I do make a lot of smoothies for my kids so I just modified that recipe a little for a fruit smoothie, which is quite tasty. I also supplement dinner and one snack with real food carefully calculated to ensure I am staying within my calories and ratios.
This morning I was feeling I might need to try something a little different. When I started this I bought one vanilla and one chocolate protein powder. My chocolate hasn’t been getting much use really as I couldn’t figure out what to put with it. I am not a huge fan of chocolate peanut butter flavored things so the protein/fat smoothies are my big challenge and I also don’t really like chocolate and fruit together so you can see my dillema here.
Side Note: I use and recommend Jay Robb Whey Protein
. It tastes great and meets all the recommended quality and nutritional recommendations — high quality ingredients and sweetened with stevia.
I threw some things together this morning and it turned out pretty good, so I thought I would share my couple of shake recipes with you.
How Much of Each Ingredient?
Each one of us will have specific quantity requirements to meet our calories and macro-nutrient ratios. For this reason I have left the amount off of anything that would add to the caloric total or affect the ratios.
There is a whole section of the diet manual dedicated to calculating your needs. This is a very important part of the program so don’t skip over this part.
Morning Wake Up Call
Chocolate protein powder
Non-Fat Milk
Banana
1 t. instant coffee
1 t. unsweetened baking cocoa
Mix it all together in a blender. May need a little more time in the blender than other shakes to fully dissolve and incorporate the instant coffee granules.
Basic Fruit Smoothie
Vanilla protein powder
Orange Juice
Banana
Fresh or Frozen Berries (whatever you have works great – I love the frozen mixed berries)
Blend and enjoy!
Side Note: If you like your smoothies colder or thicker, add a couple of ice cubes after you have blended the ingredients together and then spin it again until all the ice is crushed up.
Bonus Tip: One thing I have noticed about protein powder is if you let it sit for a minute or so after blending but before you drink it, it tastes better and has a better consistency. This gives it time to fully dissolve. What I do is blend it up and then let it sit for a minute or two and then give it another little spin before I pour it into a glass. Way Better!
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I was worried as I was adding foods to my log that I was going to go over but at the end it worked out fine since I logged my entire breakfast and only ate about two thirds of it.
I tend to be over critical and think too much about things but getting all these ratios just right is not that easy. This probably means I should have bought the upgrade with the calculator and menu plans.
This all gives me more to think about when planning out these two days next week.
Maybe I just need to give myself a break as well. It is my first cycle and the truth will be told Sunday morning when I check my stats. Stay tuned for that.
I have been really good about my workouts all week, but didn’t get my workout in yesterday since my mom was coming last night and I had so much to do. Need to make sure I make working out a priority and to make time for it. Doesn’t take that long, really.
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Have a great day and remember to do something nice for you mom tomorrow.
Yesterday was the first of these days and lovingly called shake day.
Now, just let me say that I have always hated protein powder. It’s the smell that gets to me. But, for dramatic results, I figured I would suffer through a day. I also cheated just a bit and subbed out two meals with real food and supplemented another with a tomato salad.
I only subbed out these meals after very carefully doing all the math and calculating exactly what each meal needed to contain given the macro-nutrient and calorie requirements for the day.
After logging all my food on CalorieCounter.com (my absolute favorite food and exercise logging tool) it turns out that my calories were dead on and my macro-nutrient (protien/carb/fat) ratios were pretty good. My protein was a touch high and my fat a touch low. For my first go at it, I figure this isn’t so bad – there are definitely worse ways the ratios could be out of whack.
In order to keep to my ratios and calorie requirements I carefully portioned and measured to get the exact right amounts and only used foods off the included food lists in my substitutions. My food scale and measuring cups and spoons are earning their keep during this process.
This may sound like a total pain, but really it only takes a few extra seconds to measure out your portions. The calculations and meal planning takes a bit of time, but if you can’t dedicate a little time once every five days for these types of results then you don’t really want it. I don’t mean to be harsh or anything but getting real with our committment is fundemental to our success. This is something I struggle with too, but it just comes down to do you want it bad enough or don’t you. Do you feel your worth it or don’t you?
By the way if you answered no to that question, you should read this.
Ok, so back to protein powder. Like I said, I hated protein powder, but I found one that actually tastes pretty good and has the nutritional requirements that are recommended.
Both Joel (Xtreme Fat Loss Diet) and Isabel (The Diet Solution) highly recommend Prograde supplements and I am sure they are really great, but they are pretty spendy. Now, I am sure they are worth the money, but I am not going to be using protein powder long term as my long term plan recommends always trying for real foods over powders and the Prograde only gets reasonably priced when you do the autoship.
With all this said, I knew that the quality and nutritional suggestions they made were really important so I did my research and found a product that was reasonably priced, tastes great and is made with cold-processed whey protein isolate, natural flavors and is sweetened with Stevia. I feel that this is a quality product and would recommend it. And it is the best tasting protein powder I have had and let’s face it, that is really important.
Jay Robb Whey Protein Powder
Overall, I feel great so far. I have a ton of energy, my mood is good (well except for the afternoon of fast day, but I think I deserved that – hee hee), my muscles are sore and I even think these pants were a tad looser this morning.
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Because of the huge success in the first couple of days, Joel has extended the $30 off promotion for another 48 hours to celebrate.
Celebrate yourself and your accomplishments as well. Have a great day!