It’s time for review! No, not for your — for me 🙂 I’ve gotten a few very cool things sent to me for review lately and I wanted to tell you all about them! One of the perks of having a blog is the opportunity to try out fitness and health-related products sometimes. I’m always happy to try something new because many times I wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise.

I was so excited to open up one of these babies. Columbia is a nice brand and they’ve just created a line for heat management. When I got the shirt, I was actually on my way to Crossfit so I took off what I was wearing and put this shirt on.

It was a hot, hot, hot day and as many of you know, my Crossfit box (like most) does not have air conditioning. I really tried to pay attention to how the shirt worked. As Columbia describes:

The specifically shaped yarns, when woven or knit together, create Omni-Freeze. The flat yarns increase the surface area of the fabric that contacts your bare skin, which transmits heat faster and feels cooler to the touch.

I could definitely feel the air moving through the shirt and couldn’t have imagined wearing, say, a cotton t-shirt instead of that kind of day. That being said, I think this shirt would have been better for running than crossfit because then the air really is moving and able to get in there. I could tell the best weather for this shirt would be anywhere from 60s-high-80s — perfect with a pair of shorts for a long run. Not the best for the stagnant Crossfit environment in 90+ temps.

I really like the shirt and plan to wear in for those runs in the future. Interested? Check out the site here and follow Columbia on Twitter here. 

If you are like me, you are always looking for an easy, fast, low-calorie (and preferably delicious) way to get your vitamins and nutrients checked off for the day. Welcome to Vega 🙂

Unlike most smoothie mixes, you don’t have to add this to a whole bunch of other ingredients. You just add to water, shake and go! I tested it both ways and preferred it with my regular smoothie though. You can go both ways depending on time. Here’s what you will get in each pack:

• Two servings of veggies
• 10 g of complete, plant-based protein
• 5 g of fiber
• 1 g of Omega-3

That’s pretty darn good if you ask me…especially the two servings of veggies part of it! Check out Vega online and on Pinterest here.

Very cool gadget that can really help you get on track with exercise and eating habits! You connect the arm band to your computer and sync it up with the goals you set up. By entering your height, weight and weight loss goals (can also be just weight maintenance, which is what I am going for), it’s like a mini-computer right on your arm.

Many have testified to the benefits of keeping a food and fitness journal. The arm band makes it super easy to to do this and keeps track of everything for you. I particularly liked the food section because you can enter what you have eaten for the day and the program has literally every food and food combo you can think of with specific calorie counts so you don’t have to guess. They also have brand name specific foods.

When I type in that I had pizza for lunch (you can see there were 651 results of what you can choose from on the pizza selection menu):

As for the exercise portion, you can just keep this thing on you all day (must be off for at least one hour a day) and then plug it into your computer for a record of activities and calories burned. Then, after you’ve logged your food, you can see the calorie deficit and easily conclude how you can change your diet or movement to match your weight loss goals.

Dawnie did a more detail review here if you want to learn more about the specifics of getting set up.

That being said, this is kind of the lazy-gal/guy’s fitness gadget must-have. Obviously, you can’t be too lazy cause you gotta move that body but…for those who are scatterbrained (like me) and just don’t have mental energy to devote to doing this thing on your own, the Body Media Fit armband is most definitely for you.

Plus — Jillian Michaels is totally all about it! And, like she says, technology & numbers don’t lie!

Check Body Media out here and be sure to follow them on Twitter as well!


QUESTION: Have you used any of these products? What do you think about them? I’m curious to hear others’ opinions!