dads are picky eaters

My dad happens to be a notoriously picky eater. I wasn't sure he'd even try ShakeO, let alone be making sure he was set up to have it shipped to him every month. See, my old man grew up in the midwest, where meat + (white) potatoes reign (+ a side of vegetables), + that means he won't even look at an avocado or kale unless it's on my plate or my mothers (where it belongs!). Dad doesn't do vegan...one time my mom said I could make him dinner since she wouldn't be there + his response was "Yeah...but Alexis makes Alexis food..." Womp womp. (To be fair, that is somewhat true, I can't even look at a piece of meat so whatever he really would have wanted was pretty much out of the question.)

But it turns out that he's serious about losing weight, + because of a condition he has with his back that means no workouts...which means looking at nutrition. The lucky part of that is nutrition is about 80% of any weight loss battle.

My dad knows this because his degree (from back in the stone ages...haha, get it? He's old!) is in sports management + fitness. So when I say his nutrition is lacking, I don't mean he eats tons of junk, but he is admittedly addicted to sugar (welcome to America, here's your soda + your diabetes) + tends to look to that when he's had a stressful day as a comfort.

Also, his spinal condition puts him in crippling pain 90% of the time, with the other 10% just being really really bad pain (hence the no workouts thing). While we wait for him to get treatment for that, keeping him healthy otherwise is a priority, + lucky for us that matches up with his weight loss goals.

Get healthier + the weight tends to drop off.

So even after initially not caring for the way his first shake turned out (sometimes it takes some tweaking how you make it to arrive at the texture or flavours that work for you, just like anything else, we're all different. I put ice in my parents' shakes when I make them because that works for them, where I prefer no ice at all, let's hear it for individuality!), he wanted to stick with it. He liked the flavor, after all, + even asked me if his monthly order would be automatic (Hello, what, who are you?). Then just a few days in he walked in + told me he could tell his sugar cravings were already curbed, he just wasn't really feeling the need. Then he told me how it's usually a struggle not to cave + pick up a soda + his favorite candy bar, Mounds, on his daily grocery store trip on his way home from work...but he just hasn't wanted it.

This is huge to me (+ my dad, obviously) for a couple reasons, but mostly because I've genuinely never known my dad not addicted to soda. Even when I was growing up, he was this marathon runner that would have a soda almost every day...+ some form of chocolate. Well, now he's getting his chocolate fix from Shakeology + loving it. So I created this little Mounds-inspired recipe for him, + he loved it! He's not the most expressive, but I can tell you that "this is actually really good" means "this is the best" in Wayne-speak. Wink wink. 

Wayne's ShakeO Mounds Bar Recipe:

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk 
• ½ cup canned coconut milk
• 1 scoop/packet vegan chocolate Shakeology
• 1 generous tablespoon shredded or powdered unsweetened coconut
• 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
• ½ to 1 cup crushed ice (if you have an amazing blender a handful of cubes will probably do it)

Put everything in a blender + let it go until smooth + creamy! I like pouring mine into blender bottles even when I made them in the blender, maybe because most of mine are actually brightly colored...but as long as your cup holds your shake any one will do! So pour it + like we always say, try not to drink it too terribly fast.