As discussed on Episode 16 of the Wise Eats Podcast:

Giving Up Protein Powder for a Month!

In November of 2019, I decided to give up protein powder for an entire month. For some people, that’s not much of a challenge at all, but for a fitness guru hell bent on building muscle and staying lean, protein powder is the holy grail when it comes to supplements. I decided to delay gratification by giving up protein powder for a few reasons

1. Get my protein from real food instead of processed powder
2. Strengthen willpower
3. Learn more about myself through this challenge

Protein Brands I Use

I’ve gone through many brands over the years. The key is to find a protein that is free of chemicals, additives, and artificial sweeteners. Watch your ingredient lists and choose a protein isolate over a concentrate. I mix it up pretty frequently between whey, casein, hemp, and pea protein. Here are the brands I currently use:

• Legion Athletics Whey+ (Vanilla & Birthday Cake are our favorites)
• Naked & Less Naked

Giving up protein is something I’d wanted to challenge myself on for quite some time. I’m the first one to preach that you should get your nutrients for whole food sources as much as possible, and openly admit that I rely on protein powders too much, sometimes as many as 3 meals per day! I mix it in with my oatmeal, my greek yogurt, and make delicious, creamy protein shakes. Sure, there are far worse sources of protein than powders, but I know better than to have them so often!

Speaking of my tasty protein shakes, if you’re looking for some delicious, healthy recipes, check out these amazing smoothies:

• Muscle Milk – Vanilla Berry
• Muscle Milk – Chocolate Blast
• Sidewalk Slam Smoothie
• Wes Sider Smoothie
• Wise Up Workout Smoothie
• Fully Charged Chocolate Smoothie

The Results

All in all, the challenge wasn’t very difficult and taught me that I didn’t need protein powder nearly as much as I thought I did. I expected giving it up to be much more difficult than it was. All I needed to do was have more of the normal foods I would be eating anyway like eggs, chicken, fish, beans, greek yogurt, and nuts. Sure, I missed my delicious protein shakes, but life goes on!

Changing my diet in this way also helped suppress my appetite. By eating whole foods, I felt more satisfied, whereas a shake would sometimes just leave me craving more food.

I have not made any permanent changes to my diet as a result of this experiment. I still use protein powders to hit my fitness goals, but I do consume far less of it now. I loved the challenge of forcing myself to give something up for 30 days and recommend that you try it yourself.

Challenge yourself to make a positive change to your diet/health today! Thanks for reading. Be good to yourself, be good to others, and make wise choices.

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