Kyoku

• Breakfast can be a struggle for athletes. You don’t want so much that you are too full to train, but you need to be fueled up for long workouts.

• We discovered the Kyoku Breakfast shake and it was the perfect balance of a tasty shake that would leave us fueled until mid-afternoon withouts those cravings.

• The secret is their plant-based superfoods – the ingredients were curated specific to the needs of athletes.

• The best part is that it is delicious with an organic vanilla flavor that, while great on it’s own, can be blended with a banana, fruit, or nut butters for variety.

I've struggled for years to find the perfect breakfast routine. I would be left too full to get in a good workout or I would run out of energy just as my workout was getting good.

A few months ago, I tried a plant-based superfood shake for breakfast called Kyoku, and I fell in love.

I'm excited to share it with you today and if you are wondering how much I like it, well, I bought the company.

Here is why you are going to love Kyoku, starting with the smooth, delicious taste:

• You won't be hungry until mid-afternoon

• You won't have any cravings to snack or binge later in the day.

• You can get to your workout or workday fast. Just mix one packet with oat or almond milk, blend and go.

• You will significantly increase your veggie intake every day.

This spring, I had several race events and Kyoku was gold. I would drink it 2 hours prior, other than some hydration & quick energy (gels and chews) during the competition, I was fully fueled for hours.

To learn more I tested my body's glucose response for a month wearing a Supersapians Continuous Glucose Monitor. After a Kyoku shake, I had almost no insulin spike and would maintain stable blood glucose levels for hours afterward. For perspective, after a typical breakfast, I would have a massive insulin spike and a corresponding crash afterward.

The best part? It tasted great. For the record, I'm not exactly a big "kale" kind of guy and I loved the flavor. Kyoku uses an organic vanilla and a coconut base to make it creamy and smooth. The vanilla flavor also make it easy for your to add in different fruits, banana, or almond butter to add variety to your daily routine.

I wasn't joking when I said I bought the company. We have never done this before, but it's rare to find a small company with a product of such high quality. As one company we could invest to scale their production so we could bring it to every Feed Athlete.

How to use Kyoku

You can use Kyoku any time of day but I prefer it as part of my morning routine. I like to blend it with 14 oz of oat milk and a handful of ice. Now and then, I will add a tablespoon of almond butter.

Dr. Kevin Sprouse, who helped me vet Kyoku before we purchased it, likes to use Kyoku at lunch between a busy schedule with patients. He also uses Kyoku extensively when he is traveling. He just packed up his bag for the Tour de France with a bunch of Kyoku...

What's in Kyoku?

Your Kyoku shake is made from 16 different superfoods, including:

• Greens: Broccoli, Spinach, Kale, Green Pepper

• Carbs & Protein: ChickPea, Peas, Brown Rice, Hemp Seeds, Sweet Potatoes, and Chia Seeds

• Performance: Black Pepper, Beet Root, Ashwagandha

• Recovery: Turmeric, Tart Cherry, Quercetin from Apples.

What's crazy is that the Kyoku team didn't look at the price. They focused on a ridiculously high-quality product above all else — the result: a product like no other in the market, albeit an expensive one.

Kyoku's price is what made me fall in love with it.

I think about it this way: Kyoku is my primary fuel for more than half my day, this is not where I'm trying to save a few dollars to have lower-quality ingredients. I want the best I can get, regardless of a few extra dollars.

As a business decision, this was probably a terrible idea on Kyoku's part. All of the other superfood / green shake companies have ingredients that cost a fraction of the price of theirs. As a result, these companies also make crazy profits.

As an athlete and daily user, Kyoku's decision to only get the best ingredients (regardless of price and profit) was the right decision in my book.

The Kyoku team hand-picked farms for each fruit and vegetable, flash froze them on site, and then used a heating process to dehydrate each ingredient. From here, it is blended and mixed into what you get in each Kyoku packet.

It is a time-consuming and costly process, but the result is an honest product with honest to goodness amazing ingredients.

The feedback from athletes has been amazing:

• The organic vanilla flavor seems to be loved by everyone.

• My experience of not being hungry until well in the afternoon appears to be shared by many others.

• I'm hearing several people say that they have fewer cravings for snacks later in the day.

I encourage you to try it today. You can even just buy a single packet if you want to make sure the taste is right for you.