Product Review: 22 Days Nutrition Bars

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Coco

I’m not sure where I first heard of 22 Days Nutrition Bars, but for some reason I “liked” them on Facebook and happened to see a special offer for a free “Power Pack” with four of their nutrition bars. I was disappointed that I still had to pay for shipping, but I figured it would be worth it to try a new product and maybe even have something to write about on my blog. 😉

I was looking forward to trying their bars, which they describe as “deliciously organic, vegetarian, gluten, soy and dairy free.” The package arrived promptly (yay for good customer service!) and included these four flavors:

Cherry Chocolate Bliss
Nut Butter Buddha
Daily Mocha Mantra
Enlightened pumpkin Seed

Each bar has about 220 calories (230 for the Chocolate Cherry Bliss), 12 or 13 g fat, 4 or 5 g fiber, and 10 or 11 g protein (except for the Chocolate Cherry Bliss, which only has 6 g protein). You can see the full nutrition information on the 22DaysNutrition website.

I tried the Cherry Chocolate Bliss first, and it is definitely my favorite. The Daily Mocha Mantra is probably my least favorite, but I decided that’s because I just am not a mocha fan–I love chocolate and I love coffee, but I don’t like the flavors blended together! The other two flavors were pretty good, but not as delicious as the Cherry Chocolate Bliss.

The one thing that holds me back from buying more is the price: $35.88 + $7.99 shipping for a full case of 12 bars. That works out to about $3.65 per bar. Yikes!

I do like them though, so I will keep watching their Facebook page for special offers!

Have you tried the 22 Days Nutrition Bars?

Do you have a price point that is “too much” for a nutrition bar?

Posted in Food, Product Reviews | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Tuesday Treadmill Workout: Repeats

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Coco

Last week I was not in the mood for yet another humid run before work. I was tired, and my first thought was that I would just take a walk. As I was getting dressed, I decided to do a solid workout on the elliptical, but by the time I had picked out my workout clothes, I had decided to hop on the treadmill.

I didn’t really have a specific workout in mind, but this is what I came up with:

Treadmill Workout–Repeats
0-5 min: walking warm-up @ 3.7 mph
5-10 min: running warm-up @ 5.7 mph
10-15 min: running warm-up @ 6.0 mph
15-20 min: running warm-up @ 6.3 mph
20-50 min: five sets of repeats: 5 min @ 6.7 mph/1 min @ 6.0 mph
50-52 min: running cool-down @ 5.7 mph
52-55 min: walking cool-down @ 3.7 mph

It was a good workout. For the last repeat I actually did 2 min at 7.0 mph and I think that’s where my next speed workout needs to be–especially if I want to track an 8:30 pace for the Army Ten Miler in October!

Do you have a race coming up?

How far in advance do you start training?

Posted in Fitness, Treadmill Workouts | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Product Review & Giveaway: Attune Probiotic Bars & Uncle Sam Cereal

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Coco

I first discovered Attune Probiotic Bars a few years ago, when I spotted them by the yogurt at my grocery store.

Rich, Dark Probiotic Chocolate Bars Infused with Essential Probiotic Yogurt Cultures

As decsribed on the Attune Foods website, each bar “delivers 6.1 billion CFUs of clinically supported strains of probiotics in tasty, natural and certified gluten free chocolate bars.” Of course, the dark chocolate is my favorite:

A truly healthy pleasure of smooth, antioxidant-rich dark chocolate with 68% cocoa content. Delicious, dairy-free, probiotic chocolate.

One 20g bar has 80 calories, 6 g fat and 30% of the recommended daily allowance for calcium. Most importantly, it’s chocolate I can feel good about! (I hope no one has trademarked that phrase for a different prodcut!)

The problem is, I have not been able to find the Attune Probiotic Bars in a long time, and a store locator search on the Attune Foods website confirmed what my unsuccesful trips to various grocery stores had told me: they really are hard to find around here. When I was whinng about this on Twitter, someone (@workoutmommy? @AttuneFoods? @DrugStoreDotCom?) pointed out that I could order them online from DrugStore.com. After the first shipment got melted on the UPS truck (thank you DrugStore.com for your amazingly prompt customer service!), I received a case in good condition. I shared some with friends at work and have the rest stored safely in my fridge.  I try to remember to pack one in my lunch bag every day, because they are the perfect pick-me-up to get me through that mid-afternoon slump!

I was Tweeting with @AttuneFoods about all this, and they sent me some coupons to try their products. Since I already had ordered the Attune Probiotic Bars, I decided to try some cereal. Attune Foods has other interesting products, like chocolate granola

attune Chocolate Münch Probiotic Granola

and graham crackers

New Morning Organic Honey Grahams

but I haven’t seen them in any stores.

This giveaway has ended!

I still have a coupon left for one free Attune Foods item, and I’d like to give it to a reader who has not tried any of the Attune Foods products yet. Since I’m giving away my own coupon, the entry rules are easy:

  1. Leave a comment and let me know what Attune Foods products you have seen (but not tried!) at your grocery store.
  2. Send this Tweet and leave a comment saying that you did:

Check out the @AttuneFoods coupon giveaway @Got2Run4Me http://wp.me/p131gw-BJ

One comment per entry, up to two entries per person. A winner will be selected from comment/entries received by midnight on August 14, 2011.

**FTC Notice** Attune Foods sent me coupons to try their products, with no obligation to write a review, blog, or Tweet about them. The review here reflects my own personal opinion of these products.

Posted in Food, Product Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

This Is My Prayer

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Coco

Romans 8:26 reminds me that I can still pray when I don’t know how to put my prayer into words:

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Today, this is my prayer:

The knot in my stomach–Lord, this is my prayer.
The jolt of adrenaline–Lord, this is my prayer.
The loss of my appetite–Lord, this is my prayer.
The tears welling up–Lord, this is my prayer.

I offer all of this up to you, Lord,
And pray that “Thy will be done.”
I offer all of this up to you, Lord,
and wait for Your Peace–which passes all understanding–
to envelop me and the one I pray for in Your Loving Care.

Amen.

Posted in My Faith | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Geographically Challenged

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Coco

I have a pretty good sense of direction–better than my husband at least–but Arlington, Virginia always confuses me. There is a 16th Street and a 16th Road and they are not related. You could be on 16th Street, drive straight through an intersection, and be on a different road altogether. The roads twist and turn, end suddenly and begin again a few blocks over–it is just not a place you can navigavte by feel.

When my friend and I made plans to meet up for a run this weekend, I thought we should meet at her house in Falls Church and run along the Nelly Custis trail to get some hill work in. I thought we could pick up the course that I ran for the July 4th Go Fourth 8K, which started at Bluemont Park and then picked up the Nelly Custis trail for some shady hills.

 I got to my friend’s house a bit before 6:00 and we headed out. We cut through the back of the park and picked up a running/biking path, and then followed signs to the Nelly Custis trail. After a brief segment, the trail ended at a neighborhood street!

Clearly we had taken a wrong turn, but how? My friend figured that we had cut over to Nelly Custis too soon, so we ran along some neighborhood roads, trying to keep heading in the right direction. We reached an overpass and saw a path below us, so we cut through another neighborhood to get there. After a little while, the path looked familiar. We were approaching Bluemont Park!

It turns out, the park in her neighborhood is Banneker Park, not Bluemont!

Bluemont … Banneker … now I know the difference!

We picked up the course I had intended, and got in a few more hills. We weren’t sure how far it would be to run straight back to her house, so we turned around at mile 4.  We got back to Banneker Park at about mile 6, and added a loop so we hit 7 miles by the time we got back to her street.

It was a bit more of an adventure than we had planned on, but it was all good. The detours didn’t really impact our pace, although the humidity and hills took a toll.

Garmin Data
Total Distance: 7 miles
Total Time: 1:05:30
Averae Pace: 9:22 min/mile
Split Times: 9:23, 8:57, 8:55, 9:24, 9:31, 9:21, 9:55
(I was definitely feeling wiped out and whiny during that last mile!)

Have you ever gotten “lost” on a run?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments