Are you looking for a healthy meal replacement powder for help with your diet or just the convenience factor?

I wasn’t! But… I had some coupons to use at The Vitamin Shoppe, and figured it would be a good time to order something rather expensive, so I got a canister of The Ultimate Meal.

The Ultimate Meal is a meal replacement powder, but it’s more along the lines of a “greens supplement” than one of those highly-processed, high-protein meal replacement shakes.

How expensive was it? About $50 for a 15 day supply! The retail price is $69.95, but I’ve seen it listed as low as $49.77. (I paid $52.39 for the 30-serving canister, which meant I paid $1.74 per serving.)

Continue reading to see if I got my money’s worth…

The Ultimate Meal Health and Nutrition

The Ultimate Meal contains a whole bunch of good stuff, which is mostly raw and minimally processed.

Here’s the main ingredient list:

• THE ULTIMATE QUINOA® & THE ULTIMATE MILLET®
• THE ULTIMATE AMARANTH®
• CERTIFIED ORGANIC BROWN RICE PROTEIN 75% CONCENTRATE (INDIA)
• CERTIFIED ORGANIC, RAW, MILLED, GOLDEN FLAX SEED (CANADA)
• CERTIFIED ORGANIC SPIRULINA (INDIA)
• DE-OILED PLANT LECITHIN (USA)
• THE ULTIMATE BROCCOLI®
• VITAMIN C® (FULLY REACTED AND BUFFERED WITH CALCIUM) (USA)
• WILDCRAFTED FRESH FREEZE-DRIED HORSETAIL HERB (USA)
• NATURAL VITAMIN E SUCCINATE (USA)
• CALCIUM (MALATE & CITRATE) (USA)
• CITRUS BIOFLAVONOID COMPLEX 50% (USA)
• MAGNESIUM (CITRATE) (USA)
• WILDCRAFTED FRESH FREEZE-DRIED NETTLES (USA)
• OPTI-PURE® CO-ENZYME Q10 (JAPAN)
• OPTI-PURE® GINKGO BILOBA EXTRACT 24-6% (JAPAN)
• OPTI-PURE® GRAPE SEED EXTRACT (JAPAN)
• OPTI-PURE® ALPHA LIPOIC ACID 95% (JAPAN)
• OPTI-PURE® CAFFEINE-FREE GREEN TEA EXTRACT (JAPAN)
• EMED-MT® MILK THISTLE EXTRACT 80% (SPAIN)
• STEVITA® STEVIOSIDE (STEVIA EXTRACT) (BRAZIL)
• L-OPTIZINC® (NATURAL ZINC MONOMETHIONINE) (USA)
• CHROMEMATE® (CHROMIUM POLYNICOTINATE) (USA)
• YEAST-FREE SELENIUM (SELENOMETHIONINE) (INDIA)

(How they got a registered trademark on “Vitamin C” I’m not sure! LOL!)

And here are the nutrition facts:

Serving Size (1 scoop) 40 g

Calories …………. 170
Protein ………….. 16 g
Carbohydrates …. 20 g
Fiber …………….. 8 g
Fat ………………. 4 g
Sodium ………….. 95 mg
Potassium ……… 175 mg
Calcium ………… 300 mg
Magnesium …….. 175 mg
Beta-carotene .. 5,000 IU
Vitamin B12 …… 15 mcg
Folic Acid …….. 125 mcg
Iron ……………. 4 mg
Choline ……….. 300 mg
Omega 3 ……… 770 mg
Omega 6 ……… 350 mg

Overall, you get a wide variety of ingredients, and from the sounds of things, they seem to be natural and unprocessed. Just about everything you want in a meal replacement powder.

Outside of a very well-balanced diet, most certainly including a lot of fruits and vegetables, this could be one of the best ways to get all your nutrients.

But should you rely on a meal replacement powder? I’m not so sure…

The Ultimate Meal Taste Test

While you can’t expect something like this to taste like a box of donuts, it has to be tolerable, or you’re not going to drink it. So here are my thoughts on the taste (and keep in mind, my typical diet contains fruits, veggies, lean meats, and whole grains, with a severe lack of processed foods.)

I started out by mixing a scoop of this into my fruit smoothies, which is very similar to what the label recommends doing. It definitely changed the flavor, but it’s hard to really explain the flavor of The Ultimate Meal. It has multiple flavors in it, I think. You get some fruit flavor, nutty flavor, and the ubiquitous “green” flavor.

My favorite mix was a banana cherry smoothie (1 frozen banana, 2 handfuls cherries, plain yogurt, milk, 1 scoop Ultimate Meal.) The sweetness of the banana counteracts the blandness of the powder, and all the flavors seem to mesh together.

The Ultimate Meal itself is neither awful nor awesome. I actually enjoy it in moderation. When I had it twice per week, it was good; I’d actually look forward to it. But after three consecutive days on this stuff, I was sick of it and had to take a break!

A big problem is the texture. It is very grainy. I liken it to putting sand in your smoothie!

And you can’t just mix a scoop of this in 8oz water, chug it, and be done. I tried that, but had to sip it. (According to the label, you should actually chew each bite, like it’s food.)

Anyway, a few sips were OK, but after half the glass I was seriously ready to dump the rest out! (This is coming from someone who enjoys the taste of Barlean’s Greens in water.)

To continue using this to finish off the canister (no way I would throw out something so expensive,) I had to use only 1/4 cup (one full scoop is 1/3 cup) of The Ultimate Meal for my 36-40oz smoothies. Even at that dilution, it’s pretty potent, but not bothersome.

The last thing I tried (to finish this stuff off quickly) was to mix a scoop into 8-12oz whole milk in my BlenderBottle and see if I could choke it down. The taste wasn’t great, but I could get it all down quickly. (But no matter what, you get the gritty stuff lining your mouth!)

The only catch with rationing is that you’re supposed to finish the canister within two months of opening it. So you can only ration it out to one serving every other day (i.e. consume at least one serving every other day for 60 days.) Any less frequent, and the product may lose its potency.

The Ultimate Meal as a Meal Replacement

I like to switch things up with my diet from time to time. I rarely do any calorie-restriction diets, but every so often I’ll do one for a short period of time. So I tested The Ultimate Meal during one of these times.

For this diet, I had three meals per day. One was a full meal, one was purely vegetables (~8 servings,) and the last was a fruit smoothie with The Ultimate Meal in it. I snacked on fruit and walnuts between meals.

I’d say my typical daily calories were 2,000 or so, which isn’t particularly low, but I was still in training at the time. (2,000 is low relative to the 4,000 I had been getting.)

“Did you lose strength? Feel weak?”

Well, I didn’t feel super weak or anything, so that was good. But man I was hungry a lot and therefore very angry and irritable for most of the day!

That made it hard to focus on work, and I did feel slightly weaker during training, so I wasn’t thrilled.

What really made me mad though, was how one of the claims is that The Ultimate Meal fills you up. In my case, it didn’t. Not even close!

The Forze GPS bars I tested before were much better for keeping hunger at bay between meals. Those bars are highly processed and not the healthiest thing out there, but they did provide the promised satiety.

“Did you get healthier?”

Plain and simple, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Let’s say you have a diet full of junk food and you start taking this in a fruit smoothie twice daily. You will probably feel awesome. But you could also cut out the junk food in favor of whole foods and be just as well off. (Although adding in The Ultimate Meal surely would be the easier route, at least at first.)

If you’re already healthy, I don’t think you’ll notice any benefits like improved digestion, higher energy levels, etc. It could help, but I wouldn’t expect anything noticeable.

My final verdict is…

What gets me with The Ultimate Meal is that it’s extremely expensive and doesn’t even taste that good. So I’m not really a fan. (I will be looking into other products in the “greens supplements” category.)

While it is chock full of nutrients, seems like a well-made product, and surely has some health benefits, it just wasn’t worth it to me. If you enjoy taking it, great, but I’d rather enjoy my fruit smoothies and get my vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids at other times of the day!

Official website: www.UltimateLife.com

Buy online: www.VitaminShoppe.com

If you’ve been paying attention to any diet news recently, you have probably heard stuff about the Paleo diet and gluten-free diets and all sorts of diets that fly in the face of the standard endurance athlete’s diet.

Some of the advice is great, but like much of the nutrition information you find online, a lot is garbage. One book I thought stood out from the rest is The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson of the Mark’s Daily Apple blog.

Mark used to be a serious marathoner and triathlete and probably had a diet and lifestyle similar to yours. Today he has a “Primal” lifestyle, where he lives, eats, and exercises much, much differently! We’re talking a serious cut in cardio exercise and a diet rich in red meat and saturated fat, with almost no carbs.

If Mark didn’t have such a prevalent background in endurance sports, I wouldn’t take him seriously. I would have skipped over his book completely. But coupled with my past experiences with the endurance sports lifestyle, Mark’s insights really hit home with me, so I decided to read the book.

All you really have to do is read the introduction and you’ll agree with where Mark is coming from. I’m willing to bet that his experience as an endurance athlete is not far from yours. You know, tons of exercise, getting burnt out from overtraining, destroying your immune system and getting sick five times per year, etc.

After that, Mark gets into a “Conventional Wisdom vs The Primal Blueprint” discussion. It’s a comparison between what everyone does (even though is rarely works) and what he thinks should be done. It’s funny because they are the exact opposite!

That leads into the 10 Primal Laws. This is the basis of the book. These are ten general rules to live by, and although they are for everyone, a lot of the logic can be applied to your bike racing and nutrition. Not to mention your lifestyle outside of your training plan.

I was sold on the book at this point, as my diet and training have become more “Primal” over the last couple years without even knowing it, and my results have been undoubtedly different (in a good way.) I’m still an endurance athlete, but the way I do things has changed.

Anyway, back to the content of the book. You absolutely have to read the “Grok vs Korg” section, which is a humorous comparison between the way humans lived thousands of years ago compared to today. Unfortunately, all the statistics about long workdays, lack of sleep, lots of sitting in cars and at desks, and eating tons of processed junk foods are true!

That finishes up the first section of the book which is still mostly an introduction to the whole idea of The Primal Blueprint. Next, you get into real meat of the book.

This starts with a lot of information on your macronutrients – protein, fat, and carbs. This is great advice that’s easy to understand. It shows you why most carbs are generally bad and protein and fat are generally good. It’s a much better explanation than I’ve read anywhere else, and yes, it’s well cited!

Just to be clear, this book is NOT the Atkins diet or some other stupid “extremely low calorie, no carb” diet. And while the whole “Primal” idea may sound gimmicky, the book isn’t. It’s actually a lot of science that makes sense. Rather than saying typical ideas and science you may have heard is wrong, it’s more like putting an asterisk at the end of the statement.

You actually get the “why” behind the arguments and even more importantly, how every part of your diet works together. If you don’t know this, attempting a low-carb diet probably won’t help you.

Next, there is a chapter devoted to each of the ten Primal laws, where it goes into detail on each one.

Laws 1-3 are about eating healthy and avoiding poisonous things (mostly processed food.) This continues on with good diet advice similar to what was in the first part of the book. There’s not much to say other than it’s good advice that you need to read.

Laws 4-6 are the exercise laws. In general, it’s good information, and I’m pretty sure most normal people would be much better off if they followed this advice.

However, from an endurance athlete’s perspective, I’m not so sure I agree. For example, Mark says if you get “Primal fitness” from a weekly exercise routine of 2-5 hours walking, a couple strength training workouts, plus one 10-minute sprinting session, you’ll be able to complete a half-marathon or triathlon with very little additional training.

I think that is overstating things a bit. A half-marathon is no joke. Sure, technically you could walk a half-marathon and “complete” it, but I don’t consider that an accomplishment. However, I don’t think Mark is writing for professional athletes, so no need to nitpick each detail here.

Then you get into Heart Rate (HR) zones, just like you’d find in most any endurance sports training plan. You know, do most of your rides at an endurance pace (60-70% Max HR,) rather than spending lots of time at 80% MHR, where it’s hard but not hard enough to be really beneficial. For intensity, you sprint, which would be a max effort.

I think most endurance athletes have that down, assuming they have read something like Joe Friel’s The Cyclist’s Training Bible.

Moving on, I find it odd that in the “chronic cardio” section, Mark says people are doing their frequent 30-60 minute cardio sessions at like 90% MHR. Rarely do I ever spend an entire 30 minutes straight at 90% of my MHR. 20 minutes, maybe, but that’s still an infrequent training session or race.

I can’t imagine someone of average fitness being able to exercise at that rate for any substantial amount of time!

Anyway, this section says to me, “keep doing what you’re doing” when it relates to exercise. That’s not what I expected to read, but I guess that’s a good thing!

Lastly, Mark gives some advice on proper form for running and cycling (page 190.) But unless you’re new to this stuff and buying your cycling and running gear at Walmart, you should already know this.

Finally you finish the exercise section and get to the lifestyle advice. You have your basics like getting plenty of sleep, but it goes into great detail on how sleep works and how important it is to wake up naturally. You may already know this, but it’s good to read if you don’t.

I’ve followed the recommended sleep schedule, waking up without an alarm, at least 80% of the time since I can remember. Middle school maybe? It’s quite possible to do.

I have also been following the “Play” and “Get Adequate Sunlight” laws for as long as I can remember, and I must say, it works.

Finally, The Primal Blueprint laws include avoiding stupid mistakes and using your brain. I really need to work on this! I am always making stupid mistakes and getting hurt, typically when doing something mundane. Apparently I’m alert and can keep myself out of trouble during treacherous moments or sports, but walking around the house, I’m in trouble!

Well, that finishes up the Primal rules. Now on to some other topics to round out the book…

This is a big one – the Primal Approach to Weight Loss, which covers how to lose 1-2lb body fat per week.

This is just some more details on using the Primal lifestyle for fat loss. It’s also the section where Mark admits it’s not all “effortless” like it says on the title.

A very brief section on intermittent fasting is included, although it doesn’t go very deep in the “why” it works department. I find IF very interesting and thought if he would recommend it in the book, he’d provide more details. Oh well, there is plenty of info out there if you look it up. [I will be trying this out to see how it works! Stay tuned for my Primal fat loss results.]

Finally, the conclusion. To finish up, Mark talks about how the typical lifestyle today sucks compared to Grok and how to change it, with some specific steps for taking action.

Then the rest of the book is appendices. My favorite is a three-day journal in the life of Mark Sisson, which includes diet and exercise and a general timeline.

Lastly, the “Primal Approved” and “Primal Avoid” pages which are great. It’s like a quick reference of what you can and can’t eat, drink, etc. along with what workouts are good and bad.

Usually I don’t learn a whole lot of practical information from a regular hardcover book like this, but I learned a lot and was left with a feeling of satisfaction after reading it! So it was both fun to read and useful!

My final verdict is…

Primal Blueprint is worth the read, even if you don’t believe any of the “Grok lifestyle” or “Paleo” or “live like a caveman” kind of stuff you hear.

The athletic stuff isn’t very useful because if you already have a well-designed plan that follows basic training principles, you’re right on track.

But I think the Primal lifestyle is great. And Primal eating, in addition to the basics of Precision Nutrition, makes for a solid nutrition and wellness plan. I would buy this book just to read the sections about nutrition!

Official website: www.PrimalBlueprint.com

Buy online: www.Amazon.com*

*The book is $26.99 at the official site, but more like $14.92 at Amazon.com.

You know the general rule about doing one long ride (3-6 hours) per week to maintain endurance? Even during the race season where you’re focusing more on interval training and racing itself, it’s common to do that long endurance ride each week so your body doesn’t forget what it’s like to go long.

Well I was thinking about that, and I wondered, “couldn’t that idea apply to other areas?”

Almost instantly, I got the idea to do an “endurance eating” day once per week, too. This would be one day per week where you consume a substantial amount of calories above your usual intake. It’s not a cheat day where you can binge on the worst junk food you can find; rather, you’d binge on your regular healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, lean meats, nuts, legumes, etc.

I’m not a doctor or an RD or anything, and I didn’t test this idea in a laboratory, but I think it has merit. Here’s my reasoning…

First, the ever popular “starvation mode” argument. This is where your body adapts to a restricted calorie diet and therefore lowers your metabolism, burns fewer calories, stores more fat, etc. It’s not a good place to be.

That’s the danger with restricting calories every day for long periods of time. Your body just adapts to that caloric intake and you’ll no longer lose weight that way. (Just like if you do the exact same exercise routine for a long period of time, your body adapts and no longer produces results.)

People used to say that if you skipped meals, your body would enter starvation mode. I think that’s an old wives’ tale, though. Experts that I have some faith in say starvation mode kicks in after seven days. (It has to do with the hormone leptin; here’s some more info on starvation mode if you’re interested.)

What I’m thinking is that if you strategically eat big once every week, you can keep your body out of starvation mode and continue to burn lots of calories, as if you were on a high calorie diet each day. Basically you are keeping your body prepared to handle a large amount of food in one day (just like keeping it ready to handle lots of miles in one day.)

Ideally your body will think “burn fat!” since it will think you’re eating 6,000 calories per day, but then since you’re eating healthy and low on the calories for the next 3-6 days, you burn more than normal thanks to that big eating day!

By the time your body starts considering that you’re going a little low on food, bam, you hit it with another endurance eating day!

I wouldn’t expect miracles, but every little bit helps.

I do know that this strategy is getting more common in the general fitness and bodybuilding population (for example, there’s a book called Cheat Your Way Thin,) but I thought it was interesting to compare it to endurance training so it makes more sense for cyclists.

And hey, what’s better after a long endurance ride than a huge amount of tasty food? The two go hand in hand!

Photo credit: morrissey

Today we’ll look at the problems with eating too much or too little, as well as eating the right food…

is it normal to be totally starving after a ride? I was so hungry after a 2 hour intense training ride of the spinner that I felt really light headed and bad. I had to stop and get a piece of pizza.

I need to eat more I guess not sure what types of food. Is there a diet plan you have/reccomend so I won’t bonk anymore?????

Thanks,
Starving Steven

Hi Starving,

First off, it’s definitely not unusual to be starving after a long, intense ride. You could easily burn 2,000+ calories on a ride like that, so your body is going to tell you it needs food to replenish what it just lost. (It’s also not unusual to want to throw up after a long, intense ride, depending on the circumstances…)

The trick is to eat the right amount of the right foods before, during, and after riding so that you don’t get to the point where you’re starving. You might be eating too little, you might not be getting enough fat and protein, or it could deal with a rapid insulin response to carbs. Or maybe something else.

The light-headedness does make it sound like you’re running low on blood sugar during the ride. Either that or you’re pushing yourself insanely hard in a hot, indoor environment with stale air.

The best thing I can do is point you toward a few links that might help you figure out the right plan for your needs:

First, check my articles:

“What to Eat During a Ride or Race” and “What to Eat Pre- and Post-Ride”

Those articles give you ideas of what to eat before, during, and after a ride.

Next, if you want more ideas of good foods to eat as part of your daily diet, here are a few ideas:

Dr. Mercola’s Nutrition Plan
This sugar-free meal planning resource might not be perfect for cyclists, but it’s useful and free. Check it out for some ideas of wholesome meals.

How to Lose 20 lb Fat in 30 Days
I like reading articles from Tim Ferriss, and this is no exception. You might not be looking to drop 20 lb, but there are a few ideas for meals consisting of mainly meat/protein and vegetables.

The Pre-Race Meal
This article comes from Hammer Nutrition, so it will be biased toward their products, but the meat of the article is about meal type and timing. It’s very thorough (not to mention, correct.)

Healthiest Meals on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What Meals to Eat and Why
If you’re still having trouble, you might want to buy a book full of healthy meal ideas. This is a great book from one of my favorite authors, Dr. Jonny Bowden.

Shape Up!: The 8-week Program To Transform Your Body, Your Health, And Your Life
Another book from Jonny Bowden, this one might not be that useful to you, but it does cover some basics about getting the right food in your diet.

And last but not least, the Precision Nutrition system will help you organize your diet and time your nutrients properly. In your case, that means eating strategically to get the most benefit from what you eat, with less possibility of gaining weight (fat) from your post-ride binges.

Keep working at it and eventually you’ll nail down your nutrition strategy!

Today we are looking at possible health issues caused by processed foods, including diet drinks that contain artificial ingredients such as aspartame.

i was looking at your website and it is VERY , VERY , INTRESTING ! i drink a lot of diet drinks but after what i was reading dont think i want to anymore. i also have chronic bladder infections is it cuz of the diet drinks ? i cook only with OLIVE OIL , EAT ONLY WHOLE GRAINS , no rice no pasta and NO RED MEAT since childhood . i eat chicken , turkey , alots of fish and greens. but my down fall is JUNK FOOD…….. NATURAL POPCORN , FRITO CHIPS , POTATOE CHIPS AHHHHHHH……….and you please answer about the things i have wrote when you have just a tiny chance?

Thanks,
Dieting Diane

Hi Diane,

It’s the ever-popular “processed foods” debate. The thing with processed foods, including diet drinks, it the number of artificial substances they contain or are subjected to in the factory. There’s a lot of weird stuff out there, and most of it hasn’t been around long enough to have been studied for long-term side effects.

We can’t say for sure which problems are going to be attributed to which chemical ingredients, but I highly prefer to ingest pure, natural foods, instead of something that was mixed, bleached, boiled, or concocted in a laboratory.

So I don’t know if the aspartame from diet drinks could cause a bladder infection, but it could very well make it hard for your body to fight off the infection.

You could think of the aspartame as a second infection in your body. Now, instead of your body fighting off the bladder infection, your body has to fight off the bladder infection and deal with this other chemical contaminant (e.g. aspartame.) Two against one is not a fair fight!

For further reading, you may want to check out the bladder infection page at the Natural Cures website, plus this article with an in-depth analysis of diet drinks and their problems.

Although I do recommend ditching the diet drinks completely, you’re on track with what I would recommend for a good diet. Keep eating a diet rich in natural foods with lots of greens, and go ahead and indulge every once in a while. Sometimes the stress of restricting those foods is worse for you than eating them, as long as it’s done in moderation.

I mean, even with a perfect diet, you’re bound to run into some sort of health problem eventually. So why not treat yourself sometimes?