Thank you to LUNA Protein for providing me a LUNA Protein sample pack to review. The opinions I've expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint.

News Flash – I’m a busy mom. A super busy mom. I won’t go through another full rundown of my daily routine in this post, but let me give you a glimpse into all that I carry on my plate right now:

• supporting my husband and enriching our relationship
• loving and caring for my children
• maintaining relationships with friends and family
• blogging and living out my dream/passion
• training for a half marathon
• facilitating two separate adult study groups in my church
• volunteering in M’s preschool
• studying to become a personal trainer
• having some fun along the way

I think busy mom just may be the understatement of the century. I juggle all of these things because I have four areas of my life in which I refuse to settle: my growth in my faith, my relationships with loved ones, my passion for blogging, and my personal health and well-being. Just because I have a million and one things to do in a day doesn’t mean I need to forget about caring for myself. And for someone who has battled binge eating in the past, part of caring for myself is making sure I fuel my body properly.

I try to ensure I sit down and take time for balanced meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But snacks? Those can pose a challenge. Those often require grab and go options as I head out the door to whatever madness awaits me next.

My preferred snacks will always be green smoothies (Chocolate Covered Strawberry por favor), yogurt bowls, handfuls of Love Grown granola, veggies and hummus, or fruit and peanut butter. When I need something fast, though, I resort to bars.

Recently I had the offer to try out the LUNA Protein bar line. I have loved the regular LUNA bars for a long time now and usually have a stash of them for emergency grab and go snacks. I know from experience that protein does help me feel fuller longer, so I welcomed the chance to try these out for my on-the-go hunger.

The bars come in five different flavors – Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Chocolate Cherry Almond. Each bar contains a dense, chewy center (that reminds me of cookie dough) surrounded in a light chocolate coating.

The bars contain 200 calories or less, 12 grams of soy and whey protein, and 3 grams of fiber. Other highlights I find in these bars:

• no artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup or trans-fats
• no ingredients from genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• gluten-free (recently updated to gluten free bars earlier this year)

Now for the verdict?

I really enjoyed the flavors and texture of the bars. The Chocolate Cherry Almond and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough were my favorites! The bars were pretty small, but I found they held me over as a snack just fine for a couple of hours between main meals. I will always strive to choose natural, whole foods over processed snacks – but I can definitely see me buying these again for when I need something fast on the go. Let’s face it…it’s a must to have such options as a mom of two young kids!

Would you like to try some of these bars for yourself? LUNA is offering to giveaway a pack containing each of the five bars plus an extra small prize to FIVE winners! More chances to win equals more fun in my book. So let’s get started!

To enter this giveaway please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry option.

• Leave a comment telling me what is your favorite grab and go snack OR which flavor you want to try of the LUNA Protein bars.
• For the Twitter lovers - Tweet the following: [ I’m trying to win this #cleverLUNA giveaway from @TinaFFF - http://bit.ly/pKHWt9 ]
• For the Facebook lovers – Like Faith Fitness Fun on Facebook or let me know if you already do!

US Residents only. One week to enter – ends Friday, September 3rd at 5 pm EST.

Please click here to learn more about LUNA Protein. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. #cleverLUNA

Last night’s Wednesday small group session at church was a grand ole time! I am jumping into a new group, so I had the chance to meet some new friends I will get the chance to connect with weekly. It’s always fun to develop new relationships to learn and grow together. Although it’s also interesting to try to explain the whole blogging thing. Yes, yes. I take pictures of my food. Yes, yes. I talk openly about my life on the world wide web. Yes, yes. I may be slightly crazy.  

For our meet up, we started off with some fellowship – aka chit chat and food.

I loaded up a plate with some pasta salad, veggies, and party mix. Quite delightful. And not just because it meant I didn’t have to cook. And for dessert, I had some fruit plus one of the Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies that I shared in last night’s post.

They seemed to go over really well. With their whole wheat flour, stevia, natural peanut butter, and all. Muahaha! although the butter and brown sugar helped I’m sure…shhhhh

We spent the remainder of the night discussing the previous sermon about God’s desire for joy in our lives and the various ways we can find it in Him, loving others, and growing personally. One of the questions even got me thinking about how old personal demons try to get a hold of me sometimes…like last week when I found myself dealing with a mini-binge experience for the first time in a long time.

I had many different factors that could have played into it, including the thought of an upcoming vacation where I wouldn’t have my “regular eats”. Then, I knew I would have my birthday, social events,and a lot of other such experiences coming my way as well. On some level, the old “all or nothing” mentality crept back in.

That’s when I decided I couldn’t judge my choices and get caught up looking into my future food choices, allowing them to determine how I choose to nourish my body in the moment. Instead, I determined that I would change my mindset…

Meal By Meal

It became my new mantra. When eating meal by meal, I can focus on making the best of my options and actively choose what will nourish me and satisfy my most at each meal. I strive for balance, so my life will certainly involve times that I indulge or eat something different than what I may have prepared for myself. That doesn’t make my eating habits any less healthy on the whole.

Having an unhealthy relationship with food makes me unhealthier  – not enjoying a weekend vacation. Sinking back into the all or nothing approach and experiencing old eating demons makes me unhealthier – not having a busy social schedule. Healthy living happens one decision at a time. It culminates into a better lifestyle, but it still breaks down into many smaller choices. 

Taking things meal by meal allows me to remove the stress from my eating habits so I can choose wisely and let each of those decisions add up to a healthier, happier belly. And a healthier, happier me. Meal by meal…  

• Have future indulgences ever affected your current food choices?
• Do you open up about your blog to new friends/acquaintances?