By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

As an esthetics entrepreneur and mother of five, Allison Handwork can attest to the difficulty of balancing work, family and a healthy lifestyle. With the opening of her Herbalife Nutrition club Bee You Nutrition, Handwork is hoping to provide busy Baldwinsville families with grab-and-go shakes, teas and snacks.

“I just knew it was the perfect fit for Baldwinsville and something my family and I could do together and turn into a family business,” said Handwork.

Bee You Nutrition is the sister club to Nutrition Fix in Liverpool, which Handwork discovered while working at her esthetic spa, Syracuse Silhouette, where Handwork and her colleague Brianna Stalker offer plasma skin tightening, microblading and other skin and beauty treatments.

“I discovered it because there’s another club that’s very similar to ours right across the street from the salon in Liverpool,” Handwork said. “I have always had a passion for health and wellness and self-care. … I thought this would be perfect to go hand in hand with what I was already doing.”

Like Nutrition Fix and other Herbalife Nutrition clubs, Bee You offers protein shakes, power teas and other on-the-go snacks in a variety of flavors such as Apple Cobbler, Brookie Cookie and Tropical Gangster.

“We use sugar-free add-ins to make the flavors truly taste like the name. The peanut butter cup tastes exactly like a peanut butter cup,” Handwork said.

The base shakes are made with Herbalife’s Formula 1 protein meal replacement shake mix. Bee You also offers power teas that contain caffeine, aloe to aid digestion, and antioxidants. Also available are add-ins for pre- or post-workout boosts, probiotics and collagen supplements to “support skin elasticity and reduce wrinkles,” according to Bee You’s website.

Down the road, Handwork is looking to add doughnuts, waffles and other snacks to the menu.

Handwork said she has found the Baldwinsville business community to be welcoming and B’ville consumers to be eager to try something new.

“We have amazing restaurants in Baldwinsville. This is a totally different option that wasn’t available before,” she said. “Baldwinsville just embraces new businesses and they get excited about new things that come around.”

While protein shakes can be a quick substitute for a meal on-the-go, the Mayo Clinic reminds consumers that meal replacement shakes and related products should not make up your entire diet.

“Meal replacement shakes and products should not replace eating or consuming whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables,” said Anya Guy, a Mayo Clinic dietitian. “If you’re looking to implement these into your diet, talk to your physician or a dietitian about how many you can have per day.”

Guy also recommends looking for products that are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals, and avoiding items with a high sugar content.

According to the Mayo Clinic, meal replacement systems can help people lose weight in the short term but “likely won’t teach you how to change your overall lifestyle.”

“Balance is possible if you make healthy meal choices,” reads the meal replacement section on the Mayo Clinic’s page about weight loss.

Bee You Nutrition is located at 56 Oswego St. in the village of Baldwinsville. Operating hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Visit beeyounutrition.com or facebook.com/Beeyounutrition for more information.