Wednesday, January 15, 2014

ENERGYbits Review and GIVEAWAY {CLOSED}

UPDATE: And the winner is...


Sheila Simmons. Congrats!

Today is my LAST DAY at work! Plus I found a place to live and signed a lease! And the bf and I set a departure date of Monday for our cross-country road trip and bought his return ticket. So this this is really happening! Oh and I have packed exactly one box.


Along with the themes of changes/new things, I have a review of a great new sports nutrition product: ENERGYbits.

According to the company, ENERGYbits improve energy and endurance. delivering a steady stream of natural energy without sugar, caffeine or chemicals. Plus, ENERGYBits have only one ingredient: 100% organically grown spirulina algae. Used by Olympic athletes for decades, spirulina algae has the highest concentration of protein in the world and contains antioxidants, Omega 3, and electrolytes. Here's a nifty graphic showing how ENERGYbits stack up against other energy products and foods:



ENERGYbits sent me a sample of their product for review and I tried twice. The first time was during our New Year's ski trip. After skiing (and drinking a lot of champagne) New Year's Eve, I definitely needed something to get me through another 4 hours of cold, unfamiliar exercise the next day.


According to the instructions on the package, you're supposed to swallow 30 tabs 10-15 minutes before your workout. You can also chew them, but the container says they taste very 'green' and they don't smell like you'd want to try it. They didn't taste like anything when swallowed, although it was a bit of a pain to count out and swallow all 30 tabs.


It was a little hard to tell if they made a difference, since I don't ski very often/well, but I did manage to keep going down the second easiest green hill the whole day!

After my ski experience, I decided to evaluate ENERGYbits in a more familiar environment: the volleyball court.
Volleyball tournaments normally last 8 hours plus and include 4-6 matches. It's hard to stay fueled, no matter how good you are at eating during breaks, and I'm often really shakey by playoffs. I've started using energy chews, which work really well but tend to have a lot of sugar and scary ingredients.

I took my 30 tab dose of ENERGYbits about 10 minutes before playoffs when I was totally wiped and shaking so much I had trouble taking this picture. Well, I can definitely say that they worked just as well as the chews and I felt totally fine energy-wise for all of the semis! We unfortunately lost (maybe should have given ALL my team bits lol), so I'm not sure how long the energy lasts but I was very happy with the effects.


Pros:
  • Ingredients - love that there's only one organic ingredient
  • Nutritional value - the nutrient to calorie ratio is pretty amazing
  • Effectiveness - these worked just as well as energy chews for me
Cons: 
  • Ease of use - counting and swallowing 30 tabs was definitely less easy than eating a few energy chews
  • Price - I know the price per serving is comparable to other sports nutrition products, but spending over $100 at once on a food product is not something I'm used to. I'm cheap!
Bottom Line:

ENERGYbits are a little pricey and it isn't the easiest thing to count out and swallow 30 tabs. But, if you often find yourself in situations where you run out of energy and need more fairly fast, the awesome nutritionals would make the costs and effort worth it.  

ENERGYbits are only available at ENERGYbits.com, and Jonathan (their Brand Manager) has shared with me that he'd be happy to connect anyone with a current ambassador to share a discount on a bag of bits - you can email him at jlevitt@energybits.com

ALSO,one lucky reader will win a sample of ENERGYbits to try for themselves! 

To enter, leave a comment below telling me why you’d like to try ENERGYbits. I’ll choose a winner via random number generator (sorry, US residents only!) next Wednesday morning, 1/22/14, at 9:00 AM.

Disclaimer: I was provided a sample of ENERGYbits free of charge for review.  First time ever that's happened! All opinions are solely my own.

9 comments:

  1. I would love to try bits, I would like to see if they would be better than gels

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  2. Ooh I'd love to try ENERGYbits for volleyball tournaments too! I always feel so fatigued, especially if the scheduling of playing vs. being off the court is wonky.

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  3. EnergyBits sound awesome to me. Personally I stopped using gels long ago but as my marathon train begins They would work great for me.

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  4. Do you find that they keep you up at night? Would you recommend a nap or energy bits? Visiting you from WOW.

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    1. Hi Sheila! I didn't have any issues with them keeping me up. I think bits would be better than a nap for when you need energy and have to keep going. I'm not a very good napper though so I'm not sure.

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  5. You're awesome. Just letting you know.

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  6. Wow--looks like you are headed on some adventures. That is awesome! I've never heard of these before and that would be interested to give them a try. By the way, stopping by the SITS Girls.

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  7. Thanks for this review. I have heard a lot about them and tried them last weekend for my half marathon training run and boot camp the next day. I will also be posting a review soon. Also - please consider this an easy entry for some Energybits! Ha - yeah I tried them but would love to try them for more workout sessions to get a better assessment. :-) Thank you for stopping by this week's WOW Link Up. Please come back and join us each and every Wednesday. We would love to have you and read more of your blog posts. Cheers!

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  8. I'd like to try to see if they work well on the vball court, when I'm on long bike rides, or during my 8 + hour long hikes!

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