Nutrition - Part II

Meal Timing

Setting up a schedule and a routine for eating is a great way to increase your success. You want to know when you are eating and what you are eating for that time of day. The idea held by most, although I have been doing some reading of research that is showing otherwise (too early to say), you are best to eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks a day. Doing so will keep your metabolism humming and will keep you satisfied as well between meals. I have read that people that do snack between meals, burn around 240 calories more during the day. You body never slows down, it just keeps chugging along! Ideally this would be: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Tailoring these meals and snacks around your workouts can be extremely helpful.

You can workout on an empty stomach. I do it most mornings. If you have properly refueled after your last workout, you have about an hour to an hour and a half of stored glycogen to fuel your workout. This is where, no matter when you workout, eating specific things post workout is so important. You want to provide your body with quickly digestible nutrients to replenish your glycogen stores. Recovery drinks, like BB Results & Recovery, have shown that a ratio of 4:1 (carbs to protein) is ideal for refueling purposes. That can easily be accomplished with a large banana (simple sugar and quickly digested) and a scoop of whey (~20 g protein). It may not be a perfect 4:1 ratio, but it is close. That is exactly what I did for my first round of P90X. I was fortunate though that I was gifted a tub of R&R, and let me tell you, the stuff is fantastic. The tasty orange chill is unbeatable post workout, but it has to fit with you budget.

If you are morning guy or gal, space your meals out 2.5-3 hours from there on out. My post-workout is now my Shakeology. I add a scoop of whey, natural PB, almond milk, and a couple bananas. I am still playing with this. The fat of the PB does slow digestion. I may go back to a true post workout shake, banana and whey, and then do my Shakeology as a real breakfast. As I have said before, give your changes time to work. Reassess, research, and stick with your plan to know if it is accomplishing your goals.

For meals and snacks, I try to keep my meals a little larger than my snacks. That helps me feel full. Tons of leafy greens helps keep me full and doesn't damage any of my goals. I attempt to have a protein and a complex carbohydrate (sweet potato, brown rice, veggies, oats) with each meal. Snacks have gravitated towards fats (from nuts) and either a carbohydrate or protein. Fats are great for sending a full signal to your brain. Do a half tablespoon of PB and give it 15 minutes. You can usually move past any cravings or hunger feelings.

Finally, try to phase out your carbohydrates by dinner time. Only go for green fibrous veggies at dinner and beyond. By not eating many carbohydrates after 3 pm, you can almost eliminate any chance that your body will store those carbohydrates as fat. They will be all burned before you go to bed. A great final snack is cottage cheese. It is a casein protein. Casein proteins digest very slowly and will help your body rebuild itself as you sleep.

My help can only supplement your nutrition guides. Make sure to read them! I am giving you what has worked for me and a lot of my friends. Keep learning and eat clean!