This product review is written by a friend of mine.  She is an avid crossfitter, teacher, and yoga addict and truly believes in only putting super healthy foods in her body.  I asked her to help me with this product review and below are her findings with the products.  Herbalife was kind enough to send us the entire line of products for athletes,  “Nutrition for the 24 Hour Athlete”.

The kind people at Herbalife sent me a box full of a variety of their line of their “24” products for athletes. These products use fructose and have no artificial sweeteners added. This could be big selling point for some, or a put off for others. I used the Hydrate product, which is high in electrolytes and vitamin C to keep hydrated before or during a workout. It tasted good and mixed easily. The other 2 products I enjoyed were the Rebuild strength and the Formula 1 meal replacement. The chocolate Rebuild strength tasted like chocolate cake, delicious. My husband thought it was too sweet for first thing in the morning but I loved it. But with 24 grams of protein and 14 grams of sugar, it might be too much sugar for many athletes. The Formula 1 meal replacement was also delicious. I had the vanilla flavor. It has 9 grams of protein and 9 grams of sugar per serving, a little too low in protein for a meal, so I used it more as a snack. These seem to be good quality products, taste great and mix easily. I’m not sure how they stack up in price because these were sent to me to review and to order them you have to go through a Herbalife rep. So I was not able to price them on-line. If you are avoiding artificial sweeteners, and the amount of sugar is ok for your training goals, these might be good products for you.

Thank you, Herbalife for providing us with all these products to try!

To learn more about Herbalife, please visit their website, here.

P.S. FTC, these products were provided for free and the opinion in authentic.

[Read more →]

For the past few months, I’ve been on a shoe search for the perfect CrossFit shoe. Most of my friends utilize the Inov-8′s, converse or some other random running shoe, however, most of my friends agree that none are completely perfect. In any given workout, we could be lifting heavy weight off the floor {Deadlifts} or Box Jumping or Sprinting or even lifting heavy weight that requires some precise foot movements such as squat cleans. In a perfect world, I’d wear only my Olympic lifting shoes for anything that requires heavy lifting, racing flats for sprint workouts and a good cross trainer for everything in between. And, the hunt continues…

So, I have a true story to share with you. I’ve always been a New Balance fan, so recently, I wrote to New Balance using their standard customer service form and asked them if they had a CrossFit shoe! This began a very helpful and intelligent string of emails with customer service and how they do have a new shoe called the Minimus that they are marketing for CrossFitters! Then, just two days later, I received an email from New Balance’s PR representative telling me about the new Minimus and would I like to try them for purposes of review on my blog!! It was my lucky day!

The New Balance Minimus is designed for cross training with or without socks. They are a very lightweight, flat soled shoe that has a really cute pink accent trim. These shoes have been designed also for the barefoot technology in a very minimal approach to running that is very popular now.

How did they work for me?

Well, they work great for box jumping, I love lifting in them, I can throw wall balls and do burpees. They are cute, lightweight and easy to wear. My one main problem with them is that I can’t run in them. They are simply too flat. This is not the fault of New Balance, it’s mine. I haven’t yet learned how to run using more of a barefoot style running – meaning less heel strike and more on the balls of the feet. When I run in these shoes, even for a short distance, I feel like I need more support in the soles. But, for everything else that I do in CrossFit, they work great- even pushing heavy sleds!

Would I recommend them?

Heck yes! They are a great all around good cross training shoe that is reasonably priced, easy to obtain, and of high quality.

How many of you have had good experiences with New Balance?!

FTC- New Balance provided me with these shoes and the above opinion is my own.

[Read more →]

This past month, I’ve had the amazing pleasure of trying out lots of new products that I’d love to share with you about. The all fall under the category of either “Fitness or Food” and all of them, I’ve loved.

Manduka eQua Plus Towel

From the website (since they can say it better than me):

My opinion? A beautiful addition to any yoga practice or for post-workout recovery stretching. Highly recommend as a gift for your favorite yogi!

Weight Watchers Fresh Meals

Weight Watchers has a whole new fresh selection of choices available in your local (hopefully) section of the supermarket! They were kind enough to send me a variety of their new selections. My husband and I both enjoyed the chicken salad the best while my children loved the pasta dishes!

Murad Wants to Send My Skin To Reform School!!

Murad sent me a cute little lunch box, thermos, Complete Reform and a notebook. I’m always up for trying new skin care products, but, rarely notice differences in my skin —-unless serious breakouts occur! How many of you can detect differences in your skin when you change skin care regimes? I simply added this product to my line-up of a variety of skin care products just to see how’d it go. According to Murad’s website, this product is supposed to increase firmness and allow you to have softer, smoother skin. I did notice my skin feeling softer, and I did enjoy the smell of the product and how easy it was to put on, however, I didn’t notice any visible signs of “firmness”. Maybe when I run out, I’ll notice a difference?!

That’s it for the moment. All of the above products were given to me for purposes of review, and the above opinions are my own.

[Read more →]

The Mrs. has charged me, her betrothed for the last almost 11 blissful years, to write an opinion on a beverage sample that she received for review a week or two ago. Cascade Ice, by Unique Beverage Co. supplied two flavors of product: Strawberry Lemonade, and Orange Mango. Both were similar as composition and nutritional specifics were concerned, containing 1% pear juice, citric acid, some natural (unspecified) flavorings in carbonated water, and sweetened with sucralose. A massive 2 (two) calories were included in 17.2 (why 17.2? and who puts 2.2 servings per container?) ounces. The drink does not include any caffeine.

These samples sat in the refrigerator for a few days before I couldn’t take it any longer, and had at them. FitMom has made carbonated soft drinks as rare around here as Snickers bars, and the Paleo thing (though I must admit that seeing my abs at 46 look better than they did at 26 is cool) is not always the tastiest diet (some notable exceptions). So I drank the Strawberry Lemonade first, and took the Orange mango to work for lunch. I was told that technically, the drinks fit into the paleo and zone diets. Therefore, I drank them without guilt. I also assume that I will not die prematurely from ingesting sucralose, so if you’re on one of those no sweeteners of any sort kicks, then go enjoy yourself as best you can, and stop reading here.

Now, my opinion… I loved this stuff. Maybe because when I was a kid, my parent’s idea of a healthy snack was Coke and potato chips (so I have a warped sweet tooth), or because I like carbonation and a drink that is less likely to rot my teeth. Whatever the reason, it tastes good, and I’d buy it. If it’s Paleo, great, if not, so what. I don’t always drink 1% fruit juice containing sparkling water, but when I do, I’ll drink as much of this stuff as they can Fed Ex me.

Thanks to FitMom for allowing me to guest blog, and thanks (in advance) to the wonderful people at Cascade Ice (and their marvelous parent company, Unique Beverages LLC) for providing more flavors to review.

Paul

P.S. Cascade Ice was provided to us for purposes of review and this is obviously an honest opinion from the hubby!

[Read more →]

I love having the opportunities to work with big companies to promote exciting workout apparel for women. These are the newest pant offered by Fila called the Body Toning System. They are designed to tone, sculpt and make your booty look amazing. In addition, the resistance in the pants is supposed to make your legs work harder.

What’s cool about them is that they are a thicker, (THANK YOU) workout pant- cold morning runs, all day low temperature PE classes are prefect for these pants. Yoga pants are as far as I am concerned not ever warm enough- so I was happy for that. They look really nice on- feels like a dressed up version of my sweat pants or yoga pants.

What’s not so cool about these (at least for me) is that they really do GRIP your quads and were very snug on me. After a several days of wearing them, they did feel like a workout in a pant! I also would have preferred another inch or two in the length (socks showing, not cool).

Has anybody tried these pants yet? What did you think of them?

You can purchase your own Body Toning Pants on Fila for $55 and at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

[Read more →]

About a month ago, I posted that I was testing Nitrean and Opticen. It is now one week past my competition, and I can honestly say that these products have helped tremendously.

Number one, is that both can be mixed in water easily and still taste good! Number two, if I don’t have time for a meal immediately following a workout, I’ll use the Opticen (2 scoops mixed with 16-20 ounces of water). This is obviously not ideal {real food is always better} but when I’m rushing, I’m happy with the Opticen. Additionally it does seem to help with muscle soreness significantly! With the exception of one very recent workout {of like 90 back squats at 95 pounds}, I have been a heck of a lot less sore!  Finally, I’ve had one huge PR in the last month!  My Dead Lift PR went from 185 to 210!!

The one product that didn’t work for me was the ETS supplement, although, I’ve read that magnesium and zinc would help with muscle soreness, I found for my body, the dosage may have been too much for my small woman’s frame or something…I just didn’t like how bad I smelled after taking it for a few days–even after I reduced the dose by half, I still smelled horrendous post workout. That’s not to say that it was the product, but, once I stopped taking it, I did stop smelling like a dump truck.

So far, these products {Nitrean and Opticen} are working for me and I’ll continue to repurchase.

You can read more about the products here.

P.S. Opticen and ETS were given to me for the purposes of review. I am stating my honest opinion and nobody is paying me for this review.

[Read more →]

This is a follow-up post to my original post “The One Barbell Bra”.

Pictured above is the Henna Day Bra by Isis For Women. This is one of the One Barbell Bras featured on Title Nine’s site and my own as a good choice for those of us who are in the “small handful” category!?!

What did I love about it?

The fit–it’s adjustable (bra straps and back closure)!    This bra did not chafe, pinch or ride up or slide down anywhere!?!?!

The material:  Thick enough to offer coverage but light enough to offer “breath ability” during a workout.

What didn’t I love about it?!

The colors are beautiful, however, I’d love one in a neutral color!

Overall, this bra does what it says and I would definetly recommend it to you all! Even better is that this is not an expensive bra.  It’s on sale now for $24 on Title Nine and retails for $32.

Comments, thoughts or suggestions?! I’d love to hear them.

For the FTC:  This bra was sent to me for purposes of review, nobody paid me to write this review and my opinions are my own.

[Read more →]

Yes, it is true, I got to try Living Fuel’s newest products: Coco Chia Snack Fuel Mix and Coco Chia Sustained Energy Fuel Bar. My kids and I love trying new products especially food products! If you missed it, I’ve already reviewed the Living Fuel’s Living Protein Powder and the Double Chocolate Chia Bars (loved those).

Of the two products, we (my husband and I) liked the CocoChia Snack Mix the best. There’s only three ingredients: raw organic coconut, chia seeds and Therasweet. In one snack mix, there are 12 grams of fat (the good kinds), 10 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of protein. This snack goes great with plain greek yogurt as a snack on it’s own or on pretty much anything! Although, I couldn’t really get my kids to eat it too much…they just weren’t interested.



This bar is also really great as far as ingredients goes…Raw organic almond butter, raw organic coconut and chia seeds are the main ingredients. The Cocochia bar is great for diabetics, athletes and dieters. With *8 net carbs, 7 grams of protein and 14 grams of fat, this bar would work for me with an additional side of protein and carbs- such as an apple and a slice of deli meat. We didn’t like this one much as the double chocolate chia bar, but, it’s still really tasty.

Living Fuel’s products can be found online or possibly at your local health food store!

Thank you Living Fuel for sending me these awesome products to try! I am impressed.

[Read more →]

Going through the drive through at Starbucks with your kids?! How many of you buy chocolate milk for your kids?   Kids love chocolate milk!  Something about the brown cow and 50 grams (?!!) of sugar will make any kid jump in circles!

My kids and I have had the amazing pleasure of sampling X Balance Total Nutrition Drink Mix!! It’s quoted as saying “The Healthiest Chocolate Milk on Earth!”   After mixing 1 scoop of powder with 1-2 ounces of water and then adding 4-9 ounces of milk, this drink tastes AS GOOD AS CHOCOLATE MILK!!  The skeptic that I am (and after reading the long ingredient list) my workout buddy and I had to test it first.  Then, we gave it to our kids – all four of them under the age of 6.  Of the four, three loved it!  My youngest, who is the serious chocolate milk drinker,  in the family wasn’t fooled and didn’t like it.   However, when I mix it up and add it to sippy cup, it goes down just fine.  There is no chance that my children get 5-10 servings of fruits and veggies each day and this drink mix can do just that.

The ingredient list is quite lengthy but truly amazing especially since there is no added sugar in the drink...Read the ingredient list here. Bottom line is that this is a superfood drink containing things like carrot juice, spirulina, chlorella, organic grass juice powder, and organic beet juice powder…How many of you can say you’ve feed these superfoods to your kids lately?

I can honestly say this product rocks!  It’d be a great product to have on camping trips as a special after dinner treat instead of a s’more or in addition to…and I  highly recommend.

You can read more about X Balance and SGN Nutrition here.

X Balance retails for $38.95

P. S. This product was provided to us for purposes of review and the above opinions are my own.

[Read more →]

This is one amazing product! I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to try out two of LivingFuel’s products this month {LivingProtein and the Double Chocolate CocoChia Sustained Energy Bars} and I have seriously impressed.

LivingFuel offers a wide variety of products from Therasweet ( a natural sweetener) to Super Greens to LivingProtein. The protein powder has been fantastic as it offers a complete plant protein of 20 grams of protein per serving.

Information on the LivingProtein is below:

* Enzymes for easy digestion and optimal delivery of nutrients to the body;
* Non-GMO rice and non-GMO pea proteins;
* Non-GMO and pesticide-free stabilized brown rice bran;
* Patented probiocap probiotics (stabilized to store well at room temperature);
* Therasweet, all natural sweetener;
* Buffered Vitamin C for antioxidant protection; and
* A neutral taste, with a slight natural sweetness.

I’ve been using this protein for the last month and have loved it. When mixed with water alone the taste is a bit chalky, however, with fruit and non-sweetened vanilla almond milk, it’s delicious!

My kids and I both loved the CocoChia Double Chocolate Sustained Energy Bar. These bars satisfied my chocolate craving and served as treats for both my kids and I.

To learn more about LivingFuel, I strongly recommend reading the about story.
All of LivingFuel’s products are available online.

[Read more →]