Vital Protein Collagen Water Review

May 24, 2019 By Hollie in vital proteins Tags: fitness, Protein, run, running, sports, vital proteins, water, workouts 18 Comments

As many people know, I’m a Vital Proteins Ambassador and have been using Vital Proteins Collagen for over a year now. Vital Proteins sends me products to try, and I share my favorites or answer questions people have.

One of the most common questions I get is: Which is best?

Unflavored peptides?

Whey?

Beauty Greens?

Like most anything, it depends on your goals. Any quality Collagen can benefit most people. I like to have it after a run because it’s easy, portable, and I can get protein in.

I’ve written several posts of how it’s personally helped me, including:

Why Collagen Post Run?
Hair and Nail Benefits of Collagen
Skin Benefits from Collagen
Top Benefits of Collagen

Before we Dive into More Different Products, a Few Things About All Vital Protein Products:

Free from artificial ingredients and sweeteners.
Contain All Real Food

Recently, I had the privilege to try their new Collagen Water Flavors. I appreciate that the Collagen is easy, packable, and transportable. If I do a race, or decide to run somewhere away from my house, I don’t have to worry about a source of protein afterward. I can just rehydrate with a collagen water.

Before I talk about all of the flavors, here are a few benefits of the collagen water:

10 Grams of Collagen. I’ve blogged about before, but collagen supports healthy hair, skin, bones, and joints.
It’s made with whole food ingredients and real fruit juice.

They Now Have 5 Different Flavors:

The Orginal:

The original has the taste of lemon water. It’s refreshing but light and doesn’t feel overpowered in any way. Each serving contains 10g of collagen and 1g of sugar from the juice of real fruit. Refresh your wellness routine with ease, courtesy of collagen.

Blackberry Hibiscus:

This is my favorite flavor. If you like blackberry or fruit drinks, this is a good one to try. The blackberry is mild, and it has a sweet taste to it.

Lemon Ginger:

Of all of the flavors, the lemon ginger has the most zest. If you like something with a little bit of zest or zing, this is your flavor.

Blueberry Mint:

Admittedly, I wasn’t sure what to think the first time I heard of the flavor. Blueberry+mint seems like an interesting and unique combination. After trying it, I can admit I’m a fan. I think it pairs well and it’s a sweet, refreshing flavor.

Strawberry Lemon:

This reminds me of the staple of most flavors. Who doesn’t love a good strawberry and lemon flavored what option? It tastes exactly like the both combined without being overpowering of either. I don’t enjoy strong lemon drinks.

I like each of the flavors for different reasons, and I would grab any of them. My favorite is the Blackberry Hibiscus.

Thank you Vital Proteins for allowing me to try the new flavors.

Questions for you:

What do you have post workout?

Have you tried Vital Proteins before?

Skin Benefits from Collagen

May 18, 2018 By Hollie in vital proteins Tags: collagen, fitness, health, Protein, sports, vital proteins, wellness 19 Comments

Last week, I talked about how Vital Proteins has helped with my personal recovery and running. This week I thought I would talk about other benefits such as skin!

I’ve mentioned in many random posts, but my skin has never been flawless. I wasn’t blessed with those genes. I see a dermatologist frequently. Through high school and college, my skin went through cycles of being worse than a preteen going through puberty.

After using Vital Proteins for nearly 6 months, I’ve found it to help with my skin, hair, and nails.

Keep in mind I’m not a doctor, and this is my personalized experience. This isn’t something to help solve skin issues, but hopefully, you’ll notice benefits for your skin as well.

How do Vital Proteins Help Skin?

Vital Proteins are a beauty-specific product to support the skin’s moisture, improve elasticity, tone, and vibrancy.

What Even makes Skin Healthy?

Not breaking out?

Skin is a lot harder to describe as “healthy.” There isn’t a magic food that makes skin healthier. You can’t just eat more, and you have healthy skin. There isn’t a magical pill or potion. Plus everyone has different skin. There are also plenty of uncontrollable factors such as genetics and age.

As I mentioned last week, collagen is a protein in the body’s connective tissues. As we age, our natural collagen production decrease. This is how wrinkles appear, among many fine lines.

What are some Key Vitamins for Healthier Skin?

Collagen: Since this post is primarily about collagen, we should start there right? Collagen is one of the most significant factors in keeping your skin healthy. Before taking collagen, I had no idea how important and beneficial it was.

Your body naturally produces collagen but Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides are a healthy natural source of collagen.

Antioxidants: Antioxidants seems like a “power” nutrition word. Merely saying antioxidant makes you sound healthier but what is it? An antioxidant means it can bind to electrons and neutralize free radicals in the body.

Antioxidants are found in many foods but most commonly in both fruits and vegetables. A few sources of antioxidants include berries, grapes, dark chocolate, and mushrooms.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C supports the production of collagen. You can find Vitamin C in most citrus fruits like oranges, pineapple, and my favorite: mango.

Vitamin E: Vitamin E has an antioxidant effect too. A few foods high in Vitamin E are avocado, spinach, and seeds such as sunflowers seeds or almonds.

Right now, the Vital Proteins product I like the most for my skin, hair, and nails is the Beauty Greens.

Personally, I like the “greenness” of the drink itself. I like to add 2 scoops into a glass of milk with ice. Boring but it tastes good to me. It’s hard to make a green smoothie look good but I can assure you it is.

Some of the benefits I’ve noticed with my skin are:

Promoting collagen formation, affecting hair, skin, and nails
Supporting a healthy glow
Enhancing skin clarity and smoothness
Increasing the body’s natural moisture level, improving hair, skin, and nails
Helping to maintain firm skin

Since beginning to take Vital Proteins about 6 months ago, I’ve seen small changes in my skin. My skin is a lot smoother. It does not take the place of going to the dermatologist every few months, but I have had success with it. While I am an ambassador, I have noticed an improvement beforehand. My skin is the most randient it’s been since high school!

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Windy day down the shore.

A post shared by Hollie (@fueledbylolz) on Apr 30, 2018 at 11:58am PDT

Benefits of Adding Protein after Running

June 8, 2017 By Hollie in Running, Training Tags: fitness, health, Protein, run, running, workout 2 Comments

I have read many articles about the importance of adding protein after running. However, during many other training cycles, I let life get in the way. I packed runs in before work or events. Getting the proper nutrition, stretching and “the little things,” fell through the cracks. Half of the time, I was lucky to make it to where I needed to go on time.

This particular training cycle (what I’m actually training for is TBD), I have made an effort to do the little things like having protein after a run or core work. Am I perfect? No, but in the past few weeks, I’ve been more consistent.

As most people know by now, Quest Bars are my favorite protein bars. Recently they released three new bars called Hero Bars. The Hero Quest Bars are different from their regular protein bars and cereal bars.

How so?

Every Quest Hero Protein Bar features a sweet, chocolatey coating, and a gooey filling and with a protein core. They resemble candy bars versus the typical protein bars.

I tried each one:

My favorite is the Chocolate Caramel Pecan. It resembles a candy bar!

So how have I been incorporating protein after my diet?

Thinking out loud, it’s actually obvious and I’ve been having a protein bar after each run (no matter the distance) and I seem to be coming back well. I’m nowhere near PRing shape, but I’ve gone from struggling during 4 mile runs to running 6 miles like no big deal (well, I’ll leave it at running 6 miles).

What are benefits of consuming protein directly after a run?

Protein helps speed muscle repair after hard workouts (right now that is every run) which lead to faster recovery.

It also reduces the response from cortisol. Cortisol is the stress hormone. While I have another post about this soon, I recently got blood work done again, and my cortisol is lower than it’s been in a very long time!

Thanks to Quest for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own and I find the Quest Hero bars to be my favorite way to consume protein after a run. They are easy to carry in a bag (when I don’t run from home) and easy to digest. Since originally trying them, I have bought several boxes and continue to have a bar after each run.

Questions for you:

Do you consume protein after runs?

What are little things you find that help your running?

Protein and Running

March 16, 2017 By Hollie in Gear Review, Running, Running Reads Tags: fitness, health, Protein, run, running 7 Comments

As runners, it’s important to get enough protein while training. Protein allows us to recover quicker and stay healthy.

As someone who doesn’t always run from home and is constantly on the go, I’m always looking for portable sources of protein. It’s impossible to just bring a steak around in my pocket.

That’s why when I was contacted to work with two companies I purchase from frequently: Quest Protein and Vitamin Shoppe, I jumped at the opportunity. I shop with both routinely and have for years.

Thinking out loud, finding a portable protein bar can be tough but finding one that actually tastes good can be tougher! I’ve pretty much tried every protein bar on the market and some taste like glorified cardboard.

A couple of years ago when staying with good friends Danielle and Amelia, I had several Quest bars in my backpack. We all went out for dinner. While we were away, their cats got into my bag and ate several of them. What can I say, who doesn’t like Quest bars?

Quest cereal bars are just as good as their regular protein bars. The Quest ‘Beyond Cereal’ Bar has all the sweet crunch of a junk food cereal bar, but with the incredible nutritional profile you know you can expect from Quest. When I’m training, I like to make the most of calories. While I don’t stress about it, I would rather have a more healthy protein bar versus one with empty calories.

Each bar contains the following:

110 calories and 12g protein
2-3g net carbs
6-7g fiber
8g of Allulose a new naturally occurring sweetener found in figs, raisins & dates.

Why do Runners Need Protein?

Protein is made up of essential amino acids. It does more than help repair muscles after a hard workout. Protein isn’t stored for later use which means unlike fat and carbohydrates, there is a limit your body can use at one time. That’s why it’s important to spread out the amount of protein you get daily, versus having it all in one sitting.

What Does Protein Do?

Plays a role in cell repair and production
blood clotting
fluid balance

How Much Protein Should You Have During Training?

While training, it’s important to have between .55 grams/pound-.75 grams/pound. Will you hit that every single day? No. Should you stress about it? No. It’s just a guideline.

For comparison, I’m 130 pounds try and get about 70-100 grams of protein daily but I don’t track it everyday.

Personally, I like Quest Cereal Bars because they are quick and taste good. The new cereal bars are chocolate, waffle, and cinnamon. All three are delicious, but given a choice, my favorite bar is the waffle. I don’t have to worry about storage, and I can pull one out while at work as well.

Questions for you:
Where do you get your protein from?
Do you snack often or are you a three meal a day type of person?

Random Thoughts

April 2, 2015 By Hollie in DailyMusings Tags: life, Protein, random 20 Comments

Random Thursday Thoughts:

It’s been a long time since I did a completely random thinking out loud post. By long I mean probably a few weeks…to be honest I have a lot going on. I go to work, I blog, I wedding plan and I come home. There is not much room for a lot of extra stuff right now I guess.

Life:

It’s the first Thursday off I’ve had in a while…normally I have Tuesday and Wednesday off but this week I have Thursday and Friday! I needed the day off I think this week is catching up to me. Hopefully sleep will do me well the next couple of days!

Instead of doing wedding related things I’ve been buying honeymoon related things like dresses and bathing suits. I’m not sure where I think this money tree is coming from…between ART (not covered by insurance), wedding and honeymoon costs…I better plant one quick. So long dreams of buying a new car soon.

Some random products I’ve been enjoying lately:

The Roll8 rollar. I bought this roller from work last week and have no regrets. I don’t think its magically fixing my butt pain but it is massaging everything else. It’s honestly the best foam roller type of device I’ve had. The biggest setback is the 120 dollar price point but to me it’s worth it. Hashtag Roll8>New Car

Protein powder:

I was lucky enough to receive some free samples of this protein powder. I’ve been searching for a good protein powder for the last year. For me I like try to incorporate extra protein when I’m working out and running more. I’m not fancy with my protein powder but have often had a problem with certain powders making me bloated. I’ve never fallen in love with a protein powder but this pure whey was good. It wasn’t overly sweet or chalky. I would buy it.

I just mix it in a cup of milk and blend with ice.

Random Thoughts:

I’ve spent more this month on life than the last 3 months combined. Some months are like that I guess.

Do I need (a 300 dollar) sack of potatoes dress?

Wedding planning takes up all my free time right now.

I’m all over the place lately. To be honest I need to write a post about where I see my blog going the next month or so…maybe I will get on that soon.

Questions for you:

Do you foam roll? What do you use?

What is a random fun fact about your week?

FueledByLOLZ

Running and Laughing through the Garden State

Tag Archives: Protein

Vital Protein Collagen Water Review

One of the most common questions I get is: Which is best?

I’ve written several posts of how it’s personally helped me, including:

Before we Dive into More Different Products, a Few Things About All Vital Protein Products:

Before I talk about all of the flavors, here are a few benefits of the collagen water:

They Now Have 5 Different Flavors:

The Orginal:

Blackberry Hibiscus:

Lemon Ginger:

Blueberry Mint:

Strawberry Lemon:

Like this: