I used to be addicted to protein bars, eating 2-3 bars a day thinking they were good for me just because they were called “Protein Bars”… I would go for anything that had a lot of protein and tasted good.
Then, as I kicked my training up a notch, I realized I had to kill this fetish, a pretty expansive one too as a protein bar costs about $5… I had to stop eating these “candy bars with protein” but I still needed convenient access to healthy protein. This is when I decided to create the perfect homemade protein bar. One that had all the good stuff and none of the bad.
I wanted them to be healthy but cheap to make…. Here’s the result!They are damn good tasting and can be made in under 5 minutes… Enjoy!
(This one one of the many protein bar recipes I have for you in my Anabolic Cooking Cookbook).
Makes 5 Bars
Ingredients
- 8 scoops chocolate protein powder
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1/2 cup 1% milk
- 3 tbsp crushed peanuts
Directions
1. Mix together the protein powder, oatmeal, peanut butter, honey and milk.
2. Form into 5 bars and then roll in the crushed peanuts to finish.
3. Place in the fridge for about 30-45 mins or until solid
Nutritional Facts
(Per Serving – 1 Bar)
Calories: 452
Protein: 50g
Carbohydrates: 36g
Fat: 12g
Make sure to prepare a batch and leave me your comment below!
You will find below my complete meal plan that I’ll be using for week 2 of my 4-week pre-vegas ‘’diet’’.
Last week went really well… dropped 3 lbs, and I had an unplanned cheat meal on sunday. I was planning on not having a cheat meal this week (I like to start my diets with 2 weeks of 100% clean eating before introducing my usual weekly cheat meal).
If you’ve been following this meal plan, you can allow yourself 1 cheat MEAL next weekend (I won’t as I cheated last week).
50+ comments by Wednesday night and I’ll reveal a brand new video of my best snack recipe ever… and if I get these 50 comments, I also promise to add it to next week’s meal plan… you’ll thank later
You will find below my complete meal plan that I’ll be using for week 1 of my 4-week pre-vegas ‘’diet’’. In fact, in exactly 4-weeks Karine and I will be in Las Vegas with my good friends and top fitness coaches Vince DelMonte, Lee Hayward, Mike Westerdal, Adam Steer, Dr.K, Joel Marion, etc…
We’ll be in Vegas for fitness related meetings and also to go see the Mr.Olympia competition. So needless to say I want to look my best when I’m there
I’ll modify my diet every week. If you plan on fallowing a fat loss diet, it’s probably a good idea to give this one a try and learn from it.
1. Your first meal should occur within 30 minutes of waking up time., or after cardio if you decide to do your cardio on an empty stomach forst thing in the morning
2. All meals should be spaced out 2-3 hours apart. It does not matter if your last meal is at the wee hours in the morning, you must consume all the meals on the plan.
3. Always have a meal 1 hour before working out.
4. If you happen to miss a meal, replace it by a protein shake. Therefore, always carry an extra protein shake, ready to drink. This ensures you reach your daily total calories and macronutrient needs.
5. If you cannot follow the meal plan for whatever reason, try and substitute with foods that are as close in nutrition as the ones listed. You will still get similar results if you do so.
6. Drink at least 3 Litres of water a day
7. You can also use:
· Any Calorie-Free Sauce or Low-Cal Sauce (i.e. not more than 5 calories per tbsp)
· Franks Red Hot Sauce
· Dijon Mustard
· Apple Cider Vinegar (For Salads)
· You can also use Stevia as sweetener (Splenda is fine too).
How to tweak it:
Don’t make it too complicated. Normal expectations for this meal plan are to lose about 2 lbs of body fat a week.
I’m about 240 lbs right now, at 12% body fat. Men over 200lbs can use the same diet plan.
Men under 200 lbs : consume 3/4 of what is listed on this diet
Women: Consume 1/2 of what is listed on this diet plan
50+ comments by Wednesday night and I’ll reveal the Fat Burning workout I’m going to use for the next 4 weeks! Deal?
This is a very simple recipe that will make any fat loss
meal plan a lot easier to follow!
It’s super easy to prepare. It will take you about 2-3 minutes to prepare and only requires 15 minutes of baking time.
But be careful, just like some of my other recipes, these nuggets are highly addictive, and their flavor will put to shame these greasy disgusting McDonald’s ultra fat nugget!
Here’s the recipe!… and make sure to leave your comment below! I want to know what your think
about these awesome Baked Crispy Chicken Nuggets!
Makes 6 Servings
Ingredients
- 3 x 6oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/4 cup of wheat germ
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1/4 cup ground almonds
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- Garlic powder (pinch)
- 1/2 cup water or low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 large egg white
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper or coating lightly with best-quality olive oil.
2. Cut chicken breasts into nugget-sized pieces, about 1.5 inches square. Set aside.
3. Next, combine all dry ingredients in a large container with a tightly fitting lid. Shake well. This is your coating mixture.
4. Combine water and egg in a medium bowl. Dip each piece in the water/egg-white mixture. Then dip each piece in the coating mixture. Make sure each piece is well coated.
5. Place on the baking sheet. When all of your chicken has been coated and your baking sheet is full, place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.
Traveling can be a stressful and tough time to make healthy choices. But when I hear people saying they can’t eat healthy when traveling, or use the excuse that it is impossible to make healthy choices, sorry my friends but you’re wrong!
I travel a lot, both for business and pleasure, and trust me, you can eat healthy while traveling, the key to success is planning.
Here are some suggestions in order not to fall off the fitness wagon while traveling:
1.Invest in a good quality lunch box
2. Pack convenient, easy to eat foods, examples:
- Protein: canned or packed tuna and salmon, sardines, boiled eggs, etc…
- Carbohydrates: fruits like apples or bananas, rice cakes, etc…
- 1 Tbsp od olive oil
- 1 chopped onion
- 2 egg whites
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 lb / 455 g ground bison
Directions
1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Cook the onion until soft and golden. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together egg whites, oat bran, sweet potato, oregano, sea salt and pepper.
3. Stir in onions and bison. Mix the ingredients together with clean hands until just combined. Take a handful of the meat and create 4 flat patties.
4. Grill the patties on each side until the burgers reach desired doneness.
If you have local suppliers and you are able to offer them regular custom, then you will be more than welcome to walk through their doors. You will often be able to get yourself some nice discounts and deals if you have a good relationship with your local stores.
The market, butchers or grocers are all good places to go for this type of treatment.
In the video below, I’m going to show you how I developed a relationship with a local producer.
Now, every week when I go see Chris at the market, he hooks me up with incredible deals on his fresh fruits and veggies.
Once you become a regular, local suppliers see that you are supporting their business and they want to keep to you as loyal customers. Therefore, they will be happy to give you their best possible deal. Don’t be afraid to ask to a discount!
Did you know that grocery stores have a 30% rule? Yeah, they actually have a system in place to get you to spend 30% MORE money than you planned…
Now that we have seen what to buy in wholesale stores, I’m going to tell you what to do to get most of the remaining item you need.
Your local grocery store is where you will more than likely find that food. But the grocery store can be a very dangerous place, both for your wallet and your muscle building or fat loss goals.
But, if you use the tips I’m going to give you, you should be able to survive this weekly trip
Start by using a shopping list
This way you will not miss anything and the chances of you picking up a great stack of unwanted items will be reduced too. Make your list as organized as possible and try to stick to it, no matter how tempting those junk foods may look, or how alluring the bakery aisle may appear. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take advantage of the best deals on offer though.
The perimeter rule
Much of the best food is found around the perimeter of the grocery store.
Around the perimeter you’ll find the produce section (fruits, vegetables, potatoes, nuts, etc), the meat section (chicken, meat, fish, etc), the bakery section (choose the fresh whole grain breads and not the desserts, please), and the dairy aisle (cottage cheese, plain yogurt, eggs, etc). Sure, the middle aisles might have to be visited from time to time for things like legumes, oats, etc. But be on guard, it’s the aisles in the middle (snacks, juices, etc) that can get you into trouble with their pretty packaging and “magically delicious” flavors.
Browse grocery shelves
It’s often the case that we buy the same brands every time, or just pick the market leading brand. This isn’t a wise choice and marketing plays far too big a role in our decision making. Have a look at all of the brands and this means browsing the bottom shelves for some of the better value products. A hefty proportion of us do our shopping at eye level and this can cost us big time!
Don’t miss Sales and Promo Coupons
Supermarkets are always running special promotions and coupons and you can find a great number of deals like this every week; providing you actually look for them. Don’t dismiss them as silly offers or false economies either; check them out in full and take advantage if you can. Take further advantage of deals or offers and freeze what you don’t need. Use your freezer to help you store away all of the hidden value to be found in our supermarkets.
Most of us understand how we need to eat a lot of quality food in order to build muscle and lose body fat…and food can be expensive. The temptation to stuff ourselves with a cheap fast food meal several times a day can be very alluring, especially when they only cost a few dollars at most. However, this is a very daft route to go down and filling up on salty, fatty meals will not help you to build a fitter, stronger body. You need to buy sensibly and your fitter body starts with a trip to the supermarket.
In a 3 video article series, I’m going to reveal to you my best money saving tips and prove that grocery for bodybuilding and fitness doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.
Get a Wholesale Store membership
You know the stores I am talking about: Sams, Costco, BJ’s, etc… Wholesale stores generally offer their products a lot cheaper than traditional grocery or retail stores. The average person can save between one to two hundred dollars a month on groceries by purchasing some of their food at a wholesale store. I personally save a lot by buying my egg whites or frozen fish at Costco.
Buy in bulk
If you’re eating big then why not buy big too. Freezers make it possible to do this and you can keep many foods for quite a long time. Go to your nearest wholesaler and stock up. Buying in bulk like this will reduce the average cost per item and thus save you a lot of money, especially compared to supermarket prices. You only really have to buy fresh fruit and vegetables just before you need them, and even these can be frozen sometimes!
In Part#2, I’m going show you how to shop at your regular grocery store, what to buy and how to save big bucks.
