The Word on Weightloss

Whether you’re only beginning your weight loss workout plan, or you’ve been working hard for months, I want to make sure you’re eating right before and after your workout. Your post and pre workout snacks can make or break your workout’s effectiveness, and it’s my duty to keep you on the fast track towards reaching your weight loss goal.

Pre-Workout

The best pre-workout snack I can recommend has a good mix of carbohydrates (for energy) and protein (to satisfy your hungry and fuel your muscles). Snacks before a workout are an excellent idea because they’ll give you the energy you need to get you going. Additionally, a snack before you workout can prevent you from being hungrier once your done with your workout. Here are a few of my favorite pre-workout snacks, which you should enjoy 30 minutes to an hour before your workout:

• A small apple with 1 tbsp of peanut butter
• Greek Yogurt with berries or a banana
• 1 or 2 rice cakes with 11 almonds

Post-Workout

Bring on the protein! When you finish your workout your muscles will need nutrients to grow stronger thanks to all your hard work. Eating a snack after you work out is even more important than before you workout. You want to make sure you feed your body to help repair muscle tissues and replenish glycogen stores, which are depleted after a strenuous workout. My favorite post-workout snack is a protein shake/drink. I always have a tub of whey protein powder in my gym bag, which is easy to mix with milk or even water if you’re on the go. If you have more time, mix in a banana with your milk and protein powder – a filling a refreshing delight that your muscles will be sure to enjoy.

Finally – cut out the junk!

If you’ve been eating a huge energy / protein bar before or even after your workout – please stop, or at least check out the nutrition label. Often times these bars contain many more calories and grams of fat then you need before a hour/ hour & a half workout at the gym. Any protein bar that has more than 100 calories is just too much. And sometimes at $3.00/protein bar it’s just expensive as well! My recommendation: try putting together your own energy bar.

I recently found a recipe that I love from Oh She Glows called the Raw Energy Cookie. This little gem is a jam packed with clean foods; especially several different nuts that will help you gather the energy you need to get you through your workout. They’re low in calories, yes, but the best part is that you put them together yourself, so you know there aren’t any unhealthy ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of almonds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 9 medjool dates, pitted
• 4-5 dried apricots, chopped
• 2 tbsp cacao nibs
• 1/2 tbsp pepita seeds (pumpkin seeds)
• Pinch or two of sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions: Place pitted dates and almonds into a food processor and process until the mixture is ground up. You can leave a few larger pieces if you prefer. Remove mixture from the processor and place into a medium sized bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with your hands. Form into mini cookies or balls. Makes 8 mini cookies.

Nutritional information (per mini cookie): 136 calories, 4 grams fibre, 5 grams fat, 2 grams protein.