Flat Mama Friday

My costume for Rock n Roll DC, half marathon! I leave soon, to take the 4 hour drive, soooo excited!

Are you racing this weekend?

Meal Enders Review and #Giveaway #Ad

 

 

I was provided with four flavors of Meal Enders as a Sweat Pink Ambassador, in exchange for this review. As always, all opinions are my own!

 

I am an emotional eater. And a snacker. I don't necessarily always snack because I am hungry. The food is just there. Know what I mean? I always seem to start roaming the kitchen at about 4:00 in the afternoon. Really? It's practically dinner time! I eat something, and then when dinner time comes around, I am not even hungry. Ugh.

I could not wait to try Meal Enders.

What are they?

Yummy!

 

The outer layer is softer than the inner layer, and it's sweet. Once you break through that first layer, meant to provide you with the feeling of "dessert", you get to the inner layer, which is more like a hard candy. It leaves you with a cooling/tingling feeling in your mouth (kind of like when you suck on a cough drop, but without that yucky taste). Your mouth feels fresh and cool, and cues the end of eating and clears the palate. For real.

I brought some with me to work, and tried the lemon one first. It held me off for at least an hour. I tried the Chocolate Mint next, and that one held me over until dinner. I was ecstatic. Those two are definitely my favorites, but all four are very tasty. Each one is individually wrapped goodness, and contains 2 grams of sugar and 15 calories. I will gladly trade those 30 calories for the few hundred I would normally consume at the witching hour!

I keep them right on the counter near the cabinet where we keep the snacks. It is a gentle reminder to choose them instead of whatever else I would have ended up with!

With the NYC Marathon in the future, I hope to lose some weight to make the miles a little easier, and ending the mindless snacking will go a long way!

Meal Enders are

• drug free
• stimulant free
• herb free
• low calorie
• low fat
• gluten free
• kosher
• dietician approved

You can stalk them on

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

and Pinterest

 

 

And now for the good part! Meal Enders has graciously offered to send one package of each flavor to one of my readers! That's four bags! In order to enter, please visit their website, and tell me which flavor you are most excited to try! I will use random.org to choose a winner on Thursday, March 18 and will announce the winner on Friday!

Good luck!

 

Which flavor are you most excited to try?

 

 

 

 

Buddha Teas Review

 

Awhile back, Buddha Teas offered me a chance to try out their teas in exchange for a review. As always, all opinions are my own!

We LOVE tea at my house, even the men like it, so when I was offered the chance to try some new teas, I jumped right on it!

Before long, we had these two lovelies.

 

The boys jumped right on the Zenergy Blend, and before I knew it, they had used it all up! What?!? My son was drinking it every day after school, before he did his homework. The hubs was drinking it after work.

Morgan immediately grabbed the Chamomile and put it aside for tech week and for the weekend that her high school performance of Sweet Charity took place. She cannot have caffeine, and was thrilled to see that this tea had none. Perfection. She set up a little tea station in the dressing room and the cast and crew had access to it all week, and throughout the show weekend.

They LOVED it, and the star of the show took a quick minute to pose with it.

Buddha Teas ......

• are in an unbleached tea bag
• 100% Kosher
• non GMO
• no MSG
• come in a 100% recycled and recyclable carton
• contain no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
• have a handy chart on the side with the caffeine level
• USDA Organic
• absolutely delightful

Luckily for me, a couple tea bags survived play week, and I will be having some later! Hooray!
These are just two of the many flavors that Buddha Teas has on their website, you just have to hop on over there and check them out!  I am trying to decide which ones to get next, to put into Morgan's care packages for when she goes to college in the fall! Right now, on their website, they are offering free shipping on orders over $50 and there is a coupon code. Score!
The website is super easy to navigate, and even has a link to all of their caffeine free teas. Another score! There are so many, I don't know how I will choose!

You can also check Buddha Teas out at Twitter and Instagram! They are also on Pinterest!

What is your favorite tea flavor?

Wordless Wednesday

I know, I know, but I'm excited!

NYC Marathon...... Did you get in?

Third time was the charm, I am running NYC!

 

 

 

Did you enter? Are you in?!?

Fabulous Fit Gear Swap with Bendiful Blog

I was so thrilled to see that Renee from BendifulBlog.com was hosting a Fit Gear Swap in February ! I had some bad luck with a swap at Christmas, and I knew this would be the right time to try again! 

I was lucky to be paired with Annmarie from FitFoodieMama, a blog I already follow!

I got my package right on time and was happy to see so many things I love inside!

Are you jealous? You totally should be! Wanna join in? You totally can!

How does it work?

 

So how does it work? 

• Each month you can sign up for the gear swap. You will be matched with another swapper. You will purchase $20 worth of gear that you think your swapper would like. (if they are into YOGA DO NOT buy them Crossfit gear, please)  It’s a great way to share your favorite items with people who are also interested in great gear.
• You MUST sign up through the form by the 5th of the month, and agree to ship your gear out by the 15th of the month.
• You will email your match and get an idea of their workout gear likes and dislikes, ask for sizing if you plan to look for apparel, no one wants gear that doesn’t fit.
• The Best part YOU will also receive a package each month from your match!
• Get great gear and meet some new friends throughout the month.
• CURRENTLY ONLY open to people in the United States.
• On the last day of the month, you can share (Blog, tweet, facebook, instagram) your new fit gear with the hashtag #fabulousfitgear
• I will host a blog link up here at Bendifulblog.com for all the blog posts!

I hope I see some great swap pics from you all next month!

What's the coolest thing you have gotten from a swap?

E Murray Todd Half Marathon Recap

Sunday was my third time running the E Murray Todd Half Marathon in Lincroft, NJ with my running bestie.

The weather called for snow, but not until afternoon, so we were optimistic. It was super cold, though, and even my warm weather running clothes weren't keeping me totally warm. I arrived at the race with plenty of time to grab my bib and tee, and meet up with some other Half Fanatics for a photo op.

What an attractive bunch we are!

We hung around a bit, mostly stalling before we had to walk outside for the race start at 9:00.

It was pretty cold out, but we knew that once we started, it would be okay!

Neither of us have  been training enough,  so we planned to do a walk/run, especially walking the many many hills! Luckily, we knew what to expect, so there were no surprises. 

At the top of this hill was the five mile mark. Afterwards, we started running past the nice big mansions. After this, it started snowing. Not very hard, just enough to be pretty. This was also where it got a little dangerous.

The roads aren't closed for the race, but there are plenty of volunteers and police keeping the traffic at bay. After that fifth mile, however, there were less volunteers and lots of twisty roads. More than once, a car came very close to hitting us! I don't blame the race, I blame the reckless drivers!

This was another of the big hills! Yikes! Our friends caught up with us at this point, so of course we stopped for a selfie. 

And some scenery....

Soon, we got to the ten mile mark and we knew we would be entering the park. This is one of my favorite parts, mostly because we are finally off the road. This is where the snow started really picking up. This is also where we saw Dave the trumpeter. I just love this guy!

The snow was really bad by now, we hit mile 11...

And 12.....

By now we were not really even looking up because the snow was driving right into our faces. We left the park and were on the road again, briefly, before we were back on the road entering the college parking lots.

We finally saw the final stretch leading to the finish line. Whew! We were so very cold, but we had to stop for a snowy selfie.

The race was over. It took us just over 3 hours. All they had left were bananas and water. I don't eat bananas, but I got my bottled water and went to look for my Sherpa. 

We did get bling, though! This is the first year that they had medals and I was very happy to get mine!

Maybe next year we will get back under 3 hours, but I doubt we will stress over it very much. This race is always a train wreck, but we love starting the season off this way! It's a sickness, I know.

Next stop? Washington DC with Rock n Roll!