Shakeology: What is it and why do I keep yammering on about it?

So if you've read the info about the upcoming Fall Back into Fitness Challenge (starting Sept. 10 -- join us!), you'll know that one of the requirements is to drink a protein shake called Shakeology once a day for 30 days.

Why? Why am I making you do this as part of the challenge?

Because it works. Pure and simple. I've said it before and I'll say it again, and I'll keep saying it: I have kissed a million protein shake frogs over the years before I discovered Shakeology. I trust Beachbody and their ingredients implicitly. That's really all there is to it. I think the entire world should be drinking Shakeology for the nutrients it provides.

Remember, Shakeology ISN'T a crash diet shake like Slim Fast or nasty stuff like that. This is an all natural recovery drink with all sorts of good stuff. The bonus is the weight loss that I, and thousands of others, have experienced as a result of getting your body back in balance.

People balk because when they first see the price. So I'm going to break down the nutrition for you and you can see what you're REALLY paying for. I have cut it out of our daily routine before because I thought we just couldn't afford it. Then I didn't feel as healthy. So we (Eamonn and I both drink it once a day) quickly realized we couldn't afford to NOT drink it. I know, I know, so sales pitchy. But it's that good for you. I promise.

Read on for the nutrtional low down:

The cost of Shakeology on home direct (you get free shipping) is $119.99 plus tax. A one-month supply breaks down to around $4/serving. When you are using it as a meal replacement to lose weight that means that your meal costs $4.

But what does it cost to eat at a restaurant and at home? A fast food meal on average is $5, more if super-sized and definitely more when you live in the mountains and the value meals really aren't so value-ish! A meal in a sit-down restaurant is on average $10 or higher. A home-cooked meal is typically around $4/serving when you have a meat, veggie, and carb. Yes, a home-cooked meal may rival Shakeology regarding cost, but is that truly accurate?

Here is what you’d have to eat to get the same nutrition in a glass of Shakeology:
4 cups raw broccoli ($3.94)
7 whole carrots ($1.99)
10 cups raw cauliflower ($4.30)
3 cups romaine lettuce ($1.99)
4 cups uncooked mushrooms ($8.97)
3 raw onions ($2.91)
1 cup peas ($1.09)
4 cups red radishes ($5.16)
4 cups non-fat yogurt ($3.49)
1 bowl exotic fruit, including goji berry and acai berry ($4.40)
1 shot wheat grass ($1.95)

Total $41.19

Multiply that by 30 servings and you are getting $1,235.70 worth of food for only $119.95.

As for calories, Shakeology is 150 - 170 cal/serving (depending on which flavor/blend you choose), plus whatever you add to your shake. A fast food or restaurant meal is 400 cal or more, at the bare minimum.

The bottom line is that we need to think differently about our food, what it costs, and what we're getting in return. Are you getting the biggest bang for your nutritional buck? It IS affordable if you think about what you're getting. You could take $120 of your monthly food allowance and direct it to Shakeology. The nutritional benefits that you would receive, in return, would be worth its weight in gold.

Take a look at Shakeology again, but look at it through different eyes -- get beyond the "oh my gosh it costs this" reaction and you'll see something totally different. I promise! :)

I Made it Through the Cleanse!

Isn't that a song by Barry Manilow? Just kidding.

I finished my Shakeology cleanse yesterday and weighed in this morning. I knew I felt pretty good, but I had this grand plan that I wouldn't eat one single thing that wasn't on the cleanse over the course of the 3 days. That, of course, is always the plan. But it's hard when I'm making dinner, touching all sorts of food that I'm not supposed to be eating.

This time though, I was a rock. Until last night. In the last hours of the cleanse, I ate a little biscuit. WTF? Totally annoyed with myself.

The first day of cleansing is hard. I'm usually hungry and going through withdrawl and also trying to break that habit of popping stuff in my mouth here and there. The second day I'm usually in good shape. I was actually traveling for work on the second day (Wednesday), but I stayed on track. I took my Shakeology and my shaker cup and just drank it in my car before my meeting. Then after my meeting, I went to Whole Foods and made my required salad for dinner.

Did great all day yesterday, but then there was the biscuit. Ah well, progress, not perfection. I keep telling myself that.

So overall, I lost 7 pounds on the cleanse. That's pretty exciting because that takes me to yet another record low weight--post-babily speaking that is. We're getting in the range of grad school era weight now. But the 7 pounds off is a little deceiving because I had eaten a bowl of popcorn the night before. Water retention anyone? So if I go from the weight I was when we got back from England, I'm down 3.5 lbs. Still very pleased with the results.

Here is the cleanse that I followed:

Pre-breakfast: a cup of green tea
Breakfast: Shakeology with water/ice only. May add 1/2 fruit if needed.
Snack: piece of fruit
Lunch: Shakeology with water/ice only. Follow with a cup of green tea.
Snack: Shakeology with water/ice only.
Dinner: salad greens with 3 servings of veggies, 2 Tbsp salad dressing, 4oz. white meat

Drink 2-4 liters of water per day.

The hardest part for me is drinking that much water a day. But I'm always bad at that.

I woke up this morning and had...Shakeology for breakfast. I usually only drink the chocolate, but this morning I had the Greenberry flavor with almond milk and half a banana.

I'm crazy that way.

Workout of Fire 30 and Upper 20 is already in the bag. Now I'm going to go to Costco and try not to eat any samples. Hopefully all of the sample people aren't out yet!

Watch Me Get Off Track...And Back On Again!

So this weekend is the perfect example of how things haven't gone as I planned.

At all.

I sit down once every week or 10 days to plan out menus and make a grocery list. This helps me stick to a budget and my healhier eating at the same time.

And I had this weekend all planned out. Or so I thought.

My older son is playing in a hockey tournament, and as terrible as this sounds, I didn't think the team would do as well as they have done because I figured we'd be home for dinner each night.

That plan went out the window--hence the hot dog for dinner last night.

Tonight, I'm not actually even eating dinner because I'm going to eat my popcorn if it kills me. I hope I don't choke on a kernal now that I said that.

Anyway, my point here is that the best laid plans go awry. Or, like me today, you take healthy food along with you and you don't necessarily eat it. Sometimes I'm good. Sometimes I'm not. I'm good more often than I'm not, and that's the important thing.

Today's workout: Missed it.

Food

Breakfast: Two eggs, gluten free toast (annnnd, two bites of cookie dough. Had to make cookies for the hospitality room at the tournament and I was so tired last night, I didn't do it. But apparently I wasn't too tired to blog last night.)

Snack: I think we should probably consider the cookie dough my snack

Lunch: In the hospitality room--Chili with cheese, 1/2 piece of pizza, grapes, carrots, 1/2 of someone else's cookie (that they made, not that they were eating!).

Snack: Cornbread w/milk and syrup

Dinner: None. I'm abstaining until popcorn.

Trust me when I tell you I don't eat this way on a daily basis. I'm realizing this is a terrible way to start this blog. And thank goodness I hadn't started a week ago on Friday when I went to SmashBurger. It would have been a bummer to confess that!

You'll start seeing some clean eating form me, I swear. But I definitely want you to see that I have feet of clay. The important thing is that I USED to eat like this more often than not. But I've learned I can have a bad day or two, or even go off the rails on vacation, and I can get back on and pull myself back together. That concept was a huge turning point for me.

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll talk more about how I eat and exercise to keep myself moving forward.

BodyBugg stats as of 6:06pm:
Calories burned = 1723. I won't be hitting my goal for today!
Steps = 5726
Activity = 35 minutes

Clearly, too much sitting in a hockey rink today.

For Meg: A word about the shakes. I have looked the world over for a whey protein shake. I researched different brands, I spent good money on them. Some were good. Some were just plain nasty. I feel like I drank a lot of whey protein frogs before I found the prince of shakes. I have been drinking Shakeology nearly every day for the last five months. Sometimes I use it as a meal replacement, sometimes I drink it as a snack. I love it. I buy it, of course, through BeachBody. It's got really great ingredients. It comes in two flavors--chocolate and greenberry. I mix it with almond milk and ice, sometimes adding other stuff, but you can do water, skim milk, different juices, etc. I surprise even myself that I can drink it nearly every day and not get sick of it. It must have been all those years of searching. I actually get a little case of the DTs when I skip it, which makes me wonder if there's something suspicious in it.

I'm kidding of course. It does contain an ingredient called camu camu which, when I had camu camu once like a tea at a party, everyone who drank it got all giddy and giggly. It was hilarious.

So anyway, I dig it.