A Better Bag of Groceries

How I Became a Mommy Blogger

Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 06:53 AM

It’s hard to believe but my blogoversary is coming up soon.  In July, I will have been blogging for NuVal for one year.  I have already started to think about how I’d like to celebrate here on A Better Bag of Groceries.  Don’t worry – you’re all invited to the party!

So, how did it come to pass that I would be writing a Mommy Blog as part of my job?  Well, it all started with this little juice box/water beverage:  Minute Maid Fruit Falls.

As part of my job with NuVal, I sometimes travel to visit the awesome retailers who have decided to put NuVal scores on their shelves.  It was on such a trip that I found myself in a Meijer supermarket in Michigan looking at scores in the juice aisle.  I had never heard of Minute Maid Fruit Falls but I was amazed that they got a NuVal score of 41.  While that might not sound like a high score (the scale is 1 – 100 and 100 is most nutritious), it is when you consider the scores of other juice boxes and water beverages:

• Capri Sun Roarin Waters:  10
• Juice Juice Apple Juice Box:  11
• Kool Aid Cherry Water Beverage:  10
• Mott’s for Tots Apple Juice Box:  20

I could not believe that score of 41.  Back at home, my kids were sipping on Carpri Sun Roarin’ Waters which only got a 10!  So, I flew back to Boston and immediately checked around with my Mommy friends to see who knew about these Fruit Falls.  My Mommy Network answers life’s little mysteries in a matter of minutes, so I soon learned that yes, these Fruit Falls did exist in New England and that I could find them at Roche Brothers supermarkets and Target.  Now, any mom will tell you (while opening a juice box with one hand because the baby is taking up the other hand) that she just can’t live without juice boxes and water beverages.  They are a lifesaver.  And this little nugget of information that I now had – the fact that there was a more nutritious water beverage for our kids – was burning inside me.  I needed to shout it out.   Loudly.  So, I did.

I started by telling my friend, Hazel, while we watched our kids swimming at our community pool.  She said, “Which one?  No way!  Write it down!”  Then, I started a little email list of friends who I knew would love to have this information.  Every time I had an “Ah Ha” moment at NuVal, I just had to tell my friends.  They were inundated with my emails:

• Did you know that regular peanut butter scores higher than low-fat?
• Those Pepperidge Farms goldfish aren’t so bad after all!
• Celebrate!  There are  frozen french fries that score an 81!!

I just wanted to get up on top of a mountain and shout this new-found knowledge out to Moms and Dads alike.  And to people without children as well.  After all, I cared about nutrition way before  I had kids.

Back at the office, we were working hard to come up with ways that we could spread the NuVal word to consumers.  So, I floated the idea.  “Hey, maybe we should start a Mom Blog.  I’ll write it, if you want!”  Permission was granted, I did some quick research, and before we knew it, Nutrition By the Numbers  was launched on Blogspot.  A few months later, I was tweeting, redesigning, rebranding, and moving to WordPress. 

Today, about 7,000 – 9,000 visitors per month read A Better Bag of Groceries.  This blog truly chronicles my life as a mom trying to shop for, plan, and cook nutritious meals for my family, while balancing work, parenthood, home-ownership and my own health and fitness.  Nothing is made up.  The passion that you see in my writing is real.  I am constantly thinking about my next recipe, surprising NuVal scores, the next giveaway, and new features.  I love it!  I now have a mountain on which I can stand and shout out all that I want you to know about choosing the most nutritious foods for your family.  I am a very lucky Mommy.

Thanks so much for reading!

Posted by: Melissa 8 comments

Posted in: Uncategorized

Tags: Juice, Minute Maid Fruit Falls