I joined the cult today.

I officially joined the cult today. The official cult of the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar Lovers. I'm one of you now. :-D I officially understand what the obsession is with these bars. I had my first one today as my pre-workout snack.

I must confess, I was excited to try it, but a little worried it wouldn't live up to the hype, which is how I felt when I tried the Cherry Pie Larabar. I liked it, but wasn't in love with it, you know? Well, this experience was totally different... I was in love with this bar from the first bite. It tasted just like a peanut butter cookie. It was like eating peanut butter cookie dough... healthy peanut butter cookie dough, at that! I couldn't get enough of this bar. Literally. I experienced physical sadness when I was done eating it. I looked for crumbs and ate all the ones I could find (anyone else find those bars a little crumbly?).

The one drawback I have is something that is entirely my fault. I did not expect the bar to be so heavy, and I ate it right before a big cardio workout. And I mean literally right before the workout. I swallowed the last bite (very sadly), and changed and hopped on the Epliptical right afterwards. I was definitely feeling the bar sitting in my tummy about halfway through my workout. Oops. The Cherry Pie Larabar wasn't quite so dense (probably because of the lighter, fruitier ingredients), so I didn't really think about it. I ate this bar about three hours ago and I am still definitely feeling it in my tummy. Dinner is definitely going to be on the lighter side tonight, I think. My own fault, though. The Larabar did nothing wrong. So next time, I'll either give myself more time to digest it properly by eating it earlier and then working out, or I guess I could eat half of the bar, but it was so damn delicious, I think that would be near impossible. I don't think I could make myself stop!

So two very very very enthusiastic thumbs up for the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar. This will be a repeat purchase. I still need to try the Banana Cookie and Apple Pie flavors, because those are the ones I bought. (I eat almost all of my bars in my bar stash before I go out and buy new ones... more economical, I guess!)

I tried two other new products over the weekend- Chobani Nonfat Greek Yogurt (Peach flavor) and Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls cereal:

1. Chobani Nonfat Greek Peach Yogurt (no pic; I threw away the container)- very good! I liked it much better than Fage and Trader Joe's brand. Definitely my favorites of all the brands I've tried! I cut up a few pieces of mango and threw them in for some extra fruity fun. I still have a strawberry one that I have yet to try. Definitely a repeat purchase!

2. Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls Multigrain cereal:

Verdict: A-MAZ-ING. I love Barbara's Peanut Butter Puffins, and I've been eyeing this cereal for some time now debating buying it for a while, and finally decided to give in and treat myself and make it my new weekend cereal (I bring Kashi GoLean and FiberOne to work- they keep me going for hours!) It looks and tastes identical to Life Cereal, only healthier! It even gets all soggy at the bottom like Life does, LOL. I tried my first bowl with blueberries and sprinkled cinnamon on top, and sat on my balcony and ate it, and with each bite, I felt like a kid again! Cinnamon Life was my favorite cereal growing up (that and Honey Nut Cheerios), so this totally took me back to childhood. I can't wait to try it again, only this time with a sliced banana and cinnamon (I love bananas in my cereal much more than berries... I just happened to have an abundance of blueberries in my fridge this weekend, and no bananas, boo). The nutritional stats aren't too shabby either- a 3/4 cup serving is 120 calories, 1.5 g fat, 5 g sugar (now that's impressive), 4 g fiber, and 4 g protein. Not too shabby! Definitely my new favorite weekend cereal. Normally I don't eat cereal on the weekends- I have oatmeal or pancakes or eggs- but my kitchen's definitely going to keep this cereal in stock going forward! Yum!

I also retried Lightlife Smart Dogs. I wasn't liking them too much at first, but I promised my coworker (who is an enthusiast of them) that I would give them one more try, and if I didn't like them, he could have the rest of them. I tried a new method of cooking them- the old-school method of boiling on the stove- and it turned out to be not too bad! I'd tried microwaving them before and using my grill, but neither method was very effective and I didn't really care for them. But I guess the tried-and-true method of boiling was the way to go! I don't know if I'll buy them again, but I'll at least finish out the pack I bought. Sorry Ira!

Other than my exciting new food finds, not much going on here today. Work was boring. My training class was painful. I'm sad I have to go back tomorrow. But at least it's only a half day! I definitely did not enjoy my earlier schedule today... it's thrown my body clock off, that's for sure. Everything was thrown off for me today... my sleep, my meals, my workout...oh well... just one more day of it and then it's back to my usual routine! I am a creature of habit, and I like my routine, so I'll be glad to resume normalcy on Thursday!

I did some more reading today, and I'm about one-third of the way into the book. The plot just picked up significantly (it was dragging out for a while- I think because each chapter is only a few pages long), so it was hard to put the book down on my lunch break! The kidnappers have just picked up the ransom, and were going to drop off the twins at an arranged location, but here's where the twist comes in. And that's all I'm gonna say for now... pretty much because that's all I know right now!

Oh wow, it's already past 8. Try to go eat some dinner (I'm thinking just a veggie burger or veggie hot dog, and some broccoli and a big salad and some fruit, because I'm still not hungry at all but need to eat something for dinner and it's getting late!), and then read and watch The Office.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!