Chocolate & Peanut Butter Protein Brownie

After a crazy response on Facebook and Twitter today here’s the simple recipe for making the Chocolate & Peanut Butter Protein Brownie I posted this morning. As always with my recipes, make sure you tailor the ingredients and amount depending on your own macronutrients and dietary goals.

Before I begin, big shout out to Chris Lavado who gave me the initial idea for the brownie!

Ingredients:

2-2.5 scoops of Whey Protein – I use Bodybuilding Warehouse Premium Whey (chocolate cookie flavour, all of their Premium range taste amazing!)

1 can of Diet Coke or 7-Up (just less than half a can)

1 Egg White (33g liquid egg white)

25g Almond Butter/Peanut Butter

Walden Farms Chocolate/Caramel Syrup (its fat free, sugar free, carb free and calorie free)

Step 1

Add the whey protein into a large bowl.

Add the egg white.

Add the diet coke (half a can to start off with)

Step 2

Mix with a fork and feel out the constancy, if its too think add more diet coke, but add a little at a time.

The diet coke is what gives it the fluffiness and more constancy than a standard protein sludge.

Step 3

Pop in the Microwave for 2 mins, after 2 mins it should be like a thick mousse.

I put it back in for a further 1.30min to thicken it out and make the edges harder but the middle still gooey.

Step 4

Add the Peanut/Almond Butter then the Waldens Farm chocolate syrup on top.

Step 5

Enjoy!!

Let me know what you think and what added ingredients you used. I’m thinking next time trying vanilla premium whey with cinnamon and Waldens Caramel sauce!

Lee

UKBFF Nationals 2013 and 2-3 weeks out progress

Last weekend saw the UKBFF Nationals being held in Leamington Spa with all the new classes added, with all receiving a great response. I unfortunately couldn’t make the trip down but was very keen to see the pics and videos from the mens physique tall and short classes, particularly the short class as Rob Riches was up against USN sponsored Ryan Terry. Both have very well conditioned physiques and from looking at the pics it was a tough decision however Rob Riches came out on top with the win.

I'm sure you'll agree it was a tough one to judge, in my eyes Ryan takes it!

Rob Riches & Ryan Terry

Bikini tall top 3 (left to right: Kathryn Fardon, Lauren Ashwell & Sarah McLean)

Next up was the tall men’s physique class, the class I’ll be competing in, in just less than 2 weeks time. I knew of 2 of the competitors entering, ON sponsored Leon Williams and Richard Lawrence so I was interested to see how they got on. Leon competed in the first UK men’s physique class at the Stars of tomorrow back in November and placed second however this time round he out with first place. From looking at the pics a well deserved first place too, congrats bro! Both Rob and Leon will now be representing the UK in 8 days time at the IFBB European and World Championships, so best of luck to them.

After seeing the pics and having a really solid posing practise on Sunday after a chest session I feel motivated more than ever for my show, I know I won’t be the biggest on the stage but I guarantee I’ll be leanest, most confident and showing that I’m really enjoying myself up there! I had a photo shoot last week, when I was 3 weeks out with Justin Taylor and can’t wait to see the final images. I’ve also got shoots lined up closer to my show with the likes of Simon Howard and Simon Reeves so even though my shows next week I’ll still be maintaining my diet, then having a huge reefed after the BodyPower Expo.

3 Weeks Out

Hitting concentrated flyes on Sunday with Nathan, 2 weeks out.

As my final week gets closers quite a few changes will be made, cardio will be taken up a notch, my calories and carbs will be a tad lower than usual and my fluid intake will be going up. Training wise this is my last week of hitting heavy sets and low reps then I’ll be focusing on more hypertrophy training next week, I have noticed over the last two weeks my strength has dropped a little but that was to be expected and I’m really happy its happened so late in my prep. Apart from that I’m pretty well organised and ready to rock, hair cut this week, photo shoot on Sunday and my show tan is finally booked in for the day before my show with A1 Tropical Spray Tanning based in Leicester, check them out for anyone looking to compete around the UK. And finally I wanted to say a big thank you to my sister, Vanessa for tracking down a pair swim shorts that I’ve been trying to hunt down for weeks seen as I bought the wrong size first time round!!

For the people that have tweeted and messaged me about tickets for my show you can get them from the Pyramid & Parr Hall Box Office on 01925 442 345 or you can pay on the door on the day of the show.

Thanks again for everyone’s support, Lee

Official Ambassador!!

Following on from my Paying too much for your sport supplements article I’m now pleased to announce that I’m an official ambassador of the Protein Discount Card. As an ambassador I can offer my friends/family/followers/readers an exclusive 10% off the Protein Discount Card reducing it to only £18. In order to take full advantages simply enter my unique code: ‘LMALONE’ at the checkout to redeem your 10% discount.

The Protein Discount Card was introduced as a result of the 20% VAT increase on sports nutrition products imposed by the coalition government as of 1^st October 2012. The VAT increase has applied to majority of your supplements in your cupboards at home; whey protein, all in ones, weight gainers and creatine. Before the increase these particular supplements had been excluded from VAT as they we classed as food, due to the main ingredient they use is derived from milk.

I have been using my Protein Discount Card for a good few months now for not only discount on my supplements but also discount on my subscription to Muscle & Fitness magazine. I have genuinely found the discount card very beneficial as before I received it I’d spend a good hour or two online looking at all the different companies, wholesalers, searching discount codes and trying to figure out which works out the best taking into consideration price and servings etc.

If this sounds familiar or if your own supplement stack is almost due for topping up then I highly recommend The Protein Discount Card, the goal of the card is for athletes and sports enthusiast to afford the biggest brands of supplements with offers that aren’t available anywhere else on the market such as ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offers and re-useable annual discounts of up to 40%.

I personally was surprised to see all the offers available on so many of the big brands and their popular products. Not only is there buy one get one free offers on the best products but also reusable discount codes to use on other products that haven't even been hit with vat increase until the end of 2013 when the new discount card will be available. See the table below for full discount details.

To get your own card simply head over to the Protein Discount Card site where you can purchase your own card, remember to use my code ‘LMALONE’ to apply 10% off the card, that will be sent out to you within 24 hours. Using the card itself couldn't be easier, once you receive your card in the post simply head over to one of the 8 top online brands and use your unique code at the check out to take advantage of the offers available.

Protein Cookies

As you all know from my goals article and all my recent tweets I started my cutting diet 2^nd January for my first show in May. I’ll explain more about my diet, training and progress in a separate article, however to help with sweet cravings during the cut I’ve added Dan Wheelers protein cookies into my diet and they’re amazing!! Dan’s a really good mate and motivational source to keep pushing myself to the next level. Below is the recipe to Dan Protein Cookies, adapt them to fit your own diet and enjoy.

Ingredients:

40g Oats

50g Whey Protein (I’ve recently purchased Bodybuilding Warehouse

1 whole egg

66g egg whites (2 egg whites)

Tablespoon of cinnamon

10g-20g Nutella

50g Blueberries/Cherries

• Mix all the dry ingredients (oats, whey protein and cinnamon) together in a bowl.

• Add the whole egg and egg whites and mix together, depending on the consistency you might want to add a small amount of water.

• Pre heat the oven to 200° then add the blueberries/ cherries to the mix and give it a final stir.

• Spoon the mix onto a baking tray making either lots of small cookies or less thicker cookies.

• Cook in the oven for around 15 minutes and once they’re done add the Nutella to the flat side of the cookie and enjoy.

MACROS:

55g Carbs

64g Protein

18g Fat

All the ingredients above are devised to fit our current cutting diet and depending on your own diet adjust accordingly. Let us know what you think of the cookies and what ingredients you used (I’m thinking of adding peanut butter next time) by either commenting below or sending me and Dan a tweet (@Lee_Malone or @danwheeler). Also make sure you check out Dans site for more recipes, useful information and lots of motivation from Dans own transformation- http://www.danielwheeler.co.uk

Dan rocking his AestheticLifestyle vest #TeamAL

The secret is keeping busy, and loving what you do.

After 3 weeks of being ill (and no it wasn't Man Flu), I'm back to 100% and just in time too, as I have a very busy week ahead of me.

Firstly I'm back in the gym trying out the Y3T program as well as starting a new diet aiming for lean gains. I'll touch back on this later in the week where I'll write up my full training program and diet over on the training page.

As for the rest of the week, I arrived home tonight after a gruelling legs session to find my new vests have been delivered. Now I just need to source a good quality printer to brand the vests with my logo and new web address (any recommendations?).

Here's the artwork for the vests -

What do you think?

On Thursday I've been invited to the Carat Blog Shop Event for Sports, Fitness and Nutrition bloggers. The evening will include presentations and Q&A sessions with media experts and brands. I'll also have the chance to network with likeminded people, discussing different tips and tools on how to enhance my blog. 

For anyone else who'd be interested in the event here's the link to register - Carat Blog Shop Event

And finally this weekend I'll be heading over to the Sportex Festival in Manchester. Which is across both days (20th & 21st October) and will host the UKBFF British Championships and the IFBB British Grand Prix as well as other sports such as MMA, Judo, Strongman, Football and Badminton. I only have tickets for Saturday so if anyone spots me at the expo, come say hello!  

Core 150 Shaker

Following on from my previous article, Food Prep for the Week. Which covered the importance of being prepared to not only help stick to your diet but to also save time and space. I am pleased to announce that I have been fortunate to be supported by the Core 150 shaker, huge thanks to them for this and its nice to know my hard work in and out of the gym is paying off and being recognised.

Question: How many times have you heard supplement companies recommending you buy their pre workout supplement, intra supplement and post workout supplement?

Yet they sell a standard shaker with only one compartment to store and mix your supplements in, forcing you to either bring even more tupperware boxes with you containing the rest of your supplements or in my case having to bring 3 separate shakers to work with me, taking up a lot of space in my gym bag and also a lot of time of an evening washing each one.

This is where the Core 150 Shaker comes in perfectly; all internal compartments are removable making it easier to load your supplements and also to clean, each internal compartment holds 50g of powder (pre, intra & post workout) and the shaker itself holds 1 litre of water.

I have been using the shaker for just over a week now and it’s made my prep so much easier, I’m even more organised, I save time with not having to clean separate shakers and I have more space in my gym bag. I have tried other shakers in the past that do have screwed compartments below but I've found my supplements would get stuck between the screw thread, the compartments couldn't hold up to 50g and certainly couldn't hold 1 litre of water inside, leaving my shakes lumpy and too thick.

Overall the Core 150 Shaker is perfect and exactly what the fitness industry has been waiting for. One final point that makes the Core 150 Shaker stand out from the competition, it’s the first sports shaker in the world to fully endorse a charitable cause. Their aim is to provide a meal for 1 million undernourished kids over the next five years and your support in purchasing their shaker will be met with a donation to Mary's Meals supplying 1 meal to a needy child.

For more information and to buy your own Core 150 Shaker please visit their web site: http://www.core150.com/

Food prep for the week

As you know I was away on holiday last week to Egypt and tomorrow its back to work and the gym, so I spent about an hour today prepping all my food for the week. This is a question I have been asked a lot by students and people with busy lives/jobs "How do you prepare all your food?" or I hear "I don't have time to cook all these meals everyday". Well I was under the same impression when I first started training while I was at university and always slipped from my diet, currently I work as a Specialist Recruitment Consultant, Monday-Friday, 8.30am-5.00pm and I never slip from my diet.

Like the Benjamin Franklin quote, if you prepare all your food your less likely to skip a meal or stray from your diet. I took time whilst cooking all my food to take a few pics and show you how I make sure I stick to my diet and hit my daily macros.

The most important 2 things when it comes to your diet are a good set of scales and tupperwear, lots of tupperwear!

I actually got these Salter digital scales for christmas last year, I got asked if there was any little bits I wanted and I suggested a set of digital scales (I did get a funny look! ha) but I can honestly say I have used these every single day this year. One thing I've found with the tupperwear is not matter which cheap or expensive option you buy it will eventually leak-ALWAYS!!

Firstly I weight out all my Chicken, Turkey and Salmon into portions for the week.

Once each potion is weighted out I put them all on a baking tray and season with all purpose seasoning, chicken seasoning (no added salt) and cayenne pepper. I also add two mushrooms, one spring onion, a red pepper and cook for 30-40 minutes in the oven.

Once everything is cooked I take it out of the oven to cool down on a few plates.

When everything is cooled down I individually wrap each portion in kitchen foil and put in labelled freezer bags and freeze for the week. I'll take out my required portion each evening to defrost for the following day.

And thats it, simple! For that hour or so on a Sunday afternoon, it saves me cooking my food every evening taking up so much time, which I have tried in the past. 

So as you can see below is all my food ready for tomorrow-

Meal 1- Breakfast (not shown)

Meal 2- Protein shake and almond nuts

Meal 3- Sweet potato, turkey and broccoli

Meal 4- Brown rice and Chicken (Pre Workout)

Meal 5- Protein Shake (Post Workout)

2 litre bottle of water (I refill once I've drank its all)

3 Bag of Green Tea

Meal 6- Cottage Cheese (not shown)

Everything you see above is added into my gym bag along with my gym trainers, Under Armour shorts, Optimum Nutrition tee, gym gloves and iPod.

For anyone who doesn't have a big gym bag there is also the very useful 6 Pack Bag which I really want if anyone fancies treating me! 

It's a PERFECT way of managing your meals and highly recommended by so many different athletes. Awesome idea and I hope to pick one up some day.

I hope this article helps and makes achieving your goals and sticking to your diet much easier.