Kelsey Marksteiner: Yeah, that’s a good question, and I agree. Probably a lot of people don’t want to be eating meat at every meal and snack. That can get a little repetitive, I guess. For snacks, in terms of protein content, I usually will recommend things that are meat based but that don’t have that same texture, necessarily as meat, so it doesn’t feel as repetitive. For example, something like beef jerky could be a good option. I often will also recommend things like paté, whether that’s made with something like sardines, like you can blend up sardines, a little bit of some kind of oil or butter or fat and some spices. It’s really, really good. Or you can do the same thing with liver. That’s a great way to get in those two things that a lot of people don’t enjoy eating otherwise. When it’s mixed in with a pate, not only are you getting some protein, you’re getting tons of other great nutrients that people potentially are not eating on a regular basis. If you can get it in the form of a snack, and the paté, like I said, makes it really palatable. It’s pretty enjoyable even if you don’t like those foods. It’s a great option.
Then you can also consider protein powder. If you have an athlete that needs to get a lot of protein in their diet and they’re having a tough time, protein powder can be a good option for a snack so they can make some sort of smoothie or incorporate that protein powder into their meal somehow or snack somehow. That can be a great way to just easily up the protein without feeling like you need to stuff meat down your throat at every meal and snack.
Then also you can consider—and this is, again, if the person tolerates this kind of stuff; that’s going to be an “if” for pretty much everything we talk about in this program—if the person tolerates something like legumes, so they can eat beans or hummus, something like that, they’re going to get some protein in there. It’s going to be kind of protein and carbs together, so that could be an option. You probably wouldn’t be able to get to 30 grams with something like that, but if you combined it with something else, that could be a good option.
Then dairy is a great option. If your client tolerates dairy very well, that can work wonderfully. Things like cheese or Greek yogurt, those are going to be fairly high in protein, so that can make it pretty darn easy.
Hopefully that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions on that. I guess if you’re eating three snacks a day or something like that, it can be tough to get all that in, so you just have to work with the client and see what they like to eat, what they tolerate, and how you can switch things up for them, even if, like I said before, it’s just a texture thing, so they’re not feeling like they have to eat a cut of meat for every meal and snack, because that gets boring, that gets repetitive, and people are going to get pretty sick of meat. If you change that texture, if it’s something like beef jerky, so it’s just different, people will tend to just think about that differently, and so they’re more likely to not get bored with things.