More Humm Time and Free LÄRABARS!

Raise your hand if you have taken time to Humm in the last few days. Although I’ve been beyond stressed at work, I found myself actually smiling after my swim at the pool this afternoon- my first swim in a few months. Maybe it was the recently-cleaned-and-clear pool water (our pool has been closed for a month!), or maybe it was feeling fast even though I haven’t put two strokes together since the fall. Could it really have been the crowded lanes and sloppy swimmers in the fast lane!? (probably not) My guess? I knew what I had waiting for me after the swim: a chocolate hazelnut Jocalat LÄRABAR on the top shelf of my locker. All the crowded lanes and bumping and water-up-the-nose and itchy eyes from the over-brominated pool were erased when I sunk my teeth into that delicious bar.

Want to win a box of these?

Alright, now raise your hand if you’re doing a good job at being gluten-free on a budget. No? Hmm… Well, now’s your chance. What’s better for a budget than FREE? A few weeks ago, I asked LÄRABAR if they’d be interested in sponsoring a blog giveaway on my site. Since they are my go-to snack food as it is, I wanted to share the love with my fellow training peeps and inter-web friends. Lucky for me (and- well – I guess you!), they said yes! Today arrived the big brown box from Denver, Colorado, adorned with stickers and filled with tasty treats. But before we get to that… here’s some info about the company, their products, and why I love them so!

You may be asking yourself: Why does she think LÄRABAR is such an awesome food? Well, even before I went gluten free, it was my go-to mid-day snack when I’m at the office (Jim’s Foodmart in Houghton has boxes of ’em and its just a few blocks from campus). My mom stocks me up every time she sees me (bonus!). And they don’t give me crazy stomach problems when I have one within an hour before working out (double bonus!). They are as satisfying as a Snickers (maybe even moreso) with just a quarter of the ingredients list. Aside from the fact that all I ate at Ironman Madison this year were peanut butter and jelly LÄRABARs (my #1 favorite flavor, made with dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries, and salt) and Honeystinger Chews [and the fact that I didn’t have any GI issues whatsoever on race day], the food is, well… it’s food. It’s real, wholesome ingredients, and most of the bars are made from three or four ingredients. I like to call it my brain food.

Brain food

LÄRABAR is gluten free, but that’s easy enough for them to do when their product is made out of dates, unsweetened cherries, and almonds (Cherry Pie, my #2 fave). Want to have a healthy snack, but craving something sweet? Try a Jocalat bar (German chocolate cake, anyone? All organic ingredients, made with dates, pecans, almonds, unsweetened chocolate, coconut, EV Coconut Oil, and cocoa powder). Beats ice cream every night for dinner (at least, that’s what your jeans will tell you).

Never had a LÄRABAR ? Along the same whole-food-health-nut lines I follow, LÄRABAR believes that what we eat is healthiest and most satisfying when it’s in a whole, natural state. Since LÄRABAR is truly a Humm food (says so on their website!), they are perfect for my first blog giveaway.

More cool lil’ facts about LÄRABAR products:

• All their products are gluten free. Every single one. I said that already.
• All their products are dairy free, too.
• Soy free. Ditto!
• All products are vegan and kosher.
• No GMOs here. Nep. Nada.
• Jocalat bars are made peanut-free in a peanut-free facility (although they can’t guarantee their products didn’t come in contact with peanuts before they came to the factory)

Jocalat comes in six delicious flavors

So now that you have a good idea of what these real-food food-bars are all about, let’s get to the fruit and nuts of this dish (pun totally intended).

The challenge: Tell me about your last great humm time or your favorite humm food (give me a shout-out in the form of a comment on this blog post).

The reward: You’ll get entered into a raffle to win a box (16 delicious bars!) of a variety pack of LÄRABAR Jocalat. FOUR lucky winners will be chosen at random. Perfect time for training builds, mid-afternoon-snacking, and (OH YEAH) Valentine’s Day (betcha forgot that holiday is fast approaching, yeah?).

Want to chat about this contest on your own blog (because that would be awesome)? Well, if you do, you get a bonus entry (use this link to direct people back here, or else I won’t know you talked about it). Tweet about it (and let me know using @megankillian in your tweet), and you’ve got another shot at winning. In other words, you could get yourself three entries into this awesomely sweet (and nutritious) contest.

What is your favorite flavor?

Since I want the winners to get these delicious treats before V-Day (just in case you want to share them with your sweet-heart with a healthy heart), I’m going to draw winners on February 1st during my mid-morning LÄRABAR snack time.

Each person to enter will be assigned a number. I’ll use Random.org to pick the four winners!

Ready to win some sweet treats? Start humming!

FTC Disclaimer: LÄRABAR provided me these boxes, full of free Jocalat bars, to give away on my blog