Hemp Milk

This has recently come out in Waitrose supermarkets chain & health food stores, so as it was on offer I thought I'd get hold of some just to see what it was like.  First off it's not as high in protein as a soya milk (about half), so if you are desperate for protein this may not be for you, but it's still a reasonable source for most people.  On the plus side it does have some very healthy fats in it naturally & does taste quite nice (250ml gives you half the recommended daily omega 3 fatty acids!).  It is fairly sweet, not sickly sweet, but as I tend to drink unsweetened soya milk you notice the difference.  It works well on cereal & does ok in hot drinks.  I've not used it for cooking.
I found the taste pretty good with a kind of nutty taste.  You can drink it for the carton if you like without it needing to be flavoured, it doesn't have any bad after tastes.
The fat content may look higher than say soya milk (nearer the amounts found in whole milk), but this fat is Essential fatty acids (EFAs) & so they will likely be used for cell creation, repair & other metabolic processes so it should not stored as body fat.  This can be a useful additional source of health fats.
Personally I can down a litre no problems.  Certainly any athlete wanting to add muscle mass will need enough EFAs to build those extra muscle cells & this can be a convenient source of those fats, a reasonable protein source & less carbs than cows milk (around half - a bit more than unsweetened soya milk, but much less than either whole or skimmed cows milk).  If you're not interested in added muscle mass everyone still needs EFAs for maximum health, so adding this drink can really benefit anyone, especially if you've not been taking care of your EFA intake before (or don't like flax, hemp seeds or walnuts for example).
I'd try it if you can get hold of it as it could be a useful tool in your nutritional arsenal.

For more details go to Good Hemp Milk

Zen Physio Deep massage device

I've just started using using this new tool.  It's pretty heavy duty massage machine that I use for just a quick going over of tight areas (I'm a qualified massage therapist, so it's useful to add to my bag of  tricks).  You obviously have to have some idea when this is suitable to use.  It's especially good if you've got just some tight muscles (say you slept at an odd angle, tightened up from sitting for ages or have areas that naturally tighten up like the back etc).  The infra-red is quite subtle so don't expect a massive heating of the area (approx the same heating feeling as you'd get from a 1MHz ultra sound device I'd say).
Some people find it a little too vigorous especially over the organs, but others find it pretty handy for loosing them up a bit.  Basically if you like a harder style of massage you'll like this, if you like the softer approach then this may not be for you.
For the strength athlete it's role is to aid the relaxation of tight muscles, help reduce or improve DOMS.  Obviously do not use on any muscle that is damaged by an injury, so don't us on bruised or cut areas, or anywhere you suspect might be a muscle tear as it really won't help.  Do not use directly on bones either stick to soft tissue areas (although the exception is you can run it over the scapulae [shoulder blades] with no ill effect).
Who would I recommend it for?  Well anyone who gets tight muscles.  A massage will work better, but most of us can't afford a daily massage, but they can afford to use this daily if necessary.  With it's long handle & cable you can use it on your own.

 

Finally I didn't get anything for putting this up.  I bought the device & after using it for a while on both myself & other people thought some of you might find a review helpful.  There are a lot of similar devices out there, that I'm sure work just as well, but this one is certainly one I think could be useful.