There's barely a week goes by that a new fad or diet or type of food is featured in the media as the answer to all of your health and fitness problems.  

I've been in this business for nearly 19 years and have a good eye for when something is actually worthwhile.  We don't get influenced by fads, potions or crazy diets that promise unbelievable results.

We stick with the basics that we know work and we never promote or suggest anything that we haven't tried ourselves successfully.  As a result our members bring in articles for us to check out for them and also to show that the stuff we've been telling them is going mainstream.

That's good because then they don't feel like they are doing something weird or special when their friends question them.

This month in Women's Health magazine they are featuring the top 10 Greens Drinks, our favourite one www.getleanwithgreens.com is featured as "The Bloat Banisher".

Fran and I helped out on the www.getleanwithgreens.com stand at the recent London Bike and Triathlon Show.  Over the weekend we talk to hundreds of people about the benefits of greens drinks and in particular why we like the one we were promoting.  Taste is a major factor in that.

We started using greens drinks personally about 7 years ago, when we first realised we may have fertility issues.  We booked in with a nutritionist in South Wales and travelled down to have our blood microscopy looked at.

One of the suggestions was to follow a more alkaline diet, something that will become popular in the media over the coming months, and to top up our nutrition with a greens drink.

The first one we tried was amazing in quality and ingredients but tasted like crap.  We drank it because we knew it was adding to our health points.  That one stopped being stocked, so we imported a few from the states, I didn't think it was possible for something to tastes so bad and be good for your health.

We were both standing at the sink one morning preparing to do a shot and the subsequent gag, when Fran declared she wasn't going to do it.  She didn't want to feel that way every morning and associate those feelings with food.

It was expensive, around £80 after import taxes etc, so I didn't want to waste it.  I finished the tub but it took me about 3 weeks rather than the 10 days it should have.  I told you it was expensive, £80 for a 14 day supply.

We tried some others and eventually found a few that we rotated between as the taste wasn't that bad.

When we were sent some www.getleanwithgreens.com to try we were really surprised, it tasted pretty neutral and if anything pretty nice too.  I spoke with the guys who developed it about ingredients etc and was seriously impressed.  They explained that they developed it with taste in mind.

They wanted people to make it part of their daily health routine, rather than gagging at the sink like we did originally.

A greens drink is a good back up plan, a way of getting some good quality green veggies and grasses in to your body.  It should never be used as a replacement, only a supplement in the truest meaning of the word - to supplement and already good diet.

Although, if you have been reading my emails for a while you will know that I use a greens drink as a hangover reduction scheme too :)

Check out the article if you are in the supermarket or look at their website www.getleanwithgreens.com

Darren 'Hulk' Checkley

P.S.  Today's Daily Lent Challenge - A couple of easy days have gone by so we can step it up again today.

10 minutes - As Many Rounds As Possible of

10 Burpees

10 Squats

10 Press Ups

10 Left Leg Static Lunges

10 Spider-Man Lunges

10 Right Leg Static Lunges