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| Baked sweet potato & garlic veggies |
Some have mentioned I’ve eaten some strange foods and strange food combinations. Yes, that is true. But there hasn’t been one meal I didn’t enjoy, truly! My taste buds have been introduced to many new foods we will be eating from now on. I'm so blessed to have adventurous eaters for children, and a very supportive husband throughout this entire journey.
I confess, though, that first thing this morning my husband made me a cup of coffee with cream and raw sugar! And I'm making a delicious baked berry french toast recipe (that I made early last week for the kids). I can smell it as I type this post.......mmmmmmm......I'll post the recipe one day this week!
THE RESULTS
So you want to know my ending results, right? Are you ready?
My cumulative results over 21 days: I lost TEN pounds and TEN inches
overall! The biggest change was that I
lost 3” off each thigh. My BMI is now
25.9, and I believe I’m only about five to seven pounds from a healthy BMI!
Unfortunately, I have been dealing with a kidney stone yesterday (ouch!). Other than that, I believe my health has improved drastically. I am
really proud of myself for sticking to the cleanse for the whole 21 days. I really didn’t know if I would be able to or
not. Knowing what I’m doing for my body and overall health
made the biggest difference this time.
This wasn’t just a “diet” to lose weight. This was a chance for me to “reset” my body,
and I believe I did just that. I will
begin Les Mills Body Pump hopefully tomorrow (if the kidney stone passes
today). I plan to ease into the
workouts and not do the really intense ones until next week. I have also noticed a big difference in my
skin. Some people have said that I’m “glowing”
– and that was without makeup! I’ve
never heard that before, so I will take that as a wonderful result of the
cleanse.
GROCERY COST
Some have asked me how much groceries have cost while on the
cleanse. First, I must explain that I
fed my family the same dinners I ate. I
added toast or extra food (veggies or meat) for them, but for the most part, they ate what I did
at dinnertime, just larger portions in some cases.
Overall, I spent $475 on groceries for the 21 days of this
cleanse (Week 1 $200, shopped at Trader
Joe’s & Whole Foods; Week
2 $140, shopped at Wegman’s &
Farmer’s market; Week 3 $135, shopped
at Trader Joe’s & Whole Foods & went berry picking at a local farm). This includes all food and pantry staples for
my family of five! Normally, I try to spend
between $500-600 per month on food.
Approximately $100-150 of that goes to an Amish farmer who provides all of
our dairy, eggs, and some meat/poultry.
I cut back a bit from the farmer this month because after week 1, there
was no dairy or eggs (or meat) for me. I can’t promise this is what it will cost for
you and your family. I am a bit of a
frugal and thrifty shopper who gets creative with foods, and doesn’t buy any
prepackaged snacks or meals for my children. If you buy prepackaged foods (crackers, snacks, freezer meals, etc.) and do not do that during the cleanse, it's possible your grocery bill goes down! Even buying organic which is more expensive can save you money if you only feed your family fruits and veggies with some meat during this time. I understand you are going to do the cleanse, but why not try to get your whole family eating well, too? If you're going to do this and have long-term success, I really recommend you evaluate at all the foods you are feeding your family.
For breakfast, the kids eat some combination of the
following: milk, eggs, toast, yogurt,
fruit. For their lunches, they usually
eat almond butter sandwiches with farm fresh apple butter on Nature’s Own whole
grain bread with fruit and/or veggies, and sometimes a hardboiled egg. (Find out if your Dollar Tree sells Nature’s
Own bread and when they get it in during the week. I usually stock up when I find it and store it
in our freezer.) So you can see, our
breakfast and lunch meals are pretty cost effective, even though they eat whole
grain bread and organic/farm fresh groceries.
My three children (ages 9, 7, 5) all enjoyed the majority of the dishes
on this cleanse! One of their favorite
dinners was veggie sushi with homemade miso soup.
MY FOOD JOURNAL
Day 15: May 7,
2012 Monday
As usual, loved the
fruit for breakfast. Just stocked up at
Trader Joe’s yesterday and went strawberry picking, so I had lots of yummy foods
to choose from. Lunch was an excellent Asian cabbage &
carrot salad. But this afternoon was
probably the toughest as far as wanting to snack. Not sure why.
I snacked on roasted sunflower seeds (more than I should have and not an
“approved” snack). I also made kale
chips for my kiddos to snack on today and had a few. I think maybe when my children ask me 25+
times per day for a snack it just starts to get to me! Extremely sore (back is very achy) and tired
this afternoon – just want to go to bed
and take a nap, but being mommy to three prevents that from happening. Sipped some green chai tea while I made
dinner: baked sweet potato with garlic
veggies. Yum! Went to bed by 9:30pm.
Day 16: May 8,
2012 Tuesday
Up at 5:30am. Made a special
breakfast for the kids this morning (baked French toast) and had a big fruit
salad myself. It was a bit difficult not
to taste this new recipe. Saved the last
piece for hubby. Huge microgreen salad
for lunch was tough to finish! Love
roasted sunflower seeds combined with the creamy garlic dressing I made (recipe
from the cleanse). Still feel pretty
achy. Needed a snack today, so I had an
apple and some chai tea. Had a very
unique dinner: curried cauliflower and
lemon pepper kale. Wow! That was seriously the best cauliflower I’ve
ever tasted. It was so delicious and even tasted buttery. Unfortunately, I used too much fresh lemon
juice on the kale which made it difficult to eat. Went to bed by 9:30pm.
Day 17: May 9,
2012 Wednesday
Up by 6am. Another great fruit salad for breakfast. Kids are driving me crazy with wanting to eat
every hour, which in turn makes me want to snack, too! I’ve done so well this whole time and then
today I broke down and have had several handfuls of nuts. I know that’s not a bad snack, but I’m trying
to follow this plan exactly. The
Moroccan Carrot Salad for lunch was delicious!
I can see making big batches of that for my lunches during the
week. I think hubby would like it too. Had blueberries and an apple for my
snack. Just can’t seem to satisfy my
hunger today – I’ve been craving protein like crazy. Easy dinner tonight (roasted squash, green
beans & millet). Have to work in the
church nursery tonight. Was in bed by 10:30pm.
Day 18: May 10,
2012 Thursday
Up by 6am. Still struggling with
hunger – and craving nuts. Had one apple
for snack. Followed recipes
exactly. Roasted fennel bulb tasted
meaty in a good sort of way! Very delicious.
Ate rice with dinner. Enjoyed
some more chai tea today. Went to bed
late.
Day 19: May 11,
2012 Friday
Up at 6:30am. Was very emotional
today. A little sore and achy, but not
bad. Ran out of most of my fruit for
breakfast, so had to sub in vegan Shakeology (1/2 scoop, water, ice, 1 kiwi). Mediterranean carrot salad over greens was
delicious for lunch! Dinner was tempeh,
coconut collard greens (love that coconut oil from Trader Joe’s!), and roasted
beets. Can’t believe I only have the
weekend left. Wonder how much I’ve lost
overall. Definitely can see a difference
in my thighs. Went to bed late again.
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| Stir fry, coconut collards & brown rice |
Up at 7:30am. Getting my hair done
this morning! Again had to substitute Tropical
Shakeology for the three cups of fresh fruit (1/2 scoop + water + ice + frozen
blueberries). Avocado Jicama salad was
delicious over arugula and baby spinach.
Tonight we’re having stir fry – using the coconut oil (Trader Joe's coconut oil is delicious) in place of olive
oil makes for a very unique and tasty stir fry!
No aches and pains this morning.
No headache or emotional issues either.
Can’t believe tomorrow is the last day!
Went to bed by 10pm.
Day 21: May 13,
2012 Sunday
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| Carrot Seaweed Salad |
THE CHALLENGE
Now that I’ve gone through the cleanse, I would love to
coach you through it too! Please go here to purchase your starter kit: www.myultimatereset.com/kellyabattles. Email me (kellybstampin@yahoo.com) or post a comment below to let me
know whether or not you want to be added to a Facebook Challenge Group. This will be a group exclusively for people
going through (or who have gone through) the Ultimate Reset. It takes a lot of encouragement to get
through, and as little outside distraction as possible. If you know you have a vacation or event
coming up, this is not the time to do the cleanse. Wait until you know you have a full three
weeks to commit. Also, it really is
important that you do not workout during the whole three weeks. Trust me!
Just cutting the grass at the end of week two was too much for me. I look forward to hearing YOUR next success
story! Consider sending me your story. I would love to publish it on my blog for inspiration for someone else. And don’t be like me; I didn’t take
good before pictures, so I don’t have these great before/after pictures to put
up here.
I will continue to blog about keeping these ten pounds off, and I sincerely hope I will be able to announce that I am at my goal weight and a healthy BMI very, very soon!
I'm linking up to the Fight Back Friday Blog Carnival hosted by Food Renegade!
I'm linking up to the Fight Back Friday Blog Carnival hosted by Food Renegade!
