Justins Nut Butter

 I think it was last may when we were backpacking along the south bank of Lake Texoma.  My friend Ken had purchased all the food for the trip and in our lunches we had these "Justin's" peanut butter packages.  Now at the time they were ok and I think I had mine with the boiled egg that was in our lunch bags. 

My wife is a middle school science teacher and also a Volleyball and basketball coach.  She will be at her school during the season from 6:00am till 8:00pm most days and even longer on game days.  The thing that she is real good at is forgetting to eat something between classes and before practices.  I usually get a phone call with her telling me how she has the shakes from not eating all day and that she is about to pass out from starvation.  Since I am a diabetic and having gone through situations like this I pack glucose tablets and snack bars to keep me going or to get my blood sugars up from a low.

I was shopping at REI a few months ago and came across these "Justin's" nut butter packages that my friend Ken had put in our packs on that May back packing trip.  They cost something like $1.09 a package and if I buy twelve or more items you get a bulk discount of 10% off.  REI is where I get all my GU packages for running and low blood sugars since they have the flavor of the month and also discount them to .47 cents all the time.  I picked a few of these nut butter packages to go along with my usual GU packs.  I put a few in my brief case and also gave my wife some for her purse.

Fast forward to present time and I now always keep one of these "Justin's" nut butter packs in my daily bag along with a GU package.  One is for fast sugar and the other is to help sustain the sugar or as a quick snack.  I think what I have come to find out is that not all the emergency food or on the road food should be used as quick glucose items for just our low BG's.  We should consider keeping something like these nut butter snacks around for a case of hunger or just to treat yourself on the go.  They have around 190 calories and only 10 total carbohydrates per package.  Now whenever my wife forgets to eat a mean or something.  She can now just reach into her purse and pull out a honey-almond butter snack or a chocolate-hazelnut butter treat and not have to call me and let me know she is moments away from starvation.  I call this a win-win-good treate-win situation.