Thinkin' about buyin' Larabars

I love bars. It started back with Nature Valley bars, which I still love, but don't often buy anymore. They are a little high in sugar for me, a little low in fiber. I also eat 90 calorie Quaker bars sometimes--I usually buy them for the husband and kids, but sometimes I'll have one if that's all we've got. They're tasty. I like Fiber One bars too, because sometimes a mama just needs a butt-ton of fiber--literally. After being spurred on by a Phish song, however, I decided to jump into the world of Clif bars.

I seriously used to think that Clif bars were "too fitnessy" for me, particularly because of the dude hanging from a mountain on the package. I could never do that, so I figured I would never "deserve" a Clif bar. Well, I got over that, and they are delicious. A little high in calories for me (because as I said, I do not hang off of cliffs for a living), so I then tried the Kids version of Clif bars (the ZBar). They're also delicious, and smaller with less calories.


Then came the Luna bar, which is made specifically for women. I thought that notion was silly, and my first step after trying them was to give one to Bryan, so that I could say "That's delicious, right? Doesn't taste like it's only for women..." He agreed. We buy them all the time now. My favorites are Chocolate Peppermint Stick and Cookies 'n Cream Delight. I like the amount of calories, which is within 10 calories of 180 for all of them, I believe. I like that they have a decent amount of fiber, and not too too much sugar.

So, when an online blogger whom I love (Roni Noone) suggested Larabars, my love of bars led me straight to the Healthy Bar isle at the grocery store to check them out. I grabbed the first one I saw, and was dismayed to see that it contained 240 calories. I don't like to use over 200 calories on a "bar," because I don't like to use them as a total meal replacement. I like to have a bar as a mid-morning snack (if I've had a tiny lunch), an afternoon snack, or sometimes as a way to get through a long car ride. 240 just seemed like too much for me. I've heard great things about Larabars though, so I decided to look more closely at their numbers:

Bar Name	Calories	Fat	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
Larabar Apple Pie	180	10	4	17	4
Larabar Banana Bread	220	11	5	17	6
Larabar Blueberry Muffin	190	8	3	17	4
Larabar Carrot Cake	200	8	5	24	3
Average of Larabar	198	9	4	19	4
Luna Berry Almond	170	3	3	11	9
Luna Blueberry Bliss	180	5	3	13	8
Luna Caramel Nut Brownie	180	6	3	12	8
Luna Chocolate Chunk	180	5	3	11	9
Average of Luna	178	5	3	12	9

I picked the first 4 bars on each respective website (they were in alphabetical order) to compare. While I'm sorry to say I have yet to try a Larabar, I see in this table exactly why I will probably continue to prefer Luna bars. Basically, Luna bars have less calories, as I already mentioned. They also provide about twice the protein of Larabars, and half the fat. While Larabars provide a little more fiber than Luna, they consistently contain more sugar. 

In conclusion, I will try a Larabar, if only because after all this effort I have to at least see how they taste. I'm sure they are delicious. I'm also pretty sure they're a pretty hip company, since they helped sponsor Roni's Fitbloggin conference last weekend. Luna, on the other hand, is ultimately made by Nestle, who is a huge conglomerate that has cornered the market on many types of food, and has bought out more small food companies than I could count. I'm not totally against that in itself, because I would hope that the smaller companies sold for a good deal. So, I will try Lara... but the Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna Bar in my drawer is calling my name right now. And at around 3 o'clock this afternoon, it will have my full attention. 

I'm practically a Master!

Three years ago I started an endeavor to get a master's degree. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to get, or what school to get it from. I considered taking night classes locally... then I found out that WVU has a totally online Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree through their Health Sciences School of Community Medicine. I thought that sounded pretty sweet, because I was sortof doing public health already with my work with E. coli and water quality. I studied and took the GRE, applied to WVU, and the rest has all fallen into place.

I did well in my classes, I got a few classes for free as a sort of scholarship, and I was invited to be a student representative on the MPH Board. Throughout the first year of taking classes, I was still at my highest weight. At some point though I realized that I couldn't keep living in a way that is in such contrast with what I was learning. I was taking "Worksite Wellness," learning how to develop a program to keep people healthy at work, and I was like 100 pounds overweight.

Being in the MPH program was one of the factors that helped me decided to start living a healthier lifestyle. I've lost 65 pounds since then, and have run in six 5ks. I've changed forever the way that I think about food, and although I still indulge when I really want to, I always remember that everything counts, food is fuel, and exercise feels GOOD.

After a very long, arduous semester, I am walking across a stage and receiving my Masters of Public Health degree on Sunday. My whole family (other than Beth and Andrew) will be there, we are going to party it up, and my kids will get to see me dress in a really weird costume and shake somebody's hand as I take a roll of parchment from them. They don't really understand what I've done, but they will know that it's important. They'll be proud of me someday.

The only thing left is to figure out how to delicately tell everyone at work and among my friends to call me Master Cooper from now on. Bryan and the kids can just call me Master. Yeah. It has a nice ring to it.

I need to move more!

I was reading a new post of Roni's this morning, and decided I need to post my response here at my own blog as well. The post was called How can we up our daily activity? She's talking about things that we can do that to just move more, whether it's purposeful exercise, or just burning an extra few calories here and there throughout our days.

Here's what I can do to move more:

• Walk to CVS when we need the "just one item" kinda thing. 
• Walk to the gas station to fill up  my gas can before mowing. 
• Mow regularly (push mower, and very steep back yard). 
• Bike to the grocery store when I have 40 minutes to spare, and we only need a few things.

Here's what I already do:

• Park far away when I'm shopping by myself (need to up this to every time, no matter who's with me). 
• Counter push-ups and squats while making bacterial media at work. 
• Volunteer for all outside field work at work, and encourage us to walk to the top of the mountain to get that sample instead of drive. 
• Get up early to either walk w/my sister, run by myself, or do Wii Yoga, strength training, or cardio (but I need to do this every day). 

So, that's what I'm going to do. Keep doing what I'm doing, and add some more "move mores" to my day. 

Oh, and by the way, I totally finished my Masters of Public Health degree yesterday by presenting my poster for the faculty and visitors who came by to see it. The whole day was just awesome, and I had so much support from my family and friends. Great day. I'll talk more about it later, I'm sure.