Gooooooood morning! How is everyone’s Friday? It is bright and sunny here in the Nation’s capitol and I am having a fantastic day so far. Tonight I have plans to go watch the Nationals game with a bunch of friends so it should be a great time! I don’t know yet what I’m doing tomorrow for Cinco de Mayo, but hopefully something fun!
For casual Friday today at work I chose a dress since it’s supposed to be up to 90 degrees today. Phew!
Dress: Forever 21
Cardigan: Norstrom
Shoes: Urban Outfitters (same ones as last week)
Belt: Store in NYC called Necessary Clothing
Today’s photo was shot in the kitchen where the sun was shining instead of the usual bedroom which is darker. This was because Fabio went into work late today and was willing to snap a picture for me! What a guy haha. Please disregard Jack’s food bowls, the mismatching hand towels, and the broom & mop in the corner that didn’t get put away correctly. Oops!
Because Fabio was home when I left, this is the site I saw when I walked outside:
Fabio and Jack waving from the window! It’s kind of hard to see them through the screen, especially Jack since he’s black, but you get the idea. It was cute watching them see me off to work.
For breakfast today I had the usual Friday treat…a scooped out whole wheat bagel with veggie cream cheese!
It’s so delicious every time. Yum!
Shakeology
Speaking of breakfasts, I wanted to talk with you guys about a new meal replacement shake that I had for breakfast one day this week. It’s called Shakeology and is sold by Beach Body, the company that makes my favorite Insanity DVDs and the 10 Minute Trainer DVDs I recently bought. It came for “free” with my DVD package which means I can basically try out this sample but then I have to mail the leftovers back if I don’t want to get charged, even if the bag is empty (dumb). Anyway, I’ve dealt with deals like this before and it’s actually not a bad way to test out a product before buying it. I had heard about Shakeology before from the ads at the end of my Insanity DVDs, but never felt like signing up to try it out. Free sample? Well don’t mind if I do…
The way shake diets work is similar to how the Special K Challenge or Slim Fast works, you are supposed to replace 2 meals a day with the shake (or cereal for Special K) and then watch the weight drop off. They generally work in my experience because you are cutting a lot of calories from your diet. The hard part is getting the right nutrients and staying with the plan, because let’s be honest, does anyone want to replace 2 meals a day with a shake for the rest of their lives?? I think not.
Here’s what the package looked like and what some of the ingredients included:
While I recognized some of those ingredients and knew they were pretty beneficial for my health, I wanted to do some further research so I looked around online. I found a very thorough ingredient analysis here and also found some helpful third-party reviews here.
Source: http://supplement-geek.com/shakeology-review/
After reading these reviews I determined the Shakeology had some really great ingredients and didn’t include anything too controversial, except some added sugar for taste. So, when we ran out of cereal the other morning I decided to try it out!
I mixed 2 scoops of the shakeology powder with about 1 cup of water into my water bottle and shook everything up.
Then it was time to drink!
I used to drink meal replacement shakes all the time when I was on the Isagenix diet, as I mentioned in my weight loss story, so I am pretty used to drinking these types of shakes. They taste like really chocolatey chocolate milk with a thicker consistency.
I thought it tasted pretty good and it kept me full all the way up until lunch time!
I will say that after having been on a shake diet before, I learned that while I did lose weight, I get very bored and wind up missing my favorite foods. I don’t think I’ll use Shakeology as a daily routine, but it will be nice to keep on hand for those mornings where I don’t have time to make breakfast or would just rather have a more simple option (at least until I have to send it back. Womp).
Anyway, I’m curious what you guys think about shake diets. Ever tried one? How successful were you? Did you miss bagels?
Have a great Friday and Cinco de Mayo weekend!
