My Secret Weapon: Peanut Butter

I grew up thinking that peanut butter was another one of those delicious foods that has to be bad for you, I was very wrong. After digging and digging into the foods that I am allowed to eat and that will aid muscle growth I came out with some surprising results.

Peanut Butter is good for you! ::faints::

Yep it’s true, as you have probably noticed that I mix the lovely stuff with my oatmeal in the mornings. So what is the story of peanut butter how is it good for you? Lets have a round up of all the goodies and then look into them some more.

Ok so here are some of the things that I found out about peanut butter;

• Contains folic acid
• Lowers blood pressure
• Protection against cardiovascular disease
• Excellent source of protein
• Boosts Testosterone

FOLIC ACID
This is cool, it can reduce the risk of heart disease and assists your body in making new cells; especially in developing babies spinal cord. Folic acid teamed up with certain vitamins (B6 & B12) helps to eliminate homocysteine which can mess up your heart & arteries.

LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE
Studies have been shown that eating nuts 5-6 times a week can lower your blood pressure as part of a controlled diet. The lowering of blood pressure can occur in as little as two weeks.

PROTECTION AGAINST CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Peanut butter has a lot of monounsaturated fats which can lower your cholesterol and has been proven to reduce the risk of beast cancer by 45%, cool huh? Peanut oil is packed with monounsaturated fats. It also contains Resveratrol which also aides cancer prevention, increases athletic performance & protects against viral infections.

EXCELLENT SOURCE OF PROTEIN
Not much to say on this but nuts are packed with protein. Protein is vital for your metabolism and building muscles.

BOOSTS TESTOSTERONE
The monounsaturated fats in peanut butter help you make more testosterone which helps your muscles beef up and your fat disintegrate.

BE CAREFUL: PEANUT BUTTER CONTAINS A LOT OF CALORIES.

I hope this helps. I am sure that it’s not complete and there are many more benefits, which I would gladly receive. If you have anything to add stick it in a comment.

Here is a recipe to make your own healthy peanut butter.

 

 

Here are the sources of my peanut butter digging;

• The Abs Diet – By David Zinczenko
• Wikipedia
• PeanutButterLovers.com

Saturday 19th – Here’s What I Chewed Today

Breakfast – Oatmeal, whey, peanut butter and hot milk

Snack 1 – raw carrot

Lunch – Two wholemeal slices of bread, 1 breast of chicken, mayo & a thin-cut slice of cheese

Snack 2 – star fruit x2

Dinner – Two chicken breasts pan fried in olive oil (i’m aloud one fancy meal a week 😛 yummy!) and Kangkung (a green leaf vegetable from Indonesia)

Snack 3 – half a watermelon.

The Night Before the Weigh-in, Burning Fat & Oatmeal

Tomorrow’s my first weigh-in after the initial weigh-in, I am looking forward to it and a bit apprehensive about it too.

It’s going to be ok, I have stuck well to my eating plan and I have been master of my strength training. I feel like I am getting addicted to the strength training, on my day’s off (for muscle recovery) I find myself missing pushing and burning through my workout.

What I am trying to achieve is weight loss, but my workouts (strength training) are not focused on burning fat they are focused on building up muscle. Lean muscle burns calories to keep going, the more muscles you have the more calories you’ll burn. Strength training is also powerful as you will keep on burning calories after you have finished training. Unlike cardio when you stop the calories stop burning too.

I can’t believe I was only finding this out, before I was tearing around on a bike and could not loose anything.

One of the other things that I have learnt since my quest for a healthy life is that there is a little powerful friend that we can have help us; enters Mr. Oatmeal.

Oatmeal is has so many benefits. Not only will it lower your cholesterol but a whole truck load of other goodies including keeping your blood sugar levels longer (so you won’t get hungry quickly again).

I love it, my mornings don’t feel complete without it. This is how I prepare it; I will boil some low-fat milk and then add my oatmeal to my bowl and then mix it with some whey. When the milk has boiled I just pour it over the top and mix it up good. And finally I add a table spoonful of peanut butter. Yummy!

Well its 8:30pm here now in Indonesia and I am going to spend some time with my wife and son before I go to bed (Getting good sleep is also very important, as your body needs time between workouts to recover and rebuild).

Well until tomorrow’s weigh in, goodnight!