Week 3 of my personal nutrition and fitness challenge, brought to you by Mission4Nutrition, my generous and gracious Blog Sponsors.

I don’t like things that are difficult to do.  Most of us don’t.  And for many, tackling a nutrition and fitness challenge, or a weight loss challenge, might seem pretty difficult.  There are old bad habits to break, new good habits to form, and new things to learn.  For me, so far, Herbalife hasn’t been difficult at all!

Perhaps because I already have had to learn a lot about metabolism and carb/protein intake, this way of thinking about how I need to eat to best fuel my body is pretty well second-nature for me now.  So the part I was concerned about was eating well, and continuing to eat well.  The Herbalife Program has helped make that really easy!

In the first stage of the program, I’m having 2 meal replacement shakes – 1 for breakfast, and 1 for lunch.  I’ve done a few different kinds of shakes before – in all honesty, each of them has been lacking in one area or another.  Some tasted pretty awful, some were heavy in my stomach, some were very time-intensive to gather ingredients for and make, some left me always feeling hungry, or feeling hungry not too long after drinking them.  The Herbalife meal replacement shakes are wonderfully different.

I mix up my shakes based on a personalized calculation that Emily, my Herbalife wellness coach, figured up for me based on my current metabolic needs.  Right now, I’m using 2 scoops of the ShapeWorks Formula 1 Meal Replacement shake mix, 2 scoops of the Herbalife Protein Drink Mix, and a little over a tablespoon of Herbalife Personalized Protein Powder in about 450ml of water.  (If using milk, the extra Personalized Protein Powder isn’t needed – but milk hasn’t been agreeing with me, so I’m avoiding it right now!)

Initially, I was mixing it all in the blender, making it a thick foamy shake. Adding 3 cubes of ice to the mix made it absolutely fantastic! Because I’m not using milk in my shakes, I was expecting them to be a bit chalky, but the addition of the Protein Drink Mix really makes the shakes smooth and almost creamy.

The flavours available for the shakes are a real bonus, too.  I’ve used Cafe Latte and Dutch Chocolate Meal Replacement shake mixes so far, with chocolate and vanilla Protein Drink Mixes, and I’ve interchanged them and mixed them up in different combinations.  I am a chocolate lover, so my fav so far is Dutch Chocolate with chocolate Protein Drink mix.  But I have honestly liked all the combinations.  They also have French Vanilla and Wild Berry shake mixes.  I’m trying French Vanilla next!

Recently I’ve been using the Herbalife Shaker to mix up my shakes instead of the blender.  The blender gives me the foamiest shakes, but I don’t always want to take the time to use the blender.  The Herbalife Shaker almost matches the blender for creating a rich, creamy shake to enjoy.  It’s fast and easy to use, easy to clean, and does the job that I need it to do, quicker than using and cleaning my blender. I do add a couple of ice cubes even to the shaker, because I have found that the shakes taste best when they are good and cold.  The ice cubes help mix things up too!  The way the shaker cup is designed, it seems like it takes me longer to drink the shake out of it than just drinking out of a cup.  That’s a good thing, because it makes my ‘meal’ last longer, adding to that feeling of being full.  And I’m not constantly hungry either – I get hungry about when it’s time for my scheduled snacks and for the next shake.  The shakes sustain me even through activities and don’t leave me feeling like I’m starving.

The Herbalife shakes taste great, without any chalkiness, make me feel full and satisfied without feeling heavy, give me sustained energy, and are fast and easy to make.  Scoop, scoop, add water, shake and go!

As a busy mom, especially one who isn’t a morning person, the Herbalife meal replacement shakes are fantastically fast and easy.  I know I am starting my day off with good nutrition and that I’m not going to be starving half way through the day.

Finding a system that is easy is important when you’re trying to tackle a difficult task – the Herbalife system is simple and easy.  But that’s not all – it has to work, too!

So, how is the Herbalife Program working for me so far? I’ve been a bit stressed this week with getting some new things going around here, with hubby still being out of work officially.  Plus the last couple of weeks have been cloudy and rainy, so I haven’t been out and about as much as usual. I’ve been up late working on projects, and up again way too early in the mornings, sleeping pretty well when I sleep, but not sleeping enough. Stress, lack of sleep, and lessened activity usually all work against me to keep me from progressing in my weight-loss goals. My metabolism is such that stress especially often encourages my body to hang on to the weight instead of lose it (oh, to be one of those people who drops pounds when they are stressed…. I’d probably shrivel up and blow away though!).

All of that is said to qualify my results.  I was honestly and totally expecting to have maintained my weight, at best, if not to have actually gained some weight this week.

I’m excited to report that, EVEN under these non-ideal circumstances that would have historically kept me from moving forward, I have lost another 1.8 lbs!

Total weight loss for 3 weeks = 5.5 lbs!

I am SUPER excited about this progress!  Emily and Sarah noticed right away that I am looking slimmer, even when I didn’t think I had lost any weight.  I can say I’m noticing my jeans fitting a bit loser, and when I look in the mirror my sides seem a bit less lumpy!  LOL!  I have energy, I feel good, I’m not hungry, and I’m losing weight!  That’s all success in my book!

Mission4Nutrition have a Mission4Nutrition Fan Page on Facebook, as well as their Mission4Nutrition blog.  Please come and support Emily and Sarah with a LIKE and a comment.  I’ve said it before, but can’t say it enough – these gals are excellent to work with, they truly care about your progress and health, and they are just fun!  Stay tuned for more weekly updates.

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of my blog to see my weight-loss graph tracking my progress!

Check out more Weigh-In Wednesday – brought to you by Mission4Nutrition.