Coconut giveaway – week 4

Who wouldn’t want to wake up to this on a Monday morning?

But first, there was a workout.  Monday is my cross-training day, so cross-training I did.  I have an evening meeting tonight, so the only way to get in a workout before work, required that I get up at 4:30.  That is such a repulsive hour to get up, but every once in a while will not kill me.

So I got up at 4:30 am, threw on my workout clothes and was downstairs by 4:45 am.  I hopped on the elliptical for a thirty minute session on level 10.  Just before 5 am, one of the concierges walks in to turn on the TVs and to remind me (for the second time) that the gym does not open until 5 am. And for the second time I nicely said that I have no other time to workout, which is why I’m in the gym so early.

So dumb.

I really don’t see what the big deal is if I get to the gym a little early.  We pay HOA fees to fund the gym and he is the only concierge that ever points out what time it is, although he’s not the only one who has caught me in the gym early.  This time, I told him I was getting a new job so I wouldn’t be working out before 5 am in the near future.

After my reprimand and my elliptical session, I did a quick circuit repeating two times, which took about 15 minutes.

– 20 Pushups – 10 boy style, 10 girl style
– 20 Single leg bridge with leg extension + 20 second hold (I extend my leg for 10, cross my ankle over my knee for 10, then hold with a leg extension for 20 seconds)
– 50 bicycles
– 20 jump squats

Whew! Jump squats, or any other plyometric move for that matter, will get your heart racing!

Now, back to breakfast.  In this lovely bowl, I ate strawberry cottage cheese oat bran with a not-so-secret ingredient.

White Chocolate Wonderful.  And wonderful it is.

Strawberry Cottage Cheese Oat Bran

1/3 cup oat bran
1/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 cap of real vanilla extract

Toppings: about 1 Tbsp of each – strawberry jam, White Chocolate Wonderful, and almond crunch granola.

One of the best bowl of oats I’ve had in a while, but the sweetness of the peanut butter meant that I probably could have done without the strawberry jam.  However, I’m not complaining, this oat bran was DE-licious.

***

Now onto my last giveaway for Coconut Giveaway Month.

This week’s giveaway involves coconut, but it’s not a food product.  Can you believe it?

It’s Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Hair Treatment!

You can read all about it on their website, how they have tested it, how it’s an age-old replenishing hair product  in South Asia, but let me tell you why I love this stuff and why I need this stuff.

My hair is super duper dry.  When I joke about not having washed my hair for days, I’m really not joking.  When I use styling products and styling tools day after day, my hair gets damaged and brittle.  So I often let my hair use its natural oils to replenish itself by not washing it.

I’ve been using this jar of coconut oil at least once a week for a month because I would never giveaway something here that I hadn’t used or something I do not like.  I wanted to test it out first to see if it was as good as Tropical Traditions says that it is.

And you know what?  It is.

My hair feels silky and healthy after I used it just once.  I also learned the best way to use it for my hair during this month of being a guinea pig.  What I learned…

Use it sparingly – While I typically glob conditioner on my hair and use the same size bottle twice as fast as shampoo, I only need a teaspoon or two of this to really feel and see a difference.

Experiment with the best way to use this product – There are suggested uses on the back of the jar, but I learned that I like to use it just before shampooing.  It’s virtually impossible to get it out of my hair without using a cleanser like shampoo, so I put it on when I first get in the shower, then wash it out.  I have also tried shampooing, using it, then rinsing it out with water.  My hair looks pretty greasy after it’s dry, so I wear it up that day.

Don’t be afraid to wear your hair up one day to allow it to really work – Once I completely washed it out later, my hair felt amazing.  So if you like to wear your hair up, rinse it out with water which doesn’t really get it out of your hair, but allows it to continue to replenish your tresses until you wash it out with shampoo.

I’m going to love using this stuff this summer, which tends to be brutal on my hair.

Don’t ya wanna win some?

You know the drill:

How to enter:

1st Entry: Leave a comment telling me your most troublesome hair issues.

2nd entry – Tweet “@Foodiefresh is giving away @TropTraditions Coconut Oil Hair Treatment! #giveaway http://foodiefresh.com” and tell me you tweeted in the comments.

3rd entry – If you have your own blog, tell your readers about my giveaway and link back to this post.  Please tell me in the comments if you do this.

4th entry – Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions mailing list by clicking here, where you will receive notification of all kinds of great deals on all of their products.  They have some seriously good deals on all kinds of things, coconut and otherwise (For example: 40% off organic maple syrup).  Please tell me if you did this in the comments section too!

The cut off for the giveaway is this upcoming Saturday morning at 9 am.  I will then pick a winner and announce it here.

Please note: Tropical Traditions will only ship to the U.S. and Canada, so only residents of these two countries are eligible for the giveaway.  Tropical Traditions also requires that I provide the email address of the winner.  This allows them to contact you and make sure you receive your winnings.