Beachbody Ultimate Reset Results

I just realized that I wrote this blog post in JUNE 2015 and never published it! Seriously - this mom brain is something else! Anyways - enjoy!

Three weeks ago, I decided to embark on a CRAZY journey. This is a journey I have been avoiding for the past 2.5 years. With my new found health issues, I decided that it was time to take the leap and let go of my fears!

The Beachbody Ultimate Reset. Craziness. The hardest thing I have done with Beachbody to date. The BEST program I have done to date.

This program pushed me past my limits. It took this picky eater and turned her into a (kinda) veggie loving girl! I tried so many new foods over the past 3 weeks. I gave up ALL white sugar. I have been meat free for 2 weeks. The last week, I ate only fruits and veggies.

I learned more about myself in the past three weeks than I could have ever imagined. I challenged my thinking. I challenged my brain. I challenged my appetite. I challenged the way I looked at food.

I realized that I was eating for comfort and based on cravings instead of really listening to my body and understanding what it was telling me.

I was also in the middle of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I had this HORRIBLE rash that was itchy and hot. I had been to dermatologists and was in the process of getting in to see a rheumatologist. I had blood drawn, tried different steroid creams, had skin biopsies, etc. I was MISERABLE and needed to get something figured out. This is another reason why I finally decided to try the Ultimate Reset. 

Check out this pic collage on the right of what my skin looked like BEFORE I started on the Ultimate Reset. See that top picture? That's how I walked around every.single.day. I was in massive amounts of pain and horribly depressed. To the left, you can see what my body looked like the night before I started.

I chose to start the UR on a Wednesday. I did my research and realized that I might feel sluggish and have some body pains. So I wanted to plan for that to happen over the weekend while I wasn't at work. I meal prepped and planned like crazy! Good thing that Beachbody made it easy with this one. They tell you what to eat, when to eat it, and even give you a grocery list.

Another little known secret is that you can switch out any breakfast in week 1 for any breakfast in week 1, any lunch in week 1 for any lunch in week 1, and any dinner in week 1 for any dinner in week 1. The only exception to that is that you aren't supposed to eat meat after day 3. This made my planning and prep a LOT easier!

I'm not gonna lie - the first week was HARD! I had a ton of body aches and a nasty headache. My body was in full detox mode. I think day 3 and 4 were the absolute hardest. I could barely function - BUT - being a mom, I had no choice. Luckily, I had made up my mind BEFORE I started the program. I was going to stick to it and have ZERO cheats.

Of course, I picked a bad three weeks, but whatever. I NEEDED to do this for myself. I wasn't going to let a MLB baseball game, my step-father's burial service, a huge family reunion, and Memorial Day ruin my progress.

Below is the picture I posted on day 1. It was my gallon of distilled water. I drank at LEAST one of these each day!

By the end of week 1, I was feeling AMAZING. I was sleeping better than ever. My aches and pains were gone. I was losing my bloat from all the coffee, sugar, and junk I had been eating. And keep in mind, I had a pretty clean diet before starting on this journey. I was astounded at the week 2 pictures. Take a look at what I looked like after week 1.

How about a side-to-side comparison of day to day 8? This is where you can REALLY see the changes happening. I was down 7.8 POUNDS and 14.25 INCHES!!!

Week 2 brought some interesting challenges. There were a lot of foods that I decided I didn't like during this week. But the one thing that made me the happiest? The beans and rice recipe. I LOVE that recipe and plan to make it all the dang time! I definitely used the swap option for meals this week. It was so nice to know that ahead of time.

By the end of week 2 and the beginning of week 3, I was happy with my results but I was getting tired of all the restrictions. I knew if I could just make it to day 18 or 19, the end would be in sight and I would be so excited to finish that I wouldn't care about the restrictions anymore.

Here are my week 2 results. I'll give you the regular pictures and then a side by side :)

What do you think? Do you see any progress? My main problem with the picture above is that you can still see my lack of a smile. I was deep in the UR and it was not easy. I was seeing progress but each day was work. Hard work. Crazy work.

The third week of the program was the absolute hardest for me. I survived ONLY on fruits and vegetables. For a girl who doesn't like many veggies, this week was rough. My favorite part was the HUGE bowl of fruit I got to eat for breakfast every morning. The hard thing for me was eating veggies that I don't really like. Peppers are an absolute no-go for me. So are any veggies that have "strings" in them.

I know. I know. You think I'm weird. That's ok. I like what I like and that's that. I'm ok with my weird food texture issues and don't really care what anyone else thinks of me for it :)

So - week three brought on ALL kinds of pictures. Many of them had me smiling in them. I believe I even took a picture of all my empty supplement containers because I was SOOO excited to be done with all those dang supplements! Seriously!

Actually I think I forgot to mention the supplements before. There was a STRICT schedule of what supplements to take and when to take them. My LEAST favorite supplement was the Alkinize.

Wanna know what it tasted like? It tasted like you turned your lawn mower over after a fresh mow and licked the grass clippings off the blades. EW. Seriously. Disgusting. And that was a supplement you had to drink EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Ew.

This pic below was one of my proudest! All the containers were EMPTY!!! Woo Hoo!!!

So - the end of 21 grueling days. Seriously. This is the HARDEST program that Beachbody has to offer. And you're not even allowed to workout while doing the reset!!! I have never been prouder to complete a program. For real. Check out my ending pics and that SMILE!!!

How about a side to side comparison of all 4 sets of pictures? Then you can REALLY see the changes in my body! 

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?! All that progress in just 21 days? You can see my OBLIQUES!!! I didn't even know I had obliques! I promise - I was not flexing or sucking in for ANY of those pictures listed above. I am a REAL person who got REAL results.

Wanna know what my BEST result was? Well, remember WHY I decided to do this program? A big part of it was my health issues. I had a horrible rash that just wouldn't go away. The doctors couldn't find a reason for the rash. Let me show you what happened after 21 days on the Ultimate Reset:

I made the pic as big as possible so you can see the difference in my skin. Two pictures. Three weeks apart. This is why I would recommend this program to ANYONE who is dealing with health issues. I will recommend it to anyone who is struggling with a plateau. I will recommend it to each and every single person I possibly can. It changed my life. It changed my health. I am forever grateful!

If you have any questions about this program (The Ultimate Reset) or any other Beachbody program, please let me know. I would love to help you feel as good as I do now!

<3
Kelly

Why I'm going the Beachbody Ultimate Reset

This is the program. The ONE Beachbody program that I have avoided for the past 2.5 years. to be completely honest, it scared me. Everyone told me that it would take a crazy amount of dedication and will power to complete it. I was afraid I would fail.

Two weeks ago, I decided that it was time that I committed and completed the program. Here's why:

2014 was an insanely difficult year for me and my family. I read somewhere that you can only really handle one big life event in a year. We had so many in 2014 that I lost count - from my dad having a mini-stroke and major eye surgery, to my daughter's mystery illness which turned into Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, to an unexpected pregnancy followed by a scaring miscarriage, to my step-dad being diagnosed with cancer and passing away 6 months later - it seems like everything that could go wrong did so last year.

For those of you who don't know me very well, you need to know one thing. I am an EMOTIONAL EATER. I stress eat and drown my feelings. Nothing makes a girl feel better than a big old bowl of ice cream or some candy. Wait - lots of mashed potatoes. That might top the ice cream - unless that ice cream is cookie dough. Nothing can top cookie dough.

See??? I am a junk food foodie at heart. So, needless to say, I was not too kind to myself this past year.

Back in 2012-2013 I lost 65 pounds with Shakeology, Clean Eating, and Beachbody programs. Last year, I put back on 30 of those pounds. Yes. 30.

I am ashamed. I am angry. I know better than this. I KNOW how to eat well. I KNOW what bad food does to my body. Yet, I still turned to my old, trusty friend.

It wasn't until April of this year (2015) that I realized something had to change. I started having some BIG health issues. My left shoulder was a MESS. I was in Physical Therapy for 6 weeks with no progress. I developed this HORRIBLE, ITCHY rash on my hands, arms, face, neck, chest, and upper back. At the time of writing this blog post, I've had this rash for over 2 months with no answers. I'm also super tired. All The Time.

If you know me, you know that I am a "crunchy" mom and person. I cloth diapered my kids. I breastfed for 2+ years with each child. I don't feed my kids food dyes. I didn't have drugs during my VBAC. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFC) is a big NO NO in our house. GMO's are the same. We avoid them like the plague. I don't like to take advil or tylenol for a headache. So for me to say that it took a cortisone shot in my shoulder to finally be able to move, workout, and conduct my bands, you know I was hurting bad.

The rash - well, we are still trying to figure that one out. I've had blood work upon blood work. Skin biopsies. Stopped medications. New eczema wash and lotion. Oatmeal baths. Organic Coconut Oil. Olive Oil.

You name it, I've tried it. Nothing is helping.

My dermatologist is now thinking that this rash is related to some type of auto-immune disease. With the history of AI in my family, I am starting to agree with her. My mom has hashimoto's and alopecia. My daughter has JIA, which falls under AI diseases. It makes sense that I have some AI disease. Now we are starting to do the testing to find out just what it is.

But I still can't help this little feeling I have in my gut. What if I have developed an allergy? Gluten and dairy are two HUGE offenders in the allergy world. Many people have allergies or intolerances and don't even know about it!

You see, ever since I lost our baby in May of 2014, I have been punishing my body. I have been treating it like a failure. It let me down. In a BIG way. I see all my friends having their babies. My niece was born on my DUE DATE. It's not that I don't want my friends and family to be happy. It's not that I'm not happy for them. I'm just sad for myself.

Enter the Beachbody Ultimate Reset.

21 days. Ultra clean eating to vegetarian to vegan. Challenging. Emotional. A chance to prove to myself that I CAN do this!

By making the decision to complete this program, I have made the CONSCIOUS CHOICE to TAKE CHARGE of my own health. I am going to make sure that this rash isn't caused by gluten or dairy. I am going to TRUST my own body again. I am going to treat it the way it DESERVES to be treated. My body hasn't failed me. I have TWO gorgeous children to prove it! My mind knows this and now it's time to PROVE to my heart that it's true.

It's only 21 days. I can do ANYTHING for 21 days. I am changing my habits. I am changing my patterns. I am changing my way of eating. I am healing myself from the inside out. When I am done with this program, I am 100% confident that the "old" Kelly will resurface. The girl who loves live. The girl who is happy. The girl who helps others reach their goals. The girl who smiles all the time.

So, for the next 21 days, I am asking you to follow me. I am asking you to keep me accountable. One gallon of distilled water a day. 3 meals. 1 snack. Lots and lots of body cleansing supplements. 

I will be posting my journey on my Instagram account @kelly.levere and on my Facebook Like Page - find me and follow me. Encourage me. Heck - do it with me if you want to. It's going to be a wild 21 days and I can't wait to share it with you!