One other thing I’ve been working on is the nutrition side. Moved towards whole foods as much as practical. This began in January 2024 when I cut out sweets. I’ve got a wicked, almost crack-like addiction to all things dessert, it was so bad I couldn’t keep anything in my house because I’d knock it down in one sitting. Entire bag of Reece’s cups, whole pie, pack of Oreos, dozen donuts, fuck it, down the hatch it went in one sitting. It’s been that way forever. I finally decided to kick that cold turkey, going on two years now & it’s nothing more than a memory.
When I jacked up the strength training regimen last summer, I also began to tweak the ratios of what I was eating to focus more on protein, so I started cooking more proteins and consuming supplements to hit some targets. After a while it all just started tasting too much like candy bars and chocolate milk so I started paying attention to the ingredient lists, what a shitshow. At the same time I began weeding out seed oils, artificial sweeteners, and as much processed food as possible.
Looking for an alternative to commercial protein bars I stumbled across a bunch of YouTube videos on various homemade ones. Tried a bunch, most sucked bad. Then I came across this one which was a winner, however after a few batches it became a little tiresome as the recipe, as was, yielded bars that were way too dense and hard to chew. I fixed it by adding a half a jar of all natural chunky peanut butter to the recipe which solved the problem, besides being more friendly on the jaw the flavor is much better; it also added some much needed calories which I need to get more of. The bars are topped with melted pure cacao which itself tastes like asphalt, but when combined with the honey gives a great chocolate flavor without any added sugar.
I also found a protein powder with precious few ingredients, so this particular recipe is about as minimal as I could get it while still tasing good. I’ve been making these for months, so I thought I’d share the format in case anyone was interested:
INGREDIENTS:
200g Organic Rolled Oats (533 calories/22.2g protein)
175g Whey Protein Isolate (710calories/131g protein)
100g Powdered Peanut Butter (400caloris/53.28g protein)
165g Organic Honey (550calories/0g protein)
110g Pumpkin Puree (45calories/1g protein)
227g All Natural Peanut Butter (1,347calories/56g protein)
Pinch of salt
4 squares Pure Cacao melted (280calories/8g protein)
Total: 3,865 calories 271.5g protein
Per bar (16 total) 241 calories 17g protein
Mix the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl first, then mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl to incorporate well, then mix altogether, then add it to a 9x9 dish lined with parchment paper and smash down with the bottom of a cup, cover and refrigerate until stiff, then top with melted pure cacao which is pure chocolate, naturally zero sugar.
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