For the last couple of years, some of the folks in my office have filled out brackets for the college basketball tournament. It’s painfully (and hilariously) obvious pretty early in the tourney who actually pays attention to college basketball, and who picks the winning teams based on their favorite jersey colors and home towns. I may be in that favorite color group…  And of course, my FAVORITE team is always the Arkansas Razorbacks – GO HOGS!!!

I work at a nonprofit that supports cancer patients in our community, and we decided this year that everyone who participates can donate $5, which will then be donated to our patient assistance programs. We’ll be turning in brackets and turning over our cash tomorrow, and I thought it would be fun to have a few snacks on hand when we get started … some sweet treats (#SnackMadness!) to get us ready for some sweet dunks, so to speak.

Around my house we are trying to maintain a low-carb lifestyle, which can get in the way of having any kind of sweet treat, but when I told my husband of my plans he reminded me he’d picked up some sugar-free candies at Walgreen’s in the past, so I ran in this morning to get some goodies. Let me tell you, there aren’t just a couple of random, generic options – they have LOTS of sugar-free candy! There were Russell Stover varieties, and Werther’s hard candies… but I am all about chocolate, so I was immediately in love with the Reese’s and Hershey offerings. AND, they were on sale!

On top of the sale, I use Walgreen’s Rewards on my iPhone app and earn points on some selected purchases. The basketball tourney gods were smiling down on me, because they have a special running for Reese’s and Hershey’s candies if you buy them with Coca-Cola products. Done!

A word of caution for anyone trying sugar-free candy for the first time – you don’t want to eat a handful just because they are lower in calories and carbs than the originals. The sugar-alcohols used to make these lovely little treats can cause side effects that can be unpleasant… especially to someone sitting next to you on a crowded bus, if you know what I mean. Take it easy – you’ll thank me later!

I picked up a few bags of sugar-free for me and a couple of other folks at work who are working on losing weight  (but will probably keep some here at home!) and got some “fully loaded” candies as well. Then I headed to the drink aisle to pick up some Coke. We always have drinks in a fridge at work, but Coke Zero is my go-to and it’s not always stocked. I think it’s closer in taste to regular Coke, but with zero carbs. I really appreciate all the nice people in the snack and beverage industries creating products that allow me to pretend I’m not on a diet. ;)

I have a recommendation for the folks at Coca-Cola: The refrigerator boxes need their graphics adjusted… when the box is shelved with the ends placed to be readable the handle that’s built into the box is on the side of the box. There’s no good way to get hold of the thing unless you dig around at the edges to pull it half-way out of the display first. Kind of odd.

So we’re set… got the candy, (and put it in some cute jars I picked up recently) got my own drinks to keep at the office, got my bracket set up on our online work team… now I just have to go look at all the uniforms and decide who’s going to win! Did I mention?? GO HOGS!!!!

To see my shopping trip unfold before your very eyes, take a little peek at my Google+ album here. :)

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Walgreens #cbias #SocialFabric. Regardless of this affiliation, all opinions are my own.