One thing that I love about the Arnold is the abundance of free swag from the expo hall (that's the cheapskate in me talking). Spend an hour meandering from booth to booth and you are guaranteed to walk away with a plethora of XXXL t-shirts, glossy brochures and quasi-nutritious food samples. The best freebies to grab by far are the protein bars, and even though I vowed after my umpteenth sample to never nosh on them again, I do have to admit that they are amazing fall backs for that mid-afternoon slump. Sure, I'd rather eat an apple or a hard-boiled egg - basically, something with an ingredient list that I can pronounce - but when there's nothing fresh in sight, I certainly won't turn down an enriched chocolate treat.
Of all the bars I tried over the weekend, here are some of my faves:
- Myoplex Lite, Chocolate chocolate chip crisp flavor (190 calories, 4.5 grams fat, 15 grams protein, 260 mg sodium) With a texture akin to a Rice Krispie square and a smaller-than-average calorie and fat count, this bar is tops in my book. I sometimes split one in half and have one part midmorning, the other midafternoon.
- Power Crunch Protein Energy Bar, Peanut butter fudge flavor (200 calories, 12 grams fat, 13 grams protein, 100 mg sodium) Okay, so this one is higher in fat - and comes with a not-so-ideal 5 grams of saturated fat - but the taste can't be beat. It reminds me of the wafer cookies that I used to steal out of the kitchen cupboard when no one was looking. (Sorry, mom!)
- Larabar, Peanut butter and jelly flavor (210 calories, 10 grams fat, 6 grams protein, 60 mg sodium) While technically this one is more of an energy bar than a protein bar, what impresses me is its 100% natural ingredient list. In fact, if you check out their website, you can see that all of the ingredients can actually be represented by easily recognizable pictures. You can't say that for maltodextrin!
Do you guys have any bars or powders that you consider your faves? Share them here!
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