soy free

Superfoods Made Simple With Skoop Nutrition + Discount Code

October 16, 2014 By lyndsinreallife 2 Comments

The past few months have been so crazy busy, it’s been challenging keeping up with my social media life. From being sick, to BlogFest, to being sick again, to babysitting, and now my new puppy, it’s been nonstop. Don’t get me wrong, I love being busy! It can be stressful, but it actually helps to keep me stable and happy. During this time, my nutrition was put on the backburner. I didn’t completely fall by the wayside, but it’s harder to eat healthy when I am always on-the-go.

Lucky for me, I was contacted by Skoop to try out their products and provide my honest feedback. Full disclosure, I received a free sample of B-Strong and B-Lovely, plus a full-size of A-Game. No monetary compensation was received. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

What Is Skoop?

“Skoop is a line of powdered, whole-food sourced super nutrition. We created Skoop to be a real solution to our national nutrition problem. For everyone. Not just those who can afford a personal nutritionist or have ready access to organic farm land. We needed to make it simple to use, quick to prepare, and affordable, too. Thanks to plant-based phytonutrients, we found our solution. Skoop blends are all whole-foods derived and full of the nutrients missing from our standard diet” (website).

They have three amazing products! B-Strong, B-Lovely, and A-Game.

B-Strong, is a plant-based protein powder that promotes a three-stage process for manufacturing strong, lean muscles and all-over health. It’s designed to help your body absorb nutrients, build muscle and recover quickly. Unlike most protein powders, B-Strong also contains prebiotics that promote a happy belly, as well as amino acids such as essentials, non-essentials and BCAAs, and even Mediterranean fruits. It’s gluten, dairy and soy free, and it contains pea and brown rice protein.
The fatty acids aid hormone function, healthy skin and cellular repair, but they also help the gut absorb macro and phytonutrients throughout your day. The BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) keep your muscles strong and happy throughout your daily activity or workout, so that you recover quickly and efficiently.
A-Game, a superfood formula, which is loaded with 41 organic and non-GMO ingredients, probiotics, adaptogens, and antioxidants.
B-Lovely, a beauty blend, that fights oxidative stress in the skin and promotes healthy cellular development.

They can be mixed with almond milk, coconut milk, water, in a smoothie, or however you want!

I really enjoyed all three products! A-Game is perfect for making sure I get my nutrition in the morning (I mix it with almond milk). I’ll admit the taste takes some getting used to, especially because I am not generally a plant-based type of person. The great feeling I have after drinking my A-Game is well worth dealing with the taste. I will say, though, that it’s much better than other superfood powders I’ve had! B-Strong was really good, and great as a post-workout. I love that it contains prebiotics and is safe for most people with food allergies/restrictions! As a woman in her late (gasp) 20s, B-Lovely is a saving grace! I definitely need to fight oxidative stress for better skin.

Each purchase also comes with a “life instruction manual”. It’s pretty awesome!

Buy One, Give One

“We partnered with The Chef Ann Foundation, a non-profit that provides real, fresh fruits and veggies to public school lunch programs all over the country – programs that currently need to classify french fries, tomato sauce, and ketchup as vegetables in order to meet FDA standards. For every serving of Skoop sold, we donate one serving of free, fresh fruits and veggies to a school lunch program. You buy a serving, you give a serving” (website).

Discount Code:

You can use code BALANCE10 for 10% off your order at healthyskoop.com!

Interested in trying out Skoop for yourself? You can purchase it online here, or become a seller here!

You can find Skoop on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Have you tried Skoop products?
Do you follow a plant-based diet?

Thank you for reading my blog! And thank you Skoop for allowing me to sample your products!

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XO

Lyndsay

Twitter | Instagram

Formulx; A Healthy, Non-GMO Protein Shake

July 1, 2014 By lyndsinreallife 5 Comments

I have been on a search for a good, healthy, non-GMO protein powder for a few months now. I was with a company for the past two years that was my protein shake of choice, however, it no longer fits my needs. I was looking for a good-tasting protein shake that was non-GMO, grass-fed whey, and had natural ingredients. While looking through Instagram one day, I stumbled across Formulx. I had found it!

Formulx Natural Recovery is a grass-fed whey protein isolate that is non-GMO, undenatured, and contains all-natural ingredients that are scientifically formulated to help people like me: a health conscious, high-intensity athlete trying to build muscle, burn fat, increase work capacity, and assist in quicker recovery. Perfect! I contacted Formulx on their Instagram and talked with one of their employees, Peter. As I’ve said in the past, one of the things that really stands out to me is good customer service. If a company is good to their consumers, and is passionate about what they do and the products they promote, it’s a big plus in my book! Peter is all of those things. I was really excited to receive a sample from Formulx to see if it was as great as it sounded.

I was sent a Formulx shaker cup, two vanilla shake packets, and two chocolate shake packets:

Guess what? IT WAS DELICIOUS! A lot of protein powders I’ve tried recently are really gross. Most of them I can’t even finish. But Formulx is so so good. The chocolate and vanilla both! As I’m writing this, I have an open packet next to me, and it smells so good, I want to lick the packet haha. Have you ever had a french vanilla cappuccino? That’s what the vanilla smells like. It tastes like it, too! So yummy.

A little bit about what’s in the Formulx vanilla mix:

22g grass-fed whey protein isolate
5.2g naturally occuring BCAA’s (branched-chain amino acids)
free of: gluten, soy, hormones, GMOs
130 calories; 25 calories from fat
2.5g fat
50mg sodium (this is the lowest I’ve found so far!)
3g carbs; 4g sugar alcohol
various vitamins and minerals
manufactured in a GMP facility
contains milk (sorry if you’re lactose-intolerant!)

Here’s the back of the packet if you want to take a look:

Formulx recommends mixing it with 6-10 ounces of water or almond milk immediately after your workout. I mixed mine with about 10 ounces of unsweetened almond milk. SO good! I use it for post-recovery, but I was also looking for a breakfast shake. While the vitamins and minerals aren’t as high as the last protein source I used, I feel better knowing Formulx doesn’t use GMOs. I’ve had a Formulx shake for breakfast for the past three days, and it has worked out great!

I will definitely be ordering more Fomulx ASAP. You can check it out for yourself at formulx.com! They have sample packs if you want to give it a try before ordering a bigger container (free shipping, too!). The big container is $54.95 for 26 servings, which is a lot cheaper (and for more servings) than what I’ve seen! Definitely cheaper than what I was using before.

You can follow Formulx on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and purchase Formulx on their website! If you try it for yourself, takea picture and tag @formulx and @thebalancedbrunette so we can check it out! And as always, let me know what you think. 🙂

Have you tried Formulx before? What did you think?
What do you look for in a protein powder?

XO,

Lyndsay

Disclosure: I received free samples of Formulx in the hopes that I would post about it on my blog. I only review products that are good for myself and my readers, therefore all opinions are 100% my own. Thank you Formulx for the opportunity!

Ambassador Events Nutrition SoCal

PLUSH Show 2014 With Delta Labs

June 9, 2014 By lyndsinreallife 7 Comments

Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity of representing Delta Labs at the PLUSH Show in Downtown Los Angeles! I am an ambassador with Delta Labs, which is a company with an all-natural line of supplements for women based in New York, and the president of the company, Debbie, reached out to me asking if I would help with the booth. I jumped at the chance!! And I am SO glad I did!

Our BEAUTIFUL booth, photo courtesy of the Delta Labs Facebook Page

The PLUSH Show/Expo is a high-end trade show put on by PlushLittleBaby and labeled the posh little urbanities show. It’s a place for new moms, expecting moms, veteran moms, anyone remotely interested in being a mom, and also a few dads to check out high-quality mom and baby products! There were so many booths with great products and services. It was definitely very “posh”! The event is usually indoors, but it was outdoors this year at the Los Angeles Center Studios. It was pretty hot, so unfortunately a lot of people left early. It was a little too much for the kiddos. I, however, loved it! I don’t often get to spend a lot of time outdoors (living in SoCal, I really should work to change this), and I was enjoying myself so much that I didn’t really notice! Which is saying a lot for me, because I am always the one complaining about the heat!

While most blog reviews of the PLUSH Show will be about the booths, products, and experiences as a mom, this one specifically is about my experience working my first trade show with an amazing company!

I have been an ambassador with Delta Labs for a couple months now. I absolutely LOVE the supplements, and take 7 out of the 8! The only one I don’t take is the postnatal, because, well, I don’t have babies! I spent the day with the president of the company, Debbie, her daughter, Alisha, and the company’s photographer/friend, Jason. Hands down THE coolest people EVER! Debbie is absolutely gorgeous, and hearing her talk with such passion about Delta Labs was contagious. She told me that she was loving being an entrepreneur and enjoying her time now that her kids are grown, and she spoke with such happiness, pride, and class. It was powerful being in her presence. If I become half the woman she is, I’ll be happy. She is absolutely wonderful! It is extremely comforting having such a strong, passionate, intelligent woman behind a company that I represent and support 100%.

The Delta Labs supplements on display at our booth. Aren’t they beautiful?!

Alisha is her daughter, and she is one year older than me. She is a gorgeous, loving, fun girl (at what age do we start saying woman? I feel so weird calling myself a woman still!). She was so accepting of me. I get anxiety about going new places, but Alisha was so cool and helpful, that I didn’t have anxiety at all! As I’ve mentioned before in my posts, I have bipolar disorder, so I can get manic and very chatty, and tend to say really dumb things haha. Not once did I feel embarrassed to be myself around these ladies, and that rarely happens here in LA for me.

Jason, the photographer, was super cool, too! He has been on a few daytime television shows (he was the drinking expert on 1,000 Ways To Die LOL), and has such an awesome, fun personality.

It was so great spending the day with such awesome, fun, cool people, sharing about women’s health! I am passionate about health and what we put in our bodies, so getting to talk to so many amazing, beautiful moms and moms-to-be about high-quality supplements was simply wonderful! Plus I got to meet a lot of cool little kids, and being a nanny, I love cool little kids! Haha.

Also, I got to meet and hold a 7-week-old chihuahua puppy, which just made my day!

So yep, it was a wonderful day! Now I need to travel to New York to visit them! Haha. Can you believe I’ve never been to NYC?

I highly recommend checking out deltalabsusa.com and seeing what their stellar supplements are all about! Email me at lyndsay{at}thebalancedbrunette{dot}com if you have any questions! And use code GETFITWITHLYNDS for $5 off!! **Not valid on bundles

Holistic Living Nutrition Personal

GAPS Diet Update – Week 3

May 11, 2014 By lyndsinreallife 10 Comments

A couple weeks ago, I posted about my new nutrition plan and why I was doing it. As a recap, I am following a plan called the GAPS diet, which basically means my digestive system is not a happy camper. The past four months have been very stressful, which led to an excess of cortisol being released (stress hormone), sugar and refined carb cravings, poor nutrition, and then an overgrowth of candida.

(Image Source)

Candida is a fungus/yeast that we all have a little bit of in our digestive systems. However, if it grows out of control, you get pretty scary symptoms. Since starting to detox from things like sugar, soy, dairy, gluten (grains), and refined carbs, these are the symptoms I have experienced:

hives (daily)
migraines (6 days in a row)
fatigue, no matter how healthy I eat
difficulty sleeping
abdominal/digestive pain/bloating
irritability, mood swings, depression
muscle pain, especially in my legs
weight gain
acne (I haven’t had acne in YEARS!!!!)
intense sugar and refined carb cravings

I could go on and on, but those are the ones that really stood out to me. It has been a rough 3 weeks! But I feel like I am finally getting over the hump of the worst part. I started a 21 day cleanse (through Herbalife), I’m taking a supplement called FloraFiber daily (probiotics), and I just ordered goldenseal root (to push the candida out) and another probiotic. I already feel so much better!! I definitely have a ways to go with getting healthy again, but I can already feel a difference, and it is soo comforting!

(Image Source)

Sugar addiction and sugar detoxing are no joke. I was blaming myself for having a hard time cutting it out completely, but I was reassured that it really is my body that craves the sugar! It’s so similar to a drug addiction, it’s crazy. Did you know sugar is 8 times more addicting than cocaine? There was a study done on rats, and the rats chose the sugar over the cocaine every time.

Anyway, I feel like I’m rambling. I wanted to share a little bit of an update about this sugar detox since I know a few of you are following my updates (which I so so appreciate!!). If anything, I have totally learned how essential it is to truly take care of our bodies. Yes, I knew it was important before, but I feel like now, I have a deeper understanding of why we need to nourish our bodies with real food and get those toxins out through exercise. So many of us are living with poor gut health, and we don’t even realize it! I can’t stress enough how important it is to take care of our digestive system. 90% of our immune system is in our gut.

Healthy gut = happy life. 🙂