February BarkBox Review + Coupon: Dinner Dates Edition

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We’re back with our latest BarkBox review where we show you everything Daisy got in her monthly delivery of dog toys, treats and surprises. February is all about Valentine’s Day and romance, and BarkBox did not disappoint. The theme of this month’s box is Dinner Dates — perfect for a night in with your furry sweetheart, so grab your main squeeze and get cozy. We’re spicing things up with an inside look at this month’s BarkBox for dogs.

As with each month’s dog subscription box from BarkBox, this one included 2 fun toys inspired by the theme, plus 2 full-size bags of dog treats and a tasty meat chew. You can expect a value of $30-$40 worth of dog toys and treats in each month’s BarkBox, for as low as $21/month including Free US Shipping. Read on to see what we thought of our February BarkBox.

Daisy gets the large dog box which is shown in all our BarkBox reviews, but whatever size your dog is, they will get the same number of toys and treats in appropriate sizes. Treats are also customized based on whether you specify food allergies in your dog’s BarkBox profile.

Okay Hot Stuff, we hope you’ll stay for our BarkBox review but if you are just here for the BarkBox coupon, promo code WOOFWOOFMAMA will get you a FREE extra month added to any order of 1-month or more at BarkBox.com/woofwoofmama.

February BarkBox Dog Toys

Bae Rito Dog Toy ($10 retail value) I will snuggle up to a burrito any day of the week! This one is a super adorable dog toy with a special surprise inside.

Hot Stuff Dog Toy ($10 retail value) This spicy toy is a big bottle of hot sauce stuffed with a giant squeaker, some crinkle material, and a t-shirt rope for tugging. He even has a “chewtrition” label on his back!

You can really see how much detail, thought and creativity go into the design of each BarkBox dog toy. Always super cute and unique, the BarkBox folks never fail to surprise and delight us with something new in each month’s box. Not every dog gets the same toys in their BarkBox, so here’s a look at some of the variations. Love is definitely on the menu!

February BarkBox Dog Treats

Simple Pork Cuts Dog Treats ($5 retail value) All-natural and grain-free, made in the USA with a single protein source. Nice size, chewy strips.

Simple Lamb Bites Dog Treats ($5 retail value) Made with only two ingredients: freeze-dried lamb and natural pea protein. These are crunchy little bites that are great as training treats.

Pork Stick for Dogs ($3 retail value) Every BarkBox includes one meaty chew stick each month. This simple pork chew is made in the USA with natural ingredients including Pork, Chickpeas, Pea Flour and Coconut.

Part of what we love about getting BarkBox is the fun little extras that are included to match the theme. This one is an adorable sign you can fill out to pose with your dinner date for a photo. Great for sharing on social media or just for capturing the special memory.

This month’s BarkBox was love at first sight, but if you ever receive a toy or treat that doesn’t make you happy or that isn’t suitable for your dog, know that BarkBox will send you a FREE replacement with no questions asked. You don’t even have to send back the unwanted item. They encourage you to donate or share it, and will send you a replacement more to your dog’s liking! It’s part of their Scout’s Honor Satisfaction Guarantee that comes with every delivery.

BarkBox Cost and Value

By our calculation, this month’s BarkBox had $33 worth of dog toys and  treats if you were to purchase them all separately.

That’s a great value when you consider that subscription prices start at $21/month with free US Shipping. And WAY cheaper than a real spa day!

In addition to saving money, we also love the WOW-factor and excitement of getting a new delivery of surprises each month. It’s a chance to discover new dog treats and toys that we might not have known about otherwise. And the BarkBox toys are really Instagram-worthy, making them the perfect photo props in addition to some amazing and unique dog toys!

Visit BarkBox HERE to learn more and customize a box for your dog!

Always Eat After 7 PM Book Review Wrap Up

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Over the past several weeks, I’ve been trying out the diet plan in the book Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion.

If you missed the previous updates, you can read them here:

I’ve had several weeks to review the book, try out the plan and recipes since receiving my review copy, and overall I’m pleased. The plan is easy to follow and you can eat more carbs than some of my previous diets have allowed. I really enjoyed trying out some new recipes and there are still lots more that I’ve bookmarked. Braised Cuban Flank Steak is next on my list!

I’ve lost about 7 pounds so far which might seem slow to some of you, but is great for me. I find from experience that if I lose weight too quickly, I just put it back on again. I’ve been looking for something that I can stick to long-term. This book includes sample meal plans, menus and food lists along with the recipes, so there is plenty here to keep me going.

What makes this diet different than others is that we’ve been traditionally taught to avoid carbs, have an early dinner, and never eat before bed. But the fact is, the latest scientific research shows us this earlier model is not the most ideal.

In addition to not avoiding all carbs, a couple of things that make the diet do-able are: the overall variety of food choices, and that it doesn’t require eating breakfast (I don’t do breakfast, except for brunch on special occasion).

From the book:

 “Fact is, most diets are extremely narrow with regard to food choices and variety, and many even limit entire macronutrients altogether over the course of the entire program (think low-carb and low-fat diets). Three months with no carbs? No thanks. Such practices not only are entirely unnecessary, but make for a miserable, unsustainable experience.”

and

“Those who ate breakfast ended up eating about 260 calories more a day, the review found. Those who skipped breakfast were about one pound lighter than those who ate breakfast. These findings led the researchers to conclude that eating breakfast isn’t necessarily a good strategy for losing weight. The science isn’t really there. Breakfast could very well be the least important meal of the day.”

The Always Eat After 7 PM plan consists of: The 14-day Acceleration Phase to kick-start the program and see rapid results, The Main Phase where you’ll learn exactly which foods to eat when in order to achieve your weight-loss goals, and The Lifestyle Phase to keep the weight off for good.

 

If you’d like to try it for yourself, Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion is now available to purchase. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.

Can Eating Dessert Help You Lose Weight?

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At first glance, there’s no way something this delicious-looking could be healthy—right? Wrong. It’s one of the recipes from Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight. It’s the new diet book I’m following, and you can get caught up by reading my earlier updates here and here.

Things I love about this rule-breaking diet include the recipe ideas and the easy to follow meal planning. Desserts and even bedtime snacks are included and encouraged!

The No Bake Salted Caramel Bars are one of my favorite treats from the book and are made with some smart and healthy ingredients.

The coconut oil and coconut flour offer a naturally occurring source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of fat that your body can easily absorb and burn as energy, which may aid weight loss, and the pecans add an extra boost of healthy fats, plant-based protein, and fiber. Raw nuts have also been associated with reduced risk of heart disease and even deaths associated with cancer and diabetes. This combination of healthy fats will keep blood sugar at bay before bed (or any time of day), keeping the body in a fat burning environment. The book and recipes have introduced me to some new ingredients, including Swerve, which is a sugar replacement with zero net carbs.

Learning when and what to eat has helped me on the path to achieving my goals to lose some pounds and gain some energy. The most challenging times to curb hunger are just before bed and in the morning. By following the Always Eat After 7PM program, you have the most willpower to stay on the diet because you are eating during the hours when you are most hungry. This also puts you into both intermittent fasting increasing testosterone and your metabolism, while putting you into ketosis.

In addition to the recipes and food lists, the book goes into the science behind eating and dieting. According to the book, “Specific higher-carbohydrate foods (including berries and cherries) support your fat-burning metabolism while you sleep, providing your body with a steady stream of fuel throughout the night. The trick is knowing how to combine them with other evening and pre-bedtime fat-burning foods to fuel your metabolism as you sleep.”

If you want to check it out, Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion is now available to purchase. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.

Author Interview: Always Eat After 7 PM by Joel Marion

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If you missed my earlier post, I’m currently reading ​Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion. I promised to keep you updated, and I’m back with some more info including a Q & A with the author.

I decided to try this rule-breaking diet because I’ve been struggling to lose weight and the plans that worked in the past haven’t been working for me recently. This diet is a really different approach, so I decided to shake things up and give it a shot!

Based on surprising science, Always Eat After 7 PM debunks popular diet myths and offers an easy-to-follow diet that accelerates fat-burning and allows you to indulge in your most intense food cravings. We’ve been traditionally taught to avoid carbs, have an early dinner, and never eat before bed, but the fact is, the latest scientific research shows us this earlier model is not the most ideal. The most challenging times to curb hunger are just before bed and in the morning. By following the Always Eat After 7PM program, you have the most willpower to stay on the diet because you are eating during the hours when you are most hungry. This also puts you into both intermittent fasting increasing testosterone and your metabolism, while putting you into ketosis.

One interesting thing I’ve learned from the book so far is related to thyroid function and why it might be better to eat later in the day than some other diets suggest: “Avoiding carbohydrates and restricting calories later in the day can have an adverse effect on your thyroid hormones, which play a major role in metabolism. When the thyroid fails to secrete enough of the hormones that control metabolism, this can trigger symptoms like fatigue, depression, weight gain, thinning hair, and dry skin.”

Best-selling author and fitness expert, Joel Marion

What inspired you to write the book?
After authoring 6 best selling books it was glaringly obvious there were 2 huge misconceptions about dieting that needed to be exposed. The first is that you can’t eat late at night or before bed, which science now shows is NOT true. And second, you can’t eat large portions that satisfy your natural instinct. This book solves both these problems by providing an evidence-based, enjoyable approach to dieting that can be used by any person to quickly achieve their weight loss goals.

What was the most surprising discovery when you were researching scientific data for the diet?
That almost everything my college education and certifications taught me was NOT grounded in published scientific research.

How difficult is the Always Eat After 7 PM plan to follow?
It’s not. And that’s exactly why I wrote the book. While any diet is never truly easy, it can be more enjoyable and much easier to adhere to when you understand how Always Eat After 7pm works because it caters to our bodies natural instincts.

Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion is now available to purchase. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.

A New Rule-Breaking Diet?

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My usual healthy eating routine has gone out the window with the coronavirus shutdown and stay at home order. I’ve been wanting to start a new diet but find most are too restrictive and kept putting it off til I received a review copy of a new book called Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion. I receive a lot of books to review but the title of this one REALLY caught my attention.

Most diets, at least the ones I’ve tried, say that eating after 6 or 7 is forbidden. Bestselling author, Joel Marion, is a fitness expert and nutritionist debunking the myths underlying traditional dieting and offers a simple, highly effective weight loss program. The author explains in the very first pages of the introduction why you absolutely should rethink eating at night. In the introduction, Joel writes:

“I’m a science geek, so I dug through peer-reviewed journals and databases. I took a deep dive into the research to learn what really happens in our bodies if we eat late at night. I reached out to my circle of contacts in the natural health field—the doctors, scientists, and innovative experts I’ve built relationships with over the years, people who stay on top of the latest research studies and cutting-edge information. I even talked to my bodybuilder friends, who tend to be pretty lean. Even they were eating late at night, they told me, because it helps develop muscle! What I was discovering blew my mind. The research was crystal clear: eating your largest meals at night can actually be the hidden key to losing fat quickly and safely and won’t necessarily make you gain weight. I had to experiment on myself first to see if it would work. Well, the results were nothing short of remarkable. I dropped 12 pounds in under two weeks. My abs were significantly flatter. My cravings for unhealthy food vanished. After 16 weeks on my new plan, I had lost a total of 46 pounds. At my next medical checkup, my doctor was shocked at how good my blood work had gotten, so quickly.”

The introduction was enough to make me want to learn more and try it for myself. Over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be sharing my experiences with the book and diet.

Basically, the Always Eat After 7 PM plan consists of: The 14-day Acceleration Phase to kick-start the program and see rapid results, The Main Phase where you’ll learn exactly which foods to eat when in order to achieve your weight-loss goals, The Lifestyle Phase to keep the weight off for good.

After struggling to get back to a healthier weight for a while now, I’m excited to try something new and hopefully will drop some pounds and increase my energy levels, too. I’ll keep you posted on my progress, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check out this intro video from Joel on his background and what motivated hi to write the book.

Always Eat After 7 PM: The Revolutionary Rule-Breaking Diet That Lets You Enjoy Huge Dinners, Desserts, and Indulgent Snacks—While Burning Fat Overnight by Joel Marion is now available to purchase. Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.