Welcome to Day 1 of Beachbody Ultimate Reset.  Day 1 is actually just the day I started the reset….the preperation started several days before.  Since it’s a 21 day program, and my birthday is January 21, I decided to start on Dec 30, so that I would be finished in time for my birthday so that I could indulge on that day.  In retrospect, that kind of thinking is exactly why I have battled my weight for all these years.  Yes, this is a 21 day program, but I believe that it’s really designed to change your relationship with food and your whole mindset about what you put in your body.  There’s no sense in doing this for 3 weeks only to go back to unhealthy ways.  And, now that I’m actually 5 days in, I am re-thinking what my choices will be on my birthday.  I still plan to go to my favorite restaurant but what (and how much) I eat and drink might be different that it would have been a few weeks ago.

Since I decided on Dec 30th and I knew that I would not be returning from our Christmas vacation until Dec 29th, I went online and did all of my grocery shopping so that it would be delivered in the morning on Dec 30th.  It was a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself.  Also, if you are unfamiliar with some of the ingredients, you won’t spend hours going up and down the aisles trying to find what you need.  I used Peapod delivery and they did not have everything I needed anyway.  Things like miso paste and smoky tempeh strips are available on Amazon.com though so it’s easy to order from them (especially if you have a prime membership, which I highly recommend).  I also made a trip to Whole Foods to get some things in bulk that I didn’t want to have an entire box of — things like millet, for instance.  I don’t particularly enjoy millet, but I’m committed to trying all of these recipes, so I bought it in a small quantity.  If you have a Whole Foods though, you can literally buy everything on the BUR shopping list there.  If you are unfamiliar with some of the items, just ask someone for help.  They are so nice in there and will even give you recommendations about different brands.

Speaking of the BUR shopping list, if you are not using the online tool at ultimatereset.com, you definitely need to aquaint yourself with it!  I wish it was a little more interactive — for instance, I’d like to be able to log my food, water, supplements and sleep from there, but maybe that will come eventually (hint, hint…).  Anyway, it’s nice because you can print out out a shopping list for each week, or Phase as the plan calls it. Also, from there you can sign up for a daily email that will send you your daily plan each morning.  I wish I had known about this because it asks you your start date but won’t let you use the current date, or any date before it to start.  I did sign up just to see what it was like — and it is great — but it’s a day behind for me so it’s rather useless.  Hopefully, they will fix that as well.

Okay, so Day 1.  It was really pretty un-eventful.  The food was very good — I really enjoyed the breakfast, which was a simple meal of eggs, whole grain toast and spinach.  The plan calls for kale or spinach.  I am a huge fan of kale’s nutritional value, and I use it regularly in smoothies, but I do not really like it steamed.  Spinach is a fine substitute and has phenomenal nutritional qualities as well, so I did not feel bad making a substitution right off the bat.

Speaking of substitutions….I did make a commitment to try all of the meals.  However, I did discover, from reading the official Facebook support page, that you can substitute any like meal in a given phase.  For example, if you hate eggs, you could substitute the oatmeal breakfast from Day 2 on Day 1 — or any other day in that Phase.  You can’t take a breakfast from Phase 2 and put it in Phase 1 or 3.  The exceptions are with animal proteins…you can’t have the salmon or chicken more than once during the week.  And, I’m not sure about the official stance on eggs, but I would think that you wouldn’t want to have them more than the two times that they are on the menu in Phase 1 (Day 1 & 3).  And since the idea is to slowly wean your body off of animal proteins, my sense is that you probably don’t want to have eggs on Day 6.  The bottom line is that while they recommend, and I strongly encourage, you to stick with the menu, there is some flexibility if you need it.  Also, you might think you don’t like something that turns out to be really tasty.  As you cleanse your palate, the foods will begin to really burst with flavor.

Lunch on Day 1 was AMAZING.  The Microgreen Salad is so good, and I generally hate making salads because they never taste as good as they do when someone else makes them.  Not this one!  I used cashews, which I LOVE, and it was a real treat.  There are 3 salad dressings that you can make that are in the recipe section of the book.  I made a batch of the Creamy Garlic, because it sounded amazing…and it is.  I also finally had a use for the Pampered Chef salad dressing shaker thingy that I bought a LONG time ago.  It will be getting regular use now.  The best part?  I discovered jicama.  I’ve had it before…in sushi I think, but I would never have bought it, much less put it in salad.  I’ll never make a salad without it again.  It is crunchy, giving the salad some texture and a little sweet which adds interesting flavor.  Also, it’s prounounced with an H sound, not a hard J….hi-ka-ma.  You’re welcome.

Dinner was great, too.  My whole family was thrilled to have salmon.  Living in the Pacific Northwest off an on for 20 years, I’m pretty picky about salmon.  If you don’t like salmon, it’s probably because you are eating farm raised, color added,  Atlantic salmon.  Don’t. It is generally mushy and has no flavor.  It also has added color, which is gross. Food doesn’t need to have color added to it unless you’re making green eggs and ham for your kid on Dr. Suess’s birthday.  The best salmon on the planet is Copper River Salmon.  But, you can only get it fresh for a few weeks in the summer…and it can be expensive.  But, look for fresh, wild NO COLOR added salmon like Alaskan Sockeye, Pacific King or Alaskan Silver.  Being on the East Coast now, it seems that Sockeye is what most markets stock.  I try to buy fish that is sustainably harvested as well, but that’s probably another issue for another blogpost.  The point is, buy good salmon.  You won’t regret it.  And, a serving is only 6 ounces, so you don’t have to spend and arm and a leg on it.

I guess I kind of got on a soapbox there, but I really believe that if you are eating quality food, you will be more satisfied.  And, you can’t properly detox if your food has random additives.

On to the supplements.  In Phase 1, you’ll be Mineralizing, Oxygenizing, Optimizing and Alkalinizing.  On day 1, I put the Oxygenize drops in my water, along with the “pinch” of Mineralize.  I mixed the Alkalinize in with about 6 ounces of water.  I’m not gonna lie…it’s gross.  It tastes like seaweed.  I don’t hate seaweed, but I don’t really want to drink it.  I’ve got to figure out a different way to do it.

I did not have a snack on Day 1.  It’s optional and I wasn’t hungry.

The only thing I’ll say about Day 1 that was sort of different is that I was SUPER tired.  Like exhausted, can’t-keep-my-eyes-open tired.  But, I had just returned from a week long trip to the West Coast where we were busy all day every day.  The three hour time difference kills me, too.  I also gave up the one or two cups of coffee that I normally have, so it seems like it was more of a combination of factors that led to the extreme fatigue.

So far, so good.  Bring on Day 2.