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For this nutrition edition of the Community Conversation, Prototype Nutrition Coach Jon Collette and Prototype Nutrition’s Registered Dietitian, Sam Russo will be discussing The Top 5 Ways to Meet Your Protein Needs. If you’re looking to learn more about nutrition for yourself or pick up some good eating habit tips, you will want to check this out!
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Jon 0:01
All right, thank you for tuning into the community conversation brought to you by prototype Training Systems home of CrossFit prototype. Samara and I are back with another nutrition episode to help provide you with some education and strategies to help you with your nutrition. So you can live a normal social life. There’s a lot of misinformation on nutrition, and we aim to provide you with some clarity. This week, we’re going to talk about five ways to hit your protein targets. Um, so Sam, just to start probably a good idea to talk about why protein is important for our, our health well being and our performance goals in the gym.
Sam 0:41
Yeah, so most of the people listening to this, probably everyone listening to this or watching this works out of it at the gym. So protein is super important for muscle recovery. We need it for muscle building, but we also need it for muscle recovery. Anytime we exercise at the gym, we are breaking down our muscle. And so we need the amino acids that we get from protein in our diet to rebuild that muscle to get stronger to get better to get faster.
Jon 1:08
Cool. All right. So um, I guess one of the reasons why protein is very difficult is it’s not the most convenient thing. So that’s what we’re going to help you with today, guys, is how to be able to hit your protein targets and not make it a really hard difficult, time consuming tasks. So I’m Sam, tip number one, which I’m going to have you give some touch upon and more is going to be preparing some protein in advance. Okay, and probably more ideal would be preparing leaner sources in advance. So we can increase protein without increasing some of those other macronutrients. So what are some examples or some things that you do yourself, Sam, to prepare some protein events?
Sam 1:58
Well, we definitely love leftovers in my household. Like you said, protein is not super convenient all the time. So we like batch cook, right. So like if we’re on the grill, we’ll grill up some chicken and maybe some burgers so that we already have everything made that we can have for two, three, maybe even four days depending on what we’ve made. So like taking time to just like cook once and then eat more often than that, then you’re already set. Because cooking a piece of chicken can take 45 minutes. And not everyone has that time every single day to make protein grepping in advance will be a big thing like that. Even if you don’t prep the rest of the meal. Another thing would be just to buy things that are already pre made incentive like you can get deli Turkey and get some good protein out of something like that you can buy Greek yogurt and already have that that you can just grab and go. So making things early on, so that you don’t have to worry about cooking like long, like time consuming proteins later. JOHN, I know that you have some good examples of lean proteins that you cook on a regular basis. So definitely, I’m sure people would love to hear about that.
Jon 3:10
Yeah, so I think just some of the ways that you guys can hit your protein without being overly time consuming is also using the context of the day to help think about what you’re going to do for your prep. If you’re going to the beach for the day at Sunday, typically do your prep on Sunday don’t have a lot of time during the week to be doing your meal prep then one thing that you could go ahead and do is utilize a crock pot. So a few different things that you could do for crock pot is what you gave me this idea Sam and I made this last night was just crock pot, an entire batch of chicken breast and then we just use like buffalo sauce like takes you five minutes because all you have to do is take it out of the package, put it in the crock pot, they’re just gonna cook it on low for like 68 hours. So that is literally the easiest possible thing that you can do to be able to prep protein in advance it doesn’t take you a lot of time. Now you can also go ahead throw like Sam said chicken on the grill, things like that we do chili sometimes in the crock pot or on the stove. Like meatballs are a great option where you just go ahead and make a big batch of like turkey meatballs. And maybe for prep that could be a breakfast option two could be like an egg or egg white muffins where you could use like egg white and use a little bit of like chicken sausage or, or like the steak cans and you can do like a little bit of like low fat or nonfat cheese and that’s going to be like primarily just a protein protein option which is going to be very minimal and some of the other things now you’d probably want to pay Hear that with something else to mail or make it like a complete meal or if you’re just having it as a snack. But those are all things that you could go ahead. And if you’re in a rush, those are all like easy ones to go ahead and to have like made in advance because you’re not going to if you’re needing to add protein, but you open the fridge and all you have is berries, berries are great, but they’re not going to be a good source of protein. So having some of those things in advance are going to be good ideas. Um, so number two is going to be starting your day off with a high protein breakfast, Sammy will give us some examples of a high protein breakfast.
Sam 5:37
Yeah, you just gave a great one of making little egg muffins with some some kind of meat in it and maybe some cheese. Really, eggs are like probably the go to high protein breakfast option for most people. Egg whites, of course will have more protein in them, like calorie for calorie than a full egg. So if you’re really going for high protein, then like egg whites is your way to go. But you can also do something like cottage cheese or Greek yogurt or making a smoothie with either those two things in it. Theoretically, like you could have some cereal with like milk, it’s just not as much protein I say some egg whites in an omelet, or like a Greek yogurt. Um, john, what do you typically have for breakfast, what are some good breakfast ideas that you have that are high in protein,
Jon 6:23
I do have cereal. Um, so I do have cereal. But I do the Kashi cereal, the cinnamon, flavor, whatever, it has 14 grams of protein in the cereal, so it’s a little bit of a higher protein cereal. And then with a cup of milk, it gives another eight grams of protein. So it’s a little over 20 there, but I work out early in the morning. So then after my workout, I have a protein shake. So that’s how I kind of get even though it’s a higher carb meal, I turn that into like a high protein meal by having that protein shake kind of afterwards, um, we’ll talk a little bit more about strategies for being able to not every meal having to be like this big giant plate of meat, but being able to, you know, think about your day as a whole. But that’s what I personally do breakfast sandwiches I do for lunch, um, where it’s just simply like an English muffin or bagel, which if you go with more of like a whole grain or whole wheat, like the type of bread you have, will typically have anywhere from like six to 10 grams of protein in it. So even though that’s not the protein source of that meal, you’ll get some protein there, and then what you put in the sandwich, so an egg, Turkey, cheese, those are all going to have some protein, the egg and cheese are going to be protein and fat. But if we have those things in the meal that have some protein in them, that’s going to go ahead and be a way for it’s all kind of add up, even though none of those sources are inherently leaner sources besides maybe the answer to a turkey that you’d put on a breakfast sandwich that is going to add up to a lot of a lot of protein. And, I mean, I think I already named some of the other ones, but um, uh, one for vegetarians, because sometimes that’s tough is are you gonna approach without having like chicken or meat or something like that. If you were to do a bagel, which just mentioned bagels gonna have some protein in it. And you were to have something like peanut butter versus cream cheese. Peanut butter is a fat source, but it’s also going to have protein in it. So the more things that we kind of swap that are like just fat and no protein with at least some protein are going to be ways to be able to get more protein into a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet. But if you even add a Greek yogurt, that’s not gonna be vegan, but it’s gonna be vegetarian, that’s going to be over 2530 grams of protein without having to have any turkey or anything like that, or eggs either. So there’s a few options for starting your day off with with higher protein. Um, so number three, prioritizing protein after your workout. So we can talk about some post workout options, Sam. So what are some good options to be able to have after a workout that can give you that protein?
Sam 9:27
Yeah, I think you already touched on some of this a little bit of like your breakfast like pre workout isn’t always like the highest in protein. It’s still high, but not like pure protein, but then that right after your workout, you’ll go right into a protein shake. And so probably the easiest way to get protein right after a workout is a protein shake. You can take it with you. It doesn’t require any prep, it doesn’t require refrigeration, and you can drink it within like a 30 minute window right after your workout. Which like we haven’t actually touched on at all, but the sooner you can get protein the better. Where if you’re waiting two hours after your workout to get a protein source in, then chances are, you’re not getting as much benefit as you would if you would have it in like a 30 to 45 minute window post workout. So protein shake is probably the easiest go to getting that right away. But a protein bar would be totally fine. A Greek yogurt would be totally fine. Having a turkey sandwich would be totally fine. really finding any way just to kind of little bits of protein, right after the workout. It’s just more so about getting it in at a reasonable time right after you workout. Does that sound accurate to you, john?
Jon 10:34
Yeah, so the benefits of just spreading your protein out. So it’s good to point out some, some myths is that your body can only absorb so much protein after a workout. So your body’s gonna absorb all the protein that you take in, but you’re only going to get so much benefit from having so much at a time. So that’s why it’s a good idea to spread your protein out throughout the day versus, you know, if you hadn’t, let’s say you are someone that typically has a lower protein breakfast or not breakfast at all, and then you get your protein towards the second half of the day, you’re not going to get as much benefit as if you were able to try to squeeze something in earlier in the day and spread your protein out like maybe every three to four hours having a protein feeding, that’s going to be that’s definitely going to help you more with recovery from your workouts and allows you to help with muscle building muscle repair. If you back loaded all, it’s not that your body’s not going to utilize that protein, but kind of think that there’s a limit to how much you’re going to be able to benefit from that protein. So if you were to have 150 grams, and you were to have 100 grams from the hours of two to five, you’re not going to get as much benefit as if you just spread it out throughout the day. But anyways, I’m kind of going on a little bit of a tangent.
Sam 11:47
And I think it’s a good tangent, john, do you have like a number of how much protein people should get at a setting.
Jon 11:54
Um, I think it also depends a little bit on the individual. So let’s take a 200 pound, male, probably four servings of 50 grams, would be a good idea. But if we were to have a female that’s 120 pounds, then you know, you want to get three fourths to your bodyweight and grams of protein. So spreading it out in the forest servings kind of in relation to your size is a good goal. So if you are aiming for 100 grams for the day, then 25 grams would probably be a good target to aim for. And like four servings, if you’re you know, have more muscle mass in your body, you probably gonna want to have a little bit more in a survey and just for the fact that it’s gonna be hard to hit if you had, you’d have to have it even more often if you’re having like 20 grams. But I think the word limits is somewhere around 40. So anywhere from like 20 to 40 grams is usually kind of where we want to fall. But that’s kind of on average.
Sam 13:01
So that kind of leads us into number four, with like, an easy way to spread this out throughout the day. JOHN, what’s number four
Jon 13:09
snacking on protein options you like. Um, so protein options that you like, I think we named quite a few of these which, um, protein shakes are easy, or if you, you know, might have that, you know, mid afternoon like sweet tooth or you’re a little bit hungry, you want to have some protein, but you know, you also don’t want to go ahead and grab, you know, I don’t know like jerky or something like that. Let’s say that’s not something that you enjoy. Having like a protein smoothie could be something that could fill you up a little bit more than a protein shake alone, where you just mix it with like a little bit of like, berries, and maybe you have almond milk, or if you were aiming for a little bit more protein you’d go for actually, milk could sell for soy milk. And that’s like a really good option. Um, swapping like yogurt for Greek yogurt is a good one. What other swap that you can think of soon?
Sam 14:08
Well, I think protein bars is like the first thing I think of where it’s like there’s just a million bars out there in the world and they all kind of have different utilities. So like a Clif Bar is something that I see people have a lot, but a Clif Bar has like two grams of protein in it, versus something like like the Clif builder’s option is going to have closer to 30 grams of protein. So just like making a conscious choice to like read the ingredient facts or the nutrition label and find out if any of your packaged snacks do have protein and then if it’s not very high, then find another snack that could be similar and does have more protein there.
Jon 14:45
Right. Um, some other snack ideas just so you guys have some if you are making a little bit of a grocery list, like cottage cheese is a really good one and one of the states extra cheese. What are those string cheese? What are they
Sam 15:02
doing cheese, lunchbox snacks?
Jon 15:05
Yeah, those like those kid cheese snacks.
Sam 15:07
Yeah, they also have like adult ones or circles. They’re called baby bells.
Jon 15:10
They have the those, those applesauce things not too, right when they’re like, they’re, they’re not applesauce. But you know, these pouches le disk fuel for fire is like one of the brands that I can think of. Hmm, it’s like, it’s like, it’s like protein, yogurt and a squeeze tube. It’s kind of just like yogurt. But anyways, if you have any ideas or things that you guys do, like shoot us a message, so we can go ahead and add some more to the list, because while I was looking for other creative snack options that are easy. And number five is incorporating some high protein plant based options into your diet. So we don’t all eat meat, we don’t all eat dairy. So we need to go ahead and also have strategies for being able to get more protein. But also if we do eat meat, and we don’t and we do eat dairy, these are still things that are going to be nutritious and filling in, they’re going to have more than just protein in them to help you guys feel good after meal. So Sam, can you name a few high protein plant based options?
Sam 16:22
Yeah, so I think like the first one everybody probably thinks about is tofu, or soy in some capacity. So tofu soy milk, edamame, a Satan. And then I’m pretty sure I like those fake meat chicken nuggets are also tofu have some capacity?
Jon 16:40
Sometimes tempo, right tempo?
Sam 16:42
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, that tune. So any of those are like any variation of soy is is a good higher protein option. Like you’ve touched on before whole grains are going to have more protein than refined grains. So getting those there. Things like Qianlong barley are higher protein grains in general. If you get something like bread and you get a sprouted bread versus like a whole grain bread, they’ll be even more protein in their their swaps, like protein pastas. Like danza is a brand of protein pasta. So it’s like a normal pasta just higher in protein per serving. lentils, chickpeas, any kinds of beans also have protein as option and like you’ve touched on before peanut butter, although a fat for most people does have higher protein than some other fat sources, like an avocado or an oil peanut butter is going to have a protein option there.
Jon 17:40
David, what’s up? Have you ever tried the peanut butter powder? Oh, yeah,
Sam 17:46
I forgot about that one where you just mix it with water?
Jon 17:49
Yeah, you could even mix it in with like smoothies or like your shake and just adds different flavors that aren’t getting give you. They’re like they’re the protein without the without the fat. Yeah, their PB two powder.
Sam 18:03
Yeah, yeah, it is really good. I’m in smoothies. Um, I totally lost my train of thought, Oh, I was gonna say, and I don’t know how scientific we want to get on this. But definitely one of the things that is a concern with some of the plant based proteins is that they’re, they’re not necessarily complete proteins, meaning that they’re missing some of their essential amino acids. So if you are someone who doesn’t eat meat, pairing a whole grain with a lagoon will give you a complete protein. So like a whole grain bread with peanut butter on it will be higher in protein and also be a complete protein. So meaning that basically you have all the building blocks that you need to build muscle in your body.
Jon 18:44
Right. Um, so in that note, we’ll kind of recap some of the strategies to hit your protein targets. So there’s five tips, guys, number one was preparing some lean sources in advance to was starting your day off with a higher protein breakfast. Three was prioritizing your protein after your workout three snack on protein options you like and five is incorporating some high protein plant based options into your diet. And probably to note that it’s just a good idea to just have a variety of different things in your diet so you don’t get bored with what you’re eating. So there’s more than just chicken out there. For protein sources. There’s also more than just protein powder and to get that so having things that you like. Having something often isn’t a bad thing. Having the same thing all the time is a good way to go ahead and get sick of it but also not unnecessarily getting the variety of nutrients that come along with different sources of these things, whether we’re talking about protein or we’re talking about different fruits and vegetables that are gonna have different vitamins and minerals in them. So on that note, Sam, you want to do the exit.
Sam 20:09
Yeah, before I go into that anything that you want us to touch on that we missed talking about today?
Jon 20:17
Not that I can think of I think we nailed it.
Sam 20:19
Yeah. Look at that all that information. Um, no, I think it’s easy when we format it like this right? So it’s it’s five top tips, but obviously we have a lot more insight. So if you are someone who is struggling with nutrition or have more questions about this, please do not hesitate to reach out. We are more than happy to sit and talk nutrition with you because it is something we love to do. You can schedule a free nutrition console. And we will link that for you when we send this out. So it is nice and easy for you to make that appointment if you’d like. And if you do have questions like we said, you can reach out via email or talk to us in the gym. We are more than happy to chat with you about nutrition any day. And with that said, we hope you guys have a wonderful day and we will see you soon!