Homemade Bodybuilding Shakes - Using Whey Protein Supplement Powders Creatively

If you are serious about building muscle mass or sculpting your body you most likely supplement your diet with commercially available whey or soy protein powders (and possibly other supplements). No doubt within a short period of time you discovered the protein shakes whey powders produce may not be the best tasting drinks you've ever had. Despite this you try to stick with them because your goal is a better body and a supplement shake that doesn't taste so great is simply a sacrifice you make.

People find that the flavor of the protein shake powder they paid a good money for quickly gets boring. If you are taking your protein shakes two or even three times a day it can become a real chore. This is when people start to experiment a little by adding other ingredients to make their protein shakes taste a little better.

You can soon turn your boring, often tasteless, protein shakes into mouth-watering bodybuilding or dieting delights. All you need to have to get started is a blender and a little imagination.

Choosing What to Put in Your protein shakes

Before rushing off to your refrigerator to blend everything in site, let's go through some basic principles you will want to consider first. Not only do you want to create the best tasting shakes but you should also aim to make the most effective protein shakes for your dieting requirements. This is important because there is no point throwing full fat ice cream, chocolate sauce, peanut butter and full fat milk all together to create a wonderful tasting fat gaining shake. You need to be a little wise when choosing your ingredients.

So what kinds of ingredients make good choices for your shakes? I recommend using the following tips when getting your ingredients from the supermarket or refrigerator:

1. Try to keep as many of your ingredients as natural as possible. A good example of this is using natural peanut butter instead of regular peanut butter. The natural version has better protein content and also natural fats that are important in your diet.
2. Fresh fruit should be used whenever possible. Fruit contains the carbohydrates that will fuel your workouts and your day. The complex sugars in fruit are important to any diet (unlike the simple sugars in sweets, sodas, etc).
3. Think about ingredients that will boost your shake's protein content. For example, you could throw a handful of nuts into the blender for a little extra protein without making the shake much thicker. You could add a few raw egg whites (if you are worried about eating raw eggs you may be able to find treated egg whites in cartons at your supermarket). You could always simply dump an extra scoop of whey powder in there as well.
4. Make sure you have enough liquids. If you get a little too carried away you may discover your shake is easier to eat with a spoon then drink from a glass. When you first start creating your shakes it is a good idea to add your liquids (water, fat-free milk, fruit juices, etc.) in stages so that you get your desired consistency.
5. Examine the nutritional information for each ingredient and consider the impact it will have on your dieting goals. For example, you may be opting for fat free (skimmed) milk if you aren't trying to gain weight.
6. Always know what your goal is and make your shakes accordingly. If you are trying to shed the fat you will be skipping the types of ingredients that add too many carbohydrates and fats while trying to increase the protein content.
7. Think of how you might create a unique flavor. You can try things like cinnamon, vanilla, honey, coconut milk, etc. Once you get the hang of this you will see the possibilities are endless.

Making Your protein Shake

Once you have decided on the ingredients for your shake you are ready to start. It couldn't be simpler and if you can make toast you won't have a problem. It's a good idea to think about the order in which you will add your ingredients into the blender. Always add your main liquid source first so that everything else you add afterwards is easily blended. Following this, add your protein powder and give your blender a quick 'burst'. Now you are ready to add the rest of your ingredients and blend until you get the right consistency. At this point you may want to add a little more liquids to tweak your shake's thickness. Throw in five or six ice cubes to make your shake more refreshing.

Now you can let your imagination invent all sorts of bodybuilding and dieting concoctions that make your supplement shakes a great deal tastier. Don't forget to share your creations with friends at the gym and people across the world through the internet. You will also discover many ideas other people come up with to inspire you further. Visit websites and online forums for recipes and you can get some ideas from my site's Whey Protein Supplement Shake Recipes section. Happy blending!

Adam Zahler is an internet marketing professional and entrepreneur with a strong interest in fitness and nutrition. He is also the owner and creator of the free Bodybuilding and Protein Supplements Recipes site where visitors can find protein recipe ideas and also share their own recipes.

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The Benefits of Meditation: Tips and Techniques

Meditation is healthy, safe and affordable. In fact its free. The only expense youll have is a meditation mat, which isnt especially necessary-at least from my experience. Meditation has been around for 5,000 years, and was originally a spiritual component of yoga. through the years non-yogis adopted it, intuitively sensing and connecting the practice with greater peace of mind. Personally, I cant say enough good things about meditation. Its use has rewarded me with less worry and much more energy. But Ive never been one for anecdotal evidence. Lets get to the science

Transcendental Meditation

Recently, theres an incredible amount of science tied into the benefits of meditation. The studies are endless and cover a variety of meditative practices. On Transcendental Meditation alone (mantra repetition) there are over 500 studies. Some are more noteworthy that others. A study in the Japanese Journal of Public health found that through Transcendental Meditation, industrial workers sleep improved and their smoking decreased. Another study conducted at the MERU Research institute, in Buckinghamshire, England found that the length of time practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program correlated with younger biological age and younger functional age.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation, which asks us to focus on our breath to facilitate awareness of the present moment, is another widely studied meditation technique. After studying the effects of 8-weeks of mindfulness meditation on participants, a 2003 report in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine concluded: A short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function. Impressive, but fairly vague. To get a more committed response to the benefits of meditation we have to turn to Taiwan. In 2002 their journal Chang Gung Medicine reported that training in MM may be a medically superior and cost-effective alternative to pain medication for the control of headaches with no underlying organic causes in highly motivated patients.

Stress reduction and Meditation

What causes these positive physical changes? To answer this, other research has looked at the specifics of what happens in the body during meditation. . Researchers at the Maharishi school of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, found that meditation has an enormous impact on stress reduction. When they examined a group who had meditated for four months they saw that they produced less of the stress hormone cortisol. They were therefore better able to adapt to stress in their lives, no matter what their circumstances were.

Having balanced cortisol levels is essential to mental and emotional health. Notice I say balanced rather than none. We dont want to completely eliminate cortisol. If we did wed be dead. Even low cortisol levels can be dangerous. Not enough cortisol is the identifying trait of Addisons disease. John F. Kennedy had this condition, which he denied passionately during his presidency. Yet during his term he regulated his levels through hydrocortisone (synthetic cortisol). The reverse of JFKs condition is called Cushings Syndrome.

The five most common and noticeable changes of this condition include; red face and puffy cheeks; excess fat surrounding the collar bones, muscle weakness, and hypertension. But we dont have to have Cushings Syndrome to be damaged by extra cortisol. The changes we experience may be subtle variations of these. Plus, the changes caused by excess cortisol are age dependent. Young people may stop growing and teenagers can develop acne. The mature among us arent safe either. Since excess cortisol damages bone-tissue those over age 60 may develop fractures related to osteoporosis. So its evident that if we can regulate cortisol, especially through a natural process, we owe it to ourselves to try.

Other benefits of Meditation

Regina Drueding, MD, is a meditation instructor at Life Circles in Utah, USA. She quotes the benefits of meditation as follows: more energy, improved quality of sleep, decreased anxiety, lessened chronological aging, improved concentration, improved visual acuity, increased alertness and heightened immunity. She writes: Besides the benefits mentioned earlier, meditation results in improvement of hypertension, sleep disorders, headaches, heartrhythm disturbances, chronic pain pain due to cancer, infertility and irritable bowel syndrome. Following meditation, mental and physical refreshment result and benefits are cumulative with regular practice.

How to Meditate

Meditation is both simple and complex. Its like defining the color orange: When you see it you know it. Similarly, the experience of meditation is best, wellexperienced. In an article in New View magazine, Shippensburg Universitys Dr. C. George Boeree describes the basics of buddhist meditation. In summary, the beginners technique is as follows:

1. Sit or kneel comfortably.

2. The hands are loose and open with the palms up, one atop the other and thumbs lightly touching.

3. head is upright. Eyes may be closed or open. If open they should focus on your hands or a spot nearby.

4. Beginning meditators should count upwards to ten on each exhale. Breathe in a relaxed and natural way. Then begin again at one and repeat. Continue to breathe naturally.

5. Continue for 15 minutes.

In my personal experience, I dont find that the specific length of time is as important as repetition and persistence. To paraphrase, 10 minutes daily beats 15 minutes once a week. This brings me to another point: We all have different personalities and as such, different meditation approaches suit some more than others. Thankfully there are many varieties of meditation. Some varieties have sub-varieties.

Mindfulness meditation is one of these versatile practices. Perhaps its because its essence-awareness of the present moment-is so versatile. Mindfulness in our daily life can be practiced by slowing down and attending to our surroundings. What are our 5 senses telling us? We can use mindfulness in the middle of a hectic day, such as paying attention to our breathing when stopped at a traffic light. We can also use other everyday events as triggers for mindfulness. Buckling your seatbelt? Make this a reminder to return to the present. Really think about what youre doing and the details of the experience.

The more traditional may benefit from a more formal mindfulness practice. You may sit in the identical form as in traditional Buddhist meditation- on a chair or kneeling. However, you may also sit with your legs crossed. Your eyes are closed and your posture is both straight and relaxed while your head remains upright. Focus on your breath and allow mental chatter to float by without regard. Thoughts, emotions and sensations will come, but dont be influenced by them. keep focused on your breath. If you are getting involved with your thoughts dont worry-your efforts arent destroyed. The key thing is to bring your attention back to breathing and continue. This can go on for 5 minutes to 5 hours. Its up to you.

Transcendental Meditation is another popular form of meditation. Generally, this type is practiced twice daily for a period of 15-20 minutes. Again, this technique involves sitting comfortably. Yet in contrast to basic Buddhist the eyes stay closed. Each student is given a mantra and is instructed to induce relaxation through use of this mantra. Since many of either cant or wont go to a formal TM class, a no-fail mantra I recommend is the classic OM. In The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V Desikachar writes that repetition of "OM" enables us to maintain mental and emotional calmness, overcome obstacles and enable understanding. It is the shortest of the mantras, and is said to be suggestive of God. If youre uncomfortable with the religious aspects of OM I suggest a word that has positive meaning for you, such as love, calm or peace. Calm is an ideal substitute, since vocally it resembles OM.

Final Word

You may never, ever choose to meditate. Yet if this is your choice it may be valuable to question why. For a long time I was reluctant because of images of the dropout hippie 60s. Yet when I tried it the experience overcame my reservations. If you try it the same may happen to you. If it doesnt you havent lost any money, and youve gained a new experience.

Resources:

Getting in the Gap: making conscious Contact with God through Meditation (Hay House Inc., 2003)

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh (Beacon press, 1975)

Galina Pembroke

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Sony PlayStation 3 vs. Microsoft Xbox 360

Regardless of the interest you have at heart or the business you are in there is always a rivalry between the best in anything. Pepsi vs. Coke. Wal-Mart vs. Target. Coors vs. Budweiser. You get the point, when it comes to being the best it doesnt matter who you are, there is always a rival and there is always somebody ready to take up the argument of the other guys.

The video game industry is no different than any other so when it comes to being a hardcore video gamer in the present day there are two choices for you in which to choose your alliance, microsoft or Sony. More specifically, you need to choose between their golden children, the PlayStation and xbox empires. For those of you incapable of making the decision yourself, read the following to understand what both have to offer.

• xbox was released over a year ago with no competitor as Sony had yet to release its new PlayStation 3, delaying it over a year to make it competitive. PlayStation 3 seems to have done so with a cell broadband Engine to power its newest entry into the video gaming arms race. Whether you know which is better without playing both is solely based on if you are a computer genius or not. If not, which most of us are not, understand that both are based on having multiple processors running at the same time.
• just as you would expect, both manufacturers offer different packages for buyers in retail outlets across the country. Generally, each is offered in a core package and a premium package with names varying at different retail outlets. Basically, what you have to choose from is a basic system with no hard drive, but everything else. A system that provides you with 20GB of hard drive and a different system that offers 60GB of hard drive. xbox 360 is generally around $100 cheaper in all categories at the moment, but it has also been around for a year longer.
• Where PlayStation 3 is separating itself from xbox 360 at the time being is in the game discs or capability with Blu-Ray technology. Blu-Ray technology allows for more space on each disc which means that developers and designers can go deeper and more sophisticated with game play in each game. This is exclusive to PlayStation 3 at the moment, but you can bet that all systems will have it in the coming years.
• Both video gaming giants offer an online gaming service to allow gamers to be able to compete with each other across the world. xbox Live is currently the more well known of the two services, but it does cost money in the form of a monthly subscription to be able to use it. PlayStation 3 is preparing to have a massive online community along with the launch of the system itself, with the difference between them and xbox being that PS3s online service will be offered without charge.

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Be a Jet Setter with the Ericcson Faceplate

Do you have a Sony Ericcson mobile? Then be a jet setter with a new Sony Ericcson faceplate. Whether it is in clear lilac, ocean blue or champagne you will set the fashion for you phone. Why not change your faceplate to match your outfit? The Sony Ericcson faceplates are very affordable so switching them on your phone several times a week could make you the jet setter of your school, work or parents club. A Sony Ericcson faceplate is unique and customized to fit your lifestyle. Whether your lifestyle is out working hard in construction or working hard as a secretary Sony has the faceplate to fit nicely into your industry.

The Sony Ericsson T616 and T610 cell phones have a faceplate that covers the keypad, antenna cover, battery cover and Lens. It comes in a variety over bright colors. This Sony Ericcson z200 faceplate comes with a clear yellow display window. easy installation, no tools are needed. Sony Ericsson T300 and T306 cell phones have a faceplate that works with the original keypad and battery cover. No matter which Sony Ericcson phone that you own you are able to change the look just buy purchasing a faceplate for.

There is no need to carry around the same old dull looking phone for the life of your contract. Spruce it up once a month or once a week. faceplates make it possible to keep your phone looking new and sharp at all times. You might damage the facial part of your Ericcson phone while working or accidentally drop it and scratch it, well with a new faceplate no one would ever know the difference. This is a great way to make a rough looking phone look brand new again. faceplates are a great way to help you keep your phone looking good for the duration of your contract. It also makes your phone unique to you, your mood or your personality.

Getting your Sony Ericcson faceplate is a great way to make a statement about you. Ladies if you are feeling happy and cheerful then choose a bright sassy pink. Gentlemen if you are an outdoorsman then choose a camouflage or if you are feeling flirty choose bright red. It is all up to you on how you want your phone to look so check out all the options with the sony ericcson faceplates

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