Friday, January 8, 2010 at 06:57 AM
I can’t help but sing as I write today’s post!
Of all the gifts that I received this holiday season, the two that are probably getting the most use are my new Kleen Kanteen and my new heart rate monitor. I just love them!
Neither of these gifts are new to me – just newer versions. I’ve been fans of both for quite some time.
Kleen Kanteen
About a year and a half ago, I ditched the plastic and bought myself an aluminum Kleen Kanteen at LL Bean. After a few too many drops in the gym parking lot, however, the bottom of my favorite water bottle was dented. So I dropped a hint to my husband that a new one would fit well in my Christmas stocking. I am a huge water drinker. Seriously, I go broke when I travel for business because I have to buy a gazillion bottles of water in airports and hotels. My new Kleen Kanteen has an updated Sports Cap. It is so much better than the old one. As described on the KleenKanteen website, “If the old sport cap was a tiny, trickling creek, the new Sport 2.0 is Niagara Falls.” I love it!
Polar Heart Rate Monitor
My husband picked up on another hint: I was in need of a new heart rate monitor. I got my first Polar Heart Rate Monitor about 10 years ago and I used it in Spinning classes at that time religiously. It also came in handy as I exercised through both of my pregnancies. After a few years, however, the strap broke and when I went to try to replace it, my trusty heart rate monitor was out of date and the strap didn’t fit correctly. It was time for an upgrade. My new heart rate monitor is amazing! It gives me a great summary at the end of every workout: time elapsed, minutes spent in zone, average heart rate, highest heart rate, and calories burned. You can even download the summary to your computer (although I haven’t figured out how to do that yet). It’s amazing how much harder I’m working now that I have my heart rate monitor. No more slacking off in Spinning class!
There’s nothing like some new gym toys to kick off the New Year! I’m thankful to the product designers at KleenKanteen and Polar USA. And I’m thankful that my husband is good at picking up hints!
Question of the Day
What was your favorite gift this holiday season?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: My Favorite Things
Tags: gym toys
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 07:22 AM
I work with many amazing individuals at NuVal and I love introducing you to the great people with whom I get to work. Meet my fellow NuValian, Alison and her beautiful family!
Alison joined NuVal shortly after I did in the Fall of 2008. She began as a Customer Manager, working with Hy-Vee, one of our Pioneer Retailers who first put NuVal scores on their grocery shelves. 2009 was a year of huge change for Alison: she changed jobs within NuVal (she now works in Consumer Marketing), she packed up her family and moved from Minneapolis to Denver, and she had her second baby. Phew! I get tired just thinking about it. Alison is just back from maternity leave and she is working hard on our Consumer Marketing efforts, educating everyday people about the benefits of NuVal.
Alison, Jared and their two girls are enjoying their new home in Colorado. One interesting fact that Alison has told me about her new home is that there are many excellent Southwestern and Hispanic restaurants there. Over 20% of the population of Colorado is Hispanic and the percentage continues to grow. With more Latin and Hispanic choices abound, Alison is enjoying exploring new food products. In fact, Alison has made a huge Trade Up: from a NuVal score of 2 to a 91! How did she make such a jump? Easy – she switched from flour tortillas to corn tortillas. Who knew?
Mission Flour Tortillas score a 2
Mission White Corn Tortillas score a 91
To the untrained eye, these products look very similar. Without NuVal scores on the shelf, you many never know that there is such a huge nutritional difference between the two.
Thanks to Alison for sharing her Trade-Up story with me and Welcome Back!
Question of the Day
What’s a huge change that you’ve made in your life?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: NuVal Staff
Tags: NuVal Staff, tortillas
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 07:32 AM
Last week, while the kids were out of school for Christmas Vacation, I packed them up, picked up my mother, and we drove over the river and through the woods (literally) of Rhode Island and Connecticut to visit my Great Aunt Ruth. After a lovely visit with our favorite Aunt, we decided to stop by Price Chopper in Putnam, CT on the way home. I’m so glad we did.
My mother has heard a lot about NuVal and is a regular A Better Bag of Groceries reader, but this was her first experience seeing it live on the grocery store shelf.
My mom loved seeing all the scores. She kept saying, “We need this in a grocery store near us. We SO need this in a grocery store near us.”
This was my 6-year-old son’s second visit to a Price Chopper store. It was amazing to see him now that he had a little NuVal experience under his belt. He knew just how to look for the scores.
This Rice A Roni whole grain rice mix, which scores a 23, was a huge improvement over the kind we used to buy. You can see my daughter jumping up and down with excitement behind the box.
The rice mix we used to buy, Knorr Rice Pilaf , only scores a 3. We stopped buying that kind when we found out that little fun fact. You can read more about my Mommy Guilt over that one here.
My son now thinks of himself as a NuVal Pro. He loved showing off his NuVal prowess to his little sister.
He takes the Big Brother role very seriously. Here he’s showing his little sister how the Whole Grain Macaroni & Cheese gets a better score than SpongeBob Macaroni & Cheese. Remember that post? The Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese that we found did not score so well.
No, you do not need glasses. That is a 2.
My son loved showing Grandma how NuVal works.
My mom quickly got the hang of it. She had fun finding new, interesting products to try. Here she found a green olive tapenade with a good score.
That’s when I heard her say it again, “We SO need NuVal in a store near us!”
Every time I go to a Price Chopper, I find new things to try. There are so many products out there, but the scores shed new light on products that I would normally overlook. For example, on this trip, I found a very high-scoring canned tuna.
I had no idea there was lower sodium tuna. As a busy mom, shopping with 2 kids in tow, I rarely have time to explore new products. Normally, I would just buy the same old, same old – like this albacore tuna in water.
Now I know that I can get tuna that scores an 81 instead of the kind I used to buy (which scores a 55). I made a nice little tuna salad and served it on whole wheat toast. Yum!
It was bitter cold in Connecticut on the day of our trip and I was crazing something warm. Usually, I steer away from canned soups because of the sodium content. However, with all the scores on the shelf, I found a couple of higher-scoring soups that I took home to try.
It was so cool to show my kids the scores on a Trade-Up we’ve made in our household. We used to buy Capri Sun Roarin’ Waters for school snacks. They travel well in backpacks. However, they only get a score of 10!
Sorry my picture is so blurry! It’s tough taking pictures in grocery stores!
I remember I was in a Meijer store out in Michigan on a business trip when I found Minute Maid Fruit Falls with a score of 41. I wanted to pack it up in my suitcase and bring it home!
That is a 41, by the way. It looks like the folks at Price Chopper just had a little print alignment problem.
After quite some time in the grocery department, we finally ventured over to Produce.
“Wow!” my mom said, ogling all the scores of 99 and 100. “NuVal sure helps you to put nutrition into perspective.” Yup, that’s why I call them “Incredible Vegetables.”
So, we finally hit the checkout, with about 15 new products to try in my basket.
We climbed into the car, settled the kids in with water (NuVal score of 0) and chocolate Teddy Grahams (NuVal score of 25), and opened up our newly acquired Kashi Dark Mocha Almond TLC Bars (NuVal score of 27). After our busy and cold day, I still had 2 tasks ahead of me:
- Drive home
- Help my dad set up his new Ipod
Hmmmm. Teaching my mom and kids how to use NuVal to choose nutritious foods in the grocery store: Easy. Teaching my dad how to set up and use his new Ipod: Not so easy!
Winner of the Granola Challenge GiveAway
Congratulations to Commenter #14, Crystal! She correctly rank-ordered the three granola products.
Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Crunch gets an amazing score of 91
Bear Naked Peak Protein comes in at a 45 (wow, big difference!)
Kashi Mountain Medley Granola gets the lowest score with a 31
Crystal will be receiving a great granola care package in the mail. Thanks for all the great guesses.
Question of the Day
If you could have NuVal scores in only one aisle of your grocery store, what would it be?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Macaroni and Cheese, Price Chopper
Tags: Macaroni and Cheese, Price Chopper, rice, tuna
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, a weekly feature on A Better Bag of Groceries, where I tell you about a trade-up I’ve made and I give away free stuff. This week, it’s a Challenge.
First, a little history about my granola trade-up. I’ve actually never been much of a granola eater, for many of the reasons that the Fooducate blog cited yesterday. Granola, while considered a health food by many, can be deceptively high in fat and calories. As a lifetime Weight Watcher, it’s been a product that I’ve avoided. However, this past year, as I learned more about NuVal scores, I started to pick up some different varieties of high-scoring granola so that I could mix them into my Greek yogurt. I know, I know. I’m living on the wild side.
Check out these three granola cereal products that I picked up at my local Stop & Shop.
- Kashi Mountain Medley Granola
- Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Crunch
- Bear Naked Peak Protein
Today’s GiveAway
I’m giving away all three granolas to one lucky ABBG reader. To enter, leave a comment below and rank order these three products:
- The highest scoring product
- The middle scoring product
- The lowest scoring product
You may find some hints in other posts on A Better Bag of Groceries, on www.TradingUpDowntown.com or on www.nuval.com.
I will randomly choose one winner from the correct guesses. The contest closes at 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight. Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 07:15 AM
As a veteran gym-goer and Group Exercise Instructor, it has been my observation that there are three weeks of the year when attendance at the gym spikes:
1. The first week in January
2. The first week the kids go back to school in September (what I call the New Year)
3. The first somewhat warm week in Spring (when people begin to realize that yes, they will put a bathing suit on again)
So, here we are at the busiest time of the year for The Gym. Classes will be packed, you may need to wait for machines, and the track at the Y will resemble the Indy 500. It’s always fun to see lots of new faces and sometimes I get new devotees to my Pilates class. But more often than not, numbers go back to normal by the time Superbowl rolls around.
Most days, I get my workout in during the wee hours of the morning. I am lucky to have a great gym close by where I teach a class and have the opportunity to work out with an inspirational group of women on a daily basis. These women are a brave bunch. We get going at 5:45 am. That means you have to be out of bed by 5 or so, get your car warmed up on these frigid mornings, and get bundled up for the dark trip over to the gym. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s so much easier in the summer when you roll out of bed, the sun has already risen, and you don’t need a coat.
I have to admit, that while I’ve been an early-morning exerciser for many years, I had to take a break from this routine when my children were babies. Being a mom to infants is such a 24/7 job that it is nearly impossible to leave the house for an hour in the early morning. A friend of mine who has a larger than life career with a major health insurance provider and two young boys told me that she used to climb the stairs during her lunch hour when her boys were babies since it was the only way to get her workout in. It was not until my second child was almost a year old that I was ready to get back on the early morning wagon. And the ONLY way I could do it was with a buddy. You just are not going to roll over and go back to sleep if you know that your neighbor is in your driveway waiting for you. So, if you are thinking of starting an early-morning exercise routine, it’s been my experience that having a partner with the same goal really works to keep you on track.
One of my favorite early morning classes is Spinning. It’s a great Cardio blast and I burn almost as much calories as I do while running without the wear and tear on my knees.
It’s not just the calorie-burn that insprires me to get out of bed for Spin Class. I’m lucky to have a couple of inspirational instructors who choose some great music to get me going. One of those instructors, Alicia, knows just how to push me to try my best every class. Alicia is one of those Incredible Moms that I’m proud to introduce A Better Bag of Groceries Readers to: she works full-time for a Ginormous Company, she has two beautiful little girls, she teaches Spinning for fun, and she and her husband participate in many races and triathlons. Instead of relaxing things as we got close to Christmas, she held a 75-minute Spin Class on December 23rd. Yes, we had to get up even earlier to attend, but it was worth it. Our Reward? Alicia made us all her famous HomeMade Granola as a little Spinning party favor.
Alicia was kind enough to share her Granola recipe with me and with A Better Bag of Groceries readers.
Column 1 Column 2
8 cups of oats ½ cup oil
1 ½ cup brown sugar ¾ cup honey
1 ½ cup wheat germ 2 tsp. vanilla
1 8oz package coconut
1 ½ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds
Blend ingredients in Column 1 in large bowl. Heat ingredients in Column 2 until bubbly. Grease 2 pans of cookie sheets. Mix column 1 and 2. Stir well. Pour into pans and bake at 325 for 20-30 mins- stirring a few times. You can freeze the granola in ziplock bags.
I have been mixing a small amount of Alicia’s Granola into my vanilla Greek yogurt and it makes a delicious snack.
Now, if you would prefer to buy your own granola, you should definitely check out these NuVal scores before you do. (Remember, NuVal scores foods from 1-100 based on their nutritional value, and 100 is best). I was amazed at how they varied!
Cascadian Farms Honey & Oats Granola: 18
Quaker 100% Natural Granola: 23
Kashi Granola, Mountain Medley: 31
Bear Naked Fit: 91
Wow! When my stash of Alicia’s granola runs out, I’m off to buy me some Bear Naked. It’s just what I need after a rousing early morning Spin class!
So, if your New Years’ Resolution includes beginning an early morning exercise routine, remember that research shows that morning exercisers are more likely to stick with it. It’s not easy, but with the right support (whether it’s that neighbor waiting for you in your driveway or a super group of comrades at the gym), you can make it a great habit that will change your life.
Question of the Day?
At what time of day do you fit in exercise?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Granola, Spinning
Tags: Granola, Spinning
