Category: Client Questions

What is the BEST Plant-Based or Vegan Protein Powder? [VIDEO REVIEWS!]

Well, well.. to say it’s been a minute since my last blog post is a huge understatement! I definitely suggest subscribing to the Cat Lady Fitness (formerly the True Health Trifecta) YouTube channel for weekly videos – including occasional bonus videos during the week!

Don’t worry, because it’s not just cat stuff. I am beginning to share more home-based workouts, life/kitchen hacks, and recipes. Actually, the whole month of September I will be putting out a mid-week, real-time workout showing you different Tabata-style circuits you can do which require only a timer and NO gym equipment! Not to mention – the workouts will be super effective and only 4 minutes long.

All of September’s workouts are good for all exercise levels – so I do hope you decide to subscribe and join the Cat Lady Fitness family!

If you’re looking for more personalized coaching – whether it be online training or a one-time health & fitness consultation – you can learn more about working with me here!

Now as for protein powders – and, specifically, plant-based or vegan protein powders… A question I get very often is: which is the best out there?

For years now, my go-to protein powder has been S.A.N. RawFusion Plant-Based Protein. If you already own my best-selling book – The Best Plant-Based Protein Bar Recipe Book – then you already know that RawFusion is used as one of the exclusive ingredients in the recipes!

It’s no secret that the vegan and plant-based eating community is growing at a fast pace. Of course, this means that more and more vegan and plant-based foods have become available – including protein powders.

After I had three clients in one week ask if I still recommended RawFusion as the best option (in terms of price, nutritional profile, taste, texture/mixability, and aftertaste), I figured that now would be a good time to test out any other kind I could get my hands on to see if there was a new potential favorite plant-based protein powder in town!

After a couple of months of tasting and trying (you guys know how much I value accuracy and time in research!) I finally filmed a thorough review of the 10+ different vegan protein powders I tried :)

Check out my two-part video review here, starting with Part One:

And here is Part Two (which has the brunt of the reviews):

Here’s a list of the different protein powders I review in the videos above:

Since putting these videos up, I’ve gotten a handful of suggestions for other plant-based protein powders to try out – so I will definitely have another review video in the future.

Do you have a favorite plant-based protein powder that I didn’t include?

If you can suggest additional options for me to try, please leave it in the comment section of either video because I’d love to keep adding to the list for a future review. In the meantime, I do hope you are all enjoying the end of your summer and I look forward to continuing to bring you as many useful and interesting videos, healthy insights, and helpful resources as possible! 

P.S. Did you know that we have a fitness-friendly apparel line for cat people with shirts, tank tops, hats, sweatshirts, accessories, and more?! Check it out in the Cat Lady Fitness Shop (and use code NEWAGENT10 for 10% off your first order)!

 

 

4 Steps to Lose Fat & Gain Fitness, Client Highlight, and My VO2 Max Experience! (VIDEO)

Lots happening on the home front! Another article published in the Winter Park Observer, awesome client progress, and a new video just uploaded on my YouTube channel!

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*Can’t read it here? Just go to the Ask a Trainer Q&A page.

And now for a little Client Highlight of the week:

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This week’s client highlight goes to my awesome, hard-working, and fun client, THERESA! She’s the perfect model in the photos above ;) but more importantly, she’s consistent, comes in to get her training done even on the days she admittedly isn’t feeling it, is making GREAT progress with her endurance, strength, shoulders/arms and booty (which unfortunately aren’t showcased in this photo), and is just so fun to coach and work with.

I love what I do because of awesome people just like her!

As for the newest fun-filled video including my first VO2 Max testing experience, stories about drooling, and legit stick figure doodles to boot, check it out below:

 

And if you’d like to take a longer look at the art that was my recollection, well here you go:

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I know. It’s crossing into Picasso and Dali territory. So deep.

And yes, there are a BIG number of projects in the works; one of which I’m really excited about is a video series to help anyone with degenerative discs, back pain, and health both inside and out. Make sure to sign up for the mailing list (or subscribe to my YouTube channel) to find out the latest with that once it’s available! :)

Client Question: Is Protein as Bad as Smoking?!

A few weeks ago, one of my dear clients sent me an email including the link below with the simple question, “What do you think?”:

Diet: Eating Too Much Protein in Middle-Age Could be Harmful. 

A new study suggests that a high protein diet (>1.2g protein per kg of body weight consumed per day) increases the risk of cancer, diabetes, and death among middle-aged adults. Lead author Dr. Valter Longo writes, “We studied simple organisms, mice, and humans, and provide convincing evidence that a high-protein diet – particularly if the proteins are derived from animals – is nearly as bad as smoking for your health.” 
Cell Metabolism, March 2014

This may look familiar, as it’s study that made the mainstream media rounds with attention-grabbing titles such as High Protein Diet “as bad for health as smoking”. Needless to say, it has caused all kinds of Atkins’ followers to question their livelihood; vegans to rejoice in animal-loving union; and straight up concern or confusion in the rest of the public.

Since she wasn’t the first person who asked what my thoughts were (and probably won’t be the last) on this subject, I figured this was a good time to kick off a series of posts where I will share questions that I receive since they seem to be common concerns that are on a LOT of peoples’ minds! So, for the debut of Client Questions, here was my response to the above…

Always be wary of sensationalized statements such as “high protein diets are nearly as bad for your health as smoking” when coming across articles and even studies. Many clinical studies, even peer reviews, have so many facets and layers not included in the media-spread versions… basically making these newsletter and online stories the “highlighted” and attention grabbing versions that get peoples’ attention and quickly :)
In regards to this study in particular (which I happened to look into when someone else asked about it a month or so ago, unsurprisingly, ha!), here are some bullet points to consider:
  • It was actually two studies – a mouse intervention study and an epidemiological study. The only time tumor growth is mentioned or causation is applied is towards the mouse study (due to IGF-1 factor).
  • No participant in the epidemiological study was under the age of 50, and people were divided into 50-65 or 65+ (and actually found high protein diets as beneficial to those over 65 unless they had diabetes)
  • IGF-1, which is a growth hormone in dairy, meats, etc, promotes cell growth. As in, any cell growth. It doesn’t matter if it’s a muscle cell, cancerous cell, or a tumor. It just encourages growth of cells, period.
  • The studies do not consider any of the following: the effect of exercise, intake of fruits and vegetables, which sources of protein, lifestyle (healthy or not), what replaced protein in the low protein groups, effect on weight loss, people younger than 50, etc.

In a nutshell, I would say if a person’s underlying diet is bad… then too high protein could be an issue, within the age group in the study. For all we know, the high protein group could have been eating mainly processed meats or other proven carcinogenic less-than-ideal protein sources to provide such results. Basically, there are many things that were not controlled and that are important to consider in this (and any) study.

A more accurate title or heading for this study in the media (or in general) would be something like: “High protein diets for those between 50-65 years of age may be associated with increased cancer risk.”

Hope that provides some insight for the day!