I can’t believe we are already at the end of May! In fact, I can’t believe we are this far into the year period! As I shared in the ‘Saving My Life Right Now- April 2022 Edition these type of posts are something I want to do every month which means I have had intentions of writing this post since the beginning of May!
My goal is not for these to be themed. I just want to share 3 products or ideas each month of things that are making my life easier. In April, during the height of tax season, it happened to be things that promote stress relief for me. The three things for this month just happened to be swaps I have made that promote health and wellness!
1. Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops
I have actually been wanting to share about this product for quite some time now! While I am probably not going to be your go-to girl for beauty, I actually have always loved skincare. I’ve used it from a really young age. At times I do switch around brands and I tend to stick to a brand at a time. I used Drunk Elephant products for about a year. I love the brand. I found the products to be high quality and they come in eye catching containers with bright tops. It is pricey though. With Sprouts Kendall opening minutes from my house, I have been choosing products from the beauty section there. To be honest, the beauty section at Sprouts ALMOST made the list for this post. It actually will likely be on my June list so I’ll expand more on it there. Point is though, I have since switched to more economic skincare options. Nonetheless, this is one of those products that I will continue to use even if I have changed brands for overall skincare because I love it so much!
You can add these bronzing drops in your moisturizer or serum and they give you a nice glow. One drop goes a long way! I am fair skinned and I have always wished to be more tan. Needless to say, getting sun, especially on the face is not great for your skin. While I’ll admit that I still get sun on my body, living in South Florida that is unavoidable, I do take better care of my face. With these drops I get a bit of a darker shade without all the bad stuff that comes with actually getting sun on your face. Additionally, this product protects your skin from pollution. This will definitely continue to be a staple in my skin care routine! If you are interested in purchasing, click link- Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops.
2. Get Back to Human Paleo Chocolates
I have shared how earlier this year I decided it would be beneficial for our family to take advantage of a meal delivery service- for Peter and I anyway. The kids I still need to cook for but I have been making easy dinners for them in big batches. I definitely plan to share some of them in a blog post at some point! As I’ve shared, I did Beachbody’s Ultimate Portion Fix for a long time and after reading Laura Vandercam’s ‘I Know How She Does It’ and applying some of her advice, I ultimately realized the meal prepping, cooking, dishes etc. was sucking up too much of my time. In case you missed it and are looking into meal delivery services in the South Florida area, make sure to check out my blog post ‘Miami Meal Delivery Services’ where I review some of the ones I have tried over the years.
Got a little off topic there! Haha At any rate though, I chose to receive a paleo diet in my meal delivery service. I figure it’s a healthy diet high in protein and veggies and I tend to have success with low carb nutrition plans. I try to loosely follow the paleo diet but on weekends I am not very strict about it. I ultimately cannot get behind the paleo diet’s elimination of dairy or legumes. I know many benefit from eliminating dairy from their diet but as I learned when I did my ‘30 Kinda Hard Challenge’ last year ( I can’t believe it was already a year ago that I was in the thick of that!), I’m not one of these people. Nonetheless, I try to make healthier choices.
I came across the ‘HU Get Back to Human’ brand of chocolates at Sprouts and I absolutely love these! They have several different flavors. While they are all good, my favorite is probably crunchy mint! It actually kept me away from Girl Scout Mint Thins I have in my freezer. They easily satisfy any craving for them. We usually do the bars but the chocolate gems are also delicious!
These may be chocolate, but they are made with clean and organic ingredients. I try not to purchase any products where you cannot easily read the ingredients since these strange ingredients are usually preservatives and chemicals, etc. that are not good for your health. The cherry on top is that these are labeled ‘PALEO’ so I totally have these guilt free during the week when I usually dial in my nutrition a bit more. Disclaimer- I’m NOT eating the whole bar. I will have 1 small square after lunch and one small square after dinner. It’s a nice sweet treat after my meals that I enjoy in moderation!
3. Athletic Brewing Beer
Ok so I’ve become a little obsessed with this one! If you have been following along, you know that with the exception of one weekend where I broke, I have been living an alcohol free lifestyle for about 3 months now. I know a non-drinker may judge this but my reality is that this is not always easy. Whether it’s an acquired taste as the author of ‘This Naked Mind and Alcohol Experiment’ (the books that changed my relationship with alcohol) believes or if I truly like the taste of wine and beer or it’s both- one of the things that makes this journey difficult is that sometimes I do want to enjoy a beer or wine, especially with certain foods or on certain occasions.
Athletic brewing has fulfilled this craving for me as far as beer goes! They make amazing ALCOHOL FREE beer! In my very honest opinion, these taste just like the real thing! I am pretty sure I could serve it to people and tell them it’s a real beer and it would not cross their mind that it is alcohol free other than for the fact that they wont get a buzz. Thus far I have tried their ‘Run Wild IPA’ and ‘Free Wave Hazy IPA’. I prefer Free Wave, however, Run Wild is good too! I am a huge fan of IPAs though so I do need to make it clear that you need to like IPAs to like these two brews. They do make others though! We sampled the Nature Nut as well. It is made in partnership with Justin’s Nut Butter. It is supposed to be similar to a stout and I am not a fan of stouts so it was not my thing. They have all different types of beers, including light beer. A new box just arrived so I will keep you all updated on how they are!
They also make sparkling water infused with hops. I have tried this from another brand and they are delicious! The best part about these is that they have zero calories, zero, sugar, zero carbs, zero anything! Some of these also came in my recent shipment that I plan to enjoy over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
I think it’s worth mentioning that I think these are especially great for the boat! I am not suggesting that you not enjoy a couple of drinks while boating if you wish to, however, please be safe! Boating is inherently dangerous and it’s not a place to get totally wasted. Despite always being a drinker, I have NEVER been drunk on our boat. When we are in the keys, Peter and I would actually have some light beers or hard seltzers (Ok I would have hard seltzers, Peter would not be pleased if I suggested he was out there drinking hard seltzers! Haha) and as soon as we docked our boat at the house, we’d run inside and make ourselves real drinks. I’m not going to lie- I will miss that this year but the grieving over who you were and the things you will ‘miss out’ on due to abstaining from alcohol is a whole other deep conversation which maybe I’ll be able to open out about on my blog another day.
At any rate, with Athletic Brewing I feel as if I can have my cake and eat it too! I can enjoy the taste of the beer without having to worry about any unsafe situation (boating or driving) or a hangover. If you want to check these out, make sure to visit this link for a free 6 pack: Athletic Brewing Free 6 Pack. They are also sold at Total Wine although you will find a wider selection online. Sadly, my search for a good alcohol free wine continues!
Thanks for visiting!
-Jenny