When I grow up I’m going to open the happiest place on Earth and it shall be called Fitnessbucks.

Or Dunkin’ & Spice.

Or Sutter’s Best.

OK, I haven’t quite decided on the name yet but that’s not important right now.

What is important is that by morning my store will feature coffee and by night it will be a wine bar. And there will be chocolate by morning, noon, and night.

Why coffee, wine, and chocolate? Because these are 3 of my favorite things. That, and they are all heart healthy. I would know. I just asked Dr. Web, also known as, WebMd and here’s what he said about the potential benefits:

Coffee: “Coffee may help protect your heart by warding off type 2 diabetes. Studies show that people who drink 3-4 cups a day may cut their risk by 25% — and even decaffeinated coffee works.”

Red Wine: “If you drink alcohol, a little red wine may be a heart-healthy choice. Resveratrol and catechins, two antioxidants in red wine, may protect artery walls. Alcohol can also boost HDL, the good cholesterol.”

Chocolate: “Dark chocolate and cocoa are rich in antioxidants called flavonoids. Research suggests that eating flavonoid-rich chocolate helps to keep blood vessels healthier by improving their ability to expand. One small study showed that eating high-flavonoid dark chocolate daily helped high blood pressure patients lower their blood pressure and reduce LDL.”

I don’t make this stuff up. Besides, what isn’t healthy about grapes and beans (in moderation, of course)?

And speaking of heart health, if you have a blog, I’d love for you join me and Blog Your Heart Out tomorrow, February 11th, an event to support the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. Just visit www.getfitbook.com for all of the details.

Now I really must go have a glass of wine and work on the name of my shop….what do you think about a Cup of Jo(anna)’s?

I love everything about dark chocolate so if you want to get on my good side send me chocolate.

That’s exactly what Attune Foods did.

After hearing MizFit talk about the all natural, probiotic chocolate bars in the Attune line, I was curious so I went to my local Whole Foods to hunt them down. Sadly, my Whole Foods does not sell these bars YET, but you can bet your sweet abs, I’ll be talking to them about that.

So when Attune told me I could buy them online AND offered to send me a few bars to sample, I was singing a new tune.

They sent me 3 bars:

• Dark chocolate
• Raspberry Dark Chocolate
• Coffee Bean Dark Chocolate

Two of the three bars may or may not have been consumed on the same day. I’ll never tell.

But, what I will tell you is I loved them all and fell madly in love with the Coffee Bean Dark Chocolate. Check out my award-worthy photograph—real chocolate covered coffee beans!

Great taste, antioxidants, 80-90 calories each, and probiotics?! I’ll be bellying up to the Attune Wellness Bar again. And again.

Now I really must go workout and then hit Whole Foods to see if I can get them to carry Attune!

When I was a kid I was on swim teams all year round. 

My favorite part of swim practice was the ride home. My carpool would split an entire bag of peanut butter cups. Nothing like fast acting sugars for post workout nutrition, right? Riiiggghhhttt!

Anywho, this weekend I was craving peanut butter cups so I popped into my station wagon kitchen to see what I could create. Since I  banned peanut butter from my house after too much spooning, I had to do a little improv. Speaking of improv…

Why did the vegetarians stop swimming?
They didn’t like meets!

I’ll be here all week.

Ok, back to the kitchen…

I tossed a handful of almonds into my Magic Bullet blender with a tablespoon or two of water to create instant homemade almond butter and then smothered it between a piece of extremely dark chocolate.

Needless to say my grown up almond butter cup turned out swimmingly!

Now I really must go brush up on my stand up and dive into another pool of chocolate.