GoNurition Review

Today I have another review for you. This time it’s for GoNutrition products. GoNutrition is an online sports nutrition shop and have a range of high protein products to facilitate your sport goals. They kindly sent me a selection of goodies from their website for me to try so here are my thoughts.

GN Whey Protein 80 (find HERE)

Their whey protein powder contains over 19.5g protein per 25g serving and is rich in branched-chain amino acids (BCAA’s) and glutamic acid. I didn’t know too much about whey protein if I’m honest but after doing a bit of research it seems BCAA’s help stimulate protein synthesis and are therefore idea for muscle repair and growth. Basically it’s great for post-workout recovery.

image (Suitable for Diabetics, Gluten-Free, No GM, Hala and Kosher Suitable, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

  • Calories per serving: 96 kcal
  • Fat: 1.45g
  • Of which saturates: 1.1g
  • Carbohydrate: 1.2g
  • Of which sugars: 1.2g
  • Salt: 0.2g
  • Protein: 19.5g

My thoughts: There are loads of different delicious sounding flavours (maple syrup pancakes, jammie biscuit, key lime pie, etc.) available. I tried the triple chocolate flavour. You can mix the powder with water or milk, and the more you add of the powder then the more thick it is. I have to say I wasn’t a huge fan. I tried it with water first and it didn’t float my boat – I had to add more powder to stop it being watery and though the chocolate flavour was there it was still rather synthetic. Using milk made it a lot nicer though. Ben, however, really enjoyed it.

GoNutrition Whey Protein Powder I didn’t have a shaker so could only stir the mixture as much as possible

Original Protein Flapjacks (find HERE)

Again a high protein food, these flapjacks contain 18.6g protein and are made from oats so are low GI for slow-release energy. They have a chocolate-coating on one-side.

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(No GM, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

  • Energy: 310 kcal
  • Fat: 8.6g
  • Of which saturates: 4.3g
  • Carbohydrate: 38.1g
  • Of which sugars: 8.5g
  • Dietary Fibre: 2.8g
  • Salt: 0.20g
  • Protein: 18.6g

My thoughts: Nice and tasty, very soft and chewy with lovely dark chocolate chips. The ingredient list looks a bit dubious with a some chemically sounding items and “chocolate flavour coating” though. Three-hundred plus calories for a snack in my opinion is on the high side but, saying that, flapjacks tend to be quite calorific anyway because they’re energy dense. Plus if you’re doing a big gym or long run then this could be ideal to hold you over between meals (hello, runger).

GoNutrition Flapjack

Protein Balls (find HERE)

Basically they’re crispy little balls of protein flavoured with spicy sweet chilli. Each 30g bag contains 15g of protein. Hilariously on the bag they were called ‘soy puffs’ which just amused me greatly.

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 (No GM, No Artificial Colourings, Vegan, Vegetarian)

  • Energy: 124 kcal
  • Fat: 3.6g
  • Of which saturates: 0.3g
  • Carbohydrates: 7.7g
  • Of which sugar: 2.9g
  • Dietary Fibre: 0.5g
  • Salt: 0.78g
  • Protein: 15.0g

My thoughts: I actually really enjoyed these and checked the pack twice to see if I was only eating one serving because honestly there seemed a lot of, er, puffs for the calories (I’m a volume eater so this makes me happy). The flavouring was really good too, like finger-licking good. They sort of reminded me of those chickpea snacks. Very happy with these, very moreish.

GoNutrition Protein BallsA small sample of what you get 

Protein Cookie (find HERE)

This is what it says it is, a high protein cookie! A whopping 37.5g protein per cookie. To put that in perspective, there’s roughly 30g of protein in a chicken breast. 

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(No GM and No Artificial Colourings)

  • Energy: 320 kcal
  • Carbohydrates: 19.3g
  • Of which sugars: 7.2g
  • Fat: 9.9g
  • Of which saturates: 3.9g
  • Dietary Fibre: 1.7g
  • Salt: 0.5g
  • Protein: 37.5g

My thoughts: I tried the triple chocolate flavour, other options are cherry bakewell and chocolate orange. It’s a very soft cookie so it reminded me more of a brownie. There are big white chocolate chunks in it. It’s very tasty, but you know when you’re eating it it’s not quite the normal sugar-coma cookie you can buy in a bakery, but it is very satisfying and filling regardless. Again, long list of ingredients.

GoNutrition cookie

Protein Puddings (find HERE)

These are basically chocolate mousse pots containing 15g of milk protein but are low in fat and sugar. Ideal little snacks to stop you reaching for a sugary snack between meals, or good for a nice little dessert.

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(Suitable for Diabetics, Gluten-Free, No Gm, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

  • Energy: 109 kcal
  • Fat: 3.0g
  • Of which saturates: 2.0g
  • Carbohydrates: 5.0g
  • Of which sugars: 1.0g
  • Dietary Fibre: 1.1g
  • Salt: 0.45g
  • Protein: 15.0g

My thoughts: Creamy, rich and chocolaty. Again the ingredients look a bit scary with flavours and sweeteners but it is what it is being a chocolate mousse pot. I wouldn’t eat one every day but they’re great if you’re craving a chocolate pick-me-up that’ll fill you up while you wait for something more substantial.GoNutrition Protein pudding

Whew! Lots of good stuff there. If you like your snacks to pack a punch and keep you full then these are ideal. They’re not whole foods or entirely clean by any means, but they’re great to tide you over to your next meal or help increase your calories if you’re working out hard. I just wish I had more soy puffs in my life 😉

Have you tried any GoNutrition products?

Do you aim for high protein snacks?

Do you regularly use protein powder?

[Disclosure: I was sent these products for free to review. However all opinions are my own.]

Books I’ve been reading

Recently I’ve been a bit obsessed with reading running books. It’s become a problem. What can I say, I love running. Here’s a review of some of the books I’ve been enjoying lately – though not all to do with running!

Eat and Run – Scott Jurek

Scott Jurek is an incredible athlete blessed with some very nice genes and some great determination and skill. He regular runs 100 mile and above races and wins them. He is incredible and a great inspiration. He’s also vegan and at the end of each chapter gives a vegan recipe. The books is very interesting and you are literally going “wow, seriously?” the whole time.

While the facts and information were great, Scott himself and the tone the book didn’t appeal to me. He came across quite arrogant and made it all seem a little too easy. There was really no grittiness and any hardship he has had was skimmed over. He made me believe that running an ultramarathon was something quite easy and well within anybody’s capabilities. While this is great, I don’t think it’s realistic. He is clearly on the gifted side of the fence when it comes down to running and this skews his perceptions of realistic training. Also his ‘easy’ vegan recipes do indeed seem very easy, if you have a 1,000 of the strange ingredients he lists.

Running and Stuff – James Adams

I would absolutely recommend reading this book straight after reading Eat and Run. Perhaps this man appeals more to me because he’s British and has more of a British tone than Jurek (no offence to any Americans out there but us Brits have a slightly less optimistic outlook to life).

If you were under any illusions that running an ultra would be easy this book will fully reset those expectations. All the gory details of running stupidly far (like across America far) are laid bare in this book – peeing, vomiting, pooing, bleeding. Unlike Scott bounding along through his ultras like a galloping gazelle, this man pretty much crawls to the end of his ultras in a broken, bloody, sweaty heap. But it’s a brilliant read. It by far gives a more realistic idea of what an ultra-marathon is like (not that I would know of course). Another interesting contrast to Jurek’s book is the amount of rubbish food that Adams eats. We’re talking regular MacDonalds, sweets, sugary drinks, fast food…which is vastly different to Jurek’s slightly unrealistic clean vegan (and at times raw) way of eating. I don’t have anything particularly against Jurek but it’s just Adams strikes me as you’re every day guy so easier to relate to.

824 – P J Robbins

This book focused more on a journey towards the so-called ‘hardest race on Earth’, the Marathon des Sables (a six day ultra across the Sahara Desert). Again, kind of similar to the previous book, a British guy going from being a regular runner to suddenly going for the big one. It’s a fascinating read to hear his experiences and the ins and outs of this race. Funnily enough the previous author, James Adams, also writes briefly about his experience with this race and they have polar opposite experiences and opinions on the race. Again nothing like Jurek’s ease with running such long distances, it’s a very gruelling and honest account.

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

Not a running book, but an account of a young man who went on a crazy trip and sadly didn’t make it out alive. He gave up his normal life (college, family, money) and literally just decided to, what I can only describe as, “find himself”. He walked, hiked, canoed through the tough terrain of Alaska on his own. I won’t lie I did question the boy’s sanity many times during the book but I also envied his ability to just let go and live the adventure he was desperate for. How liberating that must be, but also terrifying. It’s a non-fiction account of what’s known about the boy and at times can seem a bit tedious with some meanderings off into other historical accounts of people doing similar things, but it is an eye opening read nonetheless.

Wild – Cheryl Strayed

I found out about this book because it’s very soon to be a film with Reese Witherspoon, of which I now really want to see. This book is fantastic. I much preferred it to the previous book. It has a similar idea of dropping everything in one’s life and going to find yourself but is easier to read because it’s from the lady herself. I’m not joking when I say the temptation to suddenly going camping and hiking in some remote area of America was strong as I was reading this! It’s raw, real and very engaging.

Do any of these books appeal to you? My favourite was Wild out of them all.

Have you ever been influenced by a book to do something or try something new?

What’s your favourite genre? I don’t have a favourite, I tend to read anything that sounds good, whether that’s fiction or non-fiction.

**Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for TWO FREE tickets to the Yoga Show in London – you have until the 12th October**

**These are affiliated links but all the opinions are my own as usual!**

Weekend fun and Uzuma drinks

So my weekend recap is a little delayed, but hey these things happen. Weekend’s are precious. Sleeping, eating, running (god willing!), cake (separate category to eating because it’s cake and amazing), friends, family…all the best things really!

After getting over the boredom that was pool running on Saturday morning I got home and pottered about waiting for Ben. He was out doing a 30 mile cycle ride. I was tempted to go with them instead of the pool running but I wanted to do something a bit more running-specific and frankly wasn’t up for a long ride.

After eating lunch we headed to go shopping in the wonder that is West Quay in Southampton. It’s like another world. It’s HUGE (I’ve blogged about the amazingness before HERE last Christmas). One of the main reasons I wanted to go is that it’s like the only place that sells frozen yogurt outside of London in Southampton.

I went in a few shops but just felt a bit…old. The fashion right now is just not me – all crop tops and weird skirts. I’m not a fashionista (can you tell? Ha!) and just like normal clothes. So Fatface is where I found success!

After that I was kind of done. We headed straight to the fro-yo!

IMG_7919Notice that my fro-yo has the fruit in it!

The server asked what size we wanted and we both went for the biggest – obviously 😉 And both chose salted caramel.

Embarrassingly as we were paying the lady went “you do realise your top is on the wrong way?”. Erm…nope I hadn’t been aware of this. Epic fail for a basic human skill: dressing oneself. Hopefully it was just after trying stuff on, otherwise it was a bit of an embarrassing day and my husband doesn’t look at me anymore 😉

IMG_7920 

Genius right there

On Sunday I ran 11 miles which went well. And then for lunch we went to Nando’s with our friend, Nathan. Nando's luch

I just don’t get bored of that combo: whole chicken (medium spice), corn on the cob and salad. It rocks my world. I could go there every week (let’s pretend I don’t…).

The other week I was contact by the people at Uzuma to test out some of their newly released products. Uzuma are a Dutch company and have released a “green slow juice”. Basically they are vegetable (and fruit) juices that have been cold-pressed and processed under high pressure (HPP) in order to preserve the drinks and give them a shelf-life of 21 days without adding any preservatives.

Uzuma delivery

“We add nothing extra to our green juices, meaning there are no preservatives, fragrances, colourings or flavourings. Nothing. What you experience from Uzuma green juice is the 100% pure power of nature. Our green juice allows us to bring you closer to a healthier lifestyle in a simple and convenient way. We do not use destructive traditional spinning extraction to produce Uzuma. All our vegetables and fruit are slow juiced using the latest innovative methods, allowing you to benefit from maximum vitamin and mineral retention.” Source

Uzuma ZenZen flavour – broccoli, cucumber, kale, apple, lime, avocado etc. 

How is it different to other juice drinks? Basically it’s the method they use in order to extract the juice from the vegetables and fruit. It doesn’t involve heat and so has a better nutritional value than regular juice drinks (i.e. it’s raw). Read more about it HERE.

IMG_7927 Rise flavour – carrots, apple, pineapple, orange, lemon

What did I think? Well, I love vegetables so this is right up my street. Some of them tasted a bit better than others – mainly the ones with more fruit in them as this made them sweeter. But saying that, I quite enjoyed all of the flavours regardless of their sweetness.

I think the big test was how Ben found them. I made gave him one each day to take into work to drink. He is a vegetable dodger so these were more beneficial to him than me who loves veg and eats it regularly.

IMG_7890Shine – melon, mango, carrots and orange

He much preferred the sweeter ones and detested the one that had beetroot in it (Vibe) as he doesn’t like beetroot. But he said they were “alright” and that he could “endure taking them” to maximise his health.

Each one literally just contains vegetables and fruit. They’re dairy, gluten and soy free and they’re around 100 calories (some more, some less).

Personally I wouldn’t necessarily drink these everyday, only because I get enough veg already. Maybe I’d have some if I’d been on holiday and hadn’t eaten much veg and needed a bit of a health boost. I would definitely recommend them to people like my dad and Ben who don’t eat that much veg on a regular basis. It’s an easy way for them to get a lot of nutrition quick and easily.

Do you like juicing? What are your favourite ingredients?

What’s a restaurant you regularly keep going back to? We have many pubs we go back to, but Nando’s is the main chain we visit a lot.

Ever had an embarrassing shopping-related incident?

*** Full disclosure: I was sent the Uzuma products for free to review. But all opinions are my own***

nuun revisited

So a while ago I did a post on comparing High5 electrolyte tablets and nuun electrolyte tablets. I came to the conclusion that I preferred the High5 tablets because they had the added caffeine, which I always found helped me.

I like to have a coffee before a race as I find it wakes me up and I’m motivated to run fast. But if I have a regular run in the morning (oh I wish…) then I wouldn’t have time for this coffee as I just want to get out and go and having coffee sloshing about isn’t pleasant. If it was a long run (over 10 miles) I usually take two small water bottles (like 300mls each) and hold them in my hands. I’m strange in that I quite like holding things in my hand when I run. For the Paris marathon I held three gels. It’s quite reassuring to me, not sure why. Especially gels as they’re squidgy 🙂

Anyway, I digress. In those two water bottles I’ll put an electrolyte tablet (half in each) to help with the electrolyte balance and the caffeine. After I did my review, nuun contacted me to say actually they do have caffeine versions and would I like to try some? Well of course!

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The flavours I was sent sounded a bit quirky but actually I quite liked them: Kona Kola and Cherry Limeade. Exactly as I said in the previous review post, you just pop one tablet into about 500ml of water and let it dissolve.

Nuun TabletEach tube contains 12 tablets and each tablet gives 360mg of sodium, 100mg of potassium, 25mg of magnesium and interestingly 13mg of calcium. Really low in carbs and zero sugar (8 calories per tablet). Not too shabby, eh! Also the caffeine hit is 40g so solves my caffeine issue.

For our 41 mile bike ride we did on Sunday, Ben and me each took a 500ml bottle with a nuun tablet in it (I went for the Kona Kola flavour as that’s my favourite out of the two and Ben loves the cherry). It was a rally good way to make sure we stayed hydrated during the ride. Especially as we were quickly dashing out for a walk afterwards and it was quite a warm day. What was good was that because it was caffeinated it helped with not having had any coffee in the morning before we left.

Yes nuun are more expensive than High5 electrolyte tablets but I honestly prefer nuun. And I was SO excited to find out that nuun now do a watermelon flavour. I am currently addicted to watermelon – buying one every week as a treat at the weekend (I say treat only because they’re quite expensive and such a faff to cut). I’d quite like to get one of the nuun water bottles for my bike as well as they just look cool (yeah turning into a weird nuun fan I guess). Anyway, if you like the sound of nuun you can buy from their website HERE or other online sports shops like Wiggle or ProBikeKit. Happy drinking!

Do you use electrolyte tablets?

Which is your favourite sports nutrition brand?

Have you tried nuun products before?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent these products for free to review. The links in this post are no affiliated links. All opinions are my own***

Ice bucket challenge and fitness trackers

Winter is coming. It definitely feels like it anyway. Blimmin’ freezing, intermittent rain, darker evenings, darker mornings.

Perfect timing for my ice bucket challenge one evening after work after being nominated by my lovely husband. I sat outside and I was so cold before it had even begun. We’ve both donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (find out how to donate HERE – or text ICED55 to 70070 ).

Ice Bucket Challenge It was absolutely freezing and one of the worst experience I’ve had in a while. But I’m glad I did it. I squealed like a girl and ran inside straight away.

I think these challenges are brilliant for raising so much money and awareness for MND, ALS (the US version of the charity) and other charities too. Though I agree that millions of people (myself included) throwing perfectly good drinking water over their heads is a bit of kick in the teeth to the water charities trying to get sustainable and clean sources of water to developing countries. I think Matt Damon’s ice bucket challenge was a good example of raising awareness of this and watching it made me feel bad afterwards. Perhaps I should have run into the sea like I’ve seen quite a few people do? Either way, money is being raised and that’s something at least.

I am trying not to panic too much about the marathon at the moment. I’m living in a little bubble of apathy. I have about 4.5 weeks to go. The furthest I’ve run is 13.1 miles. I’ve run this quite a few times and feel good in terms of endurance. I only ran a few 13 milers (and one 15 miler weeks and weeks) before the Paris marathon. My concern though is that I’m banking too much on how good my experience was for Paris…surely I can’t be that lucky again right?

I can’t run for 10 days (well less than that now) and honestly I don’t even know what to think. If I dwell on this too much I get very sad. Why does running hate me so? Maybe I should have had a long time off after Paris? Probably. But I can’t dwell on what I should have done at the moment. I can’t dwell on it at all otherwise I will get very down – and I sound like such a broken record I’m sure. One thing for certain is 2014 has been an epically bad year of running for me so far.

I’m keeping my fitness up by cycling, using the dreaded cross trainer in our gym at work at lunchtime and have just purchased a floatation belt for…aqua running. I have no idea how that’s going to pan out but I plan to find out at the weekend. My physio said it’s a great idea as it’s still running but without the impact. I can run as much as like in the pool with no ill effects on my shin. Hurrah. I’ve also bought a waterproof iPod holder because I’m pretty sure it’s going to be about as exciting as watching paint dry. And I’m under no illusion that it won’t be hard work either.

On a more exciting note…Ben and me bit the bullet and bought the Garmin fitness tracker the Vivofit.

Garmin Vivofits

We originally had the Fitbits but Ben’s started to play up and there were different things about it that we disliked. For example, you can’t see how many steps you’ve actually done without looking at your phone (though there are lights that give you some indication of how close to your goal you are). You can change your goal but it’s a manual process. Normally it’s 10,000 steps. It does track sleep and it has a nice little vibrate on it for an alarm that you can set.

The Garmin is just so much more superior though. It actually has the time on it, the date, how many steps you’ve done, how that equates to miles, how close or over your goal you are and how many calories you’ve burnt (which I guess is taken from your personal data and steps). It auto updates your goal so if 10,000 is easy for you it bumps it up, or bumps it down if you’re  not hitting your goal. You don’t have to charge it every week which was so annoying about the Fitbit. The battery for the Vivofit lasts a year and then you buy another battery. I also use a Garmin watch to track my runs so it uses the same Garmin Connect app which is nice.

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And it tracks your sleep as well.

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All very interesting. I love stuff like this as it honestly encourages me to walk and move more. As I can’t run I’m very conscious of the activity I do and take Alfie for longer walks and move more at work.

I’d really recommend the Vivofits if that’s your thing. I’m a data geek so it really appeals to me! I could hook my HR monitor up to it as well (more data!) but I’m still nursing my sore chest (least that will heal nicely before I ravage it again running!)

Have you done the ice bucket challenge? What are your thoughts?

Have you ever done aqua running? Any tips?

Do you own or want a fitness tracker?