protein powder - AnnaTheApple

December 3, 2015September 17, 2020

SIS Rego Rapid Recovery Review

Hello! I’ve been missing in action this week because I’ve just had quite a few things going on..courses, moving house (which I’m doing tomorrow, argh) etc.

I really wanted to do a longer post to catch up but I need to crack on and literally move everything from upstairs in my house to downstairs to make the actual moving process easier, do lots of cleaning and just get everything I don’t need for the next day into a box. I’ve hired a van for tomorrow which I collect in the morning and then move all my stuff into the van before midday (contractual I have to be out of the house by then) and pray that before midday I’ll be given the OK to move into my flat rather than literally have to cram everything in the van and be in limbo. I’d rather be able to do a few trips! Oh the joys of completion…

Anyway, I have a review for you guys for a neat little protein drink sent to me by the ProBikeKi t website. I’ve previously done a review for them before and I was happy to do another as they’re a great company. They have a cool site with lots of cycling-specific gear but also running as well, and a great selection of nutritional items.

I was sent some Science in Sport (SIS) Rego Rapid Recovery protein powder specifically designed for endurance athletes. There are obviously loads and loads of protein drinks out there but usually they’ll be more protein-heavy, whereas this baby has a nice balance of protein and carbs which is ideal for when you’ve done cardio, like running or cycling, rather than post lifting weights.

The idea behind this is that you take it 30 minutes after you’ve exercised and it provides your body with high levels of easily digestible protein and carbohydrates in order to accelerate your recovery. It was developed with Chris Boardman’s, the Olympic cyclists, input and feedback which is quite cool!

There are four different flavours available: vanilla, banana, strawberry and chocolate. I chose the chocolate flavour as it was a no brainer for me.

You mix one scoop (50g) of the powder with water. Interestingly, unlike regular protein powders, you only mix the powder with water, not milk. It advises that if you mix it with milk it will slow down the absorption process.

The nutritional stats are really good as well:

Though the ingredients list is quite long… But it is suitable for vegetarians.

Thoughts? I was really wary of the fact that it’s just mixing with water… I thought this would make it taste watery and not very nice. But I was pleasantly surprised! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not Nestle chocolate milk but it’s not unpleasant. I quite enjoyed it. For me it was a problem-solver for when I run after work and then have a long commute home – basically a long time before I get any proper food. It’ll be really handy after races as well, when I find hours go by before I get any decent food in me.

I’m really happy to continue to use this, especially with marathon training cropping up soon and the fact that I’m still loving lifting weights at the gym. I don’t want my body to suddenly start eating away at the muscle I’ve strived to build over the past few weeks.

Check out ProBikeKit’s website for more cool nutritional products like gels, protein bars and drink mixes, etc.

Have you tried any of the SIS products?

Do you take any protein powders?

What do you have post workout?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent this product for free in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own honest ones.**

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015

Rant and Raves #10 and a review of Osmo Nutrition

Happy Wednesday! I love Wednesdays because it’s the day I get a whole extra hour and fifteen minutes in bed and go running in the evening. Especially as we went out for dinner last night and I ate an obscene amount of pork ribs. Happy days.

Today I have some rants and raves and also a little review.

Rant: Ben is now an avid gym goer and so when he said he’d bought a big container of protein powder I was like “cool, whatever makes you happy”. Until I opened our bedroom wardrobe to find the monstrosity.

I guess it hadn’t twigged in my brain how big he was talking. There’s literally no way this bad boy would fit in our tiny kitchen so I’m pretty sure this is where it will live forever more. Oh joy.

Rave: I love using the slow cooker for meals. I’ll make soup, chicken meals, ribs…anything really. I love the idea that you can literally just throw a load of stuff in there and when you get home the house smells SO good and dinner is served pretty much (check THIS post out for some of my adventures). However our slow cooker was given to us by my parents who no longer wanted it. And it’s HUGE. So it meant when I did meals for two sometimes the sauce would dry up a bit. Or chicken breasts would be overcooked. So I decided to get a smaller one and put the other one in the loft for the future.

I didn’t quite expect it to be so small but I’m actually pretty pleased with it. Two chicken breasts will fit nicely in there with some veggies and sauce and will hopefully stay succulent. It means I can’t slow cook an entire chicken anymore but that’s usually a weekend meal anyway and can be done in the oven.

It also means we have a lot more kitchen surface space as it just sits so nicely in the corner.

Rant: Llike most runners, hills are not my favourite thing at all. But they’re really good for building strength in your legs. I try and do a hill session every week after work (I work in Basingstoke where hills are ten a penny!). I found a BEAST of a hill that works perfectly.

Mid-run photo so quite blurry sorry!

I try and do the hill twice at the beginning (it loops back to the beginning of the route) and then carry on with my run and then do it one more time at the end.

Follow me on Strava if you want

They look like mountains and I’m sure my legs would agree. It’s quite a long climb (probably .4 mile?) and my pace drops dramatically but I focus on my form; pumping my arms, running tall and taking small steps (great articles HERE and HERE about hill running). As you can see, the other part of the run is also quite hilly so it’s a really good strength-building run (well I hope anyway!). But I am absolutely done for after the run! I suppose this isn’t a true rant as I’m hoping these tough runs are a good thing.

Rave: Delicious herbal teas. After seeing these on Tamzin’s blog I just knew I needed to try them.

I love peppermint tea so I was pretty sure I’d like them. They taste delicious. There’s a very small hint of vanilla with the lovely minty taste – perfect for a cold afternoon! But I’m still sad that green tea out of a tea bag makes me feel very sick – what is wrong with me?? I’m missing out on so many lovely green tea flavours!

Rant: Having a moany husband when I ask him to take photos of me in my Helly Hansen running gear that I’ve been sent to champion for for Running Bug’s Running Fashion Week campaign. And then having him get bored between outfit changes and take random photos on my phone.

I know it’s dull and I know I can get a bit vain if a photo makes me look like an idiot (more of an idiot?) and request him to re-take it, but come on, you’re married to me so that means fulfilling these silly blogging requests 😉

*sighs*

Though I do know Alfie is far more interesting to take photos of! He enjoyed the dress-up party about as much as Ben I think.

Rave: Obviously it’s clear I love nuun hydration products as I mention them a lot on my blog it seems… The nuun guys asked if I’d include one of thir videos on my blog and because they rock I agreed happily. The video shows some pretty hardcore races and sporting activities with an absolutely belting soundtrack!

[FYI: I did not get any compensation for featuring this on my blog – I just love nuun]

And lastly I have a review:

Osmo Nutrition – Active Hydration for Women (which you can find HERE)

I was sent a tub of the Osmo Active Hydration for Women powder to review by the guys from Pro Bike Kit (great website for cycling/running nutrition items and also kit and clothing).

As a bit of a background, Dr. Stacy Sims developed the product specifically for women as she noted that the female physiological makeup is different to a male’s. For example, the menstrual cycle has big effects on the female body in terms of sodium loss, plasma drops and temperature change so this product aims to address those issues. It apparently increases power output and improves endurance by helping combat the premenstrual-related performance decline. There’s actually quite an interesting interview with Dr. Sims HERE.

Source

The flavour of the powder is mango and the ratio of mixing is one scoop to about 250ml of water. The idea is to drink it before and during your exercise.

My thoughts? I’m not going to lie, when I first tried the drink I didn’t like it one bit. It didn’t taste of mango to me at all. More like weak squash. However I drank more and it grew on me. Let’s be clear, it’s no fresh mango juice but the flavour is quite subtle and once I got used to it it was fine.

Aside from the taste, I really like the concept. It makes sense to have something a bit more specific to the female physiology. I like the extra nutritional elements you get with this drink and the fact that it’s upgrading plain water in terms of hydration. Did I notice a difference taking a water bottle with a scoop of the powder in to the gym for my hour long session? Not hugely but I did find I wasn’t guzzling my water like normal, rather just sipping it occasionally which probably means I was getting more bang for my buck. I also didn’t feel at anytime I was flagging in my workouts.

I think on my longer runs it’ll really help as I want to avoid gels this time around but I will need something in terms of fuelling and hydration so this could tick those boxes together. nuun is always good but it has zero carbs which is good for a shorter run or post-run but not so good for the longer ones if I’m not planning to take any food with me. And I’m sure it would have been handy to have had a bottle of this on my long run on Sunday when I was so thirsty!

Have you ever tried any gender-specific nutritional products before?

Does you husband/partner/parents do anything that push your buttons?

What tasty teas have you had recently? Do you drink green tea?

[Full Disclosure: I was sent the Osmo nutrition product for free in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own honest ones.]

October 23, 2014November 12, 2014

GoNurition Review

Today I have another review for you. This time it’s for GoNutrition products. GoNutrition is an online sports nutrition shop and have a range of high protein products to facilitate your sport goals. They kindly sent me a selection of goodies from their website for me to try so here are my thoughts.

GN Whey Protein 80 (find HERE)

Their whey protein powder contains over 19.5g protein per 25g serving and is rich in branched-chain amino acids (BCAA’s) and glutamic acid. I didn’t know too much about whey protein if I’m honest but after doing a bit of research it seems BCAA’s help stimulate protein synthesis and are therefore idea for muscle repair and growth. Basically it’s great for post-workout recovery.

(Suitable for Diabetics, Gluten-Free, No GM, Hala and Kosher Suitable, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

Calories per serving: 96 kcal
Fat: 1.45g
Of which saturates: 1.1g
Carbohydrate: 1.2g
Of which sugars: 1.2g
Salt: 0.2g
Protein: 19.5g

My thoughts: There are loads of different delicious sounding flavours (maple syrup pancakes, jammie biscuit, key lime pie, etc.) available. I tried the triple chocolate flavour. You can mix the powder with water or milk, and the more you add of the powder then the more thick it is. I have to say I wasn’t a huge fan. I tried it with water first and it didn’t float my boat – I had to add more powder to stop it being watery and though the chocolate flavour was there it was still rather synthetic. Using milk made it a lot nicer though. Ben, however, really enjoyed it.

I didn’t have a shaker so could only stir the mixture as much as possible

Original Protein Flapjacks (find HERE)

Again a high protein food, these flapjacks contain 18.6g protein and are made from oats so are low GI for slow-release energy. They have a chocolate-coating on one-side.

(No GM, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

Energy: 310 kcal
Fat: 8.6g
Of which saturates: 4.3g
Carbohydrate: 38.1g
Of which sugars: 8.5g
Dietary Fibre: 2.8g
Salt: 0.20g
Protein: 18.6g

My thoughts: Nice and tasty, very soft and chewy with lovely dark chocolate chips. The ingredient list looks a bit dubious with a some chemically sounding items and “chocolate flavour coating” though. Three-hundred plus calories for a snack in my opinion is on the high side but, saying that, flapjacks tend to be quite calorific anyway because they’re energy dense. Plus if you’re doing a big gym or long run then this could be ideal to hold you over between meals (hello, runger).

Protein Balls (find HERE)

Basically they’re crispy little balls of protein flavoured with spicy sweet chilli. Each 30g bag contains 15g of protein. Hilariously on the bag they were called ‘soy puffs’ which just amused me greatly.

(No GM, No Artificial Colourings, Vegan, Vegetarian)

Energy: 124 kcal
Fat: 3.6g
Of which saturates: 0.3g
Carbohydrates: 7.7g
Of which sugar: 2.9g
Dietary Fibre: 0.5g
Salt: 0.78g
Protein: 15.0g

My thoughts: I actually really enjoyed these and checked the pack twice to see if I was only eating one serving because honestly there seemed a lot of, er, puffs for the calories (I’m a volume eater so this makes me happy). The flavouring was really good too, like finger-licking good. They sort of reminded me of those chickpea snacks. Very happy with these, very moreish.

A small sample of what you get

Protein Cookie (find HERE)

This is what it says it is, a high protein cookie! A whopping 37.5g protein per cookie. To put that in perspective, there’s roughly 30g of protein in a chicken breast.

(No GM and No Artificial Colourings)

Energy: 320 kcal
Carbohydrates: 19.3g
Of which sugars: 7.2g
Fat: 9.9g
Of which saturates: 3.9g
Dietary Fibre: 1.7g
Salt: 0.5g
Protein: 37.5g

My thoughts: I tried the triple chocolate flavour, other options are cherry bakewell and chocolate orange. It’s a very soft cookie so it reminded me more of a brownie. There are big white chocolate chunks in it. It’s very tasty, but you know when you’re eating it it’s not quite the normal sugar-coma cookie you can buy in a bakery, but it is very satisfying and filling regardless. Again, long list of ingredients.

Protein Puddings (find HERE)

These are basically chocolate mousse pots containing 15g of milk protein but are low in fat and sugar. Ideal little snacks to stop you reaching for a sugary snack between meals, or good for a nice little dessert.

(Suitable for Diabetics, Gluten-Free, No Gm, No Artificial Colourings, Vegetarian)

Energy: 109 kcal
Fat: 3.0g
Of which saturates: 2.0g
Carbohydrates: 5.0g
Of which sugars: 1.0g
Dietary Fibre: 1.1g
Salt: 0.45g
Protein: 15.0g

My thoughts: Creamy, rich and chocolaty. Again the ingredients look a bit scary with flavours and sweeteners but it is what it is being a chocolate mousse pot. I wouldn’t eat one every day but they’re great if you’re craving a chocolate pick-me-up that’ll fill you up while you wait for something more substantial.

Whew! Lots of good stuff there. If you like your snacks to pack a punch and keep you full then these are ideal. They’re not whole foods or entirely clean by any means, but they’re great to tide you over to your next meal or help increase your calories if you’re working out hard. I just wish I had more soy puffs in my life 😉

Have you tried any GoNutrition products?

Do you aim for high protein snacks?

Do you regularly use protein powder?

[Disclosure: I was sent these products for free to review. However all opinions are my own.]

July 4, 2014July 4, 2014

MyProtein and MyVitamin review

Happy Friday everyone. The cool people behind MyProtein and MyVitamin (The Hut Group) sent me a couple of products to review.

Before now I have never tried protein powder. To be honest, I didn’t see the point. I love my food so why on earth would I drink my meals or the extra calories I need?? Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve been tempted when I see so many protein pancake or protein cookie recipes. But again I was like “why not just have a regular pancake instead?”

So I jumped at the chance to try the whey protein power to see what the fuss was about. I chose True Whey in the Chocolate Caramel flavour. It actually took quite a while for me to choose the flavour because there were several very tasty sounding ones (like chocolate mint, strawberry delight and velvet vanilla).

From the website, it notes the key benefits as:

Highest quality protein source
New fantastic flavours
Includes Lactospore® and Digezyme® (aids digestion)
Rich in BCAA’s and Aminoacids

I must say this all sounds very foreign to me! Apparently it has the “perfect blend of the highest grade whey protein concentrate and isolate” And “contains very little fat, zero added sugars and a only small amount of carbohydrates, but it is packed with the most biological available protein available and also contains a high amount of branch-chain-amino-acids (BCAA’s).”

It comes with a little scoop which portions out one serving. You can mix it with water or milk. I decided to go for milk because the idea of mixing it with water didn’t really appeal to me. I tried it with both cow’s milk and almond milk. Cow’s milk worked a bit better in terms of how well it mixed. Almond milk needed a bit more stirring and still it wasn’t fully dissolved. (You can buy those shaker things which I’m sure would help, but I was mixing using a spoon).

Also, the less milk you put in, the thicker it gets (like a thick milkshake). The taste is pretty good, very much like a chocolate milkshake. There is a very slight chemical taste but nothing horrendous or off-putting.

I’ve also tried blending it with frozen banana as well (Ben absolutely adores this and often has it after running).

It mixes really well in the blender

Roughly per serving it’s 98 calories (without milk) and almost 19g of protein. Needless to say that when you have one of these you feel quite full afterwards.

Clearly I’m no body builder or have huge intentions to put on a lot of muscle weight so I’m not drinking this everyday. One of the reasons I was originally put off by protein powders was just knowing when to have it – I fill my day nicely with the food I need. However, there is a key time when this is very handy. When I go to races I usually have a stupidly early breakfast, then race and then finish. The time between breakfast, finishing and then getting myself together and finding food can be quite a few hours. By the time I do find food I’ve often felt very weak. Making up a good portion of this and taking it with me would be ideal to have straight after the race to fill that gap. Especially as I never fancy anything to eat after a race, but having a drink that would keep me from feeling faint is perfect!

We also made protein pancakes using the following ingredients:

40g rolled oats
1 scoop of protein powder
2 eggs (or 4 egg whites)
Dash of milk if batter is too thick

Blend all the ingredients together and then fry batches on a heated oiled frying pan. Should make three decent sized pancakes.

We did have three but Ben ate one before we could photo all of them (*sighs*). Add lots of great toppings, like maple syrup, fruit, peanut butter, etc.

I also tried some supplements from MyVitamins. I thought considering all the running I do and how injury-prone I seem to be I’d try the Joint Plus MSM Glucosamine and Chondroitin multi-nutrient blend.

Basically it’s a combination of the three “widely recognised” join care nutrients. Each capsule contains 300mg MSM, 250mg Glucosamine HCL and 200mg Chondroitin Sulphate. I take one one every day with breakfast. Finger’s crossed it’s making a difference. I don’t feel any different but I can’t imagine you would! A bit like any supplement you take I guess.

All in all, two decent products that I will continue to use!

HERE is a link to their voucher code page, full of discounts on a wide range of supplements if you’re interested 🙂

Have you tried anything from MyProtein or MyVitamin website?

Do you use protein powders?

What supplements do you take?

***I was sent these products for free to review but all opinions are my own***

May 18, 2013

Some things I’ve been trying lately…

Hi guys, hope you’re enjoying your weekend! I’m just dropping in quickly to give a review of some products I was sent.

I was very pleased with the Alpro cool bag as well! That’ll be great for picnics in the future

Alpro Products

First up are the Soya yogurts. I was sent Alpro Fruity & Creamy Cherry and Alpro Fruity & Creamy Peach.

I’m not a big fan of yogurts with bits in at all so I let Ben have these. He’s never tried soya yogurts before but he does like sweetened yogurts.

I personally love the taste of the plain soya yogurt as it’s different to normal yogurt where normal yogurt has a definite ‘twang’ to it, if you know what I mean. Ben said he really liked these. They were very sweet and he liked the fruit bits in them. The yogurt was nice and thick as well he said. He would have them again!

Looking at the nutritional profile of the yogurts they’re 125 calories per pot, with around 10g sugar, 4g protein and around 2g saturate fat. The ingredients list isn’t the best in the world, but I’d say it’s better than a lot of other yogurts out there!

All in all, a great snack to have when you’re feeling a bit peckish and fancy something sweet!

I was also sent some Unsweetened Almond Milk and Sweetened Almond Milk. Now you guys know I love my almond milk so these went down perfectly in my usual morning oatmeal.

I much prefer the unsweetened almond milk as I’m really not a fan of overly sweet oatmeal. Just the sweetness of the milk itself is enough for me. However, I did try it in other things such as cups of tea (which added a lovely subtle sweetness which I sometimes like with traditional breakfast tea) and smoothies.

This was a frozen berry, banana and sweetened almond milk smoothie. Delicious after a walk with Alfie after being in the sun.

Yu Products

Next up we have the Yu! Bar. This was a Wild Berry flavour with yogurt topping. Again I gave this to Ben as he’s always complaining he doesn’t have enough time in the morning for breakfast and then gets hungry.

His opinion on this: “amazing”. It had like a jammy filling and was very crunchy he said. Very sweet. He loved it.

It’s 133 calories for this bar, with “no artificial nasties” and contains 33% real fruit, 33% yogurt coating and 22% cereal. It’s quite high in sugar (especially the yogurt coating as you might expect) with 20g of carbohydrates. There’s only 1.4g protein and 5g fat. I’m not sure how much this would fill you up and keep you going. However, Ben couldn’t stress the taste factor enough. So a nice treat once in a while rather than a breakfast substitute I think.

Then we had the dried cherry pieces and dried strawberry pieces.

I took the cherry pieces and Ben had the strawberry ones. We both really enjoyed these. Each pouch is around 90 calories. I quite enjoyed nibbling on these one boring afternoon at work. They’re gluten free and the ingredients look pretty clean – and one of your five a day. But Ben said it was definitely a “healthy” snack more than a fun snack.

Purition

This was a product I was really intrigued about. I have never tried protein powders before and if I’m honest I am not a protein powder kinda girl. I just don’t see the need for it in my life. I like ‘real’ food. But I know a lot of people love them and find they’re a great addition to their diet and I have no problem with that! Just for me I like to eat something rather than drink something if that makes sense.

I got sent two Superseed Breakfast Smoothie Blends both Pistachio flavoured. I was less reluctant to let Ben try as I greedily wanted both…But in effort to be a better wife I shared

We whizzed it up using half a frozen banana each and I had sweetened Almond milk and Ben had normal milk.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this! And it was hugely filling. Like literally kept us going for a fair few hours. We had this today after we got back from our Parkrun (more on that on another post) around 10ish and we didn’t need lunch until 3pm!

It’s gluten free, low carb, low salt, no added sugars, no artificial sweeteners or preservatives or additives and high in protein and fibre.

Per smoothie (without adding the milk or banana) it was 190 calories, with almost 15g protein, less than 4g carbohydrates, and less than 2g saturate fat. Not bad! And a very nice looking ingredient list!

However, it is pricey…almost £19 for 14 servings-worth. I think the only times I’d drink this would be after (or before) a long-run when I need something to properly top me up or between lunch and dinner as a good solid snack.

Dr. Karg Products

And finally! I was also sent Dr Karg crispbreads.

These babies were tricky to not gobble up quickly I must say. I’ve been enjoying one every so often when I’m peckish at work or at the weekend between meals. I don’t even need to add anything to them as the toppings make them interesting enough for me!

However, I did add a couple to lunch one day when I had a lovely bowl of soup.

They held up really well in terms of dunkability and provided great scoopage for the chunky soup. Really good addition for lunch!

The Olive and Rosemary ones were really tasty but the 3+3 were my favourite (above). Both sets of ingredients list were top notch. Lots of wholegrains, seeds, herbs…just good old fashioned ingredients. I think they’re roughly around 100 calories per crispbread. The seeds help boost the protein (over 4g) and carbohydrates 11g, and less than 1g of saturated fat per crispbread.

Hope you enjoyed my review! I’m off to do some housework, joy of joys.

Which of these products take your fancy? My favourite was the Alrpo Unsweetened Almond milk but only because I have it literally every singly day. Though I did enjoy trying the protein shake!

What do you look for in a good snack: high protein, taste, clean ingredients?