omz reload in zsh widget

I am using zsh+oh-my-zsh and I am using the following code to change .zshrc using a hotkey and I am trying to reload omz after the change:

function f() {
  # ... update .zshrc here ...
  omz reload
}
zle -N f
bindkey "^[=" f  # Alt+=

However, hitting the hotkey closes the current terminal. This is a result of calling omz reload (which by itself callsexec zsh) Is there a another way to reload zsh/omz without this causing the terminal to be closed?