MSG is in everything!

Today I was eating Quaker Rice snacks and I was having a difficult time putting down the bag, I just kept on eating and saying to myself "this will be my last one", but I just kept on eating. My thought was what ingredient is in this that makes it so addictive that I can't just have one? Of course the first thing I thought of was MSG (monosodium glutamate). I recently read an article that mentioned that MSG is in a lot of snack foods. MSG is usually associated with Chinese food but it is now frequently in salty snack foods. MSG is primarily used to enhance the flavor of foods. Pick up a bag of potato chips and it is very likely to have MSG. Unfortunately it is also in my rice snacks so no more rice snacks for me!

I love chocolate - Homemade protein Bars!

I love chocolate, I get chocolate cravings every now and then and my cravings aren't usually for dark chocolate, which is healthier, so I sometimes cave into my cravings and get my favourite which is chocolate truffles. Well, I figured out how to satisfy my chocolate cravings in a healthier way...homemade chocolate protein bars! Yep, I have a recipe for chocolate protein bars that I love. The recipe is simple and includes the following: old fashioned rolled oats, cranberry trail mix (I used the one from Trader Joe's that has the almonds, walnuts, pistachios) water, chocolate protein powder (I used ON Whey milk chocolate).

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
Cranberry trail mix (unsalted)
1.5 cups old fashion rolled oats (toast oats if desired)
3 scoops chocolate protein powder
1/2 cup water

Equipment:
Food processor/chopper
Saran wrap
Square Pan
Bowl












Directions:
Line the bottom of a pan with Saran wrap
Chop the cranberry trail mix in a food processor/chopper (one similar to the one below is ideal). Do not over chop.
Combine the chopped trail mix, oats, and protein powder to the bowl and mix thoroughly with a spoon.
Slowly add the water and mix until the mixture is moist but do not add too much water. If mixture becomes too soggy, feel free to add more oats or trail mix.
Firmly press the mixture into the pan with a spatula. Refrigerate overnight or for a few hours. Cut into bars and voila!

I had to take a few days off from training last week because I wasn't well, but I am back this week and since it's a new month, I started a new training program. Basically it's an old program I had from one of my old trainers and I modified it a bit. I want to increase my pullups so I added some pullups and will be doing negative pullups. This program will be 3 days of strength training and 3 days of cardio intervals. This workout includes 2 days of high reps and 1 day of low reps.