• Choosing the Healthiest Foods for Your Family

    Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 7 year old and an adventurous 5 year old. I also happen to work for a great new company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods on a scale of 1-100, based on how nutritious they are. We are implementing NuVal in grocery stores around the country.

    NuVal may not be in your area yet. But I see the scores while they are "hot off the press" and because of that I am able to make better decisions about what to feed my family.

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  • Disclaimer

    I am not a registered dietitian. I am just a mom who happens to work for NuVal. I am also an AFAA-certified Group Exercise Instructor. NuVal is a system designed to lead customers to the most nutritious food choices. It is not a diet or weight-loss plan. Before starting a diet, you should always consult your personal physician. The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC.

Trade-Up Tuesday: Energy/Stamina Giveaway

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 07:02 AM

Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, here on A Better Bag of Groceries, I tell you about a Trade-Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away free stuff.  Today, I’m giving away some foods that I am relying on these days for energy and stamina:  Nature’s Path Cereal and Larabars!

I have to admit – I am freaking out just a bit now that it’s June 1st.  My June is going to be busier than ever.  I get twitchy just thinking about it.  Every area of my life is going into overdrive:

  • Work:  new retailers coming on board, business trips on the agenda.
  • Kids:  Can there be any more end-of-the-school-year activities???  School play, concert, dance recital, teacher gifts, pre-school graduation, children singing in church,  yada, yada, yada.
  • Fitness:  Teaching a new boot camp beginning mid-June.  Just call me Jillian!
  • Home:  This is the part that is really making me twitchy.  Major changes going on at our home.  Yikes!

So, with my agenda overflowing, it was time to stock up on some foods that are easily accessible, low-maintenance and chock full of energy.

First, I decided it was time for a new cereal.  I am a total floozie when it comes to cereal.  By that, I mean I am all into a cereal for a given period of time.  I can’t get enough of one particular brand – every day – yum, yum, yum and then (boom!) I’m over it.  So it was with the stale box of Shredded Wheat that I have collecting dust in my cupboard right now.  I know it is a Rock Star on the NuVal scale.  It gets a 91for crying out loud.  But, alas, it is just not doing it for me.  So, I found myself in the Healthy section of my grocery store last Friday eyeing the Nature’s Path selections.  Hmmmmmmm.  Flax, Omega 3.  I figured it would get a great NuVal Score.

I brought home a box of the Flax Plus MultiBran, loaded it with Strawberries (100) and Blueberries (100) and topped it with skim milk (91).

As my friend Tina would say, Holy Yum!  I am so loving this new cereal.  It was just the new something that I needed to face this crazy month I have ahead of me.  Quick easy energy.  I spent part of Memorial Day checking out the NuVal scores on this cereal.  It gets a 38.  OK, I was a little disappointed.  I mean, it’s still better than the average score for cold cereal (27), but I was expecting it to be higher.  Oh, well!  It is delicious!

As I said, the month ahead is so daunting that I know it will be critical to have some quick and easy nutrition ready to go when the going gets rough.  And that’s were the LaraBars come in.  Fooducate, one of my favorite food blogs, had a great post recently about LaraBars.  The amazing thing about them is how short the ingredients list is.  For example, on this LaraBar Apple Pie, the ingredients are: Dates,
Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins and Cinnamon.  On the Peanut Butter Cookie (my favorite!), they are Dates, Peanuts and Salt.  Nice and simple.

The NuVal scores are:

  • LaraBar Apple Pie: 57
  • LaraBar Peanut Butter Cookie:  29

LaraBars are definitely one of my favorite new discoveries of the past six months.  Oh, how I love them!

Today’s GiveAway

One lucky commenter will win a box of Nature’s Path cereal, a Larabar Apple Pie, a Larabar Peanut Butter cookie and a NuVal t-shirt.  Wow!  Great prize!  Just leave a comment below telling me one of the following:

  • A food that you rely on for energy and stamina when your life goes into overdrive OR
  • A trade-up you’ve made since learning about NuVal

I’ll choose one winner at 7 am Eastern time Wednesday.  Good luck to everyone!

Posted by: Melissa 62 comments

Posted in: Cereal for Grown-Ups, Trade-Up Tuesday

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