The following is a sponsored post:

Many, many Icrontians have gotten on the fitness bandwagon in the last several years. From weight loss and bodybuilding to training for competitions like the Tough Mudder and various triathlons, the Icrontic family has been through a lot of fitness adventures, and we’ve shared our struggles and journeys with each other to the point where we now have an active dedicated fitness discussion forum.

A Michigan-based company called Proven 4 reached out to me last week and wanted to work with Icrontic by sponsoring the discussion forums. They sent a sample of their products for us to test out and write about.

So for the next week, the Icrontic community gets an ad-free experience thanks to the support of Proven 4 and we get to try out some health and nutrition supplements here at ICHQ.

We’ll start off by showing what they sent along:

One of the things that sets Proven4 apart from other supplement manufacturers is the care they take to ensure that the supplements they ship are consistently high-quality, and that the consumer knows exactly what they’re getting. For their Proven4Sport line, they have even gone out of the way to achieve NSF certification. NSF Certified ensures that the product is not only consistently produced in a safe environment, but also that it is usable for professional sports as it is certified Banned Substance free. They are mentored by an FDA compliant pharmaceutical facility as well. I’ve actually met some of the people involved with Proven 4 and I can personally attest that they don’t screw around with this stuff. They are obsessed with purity and quality of product.

Proven4 has three product families: Proven4Health, which is a line of vitamins and supplements for your whole family, from children’s chewable multivitamins to senior wellness supplements, Proven4Sport, their normal line of sports and performance supplements, and Proven4Sport NSF Certified, their professional product line.

I’ll be taking the Vitamin C supplement as well as two of the energy caps a day for the next week and at the end of the week I’ll let you know if I feel they’ve made a difference

Since I’m on the standard ketogenic diet right now, I’m pretty conscientious about the stuff I’m putting in my body, and since I’ve met some of the people involved with Proven 4 I feel confident that they wouldn’t give me something that they themselves wouldn’t take. The ingredients of these caps are as follows: Vitamin B-12, Green Tea Extract, Raspberry Ketone, Rhodiola Rosea Extract and Caffeine.

My 14 year old son is also going to be participating by taking the energy drink formula in the morning before school. He’s a very athletic, very in-shape teenager who nonetheless has trouble staying awake in first hour. He’s hoping that a glass of this in the morning will kickstart his day a little bit.

From the dad perspective, I’m okay with this. It’s about the same caffeine as a cup of coffee, and has a lot less sugar than, say, an off-the-shelf store-bought super-sugary energy drink. On top of that, it’s got things such as vitamin A, C, E, B6, B12, Riboflavin, Niacin and L-Tyrosine. He tried it the other night and said it didn’t taste amazingly good but it was “good enough” for him to drink one a morning. I tried a sip and agreed with him. Stirring with a spoon didn’t allow it to dissolve extremely well, but once I put it into a bottle and shook it up aggressively, it dissolved perfectly.

Last we’ll also be taking Vitamin C supplements:

Vitamin C is obviously an important vitamin; since I’m on a very strict carb intake, things like citrus and fruit juice are out of my diet completely; therefore the chance to supplement my Vitamin C with these is a welcome addition to my daily routine.

The children’s chewables will be taken by my 12-year-old son who absolutely cannot stand swallowing pills. This works out well. I tried one and they taste sweeter and far less metallic than the big name brand children’s chewables (probably because they don’t have iron). I could see these being very easy to give to younger kids because honestly, they taste like candy.

As a bonus to the Icrontic community, Proven4 has agreed to make available six bottles of their Energy Caps (120 count, $29.99 MSRP) to be given to lucky Icrontians. To be eligible, all you need to do is go to the Proven 4 free energy cap sample page and sign up for a free sample. Once you do that, comment here and you’ll have an entry into the random drawing. As a bonus, those who share this post with Twitter, G+, Facebook, or other social network are also going to get a second entry. If you share it, let us know. At the end of the week we’ll randomly pick six winners to send a full bottle to.

So there’s the lineup. We’d like to thank Proven 4 for sponsoring the site for the week (full disclosure here) and look forward to our experience with their products!