Day 5: The End is the Beginning

After 4 fulls days of RESET, my weight dropped again for a grand total so far of 5.7 pounds.  Today was going to be a different schedule from the rest of the week because I decided at the last minute to take off work.  Most of the rest of my office was taking off, so I figured why not.  My entire day was shifted back by about 2 hours, because instead of getting up at 6 am, I got up at 8 am.  This wasn't too difficult to adjust to, but like earlier days in the week I had to remember to eat my snack bars at the right times.  Luckily being home, I could use my blender for all my shakes!

I had a strawberry shake for breakfast, and today I added a 1/2 c of frozen wild blueberries to the blender cup. Can you say yum?  This was really, really delicious.

Lunch was a vanilla shake, and I think I had that around 2 pm.  Today was the only day I did not eat a salad for lunch; I honestly was just too lazy to pull everything out of the refrigerator. 

Dinner was a plateful of grilled mushrooms, onions, squash and tomatoes marinated in my Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing.  They were amazing--probably some of the best grilled veggies I have ever made.  So good I even volunteered to bring them to a cook out we are attending on Sunday.

I had my final chocolate shake around 8 pm while I was listening to the final conference call.  It has really been a quick week!  So my box is now empty, but the end of RESET is just the beginning of a new relationship with food.

A number of people have asked my plan for after th RESET week, and my plan IS to plan.  I've decided on some main ideas that I plan to work with.

1. Each three low glycemic meals each day with two snacks, so I'll be eating every 2-3 hours. 
2. Add back in my exercise.  I laid off this week because the weather wasn't super cooperative and I knew I would be working with less calories; I didn't want to make myself super tired on anything.  In hindsight, I think I would have been fine.  What I lost in calories was made up for in "energy efficiency" from the supplements. 
3. I plan to use the USANA shakes for probably one meal replacement a day, and it will most likely be breakfast. And I did buy some snack bars, so I will use them at least once a day as well.  I'm going to keep up with my salads for lunch, but I'm going to add a lean protein to it, most likely grilled chicken or eggs.  
4. I will definitely continue the USANA supplements. Even though I'm not very good at taking a handful of pills, I think they really made a difference in my "energy efficiency" rating.  If I was running at 20 mpg before, I'm at least at 30 mpg now. 
5. I'm going to plan out my food for the week on Sundays, and make sure I have everything on hand to be successful.  
6. And if my own meal choices aren't helping me to continue to reduce my weight, I'm ready to step up the meal replacements with the shakes for a second meal.  It isn't out of the question, but I am going to try eating whole foods first. Mainly because it is easier for my bf to deal when I'm cooking/making lunches of "actual" food instead of shakes.  While he agrees the shakes are tasty, they aren't his thing.  And when I have only a shake, he tends to eat more poorly than he would have if I was cooking, etc. 

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting test; we have a 4 hour kayaking on the calendar that spans from 10 am to 2 pm.  We've already packed our stuff up, and I have a snack bar and an apple all set for my snack.  Hopefully the class goes as well as RESET has gone!!!