It's All About Bulking Up

Tristan, my athletic son, is into weight lifting and muscle building. It helps with the numerous sports he's into. The coaches encourage the boys to lift weights, eat right, and take good care of themselves, and Tristan follows their guidelines to a T.

He doesn't drink soda, hasn't for over two years now. He watches what he eats (usually), and he lifts weights and runs at least three times a week.

Just recently, he's started drinking protein shakes to enhance his weight lifting routine. The plain shake itself is horrible. The smell and the texture alone is enough to turn me off, but the taste. Oh, the taste! He's tried a number of combinations to try to make them taste better.

He started out with just milk and the mix, stirred. Not a good thing.

His next combination was strawberry Crystal Light with the mix, stirred. Better, but not great. The smell was something else!

Next, he mixed orange juice, ice, a touch of vanilla, and the mix in a blender. This was an acceptable shake. The taste wasn't bad, and the smell although still there, was less pungent. He drank this for a week or so.

One night, he decided to try an ice cream shake with the mix. This turned out to be a very bad idea, and the shake went down the drain. Apparently protein mix doesn't mesh with ice cream.

Finally, today he's tried a new concoction. His friend, and weight lifting buddy, clued him in on how he drinks the stuff. I believe we have a winner! Here's the mix: Milk, ice, half a banana, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and peanut butter. All of this is put in the blender and blended until frothy and smooth. I tasted it. The peanut butter does well in covering up the smell, and the taste and texture is something resembling a real ice cream shake.

So for anyone else out there that consumes protein shakes for muscle building, or is thinking about it and isn't sure how to mix it, take it from a mother who cares. Peanut butter, bananas, and chocolate are the way to go!