Month 1: My experience with the Shaklee 180 program

About a month ago, I was selected to participate in the Blogger Program for Shaklee 180. I had high hopes for a successful first month, but unfortunately, things did not go quite as I expected. The monthly kit comes with these components to get you started on the plan:

• Meal in One Bars
• Smoothee Mix
• Tea sticks
• Snack Bars
• Metabolism Boost Tablets

Meal in One Bars

The bars come in two flavors, a Blueberry Almond and Peanut Butter Chocolate chip. I was fine with the bars for about two weeks, then I found it hard to tolerate the texture and the sweetness towards the end of the month. The bars are the last thing I go to when I need a quick meal because I have a difficult time getting them down. It helps to drink a lot of water with them and you need to do that so that you are satisfied.

Smoothee Mix

The kit comes with three flavors, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Of the three flavors, I prefer the strawberry and I mix mine with almond milk. For one, the almond milk gives me more calcium than milk. I tend to drink the smoothees in the morning and in the evening. I have to have real food in the middle of the day. The texture of the smoothees is a little grainy, so blending for a while helps to improve the texture quite a bit.

Tea Sticks, Snack Bars and Tablets

The tea is my least favorite thing to consume in the kit. I have quite a bit of it left because the taste is so bad. I have tried to drink the tea warm and cold and neither temperature makes it better. Snack bars are also provided and they are similar to the bars at 1/3 of the size and a lot drier in texture. There are three flavors provided for the month, but not enough bars to get you through the month. You have to plan out when you are going to eat these. I tend to have some sort of fruit or vegetables with the snack bar to help with satisfying hunger. The tablets I take in the morning and they do help with boosting energy for the day.

I lost two pounds the first week and gained it back in the third week. While the program does not call for a lot of exercise, I believe it is necessary to workout quite a bit in order to see lasting results. I do not have a lot of weight I want to lose, about 15 pounds and it seems others on the program who do not have a lot of weight to lose are not losing pounds or inches quite as fast as others on the program. While it is nice having foods provided, I have had more success in the first month of a health and fitness plan by consuming lots of vegetables and fruit. So, I am concerned with seeing improvement in the second month strictly by consuming the Shaklee products.

My plans for the second month is to significantly increase my exercise. With that, I know my body will demand more calories and the plan does not really allow for consuming the calories you burn. We will see what happens and I will let you know in a month what my results are.

Have you participated in the Shaklee 180 program? If so, what has been your experience with it?

Dis­clo­sure: This is a spon­sored post as part of the Shak­lee Cor­po­ra­tion blog­ger pro­gram. I will be receiv­ing free prod­ucts, online sup­port and incen­tives for par­tic­i­pat­ing. My opin­ions are my own. Peo­ple fol­low­ing the weight-loss por­tion of the Shak­lee 180™ Pro­gram can expect to lose 1–2 pounds per week.