Sunday, April 5, 2009

I lost 9 pounds doing the Usana Reset program

I completed this USANA 5-day Reset program to see how much weight I could lose and eliminate cravings for the wrong kinds of food. I started the week right on 187 pounds, which is getting on the high side for me as I flutuate between 182-84pounds on any given day. I did feel like that I had been gaining weight lately, probably due to eating too much icecream and bread! All high-glycemic food, foods that you need to avoid if weight loss is one of your priorities as a serious competitive cyclist.
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This Usana Reset program focuses on providing you with low-glycemic foods for the initial five-day duration so that your blood-sugar level is not spiked and maintains a sustainable level of energy throughout the day. Many people think that the point of this Reset program is to "diet" and "starve" yourself so that you will lose weight. However, if you take this attitude, then the weight loss will in fact be temporary and once you revert back to your old eating habits, the pounds will come back. You should never go hungry during this 5-day program and it does have provision for you to eat extra if you should find yourself hungry or feeling lack of energy. For me, since I am an athlete with training/racing demands, I needed to eat an extra nutrition bar each day plus extra fruit (such as apples and bananas). I did stick with the required 3 shakes a day, occasionally blended with strawberries and bananas. I did notice that I was more tired than usual but this was to be expected since I was consuming less calories than I expended while training, but I still felt a good level of energy during my rides and the times I felt tired were mostly in the mornings.
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Since this was my rest or recovery week, my training volumes were alot less than normal and this worked out perfectly for this Reset program. I completed only 5hrs of training including a one hour criterium race on Thursday night. So, for any athlete who is interested in losing some extra pounds, I would recommend doing this program in a recovery week so that you receive the full benefits without over-exerting yourself on less calorie in-take. My final result was a 9 pound weight loss, weighing in at 178 pounds this morning which is my lightest since I was in my early 20s. I want to continue with the USANA transform phase, which is replacing two meals a day with the shake and eating a nice healthy low-glycemic meal in the evening. My target weight is to get 78-79kgs (172pounds) and when you consider that I now weigh 178, it does not seem a too un-reasonable target. Just got to limit the icecream and bread! :)
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The race I did was on the 4th day of my Reset program and I felt excellent during the race, that I was regularly off the front, bridging up to breakaways and establishing breakaways. At the end of the race, I still had the burst of speed required (38mph) to have a shot at the win, but had to settle for 5th position in a race that averaged over 27mph. So you could say, that this week I was definitely "powered by USANA" as this is all I have been consuming for my main meals!
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1 comment:

Tim Haran said...

Daniel,
Great post! Glad to hear the RESET program worked so well for you. And congratulations on the fifth-place finish.