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| Question on Meal Replacement Bars. (Read 503 times) |
arotrame |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 7:43 PM |
I'm fat. I'm facing the facts but I'm also trying to deal with it in a positive way. I've been running for a year and half and would say that it has finally become routine for me to go out and do 3-5 miles. I run/walk and usually do a 4/1 split. What I'm trying to do it start eating healthy and using food more as a fuel than just something I like to do. First habit I'm trying to change is eating breakfast. Lately I've been grabbing a Special K meal bar, like the one in the link below, and eating it for breakfast while I drive to work.
http://www.specialk.com/?id=challenge (click on the link on the page to see the nutritional content)
A. Is it healthy?
B. Nutritionally, am I doing the right thing for my body in the morning by eating it? |
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| view log Funky Monkey |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 8:28 PM |
| Quote from arotrame on 3/25/2008 at 7:43 PM: Meal Replacement Bars
There is no such thing.
Meals cannot be replaced by "nutritional" bars. |
| It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack. |
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| view log Ball Tongue |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 8:30 PM |
| Quote from Trent on 3/25/2008 at 8:28 PM: There is no such thing.
Meals cannot be replaced by "nutritional" bars.
Here we go again...  |
| The Gaijin Samurai. a.k.a The attorney dissin' attorney.
Read and Listen
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| view log Funky Monkey |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 8:42 PM |
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| It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack. |
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| view log Funky Monkey |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 8:46 PM |
From Pollan:
1. Eat food. Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number
4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
5. Pay more, eat less.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore.
Or : eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
A breakfast bar is not food, it is processed foodlike stuff.
And : if your goal is to lose weight, there is no need to "fuel" your run. The fat that we all have on us will fuel most runs up to a reasonably high intensity. |
| It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack. |
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| view log Ball Tongue |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 8:51 PM |
I agree with everything Trent wrote, especially about eating like the French or Japanese. EAT LESS. Smaller portions is the key.
FWIW, About 70-75% of my daily calories come from milk, protein shakes or bars and they do well by me. I do take supplements though (multivitamin, fish oil, zinc, magnesium, vit c & e after runs, etc).
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| The Gaijin Samurai. a.k.a The attorney dissin' attorney.
Read and Listen
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posted: 3/25/2008 at 9:32 PM |
Have you ever noticed how much sugar thaose breakfast bars have?? If I gave one of those things to my 2 year old twins, I reckon they'd be bouncing off the walls for the whole day from the sugar rush.
My suggestion is porridge for breakfast (you guys call it oatmeal)...and Trent, I'm getting in before you on this one.....I don't know what steel cut oats are but oatmeal is great. Throw in some honey, peaches, prunes and even banana and voila.....instant healthy, filling and energy-giving brekky.
Chuck out the bars....all that processed stuff is crap. |
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| view log WOOT! |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 10:14 PM |
| Quote from Trent on 3/25/2008 at 8:46 PM: 1. Eat food. Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
But what about Pop Tarts, the pre-race wonder food?
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| 30,000 Miles Later
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| view log Funky Monkey |
posted: 3/25/2008 at 10:55 PM |
| Quote from TanyaS on 3/25/2008 at 10:14 PM: But what about Pop Tarts, the pre-race wonder food?
Pop Tarts are the wonder pre-race energy foodlike substance. They are second only to Star crunch.
Quote from Cairen on 3/25/2008 at 9:32 PM:I don't know what steel cut oats are
Slow-cooking oats (i.e., not instant) can be either rolled or steel cut. Most of what we eat and know in this country is/are rolled oats. With rolled oats, the grain is steamed until it is soft (but not cooked) and it is pressed between two rollers and made flat. That makes it cook more quickly and gives it a better mouthfeel than whole grain. Steel cut oats runs the grain through an apparatus that basically cuts each grain into littler bits. These retain more of the oats' original chewiness and texture, but they cook relatively quickly like the rolled oats. I prefer the steel cut oats. They are also fairly popular on the British Isles and can be bought at most health food stores that have bulk grains and beans.
To cook either, the easiest way to do it is to have one part grain to 4ish parts water. You can use a crock pot, an oven or a cast iron pot. Heat the water to boiling. Add the oats with perhaps a touch of salt. Heat back to boiling and keep it hot for about 45 minutes. It takes very little work. I usually heat mine in the cast iron pot with a lid and then stick it in the oven set to 300 degrees and then turned off. I do this before my run and come home to fabulous oats. |
| It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack. |
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| view log Member Since 2008 |
posted: 3/26/2008 at 12:06 AM |
| Arotrame, keep in mind, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it gets your metabolism started. Always eat a good healthy breakfast. If you run in the morning, eat after the run. |
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| view log Bif! Bam! Pow! |
posted: 3/26/2008 at 12:26 AM |
skipping the rest of it...as someone who has lost weight
Meal replacement bars dont do much to satisfy your hunger, they have a lot of sugar so they tend to spike your blood sugar and make you more hungry.
There are lots of fast breakfast options that are sooooo much more satisfying. oats are good and omelets can be made in 5 minutes (all the veggies pre chopped in baggies in the freezer)
If you MUST eat in the car there are better options but ds is screaming so I bbl |
Beware the Pink Boxing Gloves of DOOM!
"It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds" - Captain Hammer
2008 Goals New PR's in 5K 10K HM, M
Faster than a speeding toddler..... |
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| view log |
posted: 3/26/2008 at 12:50 PM
modified: 3/26/2008 at 12:50 PM |
A good way to have a portable breakfast is to simply put it in the blender and bring it with you in a travel mug. Here's my favorite smoothie:
1 Cup vanilla rice milk (skim milk works too, but I like the flavor more with rice milk)
1 Cup frozen mixed berries
1/3 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup hemp plus granola (less fat & sugar than many other granolas)
Don't worry, the granola gets powdered in the blender, so there are no chunks.
Total: 355 Calories and all the components of a healthy breakfast!
1 Scoop of vanilla whey protein powder makes the texture smoother but adds a lot of calories.
1 heaping tablespoon of peanut or almond butter adds to the taste and provides natural protein, though at the cost of some more calories.
I use those last 2 options when I'm doing more mileage. |
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finney Resident pinniped |
posted: 3/26/2008 at 2:54 PM |
| I agree with Trent on this one. Those breakfast bars are garbage and honestly, do you think you're not going to be starving again in an hour on only 100 calories of quick-burning sugars? There are SO many better things to eat for breakfast. If you're in a hurry whipping up something like what Nate described is a great idea. Or even some yogurt and some granola (healthy granola, not a sugar packed pre-packaged bar) before you run out the door is better than a Special K bar. |
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arotrame |
posted: 3/26/2008 at 4:28 PM |
| I guess the answer to my questions is an overwhemingly NO! I was relying on the bars quite a bit and was eating them pretty frequently but now I've found a Kashi and eating a healthy cereal in the morning is a better option than a prepackaged bar! |
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