There’s so much to love when it comes to GoPicnic Ready-to-Eat Meals! Kids love them, parents love to serve them, parents love to eat them, they are healthy, and many are even gluten free.
These little boxes are a perfect replacement for the unhealthy cheese, meat and cracker meals found in the deli section. They are portable and fun, but they are loaded with good for you options. GoPicnic meals come in a variety of flavors such as salami and cheese, turkey stick and crunch, turkey pepperoni and cheese, sunbutter and crackers, hummus and crackers, salmon and crackers, tuna and cracker, and peanut butter and crackers.
Each box is nutritionally balanced with protein, fiber, and fruit. All products, even the dark chocolate found in some varieties, is made from whole ingredients. GoPicnic defines that by meaning no trans fats, no high fructose corn syrup, no added monosodium glutamate, and no artificial flavors or colors.
The meals are shelf stable but not because they use preservatives. GoPicnic uses high performance packaging methods that may cost more but ensure their products stay fresh without compromising the health factor.
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We’ve just entered the height of diet season. While people make their honest and sincere resolutions for healthy change, there are some companies out there that use not-so-honest tactics to lure those who are especially susceptible to hucksters.
Take the Instaslim shirt for example, which just so happens to be priced at the magic number of $19.95. They are essentially girdles for guys, saying you will “look sharper, stand taller and feel stronger.” Imagine that, wear a t-shirt and suddenly you are stronger. The makers also say you can look up to five inches slimmer. I have no experience wearing a girdle, but I can’t imagine anything taking away five inches from my waistline and not being uncomfortable.
The commercial shows a man’s midsection, who looks to be a good 50 pounds overweight, and turns it magically into the look of a vital, slim and fit person… all by wearing a t-shirt.
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America’s number one online weight loss community SparkPeople.com released SparkPeople: 28-Day Boot Camp with their fan-favorite trainer Coach Nicole this morning, December 27th.
This 28-Day Boot Camp DVD gives you everything you need for create a customizable 28 day boot camp program that combines heart rate raising bouts of cardio with full body strength training to get you results in just 12, 20 or 30 minutes. The DVD includes four workout segments with 3 intensity levels and several bonus features, including recipes and added ab exercises. Light hand weights are required to complete the workouts and a mat is optional.
The workouts themselves are nothing groundbreaking- expect combinations of lunges, squats, bicep curls and crunches- but the exercises are completed without rest and usually combined with kettlebell swings using the light handweights so your heart rate stays elevated and you really target your butt and thighs. Each workout includes the whole body, so no matter whether you have 12 minutes or 30 minutes, you can be sure you’ve hit every muscle group.
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The concept is fascinating: message receptors in the brain tell your body you’ve eaten. Introducing Vaportrim, a new entry into the diet market. It is a plastic cylindrical device, the size of a ballpoint pen, that looks like an embellished electronic cigarette. The cylinder, or cartridge, contains a liquid solution of water and flavors (natural and artificial) in a glycerin base, along with an atomizer, a tiny heating element. When you inhale with your mouth, the liquid passes through the atomizer, turning into a vapor. The vapor is held in your mouth and exhaled, just like smoking. Vaportrim comes in 14 flavors including raspberry cheesecake, milk chocolate, vanilla cupcake, and cinnamon bun.
The manufacturer says it works because our smell receptors message our brain, which, in turn, release hormones that tell the body it’s full. Legitimate research does show that appetite and smell are closely connected and smell can trigger fullness before the stomach can, but whether Vaportrim can curb cravings is unknown. No research has been done using the actual product for appetite suppression or weight control. Le Whif is a similar diet aid, but with it, vapor is not exhaled, and the Sensa Sprinkle Diet, also relies on smell receptors, but calls for sprinkling crystals on your food.
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Most of the time when we snack, we just want the act of snacking. Rarely does anyone actually need those extra calories, but most need the boost in nutrition from a healthy snack to help hit your daily nutrition requirements.
Sensible Foods dried fruit and vegetable snacks are the perfect snack for dieters- the calories are almost negligible, they are made from whole foods and they keep your mouth busy with satisfying little crunches. Sensible Foods come in a ton of different flavors, including Apple, Corn, Edemame, Tropical Blend, Strawberry-Banana, Soynut, Cherry Berry, and Orchard Blend. Sensible Snacks uses a process that removes the water while maintaining the product’s cell structure and nutritional value, and intensifies the flavor. The process gives them a shelf life of over two years, and each packet is the equivalent to 1/2 cup of fresh fruit, or 1 serving of your 5 a day. They range in calories, but all clock in at under 100 calories per pouch.
I love healthy foods in all forms, and choose my snacks based more on their nutritional profile than their taste. Being the healthy minority of my mid-20 peer group, I always like to run new healthy food products by some “average” eaters to get their spin. I gave some Cherry Berry to a fruit-a-phobe friend of mine, who quickly demolished the whole packet claiming he loved them because they taste like Fruity Pebbles. This is a true statement, which quickly led to an experiment of whether drowning them in milk would cause them to puff back up into berry form. It did not.
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