ON Protein Cake Bites

I recently found two new Cake Bites flavors:  Fruity Cereal and Cookies & Cream.  I'm always up for trying a new protein product so I grabbed a couple.

Cookies & Cream are on the top of the picture and Fruity Cereal on the bottom.  I like the way they look. The Fruity Cereal ones look kind of fun and pretty, with sparkly sprinkles on top.

Below are the Fruity Cereal ones. Inside they're kind of a coral color. I was glad the inside coloring wasn't weird. I've bought other flavors in the past, like Chocolate Mint, and the inside color tends to be very different from what's shown on the package (Chocolate Mint seems to be either puke green/olive drab or neon green, with no in-between). I noticed, however, that they no longer show the inside of the cake bite on the wrapper. I'm thinking maybe they got a lot of complaints from people thinking they'd gone bad or something.

I really like the taste of these. They do, indeed, taste like fruity cereal! Fruity and sweet. They remind me a lot of Fruity Pebbles cereal from my childhood. This is one I'll buy again for sure. My husband seems to like them, too.

Here's the Cookies & Cream flavor.  The inside color looks the way it should, although they all seemed to have these big air bubbles. I noticed, too, that they are hard to break apart cleanly. They have what would appear to be a chewy texture, more so than Fruity Cereal. It was almost like pulling apart taffy. They don't have that same texture when eating them, though.

As for the taste, they're good. I didn't get much of a cookies and cream flavor, though, except for the cookie crumbles on the outside. I wasn't all that impressed. At least not enough to buy them again. I'd choose another flavor over this one.

Nutrition is pretty consistent across the flavors. Generally about 200 calories for the package of three bites, with 20 grams of protein. What I like about these is that there are three in a package, which means you can just have one if you're feeling like a snack, or have all three if you want to treat it as a meal. (Three of them together are filling!)

Pricing is pretty much the same everywhere from what I can tell. Single bars run about $2.49, while a whole box of 12 runs $24.99. Basically, buying them buy the box gives you two free packages. Considering how expensive some protein bars are, this isn't a bid deal at all. And these are actually the same price as the Quest bars I like. I used to be able to get the cake bites at Walmart; however, it seems as though they stopped selling them.

life lately

I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so I guess it's time. Actually, it's time for ANY post. I'm getting worse with posting. I often just don't feel like writing anymore.  Anyway...

Back Pain

This has improved. Last time I posted I had just had radio frequency ablation on the left side of my lumbar spine. I saw some good pain relief. I had the right side done a few weeks ago, and that went well, too. I haven't seen quite as much improvement on that side; however, I'm told that it can take up to six weeks to feel the full effects of the ablation.

I will say that other areas are bothering me at the moment, such as the sciatic nerves on both sides, as well as my elbows and one knee. That said, I'm in between jobs at the moment--even though I'm working out consistently, I'm doing WAY more sitting around than I did when I was working at a desk all day. I'm confident that once I go back to work next week, things will improve.

Work

I mentioned in my last post that I'm starting a new job soon. That's because the bank I worked for was sold to another bank and I didn't get a job offer from the acquiring bank. No big deal. I really didn't want to work for that bank, or commute that far, anyway. I do have another job lined up at another bank, which starts next week.

Everyone asks me, "Are you excited about the new job?" Hmm. I'm not sure, really. I wouldn't really say I'm "excited" the way I would be if I was willingly leaving my last job for greener pastures. I mean, I'm glad I got another job quickly so I won't have to worry about being able to pay my bills; however, I didn't move on to another job by choice. Also, I didn't really want to go back into a bank. Instead, I wanted to work for a vendor that has banks as its clients, but that didn't pan out. I guess I could say the part I'm "excited" about is that one of my responsibilities is to affect change within the department. Not in terms of people, but in terms of policy and procedure. I like trying to figure out those types of things. I think it will be challenging, which is something I can be excited about.

Oh, and I took and passed a certification exam for my area of expertise. The picture up top is of Tiffany. She was "helping" me study, as were these clowns, Arlo and Emily.

Diet and Exercise

This is a mixed bag, as always. While my workouts are on point--five days a week without fail--my eating is...not.  Still. My last job ended very recently and I told myself I'd use the little time I have in between jobs to get my diet straightened out. Guess what?  I didn't. I've probably been eating worse than usual since my days now have no routine at all, other than going to the gym or the occasional errand. I'm looking forward to going back to work next week, if only to get myself back into a routine and away from the kitchen.

During my time off I've been using the gym in town, which is only $10.00 per month--can't beat that! I could do most of my workout at home and improvise the exercises that require a machine, but I chose to go to the gym so I at least get myself out of the house for a couple hours each day. Plus I have a membership so I might as well use it!

My trainer uses the same gym and I've run into him several times. We talk for a few minutes and then go our separate ways usually. A couple times, though, he used it as an opportunity to say, "Here, let's try this machine!" Which is fine because it gave me another thing to incorporate when I get bored of doing the same thing. But it's a new exercise I haven't done before, which means I'm SORE the next two days and that runs right into my next session with him and he decides to work those same muscles. Of course he does! Very sore!!  I have to say, though, I really enjoyed seeing him work as hard as he makes me work. He was sweating and sometimes struggling just as much, which was really satisfying!

One thing I'm not thrilled about at the new job is that they don't have an in-house gym. I know I was quite lucky that my last company had one and it was literally about 20 feet from my office, but it still stinks. I used that gym four days per week. I would go in there at 4 pm, do my workout, and then go home for the day. And it had all the equipment I needed. I know I could just go to the regular gym, but I really hate having to go after work when there's four times as many people and they all want the same machines. There's a gym down the road from work, but I'd have the same issue there. For the time being I plan to do my workout in the house. Once it warms up, I can go outside on the patio.

Wrap-Up

I'll wrap this post up by saying that I'm really disappointed in myself that I didn't do more with my time off. I thought that having free time would make me want to do All The Things, including writing more blog posts and just doing some writing in general. Nope. It made me not want to do Any Of The Things. Well, I accomplished a few things, but definitely not as much as I'd hoped. But I think things will get back to normal once I'm back at work. Let's hope!