I remember the days when I was a kid, looking at the magazines and reading all the articles.

The author would mention that you really need to take in enough quality protein to grow.

And that, a good quality protein powder would really help.

Good advice.

But there was a problem with it.

First, I was just a kid who had no idea what a good protein powder was.

And second unlike today where you can go to one of the more popular bodybuilding sites and ask for help, there was no one around to ask.

So today I am going lay out one brand of protein that I have used and still use to this day.

And this is Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey Gold Standard protein powder.

Now, right up front I want to point out a few things.

First, I am not being paid by Optimum to say this, I just feel their protein is of good quality and is priced right.

Are there other places that I buy from, sure?

As I stated just recently, I love Dave Drapers Bomber Blend.

However, the one thing about Optimum is that they are available just about anywhere.

Second, you get what you pay for.

Third, they have tons of flavors, for me personally I like the double rich chocolate flavor and surprisingly I like this one better than their milk chocolate flavor, because I am usually a milk chocolate kind of guy.

CONCLUSION

I know this is a short post today, but I just wanted to give the young man or woman who has just started out on their bodybuilding journey a reliable source of protein.

Some will say that I left out various companies.

And I will admit that I have.

But again, I am trying to give the beginner a good quality brand that they can trust.

Once they become familiar with the bodybuilding landscape, they can decide for themselves when/if they want to try a different brand for their protein powder.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

KEEP FIT

Before I get into my review of Beverly International Nutrition’s Ultimate Muscle Protein I would just like to give you a little background info on them.

First, Beverly has been around since 1967 which certainly makes them a forerunner in my book in the world of sports nutrition.

Second, to me the name Beverly International Nutrition means quality—pure and simple.

O.k.

On to the review.

Right up front I will say that this review is based on the chocolate flavor of Ultimate Muscle Protein—as I am not a vanilla guy—any and everything chocolate.

SMELL:

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the can was the smell—Ultimate Muscle Protein smells great , to me it smelled like freshly baked brownies—to some I know this might not mean much, but hey first impressions do count.

EASE OF MIXING:

Again, I will be upfront here, I am a cup-and-spoon guy, and to be honest Ultimate Muscle Protein does not excel here.

I got it to mix up O.K. but it took me a little while to do it with only a spoon.

Next I tried my trusty shaker—a little better here but still not great.

So if you are into easy mixing shakes, this one might not be your cup-of-tea.

I love pudding (yes chocolate) so I took out one of my handy plastic food containers and tried mixing Ultimate Muscle Protein into a pudding.

Bingo!

Works great—mixes up into a good pudding consistency.

My ratings would fall like this:

In a cup—5/10 doable—but does take a bit of time

Shaker—7/10 better than in a cup but still not great.

Plastic food container—10/10 works great as a pudding.

TASTE:

Ultimate Muscle Protein tastes great even in the glass and shaker bottle despite not mixing all that well.

It has a pleasant taste, not to heavy or strong and not too weak tasting.

As a pudding it is great.

One point that I would like to make is this, I only used water for mixing and I would assume if you used milk especially for mixing it into a pudding Ultimate Muscle Protein would taste even better.

Of course, what you use would depend on where you were at, meaning if you were trying to lean out either for the beach or a contest, water would be the way to go.

However, if you were bulking—mixing it with milk would probably be the way to go.

NUTRITION BREAKDOWN:

Ultimate Muscle Protein per one scoop of the chocolate flavor has:

120 calories

3.5 grams of fat

20 grams of protein

4 grams of carbs

COST:

Ultimate Muscle Protein is not cheap, I know this turns off a lot of people, but you have to understand that Beverly uses only the highest quality ingredients for all of their products and of course, this costs more.

This is one area where only you can make the decision—to me it is worth putting out the extra cash for high quality products such as Beverly—but again this is just me.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Beverly International Nutrition has a fine line of products—and Ultimate Muscle Protein is no exception.

In truth, I wish it mixed better in a cup with just a spoon—but this really is not a big thing.

The can I used for this review I picked up from bodybuilding.com—they have good prices and super fast shipping—which is really great.

That’s it for today

TAKE CARE.