Protein Drink Comparison

Recently, my favorite protein supplement (Essential Natural 100% Whey Protein) has ruined their taste. When I inquired about it they told me that vendor issues required re-formulation. Bummer.
I then decided to do some comparison shopping at my local Vitamin Cottage. I purchased five different protein supplements with the following criteria: no soy, no egg and no fake sugars. The products I purchased had a variety of hemp, rice and whey protein. I then decided to rate the newly purchased products by price, taste, protein content and mixability. I mixed each drink with about 3 oz. milk and 7 oz. water. Here are my results:

#1 Solgar Whey to Go (chocolate flavor):  http://www.solgar.com/SolgarProducts/Whey-To-Go-Protein-Powder-Natural-Chocolate-Cocoa-Bean-Flavor.htm

Price: $1.49 for a single serving packet.
Taste (1-10): 9  tastes great (and it does have a tiny bit of fake sugar in it)
Protein content: 16g
Mixability: mixes well with no clumping

#2 Nutribiotic Rice Protein (vanilla flavor).
http://www.nutribiotic.com/rice-protein-vanilla-21oz.html

Price: $.89 for a single packet
Taste: 7 taste was great but there was a chalky after-taste and it was kind of weak.
Protein content: 12g
Mixability: mixes well with no clumping

A three-way tie for third place in no particular order:

#3 Nutiva organic hempshake (chocolate flavor)
http://nutivahempshake.com/choc.htm

Price: $1.25 for a single packet
Taste: 6 taste was good but left a lot of grit in your mouth after.
Protein content: 7g
Mixability: mixes ok but had to keep mixing to keep the grit suspended

#4 Biochem 100% Whey (chocolate flavor)
http://www.biochem-fitness.com/pages/powders_main.html#ultlo

Price: $1.89 for a single packet
Taste: 6 taste was a bit chemical and was harder to finish.
Protein content: 20g
Mixability: had some clumping issues

#5 Spirutein Whey (vanilla flavor)
http://www.naturesplus.com/products/productdetail.asp?cryteria=category&category=25&productNumber=4604

Price: $1.65 for a single packet
Taste: 6 tastes like alfalfa or something
Protein content: 14g
Mixability: had to be shaken a lot to keep it mixed
Note: This stuff has a huge amount of nutrients in it. I am pretty sure that if you drink it every day, you will be able to breathe fire and shoot lightning bolts out of your arse!

My old favorite, Essential Natural 100% Whey Protein in the old formula would have won first or second place. Here are the stats:
http://www.country-life.com/moreinfo.cfm?Category=22&Product_ID=388

Price: $.75 in bulk form
Taste (old formula): 9 all flavors are good
Protein content: 22g
Mixability: mixes good with no clumping

There you have it. My hard work has paid off for me when my current supply of the old stuff runs out. I gots to have my protein!

Nice day for a ride

With a predicted temperature of around 50 degrees in Pueblo, it wasn't a difficult decision to head down there for a ride. I sent out a mass invite but got mostly "no's". Of course, there is always one hardcore dude out there and I found him. The Kappel-meister! He only knows one speed...fast. He basically rides hard until he's tired, and heads back to the car. A perfect candidate for a helmet-cam footage subject:


Lake Pueblo State Park Mountain bike ride from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

As you can see from the video, I was finally a victim of the sharp rocks on my thin sidewalled tires. Ahh, the price you pay for light wheels.
After my rear tire exploded and instantaneously lost all of it's air, I set my bike down and started to asess the damage. Mike looked at me and asked: "What are YOU going to do?". Haha, I guess he was never a marine! I sent him on his way and made plans to fix the tire and meet him at his car. I got to his car first and he arrived within minutes, which means his ride was barely interrupted by my bad luck. Excellent!
The chest-mount strap for the helmet-cam was awesome. Thanks again, Don.

You know you like bikes...

when you work at a shop that sells primarily high-end bikes and your garage is full of primarily high-end bikes.
Yet you still enjoy finding a sweet Huffy beach cruiser on Craigslist, fixing it up a little and smiling while you zoom around on it in all of it's simplicity.

Only slightly modified.

Nothing on the bars but grips.

Fun for all who ride it! (go Dave, go)

Holiday schwag

My friend Don, an occasional subject in the blog, presented me with an awesome gift today. It's a chest-mount for my new helmet-cam!

(http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=16)

 Now I will have yet another vantage point from which to film our escapades. Yay! Thanks, Don!

Finally a warm day

After a week of storms and cold weather, we finally got a day above freezing. I opted for a mountain bike ride on the Santa Fe trail and then around the Air Force Academy. Still testing out the new helmet-cam and it's wide-angleness. So far, I really like it. Can't wait to actually ride some single-track with it. In the mean-time, here is another video:

Santa Fe Trail/AFA bike ride 12/12/09 from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Manitou Incline Video

Got busy with the new Helmet-Hero Wide today. Hiked the incline with it strapped to my head! It was around 15-20 degreees and snowing. Makes me feel lucky to live in Colorado Springs.

Hiking Manitou Incline and down Barr Trail from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Oh, and the new batch of beer has some reviews coming in.
Don: "Excellent".
Matt D.: "I want to start a blog telling everyone how good it is!".
Me: "Mmmmmm, good".

A cold day in....

Colorado Springs, of course. I felt like I had better ride today because the next few days aren't looking so good. I decided to ride to work (Colorado Cyclist) and pick up a new Helmet-cam since my old one expired. My plan of attack was to find some Geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/) on the way back. I don't think it ever made it to 40 degrees today and when the sun went away, it became clear that I had better keep moving. My first cache was pretty easy but I had to hike through some seriously thorny trees to get to it:

Snowy and thorny.

I moved on to the next one but couldn't find it. Found the next one and gave up looking for the last one as the weather was telling me to get home.

After I got home, I immediately tore into the new cam's packaging. It is almost identical to my old one except it has a wide-angle lens. Here is a test video:

Testing the new Helmet Hero wide from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Now I have to think of some interesting ways to use this cam!