Nuun Hydration Review + Giveaway [closed]

   I have a problem with hydration. Simply put: I forget to drink. I know how stupid that sounds, honestly I do, but it's one of my worst habits. I used to run to the toilet a lot and it got quite annoying, so I started drinking less and less to the point that I would have two, maybe three 200ml drinks - tea, water, juice, whatever - a day, and when you're working out as much as I do, that's going to cost you big time. In fact, if you're not properly hydrated your body isn't going to work very well, and that alone can hinder the entire weightloss process, believe it or not.

   I've been forcing myself to drink more now, though, and branch out beyond tea. The trouble is that I've never really liked water. It doesn't taste great - at least not the water around here, it's quite 'hard', too - and that doesn't really encourage me. Squash has a funny nauseating effect on me, and juice can be quite sugary, natural or not. So water is the only other option from tea, really.

   But I came across nuun the other day - you may already have heard of it, because for the last 10 years it's been used by top athletes for its brilliant hydration boost, and after trying them myself, it's already very easy for me to see why.

   First, though, I'll tell you what nuun is: it's a hydration tab, and it's filled with electrolytes - calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium - and these nutrients help to increase your fluid uptake and quite effectively prevent cramping. They're very simply designed: each full 1 inch solid tablet is intended to be dropped into 500ml (a typical water bottle) of water, where it will completely dissolve in a couple of minutes and enrich the water. The tabs have been specifically formulated to work with that particular volume of water, but the tabs can be broken in half along the indent for 250ml instead. They work alongside the water, not instead of it, and so there are no minimum or maximum you should take a day, as long as the water level is as it should be for the size of the tab (full or half).

   As well as improved hydration, nuun also addresses the taste issue. The tabs come in 10 different flavours, all natural, and contain natural colourings, too - beet juice for red, riboflavin for yellow. These make the water more inviting and easier to drink.

   Now, I've been using these nuun tabs since I started this month's workout on the 6th, and I tell you I've been feeling great. Truly great! I'm sweating buckets because this workout is so good, but nuun is helping me to replenish that lost moisture, and I've been feeling really, really great because of it.

   Nuun contains no sugar and no carbohydrates, because while energy needs are based on effort and activity, hydration is based on temperature and starting-hydration levels. Fixed carb:fluid ratios can be really hard on your stomach as a result, so nuun focuses only on hydration, leaving you to power up however you prefer - bars, gels, shots, whatever.

   Nuun does contain 8 calories per full tab, but this comes from the ingredients that cause them to dissolve, and those 8 calories are easily shed while working out.

   Nuun really does taste great, and the colour is an added bonus (who doesn't love a splash of colour while working out?), and the packaging for the tabs is quite efficient and wasteless - not to mention cute. I never thought I'd see such a pretty venn diagram.

   Out of those that I've tried, strawberry lemonade is my favourite - so much so that I went back to nuun and bought another tube and another waterbottle in order to set up a giveaway! I truly, truly love nuun, and given that their prices are so agreeable I am really pleased to be able to make them a part of my permanent workout set-up!

   Tubes of 12 nuun tabs cost £6 with £1.50 shipping, or free shipping on orders of £15 or more. They have a UK shop and a US shop. There are 10 flavours, and 3 contain caffine (lemon tea, kona-cola and cherry limeade), flavour, flavour). They can be purchased individually, in packs of 4, or in packs of 4 mixed flavours. The water bottle costs £5, and shipping is still £1.50.

Winner has been notified; Prize has been accepted and is now on its way to the US

  This giveaway is open internationally until October 31st. Enter below with the Rafflecopter widget below to win a tube of 12 strawberry lemonade tabs and a 500ml nuun waterbottle. Full terms and conditions are stated at the bottom of this post. The winner will be chosen on November 1st using Rafflecopter's randomising service and they'll be notified directly via the email address used with Rafflecopter. Once the winner has accepted their prize and given me their address, this blog post will announce that a winner has been chosen. No names will be given publicly due to negative experiences in the past. This giveaway is being run based on my personal experience, and the prize is both purchased and sent at my own expense. The winning entry will be double-checked.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway open internationally and closes on 31st October 2014. Winner will be chosen at random through Rafflecopter the following day, and contacted directly by the email address used on Rafflecopter. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to the email. If the winner fails to respond to the email within that time frame, a new winner will be chosen and the original winner notified that their time to accept the prize has expired. Prizes are sent at my own expense from the UK, and so if the winner is overseas it can take a couple of weeks to reach their destination.