I really didn’t expect Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bars to be that insanely delicious!

I’ve eaten many natural protein bars, and some are much better than others. In fact, I reviewed a few that I quite liked here: Healthy and tasty protein bars

The new Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bars are incredible. Not only are you getting 9 grams of protein (which represents 18 per cent of your daily requirements), you are also getting a bar made from loads of raw foods!

The bars come in three flavours: Green Synergy, Nutritive Original and Chocolate Decadence. My favourite by far is the Chocolate Decadence. It not only tastes great (and I’m not really a huge chocolate fan), it also provides you with the antioxidant benefits from 70 per cent cocoa (dark chocolate)!

Each Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bar is a unique, delicious blend of all-natural, raw, organic  and enzymatically-active plant-based super foods including sprouted buckwheat, sprouted almonds, acai, Salba and hemp seeds.

In my opinion, Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bars are the type of snack you should eat more often because the list of ingredients is as close to clean eating as you’ll ever find. Here are the ingredients from a Chocolate Decadence Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bar:

Sprouted buckwheat*, dates*, hemp seed*, sprouted almonds*, agave nectar*, brown rice protein*, pea protein, dark chocolate* (70% cocoa mass*, raw sugar*, cocoa butter*), Vega Antioxidant EFA Oil Blend* (hemp seed oil*, flax seed oil*, green tea seed oil*, pomegranate seed oil*, black cumin seed oil*, black raspberry seed oil*, blueberry seed oil*, cranberry seed oil*, pumpkin seed oil*, coconut oil*, Salba*, acai*, chardonnay grape, sorghum puffs*.

All the ingredients with a star are organic!

Perhaps Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bars are a little pricey at $2.99 apiece, but if you want a perfect, healthy snack that will provide your body with all the nutrients it needs, this is the one for you!

>>> Find out more about this healthy snack here: Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bar

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If you think healthy cereals are automatically bland and tasteless, than you’ve not tried cereals produced by companies like Kashi, Dorset and Nature’s Path, President’s Choice Organics and Barbara’s Bakery.

I’m determined to get as many people as possible starting their day with better quality foods in their stomach and I will review all the healthy cereals I buy.

Check out my review of four new cereals I tried and find out which ones I liked and which ones I wouldn’t buy again.

***Don’t forget to rate this video it you like it!***

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I find it always shocking when I hear people say they “hate the taste of water”. I mean what is there to hate? Water is tasteless.

I’m equally confused when people say to me they drink pop or fruit juice when they are thirsty. I do enjoy a glass of fresh juice, but I assure you that when I’m dying of thirst, NOTHING (I mean, nothing!) quenches my thirst like water.

Water is also one of the best “diet secrets” there is!

Why? Because water is essential for your organs and essential in helping your body flush toxins (trapped toxins are the perfect festering ground to trap fat inside your body). If you replaced a couple of cans of pop each day with the equivalent in water, you’d lose weight without even trying!

A few years ago a few companies came out with these flavoured waters that were sweetened with artificial sweeters. The idea was that by sweetening water, manufacturers were bringing the taste closer to what most North Americans were used to drinking – sweetened drinks.

I did try those flavoured waters and I really didn’t like them all that much — I found nothing remotely thirst-quenching about the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners.

I recently discovered a new concept in water — Ayala’s Herbal Water. There is no artificial sweetener in this water. It’s all about filtered water and organic herbs.

You’ll love the flavours:

* Lemongrass mint vanilla

* Lavender mint

* Lemon verbana geranium

* Cloves cardamom cinnamon

* Cinnamon orange peel (one of my favourites)

* Ginger lemon peel (another one of my favourites)

It’s not really complicated — water is one of the most important things you can put into your body. If you “don’t like the taste of water”, you can either just learn to tolerate it or you can drink water like Ayala’s Herbal Water as a way of getting some kind of flavour while quenching your thirst!

I cannot tell you how refreshing this water is … so why don’t you watch my video review below to find out what I thought:

***If you like the video, I’d appreciate it if you rated it by clicking on one of the 5 stars inside the video!***

>>> Where can you buy Ayala’s Herbal Water?

Herbal Water is sold in Canada! And they even have loads of international locations outside North America!

Here’s a list of stores where we retail in Canada: Herbal Water is sold in Canada!

For stores in the U.S. you can put your zip code in the Herbal Water Zip Code Finder on their website and you’ll find the closest retailer to you!

Here’s a list of stores where we retail in the U.S.: Herbal Water is sold in the U.S.!

Herbal Water is sold in major U.S. grocery and natural store chains like Whole Foods Market, Food Emporium, Safeway, Giant, and Raley’s and there are more and more stores carrying the water.

Don’t forget that you can find more information on their Web site: Herbal Water

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Not all cereals are created equally!

I know that healthy cereals are much more expensive than conventional cereals, but in my book they are well worth it.

I’ve decided to do video reviews on all the healthy cereals I buy to let you know which ones I liked and which ones I didn’t.

We all have different tastes, but it’s always good to hear from someone else if something is worth buying or not.

Here’s part 1 of ‘How to choose healthy cereals’:

***If you like the video, I’d appreciate it if you rated it by clicking on one of the 5 stars inside the video!***

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I had already reviewed Tennessee T-Cakes and you can read the review here: Review: T-cakes are insanely incredible desserts

I quickly thought of moving permanently to Seattle when I found out about this!

Beginning June 25, the Washington state’s Ferry Farm Stand will open every Wednesday evening at the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal, offering Seattle commuters a variety of locally grown produce in convenient $5 USD bags!

Yes, you’ve read this correctly, $5 groceries!

I don’t know if residents of Seattle realize how lucky they are because commuters arriving on the island via the busy 4:40 pm and 5:30 pm ferries will be able to grab a bag of fresh local lettuce, some crisp sugar snap peas or a box of sweet, island-grown strawberries before they get in their car or board their bus or bike.

All of the food sold at the Ferry Farm Stand will be picked fresh at farms on Bainbridge Island and nearby North Kitsap. Sound Food (a food and community organization servicing the Puget Sound area in Seattle) is providing all of the staffing, organization and promotional support, allowing 100 per cent of the proceeds to go directly to the farmers.

This brilliant initiative is designed to encourage local residents to eat more food grown close to home.

Bringing the produce to consumers (rather than expecting them to find it themselves) and then pricing it for a speedy transaction is a clever approach that looks ripe for emulation anywhere local produce is grown. Imagine the response in the subways of Toronto, New York City, Paris, London or Singapore!

I remember that in Paris, I had noticed quite a lot of fruit vendors, but were selling fruits at the same price you’d find them at the grocery store … they weren’t farmer’s produce and the concept was selling convenience rather than the benefits of eating locally. I’d say that Seattle is heads and shoulders above any other city in getting its residents to turn locavore (people who eat locally grown foods).

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

I’d love to say this idea was intentional, but it really wasn’t.

It was simply my desire to get rid of a container of honey.

I quite enjoy honey on my muffins and I found myself with very little left so I decided to scrape the top of the container of honey with a few almonds.

It never occurred to me that this simple and innocent action would result in one of my favourite current snacks!

I’ve always loved almonds and I’ve been eating unpasteurized honey for years now, but it’s only recently that I put the two together to create this super healthy and super satisfied snack.

Just in case you didn’t know, almonds are an incredible hunger-buster. Just a handful of almonds will kill any pang of hunger and will prevent you from reaching out for fat-inducing-snack-food-options.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: Pregnant women should NOT eat unpasteurized foods during their pregnancy!!!

<Almonds are a great snack food because>

* Almonds are rich in lean protein.

* They are a great way of lowering your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

* The natural oils in the almonds are good for your skin AND these healthy fats can help you lose weight.

* Almonds are rich in minerals like manganese, copper, riboflavin.

* Almonds are the perfect snack food because if buy them in bulk, you can easily put them in a plastic bag or a small contain and take them with you anywhere! I also find they make a great travel companion because I can take them with me and have something to snack on while I arrive at my final destination.

<Unpasteurized honey is great because>

*For the longest time, you could ONLY get unpasteurized honey from the natural health food store, but now I can buy my unpasteurized honey at my local grocery store, right next to the pasteurized varieties! Thinks are changing a lot in the world on nutrition and healthy foods are becoming more about more “common”.

* Other than being really tasty, unpasteurized honey is great at boosting your immune system. How many times has your grandmother suggested tea and honey when you aren’t feeling great? The benefits of honey are much more than a old wives’ tale … it’s real.

So what’s the big difference between pasteurized honey and unpasteurized honey?

>>>> Pasteurization requires the producers to kill the natural enzymes and probiotics in the honey. Unpasteurized honey is better for you because the natural enzymes and the probiotics remain intact.

I’d encourage all my readers to try this great snack food … I’m sure you’ll be just as hooked as I am!

Who says healthy cereals don’t taste good? From the speed at which I ate the follow two healthy cereals, I’d beg to differ.

I’m always looking for new cereals because I’m not one to eat the same thing over and over again. I like as much variety in my cereal as I do with my jam.

I tried two new cereals that are really good and the list of ingredients is irreproachable:

1) Barbara’s Bakery Multigrains Shredded Spoonfuls cereals: These are so good and you can eat them with or without milk. If you eat them dry, they can easily become a great snack for when you are on the go.

Barbara’s Bakery makes a number of other cereals that are a healthy twist (and many times organic) on the commercial cereals we’ve all grown up eating.

You’ll find Corn Flakes, Honey Crunch’n Oats, Shredded Minis and they even make organic Wheetabix cereals.

The price for these healthy cereals is comparable to conventional cereals ($4.99 USD/ $5.49 CAD), but the main difference is that Barbara’s Bakery cereals come in smaller boxes than conventional cereals. That said, unless you are trying to feed a large family or if you are on a food budget, these are a much better option because the ingredient list is so healthy.

You’ll find more information on these cereals here: Barbara’s Bakery Multigrains Shredded Spoonfuls cereals

You can get them at a great discount on Amazon here: Barbara’s Bakery Multigrains Shredded Spoonfuls cereals on Amazon

2) Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Raisin Bran: I quite like bran cereals and I was so excited to try this new variation with flax seeds! Here’s another plus to this cereal … because the raisins are organic they are ONLY coated with organic sunflower oil and not saturated fat and other ingredients that aren’t all that good for you. I have to say that I’ve not yet been able to stop at one bowl of these Nature’s Path cereals … that’s how much I like them. One last thing, if your doctor has suggested that you include more in your diet … these cereals will be a great choice because they are very high in fibre while being low in fat AND the contain no trans fat!

You’ll find more information on these cereals here: Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Raisin Bran

You can get them at a great discount on Amazon here: Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Raisin Bran cereals on Amazon