Looking for a Super Bowl treat that will please a crowd and your diet?!
Look no further than this AH-MAZING cookie pie recipe creatively concocted by the talented Katie from Chocolate Covered Katie. Recipe link is in the title. Click it, you won't be disappointed!
This guilt free chocolatey coconut dessert is smooth, delicious, and nutritious. And let’s be real, this is not JUST for dessert time, you can eat this ANYTIME!
So before you read through the recipe here are some reasons why chia seeds are so great.
-High in calcium, skip the milk, drink thee seeds
- Packed with antioxidants, those things that help reduce overall stress on the body
- High fiber content, keeps you fuller longer --> facilitates overall weight loss
- Rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, healthy FATS!
- Aids in digestion, being regular is a good thing ;)
Ingredients:
½ Cup Chia seeds
¾ Cup Date paste **
1 Full Can of Organic LIGHT canned coconut milk
½ Cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 TBSP Pure Maple Syrup
You WILL need a high speed blender OR a food processor.
How to make date paste
Take 10 large medjool dates, slice them open and take out the pit. Place them in a high speed blender or food processor with ¼ cup water. Blend until a thick paste forms. If it’s too thick and chunky add water 1 tablespoon at a time until a paste forms. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. You may have to scrape down the sides and then blend again. I know this seems like a lot of work but its WORTH IT, I promise.
In a separate bowl mix chia seeds, maple syrup, canned coconut milk (the thick parts and the liquid part), the cocoa powder and vanilla. Mix well. Then add the date paste. MIX WELL again.
Let it set in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. If it’s too thick for your liking then add a small amount of almond milk. For a smoother texture blend again in a blender after the mixture has set in the fridge. Then add fruit, nuts or granola and enjoy.
**Keep refrigerated and will stay for about 5 days**
Makes 4-5 servings. Macros for four servings. P:4 F:14 C:20
Enjoy!!!
Ditch the store bought granola filled with high fructose corn syrup and preservatives and MAKE YOUR OWN! This recipe is simple, affordable, and easily adjustable to your preferences.
4 cups of rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts or seeds
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried fruit of choice
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, shredded
¼ cup melted coconut oil
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
1 ½ tsp Vanilla
½ tbsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 pinch sea salt
1) Heat oven to 350
2) Mix all ingredients together, EXCEPT the dried fruit.
3) Spread out evenly on a baking sheet with edges
4) Place in oven for 15 minutes
5) Stir granola and put in over for an additional 10-15 minutes
6) Once cooled add dried fruit and additional drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Place in glass jar with lid. ENJOY!
The best part of this recipe is that you can put in whatever nuts, seeds or dried fruit that you want! Change up the spices or even add 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter. Have fun, be creative, and enjoy.
There’s nothing better than a dessert that tastes delicious but is filled with healthy feel good ingredients. These carrot cake cookies do not disappoint in flavor or texture. They are soft, yet crunchy and packed with winter spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. If you are a carrot cake lover like myself these will satisfy your sweet dessert cravings.
Ingredients:
1 cup instant oats
¾ whole wheat or white flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp freshly grate nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
2 TBSP melted coconut oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup cinnamon applesauce
1 cup grated carrot
½ Cup golden or regular raisins
1/3 Cup chopped walnuts
1. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl (oats, flour, spices, salt, baking powder)
2. Melt the coconut oil and mix in wet ingredients (egg, vanilla, maple syrup, applesauce)
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry.
4. Grate freshly peeled carrots. Chop the walnuts.
5. If raisins are really dry, soak them in warm water for 5-10 minutes. They will plump up and be much juicer in your cookies
6. Fold carrots, walnuts and raisins into mixture.
7. Chill in refrigerator for an hour
8. Preheat oven to 325
9. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
10. Using a 1 ½ TBSP ice cream scooper, scoop out cookie dough, roll into balls then flatten with your hands once on the cookie sheet. (these cookies are dense and don’t rise much so you need to flatten them now)
11. Bake for 10-12 minutes
OPTIONAL: When I bring these cookies to events I make a simple cream cheese frosting to really spice these guys up! Blend ¼ cup butter with 4 oz cream cheese and 4-6 oz of powdered sugar. Blend into mixed well and slather on top of cooled cookies!
These will be a crowd pleaser, I PROMISE!
In Health & Happiness
Kristen
Yes, there’s chocolate, and yes there’s wheat! But guess what?! It’s still healthy and delicious. I bake a lot and sometimes I think that in order for a dessert or pastry to be tasty it has to have a lot of butter and sugar. And while butter and sugar make EVERY thing taste better they aren’t the two most healthy ingredients. But this recipe defies the baking standard! There is no refined sugar or butter! It’s a super simple recipe that anyone can follow and it’s packed with good-for-you ingredients like coconut oil, greek yogurt and whole wheat. Each muffin is only 180 calories and the macro breakdown per muffin is: Carb: 26 Fat: 7 Protein:3
Ingredients:
1 Cup whole wheat or white flour
1 TBSP corn starch
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
4 TBSP Cocoa Powder
2 SUPER ripe mashed bananas
1/3 Cup honey
¼ Melted Coconut Oil
½ Cup plain 0% fat greek yogurt ( I like Fage best!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
¾ Cup dark chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally Spray muffin tray with cooking oil. If you don’t you will be sorry! You can use liners if you want, but I would spray them as well.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl and set aside. (flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder)
3. Mash bananas until they are close to a liquid like consistency. Add melted coconut oil to banana mixture. Then continue with remainder of wet ingredients (egg, yogurt, vanilla and honey)
4. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix then stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop into muffin tins using a spoon or ice scream scooper.
6. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
These are SO good! They are great cold from the refrigerator or warm and gooey straight out of the oven. Don’t take my word for it! Try them and you’ll become a believer as well!
In health & happiness!
- Kristen
Persevere; synonyms include to keep going, to be determined, to see something through, stand ones ground, persist, hold on, endure, go the distance, stop at nothing and leave no stone unturned. Why is it important to persevere? It is similar to persist which means to continue in a course of action or keep an opinion in spite of difficulty. It’s comparable to endure which means to suffer something painful or difficult while being patient or to remain in existence.
Yet to persevere is not just a verb that we use to describe pushing through some difficult situation or not giving up. It’s not just remaining alive and existing in this world. It’s more than being determined not give up. To persevere means to continue in your course of action or purpose even in the face of difficulty and with little or no hope of success. Now this doesn’t mean that we should just keep doing the same things we are doing and eventually expect a different result. In order to see change, we need to change ourselves our habits or our lifestyle. Perseverance is about having faith in yourself, your relationship or your current course of action and being determined to keep pushing through the bad to get to the good even if you don’t feel like you are getting any closer. We can apply it to many real life situations and because I am pretty fitness obsessed lets apply it in that area of life.
You’re stagnant. You’re not moving forward in your relationships, career, faith, or hobbies. You have lost that spark for life, that excitement that drove you to play harder, push more and not accept anything less than the best. Somethings changed and you are stuck. You spend your evenings staying up late to “deload” from your crazy days and you never get a true good night’s rest. Each year you’ve put on weight and you tell yourself its ok because you are busy and stressed and have no time to worry about health. You’ll do it later at a more convenient time. Well sadly that time never comes. Now you are depressed and hopeless.
But all humans are resilient so eventually you decide it’s time to change and you buy a gym membership, start following health blogs and go grocery shopping for the first time in months. You make a goal to lose weight, sleep better and eat healthier. Three weeks goes by and where do you find yourself? Back to your old habits. Take out containers litter the counter, Netflix is on and you are hanging out in your sweat pants eating your comfort snack. What happened? Three weeks went by and you gave it everything you had. You got up early, ate healthy, went to the gym 4 days a week, put a limit on binge watching your favorite shows and even gave up alcohol. But time went by and you didn’t FEEL a huge change in your body or mind. You barely lost 2 lbs. It just sucked. It was hard. You were even more tired. You think to yourself: What is this energy everyone talks about after exercising? And endorphins?! Those are a lie. With all that I gave up, you would think I would feel like a different person now?!
You feel sore and worn out physically and mentally. You have given up. You have not persevered. You went through a difficult situation with minimal optimism and instead of being determined to not give up you succumbed to your hopelessness. You couldn’t even recognize your own progress. You just felt that it was too much work, too challenging, too stressful and you gave up before you really even started. If only you viewed your initial changes (exercising, eating better, sleeping more) as progress you would have been determined to not give up. If you had pushed yourself through this challenge even though you didn’t feel like you were progressing eventually you would have seen results. Then all of the sweat, struggle and stress was worth it! But most times we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. We don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to imagine a different me, a stronger me, a better me.
Now I bring this up to help shed light on what it really means to persevere in your struggles whether they have to do with your health, your mind or your relationships. Whether they be huge, scary, seemingly insurmountable problems or little challenges you face in everyday life. Maybe you just read my little anecdote and it hit some nerve or tugged at your heart strings. Good! Let it motivate you to continue in your struggles whatever they may be. Be determined to develop perseverance. Don’t stop your forward momentum because YOU can’t see your progress. Who are you to even decide that you are progressing or not?! Most of the time we are our own worst enemies anyway and we can be so critical on ourselves that we do not allow ourselves to see the positive changes that we have made. Or maybe the progress is so slow that we are impatient with ourselves. Whatever the case may be, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT slowdown in your journey because you cannot at the moment see your progress.
So exactly HOW do we learn to persevere? Well I am sorry to say that I can’t tell you that. It’s not that I am keeping a secret from you, it’s just that I only know how I personally persevered in my challenges. Every individual must learn for himself or herself how to develop the determination to persevere in their specific situations. The more you persevere the better you will get at doing it and the more confidence you will have in yourself when dealing with new challenges in the future. Throughout your experiences you will develop the skills and qualities needed to endure. You will learn how to hold on in spite of what may seem like the world turning against you.
So before you give up ask yourself have I kept going and been determined to see something through? Have I stood my ground, persisted, held on, endured, gone the distance, and stopped at nothing leaving no stone unturned in order to accomplish my goal? If you can’t say yes, then you best not give up now.
Continue moving forward, you will get there eventually. Maybe not when you want to but don’t give up. Believe in yourself that you can surmount the insurmountable. Persist in your perseverance and you will progress. I promise.
I am going to take you on a journey back in time. To a time and place before eating kale made you cool, before green smoothies and kombucha were trendy and before gluten was the enemy. People had never heard of acai and foods weren’t grouped into categories like superfood, organic or antioxidants. A time when eating healthy wasn’t the cool thing to do. When I was growing up “healthy” was just becoming popular. If you wanted alternative medicine, food, or drink you would have to drive to some far away specialty health food store that smelled like incense and was run by girls with dreadlocks and nose rings (now called “hipsters” lol). During this time alternative medicine, holistic and nutritional healing and celiac disease were not common topics in day to day conversations.
Now we live in a time when there is an overabundance of information about healthy living, healthy foods and how to live a healthy lifestyle. Magazines showcase celebrities who lost weight doing this diet or that exercise routine. Daytime TV shows like The Dr.Oz show, The Chew, The Doctors and others show ways to lose weight, burn fat, build muscle, and eat healthy. We hear and see headlines such as Lose 10lbs in 10 days, Try this Cleanse, Do that Detox, How to Go From a Size 14 to a Size 8 in Just 2 Weeks, Get those Summer Abs with This Intense Celebrity Workout Routine and on and on. Celebrities endorse diet pills. Talk show hosts recommend the trendiest ways to lose weight. We watch reality weight loss shows like The Biggest Loser and Extreme Weight loss Challenge. To say it’s overwhelming is an understatement. We are inundated with health information every day. So how do we sift through all of this information and know what really works and what doesn’t?
It’s frustrating and overwhelming and usually these feelings end up creating a lot of confusion and doubt. One day soy is good for you the next day it isn’t. One day milk is good for your bones the next day it’s filled with hormones and antibiotics. Who do you trust? Well I used to feel the same way as you do. And honestly sometimes I still feel that way. But there is one thing that I know that is true and always will be true. There is no magic pill. There is no secret to losing weight. No matter what hot celebrities endorse it or what magazine recommends it, it all comes down to you and how much work you are willing to put into to changing your habits. You put in the work and you see the results.
I promise if you spend 3-5 days a week sweaty and breathless in a workout for 30-60 minutes you will see results. You could do Zumba or Crossfit, Barre Classes or traditional weightlifting. You could increase your activity level by hiking, biking or simply walking more. Then add in eating less crap (processed foods, soda, all fried things) and more vegetables, lean meats and complex carbs you will see even more results. Don’t fear food, educate yourself. Don’t just listen to some random person talk about the benefits of this nut or that superfood. Be smart. Eating some special bean or probiotic is not going to solve all of your health problems, get you to lose 20 lbs, and help you to sleep at night. Let’s be realistic here.
But some people are just die hard diet fans. They NEED to be on a diet. They truly believe their diet is the end all be all of all diets. And they may be right. Maybe following their specific plan did in fact work for them. Maybe it changed their life and they need to share it with everyone they meet. Whatever it was, be it the paleo diet, low carb diet, south beach diet, IIFYM diet or the cabbage soup diet it worked because of one simple fact. They lived in a caloric deficit. All that means is that they burned more calories than they consumed so their bodies lost weight.
I am not hating on any diet, TV show or celebrity when I say all of these things because I do believe that there is truth in what a lot of these people endorse BUT not all of these health things work for everyone and not all of these things are “healthy”. Years ago health was something we had and if we didn’t we worked to improve it by learning about it from educated professionals and scholarly sources. Now it’s a cash cow; a $20 billion dollar industry. An industry that doesn’t care if you lose weight or not. It does not care if you are healthy or not. It just cares about making money.
So what do you do? At the end of the day it’s all about experience and education. Do your research and learn about how food affects YOUR body and YOUR mind. Listen to your body when it reacts poorly to certain foods or drinks. Educate yourself on carbohydrates, fats and proteins (I have another blog about this if you scroll down). Read books or scholarly articles by professionals. Be realistic, if a diet recommends something that sounds ridiculous, it probably is. Don’t go crazy restricting yourself and instead focus on portion control, changing out your unhealthy habits for healthy one and seek out educational sources that do not endorse or recommend any specific diet plan.
In some ways growing up was difficult because I felt so different and weird. I would fruitlessly try to trade my sprouted grain bread sandwich for a tastycake during my cafeteria lunches. It never worked. I would read weird books that my mom had laying around the house like “Milk the Deadly Poison” and “You are What You Eat”. It created a very deep seeded unhealthy fear of food within me. But I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be educated about food and its role in my body because now we live a world with so much misinformation that it’s almost impossible to comprehend what actually is true and what’s not. But that doesn’t mean that we just give up and live a life of ignorance. Keep learning and keep applying and you will find what works best for you. At the end of the day keep it simple; eat balanced amounts of all food, eat more home cooked meals than meals out, stop drinking your calories and stay active by exercising. Read more and when I say read more I really mean read more of my blogs. More information to come weekly!
I’m not one to set any New Year’s resolutions but I know most people do so I was thinking it was time to start blogging again. Let me begin by asking you a question. Are you a glass have full or a glass half empty type of person? Think on that while you read the rest of this.
Every year on the eve of the impending New Year we tend to look back over the last 12 months and we decide if it was a good year or a bad year, a success or a failure. The ups and downs accumulate into one overall feeling for that specific year. And every year after it you will refer to that year as the fill in the blank year. Maybe you call it the forgotten year or the fat year or the divorce year or something more positive like the happy year, the year of love, the year you finally graduated. Maybe this is just me but I tend to clump everything together and only choose to remember the big things that happened during the year and when I look back that’s all I really see in my mind. That was the year I got married. That was the year my grandfather died. That was the year I hated my body, etcetera etcetera. When we do this we miss all the other parts of the year that were important to us. Those parts that helped shape us into the person we are today.
But what does this have to do with succeeding or failing in 2017? It has everything to do with it! It’s all about perspective. When we set goals we expect to reach them and when we don’t how do we feel? Like failures. We promised ourselves at the beginning of 2016 we would lose 20lbs, we would save money for a down payment on a house or we would get that promotion or we would eat less fast food. Whatever our goal was it was really important to us and we had EVERY intention of keeping it. But now we are here in 2017 and 2016 is gone and we didn’t save up money for our new house, we went into debt, we never earned that promotion. We couldn’t stop eating playa bowls and only lost 10lbs instead of 20. We started to take part in the Netflix and chill trend and binge watched our way through the majority of 2016. So we look back and see failures. We see what we didn’t accomplish and we feel bad about ourselves and we feel even less confident about our new goals this year. And then we compound the problem by swiping through picture after picture on Instagram of all the people that accomplished their goals in 2016. We see everyone’s highlight reel of all of their successes and think even less of ourselves.
So how can we change this? How do we stop this cycle? Change your perspective. If we continue to look back on our year and interpret every single action as a success or a failure we will always feel like failures. Because in the end we did fail, even if we won a couple times we still failed. And for most of us THAT is the main thing that we will remember. Ricky Bobby said it best (yes I am quoting Talledega Nights) “If you ain’t first, your last” meaning you’re a success or a failure. There is no middle ground. STOP doing that.
Start now by changing your perspective. Maybe you didn’t reach your goal of losing 20 lbs but you did learn how to
eat better foods for your body, you are sleeping better AND stopped drinking soda. Maybe you didn’t save up all the money you wanted to or pay off those student loans but you learned how difficult it’s going to be and this year you will try a different approach. Maybe you struggled all year and you still didn’t do what you wanted to do but you gained patience and discipline. Maybe in your mind you did fail, you never got that promotion and you lost your job but in the process you learned how to be resilient.
So in 2017 make it your goal to simply learn. Learn from your experiences, grow as an individual and start viewing your experiences as just that an experience. There is no success or failure. Focus on how you have transformed as a person for the better. Be more positive about your journey. Be the person Thomas Edison was when he said “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
We live in the land of get rich quick schemes, lazy Sundays, and full service everything…to think that this wouldn’t affect all of us is a bit naïve. Recently one of my coaches was venting about how people aren’t willing to put in the work to see the results. I thought he was being a little harsh because he simply said people are just lazy. At first I was personally offended! I am not lazy…but when I really thought about it he was right. I am a highly motivated person and I am pretty rigid when it comes to my schedule and eating habits. But even at times I have complained that my training program or current eating plan wasn't working even though I was putting in all this work. But really, deep down inside, I know I wasn’t being consistent with my diet or keeping up with my workout schedule as best as I could. I desperately wanted to accomplish my goals but complaining about them wouldn't get me any closer to reaching them.
This got me thinking, are we really just lazy? We want to have our cake, eat it too and have someone else bake it for us. We put in 50% and expect to get 100% back. While this may work in some areas of life it definitely will not work when it comes to health and fitness. Now we may admire certain athletes or fitness models and think that they were just lucky. That they’ve always been athletic, they have always had that body, and that they were just “born with it”. But that is just lazy talking because the truth is no one is just “born with it”. Yes, people may be naturally talented and genetically gifted in some area but anyone who was ever truly great worked their butt off to get there. Day after day, week after week and year after year these people pushed their bodies and minds to the limit to get to that podium, that championship, or that level of expertise.
So this brings me to my realization. Some people are just not willing to work for it. As I said before I was a little caught off guard by what my coach said, but he was totally right. How many times have you started a new healthy plan, a diet, a workout regimen, or bought a gym membership and just didn’t keep up with it. Most of us give up after the first couple of weeks or months. We have no determination, discipline, or patience. We want the results now! If we don’t see them we assume that the program just doesn’t work for us. Instead of blaming our own laziness we blame our trainer, our workout program, or our busy lives. We are experts at making excuses for ourselves; I’m too old, I’m too tired, I have no time, I’m injured, I’m a picky eater, and my personal favorite I can’t afford to eat healthy or go to the gym. *face palm* Who said eating healthy was expensive and who even said that you need a gym membership? I promise you that grocery shopping and making your own food costs less than eating premade meals or restaurant food.
If we really want to see change we need to be willing to put in the effort. That means sacrificing dessert, going to bed early, waking up earlier, taking time to grocery shop, cooking meals at home and sometimes missing out on other things! Not for one week or one month but for the long run. Now I don’t expect everyone to be willing to sacrifice all of that but if you really want something that bad you should be willing to give something up in exchange for it.
I hope after reading this you don’t think that I am scolding you. I am not. I’m being honest and I’m being tough. I am trying to show you that you CAN do it. You CAN accomplish your goals whether they are fitness related or not. But I am also telling you that it will be difficult and you may want to quit. But don’t.
Sometimes we need to hear the truth and take responsibility. I know every person out there has the potential to do more and be more but not many tap into that part of themselves. No one wants to struggle. But if you want to see change, YOU have to change and sometimes it hurts. It’s not always easy and it’s not always fun but the benefits far outweigh the hard times.
Be better than lazy. Be better than average. Be better than you were yesterday.
In Health & Happiness
Kristen
There is a lot of information out there about what to eat and drink pre and post workout. I am going to outline the basics for you. If you want something deeper feel free to dig in, the internet is full of information. This is what has worked for me and many others and is outlined in multiple research documents and books about pre and post workout nutrition.
The first important part of nutrition is understanding why we choose to eat certain foods at certain times. Carbohydrates and proteins are the important macros when it comes to pre/post workout meals. Carbs are our bodies preferred choice of fuel when it comes to workouts. While some body types can utilize fat as a source of fuel the body has a much harder time digesting and breaking it down into a usable source. Carbs can reduce nervous system fatigue so that we can think clearly and execute our workouts correctly. Intake of carbs post workout also reduces muscle soreness and helps the body to resist muscle breakdown during and after exercise. Many resources agree that the BEST time to consume carbs are pre and post workout. This is why I choose carbs around my workout time.
Protein is made up of amino acids which build muscle tissue. Every time we train a muscle group or exercise, our body tears down and rebuilds muscle. In order to do this it needs amino acids available in the blood stream for building and if we have not eaten protein in the hours before our workout, our bodies will choose to steal protein from other sources; other muscles. We DO NOT want this to happen. This is why pre and post workout consumption of protein is so important.
Pre workout Carb & Protein
There is no magical time frame to eat before your workout but depending on your digestive system and schedule 60-90 minutes before your workout is a good start. Again, everyone is different. I can eat 20 minutes before I workout and feel fine but I have learned what works best for me. You should choose a fast digesting protein to avoid GI distress and increase the availability of aminos in your blood stream.
The fastest digesting protein is whey (the kind of protein that’s in most shakes). This is the best choice for pre workout but eating lean chicken, fish or beef an hour or two before your workout is ok too. Stay away from dairy and casein proteins pre workout because it is the slowest digesting protein. Aim for 15-30 grams of protein. Sometimes I will drink half of my protein shake before my workout and then half afterwards.
Your pre workout carb doesn’t have as many rules as your pre workout protein but choose something that is easy to digest and not high in fiber. Simple carbs are best like a banana, toast, rice cake or a protein shake with carbs in it. Aim to consume 20-30 grams of carbs depending on your macros and the intensity of your workout.
LIMIT FAT INTAKE PRE & POST WORKOUT
Fat slows down digestion and makes it more difficult for your body to absorb protein and carbs. Eat your fats anytime but this time. Limit 8 grams or less pre & post workout
Post workout Carb & Protein
This is what many call the “window of gains”. Yes, there is a magical window of time when your body NEEDs to be fed and this is it. 30-60 minutes post workout you NEED to eat. Again this protein should be lean (low in fat) and easy to digest. Whey is the best but egg whites, lean chicken, and fish would also be ok. Carbs are SUPER important right now. The bulk of your carbs for the day should be eaten pre and post workout. For instance if I have 150 grams of carbs to eat per day about 90 grams may be consume around my workout time. Now is your opportunity to stuff your face with carbs…but good carbs like rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, sprouted grains and oats. Your carb to protein ratios post workout should look like this 2:1 or 3:1. So if I eat 20 grams of protein post workout then I should eat between 40-60 grams of carbs. Yes that is a lot but your body NEEDs it, so feed it!
Other important stuff
1) If you workout early in the morning and can’t seem to eat before your workout then just try to drink 1/3 to a 1/2 of a protein shake OR have an even larger post workout meal.
2) Stay away from fiber post workout. Fiber just slows down digestion and may give you stomach cramps, gas or other uncomfortable things. Foods high in fiber would be vegetables and some fruit. Eat them, but don’t eat them directly after your workout.
3) If you are busy and can’t seem to get a sweet potato and chicken down your gullet post workout then invest in whey protein and pack a snack high in carbs like fig bars, rice cakes, or overnight oats (yum)
4) Unless you are exercising for over 2 hours or outside in high temperatures and humidity there is no NEED for a special hydration drink with electrolytes like gatorade, vitamin water or even coconut water. You can drink these beverages but your body does not need them. Drink water…a lot of water.
5) If you eat a meal that is high in fat pre-workout or you don’t get your post workout shake in 60 minutes after you workout, oh well. Don’t freak yourself out and think that you can’t workout now because your body won’t be able to absorb as much carb and protein or that your window of gains is over and your workout was worthless. It’s OK. Your body will survive. Just try to plan better next time.
Again, this is about what works best for YOUR body, YOUR lifestyle and YOUR training. I am just here to give you something to think about. It’s not an all or nothing plan. Take pieces of information and apply it where you can and see if it works for you. A friend told me that I can’t expect to see changes unless I change something. So if you’ve been killing it in the gym and consistently eating a balanced amount of macros and not seeing any improvements then maybe changing up your pre and post workout nutrition is just the change that you need!
In Healthy & Happiness
Kristen