Do More with Your Meat!

Summer is right around the corner, and for a lot of people that means it's time to clean up there diets a little and start cutting down their body fat. For many people that means low carbs, lean protein, veggies, and some healthy fats, but are you tired of eating the same things over and over? One thing that I constantly get tired of is eating eggs; they can get bland, boring, and even gross for some people after a while. Despite the millions of things you can do to spice up an egg, one of the things I like to do is throw in meat to make an omelet with additional protein. I'll throw chicken in my eggs, I'll throw in steak, and I'll throw in ground turkey. The different meats really switch up the flavor and the texture and make eating eggs good again! The meat I use is precooked of course, and usually just left over meat I have for meal preps. In this case here I have 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, with ground turkey burger thrown in the mix!

Labrada Nutrition: Lean Body Gold Protein Energy Bar

These just came out at my gym the other day and we've been running a buy one get one free promo on them since. So I of course hopped on the opportunity and bought a bunch because when you're in a hurry sometimes, it's hard to come by good calories that you can consume rather quickly and easily; and this is where the energy bar comes in! There are all kinds of bars out there, all different, all targeted toward different audiences with different goals. Generally I try to stay away from energy bars and protein bars alike just because they usually pair a bunch of fat and carbs, but sometimes it's better to put fuel in the tank than run on empty and right now since I'm trying to put on size I don't have to worry too much about calories or macronutrients.

Now for the bars, we have three flavors, s'mores, pb&j, and caramel peanut which is by far the best one in my opinion. The caramel peanut one has 360 calories, 14g of fat 6 of which are sat. fat, 33g of carbs, and 25g of protein. Now depending on how serious you're dieting it's actually not that bad when you need a quick light meal or snack and you don't have a whole lot of time or options around. The carb content is a little high especially if you're on a lower carb diet, but at the same time you're getting a lot of calories with this bar. Even though it's a good bar, and I like Labrada Nutrition, don't let the name fool you; you aren't going to be getting a lean body eating these bars unless you're putting in some serious work at the gym and prepping your other meals. For the average person/gym goer these bars aren't a bad choice to use for a light meal replacement or a big snack in my opinion; just as long as you don't go overboard, no more than one a day.

LÄRABAR®: The Super Clean Snack Bar

Larabar's have been around for a while, and when I say "clean" I mean there is minimal ingredients in them. Generally the more ingredients something has in it, tends to make it more and more unhealthy; especially when you start seeing weird names and chemicals in them. The Cherry Pie flavor Larabar, my favorite one, has only 3 ingredients! Dates, almonds, and unsweetened cherries, and that's it; pretty crazy when you compare it to other foods especially other snack and energy bars where they all have 20+ ingredients in them!

Now if you're super picky with food and you don't like tasting new things then they might take a little getting used too, but I personally don't think they're bad at all; especially because they're not bad for you at all. The only thing you really have to look out for in them is just the sugar and carb content because well they're primarily consisted of fruit! They make for a perfect post-workout snack because they have the fast digesting sugar which comes from fruit, the only thing I'd recommend if you're eating them post-workout is to drink a scoop or two of whey protein with it because they're lower on the protein side of things. As for the flavors I've tried most of them, and I like the cherry pie ones the most by far, so try them out!