Healthy carbonation

You all may not know this but my Boyfriend Scott is training for his second Ironman Canada, and let me tell you that it can be quite difficult negotiating at the grocery store with a candy feen like myself. I love pop, and I love having an abundance amount of sugar. Unfortunately, that causes health problems down the road for anyone and after being in a relationship for close to five years you learn to give a little, get a little. I’m now starting to limit myself on the sugar load of pop and other not so great things for my body.

Zevia_logo100I actually never knew Zevia existed until recently when I saw a few food bloggers mentioning it. It’s not available in Canada so I decided to do the next best thing and contact the company myself, asking for some!

I am quite impressed that Zevia is the first all natural ZERO calorie pop and doesn’t have any artificial sugar substitutes. Perfect for a carbonated-addict like myself. I swear, my boyfriend drinks pop just for the carbonation from time to time as well. To see that Zevia doesn’t just carry one flavor of pop is impressive. They have 7 delicious flavors to choose from (Dr. Zevia, Orange, Cola, Ginger Ale, Lemon Lime Twist, Black Cherry, and Ginger Root Beer).

Here is my huge amount of Zevia pop I received from the company.

I’ll be posting about the different flavors once I drink them. But the very first flavor I tried was the Lemon Lime Twist. It was much lighter in taste than I thought it would be. A mix between sprite/7up. When you drink Zevia you get the carbonation like any other pop, but it doesn’t leave you with the sting, going down. Does that make sense? I use to burp when I had regular pop, but it didn’t go “through your nose” type of sting. Yep, you see that I’m eating a bit of Pita Pit with it too.

Yum. Chicken, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, cheddar and honey garlic sauce.

Next up was the good ol’ Cola flavor. Mmm. This one I had high expectations for the cola as I am an intense cola drinker. I have to say they DID meet my expectations and beyond. I usually drink Coca-Cola, and this reminded me a smidgen of Pepsi. Sort of sweeter than Coca-Cola. OH EM GEE, I have gotta tell you. If this was available in my grocery, I’d buy them in flats. I would 100% honest opinion switch to Zevia cola over my bad habit of Coca-cola. No word of a lie.

My boyfriend even asked me if I’m going to start becoming obsessed with Zevia, because out of the three flavors that I first tried, none of them were that bad. Then again, those are the flavors that I know I was going to love. Even if I had high expectations for them. The last few (4) flavors that I haven’t tried, I’m a bit wary about them. Dr. Zevia (I haven’t had Dr. Pepper in years and I remember not liking it), Orange (which – isn’t that bad. I like Orange pop), Black Cherry (sounds kinda gross), and Ginger Ale (I’m picky about my ginger ale!!)

The other night while watching one of my two favorite shows I dove into some popcorn and had a Ginger Root Beer. Sounds odd doesn’t it? Ginger Root Beer? Shouldn’t it be ginger beer, or root beer? Either way — it was better than my previous root beer experience where I bought Diet A&W root beer from the grocery. That stuff was nasty. But the Zevia kind? Uhhh I have nothing bad to say about it! I can’t believe my taste buds. It’s fantastic. I’m not letting the BF drink the cola flavors, or the ginger root beer, for sure.

Question for my American readers. Is this product available to you at your local grocery store? If it is, this is one flavor I recommend that you try. For realz. I drank this one at work and I wanted to sip on it for the rest of the afternoon. So delicious. I know this is a review of the product, but I’m being entirely honest when I’m raving about how great it is. I really didn’t know what to expect for a natural diet pop. You know?

Nobody likes to drink their calories — I mean, it doesn’t fill one up, just gives into cravings. I’m so glad Zevia came into existence for those who just cannot pound the 8 glasses of water back, per day. Their short list of ingredients that go into a Zevia pop is music to my ears. Everything I can pronounce — now that’s healthy!

As I mentioned above, Zevia isn’t available in Canada, and I’m not sure when or if they will become available. But for now I was sent a case of 24 variety pack to sample. And mmmMmm, pretty tasty! I have only had the chance to try the ones I’ve shown above as I just only received it on April 5. Stay tuned for more posts about the other flavors, since I’ll be talking about each one as I sample them.

Stay healthy!

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Biggest prize yet!

I am head over heels excited to bring you a wonderful review I had the chance to do on the impeccable High Sierra sport company. I’ve been on the hunt for a nice sized pack for hiking and backpacking for the past few months, and finally found a great one. I  sure would have loved to have it when I was on that long 3 hour hike uphill on Mount Fairview when we visited Lake Louise, Alberta this summer!

I do have a bit of a qualm about this pack. It doesn’t rest nicely on my neck and I wouldn’t be able to hike with it wearing a teeshirt. A jacket would be fine. But having the shirt on, it irritated my neck a bit. However, I must admit — it’s still brand new and with a bit of wear I’m sure it will fit great on my body!

It’s a nice sized pack hey? It’s quite roomy inside too.

Browsing through other company websites, I narrowed down my choice to High Sierra as I thought they had the best selection to what I was looking for. I ended up contacting them just before Christmas to see if I could do a review and giveaway on this website of mine, and they surprisingly but oh so gladly agreed! I was on cloud nine when they accepted my request. See? I so love you guys!

You get to receive THIS back pack too!!

See how over excited I am about this? Couldn’t stop those smiles with anything!

The Cirque 30 backpack is classified under the Hiking/Outdoors category of their website and retails for about $120. You can view the online description they put on the pack below:

Item Number: 59102
Suggested Retail: $120.00
Size: 21.5″ x 12.75″ x 9.00″
Capacity: 1830 cubic inches
Weight: 2.0 lbs.
Materials: Grid-Weave Duralite®, Mini-Weave Duralite®, Duraweave (bottom)
Colors:
0: Black
611: Amazon, Tungsten, Black
801: Chipotle, Tungsten, Black

The Chipotle (orange)  color is the one that I have for one lucky loyal reader/winner of mine! The other is for me to — of course tell you all about, and try out for myself!

bb-backpackThis is when I first received the packs, I couldn’t wait to snap a picture on my regular camera so the blackberry was in charge. What beaut’s eh? Clearly I’m a huge fan of orange packs as my gym bag is orange too!

It fits me so snugly. Even a pocket for the cell. I have my priorities straight ;) The zippers on this are great quality. Even the boyfriend agreed.

All in all, the pack is extremely well constructed to carry an array of products from heavy to lightweight. You can bet your dollar that I’ll be bringing this pack to Ironman Canada with us for our my vacation this year! As an active couple, Scott and I — we benefit highly from a great product such as this High Sierra Sport Company backpack, and I am so glad I got to review and represent their company on my website.

So, what do you say I get this giveaway started! Enough reading, hey? I know you all want to win a pack!

Rules:

  1. Comment once saying “Enter me!” or something of the like. Duplicates will be deleted.
  2. Tell me what you’d use this pack for, if you won. Yes that’s another comment for you!
  3. Follow High Sierra on Facebook. (They actually do a random drawing for a free bag, once a week!)
  4. Follow High Sierra on Twitter.
  5. Tweet about this giveaway: “@spiffykerms is giving away a High Sierra pack! http://tinyurl.com/spiffykermshighsierra-givewa” (Yes, the “Y” is missing. TinyURL did that).
  6. Blog about this giveaway on your website and tell me you’ve done so in the comments.

You read that correctly — you are allowed up to six comments per person. Pretty good odds if you ask me! Any more, and they will be removed by myself. Remember, I can check to see if you did any of these comments/tweets/follows/FB entries. If you comment saying you’ve done something and you haven’t. Your comments will be removed.

Contest is open to contestants worldwide and will close April 15, 2010 12:00 noon EST. The winner will be chosen through random.org.

That’s me waving good bye to you!! :)

Good luck all.

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Pilot crisis averted

I’m a stationary fanatic, and when I find an item that I love, I rarely use it for fear of “wearing it out” such as the Pilot G2 0.5m pen lol. DON’T LAUGH, I know some of you are just as crazy as I am about pens and other writing utensils. Trust me on this.

I ended up writing the Pilot pen company back in October about my favorite pen asking where they now sold it as I couldn’t find my favorite pen anymore, to buy a backup!!! CRISIS!

Here is my e-mail that I sent to them:

Hi there!

I’ve been rarely using my favorite pen: Pilot G2 (0.5mm) for a few years, for fear of it running out of ink. I picked up this pen from a store that sold them individually. Little did i know that it became my favorite one to use, because of how fine the tip is.

I’ve tried to purchase a back up for when I run out but I have been out of luck trying to find one whether it be a new pen or a refill. I can easily find the 0.7mm tips but I don’t want to purchase those.

I’m currently located in Waterloo, Ontario Canada and searched online at Staples Business Depot and have gone to various other office stationary supply stores only to not find the pen.

I haven’t been able to find them online either on your pilot website. Did Pilot stop making this sized pen? If you could direct me in the right direction I’d be thrilled! I clearly love this pen and am on the hunt until I find my backup. I can then use it everyday. Awesome.

Thanks for your time!

Their reply?

Dear Ms. *****,

Thank you for your recent E-mail message. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Listed below is the Pilot subsidiary for your location.

You may contact Crestar Limited. Crestar Limited is a subsidiary of Pilot Pen in Canada.

Website:    www.crestar-limited.com Tel:        1-514-731-3808

Each Pilot Affiliate has a specific list of products available to them and the residents of their marketing area. They may not sell outside of their area, nor may they sell directly to consumers. Regrettably to say we are unable to provide assistance for these pens.

Once again, thank you for your interest in our products.

Sincerely,

Holly ******
Consumer Advisor

Ugh. Those people do not sell singles to a person who just wants one or two pens for a back up. I’m not looking for hundreds. So I stopped, and only used my pen like once a month, literally. I’m crazy, I know. But it’s my favoriteeee pen.  It’s super incredibly fine pointed and I can print like no other.

See? I mean, a regular pen can’t make me write like that. I only use this for writing on envelopes now, or special occasions.

I thought all hope was lost.

That is, until I was at a loss for what to search for next, on Ebay to buy. Since I’m a new user and all, it’s gotten terribly addicting. I searched for my Pilot G2 (0.5mm) and found a seller in HONG KONG and I purchased a package of 6 in the first few weeks of March.

The package of 6 pens arrived on March 31 just 12 business days to get to me from Hong Kong! I’m going to covet these pens with everything I’ve got. Nobody is allowed to ever use them. lol.

Who knew people like that existed? Pilot doesn’t sell the pens, but then there’s an Ebay seller, in Hong Kong no less, who sells them. It’s an incredible place, ebay.

They are all now, sitting pretty on my desk at work — replacing my second favorite (Uniball 207).

Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to my RSS feed!

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