The Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse

I’ve had several people ask me “What is the Shakeology Cleanse”? Here is a great article by Steve Edwards that explains exactly what the cleanse is and how to do the cleanse. If you’re interested in trying it, please contact me! I’d love to get to know your story and help coach you through it.

The Sci­ence Behind the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse
by Steve Edwards, Direc­tor of Results

 

I like to call the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse a “per­for­mance cleanse.” This is because it was designed to be done with a work­out pro­gram. Let’s take a look at how this dif­fers from other cleanses, how to tai­lor it to your needs, and what to expect if you decide to try it.

First of all, it’s not a true cleanse. It’s a calorie-restricted and nutrient-dense diet plan. Tra­di­tional cleanses con­tain very few calo­ries and nutri­ents. Com­pared to the much more pop­u­lar Mas­ter Cleanse, it’s like an all-you-can-eat buf­fet. Tra­di­tional cleans­ing diets are done to rid your sys­tem of tox­ins and bring it into home­osta­sis. They also con­tain a spir­i­tual aspect. This process can take a long time, which is why you may have seen cowork­ers walk­ing around the office in a zombie-like state for weeks on end—swilling a strange con­coc­tion of lemons and maple syrup.

The Shake­ol­ogy cleanse is noth­ing like that. Depend­ing on how you decide to do it, you’ll be eat­ing fre­quently and con­sum­ing between 800 and 1,200 calo­ries per day, and it could be even more should you feel the need. The point of this cleanse is not calo­rie restric­tion, per se—it’s nutri­ent effi­ciency. The aim is to get the most nutri­ents pos­si­ble into the fewest num­ber of calo­ries. The goal is to put all of these calo­ries to use as a part of your exer­cise pro­gram, to rid your body of undi­gested foods and tox­ins, and to bring your hydra­tion lev­els into home­osta­sis. The result you’re after is not weight loss—though it will likely occur—but for your body to be run­ning more effi­ciently. This should make you feel lighter and more ener­getic, even though you’re doing an exer­cise program.

How It Works

Your eat­ing struc­ture doesn’t change. You still eat every few hours while you’re awake. Each meal should have a bal­ance of pro­teins, car­bo­hy­drates, fats, and fiber. And while you’re not eat­ing as much food as you’d nor­mally eat, your calorie-to-nutrient ratio is extremely high. This means that you shouldn’t restrict the actual nutri­ents you’re get­ting by too much, so activ­ity can con­tinue as normal.

We rec­om­mend you try to keep your shakes to just Shake­ol­ogy. Adding fruits of any kind, or seeds (for fat and fiber), or the Shake­ol­ogy Fiber sup­ple­ment, can and should be done as you see fit.

Ditto for your one solid meal—a salad. As we all know from any salad bar, the def­i­n­i­tion of salad can be var­ied. The goal of the salad in the plan is to keep your calo­ries com­ing from nat­ural sources (no arti­fi­cial ingre­di­ents should be added, includ­ing arti­fi­cial salad dress­ing). Aside from that, you can add ingre­di­ents as nec­es­sary. Keep your meat intake to four ounces or less, but add veg­gies, seeds, nuts, fruits, and legumes in quan­ti­ties to sati­ate you.

The goal of the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse is to opti­mize your per­for­mance. You want to eat enough to fuel your day AND your work­out. The foods you’re eat­ing are so high in fiber and nutri­ents that it’s vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to overeat. You’ll be con­sum­ing so much fiber, along with enzymes and diges­tive aids, that your body’s abil­ity to flush excess foods quickly will be at its peak.

What to Drink

Water, of course, is rec­om­mended in quan­tity. This is vital to any cleanse, because one of your goals is to bring your hydra­tion into home­osta­sis. When your elec­trolytes are out of balance—the main prob­lem we have is salt—you often retain water out­side of your cells. This sit­u­a­tion, which we refer to as retain­ing water, is cured by drink­ing more water. As the excess salts are dif­fused, your body begins to hydrate your cells (using sodium as it should be used) and flush the water held out­side the cells. So, oddly enough, you drink water to elim­i­nate water retention.

Sodas, juices, etc., should be elim­i­nated entirely dur­ing a cleanse. Cof­fee and tea, which are diuret­ics, should be min­i­mized at the very least and elim­i­nated if pos­si­ble. Again, per­for­mance is the key, so if you need a cup of Joe as a pick-me-up, go ahead. Just use only as needed, and don’t use addi­tives. Elim­i­nat­ing sugar and chem­i­cals is vital. How­ever, do not use energy drinks or soda for this pur­pose, includ­ing the ones with arti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers. Cof­fee drinkers may find that switch­ing to black tea dur­ing a cleanse will give you the energy you’re look­ing for with less upset. Coffee’s acidic nature can heighten the effects in a neg­a­tive way dur­ing your cleanse.

Why You Won’t Lose Weight

I should say why you might not lose weight, but I wanted to get your atten­tion. Most peo­ple will lose some weight dur­ing a cleanse, but that is not the goal. Those with a lot of undi­gested gunk in their sys­tems will lose weight as it’s flushed out. Those of you who are prop­erly hydrated and already eat well are less likely to lose. For those of you who need to lose weight, take heart: you are set­ting up your sys­tem to use nutri­ents more effi­ciently and improv­ing your abil­ity to lose weight through struc­tured diet and exer­cise. So while you may not lose much on the cleanse, you’ll be more pre­pared to lose weight later.

Another rea­son why we don’t always lose weight on cleanses is due to a stress hor­mone called cor­ti­sol. Restrict­ing calo­ries is stress­ful to the body, and it reacts by releas­ing cor­ti­sol. Cor­ti­sol is performance-enhancing in the short term, but if you some­how keep your body stressed for long peri­ods, it cre­ates havoc in your sys­tem and can cause you to doggedly hang onto weight in a type of sur­vival mode. We don’t want this to occur, which is one rea­son the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse is short. It’s impor­tant not to remain in a highly calorie-deficient state for long peri­ods of time, espe­cially when you are try­ing to exer­cise hard.

The Shake­ol­ogy® 3-Day Cleanse — Full Plan

The key is to fol­low the same reg­i­men all three days.

Essen­tials:
3 Shake­ol­ogy shakes per day
2 cups of green tea per day
1 or 2 pieces of fruit per day (optional)
1 salad for dinner—can include fish or poul­try
No dairy or extra sug­ars (this includes almond and soy milk)! D
rink 2 to 4 liters of water every day
Only use low-fat dress­ings, and go easy on the salt and/or pep­per to taste
2 snacks before/after any of the major meals (break­fast, lunch, and din­ner)
Fruit is optional, and it is dis­cour­aged (how­ever, some of you will need the calo­ries while oth­ers may not)
Power-workout par­tic­i­pants (those who are already super con­di­tioned) are rec­om­mended the higher num­bers of calories

For max­i­mum results, do NOT use addi­tives.
Din­ner salad may include WHITE GRILLED PROTEIN—poultry or fish only.

Daily Reg­i­men:
1 cup of green tea to start the day

Breakfast:
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
1/2 cup of fruit (60 to 90 calo­ries) — optional
Ice to taste
8 to 10 oz. of water

Snack 1 (85 calo­ries):
1 piece of fruit (apple, pear, orange, banana, mango, etc.)

Lunch:
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
Ice to taste
8 to 10 oz. of water
1 cup of green tea or a detox tea

Snack 2: (you can have the sec­ond snack before or after dinner)
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
Ice to taste
8 to10 oz. of water

Din­ner:
Salad with grilled white fish or poul­try (roughly 340 calo­ries)
Greens—3 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, plus 4 oz. of grilled white meat (fish or poul­try) 2 table­spoons of dressing—no more!

Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse FAQ

1. How many calo­ries per day? 800 to 1,100 calo­ries per day if you fol­low the plan as strictly as possible…but if you are work­ing out, make sure you add the snacks of fruit and nuts to keep you from drop­ping too low on your calories.

2. How often can I do the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse? Ide­ally, you should do it once per quar­ter. It’s also a great way to kick-start a new work­out pro­gram or to help you break through a plateau.

3. Should/Can I still do my work­outs dur­ing the Cleanse? Yes, but be rea­son­able. If you’re train­ing for a marathon, don’t pick your 20-mile run day as your first day of the cleanse. You can be active on the cleanse, espe­cially if you are hav­ing the snacks, but don’t push it.

4. Can I do a 1-day or a 2-day cleanse instead of a 3-day? Yes! Some peo­ple will see results with one or two days. But DO NOT do the cleanse for more than three days.

The Shake­ol­ogy Cleanse Sys­tem includes 9 serv­ings of Shake­ol­ogy, 4 pack­ets of green tea, and printed instructions. Contact me for more information on how to purchase the cleanse!