We decided to have a ‘tourist in our own city’ day and used Lay’s Chip Trips for the Paul’s Boatlines Cruise of the Rideau Canal.  I have lived here (almost) my whole life and I have not been since the mid ’80s.  Hubby has lived here his whole life and never taken the tour.  So that was settled.

I cashed in some Lay’s Chip Trips for a two for one coupon and we headed downtown.  We thought we picked a perfectly cool day and even brought sweaters for the kids, but Mother Nature has been playing havoc on us this summer and we were melting before we left the docks.

We travel Colonel By Drive all the time, but for this ride we got to see it from the water, so lovely and so green this year.

Our tour guide was funny and resourceful and we met some very nice folks from New York, so it really was like being a tourist in our own city. We passed this beautiful walking bridge and J yelled, “Hey that is where we skate in the Winter!”  to which we replied, “we skate down this whole canal.”  J was so amused and thought it was pretty cool that we were now boating on the same place that we usually only skate.

The cruise down the canal took just over an hour and we were hot and hungry so we had a lovely brunch on the Market.

Whether you are playing tourist in your own city or taking a trip somewhere else in Canada, Lay’s Chip Trips has a large variety of discounts available for you to use. It’s not too late to sign up and enjoy the benefits.

Disclosure I am participating in the Lay’s Chip Trips program by Mom Central on behalf of Frito Lay and PepsiCo. I received Lay’s Chip Trip points and a gift card to offset my trip costs to facilitate this post. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Not sure about all of you, but when we go on vacation we not only enjoy our favorite beach and the wonderful ocean, but we also enjoy all our favorite treats.  And by treats I mean we had two weeks of all our favorite foods and then some.  We ate pizza, ice cream, frozen yogurt, beer, french fries, chocolate, chips … and the list could go on and on and on…

I also realized this year that when you walk with small children that aren’t in a stroller you don’t burn off as many calories as you do when you can walk as fast as you want.  Apparently our years of walking the boards fast and burning off all our treats are gone for now.

When we returned home, I was not happy with myself at all.  I hate to admit it, but I was feeling a little chubby and after working so hard all Spring to decrease the chub I was pretty mad. The good news is that I had been chosen to participate in the Mom Central Under-Way blog tour.  Mom Central seems to know what I need when I need it and a week after coming home from the beach a box arrived at the door.

In it were samples of the underWAY supplement drink.  I was quite excited to try these out as they are infused with HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins, works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. And boy did I need help suppressing my appetite.  In two short weeks I became very accustom to extra snacks, well extra, ha,  I snacked pretty much all day long. underWay is great!  I received four bottles of grape and four of acai-pomegranate and you wouldn’t know by taste that they were healthy supplement drinks. At just 20 calories per bottle I didn’t mind having a bottle in between my glasses of water.  And since they are great for rehydration I made sure to have one after my run.

Here are a few extra benefits of underWay drinks:

• there are no preservatives, sodium or caffeine
• one serving delivers almost a third of your daily recommended intake of fibre
• only has 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8oz serving (each bottle is two servings)

In addition to the eight bottles of underWay, I also received a case of samples of Smart for Life products.  There were cookies, cupcakes, crunch, cereal, soup, bagels and shakes.  And WOW!  I was only asked to try the product and let you know what I thought.   But, I went one step further.  In my case I had enough product for five days of the Smart for Life Cookie Diet so I decided to give it a try and see what the results would be. In five days I lost 7lbs.

Now, I know that a couple (ok three) of those pounds were from the beach but the other four were ones that I wanted gone before I left for the beach. But, that was enough for me to tell that it is certainly worth a try.  In addition to losing 7lbs, I felt fantastic.  I chose to not be too strict on myself for my dinners, so I ate the Smart for Life products (with lots of water) all day long as directed then I ate dinner with the family.  I tried not to eat many carbs but didn’t make it super strict. Fabulous.  The cookies and cupcakes were great, they are moist and tasty and I was totally surprised.  So surprised that I went to Costco on Saturday and bought a case of cookies and a case of drinks so I could keep it up for the next week and see what happened.  Either way they are a great meal replacement or low-calorie dessert at only 90 calories for a cookie or muffin.

And as an added bonus, I get to give TEN of my readers a case, courtesy of Mom Central,  just like the one I received (which apparently I forgot to take a picture of) so you too could try out underWAY and Smart for Life.  All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me why you would like to try underWAY or Smart for Life products and you will be entered to win. Contest open to Canadian residents only (sorry to my friends from the South).Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest. Contest closes August 4th.

Disclosure – I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation.  The opinions on this blog are my own.