Review: KITRICS NUTRITIONAL SCALE

Good Morning everyone, and HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Since my last post was a bit "medical", I thought I would do a review of a wonderful product I highly recommend. I love Nutritional Scales, and have tried quite a few of them. I recently tried the Kitrics Nutritional Scale, and so far am really liking it. I deal with a lot of clients who are constantly wanting to know which products to buy, which are worth the cost, and most importantly, which will help them reach their goals.

The Kitrics Nutritional Scale is easy to use, sleek, programmable, small and looks nice on the counter. I love that it isn't bulky, and hardly takes up any room at all.

It does the following:

• Computes calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, cholesterol, and sodium
• Includes information for 1999 foods; user can easily create and store up to 99 customizable food code entries
• Weighs in grams or ounces with accuracy of +/- 1 gram; weighs up to 72 ounces (2000 grams)
• Calculate your daily nutritional intake to help you achieve your health goals.

"Precision Scale

Weigh your food in grams or ounces, with a high-precision reading of +/- 1 gram (.05 oz.). The unit features a removable, washable stainless steel platform, and can weigh up to 72 ounces (2000 grams). Calibrate for whatever container you're using and you're all set.

 I love that you can use it directly out of the box. The programmable mode is easy to use once you get the hang of it. I love that you can customize your favorite foods, or meals, for an easy "one-touch" Nutritional read-out. This would be fantastic for any health-minded person; diabetic (it does exchanges and grams of sugar); athletes (protein, nutrients etc); anyone with Hypertension and Heart concerns (sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat); bakers (you can tare items); cooks (you can tare, program meals); dieters (reads out all macro nutrients, tallys your meal/daily Nutrition totals, and allows you to program meals and foods to track your Calorie needs). You enter your food code for a portion of food and it will compute the following: calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, cholesterol, and sodium.

I do wish it had more "raw vegetable" program options. I have used other scales that had a lot more vegetables programmed in (cucumber with skin and without, etc). I also noticed that it only has buttered, microwave popcorn programmed in the miscellaneous section. I would have loved it to have the unpopped kernels programmed, as well as air-popped, non-buttered popcorn. However, with the programmable feature you can program this in quite easily. With foods such as CHIA seeds, Peanut Flour, Greek Yogurt, and protein powders being used regularly, this is great as you can program them right into the scale. Since more us us are moving away from more conventional junk food, towards a more whole-foods, healthier options type lifestyle, I think having a customizable readout is essential. For those of us who regularly use sugar-free products, or products made with Almond/coconut flout etc, this is a great tool to have. I tried programming GG SCANDINAVIAN BRAN CRISPBREAD, and it worked really well.

The Scale comes with a Nutritional Code book, which has the codes you enter to obtain the nutritional readout for the foods you weigh. You just enter the code, and it reads out all the information automatically. The book also has additional blank pages where you can write in your programmed custom foods/meals and their corresponding codes so you don't forget!

I was impressed with how sleek the KITRICS NUTRITIONAL scale looked on the counter. Some of the Nutritional Scales I have used cost $99 or more, and I was really impressed with the price of this product. It is accurate, works well, and has more features than most scales for half the price. This really is a great product to have in the kitchen and would make a fantastic gift as well.

Review: Smart For Life Products; Cookie Diet; cupcakes, cereal, smart crunch, smart bagel, UnderWay

I'm sure we've all heard about the infamous "Cookie Diet", and the many subsequent copy cat versions. A while back I posted pictures and possibility of a review for the Under Way (Dr Sass and the Hero Fiber). Of course, this goes along with the rest of his 'diet' products. They all contain something he formulated called 'Hero Fiber' which apparently is 9x of regular fiber per 1gram. Here is what he says on his website:

HeroFiber™ is a super fiber made from a combination of fibers including ForteFiber™, a Soluble Dietary Fiber which helps to maintain cholesterol, glucose and insulin levels that are already within the normal range.***


It does this by keeping blood and insulin levels from spiking and your chance of getting hungry are reduced. Dr. Sass likes to say: "For people who don't get enough fiber, 1 gram of HeroFiber™ is like 9 grams of other normal fibers. Everyone should try to get at least 30 gram of fiber or more per day.”

I rarely eat foods with added sugar, as my blood sugar is really effected by it, and I just end up eating the entire pack and craving more. I usually would eat foods with sugar, but was feeling slightly nauseated and needed some dry carbs.

I first cracked open the Smart For Life Smart Bagel. There are like thin, dry, bagel crisp crackers. I actually enjoyed these a lot! They were 'chewy' in a weird dry cracker way. They didn't spike my blood sugar and actually made me slow down and eat more mindfully. The entire mini 35g pack has the following nutritional information:

 Calories:80

Fat: 0.5g

Carbs: 17

Fiber: 4

Protein: 6

These were crunchy but chewy/moist? I know it sound odd, but imagine Grissol Bagel Crackers of Melba Toast (super crunchy) that had gotten a little moisture and gotten 'chewy'. Not in a gross way; I know it sounds unappetizing, but they were actually really good!

Next I tried their SMART CRUNCH. These were like little homemade cookie/oatmeal nuggets: Soft, chewy, dense and filling! Although the Fiber content doesn't look particularly high or impressive, I have to say that it definitely filled me up. What I really liked about all the products I tried (and I tried a lot!) is that they weren't sweet! The Smart Crunch contained little crisps, which I later found out was the basis of most of their products. I think they were chewy/crispy soy crisp nuggets.

The Nutritional Information for the Smart Crunch:

Serving Size: 1 mini single serve packet.

Calories: 90

Fat: 2.5

Carbs: 12

Fiber:1.5

Protein: 5

From the website: Smart Crunch is the easy take-along that you can pop in your mouth when you’re on the go. It contains SASSON Technology™ (Smart Appetite Suppressing Sustained Organic Nutrition) and HeroFiber™ which suppresses your appetite. Just one gram of HeroFiber™ contains the benefits found in nine grams of ordinary fiber.

Ingredients:

Smart Crunch

Triple Filtered Water, Vegetable Glycerin, Doctors Protein BlendTM (Milk Protein, Egg Protein, Organic Whey Protein), Hydrolyzed Collagen (Gelatin), Organic Whole Oats, Organic Seedless Raisins, Organic Crisp Rice (Organic Brown Rice Flour, Organic Molasses, Calcium Carbonate), Organic Whole-Grain Wheat Flour, Vegetable Gum, Organic Soybean Oil and/or Enriched Organic Golden Flax Meal (Organic Flax Meal, Fish Oil), Organic Fractioned Palm Oil, Raw Organic Oat and/or Wheat Bran, Organic Invert Sugar, Organic Brown Sugar, Organic Cinnamon, Organic Pure Tahitian Vanilla Extract, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Sea Salt, Natural Flavoring, Organic Nutmeg. Contains at least 60% Organic Ingredients.

Next I tore open their package of 4 mini Cupcakes. I was sent Carrot Sunshine Cupcakes  and Chocolate Mountain Cupcakes. These were tiny and had icing drizzled on top. I was impressed with how filling these were. They're 60% organic, and definitely aren't easy to scarf down like ordinary Cup Cakes.
The Chocolate ones had the little crispy nuggets in them again, as well as mini chocolate chips.

The Nutritionals Are:

Per Cupcake:

Calories: 90

Fat: 3

Carbs:10

Fiber:3

Protein:7

I enjoyed both and really liked that they weren't sweet. I could imagine this in a Yogurt Mess, or with milk! Definitely left you thirst!

Triple Filtered Water, Doctors Protein Blend™ (Milk Protein, Organic Egg Protein, Organic Whey Protein, Hydrolyzed Collagen), Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Whole-Grain Wheat Flour, Soy Crisps, Organic Soybean Oil, Raw Organic Oat Bran, Cane Sugar, Enriched Organic Golden Flax Meal (Organic Flax Meal and Fish Oil), Organic Cocoa, Modified Cellulose, Natural Flavor, Plant Sterols, Doctors Herbal Blend™ (Fennel, Sage, Rosemary Oil, Thyme, Turmeric), Vanilla Extract, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, Baking Powder, Salt, Kernel and Palm Oil, Soybean Lecithin, Nutmeg, Cultured Wheat Flour

Next I tried the 2 flavors of cookies I had: Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate Chip.

The Oatmeal Raisin wasn't sweet at all, and the raisins really helped the taste. Here are the stats:

Serving Size 34g, Servings per Container 6, Amount per Serving: Calories 105, Fat Cal. 20, 2.5g Total Fat 4% DV*, 1.5g Saturated Fat 5% DV*, 0g Trans Fat, 0mg Cholesterol 0% DV*, 120mg Sodium 5% DV*, 15g Total Carbohydrates 3% DV*, 1.5g Fiber 6%, 5g Sugar, 5g Protein.
Triple Filtered Water,Vegetable Glycerin,Doctors Protein BlendTM (Milk Protein,Egg Protein,Organic Whey Protein),Hydrolyzed Collagen (Gelatin),Organic Whole Oats,Organic Seedless Raisins,Organic Crisp Rice (Organic Brown Rice Flour,Organic Molasses,Calcium Carbonate),Organic Whole-Grain Wheat Flour,Vegetable Gum,Organic Soybean Oil and/or Enriched Organic Golden Flax Meal (Organic Flax,Fish Oil),Organic Fractioned Palm Oil,Raw Organic Oat and/or Wheat Bran,Organic Invert Sugar,Organic Brown Sugar,Organic Cinnamon, Organic Pure Tahitian Vanilla Extract,Baking Soda, Baking Powder,Sea Salt,Natural Flavoring,Organic Nutmeg. Contains at least 60% Organic Ingredients



Chocolate Chip had a bit of the icing drizzle on top (which I really liked):

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size 29g, Servings per Container 6, Amount per Serving: Calories 100, Fat Cal. 30, 2.5g Total Fat 6% DV*, 1.5g Saturated Fat 7% DV*, 0g Trans Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5g, Monounsaturated Fat 1g, Cholesterol 0mg 0%, 135mg Sodium 6% DV*, 9g Total Carbohydrates 3% DV*, 2g Dietary Fiber 8%, 3g Sugar, 6g Protein. Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 4%, Iron 6%

Triple Filtered Water,Vegetable Glycerin,Doctors Protein BlendTM (Milk Protein,Egg Protein,Organic Whey Protein),Hydrolyzed Collagen (Gelatin),Organic Whole Oats,Organic Seedless Raisins,Organic Crisp Rice (Organic Brown Rice Flour,Organic Molasses,Calcium Carbonate),Organic Whole-Grain Wheat Flour,Vegetable Gum,Organic Soybean Oil and/or Enriched Organic Golden Flax Meal (Organic Flax,Fish Oil),Organic Fractioned Palm Oil,Raw Organic Oat and/or Wheat Bran,Organic Invert Sugar,Organic Brown Sugar,Organic Cinnamon, Organic Pure Tahitian Vanilla Extract,Baking Soda, Baking Powder,Sea Salt,Natural Flavoring,Organic Nutmeg. Contains at least 60% Organic Ingredients

They also have a great sounding and looking Blueberry, which I didn't get to try.


Like their Cupcakes and Smart Crunch, these tasted wholesome and didn't have a lot of flavor. You could definitely smell the Cocoa and Cinnamon scents! These were dense, and a great snack.

Lastly, I had their Chocolate Berry Cereal. These again were the Soy Nuggets (moist), with Cocoa, chunks of freeze dried strawberries and blueberries.

They describe these as "Crunchy and Chewy at the same time", and I have to say that they're right! Again, not sweet at all.I added some SF syrup, and microwaved it for 25seconds.

The Stats:

Per Single Serve Cup:

Calories: 180

Fat:4.5

Carbs:25

Fiber:3.5

Protein:10

I was also sent Momma's Chicken Noodle Soup, which comes in a single serve-just add water-portable cup, and one of their prepacked ready to grab (just add liquid) shakes.

Overall, I was really impressed at the satiety level. I was skeptical at first, but they really would help regulate blood sugar and tame cravings! I recommend drinking a lot when you eat them- they are really chewy and dense. All the products-aside from the Bagel, had a bland taste due to not being overly sweet and artificial. I actually appreciated this fact, as it did not cause a sugar crash.

As for the Under Way drinks themselves: They are really hard to describe. I love Grape and Acai Pomegranate. They are THICKER and taste kind of like a melted Popsicle. I think it's the Vegetable Glycerin. Either way, they're really hydrating, and definitely sit well in the stomach. They have a nice sample pack HERE.

You order these in "packages" ie 5day, 21 day variety, Healthy Eating Pack, Soup and Cereal Pack, Hot Cocoa, Shakes etc

MEAL PLAN, MY LIFE, and STAYING FOCUSED

Hey Guys.
This has been such a crazy month. It is no secret that some extremely unpleasant circumstantial events have occurred in my life. Events beyond my control, that have unfortunately impacted my sense of self-worth, my identity, my confidence, and left me shattered, broken, scared and overwhelmed. I have turned into an anxious mess. I realize that my decisions alone dictate my behaviours- not my conditions. As Viktor Frankl said: " Between stimulus and response, lies man's power to choose". I have been choosing to stay optimistic, and keep moving forward. I don't want to lose my focus, my drive, my discipline. Frankly, this has left me a little lost. It is all in how you perceive things, and in how YOU respond. My actions are mine alone. So I am working on distracting myself. On learning, on growing and on figuring out what I want to do. I may have some big news on Tuesday, but until then I have 3 clients and am so stressed out.

As you all know, I believe that there is no 'ideal' diet. Strictly from a Biochemical perspective, our cellular metabolisms are so different. What I may be deficient in, or what I need is vastly different from another person. Thus, I believe in customizing each and every diet to tailor it to not only my clients goals and needs, but also (and very importantly) to suit their lifestyle. If it doesn't "flow" with their habituated patterns, they're not going to stick to it for long. Which is why introducing incremental changes is the best method I've found to maintain life long success. You've got to keep evolving, adapting and working to better yourself and your life. Unless you need a goal specific result NOW, I tend to gradually 'tweak' and adjust the diet/supplement regime every 2-6weeks.

I thought I'd post one "diet" meal plan up, just for the sake of it! COMMENTS WELCOME! This is for a male trying to "Lean Out".

MEAL PLAN Supplements Highlighted in Blue

Meal 1 (7am):

1 scoops of whey (30g of protein) (or 2 Eggs/2 Whites)
1 cup of oatmeal (optional tsp SALBA)
1 tbsp nut butter or 2 Eggs and 2 Egg Whites
1/2 banana, berries or orange.
1 serv. fish oil
2 CLA
1 Multi *Vitabolic. (meal 1 and 3)

Meal 2:
1/2 Cottage Cheese or:
Low Carb Shake or bar (200 cal),
11 almonds
or Hummus and Veggies and 1/2 pita.
2 Capsules Green and White Tea

Meal 3 LUNCH:

6 oz chicken breast or lean protein source
1 tsp olive oil
2/3 cup brown rice, chick peas or other carbohydrate (sweet potato, Quinoa etc)
1 cup veggies
Salad (unlimited vegetable list)
1 Multi
2 CLA


Meal 4 (2:30-3):Afternoon Snack: Protein Shake/bar (light bar- such as Isofemme Almond Delight, Pure Protein, Myoplex Light, Snack size Oh Yeah, Zone) 200cal.
- Hummus/pita and veggies
-1/2 banana and Almond Butter
-11 Almonds
-1/2 cottage cheese and 1/2 fruit
- 1/2 of a regular meal replacement bar (Protein 32, Supreme, Isoflex etc).

Preworkout:
2 Green and White Tea capsules.
2 scoops Superpumped or N03 overload/ Black powder (pre workout formula).

During workout:
6 scoops of Xtend or Intrabolic

Meal 5: After workout:
Protein Shake 40g protein with Carb source.


Meal 6:
6 oz chicken breast cooked (or 5oz Salmon, 4oz lean beef, turkey or shrimp)
1tsp olive oil
2/3 cups brown rice, Quinoa or other "allowed" Carb.
1.5 cups steamed vegetables of choice (broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower etc)
Large Salad- Balsamic, Salsa, mustard etc.
Fish Oil Capsule


Meal 7 10pm:
Sludge  w/ fiber added (protein + nut butter)
1/4 cup of almonds or Walnuts (8-11)
1/2 Cottage Cheese or
Casein Shake "pudding".
WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?
I have a client who WILL NOT cook or do meal prep. He eats out 24/7 due to work. Obviously this is a rough guide for him. Subway, Deli, Wraps, etc are all an option as well. It's difficult, as he wants EXACT TIME,PORTION,FOOD DESTINATION etc. Therefore, I can't have him making scrambled eggs, protein oats, pancakes etc at home.


Have a great week and please keep me in your thoughts this week! It's been really rough (without going into detail).