Friday Favourites: Health Supplements

We all know the importance of looking after our bodies with regular exercise and a healthy balanced diet, but there are additional ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and ensuring your body is in tip top condition. Here at The Amazing Blog, we have been trying out a range of health drinks and supplements to improve your health, and we wanted to share with you our favourites. Sigma Foods has created a small collection of instant powders with health benefits that you can add to any drink and even your food to boost your overall wellbeing. There are four varieties on offer: Chaga, Reishi, Cordyseps and Lion’s Mane, each offering distinct health benefits. Chaga can be taken to boost your immune system by fighting pathogens, and it is a very strong antioxidant. Reishi can reduce your stress levels, improve your night’s sleep and increase blood circulation. Codyseps is used to increase energy levels and speed up recovery after exercise and can boost your sexual performance! Lastly, Lion’s Mane is used to protect the nervous system, improve cognitive ability and improve your memory. The powders are made from medicinal mushrooms, herbs to improve digestion and absorption of essentials nutrients. They are vegan friendly as well as being gluten and lactose free. While the powders don’t taste great mixed with just water, they are just as effective mixed into a smoothie or even cake! You can find plenty of recipes on the Sigma Foods website. The Instant Beverage sachets are available from Inspiral to buy singularly at £1.35 or in a box of 20 from £16.95.

When trying to gain muscle, protein shakes can be a good supplement to aiding muscle growth and repair. Purition have a 100% natural whey protein supplement shake to use in conjunction with your training. The shakes are filled with essential nutrients and proteins as well as being full of natural fibre to increase your metabolism and improve digestive function. They are also gluten free, with no added sugar and absolutely nothing artificial added in. The shake is idea to use pre or post workout or as a meal replacement. We love the wonderful instruction illustration on the packaging which gives the option to make the mixture into a smoothie with added berries and banana, which we think looks amazing! The Body Pro shake is available in three flavours Chocolate, Pistachio and Coconut, and can be bought from the Purition website for £19.95 for 500g.

With our hectic modern lifestyles it can often be hard for us to ensure we are always getting enough of the nutrients that our body needs. Ovivio Wellness is a liquid based supplement drink that made using the leaves of the Olive tree, which is well known for its health benefits. The Olive leaf is rich in antioxidants that are vital in dealing with pollutants, additives from poor diet, excess sun, smoking and alcohol as well as reducing signs of aging. It has also been proven to be antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal so can actually work with your immune system to keep you healthy and ailment free. This wonderful supplement can improve blood circulation, decrease blood sugar levels and reduce tiredness. The drink doesn’t taste that great, but it can be mixed into fruit juices, smoothies and tea to make it more palatable. You can purchase Ovivio Wellness from Holland & Barrett or the Ovivio Wellness website where you can buy a two week supply for £28.

To ensure we get all the essential nutrients to help our bodies to function correctly, Revive Active have created supplement sachets that contain over 26 active ingredients that work in synergy to effectively and efficiently boost your body’s key functions. Revive Active is caffeine and sugar free, but provides an energy boost to keep you going throughout the day. It looks after your heart and cardiovascular system and boasts anti-aging benefits for not just your skin, but hair and nails too. The supplement helps to promote an improved immune system as well as boosting focus and cognition. Our Executive Editor, Edwina, has been taking these supplements religiously and have since found that they have increased her metabolism and energy levels resulting in weight loss as well as feeling healthier. We can’t argue with that! To discover all of the wonderful health benefits of Revive Active, visit their website where there is a wealth of information as well as scientific evidence of the positive effects of this supplement. The Revive Active sachets are available from the website where you can buy a months supply for £59.85.

You may remember being force fed cod liver oil as a child to provide you with essential Omega 3. We remember well the awful fishy taste and, even worse, when it repeats on you. However, Omega 3 is such an important supplement to take as our body does not make EPA and DHA fatty acids which our essential for our bodies. So if you do not eat enough oily fish, taking a fish oil supplement such as Bare Biology Lion Heart is one way to ensure you get all the nutrients you need. Fish oil that tastes fishy is actually rancid, so unlike the fish oil of our youth, Bare Biology Lion Heart has a pleasant lemony taste. One 5ml spoonful of this oil is contains the same amount of Omega 3 as ten 1000mg fish oil capsules, so what you are taking is much purer and thus you get more for your money. I’m surprised at how much I liked this oil compared to other varieties that I have tried and would definitely continue taking it. The Bare Biology Lion Heart Omega 3 Fish Oil can be purchased from their website for £47.50 for 150ml.

For many of us weight loss is part of our healthy lifestyle concerns, so when we find out about supplements that can aid us in our plight to lose weight and get fit, we just have to try them out. Aspire Drinks are carbonated cranberry flavour drinks that are sugar free, fat free, and even calorie free. They work to increase your metabolism so you burn off extra calories. Aspire have recently launched their Two Week Little Black Dress Challenge, inspiring us to get in shape for the upcoming Christmas party season. Just two weeks of drinking Aspire can lead to weight loss between 2 and 10lbs. We think that these drinks are the perfect way to rehydrate after a workout, as they taste delicious and are very refreshing. You can get your hands on these wonderful Aspire drinks from Tesco for just £1 each.

Move PopUp Gym

If you are anything like us here at The Amazing Blog, the prospect of dragging ourselves to the gym is not at all appealing! So when we heard all about Move Popup Gym, we left all our exercise reservations at the door and found ourselves reaching for the gym kit in the deep, dark corners of our wardrobes.

You’ve heard of popup stores and restaurants, but Move Popup Gym is set to be the next big thing in the fitness world. Instead of staring at a wall on the treadmill you can now find yourself doing the downward facing dog on top of a rooftop overlooking the London skyline…yeah you heard me right! Past and present locations include a rooftop overlooking St. Paul’s Cathedral, a raised garden at Cardinal Place and Battersea Power Station.

Unlike most traditional gyms, there are no hefty fees to pay, or even a contract to sign. You can turn up to classes as and when you feel motivated – great for our bank balance. Classes include Zumba, Body Conditioning, Balletsculpt, Pilates, Stiletto Work Outs (I know, we think this sounds great too!), Tabata, Yoga and ‘Look Good Naked’. So there is really a class to meet all needs whether you are a beginner or a fitness fanatic.

Prices for classes start at just £10 and you can find out more about where their next class will be popping up by following them on Twitter and liking their Facebook page or visit the Move Popup Gym website for more information.

Lunaling Capri Exercise Pants & Giveaway!

The sun has been shining brightly in London recently, which means 3 things: lathering on sunscreen, attempting to get a proper tan and getting my body beach ready. The latter is, unfortunately, easier said than done. When I was given the opportunity (or well… I actually was the only one that was willing) to trial Lunaling Capris for The Amazing Blog, I saw that as an opportunity to finally make use of my newly purchased running shoes and the start of my weekly running routine.

Lunaling exercise pants are famed to aid in weight loss and getting smoother, softer skin, which come in 3 types: Shorts, Capris and Leggings. They are made of very thick, stretchy fabric that is breathable and very comfortable to wear. The ‘technology’ behind this collection is that the pants use your natural body temperature to increase the heat around the areas where it's hard to tone up: legs, bum and tum – simply brilliant.

As I’m just in my twenties and am lucky to not have dimples on my body (yet!), I can’t say if it helped in getting smoother skin. However, for a girl that doesn’t sweat much working out normally, wearing these Capris have definitely stimulated the ‘troubled areas’ to sweat… buckets. Good thing is that even though you sweat, you won’t feel or see it through your pants because of this specially designed fabric.

Now 6 weeks later, I can say that not only have my thighs and tummy toned up a bit, I also feel more energised and awake after my morning work-out. Maybe it’s the endorphins, maybe it’s the sun – I don’t know. One thing I do know is that I’ll definitely continue using these pants when working out and it’s a no-brainer I’ll be getting the Leggings for winter.

The best bit? We've teamed up with Lunaling and are giving away 2 pairs of Lunaling Capris (worth £50 each!). The only thing you need to do is email your size (S/M/L), name, address details to info@amazingpr.co.uk. The competition will run until 19th June 2013. Worry not if you don't win – you can buy your Lunalings from their webshop (worldwide shipping), prices start from £40.