So I have been on a quest for the perfect protein bar and the perfect bowl of oatmeal...

Tyler got me hooked on a different way to eat my oatmeal early on when we were dating and at first I thought it sounded weird because it was way different than I had ever ate oatmeal.. but now I love it. I used to eat my oatmeal with brown sugar and that's it. Now I am absolutely hooked on eating it with milk and sugar. I like to have a really satisfying breakfast so every morning I have two scrambled eggs, 1 piece of whole wheat Brownberry bread and a small bowl of oatmeal. I started running into a couple problems with the oatmeal though.. 1) Using regular sugar was hurting my stomach 2) I was using a good portion of my sugar grams for the day on milk. If I'm going to use sugar grams I want to make them count.. not waste them on milk, fat free milk at that. So we switched our sugar to Stevia which is all natural and switched our milk to Silk Unsweetened Soymilk. Soymilk has 2 carbs & 1 gram of sugar compared to fat-free milk that has 7 carbs & 6 grams of sugar. It may not sound like a big difference, but every little bit adds up.

When it comes to the perfect protein bar I always get frustrated. They always have SO much sugar in them. Protein bars are a perfect option for when I need a good source of protein on the go so it's been important for me to find one that tastes good and doesn't use up all my sugar grams for a whole day. I finally found one that I think me & Tyler both like. They are called Pure Protein high protein bars. I have only tried one flavor so far which was chewy chocolate chip. It has 200 calories, 18 carbs, 20 g protein, 3 g sugar, and 7 g sugar alchohols.

You may be asking the same question that I asked myself after reading the label.." What are sugar alcohols?" So I did a little research and found out for myself. They aren't actually sugar or alchohol. It is extracted from plants such as seaweed and would be listed on the label as  maltitol, xylitol, sorbitol, etc... Sugar alcohols are like sugar in some ways, but they are not completely absorbed by the body. They raise blood sugars by about half as much as regular carbohydrates.

How to calculate sugar alchohols:

To calculate how many carbs count towards your carbohydrate choices for a certain type of food divide the grams of sugar alcohols by 2, and then subtract the amount from the total carbs. Example:

•Serving size: 1 bar

•Total carbohydrate: 15 grams

•Find the sugar alcohol: 6 grams and divide this by 2 (6g divided by 2 = 3g)

•1 bar counts as 12 grams carbohydrate or 1 carb choice (15g - 3g = 12g)