33Shake Chia Gel Review

When I switched over to my keto/fat-enabled running training mode, I knew I also needed to switch up my race nutrition. I had heard about 33Shake on both Trail Runner Nation podcast and the Primal Endurance podcast. Knowing that it was made with chia seeds made it all the more appealing. If you go back to one of my first posts about Iskiate, the Raramuri chia seed beverage, you know that I was experimenting with chia seeds. However, I never really got a good handle on the drink. It seemed too much liquid to down and very seedy (for a beverage).

 Fast forward to today..

 After hearing about 33Shake, I decided to look them up. The chia energy gel comes in a squeeze pack that you might find baby food or squeezable applesauce pack. I opted to buy a 10-pack of the chia energy gel, which cost me $27.50 plus shipping. The product arrived promptly after a few days. On my next weekend run I took a pouch with me -remembering to fill it up with water to get it soaking (it takes about 10 minutes to gel up). Mostly I wanted to see how the chia gel tasted and if there were any negative affects on my stomach. With my fat-enabled training, I've been doing fasted morning runs, so I waited about a half hour into my run before downing the pouch. First, I must say that the chia gel has a great taste. It almost tastes like maple brown sugar instant oatmeal both in flavor and texture. I will admit it took a couple squeezes to figure out if I liked it and how to exactly "eat" it. Keep in mind, I hate normal gel/goo packs - I could never stomach the flavors or the slimy texture. With the chia gel, I figured don't chew the seeds, just swallow. I suppose you could chew if you wanted to, but in my opinion it's just going to leave you with a bunch of seeds stuck in your mouth. At the end of the run, no issues with my stomach.

About a week later I took two pouches on an hour and a half run. I took one 20 minutes into my run and then the second about 40 minutes later. I wanted to test how my stomach would handle more than one pack. Again, no issues with my stomach. It was easier to take in now that I knew just to swallow the gel. The one issue I had on this run was that one of the packs was a little light on water. The result was slightly drier chia seeds and an inability to get all the gel out of the squeeze pack. Mental note to make sure that each pouch is really full before heading out. Following the run and 2 gel packs later, no stomach issues.

So, the good news is that my stomach can easily handle 33Shake Gel packs. Now the real test will be energy levels on a longer run. I also plan on testing them for a weekend backpacking trip coming up. I'm hoping that I can off-set some of the backpacking food that I will have to eat (that is not Keto). More to come in the next month - more training, more blog posts. I will update the 33Shake experiment as my runs get longer.

 Go Bare or Go Home!

 **NOTE** 33 Shake Chia Energy Gel was purchased with my own money and the review above is my honest assessment of 33Shake to this point. If you are interested in trying out 33Shake you can find their website at https://www.33shake.com/.