Tag: <span>Protein</span>

New protein water drink available in Aldi in Irelandimg 20210407 135428
Published Wed, 7th Apr 2021

New protein water drink available in Aldi in Ireland

I came across this Comeragh protein water drink at the checkouts in Aldi a few days ago.

I haven’t seen any other protein water drinks for sale in supermarkets, and so I was excited to try it. It says that the 500ml bottle contains 10g of protein, is just 50 calories, and is priced at €1.49 a bottle. The protein comes from peas, and so the drink is suitable for vegans.

There seemed to be two flavours available – Orange, and Lime & Lemon – but I’ve only tried the second one. It certainly tastes of lemon and lime, but there’s some other flavour in it that I can’t quite place – maybe it’s the taste of peas?!

I’d say that some people might not like the taste, so I’d recommend trying it out before buying a whole load of them.

Here’s the information from the Aldi website about the two different flavours:

  • Orange Flavoured
  • Lemon & Lime Flavoured
Orange flavoured Aldi Comeragh Protein Water

As a bariatric patient, I have found it challenging to get enough protein in my diet – particularly as I’m not a fan of the milky protein shakes and drinks that are more widely available. I’ve tried using the protein isolate drinks, and they’re OK. But mostly I rely on things like Filfil bars to get extra protein.

I’ve written before about being a bit obsessed about my protein intake. I’m not so bad these days, as I’ve stopped tracking my food intake in a bid to ‘normalise’ my diet going forward. But I still like the idea of being able to supplement the protein into my diet.

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Fulfil nutrition barsFulfil Nutrition Protein Bars
Published Fri, 22nd Jan 2021

Fulfil nutrition bars

If I need to add a bit of extra protein into my diet, I’ve found that Fulfil bar are a good and tasty choice, and they’re also Irish!

Each 55 gram bar has 20 grams of protein in it, but less than 3 grams of sugar. So they’re a handy and healthy way to add protein into my diet, and for less than 200 calories per bar.

They’re very filling, and I often find that I can’t finish a whole bar in one go.

There’s a range of different flavours, and some of them I’m more keen on than others – but the Peanut & Caramel, Chocolate Orange, and Hazelnut Whip flavours I find are really nice.

They’re also not cheap. In the supermarket they’re about €2.50 to buy individually – but if you’re a real fan you can buy them in bulk online, and a box of 15 costs around €30.00 (that’s €2.00 each).

I mentioned that I was eating them to my bariatric dietician when I saw her for my 3-month appointment, and she seemed very happy with them.

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I seem to have become obsessed with proteinBarbecue 1239146 1920
Published Wed, 21st Oct 2020

I seem to have become obsessed with protein

Whenever I’m planning any meal, it seems that my first thought is how much protein it contains. It’s become a bit of an obsession for me.

I’m conscious that I should by trying to have 60-80 grams of protein a day. And with small meal portions that’s actually quite difficult to achieve.

The bowl of porridge for breakfast, made with protein milk and added powdered skimmed milk, only gives my 19 gram of protein. The reduced fat paté and crackers at lunch only gives me 10 grams. Then a dinner of lasagne and salad gives me another 18 grams. And I end the day only having 47 grams, and I’m short of my 60-80 gram target.

I can help increase my protein intake by having snacks between meals, but if I do that then I can’t eat as much in my main meals. Or I could have protein drinks, but I’m not a fan of milky drinks.

So I’ve bought myself some protein bars, which are small enough not to fill me up, but will also give me 15 grams of protein each. And just maybe it’s enough to stop me obsessing about the amount of protein in each meal!

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What should my diet look like after bariatric surgery?Asian 1238725 1920
Published Fri, 9th Oct 2020

What should my diet look like after bariatric surgery?

This is one of the top questions that weight loss surgery patients ask, but it’s also one of the hardest ones to answer, because every bariatric team and dietician will have their own variation on this. And some people may need to follow a diet plan that is specifically tailored to their needs.

However, having said that, I thought I’d write down a few guidelines that seem to apply in most cases:

  • Portion size for each meal should be 85 – 170 grams of food. This is avoid stretching out the new stomach pouch. With this size of portion, people might need to have upto 6 meals a day. Some people might be able to eat slightly bigger portions, so might get by on 3 meals a day.
  • Calorie intake should be around 800-1200 calories per day. This is during the weight-loss phase.
  • Protein intake should be around 60-80 grams a day. This is to help guard against muscle loss, and help with feeling fuller and less hungry between meals.
  • Carbohydrate intake should be as low as possible. Some people suggest that the carbohydrate weight should be lower than the protein weight, but that can lead to a fairly restrictive diet.
  • Fat intake should be a minimum of 20 grams a day. This should be mostly unsaturated fats.

The main thing is to keep an eye on portion size. It’s actually really hard to judge the right size of a meal, so it might be worth using some scales or measuring spoons or cups. Also choose side plates to limit the amount of food on the plate.

Aim to have at least 50% of the plate as protein, and try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible. It’s OK to have a small amount of carbs as well, but these should be limited as they often high in calories but don’t provide much nutrition.

Order of eating

When eating a meal, it’s best to try and eat the different food types on the place in the following order:

  1. Protein
  2. Vegetables
  3. Carbohydrates (Potatoes, Rice, Pasta)

The order is important, as we want to consume the most important food types first, in case we get full and need to stop eating. We start eating the protein first, to feel fuller and protect our muscles. We eat the vegetables second, to get all the healthy vitamins and minerals. We then have the carbs last of all, that is if we’re not feeling full.

Tracking calories, protein, carbs, and fat

The easiest way to find out how many calories, protein, carbs and fat a food has is to check the packaging that the food arrived in. Some restaurants also publish the nutritional information on their menus.

Another way is to use a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal (or other similar apps) that have a huge database of foods and their related nutritional information. I like to use the barcode scanner to help find the correct product quickly and easily. The reports also let me know if I’m hitting my goals.

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I found a protein drink that doesn’t taste milkyImg 20200906 095808
Published Sun, 6th Sep 2020

I found a protein drink that doesn’t taste milky

I’ve tried a couple of different protein drinks and didn’t really like them because they have a milky taste or texture. So I was curious if I could find a drink that’s high in protein that doesn’t taste of dairy. And I found reference to something called “clear protein”.

The clear protein products use something called hydrolysed clear whey isolate which can be made into a clear fresh-tasting fruit flavoured drink (a bit like fruit squash) rather than a milky protein shake.

There aren’t loads of options about where to find these products, but I did find somes sold by a website called myprotein.ie – although don’t be fooled by the Irish domain name, because this is a UK company. However they do have free shipping to Ireland for orders over 50 euros.

Their product is called Clear Whey Isolate and the drink looks like this:

Img 20200906 100007
Cranberry & Raspberry Clear Whey Isolate Drink

When you make it up, it looks and tastes just like a fruit juice. There’s not a hint of a milky taste. And best of all, it’s sugar free at around 90 calories a drink, but with 20 grams of protein. It also seems to have hundreds of 5-star reviews from people that have tried it.

I bought myself 2 different flavours from the selection of 11 options. I tried both of them – the Cranberry & Raspberry, and the Bitter Lemon – and I love them both.

The prices aren’t exactly cheap. It’s €27.49 for a tub that makes 20 drinks. So that’s €1.38 per drink.

There’s also a vegan version of the product that’s made from pea protein and only has 10 grams of protein per drink, and it’s more expensive – but this might be a good option for vegans and those that have a bad reaction to dairy.

This is NOT a sponsored post. There are no affiliate links, and no free products or payment was received. I’m just sharing something I enjoyed.

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Water, wind, energy and painThirst 1474240 1920
Published Tue, 1st Sep 2020

Water, wind, energy and pain

It’s five days since my gastric bypass surgery, and over the last few days I’ve faced quite a few challenges – some expected and some unexpected – which I thought I’d share:

My new full time job is drinking water

I cannot physically get enough water into myself. They say that I should be aiming to drink at least 2 litres of water a day, but I can only take small sips. Pre-surgery I could always drink half a litre of water in one go. But my tiny new stomach means that it now takes a whole 4 hours to drink one litre – or 8 hours to drink two. That means I have to constantly drink throughout the day – and that actually takes a high degree of concentration and effort.

I have sooooo much wind

I seem to need to burp after every single sip of water. I don’t know if there’s something wrong about the way that I drink, but I always seem to swallow some air along with the water, and that air has to come back out. My stomach isn’t big enough to store a lot of air, so the burping (along with the drinking) is near constant. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the farting is pretty bad too.

I struggle with really low energy

At the moment I’m only managing to consume around 500 calories a day through my liquid diet, and about 40g of protein. With tiny portions for each meal – which at the moment is mostly porridge, scrambled egg, or soup – I’m only getting around 150 calories in a meal. And so when it comes to doing any activity, such as walking the dog, I get really tired quite quickly. I was out earlier in the park and had to stop for a rest on the bench after about 20 minutes. I’m hoping that if I can get a bit more protein in my diet that might help, but I’m finding that difficult to do with a liquid diet, and when (like me) you don’t have much imagination about what to cook.

The pain got better quicker than expected.

For the first 24 hours after surgery every slightest movement was agony. I was constantly asking my nurses for more and more pain medication. But only five days later and the pain around my laproscopic wounds today is actually not too bad. In fact, I haven’t needed to take any pain medication today, because I don’t feel I need it. There’s still some discomfort when I bend over or if I try to lie on my side in bed, but not enough to need pain relief.

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