Have you ever wondered why we don't offer our Craving Crushers for sale? I mean it makes sense right? Customers love them. Well, to understand why we don't - first we need to go back and explore why we created Craving Crushers in the first place.
The idea for Craving Crushers goes back to OUR why (fighting obesity and developing healthy long term relationships with food) and how we can help our clients be more adherent to their diets.
In the US, there is no shortage of diet crazes and fads going around. Actually, most diets "work" and people typically lose 5-10% of their starting weight in the first six months. But, up to 2/3 of the people regain MORE weight than they lost - usually within four or five years - and the weight regained may well be significantly higher than the starting weight¹.
So, we turned on our thinking caps with the goal of promoting long term sustainability for our clients. As health and fitness enthusiasts ourselves, we know first-hand that you sometimes get cravings for certain foods when you are trying to maintain a diet.
And just like that, Craving Crushers were born. A series of free treats designed to reward customers who are committing to at least ten healthy meals from us per week. We have done everything from protein bars and balls to doughnuts and cookies. The objective, as the name suggests, is to curb those sweet tooth cravings that could otherwise launch you off your diet on a downward spiral.
So, why don't we offer them for sale? Well unfortunately, delicious calorie dense food like this is easy to abuse. If you were to buy an extra 7 Craving Crushers per week, those calories could put you over the threshold for your maintenance or weight loss calories. This goes against our ultimate why.
But, if you do have the extra room in your macros to eat a couple more protein treats throughout the week - they actually aren't too hard to make at home! You are going to need a couple basic ingredients:
- Instant rolled oats
- Peanut butter (or almond butter)
- High quality whey protein
- Sweetener
- Water
Starting out, you are going to want to mix your dry ingredients. Instant oats are very inexpensive and you can find them at any grocery store in the. breakfast isle. For whey protein, we exclusively use MTS Machine Whey - pick a flavor you think sounds good! If you use a dry sweetener, we like stevia and erythritol. Many times you can find these ingredients at your local grocery store in the organic/natural baking section. If you want to try something else, grab some honey for sweetener (it will add calories, though)! You will be using about a 1:1 ratio of rolled oats to protein powder.
Next up, measure out and add in some peanut butter. This will act as your primary binder. From here, get a cup with water ready and slowly pour it in as you mix the entire mix with your hands. It is easier to add water than it is to take water out, so work slowly.
Here comes the fun part: add in any toppings to really crush those cravings. We like using cereal bits or semi-sweet chocolate chips!
That's it! Add up the nutrition for each ingredient you added and divide it by your yield. One thing we have noticed, is that the protein balls tend to come out a bit better if you do a slightly larger batch.
Have a question about your diet? Send us an email and have a NASM Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist help out!
1: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Dieting-Does-Not-Work-UCLA-Researchers-7832