Shakeology?

The study of shaking something... just kidding. It's the 'Healthiest Meal of the Day." I have to drink Shakeology everyday as being part of the challenge group. I've seen Amber and her kids drink it but I won't lie - I was never tempted by it's looks while at her house. She had the Tropical Strawberry but I decided to try out the new Vegan Chocolate one instead. I've never been a big fan of strawberry flavored things (though I love the actual fruit). Last summer I had bought a case of Premier Protein shakes from Costco and finally used them up last month. I usually drank them if I had no time to eat something or right after playing a sport. I don't eat a lot of meat so I thought this would be a good way to get more protein in my diet. Anyway, point is - I knew that Chocolate protein shakes never actually taste like chocolate. So I mentally prepared myself for the arrival of Shakeology.

First off, I'd like to point out that Shakeology is not like your average protein shake - in fact, it is much much more. I don't even call it a protein shake, it's jammed pack with super-foods  antioxidants, and so on. Anyway, you should check it out if your interested, I've enjoyed it so far, but lets get back to my experience.

My Shakeology came in the mail a few days before I started the challenge group. I decided to go ahead and start drinking it. As a newbie, I simply put a scoop of Shakeology into a Blender Bottle with a cup of Almond Milk and shook. Only, I did not shake it very long. My first initial response: gag me! It was difficult to swallow the rest, but I did. The texture felt like fish food floating around in Almond Milk. I was prepared for this, but I still had about 93 days left of drinking this. Oh boy - there has got to be a better way to prepare this stuff!

I went to the Shakeology website and found lots of recipes for adding ingredients to your shake. Perfect. I decided to try something different everyday till I found one I really liked. Well...after day two, I decided to take Amber's advice and use a blender with ice. Fortunately one of my roommates had a magic bullet, so I poured the Almond milk and added my scoop of Shakeology and added ice. Blended for awhile and tried it out. Big Difference! Was not expecting such a change. The ice made it more smooth and creamy. Bending it with an actual blender and for longer extent of time then my original plan of hand shaking, made the taste so much better. I actually enjoyed drinking it. No gag reflexes at all! It's funny how simple it is to make things more enjoyable!

So, by day two of challenge group I was ready to add some extra ingredients. My first choice - mint extract. So, the recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon of mint extract combined with 1 cup of water, but I used Almond Milk instead. I was worried this make a difference with taste, but I should of been worrying about my measuring skills. I am pretty sure I used 1/4 teaspoon instead of the 1/8.... Overload of Mint! One sip and I thought I was going to die. I felt like I was drinking the mint extract straight out of it's bottle! I knew that I hade made an error, cause there was no way they would recommend that much mint - that can't be good for anyone! I told myself I would have to bare it and drink the rest...only made it half way. Poured the rest down the sink and rushed to rinse my mouth out. Later that day I made half a scoop of regular Shaekology - no mint. Word of advise - make sure you read your measuring spoons before adding!

Workout for the day: Total Body. Difficulty level for me: semi-hard. Okay, it's only for 10 minutes but I had to use the red resistant bands and most of the moves were okay but when it came to lifting my arms behind my head... well, let's just day embarrassing! But I guess I have to start at some level, can't be great at working out from the start. Got a bit more muscle to build! Hey - that's why I will keep Pushing Play and Moving Forward!