Lately I have been craving the Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream. Even when it's cold and dreary out I seem to still crave ice cream. I am literally obsessed with my ice cream. Sadly though Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey is in no way really "good" for you or "healthy". Therefore, I had to figure out a way I could fulfill my cravings while still living a healthier lifestyle. That is where my new recipe for my morning shake came in. I decided I had to try to recreate Chunky Monkey with Chocolate Shakeology. I was very pleased. It was delicious!! I literally felt like I could freeze it a little, throw on a few walnut chunks, and then scoop it out with a spoon for dessert. I love it when healthy food actually taste good. Now I can get my ice cream fix while still getting all my superfoods and nutrients for the day. Chunky Monkey Shakeology Ingredients
1 scoop/packet of Chocolate Shakeology
1 cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 banana
1 handful of ice
optional: 1 scoop of Protein Powder (Vanilla or Chocolate)
Instructions
Throw ALL ingredients into the blender
Blend until smooth
Smile with extreme pride and enjoy your healthy copycat chunky monkey protein and superfood filled shake.
Do you need that extra motivation to help you get in the best shape of your life?
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Do you want to make a little extra money?
Do you want to start a new career of helping others out to become healthier versions of themselves?
Do you want a discount on AMAZING Beachbody products, like workout programs and Shakeology?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above then you are who I'm looking for! Join me in an online sneak peek into what Beachbody Coaching is all about. This group is totally FREE. This group is here to give you the information you need to help make the decision of whether or not you are ready to make a change for the better in your life. The group opens January 12th. Comment below if you are interested!
I recently got a Toddy for Christmas from my Sister-In Law. It is the best way out there to cold-brew your coffee. It's amazing because it is designed to brew coffee with 67% less acid than coffee made with hot brew methods. I was excited for the Toddy because now I could use it to cold brew coffee for Iced Coffees in Summer or for my breakfast Shake-O drinks. There are just some mornings where all I want is to guzzle coffee all day in hopes that I can feel less exhausted at work all day. That is why I decided to try out a Mocha Chiller Shake. It's the perfect dose of coffee and the healthiest meal of the day....aka the best way to start out my morning.
Shakeology is an amazing way to make sure you are eating at least one healthy meal of the day. I love my Shakeology. It's even more amazing that it ends up being about $4 a day for breakfast. That's cheaper than a Grande Starbucks drink. Contact me if you're interested in trying out Shakeology.
Here is a comparison of Shakeology versus other popular protein shakes. My only question is are they really as good for you as Shakeology? Do they give you 70 healthy ingredients in one glass? Do the other cheaper shakes have prebiotics, digestive enzymes, protein and amino acids, 23 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients?
Are you interested in trying Shakeology or getting more information?
Order either a 30 day supply bag (1 flavor of your choice), or a box of 24 individual packets in a variety of flavors. By choosing Home Direct (HD) option, you will not only receive discounted shipping, but it will automatically arrive at your doorstep each month!
Are you looking for a discount on your purchase of Shakeology? Think about becoming a coach! Then you can help others with their health and fitness journeys as well.
This year I didn't exactly make a New Years Resolution since my Resolution started in October when I started P90X3 and a healthier lifestyle. One thing I am working to get better about this year compared to last year however is meal planning. I tend to be a little lazy about my meal planning, which leads to my husband and I going out for Subway or Chipotle runs for dinner. But one great way to keep me on track with my healthy choices is to meal plan for the week and get my groceries early. This week I'm ahead of schedule and have already started the process of meal planning for the upcoming week. As soon as I finished my meal planning I got all the groceries I needed as well.
I like to use handy meal planning documents on my computer because they allow me to add links to the recipes I'm making along with the ingredients I'll input on the Shopping List side before I print it. This week I'll be making Chipotle Burrito Bowls (Vegetarian and Chicken versions), Balsamic Tofu & Avocado Tacos, Zucchini Pizzas, Sweet & Sour Spicy Tofu Stir Fry, Spinach Burgers, Avocado Quesadillas, and Crockpot Minestrone Soup. The great thing about the Soup I make on Sunday is that I'll have enough leftovers after that to last 1-2 extra days of the next week. As the week goes on I'll post my recipes for any I don't already have on the blog.
I'm pretty happy with the ingredients I bought. For the recipes I've picked I have the majority of the ingredients around my house normally. For the ingredients that I had to pick up it was mostly fresh ingredients or reduced sodium/organic ingredients. Plus for what I had to buy for recipes this week I spent less than $40 total. That makes my Shakeology breakfast shake I budget of $4.00 per day even more reasonable this week.
Here's the free printable I've made to use. Feel free to download or print for your use as well.
What are your favorite go to meals while meal planning? Do you use a printable document or an app on your phone to meal plan?
Today's shake was a Peanut Butter Cup Shakeology. It might even be better than a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Tree. It's definitely more filling than one of those tiny trees. It's also easy peasy to make. I love Shakeology because it makes it super easy to make breakfast on the go during busy mornings.
A Peanut Butter Cup Shakeology is 100% better than Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Trees. It's much healthier, it reduces your cravings, and it has antioxidants to help prevent heart disease. Shakeology has 70 natural ingredients and includes your 23 vitamins and minerals. Plus it will help you get closer to your health and fitness goals. Basically, it's the healthiest meal of your day!!!! Are you interested in trying Shakeology or getting more information? Here are some ways you can go about doing that...
Order either a 30 day supply bag (1 flavor of your choice), or a box of 24 individual packets in a variety of flavors. By choosing Home Direct (HD) option, you will not only receive discounted shipping, but it will automatically arrive at your doorstep each month!
On Tuesday I will be starting the 3-Day Refresh by Beachbody. The 3-Day Refresh is great when you want a fast, clean break - to drop a few pounds in a hurry or break some bad habits. After this 4 day weekend and Thanksgiving holiday I'm not feeling my best. I tried really hard to be healthier than I normally am, but I'm not sure if I was 100% on track with my usual eating. Due to the change in my usual routine I'm feeling a bit more sluggish and my stomach isn't feeling too great. That is why I will be starting the 3-Day Refresh this week during my "rest" week in P90X3.
The 3-Day Refresh consists of 3 daily shakes, a fiber drink, plenty of filtered water, plus a wide array of fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats throughout the day to keep your energy and metabolism going. The meal plan that comes with the 3-Day Refresh is simple, but it offers many alternatives, including some creative ways to prepare your meals so that you can actually enjoy eating healthy food without having to season it in ways that can damage your health and undermine your weight-loss goals. This is also great because it's a cleanse without the starvation feeling you get with most of the other cleanses out there.
I like to make sure I do things exactly right, so before starting out I decided to lay out my menu plan for the 3 days ahead. I also wanted to make sure that I'd have time to grocery shop and prep for the refresh. I work a full-time job away from home so I don't have the time to prep as I go. I want to be able to leave for work in the morning and have everything I need to stay on track with my refresh. I am also hoping that if I am fully sticking to the plan that I can get the optimum results. Below you can see how my 3 days will go according to my schedule of each day between waking and sleeping.
I finally got my groceries today so I just need to do a little bit of meal prep then I'll be all set for the next 3 days. It'll be easy peasy after the prepping!
Here's a short video that explains more about the 3-Day Refresh. If you're interested let me know and I can help you get started. Who wants to lose a few pounds in the next 3 days?
I'm a little late posting this due to unforeseen circumstances this last week, but my husband and I have officially finished Block 1 of P90X3. Overall, I have to say it was pretty easy to stick to the program just because it's only 30 minute videos. That doesn't mean they were easy videos in anyway, but they are more manageable to fit into busy schedules just because of how short they are. The only issue I had during Block 1 was caused by me wearing incorrect shoes. My ankle swelled so much from the sprain that you couldn't even see the bone anymore. Due to how bad the sprain was I had to take a few days off working out and use crutches to get around. That alone coupled with the pain of spraining my ankle taught me the lesson of the importance of WEARING THE RIGHT SHOES. Tony Horton says in every video not to wear running shoes and now I definitely do not.
Eventually my ankle did heal and I was able to walk again. I'm still not 100% back to normal and I still wear an ankle brace, but it's doing much better. If needed I will modify my workouts to account for the issues with my ankle. My husband told me that it took him 6 months for his ankle to fully go back to normal size.
But now that I have finished Block 1 my husband and I took the Progress pictures that are required and weighed ourselves. I am down 10 lbs from when we first started P90X3 and here are my before pictures next to my progress pictures.
SIDE VIEW
FRONT VIEW
Looking at the pictures I can definitely tell the difference that a month of working out and eating healthier has made. If this is only one month of doing P90X3 then I can't wait to see what I look like after doing 3 months of P90X3.
As a side note....I started drinking Shakeology during my last week of Block 1 and will continue drinking it throughout the whole process. You always hear that abs are made in the kitchen and I believe it to be true. That is why I will be supplementing Shakeology in to make breakfast my healthiest meal of the day.
Well, I've now been drinking Shakeology for almost two weeks and I love it. I went with the Vanilla Shakeology to start out with a pretty basic flavor. I figured I'd start out there and try a lot of different recipes with it, then go from there experimenting the other tastes. So far I've tried the Iced Mocha, Peaches and Cream, Neapolitan Strawberry, Pumpkin Spice, Strawberry Banana, and Pina Colada. [I linked the flavors to the recipe site so that you can see calorie count if you're curious].
To make the Pina Colada Shakeology I mixed in my Ninja blender 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology, 1/2 cup of Skim Milk, 1/2 cup of Pineapple Chunks, 1/2 tsp of Coconut flakes, and 1 handful of ice. It was delicious. It tasted exactly like a Pina Colada just with half the calories and no alcohol. It worked great to start my morning off right as I went out to run errands.
For my Neapolitan Shakeology I mixed in my Ninja blender 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology, 1/2 cup of Skim Milk, 1/2 cup of Frozen Strawberries, 1 tsp of Cocoa Powder. This was another hit in my book. I have really contemplated making some extra and freezing it for an after dinner treat of Shakeology Neapolitan Ice Cream. Yum!
On Halloween morning before I headed off to work I made a Pumpkin Spice Shakeology. This was probably the main reason I went with Vanilla Shakeology first was so that I could try the Pumpkin Spice flavor. Ever since Fall started here in Georgia I've been obsessed with trying everything Pumpkin Spice that I can. Therefore, why not make a Shakeology breakfast shake with the Pumpkin Spice flavor? To make this amazing drink I mixed in my Ninja blender 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology, 1/2 cup of Skim Milk, 1/2 cup of canned Pumpkin Puree, 1 tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice, 1 tsp of Cinnamon, and 1 handful of ice. It was delicious! I won't say it tasted exactly like a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino, but it was pretty close and it has way less calories.
Another favorite of mine with Shakeology is any fruity flavored shake. I've been switching out my fruits I throw in. Some mornings I had peaches, some mornings orange slices, and some mornings I go the route of strawberry banana. My favorite yogurt flavor is strawberry banana so I made a shake that tasted exactly the same. This one was pretty simple to make as well. I mixed in my Ninja blender 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology, 1/2 cup of Frozen Strawberries, 1/2 cup of Skim Milk, and 1/2 a banana. It was yummy!
I'm pretty sure so far the only flavor I haven't liked is the Iced Mocha. I'm not sure if it's my iced coffee I'm adding in, but it turns out pretty bland. I've been using the Starbucks unsweetened Iced Coffee you can buy in the dairy section and it's just not giving it the right taste that I'm looking for. I only go for this drink on mornings when I'm really tired and dragging and need the extra pick me up from coffee.
I recommend Shakeology to anyone that has trouble eating their recommended daily dose of fruits and vegetables. Apparently you are supposed to have 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Do you get that? Do you even like vegetables? If you answered no to either of those you should try Shakeology. This last week I lost my mother-in-law suddenly and tragically. During that week while dealing with the loss and doing everything we can to help out my father-in-law, my husband and I just didn't have the time to workout. We barely had the time to sleep, let alone fit in working out since we were getting home by 10pm or later and still had to be up early the next day. However, during the week I never stopped drinking Shakeology. I had it every single morning for my breakfast. You know what happened after a week of not working out and still drinking Shakeology? I lost around 2-3 pounds that week. I've noticed with loss you are provided with LOTS of bad food. I did my best to still control myself and not over-indulge, but I can't say that I didn't allow myself a donut or piece of cake when provided. However, I did make sure that everyday I had my Shakeology. There's no need to miss the healthiest meal of the day, especially when it tastes so good.
My husband and I are now at Week 4 with P90X3. OMG! I really can't believe we're still going! This is my first time literally in my life actually continually sticking to working out. I"m waiting to post my before pictures after we fully finish Block 1, which is 30 days from the start. At that point we take progress pictures and get stats. Then I'll have something to post to compare the two pictures. Recently we've started drinking the Results and Recovery Formula after our workouts to minimize soreness and to help us get more out of our workout. It taste like a Creamsicle Popsicle...especially if you add a little ice to your drink.
This was my dinner last night. I threw together a salad with all the veggies we had in our fridge. I also baked some tofu to add a little extra protein and make my meal more fulfilling.
Here is how our first 3 weeks have gone with P90X3.
My favorites from Week 1-3 were Yoga X, Agility X, and The Warrior. My choice of Yoga X is obvious because I have always been a Yoga fanatic. During college when I could scrape the money together I would pay for the trial periods at a Hot Yoga location near my apartment. I love love love Hot Yoga. With Agility X it's not an obvious choice since I sprained my ankle doing that video during Week 2. I blame myself entirely for that accident however. I would never want to warn people away or scare people from doing Agility X as long as you heed mine and Tony's warnings. After pressing play on each video Tony Horton explainsstresses the importance of having the right shoes. He tells you every time that you do not want running shoes, because that is not the workout you are doing. I ignorantly chose to ignore that fact. I mean of course Tony Horton has no idea what he's talking about....yeah right. He's 55 and in amazing shape. Finally, The Warrior was another one of my favorites. This workout reminded me a lot of the bootcamp and bodyworks classes I used to attend at L.A. Fitness. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the videos in some way, but I definitely had my favorites that I will continue to fit into my workout regimes even after I finish my 90 days.
Within the next few weeks I will also be adding Beachbody's product Shakeology into my meal plan/healthy lifestyle regimen. I've heard a lot of great things about Shakeology from friends so I'm dying to try it and see how it helps me with my weight loss journey. I've been feeling pretty frustrated because my husband is just dropping off pounds while I continue to struggle. I really hope trying Shakeology helps me!!
Here's a great video on the benefits of Shakeology. I will continue to update on my results and thoughts on P90X3 as well as Shakeology.
