My Tumultuous Relationship with Yogurt

Curdled Coagulated Goopy Occasionally known to explode when opened…. Yeah, I’ll admit yogurt really isn’t a food that I’ve ever been particularly drawn to. The consistency of yogurt when I …

An Apology to my Digestive Tract

I AM SO SORRY!!!

Like, [(sorry)1000]^7….or something.

I am a vegetarian, walking a very fine line between that and veganism. By and large I do not worry about what I eat and whether or not I am getting all my vitals because, well, for one thing I’m 13 years into this lifestyle and still alive. I’m doing something right. And, also, I eat a lot of really decent, varied foods. Nature has me covered regardless, or in spite of, my efforts otherwise. So, other than my daily protein shake (because there isn’t enough quinoa, peanut butter and nutritional yeast in the world to get me to daily intake goals while still staying at my calorie goals), I really don’t supplement anything. Don’t feel the need to. But then I started to read some actual, scientific facts about creatine. Specifically how study after study showed that vegetarians have lower muscle creatine levels than their meat eating counterparts.

Creatine is not essential in the diet. Our bodies can naturally synthesize it using two other amino acids, glycine and arginine. Regardless of how it comes to be, creatine is needed to assist in the rapid synthesis of ADP to ATP. The faster ADP can be transferred to ATP the more energy is available to the muscle. More energy equals more reps, heavier weights and more explosive movements. You see where this is going.

So, I decided to give it a try. I went with creatine monohydrate because it’s a classic, has close to 100% bioavailability and it’s cheaper than the fancy stuff. Now this is the turning point of where all my good intentions started to fall apart. Instead of reading about the best way to take it I decided to just dump 5g in a glass of cool water and drink up. For some this might work. It does not work for me. Not at all. I may as well have drank sand. Or concrete. Or glass shards.

The best part is that I didn’t learn my lesson the first day. I did this for 2 more days. I did this until I couldn’t eat. Sometimes I can be quite dense. Much like the glob of creatine that was festering in my gut.

BLARGH!!

Via the endless internet wisdom, I now have some ideas on how to experiment and possibly make this process better. Once my digestive tract returns to digesting and moving things along I will be mixing the powder in hot water, splitting up the dose in to two servings and also trying it with a meal. I would like to see what creatine can do for me but if it requires me to feel like this it can’t possibly be worth it.

But, hey, on a way more excellent note, I found a super delicious, not at all guilt inspiring, alternative to nutella. I had to ban nutella from my house because it was binge inducing and I absolutely could not control myself around it. But then I found Date Lady Chocolate Spread. It’s vegan, sweetened with date syrup and pectin and wonderfully simple. AND ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Oh, and only 79 calories per tablespoon.Get Some here

And to exemplify my point of both how wonderful the chocolate spread is I present to you a picture of my goofy ass dog and her imitation of my face when I first tasted it.

ERMERGERD!!!

In conclusion, this weeks lessons are thus: When trying a new supplement don’t just mix it with water thinking that’s the best or only way to do it. Also, Date Lady Chocolate Spread is a game changer and you need some in your life.

Food Confessional

Step in, my child. Air your food sins to me and be absolved. (I’ve never actually been to confession, so I have no idea if this is how it goes …