Last year, I tried my first cleanse thanks to Garden of Life. Since then, I’ve been totally addicted to so many of its products (namely, the RAW Fit protein powder, with which Big B and I usually make smoothies a couple of times a week).
We aren’t a vegan or gluten-free household, but we do try to eat as organically as possible — and Garden of Life’s products usually bring together all three of these things.
I’m still struggling to stay on track. I do a cleanse, eat well and see great results and then I fall off the wagon, eating chips in bed and picking up a DQ Blizzard way too often. But then I get serious and try it all over again. I’ve found that with high-quality, good-tasting products, the war is easier to wage. (Of course, I’m eating my kids’ Halloween candy as I type this…)
And because I’m always on the hunt for the next great thing that’s going to help me trim down, I was giddy to get a package of some of Garden of Life’s latest goodies. While I’ve been impressed with all of them, my main complaint is that I find it hard to get Garden of Life stuff in my neck of the woods. I’m able to order some of it from my local health-food store, but it takes a week or two and it’s a bit of a pain, really.
So listen up, retailers! Stock it and we will come.
Now for a look at what I’ve been trying out for the past month…
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There's no other protein powder I use. It's RAW Fit all the way.
Because one look at the ingredients, which is full of certified organic seeds, grains, fruits and legumes, and you'll probably feel the way I do and never want to go back to the powders with fillers.
The new Marley Coffee flavour is subtle but oh-so-nice with chocolate almond milk and bananas. It's one of my new fave concoctions:
- 1 cup of Almond Fresh chocolate almond milk (chilled)
- 1 peeled banana (unless you've chopped up and frozen some banana chunks, add some ice, too)
- 1 scoop of RAW Fit
- Blend (in the Vitamix, it's about 20 seconds)
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These are whole food vitamins. That means they're made with actual, real food.
Let's start with the upsides:
- Certified organic
- GMO-free
- No filler ingredients (especially ones you can't pronounce)
- TONNES of vitamin B12, using the kind of B12 naturally occuring in the human body
The only downside? You have to take two of these multivitamins a day, morning and night. I don't know if it's because packing 100% of your daily needs in this kind of pill means your body doesn't metabolize everything properly or what. I'm not a scientist. But I do know that I inevitably forget one of the two pills most of the time.
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There's no doubt about it: I'm getting old. And by cutting most of the milk out of my life for the past year, and with a family history of osteoporosis, I worry about bone density.
So calcium supplements are a must for me.
The kind of calcium that Garden of Life uses is apparently absorbed well by the body, but what I like even more than that is it comes from grass-fed, free-range cattle. It's not just about being kind to your body; it's about being kind to the earth and its other inhabitants.
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I'll be honest -- I don't know if these work. Yet.
I need to make a bigger fitness commitment and really be conscious of my food choices before I can properly put this stuff to the test. But I'm excited about it, because I've read a lot about the weight-loss benefits of green coffee bean extract.
What I can tell you for sure: you won't get twitchy like you do from drinking too much coffee (or like if you ever used HydroxyCut back in the day before the formula was outlawed).
DISLAIMER: This post is considered an entry into a Garden of Life influencer contest; however, I strongly believe in this brand and love telling my readers about products that actually stand up to their claims.
