Fresh New Fit: NatureBox Snacks

By Cool J in Minneapolis

I'm not a nutritionist. It's true that both LL and I love fitness, fashion, and fitness fashion! But we both struggle sometimes with diet, and we're not experts by any means. Honestly, Dustin and I don't eat horribly in our house, but we could do better.

However, part of why we love to run so much is because we also love to eat! And running a lot means we're hungry a lot. A friend of mine asked if I would post about some recommendations for filling, healthy snacks for runners.

My standbys usually involve peanut butter: a banana with peanut butter, pretzels with peanut butter...maybe peanut butter with peanut butter! But seriously, its tough to find snacks that are filling and still healthy. I asked Dustin to chime in for this post, and all he said was "chocolate milk." He does love his chocolate milk post-run!

A few other snacks that I suggest/love:  baked kale chips, hummus with veggies, Luna bars, or Greek yogurt.

Finding healthy snacks is a definitely a challenge, so I decided to leave it to the experts: I signed up to try "Nature Box"- healthy snacks delivered to your doorstop!

Nature Box is $19.95/month, though I found a deal on facebook to try it out for just $9.95. My first delivery arrived a few days ago: 

It was filled with five unique bags of goodies.

1. Banana Bread Granola:
Pretty tasty! I snacked on this dry, but it would be good for breakfast with some almond milk.

 2. Lemon Meringue Waffles:
At first, these seemed really light and flavorless, but then they started to grow on me. And one serving is the WHOLE BAG. Eeks. But it didn't take me long to finish these.

3. Taj Mahal Snack Mix: 
This one wasn't my favorite, but not bad. A pretty standard mix of nuts.

 3. Whole Wheat Raspberry Figgy Bars: 
These are like Fig Newtons, which I happen to love. I actually liked this snack bag the most. The figgy bars are individually wrapped and great to throw in your gym bag for an easy filler.

 5. Italian Bistro Pretzels: 
Okay- these were tasty enough but WHEW! They gave you stinky, stinky breath. Dustin ate a few, and I swear I could smell him eating them from upstairs when he was in the kitchen. Altoids necessary with this snack.

Overall, I enjoyed my first NatureBox. It's all super healthy and unique, though perhaps not exceptionally flavorful. Some items were definitely better than others though. Unfortunately, even if you really liked one of the items, you can't buy more of it anywhere yet.

As a friend of mine said after her first delivery, "Nature Box is great, but it's definitely not going to solve all your snacking woes." I would agree- it's a fun way to be introduced to different snacks.  I think I'll try it out a few more times, just to see, but I will probably stick to snacks I  can easily find at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's instead.

What are some of your favorite snacks? 
What's the best midday fuel before an evening run?
Have you tried NatureBox? What did you think?

Fresh New Fit: Kona Kase Follow-up

By Cool J in Minneapolis

Two weeks ago, I posted about a Fresh, New Fit- Kona Kases!  My friend Meggan highlighted this new monthly club to me, and I signed up for a three month subscription to check it out. I was excited to find that my first box arrived a few days ago. I thought it wasn't supposed to arrive until mid-April, so extra points for early arrival!

The orange box was a bit smaller than a shoebox.

 It included a variety of snacks and goodies: Cliffshots, chocolate squares, a Clif bar, caramel cups, chocolate almond butter, and more.

Yesterday, I  tried this bite sized "Perfect Foods Bar" mini.

It was almond butter flavored. I thought it was good, and a bit tastier than a Powerbar. However, the D-man didn't like it; he thought it was too dry. I tried this bar before 9 miles of hill repeats with the Calhoun Beach Running Club. It didn't upset my stomach at all, but it was pretty small and not very filling (especially since I spared a bite for the D-man!)

Today, I tried the BRUBAR, made with barley malt.

I didn't mind this bar either, but I'm sure Dusters would have hated it! He is much pickier than I am with snacks, I guess. I don't really mind the taste of energy bars in general. I ate a lot of Powerbars in college, for whatever reason (maybe they were cheap?) 

So the BRUBAR was also a little dry, but it seemed easily digestible. I ate half of it before a hot yoga session this evening, and it filled me up until it was dinner time.

Next up? Maybe this organic, nut free, gluten free caramel cup.

I'm also excited to try the chocolate almond butter. Perhaps I will try it tomorrow for breakfast on a piece of toast. 

The Kona Kase included a lot more chocolate than I would have expected. I suppose true athletes love their chocolate (just like Jenna Boren in this interview) but I'm not a huge chocolate person; I prefer a salty snack. Even so, I found my first Kona Kase to be an interesting mix. However, I'm not sure it was worth my $15/month. I'm sure the retail value of all the items added up to more than $15, and I did enjoy the variety of items. It's nice to have a little shoebox full of snacks to try before a workout, and I definitely appreciate the convenience.  But I'm not 100% sold on this yet...

*Has anyone else tried the Kona Kase? What do you think?

Fresh New Fit: Kona Kases!

By Cool J in Minneapolis

I just cancelled one monthly subscription (to Ellie- if you missed it, read about it HERE, HERE, and HERE)  And now it’s on to the next subscription!

My friend Meggan gave me the heads up about Kona Kase – a monthly subscription of a completely different sort than Ellie.

Rather than fitness apparel, Kona Kase is a monthly delivery of “awesome endurance nutrition samples!”

It’s only $15/month with free shipping. You can try it out for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or a year. You can cancel whenever you want.

You won’t know ahead of time what will be contained in your Kona Kase, but the company will elicit your feedback to continue to customize the Kona Kase experience to fit your specific needs. There will be a variety of products- GU's, Cliff blocks, Picky bars, etc.

I signed up for a 3 month subscription, and my first Kase should arrive between the 15-18th of April.

Unlike Ellie’s fitness apparel, Kona Kases are non-returnable; this makes sense though, since it’s FOOD! It's more about trying out different products to see what you like and what works for you. I'm excited to try it and will provide my honest feedback of the products inside!

And if you're interested in trying it out, send me your email, and I'll send you an invite. Yes, I will get a $15 credit if you sign up, thanks :-)

I think this will be a good program for the busy runner. If you're anything like me, you often run out of GU/fuel the night before a long run. With this program, you'll get to try a variety of options, and you'll always have something on hand before the long run.

Example Kona Kase