Runs for Cookies

June 20, 2011

Barney Butter vs. Kettle almond butter

I mentioned a few days ago that I bought some Barney Butter in order to get free shipping from Amazon. I've tried it out the past couple of days, so I thought I'd post an opinion on it.

I love almond butter. I've tried a few different brands, but my current favorite is Kettle brand. I love that the only ingredients are almonds and salt. I don't think it's necessary to add oils, sugar (refined or natural), or any kind of preservatives. I like the consistency of the Kettle almond butter because it's thin and very easily spreadable right out of the refrigerator. If you like to "drizzle" nut butter over things, then the Kettle brand almond butter is great. And above all else, it tastes GREAT--like almonds :)

I've read on other blogs about Barney Butter and how great it is, so I was excited to give it a try. I didn't know much about it, except that it was supposed to be incredibly smooth and creamy. As soon as the package from Amazon was open, I was unscrewing the cap of the Barney Butter. Right away, I could see why people like it--the texture is the same as "regular" peanut butter, like JIF (the kind we grew up eating).

There was no oil to stir in, like there is with Kettle, which is nice (somehow I always wind up getting oil all over my hands while stirring it). I took a taste and the texture was as creamy as it looked. However, it didn't taste as "almondy" as I was used to.

I looked at the ingredients and discovered why: Almonds, evaporated cane juice, palm fruit oil, sea salt. I was so bummed to see that they added sugar AND oil to it. I've found the BEST flavor in nut butters is when there is no added oil.

The oil kind of dilutes the flavor of the nut itself, if that makes sense. The taste was good, but not as good as the Kettle. I liked the texture--it was something different, and I could definitely picture my kids enjoying that too. But there is something about the gritty texture of natural nut butters that I've grown to love.

The nutritionals (when comparing the nutritionals, keep in mind the serving size also--28 grams vs. 32 grams):

Kettle brand

Barney Butter

The texture:

Kettle brand

Barney Butter

Price:

If you factor in my free shipping on the Barney Butter (I can't get it in stores here), the cost was about the same--roughly $6/jar.

Overall:

I like both of these, but I still like the Kettle brand best. I like that the ingredients are minimal and I like the grittier texture. I also like that it tastes more like pure almonds. However, I think the Barney Butter is great for someone who is new to almond butter, because the texture really is just like the good old fashioned JIF peanut butter. Another factor (which doesn't effect me, but may effect someone else) is that Barney Butter is processed in a peanut-free facility, while the Kettle "may contain peanuts and other tree nuts".

I've tried something else recently that I immediately FELL IN LOVE WITH and I'm dying to mention:

BUFFALO WING flavored Pretzel Crisps!!

I really like plain version of these pretzel chips (the texture is SO crunchy and I love the smooth exterior), so I was thrilled to find the Buffalo Wing flavor. And it definitely lived up to my expectations--spicy but not TOO spicy, tangy, and just like a buffalo wing (blue cheese and all!)

Have you discovered any good food-finds lately? I want to hear about them!

June 19, 2011

Naked pictures

Not of ME, silly goose. Do you think I want to blind you?! lol

Funny story: Yesterday, my husband and I took the boys out garage saleing. There was a neighborhood sale, so we spent the morning walking around to different sales. At one house, a woman was selling a cell phone.

My husband is kind of obsessed with checking out phones right now, because he wants a new one; so he was playing around with it, and then we started walking back to the car. He told me that there were a bunch of naked pictures on it--some girl who looked about 20 years old or so. VERY EXPLICIT naked pictures--not your average boob shot or something.

I was shocked, but I said, "Jerry, I HAVE to go tell that woman! I'm sure she has no idea!" So I went back up to the sale and said to the woman, "My husband was checking out that cell phone you have for sale, and I just thought you should know that there are pictures of a naked girl on it."

The woman gasped and said it was her 19-year old son's phone. She grabbed the phone and started messing with it, and it turned out that the pictures were of the son's girlfriend. Ahahaha, I just found it so funny. Game over for him!

I ran 7 miles this morning while my kids were at church with my parents. It was a great run, nice and slow and relaxing. Until about mile 5.

Are any of you familiar with fish flies? Sometimes called May flies. They are these awful bugs that come around once a year in the late Spring/early Summer. They serve no purpose that I know of, and they're really gross.

Anyway, when you step on them, they make a loud crunch noise--and when you step on MANY of them at once, it sounds like you're walking on bubble wrap. I'm not joking. I live right next to Lake Erie, and these things arrive overnight one day unexpectedly. When you wake up in the morning, they are covering your house, your car, the street, sidewalks, etc. I mean COVERING. When they die, they smell like dead fish--hence the name "fish flies". They don't last long, thankfully. They'll be here for a week or two and then be gone until next year.

Oh, and the thing about these bugs is that they don't DO anything--they just sit on the side of your house or whatever until there is movement near them. Then they just fly and land on whatever is around (namely, YOU). Then they just chill out on your shirt or in your hair until you swat them off. And no, they don't bite or sting.

During the first part of my run today, I was running out away from the lake, and didn't run into many fish flies at all. But once I headed back and ran along the lake, they were AWFUL. In some spots, they were stacked 2-3 bugs high. Check this out:

This was under a street lamp--they LOVE lights. Don't ever leave your porch light on! lol

Stepping on or driving over these things sounds like bubble wrap

What's the most interesting second-hand item you've ever found? My aunt once bought a coat at a garage sale for $1, and when she got home, she discovered $50 in the pocket--lucky her! I have to say the cell phone incident was the most interesting thing I've found.

June 17, 2011

UPS came today!

Everyday when I see the UPS truck drive by my house, I feel a little hopeful that they will stop in front of my house... even if I haven't ordered anything. Then I always feel disappointed as they drive by. Well, not today! I made an order on Amazon about a week ago, and it arrived today. I was so excited to get the package.

I had read about a book called What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets. It sounded really interesting, so I decided to order it. Normally I get books from the library, but this one looked like a book I'd look at over and over again.

It's a book full of photos and descriptions of the diets of different people around the world--including the daily calorie counts, the person's height and weight, and a page or two of the person's story (their job, their way of life, etc.) I get really interested in seeing what other people eat, so this was right up my alley!

The book was MUCH bigger than I expected, too. It's hard cover, the size of a big coffee table book. Well worth the $24.18 I spent on it. When I ordered the book, I was only 82 cents away from getting free shipping, so I decided to order something else I've been wanting to try--Barney Butter. I LOVE almond butter, and have tried several different brands, but never the Barney Butter.

So, when I opened my package from Amazon, I saw both the book and the 3 small jars of Barney Butter:

I tried the Barney Butter right away, and I have some thoughts on it. But I was thinking I'd do a comparison between my current favorite brand (Kettle) and the Barney Butter, so I'll save that for tomorrow or something.

I also dove into the book right away, and read the bio's of about 5 people. The book is SO interesting! It's organized from lowest-calorie diet to highest-calorie diet, and I started with the low end. It made me feel like such a glutton! lol

I did a 5k run on the dreadmill today. You can do a "race" against fake people. There is a 1-mile, 2-mile, 5k, 10k, 15k, 10-mile, HM, 20-mile, and marathon program. Who the fuck runs a MARATHON on the treadmill?! I told Jerry that if I ever decide to run a marathon, I'm sure as hell going to make sure I have witnesses and a chip time and all that. I'm not going to do it on a dreadmill in my house!

I was planning on running the 5k kind of easy, but I set it on "hard" and then I wanted to win. So I finished in 26:19. Not my best 5k time, but I wasn't going for a PR, so I did pretty well.

What's your favorite nut butter? Mine is definitely almond butter. I love peanut butter and cashew butter, but almond is certainly my favorite.

June 16, 2011

Guilty Pleasure #847

I just had Reese Puffs cereal for dinner... and I enjoyed every bite of it!

I actually feel good about it, because normally this is a binge food for me. But this bowl was planned three days in advance (I suggested a cereal night for dinner and this is my FAVORITE); I weighed out my portion (well, portions--what you see here is two servings, isn't that ridiculous?!); and I counted the calories in it. This did not, by any means, fill me up... but it satisfied me mentally, and that is just as important :)

June 15, 2011

Exercise must be paying off

I actually weighed in at 148 this morning, which surprised me--I lost 1.5 pounds this week. It's GOT to be the exercise, because ~~I ate an entire bag of chocolate chips on Monday~~ I've not been eating so well lately.

Jerry and I made the same deal we made a few weeks ago--I told him that I have to count calories (staying within range) every day until June 30th. If I cheat, then Jerry gets to withdraw $500 from our savings account to spend on whatever he wants (which is always stupid shit, so I don't want him spending our money on it!)

I counted calories yesterday and (so far) today. It's hard. I hate it. I need to put my cat on a diet, too. The vet told me that he's going to get diabetes soon if I don't. Paolo (the stray) is still too skinny, so I have to feed him EXTRA. It's too much work, having four cats.

This is Chandler Bing. Could he BE any fatter?!

I did discover a new food combo recently that I enjoy. It sounds completely disgusting too. I mix a (drained) can of tuna fish with 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and 1 Tbsp. of dill relish. Then I just eat it with a fork, but I suppose you could use it for sandwiches too. I was going to take a picture to post here, but I didn't want to gross any of you out before dinner, so I decided against it.

My weekly goal for my Summer Challenge is going to be to NOT go grocery shopping for a week. I ~~love~~ live for grocery shopping. I kind of suspect that a lot of fat people have this in common. When I was fat, I loved buying all kind of delicious, yet bad for you, food.

Now, I love to go and just IMAGINE I was buying all that stuff--I love to look at the cakes and cookies at the bakery and decide what I would buy if I was fat again. Is this totally weird? Does anyone else do this? My most lusted-after item? THIS:

A "Monster Cookie"... le sigh.

Do you combine any foods that other people would find strange? Other than the tuna and cottage cheese, I'm having a hard time thinking of any. I know I have to eat some weird stuff though! Hmm.

June 14, 2011

Weekly Recap

While I haven't been doing AWESOME at my Summer Challenge, I've definitely been doing better than I would have if I wasn't doing the challenge...

-I logged 24 miles this week.
-I've yet to do a sugar-free Tuesday. Yesterday, I almost put myself in a sugar coma instead.
-I posted my weigh-in on Wednesday.
-I did strength training at least twice (maybe 3 times). I'm loving how this makes my feel!
-My weekly goal was to eat a DIFFERENT breakfast every day. I was successful at that!

I think my favorite breakfast was the blueberry pancakes. My least favorite was probably the oat frittata with cocoa + coconut butter (pictured in the center of the top row here). It was amazing in my head when I thought it up, but then when I put it together, it just wasn't very good.

I was STARVING shortly after I had the peanut butter toast. The bran flakes with blueberries made me feel full the longest. I learned that I definitely prefer unsweetened almond milk to unsweetened coconut milk (I tried the So Delicious coconut milk because it was on sale).

The breakfast thing was kind of a fun challenge. I REALLY need to try this with lunch. I'm notorious for eating the same thing for lunch every single day for months and months until I move on to something else. I don't think I'm ready to try this as a challenge yet however!

Tomorrow I'll weigh in and post my new weekly challenge.

What is your favorite breakfast? Mine is definitely oatmeal when I allow myself enough calories to add stir-ins and toppings. Lately, I've been trying to keep breakfast calories down a bit though.

June 13, 2011

Oh, hell.

I am never allowed to buy chocolate chips again.

Chocolate chips + almonds, chocolate chip cookies, plain handfuls of chocolate chips... The bag is empty now and I am full.

June 12, 2011

A perfect run!

My kids went to church with my parents this morning, and I decided to use my alone time to go for a run outside. I was getting a little worried that with all the cross-training I've been doing lately, I would have forgotten how to run! Not really, but I thought maybe I would have lost the ability to run. That doesn't make sense either. Well whatever, I wanted to test out my running legs after all the incline walking I've been doing the past few weeks.

It was the PERFECT RUN. Seriously, the best run I've ever had. Not because of my speed or distance or anything like that. Just the way my body felt while I was running, and then the way my mind felt too.

I turned into one big ball of happiness as I was running today. I thought I'd end up going about 3 miles, but I was feeling so good that I decided to keep going... and I wound up doing 6 miles. That's the farthest I've run since the half-marathon over a month ago.

Hmmm... I don't have any good pictures for this post. So I'll show you an old running picture--this was during the Ragnar Relay in August 2010.

The most unflattering running picture of me that I have. While I was running today, I was feeling pretty much the OPPOSITE of how I look in this picture :) FYI, I was sooo hot with bad stomach cramps during that leg of my run.

The weather was perfect for a run this morning. About 55 degrees and overcast, with a nice breeze. Everything was still and quiet with the exception of tons of rabbits and squirrels going about their business. I started counting rabbits and lost count at 15! My legs were feeling so strong (maybe all the incline walking, squats, and lunges are doing some good?) and I didn't even glance at my Garmin to check my pace. I didn't care how slow I was going--I just wanted to ENJOY my run. And I did!

The whole day turned out to be gorgeous. I went for a walk with the kids later, and then read a book outside for a little while. Then I cleaned out my Jeep, which was looking really dirty on the inside. Jerry's bringing home pizza for dinner--I know, not the greatest choice, but I'm in too good of a mood to care much right now :) And I burned 670 calories on my run today!

What is the strangest thing you've come across while exercising outside? I once got a used condom stuck to my shoe. True story.

June 11, 2011

Nerdy Weight Loss

It's amazing, the thoughts that run through my head while I'm exercising. It's like my brain has run out of things to think about and now I've gotten to the end--the bare bones of thoughts. Be forewarned, this entry will probably hurt your brain. It has a lot of numbers and math stuff.

A lot of people ask me questions about how many calories they should burn each day and about creating calorie deficits--I usually give them the simple advice to stop worrying about the numbers so much and just use common sense.

Eat smaller portions, healthy food, and move more and you'll lose weight.

Confession: I *love* math. I love numbers and calculating all things weight loss. ~~You should see my Excel files~~.

So while I was on the dreadmill, I was thinking about how doing it at an incline burns more calories than flat. And then I started thinking about how MANY more calories it burns, and how long it would take me to get to my goal weight if I just made that change alone. All the while, I was doing the math in my head. And this made me excited.

I figured that at 149.5 pounds (goal being 133), with 3500 calories in a pound of fat, I am 57,750 calories above my goal weight. So, with a combination of eating less than I need to maintain weight and exercising to burn calories, once I reach that number of 57,750, I should be at goal :)

Now, I KNOW that weight loss never works out nicely in the numbers games. Sometimes you do everything right and you gain weight or maintain. BUT, I just think it would be a fun little mind game for myself to reach for that number of 57,750.

I wonder how much this will set me back in the calorie bank?

I've been enjoying tracking my miles, and moving my ticker up every day--closer and closer to my goal of 270. So I think it would be fun to track calories expended too. I think it would give me something to strive for; a reason NOT to pig out on cookies; and especially, when I binge, a reason to get right back on track. If I binge, I'd just have to set my ticker back a little.

After consulting waaay too many BMR calculators, I've decided to use 1700 as my baseline for calories per day. If my total calories for the day are less than that, I get to add the extra to my "bank" on my ticker. Also, any intentional exercise that I do will get added to the bank. For example, if I eat 1350 calories today and burn 300 calories on the dreadmill--my bank balance at the end of the day would be 650 (1700-1350=350; plus 300 from exercise... so 650 total). It'll take a while, but eventually I'll reach 57,750 ;)

So anyway, if the future, if you hear me reference my "calorie bank", THIS is what I'm talking about. Now go eat a cookie. You deserve it after reading this entry.