Product Review - Good Belly Probiotic Juice Drink...

Good Belly, I’m totally addicted!

I’d seen Good Belly around plenty before, however why I never tried it until two weeks ago I don’t know. After all I’m a total fruit juice junkie! I absolutely love the stuff, particularly orange juice, and while I try not to buy it too often - because of the high calorie/high sugar content of most commercial fruit juices, - there are definitely times where I just can’t say no.

A couple of weeks ago I was at grocery, shopping and the juice wall inevitably caught my eye. I opened the refrigerated door to grab my usual carton of O.J. when the bright flashy carton’s of Good Belly caught my eye. I grabbed one and began reading the side, which gave me a lot of information about probiotics and healthy digestion. Which I’ve read plenty about already but it’s always nice to have a refresher. Besides up until that point I hadn’t really known much about Good Belly, and didn’t know that it contained 20 billion live and active cultures. 20 billion! That’s a lot. After reading all the fun-filled facts on the side of the carton and determining that Good Belly was not only Organic but also vegan and soy-free I thought why not give it a try? My digestion’s been kind of all over the place again since I got off my cleanse at the beginning of this month and reverted back to eating extremely rich foods once more. I figured if Good Belly was half as good as the carton claimed it was, having a glass a day could only be of benefit, so I grabbed a carton.

I was hooked from my first sip. No lie this stuff is like crack. It is so delicious! The flavor combinations are incredible and while the juice is sweet, I don’t find it to be overly so. The calorie count isn’t bad either and is actually less then my usual orange juice, which doesn’t have the added benefit of all those amazing probiotics. Even my husband who was far more skeptical about it then I, fell in love at first sip. We’ve gone through 4 cartons in 16 days! And I have to say, honestly I feel fantastic!

Now when it comes to Good Belly there are a few different flavors and a few different kinds of products. We’ve been enjoying the Family-Sized Quart containers, and so far we’ve tried the Cranberry Watermelon, Blueberry Acai Berry, Pomegranate Blackberry, Mango, and Tropical Green flavors. All of which have been absolutely fantastic but so far I’d have to say Cranberry Watermelon is my hands down favorite. There’s just something about it that’s so mouth-watering. For my second pick I’d say Blueberry Acai and Pomegranate Blackberry are tied, they are both amazing, delicious and so addictive.

Of course if you’re not into the family sized cartons you can always pick up a four pack of Good Belly Plus, which is basically the same thing but smaller and it also comes in a strawberry flavor. Or you could try a pack of Good Belly Straight shots which are actually a non-dairy oat milk with no added sugar. Neither of which I’ve tried yet but am really looking forward to eventually grabbing up some straight shots. Then of course if you need a major digestive overhaul you can grab the Good Belly Big Shots which have 50 billion live and active cultures but is still gentle enough on your system to drink everyday. Good Belly also makes a gentle probiotic drink especially for children called Good Belly Kids which contains 10 billion live active cultures. So you’ve got a few options.

What I love most about Good Belly - besides it’s awesome taste - is that it has a very smooth texture, and it tastes like a truly decadent fruit smoothie yet doesn’t have all the heft and sugar that you get at the typical smoothie joint. All the fun flavor none of the drawback. Love it! So whichever route you choose to take I highly suggest you try out the cranberry watermelon flavor, I don’t think you’ll be sorry.

And if you’re still skeptical after reading this you should know that right now Good Belly is conducing a 12 day challenge. Basically they want you to drink Good Belly for 12 days and see how you feel afterwards. If you go to their website and sign up you get coupons for Good Belly Products via email to get you started. Not only that but Good Belly believes so strongly and whole heartedly in their product that if you aren’t satisfied after 12 days, or haven’t seen any digestive change they’re willing to refund any money you’ve spent on Good Belly products for the challenge. Just make sure to keep your receipt. How awesome is that? So skip on over to their website and sign up, what have you got to loose?

Probiotics are definitely the way to go, especially if you suffer any digestive or gastric stress, stomach aches or constipation. Drinking Good Belly’ll fix you right up, or at least it’s certainly helped me out lately.

Good Belly’s website - check out the 12 day challenge today, your digestive tract will thank you!

http://www.goodbelly.com/

'The Beauty Detox Solution: Eat Your Way to Radiant Skin, Renewed Energy and the Body You’ve Always Wanted' by Kimberly Snyder, C.N.

"In order to become younger, many of ones habits must be changed. To do this constructively one can do it only with an open mind and with the wholehearted desire to see if it really works. A closed mind, a mind which has made it a practice to frown on radical changes in thought, habits and actions, is the greatest stumbling block towards any progress on the road to become younger. "
Dr. Norman Walker -Become Younger

This is another one of those books that - like "Crazy Sexy Diet" - I initially ignored because I thought it was just another fad diet book. Once again I was proven wrong, and I’m so glad that I decided to give this book a chance. Like the before mentioned CSD this isn’t a diet book, it’s a lifestyle book that focuses on bringing you to your optimal level of health through long term dietary and lifestyle changes.

After Christmas I was searching amazon for health and wellness books I hadn’t read yet, that I could spend some of my Christmas money on. In almost every search this book kept popping up. I continued to ignore it, until finally I decided to at least read the reviews. From those reviews I was able to gleam that this book was in fact about health, how to achieve it and sustain it through holistic measurers and a nutritious plant based diet. Strangely it happened to be the negative reviews that got me the most curious about reading this book. Some people seemed outraged by the books obvious vegan and raw lean, and many claimed that the advice offered within it’s pages was ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unaccessible to the average person’ after all that drama how could I not read the book? Luckily I found a copy of it collecting dust at my local library, took it home and devoured it.

The author Kimberly Snyder has an interesting story, and while she didn’t turn to veganism and raw food because she was battling an incurable disease she was fighting a grab bag of maladies that seem to plague a great majority of us. Battles with weight, poor complection and bad skin, lack of energy, poor digestion, constipation, indigestion, and more. By chance she came across an Australian holistic nutritionist - she was living in Australia at the time - who ran a holistic detox center and from there she was transformed. Giddy and impassioned by this new information Snyder realized that she was not truly living the life she wanted or was meant to. Within one week she quit her job, quit law school, dumped her boyfriend and broke her apartment lease. Instead she decided to take a trip around the world - that ended up lasting 3 years - in which she would study natural health and beauty, as well as holistic living in various remote communities across the glob. Upon her return she got jobs at beauty companies, and longevity centers to further her knowledge, became a certified clinical nutritionist and started her own business. This story in itself is amazing and inspiring, but the rest of the information within the book is certainly worth reading for all that it has to offer.

This book focuses on holistic healing, and healing oneself through diet and lifestyle changes. The book goes into great detail about why consuming massive quantities of meat and dairy products is toxic for our health, what symptoms and diseases they initiate and how they react in the body on a chemical level once ingested. There is a lot of really good solid information in this book about the PH balance of your body, how to attain a more alkaline ph as well as how to sustain it. Though the author herself is vegan she does not call for those interested in her plan to take an all or nothing approach. Her program Is very adaptable to all diets. Though one thing this book does advocates quite strongly is eating raw foods as often and as much as possible. Some people may be put off by that notion, however all the recipes in the book are super simple and easy, and don’t require any expensive equipment. - Except for a juicer but if you don’t have one - I don’t - then you can simply follow the plan by drinking a smoothie each day rather then a juice.

"The Problem is not that ageing is inevitable, it is that most of us don’t understand what causes it" - Kimberly Snyder, C.N. 'The Beauty Detox Solution"

In addition to PH Snyder talks a lot about food pairing which is a concept I find very interesting and I think makes a lot of sense. She says fruits should be eaten first and on their own as they digest the fastest, or they can be eaten with non-starchy high water content vegetables. She recommends eating proteins and Starches closer to the end of the day because they take longer to digest. The reason this order is important is because say you eat a bowl of rice and beans for dinner it is going to take a long time to break down in your body and digest. If you eat an apple after dinner for dessert, the apple will already be broken down and ready for digestion but it can’t be processed because your digestion is still working on the rice and beans. Which leaves the apple sitting on top of the rice and beans, in a state of fermentation. Which in turn causes bloating and gas. This is a really interesting concept, and I think it goes a long way in explaining how some of us may feel bloated after eating certain meals that are seemingly healthy. This isn’t something I’d ever heard of before so I really appreciate the chapters devoted to it. This is definitely a concept I’ve been trying to work into my daily meals and on days that I have done it I find my digestion is smoother.

Another concept she discusses in some length is the idea that we should eat light to heavy. Eat our lightest meal in the morning and our heaviest meal at night. Her rational for this is because eating a heavy meal in the morning will leave us feeling bogged down most of, if not all day, where as a heavy meal at night will digest over the course of our sleep. She also recommends starting the day off by drinking water with lemon, followed by a green juice or smoothie. No solid food early in the morning leaves are digestive enzymes free to repair other parts of the body that may need attention. Attention they might not get if our enzymes are once again busy breaking down yet more food.

There is an extensive amount of information on enzymes and probiotics and how they help to keep us not only healthy but looking young as well. I found the information on enzymes particularly fascinating and I’d recommend the book based solely on those chapters, but there are a lot of great ideas, concepts and principals discussed in the book that are at least worth knowing, even if you don’t practice them.
Snyder also includes lists of the best foods, minerals, and fats to eat for beauty. She includes a detox plan that has three levels depending on your comfort and how much you want to commit. Each level is suppose to be of some benefit to those interested in participating. She also includes a bunch of recipes. None of which I’ve tried yet, however they all look really delicious and I can’t wait to start making some of them!

"Detoxing ourselves by getting rid of old waste is key to allowing our digestion to function optimally" Kimberly Snyder, C.N. 'The Beauty Detox Solution"

As for the negative reviews I’ve read of this book, to say that this plan is unreasonable or unrealistic for the average person is ridiculous. None of the recipes require any heavy prep, nor do they require any strange ingredients or expensive kitchen tools to prepare them. - Except of course the before mentioned juicer but we discussed that. - Snyder’s whole idea is that we should eat healthfully, and simply using as few ingredients as possible as long as those ingredients are nutrient dense. While she does recommends colonics, or enemas, as well as taking probiotics and digestive enzyme supplements it is not an all or nothing deal. If you don’t want to get a colonic no one is putting a gun to your head. If you don’t want to go to your local health food store and buy a probiotic supplement then no one is forcing you. This plan is all on you, it’s at your own pace, at the level for which you feel comfortable and there is no judgement from Snyder about which road you wish to take. I think the people who post such negative reviews containing such ridiculous statements are really just after another fad diet book, in which they can continue eating the garbage they already eat, while making it look like they’re actually making significant change when they aren’t. If that’s you, if that’s what you’re looking for then forget this book.

On the other hand if you’re serious about grabbing the reigns of your health then you might want to consider giving this book a good and thorough read. It just might be the thing you’ve been looking for.

*** Note - Photo found using Google Image Search ***