Green Protein Oats

This recipe morphed from an old one I posted over a year ago. I still eat it almost every day for my first meal, whenever it falls between 10 AM -2 PMish. Yeah, I sorta get into these "food loops" where I eat and crave the same thing daily LOL Do you do that?

What I love about this recipe is that it literally ticks all the boxes. Greens. Check. Protein. Check. Good carbs. Check. Lots of polyphenol-filled berries. Check. Peanut butter. CHECK!

Plus I can make it in no time flat. Minutes. So even though the finished product is not cute (as in no snapchat filter can fix this kind of ugly), promise me to give it a try ;)

Brad Pilon over at ESE has been putting out some very interesting research findings on polyphenols and gut health lately in two of his products- Good Belly, Bad Belly along with his email subscription, The Advocate. Berries happen to have one of the highest polyphenol ratios of almost any food on earth. (If you are an ESE member, you can check those out in your portal. If you are not, you can grab those at eatstopeat.com/gbbb or eatstopeat.com/add-advocate)

Pounding the water today as I did my normal weekly Eat Stop Eat 24h fast until dinner on Monday :) since I work for ESE part time now, I feel like I need to know the program front to back. My sis-in-law, and fellow Venus, Erin got me this AWESOME glass Zulu water bottle for Christmas. I just adore it! Also went for a little 4 mile beach run with my sweet pup Olive Marie. The ocean was smooth as glass, have never seen it this calm! I try to do cardio the morning of my fast days, and prefer to save lifting for non-fasting days as a general rule  enjoying this weather %! 

Just an FYI that the new Diet Pepsi blend is now aspartame free. Usually, I prefer a Diet Coke, but it is a good idea to rotate your sweeteners if you choose to use them. I will now be rotating between Diet Pepsi/Diet Coke for this reason. I generally have one can of diet soda per day, and 2 cups of coffee with stevia. A few times per week, I have acesulfame in my whey protein powdee. I eat sugar occassionally at events (once per month-ish). Sweeteners effect everyone differently, and the best plan is always to reduce and rotate so that you are not over consuming any one. Look at everything you eat from start to finish in a day and try to see how you can reduce and/or vary the sweeteners.  Just how I do things, and what keeps me sane ;)

#flexfriday au natural this week. Busy getting stuff done all week (and weekend). Physical strength begets mental fortitude. Making time for fitness while trying to keep your head above water at work/home is always worth it 💪you have to take care of yourself before you can care for others!

Standing Banded Hip Thrusts - something new for the truly glute obsessed to try  basically you put your giant band across your power rack, I used a purple Spri band. Then you grab the front supports, and walk your feet up so it looks like you are preparing to slingshot yourself  squeeze those glutes as you thrust forward. It took a couple of rounds until I could really get the feel.

Green Protein Oats

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup oats (I use old-fashioned or quick cooking, but use what you want and adjust cooking time.)
• 1 cup greens, fresh or frozen (I use fresh spinach, baby kale, or a blend. Can use powder, just reduce amount.)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 mixed berries, fresh or frozen (I use frozen berry blend, but can use whatever berries on hand.)
• 1 scoop whey protein (I use chocolate from Optimum Nutrition in Gold Standard Whey.)
• 1 tbsp PB2 (or peanut powder of choice) plus water (You can omit and use regular pb here too.)
• 1 tbsp peanut butter

Directions:

Place uncooked oats into large bowl. Blend greens with oat water, and pour over. Place berries on top. Microwave for 2:30 or until oats are cooked. Stir in whey protein. Mix PB2 with water as directed, then stir in regular peanut butter (saves cals). Spread over oats and enjoy!

Nutritional Facts per serving:

Enjoy! X-Liss