CHOCOLATE and Energy Bar Mix-Up

After work today, I ran a few quick errands. My first stop was Sports Authority to return/exchange a pair of running shorts I bought last Friday. I’ve never worn running shorts and wasn’t sure how they were supposed to fit. So I wanted to try a size down from what I got. Figured out the size I bought was correct but also found out the shorts were on sale this week. So I got the $4 back, but exchanged them for a different color because I also found a purple Nike Dri-Fit tank top, on clearance, that matched a pair of dark brown/black and purple running shorts perfectly! Score!! I’ll write more about my new running outfit in a future post.

My next stop was to head next door to Borders. I wasn’t in search of a good book (although I’m always looking for a good read), but my mission was to find this chocolate:

I can’t take credit for finding this chocolate on my own. I kept reading Eat.Live.Run’s (ELR) blog about her discovery of this chocolate. I’m a huge chocolate lover and she just kept talking about how fantastic it was. Here’s where I first read about it (scroll down). I just had to try, so into Borders I went. Got up to the register and the lady asked me if I found everything and then she realized that I was only buying chocolate. I laughed and excitedly said YES!! She got a good chuckle out of it!

My review…I totally agree with ELR. It’s delicious, smooth, and melts in your mouth! At the end of the bite, it's like small salt crystals materialize and a small hint of salt hits the taste buds. I looked at the chocolate closely but couldn't see any granules of salt, magic? Ha! I'm not a big fan of salt in my sweets, but I think it works well with this chocolate bar.

My last stop was to the Vitamin Shoppe. I was looking to try the Amazing Grass Chocolate Whole Food Energy Bar. Again, I heard about these on ELR’s blog. They are all natural. When I went into the store I was a bit unprepared. I thought the name of the company was “Organic Green Superfood” and it wasn’t. What I figured out is that this is language that some natural food companies use (from what I gather anyways). I am just learning about all this natural food stuff. Long story short, I walked out with these:


I had a feeling they weren’t what I was looking for. I was right. I debated on whether I should keep them and give them a try, but after looking up their website and comparing them to the Amazing Grass website, I decided to return them (I called and the Vitamin Shoppe does refund unopened products). My reasoning....Amazing Grass had organizations (USDA, COOP America, Natural Products Association) accrediting/supporting their product. I couldn’t find anything on the other website. I’m not saying one is better than the other because I really don’t know. I had to go with my gut. Also, I’m not a energy bar fan, meaning I haven’t found any that I like, but this is recommended. I’d like to give it a try to see if they are tasty. If they are, I plan to only purchase them for when I travel or am away from home for long periods of time and need a healthy snack. I’m still in search of the energy bars…will provide my review at that time!


7/15 Meals/Workout

Meal 1: bowl of Special K protein plus, hardboiled egg, ½ mug English Breakfast tea
Meal 2: Tri-color chickpea salad with Kashi multi-grain crackers, 2 tbsp of peanut butter
Snack: plum
Meal 3: 4 hard tacos (only lettuce and cheese), glass of skim milk
Snack: glass of Sauvignon Blanc and 2 squares of Lindt Dark Chocolate

Workout:
10 minutes warm-up on Arc Trainer
Quads
1 set of obliques
20 minutes on Arc Trainer (Cardio program, level 6)
Stretch
Week 4/Day 2 onehundredpushups