to follow Nicole’s journey from the beginning : Part 1, Part 2

I have finally completed a full 8 week metabolic reset.  I gained a total of 3 lbs on the reset (8lbs since beginning my EM2WL journey 15 weeks ago), and my inches are up again but during the last few weeks, my weight stabilized, I had no trouble eating all my calories (sometimes wanting more!) and I just felt ‘ready’ by the end.  It wasn’t an anxiety to cut my cals because I was freaking out over weight anymore, it was just a feeling of ‘spinning  my wheels’ so to speak.  It was weird how tangible that feeling of being ready to cut was.  A calm yearning to move on to the next step.  A peace at where I was physically, emotionally and mentally but with a desire to move forward.  A reset is so much more than just resetting your metabolism.  It’s about resetting your mind and your emotional responses to your weight and food as well.  There is so much healing that happens during a proper reset, that you are just a different person by the end of it!

I am looking forward to revealing the muscle I’ve been building up these past 8 weeks but I am going on vacation in a few days and I’m not sure how that will affect things.  I plan to stay within my caloric budget, but we will be backcountry camping and boondocking off the grid so getting my macros on target is usually very difficult under those circumstances and my sodium intake is usually through the roof (a lot more packaged/processed food).  I also will have two weeks with a new exercise regime…I won’t have my weights with me for much strength work so I’m going to modify a few things to do HIIT and body weight work plus hiking and running to keep my exercise up.

I’m so thrilled with my new found health from doing this metabolic reset and now I’m looking forward to seeing my body reflect that physically!  I will be doing a tdee – 15% cut (modified a bit due to a change in exercise which puts me at approximately 2100 cals/day).  Dropping calories has not been difficult exactly for me, but I definitely miss the extra food and I’m finding I’m having to work a little harder on meeting that protein macro.  I’m sure that will all become easier with practice though.

Time to continue on to the next leg of this journey!  The thought of FINALLY being able to start losing weight without having to eat like a bird or exercise for hours is so exciting!  I am so far away from who I used to be, it’s mind boggling!  Let’s do this!  J