Health

I’ve never been the biggest fan of oatmeal. Despite knowing the health benefits it can have, I’ve always found the taste either bland and kind of a boring way to start the day.
A few months ago, Modern Oats sent me some of their oatmeal to try and I now wonder if everything I knew about oatmeal was a lie! Modern Oats was founded in 2013 with the goal to “Change people’s perception of “old fashioned” oatmeal.” Besides their focus on taste, Modern Oats oatmeal is gluten-free and and contains Non-GMO Verified oats and artisan selected fruits, nuts and seeds.

To sample, I was sent Chocolate Cherry, Mango Blackberry, Apple Walnut, 5 Berry, Nuts & Seeds and Goji Berry. I was not expecting the fruit in the oatmeal to taste as good as it did. My experience has been that the fruit bits in oatmeal tend to be really small and taste like they have been preserved. The fruit really stood out to me and added enough sweetness to the oatmeal. The Nuts and Seeds flavor did not come with fruit, but I added some fresh strawberries and it totally made my morning.

I enjoyed all of my Modern Oats samples at work. I feel like I am always in a rush in the morning and prefer to sleep an extra 10 – 15 minutes instead of making myself breakfast. I loved that these were conveniently packaged to be a portable (and recyclable) bowl. I kept a few at my desk and used the hot water dispenser in the kitchen to fill the cups before enjoying. My favorites among these samples were Goji Blueerry and 5 Berry.
Each container has a recipe to create 2 oatmeal cookies. While I didn’t have a chance to bake any since I really enjoyed eating these for breakfast, I would like to try making cookies out of the Apple Walnut and Chocolate Cherry flavors.

Since these were really easy to prepare, and tasted really good, I would not hesitate to purchase these to keep in my cubicle and as part of a future camping or hiking trip. Modern Oats proved itself to be the perfect, healthy, anytime, anywhere snack. Their new flavors sound intriguing, Coconut Almond and Vermont Maple, and both sound like they would make delicious oatmeal cookies.

To try Modern Oats, you can search for them using their store locator or order from Amazon. let me know if you have tried Modern Oats and what your favorite flavor is!

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I received samples for review from Modern Oats. All opinions expressed are my own.

The New Year is upon us and one of top resolutions on people’s lists is to be healthier. That means a lot of people at the gym this month, but also a time where people really think about the food that they eat. I know I was starting to feel a little blah from all the Holiday food and felt like I needed to reset my body. I tried out a Juice Cleanse for a day c/o Project Juice and thought now would be a good time to share my experience of that day. It just might be what you need to kick start your healthy lifestyle for the year.

My one day cleanse (Beginner Can You Kick It?) included:
1 EZ-Green with Lemon & Ginger1 Swizz Beetz1 The Master1 EZ-Green1 D-Tox1 Almond Mylk

9:02 am – Drink my first juice (EZ-Green) while Armando tortures me with a hearty breakfast of sausage, eggs, beans and rice. Juice tasted most like celery – but was not too jealous of Armando’s breakfast.
9:29 am – Finished EZ-Green juice. As I drank it I got used to the flavor. Believing that it was good for me helped me power through it too.
11:05 am – Started to crave come food. Decided it was time for my next juice – Swizz Beats. This juice was a lot tastier than the first juice and it might be because it tasted sweeter. (Note: this cleanse had a lot of sugar.)
12:05 pm – Finished my juice and focused on giving myself a mani to keep my hands busy from running to the pantry.
1:13 pm – Wanted to open the pantry for a snack but resisted the temptation. Decided it might be a good idea to try some of the Detox tea. It was super sweet which made me feel better about doing the cleanse. (Note: This tea is recommended by Project Juice to drink throughout the cleanse.)
2:44 pm – Tasted The Master after returning home from picking up my dry-cleaning across the street. The Master is alkaline water, lemon, lime, ginger, agave and cayenne. The cayenne definitely has a kick, but I was not a fan.
3:36 pm – Still working my way through The Master Juice. Not easy drinking this one.
3:54 pm – Halfway through The Master juice. Sorting through photos on the desktop for my next post, so I guess this is also distracting.
4:52 pm – Finally finished The Master juice. Cannot believe it took me this long to finish it, but I have been pretty productive with my photo sorting and prepping blog posts. Will probably need to start my next Juice soon.
5:20 pm – Feeling hungry, must…. grab…. next juice! Opened my fridge and my sense of smell picked up the other tantalizing/tempting options in the fridge. Quickly grabbed the EZ-Green juice I needed to drink next and went back to the computer to focus on a blog post.
5:47 pm – Halfway through this bottle and off to run some quick errands.
6:24 pm Arrived at Cinnaholics to pick up 2 cinnamon rolls for Armando before his Groupon expired. This part of my day was pure torture, but I had my EZ- Green juice to drink on my way back as I held on to the boxes of Cinnamon roll goodness.
8:00 pm Finished the rest of the D-Tox juice. So far this was my favorite of all the juices and I would definitely buy this one again. It was sweet and I could not believe it was actually good for me despite the amount of sugar it has.
8:18 pm – Started the Almond Mylk and it is a lot more appetizing than the green juices. I am proud of myself for making it a whole day without breaking down and rushing to the kitchen to stuff my face with junk food. I think of this as I hear Armando eating cereal.
8:25 pm – Completed a blog post and wonder what I will do next when I finish my Almond Mylk.
9:50 pm – Finished last bits of Almond Mylk and prepared for bed. Stomach still feels slightly empty, but won’t be grabbing anything solid to eat until tomorrow morning.

I was very proud of myself for completing the cleanse but more so for my will power. I will note that there are no proven facts that suggest a cleanse is good for you, but nothing says it is terrible for you either. I think one day was a good way to reset my body and a good way to test out my will power. It might build some better habits, like reaching for fruit instead of a pastry in your break room at work and hopefully healthier habits follow that. I appreciated that Project Juice had a resource page on their site for a newbie like me to go while I tried out my first cleanse. Much like running a marathon, their is some prep involved to ease into a cleanse so you don’t fail, but one day isn’t so bad (although I might not do it again since I didn’t like The Master.)

Project Juice is a San Francisco based company that cold-presses their juices and nut mylks and uses fresh and locally-sourced ingredients. You can find their juices in SF or shop their juices online here.
Have you tried a juice cleanse before? Let me know how your experience was and if you would do it again.

Mornings with Modern Oats

Project Juice Cleanse Review