This is my 2nd time doing this awesome cleanse! Day 1 was yesterday and went really well. My starting weight this time is 195lbs. Got my shakes, fruits, and salad in. Lots of water. Felt pretty good. Energy was low thru the day but I felt great after I had the salad. I was hungry at times but everything was pretty manageable. Woke up this morning and was 193lbs. 2lb weightloss so far, not bad:) My main purpose for doing this is to get rid of the belly bloat and clean my insides of all the JUNK I’ve eaten the past week!

The Shakeology Cleanse is a 3 day cleanse using Beachbodys’ health shake, Shakeology. This is a performance-oriented system designed to support hard training. It’s not the Master Cleanse. The goal is to promote flushing junk from your system and regulating hydration levels. It’s calorically restricted to be sure. But in its 1500 or so calories will be more nutrients than most people get by eating well over twice that amount. The key is caloric efficiency; getting the most nutrients possible out of the fewest number of calories.

This is an excellent way to jump start your weightloss/fitness and get rid of the extra belly bloat! The first time I did this cleanse I lost 6lbs and 1.5 inches off the stomach.

Shakeology Cleanse Overview

-3 Shakes per day (Water and Shakeology Only)

-2 Fruits as Snacks

-1 Salad with lots of veggies, 4oz of protein, and 2 tbs of an olive oil dressing

*Lots and lots of water! I recommend a gallon per day which is 128oz

My Experience with The Cleanse

Day 1 was definitely the hardest for me. My body was so adapted to a 2000 calorie diet, so when I got on the cleanse, those calories were cut in half! I was hungry ALL day and had little energy. I woke up the morning of day 2 and had already lost 4 pounds though:)

Day 2 was a bit easier. The hunger was manageable and had more energy. I was at the beach and casino all day with family so my biggest struggle was TEMPTATIONS!! I did fight them all off and stuck 110% with the cleanse!

Day 3 was the easiest day for me. My body was now adapted to the calorie intake and I had much more energy. The hunger pains were very manageable and I felt great! By now, the biggest change that I saw was in my midsection/core. Everything felt tighter and HEALTHIER:) On the morning of day 4 I took my final weight. I went from 197lbs to 191lbs. Amazing experience, definitely a challenge, and something I recommend EVERYONE needs to do atleast once!

We all know that water is good for us, but often the reasons are a little fuzzy. And even if we know why we should drink water, it’s not a habit that many people form. But there are some very powerful reasons to drink lots of water every day, and forming the habit isn’t hard, with a little focus.

The thing about it is, we don’t often focus on this habit. We end up drinking coffee, and lots of soda, and alcohol, not to mention fruit juices and teas and milk and a bunch of other possibilities. Or just as often, we don’t drink enough fluids, and we become dehydrated — and that isn’t good for our health.

I’ve made drinking water a daily habit, although I will admit that a couple of years ago I was more likely to drink anything but water. Now I don’t drink anything but water, except for a cup of coffee in the morning and once in awhile a beer with dinner. I love it.

Here are 9 powerful reasons to drink water (with tips on how to form the water habit afterwards):

1. Weight loss. Water is one of the best tools for weight loss, first of all because it often replaces high-calorie drinks like soda and juice and alcohol with a drink that doesn’t have any calories. But it’s also a great appetite suppressant, and often when we think we’re hungry, we’re actually just thirsty. Water has no fat, no calories, no carbs, no sugar. Drink plenty to help your weight-loss regimen.
2. Heart healthy. Drinking a good amount of water could lower your risks of a heart attack. A six-year study published in the May 1, 2002 American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack during the study period than those who drank less than two glasses.
3. Energy. Being dehydrated can sap your energy and make you feel tired — even mild dehydration of as little as 1 or 2 percent of your body weight. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated — and this can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and other symptoms.
4. Headache cure. Another symptom of dehydration is headaches. In fact, often when we have headaches it’s simply a matter of not drinking enough water. There are lots of other causes of headaches of course, but dehydration is a common one.
5. Healthy skin. Drinking water can clear up your skin and people often report a healthy glow after drinking water. It won’t happen overnight, of course, but just a week of drinking a healthy amount of water can have good effects on your skin.
6. Digestive problems. Our digestive systems need a good amount of water to digest food properly. Often water can help cure stomach acid problems, and water along with fiber can cure constipation (often a result of dehydration).
7. Cleansing. Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body.
8. Cancer risk. Related to the digestive system item above, drinking a healthy amount of water has also been found to reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45%. Drinking lots of water can also reduce the risk of bladder cancer by 50% and potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer.
9. Better exercise. Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.

How to form the water habit

So you’re convinced that water is healthier, but you’d like to know more about how to make drinking water a daily habit.

Here are some tips that have helped me:

• How much water? This is a debatable question. What’s clear is that the old recommendation of “eight 8-ounce glasses a day” isn’t right, for several reasons: that amount includes all dietary water intake, including food and non-water beverages; it also ignores a person’s body weight, which is an important factor in figuring the amount; it also varies if you are sick or exercise. It’s also not good to just drink when you’re thirsty — you’re already dehydrated by then. Best is to form a routine: drink a glass when you wake up, a glass with each meal, a glass in between meals, and be sure to drink before, during and after exercise. Try to generally keep yourself from getting thirsty.
• Carry a bottle. A lot of people find it useful to get a big plastic drinking bottle, fill it with water, and carry it around with them all day. I like to keep a glass of water at my desk, and I drink from it all day long. When it’s empty, I fill it up again, and keep drinking.
• Set a reminder. Set your watch to beep at the top of each hour, or set a periodic computer reminder, so that you don’t forget to drink water.
• Substitute water. If you would normally get a soda, or an alcoholic beverage, get a glass of water instead. Try sparkling water instead of alcohol at social functions.
• Filter. Instead of spending a fortune on bottled water, invest in a filter for your home faucet. It’ll make tap water taste like bottled, at a fraction of the price.
• Exercise. Exercising can help make you want to drink water more. It’s not necessary to drink sports drinks like Gatorade when you exercise, unless you are doing it for more than an hour. Just drink water. If you’re going to exercise, be sure to drink water a couple hours ahead of time, so that it will get through your system in time, and again, drink during and after exercise as well.

The word “diet” tends to scare most people. Being on a clean deit is nothing to be ashamed of! It just shows that you are taking action and being disciplined. Along with a clean diet, exercise is going to be the best way to accomplish your weightloss goals! These are a few tips that will help with keeping a clean diet, losing a few pounds, and staying accountable.

What is a “Clean” diet?

A clean diet basically means that anything you eat is a healthy food. No burgers, pizza, junk food, sodas, etc. Basically, if you know its bad for you, don’t eat it. A clean diet consists of fruits, veggies, lean protein, whole wheat/grains, and healthy fats(omega 3′s).

Water, Water, Water!

I can’t stress enough the importance of water. On a typical day, our body will require about 8 glasses of water to maintain healthy weightloss, heatlhy skin, proper digestion, as well as increase energy. For those who are very active with either their job or exercise routine, the demand for water is increased. This is when I would recommend anywhere from 10-15 glasses per day.

Cheat!

Yes, thats right, cheat! We all have those cravings and foods that are extremely hard to let go. A cheat day once a week is going to help curve those cravings as well as boost metabolism. When you feed your body something that isn’t normally in your diet, that causes your body to work harder to digest the food or “cheat meal” which causes that spike in metabolism.

Stay Accountable

This is a VERY important part of living a healthy/active lifestyle. We all hit a point where we lose motivation and fall off track. This is more likely to happen when you don’t have a way to stay accountable! Simple ways to help this is by sharing with everyone that you are on a diet, that you are trying to make changes in your body. This will be effective when people start to ask “Hey how is that diet going?”. That is going to help keep you more consistent and on track with the diet/exercise routines. Another great way to be held more accountable is to have someone do the diet/exercise with you! Having a “Success Partner” is going to be a fun and effective way to ensure you are doing your best to stay on track.

Maintain!

This is the most important part about any diet/exercise routine! Once you have lost the weight and gotten to feel happy and confident with the way your body looks, it’s time to keep the weight off! To be able to maintain your current weight, you need to know how certain foods effect your body. Keeping track of caloric intake is a fantastic way to know what number to stick with in order to stay at the current weight. If you get to the point where you would like to lose more, you simply increase the exercising or decrease the calories each day.