Odwalla Bars to fuel your workout?

“This scrumptious food bar contains Odwalla’s mission of tempting your taste buds and nourishing your body.” That's what the package says...so I wanted to test out how it can nourish my body...

You do NOT want to bonk
45 minutes into teaching BodyPump!

Before we left Miami, we had the privilege of being stocked up on Odwalla bars by Amanda from RunToTheFinish! I have found them to be a great way to fuel me before I teach my BodyPump and Spinning classes. If you begin your day with a tough and sweaty workout then you know how important it is to eat something beforehand. If you are like me, you wake up quickly and rush out the door to your class and don’t actually have time to feel hungry yet before class starts. But I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t eat before class, about mid-way through, I’m starving at best, and even worse, and more likely, light-headed and drained of energy! None of these are good when you’re the one leading the class! :( 

Grabbing Odwalla before class

But now I use these Odwalla bars to give me just the right amount of energy to lead me through a full class and the ride home! They have many different flavors and each provides it’s own specific benefits. My current favorites are Choco-walla and Chocolate Peanut Butter. The Choco-walla provides me with Vitamins A, C & E, as well as almonds (full of healthy Omega 6 and 9 fatty acids) and the Chocolate Peanut Butter is packed with 12g of protein (yes please, for keeping muscles strong)! At about 200 calories each, they will provide just enough energy to fuel you through your endeavor. If the protein ratio is important to you, stick with the Protein bars as the others range between just 2g and 5g, but otherwise, test a few out and see how they can fuel your body too!

You’ve probably seen the Odwalla fruit juice bottles in the fridge at your local grocer. But head to the energy bar aisle and pick yourself up a bar to see how these can energize you too! You can also check them out on their website to learn more about how they make their products and what they offer: www.Odwalla.com

~ Samara

Do you SERIOUSLY want to put that in your body??

Hi All, It's been a while since I posted, Samara has been picking up the slack for me.  I've been putting in a lot of hours and the day job and then training as many clients as I can at night and I've started Prepping for my next show...more on that later :)  So, not only have I not blogged, I haven't been able to catch up on TV either!  I just got around to watching a three week old episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. That show makes me so angry I almost blogged last night, but it would have been filled with curse words!! I'm more calm this morning, but I've got to tell you, I'm really really upset about what we are putting in our bodies and the bodies of our precious children.  During last night's episode, he had a classroom full of kids and he let them make an ice cream sunday with all the usual fixins, candy bits, sprinkles, whipped topping, sugary sauces...you know, the good stuff:)  Then he asked them if they knew what they were really eating. There were over 250 ingredients in their sundays!!! I couldn't even pronounce the majority of those 250 ingredients.  You could see the look on the kids face change as it started to sink in.  He then went on to explain what those ingredients were actually made of...the shellac on the shiny candy coating - beetles! Other ingredients were derived from duck feathers, pig intestines and human hair...tasty huh??  By then the kids were gagging and I knew he had made his point.  People, please, read the ingredients and if you don't know what it is....DON'T BUY IT!  We are already exposed to so many toxic chemicals in our every day environments, please don't needlessly put more toxins in  your body!  So next time you are at the grocery, read the labels and avoid anything that sounds like it came out of your 9th grade chemistry class!!  Have a healthy day! -Kelly