Recently I was sent a variety pack of Izze beverages – I like free schtuff as much as the next and since I had seen Izze around the store I was intrigued to try it.

Given that I only recently gave up soda for good (thank goodness!) trying this made me definitely confident that I could give up my sweetened beverages. Because really the only thing i like about soda – and I’m not talking Diet Coke or Pepsi, I’m talking like decaffeinated Sprite, Ginger Ale or Orange soda.

I lurrrved it. I brought it for lunch a few days and it was deeeeliiiisshhh I liked the sparkling blackberry and sparkling clementine the best. Sweet but not too sweet. Fizzy but not the same fizz you get from all the sugar and carbonation in soda. This stuff is low in sugar (win), low in calories (double win) and made from all natural flavors (triple win!).

Not to mention, the Izze website, has a ton of recipes of how to mix this stuff up to make it even better. I haven’t tried any of the recipes myself yet, but they all look pretty tasty.

Ya’ll are in luck too! I have a coupon for a free four pack to give away to one lucky duck reader!

Leave me a comment with which flavor you’d like to try from the Izze website for one entry.

For 2  additional entries:

Like Life in Pink on facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so
Tweet this: “@missheidi is giving away a 4 pack of @izze http://bit.ly/pblmed” and leave a comment letting me know you did

{ftc disclosure: i was not paid for this review but I did receive the four pack of Izze for freesies. All opinions here are my own and have not been influenced in any way, shape or form}

Hubs is a big iced tea fan. Me? Not usually so much. I think because I grew up with parents drinking diet pepsi and the likes, I find it hard to drink just juice, tea or water without my tastebuds being bored.

So when I was approached to do a review of a new line Lipton has, I said sure. Why not? Right?

I was sent a few different flavors – iced tea  with lemon, green tea with citrus, iced tea with pomegranate/blueberry, green tea with passion fruit mango, diet green tea with watermelon and diet green tea with citrus.

All the flavors were really tasty. Seriously. Very light flavors, and incredibly refreshing. Above, hubs and I had the blueberry pomegranate and to add a lil “umph” I threw in a few blueberrries to mine. Nom-a-licious.

My second favorite was the diet watermelon to which I added strawberries to it. So. Good.

All juices have, according to Lipton between 50-70 calories per servings. Diet drinks have 0 calories and 0 sugar. I’ll be adding the diet drinks to my picks because I really like to not just drink water and I’ve cut caffeine out of my diet.

I highly recommend these light drinks. Not to mention, over at Lipton.com, you can find all sorts of recipes to incorporate these drinks into!

What are your favorite summer drinks?

{FTD Disclosure: I did receive these products for free and some small compensation for my thoughts. However, all thoughts here are my own and have not been influenced in any way}

I’m not good at taking vitamins. I’m not good at sticking with things (sometimes). I try to take a multi-vitamin, vitamin C and vitamin D but often forget. I’m lucky I’ve remembered to take the FOUR types of meds I’m on to control my allergies (don’t get me started) So when I  was contact by Nicole to review Sun Chlorella, I thought sure, this can’t be bad…why not?

I was given 2 20 day packages to review and with life being crazy, it got put on the back burner. Then I got an email and I had started to formulate this in my head. I’d do the 20 day program and say how much healthier I was.Then I kind of forgot about it. Then I remembered and then I got scared because the water was green. Then I tried it and had to rinse it down with orange italian soda because I’m such a picky eater/drinker. But! I’m not giving up after all it does say it can be mixed with your favorite food or drink once a day!

Sun Chlorella says on its website that….

Sun Chlorella has the powerful ability to help detoxify your body and eliminate chemicals present in our daily lives. Taking Sun Chlorella regularly can help counteract additives present in today’s food supply. Adding one serving of Sun Chlorella with each meal can help absorb pesticides in the food you’re consuming, so that it may not even get a chance to be absorbed into your body.

Chemicals found in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe bind to the chlorella, and are then excreted through our stool, urine, and sweat. One serving of Sun Chlorella is equivalent to one serving of fresh green vegetables (without the pesticides)!

I mean, it’s definitely something I can get behind. Even if it tastes…grassy. I’ve never been one for wheat grass shots but we’ll see how it goes and how i feel at the end of these 20 days. It falls right in line however, with my corporate challenge and this whole healthy kick I’ve been on lately. Well off and on lately.

So for you lucky homies, I have a little gift package of samples from Sun Chlorella to give away to one lucky reader! Share with me if you take any vitamins or supplements and why for 1 entry and tweet about this giveaway to get 1 additional entry. Contest ends on May 15th and winner will be announce on May 16th by noon EST. Be sure to leave separate comments if you tweet!

**FTC disclosure, I was provided the product for freesies however, all thoughts here are my own**

At first when I got this book, I was certain it was going to be like Smashed: The memoir of an Alcoholic. But this book, was so much more and such a better read.

Though the book sometimes felt like it lacked flow to it, the style of writing was engaging and real. Her voice is hard to miss and you feel like laughing and crying through subsequent parts of the book. The ending seemed almost anti-climatic but it was as if she knew that, and wanted to give her readers a happy ending even though there wasn’t really one.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

“Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera is the true story of a family’s battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina’s grandparents were alcoholics, her father was an alcoholic, she is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction–including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen. Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin; a mother who has Parkinson’s Disease; a grandson who has cerebral palsy; and other people who drift in and out of the household depending on their employment situation or rehab status. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make it as a stand-up comic and author so she can quit her crumby job as a grocery store clerk. Through it all, Dina does her best to hold her family together, keep her faith, and maintain her sense of humor. As you might imagine, a story filled with alcoholics and drug addicts includes a number of horrific events. But in the end, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is an uplifting story that contains valuable lessons for parents and teens alike, and a strong message about the need to address the epidemic of teen drug addiction in our nation. It’s a book that can change behavior and save lives–and make you laugh along the way.”

In a way, it was almost refreshing to read a memoir that doesn’t try to be some holier-than-thou tale of heartache/loss/achievement that’s better or worse than everything. else. the reader. could ever handle. Dina is so real, and her heartache with her heroine addict daughter is real, and when she talks about how much she hates her job, you can’t help but think about jobs you’ve had that you hated and tried to grin and bear it when all you wanted to do was punch your supervisor.

I really enjoyed this book, if you like memoirs, that aren’t from over privileged brats who think that their life story deserves a book (I’m looking at you Meghan McCain and Miley Cyrus), you’ll enjoy this. Just be warned, it’s not sugar coated and kind of makes you realize that everyone has problems, and sometimes? Everyone has a story, and sometimes, it’s not a pretty one or a very happy one. But maybe we need to read these kinds of stories to keep us grounded and appreciative of what we have. I know I certainly needed it.

Check out Dina’s blog here. Also, if you want to pick up a copy for yourself you can get 30% off Dina’s book at www.everythinginever.com by entering coupon code “Dina” at checkout. Want to check out other reviews of Everything I never Wanted to Be over at TLC Book tours!

{FTC disclosure: I did receive this book for free however, all views are my own.}

This is a sponsored review by BlogHer and V8 V-Fusion + Tea.

{disclosure: I was contacted by BlogHer to take part in this review, I was compensated for my participation however all views here are my own. Take that FTC. See official rules}

Being the health nut I am (most of the time), I was pretty stoked when I was recently contacted by BlogHer to participate in a review program of these fab new juices made by V8: V8 V-Fusion + Tea juices. I’ve been a fan of V8 Juices in the past so I was pretty excited to see what they concocted this time around.

Pomegranate

I really enjoyed this flavor. Generally I find pomegranate to be too tart for me. But this flavor was light, had the fruity taste of pomegranate but the tea made it a little more sweet and less tart. Yum! This flavor was definitely my favorite and given all the benefits we hear of pomegranate having, I would definitely buy this one again.

Raspberry

The raspberry flavor again, was sweet without being too sweet. I’m not a huge fan of tart drinks, so while usually I steer away from raspberry flavors. I enjoyed this one, not so much I’d buy it again but if you like raspberry but don’t necessarily like raspberry drinks I would give it a shot for it’s lack of tartness.

Pineapple Mango

Generally I like pineapple. But this tasted more mango than pineapple. I really like tropical juices, but I wasn’t so sure about the mango/pineapple combo at first but I found I really liked this flavor. I’d definitely buy it again.

V8 Juices

V8 V-Fusion + Tea juices have a combined serving of fruits and vegetables, green tea and only 50 calories. I try not to get more than 10% of my caloric intake from any juices but this is definitely a juice I would recommend. The green tea taste is subtle but definitely makes the flavors less sweet than they usually are. These juices also have antioxidant power from vitamins A, C, and E. Tasty and healthy? Sure why not!

Hubs is a juice SNOB but I think he’ll actually like these – I did. I’ve gotten him into other V8 juices in the past (tropical twist juices? YUM!) so I think the V8 V-Fusion + Tea juices will become a staple in our juice happy home.

BlogHer is sponsoring me to do my own giveaway of a $100 visa gift card from BlogHer for this review! To enter just tell me what YOUR favorite V8 juice of choice is. This giveaway is running from 11/15-12/10!

For additional chances to win: you can:

· Tweet about this post with a link to it (and put your tweet URL in a separate comment below)

· Blog about this post with a link to it (and put your blog post URL in a separate comment below)

· Read the official rules for alternate forms of entry.

For more chances to win check out what other BlogHer’s have to say about this product at blogher.com!

Who ever thought you could have a party out of yoga?

Dove did.

I was contacted to host a party to test out some bad ass deodorant. The gist was, Dove paid for me to have a fitness party, and sent me some samples, for me and some of my favorite gal pals to test it out.

The party ended up being smaller than I had hoped because the time was…not so convenient. But, Jenn, Sammy and my gal pal Marisa were there and we had a fab yoga class, and munched on some treats I brought after doing yoga moves, and talking about life, fitness and one of the topics that Dove is also passionate about – body image.

The gals with our HEALTHY snacks – Terra chips = amazing.

Check out Jenn’s awesome Tree Pose!

Sammy has some amazing balance!

Marisa does her best tree pose!

All in all, it was a fabulous time and the deodorant has been a big hit. For those of you who don’t know, though Dove Visibly Smooth is not a depilatory, it does claim to minimize the appearance of underarm hair. Over time.

I did like the deodorant, however, as for protection, I’m still not sure it’s as good as my preferred other brand. However, my coworker (who missed the party because we were understaffed), does like this deodorant better than “organic/all natural” deodorants that are…”not that good” according to her.

So, while it smells good, I don’t see it having a lasting effect as a deodorant for the length of time I need it. As for the reduction of hair appearance? Well, it hasn’t been long enough for me to notice since that effect happens over time.

Now what? Well, I’m still using the deodorant, and I have samples to send to FIVE lucky readers.

How can you win?

Comment on this post telling me what your favorite way to sweat is! (1 entry)
Tweet about this! (1 entry) (make sure to @missheidi in your tweet!)
Blog about it and comment back here with the link (2 entries)

Contest ends on May 9th and winners will be announced May 10!

{FTC Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review however, Dove did compensate our yoga instructor, sent me product samples, cute workout tops and a Flip Cam (that I forgot to use! Whoops!). Thanks for dove for providing the tools for the party, but the food and organizing? That was all me!}

I’m a huge fan of chick lit. One of my all-time favorites was “The Nanny Diaries” and I even loved the movie (speaking of, should add to netflix for kicks)

So I was THRILLED when I got an email from Engelman & Co asking me to review a copy of the Nanny Returns, and immediately jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, my reading was a littl slow in December so it took me about a month to get through a bunch of library books.

But! Once I dived in, it was hard to pry the book away from my hands (setting me into a TWO book lead from Hubs in our 50 book challenge of 2010)

In Nanny Returns, it’s almost ten years later, and Nan has just come back from abroad with her husband—H.H., now known just as Ryan. Mrs. X was a scary lady, but now Nan can be one too: she’s thirty-three, confident and successful, speaks three languages, and runs her own business … but when Grayer, now sixteen and more messed-up than ever, makes a drunken late-night visit to her apartment, Nan is sucked right back into the world of power, wealth, and dysfunction of the Upper East Side.

Awash with guilt for “abandoning” Grayer after the Xes kicked her out of their life when he was still a little boy, Nan agrees to do a simple favor for her grown-up charge and his smart, sweet little brother, Stilton. But the Xes are in the middle of a brutal, high-profile divorce; Mr. X is consumed by money troubles and his new actress fiancée, and Mrs. X is M.I.A. and possibly faking cancer for sympathy—and soon “one little favor” snowballs into an ever-more-bizarre series of events as Nan fights to make sure that someone is taking care of Grayer and Stilton … and to win back her beloved Grayer’s fractured trust.

Meanwhile, the rest of Nan’s life starts nose-diving like the economy. Ryan is working out of the country and practically unreachable, but still putting unexpected pressure on Nan to “start a family” of their own. Their “fixer-upper” house in Harlem is infested with toxic mold and other costly little renovation surprises. And, most of all, Nan’s experiences with the first major client in her consulting business—the Board of the ultra-elite Jarndyce prep school—are turning out to be sickeningly familiar: the Board is just as unreasonable and demanding as the UES parents she used to nanny for. Teachers—and Nan—are the new hired help, picking up where the nannies left off in the war for the well-being of the children of privilege.

Just as fresh, biting, and funny as The Nanny Diaries, but with the extra heart and wisdom of a few years’ experience, NANNY RETURNS brings both heroine and readers back to the exotic world of the Upper East Side—a community where appearances are everything, friendships can dissolve with the disappearance of a bank account, and children are often the casualties in the war between wealth and family.

Once I read that summary, I was all kinds of stoked to get into it.

I liked it. I did. Nan’s character, however, I found to be more annoying than in the first book – I kept wishing for her to grow a backbone. To just…say no for once. I found Grayer to be a feisty, over-privileged brat – like Chuck Bass but WORSE! The story itself picked up well from the first book which is always a plus especially when it’s been so long since the first one. Most sequels, if I’m correct, don’t take so long to come out – hell, I didn’t even know they were WRITING a sequel (I’ve loved all of their books that I’ve read – Dedication, Nanny Diaries, Citizen Girl and thanks to amazon, i found another to add to my list to read: The Real Real…I’m intrigued!) but this one was an easy read, an okay read but not a super, great OMG-I’m-going-to-send-it-to-all-my-pals read.

End Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars. {i wanted to give it a 5 but while the writing was great, the story was just…I dunno…missing something}

{Disclaimer: I did receive this book for free from the publisher, however, I was not paid for my review. These thoughts are strictly my own and have not been influenced by any outside sources}

I am obsessed with mascara. It’s the one bit of make up that I will not leave the house without putting on. Call me shallow, but it’s one of those things.

I started the four week challenge this week – it’s a Bzzz Campaign, and for 4 weeks, you use the serum at night and the mascara by day. It’s supposed to make your lashes fuller and longer. {Disclaimer: I was not paid in any form for this review, the thoughts in here are mine and have not been influenced in any way, I am participating in a review program as a Bzz Agent therefore the product being reviewed was sent to me for free for the purpose of being reviewed honestly.}

3 nights in? I’ve noticed a definite difference in the fullness of my lashes. I can’t wait to see what happens at the end of the 4 weeks.

Before

(please excuse my makeupless face)

After (with mascara)

Overall, I’ve really been enjoying the mascara – the handle of the mascara is quirky i think – since you have to apply a serum then the actual mascara – but that’s just me.

So far: Highly recommend this mascara. Will review again half way through the 4 week review program

{sidenote: do you know how hard it is to take pictures of your own lashes without looking like a freak???!!!}

Earlier this summer, I was sent a couple Joey Totes by BLASTmedia to review them. It’s taken me a while, as I tend to neglect this blog. Whoops (Sorry for the delay!!!)

What are Joey Totes?

From their website:

Joey Totes are the all-purpose, reusable bags that stow easily in one pouch so even a set of 3 can fit in a small purse. Use them as a travel bag, at the beach, as a gym bag, at the mall and, yes, even at the grocery store. The 2 sizes let you carry one over your shoulder and the other in your hand. You can carry 40 lbs. in each bag (wow!) and can even put them in your washing machine. Best of all, your Joey Totes will help replace thousands of disposable bags each year.

They certainly do live up to their name. Although, one of them did rip when Hubs tried to put WAY too much in it, it was a smaller size and he tried using it for the gym, it was a small tear, and wouldn’t stop me from using. I blame user error not the quality of the product though. Additionally, they are washable as they say – Pup happened to pee on one in an angry burst when she was home once – we washed it and you couldn’t even smell it. Phew, I’ve lost a few grocery bags because of her so I’m glad I didn’t lose this one.

I love these bags for grocery shopping, and the large one for using when I go to the gym. The handle is incredibly sturdy and doesn’t cut into my arm when I’m carrying it full of groceries.

I recommend these bags to pretty much anyone – they’re compact, durable and pretty affordable ($20 for 3). Go check them out!