How I Lost 28lbs in 5 Months – My Review of Optavia and Valentus SlimROAST Optimum Coffee

This is an update to my review of using Optavia and Valentus SlimROAST Optimum Coffee. I’m sharing my honest opinions of what I’ve experienced and learned over the last almost 5 months about my weight loss journey and hopefully this will help you too. This is completely unbiased, I’m laying it all out.

For the last 6 years I have struggled with weight management. I firmly believe this has been due to breast implant illness, but that’s a whole different story. Today, I wanted to share what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for me in losing and keeping the weight off. I’m not sharing any links in this post, because I’m not affiliated with or getting paid to share this info, however, feel free to email or DM me with any questions or advice you have.

I’ve tried keto, portion control, Intermittent Fasting with keto and they were only short term losses FOR ME. That’s not to say these don’t work, they absolutely work if you have the experience and knowledge to follow this program CORRECTLY AND have the time to prepare meals and cook. As a busy mom of four, I do NOT have time for any of these let alone working out.

I was desperate to lose weight…42lbs to be exact. It wasn’t for vanity, although, it did help me gain confidence knowing that my clothes fit better. Nah, it was for health reasons. I have several autoimmune diseases that I needed to tame from “flaring up” and my doctor said it was necessary for me to lose a lot of weight. My start weight was 162lbs at 5’3″.

I was able to lose 20lbs in my first 4 months of starting the Optavia program. The first 4 days were difficult because you needed to follow their plan, and when you’ve lived years with all sorts of experimenting plans or not having a plan at all – the change is shocking. It also helped me detox which caused a horrible headache, but was good after taking Ibuprofen. The plan was to drink 16oz of water upon rising, then eating your first Optavia fueling within one hour (preferably 30 minutes). Then, you had to eat 4 more fuelings every 2.5 to 3 hours and at dinner time it was what they called a Lean and Green meal (pretty much a chicken salad or some of the approved Trader Joe’s frozen foods). You also MUST drink between 60 – 100 ounces of water each day (for fat burn purposes).

Here was my schedule:
6:30am – Wake up and drink 16.9 ounces of water that I laid out on the night stand to drink as soon as I got up
7:00am – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
10:00am – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
1:00pm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
4:00pm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
6:30pm – Eat Lean and Green Meal that I make myself (it ends up being a grilled chicken salad or ground beef salad or protein w/ salad) with 8 ounces of sparkling water (instead of drinking soda)
7:30pm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling as my dessert with 16.9 ounces of water

Total Water Intake: 109.4 ounces

I did this everyday for 4 months straight and lost 20 lbs total (averaging about 5 lbs per month). It also got rid of my inflammation on my face and body and gave me a TON of energy! I felt like I was on top of the world!

Does it work? YES! And it sets your brain and body up for a consistent routine of healthy habits that it had forgotten about all those years. And each Fueling is filled with vitamins and nutrients that your body needs to transform, which is how it helps you to keep the weight off. I also loved that there was a Facebook group of others in the program and can relate and share tips, ideas, and recipes. And Optavia even has tons of Pinterest pins of Lean and Green recipes that can help add some fun to your daily dinner routine. The other plus is having a Coach that walks you thru the process, hops on a call with you each week to help you stay accountable, and helps you answer any questions you have. They also provided books on gaining healthy habits and weekly Conference Calls. Oh! And there’s a Customer Service email and phone number you can call with any questions pertaining to what certain foods are approved to eat during the program.

But here are the cons of being on the Optavia program…

1. It’s very expensive — $375 to $450 PER MONTH. You need to purchase 20-22 boxes of Fuelings with Optavia to be able to accomplish 5 fuelings per day. I was desperate for change and had the extra money to spend to lose the weight, so I paid it and it has been worth every penny. But unfortunately, not everyone can or is willing to spend this much.

I will say, when you compare this program to Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem, it’s way less expensive and worked the best out of all of them in losing the most amount of weight. But for someone who cooks at home and doesn’t buy meal prep meals each week — it might be hard to swallow. I guess you have to ask yourself how badly you want to change and lose the weight knowing the program is super easy to do as long as you follow it.

2. Some of the fuelings taste bland and not very good, and some have an acquired taste that you eventually get used to. Everybody has different tastes too. For example, some of the Fuelings I thought tasted yummy, my sister-in-law couldn’t stomach. I guess to each their own, right?! Haha!

3. You must follow the program to a ‘T’ to get your body into the “fat burn” stage. The moment you eat off plan or outside of the approved Lean and Green foods, your body gets off fat burn and you don’t lose as much weight or plateau. Also, it will take at least 3 days for your body to get back into “fat burn” stage after not following the plan. This truly takes commitment and resistance to bad foods. It’s not easy, but it’s also not hard.

Over the last month, I decided to become a rebel. This is now month 5 (the whole month of September). I decided to try Valentus SlimROAST Optimum Coffee because everybody swore by it working with weight loss. So every morning I drank Valentus (Bulletproof Coffee style with Collagen Peptide Powder and Ghee Butter from Trader Joe’s). I also did Intermittent Fasting and ate my Optavia Fuelings during a set time window.

Here’s what THAT schedule looked like…

6:30am – Wake up and drink 16.9 ounces of water that I laid out on the night stand to drink as soon as I got up
7:00am – Drink 8 ounces of Valentus SlimROAST Optimum Coffee with 1 Tbsp Collagen Peptide Powder and 1 Tbsp Ghee Butter
7:00am – 12:00pm: INTERMITTENT FASTING
12:00ppm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
3:00pm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling with 16.9 ounces of water
6:00pm – Eat Lean and Green Meal that I make myself (it ends up being a grilled chicken salad or ground beef salad or protein w/ salad) with 8 ounces of sparkling water (instead of drinking soda)
8:00pm – Eat 1 Optavia Fueling as my dessert with 16.9 ounces of water

Total Water Intake: 75.6 ounces

In the 30 days I followed this revised plan, I was able to eat less fuelings (which saved me SOME money, not a lot, but some) and I lost MORE weight than I did with Optavia (8lbs!!!). I should also reiterate that the Optavia plan truly helped me to kick bad eating habits and followed a consistent amount of calories to portion control once I sort of switched up the program.

I don’t think you should try this on your own right off the bat, especially if you have the tendency to yo-yo diet and have a history of poor eating habits. I say this because Valentus is meant to help curb your appetite, give you energy and give you focus. It eliminates cravings! But once you stop drinking the coffee and if you don’t have a solid foundation in place to keep the weight off, you will gain all the weight back.

At the same time, if you’re on a budget (one tub of Valentus Coffee lasts one month and is $60 or $67 with shipping) and desperately want to lose weight and want to meal plan on your own – Valentus SlimROAST Optimum Coffee definitely works when incorporated with a low calorie/portion controlled diet and exercise.

I probably could have lost more weight if I also incorporated exercise. Unfortunately, I have been dealing with chronic pain and debilitating fatigue due to breast implant illness and haven’t been able to workout, but after surgery, I will definitely work on getting back into shape!

The photo featured in this post was me back in early September 2019 at a size 4 in bottoms! My original size upon starting the Optavia program was a size 12-14. 7 weeks have now passed since I switched and I’ve actually lost more weight since this photo at a whopping 28lbs!!! *HIGH FIVE!*

I have also transitioned completely off of Optavia for almost 4 weeks now, which saves me over $300. I plan to continue using Valentus Coffee until I reach my weight loss goals, which is only 14lbs left! YAY!

Also, I love Valentus Coffee so much that I am seriously considering selling it through my store. You all know my stance on direct marketing and MLM companies, right? I don’t want to do most of them even if they have great products because I do not like many of their marketing tactics and they always end up rubbing me the wrong way with their salesy adding into their Facebook groups without permission or inbox messaging as soon as they friend request me (even though they don’t know me) asking to buy or join their program. But Valentus is different, they’re only 5 years old and they have not pushed, pressured or rubbed me the wrong way at all. Huge brownie points for that, Valentus! I believe in it so much and have seen my own amazing results just in the last month that I want to be able to offer it up for others to buy too, since you can only buy through a Distributor. But I’ll worry about that after my explant surgery!

Hope you enjoyed my review – please comment below on what has worked for you with your weight loss management.