Protein Shakes: Her Free Soul

As part of my quest to try and be more healthy (and maybe loose weight in the process), I decided that being vegetarian reduced my protein intake. A lack of protein can effect an intake of B vitamins which help with cell metabolism. Simplistically B vitamins can help in the production of red blood cells and neurotransmitters. The benefits of having B vitamins can help with the reduction of anxiety, depression and improve energy. I have known for years I have lacked B vitamins being vegetarian and these past couple of weeks I have been tired and lethargic. I wanted to address that and thought I would introduce a protein shake into my diet.

I have and probably never will be a big breakfast fan so I figured instead of skipping breakfast I could introduce a protein shake into my diet. Similarly rather than reaching for that very tempting bag of chocolate of an evening I could instead supplement that with a protein shake. These are not intended to be a replacement meal with in my diet but more adding a meal I would rarely eat anyway and offering an alternative to an unhealthy (well at the levels I eat chocolate it is unhealthy, as I have no moderation when it comes to chocolate) snack in an evening.

I had been looking at meal replacement shakes and looking at different brands before Christmas before deciding that I did not think it was healthy for me to give up a relationship with food and replace it with shakes. Unfortunately I have not always had the best relationship with food. I am quite neophobic – I hate trying new foods and new meals. If I have it into my head that I will not like a food for possibly trying it when I was a child, to not liking the texture (for example, I could cook a load of vegetables and make a stew and eat it, but blending that into a soup…I won’t eat it). I still need to have a relationship with food and work on making it as positive as I can. So meal replacement was not an option, but adding something additional to my diet was.

I decided on trying Her Free Soul shakes. What drew me to them was the aim of their product which was to:

Help regulate female hormonal balance
Sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre
Improves energy, focus and athletic performance
Contribute to physical and mental well-being
Reduce tiredness
Improve mood and psychological function
Her Free Soul

This appealed for me so I decided to take a little more of a look around the website. They have a Whey powder which is vegetarian and a Vegan powder. I decided to take advantage of their New Year 20 percent discount code and ordered the Whey Protein Starter Pack. This pack included two bags of Whey Protein Shake, a tumbler drinks container and a bag. I would have opted for the Whey Protein Blend + Shaker or just the protein shakes on their own but with this discount it meant I wouldn’t have got free shipping with them and this allowed me to order both flavours (the Whey Powder only has two flavours, whilst the Vegan option has more).

I loved the slogan on the box the products were delivered in. My slogan now comes with bite mark customisation

Delivery was fast and I was able to get them within 48 hours.

My initial impressions of them are quite positive. I really like the taste of the vanilla one and that is my favourite of the two. The chocolate one I did not feel was very chocolatey, at first I thought this was because I added 400ml rather than the recommended 250-300ml of liquid. I followed the recommendations the second time and I still didn’t feel it was as chocolatey as I would like. Third time I added a teaspoon of Hot Chocolate powder to it, and the fourth time I added 2 teaspoons and the taste is more to my liking. It is chocolatey enough now that I consider it a treat shake and an equal replacement to giving up a bag of chocolate. For now I have only tried them with adding water (and the additional chocolate powder), but over the course of February I may experiment with adding different liquids or food items to the shakes. I might even experiment with baking with the powder. I did transfer the contents from their original packaging to a glass container so I could see how much powder I had left and I am not always the best at keeping the sealed packages closed.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month to give another review of how I feel about the shakes and whether I feel they have made an improvement to my diet.

Box was successfully upcycled into the Kitten’s playbox. Result.

Plan of Action: March

Spring is here, maybe? I don’t know. The weather of late has been pretty sad and depressing. It has definitely put my off last month’s plan of walking more. However, I am still trying to make small but permanent changes that will hopefully over this year actually become permanent.

Protein Shakes

I started this last month and I’m going to continue in March. My plan is to have 4 scoops a day.

Exercise!

Last month didn’t really go down for exercise. My aim is to do 10,000 steps a day with running and walking. I’d also like to start working on my core and strengthening it, but this month will be more trying to work it into my day rather than pushing myself. So I will look at beginners plank challenges and work up to trying to survive a minute of planking (hate planking). My plan is also to get out when the weather is nice but if it is not I will go to the gym…and push myself to actually go.

Corset/Waist training

I own a waist trainer and I briefly used to wear it when I slept. However, I have been looking into it a bit more and I read about someone who wears a waist training for Anxiety. Since I am starting a new job this month I really want to focus on trying to find techniques to help my anxiety and depression. I also think that waist training will help to target the area of my body I have self esteem issues. It’s an experiment for a month with an inexpensive waist trainer and I’ll see how it goes.

Mindfulness

As mentioned above. I am starting a new job. So I planning to take me time in the evenings to relax and rest. I’m planning to make some cooling DIY sheet masks and I have just purchased an Aromatherapy Humidifier Light. I’m going to focus on relaxing and maybe look into mediation. Also I am going to try body brushing and Gua Sha for my face take the time to do something that feels good and take the time to relax whilst doing it.

Vegan-ish

I’d like to try and look at a vegan diet. Now my protein shakes contain Whey powder so they are not vegan. I also want to eat some butter and cheese to help promote healthy hair so there will be some limits to a vegan diet right there. That being said I also want to explore more vegan proteins, more vegetables and would like to aim to have one vegan meal a day. I would also like to try to explore alternatives to bread or a least cutting down my bread consumption, which isn’t high to begin with but I find that quite often when I do not know what to eat I turn to a sandwich and bread as a quick option. I’d like to try to meal prep a little more and look at freezing more portions of healthy meal preps and looking for healthier options when I am in that ‘I don’t know what to eat’ phase.

Water

I did have a pretty revolutionary break through with water last month. I’ve found it slipping a little bit this last two days. So that slight transgression needs to be nipped in the bud because it becomes a regression back into old habits.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month to see how well my goals have been progressing.

February in Review

How cool is today? The 29th of February. This is the 9th Leap Year I have lived through and the 8th 29th of February I have seen (I wasn’t born in February 1988 to officially see it). I cannot believe we have two months of 2020 under our belts already. Where has the time gone?

I think February has been a productive month in a sense. Looking back over my goals for February I wanted to:

Do 10,000 steps a day
Introduce Protein Shakes to my diet
Not calorie count
Up my Water consumption

The 10,000 steps a day was a fail. I started off so well and pushed myself to go out…but when Storms Ciara and Dennis developed, I did not want to go out walking in the at times 80mph winds and the impressive rains. So I did not do as many steps as I would have liked to. I think hopefully with the turning point in seasons, we are very much at the end of winter so hopefully with Spring the weather will improve to encourage outdoor activity.

I did write a first impressions of the Protein Shakes, why I choose them and I still want to post this, even though my first impressions were over a month ago now. I would like to give a more prolonged view of them. The thing that held me back was taking photos. I did introduce protein shakes to my diet and stuck to it really well until perhaps this past week. With a new month though I am going to remotivate myself to take them.

I was successful in not calorie counting. I did make some delicious meal preps that focused on putting a lot of vegetables and looking at healthier options. This past week I have slipped though so I would to jump back onto that. I have also been looking at promoting healthy hair, whilst I think the quality and condition of my hair is very good, I would like to continue looking after it. I think it is important to keep a certain amount of good oils and fats in your diet so I have been trying to eat cheese and butter regularly. I think with the addition of Protein Shakes I am going to start getting a lot more protein into my diet to help with healthy hair promotion.

Water. By far this month I am impressed with my water consumption. I posted that the Microcurrent Facial was instrumental in getting me to drink water, prue water, not mixed with squash. I have largely drank either 1,600 or 1,200ml of water everyday since the 10th February. However, for March I am thinking of dropping this down to a goal of 800ml to 1,200ml. If you are not used to drinking at lot of water or you are not sweating it out…you body in the beginning does not know what to do with all this water, particularly as it is winter – you are not losing it through sweat as much. So I find I am going to the toilet ALL the time. Well that is an exaggeration but it feels like I need to go a lot more than normal, so I am cutting down for the moment. If I find myself becoming thirsty I will drink more.

I am really impressed though. This month I am not as bloated as I have been previously and I am finding I am not conscious about my weight. My issue I have always had is my stomach. I am happy with my body apart from my stomach which I felt was were I was carrying my stomach. Whilst it is still not flat and beautiful it is not as bloated as it used to be and this makes me feel better. I think I need to look into core exercising. Something I’ve never really done before to see if I can tone my stomach. I think trying to boost a healthy diet and tone my problem area is more important than what the scales are telling me and that I need to count calories.

The Weight Loss Journey Continues

So it is the 1st of February. The start of the last month of winter, my Dad has the belief that this is the hardest month of the year, but once you push through this month you get to Spring and with it longer, brighter and warmer days that make life a little bit easier. I do feel that January is perhaps a hard month to start a new year, in the middle of winter. It is cold and trying to break old habits, particularly if they involve diets that strip away comfort foods away and encouraging you to go out to get more fresh air and exercise…when it is cold and wet is not the best way to encourage these new steps. Perhaps it is better to start them in the spring or summer when it is a more pleasant experience to be outside or to switch warm, stodgy foods in favour of salad and uncooked fruit and vegetables.

Reflecting back on January…was it a success? I didn’t gain any weight, well that’s not strictly true I did gain 0.1lb of weight. This lack of weight gain however was more due to good fortune than me directly trying to improve it. I could have been a lot worse, but equally it could have been a lot better.

So what is the plan for February? Well I’m going to challenge myself to:

10,000 steps a day. It doesn’t have to be running, although I would like to try and get running in there. Simply being outside and trying to get 10,000 steps in one or two bursts of activity a day would be good and sometimes going out for a walk in less daunting than going for a run.
Introducing shakes to my diet. Now the shakes I have chosen are NOT meal replacement shakes but shakes designed for women to introduce vitamins that are particularly lacking in a vegetarian or vegan diet. I follow a vegetarian diet and have done since I was 7. I think lacking in essential B vitamins does impact on one’s energy levels and in January I was feeling particularly tired all the time which impacted on my mood and my enthusiasm to do anything.
Zero calorie counting! This month is about trying to pick healthier options, including more fruits and vegetables into meals but realistically I am not going to restrict what I want to eat, especially not when I am feeling low and craving foods I like to eat.
Water. Lots of water and drinking more water over cola.

I’ll check back in at the end of February beginning of March to let you know what successful this month’s plan of action has been.