Why did I choose Shakeology?

Why I choose Shakeology over ALL of the other brands out there

A great analogy heard the other day was about a your body as a race car :) It went something like "Would you put low grade fuel into your race car? And if you did how would it run? It will only do so much right! It won't run at it's peak performance. BUT if you fuel your race car with high octane fuel it's going to run a WHOLE lot better!"

Before I invested into Shakeology I had looked at other meal replacement shakes, protein shakes, weight loss shakes, "magic" pills. I was definitely NOT a shake person! I was looking for something that could be a quick easy breakfast for me. Early mornings rushing around to get out the door had me always, always skipping breakfast. By skipping my breakfast I would get to work and then be starving around break and go grab something quick from the food court... usually a big double chocolate chip muffin or a bagel loaded with cream cheese. So not only was I starving myself I was fueling up with the wrong foods. By doing this to myself each day I was in constant starvation mode. My body kept holding onto what ever kind of nutrition it could to sustain me and in turn I was drinking a TON of coffee and pop to keep my energy up.

After reading a little into it I decided to give it a try for 30 days and see if anything changed for me. Plus the bottom of the bag guarantee was there too so in the event that I found no difference I could return it empty and still get my money back. Really what was there to lose? I bit the bullet and decided to order it along with a program because the savings were just too good to pass up, and in the event I didn't like the program or the shake I would send it back (as I had done in the past with other at home stuff...).

The first time I tried it I was surprised that it wasn't absolutely disgusting. With the amount of whole food ingredients that are in it I prepared myself for the worst tasting salad with a chalky aftertaste I could dream up. That wasn't the case at all! I mixed it up in the blender with half of a banana (I didn't like bananas!), a tsp of peanut butter, water and ice, took me all of 3 minutes! It was different of course but it kept me satisfied right up to almost lunch!

What I really noticed after a few days was the increase in energy I had. I wasn't dragging myself from home to work, work to home, getting things prepared for the kids. ALSO, I majorly cut down on my coffee intake to 1 a day and NO POP. My cravings for junk food, chocolate bars, chips, chip dip, fast food, started to go away. My body started to preform the way it was designed to. That was a major for me.

Once I noticed all of this I started to look into it a little more, and so did my husband. We looked into the others out there on the market at that time and tried to compare it to this. The way this is formulated with all of the whole food ingredients and no artificial flavours, no artificial sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup, no soy, no fillers, it just isn't comparable to anything out there right now.

I am so grateful that there is something on the market that I am not scared to ingest into my body, my husband feels good about putting into his and we both are comfortable letting our children have it as well.

This is not a weight loss shake, it does however help fuel your body with proper whole food nutrition to help you feel better, give you energy, makes your body run a lot more efficiently and in turn weight loss will be a byproduct of your exercise and proper nutrition.

This has been a constant in my life and my families lives for almost 3 years now! I don't take this for weight loss, I take this because I want to be healthier. I want my family to be healthy, I want my friends to be healthy. We all deserve to live the best life we can and a healthy life will help you live a long one <3

~ Mandy

Love Yourself More

So many people have resolutions each year and so many let them go after February. Instead of the common resolutions of losing weight, getting organized, paying down debt, saving money, taking a trip, why not devote your year to loving on YOU!!

All of those things will fall into place when you start taking time for you and loving yourself.<3

Smile more
Laugh more
Eat cleaner
Invest in yourself
Think positive
Exercise for you!
You Are Worth It!

Taking care and loving yourself is the best thing one can do. It changes your whole perspective, makes you feel better and makes you happier!



<3

My Insecurities

Today I REALLY had to remind myself of what I have accomplished so far in my journey.

I was visiting family and I just couldn't get myself out of my swimsuit cover-up. I was embarrassed of my stretch marks... my belly button isn't as pretty as it was before pregnancy... my bottoms were a little tighter than I thought they should have been...

I did eventually take the cover up off and got into the pool to cool off but when I got back out I put it on again...  I haven't been this self conscious in a very very long time! I practice self love and work on myself EVERY DAY!  So this was a feeling I was scared to see rise again in myself. 

When we got home I took my shirt and skirt off, walked around the house in my bikini for a while to get myself ready to REALLY look at myself in the mirror.  And you know what I saw... Yes stretch marks, yes my belly button, but I also saw a MOM that carried 3 babies in her body (2 at one time even!) I saw a woman that has worked hard to achieve an 87 pound weight-loss! My husband and my girls looked at me and they did not say one thing about my flaws that I was so scared to show the world.

So next time I am out with my family, I am not going to cover up because of my insecurities!  I am going to be proud of how far I have come!

If you are anything like me and struggle with your self image, remember you are not alone!  Even after all of this time I can fall back into the trap of my self doubt sometimes BUT I AM NOT going to let it consume me I am going to keep working on myself and NEVER will fall back into the spiral I was in before!

We can do this together :) Send me a message on Facebook or Email me, I would love to learn more about you! 

~ Love yourself now ~
-Mandy

Take Those Photos!

This is a little of an emotional day for me.

I am looking through photos of my girls.... As I look through them and remember all of those amazing times watching them grow, giggle, smile, crawl, walk my heart breaks a little.

Now yes there are a couple of reasons I am sad looking back on these photos.  One is because I really really miss the baby stages and would love to live them all over again.... and the most important reason I am sad.... I am not in hardly any of the photos. There are a couple, some from the day they were born, and then again about a month later..... Then NOTHING.

I want to share this with as many of you as possible that are going through the emotions I had gone through after the birth of babies.

Looking back now, I want a do over. I want to re-live those baby days again, not only because they are the most treasured memories I have but because I would give anything to go back and TAKE THOSE PHOTOS with my babies!!

When my girls were born, I went into a state of depression. This is more common than most would think. My depression came to a point that I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. We even took the mirrors down in the house...

Some say that women who have twins are more susceptible to postpartum depression.  Now personally I may have had a little baby blues with our first daughter (singleton) but after the twins it was so strong.  I really didn't even realize I was depressed at all, didn't think anything was wrong with me.  The state of mind I was going through was like a haze, I was stuck in a cloud and just laid around doing nothing that I can remember.  The schedule with newborn twins was one woke up, changed their bum, breastfeed, bottle feed, lay her down, wake the next one up, change bum, breastfeed, bottle feed, lay her down, pump (because I didn't produce enough) and the cycle went around and around.

My depression got to the point of being put off of work, onto medication, going to therapy...

(First selfie together - May 31, 2014)

(African lion safari - August 2015)

My oldest is now 7 and our twins are 5.  I regret that I and they now do not have any photos of us together for the first few years of their lives, it looks like I wasn't even around.  2 years ago I started to get more comfortable with myself. My confidence started to rise. I no longer run from photos, in fact, I am now a huge selfie fan! We do family snapshots and selfies as much as possible and my girls and I now have a big supply of photos with each other of our day to day lives!

What changed for me?

There came a point when I finally realized I WAS WORTH IT!  There is a moment that I thought if I don't change something, my life is seriously going to change (not in a good way). So I spoke with my husband and jumped into a new adventure. I started to work on me, because we all hear that if mom isn't happy no one is happy and I truly believe my moods were rubbing off on my children in a negative way.  I noticed my oldest was becoming more self conscious each day.  Our children look up to us, they think we hung the stars and the moon.

(Nature walk - August 2015)

(Father's day nature walk - June 2016)

So it was time for me to try to live to my best self. I started an at home program because I knew with 3 children and a full time job that took me away from the house 12 hours a day, time wasn't really on my side. In doing this not only did I start eating better and exercising, I joined a team of women who uplifted me and inspired me to be and do more. We work on ourselves and each other by doing personal development. Yes it sounds really weird, I didn't want to do it at first BUT when I started it I learned so much about myself and became much more confident in who I was and now am! Every morning I get up before the girls and listen to something uplifting, it starts my day off on the right foot!

(My workout buddies)

My biggest regret was running away and hiding from photos when the cameras came out.  I want all moms to know that our babies don't stay babies forever. I know it is hard to overcome your body image you have of yourself but your kids love you!  Your family loves you!  You will one day again learn to love yourself, I promise!  It isn't an easy task but try your best to jump into those photos with your babies because years down the road you may feel the regret I feel for not sharing the lasting still moments of being in the photos with my babies.

(Was a tough workout)

(Even my husband is getting used to the selfies all the time lol)

If any of you learn anything from this PLEASE please be it to get into those photos!  Even when you don't want to because years down the road you will want those memories. Go out, have fun, smile, laugh and get into those photos!

If you are like me and would like to talk about anything at all or learn more about how I overcame, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!  Find me on Facebook or send me an email I would love to connect with you!

~ Love yourself right now wherever you may be ~
-Mandy

(Fun times at an event - May 2016)

A Little More About My Story

This is hard for me to write about. I don't normally like to dig back into my past but I was really thinking about this today and needed to get it out.

So, these pictures on the left are from 2010, a trip we took out east to go visit family! I was looking back at the album today and noticed something that really made me quite sad and still does as I write this now. Look at my face. Look at the sadness there. I look at these and MANY of the photos from this trip and do not see happiness. I see someone trying to hide, someone who lost their confidence, someone I really didn't realize I had become until years later. You would truly think being on such an amazing vacation and visiting my amazing family there would be a REAL smile on my face. I do not see that here and that breaks my heart because I never noticed it before. It was years later I finally admitted to myself who I had become... A shell.. a shell of who I once was, going day by day, doing the same thing over and over and over, just hoping for a different result.

On our team call I was able to reflect back on this past year and decided to scroll through some of my photos and memories. I see such a different person. This person I have become has been a long time coming. I have done things I had never dreamed of; pushed myself so far outside of my comfort zone; been places I never ever thought I would go but always wanted to. This year has been a true blessing. Thankful is a huge understatement of what I am feeling right now, overwhelmed, relieved, satisfied are a few of the feelings I have.

Those after pictures, that smile, the confidence radiating out of them just makes my heart Explode with JOY!! I am home! I am no longer a shell. I AM ME!!! I took the time to work on me and I AM BACK

Thank you!!!


~ Dream, Believe, Achieve ~