Kura Lifestyle CORE Sweet Mint+Berries Review

Last week I was fortunate enough to receive a few samples of Kura Lifestyle's CORE Sweet Mint+Berries powder. If you don't know what this is, it's a dietary supplement that is packed with vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, electrolytes, and plant-based protein. It's key ingredients include super greens, camu camu, and eleuthro root. For more information about the product and their story, feel free to check out their website.

On the bottle it says to mix with water, yogurt, granola, and oatmeal. You just don't want to cook with it so that it doesn't lose any nutrients. I decided to go with just putting it in water first to really test out the taste.

It instantly changed the water to a really dark green color, so I was a little nervous that the flavor would be overwhelming. But I was completely wrong. The powder added just a mild and delicious berry flavor. It wasn't gross or overpowering in any way. I could easily drink the whole thing and had to stop myself from chugging it because it was pretty darn good. 

Now that I knew the taste, I knew that the powder would be a great addition to some of my foods without compromising the flavor. I decided to create this  blueberry pie overnight oats recipe, and the powder was a perfect compliment. I think it would also be great with yogurt (like they suggested), so I think I will be adding it to my Greek yogurt next time around.

So would I recommend this product? It depends. I am no expert on supplements. I don't know the cost of similar supplements or powders. I also generally try to get most of my vitamins and nutrients from the food I eat.

I DO think this product is worth a try if:

1) You're taking multiple supplements or pills all of the time. You just add a scoop to food or water which, in my opinion, is much easier than taking 10 pills. 
2) You don't feel that you're getting the nutrients your body needs from the food you're eating. I would really recommend looking at the root of this problem first, BUT I don't think trying this product is bad option. There's nothing wrong with adding in some super foods.
3) You struggle to drink enough water. Plain and simple, this product tastes good. It makes your water taste good. If you don't feel like you drink enough water, try adding a scoop of the powder. You'll want to drink more.

I hope this review helps! Let me know if you do try Kura Lifestyle's powder and what you think of it in the comments below. Also feel free to subscribe for e-mail updates.

Product Reviews and 1,000 Followers

So it has been well over month since I have posted a blog entry! I have been so focused on recipes that I've kind of failed at keeping you updated about what's going on in my life and with All Roads Lead to Healthy. Recipes are a huge part of All Roads Lead to Healthy, but it's in the name, I want to touch on all roads that lead to health and living a healthy, balanced life.

I have started coming across a lot of new (at least to me), exciting, and different food products whether it be at the market or on Instagram. I've decided to start doing product reviews to not only introduce you to some of my favorite products you may not have heard of but also give you my input on the health, taste, etc. on these products before you go out and spend money on them yourself. I only want to promote products that I truly stand behind, so I will really be giving my two cents.

On an unrelated but exciting note, I reached 1,000 followers on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. This is far more people than I ever realized I would reach , especially in such a short period of time. I'm really grateful and lucky to have so many great people not only following All Roads Lead to Healthy but also interacting, leaving comments, sharing their input and stories, and inspiring me every day. Thank you all so much!

With this 1,000 follower milestone, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to team up with Urban Raccoons to give away some of their new, grainless bars to five of my followers. This was an awesome opportunity in general, but I am really a fan of the Urban Raccoon bars. I've been eating them for months as a pre-workout bar or afternoon snack, so to team up with a company whose product I actually use and enjoy was really exciting. The winners were contacted at the end of last week, and I can't wait for them to receive their bars and try them for themselves!

Beaver Brook Trail to Lost Lake

To continue on with my hiking challenge, this past week I hiked the Beaver Brook Trail in Marcella, NJ. It was a beautiful trail mostly in the woods, ending at the Lost Lake (pictured above). It was mildly challenging incline-wise, but those parts were very brief and limited.

We started out on the Highlands Connector trailhead which brings you right to Saffin Pond (pictured below). It's quite a nice view to start.

The path brings you along the side of the pond until you reach a bench where you make a left to continue following the Highlands trail.

You follow this trail for the first 1.6 miles. It's all in the woods and mostly flat or declining. We rarely ran into anybody except for a few bikers and a couple of people walking their dog. This was the last point we saw walkers before returning to the pond. At 1.6 miles you reach the Beaver Brook Trail.

You continue to follow the Beaver Brook Trail (crossing over the Yellow Trail at 2.1 miles). The trail begins to get a bit more challenging with a change in the terrain and a couple of steeper inclines (but nothing too crazy). You cross over some unmarked trails and the lake starts to come into view.

Once you can see the lake, you're very near the end. You come upon Split Rock which is just a giant split rock.

Once you get through the rock and continue a little further you reach a beautiful view of the lake. There are tons of lily pads and a couple of beaver dams. Make sure you continue until you see the very large dam on the right side. The dam kind of creates a second mini lake, and an amazing view.

After soaking in the view (and trying to spot some beavers, which we didn't), we turned around to head back. We did keep hearing a plopping noise into the water, but we couldn't see anything but the splash unfortunately.

We followed the same trail backwards until we came upon the yellow trail. We decided to take this back instead. It also made the trail longer (instead of 6.6 miles we did about 7.5 miles).

The trail back was relatively similar, a little wider and maybe a little less rugged at points. We did see a random rock with smaller rocks piled on it from a previous hiker.

We mostly just wanted to switch up the scenery instead of doing the same trail twice. But we did also get to enjoy the added view of a marshy area and a little frog friend.

We followed the yellow trail all the way back until we came upon the initial pond and finally the parking lot. Our legs were ready for some stretching and our feet were ready for a break at this point.

Overall, the hike was very pretty, especially the lost lake. The beaver dams were an awesome and unique sight. The trail was very empty, and we rarely passed anybody (especially on foot). Most people we crossed paths with were bikers or people by the pond in the beginning. In terms of difficulty, I expected this hike to be harder than it was. From what I had read, it was given a moderate level of difficulty. I might give it an easy. There weren't many inclines, but the distance did add up. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice walk with some great views.

For a full step-by-step overview of the Beaver Brook Trail to Lost Lake click here.

Stairway to Heaven

This past weekend I started off my hiking challenge by heading up to Vernon, NJ for the Stairway to Heaven trail. The trail is a total of 7.4 miles over a mile of it being a steep incline.

I am by no means an expert hiker. I've done about 5 trails throughout New Jersey, and this one was definitely the toughest. It was a tough but totally worth it. I do think that anyone who sets their mind to it (and paces themselves and listens to their body) can complete this trail.

The trail starts out on a board walk and is a very easy walk for about 2 miles.

The boardwalk is about 2 people wide and surrounded my mostly tall grass and some water and swampy areas at points. We saw a number of turtles.

The picture above was taken very close to the beginning. You can see the mountain that we climbed to the top of far off in the distance.

You cross over a couple of bridges on the way towards the mountain including "Lovers Bridge". The boardwalk also get much skinnier and becomes 2 beams as you get out of the marshier area. You end up crossing over railroad tracks and going through a pasture where you can see some cows.

Finally you make it to the mountain.

You head into the woods, and follow the trail. It starts to become rocky, and that's when you know you're almost at the beginning of the climb.

Once we actually started to climb, I limited the picture-taking. It was a lot of climbing, and you could definitely feel it all over your legs and butt. We took a couple of quick breaks to catch our breath and enjoy the scenery. Finally we made it all the way to the top which is actually past the look out point. At the very top, there's a mailbox with a book that you can sign, so of course I did. Then we headed down just a little to the lookout point.

What a view! You can see the pasture you walked through, and the beams look like little lines. There also happened to be some sort of music event going on below, and we could hear the music all the way from the top. The huge tent looked like a little square.

After enjoying the top for a good 15 minutes, we headed back down and did the trail in reverse. All in all, it took about 4 hours including our rests, picture breaks, and 15 minutes at the top. It probably would've taken about 3 1/2 hours had we not stopped.

It was totally worth it. The varying elements of the path, different scenery, and amazing view from the top. What a great hike! Highly recommended if you're up for the challenge!

For a full overview and description of the trail click here.