The Most Harmful Drinks in America

It’s no secret that a lot of our readily-available foods in this country are laden with fats, preservatives, and an excessive amount of sugar. But what, exactly, does all that sugar look like? This morning I came across a blog post that highlights the 20 worst beverages in the country, accompanied by photos of their sugar-equivalent foods. Here are just a few of the offenders:

#20: Worst Water

Ok seriously, worst water? Water? You can have 2 Good Humor chocolate eclair bars and have the same amount of sugar in that bottle. Suddenly, plain water seems 100% more appealing than “antioxidant” water.

#14: Worst Kids’ Drink

This is particularly gross to me since I used to love Tropicana Twister when I was younger. The sugar here (60g in 1 bottle) is the same as having two cans of Reddi Whip whipped cream. Oh, and this juice is only 10% juice. The rest is basically water and sugar. Hooray!

#12: Worst Juice Imposter

Who didn’t love these 99¢ cans of Arizona? And who didn’t drink the whole thing right then and there because hey, it’s in a can so you can’t really save it! Think before you pick up a can like this again… one can of Arizona Kiwi Strawberry packs 81g of sugar; the same as 7 bowls of Froot Loops. I personally can’t even make it through one bowl of Froot Loops. Brb gonna be sick.

#11: Worst Espresso Drink

Ah, the peppermint mocha: a staple of the holiday season. Beware the white chocolate, though. I used to work at Starbucks years ago, and the white chocolate mocha syrup really is a thing to be afraid of. The venti white chocolate version of this staple gives you 660 calories and 95g of sugar; the same as 8.5 scoops of Edy’s Slow Churned Rich and Creamy Coffee Ice Cream. 8.5 SCOOPS. There is so much wrong with that, I can’t even. (Can anyone even eat 8.5 scoops of ice cream and not wish for death afterwards?)

I won’t spoil the top 10 for you… just go ahead and read for yourself. And give your water bottle a hug.

Three (Four?) Things Thursday

ONE

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. Guys. It’s going to be 71°F here. 71. Joy and bliss and all of that. Yes I said I was going to take a little break from running to work on strength and flexibility, but do I need to repeat the temperature once more? I am most definitely going for a run after work.

TWO

Maybe I’m weird for this, but I’m horrible at just getting into bed and going to sleep. More often than not, I’ll want to squeeze some last-minute reading or research on whatever I’m interested at that moment just before I sleep. This means using my laptop in bed. And very often, falling asleep in the middle of reading a sentence. However, sometimes my brain is so wired on a topic that I’m up until 11:30 or midnight. That time does not work well with my desired wake-up time of 5:30am for morning yoga and strength. So in addition to working on improving my base for running, I’m also going to create a sort of “calm and focus” time at night where no computers or anything are allowed.

THREE

The latest running seminar I attended on Monday night was all about nutrition for runners. Of course, I was glued to the presentation for the whole night. I love that stuff. After the presentation, I talked to the nutritionist about the cramping I had during the half. I told him that I had Powerade at pretty much every water stop, and was well hydrated, so I couldn’t understand why I was cramping so badly. His answer? Regular Gatorade and Powerade don’t have enough mid-run electrolytes to be effective! At least not for me.

So I’m going to get myself a giant tub of Gatorade Endurance (also used during the Chicago Marathon) and start using that. I’ve also picked up a few tubes of nuun’s new product, U- natural hydration. They’re just like regular nuun tablets; they dissolve in 16oz of water. But these ones are weaker than their normal tablets, and are designed for light or everyday activities: yoga, walking, etc. I picked up the Lemon Chai and Tangerine Ginger flavors and I loooove them! They’re a great way to give a little pep to your water.

shh I’m sneaking in a number FOUR

Attention all runners in the Greater Boston area: this Monday night starting at 7pm, the lululemon athletica store at the Burlington Mall will be hosting their last running seminar. They’ll also be giving away photos and issues of Runner’s World signed by Kara Goucher! This event is totally free, so what’s to lose?

Social Life vs. Training Life

How the heck do you manage it? Seriously. This week has been one giant choice between being social and sticking to my training, all while not becoming sleep deprived.

If the plans were with people I could see at any time, then whatever. But one night I went out with my cousin, who was visiting from Florida. Another night I was trapped in the house because of snow. Last night I was at work until 7pm, saw a friend, and got home at 11pm.

Every day on my way to work I see people running, and I WISH I had the time to run without getting up before 5am.

How do you guys balance training and socializing? I don’t have many runner friends, as I know many of you do. So I can’t do the whole “combining socializing and training” thing.

And to those of you that run at lunch: do you have a shower at work? If not, how do you de-gross-ify? I work in an absolutely amazing running area (a long tree-lined mall a block away, and the Charles River/Esplanade about a quarter of a mile away), so I want to take advantage of that when the ice clears.

Giveaway Rundown

Marlene is giving away some totally sweet Red Olympic Mittens. It’s only open until the 22nd, so go go go!

Tall Mom‘s Running Essentials Giveaway is open until the 24th, and there’s a hefty amount of items up for grabs!

YOUBARS. (shameless self-promotion, what?)

IT’S FRIDAY!

Tomorrow I’m running 12 miles before going on my friend’s 2nd annual Red Sox-themed pub crawl that I helped plan. I am using both of those events as an excuse to eat whatever the heck I want in the next 24 hours. And I’ll be consuming copious amounts of salt in order to not cramp up once more.

mmmm 60% of my daily sodium in one can <3

YouBar Review and Giveaway!

The Review

I am SO EXCITED to tell you guys about this company. I first discovered YouBars through the site Groupon. I purchased a gift certificate worth $25 for $12, and I’m so happy to have found them.

Most of you guys have heard of Lärabars, right? These are like Lärabars, but totally customized! YouBar makes custom nutrition bars, trail mix, protein shake mix, cookies, and cereal. It’s an incredibly simple process, too. You simply choose which type of product you want to make, then check off all the items you want to include in there. You choose a base, protein powder, nuts/seeds, fruit/berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains, and infusions, as well as the strength of each ingredient. It even calculates nutrition information as you go. Once you’re done creating your bar, you even get to name it :)

I made a box of nutrition bars using my coupon, and it took me a while to order since I couldn’t choose what I wanted in there! I finally decided on an autumn-inspired bar:

• YouBar Base (almond butter and organic dates)
• whey protein
• organic pumpkin seeds
• organic flax seeds
• organic apples
• organic black mission figs
• organic brown rice syrup
• cinnamon
• organic ginger
• crunchy rice cereal
• all-one vitamin infusion

IT IS DELICIOUS. The flax seeds add this wonderful toasty, nutty flavor to it, and the pumpkin seeds give it a bit of pop. The almond butter and date base holds the bar together well, but it isn’t as dense as a Lärabar (I always found them too dense to finish). The crunchy rice cereal isn’t very apparent, but there’s still a hint of crunch. I think I like the crunch level for this type of bar; any crunchier and it’d be chunky.

And of course I named it…

Running Fuel! I eat one before my training sessions and it fills me up for quite a while.

The Giveaway

I emailed the folks at YouBar and they have kindly agreed to give away a YouBar Starter Box to one lucky reader! The Starter Box includes:

• a $15 gift certificate towards any YouBar product
• two pre-made nutrition bars
• two pre-made protein shake mixes
• two pre-made bags of trail mix

Yum yum yum!

The contest ends at 11:59pm on February 24th, and you have four chances to win:

1. Go to YouBars.com, check out the products, and leave me a comment with which product you’d like to create, and which flavor combo appeals to you.
2. Add my blog to your RSS feed and let me know in another comment.
3. Link to this post from your blog (1 entry), or Twitter/Facebook/Whatever (another entry)  and let me know in another comment.

Love what you see on YouBar, but don’t want to wait for the end of the contest? Just use coupon code runkerarun to get 5% off your order!