*read update at bottom of post 6.29.16
read update 9-14-18 How I lost 45 pounds in 6 months
How did I get here? For years I ate freely and maintained a healthy weight. Slowly as I got older, I found I had to watch what I ate a bit closer or the pounds would creep on. I found the only way to lose pounds was to be moderately active combined with a healthy diet. Out of need to cut cholesterol, we went vegetarian for some time and I did well, but it too didn’t last as long as I’d like. With shoulder pain, exercising became increasingly difficult and now, after years of up and down in my weight, I found myself 55 pounds heavier than I should be eating unhealthy again giving into cravings.
I have never been one for “gimmicks” and the claims of rapid weight loss and that’s exactly what I thought Isagenix was when I first learned of it a year ago. In my mind I thought it was just another money making scheme and I might drop a few pounds but likely would put it right back on. Well as the year went on, I watched people that I know personally use the program, be successful and give endless positive testimonials. My interest was peaked again as I reached the point where I feel like I needed something to make a drastic impact on my life to kick me in the right direction since changing eating habits alone wasn’t enough to get the job done.
So I finally did it. I ordered the system and vowed to give it a good trial and see for myself what it could do for ME. To help others who might find themselves in the same position, I thought I’d post my progress as I go along in a personal “Isagenix Review” or testimonial.
Here’s how it breaks down. The system is a combination of “shake days” and “cleansing days“. I found quickly that I needed to adjust my days to suit my schedule, putting my cleansing days on a day I’m not at work since you are eating almost hourly and drinking plenty of water. There is a lot of science behind this program that I won’t go into now since right now, I’m sure you just want to know how it tastes, how easy is it to do an does it work? That’s what I hope to answer for you today!
Day 1: Stuck to the program and did well. Didn’t find myself hungry during the day but did have a raging headache by evening time and extremely tired. I attribute this to adjusting to a new routine.
Day 2: Another successful shake day with a fulfilling homemade dinner. Uping the water intake helps with the headaches.
Day 3: Cleansing attempt #1: Did well up until lunch and found myself hungry due to my routine. Decided to eat some lunch which really is a no-no since it puts your body in digestion mode. Decided then I needed to move my cleanse days to accommodate my schedule.
Day 4: Back to shakes since I’m adjusting my schedule however we happen to be traveling out of town so I did well up until dinner where instead of selecting a super healthy choice off the menu, I decided to go for some pasta and a glass of white wine. (*I know I will not succeed if I deny myself of occasional pleasures on occasions like these)
Day 5: Oops… didn’t follow shake day program well at all! I had a delish breakfast followed by some beer and pizza for lunch at our favorite restaurant on our way back home from our trip to Portland. I was full still into evening so I just skipped dinner and did the flush tablets before bed. Back to routine tomorrow!
Day 6: Cleansing Day Attempt #2: I did it! I followed the program to the tee and felt good all day except for the fact that i was FREEZING! I guess this is normal during the detox process.
Day 7: Cleansing Day 2: Day 2 was surprisingly easy. I really felt great all day and even made it through my work day without any issues. Yay!
Day 8 : Shake Day – Decided to do my meal at lunch and then that made me want more food for dinner. Probably better to stick to meal for dinner for that reason. I did do my shake for dinner and had 1/2 sweet potato later to satisfy my need to “eat” vs. drink my dinner.
Now… lets talk about product.
Yes, there are shakes and snacks to eat/drink on this program. I have tried many shakes and I actually think this is one of the best ones I’ve tasted. The chocolate isn’t terribly sweet which I prefer and the vanilla tastes a bit like banana to me but my daughter says it tastes like McDonald’s Dippin Dots! They are definitely better cold. (learn more about Isagenix shakes)
The Ionix drink which is an adaptogen to help boost your mood or sooth you, also tastes a bit like strawberry banana to me but the brownish color is a turn off. It tastes great served warm as a tea to drink in the morning or night and also a great addition to the vanilla shake.
Isadelights are not included in the 30 day system but are a must. It’s a dark chocolate and is wonderful! I have to keep my kids from stealing them from me! These little gems are a life saver on cleanse days since you can eat 6-8 of them in a day!
Now the chocolate “Snacks!” are basically little wafers of compressed chocolate shake. At first I didn’t care for them but now if I kind of suck on it like a candy vs. chewing I enjoy it a bit more. Not my favorite but totally doable.
On cleansing days, you add in Cleanse for Life which actually tastes really good in my opinion. It’s berry flavored and you simply drink 4 oz 4 times a day.
At the end of the day, I find the taste good enough that I don’t dread doing it and can see using it continually which is key in making this work.
SO HOW MUCH DID I LOSE?
Glad you asked. At the end of my 8th day, I am down 6 pounds and have lost 11 inches! My pants are fitting better in the thighs, I’m sleeping better and don’t feel like I need coffee to get going in the morning. I’m actually beyond pleased at this point because I know I haven’t followed the recommendations to a tee and it’s still working. I can’t wait to see where the rest of this challenge takes me!
UPDATE 6.29.16
read update 9/14/2018 – How I lost 45 pounds in 6 months!
It’s been a long time since I wrote this review of my experience and this post is receiving a lot of traffic so I thought an update is needed.
I didn’t stick with the plan. I tried but for me, there were a few things I found I really didn’t like.
- It gets super BORING! I love food and drinking the same shakes over and over just didn’t work in the long run for me.
- Guilt. Again, I LOVE FOOD. I am a food blogger after all. I want/need to be able to enjoy, indulge and experiment with new foods and I was always feeling guilty any time I strayed from the “diet”
- Social Time. One of my favorite things to do with family and friends is gather for lunch or dinner, share a few drinks and good food. Again, another reason I would not drink my shakes and instead opt for a meal.
- TMI time – over time, drinking the shakes made me super constipated no matter how much water I drank. It left me feeling uncomfortable.
In the long run, maybe it was my attitude toward this lifestyle in the beginning, I just felt like even though the program claims to give you all the nutrients you need and blah, blah, blah… It didn’t seem healthy to me to supplement your life with shakes.
BOTTOM LINE:
Enjoy life, enjoy food and just make smarter choices when it comes to the foods you eat.
Eat a well-rounded diet full of fruits & veggies.
Make your own fruit filled shakes and smoothies with yogurt and oatmeal in the mornings for a much tastier and healthy treat.
Watch your portions and chose lean meats.
You can lose weight and feel great without buying into gimmicks.
WHERE AM I AT TODAY?
Well, I’m not at my “ideal” weight. In fact, I’m still probably considered overweight! That being said, I am OK with my body and where I’m at in life.
I enjoy good food with friends and family everyday and probably too much wine but I feel good, I’m in good health, and love life.
Could I stand to lose some pounds. Absolutely. But I’m not obsessed with it. I’m enjoying my meals but making better choices, adding in more physical activity, and letting it happen naturally.
If you need some healthy recipes, we have a TON of them here on Daily Dish Magazine. Check out our Eating for Health series and our Heart Healthy Recipes to start. Spend some time browsing and you’ll find all the recipes you need!
I used this program about 10 years ago and lost about 40 lbs and kept it off for several years. My life changed and I gained weight and now I’m back on the program one week. I find all the additional products are very confusing and I do have a headache but I’m not giving up!
Thanks for sharing your journey and providing the update.
I love the Isagenix shakes and I do use them for protein balls and ice cream so I don’t get bored.
I just happened to come on this page because I’m thinking about doing it for 30days…… I love food and I work out it’s just what I’m doing is not working to the full potential I would like but I’m weighing my options
Hi Mikasha, I would maybe recommend just trying a short cleanse to reset your body, but if you are like me, you will find shakes over time to get very boring and will want to eat real food!
Try Paleo. It is a lifestyle and it is not a gimmick. You simply eat good foods with the right ingredients. Pinterest has a million recipes. Meals, soups, desserts. It is not dieting, it is changing your attitude to enjoy real food and not crappy processed sugary mass produced food! 🙂 Whole30 is also a good plan. Once you get past the first 21 days and break your old habits, it really is easy.
Yes, there a lot of different eating plans you can follow that stick to healthier options and with any change in diet, you have that period of your body adjusting but soon it’s easy once you find your core recipes and your bad cravings go away!
Thanks for sharing your story. I liked how honest you were about your feelings on the Isagenix 30 day system.
Your diary is honest and gives a great description of how I felt doing the Isagenix 30 day system.
Hello, Mrs. Iseminger!
I read your article with so much pleasure! 🙂
As you, I’m a “foodie”.
I found difficult to follow the plan with shakes, granola bars etc.
For 240 calories in a shake, you can have a really delicious meal without.
A salmon with green salad will be even less calories.
You mentioned Isadelights. They have 60 calories per piece, but the same amount of calories are in a piece of Lindt dark chocolate balls which are really great.
And one more very important concern – in this whole program I couldn’t find anything salty.
For me especially is very peculiar do eat (or have meal substitute) which is sweet for breakfast or lunch.
Huge deal breaker!
There are a lot of controversies with all this platform.
The company counselors do not recommend usage of any kind of sugar, sweeteners, coffee.
It happened, that there are a lot of sugars, fructose and soy lecithin, which are regularly banned for healthy usage.
Coffee is a natural diuretic and with known benefits for weight loss.
In fact, they offer they own, IsaCoffee.
I can not see how can have different quality toward dieting plan. Sure there are different sort of coffee (rich flavor, richness, taste), but it’s still the same plant.
Why their coffee is allowed, but other brands are not?
You have to buy their coffee, 3 times more expensive that the other brands.
And one more very important concern – in this whole program I couldn’t find anything salty.
For me especially is very peculiar do eat (or have meal substitute) which is sweet for breakfast or lunch.
Do not mention that you will lose weight with no matters product you eat if you stick to 1000 calories a day, stay away from sugar, white products (flour, pasta, rice), plan a lean meat and salads!
Because it is a MLM plan, a pyramid company. The people that sell to you get incentives to continue to sell. The problem I found with this plan after reading about it is, you have to stay on the shakes forever? This is their way of keeping the money coming in. My girlfriend just paid $500 to do this program and I guarantee she will fail miserably because she is a foody and loves food, she loves to feel full. I am the opposite, I hate to feel full. I have lost 26 lbs and I am 52 by eating Paleo. I do go to the gym 4-5 nights to do the elyptical for 20-40 minutes also–that is my stress reducer since I work full-time and am in a Masters program. She is starting Monday, I will let you know in 30 days how she did. I am praying she gets the results she wants to kick-start and then switches to just healthy foods. 🙂
Right! The hook is continuing with shakes and all the other products they sell like the soups, bars, etc… Long term, I can’t see anyone who would stick to this for a lifetime. Just commit to making healthy choices and as you said, add some exercise and you will lose fat!
Thank you for this honest and seriously refreshing review! I think you definitely just helped give me my answer (and keep my wallet a lot thicker!) Cheers to loving FOOD! 🙂
I’m glad you found it useful! I know some people love it and can live on smoothies and cleansing but not me.. I want breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert!
Hi Tracy, quick question. Did you put weight back on quickly when you went off the 30 day cleansing program? I was considering doing the 30 day cleanse to kick start my body after bub considering I hardly have time for anything else and it seems like a good quick solution to me. But then move into healthy eating (80% of the time) pre-pregnancy mode after the 30 days. I am not one for a life of shakes either but need that kick start!
I didn’t put it on quickly, it was fairly gradual since my eating habits weren’t too bad except for my love of wine in the evening! My lifestyle the past few years has been pretty sedentary so the pounds slowly crept on. I feel that if I was a bit more active, I’d maintain my weight.
Your link doesn’t work anymore – did you stick with it? Where’s the rest of the 30 days?
Hi Jessica, I am no longer a distributor. I did follow through with the 30 days but did find I had a hard time sticking to it 100%. Thank you for reminding me I should write a follow-up. I know a lot of people who were successful using the system but found it just wasn’t right for me. I’m a “foodie” at the end of the day and like to enjoy real meals so I decided to just really focus on watching what I eat and making healthier choices.
Jessica, if you would like some help with Isagenix please get in touch as I am an Independent Associate. Kind regards.
Like the post.Thank you for sharing !!