The Nitty Gritty on the Shakeology Cleanse (and why it rocks my socks and I can't wait to start it again)

I know I talked about the Shakeology cleanse before but I felt like that was more personal experience than actually explaining the hows and whys. Since I just got home from spending four days in a college dorm again (supervising 21 high school cheerleaders - when did I become the grown up?) and eating in a college cafeteria I am so ready to cleanse again. The last time I committed to this it really helped me get back on track quick after a long weekend trip of indulgences. I was able to quit sugar (which has slowly creeped back into my life again) and just really get back into eating clean and working out daily without really skipping a beat. In the past I have had to force myself to get back into the disciplined schedule I have been keeping. With the cleanse, it kind of just happened naturally. I didn't force myself to workout since my calories were restricted but the second and the third day I felt the want and the need to workout. My energy was there. I was waking up feeling awesome and ready to rock the day (and I had just started TurboFire and was super excited about the new workouts.)



So here is more behind the cleanse and why it worked for me --

It isn't a cleanse in the traditional sense

When I think of a cleanse, two things pop into my head. Spending days in the bathroom unable to do anything else or walking around sipping a concoction made from lemon juice, maple syrup, hot sauce and water and trying really hard not to eat for as many days possible. Neither, in my mind, sound like anything I want to sign up for. 

The Shakeology cleanse is different in the fact that the goal is not calorie restriction as much as it is getting the most nutrients for the least amount of calories. So think of it as getting the most bang for your buck in terms of nutrients and what your body needs. And then putting all of those calories to use in your exercise program. The other two goals of the cleanse are to rid the body of undigested food and toxins and hydrate your body to homeostatis. (http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-homeostasis.htm)

 How it Works

So if you have been clean eating and doing 5-6 small meals throughout the course of the day, your eating  structure doesn't change much. And again keeping the nutrients up is key - you still want to be able to exercise and function in your normal day to day routine.  

Making your shakes without added fruits is what is recommended - but if you are exercising and need the calories add fruit to your shake. (I do the vegan protein and it is more gritty than whey protein since it is made from brown rice & pea protein. I love adding 1/2 a banana to counter the grittiness. When I did the cleanse the first time, I continued to do this. I also needed the calories since I was doing a moderate to intense workout daily with Turbofire. Now the texture of my shake has become less of an issue and I can omit the banana. 40-60 calories at this point isn't going to be an issue. Do what you have to do.)

The salad -- which will be the best salad you have ever had in your entire life every night of this cleanse -- can also be modified if your body is telling you it can't function on what you are giving it. For example, I don't really eat meat. I can do fish occasionally but chicken makes me gag (it's a personal problem.) So one night I did a roasted portobello mushroom on top of my salad. The meaty-ness of the hot mushroom left me totally satiated but to make sure I was getting the calories and the good fat that comes with meat (even lean white meat) I added 1/4 of an avocado to my salad. I didn't follow the rules exactly (since I am not a meat lover) so I adapted it to work FOR ME. (And that is one of the things I love about this cleanse - you can adapt it to work for you and you still get awesome results.)

The day above is just that, a sample! I found it worked better for me to have fruit for breakfast with my green tea. I had my first shake after my workout. It kept me from getting headache-y. I have read blogs where the salad for lunch instead of dinner has really helped people who have a long day. Don't be afraid to play with it if it isn't working for you. 

A Word About Exercise

Exercise while being able to keep up with your "normal" day is the goal for this cleanse - however, light to moderate exercise is recommended. If you are doing an intense exercise program such as P90x or Insanity it is best to plan the cleanse for your recovery week. If you are exercising in the moderate to high level, you may need to add fruit to your shakes or seeds to your salad. Listening to your body and what it needs is super important! 

Other Liquids and What to Drink

Water - and lots of it. This is really important (especially when you think about one of the points of doing this being hydrated.) Drinking more water helps eliminate water retention (which sounds counter productive but it's not!) There are many different opinions on how much water we should aim for daily. I shoot for 1/2 my body weight in ounces and if I fall a little short (which I do a lot) I am still in pretty good shape. 

The cleanse calls for green tea (not coffee...ugh I know!) but the goal of the cleanse is being able to perform your daily routine and your exercise program so if you need a cup of coffee to get up and go - do it. (Just skip the cream and sugar!) You know what you need. If you are going to suffer from headaches all day if you skip your coffee, don't do it. Or if you are preparing to cleanse, start to cut back on the java little by little. Or try black tea - it still has caffeine (and can be easier to drink without cream and sugar.) Plus it can be easier on your tummy. 

And that's all folks. No pop, sugary drinks, sweet tea, vitamin water - nada. That stuff all has chemicals and the name of the game is to eliminate chemicals. 

Weight Loss

Drumroll please....what everyone want so hear about - the weight loss. Almost everyone loses weight with the cleanse. But the amount varies based on a few things. Those of us who eat fairly well and stay hydrated will lose less than those who have a lot to flush out of their system. (Which is one of the reasons I like to do the cleanse after a period of over indulgence, it gets me back on track.) It also sets up your system to use nutrition more efficiently so you are improving your ability to lose weight. The first time I did the cleanse I lost 3.8 pounds. I think I ended the cleanse on a Wednesday. Over the course of the weekend I lost another 5 pounds - so that whole setting your body up thing. Totally true. And unlike other crazy cleanses and diets (think cabbage soup or something like that) it never came back. I was able to stay off sugar and continue to lose until the beginning of this month. (Plateaus suck!) I would call that a rockin' success. 

So weight loss varies - welcome to life. Even if you don't lose weight, I can guarantee that you will feel awesome and your cravings will be pretty much gone. And remember the goal of the cleanse isn't weight loss (even though that is what most of us want) but nutrition and hydration (and feeling awesome!) 

So those are the details behind the Shakeology cleanse (and everything I neglected to talk about the first time I did the cleanse.) I have cleanse kits available (to order one check out the drop down buttons on the right.) If you have any questions or are interested in giving it a shot message me or leave a comment below. 

The Shakeo Cleanse (and how I kept my inner fat kid out of the candy jar for 3 days)

We traveled. Across the country. And we hooked up with a bunch of family and friends. It was awesome. And filled with lots of food and beers. So after a big old five day party and back to my temporary Pacific Northwest (West Coast sounds so much more glamourous and warm than it really is) residence, this Pittsburgh girl felt like poo. I was tired and bloated and gross from the air travel, the airport food, and all the eating out we did when we were "visiting" our real home and the beer thirty celebrations. So I woke up to a pretty empty fridge and decided to just do it and try the three day Shakeology cleanse.

I have been drinking Shakeology as a meal replacement for about two months now and I dig it. It has done right by me in ways other protein powders and meal replacements have not (think along the lines of helping a lot of my stomach problems.) To do the cleanse, two meals are replaced by Shakeology, for three days. Plus, one of my big time goals is to quit refined sugar. (And keep my fat girl hands out of the candy jar.) I was hoping *fingers crossed* that this would be a great way to get me started on that so hard it makes me want to cry challenging path.

So the layout is this:

2-3 shakes a day made with water and 1/2 cup fruit (this is optional) and ice (as much as you want. Go crazy here folks, cause the unlimited anything is hard to find during the three days).

2 pieces of fruit a day as snacks in between your shakes

Tons and tons of water (again. Be wild. Go crazy. Drink 100 oz of water. Whatever you need to do.)

A big old salad (ok a salad with 3 servings of veggies and a 4 oz serving of protein. Yay protein!)

As I perused the internet I found this cleanse as a 3 day and a 5 day and with 2 shakes a day and with 3 shakes a day. Since I started day one with the 2 shakes/2 fruits for 3 days mindset, that is what I stuck to. If you want to try out something different. Rock it and let me know how it worked. (Because seriously by the time it was over I was ready to stab someone for a piece of bread.)


Below are my day by day frustrations challenges and successes. Go me!

Day One:

Since I am not rushing out the door at the crack of dawn as much as I am running up and down stairs, taking out dog 1, feeding dog 2, feeding dog 1, taking out dog 2, getting B her milk and breakfast, making coffee and taking care of yucky household stuff such as emptying the dishwasher (it is so easy and mindless but I really have a deep seeded hate for this chore.) I like to eat a non-liquid breakfast. It might be an indulgence, since it was something I loved doing on the weekends when I was working M-F, but it is what I do. Plus I dig my coffee and adding a shake to that makes it way too much liquid for me at once. Either my coffee is too cold by the time I am done with my shake or my shake is too warm by the time I am done with my coffee. I just can't find a good balance. My shake usually finds its happy spot as my mid morning snack.

Today, I am jet lagged from traveling over the holiday weekend and crossing time zones for just long enough to get adjusted only to leave again. I cheated and had one (giant mug) of coffee this morning instead of tea. I also had my snack (an apple which B ate probably half of) for breakfast and my shake as my morning snack. This is the first time I used water and not almond milk. Although I did put in 4 frozen strawberries and a ton of ice. It tastes more like a fruit sorbet freezy drink than my normal shake. Which I kind of like. I was dreading using water and afraid the grassy grainy taste (all I could taste the first week I started using Shakeology) would be overpowering again. But it is tasty.

I started counting down to my one real meal (a salad) at around lunchtime. I had my strawberries and found myself watching the clock. Trying to time my next shake to last me to dinner and counting down until when I could have that and my salad. I was hungry and headache-y. I don't know if it was from just the cleanse or from being jet lagged too.

My salad was pretty much the best salad ever. I marinated some tofu and dumped it on top. (I didn't really know how to measure 4 oz of tofu so I kind of guessed based on hand size portioning.) I also probably wasn't allowed the avocado I put on there or the sunflower seeds. But if the only thing I am allowed is a salad, I am having a rockin' salad. I topped it off with some yummy ginger dressing. Yum!

I did cheat a little and shove a banana in my face around 8 o'clock. It could've been a lot worse. Evening time after we put B to bed is my witching hour and when I am most likely to cave and have a big old hunk of chocolate.

Day Two:

Down 2.2 pounds! Whoot! Now I know most of this was probably water from flying etc. (flying always makes me puffy) but I feel better. Less bloated and gross. More "back to normal" and a lot better than yesterday. I have some energy this morning. I didn't have to drag myself out of bed (even though B climbed into our bed sometime in the middle of the night. At one point I found myself clinging to the mattress for dear life. Why do the smallest kids take up the most space. Baby starfish.)

But I was able to do a Turbo Fire workout (yay! I seriously am obsessed with this program.) Since I haven't officially started to follow the schedule yet I just did the 30 minute Fire and the 20 minute Core dvd's (the core dvd is kind of awesome!) I eagerly awaited all my shakes and snacks (like a crazy person pacing in the kitchen watching the clock on the stove) but feel so much better than yesterday until about late afternoon. By then I was tired, something I didn't experience on Day one so much. Maybe it was the workout that did me in? (Light exercise is recommended but since Turbofire is high energy dancy kickboxing fun-ness it may have been the culprit.) But I was hungry all afternoon and evening. (I may have cheated and had some air popped popcorn but I ate it plain so it was like 30 calories. And it kind of gave me that feeling that I cheated and was bad without really doing anything crazy--like taking a bag of M & M's to the face.)

My salad was awesome! (But I do feel like any "real" meal I get to eat at this point would be, in fact, the most awesome tastiest meal ever so I may be a little biased. You have been warned.) I roasted up a big old portobello mushroom cap stuffed with the leftover most amazing to-feta ever (the recipe for it is here) and it rocked. That to-feta is amazing hot. And again with the avocado but I had the willpower to skip the seeds tonight. It might have been the big old hot steaming mushroom just wilting the lettuce right that made it look just right without too many add ons. And the steamy juicy goodness dribbled all over the leaves (mainly from the marinated tofu. I didn't add anything extra to the mushroom) so I used minimal dressing. The dressing was a tart and tangy (no sugar added! And no fake sugar -- no cheating with any of those chemical laden gems in this house) berry vinaigrette. Great stuff.

No cheating after dinner either. I kind of had a headache despite the 6 giant Camelback water bottles full of water I drank so I curled up in bed early. (and by early I mean I passed the reigns onto my hubby and went to bed before my two-year-old.)

Day Three:

I woke up and eagerly jumped on the scale. And it was the same. Not much for a motivator there but I knew I wanted to write about this mini cleanse that everyone loves to hate so I plodded along. I savored my banana breakfast and felt good enough to work out again. So I rocked some Turbofire goodness. (I shot for the 45 minute class and rocked it. The music is so good I could feel like a zombie and it would still light a fire under my ass! love.) Day Three was pretty similar to Day Two. I felt good all morning and then around mid afternoon (I call this my witching hour because all I ever want to do is snack) I started to get really hungry and tired. And again cheated with the air popped popcorn (plain, I swear!) 

And I made this super crazy good Tilapia for protein on top of my salad. Now it was breaded (healthfully breaded) but that probably wasn't allowed either. But it was seriously fantastic. And I was craving something hot and crunchy and this fit the bill perfectly. I am now obsessed with this recipe (read about that here.) I can't wait to make it again. I still added my avocado and some strawberries to change it up a bit. I used the same ginger dressing as I did the first day. 

I went to bed early again. Not quite as early as Day Two (I at least waited until B was in bed this time!) and I laid there are read for a while. No headache tonight either which was good.

Day Four:

Okay so there is no Day Four unless you are following the Five Day Cleanse if there is such a thing. (Sometimes the internet has too much information and it is too easy for everyone to post whatever.)

But for me today was RESULTS DAY! Eeeek! and I was down another 1.6 lbs! Yay! So for me on this cleanse it meant I lost a total of 3.8 lbs. Throw me a parade! And I know most of it was guck I accumulated from travel and that it wasn't real true weight (fat) loss but it put me back where I was before I had my mini vaca -- and then some. In reality, this was the goal. 

I also really felt like it got me back on track much faster than I have ever gotten back on track after traveling in the past. It is hard to get my taste buds away from craving cake and fatty foods even though my body was screaming for salads. Even John was happy with the lighter fare for dinner each night. (Yes I made him eat the same thing. We live by the if you don't like it make your own dinner rule around here.) 

Amazingly enough doing this cleanse has also helped me with my own personal sugar war. I have always had a crazy bad sweet tooth and when my friend Katy told me that Shakeology helped her with cravings I kind of blew her off. I mean, what a sales pitch. It really makes it sound like a gimick or some get skinny fast nonsense. I was already sold on trying Shakeology based on my own research so she really didn't need to try that hard. After almost two months of one a day Shakeo, I did notice that I wasn't thinking about the leftover chocolate buried in the back of the cupboard (where I would have to work really hard to get it) quite so often. There were days and times that I did and I had to fight those urges off (or drag a chair over the baby gate and remove all the pots and pans to reach it.) But after this

two a day Shakeo stuff, I honestly have very little desire for anything crazy and sugary. I also feel like if there was a giant piece of cake with that really good icing (you know the kind I am talking about) I wouldn't have to sit on my hands to keep from shoving the entire thing in my face. Progress! Hooray! 

I am not making any promises that I can keep from eating cake but June is kicking off my 30 days of no  refined added sugar (meaning fruit is still okay and in small amounts so is honey and pure maple syrup--these are my own personal rules for no reason other than I don't want be a sugar addict anymore.) I am really feeling like this may have gotten me off to the right start. Here's to the next 29 days! 

**If you are interested in Shakeology or have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! Message me on Facebook or leave a comment below.