A Decent Protein Source or Four MAC Lippies?

When a guy approaches you in the health store, and he's as built as a family Christmas tree, you listen to him when he tells you to buy the 100-dollar, barbell-sized protein powder. Legit, the container was the size of a small child. How?

According to him, it was the best protein powder on the market and it had all these random ingredients that make it top of the notch. As he ran my items through the checkout, he told me it makes you sweat more, and it fills you right up before a workout without giving you that bloated feeling. I'm someone who typically does her workouts straight-after breaky, so this sounded like something I needed. The sweat was just an added bonus.

He admits that I could find protein a lot cheaper in places like Coles or Woolies, but says that they're often loaded with more sugar (and the dreaded fructose) to help the sales of the product. And I thought the health aisle of the grocery store was expensive. In Coles, it would've been like 30 bucks for 18 serves worth of protein; here, it's 100 for 50 serves. With basic maths, that figures out to be two dollars per serve (equivalent to half a smoothie-worth of breakfast).

Unfortunately, I've always been entirely too trusting in the visual sense of the word. So, when an inverted-triangle of a man and his equally built coworker tell me this is the best product worth my while... well, damn, I'll listen. I felt like stick-figure walking into that store. Last time, it was this gorgeous chick that was built enough to make me feel like a weedy teenage boy. I was helpless: please, help me, superior Gods of fitness.

I was damn excited to try out the protein powder the next day. It cost me the same amount as almost four MAC lippies, so it was either be excited or regret my entire life (typical after any big shop of mine). I got up the next day and, just like I thought, the directions insisted on barely a half-filled shaker cup. Fab. So I coupled it with strawberries, figuring I might as well still get some carbs in there.

I chose the vanilla ice cream flavour. True to it's word, the shake tasted like vanilla ice cream  — but with a heavy dose of protein imploding through it. Luckily, each sip had me feeling fuller by the second. It did feel slightly bare, however, like downing liquidised vitamins with a teensy bit of flavour. My best thought would be mincing the strawberries with the protein shake next time for a more fruit-infused flavour.

I will say that buying the Gold Standard Whey was definitely a good choice. Coupled with fruit, the powder helped provide a great start to my day. While working out, I felt neither bloated or famished. It also gave me enough energy to commit to working out at an above-average pace. I worked up a bit more of a sweat — the health-store guy didn't lie.

They also chucked in a free sample of C4 Ripped pre-workout powder (of the cherry limeade variety). It was so violently sherbet-flavoured I felt it kick in almost immediately.

My favourite protein shake still forever stands though as Biofurnace Banana Protein Powder 💗

I have it as a snack straight after my workout. Banana protein powder reminds me there's still some good in the world — plus it tastes fine on its own. Definitely something I look forward to whenever I get back home.

To Cheat Day or Not to Cheat Day?

Image Credit: Dee Jae

I take my food as seriously as I would a major life decision. Rectifying my eating habits has seen this fact become increasingly true. I’ve been struggling lately to fit in a good ol’ shovelling down of chocolate cake now that I’ve banned myself from takeout, rice, and bread. So, I went for the classic decision: one cheat day a week where I can divulge myself on all things oily, sugary, salty, and carb-loaded. As I sit up in my bed with an aching Buda belly filled to the brink with hot chocolate and sushi (as well as, shamefully enough, half of my friend's cake), I suddenly regret having a cheat day.

 Three months ago I could inhale five cheeseburgers in one sitting, now I’m considering an ambulance van for a simple one-night-stand with junk food. I should see this as a good sign that I feel full way quicker now, but, maybe, because of how rarely I get to chow down on something carby, my weekly tummy ache should tell me I need to handle this differently. 

Image Credit: Dee Jae

Thanks to the way-too-many fitness pages I now follow on Instagram, I have been made aware of an interesting part of the healthy life known as ‘counting your macros’. In this, your daily calorie intake is divided into three categories: carbs, protein, and fat. Depending on what your fitness goals are, the amount of carbs, protein, and fat you should be consuming daily can differ. For example, my goal is to drop down a dress size. For that to happen, I should be consuming no more than 1,500 calories per day, and, macro-wise, this should be broken up as 50% carbs, 30% fat, and 20% protein. As you can see from the images encompassing this post, this might be hard to do if I’m treating each cheat day as an apocalyptic event (i.e. a kind of leave-no-carbs-uneaten type of set-up).

Image Credit: Madalin Giorgetta

 



What the macro life suggests — and while it might sound slightly more unforgiving than the option of a cheat day — leaves you more open to consume what you want when you want. For instance, if your macros are open enough that day, you might be able to squeeze in a slice of pizza. This comes from whether you’ve given yourself enough leeway to consume a bit of junk. For example, something with a high fat content might be manageable if your fat count is low enough to squeeze it in. It’s just all about knowing where your grams are at on the day.

I'm not mentally calculating all this. Right now, I'm working off 'My Fitness Pal', which is a free app I downloaded onto my phone. Here, I am able to scan my food in advance to know whether or not I'm getting enough protein in my diet, as well as whether or not I should grab another serving of peanut butter and celery. Frequently now, I am glaring at the app as I withdraw my hand slowly from the milo tin at the back of my cupboard. I'll admit, however, that it's an absolute blessing knowing I usually have a bunch of calories left to spend at the end of the day for carbs or fat or protein. Now that I know about macros, I can figure out what my body is craving and how to satiate those cravings without reaching for the wrong foods.

Image Credit: Dee Jae