I had a great twitter chat this morning with local tweeps whose opinions I greatly respect. I was going to split my twitter account (@infinitefit) into two; a personal account and a business account. I have been tweeting as infinitefit for 3 years now. It represents our studio but mostly it represents me; a fitness professional, business owner, mom and wife. I have had the opportunity to create great bonds with tweeps who have common interests, maybe not all my interests but there is still something connecting us. It may be a passion for health and fitness, parenthood or the struggle of running a business and keeping it all together. Whatever it is, I am grateful for these relationships and the richness they have brought to my life. Anyways, it was quickly determined that no, I should not separate the accounts. I am infinitefit and infinitefit is me.

But I still was looking for something to connect me as fitness professional, as an owner of Infinite Fitness and as a my new upcoming role to mom of four boys under four. And then it hit me… it was something that I swore to myself I wouldn’t do. I didn’t think I wanted to do.

As a fitness professional and a pregnant lady nothing drives me more crazy than seeing posts from other fitness professionals telling pregnant ladies how they should workout, how much weight they should gain or even what they should expect from their pregnancy (especially when this advice comes from a woman who has never been pregnant or worse, a man). It’s not that they don’t have the theory, but theory and experience are two very, very different things.

Well maybe something else drives me crazy… media’s obsession with pregnant celebrities. Poor Jessica Simpson!! How much weight they’ve gained; is it too much, is it enough? Or how quickly they’ve lost the baby weight; pics of celebrities less than 2 months post-baby looking svelte and back to their pre-baby weight OR god-forbid, those that are still clinging to those last 15 pounds!!

And then there’s the mom’s I meet. Bombarded with information from the above sources and feeling inadequate if the weight doesn’t just fall off or if they have gained too much while pregnant. Or those whose youngest is now 5 and they are still using their pregnancy as a reason for their current body shape/weight.

After all this, I decided to do it. I am going to talk about my own personal weight gain story and effectively my weight loss journey that is to follow. I promise to be real. To be truthful to all of you. This is not going to be a 8 weeks to your pre-baby body blog. With my previous two pregnancies I did return to my pre-baby weight, but I gave myself a year to do it. I had days where I felt awful about myself and days where I could actually appreciate my body and the gifts it has provided us. My goal is to inspire all of you to make the changes you need to do, to be healthier. Maybe it’s weight loss, maybe it’s not. Maybe you’re a new mom, maybe you’re not. It doesn’t matter, the principles are the same. I will share with you, what works for me. Take what you like from it. Make it your journey. This is the best way, I can currently connect all my facets of life into @infinitefit. I will still rant about motherhood, fitness and life. I will still share current events and promos at Infinite Fitness and I will answer all health and fitness questions you may have. In short, I will continue to be me!

So here it is… what I said I wouldn’t do. What I would never do. Here’s a pic of me and my pregnant belly as of today, 36 weeks and counting (this is only the second belly pic I have taken this whole time).

*disclaimer = posting this makes me extremely uncomfortable. I wrote the post then took the pic. Do one thing a day that scares you, right?!*

Thus far I have gained a total of 48 pounds. I have been unable to personally workout, teach classes or train clients since December due to a combination of being a twin pregnancy and a previous premature delivery. I eat good, but I indulge too (take away my wine and I can justify other treats). I hated even the sight of veggies the first 16 weeks, never mind cooking and eating them and my number one craving has been a big juicy burger (which we either BBQ at home or eat at a sit down restaurant, I still can’t bring myself to do a drive thru burger). This is the heaviest I have ever weighed, 185 pounds (whew, I said it).

Please remember, that these are my numbers. And they really aren’t important. I am just putting it out there to make a point. You should gain weight while pregnant. You may gain more, you may gain less. You should also be able to lose it, post-baby. Not in a month, not even in 4 months, but within that first year, you can be back to your pre-baby weight (if so desired). Who’s ready to start that journey with me?

mal·nu·tri·tion

Pronunciation:  /ˌmal-n(y) u̇ -ˈtrish-ən/
: faulty nutrition due to inadequate or unbalanced intake of nutrients or their impaired assimilation or utilization¹

Close your eyes and picture it. What do you see? Something like this maybe?

Now picture this child in your community. You would be outraged, right? You would scream child abuse, call authorities, ensure this child was removed from their home and family immediately, right? And rightly so.

But what about the other side of malnutrition? The side that we see each and every day in our society. Malnutrition is all around us now. Malnutrition simply means, bad nourishment. It can include under-nutrition, what we are use to being described as malnutrition and were told about as kids when we didn’t eat all our food at the table, or over-nutrition, the consumption of too many calories, aka, weight gain. This weight gain has lead to a steady increase of overweight and obese individuals. It affects all races, genders and ages.

We know obesity has become an epidemic. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease  and metabolic syndromes. It leads to a deterioration in the quality of our life and often the quantity too. Some experts have gone as far to say that childhood obesity is such an epidemic that this current generation of youngsters, will have a shorter life expectancy than that of their parents!!

News broke this morning of an 8 year old boy who was taken from his home and placed into foster care because his weight had reached over 200 pounds!! That’s more than 3 times what the average 8 year old boy weighs. His mom was accused of medical neglect for being unable to get his weight down. He had developed sleep apnea, a condition in which your breathing becomes very shallow or actually stops while sleeping. Sleep apnea can be common but is potentially very serious. One of the causes of sleep apnea, is excessive weight gain. His weight also put him at an increased risk for high blood pressure and diabetes, potentially life threatening diseases that no child should develop.

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the courts decision to remove the boy from his home. Those against the decision state that the boy was not in any imminent danger. This argument does not even begin to make sense to me. When does the danger become imminent, when it’s too late? When he is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease? Would the child starving to death be in more imminent danger than the one feeding to death?

I don’t pretend to know the answers to this. But it’s time we took a long hard look at our society and at what has become socially acceptable. It’s time more programs were offered to help families, teachers and communities cope with this epidemic and be given real sustainable solutions. It’s time that multi-billion dollar corporations were held accountable for how our food is produced, grown and packaged. It’s time to stop the labeling confusion that has more to do with who can afford to pay for the heart smart symbol than actually being heart smart. It’s time to stop the food lobbyists that have actually got the US government to declare pizza as a vegetable and done more damage to consumers waist lines than anything else.

Is it going to be easy? No. Will it happen overnight? Absolutely not. Can it happen? YES! Currently 34% of the adult population are obese and another 34% of the population are overweight. In 1964, 42% of the adult population were smokers, currently 19.8% of adults are. Society fought against smoking. Tobbaco companies were forced to change. Lobbyists lost their jobs. Governments were forced to change. It happened. Society fought back against smoking. Society won.

Isn’t it time we do the same with obesity?

The next time you think malnutrition, think this:

What will it take for you to change?

In Health,

Jessica

¹malnutrition. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/malnutrition

Upon hearing that some of you are likely jumping for joy… Buy a blizzard and DQ will donate $1 to the Children’s Network (which if you live in Edmonton, means it’s going to the Stollery). However, when I hear about things like this, I cringe.

It’s not because I don’t think it’s a fantastic cause (my oldest son was a preemie and spent time in the Stollery). It’s not because I don’t think it’s a genius business move on behalf of the businesses that run promotions like this (think Smile Cookies from Tim Horton’s, or McHappy Day at McDonald’s). Or even because I don’t think that every now and then everyone deserves a treat.

It’s because as a society (and yes, I am going to generalize), we have begun to indulge in “treats” such as this far to often, justifying it to ourselves and to others that we are “helping”. In fact, many people have said that they wouldn’t want one if it wasn’t for charity. These statements irritate me. All day long, I work with people who are trying to make changes in their lifestyle. Trying to be healthier. Trying to achieve their personal best. And then a treat day comes a long and all bets are off.

I already know what you’re thinking… treat day only happens once a year, what’s the big deal? The big deal and the reality is treat day doesn’t happen once a year. And it doesn’t just come in the form of junk food for charity. We certainly didn’t become the overweight, unhealthy society we are by eating a treat once a year, month or maybe even week! Suddenly it’s cookies homemade by your cousin or popcorn because you’re at the movie theatre. Then it’s a chocolate because of you’ve had a rough day or a bag of chips because you are at a BBQ. Treats are around us all the time and while the occasional one isn’t going to hurt, we need to start defining what we consider occasional to really mean.

There’s other reason’s promotions like this bother me. We run a few charity events through the year (Spin-A-Thon for the Bissell Centre; Yoga in the Park for Terwillegar Community Leagues and Karma classes for the Food Bank/Heart and Stroke Foundation). To get people excited and engaged in these events can be the biggest challenge of the entire event, yet tempt them with something unhealthy and they are all over it. Again, this is a societal problem. It is easier for us to purchase a treat then to participate in activity or volunteer an hour of our time. I get that health and fitness is a tough sell but we’re not getting any healthier. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer are all on the rise. It’s funny that the businesses that participate in treat days don’t actually donate to those charities!!

I would love to see everyone take the $5-10 that they were going to spend on the Blizzard and donate it directly to the Stollery (click here to donate). You are making a donation 5-10 times greater than DQ is going to make on your behalf and can feel really great about it.

If, as some of you have so graciously put it, you really, really want one. By all means go. Buy a treat. But maybe, just maybe you try this. Buy the smallest size they have. Sit down. Take three savory, melt-in-your-mouth, enjoy-every-second-of-it bites. Throw it away. That way you had a treat, you gave to charity and you saved your waistline. Win:win for everyone.

In fact, I step on the scale approximately 2-3 times a week. I can already see what your thinking… ‘What?!? Why?!? You told us to focus on our feelings and all of our other healthy lifestyle benefits!” Remember, none of that has changed but let’s use my recent weigh-in as an example.

I just got home from a fabulous escape to Florida. I was kid free from Saturday afternoon until this morning. I spent Saturday night out with my very best girlfriend (27 year friendship!!) and then flew of to West Palm Beach to join Tristan for a few days of sun, sand and spoiling. I’m not one to stick to a strict diet but I do almost always watch what I am eating. I eat sensibly and of course do not eat out all the time. Well, from Saturday night on, that’s exactly what I was doing. Every meal was at a restaurant of some sort and of course, there was almost always alcohol to join it (it was vacation after all). There wasn’t a lot of time for formal exercise and my one day that didn’t consist of primarily traveling was spent teaching a yoga class and enjoying water sports (better than nothing). However, by Wednesday, I knew that I was out of whack. I didn’t feel great, I looked bloated and felt a bit swollen. We got home late last night and as I was getting ready for bed, I decided to do it.

I stepped on the scale.

It wasn’t pretty. But it was what I had expected. The scale had gone in the direction almost no woman ever wants to see it go. Here’s the thing though. I didn’t dwell on it. I didn’t let it ruin my evening. I didn’t tie my self worth to it. Instead, I recognized vacation was over. It was time to get back on track – cook my meals, drink a ton of water, limit my wine to a glass (or maybe two). You know, all the things that I ask my clients to do on a regular basis.

So why did I do it? Because it gave me that quick dose of reality before it was too late. Imagine how easy it is to combat a pound or two here versus waiting until the scale shows a 10, 15 or 25 pound increase. Yes, it doesn’t tell me how much is fat, how much is muscle, how much is water. But in this case that’s not really important. I knew that I had an indulgent few days and I knew that I needed to get back on track, the scale is just that extra reminder.

There’s a lot of research out there supporting weighing yourself on a regular basis (and by regular, I mean weekly or even daily) for long-term successful weight loss. I personally am not a fan of daily but I usually do opt for a few times a week. These regular weigh-ins tell me a lot more than infrequent ones do. For example, that time of the month (or a few days before), I know my weight is going to go up a few pounds. Had an over-indulgent weekend? Definitely see a pound or two difference. But like I said before, it’s way easier to clean everything back up and start to focus on how I am feeling fitness wise again, if it’s only been a dew days or a week.

In short, my real belief is this:

It’s important to track what’s going on (step on the scale) BUT it’s equally important (or even more so) not to tie your self worth to that number!!

I have been on Twitter for just over 2 years now and am continually surprised by what I learn, how quickly I am top of current events and the insights into others lives. However, what has shocked me the most, hands down, is the relationships that I have quickly developed with so many people. People whom I have never met or who live thousands of miles away and those that I have met through Twitter and are happy to call my friend outside of the Twitterverse. Yesterday, one of my yet-to-meet-in-real-life twitter-friends, @JenBanksYEG, tweeted her recent post which started with the question: “Is it better to focus on losing weight or losing inches?”. This tweet got my attention very quickly and not much farther down the stream came a second tweet: “Muscle weighs more than fat. True or BS?”. That statement alone was enough for me to start furiously typing on my iPhone. (Just in case your not sure, but totally not the point of this post, no muscle does not weigh more than fat! A pound is a pound. BUT muscle is much more dense than fat, therefore taking up less space than fat. If we were to look at someone who was 150 pounds and 30% body fat their body shape would seem much larger and different than someone who was 150 pounds and 20% body fat).

Anyways, I quickly clicked over to Jen’s post (which you can do here) and started reading with excitement! Jen’s post was awesome. I felt proud and inspired by everything that she had achieved in the past four weeks. You could feel her energy and zest for what she was doing coming through her writing. And then, I read it. 10 little words that made my heart sink. 10 words that made me want to reach through her blog, yelling, jumping up and down and shaking her all at the same time, are you serious??

“I only lost a pound and a half this week.”

Only a pound and a half!! Really?? You are disappointed with only a pound and a half!! Safe, realistic, maintainable weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week!! Of course, this way of thinking is not Jen’s fault. We live in a society where instant gratification is the only way. We watch unreality television where people lose 10 to 30 pounds in a week. We are conditioned to believe that is success and therefore if gratification is not immediate, we must be doing something wrong! The world is full of infomercials, misinformation and contradicting information. We are at an all time high for obesity and un-wellness across all ages and demographics, yet our role models for health and beauty are grossly underweight and far from fit themselves.

My question to not only Jen but to all of you is, when is enough, enough? When do we switch the focus away from how we look, what the scale says or what size pants we are wearing? When do we focus on the things that really matter? Like how our body performs for us on a daily basis. How it doesn’t hurt to go up and down the stairs or how chasing your kids around the playground doesn’t leave you winded and feeling ill. Or how good we feel when we eat a well-balanced healthy meal and we chose foods because food is fuel not emotional comfort. Focusing on these things will only lead to one thing: A happier, more confident, and I guarantee it, smaller YOU.

So the true answer to your question, Jen, is it’s better to focus on neither of them. It’s better to focus on being the healthiest you can be. Seeing your everyday energy and performance drastically improve and simply using the scale and the tape measure as a benchmark. Live in the now. Embrace your body. Take steps to be fitter and healthier. Because although many of us may feel as though losing 10 pounds would be great, is it really the key to anyone’s happiness??

I would harbor a guess that almost everyone has heard of ‘doing a kegal’. I would harbor another guess that most of you are doing it incorrectly, if at all. Dr. Arnold Kegal was one of the first to address the importance of strengthening of pelvic floor muscles, particularly in postpartum women. Kegal exercises quickly became popular in people with incontinence issues and physicians and media began to tell ladies of all ages that strengthening the pelvic floor was important.

Here’s the thing: strengthening pelvic floor muscles is NOT just for the ladies, men need this too. It’s also not just for those who have had children or are over the age of 65. Learning how to properly engage pelvic floor is crucial for everyone!

What is my pelvic floor?

Your pelvic floor is made up of a series of muscles that support the rectum, urethra and bladder (uterus as well in women). The function of our pelvic floor is not only to help with keeping us continent but also to provide support to our torso and postural muscles. In fact, the pelvic floor is a co-contractor of the transversus abdominis, multifidus and internal oblique who’s role it is to compress the abdomen and provide support and stability to the lumbar spine. The correct timing and firing of these muscles is crucial when dynamically moving our limbs.

How do I find my pelvic floor?

Unfortunately, this is one of those exercises, where pictures and videos do not help. These muscles are so deep and the contraction is isometric (meaning that there is no movement produced). However with a little practice you’ll be a pelvic floor contractor in no time!

Sit cross legged on the floor and lean slightly forward. You should be able to feel your pelvic floor resting on the floor (completely relaxed). If you find it difficult to feel, sit on a stability ball with your feet flat on the floor. The ball will provide a little more biofeedback than the floor.

With your pelvic floor resting on the floor, imagine that it is now an elevator. Where you are now, is the basement. If you were to do a full on Kegal (imagine stopping the flow of urine, without tensing your butt cheeks) that would be the fourth floor. Practice lifting the ‘elevator’ to the first, second, third and fourth floor, then release to the basement. Practice that as many repetitions as you can before fatigue (my guess is it won’t be many). Once fatigue sets in, STOP! Quality over quantity is of the utmost importance, do not practice bad technique.

Once you’ve mastered the levels, try to slowly release back down as well. Basement – First floor – Second floor – Third floor – Fourth Floor – Third Floor – Second Floor – First Floor – Basement. Then you can skip floors (ie. Basement – Second – Fourth – Second – Basement).

Lastly, work on your muscular endurance. Engage the pelvic floor to the second floor (no higher) and try to hold it there for 10 seconds. It’s a lot harder than it sounds! The first few times you will likely not be able to hold it that long and after a contraction or two, you may not be able to engage at all.

Benefits of a strong pelvic floor

Besides the obvious benefits of urinary continence, a strong pelvic floor can assist in a strong core meaning less lower back pain and strain, improved daily function and sport performance. But if these aren’t motivation enough… here’s the big one… for men and women… improved sexual gratification!!

Start your pelvic floor training today!

After being on the shakes for almost 2 weeks, I honestly think one of my favourite features of the shake is the 5g of fiber per serving. I’ll be honest with you, my fiber intake was nothing I really paid much attention to it. I understood I needed to eat it and that it was good for me, but I found it difficult to get my 20-30 grams a day. I googled what it would take to eat 30 grams of fiber every day and here’s the sample meal plan that came up:

Upon first glance, I would say that looks totally do-able. And yes, it is do-able BUT how many of us actually eat like this, on a daily basis!! Plus not to mention, the above meal plan is high in fiber but appears to be lacking in protein and calcium. Drinking 2 of my bodybyvi shakes everyday, made with milk and fruit allows me to get to my reccommended 20 grams of daily fiber.

So why is fiber so important?

Fiber has many overall health benefits ranging from assisting with weight loss to improving overall health. Just some of these benefits include:

• help you to feel full longer.
• prevent a small portion of the calories ingested from being absorbed.
• helps prevent heart disease.
• reduces LDL (bad cholesterol).
• enhances immunity.
• helps to decrease risk of colon cancer (and possibly, cancer of the esophagus).
• prevents constipation and helps to ease symptoms of intestinal diseases such as IBS.
• helps to decrease risk and manage symptoms of type II diabetes.

The importance of fiber can not be overlooked and if you can get your recommended daily allowance from foods currently in your diet, then do it. But if you feel as though you may be lacking, supplementing with a well balanced meal replacement shake, such as the 90 Day Challenge, may be a great option for you!

Breakfast

This is my first shake of the day. To my 2 scoops of Vi-Shape I add 8-12 oz of 1% milk (I don’t measure, I just eyeball it in my magic bullet), 1 full banana and 6-8 frozen strawberries. The calorie content works out to be: 90 calories from the Vi-Shape, 110-165 calories from the milk, 100-120 calories from the banana and 25-50 calories from the strawberries. For a grand total of anywhere between 325 to 425 calories for my morning shake! And guess what, they are all GOOD FOR ME calories. I think we can all agree that everything in there is real food and that my calorie intake is no where near starvation.

Lunch

Depending on my day, I will either eat lunch at a normal time (between 12 and 1) or if it’s crazy not until 2 or 3. Before the shakes if it was the later option, I would be starving by this point and pretty much grab anything that I could (insert bread, cheese and prosciutto – my favourite, a diet coke or coffee for energy and occasionally a package of sesame snaps).  Yes, you should be judging me right now!! Now I am not admitting to to that everyday but I will admit that it happened more often that it should!

So what’s changed? The best way I can describe it is my blood sugars seem to have stabilized. Whether or not I have the second shake before lunch if it’s a late lunch or after lunch, I am not grabbing whatever is in front of me to get energy fast. I know what I should be eating and I actually enjoy healthy, fresh food. Lunch now consists of salads and chicken or rice bowls with veggies and a can of tuna. Things that I should have been eating all along but was clearly not always able to make good choices. Again, if I had to make an educated guess I would say my calorie intake for lunch is somewhere between 500-600 calories. Best part, no more diet Coke and no more sugary cravings!!

Snack

Like I said above this snack may be before or after lunch depending on my day. Usually it’s on the go and I don’t always have access to a blender. If I have access to a blender, I make a similar shake to the breakfast one. If I don’t, I either mix it in my Infinite Fitness shaker cup, with 8-10 oz of milk (sometimes a combo of 1% and chocolate). Or, I mix it into a cup to a cup and a half of yogurt (so yummy). Throw in some blueberries or a handful of slivered almonds – delicious! Just the milk version alone has 200-250 calories, the perfect snack!

Dinner

Dinner is normal. We have always eaten good dinners and with the kids, even more so. There is always a protein source (chicken, fish, steak), always a salad, usually a starch (rice, potato, occasionally but not often pasta) and usually a cooked vegetable of some sort (sauteed spinach, asparagus, etc). Of course, we still have pizza nights and the occasional treat with the kids (we are human).

So there it is… real food. A typical day in the life of Jessica. None of us are recommending you drink nothing but shakes and certainly just having them with water all the time is not enough. But if it allows me to feel good, make good choices and have more energy, I am ALL IN!

click here to learn more about The 90 Day Challenge

Out of this whole day, there was one amazing thing. I didn’t reach for an afternoon coffee or sweet treat. This isn’t my first day like this, and I am sure you can relate. Days where I feel like I am dragging myself around from appointment to meeting to appointment, etc, I often find myself seeking out an afternoon Vanilla Latte or wondering if any wonderful clients has baked us anything yummy! But today, nothing! My sweet tooth has literally diminished, if not evaporated completely! I’m not craving a diet coke with lunch, I don’t have to talk myself out of buying cookies; I feel completely satisfied and at peace with my appetite! That alone is worth these shakes to me.

Here are some more recipes to try:

Morning Mocha

1 banana

1/3 – 1/2 chocolate milk

1/2 – 2/3 skim milk

1 package Starbucks instant coffee

2 scoops Vi-Shape

blend with ice

Cake Batter Yogurt (delicious)

1 – 1 1/2 cups yogurt (plain or vanilla)

2 scoops Vi-Shape

handful of slivered almonds

Can’t wait to hear what you’ve tried! Anything different you’ve noticed?

Want to learn more about Vi-Shape? Click Here

Honestly, I had the best intentions to blog all week but before I even knew it, here we are Saturday night! Time is flying by, how is it already June.

Anyways, it’s already day 5 and I am still going strong. If anything, I am starting to love the shakes and challenge even more. I feel really good and energetic throughout the day. Now it was a busy week for me, and I certainly don’t recall a lot of downtime, but yesterday night I had a chance to think through my week and I realized that I had no energy dips throughout the day (specifically the post-lunch treat cravings). I have had a shake for breakfast everyday and then usually any where between 10:30 and 12:30 I have another. I eat a healthy lunch between 2 and 3 and dinner between 6 and 7. I am finding that timing works great for my schedule.We have also had a lot of people sign up now, please share what you find works for you.

I haven’t had any struggles with it yet but I’ll be sure to share if I do.

I really wanted to blog about some of the nutrients today. I keep telling you how amazing it is (mix it with some yogurt and it is to die for) but how does it really stack up nutritionally? I also keep saying that it has great nutrition but don’t just take my word, let’s compare it!

Vi-Shape vs Cheerios

A common food many of us have for breakfast is cereal. It’s quick and easy (although usually not cheap). According to the nutrition labels, here’s how the stack up against one another.

Serving Size

• 1 serving of Vi-Shape = 2 scoops (26g)
• 1 serving of cheerios = 1 cup (30g)

Calories per Serving

• Vi-Shape = 90
• Cheerios = 120

Fat

• Vi-Shape = 1g (0g saturated or trans)
• Cheerios = 2g (0.4g saturated)

Carbohydrate

• Vi-Shape = 7g (5g Fibre & <1g sugar)
• Cheerios = 22g (3g Fibre & 1g sugar)

Protein

• Vi-Shape = 12g
• Cheerios = 4g

Cholesterol

• Vi-Shape = 15mg
• Cheerios = 0mg

Sodium

• Vi-Shape = 75mg
• Cheerios = 270mg (can you believe it??)

With less calories, sugars, carbohydrates, fats, sodium and carbohydrate, combined with more protein and fibre. The bodybyvi shake is the clear winner! Not to mention the significantly higher daily recommended percentages of the vitamins and minerals listed in the Vi-Shape versus the cheerios! Both take about the same time to prepare, yet the shake definitely gets you more bang for your buck.

Vi-Shape vs an Egg

Now let’s compare the Vi-Shape to an egg (another incredibly common breakfast food in our society).

Serving Size

• 1 serving of Vi-Shape = 2 scoops (26g)
• Egg = 1

Calories per Serving

• Vi-Shape = 90
• Egg = 80

Fat

• Vi-Shape = 1g (0g saturated or trans)
• Egg = 5g (0g saturated)

Carbohydrate

• Vi-Shape = 7g (5g Fibre & <1g sugar)
• Egg = 0g (0g Fibre & 0g sugar)

Protein

• Vi-Shape = 12g
• Egg = 7g

Cholesterol

• Vi-Shape = 15mg
• Egg = 250mg

Sodium

• Vi-Shape = 75mg
• Egg = 0mg

With this comparison, it looks in some areas, the egg is stronger. But overall it’s not very nutritionally balanced. The shake allows you to properly balance your nutrient intake and includes much needed fibre and carbohydrates.

I’m sure over the next 85 days, I will delve much deeper into the nutrition properities of the bodybyvi shake more but I think this is a great start.

Learn more about the bodybyvi 90 Day Challenge here.