Weight training smoothie

It's 9:20 a.m. and between the cold weather, the everyday aches and pains of this body and PMS, my diet has consisted of too much Halloween candy and too many potato chips.

My fitness goals have been challenged by the cold snap and my unheated work out space coupled with ankle pain that may be related to my cerebral palsy and/or preliminary phases of arthritis. 

So today I brought some weights inside. I did 20 minutes of yoga for abs and 15 or so of lower body yoga. I'd never done that routine. The results were indeed awkward. I added to that 15 minutes of upper body free weights while watching an old episode of ER and ended up getting more reps than usual in because I enjoyed watching TV.

I "rewarded" myself with a breakfast smoothie, vegan:

 It's sweeter than I expected. I used 4 ounces coconut water with pulp, 4 ounces very vanilla silk soy milk, one tablespoon unsalted organic almond butter from Wegmans (a friend hates it and passed it off to be knowing I do love almond butter in all shapes, sizes and varieties), a banana, and Biochem Sports vegan protein powder in vanilla.

Makes me feel stronger already.

More protein powder

So, after doing research online and in my local health/ natural food stores regarding price and ingredients in various protein powders, I decided to walk over to Essence of Health to buy a larger container of protein powder.

I figured I'd compare the prices to online, but the reality is that I only have a few more days of my experiment samples and I'd like to have something in the house.

They were having a sale. I picked up a vanilla vegan powder from Biochem Sports because it dissolved well and tasted like a milkshake. It's sweetened with stevia, which I have mixed feelings about.

I also wanted cookie dough spiru-tein. They had the larger canisters of cookies and cream (which I didn't care for) but not the cookie dough. I liked the spiru-tein because it also replaces my multi-vitamin. Less protein than Biochem Sports but additional vitamins and minerals.

I noticed the cookie flavors pack extra sugar and extra calories (duh-- I should have realized that earlier). They had an unsweetened vanilla that sounded right up my alley but it turns out that was $2 more expensive than the flavors. So I grabbed cappuccino. 

Today we had Plant Fusion Cookies and Créme. Too chocolately for me.

Biochem sports whey

Today I did C25k and did some heavy weights but not for a long time. My body feels the effort I put forth so I thought I'd use one of the heavier powders today. Since the vegan vanilla Biochem Sports powder was the tastiest and easiest to dissolve, I selected their whey today (also vanilla).

I think part of the reason these taste like milkshakes is because they are sweetened with stevia.

Again, it dissolved well and tasted great though a few big lumps were very stubborn no matter how hard I shook. Weird thing is... Even the lumps tasted good. 

Biochem Sports Vegan Protein

Today, I doubled my previous reps on my weight training circuit after eating a burger, chips, beer and shots of fireball whiskey at 10 p.m. last night. Good news is it's 11 a.m. and that extra 1,000 calories I consumed last night still has me full. But, after the workout, I needed something and since I'm testing protein powders anyway...

Today I picked Biochem Sports 100% vegan protein in vanilla. I "test" all the powders the same: shaken in 8 ounces vanilla soy milk. 

This one has a nasty smell, but dissolves the best of any contestants thus far. It really seemed tasteless, the vanilla blending into the soy milk I suppose. The result also had the best mouth feel so far. 

It's not a nutritional protein shake and had a moderate price. (all the samples I picked were single serving portions between $1.79 and $3.79). This sample was $2.79 at my local Nature's Way market, which, for protein powder was comparable to Wegmans.

The protein blend contains pea protein, organic hemp seed protein and cranberry protein. Also contains medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil.