Fit Luxe: Green Drink Battle

 I love a good "greens" drink. I actually have tried many different recipes posted on blogs and Pinterest and am always eager to try what others are drinking. Now juicing fruits & veggies is kind of a long process ( cutting & cleaning) and the juice doesn't stay fresh very long. This isn't a problem for me on my days off but while at work, I don't have my juicer or time to snack at all. This is why these "on-the-go" green drinks work well with my schedule. I first tried the Naked Green Machine a long time ago and although its appearance is odd it tastes delicious. However I was shopping the other day and saw Bolthouse Farms has a similar green drink and it was cheaper so I decided to compare the two.

 Here is a side of the bottles where they have a friendly break down of the contents.

At a glance Bolthouse looks to have a few more ingredients and a higher mg content of a few of the ingredients in Naked (i.e. spirulina, broccoli, spinach, blue green algae..) Also Bolthouse has a few more exotic ingredients like Nova scotia dulce and Jerusalem artichoke...don't know if I would ever have the chance to consume those ingredients if it weren't for this drink :) 

Calories & serving sizes seem to be the same, Bolthouse has a bit more grams of fiber, sodium, and potassium but fewer sugar than Naked. One thing that sticks out in the ingredients in Bolthouse is the word concentrate. Now that isn't always a bed thing since I don't know their process to make the juice but i can't help but think of the frozen juice section of the store. Bolthouse Farms is about $1.30 cheaper (at my local store) so for me I'll be choosing Bolthouse.

...Unless there is a slamming sale on Naked.

Sweat On, 

 

 Retired Athlete Chronicles: “Oh Crap” Moment.

It’s been about 2 years since my collegiate athlete career ended and I can tell things have changed in more than one way.

While enslaved as a college athlete you dream of the day you will no longer be owned by the university. Maybe some of you felt this also as a high school athlete. You couldn’t wait for “free time” and coveted non-athletes who got to sleep in, ditch class, and basically do whatever they dang well pleased. During my seasons, waking up at 5am to race to the sports center for lifting, praying that another underclass men didn’t hit the snooze button one too many times, wasn’t my favorite thing about starting my morning. Now I loved lifting. I loved it more than volleyball practice and that was known by all who played with me. For me the weight room was all about mental toughness and letting my competitive personality come out to play. But then I would have a teammate who would screw up something, break some weight room rule and the rest of the time we were being punished then the entire time I would think, “Ugh I can’t wait until I can work out how I want to work out!” I said that a lot in college. Also “I can’t wait until I get to eat what I want to eat” and “I can’t wait to do what I want” Well with how unfair life was at the time (sarcasm) once I retired after 4 years of playing ball I went on athletic sabbatical. I needed time to breathe. Take a break and give my body some rest.

2 years and about 30lbs gained later…

Woke up one morning, looked in the mirror and said, “Oh crap!” 

Some have that "Ah Ha" moment where a light bulb goes off and it's all clear. 

Well mine was a little more brutal and vulgar.
Those of you who really know me know exactly what I said, but I’m trying to work on my sailor/trucker mouth.

My rebellion had gotten me to a point I never could have imagined. I thought @#$% I use to be able to man handled 145lbs, do chin ups, run stairs for days, and bust out about 50 pushups before bed. WTF.

My “athletic break” has really screwed my body up.

So I’m getting back. I’ve got no excuses, seriously. I have a ridiculously supportive husband who works out for a living and has never held me back from anything I’ve wanted to accomplish. I have been coached by the best and am a trainer myself. (haha the irony is killing me) I am all about the pretty with the pain

Join me for more Fit Luxe & Retired Athlete Chronicle posts.

Feel free to take part in any of the workout challenges, recipes, and measurement updates I will be doing. With community support we are all capable of some pretty great things!

Sweat On,