I have tried a number of diets and my weight has yoyo’d up and down. I am 44 years old, have tried eating low carb, low sugar, as organic as possible with a focus on fruits, vegetables and lean meats, try to hit 10,000 plus steps a day including tennis a couple times a week and pilates. You would think that would keep my weight at bay, but nope, I got screwed by the gene pool. My metabolism hates me.
So many times when I hear of a new diet, I research it and usually come up short in real world, unbiased opinions or recounts of the various programs. After talking to my husband about this, he said I should start a blog to share our journey on our most recent attempt at thinning down.
I had been seeing these Facebook posts of a friend who was selling the IsaGenix program. I know a few people who have done it and had success. Many days my work schedule makes me skip lunch and dinner so the idea of the shake days was pretty appealing. With the program you are supposed to simply replace two meals with shakes and then your third meal needs to be about 400-600 cal. I figured I can do this and it will fit with my life and work schedule. My husband decided he wanted to do it too. We ordered the program, pricey enough so you won’t quit after a couple days.
Last Thursday we started. We got the regular chocolate and vanilla shakes, the PRO Chocolate and the berry non-dairy one. I have a sensitivity to whey protein but evidently their whey protein is from happy cows so I was told I should try it. So far it has been ok, just a lil congestion and stomach bloat from the regular ones, but manageable. The berry one I had no issues with and it tasted fine, little grittier than the others but fine. We did all the individual servings rather than the tubs of stuff because it was a better fit for our grab-n-go lifestyle.
Day 1 – Shake day — starts with Ionix packet mixed with 4-6 oz of water. Not bad but wouldn’t drink it just randomly by choice. Have a shake and an accelerator pill. About 10 you are supposed to have a wafer/pellet. These things are gross/chalky, stick in your teeth so have a big glass of water ready. Oh yeah prepare to drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily. I think part of the weight loss comes from all the extra steps you take going to the bathroom a gazillion times. Lunch was a grilled chicken salad. Another chalk pellet about 2 with another accelerator pill. Dinner was a shake. Before you go to bed two IsaFlush pills. I hope they do what they say they are going to do because all this protein is like sediment in my stomach.
Day 2 of shake day, by 3pm it was like someone had unplugged me. I was so tired and cold, I had to take a hot bath and nap. My body is probably just adjusting. I will keep trying, waiting for the increased energy they promised. Did add half an apple to my evening. Was very hungry after my nap and shake.
Day 3 — we opted for another shake day. I tried the Ionix mixed with hot water this morning and enjoyed that better than cold. Kind of reminded me of tea. Ran a bunch of errands. Had lunch out, just opted for a taco salad no shell. I seriously think my eyeballs are floating because of all the water I am drinking. Read some more blogs and it says that I can have a hard boiled egg as a snack. I have never been so excited to have a hard boiled egg. I also found that I can put half a banana in the vanilla shake to make it taste like banana cream pie. It was pretty good but definitely not equivalent to pie.
Day 4 — our first cleanse day. Woke up and took Ionix and accelerator. Drank my lil bottle of IsaCleanse. About 10am I had my lil pellet and water. Noon another lil bottle of cleanse stuff. 2pm another pellet and another accelerator. 4pm another bottle of cleanse stuff. Then I had to play tennis, after about an hour, I got a lil dizzy so I tried one of those amped packets they sent, the apple, but it tastes like prunes, this helped get me through my tennis match. I also tried the orange flavoring for water that is labeled amped too, this tastes like Tang. Who remembers Tang — makes me feel old. When I got home, I had my last lil bottle of cleanse. My husband was super tired and went to bed early. I jumped on some blogs and basically found out that we were supposed to have drank two of the lil bottles each time we only drank 1 — so should have been a total of 8 and we only had 4. No wonder he was wiped out. We hadn’t bought any of the “snacks” but got online tonite so we will be prepared for the next cleanse day.
Day 5 — uneventful shake day. Played tennis tonite and all went well. No light headedness. I had these lil B and C vitamin packed water enhancers, they are powder and called ZipFizz. They are great, not an energy drink that gives you the shakes. Just adds some flavor. I have limited myself to one a day and I put it in two liters of water. Makes me drink more water. I am actually very shocked that I have just quit caffeine cold turkey and haven’t had any headaches. I wasn’t super attached, but used to have one 12oz cup of coffee in the morning and usually a diet coke or two through out the day. I have always been a big water drinker so that has been pretty easy.
Day 6 — shake day — Glad I was close to a bathroom. My stomach is not digging on this whole system. I used to be super regular. I don’t know if my body is in storage mode but it has been hanging on to everything I put in for a day or so now. Today though, sitting at my desk, my stomach started aching, churning, seriously I thought there was an alien in there trying to come out. Good thing I headed to the bathroom when I did. Quite frequently I am out and about, not close to a bathroom. Thank heavens I was in the office today! I hope my stomach adjusts soon. Our snacks arrived today so I had to try them of course, the BBQ Whey thins are pretty yummy but the IsaDelights kinda taste waxy. They will work to get me through my next cleanse day and those monthly chocolate cravings but I don’t think they are as great as other posts I have seen about them.
The scale hasn’t moved much — my goal was to lose 10% of my body weight and we have moved it 1% so far.
Diet Program Review 