Time for Brunch

TFB Quick Bytes - Fuel Tasting Review Energy and Protein Bars Edition

May 03, 2023 Season 1 Episode 76
Time for Brunch
TFB Quick Bytes - Fuel Tasting Review Energy and Protein Bars Edition
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Show Notes Transcript

Hello, friend, 

In our monthly "Fuel review" we decided to try out protein and energy bars. We all know that they can be pricey and nothing is worse then having to chuck out a chalky bar after one bite. 

Our picks for today's review are as follows: 

  • Picky Bar - Moroccan your world
  • TruBar - Daydreaming about Donuts
  • Perfect Bar - Salted Caramel
  • GoMacro Cherries and Berries
  • Larabar Blueberry Muffin 
  • Rxbar - chocolate sea salt and Maple Syrup


Did you miss the live video recording and want to hear Coach Shelby's "cliffhanger" response that was cut from this audio version?  Subscribe to the Youtube channel and check it out here. 

We want to hear from you. What would you like us to review? Do you have a favorite go-to fuel? Reach out to us at info@timeforbrunch.com

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Shelby (00:02.306)
Hey friends, Coach Shelby and Coach Christine, welcoming you and letting you know it's time for brunch, Quick Bites Edition, where you can grab your miles with a smile, side of smiles, take them on the run midday, in the afternoon, or a late night snack attack, which I think after this episode, we're gonna have a lot of late night snack attack ideas. I'm excited and I'm also so hungry right now.

Christine (00:29.082)
I'm starving.

Shelby (00:30.314)
I've not had my mid-morning snacks specifically because I'm like, I know I'm gonna like at least one of these. So I need to save a little room.

Christine (00:38.346)
I'm going to be honest because you actually drove this specific pace testing in terms of what we were going to taste test. You decided the bars and then you chose one of my go-to favorites. So I cannot pretend that I have not had everything that we're sampling because this is one of and I'll talk about it when we get to that point of it. But yes, there is one here that I quite literally always have with me.

Shelby (01:02.134)
You turned me on to it. And I specifically picked one of the flavors I hadn't tried.

Christine (01:02.209)
And yeah, it's, oh, it's my favorite flavor. It is my absolute favorite flavor. Okay. With that said, let's get right to it. So I think out of the gate, it's important to talk about that. We are not reviewing these bars from the perspective of them being meal replacements or anything of that sort. It's more so the fact that protein bars and energy bars can be really expensive and

Shelby (01:11.351)
Oh, I'm excited.

Shelby (01:30.606)
and it really gross. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Christine (01:31.921)
Yeah, that's exactly right. And I know for a fact, I have had like a four or $5 protein bar that I'm like, absolutely. This is the most disgusting thing and I'd rather throw it away. So we're doing this from the perspective of they have some great, like sometimes you're using them for just a quick snack in between a gym session or in between meetings. I know that we tend to have them in between recording sessions because again, we'll do a lot of recording back to back. So they've got some great

principles, but some of them are just a little icky. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that. I don't think we're gonna have any icky ones today though. I'm excited about them.

Shelby (02:08.494)
I mean, there's only a couple that I'm a little questionable on. Yeah, I mean, there's some questions, but it's going to be OK.

Christine (02:11.944)
Larry about.

Christine (02:18.710)
Absolutely. So with that said, I cannot wait to get into this live taste testing. Coach, let's talk about which bar out of the gate you want to talk about first. We're going to taste test here.

Shelby (02:34.030)
I have to pick the first one. Why, because this is my brainchild.

Christine (02:35.689)
You do. Yeah. And I think, wait, before we do that, I do want to make everybody aware. We've pre open these. So we're going to try to minimize a little bit of the crinkledness, but we're still going to show you guys the packaging. It just may not be as pretty. And we'll let you know some of the details about like ingredients. But are you planning on having like a small bite. Are you, what are you planning on doing? Are you having the whole bar coach.

Shelby (02:40.397)
Okay.

Shelby (03:04.142)
to be determined. I mean, it depends on how, yeah, the one that I've tried before, because there's only one that I've absolutely tried before, which I think is one we'll start with first. I'm going to give it one bite and then we'll go for it. But I say we start with the Picky bars because these are my go-to. I love them. They were started by Steph Bruce and Lauren Fleshman, which are two elites.

Christine (03:06.466)
It depends on how much you like it.

Christine (03:22.551)
Okay.

Shelby (03:32.374)
Lauren Blushman actually just came out with a book and so did Steph Rose. So two really strong women, they recently had sold the company to Laird Foods for millions and millions of dollars. So it was a nice entrepreneurial story on top of it because, you know, let's make the money.

Christine (03:48.736)
Oh, that's, that's quite heartwarming for sure. Yes. So what is the base of the picky bars? Is it more of a date bar? It's more of an energy bar. Is it specifically energy and protein? Give me more information about it since this is kind of your jam.

Shelby (03:51.242)
right? She started in her kitchen and made it into a multimillion dollar business.

Shelby (04:07.442)
Okay, so it doesn't have caffeine or anything. But this is a great pre-run fuel option. Molly Seidel actually used one of their flavors because she's one of their athletes and had it pre-Olympics and won a bronze medal. So not guaranteed for results, but yeah, the first three ingredients are dates, almonds, and rice protein. So right out of the gate, it's...

Christine (04:10.751)
Mm-hmm.

Christine (04:30.111)
Okay.

Shelby (04:32.866)
pretty solid. It does have a higher sugar at 16 grams, but it's only five added sugars. So a lot of that sugar is getting derived from the Whole Foods options, which I tend to love. Great on carbs and seven grams of protein. I'll grab these pre-run. I will grab them again, like we said, between recordings. So I let you choose the flavor since I've tried all of the flavors and you chose Moroccan your world.

Christine (04:57.514)
And you sent them all my way. I mean, you can't, how can you go wrong with Moroccan your world? Like it's so much fun right out of the gate. We do love puns. So I do want to talk a little bit more about the actual picky bars. And you started to tell us a little bit about the ingredients.

Shelby (05:06.602)
I mean, we love puns too, so.

Christine (05:18.581)
I think it's pretty interesting that it's a rice protein flour as one of the main ingredients. So for friends that have any kind of more of a dairy issue and you are traditionally looking at most protein bars are whey focused and whey has a lot of great benefits. There's no doubt about it from how your body synthesizes it, but it's also causes some GI distress for some folks, myself included. So I'm super excited. I don't know that I've had a rice flour. I've had a lot of pea protein, but this sounds interesting.

Shelby (05:47.166)
We actually just read a whole thing about pea protein and for dogs, it's not good. I mean, granted, I don't know if we have any dogs watching, but because we love our furry friends, just a little sidebar. Um, but yeah, and these are GMO free, soy free, dairy free, and they are gluten free because Steph Bruce can't have gluten. So that was a very important part for them. She has a, I believe she has celiacs.

Christine (06:08.706)
Okay. So out of the gate coach, let's get to it.

Shelby (06:12.950)
I'll let you give the first dips. Because again, I've had this one, so.

Christine (06:15.346)
I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna cut a piece because they're, yeah, I've been burned by protein bars like our energy bars. I can, I think some of them are pretty gross.

Shelby (06:18.470)
Ugh, are you gonna play me with the gels last week, or last month?

Shelby (06:28.950)
This is so good. Okay, so one thing that I think will turn a lot of people off is it does have turmeric and ginger in it, which is something that you don't necessarily find, I'm talking in my mouth full, in bars. But I will say I don't burp the spices up at all, even on my run. Mm.

Christine (06:36.673)
Mm-hmm.

Christine (06:46.837)
Okay. How much earlier before your run have you consumed it?

Shelby (06:52.454)
I've broken my own rule and I've done it at least like 10 minutes before. Usually I take a half for that portion, about 30 minutes just to let the everything digest and everything. But I have a super sensitive stomach, especially on the run and my fear of port-a-potties. I can eat these and they don't upset me at all.

Christine (07:11.642)
So I'm not tasting a lot of the turmeric. I am tasting a lot of the ginger. I like ginger personally. Ginger is also a great additive to your diet if you have GI distress or you tend to have nausea as I've mentioned that I have during summer. So I could see where this would be a really great, I think it would be great even on the run to be honest.

Shelby (07:28.522)
Yeah, I could probably eat this on the run.

Christine (07:32.445)
energy stores within the fact that it's got that date right out of the gate. Haha. Sorry.

Shelby (07:37.246)
Yeah, well and like how do you feel about the texture because I like these but before I give my two cents I'd like to hear your three cents

Christine (07:44.733)
I thought the texture was good. I like it has a little bit of a crackle, a little bit of crunch. It has, it's not overwhelming. You're not overly having to chew. Like I like, uh, actually the jelly beans that ended up being at the run Disney 10 miler, we'll talk a little bit about that. I had to chew for a really long time. Were these not so much like, I felt like it was, it was easy to chew and get down. I like it a lot. I would eat the entire thing.

Shelby (08:09.786)
It's not waxy. And that's the one thing I like about these bars is they're not that really condensed waxy type of protein bar. Now, I will say with this one specifically, because it does have turmeric, if you are going to eat it with your bare hands, you might get a little of that orangey, as Christine looks at her, but because turmeric does kind of stain. So just an FYI. Again, you're sweating off anything anyway. But.

Christine (08:28.706)
this still looks.

Shelby (08:38.678)
with all the good ingredients, it does have that real whole food flavor and consistency.

Christine (08:45.209)
I'm also curious folks, if you are getting to watch this live, let us know if you have turmeric in your diet regularly or ginger. They're both such great anti-inflammatory properties. I actually take a ginger orange.

supplement kind of drink that I love. So I'm curious what other people feel about turmeric, but coach, I'm loving this one. I will definitely be making this happen in my life. Love the pistachios and that nuttiness. I'm going to make picky happen. I'm going to, but I don't know about fetch because.

Shelby (09:08.018)
Oh, gonna make fetch happen?

Shelby (09:14.078)
I will say their peanut butter chocolate one is my ultimate favorite. And their chai and catch me tastes like Christmas to me.

Christine (09:23.449)
Shut the front door. That's such an adorable name. Okay. Tell us a little bit more about which one you don't like.

Shelby (09:29.934)
Um, I hate to say it, but the Loren's Meganuts, which was actually one of their first bars. I don't love it. I think because it doesn't have as much of a flavor. Um, it's not my go-to. I'll like it, but, and then there's a mint one that I'm not a big mint person. So I don't even put that in my regular rotation.

Christine (09:52.975)
Okay, so what is the base? Is it a chocolate mint?

Shelby (09:56.734)
I don't know. Once I hear men, I pretty much just.

Christine (10:00.725)
I love mint. I love mint and chocolate. I feel like they were meant to be together forever. Okay, but neither here nor there. So we love that coach. If you are, if maybe we need to do a full picky bar review in the future, because I did see that people are super into it. I'm hearing Nikki saying peanut butter and chocolate. We're speaking her language. I mean, peanut butter and chocolate. I feel like chocolate with anything is going to be pretty good. Michelle.

Shelby (10:26.826)
I specifically chose other flavors from the other brands that I didn't think I would like, because again, we're testing it. Like I know peanut butter and chocolate's always gonna be good. I'm not gonna meet a peanut butter and chocolate that I don't like, but that doesn't make for good podcasting. You wanna know the reaction.

Christine (10:43.116)
I mean, I was craving chocolate when I chose them. So we're going to get some chocolate in here. My friends, Michelle saying she uses turmeric and ginger in her cooking. I know. And it makes for a great stir fry. Both of them. I love me some fresh grated ginger. All right. We are hungry girl. We're going to be talking about food a lot. I can already tell what's next on our list coach.

Shelby (10:54.753)
Mm-hmm.

Shelby (11:02.070)
right oh my gosh uh well i picked the first one you picked the second one what are you thinking

Christine (11:10.397)
I mean, team sweet captain over here, we have a podcast all about brunch. I feel like we cannot have this bar sampling without a little bit of daydreaming about donuts from True Bar. Also, one of the ones that you set my way. So this is something you have in your regular rotation. So, this is something that you have in your regular rotation.

Shelby (11:30.366)
No, so the only reason I had picked these up, it was before we even decided to do bars, but maybe this was a catalyst to do bars. I was at Costco, there was a 16-pack of this and another flavor, which was a chocolate chip cookie, and they looked good. They were on sale. It was Costco. I love my bulk buying, so I took a chance on life. And I will say, because again, we did pre-open these, I was not prepared for it to be iced like a donut.

Christine (11:36.416)
Mm-hmm.

Christine (11:58.995)
Okay, well wait, before we show everybody, let's go back to the piggy bar really quick. I want to show people the wrapping that I did a really poor job of opening it up. So this is what it looks like and I'm also curious, Coach, where do you pick these up? Is this something where you had to order it online or were you able to?

Shelby (12:01.102)
Oh. Ignore it.

Shelby (12:14.678)
That is one downfall. You have to order online, but they do have a great subscription system to where you can get them on a regular basis. You can set it up, you can also skip. So I do have mine on a regular rotation. And every once in a while I'll skip if I don't eat them at the regular, but they have even a pretty decent shelf life for being a whole foods type of bar. And they have other things too. They have granolas, they have pancake mixes, they have everything. I just love the bars.

Christine (12:43.762)
Can we get the pancake mix? I feel like we need to do a real brunch refueling pancake mix with this. Okay. So I, I'm so, I mean, we'll, we can't, we don't have to make it live, but we can actually make it and just talk about it. Well, folks, you tell us, should we have a real pancake? I feel like yes.

Shelby (12:50.350)
Who are we gonna cook those? Do you have a griddle right next to you?

Christine (13:04.365)
But okay, so it's the picky bars online and you're part of the picky club, which I feel like it kind of is on brand with you coach. Okay, now we're taking it back to the true bar that you picked up at your local big box store. Is that right? Okay, so this is the packaging. I love the packaging. It's literally a glazed donut makes you think about that crispy cream and I don't know if anybody here.

Shelby (13:11.058)
I am picky, so picky bars.

Shelby (13:20.204)
Yeah, yeah, I'm questionable, but...

Christine (13:29.101)
has the Krispy Kreme app on their phone and it lets you know when there's a new hot fresh of batches. I don't have a Krispy Kreme near me, so.

Shelby (13:35.378)
See, I always think it's really daring when brands take packaging like that and put it, the actual food on the barks. I feel like it sets you up for a lot of disappointment. Like if you're going to tell me and put a picture of a donut, this better freaking taste like a donut.

Christine (13:51.817)
Okay, so I'm not quite so particular as you are in regards to that. I think it's cute regardless. I will say this one's a little gooier than the previous one that we just had. Then the Piki bar. So the true bar is a little gooier, 180 calories, looks about the same size. Okay, so this is more of a pea protein base. What was the protein on the Piki bar? Did you tell us how much?

Shelby (14:08.138)
and this has brown rice and pea protein in it.

Shelby (14:14.058)
Yeah, but this is again gluten-free dairy. So that's a rice protein.

Christine (14:21.481)
And that was seven grams for the entire bar.

Shelby (14:23.978)
Yeah, that was seven grams of protein.

Christine (14:26.213)
And this one is a 12 gram for the same caloric. It looks like it likely has a bit more sugar, I would assume because of the glazing and carbohydrates. Okay. Well, well, Coach, let's make it happen. Buen provecho, have a cheers. Buen provecho just means happy eating or bon appetit.

Shelby (14:38.314)
Yeah, all the sugar is added sugar, which again.

Shelby (14:49.698)
Cheers.

Shelby (14:56.458)
I could not eat this on the run. I'm already gonna tell you that.

Christine (14:58.368)
Mm-mm.

Christine (15:03.321)
I hope you guys like ASMR because that's what I feel like we're doing here with chewing into the microphone. Autosensory, something another that people like whisper or

Shelby (15:06.998)
What is that?

Shelby (15:16.974)
That is sweet. That is really sweet. I don't like it. It's way too sweet for me.

Christine (15:19.253)
I mean, it tastes like a doughnut.

Christine (15:26.227)
I love it.

Shelby (15:27.474)
Of course, it's just like, it's to me, it's teeth hurting sweet. Like it's, it doesn't taste bad, but I would not be able to have more than a bite of that. That is, that is really sweet.

Christine (15:31.329)
Mm-mm.

Christine (15:39.525)
eat the entire thing but it does have a very chalky aftertaste and that's likely the pea protein.

Shelby (15:45.630)
Yeah, definitely not a bar you could take on the run because it is gooey. Like it's at room temperature right now and it's stringy. It's I wouldn't say it tastes like a donut, but it it doesn't necessarily under deliver on the promise either, if that makes sense. Like it's donut-esque.

Christine (16:07.977)
Like a little bit of like a drive by donut. Like they went through the crispy cream drive by when they got the notification, but didn't actually have. Okay.

Shelby (16:14.378)
and they burped.

Christine (16:19.693)
So I guess that it's a little out. It's not 100% of a donut. I feel like it does have a bit more than what you're suggesting of a flavor. It is a little too gooey. This is not possible on the run. Very chalky.

Shelby (16:30.206)
It's chalky. Like after, like my tongue, I'm gonna take another drink of water because it definitely, like it coats your tongue.

Christine (16:39.461)
without a doubt. And I didn't put, I didn't bring water to this particular recording. So lots of coffee is going down, but Leslie loves her some ASMR. Perfect Leslie. This is, this is the podcast episode for you friend. Cause I'm like, am I chewing too loudly?

Shelby (16:50.684)
Hahaha!

Shelby (16:54.278)
And I like how Nikki's agreeing with me, like it better taste like a freaking donut. Put that on a shirt and sell it. Because that's my motto to live by.

Christine (16:59.833)
Oh, you go for it, Shelby. We know where it's coming from. Right. The brunch version of the Met Gala. Um, okay. What do we have next coach?

Shelby (17:05.725)
Stay tuned for our shop.

Shelby (17:13.767)
I don't know that one. My teeth hurt from that one. Let's go with with your standby.

Christine (17:18.866)
Oh, I love this one. So this goes back to while they build themselves as a protein bar, I wouldn't exactly say that protein is their number one punch out of the hit. It has a higher fat percentage because it is made from primarily a peanut butter base. They recently sold as well to a mega snack type quick foods.

convenience packaging, but they originally were a small business. I feel like their product has changed a little bit, but not noticeably enough to where I would not have it. So out of the gate, the first ingredients are cashew butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, uh, has a nonfat dry milk, which that's likely where a lot of the, the, the protein that it has in it comes from and honey. I don't see any additive in terms of a protein at all.

Shelby (18:09.118)
Now, this is the one rarity of the bars we selected, because this one actually is in the refrigerator section. And one thing you have told me before is that you're not as much of a fan after it sits out and I have to agree. I like it right out of the refrigerator. So again, not an on the run option, but a pre or post run option for sure.

Christine (18:18.633)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, so this is what the packaging looks like. You do find it again, like you mentioned in the refrigerated section. Mine's usually with the yogurt, so I don't know if that's for a specific reason. This is the salted caramel flavor, the chocolate chip peanut butter.

Shelby (18:41.282)
Yeah, same.

Christine (18:47.481)
Probably the original one of the best. I don't really love just the plain peanut butter one personally but

Shelby (18:54.006)
Yeah, it just tastes like peanut butter, which isn't a bad thing, but I want a little something to break it up with. And again, peanut butter and chocolate. But I don't, I got this one specifically because I didn't think I was going to like it because I was thinking it was going to be bland. So I'm, I'm interested.

Christine (19:00.078)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Christine (19:09.197)
Okay, well then again, cheers and let me know what you think about it because this is my go to all the time. Salted caramel is my favorite flavor of the three that they have or four or five. They have like limited edition flavors that come out and I think it's when they're testing the market to see what's popular. This one came out around fall of last year and since then it's stayed around because it is so good.

Shelby (19:18.679)
Really?

Shelby (19:33.378)
It's not bad.

Shelby (19:37.038)
To me, it doesn't taste like salted caramel, it just tastes like nuts. It's not even peanut butter, it's cashews. Oh, there is, well there is peanut butter right now.

Christine (19:41.609)
Peanut butter. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. That's true. So nut butter with salt. Salted nut butter is what it tastes like. That is a perfect bar that we're trying right now. The perfect protein. Original refrigerated protein bar, salted caramel.

Shelby (19:50.315)
Yeah.

Shelby (19:59.530)
It's not bad. I think the peanut butter and the chocolate is still my favorite because again, I feel like when it's only one note, I'm not as excited. I'd rather just take a schmear of peanut butter on a piece of bread and call it a day. It's not bad. I wouldn't kick it out of bed, but I don't think I would lust after it. Well, okay then.

Christine (20:21.996)
Oh, I lost after it. Like this is, oh my gosh. Yeah. Like it's definitely never getting kicked out of my bed just for the record. So yes, it is actually also very satisfying if you are having a busy afternoon or a busy morning.

Shelby (20:30.224)
You're gonna find us with rappers everywhere like, I'm so full.

Christine (20:40.629)
And you know that you're going to have to push out that next meal, whatever your next meal is, your lunch or your dinner. I feel like this because of the content is more satisfying and satiating for me anyway, so I love them. Michelle says she loves them. She hasn't tried salted caramel. Michelle, please report back when you do and tell us what you think. It is, um, Leslie called just the perfect bar and I'm going to show the rapper one more time and you'll see it has the.

A little bit of the red there that kind of stands out. There's a couple of other ones and sometimes it comes in a box set. I usually get the individuals. They also have like snack size, which I personally think this is snack size, but the snack size is about one third of the size.

Shelby (21:20.386)
The box sets, I will say, are a better deal. I've done the math, they are a better deal. I do love the snack size, because sometimes I do, and I will say with that in mind, the salted caramel in a snack size with like a banana or something, like an apple or something, I think that would be good. So I probably would get that in the mini size.

Christine (21:30.372)
You do?

Christine (21:41.320)
Yes. So that's what I have. You have. You're absolutely right. So I have this with half a banana or an apple pretty much consistently if it's again, like I know that I'm going to have to work late. I'm not going to have dinner anytime soon and I don't want to get hangry because we all know nobody's nobody's themselves when they're hangry. So this is what I would turn to versus a Snickers bar. It is not low caloric.

but that actually doesn't matter to me as much as having something that does have really good ingredients in it and does help satisfy so that I don't get hangry. Leslie, I get them at Publix as well. And actually, it's just called Perfect Bar. It's not called Perfect Protein, but it is, they consider it a protein bar though. I think the other two options that we've tried have a bit higher protein than this one actually does out of the gate.

Shelby (22:14.610)
I don't look at calories at all.

Shelby (22:31.786)
Yeah, and for the record too, I don't look at the calories on bars. I specifically, cause I do look at the back of the packaging. I look at the ingredients and I do look at the added sugar just because I like to see for me personally, more of the sugars coming from the food sources and not additional sugar. And then obviously the protein. But yeah, I don't look at calories anymore. It's very freeing, just saying. So.

Christine (23:00.395)
I think it's always interesting to see how that works out, how different people approach it.

Christine (23:07.941)
It is one of my go-to favorites. So coach we've, we've tackled three. We've tackled picky bars. You are go-to favorite. We've tackled true bar. We're thinking perfect bars again, kind of like we said, a snack. It's not on the run out of the three so far. Picky is the only one that we would probably have on the run. Okay.

Shelby (23:25.110)
Yeah, that is the only one that I would, I would stash and try. The next one I'm gonna say we go with is go macro bars.

Christine (23:34.469)
Yes, but we're not going to get past that stash and try. What do you mean stash? Were you stashing it? Are you stashing it on the run? Are you stashing it on your person?

Shelby (23:41.918)
I stash it, usually I will stash my Fuel in My Pockets of my Handful shorts, because they have nice deep pockets and they don't, they have like the chipmunk pocket-esque feeling. But sometimes I will put stuff in my koala clip. I'm a big fan of my koala clip. I use it for my phone, because I don't like my phone in my pockets. But the only downfall is you do get like the little body heat, so.

Christine (23:46.338)
Okay.

Christine (23:48.739)
Mm-hmm.

Shelby (24:06.646)
Your bar might get a little extra sticky, but again, you're so sweaty at that point, especially in summer. Anything you use is gonna get sticky and all over you.

Christine (24:14.199)
A little body heat. Oh my gosh. So this goes back to, I have not done the picky bar on the run. Clearly. This is my first time. Do you refrigerate it beforehand so that your body heat kind of doesn't melt it as much or

Shelby (24:25.418)
No, I'm too lazy for that. If I'm being 100% honest, if I have to do any extra work to make something work, I'm not gonna do that when it comes to now. No, I don't start with the refrigerating. You know what? I just grab, I go, I run, I eat, I love.

Christine (24:26.441)
Okay.

Christine (24:35.853)
to make it more palatable on the run. Ah, coach.

Christine (24:49.245)
Okay. Okay. Well, friends for summer, I suggest that maybe you refrigerate and, or even freeze some of your products, depending on those long runs, how long you may be out there. Cause that body heat and for me again, my temp, my stomach just flips when it gets super hot. I get nauseous. I don't want something that's body temperature or hot when I'm consuming it. It just sounds gross, but okay.

Shelby (25:10.698)
Listen, as a mom, I don't eat hot food. So apparently on my runs, that's the one time I get a hot meal, which is really counterproductive. It's true.

Christine (25:16.444)
That's hilarious. Yeah. Okay. Oh, okay. Well, thanks for giving us that heads up on, you know, living the mom life, it's going to be a little different. So room temperature is okay for you. So you said the fourth one out of the gate, you're going to go with your go macro.

Shelby (25:27.746)
Hahaha!

Shelby (25:33.590)
Yeah, so as funny as it is, this was the first brand that I ever bought and liked in a protein bar. This was my go-to. I loved their sunflower butter one. I transitioned away from these ones. I found Picky Bars because I did like the Picky Bars better.

Christine (25:42.750)
Mm-hmm.

Shelby (25:55.946)
I will be honest with that. Again, I chose a flavor that I normally wouldn't try. I love dried fruits, but usually not in bar form. So here's the pretty little ones. Again, these do come in snack sizes too. So if you aren't ready to fully commit to the big bar life, you can get a little snack size. But my flavor is cranberries and berries. I'm sorry, cherries and berries.

Christine (26:22.684)
And tell me again, where do you generally find this at?

Shelby (26:26.206)
So I found these at Whole Foods. I've seen them at Publix. And then I think I might've started seeing them at like CVS's and Walgreens, but primarily Whole Foods is where I found these.

Christine (26:28.693)
Okay. Yeah, I want to mention that. So now we live in a marvelous time where you can contact and talk to people on your phone. And you have like the entire encyclopedia world inside of your pocket. And you can find these convenient options on the go, like seriously. So I think a lot of convenience stores around here are picking up.

I've seen perfect bars there as well. I, however, did not find Go Macro. So I'm going to honor a little bit of that berry life, going to do a Lara bar, which I think a lot of folks have likely had Lara bars at some point. And it was when I feel one of like the old school, original date focused kind of energy bar. So we're gonna have over here a little blueberry muffin, cause you know, again, a little brunch food on team sweet. And from a...

Shelby (27:18.082)
Mm-hmm.

Shelby (27:25.934)
We're still making it sweet.

Christine (27:27.705)
It's not protein focused though. Mine isn't. So your Go Mac likely has more protein than the Lara bar. This is only four grams of protein. And I assume that it's all from the actual foods. They do not add any. It's literally five ingredients, cashews, dates, apples, blueberries, and vanilla extract. So what do you got in yours?

Shelby (27:35.799)
Yeah.

Shelby (27:45.622)
So this does have a lot of added sugar. Surprisingly, I didn't think it was going to. It has a total sugars of 15 with 10 of that coming from added sugar. Proteins only 4 grams. So it's not not a whole lot of bang for your buck. But the first ingredient is organic brown rice syrup, organic gluten-free rolled oats, and then it goes into the cherries and the almond butter is free.

pretty far down in the label, which is probably why we're not seeing as much of the protein. So it's okay as far as the bang for your buck.

Christine (28:21.006)
So these would be considered definitely much more so energy bars than protein bars at this point. While they may call themselves more, this one doesn't call itself a protein bar at all. How about yours?

Shelby (28:32.546)
Um, it talks more about the macro focus, so I guess they don't really, they don't really say that they're a protein bar, but even, well, not to slam them, but even their macros, I mean it's not exactly, it's very carb focused.

Christine (28:49.765)
Okay, so it's a great macro bar from a card perspective. So yeah, so from. Yeah, but that isn't cell bars.

Shelby (28:52.922)
Yeah, so basically it's a go-car-bar.

Shelby (28:58.462)
Yeah, you know, right off the bat though, it smells.

Christine (29:02.341)
I haven't smelled any of these and now I'm afraid to because this does not smell that good.

Shelby (29:05.470)
It's, you know, Tootsie Pops, that's what it smells like.

Christine (29:08.981)
Yeah. Candy store queen here, girlfriend. Yes. You could always, you can't reference movies with me, but pretty much any candy. I got you.

Shelby (29:13.134)
Thank you.

Shelby (29:18.286)
I love how like all I see is a smelling vase.

Christine (29:21.673)
Yeah. Michelle saying Lara bars are delicious, but not a protein bar. We have Kristen saying that she loves Lara bar, apple pie. Okay. I'm curious now. Yes. That's what I was going to ask. Can you get it? Truly team sweet captain. Can you heat up your apple pie Lara bar and put like a little Alamo ice cream on it, or maybe even like a Greek yogurt. Just curious.

Shelby (29:30.990)
Do you heat it up?

Shelby (29:44.086)
I like how Sarah is saying that she's tried the fridge and freezer stuff, but it never lasts long enough in Florida summer, not really worth it. See, she gets me. She understands. Solidarity, Sarah.

Christine (29:52.297)
She does. She does get you. Freezer, I think helps. It does. Okay. But anyway, I think we're delaying the fact that we have to taste test these. So coach, let's go for it.

Shelby (29:59.382)
I'll freeze your stuff.

Shelby (30:05.910)
I went and took a big bite and then I quickly digressed.

Christine (30:09.721)
Ha ha!

Shelby (30:11.766)
Oh my god, that's sweet.

Christine (30:13.569)
Your face. You know that's gonna be like the thumbnail that I'm choosing for whenever this is officially put out into the world.

Shelby (30:21.054)
to know for me. Oh my god.

Shelby (30:26.122)
Nope, I'm done.

Christine (30:27.617)
I like mine. I literally feel like the sideways guy. Did you see that movie?

Shelby (30:29.070)
I'm glad for you.

Shelby (30:35.106)
I've actually not seen sideways.

Christine (30:36.829)
Okay, so it's about wine tasting and one of the guys is super into it and he knows all the different notes and then there's the other guy who I consider a big Labrador retriever me. He's like, it tastes good to me. That's how I feel about all of these. They not they may not be my favorites, but it's like, it's okay. So

Shelby (30:56.254)
I need something to cut the sweetness. Like, I know this isn't how you use it, but if I cut this up and put it in like some yogurt, it would probably be really good.

Christine (31:03.825)
Ooh, Shelby, I think you can use it however you want to. It's your food.

Shelby (31:08.554)
Well, can I mommy? Do I get it? Um, yeah. I wouldn't eat it on its own. To me, this is not a grab and go type of snack, but so it doesn't go to waste, I'll put it in yogurt.

Christine (31:10.716)
Yeah!

Christine (31:18.745)
I feel like friends are actually officially seeing me get old because I'm like, I can't really read exactly what it says. Yeah, like, um, Oh, it is a bit much. It is definitely higher carbs. It is also a lot more sugars. It has zero added sugar on my Lara bar. So it is 100% coming from those apples and dates and blueberries. So I think it's a good option.

Shelby (31:28.114)
Let me hold it for you all the way here.

Christine (31:47.005)
I do not think this is an option that I would turn to to satisfy in terms of, I don't think this is going to make me feel full because it doesn't have really enough of the fat or the protein that I find more satisfying for me personally. But I do think that it would be a rather good decent energy option for before a long run. I don't think it would make me sick to go on a long run. All right, coach.

Shelby (31:53.517)
now.

Shelby (32:06.494)
Look, I think the consensus is as far as any of these go, they obviously should not be meal replacements. But if it's the difference between going without anything or maybe going with another option that has no fueling parts of it, it's okay. They're okay to grab. And again, other than the perfect bar, all of them can be thrown in a bag, purse, wherever you stash your goodies. So, I mean.

Christine (32:14.325)
Mm hmm. Not your bra and not in Florida, not your bra in Florida because all of these are going to be like way hot.

Shelby (32:35.806)
Might get a little chafing.

Shelby (32:41.086)
I can't even store my phone in my bra. Like, it gets all sweaty and like the bra, I- these are not useful for anything anymore. They dried up years ago from breastfeeding and they're just not useful for anything. They're just ornaments.

Christine (32:45.981)
I'm not...

Christine (32:53.521)
But I've never been able to put anything in my bra. I'm really not that well endowed. I'm much more pear shaped or guitar shaped as I've mentioned before. So I love my chest. I think it's beautiful, but it's definitely not holding onto any bars.

Shelby (33:01.494)
Your chest is beautiful, don't discount it. How do we get on boobs?

Shelby (33:10.955)
We're basically giving ourselves like a breast exam as we're talking about this.

Christine (33:14.753)
Feel on the first my friends. The first was a couple days ago. You may want to do it right now if you have it. And Leslie's saying Christine's reaching for her readers. For real, I'm going to bring a magnifying glass to the next one or get some really cute readers. I think so. I'll get some really cute cat eye ones.

Shelby (33:26.390)
Ah, you would rock the readers. Like I feel like that's the hot librarian type of look. Like I love glasses, I always have. You're welcome. Hey. We're a well-rounded show around here.

Christine (33:33.913)
Well, thank you. I'm not kicking you out of bed either, coach. You protein bars, I'm good to go.

Christine (33:43.509)
Okay. So last but certainly not least, I feel like this is another one of the OG bars, or at least I encountered the RX bar quite a long time ago. I'm also going to say that it is much more, they build themselves as a protein bar and it does actually have quite a decent amount. It's on par with the first three that we tested, or the first two I should say for sure. But where did they get their protein from? Oh, egg whites. Got it. Okay.

Shelby (34:10.902)
Yeah, which that's questionable to me. Like is it, is it.

Christine (34:12.877)
So dates, egg whites, cashews. Because you're vegetarian or pescatarian.

Shelby (34:18.338)
No, I think it's just like what I think egg whites. I think of somebody chugging raw egg to where it's probably an egg white powder, I would assume.

Christine (34:28.044)
Oh yeah, I'm sure it's probably either freeze-dried, frothed, and then powdered. Absolutely.

Shelby (34:33.174)
Which that leads me into whole other, other type of questions. But I will say when I first started my healthy lifestyle, I feel like these were everywhere. This was the only option that I found.

Christine (34:43.257)
Mm hmm. They were. Yeah. For a while though, they were the. Yes. Now, like there's a plethora of options.

Shelby (34:52.578)
So, I mean, I do like that you see what it is. The fact that they have no BS on the front of it is, I mean.

Christine (34:58.953)
Is that the real reason why you go for it coach?

Shelby (35:01.363)
I've never tried one.

Christine (35:03.833)
This is your first time trying an RX bar?

Shelby (35:06.082)
just gasp that you just exude. Yeah, I've never tried one. I'm committed to this cause Christine

Christine (35:08.361)
Yes!

Christine (35:11.409)
Oh my goodness. Okay. Okay, so what flavor did you get?

Shelby (35:18.386)
I got maple sea salt, which, and you're the sweet captain. Listen, I tried not going, again, I stayed away from anything that sounded remotely appetizing because I feel like that's the only way. Apparently we had very different standards in our shopping adventure.

Christine (35:20.634)
That sounds horrible to me.

Christine (35:29.037)
Ha ha. Jokes on you, my friends.

Christine (35:35.729)
Yeah, I was like chocolate. Yeah, I'm gonna definitely get some chocolate in here. So

Shelby (35:40.390)
Meanwhile, we probably have at least one listener. It's like B, I don't like chocolate.

Christine (35:44.401)
Yeah. Well, let us know who you are. You can self identify. We're not going to judge. We promise. I mean, a little, a little judgment, but you know, it's okay. So I got the chocolate sea salt.

Shelby (35:54.134)
Ooh, Leslie's saying there's a pumpkin pie one.

Christine (35:58.541)
Pumpkin pie will totally bring my basic girl life out to live its best life. Cause that sounds delicious to me.

Shelby (36:07.254)
Do you do Uggs in the middle of our Florida winter when it's like 80 degrees?

Christine (36:10.445)
I mean, no. Okay. So Michelle loves RX bars as well. It sounds like RX bars. So friends that are with us live, I'd love to know, have you tried some of these, which ones are favorites? Cause it seems like Lara bars are pretty popular. It seems like these RX bars are pretty popular. The perfect bar has been pretty popular. Okay. Sounds like they're all good.

Shelby (36:35.862)
little worried though because I feel like the rx bar is getting a lot of love in the comments and I feel like if I don't like this I may have to hide myself.

Christine (36:43.945)
I mean, yeah, but that's every episode girlfriend you say. Okay. So out of the gate, this one's a little bit harder to break up or to bite into. It's probably has the hardest consistency of all of them.

Shelby (36:47.070)
I know. I see the salt.

Shelby (36:57.982)
I fling a nut. I just lost a nut. That is the new tagline for these.

Christine (37:06.121)
Oh my word. How did you lose the nut? Okay. So it does have big full, I feel like we should show it does have big full nuts in it coach Evan. I can't keep inside of her bar. It does have a lot.

Shelby (37:10.590)
You know, nuts happen sometimes.

Shelby (37:21.302)
Big full nuts right here at brunch.

Christine (37:24.737)
It does have a lot of these beautiful big coarse sea salt, which I love. If you throw sea salt on anything of mine, I'm going to dig it.

Shelby (37:33.410)
They're definitely more of the traditional, like, chewy bar.

Christine (37:37.761)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christine (37:41.933)
This is my jam. This is a fig newton without like the cookie.

Shelby (37:43.586)
Really? What flavor's yours?

Christine (37:47.449)
chocolate sea salt. I didn't see the maple or I just ignored it.

Shelby (37:54.922)
I think you just said Gorda.

Shelby (37:58.266)
not bad. I have to say the consistency is a little off-putting just because I feel like it's that atypical protein bar chewiness but

Christine (38:12.538)
Not a good aftertaste.

Shelby (38:15.058)
Not a great aftertaste, but I have to say, I think I prefer this to the salted caramel perfect bar. I think I'd grab this before. Well, good luck with that, because you've committed to me for life. So, me and my big nuts.

Christine (38:24.379)
So we're officially breaking up.

Christine (38:32.034)
How can you? Okay. Okay. Well, I will say that just means that I have more culture. Salted. I make up my own words, salted caramel to myself and you can have all of these. So it's that time. I think let's go ahead and rank them in order of least favorite to most favorite. What's your number five?

Shelby (38:52.202)
I think my least favorite is gonna be the Go Macro, purely for the flavor that I chose alone. Not my jam.

Christine (39:00.493)
Go macro. That was the one that I did a Lara bar, right?

Shelby (39:04.034)
Yeah.

Christine (39:05.917)
Okay, I'm gonna be honest out of these, the RX bar is my number five.

Shelby (39:12.182)
Really? That's your least favorite? Standards, my friend, standards.

Christine (39:12.849)
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's I mean, I've had that maybe it's because I did used to consume them more often and I've been there done that. I don't know, but out of these five, that one's my least favorite.

Shelby (39:27.278)
I'm gonna say my number four is the True Bar. It was so, so teeth hurtingly sweet. I, yeah, I would only be able to have, you know, like you're looking at me, like, do you realize that we're trying to market brunch here? But no, it's not a donut. I'm gonna go get a real mother-effing donut.

Christine (39:31.625)
Really?

Christine (39:35.650)
Was that the donut?

Christine (39:48.001)
When you come back up here, can I please take you to the gourmet donut place? Because I feel like at the list, which is donut needs to happen in your life.

Shelby (39:54.238)
I'm more questioning why you haven't already taken me there. Now I'm questioning our friendship.

Christine (39:56.965)
Yeah, we, we can't do a run Disney weekend. Those are just so busy. We, we barely got you to have the vegan pizza. So we

Shelby (40:04.394)
I've still not had Gideon's.

Christine (40:07.141)
Yeah, we just need to have you come back up again for a quote-unquote business meeting maybe.

Shelby (40:11.602)
interesting guys. You're getting a look into our pitfalls of our relationship and apparently she doesn't love me enough to take me to the cool places.

Christine (40:18.649)
I mean, I do. I do. It's just, it's far from like the Disney life. So we'll have to, we'll have to make that happen. Yeah, you are, you are, but you know, it's also worth it sleep. And we had like three hours of it, that whole entire Disney weekend. So my number four is the Lara bar. What was you, what, what did you taste his during that? That was the go macro for you right during that portion. Okay. So I think we're hearing on my side of the table, a little bit of a similarity. If it leads with the date.

Shelby (40:22.834)
I'm worth it.

Shelby (40:38.540)
Yeah.

Christine (40:45.961)
I don't necessarily love it as much. So that's probably my number four.

Shelby (40:52.358)
Um, I would probably say my number three. If it was a different flavor, it would not be in my number three spot, but I'd say the perfect bar was my number three. Just not a fan of the salted caramel. Again, if it was my peanut butter and chocolate one, all day, every day, it would be higher on the list. But the salted caramel was eh. I'm not a fan of salted caramel.

Christine (41:05.664)
I mean, I'll forgive you.

Christine (41:12.713)
Okay. So number three for me will be the Truebar donut. I liked it. Now again, I had a bite of it. I do wonder if I was to consume the whole bar, if it would feel too sweet, but off the bite, it didn't feel too sweet to me. So I'm going with Truebar as my number three.

Shelby (41:32.138)
All right, I'm going with RX Bar as my number two. I actually was pleasantly surprised with the maple sea salt. Again, the texture, not as much, but the flavoring, again, I would eat it. So I'm gonna say that probably would be my number two.

Christine (41:36.941)
Wow.

Christine (41:45.510)
I am impressed. I am impressed. Okay. So this is where it comes down to it. I love both the Piki Bar. So thank you so much for introducing this to me. And I love the Perfect Bar. I think they are completely different as to what I would consume them for. So this is why I'm having difficulty. Piki Bar for me feels like the perfect fuel for on the run or right before a run or...

I feel like it's more of an on the run fuel for me personally. I loved it. Love the flavor profile. See a little bit of sideways there. I feel like I can talk about notes. I love that it leads with ginger. But yeah, I'm going to go to the perfect bar. It's my jam. Like that's my number one. So coach, what's your number two?

Shelby (42:19.083)
I feel like you're just stalling.

Shelby (42:28.766)
Well, the two was my RX bar, the number one's picky bar. I love my picky bars. I just, to me it is the perfect picky bar. It's good, it doesn't sit in your gut. You can use it every single way you desire. And I don't know if it can be dethroned.

Christine (42:31.637)
Oh, okay, it's been Kimber.

Christine (42:50.548)
Coach, I feel like if there was ever a sponsorship opportunity, that's quite the testimonial there. You can use it in any way that you possibly desire. I'm following you on this, I think. Okay. So friends, this is it for us. This is the...

energy and protein bar addition so far. We have heard loud and clear that you guys would like to hear us kind of do a bit more of the you can world, which we were going to try to bring today, but didn't happen. There's also a lot of energy gels that are newer on the market that we have coming up in the works. We're also going to do some hydration as well. But yeah, I think the hydration one's going to be the hardest one coach.

Shelby (43:31.502)
Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots.

Christine (43:36.505)
to be honest.

Shelby (43:37.462)
Well, I don't do, I mean, I'm going to shock you. I don't really do flavored liquids other than coffee. So.

Christine (43:44.037)
What do you, so what do you drink for your hydration, for your electrolytes?

Shelby (43:48.322)
Do you want me to give it away now or you want me to keep some mystery?

Christine (43:52.557)
I'm so confused because my heart wants to know right now, cause I'm a curious person. I feel like because we've got such a great crowd with us live that they should hear it, but I'm gonna say that I'm gonna cut it out of the podcast. So with that said, let's go ahead. Let's go ahead and at this point, say that we appreciate everyone who is listening in. We want you to go, we appreciate that you.

Shelby (44:04.398)
Oh, you are so naughty.

Shelby (44:17.336)
But we're gonna cut ya.

Christine (44:21.201)
are here, you're giving us your thoughts, your ideas. We know that you couldn't catch this live, but I may have a way for you to hear coach Shelby's answer, but we'll talk a little bit more about that, maybe in our newsletter that drops on Friday. But again, thank you for joining us, because regardless of you're coming in for a quick bites, you're catching us for a actual YouTube live taste testing, or you're going to be with us for our long run. That is so much fun this particular weekend. We cannot wait for you guys to experience it.

We'd love for you to sign up for the newsletter to get these exclusive type invitations and maybe these opportunities to hear Coach Shelby's unfiltered, off the cuff kind of answers. So see you again because regardless of winter where we're going to keep serving up more miles with a.

Shelby (45:03.938)
side of fueling smiles.