Friday, March 11, 2011

Magical Powder.


Protein powder and bodybuilders go together like..ya know...peas and carrots..milk and cookies..flies on poop..and there are so many great uses for it besides shakes to boost your protein intake. Protein pancakes are my personal favorite, but it can also be used to make sludge, fudge, ice cream, muffins/cakes, proatmeal..the list goes on depending on how creative ya want to get.  Finding the right protein powder can be a bit overwhelming if you have no idea where to start.  I've only tried a handful of different whey powders and I wanted to share my thoughts on them with you guys.

(Heads up:I'm a vanilla kind of gal, nothing against chocolate, I just always use vanilla powder because it's easier to make different kinds of shakes and things with)

1) Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein;
(Jay Robb's brand was my 'training wheels' aka the first I ever tried)
Jay Robb's Whey Protein is made from the finest natural ingredients available and delivers 25 grams of first class protein, 0-fat, 0-cholesterol, 0-sugars, and only 1 gram of carbohydrate per 30 gram serving. Only cold-processed cross-flow microfiltered whey protein isolate is used as the protein source and this material comes from farm-raised, pasture-grazed, grass-fed cows not treated with the synthetic bovine growth hormone rBGH.
Mixability: In terms of mixing in shakes made in the blender I'd give it a 9/10, but adding it to just milk or in oatmeal was awful, didn't mix well at all!
Taste/Texture: 9/10 Same as above, in shakes it was delicious and added a nice vanilla flavor but when adding it to oatmeal or other things it got slimy and chunky and did not taste good.
Overall: 25 g for 110 calories is awesome and I love that it's made with stevia and not artificial crap. I'd highly recommend Jay Robb brand if you are just planning on making shakes :)

2) Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey, Vanilla Ice Cream;


Whey Protein Isolates are 90% pure protein by weight. They are the purest and most expensive form of whey protein that exists. That’s why they are the first ingredients you read on the 100% Whey Gold Standard label. By using Whey Protein Isolates as our primary protein source, we’re able to pack 24 grams of the purest, muscle-building protein per serving, with a lot less of the fat, cholesterol, lactose, and other stuff that you can do without. There’s no question this is the standard by which other whey proteins are measured.
Mixability: 10/10, smooth, no chunks, no complaints!
Taste/Texture: This stuff even smells great. Not slimey or chalky. I'd love to try the cookies and cream flavor. Check out http://www.wheygoldstandard.com/ to see all the other flavors. (Cake batter and rocky road, anyone?)
Overall: 1 scoop is 120 calories and 24g protein. I highly recommend this stuff! I've never heard anything negative about, but the only issue I have with it is that it contains artificial sweetener.

3) Designer Whey French Vanilla

Designer Whey Protein Powder in All Natural French Vanilla has been shown to help hard training athletes reduce body fat when combined with a diet and resistance training program. The secret? Added L-Glutamine to keep muscles fueled. Even better, B vitamins and fast digesting full-spectrum whey peptides help your muscles recover quickly after a hard workout so they're ready for more tomorrow.
Mixability: 10/10, no problems mixing this stuff. This powder was more coarse than the others, but that didn't turn out to be an issue!
Taste/Texture: This is where I had problems. This has no taste whatsoever..which is great if you want flavor-free powder, but I don't. I had to add spoonfuls of vanilla extract and 3 packets of stevia to get just a little taste out of this.
Overall: Dislike. I couldn't even finish the carton of this. 1 scoop has 100 calories and 18g of protein, which isn't bad..but lower than the others. I bought Designer Whey because I was on a serious hunt for powders without artificial sweetener/crap in them, there are only a few and DW is one of 'em. I mean this stuff is perfect if you want tasteless powder, but I like a nice vanilla-y, creamy shake! I'm curious how the other flavors taste though.

4) Nature's Best Isopure Zero Carb, Creamy Vanilla;

(This is the powder that I'm currently using.)
From Naturesbest.com:
The elite protein elixir. 50 grams of 100% whey protein isolate. 1g of fat, no lactose, and glutamine enriched but with zero carbs. Also sweetened with apartame free Sucralose, the only zero calorie sweetener made from sugar.
Mixability: 10/10, no problems here!
Taste/Texture: Love it, great vanilla flavor and it really is 'creamy.' Makes a nice shake.
Overall: I highly recommend this brand. Although I'm not too keen on the sucralose..I could have sworn it didn't use sucralose when I bought it but I guess I overlooked that!

Well that's that. What protein brand do you guys use? ..and if you have any suggestion for brands that don't use the artificial stuff let me know! (I am okay with stevia-sweetened stuff though.)

Anyways, I'm having a pretty good day so far.  I had 2 clients this morning and both told me multiple times that I kicked their ass and that it made 'em feel good (such a compliment! haha).  I really love my job, I couldn't imagine doing anything else!  It's just so tough starting out and building up a solid base of clients.


Today is also bodyfat Friday.  Last week I was 24%..this week...DRUMROLL PLEASE...20.8%!
I'm shooting for anywhere from 14-17%, my boss tells me I'll have a six pack for sure by then..that cracked me up, I've never had any sort of ab in my life.
I really whooped ass with my new routine this week though and my food has been right on point..
I want to share my new routine though:

3 days on, 1 day of only cardio, 3 days on, 1 day off;
So it goes like this:
Day 1- Legs,
2- Chest/Back
3-Shoulders/Bis/Tris
4-Cardio (light)
5- Legs
6- Chest/Back
7- Shoulders/Bis/Tris
8- OFF
(I also do 20 minutes of light cardio after lifting too. And no, it's not my idea of a good time!)

This is a simple, but heavy 6 rep routine, so it's really pushed me to up weights and really progress with strength gains.  The one I'm most excited about is my chest press, which went up 10lbs immediately (I also wrenched my neck lifting without a spotter..), and flyes which I went from using two 25lb DBs to two 30s. I had really plateaued with my chest for a while so I'm stoked.

What I really want to throw out there is that I'm 2lbs heavier on the scale despite losing a hunk of bodyfat...just another reason to disregard the scale! (and lift heavy!) :)

Since I haven't posted food in a while here's a couple things from the past week:
(WARNING! This is not a food blog, my food ain't pretty, I suck at taking pictures and I'm still eating off my Valentine's Day themed plates..)

Italian style ground turkey w/green peppers and onion on top of spinach and baked tomatoes.

Sweet potato mashed w/vanilla almond milk and topped with almond butter.
I bring this to class as a snack. Yeah I'm the wierd girl.

Chicken and eggplant parm layered with baked tomatoes.

I've blabbed enough for now! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend if I don't update by then..Steve and I are headed to the casino Sunday night for a Dropkick Murphys/Against Me concert and I'm excited the temperature is going to be in the 50s! (Oh New England...)

7 comments:

  1. UGH I JUST DELETED THE COMMENT I WROTE BY ACCIDENT..... errrrg.

    I use Scivation's whey (shock) but they use sucralose so you're prob not interested. Artificial sweetners don't bother me as much as they should - but their whey mixes well in everything and tastes great. I've seen some of those whey's in the supermarket and the rest I've heard of - not going to lie, I am skeptical of all protein powders sold in the grocery store. (Mind you, I have no valid reason for this other than being a snob)

    CONGRATS ON THE BODYFAT DROP! That's incredible. You should be very proud of yourself and keep up the awesome work. It is definitely paying off.

    As a cautionary piece to keep in mind: I maintain my off season bf% at ~15% and have never had abs. Mine didn't show until I dropped below 13. However, if you have larger abdominals than I do (which isn't hard) you might not have the same issue

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  2. Dropkick Murphys are awesome!!!!! so cool you are going to see them!!!

    I love ON casein protein, but for my favorite protein is Sun Warrior!
    I am so proud of you girl reaching your goals!!! Makes me so happy!

    Happy weekend! xoxo <3

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  3. I like Muscle Gauge...there;s a good sale going on on Muscleandstrength.com :)

    BSN Lean Dessert is also really good! It mixes well with oatmeal and baked goods.

    I REALLY want to get my body fat % tested. I have no idea what mine is. I don't even want to guess because it's so inaccurate to do that. So, I am going to see if I can get it calipered this week.

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  4. Optimum Nutrition is my faaaave! If you like the vanilla you will LOVE their Cake Batter flavor. For real. That thing was gone in 2 weeks in my house (of course I was sharing with a 210lb bodybuilder ha)

    GOOD JOB on the bf% drop!!!! That is awesome! :)

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  5. hi there.

    within one week such a drastic drop in body fat? is that really possible? oh my,i thought it would take a lil longer.

    keep up your blog, its amazing.

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  6. Hey Erika! I love that first picture, LOL so funny...

    Thanks for the protein powder reviews. I hated Jay Robb for some reason...it had a weird sweetness for me. I totally love Designer Whey vanilla all natural too. Its so cheap and works well with everything. The double chocolate is even better.

    WOW, a 3% drop in BF in one week? I have to say that I'm a bit skeptical of that because the margin of error is so high on well...ever method lol. I had a 4% difference between calipers and bod pod. Was it done with calipers?

    Oh and your food pics ARE pretty!! They all look soo yummy and delish.

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  7. 1 - I've never tried the isopure
    2 - AWESOME picture
    3 - great workouts!
    4 - your food looks delish
    5 - I'm so jealous your going to a Dropkick concert!!!!

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