Weight Loss, Product Reviews, Personal Reflections

Combat Crunch Protein Bars Review

March 9, 2019 By Allen Leave a Comment

These protein bars are, with some exceptions and caveats, really quite excellent. They do the multi-layer approach well, with a chocolate coating, crunchy bits, and the actual protein bar interior. A variety of flavours are available, and I’ve included ratings for each flavour I’ve tried to date.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup – Not the greatest, but a solid bar nonetheless.

The texture is described on the packaging as being “like a soft baked cookie” instead of a hard taffy-like paste. The truth is, of course, not quite as the advertising would have you believe. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad. It’s way better texture-wise than the few Quest bars (not to name names) that I’ve tried.

Chocolate Cake is my personal favourite. This is just like a brownie.

So instead of being like a “soft baked cookie”, I would describe it as a soft baked cookie that you’ve squished into a harder version of itself. I know, it doesn’t sound appetizing, but these things are really delicious. The chocolate crunch with the chocolate coating really makes the whole thing come together.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is amazing. It tastes almost exactly as advertised.

On my personalized nutrition plan, I’m allowed one of these a day – typically split up into one half bar twice a day as snacks. This is great for letting me mix up my flavours a bit as the fancy strikes me. It also serves as a wicked treat; it feels like I get to eat a chocolate bar every day!

Cookies and Cream was a solid flavour. Not quite chocolate cake, but really good!

With the variety of flavours out there, and these having a great nutritional profile, these are a staple of my pantry and likely will be for a time to come. Cost-wise, I’m a fan of the Kirkland Signature protein bars, but the chocolate coating on these ones makes them a favourite. Also the Cookie Dough version of the Kirkland bars is a bit lacking, but more on that in a future review.

Low sugars, low sugar alcohols, and high fibre content = gold.

It’s a nutrition plan; not a diet.

March 5, 2019 By Allen 2 Comments

There’s a lot of diets out there. Fad diets, tried and true diets, the low carb diet, the paleo diet, the ketogenic diet, the diet diet diet. That damned “Diet” word keeps popping up… but what comes to mind when you think of a diet?

For me, a diet is “what I cannot have”. That’s just what pops into my mind when I think of a diet – I’m giving something up. I’ll bet, to some degree at least, it’s true for you as well.

I’ve always been a big guy; I graduated high school in 2002 at 330lbs, and since then I’d never been below 280lbs – but had more recently found myself up at 379lbs. I’ve tried different diets over the years with limited success. I always found myself slowly falling off track with them. There’s no shame in failing on a diet, right? Diets don’t work®.

An old friend of mine lost a bunch of weight and got stupid ripped. He gave a ton of credit to a nutritionist he worked with, so I talked to him about how he did it. After a lot of considering, more wasted time, more failed attempts to do it on my own, I decided to find out more. I learned that this is really a nutrition plan; not a diet. What’s the difference? Well, this plan is entirely based around things that I can have, things that I should have and things that I want to have. There’s nothing in the plan that I don’t like – that’s part of the consultation process before I got the plan – and there’s no part of it I don’t enjoy. These are some of the things I made early on in the process – none of them felt very ‘diet’ to me.

But it’s still a diet… Saying “nutrition plan” is just using different words for it. Right?

Words have power. Lots of power. Words give meaning to everything we do, words are literally everything we say. Words are how we communicate, so picking the right word really matters. Losing weight is as much psychological as it is anything else. If you’re not in the mindset to make the necessary changes, it’s just not going to happen. If you’ve managed to get yourself into that mindset, or found yourself there due to circumstance, the words you use to guide yourself to your goal are going to make a big part of the difference between keeping that mindset or losing your way.

Nobody sticks to a diet; it’s a “thing” about diets.

“Sticking to the plan”, however, is completely different. Everyone wants to stick to the plan. It’s a thing you do with plans, damnit!

I’ve been on a nutrition plan for 9 months. I’m sticking to the plan, and I’ve lost 35% of my body weight (134lbs to date). Dieting, though? Didn’t you hear? Diets don’t work®. Me? I’ve got a plan.

Are you looking to lose some weight, get in better shape, or just eat better in general? Contact Andrew McInroy Nutrition for a personalized nutrition plan to help you reach your goals.

Things I've noticed about being smaller.

February 27, 2019 By Allen Leave a Comment

I feel better; that’s an obvious plus. I have more energy, I sleep better, I move better, and I can even keep up playing with my 5-yr-old (for a time, I am only human). My blood pressure levels are better than ever, and my resting heart rate went from high-80s to right around 60. I also no longer look at staircases with a feeling of hatred and resentment. These, I’m told, are all good things.
I look better, and I take way better selfies. Proof:

I’ve reset my relationship with food. That’s not to say I don’t still crave things at times, but I used to eat to feel better, or when I was stressed out. Then I just started eating all the time – I didn’t even notice it. By forcing myself to follow a meal plan to the letter, I noticed more and more the desire to reach out for snacks when certain things happened or emotions arose. Did I still reach out for the snacks? Sometimes I did – but for celery or broccoli instead of chips or candy.
It’s still shocking to look in the mirror. Not all the time, but sometimes I’ll look in the mirror and just be stunned for a moment while I realize the face and body I see are not the face and body in my mind’s eye. That leads me to…
I still think I’m massively overweight. That’s why the mirror still confuses me at times; I don’t see the ‘new’ me in my mind’s eye. I graduated highschool at over 300lbs, so I’ve got a lot of conditioning of how I look to overcome.
People (strangers) look me in the eye more, and are generally nicer to me.There’s not much to really add to this. I used to notice people averting their eyes, trying not to look/stare, and being largely (haha) dismissive of me. It’s disappointing that it’s a real thing, and that I’ve noticed it so clearly, but it is what it is.