Here it is, 10:00 in the morning, and I’m sitting down at the computer eating my breakfast. What delightful erdurve am I eating for breakfast you ask? I’m eating a chocolate cupcake filled with a tasty cream cheese filling with coconut and chocolate chips! It’s so good!

The funny thing is, that here in about 20 minutes I’m going to go and run 3-4 miles to try and lose some weight, or at least maintain my current weight. That’s what I’m all about and why I click so well with Cookie Athlete. I exercise so I can enjoy my sweets. I can’t even imagine a world without sweets. Take those away and you’ve taken away everything worth living for, well, besides my kids that is!

When I’m out running and have time to think to myself…sometimes a little too much, I think “Ugh! If I would just cut out my sweets and crap, then I wouldn’t be having to kill myself now!” Then when I’m in one of those moods, or someone has some fresh baked goods, I think “Oh, I’ll just go and exercise later. This little one won’t hurt anything.” Kinda funny how it switches back and forth between the extremes, mostly depending on the situations! If you find yourself relating to any of this, then you are a Cookie Athlete too!

If Garrett Popcorn is your first stop when you’re in the Windy City, you’re a Cookie Athlete. If you eat Garrett Popcorn while on the treadmill you know you’re a gold-level Cookie Athlete, and you deserve every delicious kernel.

If you’re still reading this and wondering what kind of treat can elicited such love? Read on you little sweet tooth. Imagine delicate, buttery caramel coated popcorn and the heartiest cheddar cheese popcorn around. Combine the two (Yes combine them, salty & sweet. Trust us, it’s the best.) and you have the world-famous Garrett Popcorn. Sure they have the plain ol’ flavors too, but here at Cookie Athlete we only recognize the Chicago Mix, as they call it.

Of course, the line outside of the place is crazy, but don’t bail. Wait your turn and enjoy your corn. Otherwise you may end up with a little angry Cookie Athlete on your hands.

Here are a couple stats to help you consume your Garrett Popcorn responsibly.

1. Running a seven-minute mile down the Magnificent Mile will burn 174 calories
2. Eating one serving of The Chicago Mix will cost you 170 calories.

Conclusion: You have a few options for enjoying Garrett Popcorn guilt free. Choose your favorite and enjoy yourself.

1. Run, eat, run, eat. Repeat.
2. Run, run, eat, eat. Repeat.
3. Eat, eat, run, run. Repeat

This review was not solicited by Garrett Popcorn or anyone else, for that matter. We’re just honest to goodness Cookie Athletes with a highly trained sweet tooth.

Doughnut vs. Cookie

So here you have a list of the top ten reasons cookies are better than doughnuts, or in other words, ten more reasons to eat more cookies (as if you needed anymore reasons.)

10. Have you ever heard of a Chocolate Chip Doughnut? Well even if they exist they can’t taste as good as a cookie.

9. Cookies are more portable than Doughnuts.

8. Cookie Jars are cool. Doughnut Jars…that sounds messy.

7. Cookie Monster, the ultimate spokesperson

6. Fortune Cookies are mystic. Fortune Doughnuts are impossible.

5. Doughnut Athlete? I don’t think so.

4. Chocolate Chips Cookies are baked not fried.

3. There’s only one way to spell cookie—delicious.

2. Oatmeal Raisin Doughnuts are just wrong.

1. There’s no hole in the middle of a cookie.

Hopefully you had a good laugh over that top ten list. But seriously, I give you permission to indulge in some doughnuts on this National Doughnut Day, if you must. But when you’re done, don’t forget to work off those extra cookie calories–because that’s what Cookie Athletes do. Go Cookie Athlete!

1. Girl Scout Cookies^® had their earliest beginnings in the kitchens and ovens of our girl members, with mothers volunteering as technical advisers. The sale of cookies as a way to finance troop activities began as early as 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low started Girl Scouting in the United States. The earliest mention of a cookie sale found to date was that of the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project in December 1917.
2. Girl Scout Cookies were sold annually by local councils around the country until World War II, when sugar, flour, and butter shortages led Girl Scouts to begin selling Girl Scout calendars to raise money for their activities. 
3. Thin Mints are the biggest seller, making up 25 percent of all sales, followed by Samoas/Caramel deLites at 19 percent; and are the third most popular cookie sold in the United States.
4. As of 2005, 71.5 percent of women in the U.S. Senate and 67.1 percent of women in the House of Representatives are Girl Scouts alumnae.
5. About 200 million boxes are sold every cookie season; the Girl Scout cookie program has generated about $700 million per year since 1999.
6. In 1933, Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia Council baked cookies and sold them in the city’s gas and electric company windows. Just 23 cents per box of 44 cookies, or six boxes for $1.24 helped girls develop their marketing and business potential and raise funds for their local Girl Scout council program. In 1934, Greater Philadelphia became the first council to sell commercially baked cookies. 
7. Jennifer Sharpe, age 15, of Dearborn, Mich., holds the record for most cookies ever sold, with 17,328 boxes in 2008.
8. There are two licensed bakers, ABC and Little Brownie, that get to propose and name the cookies that they bake.
9. ABC uses palm oil in place of partially hydrogenated oils in order to get to zero grams trans fat per serving for each of our varieties. Palm oil provides the greatest stability so  cookies stay fresh and taste better longer. Palm is naturally stable, and does not require hydrogenation. This allows us to lower our trans fat to zero grams per serving.
10. Weekly ingredients at Little Brownie Bakers:

• Flour: 21 truckloads, 1,050,000 lbs.
• Shortening: 7 truckloads, 300,000 lbs.
• Cocoa: 50,000 lbs.
• Chocolate coating: 500,000 lbs.
• Sugar: 14.5 truckloads, 650,000 lbs.
• Peanut butter: 230,000 lbs.
• Toasted coconut: 75,000 lbs.

The Greeks understood that mind and body must develop in harmonious proportions to produce a creative intelligence. And so did the most brilliant intelligence of our earliest days – Thomas Jefferson – when he said, not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise. If the man who wrote the Deceleration of Independence, was Secretary of State, and twice President, could give it two hours, our children can give it ten or fifteen minutes.
John F Kennedy

A synopses of ​​a lecture I recently attended by Jim Rhoades.

1. Rest: “Your body will exact revenge on you later in life for lost sleep. That is why they are called Rest Homes.”

Our bodies regenerate 1 Billion new cells per minute. That means that every seven years our body has replaced every cell in our body. Sleep is when most of the regenerating occurs.

How much do you need? 8 is ideal, 7 + is good. A 15 minute power nap is extremely healthy and can increase productivity, patience, reaction time, judgment, and short-term memory to name a few benefits.

If you increase your hours of exercise, increase your hours of sleep.

2. Stress: “Stress is the silent thief of your health”

Stress will burn energy needed to fight off illness. A stressed out person can have a cold turn into pneumonia overnight.

To reduce your stress:

a. recount daily what is good about your life. Find things to be grateful for and acknowledge it.

b. Fill your life with positive people and books. Find a core book that you can turn to for stability.

c. Perform a T. V.-ectomy. especially the news. Turn it off and leave it off. If something important happens your neighbors will let you know.

d. Find out way to work out your stress. Hint: exercise!

3. Nutrition: “I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.” – Benjamin Franklin

Many foods are bankrupt in what we really need. Your body then sends the message to go looking for more food ​​​​in order to fill the need. The 3 biggest killers last year were Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer; all three can be headed off by good nutrition.

The average 80 year old has had cancer 6 times; but their immune system was strong enough to stop it before it manifested. Your cells need proper nutrition in order to fight off disease. You must have:

a. amino acids

b. fatty acids

c. vitamins

d. minerals – vitamins and minerals work together; one without the other is useless!

4. Exercise: “Not exercising 5 hours a week, is like not vacuuming your house for a year”

We have 60,000 miles of lymphatic vessels in our bodies. These are what suck up the garbage and send it on its journey out of the body. Moving your muscles is what make these vessels work.

This means that if you do not move the garbage doesn’t leave your body. 72 hours of not moving makes you toxic and can kill you.

There is no way around it. If you want to live longer and be healthy you have to exercise.

You can follow Jim Rhoades on  Twitter

Jim lives in southern Utah. He and his wife Kathy are the parents of 8 children and grandparents to a growing number. Jim has become a nationally recognized nutritionist, researcher, educator and popular guest on radio talk shows discussing proactive, intelligent health and wellness.

Jim’s credits:

• Author (Road to Health)
• Life mission coach
• Educator/mentor
• Instructor and presenter at George Wyeth College, America’s leading statesmanship university
• CEO and president of his own international nutritional products company for 7 years
• Close working association with many universities, testing facilities, biochemists, doctors of nutrition and master herbalists
• Twenty plus years of research in nutrition and disease prevention
• Guest speaker at Harvard Medical School, addressing The State of Food in 2004
• Lectures and presents seminars across the U.S. on health and nutrition

- 1/2 c. butter                                                                – 1/2 c. white sugar

- 1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar                          – 1 egg

- 1/2 t. vanilla extract                                                 – 1/8 t. salt

- 3/4 c. flour                                                                    – 1/2 t. baking soda

- 1/2 t. baking powder                                                 – 1 c. rolled oats (Give them a quick spin in the blender)

- 3/4 c. flaked coconut                                                – 1 c. crisp rice cereal

- 3/4 c. chopped salted peanuts

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

- Cream together the butter and sugars.

- Mix in egg, vanilla, and salt.

- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder. Add and mix completely.

- Mix in oatmeal, coconut, rice cereal and peanuts. Avoid crushing cereal.

- Drop dough by spoonfuls on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

- Bake 8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Makes 30 cookies.

One big cookie equals 185 calories.