Oh Yeah! One Bars = Life!

If you are looking for a protein bar that is delicious as well as helping hit your macros then look no further!  Behold!  The Oh Yeah! One protein bar!  Now don’t get confused, these are not low calorie or super low in fat for that manner.  You have to be conscious of how you make them fit in your day.  But with 21 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber and the fact that they don’t taste like compressed saw dust you are going to want to make them fit.

I have taken it upon myself to try and try all the flavors; peanut butter pie, chocolate chip cookie dough, birthday cake, lemon cake, cookies and cream, chocolate brownie, white chocolate raspberry, almond bliss, and mint chocolate chip.  The only one that I have yet to get my mitts on is the mint chocolate chip and I got a lead on where they are locally.  I have not experience a flavor that I thought was gross.  I would eat anyone of these flavors without hesitation.  My favorites so far are: chocolate brownie, almond bliss, and peanut butter pie.  The almond bliss tastes almost identical to an almond joy!!  But do take note it has 1 more gram of fat, presumably because it has two real almonds on top.

I ordered myself a variety pack off of Amazon because I am incredibly lazy and wanted to come home to a surprise one day.  But now that I have tried them I wanted to find a local source.  Super Supplements off Coburg Road had a pretty good variety and I hear Max Muscle on Franklin Blvd. also carries them (that’s where I hear the mint ones are).

These honestly taste like candy bars.  And beings that I haven’t had a full size candy bar in months it is amazing to experience.  If you are tired of other protein bars, make sure you scoop some of these bad boys up.  You can thank me later.

Meal management bags.

Meal management bags.  Are they worth the hype?  If you aren’t sure what a meal management bag is, take a second and use the Google machine.  There are a variety of brands and styles out there.  Basically they are a fancy lunch box (meal box because you will use them for more than just lunch).  I have seen from a very basic utilitarian lunch box style to duffle bag to back pack to fancy looking purse.  Another thing you will most likely notice when you Google this item is the price….yowch!  So that brings us back to the question, are meal management bags worth it?

I can’t vouch for all of them on the market.  As with all things I am sure some are better than others, but I have personally used the 6 pack bags.  You will find they are one of the more popular bags out there that come up in your internet searches.  I have the backpack style and I love it!  It keeps my food very cold all day and I have space in the backpack to bring other things with me, like gym clothes for after work.  It simplifies my crazy life on the go because I can pack food to bring with me on my errands and ensure that I have acceptable food that fits within my macros within my reach at all times.  I don’t know about you but if I get hungry and start to devour everything.  Usually the fattier and sugary the better.  This bag as seriously saved my tail so many times because I was able to scarf down a cottage cheese before heading into the next store.

Are these bags large?  Yes.  But I am not sure how you would expect to fit almost a whole day’s worth of food into a small bag.  The backpack I have is meant to pack several meals in.  It holds everything nicely in its own little shelf compartment and has a zipper pouch for the utensils.  The ice packs that come with the bag are fairly thin and I haven’t had any issue with them not staying frozen long enough.  I am not sure what type of voodoo magic the company used in the meal compartment but my food stays colder, longer, than any other lunch box I have used in the past.

If you are interested in picking up one of these bad boys may I suggest checking Ebay first.  That is where I got my bag from.  It is used but looked brand new.  The girl was selling it because it was simply too large for her.  I got it for nearly half the price!

Do you have a meal management bag?  What do you love or hate about it?

Drink Your Water!

I am told to make sure I am drinking enough water.  If only it was as easy as simply drinking water.  But the amount of water I want to drink is absurdly little and the amount of water Mike wants me to drink is absurdly more than that.  Here are some little quirks I have learned about myself: I drink more water when there is a straw or a narrow opening.  I hate getting splashed in the face by water sloshing out of the cup exuberantly.  Also, I like my water to be frosty cold.  I can drink water at other temperatures but I definitely do NOT want to! 

I like the straw cups and such but the problem is they don’t stay super cold for that long.  Someone recently showed me an amazing real life testimony on the HydroFlask.  She had one full of ice and mentioned she put too much ice in it.  I was like nah that will thaw, mine always do.  The next day she tells me she left her HydroFlask over night to do her sales pitch.  She opened the bottle and it was still almost full of ice.  Say whaaaat?!  This makes me very excited.  And the HydroFlask has options for straw and flip top sipper lids!  I also like the fact that they tell you the lids besides the standard are not water tight.  Meaning if you toss it haphazardly into the car seat it will leak.  I can’t tell you how many times I have gambled on a water bottle and made the wrong choice and ended up with a puddle somewhere in my car.  Here are a few more pros; they have a variety of sizes.  They can be used for hot and cold beverages.  They have a pretty good assortment of colors too!  The only down side to them are the price and maybe the weight.  These babies are spendy, yes, but worth every penny.  I got the second largest one I could find.  It holds 40 ounces of water and keeps it ice cold, even when I leave it in the hot car while I am doing errands.

So now I drag my HydroFlask with me everywhere.  I have learned to work within my quirks and drink more water.  Cheers!

The Beast

Cardio.  That blasted thing that makes you so sweaty and feel like death.  Some people love cardio and that’s where they leave their focus.  Either too intimidated or too content to wander into the weight section of the gym.  There should be a balance in both worlds but a lot of people who lift do not like cardio and a lot of “cardio bunnies” do not lift.  It isn’t a rule but it is a pretty accurate assumption.

Prepping for a show there is a lot more cardio in my life then there was before.  I need to do high intensity things to really get my heart rate up and my sweat on; burn all the fat I can.  I have done the sprints on the treadmill in Tabata rounds and I have also done the “stair climber” or step-mill.  The step-mill is a vile beast who can never be conquered.  Prior to my increased amount of cardio, I couldn’t make it long on this torture device.  Five minutes at eight speed and I was bailing, convinced my legs where going to disconnect from their sockets.

Fast forward to today and I will choose the step-mill over running sprints on the treadmill.  Why is this if it’s so horrible?
1.    Because it IS so horrible.  It works super effectively at getting that heart rate up and the sweat downpour going.
2.    Sprinting sucks.  Sprinting on a treadmill is even worse.
3.    I am lazy and the step-mill “seems” like less work.  It isn’t less work.  It still sucks.

Now here is the secret to staying ON the step-mill for longer than five minutes…get ready to have your mind blown...Netflix.  Seriously, if I didn’t have a reliable wifi connection and my phone to watch Netflix I would be off that thing so fast it wouldn’t count as a cardio session.  As it is right now in my life, I do not have time to watch television shows.  I literally sleep, workout, work, repeat every day.  Turning on an episode of a show I want to watch while doing my cardio is like a little treat.  Sure, I probably look like a crazy person laughing breathlessly at my tiny screen but I don’t care.  It’s like my treat yo’ self compromise.  I also try to challenge myself when on The Beast and turn up my level every five minutes for twenty minutes.  I have got up to thirteen for five minutes.  Don’t know what I am talking about?  Get on the step-mill and turn it up! 

So next time it’s time for cardio try out The Beast aka the step-mill and a movie to entertain yourself.  You might find it is slightly less awful with something to keep your eyes busy.