‘I Tried A 7-Day Healthy Eating Reset And My Energy Levels Changed In A Shocking Way’
I’m a working mom of four kids, ranging in age from 2 to 11. That means on any given day, I’m juggling the demands of my busy job and my little ones, while trying to find time for my husband, too. Meals are usually an afterthought. I jam in breakfast and lunch at my desk, while dinner is my kids’ leftovers.
While I have very little time for meal-planning and cooking, I consider myself a healthy eater. Breakfast is usually an apple and natural peanut butter, with a zucchini and almond flour muffin a few hours later. Lunch tends to be scrambled eggs over a bed of sauteed broccoli, or leftover chicken and greens. Dinner is where things fall off the rails.
My husband is a chef, which sounds great in theory. But his job means that he’s usually working during dinnertime, which puts me in charge of that meal. I get seriously stressed out trying to come up with a menu that will please everyone. That means we usually cycle through a mix of tacos, homemade pizzas, grilled chicken with mac ‘n cheese, or some kind of pasta bar where I lay out noodles, vegetables, protein, and cheese, and let my kids make what they want.
Is it what I want to eat? Definitely not. But I’ve learned it’s hard to find time to make what I like and what my kids will eat—and the two rarely overlap. It’s frustrating! I’m a former competitive runner who has always looked at food as fuel. And, while I still work out regularly, I feel like I could do a better job taking care of my own energy needs instead of just eating whatever’s around.
After too many on the fly dinners of baby carrots and cheese sticks, I was ready to try the Women’s Health 7-Day Healthy Eating Reset so I could feel like a grown-up again.
I know how to follow a recipe and I can cook pretty well. But I get overwhelmed trying to think up something for myself. It’s also annoying to make complex dishes with one hand while holding my toddler. I’d love to feel confident that I can take care of my own nutritional needs without taking too much time away from kids. And meals that can be made ahead of time—and fast—are a dream.
So, I decided to follow the Reset. Here’s what happened.
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What is the WH 7-Day Healthy Eating Reset?
The Women’s Health 7-Day Healthy Eating Reset is designed with busy people like me in mind. It’s a way to redirect eating habits toward something healthier when they’ve been sliding lately.
To create the plan, Women’s Health consulted with dietitians to design a balanced and healthy one-week menu to help you reset your eating habits. The Reset is available exclusively for WH+ members and provides recipes for seven days of meals and snacks made from fresh, nutritious ingredients.
Every day on the WH Reset provides the following nutritional breakdown:
125 grams of carbs
100 grams of protein
45 grams of fat
More than 30 grams of fiber
At least 2 to 3 cups of veggies
1 to 2 servings of fresh fruit
The goal is to have a good mix of macronutrients: 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat a day. “This ratio ensures optimal nutrient absorption and utilization,”explains Lisa Moskowitz, RD, CEO of NY Nutrition Group. Focusing on high quality and nutritious foods can help you feel more satisfied, energized, and focused throughout the day, she adds.
A big perk of these recipes is that they’re designed for meal prep. So, you can chop or grate certain items when you have a sec and then throw them together when you’re ready to eat. Some can even be made in advance and eaten later, which is incredibly handy when you have negative time to cook.
How it works
The Healthy Eating Reset features 17 recipes developed by the WH test kitchen. It features a wide variety of foods, with a plant-forward slant. So while there’s some chicken and fish in the mix, there are also plenty of legumes, beans, and healthy fats like avocado.
With the Healthy Eating Reset, many of the ingredients overlap, so you don’t need to double your grocery bill. I also appreciated that these meals were fast. None of them took more than 15 minutes to prep.
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My schedule made it tough to cook three meals every day, but I tried to stick with the plan as closely as possible. I also made some things ahead, like farro, quinoa, and the Butternut Squash Breakfast Cookies I fell in love with, so that I could enjoy them on demand.
While the Healthy Eating Reset is flexible, it’s designed to be eaten within a week. So, the more you can stick with that, the better the odds will be that you’ll get the full benefits, like feeling fuller, longer, and having solid energy levels.
Of course, this isn’t designed to stress you out. So if you find that it’s easier to make a meal and eat the leftovers the next day, you can still feel good knowing that you did your health a solid.
I appreciated that the Healthy Eating Reset tried to save time whenever possible. That meant suggesting things like using rotisserie chicken, canned lentils instead of dried ones, or tinned salmon instead of cooking fish. While I had trouble finding some of those ingredients in a can, I was still able to make the ingredients fresh, keep them for later, and use them as needed.
What a week’s worth of meals looks like
Before doing the Healthy Eating Reset, my first two meals of the day looked pretty much the same: My trusty apple and PB for breakfast, eggs and vegetables for lunch, with a muffin or two and some veggies in between to tide me over for dinner. I decided to dive right in and start with the Butternut Squash Breakfast Cookies and Lentil Salad with Roasted Carrots for lunch.
I’m in charge of making breakfasts a few days a week, which is organized chaos as my husband and I try to get the kids off to school and ourselves ready for work. Throughout the week, I ate the Butternut Squash Breakfast cookies. These were a hit with my kids and me, and I appreciated how easy they were to make. I put together all of the ingredients the night before, then spooned the cookies on a sheet tray and popped them in the oven in the morning while I ran around getting everyone ready. They have a home-y cinnamon flavor with a hint of spicy ginger for a peppy start to your day. The recipe makes several servings—I love that I can have something in the fridge that they can grab and enjoy quickly that doesn’t come from a package. My husband will snag a few right out of the oven, and my oldest son started asking for them when we ran out. They’re now in regular rotation at my house. The cookies are also the perfect touch of sweetness for when cravings strike.
Lentil Salad with Roasted Carrots was one of my favorite dishes from the plan. I couldn’t find canned lentils, so I made them in advance, and was able to quickly put together the other ingredients during a brief break in the day. The mix of Medjool dates, lentils, mint, and carrots was delicious. I shared leftovers with my husband when he came home—and we both talked afterward about how much more full we felt than our usual grab-n-go lunches.
By dinnertime, I was once again short on time, so I whipped up Taco-Spiced Chicken and Peppers with Sweet Potato Wedges. This mostly involved tossing a bunch of ingredients into pans and roasting them in the oven, which I really appreciated. I was able to help my kindergartener with her homework while dinner cooked. The dish’s ingredients were simple enough for my kids to sample, and half of them liked it—a good ratio in my household.
A huge win in my book was that chicken and peppers leftovers from the night before could be quickly converted into a Mixed Greens with Roasted Chicken and Vegetables salad for lunch. I was able to throw the dish together between calls and still felt like I was enjoying something new.
I ended up having to make this Spicy Coconut-Poached Fish dinner after a tricky evening with my toddler. It was a lot easier than I expected—everything got tossed into the same pot. Cooking fish always intimidates me, but this was super simple: All I had to do was let it simmer in a yummy coconut milk broth. The final dish felt like I was eating out, and it didn’t require too much effort on my end.
I prepped the farro for this Kale Salad with Faro, Chicken, And Grapes Salad the night before and tossed the grapes and shallots in the oven while I worked. When lunch rolled around, I tossed everything into a bowl, along with rotisserie chicken. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about grapes in a salad, but the mix of sweetness from the roasted grapes, earthiness of the farro, and bite of the shallots is next level. It’s now one of my favorite dishes.
I make my own hummus at home on weekends. And I loved the flavors in the Artichoke Hummus with Spiced Eggplant and Mushrooms recipe. It had a vinegary saltiness and slightly bitter kick from the lemon zest that my go-to hummus recipe doesn’t. It was also easy to roast the veggies in a pan and put everything together later. I liked this one so much I ate the leftovers for days.
Eggs are a huge protein source in my house, and I was excited to try nutritional yeast in this Smoky Chickpea Frittata recipe. It’s something I’ve heard dietitians talk about but have never used. The yeast added a subtle cheesy flavor, while adding extra protein and fiber. I was able to whip this together before getting the kids ready in the morning, toss it in the oven, and have it come out by the time everyone was dressed. While my kids weren’t excited about the red peppers and spinach in the frittata, I loved it.
Lunch was Vietnamese-Style Slaw with Tinned Tuna. I prepped some of the ingredients, such as shredding the cabbage and slicing the cucumbers and carrots the night before. Then, I just put everything together in between calls during my workday. The flavors were light and citrusy, but there was plenty of protein thanks to the fish and cashews. I later used the leftover slaw with salmon for a tweak on the same dish.
I’ve riced cauliflower before, but didn’t know you could do the same with broccoli. I took quinoa I had made the night before and mixed it with the other ingredients. The overall taste of this Spinach and Riced Broccoli Quinoa with Fried Egg is earthy and delicious, and my husband used the leftovers as a side dish for the steak he cooked later that night.
I’ve seen plenty of Instagram shots of spaghetti squash dishes but had never tried it unti I made Peanutty Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowls. My kids and I had fun pulling out the “noodles” with a fork, and I was surprised at how full I felt after eating this entirely plant-based meal. The texture is definitely more slippery than your standard pasta, but I want to experiment more with spaghetti squash in the future to try to blend in some of my kids’ favorites, like meatballs.
While the Tandoori-Spiced Cauliflower and Chicken recipe wasn’t a one-pan dish, it was close. I was able to cook dinner entirely in the oven, which gave me time to clean out lunch boxes, read school reports, and tidy up backpacks during that time. The flavors in this were subtle, so my kids ate it, too.
For my final day on the plan, I ate leftover butternut squash cookies for breakfast with some Greek yogurt. For lunch, I made Curry Meatball Lettuce Wraps. These were a fun way to incorporate meat without having a large serving of beef, given that there is a lot of quinoa in them. These meatballs were surprisingly filling, and my husband was a big fan when he came home—he ended up remaking the dish later for himself.
After a week, I felt less panicked about meal planning.
I loved many of these recipes and now have a stack of go-to speedy meals I can make whenever I want. In fact, the butternut squash cookies, chicken farro salad, and lentil carrot stew are in regular rotation in my house.
I also like that this eating plan makes me feel good, with consistent levels of energy and fullness. I didn’t feel as groggy or hungry as usual when I woke up before my family early to work out and didn’t end up eating much between meals. Instead, I felt satisfied after eating and that carried me until the next meal. In fact, sometimes I delayed my next meal because I just wasn’t hungry by the time I would usually eat—and that was a big difference for me.
Another major perk: I can meal prep these at night, whip them out for myself the next day, and feel like I’m doing something for myself. I ended up having more energy—a huge pro, given that my toddler rarely sleeps past 5 a.m.—and feeling more satisfied after eating. It definitely cut down on how much I nibble on between meals, given how full I felt.
I wasn’t sure if I would feel satisfied on a veggie-forward meal plan, but I was shocked to see that I did. That got me really excited to dive more into new vegetables I haven’t used a lot in cooking when I have a little more free time.
I don’t look at the Health Eating Reset as a way of completely overhauling my diet—I think I was doing pretty good at the start—but it was an eye-opening experience that maybe I need a better balance of macronutrients to help keep me fueled for my long days. I know now that I can branch out more without sacrificing a ton of time. If that means I can skip having another dinner of grazing leftover mac n’ cheese and chopped cucumbers, I’m in.
Sign up for WH+ now to unlock the exclusive Women’s Health 7-Day Healthy Eating Reset, plus members-only workouts, fitness challenges, and more.
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