Shakeology?

Overpriced junk. Just focus on calorie deficit for weight loss and pick an exercise you enjoy for fitness.

This exactly! It's the only thing that works!

Haha! :flowerforyou: Here's a great read. One of the first things I read when I started last year:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

I tried it for a week - it tastes pretty horrible. I don't know how they manage to make it look like it tastes so amazing, but it doesn't.

However, I did notice that my random cravings in the afternoon were totally gone. This is something I noticed doesn't occur with other types of shakes. Pretty awesome. If the shakes didn't taste so gross, I'd probably still be buying them. :drinker:

Eat healthy and exercise. There is no magic pill or shake! And if you do it natural, you will more likely have long term success!

Don't bother!

Why anyone would want to substitute real food for overpriced processed shakes is beyond me...

Just NO.

Its just an overpriced quick fix that you will gain back the weight from as soon as you eat properly - and you will as there is no way you can stomach or afford to shakeology for the rest of your life!

I'm trying to get rid of my supply (due to medical reasons I can't drink it)... If you want to try it, PM me NO PRICE! I'm NOT selling or endorsing this stuff!

I think my biggest issue with methods like Shakeology is that you're not going to drink them for the rest of your life, so you're missing out on a chance to build a healthy relationship with food that's going to help you maintain.

If you're thinking of doing it to up your protein or something, make your own smoothies; it gives you power over the ingredients and you can either get protein from natural sources, or add powder. And I guarantee you that while I haven't tried shakeology, home-made will taste better.

For me, eliminating most of the processed sugar from my diet got rid of cravings. I didn't need some expensive BS shake product. And honestly, how can buying into that program teach you healthy sustainable eating in the long run? What happens when you can't afford it one month? Please forgive my cynicism, I have a Facebook friend who is constantly hawking this stuff. I've done it like so many others on here - exercise and eat at a deficit. Guess what? It works, no gimmicks necessary.

There are so many people hating on Shakeology, and I value the opinion of the masses within reason, that I refused to try it for the longest time. My goal for Shakeology wasn't weight loss, per se, but adequate energy and vitamins/nutrients for my workout load. The reality is that weight loss means calories in < calories out. Shakeology is NOT a magic weight loss drink wherein you'll just shed the pounds. However, getting adequate nutrition can be an expensive and time consuming task for shopping and cooking and putting together and I was looking for a simpler way to get what I wanted.

I ended up purchasing the "sampler" of Shakeology--one of each flavor: Greenberry, Strawberry (not the vegan kind), Chocolate (also not the vegan kind), and Vanilla. Let me clarify that I'm neither a BB coach nor do I necessarily endorse Shakeology. This is just my experience with it.

While Shakeology by no means helped the "price" problem of healthy/nutrient rich food (it is ridiculously expensive), it did come through on simplicity. I had read horrible reviews on the taste as well, and I can only assume people were drinking the powder with milk and/or water alone. Yes, if you do that, I bet it would taste terrible. It's a protein powder for crying out loud. I used four different recipes for each flavor (I'll copy the links to them below) and I LOVED 3 out of the 4 of them. The chocolate Shakeology recipe was merely alright--certainly drinkable, but I'm not a big chocolate fan to begin with, so I knew I wasn't going to be head over heels for any recipe using the Chocolate Shakeology.

I absolutely had more energy throughout the day. I do my workouts after I get off work, in the evenings before I make dinner for my fiance. For several weeks, as I upped my workout regime to 6 times/week, I was finding I was exhausted when I got home and couldn't muster the energy for a high intensity workout. All 4 days on Shakeology (and the days in between even, as I didn't drink it 4 days straight) I had great energy throughout the day. Because the recipes I used made thicker, higher volume shakes I also didn't find myself needing a snack mid-morning as I was still working on the last 25% of my Shakeology at 10:30am when my snack craving usually hits.

Overall, if you have the money to throw around and are looking for a quick, simple, energy-providing shake that tastes great (I seriously don't know what these other people are talking about when they say it tastes terrible--it tastes a hundred times better than your average Wal Mart protein powder) then Shakeology isn't a bad option. HOWEVER, to be completely transparent, I don't think I plan on making the plunge and ordering a full bag for several reasons:


1. Price; the cost is just ridiculous. Get over yourself, Beach Body. I know you tout "high quality ingredients" and blah blah blah, but seriously. $130 a bag? Just nope.

2. You can't mix and match your flavors easily. This is actually the BIGGEST reason I'm not going to get on the Shakeology bandwagon. You can rotate flavors monthly, but to me that kind of defeats the purpose. I don't want a vanilla shake for a month, then a greenberry shake for a month. I want to rotate them daily, or weekly, or whenever I feel like it. They have no combo option where you can order a box containing 10 packets of 3 different flavors to last you a month, or something similar. If they did have this option, I actually might bite the bullet and get on board with Shakeology for the duration of my high intensity workout weeks (I'm doing 6 workouts/week until my wedding in a few months, then plan on dropping to 3-4 workouts/week to maintain fitness).

So, in summary, what I think of Shakeology:

Pros:
Taste (the recipes I used are just the tip of the iceberg and all of them were delicious)
Energy level
Vitamins/nutrients provided
Quantity of each shake (sipped/spoon ate through them all morning, didn't need mid-morning snack)

Cons:
Price (HUGE con)
Availability (can only purchase through BB or on Ebay, which I don't trust)
Inability to easily mix and match flavors

Hope this helped someone along the way!

Recipes:
Mint Monster (Greenberry Shakeology, my favorite recipe [I replaced peanut butter with almond butter]) http://www.stronglifelove.com/2012/09/oh-so-good-greenberry-recipe-shakeology.html

Gingerbread Man (Chocolate Shakeology, wasn't in love with this one but then again I'm not big on chocolate anything!) http://melaniemitro.blogspot.com/2014/01/week-2-p90x3-meal-plan-and-progress.html

Strawberry Oats (Strawberry Shakeology)
http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/recipe/-/rcp/355782862/all/182/50

Vanilla Cherry Almond (Vanilla Shakeology, my second favorite recipe! It says peaches and cream but I realized I didn't have peaches, so I swapped the frozen peaches for dark sweet frozen cherries and replaced the lemon juice with a bit of almond extract and a handful of slviered almonds, SOOO good)
http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/recipe/-/rcp/296422767/all/0/5/?tracking=SOCIAL_SK_PI