It’s leftover but I’ll be switching over to vegan when I run out. Also, you can’t heat up whey protein with oatmeal in the microwave. It curdles since it’s milk based. I guess I should’ve clarified that I actually put the protein into the oatmeal. The vegan stuff doesn’t curdle and makes my oatmeal taste like chocolate
I’m going to eat less meat products moving forward. I have my 1/3 beef that I just picked up so I know I have a good source of locally (and humanely) grown meat. I plan to spend the extra money and buy chicken breast from a local company. It’s raised in Iowa or Illinois (can’t remember which) but it’s raised to good standards and it’s not injected with anything. The breasts are about 1/3 the size of what you get at the store. It cost $140 for 40 lbs of chicken breasts and I get 10% off for being a first responder.
If I want pork then I know a guy who raises hogs so I’ll buy from him. This will limit my store purchases to eggs and cheese. I’m not a fan of the way we mass produce our meat and how the animals are treated so I’m doing my best to stop contributing to the problem. I’m also hopeful that it’ll benefit my health. I don’t have bad health, but I’d like to keep it that way.
And as far as protein powder goes, whey and casein comes from the milk industry and switching to the vegan rice/pea blend is another way to buy less of that. Everything I’ve read says that the rice and pea blend supplies a complete amino acid profile just like whey.
Well, I’m living the misery of early morning workouts. Another reason I dislike training early in the day is that I need to eat early to accommodate my training. Well, I’m 1200+ calories into my day and I’m starving. It’s only 12:45. I’m about to eat another meal that’s around 600 calories so then I’ll only have about 900 calories from 1300-2100ish. That’s not going to work so I’m going to be going over today. Hopefully the calories go to good use. This is part of embracing my body’s hunger and feeding it.
I’m sore AF so surely I could use some extra nutrients to repair myself.
Do you have any sources to buy locally grown eggs? I do this when I can, I have several friends at work who bring dozens of eggs in to sell, and there’s several Amish and Mennonite families that sell stuff around here as well. I would guess you could find similar stuff out your way if you look and ask around.
Have you drank vegan protein? I bought chocolate and vanilla for my wife and they taste the same. Somehow, they’re better in the oatmeal and both taste like chocolate once they’re mixed in and warmed up. I found a good use for the protein powder and a good way to boost my oatmeal’s protein content. Win-win.
I’ve tried a whole bunch of different proteins over the years. All I remember about most of them is that they were almost exclusively disgusting. I found a brand that’s consistently good about 5 years ago and I’m sticking with it. Even if jackolee ruined it for me by taking my milk away. Doesn’t taste nearly as good without milk.
I’ve found a couple that taste pretty darn good without milk. One has more sugar so there’s the secret. It was Syntha-6 made by BSN and has like 220 calories per scoop instead of the usual 120-140 calories.
We have a lot to choose from over here. I’ve mostly been drinking Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard Whey but I’ve mixed in some Dymatize Elite Whey too. I guess Optimum Nutrition changed their marketing plan and now sell their stuff in Wal Mart type stores. The supplement store employees suspect that they’ve lowered their quality to get it down to the bargain prices found at those places.
As I expected, I’m over my calories. Sitting at 3200+ after dinner but I’ve actually eaten pretty clean today. I did treat myself to two cookies at work. They were like 1.5 inches from edge to edge though. Now I’m intentionally sabotaging myself. I just had a shot of vanilla Crown and I’m chasing it with a beer. Might return to the Crown before the night is over. It’s so good.
Woke at 211.6 lbs. I consumed around 3800 calories yesterday so I’m surprised to see 211. I had three beers after my shot of Crown so maybe I’m dehydrated or something.
What type of vegan protein have you been using that you like? I’ve tried several and they were all quite disgusting. That is coming from someone who loves whey protein powder, I put that shit on everything (oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, spoon it dry into my mouth). I’ve been looking to find a vegan alternative that didn’t activate my gag reflex.
We currently have some Iso Driven vegan protein. It’s in a black container. I recently looked at some tips for vegan bodybuilders and found that someone tried a bunch and ranked them. I can’t seem to find the article now but I saved one to my Amazon shopping list to try. It’s True Nutrition Vegan Lean Formula. I think it’s about $70 for 5 lbs which is comparable to the “top” brands of whey protein. The guy who reviewed it listed it as the top one he tried for flavor and price point.
The big takeaway from my reading is that you want to make sure you find a complete protein. The naysayers all claim that vegan protein doesn’t offer a complete protein profile, but that’s not entirely accurate. I think the pea and rice protein blends are equal to whey in terms of the amino acid profile so that’s what’s on my shopping list.
The Iso Driven stuff isn’t bad, but the texture is definitely different. It’s a bit grainy instead of creamy like the milk based products (not really surprising). I’m not sure if I’ll ever find anything that taste like chocolate milk like Syntha 6 or Optimum Nutrition.
Ok, thanks for a couple suggestions. I’ve just rotated through a few different brands that were at Walmart or Costco. I’m not looking for it to be delicious, just palatable.
I’m not sure if it’s just a business strategy or if there’s any truth to it, but the folks at the supplement store make it sound like the stuff at Wal Mart, Costco, Sam’s, etc is subpar in terms of quality.
I wish I had money to waste and knew of a lab that would test stuff. It’d be interesting to test a product sold by Wal Mart against something more expensive at the supplement store. I also find myself curious about nutrition labels - does anyone ever follow up and fact check that stuff?
I read an article on the main page that talked about how some of the cheaper brands pad the protein numbers with added nitrogen or something because most test don’t actually test for protein directly. I still use Wal-Mart protein because I get a 5 lb tub for like $30, and I already spend enough on Biotest supplements.
I use optimum nutrition gold standard. Amazon sells a 10 lb bag for like $90. Cheap and seems to be good. Doesn’t taste amazing but not terrible either.
