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Deliciousness + Healthfulness

I stumbled upon a new site with fitness/nutrition information: the Coach Calorie. I love coming across an older site like this, because it means I won't be waiting for new articles to read but can make my way through the archives. He seems to offer pretty sound information. Some of it I've heard before, some of it's new. What really caught my interest, though, were his thoughts about nutrition and controlling carbohydrates. Basically he advocates limiting carbs to the breakfast meal and post-workout, and really, you can do without carbs at breakfast. The aim of all this carb-controlling is, of course, to maximize your fitness efforts and to get "cut", if you will (*note that this is my interpretation of his information, not what he actually said*).

I'm not sure I'm ready to pursue the "cut" look. I've lost five pounds since January, mostly because I upped my protein intake, increased my strength training, and started logging more hours at the bookstore. I finally have my goal weight within sight and I'm beginning to think I can actually attain it (125, in case you're curious. I haven't been able to get below 130 in years, which is where I'm at now). I'll have to tweak my diet, though, and I'm thinking the carbohydrates are where I need to tweak it (/big sigh).

Here I run into a problem. My job is physically intense; when I'm not helping customers I'm hoisting 30-pound boxes or pushing/carrying around big stacks of books. I am rarely stationary, and all that concentrated activity has me worried that my performance would be compromised if I cut carbs too severely. So I've decided to track what I eat in a typical day and see if I can cut about 50 grams from that total. I seem to stay around 175-200 grams of carbs per day, in addition to 80 grams of fat and 130 grams of protein (the fat is all from healthful sources such as eggs, nuts, EVOO, and the like).

And so I'm concocting tasty yet low-carbohydrate meals with enough protein to actually satisfy me. Here's a protein shake combination that pretty much blew my taste buds away:


1 scoop of the pictured chocolate protein. It's my favorite so far, although I have no idea how it compares to other whey proteins. It's available at Walmart and within my budget.
1 C. ice
1 C. sliced strawberries
1 C. Almond milk
1 Tbs. flaxseed

Mix in a blender and voila! The strawberries combined with the chocolate protein is absolutely wonderful, in my opinion, and it's somewhat low in carbohydrates (306 calories, 29 carbs, 7 grams of fat, and 33 grams of protein).

If anyone has other tasty protein blends let me know. I dislike the taste of whey but cannot get to 130 grams of protein without it (that may sound high, but it's not for someone who's looking to build strength. They estimate 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight).

Have an awesome Memorial Day, and please do take a moment to remember those whom we are honoring with this day. They deserve it.

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