included in Recipe Guide) (No Yogurt Option Not Pictured)

I’ve been pretty good at avoiding the need for snacks, which you are only supposed to have after lunch if you don’t think you can make it until dinner. Since I had an early dinner, and went out on this Friday night to attend a concert (I refuse to be a hermit on the Reset!), I had a Reset-approved snack when I got home of corn and blueberries.

Day 9

February 28, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Remember those challenges that I mentioned? Well, I’m starting challenge #3.

~~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.

One of my dear colleagues is retiring, so let the festivities begin! Today, we had a wonderful going-away party for her, full of lots of wonderful meats (prosciutto, capicola, salami) and cheese (my favorite, goat cheese, mozzarella, cheddar, and more), mac and cheese, pasta salads, soups, deviled eggs, carrot cakes, cookies, brownies – you name it, we had it, and everything looked delicious! There were probably some things at the party that I could have had (tabbouleh, guacamole, veggie platter), but instead, I stuck with my Ultimate Reset lunch that I brought into work that morning. After I helped set up the party, I quietly sneaked back to my office, ate my lunch, and then returned to the party on a full stomach and without temptation. Didn’t have any of it (even though I’m pretty sure I could’ve). Tomorrow, we are taking our retiree out to dinner, and I have a particular dish in mind from the restaurant’s menu that I am pretty sure is Reset-friendly. So, I might take a much-needed break from cooking tomorrow afternoon, and let someone else make me something for a change, though I will be careful to stick to the Reset. Then, Challenge #3 will be complete!

One odd thing that I’ve been experiencing is that I feel like my sense of smell is changing during the Reset. I first noticed this with the smell of cigarette smoke. I used to not mind the smell of cigarette smoke at all. While I wouldn’t say I mind it now, it smells different and less comfortable to me. Well, it smells like dirty feet and stale popcorn now. Likewise, at this afternoon’s party, the smell of the room with all of the food in it, with all of the meat and cheese, just smelled kind of sour and unpleasant. Strange.

Onto things more pleasant…

The breakfast today was a little different. It was basically hummus minus the tahini. Seasoned mashed chickpeas with nori gomasio. Nothing better than raw garlic first thing in the morning!

Day 9 Breakfast

Lunch was a half serving of the pinto beans and brown rice that I made for dinner last night. Always make sure to look ahead to the next couple of days when you do the Reset to ensure that you can double recipes that you will be using again the near future. The pinto beans were paired with a microgreen salad. This time, I tried baby arugula for my green, and I must admit, not much of a fan. It was a little too bitter for me. Plus, I forgot to add dressing to the salad this morning.

Dinner was frenzied. We had theater tickets for tonight (thank god, for the cabin fever associated with this Reset has been brutal). After staying a little late at work, my husband volunteered to go out and pick up enough groceries to get us through the next couple of days, which includes a concert tomorrow night and the 24-hour movie marathon on Saturday (so, a lot of prep work needed). He also agreed to cook tonight’s dinner. The dinner for tonight was sweet potato and red pepper bisque and roasted asparagus with slivered almonds. Roasted asparagus is easy, but a bisque?! Well, my husband, who pre-Reset could hardly boil Ramen Noodles, whipped up the bisque perfectly. It was pretty amazing, and I am so proud of him for learning how to cook a couple of things during the Reset. His other specialty is miso soup. I think he might have a knack for the soups. Since we were in a rush to get to the theater, we did not have time to actually roast the asparagus, which was a total bummer to me because I adore them roasted. Instead, we opted to steam them. Still pretty good. Word to the wise – double up on that bisque. You eat it again for lunch tomorrow!

Day 9 Dinner

Day 8 – Let the Detox Begin!

February 28, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

And thus begins week 2!

I weighed myself this morning. I lost 2 pounds during the first week of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset. While 2 lbs. may not seem like much, I am celebrating this for a couple of reasons. First, the healthy recommended safe weight loss per week is 2 lbs., so that puts me right where I should be. Second, I am only 5 foot 2 inches. I’m short. If I can lose 2 lbs. per week on the Reset, that’s 6 lbs. total, and I would be happy to take that. Third, the Reset, to me at least, is not all about losing weight. While losing weight is certainly a side effect of living a healthy life, my main focus is to feel better – better mood, increased energy, more productive sleep – and I am beginning to experience those benefits. Finally, losing those 2 lbs. finally brought me into a “normal” BMI (24.8!). I had technically been considered to be “overweight.” Now, I know, the BMI is criticized a lot for not taking many factors into account (including muscle mass), and that outside of the BMI number, I am a very healthy and active person. Nevertheless, it really means a lot to me that I was able to break past a weight loss plateau and finally get to a healthy and normal BMI. I haven’t been there in years.

Week 2 of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset introduces a new supplement into the day – Detox. Detox, similar to alkalinize, is a powder that you mix into water. You drink it three times a day – before breakfast, before lunch, and before dinner. A lot of people find the taste repulsive, but I actually didn’t mind it at all. It tastes kind of like lemons, though the texture is a little strange (it is grainy). The detox powder has got a number of ingredients, like chia seed, milk thistle, a camu-camu, that helps remove toxins and waste in the colon. In the Reset instructional video, it is described as a gentle colon cleanse that won’t leave you parked by the bathroom. TMI maybe? Well, get over it. You’re reading a blog about a detox program – what did you expect?! While one obvious way to get rid of toxic waste is via the digestive tract, one other way that people experience detox is through our largest organ, the skin, so I am really hoping not to experience breakouts during this week.

Detox Supplement

In week 2, you completely cut out animal proteins, including dairy. This isn’t really a drastic change from week 1 if you followed the scheduled meals in the guidebook. Unless you doubled up on certain recipes, you only have chicken and salmon once in week 1. You do have yogurt several times for breakfast. I feel like I’ve been transitioning gradually to this point, and it shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

Breakfast for day 8 was a fresh fruit plate. One of many fruit plates in store for me in the next 2 weeks (week 3’s breakfasts entirely comprise fruit). Though I considered my diet pretty healthy before the Reset, I was definitely guilty of not incorporating enough fruit into my diet. So, the Reset is really helping me get into the habit of eating more fruit.

Day 8 Breakfast

Lunch was my old friend, the microgreen salad, but with avocado added to it.

Day 8 Lunch

Finally, dinner included pinto beans and brown rice, steamed zucchini, and string beans with lemon and olive oil. It was a lot of food. Pretty good, though nothing miraculous. Though I definitely enjoyed how quick and easy this one was to make (relative to other dinners at least).

Day 9 Dinner

First day of the “Release” phase – Done!

Day 7 – Reclaimed!

February 28, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

This was my last day of the first week of the Beachbody Ultimate Reset. I made it 7 days of the 21-day program! One-third of the way there! The Reset has been quite a journey so far, and I’m looking forward to the completing the rest of the 21 days! The Reset hasn’t been as difficult as I expected it to be (so far).

There are a couple of things that I have really come to enjoy during the first 7 days of the Reset. For one, my love of tempeh. The tempeh recipes that I’ve learned will be incorporated into my life post-Reset, and I cannot wait to make the nori rolls with smokey tempeh again. I’ve come to really enjoy pumpkin seeds, and I had no idea that I could purchase them year-round. The pumpkin seeds are the highlight of the microgreen salad that I make almost every day. I also love the fact that I’m not wasting produce. Before the Reset, it seemed that I would always end up wasting so much of the produce that I bought. On the Reset, I am buying so much produce, and I’m eating it quickly and nothing is going bad. My husband has enjoyed all of the salt that he gets to consume on the diet, albeit pink Himalayan salt, which is full of minerals that normal salts, not even sea salt, contain.

The past week, we’ve both been sleeping better, which I did not think could actually happen for me. Pre-Reset, I slept pretty well – nice, long deep sleeps. My first week of the Reset, I have been sleeping even deeper, and more importantly, I feel more well-rested on less sleep. Pre-Reset, I would sleep 12 hours (sometimes more) on the weekends to catch up on sleep and even then wake up feeling tired. The first weekend of the Reset, I didn’t sleep nearly that long. I’ve never been a morning person. And while I definitely still not a morning person, on weekdays during the Reset, I am still groggy and annoyed when I wake up, but I feel like I snap out of it a lot faster, and I feel more rested after 6-7 hours of sleep than I used to. I have also struggled with mental fuzziness for awhile and lack of energy. On the Reset, my mental clarity and focus and energy have improved. I’ve learned that I do not, in fact, need coffee to make it through the day, which for a former Starbucks barista, is a hard truth to swallow. Finally, I broke a cycle of weekend indulgences, in glorious things like alcohol and brunch and fancy meals. While I fully expect to indulge post-Reset, I can perhaps do so a bit more consciously and know that I don’t have to every weekend.

Last day of week 1, I bid farewell to animal proteins. Believe it or not, it wasn’t that bittersweet of a farewell. I’ve really enjoyed the vegan recipes that I have been eating, and I know there are more good recipes in store for me as I cut out fish, chicken, and yogurt. I’m looking to the next 2 weeks with optimism.

Breakfast for day 7 was oatmeal with apples and flax seeds with yogurt. What I’ve come to really appreciate about the breakfasts is that they are all pretty quick and easy (unlike some lunches and dinners).

Day 7 Breakfast

Lunch was zucchini-cashew soup and microgreens salad. I made a double batch of zucchini-cashew soup the night before luckily. Between lunch and dinner, I had a snack. Snacks are optional during the Reset, and you should only have them if you feel like you cannot make it to dinner. I was fortunate enough to have a West Wing tour of the White House (how freakin’ cool is that?!) scheduled for this evening, so in an attempt to hold me over until dinner, and as a way to kiss goodbye to animal proteins, I sunk my teeth into a nice hard-boiled egg.

Finally, dinner was one of my new favorites: tempeh! The baked tempeh was marinated in Bragg’s, sesame oil, garlic, honey, and apple cider vinegar, served with steamed broccoli and brown rice. Great way to end week 1.

Day 7 Dinner

Transformation Eve

February 18, 2014April 20, 2016 distilledjillLeave a comment

Things that I have consumed over the past 5 days:

Blue cheese with apple cider fluid gel, celery leaf salad
Steak tartare with pickle salt kettle chips, foie gras mustard aioli, fried quail egg
Snapper, fingerlings, saffron air, roasted fennel, dill, chive oil
Carbonated raspberries, raspberry sherbert, pistachio sponge cake, cloudberry jam, white port syrup
Wine, wine, wine
Sandwich of hot pastrami, corned beef, chopped liver, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, potato latke, on rye bread
Fig-infused Irish whiskey
Bento box of baked salmon, steamed spinach, ginger cucumbers, and brown rice
Green tea
Trout mousse, barbeque eel, red cabbage salad, and wasabi
Belgian frites with a trio of homemade mayonaisse
Wild mushroom waffle, porcini, enoki, and oyster mushroom
Grilled vegetables with black garlic dressing
Mac ‘n cheese
Beer, beer, beer
Fried green tomatoes in cornmeal batter, herb goat cheese, and Green Goddess Dip
Two baby cheeseburgers, chili dog, pork ribs, potato salad
Apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream
Chicken schwarma
Sherry
Dangerously delicious hot rod potato pie
Cocktails, cocktails, cocktails
Forthcoming: Indian cooking class tonight

I normally do not eat this unhealthy, but considering the Beachbody Ultimate Reset begins tomorrow, I have indulged. Needless to say, I am ready for the Reset to begin tomorrow!

Day 1 Groceries