The Fit-Box August 2017 – Unboxing and Product Reviews

The Fit-box is a subscription fitness box (£14.99 a month including shipping). It is the last box to review for August before we move into the September unboxing! How did the summer go by so fast…

Fit-box has two possible “versions” of the box, a “For Him” and a “For Her”, so this one is the “For her” one. I will write a general review on this box in 1-2 months after I’ve opened a few and formed a more rounded opinion.

The Fit-box comes in a big cardboard, plain, white box that just has the Fit-box logo at the front. This box is not collectable, like the Beauty Boxes, it is just a normal cardboard box that carries the items within. There are no monthly themes, or monthly small magazines from the company that explain a little about each item contained. It is pretty much the items contained and you. It is very plain in terms of unboxing experience.

But anyhow, the items contained were very good this month, again! As long as the items are of good quality and value, I’m fine with the poor unboxing experience. Fitness boxes do not have to be as fancy and cared for as Beauty boxes. Although, I must admit, if these boxes had some kind of design print and were collectable, or carried a theme, they would be so unique and amazing!

For now though, let’s dive in the box and see what was contained this month. There were 8 products contained of which 6 were consumable, food items. From left to right as seen in the picture: a water bottle, a protein bar/chocolate, protein flapjack, protein cookie, an energy drink, protein whey powder, spaghetti and the September issue of Women’s Health magazine.

Bear in mind that these are my personal opinions and health, fitness and taste can be very personal things as we all have different biological builds. What worked for me might not work for you and vice versa. If you tried any of these products please leave your comments below!

PS. You can click on some of the smaller pictures to seem them bigger and be able to read out ingredients etc.

 

USN water bottle

This is such a cute item and I was immediately drawn to it when I opened the box. It’s a transparent, blue plastic bottle that holds approximately 1L of water. The cap has a strap on it, so you can hold it from there or hang it on your belt, bike etc. It also has a large hand handle on the side, so you can hold it from there too if you prefer, when walking or running.

It’s a good quality water bottle, quite durable and holds a fair amount of water. The only annoying thing is that the cap opens by unscrewing it around and the unscrewing gets the little strap on top tangled, so you have to keep moving and untangling the strap to open the cap.

I like this. Realistically though, how often will I use this? Probably not often, but I’m still glad to have this item.  This retails for £5.99 and although it is an acceptable price, I must admit I was a little shocked at first.

You can buy this on Amazon or from the USN website. SCORE = 9/10.

 

Warrior Crunch Protein Chocolate Salted Caramel Flavour

This is a chocolate high in protein. It looks like a chocolate, smells like a chocolate and tastes like a chocolate. It was actually quite a pleasant treat to have while packing in 20g of protein at the expense of 11g of fat, 24g of carbs and 239kcals. It’s not your everyday snack, but if you are craving a chocolate and you want to limit the “bad food” damage while also sneaking in some protein, this is an amazing option.

The only drawback here is that you can get a bit of a “synthetic protein” after taste but it’s not too bad. The Salted Caramel flavour was more of a caramel flavour than salted caramel but it was still nice. I could definitely tell that this wasn’t an ordinary chocolate but it was a pleasant treat to have.

I love the whole Warrior branding, it looks very nice and strangely motivating. The best thing about this product was the smell! I would buy this bar for my chocolate craving moments.

This bar retails for £2.07 if you buy 12 of them from Amazon or from the Bodybuilding Warehouse. SCORE = 8/10

 

TREK Protein Flapjack Morning Berry

This Flapjack smells like berries but strangely it’s a synthetic berry smell. It’s very nice and balanced, not too moist but also not as dry as other flap jacks. It tastes like berries but unfortunately it is a very synthetic taste. My initial bite was quite unpleasant, the synthetic taste really didn’t work for me but as I kept eating I got used to it and it didn’t taste as synthetic anymore. The first third of the bar was unpleasant, then I strangely enjoyed the rest of the two thirds of it. So…I have very mixed feelings about this one! Is it good or is it bad? I don’t know!

I think overall, it is actually nice. Get over that first bite and then you will get into it. How strange!

This bar will provide you with 10.2g of protein, 9.6g of fat, 21.1g of carbs and 216kcal. Nutritionally it’s not bad at all, but personally for that many kcals, I’d prefer snacks with a higher protein content, like for example the chocolate above (chocolate above = 239kcal for 20g of protein). This really depends on your fitness/health needs though.

What I like the most about this flapjack is how moist it is, I personally don’t like super dry flapjacks. The outer packaging and branding is spot on, it looks like a flapjack and stands out on shelfs. This bar retails for £0.94 if you buy 16 of them from Natural Balance Foods, which is super cheap. SCORE = 7/10

 

SciMX PRO2GO Double Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie

This is actually one of my favourite snacks and I always have at least 5 of them sitting at home. I only have them occasionally because they are high in kcals and carbs but they are a very nice alternative snack, especially when you are craving a cookie or chocolate or generally something sweet.

This looks like a cookie and smells like a cookie and I bet if I filled a jar with these you wouldn’t know they are not traditional cookies. It has both milk and white chocolate chips in it and it tastes like a chocolate cookie. If you are a very sensitive taster like me, you can still faintly tell that this is not an ordinary cookie, there is a slight synthetic taste to it but it is so faint you probably won’t notice at all. These are so yummy and I love them.

These cookies are also nicely moist, and break easily with one hand. They are not hard at all which makes them even easier to eat. I think I might actually serve these in a party and see if anyone notices that they are not traditional cookies.

This cookie will provide you with 23g of protein, 9.6g of fat, 30.5g of carbs and 303kcal. It is a high carb snack which results in a high kcal content, so balance this snack and only have it after a big burn. Alternatively, if you struggle to gain weight, this might be a good snack for you. As with any of these type of snacks though, I would only have it occasionally, these are not your every day type of snacks. You can easily pack on the fat and weight if you frequently eat these.

SciMX recently changed their outer packaging design for these cookies and I must say the new design looks even more “this is a chocolate cookie” than the one before, so good job on that one. The packaging definitely looks more appealing now.

I love these cookies, if you haven’t tried them, they are definitely worth a try. One cookie retails for £1.18 if you buy 12 of them from SciMX. Very cheap price for what they are. SOCRE = 10/10

 

USN Spike Burn Energy Drink

I think this is an energy drink, although I must admit I am not sure. USN didn’t do a very good job on labelling what this product actually is. From the words “burn” and “caffeine” and the rest of the ingredients, my best guess is that it is an energy drink.

Other than that, I think the can looks quite nice. I love the design of it and I love that it is 440mL. The quality of the can is also quite good and sturdy and you need quite some force to squeeze it.

I even love that the actual drink is pale pink. It seems that the whole package design matches the liquid inside too and there is something elegant about that. It’s a fizzy drink that tastes sweet but I couldn’t quite pinpoint of what. It has a sweet taste and a faint sweet scent. If you are not into sweet tastes though, this might be too much for you as it is…quite sweet. This is common for energy drinks though and it worked for me. It is very easily drinkable, doesn’t taste too synthetic, it is actually quite pleasant. However, be aware, because it is so sweet, it’s not exactly your “I am thirsty” type of drink. Like with a lot of energy drinks, it tastes much better cold.

This drink will cost you 20kcals and will provide you with 2.5g of protein and 0.2g of carbs. It is free of sugar, has vitamins B6 and B13, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, caffeine, green coffee bean extract, taurine, choline and more. It’s a very low impact drink on your daily kcals but it has a fair amount of “goodies” in it.

One thing that I noticed and it slightly annoyed me is that the kcal content was only given in KJ which is fine for me as a scientist, I can easily convert that, but I can imagine this being annoying for the typical consumer and some might even miscalculate and take the KJ value for kcals. It’s only one more number, not that much effort, just put it on the can!

Overall, I really enjoyed this drink. It was very pleasant and nicely sweet. This retails for £1.25 if you buy 24 from USN, which is a very good price especially for the size of this drink. Love it. SCORE = 10/10.

 

MyProtein Impact Whey Protein Powder Maple Syrup Flavour

This is a pale yellow protein powder that smells faintly of maple syrup. Like any protein powder, it dissolved much easier and faster in water than in milk. I couldn’t get the recommended powder amount in the recommended milk volume to fully dissolve so I had to use more milk that stated. The pictures show the solutions with the recommended powder to water/milk volumes.

 

 

The water one tasted quite sweet, which I guess is fitting of maple syrup. It also truly smelled like marple syrup so that much was spot on. I personally hated it but I think this is a flavour-personal taste thing. I am curious though how many of you would want this flavour as a protein drink?!! It can’t be that popular is it?

The milk one worked much better for me. I always find that I like the consistency and taste of protein powders (no matter what brand or flavour) better when I have them in milk. The milk one smelled and tasted more faint of maple syrup but it was still sweet. I found this one much more pleasant but it is still not my thing. I really hated this flavour.

One serving of 25g will provide you with (if you make it in water) 100kcal, 1.9g of fat, 1.4g of carbs and 19g of protein. Bear in mind that everything will be increased if you make this in milk so choose carefully.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this one but it was a curious flavour to try nevertheless. This satchel retails for £0.90 if you buy it individually and is probably a lot cheaper if you buy a big protein tub.  SCORE = 5/10.

 

MyProtein My Spaghetti

This is a very unique product and I must admit I was incredibly intrigued. It’s a zero sugar spaghetti made from Konjac Flavour that has 7kcals per 100g and 3.5g of fibre. And that’s it. That’s all it has! Fat, protein, carbs, salt etc all negligible and less than 0.1g. So this is pretty much eating air!

If you are on a low kcal budget this might be a life saver for you but if you train hard, you need some carbs and this might not be the best nutritional option either. I mean…there’s not much in it. It’s made of water, Konjact flour 3.6% and firming agent E526. That’s all the ingredients in it!

You are meant to drain the water from the bag, rinse the spaghetti with cold water and the heat in a pan for 2-3 minutes or microwave for 1 minute. Then you are ready to serve with a bit of a sauce or something to add some flavour! I love that it is microwaveable, it makes this a suitable on the run, quick lunch option. This pack lasts for more than 6 months, so it is easy and handy to have a lot of these lying around.

The spaghetti smelled of something strange and unpleasant when I first opened the bag but the smell died down after I rinsed it. So the rinsing part is quite important, don’t skip it. They don’t taste of anything without a sauce but they are quite crunchy and have a strange, too hard and too crunchy texture for spaghetti. Perhaps they need a little more cooking, so the 1 minute microwave instruction might be off. They are also strangely quite elastic, if you pull the two ends they don’t break as easily as spaghetti.

The texture is something you can get used to though and you can inject some flavour with a sauce or the rest of your meal. I would have gone for a low salt Soy sauce but the possibilities are endless. It was a pleasant thing to try but if I am brutally honest I wouldn’t buy this. Even when I am on a cutting period and I am restricted for kcals, I think I would choose to have something else. It’s a good idea and can be very handy but I just find this food a bit too empty nutrition wise for me – almost like eating air.

This bag would retail for £0.97 if you buy a pack of 6 of them from MyProtein. SCORE = 8/10.

 

Women’s Fitness Magazine September 2017

As I mentioned before, I actually subscribe to this magazine and it is a shame I now get it twice a month. Personally, I wish Fit-Box would include a different magazine but at the same time I think it is good value and a good product for them to have in their box. So for me it’s a shame but overall for the box and for other customers it is a good choice.

As I mentioned previously, I will not review this or any magazines. I think it is a great magazine to read over coffee but in general, magazines are one of the reasons I started this blog. It is very rare that articles include their source of information and a lot of information is also misinterpreted because the people who write the articles are probably not scientists. As a result, as a scientist, I do have moments when I read these magazines and cringe and wish they included where they got this information from because it might not even have been from peer reviewed scientific studies. I always make a point of referencing and giving out the links of where I found the information from and I only ever include information coming from peer reviewed scientific papers.

This magazine retails for £3.99 but is cheaper if you subscribe to it. I also noticed that the one I got for September from my magazine subscription has a different, collectable cover, whereas the one included in this box is the version you will find in shops. SCORE = 9/10.

 

 

Was this month’s Fit-box as they claim a £25 value box? Adding the individual items together totalled to £17.29 so…no! It is still worth more than I payed for, but as with other health and fitness boxes, they are not really meant for you to make “value for money”. The fitness boxes tend to contain almost as much as you payed for and they are meant to get you to try different things rather than save money.

Overall, I liked this month’s box and I specifically love that they contained big reputable brand items and that not all items were food consumables.

Initial box score, in terms of products and first feelings = 9/10

Overall box score after product testing (a sum of product scores) = 8.25/10

Star product = SciMX PRO2GO Double Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie

 

Did you get this month’s Fit-Box? What did your box contain? What did you think of the products? Have you tried any of the products listed? Let me know your experiences!

I am not affiliated with any company or brand. These are my views and experiences.