Tag Archives: We Love

We Love Gold Bond Friction Defense

One of the most irritating issues of running can be what happens when those clothes swish back and forth for hours on end. Of course, I’m talking about chafing. A painful and irritating side effect that many runners deal with. Thankfully, there are options for managing this nonsense, really effective options.

A tried and mostly-true method has always been to use petroleum jelly on your trouble spots. It tends to keep irritation away for many miles. Only slight down side? It’s messy, greasy and oily, and may even stain your clothes. One of the more recent products to help with chafing is Gold Bond’s Friction Defense. It looks like a stick of deodorant, but it’s not meant to keep you smelling fresh. Instead it will keep skin free from painful chafing.

Whether men need to avoid bloody nipples, or ladies need to get relief from a snug jog bra, the key to fighting chafing is to reduce the friction. Several of us put the Gold Bond to the test this summer to see if it stacks up against other similar products. (more…)

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Lacy

Our First-Ever Food Awards Reveal the Healthiest Groceries

We’re never been quiet when we find a new product we love. We make it a point to try out the newest “health” food being marketed and uncover brands with a smaller ad budget and a bigger nutritional bang. But we’ve never given you one collective list all at once like we’ve done in our first-ever food awards!

We’ve spent the summer developing nutrition criteria, scouring every shelf of the grocery store, reading labels until our eyes-crossed, and swapping lunch calories for taste-testing calories all in the name of helping you put the best food possible on your grocery list.

What we’ve come up with is a list of 13 popular food categories at the grocery store with a clear winner in each: bread, cereal, hot dogs, yogurt, snacks, deli meat, pasta sauce, dips, frozen meals, dressing, granola, beverages, and soup. While the general rule of thumb is to only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, if you’re willing to read labels then there’s plenty of good food stocked down the aisles.

View the Slideshow: 2024 Food Awards

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Posted on August 14, 2024 by Natalie K

We Love Honest Tea’s Not Too Sweet Tea

Is there anything better than sweet tea on a hot summer day? We think not. And in anticipation of warmer weather just around the corner, this week we love Honest Tea’s Not Too Sweet Tea.

Honest Tea is a bottled tea company based in Maryland that specializes in organic, lower calorie, lower sugar bottled beverages. Some of their most popular products include Honest Kids organic thirst quenchers and their line of ready-to-drink bottled teas.

We not only love that Honest Tea produces quality teas with fair trade, organic ingredients. But that they’re also forging new paths as one of the most socially and environmentally responsible companies in their industry.

Honest Tea’s Not Too Sweet Tea is a lower sugar version of an old favorite brewed with organic black tea leaves and sweetened with just a touch of organic cane sugar and organic stevia. Each 16.9 oz. bottle contains 25 grams of sugar and 100 calories.

And how does it taste? Refreshing, delicious and not too sweet, just as they claim. I split open a couple bottles with my husband and a few friends and everyone agreed that if they were to opt for a sweet tea, this would be the one they’d choose. (more…)

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Dana

We Love U-Relish Farm Crock Pot Meals

U-Relish Farm crock pot meals have become an integral part of my meal planning. Cara Dafforn, formerly the Director of Development for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at IUPUI which has a department of Nutrition and Dietetics, created the company to provide nutrient dense, preservative free, delicious meals in minutes to assist busy families avoid fast food and convenience food options. The ingredients are all regionally sourced and much is grown on Cara’s own farm near Indianapolis. It is all prepared in a kitchen free of gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and shellfish. My favorite story was the young boy that approached Cara to tell her that he loved one of her meals as much as he loves his Wii! Any time we can get children excited about healthy eating, especially if they have not been before, it is a success!

U-Relish Farm crock pot meals come in savory, spicy, or sweet. There is a pea product line, a bean product line, and a lentil product line. The Chipolte Corn Chili was really spicy in my opinion! Each eight ounce package is labeled with cooking instructions, serving notes, protein suggestions, and ingredients. The packages say that they serve three, but we easily got 4-6 servings from a package by adding protein and serving with rice. I also used the leftover (too spicy for me) Chipolte Corn Chili to top eggs and spice up breakfast.

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Posted on February 22, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

We Love BOLD Organics Gluten-Free Frozen Pizzas

BOLD Organics made a skeptic a believer, so now we love BOLD Organics Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Pizzas.

The tag line for these pizzas reads, “Pizza lovers can finally enjoy a delicious and healthy frozen pizza.” Three major red flags stood in my way to believing this. Gluten-free, dairy-free, and healthy rarely equal good taste. As a lactose intolerant, gluten sensitive eater, I’ve gotten excited one too many times over these claims when it comes to a new product. Typically my experience with these restricted foods has been very unpleasant. I’ve often felt I was eating wallpaper paste and cardboard.

However, when the chance to try these pizzas came my way, I thought I’d give them a shot, hoping that maybe someone could prove me wrong.

I read the back story about the company before I sampled. Aaron Greenwald is the founder of BOLD Organics. He has struggled to find decent health food, especially gluten-free and dairy-free foods. My ears were perked. Then I learned that Greenwald brought Chef Eric Brenner on board to perfect his recipes. Together the two created a frozen pizza with claims unlike any other- healthy, organic ingredients, and great tasting alternatives to insure all pizzas are gluten-free and dairy-free.

The pizzas come in four flavors: Vegan cheese pizza, veggie lovers pizza, meat lovers pizza, and deluxe pizza. All four flavors have been made with ingredients that are very high quality for any pizza, especially a frozen pizza. Greewald and Brenner claim they searched the country for the best flavors and the highest health benefits. Their pizzas include items such as organic roasted red peppers, organic roasted yellow onions, and shiitake mushrooms. For non-vegan consumers, they chose the leanest and nitrate-free meats available on the market.
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Posted on February 21, 2024 by Lacy

We Love 8 Keys to Recovery From An Eating Disorder

I am generally fairly skeptical about self-help books, but I was very pleasantly surprised to read 8 Keys to Recovery From An Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience by Carolyn Costin and Gwen Schubert Grabb. I am guessing they believe that simply using their names makes them more approachable to readers; however, it is clear that these are intelligent, educated, and experienced professionals. Perhaps I would have been less surprised by the expertise of this book if they had included their degrees and licensing (all those fancy letters after their names) on the title page.

By the time I got to the third key, I had stopped writing down highlights for this review because the value of this book is greater than than the sum of the eight individual keys. Not only do I believe this book can be extremely helpful to someone suffering from an eating disorder, but I believe it could be helpful for other practitioners who are not specialized in eating disorders in helping someone experiencing a mild eating disorder. (I still think it is important to refer to specialists for anyone suffering from a moderate to severe eating disorder.)

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Posted on September 29, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

We Love Van’s Muffin Crowns

Muffins are one of those things we quickly give up when we start watching our weight. And for good reason. Some the size of a softball made with starchy white flour, butter, loads of sugar, and likely some syrupy canned version of what used to be fruit combine to make a breakfast that will have you crashing before you can wash it down with coffee. Or, there are Van’s muffins. If you need a muffin fix, then reach for these.

Found in the frozen natural foods section at most major grocery stores (we’ve found ours at Super Target and Kroger), these make a nice addition to a balanced breakfast. We actually prefer them as dessert.

The best part is, it’s not a softball-sized muffin. It’s actually the best part of the muffin – the muffin tops, or as Van’s calls them, muffin crowns. In a portion-crazed world, these are just right for a quick breakfast, a snack, or a dessert. (more…)

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Natalie K

We Love Fitness 360 with Holly Perkins

ExerciseTV celebrity trainer and New Balance Fitness Ambassador Holly Perkins has created a complete fitness program in a single dvd. Fitness 360 provides cardio, toning, and yoga routines that can be done in 20 minutes or less. The free workout plan and meal guidelines available online, including a shopping guide, make this a full program.

Cardio 360 and Total Tone 360 both last 20 minutes, while Yoga Energizer 360 lasts for 10 minutes. While it got my heart rate up and engaged my muscles, I was able to complete all three at one time. Although completing the workouts was not difficult for me, I was pretty sore for the next couple of days, proving just how beneficial Fitness 360 can be. I will be following Holly’s plan more closely from this point.

The short segments will enable you to fit in a solid workout on any day; however, I do not suggest that you do this when starting out with Fitness 360. The Fitness 360 plan calls for a day off every seven days, and incrementally adding the Yoga Energizer 360 workout following the other two. Fitness 360 can be a great fit for someone who does not have a lot of time or someone who wants to be able to extend their workouts.

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Posted on July 12, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

We Love Fiber One 80 Calories Honey Squares

Like any other child-at-heart, I love cereal. Whether it be a small bowl with breakfast or an afternoon handful, I simply can’t get enough. Cereal can be a good source of nutrients but it can also be an even better source of excess sugar (among other things.) While some cereals are falling to the wayside in a quest to introduce healthier foods to the masses, Fiber One has created a new option for cereal-lovers.

According to the nutrition panel, each ¾ cup serving of the Fiber One 80 Calories Honey Squares contains only 140 mg of sodium and a whopping 10 g of dietary fiber– that’s 40 percent of your recommended daily value! The ingredient list boasts whole grain corn as the number one ingredient but it also contains sucralose, which is fine in moderation although I personally prefer a natural sweetener.

It tasted great as a morning meal and I tried it with both vanilla almond milk and regular skim milk on different occasions. The texture was light and crunchy and it was very filling. I also tried it on top of a yogurt parfait and it added just the right touch of crunch without the amount of sugar that’s in the granola I usually splurge on.

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Posted on July 6, 2024 by Theresa

We Love CLICK All-Natural Espresso Protein Drink

Confession: I am a coffee drinker. I can manage a french press myself. I drink it black. Despite a Starbucks in my family tree, I don’t find the coffee sold at that chain store up to my standards. I was skeptical about trying CLICK Espresso Protein Drink.

According to press releases, “CLICK is the brainchild of Greg and Beth Smith, a Fresno, California couple who owned a small chain of women’s fitness centers. The Smiths were seeking a delicious, healthy beverage for their members in response to the growing wall of sugar based energy and espresso drinks on the market.” The 15 grams of protein per serving is designed to provide sustained energy, in addition to the “two shots of espresso” or 100-150mg of caffeine per serving.

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Posted on June 14, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

We Love Neuro Drinks

Water is boring. Why drink flavorless H20 when your tongue can be excited by bubbles or, well, flavor?

Unfortunately, with that flavor everyone craves usually comes a lot of excess calories and sugars, and despite the fact they come in liquid form, flavored beverages like tea and soda (even diet soda, which people seem to think because it is calorie free, it is an acceptable substitute for water) can dehydrate you rather than re-hydrate you.

Neuro has heard the plight of the under-hydrated adult craving flavor without junk, and offer a large array of tasty, hydrating waters that focus on every area of your health.

Not sleeping well? You’re covered. Libido needing a boost? Neuro’s got the stuff. Looking to drop a few pounds? You got it.

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Posted on May 29, 2024 by Kelly