We have all been waiting for this announcement! But the cool news is that Beachbody is really taking the effort to provide a raw, whole food based solution. Shakeology has been awesome to date packed with super foods. But they still had to use the industry standard of Whey Protein. NO LONGER!! Tropical is Vegan approved!

Ultra Protein source is Fermented sprouted brown rice…the BEST OF THE BEST as smooth as whey protein…& this qualifies for Beachbody’s upcoming Ultimate line. The closest to raw food/bioavailability out there!

As someone that has been addicted to Diet Coke for the last 20 + years, drinking over 8 cans a day, I’m really happy that I’ve been able to kick that nasty habit. I do feel that Shakeology has been a big step in helping me deal with the cravings. But more importantly, I found a really great substitute to those times I need to reach for a can of Diet Coke. And that has been in the form of great sparkling water products from La Crox and Ice Mountain. They both make natural flavor products to have zero sugar and not added chemicals of any kind, they just use natural essence flavoring.

It’s important to note this as hydration is a very import subject for those trying to get healthy and fit. We have been lead to believe by the commercial food industries that the healthy alternatives are fruit juices, vegetable juices as as V8, flavored tea products, vitamin water, and of course the hundred variations of all those energy drinks. I’ll leave it to my previous rants about why you want to keep clear of these products. Just remember that they all have either HFCS or a bad swill of synthetic chemicals (You really don’t want to know how B12 is made) that contain zero nutritional value. Matter fact, your body will now have to spend time and energy to remove those dead objects from your body. And any nutritional value that was once found in a vegetable or fruit juice were lost in the pasteurization process and can actually contain harmful by-products such as arsenic. Great.

The sad thing is we are trained to reach for those nasty products when we get tired. Never mind the Dehydration is the leading cause to headaches and drowsiness. But if you’re like me, I just can’t reach for a glass of water with excitement.  If you can, and you drink plenty of water, congrats! But I have to work at it. And Sparkling water really has helped! But…I’ve been feeling a bit guilty lately with the large amount of cans and bottles that I’m contributing to the local landfill. What a waste.

So I was very happy to learn about a great new product from Sodastream! Now I can make my own sparkling water, on my terms at a much cheaper rate while not contributing any more cans or bottles to the landfill. I was so happy with the product that I decided to make a quick video on it.

Part II – Showing how to use the SodaStream:

It’s important to note that I really don’t recommend the trail and basic flavors that Sodastream provides at most locations. All of those cola flavors contain a combination of splenda and sugar.  And Splenda is as evil as aspertain if not more. So please stay away from those. However, Sodastream does provide two options. For those cola lovers that can’t go cold turkey, they offer what they call their Sparking Naturals. These are syrups that contain pure cane sugar for the sweetener. If you have to drink your cola, then do it this way as you control what you consume. Start weaning your dosage lower and lower.

But the best product they offer is what they call their Mywater Essence Flavors. These contain zero sugar, zero crap and only use natural essence flavoring. A few drops to a liter and you now have the equivilent taste to the La-Croix and Ice Mountain products.

Better yet, say you are still skeptical about Natural Essence Flavors. I mean, you may have a good point that those are still suspicious. And I would agree with you…but they are still by far the best option on the market shelf. So in this case I would just carbonate the water, and maybe cut up a lemon or lime and squeeze some of that into my water.  The point here is you have options and you control what you drink.

I will be recording how many liters I get from the single carbonation tank. The version I bought at Costco sells for $99 and includes a huge 32 oz tank, where the normal models at Target, Best Buy and Kohls use the smaller 15 oz tanks.