Running With Perseverance

There’s a blog post I intend to write about health/fitness trends that I’m not following. If I’d written that post a few months ago, it would have included two things that have become a core part of my health/fitness routine:

(1) Yoga. If you’ve read any of my training log posts or injury recovery posts, you already know that I am hooked on Rodney Yee. His A.M. Yoga for Your Week DVD is a part of my weekly routine, and some weeks I’ve even done it more than once.

It took me a while to get on the yoga bandwagon, though. I’ve been running since 2011 and always heard that yoga was good for runners, but yoga was never appealing to my Type A, pound-it-out, work-up-a-sweat exercise preferences. I do have an old Beth Shaw yoga VHS tape that I picked up somewhere along the way.

It’s a good program too, and more challenging than my Rodney Yee DVD, with a downward dog/plank/cobra sequence that my arms always remember the next day. (You can check it out via my Amazon affiliate link here.) I did try another yoga program that missed the mark, so I’m not a complete yoga pushover yet.

(2) Greek yogurt. My “IRL” friends, Facebook friends, and Twitter friends all rave about Greek yogurt. While there was a time a few years ago that I liked it, I haven’t liked it recently. I even bought some a few months ago to try it again, and still didn’t like the heavy, goopy consistency. Then, a few weeks ago my Twitterverse exploded with raves about Chobani® Greek yogurt. I resisted, and even admitted that I don’t like Greek yogurt–the blasphemy! My tipping point came when Chobani® had a giveaway promotion. I responded to the offer, admitted my need for “conversion,” and figured out that if I really didn’t like it, my husband would eat it.  

As much as I wasn’t counting out enjoying the product, I was excited when my sample case arrived (so excited I forgot to take a picture–oops!). I had requested a variety of flavors, so we got to sample many of the different non-fat and low-fat varieties. I think my favorite is the Non-Fat Black Cherry. I liked the Lemon too, and am planning a stealth dessert where I use it as the filling for a lemon cream pie. (Shh!) My husband liked the 2% Mango and 2% Pineapple the best. My son liked the 2% Strawberry Banana after I convinced him that it was yummy–he is always wary of new “healthy” products.

At first I was less than thrilled with the nutrition information. The (about) 150 calories in each cup is higher than the 100 calories I am used to in my plain, non-fat yogurt or in the non-fat Yoplait® yogurt cups I sometimes buy. But then I saw that the Chobani® greek yogurt has twice as much protein as my plain yogurt (13-14 g), and even more protein than 2 eggs (which have about 6g protein each)! This makes the Chobani® greek yogurt very satisfying and filling. The consistency is still a bit of an issue for me, but the flavored Chobani® greek yogurt is not quite as thick as the plain flavor–especially the varieties with the mix-in fruit–and probably something I will get used to.

When I did my grocery shopping today, I stocked up on these flavors:

We probably won’t eat all of these this week, but it would be a shame to run out of such a healthy, delicious snack food.

Have you tried Chobani® greek yogurt? (You can print out coupons on their website!)

Is there a healthy trend that you are resisting or that you know you don’t like?