What happens when these 10 days are over? Isn’t the Reset just another diet – you subscribe to it and then fall off of it only to reenter an old way of life? Only to establish that you’ve failed yet again and are stuck in “this body”? What happens when I go back to eating my favorite foods?

Behavior is a tricky subject. Food is a tricky subject. Body is a tricky subject.

One HUGE reason the Reset happens quarterly is because if we’re jet set to change our bodies and our relationship to food, we first have to establish that it’s the relationship we’re targeting. We’ve entered therapy – as humbling as that sounds; the ego must die a little. The therapy room, which is your kitchen, is full of mirrors – sound scary? Let’s unpack that a little.

If we continue on a path of dieting – call it Keto, Paleo, Vegan, Whole 30 etc or the opposite which is to mindlessly eat everything – we continue on a path of limiting beliefs. Your body isn’t Keto or Vegan or any other diet plan out there – and it’s not mindless. We have a mind we just need to use it. The body is human, cyclic, emotional, sensitive and a bit savage if I might add.

Your body is also a vessel and unique. No one else has your body. Not one person on the planet – and yet – we allow others to dictate what size it should be, how much it should weigh and what clothes it should fit into. Funny. Also a bit sad.

What happens after 10 days is nothing shy of dare I say: exploratory. I know I’m a bit biased, I created this beast right? The Reset Monster. Hear me out though. What happens after the 10 days is we see ourselves more clearly. That little bit (or a lot) that we see is invaluable. Does it matter if you go back to a lifestyle of:

drinking wine

eating chocolate

snacking on crackers

using conventional creamer in your coffee

having a snickers

brie, camembert & gouda

Um. No. It doesn’t matter. How silly. What matters is how you feel and how you feel is a measure of your success no matter what. It matters that you’re listening to this now-sharpened sense of self. This was never meant to eliminate everything from your life. It was meant to attune your senses.

This is a process of self discovery. If the reset was a ‘One and Done’ kind of thing it would only happen when I felt like hosting it. It would happen whenever I woke up to a knee jerk reaction of my own selfish accord. It would happen if, drum roll please: I felt fat, gross, self loathing and desperate for change. The truth is, I need a quarterly check in regardless. I need 10 days to be accountable and then I need to go out into the world to wiggle so I can come back and apply what I learned. I, like you, need a light to come in and shine on all the places I try and avoid. What happens after the 10 days is nothing shy of glorious because after a year of hosting these resets I’ve noticed some radical shifts in my own habitual behavior.

Want to know what those are?

• nut butters. I used to eat them with abandon. The resulting lower belly bloating, gas and discomfort wasn’t enough to keep me from eating them every day, namely Almond and Peanut butter. Since doing my first reset almost a year ago, I’ve drastically changed how I consume nut butters. If I eat nuts now, they’re in significantly less quantity so I don’t feel so uncomfortable. This alone surprises me because I never felt like I had such control. Since we’re on the topic, despite nuts’ touted health benefits, they’re still a very concentrated source of fat and calories. You can argue that they’re also densely nutritious. Let your body decide afterwards how much you need them and how much you used to (ab)use them. I was surprised…
• alcohol. I love losing myself a little. Who doesn’t (jeez). There was a time in my life when I drank a 1/2 bottle of wine every single night for about a year. I looked and felt AWFUL. I was coping with life, stress, motherhood and relationship dynamics. A nice respite from alcohol just goes to show we don’t need it to relax – so I celebrate from time to time, much more mindfully, and then take long breaks in between. I might go all-out on occasion followed by a sober week or two. A lot of people feel alcohol brings them to extremes, all or nothing thinking and black and white behavior. That’s totally okay. There are also people who may have once abused alcohol but now have a better relationship to it (Um, hi). Both are possibilities. Again, it’s a relationship.
• grains/starches. The word “carbs” – to me – is like “moist” or other words that make people cringe. The topic of carbohydrates is so overused, misunderstood and frankly, twisted. Carbohydrates are a non-essential macronutrient. They’re found in most foods other than meat. Indigenous centennial-living village people void of modern disease know this too well. Consuming rice, bread, pasta, bagels, cupcakes and ice cream are one form of carbohydrate while zucchini, brussel sprouts, berries and watermelon are others. The reset eliminates grains/starches – NOT CARBS (and I should add beans) because we don’t need them. That’s all. For no other reason. If you choose to consume packaged and processed carbs, that’s fine – but see how you feel without them and then decide. I have the occasional French Fries splurge and explore different kinds of gluten free breads from time to time – I love gelato! – but I do this knowing “it’s extra, not necessary.” (And quite frankly, my homemade sugar free sorbets’ are just as delicious – it’s amazing what happens to our taste buds over time).
• sweets for breakfast. Holy Moly. After my first reset I was eating veggie stir fries for breakfast. The idea that we need sugar in the morning or that breakfast should be sweet is straight up conditioning. Honestly one of my favorite breakfasts is ground turkey with taco seasoning and flaxmeal, maybe a piece of fruit. Sounds untraditional because it is but I’ve grown to gravitate toward foods that simply break the box on conventional (and I believe I’m better for it).
• I used to approach resets with a balls-out attitude. Aka, the night or week before I’d simply sabotage myself. Why not right? I’ll be cleansing for 10 days…but truth is: it only makes it harder. I’ve partied the night before a reset at least a couple times and Day 1-3 feel miserable. The best way to prepare for a reset is to ease into it. Have a steak (load up on iron!), have a Zevia (sugar free natural alternative to soda), have some chocolate…but for goodness sake, if you really want to see and feel results from this 10 days, I’ve learned to be gentle and loving with myself. Cliche as it sounds a little bit goes a long way. Results will come quicker, clarity will surprise you and everything else you anticipate will magnetize to you. I no longer sabotage myself. I treat myself mindfully.

So I hope this helps with your curiosity. A reset is just that – a recalibration, a fine tuning, a check in. The pendulum swings just a little more gracefully. The black and white blend into a foggy East Coast morning grey.

If I might add just one more thing – a little motivation never hurt. I usually buy myself a little number and look forward to wearing it when I’m done. It might just be me but nothing tastes as good as a red slip feels.

With love,

Katie