Generation UCAN

It is back to the grind and waking up to run every morning this week. And this makes me happy.

I purchased Generation UCAN a little over a week out from the marathon. I consumed the pre and post workout beverage during the last week of training for the marathon. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to experiment with the product more prior to the marathon, but I’ve started to use it again now that I am back to running most days. I am hoping it helps with performance and fat burning. (I wrote a little more about the product when I initially received it in the mail.)

The night before, I mix up the pre-workout cranberry-raspberry flavored drink (which has a great taste, by the way) in my Blender bottle, so it is all ready to go in the morning. Then thirty minutes before I head out for my run in the morning, I consume the pre-workout drink.

After my workout, I make the post-workout drink mix, which is high in protein, within 30 minutes of finishing my workout. This vanilla flavor also had a great taste!

I always make a “smoothie” with the post-workout powdered drink mix by combining 1 cup of water, 3-4 ice cubes, and the powered mix in my Vitamix. I finally broke down and bought and Vitamix, and I do not have any buyer’s remorse. It has been worth every penny. (Although I do wish it didn’t cost quite so many pennies!!)

Usually the protein beverage doesn’t keep me full for very long. But instead of having a high carb breakfast, which is what I often used to do, I am trying to focus on high protein foods but still ones that have some carbs in them.

I had this ALT bar Larabar with 10 grams of protein this morning. I liked it but didn’t love it. It tastes like a Larabar (as one would expect) with added protein. You can kind of taste the chalkyness of the protein source. Like I said, not my favorite but not horrible either. 

One protein bar I do really love are these Clif Builder’s Protein Bars. I eat them all the time and have not gotten tired of them yet. I always cut them in half because they are quite large. Plus that way I get 12 servings out of the box instead of 6. Each bar has 20 grams of protein and 270 calories.

One of my favorite quick dinners to make with some added protein is a toasted bagel + Laughing Cow Cheese + fried egg. Oh wow! I’ve had this creation several times within the past week, and I am a fan.  Today after work, I went for a second run and did the Pub Run with Skinny Raven (the local running store). I actually just did the run and then went home and had the above pictured egg sandwich because I was too cheap to pay for food at the restaurant. Plus I was freezing and wet from the run. Maybe next time I’ll stick around.