Weight Loss and Diet - Keeping the Pounds Off

As many of you know, I had some medical issues in 2016 that resulted in a significant weight loss. After fighting my weight gain for decades, I lost 45 pounds. In so doing I learned some interesting things about weight loss, using my own body as a guinea pig. I have concluded that, in addition to the benefits of exercise and body building, it really is about "calories in, calories out". If you consume less calories than you can burn, you are going to be able to maintain or reduce your weight. Goal: 2,250 calories per day.

To that end, I wanted to find a low calorie breakfast substitute / meal replacement that would work for me. I wanted to find something with about 300 calories that would keep me going until lunchtime.

Now, my absolute favorite meal replacement is the MET Rx Extreme Chocolate Shake. It is thick and very much like a chocolate shake. A terrific product, and one that I have been using it as a breakfast drink for many years. And when I get a craving for a cookie, cake, or chocolate at night, I will sip one of these. I recommend it (best pricing is on Amazon).

But the mad scientist in me wanted badly to create his own protein shake. And so, I set about to build one from ingredients, focused on a 40 gram protein formula. Doing the research of the various protein powders (whey, casein, plant protein) I determined that the price per serving of 40 g is all over the place, depending upon which brand you choose. Marketing. Thus, my gut feeling is, just go with what is most economical for a 40 g per serving product (may be one scoop, may be two). For example, you will see in the above photo that I found a brand in close-out for half price ($35).  Organic Greens can be found at Walmart. The Optifiber comes from Costco. The guar gum ( a superior thickener to xanthan gum which I had been using) is from Bob's Red Mill and I found it in closeout at H-E-B. Be sure to pick up some Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa to make the drink a little more palatable.

The formula (using the scoops provided where applicable):

2 scoops Optifiber

1 or 2 scoops of chocolate flavor protein powder (to build an equivalent of 35-40 grams of protein) your choice of brands

1 tbs Special Dark cocoa powder

1/2 tsp guar gum

1 scoop Organic Greens chocolate flavor

20 ounces of ice cold water, or add some ice cubes

All ingredients in a blender, blended until nice and thick. Note: add more guar gum if the thickness is not to your liking.

Jay's Fantastic Coffee Smoothie Meal Replacement Recipe

Guar Gum versus Xanthan Gum

Wikipedia: Guar Gum

Recipes for Meal Replacements - DIY at Home (Extensive Collection)

Here follows the TM/DR ("too much information, didn't read")  portion of this riff:

I was able to use myself as a guinea pig last year when I was on a feeding tube for several months. The liquid nutrient/meal replacement solution that I poured through the tube three times a day was crap. It was whey for protein, canola oil for fat, and high fructose corn syrup for carbohydrates. It was tailored to a daily caloric intake of 2,250 calories. And I did just fine on it. I had lifted weights prior to treatment to bulk up as much as possible, knowing that there would come a time when I couldn't swallow and that all food would taste bad. The rule of thumb is that when you drop your body weight by 10%, it's time to go to a feed tube. So, the first thing that my body turned to for energy were my muscles. As they started to disappear, my body started pulling from my fat storages and weight loss occurred because, at 2,250 calories, I was burning more in a day than the meal replacements were delivering. And the light bulb went off that, at the chemical/molecular level in the stomach and digestive system, the body really doesn't care if you are ingesting canola oil and whey protein, or paté and burgers. So once I had this baseline where I knew that I could sustain myself with "crap", it was just one step forward to realizing that if I maintained a nominal calorie intake, eating in moderation, that I would continue to keep the weight off. In the best of all worlds, that calorie intake should come from, say, a quality protein , some starch such as potatoes, rice, pasta, and pretty much all the vegetable on could tolerate.

Coffee - Jay's Coffee Smoothie Protein Meal Replacement

I like some breakfast foods but not all. I enjoy making waffles and pancakes for example. And bacon But, for my daily routine, and in an effort to watch my calories, my default is a protein shake for breakfast, clocking in around 300 calories. I find that it will keep me going until noon. My preference is the MetRx Extreme Chocolate meal replacement that one finds on Amazon. You see, I lost 45 pounds last year, like the way I look now, and work to keep my daily calorie intake around 2,500 calories as much as is possible.

Extreme Chocolate


A week ago, I was contacted by Digster to participate in a survey. A survey on smoothies. And for the purposes of the survey about my smoothie habits, I developed my Coffee Smoothie as follows:

Smoothie – Coffee Smoothie

Coffee Smoothie Recipe for two servings

2 cups drip coffee, poured into an ice cube tray and frozen overnight into ice cubes

2 bananas

½  cup rolled oats

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (alkali processed “dutched” for smoothness)

2 tablespoons flax seed

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups almond milk

40 grams of protein (from whey, soy or other protein powder)

2 teaspoons honey

1. How do I actually make the smoothie?

Mise en place: I have found that it is best to arrange all ingredients ahead of time. They can, of course be all placed in the blender at the same time and then processed until smooth.

2. What is your favorite part about making smoothies?

I like that I can control the ingredients: I can control the sugar content, the carbohydrate content, the fat content and the protein content.

I like that I can vary a given recipe or create a new one.

I like that there are a multitude of recipes available to try on Pinterest, YouTube, books of course, and the web in general.

3. What is your least favorite thing about creating smoothies?

Most protein powders cling to the sides of the blender and cleaning takes more time, as scrubbing is involved. Other than that, I have no issues. It is my preferred meal replacement.

4. Is there anything about using your blender you wish you could change?

Two things actually.  Vitamix charges a lot of money for all of its products. Sometimes what they charge is ridiculous. They’ve gotten away with this for years because of the quality of their blender. But to pay upwards of $125 for a replacement bowl for what probably costs them $5 to make is annoying. Next, even though they say that the Vitamix can be used for a multitude of kitchen processes, it really can’t. It will never replace a food processor or a stand mixer. The bowl is not wide enough. It is basically for soups, smoothies, sauces and purees.

5. Anything that would be helpful in your smoothie creation?

Just remember to freeze the coffee cubes and to use a good artisanal coffee from one of Houston's premiere artisanal coffee roasters. No over roasted (burned) coffee for this boy.

Almond Milk: Most of the store bought almond milks don’t really have that much “almond” in them. Because my Vitamix blender is so powerful, I prefer to make my own. This consists of blanching one cup of whole almonds for 3- 5 minutes in hot water, allowing them to cool, removing and discarding the skin, and processing them with 5 cups of water and 1200 mg of calcium (from calcium tablets). Filter the particulate almond meal and reserve for cooking and keep the homemade almond milk refrigerated. Use within three days.

Here follow some photos that I took to turn in with the survey. For this recipe, I used Pure Protein brand whey protein which is available for a reasonable price at Target and Costco. Cocoa powder from Penzey's. Flax from Canino's Farmers Market. Cinnamon stick from Flores Spices (ground and put in McCormick jar). Coffee from Morningstar and/or Boomtown: