*disclaimer - this post was purely conceived out of my newfound realization of how awesome Greek yogurt is & I have not been compensated in anyway, though I am totally open to it (I'm talking to you Stonyfield).

I recently competed in a 'Biggest Loser' competition at work and it has got me thinking a lot about food. I'm no Furgus M. Clydesdale, but I do enjoy me some food science.

How awesome is food? If you answered anything other than "Soooo awesome!' than, well, I don't know. Now I'm not talking about some mass produced version of something resembling food but I'm talking about real honest to goodness awesome food.

Because I focused on reducing my caloric intake in an attempt to win a share of the Biggest Loser pot I was forced to make some more intelligent choices when planning my meals. This required a lot of control & planning, two things I don't exactly enjoy or do particularly well. However, I committed to achieving my goal, had the full support of my wife & kind of enjoy suffering and denying myself of stuff I don't really need for some reason. Don't read too deep into that, just accept the fact that I pride myself on overcoming difficult physical challenges.

During the time I was competing in the biggest loser contest at work, which I successfully completed by the way, I discovered the awesomeness that is Greek yogurt. I've noticed that there has been more focus on Greek yogurt within the past year or so but I never really paid much attention to it. I knew that it was supposed to be thicker with a creamier mouthfeel, that it usually came in plain & honey flavors and that it contained a lot of protein.

While shopping at Costco I like to check out the yogurt section in hopes that they will carry regular Stonyfield yogurts but I hadn't seen them for a while and was really hoping to find something more interesting than the house brand yogurts. We picked up some Chobani Greek yogurt that day & shortly thereafter I was very happy with our decision. The Chobani had a great taste & texture & the company donates 10% of its annual profits to charity. Awesome! The 9-pack came with Peach, Blueberry & Strawberry flavors, all were very good.

So now I had a taste for Greek yogurt and wanted to find out how my favorite yogurt company compared to my new 2nd favorite yogurt company. Fortunately for me there was a special on Stonyfield Farms Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt at the supermarket, 10 for $10. I'm pretty sure I bought close to 30 while that sale was going on. I was pleased to learn that Oikos came in Blueberry, Strawberry and Vanilla as well as the Honey and Plain flavors. I have to admit that I would probably give Stonyfield a higher grade based on the fact that they are Stonyfield & I really dig what they got going on, but they earned the right to remain my #1 favorite yogurt brand.

I try to have a yogurt every day that I work and when I'm home I'll eat some if I am trying to beat the expiration date or make room in the fridge. Because of my nearly daily consumption and the local supermarket's rotating weekly specials I've had an opportunity to sample a lot of the various companies' offerings. My current favorites are Stonyfield's Oikos, Chobani's Greek, Stonyfield's regular yogurts, Trader Joe's yogurts, various store brand yogurts and than the Dannon & Yoplait offerings. In fact, it's Yoplait's poor attempt at making a Greek yogurt that made me appreciate what Stonyfield had to offer.

I like having a favorite of something that I can count on and its awesome when I'm able to confirm my favorite selections are still my favorites. It sure would be sad if I went my whole life thinking that I was enjoying the best there is when something better is just as accessible. I guess that's what drives me to explore new things every so often.