Category: Product Reviews

It has begun! My raw-vegan journey started this morning. I  sprouted almonds and quinoa last night (See above), chopped up a pineapple, and bought some fruits and veggies. Safeway had a very limited selection of organic produce that was edible, so tonight I’ll be going to try another store to stock up on some more food!

Breakfast: Strawberry shake + 1 apple + 1/4 C sprouted quinoa + 10 sprouted almonds + some chopped pineapple

Lunch: Shake + Bananas

Dinner: Shake + similar to above + a few tomatoes

Dessert: 1-ingredient Frozen Banana Ice Cream

You all probably think I’m crazy. This is my third cleanse in the past 30 days! Maybe I should rename my blog The Cleanse Tester. As long as it’s not a colon cleanse, I think I’ll try anything. Okay, maybe not anything. But if it’s raw, vegan, and free, I’ll take a look! Now I just want to say, I support daily detoxing, which means eating and drinking super foods every day, in moderation, instead of going 3-7 strict days a month. It’s a lot easier and will keep your body running smoothly. It’s also a lot more practical so you can still eat socially and enjoy a nice dinner here and there. I just happened to get a free kit from KaengRaeng right after I did the VegaOne and Gouter Tonic cleanse. I might as well keep going on my health and weight loss journey, right?!

I’ve been reading about Kaeng Raeng for a couple years now on vegan blogs. I’ve wanted to try it, but could never fork over the cash. Lucky me, they have agreed to send me a 3-day complimentary cleanse to try and review! What I LOVE about this cleanse is that I actually get to EAT raw, vegan food while on it! I love fruits and veggies and CHEWING so this won’t be so hard. A big fruit salad for breakfast, a green salad for lunch with citrus juices, and a salad for dinner with some nuts and seeds for protein. I’m on board!

I will be starting this cleanse July 5th (I’ll need it after the 4th!) and will continue through Sunday. I know raw fruits, veggies, and sprouted nuts and seeds provide tons of nutrients like fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy energy. So I’m not worried about being hangry and fatigued this time. I will just have to deal with the mental craving for hot foods. Luckily, it’s Summer and cold foods are fine right now!  I think this will be great! Thanks Kaeng Raeng!

*Stay Tuned and FOLLOW on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for my updates during my cleanse this weekend!* 

THIS REALLY WORKS!

I already love VEGA and all that it has to offer, but this energizer is a game-changer for me. I had one stick of this at 7am and 3 hours later I am still energized! I normally would finish my morning shift of clients, come home, nap, and then go back to train all night again. But because of the energy I have right now, no nap is needed! My mind is awake, I’m focused, and already writing my 3rd blog in an hour. Seriously, this will always be stocked in my cupboard for now on. [I love how they gave me a box of 30 sticks to review!] These are SO convenient to keep in my work locker. I can just tear one open, pour it in my blender bottle, and be off to train my next client. I am going to share this drink with all the trainers and my clients! So if you’re a client, buy this NOW! Drink 20 minutes prior to our session and be ready to push harder than ever. ^_^

I’ve been searching for something like this for the past few weeks. I needed something that was a low-calorie, high energy, healthy alternative to caffeinated, processed, acid-forming drinks (i.e. lattes, crystal light, etc.).   I’ve been drinking Yerba Mate, but this drink has all sorts of good ANTI-INFLAMMATORY (need this for my injury) properties. I’m stoked, if you can’t tell. If you don’t know what something is, simply wiki it. They all pretty much fix fatigue, help you focus, or reduce inflammation.

Thank you Vega so much!

Update: Each serving contains 100mg of caffeine. I learned this after writing this blog and having about 3 sticks of the drink! I now know to limit the consumption to once a day during my 3pm slump/lunch break before going back to work all night. I try and stay away from caffeine as much as possible, but if I’m consuming it, it will be from this source. Of course I will still have a latte once in a while, but only as a treat! 

As a fitness and health enthusiast I am always searching for the best deals and sales on all things related to my passion. I suggest VeganCuts start a sport box, and then decided to google it and found this amazing piece of merchandise. KlutchClub is a health, fitness, and wellness box that you can subscribe to for a monthly deal. The box comes with sample and full size products to let you try out brands you haven’t seen or tried yet.

I think it’s a great idea and that anyone who is interested in fitness and health would enjoy a monthly gift to themselves like this! You get to try new things on the cheap (Only $10 a month!) and enjoy new experiences.

Celsius: A great energizing, caffeinated, low calorie beverage. This will get you buzzed! I was in love with this product and bought two tubs of their powder. But be careful! The product doesn’t warn you, but the gaurana seed will you have you energized the whole night, preventing a deep sleep. Drink sparingly and when needed.

HempSeeds: These are delicious! I’ve been searching my local health food stores for these spicy, nutty, full protein roasted hemp seeds. Must TRY!

Crackers: Who doesn’t love crackers? These were a nice little snack and I like the small serving size. Great for on the go people like me!

FeetWipes:  Okay, now I would never buy a product specifically for just wiping my feet, but they smell great and work as they say: they clean your feet after wearing sandals around town all day. I’ll stick to baby wipes or a shower, but this was a nice sample.

BodyWash: This body wash was a hectic mess inside the box because it wasn’t sealed! With shipping it leaked a bit and I had to get a whole new box from KlutchClub in order to sample all the products. I like the smell and it’s in my shower now!

CashewBar: I normally don’t like raw products too much unless I make them, but this bar was a tasty little treat.

Orgain: I’ve seen this product all over the health food stores for years now. I’ve never tried it because it’s real dairy and I’m lactose intolerant. My boyfriend tried it and said it tasted like any other chocolate protein shake.

Q-Speed Coq10: I liked the taste of these little orange tablets that dissolve under your tongue, but I’ll never know exactly how they affected me. they say they give you energy, but I didn’t feel anything special.

DailyBurn: The box came with this gift card to a site called DailyBurn that houses free workouts  but honestly, I never checked it out. I’m a trainer and design my own workouts so it didn’t really peak my interest to watch online workout videos. I might check it out now though to get some new moves.

SyncSystem: This was another card to another website but I really didn’t “get it.” It helps women with syncing periods and stuff like that, but I have an app for it.

Conclusion: Overall, the KlutchBox is huge compared to other boxes I’ve reviewed. Something great about KlutchClub is that they TELL YOU what’s inside the box before you buy! Other boxes just surprise you. So I check the website each month just in case I like what is in the box. You can get a discount by clicking HERE and entering code: SPRING. Enjoy!

EnergyBits is a Spirulina Algae supplement that is 100% organic. It supplies you energy through chlorophyll, which makes oxygen more available to red blood cells. I am used to green juices, green shakes, and smoothies, so this was nothing new to me or my body. I like the marketing and I love the packaging, but I don’t like the fact it says you can chew these. Imagine this, you’re on your way out the door to work and are feeling a bit fatigued. You realize you have these EnergyBits to sample and figure this must be the best time to test them out. So you pop a few in your mouth and give them a chew. BIG MISTAKE! Your lips, teeth, tounge, and breath now are a puky green that is entirely too hard to wash out with a mouth full of water! I ended up brushing my teeth for 5 minutes in order to try and get this green gunk out of my mouth. Please EnergyBits, take off the chewing option!!!

The next day I tried swallowing a handful. It says a serving is 30 tablets. I don’t know about you, but there is no way I could possibly swallow thirty pills at once! A handful wasn’t 30, and it was hard to get down. I get the idea of this product, but I just don’t think it’s very feasible. I take spirulina and wheat grass and all that good stuff in my AmazingGrass Orange Dreamsicle. It tastes great, I can drink it at work, and it doesn’t get my mouth all gunky.

I really wanted to like this product because of the attention to detail, the sourced ingredients, and the overall kindness and quickness of the company. But…in the end I will not be purchasing it because of how hard it is to ingest the required amount to feel the buzz. I’ll take a few here and there until they are gone, because I appreciate the healthfulness of the product. Thank you EnergyBits for the sample!!

Best of Luck!

It’s over! So I made it 2.5 days of a 3 day cleanse. Some say I failed…but I am proud of myself! I ended it with a 1/2 vegan burger (lentil, barley, oats) and a big raw salad with just red wine vinegar as a dressing. It was amazing! (Check out Meridian Pint for you all you DC folk.) I would definitely go back JUST for that burger. I had the other half for lunch and it was still very tasty. 🙂

So the cleanse…

Overall, a cleanse is more mental than anything else. You just have to go over the fact of not chewing “real food” for 3 days and find things to keep yourself busy. I only got hungry 2 times: once after working from 7am-5pm and then yesterday at 4pm for my lunch plans to end it.

I really liked how it made me think more about how much, and what, I was putting into my body. I didn’t lose any weight {:( but I think I gained some more awareness. I already know how to eat healthy, but regaining awareness is vital to STAY healthy.

Taste: It was very, very tasty! I loved the Gouter tonics and will continue to buy them instead of a smoothie or Starbucks Skinny Soy Latte. They energize you in the best ways, through nourishment instead of stimulation.

Effects: The most obvious effect for me is the mental one. I feel like I pressed the “focus” button on my health views. Over time they were starting to get blurry. I was eating too much overall, and too much sugar/snacks. Even if it was a “vegan cupcake” it was still too much sugar! Of course I will live my life and enjoy my moments, but I am back on the trail of super foods instead of slow foods.

The worst effect for me was the constant fatigue. I felt very tired the whole 3 days, unless I had JUST ingested a juice. Working was extremely hard and I was very irritable and what I like to call hangry. I wasn’t actually hungry, but I always have an appetite!

Would I Do It Again? If it was free, yes.  Cleanses are expensive!  I would actually like to try different cleanses and compare results (Weight loss, awareness, clear head, fatigue, etc.) But only if they are free of charge (but of course I will promote the juices out of them like I have been this one 😉

Conclusion: I will include more raw-vegan foods in my diet, as well as super foods like seaweed, golden berries, camu camu, acai, and those sorts of things. I definitely feel the difference in health. You just feel better!

Today was a hard day. I worked from 7am to 845pm and am exhausted! The juices were great and I didn’t get hungry until 5pm. By the time I got home at 848pm, I was STARVING! I ended my day with the tiny raw salad (sprouted split peas, golden beets, apples, cabbage) that came as an option as Juice 6. I’ve got tomorrow off from work (Thank goodness!) and plan on sleeping a ton.

I may not feel very hungry, but I am very lethargic, tired, and just plain hangry. I’m never an angry person and am very patient, but these past couple days my anger has been coming out of me like the toxins! Anger is a toxin too, right?

Last night I hit the sauna for 30 minutes and felt very nauseous. Detoxing is supposed to be torture…I hope. I eat healthy 80% of the time so I figured I didn’t have too many toxins, but I guess something is making me feel so tired besides the lack of normal calories.

Laying in the sun felt amazing. In the image above, I was laying in the sun taking my 20minutes before my 9am session and could have laid there all day. Taking time to yourself is vital. I know this to be true, and you do too, yet we all get involved and overwhelmed with work and life. We fill up our calendars with social events, traveling, and work, and forget to schedule “me-time.”

Tomorrow I see the doctor and hope she gives me two refferals: One for an MRI, one for a specialist. I need to know how to cure this thing! Positive thoughts, juicing, and fasting may not exactly be the right answer.

Yes I am detoxing my body of toxins, eating/drinking a very low calorie diet, and hoping for some weight loss. But when it comes down to it, I gained weight because I was snacking too much and not working my lower body (the calorie burners).

I think this juice cleanse is a great wake-up call to get me back on track of a mostly raw-vegan diet. It has me reading my nutrition books, paying attention to myself,  how my body feels, and writing recipes again. It has me wishing I had more time in the kitchen to prep my foods, prepare my fridge, and get my mind straight. Simply check out My Pantry and see how I eat when I’m focused and well.

I’ll finish my 5 juices tomorrow and end my cleanse with my high protein black bean pasta and a BUNCH of fresh, raw, fruits and veggies. Seen Here: http://instagram.com/p/a4ign3pTjX/

Organic Black Bean Pasta (Black beans, water), Avocado, Lime juice, Corn, Scallions, Cilantro, Tomato, and Fresh Jalapenos! (Daiya and Vegan Sour Cream on top)

Good night!!