WIN Detergent Review and Giveaway!

Recently I was given the opportunity to review WIN Detergent. I’ve heard of this detergent before and have actually read into it a number of times so you can imagine I was pretty excited when I was offered a chance to try it!

I can’t tell you how many running clothes I have that have permanent smells to them that I just haven’t be able to rid of in my washing. I was pleased when the washing was done and my clothes, once again, had a fresh scent to them!

I was sent two bottle of win sports detergent to try, Original WIN and WIN green. I really like the smell of them! They have that fresh scent that makes your clothes smell so good! It’s amazing what one load of can do for your dirty clothes.

I have to admit this is the first liquid detergent I’ve used in probably three years! I’m so used to using the detergent pods that are already measured out and packaged so all you have to do is pick one out of the container and throw it in the washer with your clothes. No measuring. No pouring. So easy. Win detergent is pretty easy as well though I had to remind myself how to use the liquid drawer in our washer!

WIN has given me the opportunity to do a giveaway for their detergent here on the blog. ONE winner will receive two full size bottles of win detergent – one Win original bottle and one Win green bottle. Also, if you don’t win but still would like to try Win detergent you can use the code WINGIVE1 for $1 off a bottle! That’s what I call a WIN-WIN opportunity! 😉

To enter the giveaway, please click the Rafflecopter link below! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quest Bar Review

I had the opportunity to try Quest Bars a few months ago and found them pretty good! I was mailed two different flavors, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and White Chocolate Raspberry, which were both good in their own way.

Let’s first talk about the box that these bars came in…. can we say AMAZING?!?!?! Just take a minute and read each side of this box that these bars came in.

 

Great words of wisdom, am I right? First impression of these was definitely a good one! Once opening the box I found two Quest Bars that I was eager to try.

I’m not a huge fan of chocolate but when it comes to chocolate chip cookie dough I am pretty much in heaven! So I was pleased to see that was the chocolate flavor I received! Plus getting a white chocolate raspberry bar was a great surprise as well.

When I first opened the chocolate chip cookie dough bar I was surprised as to how ‘chalky’ looking these are. They didn’t crumble in my hand like I thought they would though. These are a good to-go snack because they don’t crumble as you go which is my biggest pet-peeve when it comes to granola / protein bars.

 

I could taste more of the cookie dough than I could the chocolate but that suited me just fine as I don’t particularly like chocolate. I also found that these weren’t too heavy on my stomach. I was a little worried about that when I first unwrapped them because they look very thick and filling but it wasn’t a bad feeling after eating them at all! The white chocolate raspberry was delicious as well. Again, more of a raspberry taste than a white chocolate taste but it meshed well together!

What I love about these Quest Bars is that the sugar that comes in these bars comes from things like nuts and freeze-dried fruit! They also manufacture all the flavored crumbles that go into their protein bars including the cookies and cream, white chocolate chunks and the white chocolate raspberry pieces.

Also found these great looking Quest Cravings peanut butter cups which I am soooooooo looking forward to trying in the near future here!

Hearth Strings Granola Review

For Christmas this past year I asked for healthy alternatives in my stocking rather than the Christmas sweets and chocolates that we usually get. ‘Santa’ did not disappoint! Two of the healthy bars I got are from Hearth Strings Granola and I must say they may be my new favorite!!!

 

First of all, lets take a minute to look at these granola bars. The look of them is amazing, am I right?? Hearth Strings Granola is North Carolina’s first and ONLY artisan granola bar company which makes these bars that much better!

I have to share that I’m pretty hesitate when it comes to trying new foods. There are a handful of foods that I stick to on a regular basis and I don’t usually go out of my comfort zone, so to try these was a challenge for me but I was ready to take on the challenge of a new food! I was a bit worried since these have that gooey texture to them, but after looking at the ingredients I found they don’t have gelatin! Being a vegetarian, that’s something I’m always looking at. Gelatin is such a tricky ingredient that you don’t think of all the time when eating foods but that tends to be the first thing I look for in the ingredient list when I’m trying something new. What’s super great about these bars is that they aren’t only gelatin free but they also have gluten free bars! The two bars that I received are not gluten free but I know that more and more people are having reactions to gluten these days so it’s nice to know that gluten-free bars are available.

The flavors they have are incredible as well! I tried the citrus blossom one first which was amazing! As soon as I opened the package I could smell the citrus right away. I was pleased at the amount of orange I could taste with each bite. I’ve found that with other types of bars it’s a lot of light flavoring mixed in with the granola and oats. This bar was different though, it was a mouthful of flavor! Same goes for the Blueberry Cheesecake bar. Just a hint of blueberry mixed with flavors of cheesecake… so delicious!

There was plenty of frosting on the top as well, that’s something I was very surprised to see. When I originally looked at the bars I didn’t realize that there was a good layer of frosting atop the granola. As soon as I took a bite I could see the thick layer of sugar glaze that laid on top! It surprisingly wasn’t too much though.

 

There are some flavors that are currently on sale on the website that I think I’m going to order! I can’t wait to try the Caramel Cheesecake bars… those sound absolutely amazing! HERE are some other flavors they have!

The great things about these is that they don’t crumble! “What?? A granola bar that doesn’t crumble in your hand once you bite into it?!?!?!” That’s right! These are such a clean and easy snack to grab and go. They are incredibly filling too! I can’t wait to order some more and get them in the mail this summer!

Make sure to check out their website HERE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a family-owned granola bakery which is located in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Not from North Carolina? That’s ok! You can order these on their website and they ship all over the country!

National Safety Month

I’ve recently been in contact with the managing editor at The American Recall Center, a site devoted to providing health and wellness news to their readers so they can take control of their life in a positive aspect. June is National Safety Month! This means by writing about ways to be safe and getting the news out there hopefully we can educate and encourage safe behavior among our family and friends. Here are some great things we can do just around our house to keep us safe!

I enjoy keeping a clean and organized house and these tips and tricks to make it a safe home are things I will be adding to my monthly cleaning list for sure! National Safety Month isn’t just about being safe inside but also while you are out and about exercising. Here are some ways that I make sure to keep safe while out on runs.

• React Mobile App: Back in November I reviewed an app for iPhone called React Mobile (you can read my review HERE ). I would highly suggest this app to anyone, even if you aren’t a runner! This app is so amazing because it gives you the capability to report incidents on your route as well as it’s tracking ability during your run. The first thing that pops up when you pull up the app is the SOS button which you can push in the case of an emergency. As soon as you activate the SOS it sends an emergent text message to a number that you have previously entered in. I love that feature and even tried it on my moms cell phone and it worked great!

• Water Bottle: Always a good idea to have a water bottle on any long run! I find myself forgetting to bring water and than regretting that decision real quick once I hit six miles or so. It’s always nice on race day when you get to those water stations and find yourself drinking one cup and than using one cup to cool off, especially during summer races. I’m not a fan of holding onto water bottles as I run but I find that I’d rather carry a water bottle and have it when I’m thirsty than not have it at all. Definitely a tip I would suggest to others!

• Location Location Location: If I’m ever going on a long distance run I always always tell someone where I’m going or at least a time that I should arrive back. I usually carry my phone with me on any run but I can’t promise it will always be charged… I’m actually really bad about keeping my phone charged which is a habit that I definitely need to grow out of!

• Dress appropriately: When it comes to half marathons I have a bad habit of dressing to be warm at the beginning of the race and than getting too hot through out the run. I get cold really easily so it’s easy for me to grab that athletic jacket on the way out the door and only wear it at the start line. Than I have to worry about it around my waist through out the rest of the run which reminds me of being in middle school again! I need to find that long sleeve that is just thin enough to be cool during my run but covers my arms to keep me warmer at the start… still searching!

I found this amazing gadget on runnersworld.com in which you can input the predicted weather conditions, the time of day you plan to run and how long you plan to run and it tells you what you should wear to be comfortable! I have absolutely fallen in love with this program!!

After you complete the short survey it brings you to another page where it tells you what to where to be comfortable in that weather. Amazing, isn’t it?

I just recently found this program and have used it for every early run and long distance run! Now if only it was an app for the iPhone, right??? You can check out the site HERE . Also, be sure to check out The Recall Centers site for more information on preventing slips, trips, and falls HERE.

It is so important to keep ourselves safe and healthy through out the year. These are only a few of the tips and tricks we can use to do that, both inside and outside! Take this Safety Month and run with it… literally! 🙂

Fight On Book Review

I received this book in the mail today and am SO excited about it! Perfect timing too… it’s only Tuesday and it’s already been a slow week so I was stoked to get something so encouraging!

The book I received is called ‘Fight On’, it’s a book filled with inspiring and encouraging quotes. I looked on their website and there are so many different inspiring books for every occasion! This will be the perfect coffee table book! These are some of my favorite pages.

 

 

Besides books, the company also makes cards, notebooks, folders, journals, and so many other inspiring products. You can check out all their products at http://www.live-inspired.com

 

Honest Tea Review

I was recently given a chance to review some drinks from the Honest Tea company. I’m not much for tea so I was wondering how much I would really like them. When it all arrived in the mail I saw that I received three bottles of Honest Tea and three bottles of Honest Ade, more fruity flavored drinks. I also got to try Honest kids pouches… delicious!

Half & Half, Honey Green Tea, & Sweet Tea

I got three different kinds of Honest Tea to try. What I looked before I even tried them was that the labels are attractive, caught my eye right away when I opened the box. These are the ones that I was hesitate to try because of the tea flavor. While I tried a sip of these I thought they were good, quite healthy for you. I ended up giving the rest of these tea flavored ones to my Mom since she is so much more into tea than myself. She ended up telling me that they were really good and she highly enjoyed them!

Orange Mango, Pomegranate Blue, Super Fruit Punch

These are the other three bottle of Honest products I received in the box.  Here are my thoughts on each flavor.

Orange Mango: This one was just a tad sweet, which is great for those of us who don’t have a huge sweet tooth. In the first sip, all I could taste was orange… must like orange juice. The mango hit in the after-taste. It was a really good taste though. Had just enough mango to where it wasn’t overbearing yet sweet enough at the end.

Pomegranate Blue: I have to say I was hesitate to taste this one at first since I’m not a fan of blueberries and I’ve never truly tasted pomegranate. Immediently I could taste grape though, must like white grape juice. It had a bit of a berry taste to it (probably the pomegranate) with a slight taste of blueberries. I don’t like blueberries, but the little bit of blueberry mixed in with the other flavors was a perfect match for me! Probably my favorite!

Super Fruit Punch: I’ll first put out there that I don’t like fruit punch flavored drinks, especially when they are watered down. I feel like a lot of companies water down their fruit punch flavored drinks to where it isn’t flavored enough for me. I was pleasantly surprised with this flavor though. Much like the Pomegranate Blue flavor, I could take a white grape juice kind of flavoring to it, which I don’t remember ever getting from other companies. As I kept drinking this one I could also taste cranberry, which was a nice touch to it as well! Much better than I expected it to be!

These are the Honest Kids pouches that I received; Tropical Tango Punch, Berry Berry Pink Lemonade, and Super Fruit Punch. My favorite of these was probably the Tropical Tango Punch, again a very mango taste to this one. The Berry Berry Pink Lemonade was good too, not as sweet as the other ones. I found that these are healthier for kids than some other brands of juice boxes. When you compare the sugar, flavors, ingredients, and not to mention the Honest brand is organic, you’ll see that these are tastier and healthier for young children.

When I was in the grocery store about trying these drinks I came across Honest Kids in bigger containers too!

I saw they had Goodness Grapeness, which I hadn’t tried yet, but I look forward to giving it a try shortly!

Has anyone tried these Honest products? What do you think?