Friday, January 21, 2011

The Making of Homemade GU

The other day I read a twitter update of someone who had just finished making their own homemade GU. The thought never crossed but who does not LOVE saving money. Since I know I will go through tons of this stuff over the next 8 months of training what better time to try it.

I do a quick goggle search and here you go….. Homebrew GU

Homebrew Power GU

  • 7 and 1/3 tablespoons of honey
  • 3/4 teaspoons of blackstrap molasses
  • 1/10 teaspoons (just shy of 1/8 tsp) of table salt

Be sure to mix everything together well. It should make enough to fill a five-serving GU flask.

This recipe works nicely. You may see some bubbles on the surface, but that is just a natural occurrence of the molasses. Neither honey nor molasses needs to be refrigerated, so you can keep it in your pocket all day and even use it the following week. I probably wouldn't go much past a week, but it should still be good.

The nutritional content approximates: 25g carbs, 45mg sodium, 35mg potassium--with plenty of vitamins and minerals that you wouldn't get with the store-bought stuff. It has a bunch of good carbohydrates and vitamins in it. Honey alone would be great, but it lacks a bit of sodium and potassium so that is where the molasses and salt come in to play.

The fun does not end here……. Need some extra protein? Here you go…….

Honey GU With a Protein Kick (this one I have not tried yet but will soon)

  • 6 tablespoons of honey
  • 5/8 teaspoons of blackstrap molasses
  • 6 and 3/8 teaspoons of soy protein isolate
  • 1/16 teaspoons of salt
  • 1-3 tablespoons of water

Mix everything together in a cup and add water as needed to develop a nice "goopable" consistency. Makes five servings.

One final note would be to point out that the above information was originally found here. I edited the version a bit to just address the key points in the “making” and “benefit” areas of this little adventure.

Would love feedback on this if you so choose to experiment. I am thinking of adding a small amount of kool-aid to one batch just to see.

Solid line up of training ahead of me this weekend. What great times!

Robin

5 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I am going to try this, already thinking of how to add flavor, like adding a strawberry or blueberry, then I will have to refridge it.

In your flask, do you add water like regular GU so you can drink it on the go?

So many possibilities here, thanks for sharing

Lily on the Road said...

hmmmm, it is worth a try, that's for sure.

Grey Beard said...

Homebrew GU is great fun, and I learned a lot in the process. If you want an exact match, start with maltodextrin at about 1/100th the cost. Hammer's website has some good info. I really like the molasses. Nice touch.

Oh, if you can find a way to carry it, Sushi rice is almost as good as maltodextrin. Fantastic 1 hr before event to load the liver and muscles with glycogen.

Judi said...

ok, this is my advice. get to know the product (power bar gels) IM has on the course and train with it. nutrition is the 4th discipline.

Wes said...

maple syrup and beef jerky... all a real athlete needs ;-) bwahaha!