What if I told you that the key to weight loss and achieving overall health goals was dependent on what you add to your diet rather than what you take away?
For the past year, I have experienced what it’s like to completely accept proper nutrition into my lifestyle, but now I get to learn about why I’m feeling the way I’m feeling and achieving the goals I have set so many times before but never achieved. As many of you know, I’m working on my personal training certification. I’m learning so much about the human movement system, but I have to say, I’m most intrigued by nutrition. More specifically, the lack of nutrition in the American diet.
Over the course of the last 8 months, my body feels like it’s starting to slim in the right places and fit into the right shape. Even more importantly, my body has become much more efficient. I go to the bathroom every day. Yeah, I said it. EVERY DAY. Why is that worth mentioning? Because I wasn’t before. Like most women, I was constantly feeling bloated, crampy, and uncomfortable. I added fiber to my diet, per my doctor’s recommendation, but it didn’t do anything for me. My nails are growing. My hair is shining. I’m sleeping through the night… every night. I feel full of energy, and yet I drink no caffeine.
You see, I experienced one of those told-ya-so moments with my own health and fitness. You know when you’re growing up, and your mother tells you something and you just KNOW she isn’t right, and then a few days later, you realize she was? Of course, you never outwardly acknowledge it, but you know, deep down, that your Mom was totally spot-on. Well, consider this my acknowledgement that someone (though in this case not my mother) told me something I didn’t believe.
I was at a conference where a prestigious doctor (former doctor for the White House staff) asked the question, “What one vitamin/mineral do you need more than any other?”
The crowd was hushed. One lady piped up with, “Water?”
Another, older man, said, “Vitamin D?”
The doctor took his time to answer. Finally, he said, “The one vitamin/mineral that you need more than any other is… the one you’re missing.”
We were baffled. He continued.
“You see, the average American is missing something. It may be that they have low iron, or that they’re low in Vitamin B2. Each of us is different, and none of us are perfect. Yet if you fill that void, your body will be primed and ready to reach maximal potential.”
It’s not that I didn’t believe him. I did. But at the time, I was confident that I knew my body well enough, and there was no way I was deficient in anything. Fast forward 2+ years, and it turns out, I was. I was low in Vitamin B2 and Vitamin D3. I was nutritionally imbalanced. Like we all are.
Every week, I talk to someone who is interested in losing weight, eating better, and getting fit. They’ve accepted that proper nutrition and exercise is what they need, yet they think Shakeology is some sort of weight loss shake. They picture it being like a SlimFast, or liquid candy that you drink to starve your body into losing weight. I find myself explaining that Shakeology is made of real foods… superfoods. (Yes, that’s a real term). It’s all-natural. No preservatives, no artificial sweeteners. It has all of your daily vitamins, as well as antioxidants and probiotics. It helps to balance your body by giving it what it needs. Regardless of your deficiency… it’s got you covered. It helps you stay regular, lose weight (and maintain it), increase natural energy, and has even been proven to lower cholesterol. I say all of these things because, while they sound too good to be true, it’s because they are.
If I could afford to fund Shakeology for every home in America, I would. That’s how strongly I believe in it. I believe that if everyone gave Shakeology a chance to work in their life, they would be overwhelmed. I didn’t become a Beachbody Coach because I wanted to help people lose weight. I became a Coach because I wanted to help people get healthy. While the two sometimes go together, the latter is the ultimate goal. You see, this nation is in a crisis. We consume more than we burn, and we don’t burn enough because we sit all day. We latch on to fad diets that claim to help us learn how to “lower carbs” or generically “lower calories” in order to lose weight. What’s missing, in all the marketing, is the true solution… Instead of taking away and treating our bodies like laboratory animals with these fad diets, let’s feed our body what it really craves. Let’s give it fuel. Let’s give it Shakeology.