You put a lot of effort into your workouts, always working harder and harder to reach your goals. At times we give more thought to our pre-workout eating habits than our post-workout meals! After a workout it’s very important to fuel your body. When deciding what to eat to best fuel yourself after a workout you’ll want to make health conscious decisions and choose foods that are best for helping your body to recover!
When you workout, your muscles use up their glycogen stores for fuel. After your workout your body tries to rebuild it’s glycogen stores and repair and grow the muscles. Eating the right foods will help your body to perform this action faster! Therefore the best foods to eat after a workout are carbs and protein. These should be lean nutritious sources. Here are some great sources to re-fuel your body after your workouts!
Carbs:
Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate Milk
Quinoa
Fruits
Rice Cakes
Rice
Oatmeal
Dark, leafy green vegetables
Rice Crackers
Protein:
Animal or plant-based protein powder
Eggs
Greek Yogurt
Cottage Cheese
Salmon
Chicken
Tuna
Lentils
Beans
Nuts
Avocado
Focusing on healthy nutritious food choices at all times of the day will help you get more out of your workouts by fueling your body with foods that help it maintain efficiency rather than slow it down!!
Here are some great meal ideas that will take the thought out of this process:
Grilled Chicken and Veggies
Omelette and avocado toast
Tuna sandwich (light on the mayo or use a substitute like Greek yogurt)
Salmon and sweet potato
Oatmeal with protein, bananas and almonds
Tuna with rice crackers
Cottage cheese and pineapple
Rice Crackers and hummus
Peanut butter and banana
Greek or low fat plain yogurt with fruit and nuts
Protein shake with banana
Make sure to also drink plenty of water and don’t forget, water will help digestion happen at a faster pace!
Photo courtesy of: Men’s Health