High Protein Cheesecake

This is a basic cheesecake recipe and is then easily adaptable to suit your individual flavours, toppings and alike you may want to add. This will give you a basic non biscuit base and a fluffy dense moist cheesecake mixture!

What you'll need! 

300g chobani 0% fat greek yoghurt (or similar)
200g low fat cream cheese
100g egg whites (not from a carton)
50g oats
20g buckwheat flour (any type will do)
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn cream of tartar
150ml boiling water

Method

Step 1- Blend oats to a fine powder and combine with flour and baking powder. Add the boiling water and continue to blend in mixer until a thick consistency is achieved. At this stage you can add sweetener, cinnamon or whatever flavours you would like your base to take on.

Step 2- Spread evenly on the base of a lined spring form tin and bake for approx 20min at 180 degrees. (Wrapping the tin in aluminium foil at this stage will ensure it is water tight for baking in a water bath later) While baking separate the egg whites and allow to reach room temperature before beating.

Step 3- Mix greek yogurt, cream cheese and vanilla essence together in a large bowl. At this stage you can add things just as lime zest, lemon juice for a citrus flavor cheesecake,  or a shot of espresso for a mocha style cheesecake, options are endless.

Step 4- Begin to beat your egg whites to form stiff peaks, once they begin to form a froth add the cream of tartar and beat until consistency is achieved. Fold egg whites into the cream cheese mixture and pour on top on the cooked base.

Step 5- Have a large dish in the bottom of the oven filed with water and place the wrapped cake tin inside (water bath) and bake for 50min at 170 degrees. After 50min turn oven off and allow it to slowly cool for an additional 2 hours inside the oven, transfer to fridge overnight for best result!

Hope this sounds easy enough and you have as much success with the recipe as I regularly do! If you have any questions hit me up on instagram as I'm always happy to help! @love_lifting

Macros for whole cake.
780cals - 71P/67C/14F

ENJOY! 

Jelly Oat Cake - High Volume Oats

Alright! This shit is going to knock your socks off if you love eating large amounts of food, and not to mention for great macros and amazing taste and texture.

Here is what you'll need.

1 Large ceramic/baking dish
80g Rolled oats (Can be more if you're not on shit macros)
1 teaspoon Psyllium husk - not critical but does help with the texture
250ml almond milk/coconut milk
300ml water
60-100ml egg whites
200g Fat free Greek yogurt
1 Packet sugar free jelly - whatever flavor you want
15g Cocoa powder
Liquid stevia
Vanilla essence + flavor drops or anything you want to add to give it a kick

Let's do this!

Step 1: Add oats and psyllium husk to the dish and add the milk and water and stir well, add in the stevia and vanilla essence and give it another stir and let sit for a few minutes.

Step 2: Chuck it in the microwave for up to 10minutes on  a moderate power (if you can adjust it, then say around 70-80%, if not then just keep an eye on it) that's why the large dish is important, in a normal bowl this will boil over leaving a bloody mess.

Step 3: Take it out and give it a mix and add the egg whites and stir in thoroughly, add some more water (up to 100ml) if required and chuck back in microwave for another 10min, keeping an eye on it.

Step 4: Take out of microwave and set to the side until it has cooled down quite a bit and firmed up, once happy with that chuck in 100g of Greek yogurt and mix it all around and flatten it out again, put in fridge to totally cool.

Step 5: Mix the packet of jelly as per normal and then add the cocoa and remaining 100g of Greek yogurt, here I use a stick blender and use that to blitz the shit out of it and also to add some air to the mixture. Once happy it is all combined take oats out of fridge and pour the jelly on top and back in the fridge it goes to set completely overnight!

Step 6: Fight the urge to eat it before it sets!!!!

Step 7: Whack whatever toppings and sauces on top and enjoy. The consistency should be thick and as you can see I could even cut the bloody thing with a nice and call it a cake, since I'm all about that #Cakeaday lifestyle!!

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do guys! Once you nail it, play around with it and reduce the oats and add some tapioca pearls (sago) and create new exciting ways to make it! I have tried it that way and it adds a whole different texture and sweetness to the dish!

Macros for the whole damn tray are - 645cals 15F/73C/48P

Hearty shepherds pie!

Shepherds pie, cottage pie...whatever the hell you want to call it they taste bloody great! and with this version and macros like these why the hell not enjoy it!!

Here's what you'll need!!

2 Kangaroo patties (260g) or whatever mince or meat source you want
200g onion
200g celery
200g carrot - keep it simple and easy, if you want different stuff then go for it!
1 reducked salt stock
1 and half tablespoons gravy mix
600g pumpkin
50g cream cheese/ricotta cheese
1 table spoon wisticher sauce
mixed herbs, salt, pepper, spices....

Largeeee baking tray!!  This thing is seriously huge and filling!!

1. Firstly dice all the vegatables, I use one of them easy slap chop style things to make it quick and easy. Then place them and brown in a hot pan for 5 minutes and add a table spoon mixed herbs and wisticher sauce.

2. Start to brown the mince in another pan, add the stock to the cooking veg and bring to boil and cook for a further 5 mintues and reduce to a simmer.

3. Transfer the browned mince to the pan with veg and add the gravy powder and mix all together and let simmer for 15min, stirring occasionally.

4. Chop pumpkin into chunky cubes and boil in salted water until tender. drain in strainer and return to pot and add the 50g ricotta cheese ad pepper, seasoning. blend with masher or stick blender until smooth.

5. Transfer meat mixture to a large ceramic baking dish and flatten, add pumpkin mash on top, spread and season.

6. Put into pre heated oven at 200 degrees and finish for 15min! Serve hot and ENJOYYYY!!!

Macros 680 calories - 9F/85C/65P

Macros, flexible dieting and living life!

Hellooooooo everyone.

On a daily basis through some form of social media I am asked what are my macros, do I track, do I eat clean and how to survive on poverty macros as well as a bunch of random crap!

So I'm going to take some time to answer a bunch of these questions and give my opinion on it all and how to incorporate it into your day to day life if you feel it is necessary .

Firstly what my macros are don't mean anything, because it is a totally personal thing depending on age, weight, gender, activity level and personal goals! So with that said I am not hugely strict at the moment with tracking as I am not currently prepping for a show/comp or meet.

For those who are just learning about tracking macros and understanding it all the best way to figure it out is honestly to use an online calculator to figure it out! (IIFYM.com is great) If you are old school and want to figure it out yourself then these are the number you need to crunch.

First thing you need is to know your BMR (base metabolic rate)

The old school way of calculating it is using the Harris Benedict Equation. Looks a bit full on but if you have a calculator then you'll be right!

• BMR Calculation for Women: 655 + (4.35 × weight in pounds) + (4.7 × height in inches) – (4.7 × age in years)
• BMR Calculation for Men: 66 + (6.23 × weight in pounds) + (12.7 × height in inches) – (6.76 × age in years)

After this activity level is then incorporated into the mix and use the multiplier below to figure it out!

  

Amount of Exercise	Daily Calories Needed
Little to no exercise	BMR x 1.2
Light exercise (1 to 3 days per week)	BMR x1.375
Moderate exercise (3 to 5 days per week)	BMR x 1.55
Heavy exercise (6 to 7 days per week)	BMR x 1.725
Very heavy exercise (intense workouts twice per day)	BMR x 1.9

Now that you have figured out your BMR/Maintenance calories next is whats your goal.If your goal is weight loss a rule of thumb is 3500cal reduction per week is the equivalent to weight loss of 1 pound per week, again this will depend on the individual and I ain't going to start preaching any special method or secrets because then I will just sound like a typical Bro!

There is no magical macros to start on, you need to pick the number you believe is right for you and from there CONSISTENCY is going to give you the results, I can not use this word enough, CONSISTENCY is going to be the driving factor whether you succeed or not. Also the macro break down percentage to start on (Protein/Carbs/Fats) will be something again a good online calculator or app will breakdown for you! (Myfitnesspal is the go to app for most people)

So now comes the first day. Get up, go to the toilet and weight yourself. This is what you should be doing every morning for the first 2 weeks, again being consistent with the time of day you weight yourself will give you a consistent reading day to day. The reason to do it for 2 weeks is so your body can adjust to it and along with training you can then monitor if you have overshot or undershot your macros and if you have lost weight/gained weight or maintained weight you will then from here adjust your macros according to your goals. From personal experience as I reverse dieted and was aiming to put on lean mass I would add 20C every time I maintained weight for about 4 days straight, and then 5F after each week of maintaining weight. So as you can imagine after 4 - 6 weeks of this I was able to add an additional 500cal to my daily diet with very minimal weight gain!

That sums up finding your macros and how to monitor and adjust them once your maintenance macros are achieved.

Actually tracking them is not hard, will take a week or so getting the hang of weighing your food and inputting it on your app. Again be consistent with what you enter, don't go crazy if things are a few grams over. Just make sure when scanning stuff the same stuff on label is reflected on the app correctly. If you are a basic eater during the week like myself, then it's easy because you can fill out your diary and make your meals in bulk and then when it comes to weekend just track as you eat and get creative and enjoy yourself :)

Tracking macros is one thing, but also monitor your micro nutrients. Pretty easy really, just make sure you eat enough veg and hit a healthy range of fiber each day too, this can also be aided by using things like psyllium husk or other forms of supplementation. As great as IIFYM and flexible dieting is, it's not your ticket to being a fat slob just for the sake of it. Like most things use an 80/20 rule! 80% good wholesome nutrient dense foods, 20% YOLO enjoy yourself foods.

Lastly I'll quickly touch on poverty macros/comp prep macros! This can be killer but at certain times for shorter periods of time it may be necessary to reach goals. After dieting and maintaining under 5% body fat for about 7 months to compete in multiple physique shows, I learnt very quickly that it had fatigued me physically but also mentally and with my physiology. So now I feel very strongly if you don't need to put yourself through it for no reason other then you 'want to cut' then just don't do it. But when it comes to comp, if you are relatively lean going into prep then you should really only need around 8 -12 weeks max on a cut, other wise there is metabolic and hormonal damage as potential side effects (and I know this personally unfortunately) Some people have no trouble eating normal bro foods for prep, and if this is the case for you, then great. If your like me and love food and lots of it then learn how to make protein fluff and become friends with sugarfree jelly and things like that which will fill you up for very little calories.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. Please feel free to contact me for any further questions as I'm more then happy to help and have trained many people who have loved using flexible dieting with great results. All the best and I'll be back!! :)  justin.d.donnelly@gmail.com

Justin.

To Cheat or not to Cheat - Cheat meals!

This is always a topic of discussion amongst many in the fitness industry, everyone has their personal beliefs about the pro's and con's on having a cheat day/meal and have read all the articles out there on the internet so instantly they are pro's about the topic without understand any of the physiological responses the body goes through!

All I’m going to do is discuss some of the theoretical benefits and chuck in my 2 cents worth as well.

Increases thyroid hormone production - So when someone is calorie deficient they produce less hormones that regulate the thyroid (T3 and T4) so a strategic cheat meal or overfeed is beneficial to increase these hormones and regulate the thyroid to keep it functional and productive.

Increased energy output (24hr) - The surplus calories from a cheat causes the body to up regulate basal metabolic rate (BMR).And there are studies out there to show an increase of 9% above baseline, all in all giving you more energy the next day foe heavier lifting and giving you an upbeat mood for the day :)

Psychological benefit - This is plain and simple, You follow your diet for the week knowing that after all that hard training and clean eating you get a reward......for some people that is enough to keep them going week to week, but then it comes down to the individual to know how far to take their cheat meal/day, this is something you cant calculate and you learn from experience about your own personal limits. It's totally worth it!

So with that being said it sounds like having a cheat meal or re-feed day will work for anyone wanting to gain some lean mass and for a fat loss diet........well it's not always the case! Many trainers condone the idea of cheat meals while others support it knowing it works from personal experience. And I’m one to promote the idea from it not hampering my results over time!

But we also have to understand the human body, and I’ll break it down quickly! 

You have to remember we are talking about the human body, our bodies will adapt to anything we throw at it over time, so when you first start restricting calories and have your results you will then notice that you will hit a plateau, whether it be diet, weight training or cardio, it happens to everyone. So this for me is a good sign that we need to break the cycle and another reason why a cheat meal is beneficial :)

This being said to certain degree, a high calorie meal will help off set your metabolism but the benefit from the cheat meal comes from the higher calorie intake on that day, not the usual junk food that most people consume. Having no moderation or control on cheat days carries far more risk than benefits to your physical and mental health, it can lead to a fatal outcome from extreme acute gastric dilation after an eating binge.

A good little tip is buy enough for a couple of cheat meals and no more! If you have a 2 packs of Tim-tams in the fridge and 2L of ice cream in the freezer then we all know what is going to happen right......Epic FAIL. So keep that in mind and just get what you need for that cheat meal :)

So to sum up, YES by all means have a cheat meal.......but don't binge on unhealthy junk food, and there is no need for a whole cheat day.