Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter

I want to like Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter protein powder. I love peanut butter cups - Reece's, Justin's, Trader Joe's, the ones a Pure Barre VaHi client homemade and brought in for class - they are all delicious. Unfortunately ETB's protein powder is not. It's not horrendous, but I wouldn't describe it as good tasting. It does taste better mixed with milk.

What it lacks in taste, it makes up for by being super convenient. ETB sells travel packs that come with five pouches of your choice and a mini Blender Bottle. These are perfect for work travel. I bring the shaker and some pouches when I travel for work and will probably order more because it's so much better than bagging scoops from my protein powder tub.

I like the company Eat the Bear so I'm hoping they make some improvements to this protein powder because I'd drink it at every meal if it actually tasted like a Reece's peanut butter cup. 

Casein Protein Powder

I bought a 2 lbs container of Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein protein powder a few months ago. Casein protein is slow digesting and can provide your body with a steady flow of amino acids for hours, whereas the more popular whey protein is digested more quickly. This makes it ideal for nighttime consumption. I told myself that I'd drink a big casein shake each night before bed and reap the benefits. Slight problem. Turns out that I don't like to drink shakes before bed. I end up feeling more hungry, have trouble falling asleep, and then have to pee like 45 minutes after I fall asleep. No bueno.

120 calories, 1g fat, 3g carbs, 1g sugar, 24g protein per scoop

The casein powder is also pretty gritty and doesn't mix as easily as the Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey. I found that mixing one scoop of casein and one scoop of whey makes a less clumpy shake and tastes better too. I really like this shake when I train in the morning. I start sipping it on the way to the box, drink most of it during the strength portion of the workout, and finish it on the way home. The mix of fast and slow digesting protein made me feel fuller longer. This might be entirely psychological but I have a tendency to attack food all morning long if I workout in the AM and this shake kept me satiated until lunchtime. And I mean real lunchtime, not the oh wow, it's 11:07, totally time for lunch lunchtime.

CrossFit IDentity

Greetings from the Atlanta airport! I'm off to Houston for a 24-hour business trip and then I'll be back in my new place for a while, fingers crossed.

I joined CrossFit IDentity on Saturday and I've attended the 7 AM WOD the past two days. I really like the people that I've met and Victor is a great coach.

Today I got my first unassisted handstand against a wall. And then I got two more. This has been a goal of mine for a while and I am excited to practice and master this skill.

Took me a moment to realize that Monday was in fact the 2nd.

This met-con was posted on HQ recently and I did it on my own by the track near my parents' house. My time was better then, 11:18 versus 12:07, but I ran past the marker today (oops) and I did my squats on the 800m mark at the track and today I went back into the box with everyone else. I did get the 100 squats unbroken this morning.

Cardio Blitz

Working from home has its perks. I hit up Cardio Blitz and Ab Lab at 74th & 2nd at 6:45 this morning and was showered and working at my apartment by 8:30.
Craig subbed this class today so I don't know if the regular class was any good, but I really liked it today. We did cardio drills at our benches - think high knees, plyo jacks, and squat kicks. We did arm work combined with lunges and squats. My only complaint is that we had to move our benches from horizontal to vertical and back way too much. I know this might be surprising, but I can rotate my body much more easily than a bench, three sets of weights, a towel, tissues, Chapstick, and water. I don't travel light.

My legs were really achy. I guess that run was harder than I thought. I also tasted last night's chicken and broccoli a few times during class. Really pleasant.

My outfit was supercute but I had no one to take a picture of me.
I didn't think the timer function was appropriate in a packed locker room.

I realized one of my sorority sisters was in the row behind me, but then I noticed that she was with another girl that I absolutely cannot stand. It was too early to deal with that so I pretended I didn't see either one of them. Oops. In hindsight, I feel kind of bad not saying hello to my sorority sister. I've always really liked her.

I made myself a protein shake out of cold coffee, skim milk, unflavored whey, and Walden Farm's zero-calorie chocolate syrup post-workout. I chased this with toast with fresh grind peanut butter and honey. Of course I was doing this while I was on a conference call and managed to get honey all in my hair.

Feeling very accomplished with my morning, I went to my doctor's appointment (the reason for workinh remotely) and then headed into the office.

Pink and Green.

I brought in a casserole and a side of this jello stuff. I totally understand why you would think this looks disgusting, but it's actually delicious. My mom's Midwestern; we eat a lot of things that come from the Campbell's Soup Cookbook.

Mocha Java Jacked

Back in the good old days (college), I would hit up a gym in Connecticut with my friend Rifle. Big Sky was not the best gym in the world, and I don't recommend it not that a New York Sports Club has opened up in West Hartford, but it had an incredible smoothie bar. Each day Rifle and I would get a delicious drink called a Mocha Java Jacked. For 240 calories, you could drink over 24 oz of delicious frozen, chocolaty caffeine. Sometimes I wouldn't eat again until dinner, but that might have had something to do with all the stimulants I consumed.

After years of trying to recreate this delectable treat, I think I have gotten pretty close. First you need really cold, good coffee. If I have a little left over, I throw it in the fridge for the next day. I've had a half-finished cup from Ottomanelli's in my fridge for days just waiting to be tossed in the blender. Their coffee is delicious. Then you add a half cup of skim milk, a scoop of chocolate whey, and ice. The most important ingredient is Walden's Farms No-Calorie Chocolate Syrup. It's available at your local grocery store in the refrigerated section, most likely next to the Naked Juice and the sliced mango.

The Ugly Thing in the Freezer

I bought fresh ginger root the last time I went to the Fairway store and it's been sitting in my parents' refrigerator ever since. I transferred it to the freezer a few days ago to keep it fresh longer. This morning I decided to use my Ninja Master Prep to make a ginger protein smoothie. After some brief Internet research, I determined that the frozen pineapple chunks residing next to my father's candy bar collection would be a nice addition to the ginger root. Skim milk, natural flavored Designed Whey, honey, and ice would complete the ingredients list. 

So I head downstairs and attempt to peel the frozen ginger. Easier said than done. I had read that freezing the ginger would make it easier to peel, but maybe the words peel and grate were interchanged incorrectly. I wasn't going to bother to grate the ginger because I have a Ninja. That thing turns ice into snow! What do I need a grater for? After almost scraping off the top three layers of my finger (twice), I had 3g (about the size of a die) of ginger, 1/3 cup frozen pineapple chunks (46g), 4 oz of skim milk, 1 scoop of whey, and 10g of honey in the blender with 6 cubes of ice. I am pleasantly surprised by this tasty smoothie and it's only 196 calories. The ginger adds a little spiciness to the tart pineapple, and compliments the honey. 

I drink my smoothies and shakes out of BlenderBottle®. This container has a patented BlenderBall® whisk that helps mix your ingredients together. I use it in two ways - sometimes I pour protein powder and a liquid (milk, water, almond milk) into and shake, and sometimes I pour whatever I blended in the Ninja into it and the BlenderBall® keeps the smoothie frothy.