Thursday, February 25, 2010

February 2010 CeliacsUnited.com Gluten Free Product of the Month – Performance Fit’s First String High Performance Collegiate Formula NCAA Compliant Chocolate Blast (what a mouthful to say).

In what I am hoping will become a monthly tradition…feel free to post or email me suggestions for future months. I posted this one a little late…no guarantees that a product will show up early in the month (I pretend to have a life that cuts down on my posting time).


February 2010 CeliacsUnited.com Gluten Free Product of the Month –
Performance Fit’s First String High Performance Collegiate Formula NCAA Compliant Chocolate Blast (what a mouthful to say).

Overview: Nutritious and Delicious product available from dotFit.com Retails for $59.95

I had a bit of a hard time finding a workout product that guaranteed to be gluten free that also was nutritious and tasted good. (Cliff’s Builder Bars for example are wheat free, but CONTAIN gluten…they have a lovely paragraph about how they avoid wheat etc. etc. but then sneak in triticale – which is Gluten. My negative experience with Cliff’s made me very leery of exercise and nutrition products.).

Then I was introduced to the “First String...

The product has a nutritional label that says” Contains No Gluten” Lovely sight to behold…here.

I’ve tried both the chocolate and vanilla versions. Chocolate is great mixed with water alone. If you have a blender available (I do not usually), you can add a banana and some ice to make it even better.

The Vanilla flavor is also good, and can be a welcome respite from having chocolate all the time (I know, some of you cannot image chocolate getting old). Vanilla seems to go down with less aftertaste…

Chocolate Blast – Rich, Nutritious, Delicious.  (say it like Mr. T)

Vanilla – Less Filing, Sans aftertaste. (in a blatant adaptation of a Miller Lite Beer Ad)

I tend to only use 3 scoops of powder with 20 oz water…Mixes well in the dotFit shaker bottle. I drink half before and half after the workout.

The details about the product and its nutrition are available online here. There are also good articles about maximizing your muscle gain or weight loss.  Pictures are available online and look better than what I would take...also, you should read the nutritional info for yourself.

I realize that this post is devoid of a lot of the humor in my other postings…not sure how to remedy that problem..gluten free workout products aren’t really fun per say…but essential. I could vent more about products that hide the gluten, but I’d rather focus on the positive…and Performance Fit’s First String High Performance Collegiate Formula NCAA Compliant Chocolate Blast (still a mouthful to say) deserves to be a product of the month. 


Thoughts?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Oh [profanity], not that one again... buy it twice...shame on me.

Oops, I did it again...rather catchy late 90s tune, but downright annoying when it comes to gluten free grocery shopping.

We've all done it....purchased something that sounds or looks great but ends up being terrible.  Then, we compound the error by purchasing the same horrible item a few months later when the chalk taste or whatever other issue it has is out of our short term memory.

Glass half full guy: "That is great, there are so many GF products that you can forget some are bad."
Glass half empty guy: "GF doesn't mean I should donate my money for a catchy box or something that tastes bad."
Charles Barkley:  "That is turrible. Turrible, turrible, turrible."  (to my knowledge, Chuck does not read my blog, nor is he a celiac) 
Me: "Oh [profanity deleted]I am such a moron.  How could I waste my money on that [profanity] again.  Aaargh!"  (at which point I run from the room to spit into the trash can and wipe off my tongue...vowing never to do that again)

I don't know that your taste buds will agree with mine.  But...here is a list of GF products that I just found awful.  I have sorted them by store purchased (though many GF items are available in more than one location).  My goal:  to prevent using profanity around people while eating...unless I am in a bar and watching a sporting event of some kind.


obviously a work in progress...I realize some of the products will be improved upon and I will miss out on a good version 2.0 - that is something my wallet and I are OK with.

The "Oh [profanity]!" list  (will be updated semi-regularly...much like the rest of the site) 
Store - alleged description according to the packaging....(I disagree)
Trader Joe's
1. Crunchy Curls - A Tasty Lentil & Potato Snack
2.

Whole Foods
1. 
2.