Nutrition: Making Race Weight with Healthy Desert Alternatives

The wife and I were shopping at the local grocery store (wait, it gets better) and were in search of ice cream. The usual suspects- Breyers, Dreyers, and those overpriced b*stards Ben & Jerry's were all well represented groups within the frozen desert populace, but something new caught our eye. Something delicious.

Umpqua Dairy is Oregon's largest, and their delicious ice cream is made, apparently, with only the finest ingredients. I believe them. We took 'Chocolate Peanut Butter' and blended it with a little milk to make a very thick milkshake. The peanut butter chunks blended into tiny bits adding a perfect texture complemented by the ribbons of peanut butter and delicious chocolate flavor. All for just $2.50 a half-gallon.

The siren song of this milkshake is difficult to resist. But that guy who just passed you in your next race? Yeah, he didn't have one. 

Each milkshake required an 1/8th of a gallon, however, and was comprised of 18g of fat, 21g of sugar, and  315 calories (though there are 7g of muscle building protein....). That delicious experience calorically neutralized a 30 minute tempo run. In my view, the 10 minutes of pleasure a desert affords the consumer isn't worth the guilt and calories. Unless it's made with Umpqua- that was a damn fine milkshake.

There are much more nutritious and comparably delicious alternatives available. One of my personal favorites- mixed berries with whip cream. The cream will satisfy your lust for dairy should you crave ice cream and the berries will serve up some quality nutrition. Rather than suffering the burden of the aforementioned milkshake, you'll receive only a paltry 20 calories, 1g of sugar, and 1.5g of fat if you use 2 tablespoons of Grade A Whipped Light Cream found in the spray cans at your local grocer. You could also go big and make your own whip cream. Try out this recipe that I found here at bonappetit.com 

Photo by Leo Gong, courtesy of bonappetit.com