Reunited with the gym again

I woke up today feeling the effects of last night! I don't think it was the riesling so much as the fact that I ate a fair amount of food after midnight. My body doesn't like this very much.... does anyone's? It's always so nice to snack when you get home from a fun night (especially when drinking is involved!) but it never feels good the next day. The food was good, really good, but it also did not fit into my "high raw" plan at all!

For breakfast, I had a Green Monster with the usual. I'm really starting to love Amazing Grass wheatgrass! I know for a fact that it tastes awful by itself, but mixed with some other good stuff it really adds a nice, fresh taste to my GM. I headed to the gym for what felt like the first time in ages!! I have been gone so much to Vegas and visiting my grandparents that I probably haven't gone more than once or twice in the past couple of weeks, which is not like me!

I attended my first Muscle Max class this morning. I really liked it! My arms will probably be killing me tomorrow, but I love that feeling! I have been trying to squeeze in some cardio here and there even when I am away from the gym, but it's much harder (for me) to make time for strength training when I am away from the gym, so it felt so good to get back into this. I also did 15 minutes on the reclining bike.

After cleaning around the condo (getting ready for the big party tomorrow!), I finally got my act together to walk to Borders. I love where we live, but one thing that is missing is a CLOSE Barnes & Noble or Borders. When we lived in the Gold Coast I had a B & N about 5 minutes away, and now our closest bookstore is at least a 35 minute walk. I don't mind the walk so much, but there is so much more preparation into the excursion this way... packing stuff to eat so I can save money and not succumb to the yummy-looking treats in the Borders cafe, etc.

I packed a Sun Warrior protein drink Green Monster! This is my first time trying this, and I thought it was pretty good! I mixed it with almond milk, spinach, and some wheatgrass. It was my first time taking a GM in my fancy schmancy Amazing Grass drink carrier, and I was hoping that it wouldn't spill in my bag on the walk there!


I also brought 3 ears worth of fresh corn off the cob. Supposedly, fresh corn is not considered a starch (like cooked corn is), so you can eat endless amounts of it, according to the raw peeps out there. I usually add copious amounts of I Can't Believe it's not Butter spray and lots of salt and pepper to my corn, but 1) I'm trying to give up that processed garbage, and 2) it didn't even need any seasonings since it was sooo sweet and delicous. It tasted a bit like corn crossed with sugar snap peas, interestingly enough.

I went to the Chicago public lib first and then headed to Borders, where clearly I grabbed about every "raw" book I could get my hands on! Don't worry I didn't read all of these, but I wish I could have :) My FAVORITE thing to do when I have the time is to go to a bookstore and to spend alllllll day there reading books. Perfection!!

As excited as I was about my delicous corn that I brought with me for lunch, once I started eating it my stomach was rumbling..... I think I forgot that reading about food was bound to make me starving!! The corn tasted really good but did not do a good job of filling me up. The GM was good though, and was filling enough for a short while. Unfortunately, my hunger kept building and I had to leave the store early just because I could hardly wait to go home to eat something!! I had planned to walk home, but I was so darn hungry that I got on the bus, thinking it would get me there faster. Wrong-o! It was soo crowded with the Taste crowd and the upcoming holiday that I surely could have walked home faster.

Hummus was calling my name, and though I don't think it is "technically" raw, it is still healthy in my eyes, and I realized I haven't had hummus in a long, long time. Well, I MISSED THIS STUFF. WOW, is hummus good or what?!?! I threw some Whole Food's spinach hummus on top of some spinach, cuke, and tomato. The hummus didn't spread well so I put some more into my mini food processor with some lemon, garlic, and salt, and put more onto my salad. It was awesome and I definitely went back for more spoonfulls of the hummus!

I snacked on more than a few of my fab cookies from last night with some of this "fudge" from Whole Foods - not raw, but good stats nonetheless: it's fat free, is low-cal, and is sweetened with fruit, like pineapple juice! It was VERY good alongside the cookies.

For dinner I didn't have much of an appetite oddly enough, so I just had an avocado with some lemon juice and salt. I loveeeeeeeeeeee doing this, and it was simple yet delicious. Later that night I indulged my sweet tooth by having some dates dipped in chocolate PB.... until I realized that peanuts are considered to be off-limits foods while going raw, due to the heavy processing that they go through.... I think? I'm still learning :) To cover up my indiscretion, I had a couple of my vegan cookies, and called it a night!

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So, MarathonVal, why are you trying to "go raw"?

First of all, the reason why I am searching for ways to change my diet is because I frequently feel discomfort from my food choices. Although I feel better as a vegetarian than I ever did eating meat, I still frequently find myself feeling nauseous after eating certain foods. Now, I don't just mean after having 10 choc chip cookies, I mean like after a normal bowl of pasta, for example, that wouldn't bother most people.

The last few years I have gotten weird stomach cramps and pains after eating, particularly during times when I have to stand on my feet or walk around after eating. At my wedding last October, this even happened to me!! I feel terrible thinking about it now, but I shouldn't, because I know that it wasn't anything that I did wrong. Basically, I ate a normal meal at dinner and had only had about a 1/2 glass of wine so far, but my stomach became sooooo pained that I had to leave the reception for quite a while to unzip the dress because my stomach became so bloated and uncomfortable. (It's worse during events where I am wearing a dress or tight pants, because these particular foods make my stomach expand more than usual, which becomes painful if I am wearing tight clothing. It's happened at numerous weddings and other events like this).

So, I know a lot of people will think I'm nuts for trying to undergo any kind of "diet", especially something that sounds so extreme like the word "raw", but that is my main reason. Despite testing negative to food allergy tests, I still feel confident that there is something in my diet that causes me the discomfort. If I can find that food, eliminate it, and feel better, why would I not want to do this?

I found the raw plan to be so appealing because it just makes sense and resonates with me - it involves eating foods that are unprocessed and kept in their natural state, the way our bodies are meant to digest them.

There are many different ways to interpret "raw", and everyone does things a bit differently. Basically, people that eat "raw" believe that cooking foods over 118 degrees kills valuable food enzymes that our bodies need for digestion and to sustain other body functions.

There is also a lot of info out there about food combining, which is pretty complicated, and I won't bore you with the details since most of my readers I'm sure will not be undertaking a raw lifestyle anytime soon. Basically you just take care to eat certain foods together and certain foods apart so that you optimize digestion - if you combine foods that are both hard to digest, your body will send its energy to the food's digestion and you will then feel sluggish, tired, and moody.

Eating raw does NOT just mean raw veggies... I can also eat nut butters, desserts (I made a great cookie dessert yesterday!!), bread, cheese, pizza, ice cream, etc. I was suprised to find out what a varied diet you can have from eating raw!

For more information, please visit Gena's blog at www.choosingraw.com. She has been doing this for a long time, and is also a raw food counselor that can help you get started on this journey, if you so choose.

I have a ton of questions about this myself, which is why I'm trying to continue to do research and to learn more about it. If you have any tips for me, I would appreciate it, or if you have any questions, ask and I will do my best to find the answer. I am not going to attempt to be 100% raw, but am striving for "high raw", which is when you eat most of your meals this way, at least up until dinner. For example, the peanut butter that I snacked on this evening was NOT ok by strict raw standards, but I am going to cut myself some slack because I ate mostly raw food during the rest of the day.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried this with success! Also, would anyone be interested in going on this raw journey with me? I'd love to start a raw "support group"! :)

Long posting, coming up!

Hi friends! I promised I would get back on track once I was back in Chicago, but things have been so busy!! I started this blog once my job working in a school was out for the summer, and I am wondering how in the world I will find the time to blog regularly once I am working again!! Any advice, from any of you expert bloggers out there?

So, going back to YESTERDAY:
I woke up not very hungry, so I checked my email for a bit and then headed out for a run first thing. I had planned to run yesterday instead of today because the weather was super cool - highs in the 60s - which I LOVE! It was rainy for most of my 4 miler, which made it really enjoyable. In fact, I was sad when the rained stopped toward the tail end of the run.

Once I got back I STILL wasn't quite hungry, but eventually I had a bowl of blueberries - I had this bowl x2.Also, here is a picture of some Naturally More samples the company sent me: last night I dipped into the almond butter, which was great! However, Elise just notified me that except for the stuff that is specifically labeled as "raw", these, and most other nut butters, are NOT raw. But, I have them in the house, so I will probably eat them until they are gone! Hubby doesn't eat a lot of PB.

While staying with my grandpa in Indiana the past few days, I stumbled onto this guy - a mini, pint-sized version of a food processor. My gpa said I could take it since they have never used it - I was psyched because I was just about to spring for a full sized one, but they are so pricey!! Even though canned beans are not entirely "raw", to me they are still healthy and better than some crap I could eat instead, and again, they are something my husband won't eat so I wanted to use them up.

I threw the can of chickpeas (or were they garbanzo beans? does anyone know what the diff is?) into the mini FP with a little bit of lemon juice, some water, some garlic, and some salt. It was soooooo delicious and creamy!! I know technically if it doesn't have tahini in it than I don't it's called hummus, so I don't know what you want to call this concoction, but it was a great salad topping!

For dessert I made a GM with half soy milk, half almond milk, spinach, a shot of Amazing Grass wheatgrass, and a shot of Amazing Grass chocolate amazing meal. Yummy!

The plan for Wednesday night was for me and Mike to go to the Taste of Chicago. Now, oddly enough, even after living within an hour of Chicago for most of my life (and now living IN Chicago), I have never been to the Taste! Most people think it's miserable anyway - hot temps, crowds of people, the cops usually end up breaking up fights, etc. However, I had wanted to go at least once - especially since I hear they have a lot of fun new veggie options these days that I wanted to try! We also live pretty close to Grant Park so I figured it would be a fun night.

However, after getting a call from my friend Sarah, we made a last-minte change in plans. We were invited to go on a yacht ride on Lake Michigan to see the Navy Pier fireworks!!!! I was so excited to be asked (after getting over my initial discomfort with the whole boat idea - last time I was on a boat I got seasick!) - that I ran to the kitchen to whip up some treats to take on the boat.

The amazing, delectible cookie dough that I made was SO FABULOUS that I ate every last drop. Hmmmmm, so much for that plan to take some with me... so I went to the store to stock up on more ingredients, came back and made another big batch! Here's the recipe:

Yummy Yacht Balls:

3 c. coconut (unsweetened if you can find it) + 1/4 c. for dipping later

3 c. dates

3 c. walnuts

8 T. agave nectar

3 T. almond butter or other nut butter

dash of vanilla

pinch of salt

cinnamon to taste

Grind up the walnuts in food processor or nut grinder. Throw all ingredients into Kitchenaid mixer (or FP if you have a good one) until mixed. You can add more agave nectar or peanut butter if the flavor needs enhancing, or if it would help thin out the texture.

Now, I'm sure these would be awesome baked, but since they are egg-free and don't have to be baked (and I wanted to keep some sembance of raw-ness), I made them into balls and rolled them in remaining coconut. Store in freezer.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please make these, your stomach will thank you!! ;)

Later for dinner I wanted to experiment with making pesto in my new mini. I threw in ALL of the basil off our little plant, some EVOO and lemon juice, garlic, and salt. This did nothing - I think I needed to have more ingredients for it to start to blend it properly. So, I threw in a ton of spinach and some water, and this ended up working ok. I also added some pine nuts for texture and flavor.

I tried to be cool (as a cucumber?) and make cucumber "pasta" by shaving it a la Gena-style (using a veg peeler since I don't have a fancy spiralizer), but the slices were too thin. It was decent.....

Luckily I had eaten about a dozen Yummy Yacht Balls prior to dinner so this filled me up.

Here are some pix from the beautiful yacht!!

Mike and I - I would have loved to get some pictures of the whole group (Sarah, Travis, Travis's cousin Andrew, and Andrew's girlfriend Gina), but the flash on my camera is broken so once it got dark there was no more picture taking for me.

The fireworks on Navy Pier!!! They were stunning!!

I snacked on a few of my YYB (which are healthy and vegan, in my opinion) on the yacht as well as went through a bottle of Riesling. I love Riesling! Nice and crisp for a night on the boat :)

Mike and I were completely stuffed by the time we got home around midnight. But.... I saw a package had come for me.

Ahh!!! I was SOOO excited to receive this enormous package from Newman's Own Organics!! Honestly, this picture doesn't do it justice, there is a TON of stuff here. Also, here is some info about the new Newman's Own Organics product line, that the company sent me:

"When Nell Newman and business partner Peter Meehan started Newman’s Own®
Organics: The Second Generation® in 1993, they were sure there was a market for organic snack foods, but they couldn’t have anticipated just how fast the demand for their products would grow. What started with pretzels and grew to include other snack foods has now expanded to many other organic items: coffee, tea, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, organic dried fruit, and pet food. The partners anticipate adding a number of new items each year in all these areas.
Nell approached her father in 1992 about the possibility of an organic division. He offered to cover one year’s expenses for Nell and Peter to determine the feasibility of an organic product line under the Newman name. The one stipulation was that, once established, they would return the seed money, so that it could be added to his charity money. They not only managed to do this within a short period of time, but also became an independent company in late 2000. This had been the goal from the beginning. They were, though, committed to following the philanthropic role of Paul Newman and bringing out products that he was proud to have his name associated with.

Newman’s Own® Organics' products meet all the requirements of the USDA’s National Organic Program. Ingredients have been grown on farms that have not used artificial fertilizers or pesticides for three years or more. The farms and processors have also met the USDA’s organic standards. The products are sold nationwide in a number of mainstream supermarkets and in a large number of stores featuring natural and health foods. The pet foods are sold in specialty pet stores as well as many of the other outlets.
The Newman’s Own® Organics Guide to the Good Life: Simple Measures that Benefit You and the Place You Live (Villard) written by Nell with Joseph D’Agnese was published in spring, 2003. It is filled with practical advice for improving the quality of one’s life and the environment without drastically altering one’s life. Packed with facts, anecdotes, humor, and a heavy dose of sanity, it is organized around the way people actually live, allowing readers to easily identify what areas of change are viable for them.
The sale of Newman’s Own Organics products generates money for the Newman’s Own Foundation to give away. Since 1982 Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation have donated more than $250 million dollars to educational and charitable organizations worldwide."

The truth is that I would never have eaten anything after I got home if I had not had that nice wine buzz going - I wasn't really hungry at all - but Mike and I were giddy with excitement about our new goodies!! So, we split these:

I LOVE white cheddar flavored anything, and this did not disappoint!!! I kept going on my own and had these:

They were good too, but left a super BBQ-y taste in my mouth which left me wanting something sweet. Instead of reaching for a healthy but delicous YYB, I reached for this....

I dipped these in some soy milk. Sooooo good!!! So far I'm extremely impressed with all of the Newman's Own Organic food products. I can't wait to try more of them! :)

SATC (Sweat and the city)

Hi friends!

Today I had a wonderfully relaxing, yet productive day! Despite going to bed late last night (reading blogs is entirely too addictive), I woke up at 6am today for a run. My sweet husband actually volunteered to run with me, even though he usually hates running! We knew it was going to be deathly hot today, which is why we got up so early.

Even so... at 6:15AM when we left the condo it was ALREADY extremely hot and muggy. I didn't check the temp at that time, but I can only imagine it was in the upper 80s with a very high humidity. Thank goodness my marathon training only called for 3 miles today!!! However, despite the short distance, I had a heck of a time today. Truly, it was a very, very, very tough run for me. I should note that I am a sweater - in the way that strangers at the gym have commented to me about how much I sweat! But in today's heat, I was just sweating all over myself, and yes it was very unpleasant. I tried my best to get some sips of water along the way and I stayed in the shade as much as I could, but I just could not escape the heat. Plus one unfortunate thing about running up the Magnificent Mile is that the exhaust from the cars is so hot, on top of the weather temps.

Mike had to get to work so he did a mile with me and turned around to head home; I had a very difficult time completing my 3 miles. I truly almost quit, but I knew I would have felt disgusted with myself so I pressed at it! But this was one hell of a run. It was up there with the Chicago Marathon of 2007 where temps were over 100.... that bad! I felt like I was going to pass out the entire time. I hate to be such a wuss, but today's run makes me very nervous for my upcoming runs. Saturday is only 5, and I will be with my group so that should help, but the ones after that (9 miles, 10 miles, and longer) will be super tough if the temps don't get cooler!!

What are your favorite tips on how to beat the heat while running???

I mapped out my run so that it ended at my gym, where I took a pilates class. It must just have been one of those days because even though I love pilates, I was still so tired from getting up early and from that brutal run that I wasn't fully into it. After class I did literally about 3 minutes of arms, and then walked home (20 minutes). I was glad to be done with today's workout!!

For breakfast, of course I had to have a GM. I knew it would perk me right up!! Today's had a twist: I tried my new Amazing Grass Wheatgrass, along with Almond Breeze almond milk. It was the first time I tried almond milk, and it wasn't bad. Not as sweet as the vanilla soy milk I am used to, but it has 1/3 the calories so that ain't bad! The flavor was ok - but not amazing - so I threw in 2 T. of PB2 and a banana. Voila, tasty Green Monster!!! I ended up loving the Wheatgrass addition. It actually did smell a bit like grass, but the taste was great. Very fresh and delicious!

About an hour after my GM, I got hungry - maybe from working out, maybe because I am used to protein powder in my GM which I did not have today? I really wanted something sweet - I think my body is still used to having about 10 desserts per day. I was going to have one of my Amazing Grass energy bars, but I decided that might not be enough, so I chopped it up into small pieces and threw it into my Kitchenaid mixer with some coconut, oat brain, and a splash of milk, trying to recreate the awesome cookie dough that I made last week. Well, the bar must be much harder than I thought because the Kitchenaid did nothing to mix it up! So I took the mixture out, plopped it onto a baking sheet and baked it for a few minutes. It was a nothing fancy or wonderful, but it was a nice snack :)
I had a few cups of cold tea throughout the day until lunchtime, where I had some leftover zucchini soup from yesterday. I loved the flavor of the soup (mostly zucchini and tofu blended together), but I wanted something a bit more "chewy". So, I loosely chopped an onion, dipped it into a bowl of egg whites, and then added in some bread crumbs that I had seasoned. I then baked this mixture (and toasted some walnuts at the same time) by baking it in the oven at 375 for 10-12 minutes. I put this mixture over the warmed up soup, and it was SO GOOD. I will definitely be making this easy, nutrient-dense soup again!!

FYI: Funnily enough, a little bit after I finished eating this soup I saw "Hungry Girl" on the Bonnie Hunt show, where she showed how she makes HER version of onion rings. She grinds up Fiber One cereal, dips the onion rings in some Egg Beaters, and then the crushed cereal, and bakes them. I love this idea of a healthy, whole wheat coating that has lot of fiber, too! But my recipe works great too if all you have on hand is breadcrumbs, although panko would be good too :)

For a mid-afternoon snack, again I was craving something sweet (chocolately in particular), so I threw a frozen banana and a 1/2 c. of chocolate soy milk into the blender. It was awesome (like a chocolate milk shake!) but not enough to fill me up, so I also had an Amazing Grass chocolate bar. Yum!!

After spending a lot of my day looking at recipes and food blogs, I was in the mood to bake. AND my dad's birthday is today (even though I won't see him until Saturday), so I decided to make him.... walnut brittle!!

Here's how I did it:

1 c. sugar
1 c. corn syrup/maple syrup/molasses/honey
½ c. water
1 T. butter
1 1/c c. chopped walnuts
1 ½ ts. Baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat up a pan at 200 degrees while you are making the sauce so that it remains hot – it will be easier to spread the mixture this way.

Then, line pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray.

Combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and butter in a pan. Cook over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Then, stir in walnuts and continue to stir over high heat. Then remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

Quickly pour mixture over pan; cool completely before breaking brittle into bite-sized pieces.

I used sugar-free syrup because that was all I had on hand (I don't eat the sugar-free crap, but we have it in the house because Mike likes it, and I knew my dad wouldn't care what the ingredients were!)

It is still cooling on my counter... I clumsily forgot to see if the pan FITS into my fridge (it does not!) so hopefully they cool ok by just sitting on in the open. So I can't tell you how they taste yet, but the warm sauce that I sampled tasted quite good! :)

Happy Father's Day (belated) and Happy birthday (today), Dad!!! :)

Pictures!!

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to report that I found my camera’s USB cord – I’ve had to replace it once already because I lost the first one…. Which goes to show you how infrequently I actually hook my camera up to my computer. I’ve been so technoglogically inept for so long that it’s just been easier to take it to Walgreens or CVS and print them out there. Soooo that means it may take me a bit of time to really get good at this attaching-pictures-business. Thanks for bearing with me! :)

Since I think pictures add a fun dimension to blogs, I’m going to try to do this as often as I can, or at the very least as often as I remember to! Sunday I didn’t think to take any picture during the majority of the day since I hadn’t found the cord at that point – but I did take two pictures at the end of the night, so here goes.

Protein/energy bars: to eat or not to eat? That’s the question that I actually got asked the other day at Jewel by the cashier as I was stocking up on Luna and Odwalla bars. She had never tried them before and wanted to know if they were for energy, meal replacement, etc... and they can definitely serve a variety of purposes.

There are tons of these bars out there that are full of nasty, unhealthy ingredients and are primarily comprised of sugar and fat. Almost all bars out there do contain some type of sugar, whether it is cane sugar, sucralose (Splenda), rice syrup, etc. So that makes it hard to qualify any of them as “health food” but I do think that in moderation they can really be a nice addition to a runner’s diet. I have a HUGE sweet tooth, and while I often have a bar for a quick, easy-to-consume source of vegetarian protein in the mid-afternoon or before the gym,I have also been known to frequently have one simply to satisfy a sweet craving!



Z Bar: Yesterday was the first time that I had tried one of these, which the packaging says is for kids, but I know there I no reason why I couldn’t act like a kid for a bit and enjoy one anyway ;) My synopsis was that it was really good! I tried the chocolate brownie flavor which was great - very similar to the Clif Bar’s chocolate brownie flavor, which I am a huge fan of. My only gripe was that it was too small for my liking, but it was only 120 calories so I guess that’s how much food you get for fewer calories than many other bars.

Earlier in the week, I made my second trip to Whole Foods since I moved to the South Loop four months ago. I had been making a conscious effort not to go there since I am easily addicted to anything and everything Whole Foods, and my husband has the assumption (sometimes correct, sometimes not) that WF is more expensive than Jewel or Dominick’s. So, to keep costs down I have not allowed myself to go at all - until this Wednesday!

However, after reading so many bloggers mention the Amazing Grass and Amazing Meal products, I HAD to try them!! I didn’t want to commit to buying it in a large bulk size, even though that would be the cheapest, until I knew that I liked the product. Good old Whole Foods came through for me, as it always does, and had single-portion samples! I love that WF has that for a lot of their protein powders too. I bought one regular flavor Amazing Meal, one Mango Pomegranate (?), and one chocolate flavor.

(I also bought one of the chocolate bars – which was HEAVENLY!!!! It is essentially a bar chock-full of healthy stuff like alfalfa and wheatgrass and other greens and nutrient-rich foods, and then is covered in a chocolate coating. Do not write this bar off – I found it to be absolutely decadent – not exactly a Hershey bar, but it is NO less tasty than another other chocolate protein bar. Honestly, I was so excited to try this that I opened it up as I was walking through the parking lot, telling myself I would have a bite then and would finish it once I got home. Let’s just say it got devoured before I even turned the key in the ignition!! If they were cheaper I would have stocked up on them that day!!!)



The regular flavored Amazing Meal I tried the next day. For more information about it's ingredients and the reported benefits, you can check out the company's website at: http://www.amazinggrass.com/ I know a lot of bloggers sometimes throw the Amazing Meal into a Green Monster (more on that later) or mix it with water, but when I opened the package, it smelled extremely “greenish” and not at all sweet, so to be safe I blended it with a cup of my favorite soy milk (Silk Light Vanilla). It wasn’t awful – but wasn’t as palatable as I wanted it to be – so I threw in a tablespoon of plain cocoa powder and one packet of Truvia, and it easily morphed into something delicious. Then the flavor was much improved and I enjoyed the drink.

Last night I decided to try the pomegranate mango flavor. Again, I blended it with some ice and a cup of light vanilla soy milk. I’m a bit undecided about this flavor – I tried a sip out of the blender and at first really liked it, but then it had a bit of a “chalky” aftertaste and texture. So, again I threw in some cocoa powder and stevia and was good to go!

I look forward to trying the chocolate flavor in the future and I’m quite certain that will be my favorite! ;)