30 MAR

Review for FitTea All Natural Detox Tea

FitTea approached me to review their product “ FitTea detox tea”. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it at first because I was on a fitness challenge on my Youtube channel and I wanted any progress that I made to be only from my exercise regimen and diet. I was, however, able to squeeze it in for about a week and that’s why you’re seeing this review. Yay for pointing out the obvious!

Well first off it comes in 2 sizes. There’s the 14 day detox and the 28 day detox. I only used the product for 7 days though. Secondly this is loose leaf tea so it’s not in a teabag. You will have to purchase a tiny mesh tea strainer like the one pictured. Not for nothing though, the tea ball made me feel really classy, like I was having tea time in England. Lol. The ingredients are pretty primo. No junk in there really except for the corn (not that corn is junk but you know what I mean). Honestly I have no idea why there would be corn in tea but it’s there. I actually saw a full kernel! Anyway, the other ingredients are cool. Ingredients: Oolong Wu Yi, organic rooibos, ginger (yum), pomegranate, guarana, birch, stevia, corn (for enhanced flavor and aroma) and honey powder. See all good stuff. Well FitTea claims to detox, boost your metabolism, suppress your appetite and also to give you energy without jitters. A lot of it is caffeine type ingredients to give you a bit of a jolt- and that’s what it did for me. I was expecting to have to be very near a toilet all day, everyday but it didn’t have that kind of detoxing effect on me. In fact I’m not sure I detoxed at all. I was prepared for it but it did not increase my bathroom frequency. The metabolism boosting is something I can’t say that I had either. I was exercising on the regular anyway so a lot of my weight loss and metabolism seemed that they could have been from that. It did however give me a steady stream of energy to help me get things going. I have to admit that it did it well and I wasn’t jittery. Btw, I definitely get jitters from highly caffeinated products so this was a big plus for me. Who wants to feel like your gonna have a heart attack just to get your day going?

At the end of the day it came through with at least part of the claims for me. I saw other people’s reviews and they reported feeling detox effects so it might just be me but I can’t call it. I can only stand by the energy giving benefits without feeling crazy afterward. I MUST also add that FitTea is meant to be used alongside healthy eating and exercise for best results- you know like if you wanna lose weight. I did lose weight but I couldn’t tell if it was from my fitness challenge or the tea. I made a video review as well. Check it out if you wanna. By the way I reviewed this on my Natural hair channel, NOT my fitness channel.

Wanna try FitTea for yourself?
Try the FitTea 28 Day Detox-> http://amzn.to/YcZtNZ
Steel Mesh tea Strainer ball ->http://amzn.to/1ysOXmA

12 MAR

Low Fat Deviled Eggs with No Mayo

Deviled eggs are a favorite at summer time bbqs and events. They are small, portable, easy to make, easy to fit in the mouth, and let’s face it~ they are freaking delish! The pitfall is that, it is not particularly a low calorie or low fat food, which can be an issue for those of us that are counting calories (damn you myfitnesspal!). An egg has about 60-75 calories each and mayo is about 100 calories per tablespoon. That can lead to some serious calorie intake when you start tossing back these little devils, pun intended. This is not including any other specialty ingredients that you might add like bacon (Yum) or the basic relish. So it seems that low fat deviled eggs aren’t a thing that can actually happen right?

Well my hubby makes me deviled eggs for breakfast because eating scrambled eggs everyday was a complete and utter bore. I love deviled eggs and I don’t even care about the calories most times but when I tried to get back into myfitnesspal I decided to ask him how much mayo he used in the egg yolk filling. He has an aversion to using a measured spoon and always wants to just use regular spoons in the kitchen, even though I tell him they are not accurate for measuring. To make a long nagging session short, he basically gave me a puzzled look. He said “Mayo??” Now I was puzzled. “Yeah mayo! Deviled eggs at its very most basic level is boiled eggs with mayo. You can’t make deviled eggs without mayo”. He went on to say he didn’t use any mayo. I needed to know how he made it creamy then. I mean, I know egg yolks don’t just cream themselves. He said that he only uses relish with the egg yolk and the liquid and moisture give the same creamy consistency as I’m used to from mayonnaise. Wow! I had had no idea up until then that he had been feeding me lower calorie /low fat deviled eggs. There I was thinking I was living on the edge and realized I was well within the confines of boring old diet food. Well maybe not diet food but you get my meaning. I would have felt bad about myself but…they were just really good.

Moral of this story is um, you don’t have to use mayo to make deviled eggs. I thought that was implied in the article but just in case you missed the point, that is the intended moral. P.S. Look at our pretty eggs.
(Article reprinted from Fun Fit Aisa)

Have you tried these low fat deviled eggs yet? How did you like them. Let me know down in the comments.

Favorite Iron Supplements for happy bellies

03 FEB

Best Iron Supplement that WON’T Upset Your Stomach

Since Fit Naturals is intended for a female audience, I have to talk about one of our lady issues right now. Many women (in their childbearing years especially) are anemic due to losing excessive blood from their period. My doctor also informed me that women who work out lose a lot of their iron just from working out. That was a double wammy for me. For us that need to take iron, we all know finding iron supplement that won’t upset your stomach can be hard…downright impossible. I personally get horrifically painful flatulence and constipation. I have also found out (through the miracle that is google) that many people also get diarrhea. Either way, irregularity is no fun and can cause problems for a woman on the go (pun kinda intended). My doctor has sworn that ferrous sulfate is the way to go but if that’s his only option then I’ll just keep my anemia. I have tried a few options that I’ve had MUCH better results with and I wanted to share them with my ladies!

House of Herbs Blackstrap Molasses

What's going on here — Blackstrap Molasses w 70% RDA Iron

I’m not a fan of molasses per say. I mean come on. It is bitter and makes things taste bad. I heard that I might be able to pick of some extra iron. Well if you try any other brand then the iron content will be negligible but somehow house of Herbs has been able to give their product 70% of the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of iron. Yes. I said 70% That seems like a pretty good amount to me and when used in my green smoothies, as a sweetener, it gets a boost. Since the iron isn’t heme iron (iron from animal products) it is harder to absorb so it would be best to take it with some sort of vitamin c. The best part is that it didn’t give me any abdominal distress. If you can handle the taste you can just take a few tablespoons and not have to add it to anything. I bought a case of it from amazon. Want some for yourself? Click here-> house of herbs blackstrap molasses 16 oz Glass Jar

Spatone Natural Iron Supplement-formerly Pur Absorb

Pur Absorb also worked pretty well for me. It is simply water! Well not regular water that comes out of our faucet but water nonetheless. This water is specially sourced spring water. This spring has naturally occurring iron in high levels. The type of iron is ferrous sulfate (like the pills! Yikes!) but there’s a reason why it doesn’t cause the problems that the pill will give you. The reason that doctors recommend so many high doses of iron is because a healthy adult only absorbs 3% of the usual 60-65g of iron that they take in. That isn’t very much. The rest of the iron that isn’t absorbed goes through your digestive system and causes all the pain and issues. The reason this product works so great is because of it’s proven high absorption rate. Since it is much more easily absorbed it doesn’t have to have such a high dose. You get the supplementation that you need without taking in as much iron. Less unused iron equals less stomach discomfort. It’s as simple as that. When I first bought it was suggested that it be taken with vitamin c just like many other iron supplements. I used to add it to a glass of lemon water or a small glass of orange juice in the morning. Trust me, you don’t want to try this plain. It tastes like blood!!! Recently they came out with a version that already contains the vitamin c that you need to help absorb even more. So it naturally is better absorbed plus the vitamin c will make it absorb even better. Winning all around.

THE PROBLEM

The price is insane right now. It is more than double what I used to pay for it. I don’t suggest you waste your money. The great thing is that they are offering what appears to be the exact same thing at cheaper prices under the simple name Spatone 100% Natural Iron Supplement
Get the plain version -> http://amzn.to/2k4JU7P
Get the w/ vitamin C added-> http://amzn.to/2k4F7Dx

SSS Tonic

This is an oldie but goodie. I told my mother in law about my issues with anemia and how I had to take in iron but I hated taking iron and she told me to get some 3 S tonic. Um…what? What was she talking about? I had to go look it up and it looked pretty familiar. I also heard in the Fit Naturals Group that it is the same thing marketed as Geritol in some places. It has an impressive amount of nutrients including

333% RDA of Thiamine

141% RDA of Riboflavin

100% RDA of Niacin

But come on- we only care about the iron right now. It contains a whopping 556% of RDA of Iron (in the form of ferric ammonium citrate)!
Now that’s a lot of iron and people have been using it literally for decades to up their iron intake. This whole formula is great for energy because you know how anemia can zap it away from you. The huge amounts of b vitamins help as well. The dosing is 3 tbsp daily and it’s best to take after a meal. The taste is a little strong for some because um…..it contains alcohol. This formula is 12% alcohol and you should probably avoid giving it to children unless you’re trying to get some sleep (I’m so bad). The lush in me likes the liquid but they also have a tablet form with no alcohol. It has less iron but it still gives you 300% of the RDA and a lot more other vitamins/nutrients than the liquid. I’ve been rolling with this for the last few months. Get some for yourself->

10 oz sss tonic – http://amzn.to/2bcydGv

20 oz sss tonic -> http://amzn.to/2bcupts

SSS Tabs 40 count -> http://amzn.to/2kGuntU

SSS Tabs 80 count -> http://amzn.to/2k4VrnK

That’s all I got ladies! Do you have anything to add? Have you tried any of these supplements? If so how’d they work for you? Let us know in the comments.

01 MAY

Do I Need 6 Meals per Day?

6 Meals per day or Nah?

Being a fitness enthusiast has allowed me to be privy to a lot of commonly touted info about weight loss and healthy eating. This theory that you need to eat 5-6 meals per day is something that I have heard repeatedly, but is it true? Do you really need to eat this often per day to be healthy? I’m gonna go with nah. Throughout history people have been getting by with the same old 3 meals. Hasn’t science proven that people used to be healthier? Cancer and metabolic disorders have only been increasing as people try to find different ways of eating. Why change a good thing? Well it’s because some have said that it is an improvement over the traditional 3 a day. It is believed that you can increase your metabolic rate and burn more calories so, of course, many people want this because it would in turn mean that they are losing weight right?

Where did this belief come from?

There has been info passed around the fitness community about more meals helping to keep your metabolism going all day. This in turn is supposed to make people more lean and fit. But why?

There's no difference in caloric burn between eating 1 or 6 meals per day! — There’s no difference in caloric burn from eating more often!

Why would people suddenly need to eat every 2-3 hours to survive or for optimum metabolism? They don’t. Our ancestors did not eat that frequently thus our bodies don’t require it to work optimally. There are studies that suggest that eating MORE food leads to more oxidative stress within the body. These studies also say that intermittent fasting is actually more healthy and burns more calories than frequent eating.(2, 3) Oxidation leads to cancer, so is producing oxidation throughout the whole day optimal? It doesn’t seem so. There has also been more recent research that says that there is no metabolic enhancement to eating more meals per day. It is more about the amount of calories eaten per day, so the way you split them up has little to do with enhancing fitness or “calorie burning”. That’s to say that if you eat once a day it is no different than eating your calories all throughout the day.¹ Also personally I think I can regulate my meals and not overeat if I have fewer meals (and meal preps) to do. It’s so mundane and inconvenient, especially if eating the same meal several times a day…for the whole week. I’ve never wanted to eat that often unless it was junk food. 😈 How often do you eat? Did this article show you something you didn’t know? Let me know in the comments.

30 APR

Sugar Free Coffee or Tea Replacement

I have recently been having some issues with sugar and metabolizing it and I can tell that it’s time for me to really start trying to limit my intake for my health. One of my biggest issues is finding something besides water to drink.

I mean I know that water is good for you and all that but, come on. Sometimes you gotta get away from the bland stuff. I do drink water but I find it so boring. I have tried matcha green tea, acv tonic, and even thought about bullet proof coffee but I couldn’t do any of those without sugar. With my sweet tooth it winds up being a LOT of sugar too. Morning time beverages just scream for a good sweetening. Now I don’t believe in artificial sweeteners and stevia is ultra bitter to me. Honestly how can people stomach it? Anyway, I found a great tea about 5 years ago that I loved and I used to drink it with vanilla coffee creamer and it was awesome. Well one day, there was no creamer and I didn’t know what to do. I decided to try it without sugar, feeling certain that I would have to flinch in disgust as I spit it out on the floor at work.

Naturally Sweet Good Earth Tea doesn't need sugar — Naturally Sweet Good Earth Tea doesn’t need sugar

To my surprise that was not the case. I found that the tea, straight from a tea bag, is already sweet. It never needed the creamer. It was so tasty and delicious all by itself. I couldn’t believe it. I had never ever enjoyed a breakfast beverage without sugar before.
Good Earth Organic Sweet & Spicy Tea has a sweet warm cinnamon-y flavor that you’ll love if you like cinnamon. When I went back to find it I found that they had completely different labeling but the same deliciously sweet flavor. I also saw that the tea came in the original herbal tea formula as well as an Herbal & Black Tea version for a caffeine boost. I like to switch between the two because too much caffeine makes my eyelids twitch. Did I mention this stuff can be addictive? It’s so good. Alright I’ve sung the praises of this tea long enough. Have you ever tried any of the Good Earth teas? Have you tried this original flavor? Do you like the cinnamony deliciousness? Let me know your favorite sugar free coffee or tea replacement.

Want to give this tea a try? Find it here-> Good Earth Organic Sweet & Spicy Caffeine Free Herbal Tea or
Good Earth Sweet & Spicy Herbal & Black Tea

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