SWEET POTATO PROTEIN BAR

Protein bars are expensive. So why not make your own. They are cheaper, they taste better and you know exactly whats going into it.

Main mix:
750g sweet potato
300g ground oats
4 egg whites
1 egg yolk
60ml of coconut milk
4 scoops of protein powder
6tsp ground ginger
6tsp ground cinnamon
6tsp vanilla essence 
3tsp nutmeg
2tsp of baking powder
6tbsp honey

Middle layer:
100g peanut butter

Top Layer/Coating:
200g dark chocolate (above 70% coco)
100ml coconut milk

Bake at 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Makes 18-20 thick bars.

MAIN MIX

Firstly you need to put the oven on and bake the sweet potato at 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. While this is cooking ground your oats by blending them. Add the protein powder, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon & ginger to the oats so you have a dry mixture.

In another bowl add your honey coconut milk and eggs. This will be your liquid mixture.

When the sweet potatoes are soft and squidgy take them out of the oven and leave for an hour to cool (if you don't let it cool you will scramble the eggs). Once cooled turn the oven back on to 200 degrees to pre heat & then peel the skin off a mash in a larger separate bowl. Add your dry mixture to this and mix in well. Now this is well blended gradually add your liquid mixture while continuously mixing. It should resemble a loose cake mixture.

Line the baking tin you will be using with grease proof paper and add the mixture in. Bake for 20-25 minutes and then leave to cool.

MIDDLE LAYER

Now that they are cool carefully lift the mixture out of the tin and put onto a chopping board.Heat up the peanut butter in the microwave or saucepan for about 30 seconds. Spread this evenly across your protein bar base & wait until it hardens. (speed up the process by putting it in the fridge).

TOP LAYER/COATING

This is the messy part. Boil some water in a saucepan. In heatproof bowl break up your chocolate and add the coconut milk. Put this bowl on top of the saucepan and wait for the chocolate to evenly melt. While this is melting put greaseproof paper or cling film of top of a tray.

Now simply dip each side of the protein bar in the melted chocolate and scrape off any part gets too much. Put them on the tray, put them in the fridge and leave to harden!

Id recommend you leave them in the fridge and they should last about a week and a half in a sealed container.

This is the calorie count for this recipe. There is 10g of protein per bar but that's only because I cant pump it in like some of these big brands. The fat content is alright but not great. If you've read my other recipes you'll know that this is mostly from the peanut butter, which contains your good fats! The sodium content is very high, iv explained why in previous posts also as this is the same for my other recipes. It's because this calorie count is very crude, to get a true reading it would cost ALOT of money. Have a read of the others though because salt is brilliant for exercise, recovery and general well being.

What I really want to talk to you about is some of the new ingredients I have put in. Dark chocolate for one! I know what you're thinking chocolate on a fitness/nutrition website is abit weird but because the coco content is so high they cant  put all the milk and sugar in which in fact makes this good for my bars! This ingredient is actually a energy booster aswell. It contains something called theobromine which is a mild stimulant. This means you its brilliant to eat before the gym, during the gym or after. If you eat it after the chocolate will replenish your glycogen stores which had been used during  exercise making you feel more perky. Dark chocolate also contains many vitamins and minerals which lowers your blood pressure, prevents heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The sweet potato gives you a boost of vitamin C & D which will increase collagen stores keeping your skin elastic and youthful while the coconut milk contains many minerals, vitamins and electrolytes such as calcium and potassium. It is also high in fiber which will keep you fuller for longer. To take the fat away just go for some coconut lite! I used this as it a much healthier binding agent than butter.

This is a bit more long winded than my other recipes but I feel it is worth making. These do not have that weird protein bar texture and they do actually taste very very good. There are very portable and a lot cheaper per bar than buying them, but eat in moderation!

This is what it looks like uncooked.

And this, cooked.

And finally the finished product

Also guys if you are on Facebook give me a like as I will do a give away when I reach a certain number. Share this about and recommend with your friends as you will love it and get hold of me through twitter if you want a chat about anything! All my details are to the right >>

VIBRAM FIVE FINGERS (KMD SPORT)

I used to train barefooted as I felt it would benefit me more. I ended up feeling more comfortable without footwear in the gym due to training without them for so long. I decided I needed some type of footwear, so my feet would stop getting dirty and so I could get abit more protection so minimalist shoes were the answer. Now before I talk to you about these magical shoes I’d like to quickly tell you about some of the benefits of barefooted exercise.

-It's more natural

-Better ventalation

-Stabilizing muscles in the foot and ankle are strengthened

-Improved balance

-Flexibility in the foot can be improved

-Arches can become stronger 

-Muscle alignment can be improved

I brought the KMD sport lace due to its universal and versatile nature, I have worn these shoes to the gym, work, and sprint training. They can even be used for swimming. . As soon as they turned up I put them on and off I went to try them out. Straight away I discovered they aren’t the easiest shoes to get on your feet due to each toe being in its own little ‘pocket’. However unlike most shoes we buy, the heel is rubber and can be bent in any way possible and it will not break compensating for the fact they are a struggle to get on (until you get used to it). I had already decided after five minutes of my work out that they were the comfiest shoes I ever had. 

FIVE FINGERS IN THE GYM

Many people try to go for flatfooted footwear when in the gym, this is so when your squat and deadlift you are closer to the ground making your work the muscle harder but we'll get to that later. These shoes which that are commonly worn in the gym have cushioning though which actually takes away the stress you can put on the muscle. Vibram five fingers have almost no cushioning at all so to mimic your barefoot.

These shoes actually improve many aspects of your workout for example when you are performing deadlifts. Due to the shoe having a extremely thin sole you are in fact closer to the ground and actually makes it slightly easier to get the bar all the way to the ground giving a more effective set than if you were wearing conventional running shoes.As you get down lower, you also manage to get more stress on the muscle promoting to to grow more in time.

Conventional running shoes can make the set less effective, such as when doing a seated leg press. The sole will compact down and push back out as that is what the are designed to do (to prevent shinsplints when running). See it as like jumping on a trampoline, the trampoline being the shoe. As you weight gets pressed down on the sole it will push back up which could actually help lift the weight.

FIVE FINGERS WHEN RUNNING

I found when I was sprint training with these shoes compared to my new balance 610 v2 running shoes much better. I could feel my stride had improved due to more pronation of my foot which made me run more efficiently. When you wear conventional running shoes due to the high cushioning (its aim to spread the load of the impact over the whole foot) encourages you to in fact perform a heel strike. This creates a large impact on the heel due to the vertical deceleration of the leg going straight down.

When running with running shoes you actually infact slam your heel on the ground due to the cushiony sole taking away some of the force but this means you use more energy. This heel strike can actually cause damage to your foot and cause shin splints because of the amount of force struck on the heel. Vibram five fingers forces you to run like you would run barefooted like our cavemen counterparts elemintaing this heel-stike.

Personally I ran on the balls of my feet which drastically decreased the force of the heel-strike.
Running on the balls of your feet drives your momentum forwards carrying your body weight in front of you improving speed and efficiency. You do have to get used to them though, you end up changing your running style which is a good thing in the long run. So while going through this change your feet ache a little bit because of the changing process. This is all your tendons/ligaments/muscles strengthening. As these things are getting stronger your chances of injury decrease.

Below are two images of how the pressure changes due to the type of running shoes you wear. The first image will show conventional running shoes the second will show barefooted running which is very similar to minimalist shoe running.

(Graphs sourced from Joe Maller.com)

With running shoes

Without running shoes

We can see from the graphs above that with running shoes there is a much bigger spike of impact with initial impact to the ground than there is without running shoes. This is due to the heel strike. The peak of the impact on both graphs is about the same however  we can see that in the image below in the barefooted runner that the impact does not spike as much due to more rotational energy rather than vertical deceleration of the leg causing a dead stop.  

There are a few minor issues with the product:

-The price (as a student  £125 is a lot of money for me) but you do pay for what you get and come along with a two year warranty.

-The style which I have are the lace up ones and I find that when you pull the top to tighten it. When you do this the top of the shoe tightens leaving the bottom half of the lace loose. You then have to tighten the lower part bit by bit by hand which again is not too much of a problem but a pain if you have to be somewhere quick. 

-They are also designed with a lock to stop the elasticated laces coming undone when in use. Although the idea is theoretically sound. The lace loosens off, I have put this down to the lock on the lace as I find it comes undone rather easy but it is still tight enough to keep your foot in.

The product is brilliant, it helps alot for my use when exercising. I would highly recommend these.

My Overall Rating: 9.8 out of 10  

Review written by Tom Millar.