In an effort to start the year off right, I decided to to a detox.  It started as an effort to support a friend but also because I’m a huge fan of Beachbody.  Several years ago I did Kathy Smith’s Project: You and had great success.  Since then, I’ve done several of their programs and was thrilled when they began carrying my favorite Les Mills workouts:  Body Pump and Body Combat.  They are amazing programs and while I prefer working out with others in a gym, it is fun to have them at home for those days when I can’t drag myself out of bed at 5am.

I know I sound like a commercial, but that’s not the point of this post.  It’s really to keep a journal of my initial three week experience…for myself and for others.  I’ve gotten so much out of reading other people’s blogs that I thought I’d add my own experience to the mix as I’ve had some different “side effects” and outcomes already — and it’s only Day 5 for me.  So, hopefully, reading my experience might give others some encouragement and answer questions that they might have.

First, a little about me.  I’m an (almost) 42 year old mother to an amazing 13 year old boy.  I’ve been married almost 20 years (in March) to an equally as amazing husband who runs marathons in his free time.  In short, I’ve had a lifelong struggle with my weight — although most of that went away when I found www.buynaturalgarciniacambogia.com.  After gaining a little weight in college and then as a newleywed, I went to Weight Watchers and lost about 30 pounds and spent several years at a very healthy weight and excercised at least once a day (but usually twice).  Looking back, I was probably a little too thin and approached eating (and food in general) in an unhealthy way.  More on that later.  Then, I got pregnant and was on bedrest for the last few weeks of my 7 month pregnancy (another story altogether and one that is well chronicled in this blog), and gained a whopping 80 pounds.  A lot of that was due to my severe pre-eclampsia, but I also had my share of banana milkshakes.  The first few years of my son’s life weren’t easy (also another story), but in the middle of all of that, I sort of lost my focus on losing the baby weight.  And, here I am 13 years later, still working on losing the baby weight.  It’s not that I haven’t tried.  I’ve done weight loss programs, tried to become a runner (even ran a marathon), hired personal trainers and become hooked on Les Mills group fitness programs.  These are all good things, but I have never been able to achieve the goals I ultimately wanted.

So, I have tried just about everything– all the while knowing that no “program” was going to help me.  I had to decide that I was going to do it.  Then, last fall something clicked.  I was watching Dr. Phil one day (no apologies….I love Dr. Phil) and happened to see a segment on a new program called the Pink Method.  I was inspired by the stories and quickly ordered it.  It was right after Thanksgiving and instead of putting it off until the New Year, I decided to just jump right in.  People thought I was crazy for taking it on over the holidays, but I felt really good about the decision.  The meal plan was easy for me — I have been vegetarian and vegan in the past so it wasn’t hard to adopt the way of eating.  But, I went through severe caffiene and sugar withdrawls.  The first week was terrible.  I was in a fog, had headaches and just generally felt awful.  Then, one day I woke up and felt incredible.  I was sleeping better, had more energy, etc.  The weight seemed to fall off and before I knew it, I had dropped 30 pounds and 4 jeans sizes.  Finally, I wasn’t on a DIET…I had changed my eating habits and relationship with food.

I maintained that 30 pound weight loss for several months, even though I still wanted to lose more.  Then fall came, my work schedule got CRAZY and I got pneumonia.  In the end, I’d gained back 8 pounds and a jeans size.  Coming back from pneumonia has been difficult for me.  Weeks after the fever has gone, I still cough and exercise is difficult.  So, since the Beachbody Ultimate Reset does not recommend exercise beyond daily walks and gentle stretching, I figured this was a good time to start.

I’m 5 days in and feel amazing.  But, my plan is to post a daily update to talk about each one in detail.  I’ll tag each post with #beachbodyultimatereset and #bur, so if you want to wade through the rest of my randomness, that will make it easier.

Thanks for reading!