A week or so ago, Kona Kase arrived in the mail with exciting new treats including the full GU line and also this delicious Oh Yeah! bar.
I totally enjoyed its whopping 26g of protein before a hard strength training workout and felt great. Also, it tasted delicious (thought it did have more sugars and a longer list of ingredients than I would prefer).
I also had the chance to try another protein bar the other day. I forgot to bring my pre-afternoon workout snack to work. A trip to the local market had me ending up with a Seitenbacher high protein bar.
The bar had a slight chocolate coating, so I opted for the mint flavor (because chocolate with mint is awesome). I love love love this bar. I ate it an hour before before workout and definitely had good results. The bar had a good blend of carbs/sugars and protein (16g) for me. It clocked in at 190 calories, but -- the best part! -- it was pre-divided into two, allowing me two 95 calorie snacks over two days. Perfect! I always want a 100 calorie snack mid-afternoon. As a bonus, the bar had a very short ingredient list of fiber, protein from milk, soy, and hazelnuts. (Plus the chocolate covering.) I think the soy is a definite minus, but it's fairly far down on the list, so I think this bar is a good back-up.
The other very exciting thing that happened yesterday was the purchase of new shoes for the gym. It's been a year since I got new shoes for at the gym, and I was needing them. I go to the Smith gym 3 to 5 days a week depending on my Phonathon schedule, but usually at least 4 days. I alternate between running on the treadmill (3 to 5 miles), doing circuit training with weights, and attending my aerobics class. I wanted shoes that would work for running and aerobics. Since I go to the gym so much, I didn't want to bring shoes back and forth from home, plus I'm not supposed to wear outside shoes on the machines. It's good to alternate your sneakers anyway, so I've always kept separate sneakers for outside running and gym exercise.
I've had good success with my Altra sneakers which I got from Good for the Soles back in March. They are nice and wide -- I've been enjoying running outside with them. I decided to pay another trip to Good for the Soles again in search of gym shoes.
I ended up with another pair of Altras, The One.
They are a slightly lighter-weight sneaker than the Altra Intuition shoes I run in outside. Back when I was testing the Altra Intuitions, I had attended aerobics with them and found them not ideal for that activitiy. I think that these shoes being slightly lighter will be great. The person at the store said a lot of people like to do crossfit in these shoes, meaning they will be good for cross training.
I went for a 3 mile treadmill run with the new, The One, sneakers today, and everything felt good. I'm excited to take these shoes to aerobics when class starts next week and see how they perform there.
Also, bonus surprise! Seth got me this cute Catbus t-shirt.
I can honestly say that I'm not usually into animations and animated characters, but I've loved the Catbus every since I saw her in the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro.
The Catbus T is in the wash now, but I can't wait to wear him this weekend!