I woke up this morning excited about my day and went straight into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. As I looked into the cupboard (do people say “cupboard” anymore?), I was disappointed to see the same boring protein shakes staring back at me. I know that I have to get enough protein everyday to complement my weight lifting. If I don’t get enough protein, then my muscles won’t be able to grow, right? But does it have to be so bland?
Well, the first thing you can do to improve the taste and not traumatize your taste buds is to add flavoring to your protein shakes. Fruit, peanut butter, flax seeds, even chocolate (but watch that sugar!) can add some much needed zest to your daily routine. Even so, you’ll still probably get tired of drinking liquid meals all the time – so what’s the solution? Simple: Don’t drink them all the time.
Protein shakes are convenient, but most of your food should be coming from good old fashioned whole foods. You need to make sure that you’re getting plenty of essential nutrients in your diet, and these are often missing from your standard protein shake. You know why protein supplements were invented in the first place?
Well, besides making companies money, these protein drinks are designed to be a convenient way to consume extra protein. This is useful because sometimes it’s difficult to get enough calories and protein from your meals, especially when you’re on the go (and who isn’t these days).
Still, it’s unhealthy to drink nothing but protein shakes all day. Furthermore, it’s not really necessary to drink any protein drinks, otherwise known as liquid meals, at all. It is possible, though it may be difficult, to get all of you required protein and calories from your meals.
It might go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. If you’re increasing your calorie significantly, you will gain weight. However, you have to incorporate the proper strength training workouts if you don’t want your calories to simply become fat. More people than you think fail to execute this properly.
A friend of mine began eating a bunch of calories including throwing eggs into his protein shakes every day. Believe it or not, he didn’t combine it with weight training, and his waistline suffered as a result.
These are the basic principles of bodybuilding and muscle building which you must master. Weightlifting supplements, including protein shakes, are no substitute for a solid weight training program and muscle building diet plan.
Hello,
Thank you for the info on protein shakes intake.
shakes – addition to food, this is all good, but natural food is also good,
I prefer bananas, meat, milk
I agree with you that proper diet is always accompanied by proper body exercises.
You are correct about protein shakes being very convenient when trying to put on muscle weight. But there are a bunch of other sources that are also excellent. One particular one that is exceptionally high in protein is soybean.
You can try making smoothies, cakes or brownies with your protein if you like something with a little substance to it. I personally used to mix my protein into my porridge when I used to have that for breakfast and with vanilla or strawberry flavour it tasted really good.
I think natural protein consumption is better than supplements. But, if you are a serious muscle man or play weight lifting than i think you should maintain regular protein even taking supplements.
I could not agree more with you. If you can, go to my website and take a look there. I think we share opinions on this topic.
Great post
These are some good tips. I never thought of using peanut butter as a flavoring before. i have been taking my protein in a fruit smoothie until now.
Very informative article. I found out few interesting facts about protein shakes here. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for pointing out your concern about protein mixes. I prefer not to gag down regular protein shakes. They all tend to have that horrible after flavor.
But I have found egg white protein powder to be very tasty. It does bubble up and it has a mild flavor. It can be mixed with any flavor of drink. My favorite is chocolate.
Also, I generally use stevia, a natural sweetener, to sweeten it up. There are no calories and have no bad side effects.
Thanks again!
interesting..! did find some good tips here! thanx