Feeling Great in Eight

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own.


For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.


I hope you don't hate me for doing a sponsored post.  I promise I won't do a ton of these and when I do, I will include content that is interesting to me and I hope will be interesting to you.

Anyways,  I am participating in a challenge called "Feeling Great in Eight,"  which has nothing to do with yogurt or sponsorhip.  The point of the challenge is to live a healthier lifestyle and to feel better by doing so.  There are about 100 people participating and I am on a team with three of my friends.  Each person pays $5 to participate and there are prizes at the end.  Each week, I get points for doing healthy things, such as exercising, eating 5 fruits and/or vegetables, eating 10 healthy foods, drinking a certain amount of water, not eating after 8PM, etc.  I also get points taken away (LOTS of points in my case!) for eating "bad" foods. 

Each week we report our points to our team leader and all of the teams' scores are averaged.  It's fun and a good motivater to try to be healthier, especially since I am accountable to my team members.  I did this same challenge in the spring and lost 10 pounds.  More importantly, I really did feel "great."  I had so much more energy and felt happier.

Here's a pic of me running my last marathon with my baby running up to great me as I ran by.  I generally live a pretty healthy lifestyle.  I have always been a runner and have competed in marathons and half-marathons.  However, after I had my third child and approached my mid-thirties, I started to notice that as much as I exercised, I couldn't get back to my pre-baby weight.  I was also super-tired all of the time.  This is when I noticed that what I ate, particularly the large amounts of sugar I was consuming, had a HUGE impact on my body and how I felt.

Source: slide.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

As part of Feeling Great in Eight, we have to do different daily tasks to earn points.  One of the daily tasks was to try a new lowfat dairy item.  I decided to try Dannon Oikos yogurt.  I am squeamish about yogurt and very particular about texture and taste.  I like Greek yogurt because it is higher in protein than regular yogurt.  Protein keeps you full.  That means I'll be less likely to crave sugary snacks.  In fact, Dannon® Oikos® Plain and Fruit on the Bottom contains 0% fat, while the Dannon® Oikos® traditional blended varieties contains about 3% fat. Both are an excellent source of protein, twice that of most regular lowfat yogurts.

I really liked the taste and texture of Dannon Oikos.  And, because Dannon® Oikos® 0% varieties contain active yogurt cultures and range from 80 calories (Plain) to 130 calories (Fruit on the Bottom) per 5.3 oz. cup, it is a perfect lowfat and lowcal snack that I can eat as part of my Feeling Great in Eight diet.  I like to mix the yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal for breakfast and this kept me full all the way till lunch.

I encourage you to add Greek yogurt to your diet.  It is good for you and tastes great.  Eat this when you are craving something sweet and you won't have the sugar crash that comes from eating sugary snacks.
Also, if any of you are interested in participating in a Feeling Great in Eight challenge, I would be happy to email you the information.


I have partnered with Dannon to help promote the Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt Series. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about the promotion and product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.