Spark

I was introduced about 2 years ago, by a friend, to a company called Advocare. She had lost several pounds and swore by this drink she called Spark. It not only gave her energy but her child who had ADHD, she claimed gave him mental clarity and the ability to stay focused. Alright, sometimes I swear I have ADD and I sure could use the energy so I would stop falling asleep at my desk (apparently employers frown upon that)… let’s give it a try. I ordered the Spark energy drink, and a five hour type energy drink called Slam. I still giggle thinking about this, the first day I got my drinks in the mail I was dead tired, I needed a quick fix to stay awake because I knew I was going to be having a meeting later that day so I tried the Slam first. WOWzers! I instantly felt alive I was ready to go take on the world, the time came for our meeting and I crashed…hard! I came down off the “high” that I was on and there was no keeping me awake. I did the head bob the entire meeting and my co-workers to this day just laugh about it. My child had been sick and they knew I was tired and new about the drink I had taken so they luckily weren’t upset!  I quickly ditched the rest of those drinks; I couldn’t afford to be in that situation anymore. But, I still wanted to try the Spark because I spent a decent amount of money on this stuff, so the next day, tired again, time for some Spark.

It surprisingly tasted well, I first tried the Fruit Punch, I have since then tried the Strawberry Mango, Grape, Cherry, Tangerine, and Watermelon, and I have liked all but the Tangerine (but I don’t care for Orange flavor, so that isn’t surprising). I also got the exact amount of energy I was looking for! It didn’t give me a rush of energy like the slam had and I wasn’t jittery or anything, I also didn’t crash afterwards like I had on the other drink. It was the perfect amount of energy for the perfect amount of time. I found if I took it too late in the day I would have trouble sleeping at night so I just made sure not to do that! I was also able to quit drinking pop which was a huge accomplishment for me since I would drink like 3 Mountain Dews a day to try and stay awake! If I wasn’t tired a certain day I just didn’t take the Spark, this truly was my miracle drink! I do still take Spark to this day. As I have been working out I find myself being less tired but there are still days that I need an extra little pick me up and it works wonderfully for that.

So, after taking it for several years, why not wait until now to do a little research on it! Here goes nothing… Retail cost is $1.24 per serving (which is less than a pop these days and if I cut out three pops to my one serving of Spark, I guess I am doing pretty well!). It does contain 120 mg of caffeine but there is no sugar, however, there is sucralose which is a non-caloric sweetener, okay, maybe not so well anymore. Sucralose was initially supposed to be a pesticide but after realizing it was so sweet they switched it to an artificial sweetener, it has been approved by the FDA (which really means nothing these days) but it has gone from a safe rating to “caution”.

Overall, Spark seems to be as sketchy as any other energy drink but there are no real side effects or anything that screams direct danger! After looking into a little bit I don’t find it necessary to quit taking Spark immediately but I do think that I may look into some other natural ways to gain energy, be on the lookout for that blog!