Sweating & Snacking Together At Last!

Sweating and snacking...not necessarily at the same time, but both have certainly helped me on my weight loss journey.

I was recently asked to check out Kraft Canada's Rice Thins Brown Rice Crisps and review their new "Sweat and Snack" program. The program was developed by personal trainer Jo-Ann James, founder of Vital Steps Inc. and includes four workout circuits using inexpensive and easy-to-use equipment that most people would already have at home (or like me, intend to buy one day).

I was intrigued because I'm a sucker for healthy low point snack foods, and because the program includes exercises that you can do at home, the gym, anywhere. I'm heading back to work in a couple of months and my exercise routine will be changing to fit in with my new schedule, so a good set of exercises I can do at home is very appealing.

The "Snack" portion is obviously referring to the Rice Thins Brown Rice Crisps. I was sent a package of each of the three flavours - Sour Cream & French Onion, Sea Salt & Pepper, and Sweet Mesquite Barbecue. Any time the Little Man spies any kind of snack packaging he's in like a shot, so I of course had to open them up immediately for a taste test. Mr. Awesome's dad (or Opa Awesome) was over for dinner so we all had a taste. All three flavours were good, but the Little Man and I were fans of the Sweet Mesquite Barbecue and Opa Awesome preferred the Sea Salt & Pepper.

The serving size is nine crackers and they're a decent size so it's a fair portion. One serving has 90 calories, 1.5g of fat and 2 grams of fibre so that equals two Weight Watchers points. Not bad if you have points to spare. Now, I might not choose these over a lower point snack if I was tight on points for a given day, but I would certainly munch on them if I had the room. Even so, I still really like that this is a healthy snack option for my family.

Some nutritional highlights:

• All flavours are gluten-free
• Baked, not fried
  
• A source of fibre
  
• Made with brown rice
• Contains 13g of whole grains per 21g serving
  
• Low in fat and have zero trans fat and zero cholesterol
  

Blah, Blah, Blah...But What's In It For You?

When I agreed to review this program, I wanted to make sure there was something in it for YOU. Sure, you can run out to the store and grab yourself a bag of these tasty snacks, but what about the "Sweat" part? Unless you actually RUN to the store, there's not much exercise in grocery shopping. The program isn't for sale and it isn't available online anywhere. I wasn't about to tell you how great it was and then say "But too bad for you, you can't try it" because a) that's mean and b) what would be the point of that?!

The nice people at Kraft Canada have said I can post the program right here, on Finding My Weigh! I've uploaded it via Scribd, so hopefully my tech skills reign supreme and you can see it below.

All four circuits incorporate the same equipment, available pretty much anywhere these days. Here's what you need:

• Exercise ball
• Jump rope
• Resistance bands
• Yoga mat

I tried Circuit #1 just now. It says to do the full circuit twice but I will admit that today in the interest of time between naps (the little miss's naps, not mine unfortunately), I only did it once. I will be doing it "properly" in the next couple of days but I'm on my own this week and time is precious, people!! I hadn't done ANY resistance band work before and holy-mother-of-God is that hard. Probably why I hadn't tried it before...

I invite you to give these circuits a try and let me know what you think. You can scroll through the document below for all four circuits, as well as some simple health and wellness tips they've put together. If all goes as planned, you should be able to download it yourself from there as well. Yay for technology, or "Techology FTW!" as the cooler kids would say.

Happy sweating!