Review: Chobani Crunch Simply 100 Yogurt

I LOVE yogurt - more specifically Greek yogurt. It’s great for you, has a tremendous amount of protein, and you can get low and no fat versions. Chobani is one of a few brands of yogurts that I eat and love.

Chobani has come out with a new product line called Chobani Crunch simply 100. There are 3 versions of yogurt with a fruit and crunchy option in all 3. They all also clock in at a low level calorie count of 100!! In addition, Chobani advertises that they don’t use artificial sweeteners, use non-GMO ingredients and buy their milk from farmers who don’t treat their cows with growth hormones. While the jury is still out, in my opinion anyway, whether any of these ingredients are harmful for us consumers, not having them certainly raises zero concern or debate!

So when they contacted me and asked me if I was interested in reviewing these new yogurts and also promoting their living lighter campaign, I was totally on board.

 

 

 

 

 

I first tried the Strawberry Chocolate Truffle which is strawberry non-fat yogurt with milk chocolate rice crisps, dark chocolate cookies and dried strawberries. When you open the container, you will see that one large corner contains the yogurt, while the other small corner contains the “crunchy items”. The small corner is made to be folded over so you can dump the crunchy parts into the yogurt. At first glace, it appears that there is not a lot of crunchy items to mix in. But as soon as I folded the container, deposited in the crunchy items and mixed it up, it become clear that there is an AMPLE amount of the crunch making a perfect mixture with the yogurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my first bite, I noticed that the strawberry flavor of the yogurt is extremely subtle. There is not an overpowering taste of strawberry but instead just a hint of the flavor. The yogurt itself was tart and assertive as I expect with Greek yogurt. The strawberries were small pieces of the dried fruit which had a sweetly intense strawberry flavor. The chocolate crisps and cookies both had a very appealing flavor - definitely chocolately, but not overly sweet. I ate this yogurt at a leisurely pace, and the crisps and cookies stayed very crunchy - the yogurt did not soften them up at all.

A couple of days later I tried the Mango Cone Crisp. This is a mango non-fat yogurt with waffle cone, graham cookies and dried mango. I dumped the crunchy parts into the yogurt and mixed it up. On my first bite, I noticed that the mango flavor of the yogurt was strongly present, unlike with the strawberry. It was very sweet and had a pronounced fruity taste which was an excellent balance with the tartness of the yogurt.

 

 

 

 

 

The waffle cone pieces tasted just like a waffle cone you would get at an ice cream shop and the graham cookies were fairly large and very crunchy with a perfect graham flavor. Once again, they stayed crunchy the entire time. The dried mango pieces were more subtle and were almost chewy in a way that I loved. This yogurt was definitely a huge hit with me!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, I asked Marc to try the final flavor, Blueberry Cookie Crumble. While I am a fan of plain, raw blueberries, I don’t tend to like blueberry flavored foods. Marc on the other hand, loves blueberry, so I thought it would be interesting to get his perspective. This yogurt is non-fat blueberry flavored with oatmeal cookies and dried blueberries.

Marc tried a bit of the yogurt before dumping the oatmeal cookies in and immediately said that it was a very strong blueberry flavor, but not overly sweet. He mixed in the cookies and he was thrilled that those crunchy pieces tasted just like an oatmeal cookie. He reports that the blueberry pieces were small, but with a little crunch to them and that they tasted like real blueberries. He gave this yogurt an enthusiastic thumbs up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some final thoughts. We liked all 3 of these new yogurts, I especially loved the Mango Cone Crisp. I found the corner containing the crispy items somewhat hard to bend and awkward to dump into the yogurt as the plastic is extremely thick. I also found it a little difficult to have “room” to mix the crispy items with the yogurt. However, since I applaud Chobani for not being wasteful with their packaging, I have mixed feelings.

The price of these yogurts are in line with what other single cups of yogurt sell at - around $1.00 per cup.

I have seen a couple people complain that the amount of yogurt is small compared to other yogurts. Well, OF COURSE, it has to be if you want the crispy items and to keep the calorie count low! If you are not concerned about calories, there are many choices out there - both from Chobani and other brands, that have more yogurt and more “add-ins” with additional calories.

For me, I really need a little treat after dinner before bed, and 100 calories is a perfect number for someone calorie concerned as I am. This new yogurt offers something different by giving me some crunchy add-ins while keeping the calories low. It remains an incredibly healthy choice and with a decent amount of protein to keep me satisfied throughout the night.

Speaking of calories, as I mentioned, along with rolling out these new yogurts, Chobani has a cute list of ways that you can burn off those calories that these new yogurts have!

Take a look:

So feel free to take the dog for a walk this afternoon have a nice yogurt snack when you get back! Or have a mid-morning yogurt break at work and then do some yoga for part of your lunch hour. Personally, I would like you to dance around the kitchen - maybe while you’re cleaning up after dinner - your family might think that you’re crazy, but if so, just tell them you’re doing it for the strawberry chocolate truffle you want later!!

Thanks again to Chobani for making a great product and for allowing me to review it!

For more information on this product, visit their website at http://www.chobani.com/products/simply-100

The not so easy road…

Once my co-worker and I were talking about the types of people that are on my program. As I’m sure you guys know, drug and alcohol addiction doesn’t discriminate. So we see men, women, black, white, Hispanic, old, young, rich, poor, people who quit school in 7^th grade, people with Master’s Degrees and everyone in between.

We have had people from extremely privileged backgrounds to those that grew up with nothing. People whose parents were in and out of their lives due to their own addictions and incarcerations and people who grew up in nuclear families who were spoiled rotten.

You name the “type” and for the most part we have seen it. Our program holds people extremely accountable for their behavior and there are consequences to those who don’t comply with the expectations that are put in front of them.

I told my co-worker that sometimes I feel more sorry for the people who have had it “good” or “easy” in their lives than those who have had nothing. The people we see that grew up with nothing - well, they don’t expect anything. A lot of their lives they have been shit on by other people; by the justice system, teachers, people in authority - and so our demands of them - they don’t always choose to do the right thing, but they aren’t surprised by the expectations or the consequences when they make the wrong choice.

But those people who grew up “special”. Whose parents let them get away with everything, who had it “easy”, who were catered to by others, who had the money to hire top notch attorneys when they got in trouble, or even as kids had the police take them home to their parents rather than arrest them? Boy oh boy, are they in for a shock. For some of them it’s the first time in their adult lives that they have been told “NO!” That they are expected to comply with demands and - GASP - given consequences when they don’t comply. Some of those people - they are just utterly at a loss when that happens - they have never once had to face up - truly face up - to their choices.

Today my friend was telling me about how she has never been in a romantic relationship where she hasn’t had to WORK to make it work. I told her that I can’t imagine that. She laughed and said that she cannot conceive of a relationship where it is just easy to be with your partner and not have to constantly and consciously work on keeping the relationship together.

After she left, I was thinking - maybe that’s part of my problem!! Maybe that’s why this is so hard. Like the clients that have always had it easy, I am SHOCKED that I have to WORK to make it work so to speak!

I have always had it relatively easy. Now that’s not to say that my life has been perfect - no, it hasn’t - but compared to what some people endure? I’ve had it easy.

I grew up not having to worry about being loved and fed and sheltered. I didn’t have to worry about my safety or getting abused. Other things in life came easy to me - at the risk of sounding arrogant - I excelled in school without putting much work in. I could probably have been a straight A student if I had worked a little harder, but I could get 90's with barely cracking a book in high school. So I didn’t work too hard. I had friends who would study and work incredibly hard on their homework and had to put in a ton of effort to get by - I didn’t get it.

Even though I was fat, I was pretty popular. I made friends easily. True there were a lot of people couldn’t stand me - I was loud and outspoken and obnoxious - but that’s the exact reason some people were drawn to me.

I met Marc - he was not my first boyfriend, but he was my first SERIOUS boyfriend. And it was and always has been easy to make our relationship work - we’ve had our ups and downs, but we don’t need to work on our relationship - we just connect – easily, comfortably, passionately without effort.

Out of college I was able to find jobs that support my lifestyle well. I make good money, and have great benefits. It’s not like I bathe in money, but since my tastes aren’t outrageous, I live very comfortably.

So maybe that’s why this weight thing is so freaking hard. I expect to have it EASY as I have always had it. Now losing the weight certainly wasn’t easy but really, I had it a lot easier than most. I didn’t have the physical problems that some people with obesity have, and I had the time and resources to devote to losing the weight that not everyone has.

So maybe I am just a spoiled brat. Maybe - like some clients I know - I just can’t accept - can’t internalize - that I am free and clear to make the choices - as long as I’m willing to face the consequences. That if I want to maintain my weight loss I have to WORK for it - that it won’t be handed to me.

Well, that sucks, don’t it?!?!

Try try again…

So..... do you ever feel like a broken record? Because that is the story of my life lately.  I guess there are a lot of you out there that might be reading this and have never even listened to a record, so maybe you don’t even know what that means - I’m damn OLD, people!

But after being mired in self-pity - once again - for the last few days, today I had what I hope was a revelation.

Marc and I went to a party on Saturday. It was a ton of fun. I acted like an idiot. I even kissed a girl just for fun - she was drinking - I did not have that excuse. I remember Fun Jen and she has been absent most of the time in the last couple of years.

I ate WAY too much at this party and spent Sunday berating myself for being such a fat pig. And not being able to run just exacerbates the problem - in my head anyway.

So yesterday Marc and I went on a hike. Probably not the smartest thing for my foot. I thought that maybe walking barefoot on sand would lessen the pain. I was wrong. Sunday night I was hurting but trying to figure out how I could run, anyway.

Marc and I got to talking about next weekend. Remember the post I did on Diana - who died New Year’s Eve after an incredibly courageous battle with brain cancer? Her family is having services for her next weekend. That same day, I have been asked by members of the local recovery community to speak briefly at a tree planting and remembrance ceremony for those who have lost their lives to heroin addiction.

Given the times that the 2 events occur, I think I can fit them both in. But as I was telling Marc about this, I began thinking - how am I going to fit in exercise that day? Should I get up early and do something? I began calculating how early I would need to get up to get at least an hour of exercise in, take a shower, and then get to the place the service is being held.

This morning I started thinking that this was probably not normal. I mean, I am NOT a professional athlete. I am not “in training” for something. Yet I am worrying about the exercise I “NEED” to do which is about a week away. Although I have joked about being addicted to exercise, I have meant it as that - a joke. And after all, I saw the MD earlier this month who told me to keep up on my exercising, right?

So today I started to read some articles about exercise addiction from experts. And there were things about the personality of people who tend to over-exercise, like being perfectionists, with low self-esteem who are “obsessed” with body image. It also talked about insisting on exercising when injured (that DOESN’T sound familiar, right?) Or fitting in exercise whenever there is some free time. Or exercising more than 1 hour a day, every day.

But the line that really got me was from an expert who has studied exercise addiction and he said that the line between someone who just is a healthy exerciser and one who is addicted is “Do you fit exercise around your life or do you schedule your life around your exercise?”

How is this possible? How is it that someone like me - always fat who NEVER EVER exercised except maybe taking the dogs on a short walk - how is it possible that maybe there is an issue here? It seems like fiction. I don’t see myself as someone who over-exercises. In fact, I think of myself as normal to low normal when it comes to exercising.

So I decided I have to change my priorities - bursting into tears because I had planned to ride the exercise bike and instead something came up so I couldn’t - that’s fucked up, right? I don’t even know anymore - my perspective is skewed.

But it was nice to see Fun Jen again. I don’t know that she can co-exist with Exercise Obsessed Jen. And Exercise Obsessed Jen isn’t even accomplishing what her goal is - which is to be thin.

So that’s where I’m at today - right now. I hope that this is a positive step mentally, we’ll see. I wonder if this will have a positive effect on my eating as well?

I know that I lost a lot of weight exercising in what I think was a healthier manner. So it can be done - at least I hope so....

What a surprise….

I woke up this morning to two surprises. Both surprises have everything to do with my distorted view of reality - no one with any sense would be surprised by either of these, but hey - I’m not normal, am I?

The first surprise involved my foot. Can you believe after 1 day of not running, icing and taking Naproxyn that it still swollen and hurts like hell? I know - right? It should be healed by now, right??!!

I did note that it does feel better than it did yesterday, and the thought that maybe I could try a slow run today did cross my stupid mind, but don’t worry, I pushed it out of the way. But if any of you have any suggestions about how I can learn to run without using my feet at all, that would be AWESOME.

Here was the other surprise from team Fucked In The Head. I got on the scale, and much to my shock, not running for one day and talking about resting did not cause a miraculous gain of 15 pounds overnight. I mean the way my body is, it seems like I gain weight just looking at fattening recipes on Facebook, so I was certain the body would know about me needing to take some time off and would respond by hoarding every single calorie it could!

In fact, my weight is exactly the same as it was 2 weeks ago after my doctor’s appointment. EXACTLY THE SAME. This simultaneously makes me feel completely discouraged and completely relieved. I know that I have been snacking MUCH less. And I’ve ben focused on making healthy choices. And yet the scale has not decided to reward my efforts.

On the other hand, I haven’t gained anything either. Which begs the question - if I can maintain my weight right where it is with relatively little effort - meaning keeping up the exercise I do and eating mostly healthy most of the time and not snacking during the week, but being more loose on the weekends - can I live with this? I don’t have the answer to that right now. Because I look at myself in the mirror and see much more fat than I want to have. But I’ve also shown that I clearly don’t have the desire/self-control to fix it.

I have never - never in my entire life - been in a place where I haven’t mentally obsessed about my weight. Now obviously, that doesn’t mean I did anything about it. But when I was fat, I thought about how fat I was ALL THE TIME. In public, in school, at work, while driving, at home - it was always there. And spent HOURS crafting how I would change it starting TOMORROW.

Then I started losing, my life changed and each day would bring the morning weigh in with great anticipation followed by the exhilaration of loss or the crushing disappointment of no loss or - worse - gaining. After hitting my goal weight, the obsession didn’t leave - was I thin enough? Could I go lower? Could I get more toned? Was my stomach flat?

And as weight has crept back on - like lava from a volcano creeping towards a house - slow - inevitable - destructive - I pull at the fat that overhangs my shorts when I work out. I stare at the scale with actual fear before stepping on.

So what would it be like to let it go? To know that if I stay this course, I’m pretty healthy, I have a bit more cushioning than I would like, but I can just live my life not ruled by obsessing on my weight and appearance? To be NORMAL? That thought is pretty fucking appealing, ain’t it?

Seriously??!!

It’s always something isn’t it? Yes, the whiney, sniveling, poor me bitch is back.

Sunday was a perfect day. I mean the kind of day you want to capture in a bottle. For me, anyway, it was. With the cleaning of the chicken house completed, I was relaxed when I got up on Sunday, since my “chores” were done. It was a little cool in the morning, but sunny and predicted to warm quickly.

I grabbed the dogs and we went on a 5 mile run. Since it was warmer than it has been, Chakotay started to get fatigued, and I didn’t want to push him, so we walked a short bit more to cool us all down. Marc and I had lunch and decided to spend the afternoon biking.

It was a bit windy, but we went on a nice longish ride - and my OCD heart was thrilled when we pulled into the driveway at exactly 36 miles.

We then headed out to get something for dinner, first stopping at JC Penney because I had a coupon. I found a cute dress on clearance for less than $15 and using my coupon I paid a grand total of $4.97 for it. You know my cheap-ass was thrilled with this!

I was tired in such a good way as we ate a late - and healthy - dinner and then relaxed the rest of night.

I should have known something would come along to fuck it up!!

As I told you guys, I’ve been having some ball of foot pain. I was pretty confident it was a mild case of metatarsalgia and, based on reading about it, I have not been wearing high heels, have taken some ibuprofen to decrease the swelling and have been icing the foot. But yesterday something happened during my run and it hurt so bad that I had to stop. I figured I was running too much and so I decided I would need to take a couple of days off from running.

But last night I was in AGONY. I kept waking up during the night due to the pain and I couldn’t curl my toes or stretch them without extreme pain. When I got up this morning I could barely walk. Driving to work, I impulsively made the decision to stop at the Urgent Care and get x-rays as I was worried given the sudden acuteness it could be a stress fracture.

I was correct in my guess that early morning would be a good time to get in and out quickly - there was only one woman in front of me. I gave my info to a nurse who noted the swelling and was very kind to me.

Then the doctor came in. She didn’t even introduce herself but came over looked at me and asked me “Why are you running at your age?” She then told me - without even looking at my foot - that I needed to stop running, period. She told me some “light short jogs” on the treadmill is fine for someone my age, but running outside needs to stop.

I was just about speechless and - because I am a HUGE BABY - almost started crying. I couldn’t believe a medical professional was saying this! She then tried to INSIST that the problem was related to a heel spur they had found in 2014. I explained to her that my heel didn’t hurt at all and neither did my midfoot. After some pressing and prodding she finally agreed that it probably was not related to any heel spur. I told her that I was concerned it was a stress fracture. She then said that she could take some x-rays, but that they almost never show stress fractures - you need a special scan for that.

Since I was there anyway she went ahead and did the x-rays. It showed no fracture and my general bone structure is good. She then told me to take naproxen, ice the foot, and no running. She was willing to refer me to a podiatrist, but made the recommendation to see if it gets better with conservative treatment and she will refer me if it doesn’t get better in 1-2 weeks.

I feel like such a IDIOT. I am mad at myself for jumping the gun and going to Urgent Care. It seems like a total waste of time and money. And I am (here comes the pity party) - SO SICK - of having injuries. I mean in terms of INJURY this is not bad at all, but since I’m already at about DEFCON 2 in terms of my weight, the thought of not running is spiraling me into a panic - AGAIN.

Combine this with the comments about my age from the doctor - I am not doing so well right now.

The reading I have done suggests that if this is NOT a stress fracture and since it is not a chronic condition I could heal up quite quickly. So do me a favor guys, and send healing vibes - mentally and physically - towards me!!

4 years later…

April 18, 2012 was a Wednesday. It was my first - and hopefully only - major surgery. Yes, believe it or not, it has been 4 years since I had my excess skin removed.

The memories of that day - and the days following it - alternate between things that are remarkably vivid and other things that feel like a dream or a movie I watched rather than something that actually happened to me. Marc remembers sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office for over 5 hours. I had tried to convince him to do something that day - at least go over to the mall - but he insisted on waiting there the entire time. I think he remembers how much pain I was in that first night better than I do.  You know that the pain of someone we love is always worse than our own.

I wouldn’t expect that 4 years after surgery anything would be changing physically - it hasn’t and that’s probably a good thing. The scars have continued to fade, a thin brown line that circles my whole body. If you decided to stare at my naked body you could see that the skin above and below that incision don’t quite match. And if you wanted to examine my belly button, you would see a dark, slightly indented spot and you would realize that there is no hole - that it’s not a “real” belly button. And there continues to be a small almost perfectly rectangular area which has no feeling at all.

Small prices to pay, really, for such a dramatic change. I ran today and thought about running before the surgery and how the excess skin would lift up in the air and then come slamming down with every step. Of attempting to kind of gather the skin and stuff it into my underwear and pants. Having skin that hung halfway down my thighs...

I can remember a day or 2 after the surgery - when I took off the compression garment so Marc could wash is and laying in bed and reaching down and touching my stomach and realizing that - for the first time in my life - it was FLAT. Not bulging up with fat or skin. The same goes for the first time I took a shower and didn’t have to lift up fat or skin to wash thoroughly.

I remember going shopping and the excitement of buying clothes that I had only dreamt of ever wearing. Or putting on a bikini for the first time in my life. Those things I KNEW would never be in the cards for me - I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to ever “qualify” to be in such an exclusive club.

4 years post op - I’ve certainly had my ups and downs!!

Sometimes I forget how far I’ve come - I am really good at looking at my faults - and I know I have a lot of them - but I also have to reflect on the hard work that allowed me to need this surgery in the first place. And how hard I work every single day to maintain this success.

It ain’t easy, is it my friends? I know you all know the struggle!!

Work, play, functional fitness…

Last week was a pretty good week.  To be honest, it was probably “more good” mentally than physically, but as the weather improved, so did my mood.

From Saturday to Friday I ran a total of 36 miles – which is WAY more weekly miles than I have done in a long time.  This was in addition to walking and biking. 

So I woke up yesterday feeling accomplished for the week, but knowing the annual chore of cleaning out the chicken coop was ahead of me – good times.

I headed down and saw that the coop was not nearly as bad as it was last year.  Since this year we got much less snow and it was not as cold, the chickens were out a lot instead of being in the coop continuously for days and weeks on end.

I know some of you out there might have chickens, and if you do, well, you know they are not the most elegant of creatures.  The floor of the coop was a mixture of hard packed chicken crap and old shavings, and the walls were decorated nicely with sprays of poopage. 

Marc had been waiting for a day to get up and tar some spots on our roof, and it was finally warm enough, so while I worked on the coop, he was up there working. 

I pulled the cart up to the door of the coop and began the task of raking and shoveling.  I filled the cart up and then realized that it was going to be HEAVY.  I thought that I would not be able to haul it away and dump it myself.  But I did, and it wasn’t even that hard.

It took a full 6 loads and change.  I also had to remove some extremely heavy stone blocks out that we put the water on and surprised myself by lifting those suckers up from the floor and carrying them into the yard.  Then, after at least an hour of scrubbing down the walls with water and bleach, I had to haul in the HUGE bales of new shavings and get them spread.

Here is the finished product – the chickens were SO PISSED ( ):

 

There was a huge feeling of accomplishment getting this done.  But I also realized – THIS is the reason to work out and stay healthy. 

It’s all well and good that I can run a few miles at a time – this might come in handy if we experience a zombie outbreak and I have to run from the fuckers.  But while running keeps me fit, it’s isn’t exactly what I would call a practical “skill”.

But being able to lift and haul and clean – the ability to do this for several hours without stopping - that is functional fitness. A skill that is useful for everyday life.

I get so into the mindset of working out just to work out – if you know what I mean.  Having demands that I put on myself without really a purpose.  Or running a certain amount of miles just to “earn” enough to have that bagel.  Am I making any sense to anyone?  This is the “working out” mindset of the times. 

It’s like those guys on Survivor with GIGANTIC biceps who can’t do shit when it comes to practical challenges or tasks.  I know some skinny Amish kids could easily outlast them!  Because their daily work is functional.

So, anyway, I was pretty happy with getting this done, and today it’s going to be even warmer, so I worked yesterday – hoping to play today!!