12/09/2022
✨ Homemade Energy Gel ✨
This is my first year training with a purpose. And though I absolutely adore gravel cycling and cross training, I’ve realized how expensive nutrition is for athletes. It’s not just healthy meals, but vitamins, supplements, gels, snacks, hydration, recovery, etc.
This week I made my own gels to save money. And when I say save, I mean SAVE. These cost about $0.50 (fifty cents!) per portion, as opposed to buying gels (the last one I bought was $3.49 for 1 portion 🤯). So a $9 can of maple syrup avoids $62.82 in packaged gels (and it’s eco-friendly because you fill it in a reusable flask instead of pre-packaged wrappers)!
Energy gels are formulated to give a quick burst of energy from sugar, accompanied by long lasting boost from carbohydrates. So basically, provide energy DURING a workout when you feel like you’ve run out of gas.
I decided to use maple syrup as the base ingredient because it’s delicious and readily available in Quebec, but it is also easy to digest, and a relatively low glycemic carbohydrate (providing sustained energy boost vs. a quick boost and crash) and contains tons of essential minerals (calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium) and antioxidants.
Maple & berries
540ml maple syrup (1 can)
3g sea salt
40g blackberries (or any berry) crushed
Squeeze of lime juice
Per 30ml: 107cal, 70mg sodium, 27.4g carb
Mix maple, sea salt and berries in small saucepan and bring to light simmer. Let cool and strain out berry pulp. Add squeeze of lime juice.
PB & Maple
540ml maple syrup (1 can)
6 tbsp peanut butter
Per 35ml: 136cal, 2.8g fat, 28mg sodium, 27.9g carb, 1.3G protein
Add 1g sea salt to increase sodium to 52mg per serving
Whisk maple and peanut butter well. If adding sea salt, heat up half of maple with salt to dissolve, then mix remaining maple and peanut butter and whisk well.
If you don’t have reusable flasks (and training indoors this winter) you can use a shot glass 😉 1oz is 30ml