Is that a tasty beverage…or a meal replacement?
I was killing time yesterday waiting to pick up the girls from school when a hunger pang hit. With a few more errands to run before we got home I decided to get a snack…
There was Jamba Juice right across the parking lot. Mmmmm… A Chocolate Moo’d would taste so good. How bad can it be (for me)? I’ll get it with a protein boost. That will slow down my body’s metabolism of the carbs in it. Yeah. It’ll smooth out the smoothie in my blood stream. Yeah. It’s different from a big cup of juice, which is like drinking syrup. Yeah. I’ll share it with the girls. Split three ways it won’t be so much food. Yeah. It’s hot today a cool, smooth drink will be so nice and refreshing. Yeah.
I was playing Let’s Make a Deal with myself and decided to go for it. Into Jamba I went and got a Chocolate Moo’d with a protein boost. I got the original 22oz. size, after all three of us would be drinking it.
Mmmmm… It was cool… It was creamy…
It was 570 calories! It had 116 grams of carbohydrates! Even though it didn’t have juice in it (no fructose) it did have a yogurt base (lactose). Split three ways it was still way more than a snack. It was practically a meal in itself. Yikes!
Only after receiving my order did I look at the nutritional info. Once I did the math (~200 calories and ~39 grams of carb each) I stopped drinking. I hadn’t gotten through my third of the smoothie, but I had had “enough.”
As a retired person and a penny pincher I highly recommend Dollar Tree stores for snacks and other food. A frozen fruit juice is only 60 calories and the price is $1 for 6 fruit bars. They only sell ice cream in small containers of a pint. If you only buy one and split it 4 ways, you all get a portion that is cool and yummy, you have to throw away the carton, and there is no more to tempt you in the refrigerator.
A snack I love is a half of an avacado. Snack with others and your slices will be smaller. Plant the pit and a lovely tree grows. The plant is a good indoor decoration in a pot & if you want more shade in your yard plant it outside. They grow tall very fast and and you feel virtuous for saving the planet. I must go outside now. I see a very large spider on my porch devouring a grasshopper. How many calories do you think a grasshopper is?
Sadly I’ve fallen out of the habit of carrying a diabetic-friendly snack with me. Cashews are a favorite. So are Fiber One Chewy Bars. If I had that with me I probably would have been satisfied with my snack and some water. Lesson learned–again!
Avocados are great. Your thoughts remind me of Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree. Have you ever read it?