FitBit Flex Review

Notice: FitBit did not send me a free Flex to review and I am not getting paid for this review; however, should FitBit or any company want to send me any products for free in exchange for my opinions, I would gladly accept :)

My dear husband and business partner, Tim, gave me a FitBit Flex for my birthday. I had been eye-balling FitBit for some time, but didn't want to wait for the Force (which is still 1-2 weeks back-ordered at the time of this post), so the Flex seemed perfect!

Here's how FitBit describes the Flex: "This slim, stylish device is with you all the time. During the day, it tracks steps, distance, and calories burned. At night, it tracks your sleep quality and wakes you silently in the morning. Just check out the lights to see how you stack up against your personal goal. It’s the motivation you need to get out and be more active."

The reason I wanted it was to have a better check on my general activity level throughout the day (and I was admittedly curious about seeing the sleep quality thing too). I workout 6-7 days a week, BUT I spend 5 of those days practically chained to a desk between 7:30am and 5pm. Yeah...it sucks.

So I've had the FitBit Flex for a week now....here are my thoughts:

1. Simple as pie to set-up. Took all of 5 seconds on the computer (we're Mac users, so no problems there) and I downloaded the free app onto my phone as well.

2. It's slimmer than a watch and thus very easy to wear. It's suggested to wear it on your non-dominant hand, so you can't really wear a watch when you wear the FitBit (unless you wanted to be a hipster and double-up!) but that didn't bother me....that's what cellphones are for! :)

Source

3. It holds charge like a champ! I let it charge on a Sunday afternoon, and after wearing 24/7 for 5 days, it still has half the battery life left!

4. The website says it's sweat and water resistant (not proof!), so I do take it off when I shower, but that's it....and so far, so good!

5. It certainly does what I got it for, track activity and sleep! I still use my heart-rate monitor during my workouts, since that's the only true way to know exactly how much I burned, but this has been great to see my activity during all other parts of the day! I didn't realize how hard it is to get 10,000 steps, even though I consider myself an active person! DAMN DESK JOB!

And the sleep tracker is interesting too....I love to see the difference in nights when the baby sleeps through the night:

Looks like I barely moved

 ...And when he doesn't sleep through the night:

Yeah, 2am munchies! :)

All in all, in my opinion, the FitBit Flex is certainly worth the money. If you want a device to help ensure you are more intentional about your activity, this is perfect. I check the app on my phone throughout the day, see how many steps I'm at....if I'm low, I know it's time to sneak away and get some walking in! If it's buzzed 4-5 times in a little rhythm...I know I've hit the 10,000 mark and I do a little happy dance :) 

Questions? Comment below or contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube...we're everywhere!

In Health,

Lindsay

Battle of the Blenders

We have 3 blenders in our home.

No, we are not hoarders.

Rather, we make a lot of shakes/smoothies/green drinks and one needs a blender to do so!


Here's a quick synopsis of each of the 3 blenders we have. You'll see we have a clear favorite, but we'll try to give you enough info so you can make your own decision, you grown-up you :)

Ninja Master Prep

 

Cost: ~$75.00
Pros: blades come out for easy cleaning; comes with two sizes and a chopper; affordable

Cons: motor on top is very big/bulky; if you use large chunks of ice/fruit, it won't blend it all

Magic Bullet

Cost: ~$75 - $100.00

Pros: the container serves double-duty as your cup; blades are very small, thus easy to clean
Cons: can't do "big jobs" and can't mix anything fibrous (veggies) or sticky (peanut butter)

Vitamix Professional Series 750

Cost: ~$690

Pros: can blend anything, completely versatile; preset options take out guesswork, no worry about washing, has a cleaning function, huge container, comes with a 7 year warranty
Con: expensive


Can you spot our favorite? :)

We used the Ninja and Magic Bullet for YEARS before finally making the investment in a Vitamix....it was worth the wait and worth every penny! This not only makes shakes, but icecream, soups, dips, homemade nut butter, dough, ANYTHING! 

As we said before, we require the services of a blender daily, but if you don't and therefore can't rationalize a Vitamix purchase, go with the Ninja.

Have you owned any of these blenders? What's your opinion??

In Health,

Lindsay and Timothy

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REVIEW: R.W. Knudsen Mega Green Juice

Who eats enough vegetables? We certainly don't. Having Shakeology daily certainly helps A TON, but even more couldn't hurt! With that said - we have been experimenting with juicing over the past couple of months to get more veggies in our diet. 

First we tried a local health foods store in the small town neighboring our even smaller hometown. EPIC FAIL. I believe it had carrots, beets, and radishes in it. Can't even describe how disgusting it was. Took one sip. Done. Tossed in the trash. Lesson #1: fruit is a MUST to make a veggie juice consumable.

Secondly, we tried BluePrint Juice at Whole Foods. We tried the green one (romaine, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley, lemon ginger) and while it was certainly better than our first attempt, we still couldn't drink an entire bottle.

Third try: (can you tell we were determined to find something that worked for us?!?!), we visited a friend and she made us some fresh juice from her juicer. If we remember correctly, it was romaine, lemon, ginger, green apples, celery, etc. Definitely the best we had tried up to that point: tasted mostly the celery and ginger. But then, she pulled out a jar of R.W. Knudsen's Mega Green Juice from her fridge and poured some for us to try.

Let's be real - we saw that and had inner dialogue something like "Oh HAIL naw, that looks like sewage!" but smiled and said "Ok, we'll try just a little bit".

Tilted the glass up, bracing taste buds for horrific grossness, and then...

ANGELS SINGING!

APPLE JUICE!! All you taste is apple juice!

We were pleasantly surprised shocked and so relived. Quick check of the ingredient label: not bad! The sugar content freaks most people out, but remember - it's from the fruit (there is no added sugar)!

Here's a quick video the pickier half of Fit with Farrar did:

THUMBS UP!

In Health,

Timothy and Lindsay
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VideoPalooza!!

Just a couple random things to check-in with:

#1 - Lindsay is rounding out the first week of month 2 (Phase 2) of the Jillian Michaels Body Revolution program. Here's a quick video she made that talks about the results she's seen so far, her opinion on the program, etc.

#1.5 - Along those same lines - she also filmed some snippets of one of the Body Revolution workouts. This allows you to see what "metabolic training" looks like. Check it out:

#2 - *Drum Roll Please* Timothy has made his YouTube debut! Here is a run-through of yesterday's tabata workout we did!

In Health,

Timothy and Lindsay

Review: Vega One Nutritional Shake

We love Whole Foods....there is so much amazing yummy goodness in that place....cannot get enough! Going every week typically elicits a response similar to this:

 
One thing we always do is get a little sample of something we've never tried before. Our bellies *usually* love it, our wallets don't....le sigh :-)

This week's grocery trip was no exception. We picked up Vega One's All-in-One Nutritional Shake samples, one Berry and one Chocolate. Important to note: we've tried Vega's Sport Pre-Workout drink, and oh mylanta was it disgusting!! Gritty, gross, all around nasty. (In our humble opinions, of course!) But, we didn't completely write off the Vega brand based on that experience.....so we decided to see how the shake samples would go.

You can tell by the information here that the shakes are full of a lot of the good stuff: protein, fiber, digestive enzymes, etc. Neither of us are vegan (must.have.bacon.) but we like that it means this product is dairy, soy, and gluten free (particularly the last two!)

Thoughts:

Timothy tried the Chocolate flavor and Lindsay used the Berry flavor sample.

• For the Berry sample, Lindsay put frozen blueberries and strawberries and Trop 50 Orange Juice and blended to perfection. The taste was good - very berry (like the name suggest) and the OJ gives it an extra punch of sweet/tart. It still had that mildly gritty, aftertaste/residue like their Pre-Workout drink did, which kinda sucked. Overall rating = B+
• Timothy made the Chocolate sample with frozen blueberries and mango, almond milk, and a sprinkle of PB2. His incredibly poetic description of it was "It was fine; okay, B+" 

According to the website, it is $69.99 (not including S&H) for a tub (assuming it is made to last you 30 days). The flavors are: Berry, Chocolate, Vanilla Chai, and Natural. That being said - we think Shakeology wins this battle, not only nutritionally, but if we're going to spend that much money, we want to LOVE the taste and we want top-of-the-line everything....Shakeology gives us both. Sorry Vega One - but thanks for playing!

In Health,

Lindsay and Timothy

Honest Review(s) of Tropical Strawberry Shakeology

Hi guys and gals! Spring is officially here - although in our neck of the woods, it has felt like early summer for weeks now! :-)

Our order of Shakeology's newest flavor, Tropical Strawberry, arrived last week! We are huge believers in Shakeology, and have either the Chocolate or Greenberry flavors daily. We have our individual favorite recipes and it is our little "insurance policy" for nutrition (i.e., making sure we meet our fruit/veggie/mineral needs every day!)

Quick overview of Tropical Strawberry Shakeology - it has all the amazingness of the Chocolate and Greenberry flavors (70+ vitamins, minerals, loads of fruits, veggies, antioxidants, probiotics, protein, etc.) and it has the added benefit of being vegan, which means it contains no animal by-products (no whey protein) and is made with a brown rice protein.

Here is the video Lindsay made of her impressions after her first Tropical Strawberry Shakeology. Texture concerns and a bubble-gummy flavor were the weak points.



Our second try (and every subsequent try since then) has been much better! As mentioned in the video, letting it sit for 7-10 minutes after blending seems ideal and certainly makes the texture less gritty. Also, adding in a heaping of frozen fruit cuts the bubble-gummy flavor better. Our favorite recipe so far is: 1 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks, and Tropical Strawberry Shakeology...blend it, let sit for nearly 10 minutes, re-blend, then drink!

If you are interested in trying Tropical Strawberry (or Chocolate or Greenberry) Shakeology for yourself, just CLICK RIGHT HERE. Also, there are opportunities for some *free* samples for fans of our like page on Facebook - and you can find that by clicking here.

Talk to y'all soon!

In Health,

Lindsay & Timothy