The Importance of Protein Powder

For those who don't know, protein is important.  And no, it's not bad for you...the protein in the jar is the same as the stuff you find in chicken...just more concentrated and infinitely less tasty.  It's best to just get as much protein as possible from regular foods.  You shouldn't be completely substituting powder for actual food; that's not the purpose of the powder, and frankly that's going to be hella expensive for you in the long run.

And for the ladies:  no, it won't make you bulk up like a man.  I'm not sure who your 8th grade science teacher was, but if they told you that, they lied.

You need protein, not just for muscle health but for your overall health as well.  In theory you should be eating some type of protein with every mean.  I've heard it's supposed to be the size of your fist...or something like that.  Of course that may not be possible all the time, but it's still a good thing to strive for.

Types of Protein

There are a bunch of different types of proteins which you can read about here since I don't feel like typing all that.  Professional grade bodybuilders will likely use the more advanced stuff, but you should def talk to your doctor before you start taking anything like that.  I checked with my doctor...she approved of the stuff I use.  There are like 184612 different brands that basically do the same thing, so it's just a matter of which additives you like...or in my case, which jars are on the lower shelves.  The height struggle...

Protein and Weight Training

$50 for 5 lbs.
71 servings

Protein powder is essential to weight lifters and athletes because we kill ourselves our muscles every time we workout.  You may not feel it at the moment, but all that heaving, running, and jumping is asking a lot of your muscles.  And although they're equipped for the challenge, it still takes a toll on them.  The post-workout protein shake helps to repair, rebuild those beat up ol' muscles, and build new bright 'n' shiny ones..or at least healthy ones.  Even if you're trying to lose weight you still need protein because it builds muscles...muscles burn oodles of fat, therefore d'licious protein shakes will help your life.

Now, the downside to protein is that it's a little costly.  My weapon protein of choice is the Gold Standard Whey because it doesn't have a bunch of carbs/sugar, and it's on the low shelves in Vitamin Shoppe.  If you plan on using it daily or taking more than one scoop in a serving, I highly recommend getting the bigger jar.  Mine lasts me 4 months because I only use it when I workout (saves money that way.  Times is hard...the fitness & money struggles are real).  I got my first one in January...didn't have to buy another one til April.  It's the end of July and I still probably have another month left with that same jar, and that's with the double scoopage.  I prefer strawberry banana since I actually like that flavor in other things, plus it tastes good with milk.  Also because I was getting cookies 'n' cream last time and literally getting anxiety attacks when it came time to drinking it.  I wish I was joking.  Kid sister can attest to these attacks.

This is a name brand company, which accounts somewhat for the price.  But typically smaller containers run 2 lbs. for $32.99, and that's only a month's supply.  So like I said, if you're planning on using this stuff for the long haul, just invest in the big jar.  $50 four times a year is better that $33 twelve times a year.  Wal-mart sells the smaller jars for like $25.99 or something like that.  It'll do it you're really in a pinch.

The thing to lookout for with protein is the sugar content.  Some of the off-brands have entirely too many carbs in them to be effective, so make sure you watch out for that.

When to Your Protein Shake

As you can see from this video, some people drink protein several times a day.  Although this is probably ideal, it's not really practical unless you're a professional athlete and/or have $18463 to pay for protein all the time.

*SN*  That's not really an exaggeration either.

For those of us with regular 9-5 jobs, I think once a day will do just fine.  I only take mine after a workout.  2 scoops, which is up from my usual 1 scoop because I'm trying to lean out a bit, aka, make more muscles.  In theory, one scoop will do you just fine.  I've been taking 2 scoops for awhile now and haven't grown a beard or a 3rd leg, so I'm sure I'm not causing any harm.  One top of that, most of the lifters I know take 2 scoops.  They're men, but you know what I always say:  Equal pay for equal work.

Mini automatic
blender for the high rollers.

Manual labor blender
for us blue collar folks.

I prefer to drink my shake with milk because protein + water = horrifying & nauseating, at least for me.  So 8 oz. of milk + 2 scoops of protein = tolerable.  I'll usually have this with dinner since unrefrigerated milk tends to not be so tasty 10-12 hrs later.  If I put it in the fridge at work I'm like 100% sure I'll forget it, therefore I just wait til I get home.  It's only a 25 min drive home from the gym and I snack on some blueberry flavored greek yogurt on the way so I don't pass out from hunger on the beltway.  I know how you Maryland people are...y'all would drive by and not even help a sista out.

Flavors

I have the strawberry banana flavored one...it's not too bad.  I tried the cookies 'n' cream one before...the lies we tell ourselves.  Ain't never had a cookie nor cream that taste like that.  Unacceptable.  A buddy of mine said he didn't understand why the made protein flavors in things that really only go well with milk...makes a good point.

• Chocolate + water?  Watery chocolate almost sounds exciting.
• Vanilla + water?  Sounds worse than the chocolate!
• Strawberry + water?  You had me until you said water.
• Cookies 'n' Cream + water?  Would you dunk an oreo cookie in water?  Didn't think so.
• Strawberry banana + water?  Why water down perfection?
• Banana cream + water?  Looks like the vomit of someone who ate too many vanilla wafers then drank 7146 cups of water.

It comes in a bunch more flavors, but good luck finding them in stores.  Those are the ones I see most often.  So you see, milk is the best choice, although I know plenty of people who would be to differ.  If you can stomach these flavors with water/you don't want the extra calories from the milk, bless yo heart and yo days.

But like I said before, always check with your doctor before taking anything.  I told y'all I learned that lesson the hard way.  I'm sure they won't have a problem with you taking it, if you have a good reason for doing so.

Cheat Meals

I'm sure by now you've heard that diet is the most important part of fitness.  I've heard it's like 80% of the work, meaning it arguably has more impact on your physique and fitness level than what you do in the gym.

Even though we all know this, it's basically impossible (or at least hella uncomfortable) to stick to a diet 100% of the time.  Nutritionists say treating yourself to you favoritest junk foods every now and then is actually psychologically good and can help you lose weight by keeping you from binge eating.  I remember those days when I just haaad to have sugar...I'd been turning it down for days 'n' days 'n' days...then all of a sudden I found myself eating my body weight in candy bars.  Satisfyingly horrible.

My Cheat Days

Since those days I've been working on managing my cravings for all things healthy & d'licious.  Life is too short to be depriving yourself of what I refer to as "mental health food".  I have 1.5 cheat days (before you judge, let me explain):  Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday is when I live like a wild child run my errands, so I don't really have the time/ability to eat healthy, structured meals like I do during the week.  Not all the means I eat are bad, but I'm sure my portions are out of wack, so it's just the same.  Sunday is fishing day with pops.  There isn't even a decent bathroom available, let alone healthy food.  I count this as the 0.5 because I don't eat a lot that day...usually a small snack and a bunch of water.  Then a healthy dinner.  So it's not all bad, I hope.  I also make pancakes for breakfast on the weekend...not sure how healthy or unhealthy they are, but I figured I'd mention them just in case.

The only major cheating I do during the week is pizza day with kid sister on Thursdays.  I gets my pizza ON, like for real for real...pepperoni, heck, sometimes extra pepperoni, stuffed crust...I tasks no prisoners.  Mind you, this is dinner...the rest of the day is quality eating.  Kid sister is planning on going back to school in August so those will likely stop once she's gone.

So my cheat day are as follows:

• Weekend pancakes
• Saturdays
• Partial Sundays
• Pizza Thursday

It doesn't seem like that to me, but now I feel horrible after writing it down for y'all.  Thanks.

Cheat Days vs. Cheat Meals

So I've been trying to get my lean muscle on, and I happened upon this video from Funky Roberts, aka burpee man.  He makes some good points about the mental importance of cheat meals and why it's good to have them planned.  I like that he turns his cheat "days" into cheat "meals", which I think is a good way of doing things...it's sure to keep you from going overboard with the fatty eating.  If I were to do this, weekly pizza bonding day with kid sister would be out, fisherman Sunday with pops would have to included some kinda portable healthy snack, and Saturdays...I don't even know about that life.

My only issue with his cheat method is that it only includes 3 meals, not days...meals.  Think about that for a sec...

I eat 5 small meals a day, 5 days a week.  That's approximately 25 meals in 5 days.  Saturdays it's probably around 4 and Sunday it's probably 3.  Let's do some math, shall we?

• 25 healthy meals a week x 4 weeks in a month = 100 healthy meals
• 4 bad Saturday meals x 4 weeks in a month = 16 
• 3 mediocre Sunday meals x 4 weeks in a month = 12 
• Totals meals eaten = approx. 128

Let's just say 130 meals for the sake of rounding.  Now, you mean to tell me out of 130 meals in a month, only 3 can be faulty?  3/130.  I'd give you the percentage, but I don't do that much math.  But that's a hella small percentage, especially for a foodie like me.  An average person could go through their monthly allotment of cheat meals in the course of a single weekend. That doesn't mean you're sabotaging your diet, it just means you're living like a normal person.  In theory, this is where I tell you I'm going to try it out and report back to y'all, but I ain't even gonna kid myself into thinking I'd be able to do something like that.  I need to live my life.  That plus the fact I'm moderately addicted to food and couldn't stop eating even if I wanted to.

Good Luck with That

But if anyone is able to torture themselves do this for a month, do let me know.  Or maybe you already do, in which case, bless yo' heart and yo' days.

Burpees: The Love-Hate Relationship

I've been watching a lot of videos from this guy and I've started infusing burpees into my workout regiments 5 days a week.  Check out some of his regiments...they're legit.  I only had two issues thus far:  my knees and my wrists.  I got wrist wraps for the latter problem, and the first one I'm attributing to a combination of the frequency of my gym visits and perhaps bad form.  My knees don't hurt all the time, they're just a little achy in the morning.  Well, they were before I took an 8 day hiatus for vacay.  Been back at the gym for 2 days now and haven't had any problems, so I'm assuming it was just the frequency.

I don't really follow any of his workouts exactly, but I steal the moves and combine them with other things including some Insanity moves.

Yeah I said it...no shame in my game.

45 min of Cardio

But pretty much the goal is to keep your heart rate elevated for at least 45 min, so I've changed a few things to make sure that happens.  Before I started reppin' #TeamBurpee my heart rate would always decrease  during the weight lifting sessions in comparison to when I was doing cardio.  I would do the most strenuous cardio in the beginning of the workout and and disperse the rest of it in between the weights.  Now I do an intense warm-up...probably 10 min with my friend Mr. StairMaster, followed by my ab routine, then stretching.  This does several important things:

• Gets the heart rate up for the rest of the workout
• Gets blood flowing - which is important for those of us who sit on their butts all day
• Helps with stretching and making sure you don't stiffen up

Lower Back Tragedies

My biggest issue with cardio is my lower back.  It's always hella stiff...I can't even do a lap around a track without it stiffening up to the point where I have to stop running.  The real gag is, I'm not even tired.  So sad.  Milk Dud (my trainer buddy hook-up at the gym) said it could be because I need to stretch my hamstrings, glutes, or hip flexors, all of which stiffen up if you're sitting for hours at a time. 

So pretty much this damn job is ruining my body.  I can't with this place...

But I digress.

So far I've been having a lot of success with that.  I make sure to specifically work on my lower back, abs, and stretch them everyday.

If you don't burpee, I recommend you hop on it, no pun intended.  It really is a great total body workout.  Funk Roberts has like 104146 different kinds of burpees you can do, so I highly suggest you mix 'n' match and see which ones you like best.  I copied his style of doing 5+ exercises in a row, so I mix 'n' match myself without sticking to any particular order he's laid out.  I started with 2-3 sets of :30 each but now I'm doing :45 and 1:00 sets.  There's no set number of reps, just do as many as you can. I think the thing that was messing me up before was that I was taking too many breaks between exercises.  I was letting my heart rate drop back down, which meant I wasn't burning as much fat as I could have been.  Doing 5 exercises like this for :45 or 1:00 will have you thinking death will come faster than weight loss, trust me.  But it will be worth it in the end.  Here's a link to his website.  He's pretty legit.  Somewhere on there is a link for a free meal plan and a bunch of workout info.  It's legit, too, and it's all free - that's my favorite word.  Let me know if you can't find the link and I'll send you the PDF files.  If nothing else, the dude is good for exercise ideas, which is exactly what I was looking for when I happened upon him on YouTube.

P.S. - If you do the burpees correctly, you will tire quickly and your body will ache the next day.  This is a good thing.