Eating for Exercise

Eating for your exercise is very individualized and really depends on what type of exercise you are doing and what results you are looking for. The following information is generalized recommendations adapted from SCAN’s (sports, cardiovascular, and wellness nutrition) exercise nutrition handouts.

Your workout really starts before you actually work out because you have to fuel your body in order to fuel your exercise. Before a workout you want to reach for carbohydrate-rich foods. Why? Carbohydrates are our body’s preferred energy source—it’s like putting gas into an engine instead of McDonald’s old fry oil. You also want a small amount of protein in this snack for muscle build/repair. Eating foods high in fat or complex carbs are not advised as these foods take longer to digest and will likely give you a horrible stomach ache while you’re working out. Remember, when we rest we digest—so if you’re powering through a tough work out you sure aren’t allowing your body to use any energy to help digest complex foods. If you’re a morning gym rat some options could be banana with 1 Tbsp cashew butter (less fat per serving than almond butter or peanut butter… these would also be alright choices based on your taste preference). If you’re an evening gym rat you could eat oatmeal, nuts, and a banana about 3-4 hours before your workout, or a PB&J with some chocolate milk, a turkey sandwich with an apple, or even (my guilty pleasure) cottage cheese with applesauce and crackers or tortilla chips. Everyone’s body is different meaning everyone’s digestive system is different. Figure out what works best for you and your workout to avoid cramping while staying nourished and having a maximum amount of energy going into your workout.

During your workout you really only need to eat or have a nutritional drink if you’re working out for an extended period of time. 45-minute workout? Stick to water. If you’re running a marathon, or just crazy and feel like staying at the gym for 5 hours you’ll need to replenish nutrients, energy, and electrolytes, and fluids for your body to continue on.  Easily digestible foods (bananas, sports drinks, bread, sports gels, etc.) are preferred for the same reason explained above—you don’t want to get a side cramp trying to digest complex foods. The amount of sweat you produce, the length of your activity, and the intensity of your activity will determine how much food and fluid you will need during your exercise as well as the intervals in which you will need to re-fuel.  General rule of thumb: drink fluids early and consistently to maintain adequate hydration throughout your workout, chugging water will not hydrate you as well as drinking the same amount of water in small intervals throughout your workout. If you are working out at a high intensity for over an hour a sports drink would be more helpful than plain water for the purpose of electrolyte replacement. Also, pay attention to your environment—if you’re in a really hot place (eg. Hot yoga) you will need more water than someone running outside in 40 degree weather.

After your workout you are going to be pretty hungry—trust me, I feel this way every morning after I get home from the gym. It’s a constant battle in my head: eat first or shower first. You should eat within a half-hour of completing your workout with the goals of restoring fluids, carbohydrate stores in your muscles and protein for repair and growth of your muscles. I haven’t talked about fat much in this post because it is focused on exercise nutrition, but please remember that fat is a CRUCIAL part to your overall diet and nourishment and should not be avoided entirely. So what should you eat after your workout? Smoothies are really handy because you can get everything in one cup and they’re usually pretty tasty.  A turkey sandwich… or a turkey panini if you want to get fancy. PB&J with chocolate milk (notice how this is a great option at any time in your life?), taco/burrito bowl with tortilla chips, breakfast egg sandwich on whole wheat with cheese or avocado.. tomato if you want to get crazy with that one.  Think lean protein sources, whole grains, and electrolytes.

For endurance athletes caffeine may be helpful for an extra energy boost. This can be achieved through coffee, energy drinks, or even tea. Caffeine has not been shown to aid in any weight loss during exercise, but does help the athlete prolong their activity. It is recommended that caffeine intake occur 1 hour before exercise. The amount of caffeine needed to be effective in exercise depends on the person and their caffeine tolerance. Caffeine is also an addictive substance and personally I would not recommend it… sorry Seattle.

Another think I wouldn’t fully recommend is alcohol. I’m a social drinker and totally get that having a nice glass of wine on a Friday night is a fantastic thing--  however, if you’re solely focused on physical fitness and results in the gym alcohol is not going to aid you in reaching these goals.  As alcohol is a diuretic it poses a threat on an athlete’s hydration status—so if you do want to go out for drinks, make sure you’re adequately hydrated before you go. Alcohol has many other negative effects including hindering the ability for your body to use fat as a fuel source during exercise, interrupting muscle build/repair post-exercise and interfering with carbohydrate replenishment in the muscles. Alcohol is also a caloric drink and is adding non-nutritive calories to your overall intake. Last but not least, alcohol can interfere with your sleep patterns that lower ability for recovery and leads to general grumpiness.

30-MINUTE HEALTHY CHICKEN BURRITO BOWLS-- www.simplysissom.com

PREP TIME

15 mins

COOK TIME

15 mins

TOTAL TIME

30 mins

Author: Bailey Sissom

Serves: 4 large burrito bowls

INGREDIENTS

•    1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, stems removed and roughly chopped

•    ½ cup plain Greek yogurt

•    2 TBS fresh lime juice

•    2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

•    ¼ cup olive oil + more for cooking chicken

•    1½ tsp. white vinegar

•    ⅛ tsp salt + more for seasoning chicken

•    1 lb. chicken thighs, organic recommended

•    1 TBS taco seasoning

•    6 cups of romaine lettuce, chopped

•    2 cups quinoa or brown rice, prepared according to package directions (I use frozen)

•    2 cups frozen corn

•    1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

•    2 avocados, diced

•    2 tomatoes, diced

•    Salsa (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1   DRESSING: Puree cilantro, yogurt, lime juice, garlic, ¼ cup of olive oil, white vinegar, and ⅛ tsp of salt in a food processor or blender. Set aside.

2   CHICKEN: Place a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with a thin layer of olive oil. While oil heats, pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle taco seasoning over both sides of chicken thigh. Add chicken to pan. Cook for 12-15 minutes (flipping halfway through cooking) or until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Remove chicken from skillet, dice and set aside.

3   ASSEMBLY: To each bowl add 1½ cups of romaine lettuce, ½ cup of quinoa, ½ cup of corn, ¼ can of black beans, ½ of an avocado, and ½ of a tomato. Top with ¼ of the diced chicken and drizzle with creamy cilantro lime dressing. Add salsa if desired.

HELPFUL HINTS:

1   The cilantro-lime dressing takes about 5 minutes to create, but since the theme of these bowls is simple and customizable I feel obligated to let you know.. this isn’t essential. There have been many nights that I toss some salsa on the top and call it quits. Trust me, nobody is complaining.

2   I like using chicken thighs. They are moist and have tons of flavor, buuuuuttt… chicken breasts are def the healthier option. Feel free to substitute!

I used Simple Truth frozen quinoa/brown rice blend. Even though I cook All. The. Time. I still find making perfectly cooked quinoa difficult. For this reason, I love the frozen option. It comes out perfectly every single time and is ready in 5 minutes! Make sure to check the ingredient list before purchasing a frozen blend. It should contain grains and possibly a little olive oil and salt, nothing else is really necessary.

Are you really hungry?

Before I begin this week’s topic I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for the amazing and humbling support from last week’s post. It was something I never planned to talk about on my blog but in the moment felt that it was absolutely necessary. It was very difficult to be so vulnerable and raw in my emotions and I am so thankful to have such supportive people in my life. I hope it is an ongoing topic for all of you so that we can change society’s perspective on body image and eating disorder culture. If you have been had an eating disorder or been effected by one you know how incredibly difficult it can be to build up the courage and strength to battle it and create a healthy relationship with food. If you are currently dealing with an issue regarding food or body image I hope you will find the strength within yourself to get help. Let’s speak up and change our world.

Now for a much lighter subject….

Have you ever found yourself grabbing for the ice cream when you’re devastated, or chomping on chips and salsa when you’re bored out of your mind? How about getting extremely grumpy when you haven’t eaten in hours? Physical hunger and emotional hunger are two very different things that we get confused all of the time.

An easy way to put it is that physical hunger is based in the stomach, and emotional hunger is not… but sometimes we aren’t very good at noticing where our hunger comes from.

Physical hunger, like I said, is based out of the stomach. You can feel the cramping and gurgling in your stomach, yet you start to get grumpy in your mind (see how this is confusing, physical hunger actually effects our emotions!). When you’re physically hungry (if you allow yourself to get REALLY hungry) you’ll pretty much eat anything that’s available to satiate yourself. Furthermore, after you’ve eaten physical hunger goes away leaving you satisfied and able to go on with your day.

Emotional hunger on the other hand is all above the neck. It’s your mind constantly focusing on a particular food, sometimes multiple different foods, your tongue seeking out a particular taste, and your hands doing everything they can to get a hold of that food. Emotional hunger aids us in avoiding emotions—if we eat then we can distract ourselves from what is really going on. It’s Elle Woods eating chocolates in her sorority room after Warner dumped her. It’s White Goodman (Ben Stiller’s character) at the end of Dodgeball gorging himself in a ridiculous amount of food in order to cope with the fact that he lost the tournament and Globo-Gym was probably (in my interpretation) going to go out of business as the Average Joe’s took over. Emotional hunger is even eating when you’re bored because you have nothing better to do. At first you want chips and salsa, then you move on to the cherries, then the pretzels, maybe a few yogurts and before you know it you’ve eaten 1-2 meals worth of food.. all because you were bored!

Emotional hunger is not solved when you eat food—as shown in the boredom example, you’re not going to stop just because you’ve eaten a decent amount of food. Emotional hunger is satisfied when you process the emotion? What am I feeling? Bored. Why am I feeling it? Because my friends bailed on our plans today. What can I do to solve this? Come up with a different activity to do… start crafting, pick up that half-read book that’s been lounging on your shelf for a few months, clean your house… SOMETHING. Food is not the answer.

I’m not saying that all emotional eating is bad—we eat when we’re happy and celebrating (Thanksgiving, birthday parties, etc.), we eat when we’re sad (ice cream, cake, comfort food), and these things are very normal and okay. However, it is important to not let it become a habit and to ensure that you’re still getting balance and moderation in the bigger picture.

So how can you accomplish this? Eat mindfully! When you think you’re hungry but it’s not a normal meal time ask yourself where the hunger is based out of. Ask yourself what you’re feeling emotionally. If you’re actually hungry, honor that hunger cue and eat a snack. If the hunger is emotionally driven, process the emotion. You may chose to eat the food, you may choose not to—but no matter what, you need to process the emotion or else the hunger will continue on and cause more problems. Eat slowly, listen to your hunger and fullness cues. Be insightful and in tuned with yourself.  Most of all, enjoy the food you’re eating.

Starving

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

Waking up each morning,

Have to get on the scale before I eat but after I pee.

“Accurate” weight.

Weight is up,

I starve.

Weight is down,

Not down far enough.

I starve.

I’m starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

HCG, counting calories, plastic surgery.

Is that what it takes?

To be beautiful?

Or, actually, just acceptable.

See beauty is a funny thing,

We all have it but we don’t know it.

Blind.

Blind to the beauty within,

Blind to the features that bring out beautiful and infectious smiles.

Blind to the beauty of this world.

Blind, and I’m still starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

Comparing my plate to make sure I have the least.

Ordering a side salad for dinner at a restaurant.

I wanted a burger.

Wearing Spanx under my clothes

Asking “does this make me look fat?”

I’m not fat.

Am I?

Afraid to put on a bikini.

Afraid to go clothes shopping and pick out sizes.

Go home, hands empty.

Starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

Even if I was fat, who are you to tell me I’m not beautiful?

See beauty comes from many different things,

The song of the winds passing through the golden Autumn leaves,

Opening the door for someone clearly struggling to get through,

Smiling.

Hearing a baby giggle contagiously at the simplest things,

Helping out a friend even when your schedule is booked,

Taking time for yourself to relax, pamper, BREATHE.

Laughing.

Yet society tells me I have to be skinny to be beautiful.

Society tells me I have to have a full, voluptuous chest and a round, muscular butt to be beautiful.

Oh, and a tiny waist.

To have straight, white teeth, and golden-tan skin that’s not too pale, but not too dark.

Because that’s unacceptable.

Society tells me I have to have a toned belly to show each indentation of each ab muscle.

Society tells me my arms must be thin, yet muscular,

No “wings flapping in the wind”.

And I MUST be able to wrap my hand around my arm touching my middle finger to my thumb.

Bonus points if they overlap.

I’m still starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

Teaching our kids to weigh and measure their food,

Can’t bring cupcakes to class for your birthday party,

Going to any measure to fit in,

Vomiting, laxatives, promia, proana,

It’s sick.

They’re starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

Instead of judging, comparing, and bringing each other down

Let’s lift each other up.

Let’s celebrate our differences.

Let’s teach our kids what TRUE balance is without stigmatizing the “bad” food or glorifying the “good”.

Let’s allow each other to be nourished.

Let’s embrace the look of curves, apple bottoms, pear shapes, hourglasses, and ovals.

Let’s let the #transformationtuesday pictures go from walking skeletons to thriving humans.

Not the other way around.

I want all of this, but I’m still starving.

Dear society, I’m sick of this.

I’m not asking for everyone to be overweight or obese.

I’m not asking for us to stop striving to be healthy.

Healthy.

I’m asking us to remember the definition of healthy,

Thriving with life.

No ailments.

“In good health”

There’s no weight range, no number on the scale, or size of clothes specified in that definition.

Yet we starve.

We demonize grains, go gluten free, soy free, dairy free, fat free, sugar free, LIFE free,

All for what?

Health?

As if one piece of bread will make my heart stop.

One donut will make me gain ten pounds.

One cookie will give me diabetes.

God forbid I have mac & cheese.

But it’s not true.

Healthy is nourishing my body with the 5 food groups.

ALL 5.

Healthy is allowing myself some ice cream.

Healthy is still having that side salad,

With my entrée.

Healthy is not obsessing over what’s on my plate,

Or better yet, not obsessing over what’s on their plate.

Healthy is acceptance.

Healthy is balance between it ALL.

Why am I still starving?

Dear society, let’s change this.

Be kind.

Be loving.

Be loved.

Be accepting and open minded.

Be fearless.

Be whoever you want to be.

I refuse to starve.

-Lindsey Danner