Kashi Chocolate Squares & Cathe

 I LOVE getting mail. Today I got a new workout DVD from my friend and coach Lorraine Esposito, who is God's gift to personal coaching as well as personal fitness. Some day I'm going to devote and ENTIRE post to how her coaching and her commitment to me, and all her clients, changed my life, because she truly did... and continues to do so to this day...

Anyway, she sent me a new "Dyna-band", which is fitness talk for "big rubber band." It's a bright green (my favorite color) rubber workout band to go with the new copy of the Cathe Travel Fit DVD she also sent me. Also in the mail was a new Kashi treat. Amazing how Kashi managed to also send me a sample "Chocolate Soft-Baked Square"on the same day I got my fitness stuff!!! So of course I opened it. A coupon I would have tossed, but it's hard to pass up free brownies, even if they are supposed to be good for you.

The Kashi square is a whopping 160 calories... more than a traditional brownie that size. But the Kashi is "healthy." It's made of black beans, sweet potato, 7 whole grains and agave.  It packs an amazing 300mg of ALA Omega 3 - the healthy good-for-your-heart stuff. Doesn't look like it does it? lol!!!  Six grams of fat though...It's kind of dry, but it is soft.

You can feel the fiber too. I agree with most of the reviewers. It has a sawdust feel to it. It's subtle, not overwhelming. But I have to admit, it would be hard to substitute this for the real deal made of flour, sugar, dark chocolate and butter.

My approach to FORBIDDEN foods is the "Joy" principle. Take one bite, savor it, then take another and another (if need be) until you're not feeling the "joy" of the food, but are just moving your mouth and consuming food because you can. A lot of times all takes is one bite of something to kill the craving for it...such as brownies. I admit, at first you'll eat the whole pan of brownies in search of the end of the joy...but you really will get to a point where you can take one bite and say, "Wow, that was good," and then move on. This allows you to taste something you think is forbidden, without bingeing on it. Binge eaters may have difficulty with this exercise, but it's one of the few exercises I truly never tire of doing!! So, I took two bites, about 80 calories, of this thing, and decided I would get more joy out of using those 80 calories to add creamer to my coffee. It's up to you how you spend your calories. I like mine liquid...lemonade, soda, creamer in my coffee, sugar in my tea.

But as far as do these taste good? If you're used to a no fat, health food kind of taste, yeah. Apparently microwaving them helps with the taste, but doesn't that kill the healthy aspect of them?

Cathe Video

Okay. Enough of the brownies already. How is the video? Pretty good! I haven't actually DONE it yet, but I watched it to see what I'm in for. I'll start tomorrow. If you want a sample though, here's Cathe doing her thing! The "Lorraine" in the video is not the same person as my friend Lorraine...so don't get confused. My friend Lorraine is more ripped!! See the resistance band? That's what I got! Looks fun huh? This is Cathe's 6 minute YouTube sampler...but I'm looking forward to te entire DVD...I promise, once I do the workout she'll get equal time to the chocolate square!