Living Nourished Lives

Here I am finally sitting down to write a post about the new Multi-Taskers that Shaklee began introducing at the beginning of this year. I realize that we are at the end of July already, but I am a believer in the saying: Better Late than Never! The whole concept behind the Multi-Taskers is to get more out of one product and to bring health to more people. Let’s face it, there are some that come to choosing healhty options reluctantly. I was one of those….and not because I didn’t care about health. I believe that the desire for health was born into my DNA. My grandmother believed in pursuing health. I never had an opportunity to speak with her about it, but she had given my Mom a subscription to “Prevention” magazine when I was a toddler. I’m sure even she did not know what an impact that would have on her grandchildren’s lives. You see, even my mother had an inborn desire for health. She took to heart what she read in those magazine articles (later she ended up seeing that the articles seemed to be more watered down as the years went by). But apparently those early issues had a lot to say about the detrimental effects of sugar. This led to sugar being kicked out of our house. Literally. We didn’t even have an occasional “cheat”….well, maybe my father did when we’d see him with a piece of chocolate and he’d tell us, “I need to test this to see if it has sugar.” We understood the sarcasm in what he was saying. However, I took our family policy of “no sugar” very matter of fact and very seriously. I did feel a little awkward when I couldn’t have one of those bright orange or red popsicles that the other kids got for getting good grades at my school. However, I really believed it was better for me not to have sugar and because I’d never had a store bought popsicle (and my mom always gave me a home made fruit juice popsicle at home), I wasn’t really feeling like I was missing anything. We still had sweets, but only if they were sweetened with fruit juice, honey or pure maple syrup, which meant we had to make our treats from scratch. It wasn’t until middle school that the peer pressure was a bit more than I could take and my Mom let me start eating the “regular” school lunch. I mean, before that, even white bread was off limits, not just because it had bleached, processed flour, but mostly because it had sugar in it. My Mom had one brand of bread that she bought that sweetened their whole wheat bread with honey. Other than that, my Mom made our bread from wheat that she ground in her Magic Mill flour mill. Do I make my own bread? No, but I still couldn’t bring myself to get rid of my Mom’s flour mill when she downsized last year. Maybe some day I will make my own bread, but I personally try to limit my carbohydrate intake, and I’ve heard that modern wheat is significantly modified from the wheat of centuries ago…so I might not ever make my own bread. My Mom hasn’t made her own bread in years now. She just doesn’t eat bread of any kind anymore. However, I knew that flour mill was something significant from my past, a symbol of our family’s quest for health and not something easily replaced in today’s world, so I took it home when my Mom was wanting to donate it.

As for supplementing, I didn’t believe it was necessary or beneficial. I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say, I had a VERY bad experience in my teens when my Mom was trying to help me with my health and I had come back from our chiropractor with a box full of bottles of herbs. When I started taking them, I got a horrible migraine almost immediately and because it lasted for a day or two, I decided that I no longer wanted to take any of those pills or any other pills for that matter. That aversion stayed with me until I was struggling with my 7th pregnancy. You can read more about that in “My Story”. You could say, I was reluctant to trust anything in pill form that was meant to help my health. This is what I mean when I say that the Multi-Taskers are meant to help bring Shaklee Quality health products to people who normally would be reluctant to take anything in the form of a pill…for whatever reason. Others probably have a different reason than I did, but there are plenty of people out there that need the health benefits that Shaklee’s purity, potency, and science can offer to them, but have an aversion or preference that has difficulty with tablets or capsules… just like I did. The Multi-Taskers cover more than one task/benefit….AND only one is in a capsule format. They are mostly drink sticks and one is in a gummy format. The tasks are things that we commonly need help with. The Shaklee website has facts and info about each one, so here, I will just briefly introduce and share my experience with each one.

First, Up & Glowing is meant to help get your day to a great start and I have to say that when I added it to my morning Life Shake or just had it by itself first thing, I did feel like my morning was just a bit brighter. And as I have passed age 50, I absolutely know I can use quality collagen, biotin (a more costly supplement), and hyaluronic acid for my skin, nails, and hair and it does have the additional 9th essential amino acid that collegen itself lacks, so it is complete just like Shaklee’s Collegen 9, allowing the body to form any protein it needs. It is non-dairy, so people needing a dairy free latte can still use it. It even has healthy fat in the form of dry MCT oil. Honestly the only “down” side is that I like coffee and when I hear Vanilla Latte, coffee comes to my mind. This is definitely not that. There is no coffee in it. It honestly just has a mild vanilla taste. It can be easily added into any Life Shake without altering the taste substantially. However, that means that it doesn’t have a really strong taste on its own, just slightly sweet and vanilla tasting. I’m not an expert on horchata, but if you added a little cinnamon, it might even taste like horchata.

You could probably even add it with Good Gut & Go, the second Multi-Tasker I have to talk about. Good Gut & Go is honestly one of my favorite Multi-Taskers….all around, good taste and good benefits. I really like that the prebiotic is combined in one convenient drink stick with powerhouse probiotics. It makes taking the pre-biotic so much simpler. Don’t get me wrong. I do like Shaklee’s stand alone Pre-biotic. I feel that sometimes that is all we need to help our existing microbiota to flourish, so I absolutely appreciate having the prebiotic powder available in a stand alone product so that those good guy microbiota have the food they need to really thrive. And if I’m not eating a lot of fruits and veggies, or I have kiddos that are “allergic” to fruits and veggies, it is a lifesaver for good gut health. But opening the drink stick and pouring the pre and probiotic powder into water at once is so convenient, that it makes taking it more likely to happen, even when I’m super busy. The natural raspberry flavor is refreshing and I definitely have enjoyed adding this to my health arsenal. I especially like that it helps me drink more water because drinking enough water each day is something I truly struggle with.

Flora & Flow is the third Multi-Tasker designed with women in mind and the only Multi-Tasker in capsule form. It is essentially a cousin to Good Gut and Go because it brings additional good microbiota to the vaginal and urinary tracts. Even though it is a capsule, inside, it is essentially a powder, so just like with Shaklee’s Optiflora DI capsules, I have opened the capsule and added it to my cold drinks. In this sense, you could even open the capsule and add it in with your Good Gut & Go drink! In fact, I just took a break and tried it. It tasted the same. The Flora & Flow did take a bit longer to mix into the water, I think that was because it was coming from a capsule where it is more compacted than the powder in the Good Gut & Go drink mix sticks. I like that it also contains lactoferrin which is an immune booster found in human breastmilk. This product seems like it would be very beneficial to take during pregnancy or if you tend to get yeast or urinary tract infections. Unfortunately I haven’t taken this exclusively for a whole month’s time to be able to share any perceived benefits, but I know that Shaklee cleanly delivers what the label says to the area of the body it is designed for, and so I have liked to rotate Shaklee’s different probiotic products that they offer so that I am regularly adding new good bacteria recruits from a variety of strains. Shaklee guarantees that you get the amount of live probiotics on the label, where they are meant to live, not just that the probiotics are live and present in the product at the time of manufacture. That’s why I trust and use Shaklee’s probiotics. Normally I don’t take 2 different Shaklee probiotic products on the same day, However, if I were dealing with a particular issue like warts or a yeast infection, I certainly would strive to take a morning and evening dose.

The fourth Multi-Tasker comes in my favorite form….a gummy and is called Cheer Up & Chill Out. I even like the name! Who doesn’t have stress today? We live in a 24/7 world where electric lights help keep our days longer, year round. And stress is that silent killer. I like the natural strawberry flavor, and I especially like that it includes 2 key B vitamins along with L-Theanine, Ashwagandha Root Extract and Saffron Extract. When it comes to stress, Shaklee’s tablet B-complex is an extraordinary product when it comes to replenishing those B vitamins that get depleted by stress, but they are tablets and because B vitamins are water soluable, they aren’t stored by the body….so you need to consume them regularly. With all the stress that we tend to encounter in our daily lives, is it any wonder that we need a steady supply of B vitamins! In “complex” (more than one B vitamin) is best since that is how B vitamins are found in nature. So, I really appreciate having an additional option for dealing with stress that doesn’t involve needing a glass of water on hand to take. For this reason, a packet of these new Stress reducing and Mood boosting gummies is definitely something I want to keep on hand.

This Brings me to the 5th and final Multi-Tasker: Rest & Rewind. I do really like this one for a bit of comforting, pre-bedtime relaxation. It is a drink mix that I like best mixed with hot water for a minty relaxing bedtime tea. I like that it doesn’t just give relaxing ingredients like magnesium, natural lemon balm, and 5-HTP all to help with falling asleep and staying asleep, but it also has anti-aging polyphenols and effective antioxidants which work together to optimize the repair that your body does as you sleep. It actually has some of the same polyphenols as Shaklee’s amazing anti-aging Vivix! The mild minty taste is so soothing and the natural non-sugar sweetener is just enough to allow me to really enjoy having this cup of tea. And normally I don’t drink much tea. Which is probably in part why I like Rest & Rewind so much, because I don’t have to wait for it to “steep”….get distrtacted while it’s steeping, only to find my cup almost completely cooled by the time I return to it. With Rest & Rewind, I heat up some water in my Keurig, add the packet, stir, and I’m ready to sit and start winding down. Sleep is so vital to our wellbeing. I truly believe that other than supplementing with one of Shaklee’s multivitamins and one of their protein products, just getting enough regular, quality sleep (with little to no lights in the room or a sleep mask) is the next most positive habit that you can do to ensure that your body has the ability to do all of the repair that it needs to do to keep you in good health. From what I have learned over the years, the hours before midnight are considered the most beneficial and 7.5 hours is what you need to go through five, 90 minute sleep cycles (some say adults have 4-6 cycles each being between 80 and 110 minutes and they suggest paying attention to your body’s clues as to whether you feel refreshed after 7.5, or 8 hours, or more and adjust your bedtime and waketime accordingly). I learned that poor sleep habits can significantly increase your risk of Alzheimer’s. Why? Lack of enough sleep is so detrimental to your mental health because the body always starts with “Sleep Cycle One” before moving on to “Two,” “Three,” etc. And guess what gets repaired in the last sleep cycle? Your brain. So if you miss that last 90 minute cycle because you went to bed too late to be able to sleep 7.5 hours, it is your brain that doesn’t get repaired that night. Do that night after night and it snowballs. And guess what, your brain takes care of so much, so your overall health just cannot afford to miss that 5th sleep cycle!!! Opening the window to let in natural sunlight instead of flipping on a light switch, or better yet, going outside first thing in the morning to get sunshine without glass filtering it, does wonders to help wake the mind in a natural, non-jarring way and helps to set your internal clock.

Take a look and see if any of the Multi-Taskers might appeal to you for your health needs and at the same time, allow you to accomplish two things at once… To your health!