Hello lovelies! If you aren’t following me on Instagram, which you should be btw, you probably missed that I’ve been on the Absorb Plus shakes for about a week and a half now. I had a follow up with my nutritionist yesterday and I wanted to share how it went for those of you who might be interested!

First off, I have gained five pounds already … yes … it blew my mind too. I have energy ALL day and I am fuller than I would be eating regular food. I don’t get dizzy every single time I stand up and my focus is amazing to say the least. I don’t fall asleep in the middle of the day (which is super odd for me typically), and I don’t feel sick or weak while working out. My muscles are recovering so quickly after workouts and I’m not as sore after horseback riding!

That all being said, there have been some downsides. My fissure (if you don’t have IBD please don’t google this lol), is quite sore, my tongue gets very dry, I have seen a return of cystic acne, and if I drink a shake too quickly and too soon before bed it makes me nauseous. My nutritionist commented that it is most likely my body detoxifying. If I’m seeing a return of my energy and weight, they are obviously helping me! None of the problems I’m having have bothered me very much and in fact, they’re starting to get better. I recommend taking warm baths if you have fissures … or in general to relax! You’ll also most likely need to up your water intake. I didn’t realize, but I haven’t been drinking as much water because I’m drinking liquid for meals. It’s so important to drink more water than usual to help the detoxification process and help your liver!

I’ve heard from others that the shakes made them extremely nauseous too. My guess is the sugar and stevia are to blame. Typically I avoid maltodextrin and stevia at all costs. These are known to cause inflammation in the gut. However, the shake is absorbed in the stomach, before reaching the intestines, so it ultimately gives your intestines a complete break for however long you do the elemental diet. I haven’t felt any pain in my intestines this entire time.

Some tips if you’re thinking about doing this diet:

1. It’s hella expensive. However … I do encourage you to buy in bulk if you can. My nutritionist gave me a 40% off 20+ tubs coupon. ASK your doctor if they have a code. 40% off is too good to pass up. Also, ASK FOR FREE SAMPLES. My nutritionist sent me six minis to try and make sure they didn’t upset my stomach before I bought all the tubs.

2. Ask for unsweetened samples. These have 4g sugar rather than the 10g the regular kind has. I found that having a regular shake in the morning and at dinner was much easier for my body to process than having regular all day. Too much sugar too many times a day made me extremely nauseous. I have two unsweetened shakes in between the regulars and one before bed so I’m not going to sleep loaded up on sugar.

3. Talk to your nutritionist about this, but you should be adding some high quality oil to your shake to help your body absorb it properly. No you cannot taste it. I add in organic unrefined flax oil and sometimes a little bit of ground flax meal.

4. Using almond milk instead of water gives you more calories and makes it more creamy … and in my opinion, taste better. Only use unsweetened original, NO added sugars!

5. Get a glass blender bottle. Plastic is horrendous for you, especially if you leave it in the heat. The glass Blender Bottle brand bottle is almost exactly the same price as the plastic y’all.

6. Be prepared to have to blend some of the flavors. I ordered Caramel Toffee and it’s extremely sweet and tends to get chunkier than the other flavors. I pop this one in my Ninja blender to whir it up.

7. The flavors I ordered are: Unsweetened Chocolate, Mocha Latte (Vegan), Caramel Toffee, and Unsweetened Vanilla Brûlée (Vegan.) I make sure I alternate vegan and the regular whey tubs so I don’t become intolerant to the milk base. Having too much of something is not great … even if they’re elemental shakes lol!

8. I LOVE mixing and matching, and no I haven’t gotten tired of the flavors yet. The Caramel and Vanilla are very sweet in my opinion, so if you don’t like that then try mixing them together and adding some cinnamon! The Chocolate and Mocha are my favorites!

I hope this is helpful to anyone thinking about doing the shakes! I know it seems expensive, but you don’t eat anything else the entire time and they truly fill you up and help so much so to me it’s definitely turned out to be worth it. I plan on saving the extra tubs to use as supplements to my diet when I’m eating solid food again!