Personal trainer bakes own variety of protein bars

Maricopa Meadows resident Tisha Siegfried grew up in Louisiana where just about everything eaten is either “deep fried or dipped in something.”

“I’m from the South and cooking is how you show your love for people,” she said.

Siegfried said she loves to cook and eat what she prepares, and at age 30 and 5 feet, 8 inches, said she weighs the same now as she did when she was in third grade.

Six years ago, after the birth of her son, she decided to get serious about slimming down and signed up for a weight-loss contest at Anytime Fitness in Maricopa.

“I loved it,” Siegfried said about exercising. “I lost 35 pounds and have maintained it.”

Siegfried is now a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness, where she is gaining recognition as the woman who bakes and sells her own variety of sugar-free protein bars. After her first month, Siegfried said she has 10 regular customers and is getting new ones all the time.

She is preparing about a dozen batches a week and said she is in the process of getting a business license from the city.

“They are going like crazy,” she said.

Joe Corinti, who also is a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness, is one of Siegfried’s regular customers.

“They’re awesome,” he said. “I have three or four flavors I like and sometimes have them for breakfast or a snack. They have everything you need and keep you from getting hungry for at least a couple of hours.”

The bars are plain, apple, banana, cinnamon, raisin, walnut and pear. Siegfried said she can bake the bars with just about any dried or fresh fruit a customer likes. She said all her ingredients are fresh and natural and she uses high-quality whey protein.

“I have one customer who likes apricots and craisins (cranberries dried like raisins),” she said.

Michelle Reiher is another regular customer.

“I usually get apple and carrot-raisin, those are two I stick with,” she said. “I get them every week and a half. They are a good snack to have after I workout because they have both protein and carbs.”

Siegfried started baking the bars for herself a year and a half ago and little by little let some of her friends and people at the gym taste them. Many encouraged her to go into business selling them. Her fiancé also encouraged her, and, if the protein bars do well in town, the couple is considering expanding outside of Maricopa.

Siegfried said she never bought protein bars at the store, because “as a female trying to lose weight, they have a ton of calories and if I ate them it would make my workout a void.”

Each of her bars, she said, are 160 calories that breakdown to 26 grams of protein, 20 grams of carbohydrates, four grams of fiber and a half gram of fat.

She said she makes meal plans for her fitness clients, and during the years has created healthy variations of the calorie-loaded recipes she grew up with in the South.

“Instead of butter I use spray butter, instead of sugar I use Splenda and instead of whole eggs I use only egg whites,” she said. “Do I feel better? Absolutely.” She makes protein balls for herself as snacks.

The bars cost $20 for a batch of 10. They are baked in a 10-by-14-inch baking pan. Orders can be placed by either calling or texting 520-450-3451.

Siegfried’s recipe for protein balls (similar to Buckeye cookies)
1 cup peanut butter
4 servings of protein powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups Splenda
Combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and refrigerate for one hour.