Homemade "On the Bike" Energy Drinks and Bars

[michelem]

I'm searching for homemade "on the bike" energy drinks and bars and came up with the following. Do these look like they'll do the trick, or not?

Energy Drink:

1/2 cup honey (dissolve in lukewarm water)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
7 1/2 cups water
Multiply the recipe as needed.



Home-brew power goop:

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, and it should make enough to fill a 5 serving GU flask.


Energy Bars:

2 cups corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups natural nut butter, preferably fresh ground
1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon (or more) cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups protein powder
3 cups oats, quick or old fashioned, pureed into a powder in a food processor (I'm assuming if one is allergic to oats, something else can be substituted, like brown rice flour - I hope)
Mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Stir in protein powder until the mixture becomes too stiff, then use your hands to mix. Add in oats; at this point upper body strength is required. The dough will be very stiff. After mixing, spread onto a 11.5" X 15" jelly roll pan coated with non-stick cooking spray. Refrigerate for at least one hour; cut into 30 bars, and place each into a Ziploc bag or store them somehow. They will remain fresh longer if refrigerated or frozen.

I really have an aversion to pre-packaged foods/drinks, refined sugar, artificial additives, etc., so, if you have any more ideas, please throw them my way! Thanks.

[Jolt]

Sports drink recipe (has a few variations):

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar, OR 6 tbsp. + 2 tsp. honey
3/4 tsp. Morton Lite Salt
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice (or can use 1/4 cup of each for lemon-lime flavor), OR 4-6 green or herbal tea bags brewed with 16 oz. hot water
Enough water to bring total volume to 2 liters

I'm not a fan of all the artificial colors/flavors either, which is why I took a recipe that I found online that used a package of Kool-Aid mix and modified it as above. Black tea would probably work too, but it does have more caffeine than green tea and I'm not sure if the diuretic effect would then become an issue. Might have to experiment with that one.

[uk elephant]

Great energy bars....English flapjacks:

200g butter
175g golden syrup
75g brown sugar
250 g rolled oats

melt butter, syrup and sugar together. Stir in oats and add chopped nuts, raisins, chopped dried fruit or other additions to taste. Pack into square baking dish. Bake at 180C for about 25 mins. Let them cool completely before cutting and eating or they fall apart. I also pour melted chocolate on top before they cool completely.

Delicious!!! BF has been requesting new batches made every few days this month!

[amymisk]

OK, I would like to try this recipe, but converting from grams to American measurements is very difficult.

As best I can determine:
200g butter equals 0.88 cups of butter.
If you use Maple syrup for the 175g golden syrup, use 1/2 cup. (really 0.54cup)
For 75g brown sugar, use 1/3 cup packed brown sugar (really about 0.34 cup)
for 250g rolled oats, use 1 1/2 cup (really about 1/6 cups)

I hope that helps for all of us in the USA with our household measurements!

[amymisk]

180C is equal to 356F.

[farrellcollie]

I have used recipes from this website - particularly the drinks (scroll down a bit when you first get to website)

http://www.cptips.com/hmdesnk.htm

[surgtech1956]

Ferrellcollie - Thanks for sharing the web site. Great recipes and ideas.

[michelem]

I think I found what I've been looking for!

2 liters cold filtered water
1/2 cup organic lemon juice
6 tbs fruit juice sweetener (such as Wax Orchards Fruit Sweet, but agave nectar works well too)
1/2 tsp. sea salt


No refined sugar, no artificial flavors or colors . . . I'm going to try this out for tomorrow's 50 miler. I'll let you know how it is!

[margo49]

I make up a litre of drink with 3 or 4 teaspoons of fructose, 1/3 tsp salt, water and some flavour (eg a tea bag, lemon juice,etc)
But I am not very professional. I think the main thing is some kind of sugar and salt. The rest is fine-tuning (funny minerals and salts they have found in sweat by taping plastic bags under athletes arm-pits - yukkity yukk)

[michelem]

Well, I ended up using this for our 50-miler today:

2 qts. water
1/4 c. lemon juice (Santa Cruz Organics bottled lemon juice actually came out to be cheaper than buying whole lemons and juicing them!)
7 T raw honey
1 T organic molasses
1/8 t sea salt

This came out very close to the 30g. carbs, 10mg. sodium, 100mg. potassium ratio suggested to me.

My water bottle holds about 28 oz. and I filled it up to the top. Drank a bit right as we started out, and then drank every 45 min. to 1 hr. (I think our ride time was around 3 hrs., but I crashed at one point and that added to our total ride time). I had filled another 10 oz. bottle and froze it and left it in the car, but when we got back it had barely melted. Probably got about 3 sips out of that one.

Anyway, the homemade energy drink, coupled with getting up at 5am and eating hot cereal with raisins, an omega-3 egg, ground flax, and nutritional yeast flakes mixed in, eating a rice pasta/cannelli beans/spinach/onions/olive oil combo for dinner last night, and drinking lots of fluids yesterday made for a very pleasant ride today (minus the crash). No dips in energy and was able to keep up with the group.

[DarcyInOregon]

Well, I ended up using this for our 50-miler today:

2 qts. water
1/4 c. lemon juice (Santa Cruz Organics bottled lemon juice actually came out to be cheaper than buying whole lemons and juicing them!)
7 T raw honey
1 T organic molasses
1/8 t sea salt

This came out very close to the 30g. carbs, 10mg. sodium, 100mg. potassium ratio suggested to me.

My water bottle holds about 28 oz. and I filled it up to the top. Drank a bit right as we started out, and then drank every 45 min. to 1 hr. (I think our ride time was around 3 hrs., but I crashed at one point and that added to our total ride time). I had filled another 10 oz. bottle and froze it and left it in the car, but when we got back it had barely melted. Probably got about 3 sips out of that one.

Anyway, the homemade energy drink, coupled with getting up at 5am and eating hot cereal with raisins, an omega-3 egg, ground flax, and nutritional yeast flakes mixed in, eating a rice pasta/cannelli beans/spinach/onions/olive oil combo for dinner last night, and drinking lots of fluids yesterday made for a very pleasant ride today (minus the crash). No dips in energy and was able to keep up with the group.

Michelem, is this energy drink still effective for you through the summer months since you started to use it?

The reason I ask is because the commercial products have too much sodium in it for me, and I need to start experimenting on my own so as to reduce sodium consumption during my long rides. I have gotten an edema problem, in that I am retaining water in the lymphatic system, the tissues of my abdomen and maybe the thigh muscles. For example, I will do a 70-mile ride with 4000 feet of climbing, and after drinking the commercial products during the ride my body weight will be up 3 pounds the morning following the ride, and the retained water does not release itself. Then my next long ride, the weight goes up some more, and you get the picture. I love the commercial products because I don't have to worry about low electrolytes and low blood sugar, but I need to get off the commercial drinks in order to deal with the edema problem.

Does anyone else get water weight gain from all of this sodium during the long bike rides, or is it just me? I know I am sodium sensitive, and I eat low sodium off the bike, and have done so for years. Currently, I estimate I have at least 10 pounds of excess fluid in my system, and maybe as much as 20 pounds. It is ridiculous. Thank goodness it doesn't show in my feet, ankles and legs.

Darcy

[michelem]

Hi Darcy,

Long time no see! It's good to see you back.

Funny (not "ha ha," but as in what a coincidence) that you mention edema. I just got over a horrendous bout of it, due to side-effects of colonoscopy prep (phospho soda). I gained 12 pounds of fluid, couldn't see my ankles or knees and my eyes almost swelled shut. It was horrendous, so I really feel for you!

But, to answer your question about the drink. I'm still using it and it's working great. After the edema went down, I used it and the edema did not return. There really isn't much salt in it - just 1/8 tsp. per 2 qts. of liquid. I'm pretty low-sodium in my eating habits too, just 'cause I'm more of a sweet lover rather than salt lover.

Anyway, for this morning's ride (which was a hill-climbing route that took me about 2-1/2 hrs. ride time and 3 hrs. total time) I drank 1 large bottle of the replacement drink (I'd estimate my large bottle holds about 24 oz.) and one large bottle of plain water. I did not consume anything else on the bike, however, when I do longer rides (over 3 hours) I take along some raisins and almonds. I ate hot brown rice farina with blueberries, ground flaxseed, and hemp-based protein powder about 90 minutes before getting on the bike. I drank an emergen-c when I got home and then ate another bowl of cereal, this time with 1 whole omega-3 egg and 1 egg white mixed in instead of the protein powder. Normally I would have eaten something else, but the cupboards were bare! I felt like I had plenty of energy (considering the windy conditions and I was by myself, so no drafting!) and no cramping.

Anyway, I do hope you find something that works for you and you find some relief from your edema.

[mudmucker]

I'm searching for homemade "on the bike" energy drinks and bars and came up with the following. Do these look like they'll do the trick, or not?

Energy Bars:

2 cups corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups natural nut butter, preferably fresh ground
1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon (or more) cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups protein powder

I'll use the various ingredients above but use brown rice syrup instead of honey, (and never corn syrup). The brown rice syrup is a bit of a more slowly digesting sugar (for me) and doesn't cause insane spikes in glucose levels.

[DarcyInOregon]

Hi Michelem, thanks for the information. I am happy to know the drink is working for you. I will have to try your recipe and I will post to let you know how it goes on an upcoming longer ride.

What do you do on the even longer rides, when you have to stop and refill the water bottles?

I was using the commercial fitness drinks all summer, and I was happy with the results because my energy levels were high and I was able to increase my distances effectively. Then the water retention started to creep up on me. That is when I really looked at the labels on these products and realized that the sodium levels were too high for me, that I can't possibly sweat out that much sodium in one ride. Some of the products have over 200 mg per serving. Cytomax has a low sodium powder, but it is still around 30-40 mg per serving. I might use it for the refill problem on the longer rides.

When forum members post that they've gained weight, oh horrors, what can they do, and then members chime in with oh it is muscle gain or what not, nobody ever thinks that it might be water retention due to too much sodium in the commercial fitness products. Just 20 years ago, the recommended limit for sodium for an adult was 2000 mg per day. Then it was lowered to 1500 mg per day. I think it is down to 500 mg per day now. Well one large water bottle can hold 500 mg of sodium, then drink some more water bottles, plus the Cliff Bloks and other bike food, and you can see why cyclists can get into some water retention problems. I am certainly proof of it.

Anyway, thanks for the information. I will get this figured out, and trying your recipe will be one of the things I do.

Oh, I haven't been absent from this forum. I have merely been busy cycling.

Darcy

[michelem]

Darcy,

So far, my longest ride was about 6 hours and once I ran out of recovery drink that is when I switched over to food (that particular day I had stuck a frozen banana in my back jersey pocket and by the time I got to it it was disgusting black mush, but I needed something so I slurped it down - UGH! - in addition to the banana had some roasted almonds - first soaked the almonds overnight in water and a tsp. of apple cider vinegar. then, spread them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkled with a very teeny bit of celtic sea salt, and put them in the oven at about 200 - 250 degrees until they dried out). Raisins and the roasted almonds have worked well. Another thing I might try when I get to riding even longer rides is making the recovery drink "goo" and putting it into a gel flask (I've heard they sell them at REI). Then, I can squeeze that into my empty bottle and fill with water at a rest stop.

Yes, weight gain can be due to all types of things. Sounds like you are in close contact with a medical professional, so that is good. When I just had my "big blow up" experience, I went in to my pcp and she did blood tests for liver enzymes, electrolytes, and something for the heart. It turned out my my liver enzymes were very elevated and that is what told her that the edema was due to medication toxicity and she didn't want to worsen it by giving me diuretics. So, I had to wait it out. It felt like forever, but in reality was only (ha ha) about two weeks.

Anyway, for each person it is different. When I sweat, it seems pretty clear (doesn't leave a residue), but when my husband sweats he ends up with crusty white residue on his skin and clothing. So, I KNOW he loses lots more salt than me.

Keep us posted.