Product review / Overlook of the blogs past!

Today I'm writing a review on this product!

Well more specifically-

This one.

So I'm walking through a supermarket, a little tired and I noted this on the shelf (good work on the packaging for catching my eye) Firstly I was caught because I always pick up on nice design, good, well placed font, nice colour schemes on the flavours and simple but informative labelling.

I picked up the White tea, Ginseng, cherry and Acai berry flavour, mostly because I wanted the green tea one but it has pomegranates in it and they make me unhappy (taste foul in my opinion).

Anyway The bottle is cute, its a nice size, a little pricey at £1.89 in morrisons, but that is about the same price as the neuro drinks I reviewed a while back.

Each bottle is 330ml. so about the standard can size plus a little, so not much for your money either.

Well on the drive back home I decided to try this drink, now I don't endorse drinking a beverage while driving but I have a lot of experience in doing this safely, so I got the passenger to open it, and fist thing they noticed was the lid, on top of the lid it says "Drink to your health" a nice touch, showing that care has gone into the production of this product.
The drink smells amazing, fruity and with that after smell of tea, so with that I took a sip, it was smooth but light, fruity but subtle, not something I was expecting, I thought it would be sweet and have a strong cherry taste like most drinks with cherry do.

Great tasting, great smelling and pretty packaging, my only regret was the  meagre size of the drink, This drink on ice would be a perfect way to rehydrate in the evening.

The drink "little miracles" is touted as an organic energy drink, and whilst I'd agree its a delicious, refreshing and invigorating drink it is only a "little" miracle.

If you can afford to foot the above average price tag for a top tier health drink then I completely recommend it to anyone! 

Now because in this world I think you often pay for what you get, this applies here too, a fantastic drink, and even if its scraping below £2 it really is worth it for the benefits you will receive, a light perk in energy and the antioxidant benefits of tea and ginseng, if this was blueberry flavour it would me my ultimate purchasable drink!!

Taste: 9  Smell: 9  Texture: 10  *total* 28/30  (BONUS HEALTH: 8/10) *Bonus total* 8/10

The products website can be found >HERE< (will open in a new window)

It's Monday, and most people dislike it, because its the start of a new week and the end of the weekend.

The weekend for most can be a time of indulgence and relaxation, so maybe why not do some indulging during the week?!

For me, personally, I like to fill a bath half full, add candles and bath cream to help change the smell to something exotic, then I'll put the shower on and sit in the bath with the shower aimed onto me, it's the closest thing your going to get to sitting under a waterfall and I find it helpful because of one main reason.

It shuts up my brain, yup 24/7 I'm thinking about something and as a result sometimes I find it hard to relax and shut down, being under constant water causes that weird watery noise, almost like rain that drowns out the thoughts of the day and replaces them with inner silence, maybe this is why some martial arts choose to meditate under waterfalls!

Anyway I'm asking you, if you can (you need a shower mounted into the bath on a rail or whatever) to try it out!

Also I'd like to hear about how you, the readers like to relax and try out  a few for myself.

It's been a long time since the first post, and since then we have had a massive amount of changes to layout, new sections and a lot of different titles!

I thought that I'd post up all the titles we have had to date, so that we can see the evolution of the design and feel of the blog, it's just me being sentimental.

1. The original Blog title, Kikojui, Evolution saga, I was thinking it would be a good idea to blog about my journey of transformation, and after coming with a scheme and colour style I decided on the logo, I wanted clouds and something resembling health, so we have this waterfall falling into clouds, weird concept really.

2. After the blog being up for 100 days I thought I'd commemorate this feat, by making the first logo change, well in this case an addition.

3.This was the transitional idea, saying it was evolving as we hit stage 2, it was like this for a few days and probably did not get noticed much, it was more for my metaphor of metamorphosis and ascetics than anything else.

4. Title 4, is the second phase logo, it was not just a logo transition as the background changed to match the new multicolour overlay, it was a nice change and a burst of energy added to the blog that was now starting to pick up.

5. This was again an addition much like number 2, to commemorate having reached 1000 pageviews, this for me made me happy as at least 800 of them had to be from external sources, and it meant I was getting exposure and more importantly, giving information people could come back to. 

6. This was the introduction of kira and stage 3, a female friend and blogger who wanted to help add posts aimed at a more female audience specializing in fashion it was an exciting time!

7. A few posts later this design (3.1) and background change appeared, this was largely due to the new posts relating to fashion and those of health, signifying a change in blog approach.

 8. The last logo, was designed to explode from the background much like how our posting frequency was exploding, using a parrallex layer it would seem like the background had a hole in it.

9. After some events, both me and Kira where unable to really keep our commitment to posting not only daily but at all, so for a extended period of time there was nothing.

Then I got into a position to re-start this blog, and try to revive it, so it was only appropriate that we changed the background and logo again, this time saying what I wanted to say to everyone "I'm back!"

And I most certainly am!

A little trip down memory lane for some, and for others an insight that this blog will, much like its topics, keep evolving until I can say that the main project is complete, I want to thank each and every person that views this blog, and even if a tiny amount actually post responses I know from the views a few of you might have learnt something or just indulged into some posts by a young man trying to make a change of his life, thank you very much indeed!

That is all for today, one last thanks, you beautiful, beautiful readers! 

Chills of a frozen sun.

Hello readers, it's been a few days of intensive training (I'll talk about that later) I have a little treat for you, and of course another NEW section (as well as blog design, again... more on that later)

Since the cold air is here, and winter rapidly approaching I feel it's important for me to disclose on a few weapons on fighting the cold. I personally love the cold, I have an air conditioner on most days and sleep with fans on. When I sleep I find it so uncomfortable to be warm, I know this is a strange concept but I like to be at a certain temperature. Anyway enough babbling on about me, I'm here to help you!!

Kira's last post talked about making soups in batches so you save money and have delicious hot food with little preparation. 

Well I'm going to give you readers some great recipes!

First off a vegetarian option, I may not be vegetarian nor believe that most vegetarians realise that plants are in fact living beings as well, but that said I respect it as a lifestyle choice.

SPICY ROASTED PARSNIP SOUP:

Fight the cold by making a large batch of this (Recipe Serves 4) so if you double everything you can have 8 meals(make sure to adjust cooking time accordingly)!

You can freeze in plastic containers any you think you wont eat the next day, and re-heat in the microwave whenever you feel like it!

The cost to make this is very minimal, it will take around 10-15 minutes to prepare and only 35 mins to cook!

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds , plus extra to garnish
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 large onion, cut into 8 chunks
• 2 garlic cloves
• 675g parsnips , diced
• 2 plum tomatoes , quartered
• 1.2l vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. In a bowl, mix together the oil and spices. Add the vegetables and mix well. Spread over a heavy baking sheet, then roast for 30 mins until tender.

2. Spoon into a food processor or liquidiser with half the stock and process until smooth. Pour into a pan with the remaining stock, season, then heat until barely simmering. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Garnish with cumin seeds.

Want to know what else soups can do? they not only fight the cold but they can fight illness, the next soup is a Chinese medicinal soup

CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE WITH DANG SHEN AND GOJI BERRIES:

Serves 1

Most people, more so if you live in or near a city, will have access to a Chinese herbal medicine shop, little known fact if you go in with the exact amounts you need they can usually give you just the right amount of what you need.

Dang shen, also known as codonopsis root, has a gentler herbal flavor compared to ginseng. Omit the ginger if you do not like it much.
This is a pleasant light herbal soup.

Ingredients:

1 fresh chicken breast
500g old cucumber (老黄瓜 lao huang gua)
1 slice ginger
4 dried chinese mushrooms
6g codonopsis root (党参 dang shen)
5 red dates
1 tbsp chinese wolfberries / goji berries(枸杞子 gou ji zi)

Soup base:
1.8 liter of water
3 bouillon cubes

Directions

1. Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces



2. Cut the old cucumber into sections and remove the seeds



3. Wash and soak the dried chinese mushrooms in hot water



4. Wash and clean the codonopsis root and halve it if it is too long



5. Wash the red dates and remove the seeds



6. Bring the water to a boil and add the bouillon cubes



7. Add all the ingredients into the chicken stock



8. Bring soup back to a boil



9. Low heat to a slow simmer and simmer for about 50 minutes



10. Serve

Something for you sea food lovers, Thailand's most eaten soup, if you like food with a spicy bite, and like seafood then this is perfect for you!

TOM YUM GOONG:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

12 uncooked prawns, deveined with tail on
1 small fresh red chillies, chopped
1 tbsp lemongrass, chopped
1 tsp ginger, chopped
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
2 green onions, chopped
50gms button mushrooms, sliced
500mls fish stock

Directions:

1) Put stock in pan and add prawns, chilli, lemongrass, ginger, sauces, juice, sugar, onion and sliced mushrooms.

2) Bring to boil and simmer uncovered until prawns are tender.

Serving Tip: Garnish with whole coriander leaves

These last few days I've been following a fairly strict diet and exercising, either using my weights in a fitness plan coupled with running each night.

I've moved into a fat burning plan, not something sustainable as its not great for you to do, sio I'm only on this for 28 days.

It basically swaps all my meals for high protein low fat alternatives, you still take carbohydrates, just not much in proportion, the proportions are: 60% protein  20% carbs  20% fat  also meeting  2000 calories.

With daily exercise and this diet I've noticed two things, firstly I'm very tired most of the time, this is down to the body working really hard to break down fat in the body and convert the protein into muscle.

Secondly, I've lost a lot of weight very quickly, within 2 days I lost just over 5 pounds, now granted it always falls off fast at the start and the slows down so I was kinda prepared for this.

I would say the biggest problem has been adjusting what I eat, being a picky eater means I've had to endure some things I'd not normally touch... like cottage cheese.

So if you wanted to follow this but to a less extreme, Switch all your breads to wholemeal, switch rice to brown rice, eat a lot of salmon, topside steak, egg whites (not yolk as that is where a lot of unneeded calories are) lean mince, 0% fat yoghurt, skimmed milk, fruit, vegetables (this was hard for me as I only like a few limited vegetables, so to subsidise I bought a drink that I will review in a minute) and of course a lot of chicken!

Another new thing I like is Quorn burgers (I get the tesco brand as they have half the saturated fat of the official quorn ones)

Basically cut down on junk, high fat foods, and try out new foods!

I hate most vegetables, and for me to take vegetables I thought it might be easier for me to drink them, so I tried out both the original and the Fruit and carrot vegetable drinks from V8.

1. Orignal:

Tastes of nothing but tomato soup, I can drink it, it is not amazing for me and I'd probably like to try it warm as a soup more than a drink, I'll post later if that worked ok.

Taste: 5  Smell: 6  Texture: 5  *total* 16/30

2. Fruit and carrot:

I had massive reservations on this one, I personally hate the smell and taste of carrot.

Upon opening I was greeted with a very pleasant zesty smell, I poured it into a glass and looked hard at the substance, it was carrot colour, I thought perhaps the smell was a disguise for something truly revolting. After a few moments to prepare myself I took a generous swig, and I can say hand on heart it tasted amazing! I could not taste any carrot, only a fruity explosion of orange, mango and lime!! Beautiful as a normal drink, add to the fact that a portion of this counts as one of your recommended five a day in not only fruit but also vegetable!! I will be breathing this stuff!

Taste: 9   Smell: 9  Texture: 9  *Total* 27/30

This concludes this information packed post, I've divulged some soups that you can store in the freezer and give you a cheap constant supply of food!

Oh also, I've shared with you my opinion of the V8 drinks, lastly remember this?

Well I'll tell you I've had a lot more energy than normal while using this, and even though I'm drained from the diet I still have the energy for the runs and exercise so I'd defiantly advise this to anyone who is athletic or training for an event.

Don't forget to comment, It's comments that help direct me to making better posts, blogging about what the readers what to know about as well as my own subjects, take care my beautiful, beautiful readers!!