Shaklee 180 Healthy Blogger Competition Application

Shaklee 180 Blogger

 

 

Do you remember the Shaklee Cinch program that I just completed 6 months of?  If not check out my 6 month Shaklee wrap up post and my Shaklee 180 Ambassador application video.  Well, Shaklee has launched a new blogger program to go along with their new line!  Cinch is no more but Shaklee’s new program is called Shaklee 180.  Isn’t that a great name?  I just love the imagery it creates.  It makes me visualize the back of an overweight person as they turn around and are magically transformed into a more fit person.  Shaklee 180 isn’t magic but it does work!  If you’re a blogger and would love to join Shaklee on a weight loss/inch loss journey then come and sign up.  You’ll get six months worth of product  in exchange for you sharing your experience  with your readers.  The products you receive will include two meals a day, snacks, and a supplement.  Plus, you’ll have opportunities to win great prizes just for participating!

 

Do you want to be healthier, lose those stubborn pounds, and have blogging friends to encourage you along the way?  Are you ready to do a 180?  Take your shape in a whole new direction™ and apply to the Shaklee 180 Healthy Blogger Competition program! At the bottom of the application don’t forget to fill in that Embracing Beauty referred you.

 

Here’s a look at the great prizes you could win:

  • A grand prize that includes a $2,500 Visa Card, an all-expense paid trip for you and a friend for a weekend trip away, including airfare and travel to Lake Austin Spa and Resort rated as the #1 spa destination in North America, according to Conde’ Nast Traveler Magazine,for a 3 night stay that includes meals, fitness classes, activities, make-over and full-photo shoot for the winner
  • An opportunity to be chosen for a Shaklee 180™ video promotion and a trip to Shaklee HQ in California.
  • For selected bloggers who participate monthly incentives, including paid Facebook advertising for your blog, workout gear, shoes, equipment, and more.

 

If you get accepted I promise you won’t regret it.  Being apart of the Shaklee blogger team was incredible.  I’ve met a lot of tremendous women along the way and one of them will be a regular blogger pretty soon so keep your eyes peeled for more information on that!  I’m sure you’ll just love this program.  Please, please, please let me know if you’re accepted so I can celebrate with you!!!

 

So what are you waiting for?  Go here to see the Shaklee 180 Blogger Application with all the details!  Oh, and don’t forget to mention at the bottom of the application that Embracing Beauty referred you!

 

You can “Like” Shaklee 180 on Facebook, and follow Shaklee 180 on Twitter to stay on top of their latest news.

 

Disclaimer: Results and experiences from the Shaklee 180 Program are unique for each person, so results may vary. People following the weight loss portion of the Shaklee 180 program can expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week.  This post is on behalf of the Shaklee Corporation.  For more information please see my disclosure policy.

Month 6: #Cinchspiration Weight Loss Update

I’ve done it, I’ve reached the sixth month of my Cinch program and I’m awful proud of it!  I’ve spent the past six months going through my personal work out boot camp while on the Cinch program and sharing that on a public stage.  You’ve been able to see my struggles as I’ve tried to find balance in living a healthy life as a mom.  The world has been able to watch my ups and downs through their computer screens.  The goal, besides reviewing the Cinch program, was to inspire and show how life’s challenges can be overcome. Of course, the ultimate goal was to learn how to eat and live a healthy lifestyle and to pass those values and habits on to my family.   Now for some fun before and after pictures!!  

Before and After

Okay so I know that these facial pictures don’t show a major difference but the difference is huge to me.  You see, my face has always been chubby and always will be.  Growing up my family use to comfort me by saying that the baby fat on my face would go away as I got older.  If it hasn’t gone away yet I don’t think it ever will.  Even when I weighed around 100 pounds I’ve had a face chubbier than some women who weighed double what I did.  It’s something I have to live with and I’m okay with that.  However, I did gain some weight in my face when I was pregnant and I’m excited to slowly be losing it.  It might not be a dramatic difference for you to see but it makes a HUGE difference in how I feel about myself.  I love it!

I’m sad to say that I don’t have before and after pictures for you just yet.  I have them!  Well, sort of.  I took before pictures and I’ve taken after pictures but the before pictures are stuck on a computer that freezes as soon as we restart it.  I’m really sad about this.  We’ll be taking the computer to get it fixed soon and you can bet that I’ll be showing them off when I get the pictures back!  I’m excited to see the before and after pictures side by side for myself.  I would show you the after picture now but it’s really not that impressive unless you saw what I looked like before.  I still don’t have an athletic build with 6 pack abs but I know that I look better than I did.  I sure feel better anyway! Update: I have pictures for you!!!  Yay!

Before and After

I’ll be honest, when I eat healthier I have more energy. Always!  I might not always like to admit it but it’s true.  I’ll take any extra bit of energy I can get.  Sure eating a candy bar and drinking a pop {or soda, or coke, or whatever} will give me a temporary bit of energy but it’s temporary and it’s usually followed by a sugar crash.  Skipping the sugary sweets alone has helped with my energy but the metabolism boosting Cinch supplement is there to give me an extra oomph.  Plus, their amazing snack bars are a great alternative to a sugary snack.  They have something magical in them that helps keep me fuller longer.  They’re great!

Are you ready to hear how much I lost?  Drum roll please…….

I’ve lost 25 pounds AND 24 inches!

I have to say, “Results and experiences are unique for each person, so results may vary. People following the weight loss portion of Shaklee 180 can expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week.”

That’s more than my kid weighs!  That’s pretty significant for me.  While I can rejoice in this small victory I’m not finished yet.  I still have weight that I want to lose and muscle that I want to tone up.  I hope you’ll continue to follow me on my weight loss/inch loss journey even though my official blogging time with the Cinch program has reached it’s end.

Come and see my final Cinchspiration video here on YouTube if the video doesn’t load below!


I’d like to close by saying a big THANK YOU to the Shaklee program for this opportunity and to Sommer for being such a wonderful friend and cheerleader through it all.

The Cinch™ program {which now goes by the name of Shaklee 180} was provided to me free of charge for 6 months in exchange for my honest opinion!  The posts I’ve written have been 100% my own and have not been edited by Shaklee.  No other compensation was received.

My Past Two Months & #Cinchspiration Update

I’d love to say my journey so far has been effortless, without a speed bump or detour, but  that’s not true. The very first few days I over thought the details of the program and watched EVERYTHING I ate, exercised too much, and I got incredibly weak.  I realized that I only ate 300 calories one day.  I had the meal bar, the shake, a sip of the tea, a snack bar and a very light salad.  300 calories!  No wonder I was exhausted and grumpy.  I realized that this was unhealthy so I added in more fruit and healthy snacks and ate a more sensible (and sometimes down right unhealthy) dinner.  Finding balance in all areas of life is a struggle for me and I’m sure it will be to the day I die.  I want to give everything 110% and time wise that’s not possible and not always a good idea.

 

Hospital pic

 

 

During my journey with Shaklee I also ended up in the hospital {not because of the program!!} and had to have my appendix removed.  Then it wasn’t anytime before my doctor thought I might have Crohn’s Disease and sent me for a colonoscopy.  The tests came back negative, by the way!  You think I would have lost weight with these but nope, I gained 6 pounds after my colonoscopy.  That was discouraging but I was sure it was just fluid from the IVs they were pumping me with.

 

Reviewer's Retreat

 

Four days after my appendectomy I attended the Reviewer’s Retreat which was amazing!  I MUST take the time and write out the details and share more pictures.  It was a great conference and it was so nice to meet “online friends” in person!  In the picture you may recognize Becky from week99er.com, Jaime from CouponCrazyFreebieFanatic.com and Laura from AnotherCentSaved.com.  It was fun to be able to talk to bloggers who started about the same time as me and I’ve been reading ever since.  I also had the privilege of meeting Ted Rubin, who is a social media/marketing genius!  Anyway, stay tuned for more details later.

First Birthday

 

Fast forward a few weeks and I have a little girl’s 1 year birthday party to plan.  {Pictures and all the details will be coming soon, I promise!!} My good friend also asked me to make a birthday cake for her sister for the day before my little girl’s party. Chaos!  Then I had a VBS backdrop to paint and supplies to buy and volunteers to gather.  Not to mention, a lesson to learn, props to buy, and a classroom to decorate.  Somewhere in there my 14 year old cousin came down to stay with us for the week.  I’ll have to post pictures of that week too!  We had so much fun shopping, baking, and crafting.  During this time of chaos we never stopped inviting people over for dinner, accepting invitations out, and I never stopped sitting with the sweetest lady who has Alzheimer a few nights a week.  Let’s see…I’m a little scatterbrained at the moment and I’m sure I’m forgetting 5 or 6 other things.  Sufficient to say, life. has. been. hectic.  The Cinch program was nice because I could quickly eat without giving thought to what I’m going to eat or taking time to slow down and prepare a meal.  I’ll admit that sometimes I didn’t take time to get the blender out and make the shake so I would eat a half peanut butter sandwich, fruit, or even the snack bar for a meal.  That’s better than skipping a meal like I would do before!

 

Birthday party

 

 

We also visited family up in WV to have another birthday party for our baby girl.  That was foiled by a power outage due to the crazy storms that were going on.  It was in the 90’s!!  We were staying at our in-laws the night before the big party and we were actually celebrating the birthday of our niece.  My husband and I ran out quickly to the grocery store to pick up some baby food.  On our way out of the grocery parking lot the storm came.  It felt like we were in a movie {Twister to be exact}!  A HUGE tree fell right in front of us on our way home so we backed up, turned around and tried an alternate route home but there was a tree blocking the road, then we tried another, and another.  We tried a total of six different ways home before we found one that was clear!  It’s a good thing my husband grew up there and knew his way around.  If I was by myself I probably would have sat in the grocery store parking lot and cried.  Everyone was safe and we ended up having a pretty fun party in the dark.  {Notice the picture above.}  We normally slept upstairs at their house but without air conditioning it was just too hot.  The men set up a pretty amazing bed for her downstairs with a table blocking one side of the mattress, the couch the other, etc. but she didn’t like it one bit.  She cried, fussed, and then just laid there whimpering.  I sat outside the door a nervous wreck not having a good solution.  I made my way to the couch and tried to sleep there but I wasn’t too successful.  After a few hours and what had seemed like an eternity later, my husband suggested that we go upstairs to sleep, thinking that maybe it had cooled off enough with the nighttime breeze.  We went up and checked it out and sure enough, it was tolerable.  As soon as we confirmed the next day that we had power down here in NC we made a beeline home.

 

Grandmother's Memorial Service Rainbow

 

Boy, this part is hard to write.  Earlier this month my grandmother went home to be with her Lord.  I know it’s a fact but it still doesn’t seem real.  My husband and I drove up to Cleveland Clinic after we dropped our sweet girl and dog off at my in-laws.  The rest of my family were there waiting for us before they took her off the ventilator.  As we were pulling in the garage ready to meet my dad in the lobby we got a call from him saying that she was fading quickly and he was headed up stairs.  This girl ran and ran and quickly found out just how out of shape she was!  Thankfully, thankfully, I was able to spend time with her and say goodbye.  She even opened her eyes to look at me once!!  Helping my family with the obituary and memorial service details we stayed in town a few more days.  It. was. tough.  I was an emotional wreck.  Even though I ate a few of the snack bars that I brought with me I didn’t hesitate to get ice cream every chance I got.  Ice cream is my go-to comfort food.  Oh and on the way home from the funeral, near the beginning of our 4.5 hour drive, our air conditioner went out!  You can bet I got ice cream at every gas station we stopped at.  {The picture above is of a lovely rainbow that was outside the church after my grandmother’s memorial service. It was perfect!}

 

Best Friend's Wedding

 

The next weekend I was on the road again to travel to go to my best friend’s wedding.  It was such a joy to meet up with some of my closest friends from college!  That was all fun and I didn’t encounter any problems going, there, or coming back!!!

 

Now that I’m back home with a relatively calm schedule I’ve been doing pretty good.  I haven’t been exercising like a maniac or anything but I’ve been going for a morning walk/speed walk with my little girl and dog several days out of the week.  I’m probably not the poster child for this program but I want to give you information about Cinch from a real person’s perspective.  Real people don’t stick to every detail of the plan every day.  We don’t, right?  Life happens.  We don’t go to the gym for a few hours every day.  Nobody else does this, do they?  I think the great thing about Cinch is that you can make it fit your life and not the other way around.  It’s not a dictator of your life but it’s a tool to help you lose unwanted inches.

 

If you’ve read this far you deserve an applause!  Thank you for caring and reading about my story.  Please, if you’re reading this leave me a comment.  It’s unbelievably encouraging to get feedback from you!  After you leave a comment : ), feel free to check out my video on #Cinchspiration Update on YouTube or view it below.