Hooray for underWAY! Review and Giveaway!

Here's a little something about me. I'm not a skinny minnie. I've never been a skinny minnie. I've always been a little bit chubby. In our home, we eat healthy and we're active. We have to be. We live on a farm! It's part of our lifestyle. Despite the eating well and the physical activity, I'm still not one of those waif thin kinda gals. It's never bothered me. I'm comfortable in my own skin. However, I do make a concentrated effort to try to be healthy. After all, we have a baby girl and we want to be healthy and strong for her.

You know how some women complain about having to lose their pregnancy weight? When I was pregnant with Little One, I gained 15 lbs in total. Granted, I was only pregnant for 6 months and Little One weighed 2 lbs, 3 oz at birth! I weighed less after giving birth to Little One, but still had weight to lose. Weight loss has not been an obsession of mine, but it does loom there in the back of my head. If only to be healthy. Not skinny. Healthy.

Those 15 lbs came off quickly with me commuting to and from the hospital during Little One's first few months. Despite the exhaustion from having a preemie in the NICU, I felt great. I was a new Mom. I had a beautiful baby girl. Despite the stress and anxiety, I was doing great physically. She spent the first 70 days of her life in the NICU, growing bigger and stronger. I spent the first 70 days of her life getting up at 5AM, commuting by bus and subway, hanging out in the NICU, nursing, pumping, commuting again, and again, and again.

The stress of having a premature baby in the NICU, the stress of my husband being on the Island while I was with the baby at Mount Sinai, nursing, being on the go all the time, and everything else just made it easy to get rid of those maternity pants quickly. Like I mentioned before, I've never been one of those women who are blessed with a fast metabolism. The only time I was ever a skinny minnie was when I was a kid (before puberty hit)! I always had a few pounds here and there that I wanted to shed. However, my focus after giving birth to my baby was not the weight loss. It was making sure she was healthy, strong, and gaining weight so she could get discharged from the hospital.

Then we finally brought our baby home. More sleep deprivation and exhaustion, but we were thrilled to have her home. One would think that with all the activity we have in our lives, we'd be super fit! We have a farm, eat healthy and well balanced meals, we eat from what grows on our farm, we're outdoors all the time, we do a lot of physical work, and now that the baby is walking running, we're even busier!

We're busy on and off the farm, and I go walking with the Little One and friends of ours who have kids too. Despite the activity and healthy eating, I still feel I need something more. Why? Well, my 20 month old daughter came up to me the other day and patted my tummy and said, "Bebe! Bebe!" Ummmm...no. Mommy does not have a baby in there!

Enter underWAY. When Mom Central approached me about the underWAY blog tour, I was very interested. I'll try anything and was looking forward to testing the products out. To be honest, I always believed that a healthy, balanced diet and physical activity were all one needed to stay healthy. I have never tried anything like underWAY before.

I was sent:- eight bottles of underWAY (four Acai-Pomegranate and four Grape)
- Smart for Life cookies, cupcakes, soup, cereal, shake, bagel, and crunch

underWAY is a supplement drink that is infused with special HeroFiber as well as heart-healthy vitamins. The ingredients work together to naturally suppress your appetite and quench your thirst.

underWAY's special formula curbs your hunger in two ways. It takes longer to be absorbed by the stomach and it slows the absorption of what's already there. It makes you feel fuller longer. underWAY's unique ingredients also stimulate your stomach, telling your brain you’ve consumed more calories that you really have. Good news: there are almost zero calories with underWAY. One 16 oz bottle of underWAY has 10 calories, 2% carbohydrates, 15% vitamin B6, 15% vitamin B12, 2% fibre, 15% Riboflavin and 15% Niacin.

Each bottle of underWAY supplement also has HeroFiber, a soluble dietary fiber that helps maintain normal levels of cholesterol, glucose and insulin that are already in the normal range and promotes slower absorption so we feel fuller longer.

To my surprise, I did find that I wasn't as hungry throughout the day when I drank underWAY. Shocking! It's hard to describe, but I just wasn't hungry. I continued to eat our healthy meals and added the underWAY drink to the menu. I think it does work in curbing one's appetite. For instance, for supper we had a mixed greens salad, rice noodles with zucchini, onions, carrots, and goat cheese. I was full. Throughout the day too, I didn't feel the need or urge to snack. I know that grazing throughout the day instead of having three big meals is easier on the stomach and organs, and better for your metabolism. Honestly, I just didn't feel like eating much.

I actually really like the underWAY drinks. Both the grape and acai-pomegranate flavours are tasty and refreshing.

Speaking of eating, along with the two cases of underWAY, I was also sent Smart for Life products. The kit included all natural, 60% organic products (great for snacking on-the-go). The cookies, cupcakes, soup, cereal, bagel, crunch and shake all contain necessary nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids and HeroFiber, with zero trans fat and making you feel fuller, quicker. They are easy, on-the-go meal replacements.I tried the cookies, the soup, and the cereal. I've got to say that they are delicious! I don't know why I was surprised that they tasted good. I guess that I expected them to be chalky, bland, and texturally "weird"! No to all of those. The texture was not odd at all. The flavours were really delicious, and the food was not "chalky" at all.I really enjoyed the chicken noodle soup that was included in the package. There was even zucchini and red pepper in there! YUM!

GIVEAWAY:
Interested in trying underWAY and all of the other Smart for Life products I got to test out? Good news! Thanks to Mom Central and underWAY, 10 (yes, TEN!) of my blog readers will win:
a case of Acai-Pomegranate AND a case of Grape underWAY to try for free!
Not only will you win TWO cases of underWAY, but you'll also win a Smart for Life assortment of cookies, cupcakes, bagel, crunch, cereal, soup, and shake! Wow! That's quite the prize!

Oh, the fun does not stop here! Though TEN readers will win this amazing prize, ALL of my readers are able to enjoy these products with this special code: MCCAN10OFFUW to get 10% off underWAY online orders! No one will be left out!

TO ENTER:
All you have to do is leave me a comment and let me know why you'd love to try underWAY and/or Smart for Life products!

************************************************
Disclosure - I wrote this post while participating in the underWAY blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC and received a Mom Central gift card to thank me for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Contest open to Canadians only. Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs, but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest. Contest ends on August 4, 2010.