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Project Juice

May 6, 2014

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram you will no doubt have noticed the various photo’s of juice that have been posted.

I was kindly invited by Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager and certified holistic health coach who attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, to visit their location in Russian Hill and to sample a few of their juices. I met Brandon at Mint Studio’s spring open house and chatted with him about Project Juice as he was giving out samples of their juice. Before I go any further, let me tell you a bit more about more Project Juice and what I think makes them stand out from other juice companies.

review of project juice San Francisco

 Brandon Waloff, Project Juice’s community wellness manager at their Russian Hill location

Project Juice is a San Francisco based company that was founded a few years ago by Rachel Malsin and is co-founded with two others, Devon Briger and Greg Malsin. Rachel had various food allergies and began to modify her diet by implementing raw foods and juices which inspired her to live a new healthier lifestyle and to bring this lifestyle to the Bay Area. Fast forward a bit to Rachel moving from Long Island to San Francisco and starting Project Juice after noticing a gap in the market for high quality, cold pressed and organic juices!

Project Juice opened their first location in the financial district in the summer of 2013, then opened their Russian Hill location the week before Valentine’s Day and recently opened another location in Palo Alto. So there is an option if you want to avoid San Francisco traffic!! Project Juice are also planning on expanding to new locations and have a lot of exciting new ventures, such as implementing food into their programs and creating a smoothie bar. Part of their mission is to provide the best juice possible, and all of their ingredients are organic and are locally sourced whenever possible. What I found really incredible about this company is that they realize that diets do NOT work. There is not one size fits all and Brandon, who Project Juice’s certified holistic health coach, will work with people on developing cleansing programs that fit YOU and YOUR needs as opposed to forcing you to stick with a rigid plan that may not make you feel nourished or energetic.

review of project juice San Francisco

So now that you know the deets on Project Juice, I can now continue! Their Russian Hill location was lovely; it had a great ambiance and they had various other healthy food products in stock if you wanted some nibbles with your juice.

review of project juice San Francisco

After sampling a few of their juices and learning a bit more about the company, I was given 3 juices of my choice to take home and try out. I was so excitedddd haha, it was literally like getting an early birthday present (which is on May 22nd, so actually pretty soon)!! I absolutely love all things healthy and Project Juice seriously has so many amazing flavors with unique ingredients. It was extreeemely hard to pick just 3, but in the end I finally decided on D-Tox, Turmeric Mylk, and Swiss Beetz. I had tried D-Tox before at Mint Studio’s spring open house so I couldn’t resist getting a bottle of that, but the other 2 were completely new to me. I chose them because they contained some pretty rare ingredients that I had never seen in a juice before!

D-Tox

review of project juice dtox drink San Francisco

Mmm, this drink was really unexpected for me … but in a very, very good way. I don’t know why, but whenever I see a product that says ‘detox’ I think of something kinda nasty and bitter. D-Tox was far from that, and it was actually very sweet and refreshing. It contains pineapple, mint, apple, and chlorophyll .. I know right, you’re thinking ‘what the heck is chlorophyll’ … Chlorophyll has a number of interesting properties, such as increasing your red blood cell count, is packed full of protein and nutrients, and has been said to help slow down the aging process (you can read more about chlorophyll here)! Very, very interesting and something I have never ever seen in a juice before! You should definitely make this juice one to try if you have a sweet tooth and want a healthy drink 🙂

Turmeric Mylk

review of project juice turmeric mylk San Francisco

Oh man, this juice is awesome!! I was surprised at how creamy it was and how the turmeric blended in perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. Turmeric (a common ingredient in curries) is a spice which has been linked to its ability to help fight various types of  cancer. This juice contains almonds, alkaline water, dates, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla bean, and sea salt … mmm, delicious. I made my boyfriend try it (he does not like juices lol) and even he admitted that it tasted great, victory!

Swiss Beetz

 review of project juice swiss beetz juice San Francisco

As the name makes oh so clear, this juice contains beets! It also contains apples, carrots, cucumber, lemon, and ginger which makes for a really cleansing and refreshing juice. It had a lovely sweet and sour taste and the flavor of the beets did not at all overwhelm the other flavors. All of the ingredients complemented each other really well, very impressive. As much as I love beets, they do have a very strong and distinct flavor which is hard to mask! I let my housemate try some as she is a nurse and always interested in trying new healthy foods, and she agreed that it tasted great. I adored the addition of lemon and ginger, my favorite healthy combo of all time. I swear, lemon and ginger tea works everytime I get sick.

So there you have it! Project Juice have so many more flavors to offer and I hope you all try them! They have several locations within San Francisco and a new location in Palo Alto. They have plans to expand so I look forward to seeing where their new locations will be.

review of project juice San Francisco

review of project juice San Francisco

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have any of you ever tried Project Juice before? If not, what brand do you usually buy, or do you make your own?

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Health

Mint Studios Spring Open House

April 29, 2014

So I mentioned in last week’s Sunday Summary that I wanted to write a post on the spring open house that I attended at Mint Studios because my brief little summary of it did not do it justice!

Let’s start with this – what is Mint Studios?

Mint Studios offers yoga, barre and pilate’s classes including pilate’s reformer. If you guys do not know what pilate’s reformer, please go and try it right now .. at Mint Studios!! I got to experience pilate’s reformer for the first time during Mint Studios spring open house as they were offering several complimentary classes throughout the evening. My class specifically was called the cardio sport pilates reformer class and it was so fun and upbeat! I have always wanted to try a pilates reformer class, especially after reading about how several Victoria’s Secret models do it regularly 🙂

The actual reformer machine itself is a bit strange to use, especially when you are new and have no idea what you are doing, but it is easy to get the hang of. The pilates reformer machine kind of looks like a bed, with a flat platform called the carriage which moves up and down on wheels within the frame of the machine. The carriage is attached on one end to a set of springs which provide varying levels of resistance (so it can be used for all levels!) and on the other end is a footbar. The machine also contains straps with handles which can be pulled with your legs or arms.

mint

 Image from www.mintstudiospilates.com

The teacher for this class that night was called Lisa and she was great; she made sure to check everyone’s form and to see how they were feeling in general. I was really surprised at how much it worked my core, especially because I thought I had quite a strong core to begin with. I woke up the next day and literally couldn’t stop touching my stomach as it felt really nice and flat, it was a bit ridiculous. I felt as if it had made my core muscles pop, had made them ‘wake up’ for lack of a better metaphor. I would love to try the other pilate’s classes and come back for a full session as the complimentary class I took was only 30 minutes long – but long enough to make me know that I loved the workout.

In addition to this fabulous and hard core (pun intended) workout class, there were several San Francisco local vendors present too. Project Juice in particular caught my eye because Brandon, Project Juice’s community wellness manager and health coach, was there and handing out samples of the juices they make. Although I do not regularly buy juices, I certainly note their nutritional value and enjoy drinking them on occasion for a healthy pick me up. My two favorites in particular were the D-Tox juice and the Mint-Chip Shake. When I tried the d-tox juice I was honestly expecting a rather bitter and unpleasant taste but on the contrary, it was really refreshing and sweet! And I think the mint-chip kind of speaks for itself .. it tastes like a mint chocolate chip shake but is much healthier 🙂

photo 1 (8)

Got to sample these lovely juices!!

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Ensoma Spa were also there offering complimentary brow waxes (which I missed out on due to a dinner date, boo) and there were free protein bars from Premier Protein. I took home the mint chocolate protein bar (obsessed with this flavor combo) and it was delicious, although it perhaps was not as ‘wholesome’ a protein bar as some others. But still pretty tasty honestly.

I am so glad I found out about Mint Studios spring open house! I love finding out about health & fitness events, and hope to attend more in the future. I had a very fun night and I hope some of you try out their classes soon. If you do, let me know which ones you did!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Health, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 9

April 27, 2014

What a wonderful week this was! I hope the same goes for all of you lovely people too.

Kayla Itsines Week 9

I have now finished week 9 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body workout and OMG .. I do not understand how I got through it. Weeks 9-12 differ from the first 8 weeks because now you incorporate 1-1 HIIT session (for an explanation of what HIIT is, click here) and the strength circuits are now fully targeted on certain parts of the body. It is such an amazing feeling to have such sore legs, arms and abs every single week. You get through one week and you think ‘surely next week, I won’t be as sore’ but you are, every single time. I love it, and I cannot wait to show you all my progress at the end of the 12 weeks. It may not be as dramatic as some of the others, but I am noticing the difference, and that makes me happier than you could know.

Whilst I am on this fitness thread, I went to a fabulous spring open house held by Mint Studio’s in San Francisco! I am planning on writing a dedicated post to the event, so for now I will give you all a quick recap. Mint Studio’s offers pilates, barre and yoga classes, and were offering free classes for the night, and had partnered with vendors such as Project Juice, Ensoma and Premier Nutrition to bring a host of complimentary goodies. I was particularly enamored with the healthy juices offered by Project Juice and definitely plan to try more! I tried my first everrr pilate’s reformer class and now I know what all the fuss is about … my abs are SORE, even now two days later, and it was such a fun and new way to workout. Can’t wait to try it again. Who wants to go with me?!

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

This photo is from Mint Studio’s website and is an example of the hardcore Pilate’s Reformer class I did

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

 Mmm, all the juices I got to sample from Project Juice!

My relationship with food has also become so, so much healthier. Instead of constantly worrying about the occasional slip up, I have a much more balanced approach to eating and just living life in general. I do not binge anymore (everytime I was presented with a tasty and ‘bad’ food I would eat it until I felt ill) and I genuinely look forward to making healthy meals and doing my food preps at the start of the week. Obviously I still have moments where I feel a little guilty, but I am usually able to stop myself eating more than I need too. I love how I have been able to shape this aspect of my life and I am so grateful for it; your body deserves to be nourished with the correct foods and kept active and in shape. I am not a fan of the whole ‘food is fuel’ thing because come on, our bodies are not machines. They are unique and INDIVIDUAL creations that require personalized attention, and only you can know what foods and exercises truly make your body flourish. That being said, I think that I do tend to eat a bit too much sugar (foods with sugar in them, I’m not knocking back tablespoons here lol) so I think I may post some of my meals in next week’s Sunday Summary as a way to keep me on track .. we will see.

That’s all from me this week! I am curious to see how many of my readers are living in the Bay Area, so please leave me a comment below if you are. I would love to meet up with you all at some point, maybe for a gym date 🙂

And as always, if you have any questions or requests for posts please either leave me a comment below or shoot me a message at honestlyfitness@live.com

Honestly yours,
Alice