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Review: Skinny Blend Weight Loss Shake
Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
I received a one-week supply of Skinny Jane’s “Skinny Blend Weight Loss Shake.” Since it’s a weight-loss shake, usually one week would not be enough time to review that aspect of the product. With that in mind, I was asked to review how well the powder mixes, suppresses my appetite, and increases my energy.
As I’ve gotten into more strength training and weight lifting, I’ve been seeking ways to add more protein into my diet. Of course, I can always eat more beans, eggs, nuts, chicken, etc. And I have been, but it’s just not enough. It would really simplify my life if I could just mix up a protein shake and BAM! give my body what it needs. As I researched protein powders, I realized I’m looking for a powder that tastes at least bearable (if not good) and isn’t filled with questionable ingredients. So that’s why I wanted to review the Skinny Blend.
I didn’t receive the regular packaging, since I just had the 7-day sample, so I had to look the nutritional info up online. Each serving of the banana Skinny Blend has 100 calories, 1 gram of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, and 12 grams of protein. Of course that would be in addition to whatever ingredients you add to the blend.
Some of the ingredients sound “scary” (you can read them off the product photos on the Skinny Jane website), but I looked up the ones I’m unfamiliar with. Most of the ingredients provide protein or bond the protein ingredients together. Nothing raised any red flags.
The Skinny Blend is available in chocolate, vanilla, or banana, and I chose the banana flavor. It really does taste good! If you don’t mix it in really well (and you should), it has a slight powdered milk taste to it. When mixed or blended, the Skinny Blend just tastes like milk and banana. It’s not grainy or clumpy, and there’s no strange aftertaste. Just make sure you use a shaker bottle or a blender. I attempted to just mix it with almond milk once with a spoon, and it was grainy.
I think I had the servings off slightly. I was using the powder while Baby J and I were visiting Hubby in Florida, and I didn’t have any of my measuring spoons or cups or my kitchen scale. I had to “wing it.” A serving should be 1/4 cup. Either they sent me more than a week’s worth, or I really don’t know how a 1/4 cup should look. As you can see below, I tried the Skinny Blend 8 times (and still had some left in the package).
Ways I’ve tried the Skinny Blend:
- Skinny Blend, frozen fruit, water, baby spinach, and kale
- Skinny Blend, frozen fruit, apple cider, baby spinach, and kale
- Skinny Blend and water (gross)
- Skinny Blend and almond milk
- Skinny Blend, almond milk, whole milk, and ice
- Skinny Blend, almond milk, banana, and ice
- Skinny Blend, almond milk, 1/2 banana, and ice
- Skinny Blend, orange juice, banana, and ice
If you’re trying to lose weight, definitely use the Skinny Blend as recommended. That said, my favorite way to use the Skinny Blend was blended with almond milk, 1/2 banana, and ice. It was the perfect after-dinner snack that kept me full and awake for several hours until bed, and with just over 200 calories.
I actually did lose weight the week that I used the Skinny Blend (about 3 lbs.), which surprised me. I can’t say for sure the weight loss was from the powder, especially since I didn’t use it as a meal replacement. I used the powder in addition to my regular diet. I’ve been lifting heavier weights and doing more strength training exercises, so I guess my hard work is finally showing, and I lost a little body fat (woohoo!).
Overall, I really, really, liked this powder. It tasted good, blended well, and wasn’t grainy. Is it the shake for me, the one I’ll add into my workout regime and diet? I’m not sure. My only hesitation is Skinny Blend doesn’t provide as much protein as some other protein powders on the market. But to be fair, Skinny Blend is meant to be a weight-loss shake, not necessarily a muscle-building shake.
To learn more about how the company got its start, visit SkinnyJane.com. Also, follow them on Facebook and Twitter for tips and motivation (it’ll get you a head start on the giveaway too).
GIVEAWAY CLOSED- Congrats to Aleya B. for winning!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
A Family Outing: The National Naval Aviation Museum
To update you all, Baby J and I are still here in Pensacola visiting Hubby, but we’ll be heading back up north soon. Hubby will be heading to Texas for a few more months of training, then we’ll all be reunited and move to the Baltimore/DC area together this summer. Busy, but fun times are coming! …Along with family outing posts about the Northern Virginia/DC/Maryland area.
Two Saturdays ago, the three of us visited the National Naval Aviation Museum on Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. This was Baby J’s first air museum, and he clearly loved it. I took dozens of photos of him and could not get him to stand still for most of them. They’re almost all blurry!
Museum admission and parking are both free. The guided tours and flight line trolley tours are also free! You do need to sign up for those at the information desk. Attractions that charge include the IMAX, flight simulators, and the Blue Angels X4D Experience. See the website for current ticket info.
You will need a valid ID to enter base and the museum. Concealed weapons are not allowed on the naval station, and you cannot carry a backpack into the museum. We did bring a small diaper bag that we placed in the bottom of the stroller. Also, you’re not supposed to bring food or drinks in, but nobody stopped me over Baby J’s sippy cup, and I did have some of his snacks along (no one questioned that).
Other than Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, the museum is open all year, from 9am to 5pm. The IMAX theater, gift shop, and cafe hours differ, so check online before heading out there.
The museum has more than 150 restored aircraft on display. The exhibits include Homefront U.S.A., World War II, Pacific Island, and Naval Aviation in the Persian Gulf. There are really too many to mention here, but you can find a list on the museum’s website.
It’s been years since I visited this museum, so it was really neat to see how it’s changed and grown. There’s an entire second building now (a hangar) dedicated to more “modern” aircrafts including an unmanned aerial vehicle and Marine One.
One of Baby J’s favorite places in the museum was the Kiddie Hawk play area. It’s modeled after the island of an aircraft carrier, completely with rope ladders, binoculars, periscopes, and more. There’s also a slide, but Baby J was too chicken to go down by himself, and people older than 5 are not allowed on the play equipment. =D
Baby J kept pointing at the air planes and yelling, “Oh, wow!” so I definitely think he’s ready for an air show! I’m really enjoying taking him to museums and attractions now that he’s getting older; seeing the wonder on his little face is an amazing thing.
There were raised areas here with steps, but ramps were always easy to find. We did have a little trouble locating the elevators for the Second Deck. We ended up taking an elevator up, but carrying the stroller down the stairs to get back down (I wouldn’t recommend this). There are (supposedly) two elevators from the First to the Second Deck. I should confess that we never checked for a museum map.
We went spent a couple of hours there total, but you could definitely spend more time if you read all the plaques, watched the movies, and perhaps visited the simulators. Baby J refused to sit in his stroller -he wanted to run everywhere- and he was starting to really lag, so we ended up calling it a day without seeing everything.
If you’re in the Pensacola area, I recommend spending a morning or afternoon at the museum. If the Blue Angels are in town, you can even head outside, sit on the available bleachers, and watch them practice overhead! You can usually see them Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for about an hour beginning at 11:30, March to November. After Wednesday practices, the pilots will often come inside the museum to sign autographs.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see them flying during our Pensacola visit, as the Blues are currently in California for some air shows. You can read the Blue Angel’s show schedule for more information.
Are you a homeschooling family? They have a distance learning program with on-demand video courses. Learn about air pressure, altitude, and more. The museum property is also home to the National Flight Academy, and registration is now open for their six-day educational summer camps.
Have you ever been to the National Naval Aviation Museum? Do you enjoy going to air shows and/or museums?
Fitness Friday: 3/14/14
Another week down! It’s almost time for Baby J and me to head back up North. Hubby will be heading down to Texas for another few months of training. We do have orders, finally! After J’s training is over, we’ll be moving up near DC and Baltimore. I’m very excited about that! I’m a teeny bit familiar with the area and like it. There’s so much to do!
If you’re not already following me on Instagram, I’d love for you to connect with me. My username is emegburg. I’ll follow you back, if you leave your Instagram profile name in the comments, or you can email it to me at emegburg at mylifeaworkinprogress dot com. Several times a week I check in on Instagram with a photo that sums up my fitness for the day. This was started by FitFluential, and all participants use the tags #FitFluential and #FFCheckIn. You can read more about it HERE, but it’s highly motivating and keeps you accountable. After I post my photo in the evening, I’ll search Instagram for other users with the check in hashtags. I’ll like some of their photos and follow a few new people each time. It’s a great way to “meet” like minded people too. =D
Activity:
When I posted Fitness Friday last week, I was hoping to go for a nice run outside on the weekend. Well, that didn’t happen. I just completely forgot about it! By the time I remembered, I wasn’t willing to give up any family time for a run. I did end up running outside on Monday after my gym workout. I did just a little over two miles. I definitely could’ve pushed myself further, so that’s disappointing, but I was being careful about my foot. I noticed that every time I ran on pavement, my foot hurt. But after a minute on grass, it was fine.
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I worked out at the gym. The first day I concentrated on lifting and strength training with some cardio afterwards. I didn’t make it to the gym Tuesday, because Baby J was having a rough day. I knew that he’d never survive 60 or 90 minutes there, so I did some home workouts. Honestly, it was a little puny, so I tried to make up for it on Wednesday by doing a full-body workout.
Because of that, I was pretty sore all over on Thursday. I did a little strength training, but then concentrated on cardio for about 40 minutes. To keep it interesting, I rotated from the treadmill to the stair master to some other machine I’ve never seen before (SEE PHOTO BELOW) and back to the treadmill. I attempted to do HIIT on the treadmill and weird machine.
I really only feel that I had three days of working out (cause Tuesday was blaaaah), so I haven’t met my goal of four. I MUST do something either today or tomorrow here at the hotel or outside (the family fitness center is closed until Monday). I’ve noticed if I go a couple days without working out, it’s hard to get started again. So taking 3 days off and starting on Monday…yeah, that’s not ideal for me.
One thing I really tried to do this week was mix up my usual exercises. I know our bodies get used to the workouts we do, so I have to change it up to not plateau. That’s something I’ll continue to work on.
Overall, I’d say my foot is much better, but I do occasionally feel a little pain, depending on what I’m doing. I’ve been doing a better job of stretching both my feet after working out, and I think it’s time for new shoes before I start training again. And about the training…I don’t think running this half marathon in April is feasible at this point. It’s just a few weeks away. I’m concerned that in order to be ready in time, I’ll have to work fast and hard, and that may cause issues with my foot again. If I don’t train that much for the half, I’m going to end up walking most of it, which is okay, but I just don’t think I’d enjoy the overall experience as much. At this point, I’m planning on looking for a different half marathon (in the summer) and running that one.
I don’t know…what do you seasoned runners think?
Diet:
I’ll admit that it’s been difficult to eat the way I like while living in a hotel. There’s a stovetop and microwave but no other appliances, other than Hubby’s Magic Bullet. I’ve been sticking to frozen veggies, brown rice, boiled chicken, eggs, smoothies, etc. It’s working, but not ideal. We did eat out a couple times, but I wouldn’t call that a failure, since we are away from home and that always throws things off.
When we get back home next week, I’m making some of my fruit and nut balls. I’m also going to try making my own protein bars. Should be interesting.
Stats:
Last week a ready mentioned she has more accurate results with an electric tape measure. I’m going to look into this, because clearly I haven’t been taking my measurements accurately!
Goals:
With packing and traveling next week will be a little more difficult to feel motivated to work out. I still need to get at least four good days in. And then sometime this weekend, I need to run at the very least. Also, I’d like to learn some new abdominal and plyometrics exercises.
I also have to keep working on getting more protein in my diet.
Fitspiration/Fitness Stuff I’m Loving:
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out Jill Conyer’s blog. Besides hosting a Fitness Friday link every week, she posts some amazing healthy recipes (like this one for a chocolate banana protein mug cake), and I always find her inspirational.