This is also in audio version, if you prefer to listen to my FREE podcasts! Visit my website to listen, or you can subscribe for FREE on SoundCloud, Spotify or the iTunes Podcast app (just search for me: Courtney For Life)
When we look at two of the biggest elements with changing body composition: nutrition and training, it seems like nutrition has been deemed as the most difficult of the two.
But it doesn’t have to be.
And in all honesty, it isn’t!
Unfortunately, with marketing gimmicks and media trends, we’ve been lead to believe that we have to go to extensive lengths, drastic calorie cuts and insane restrictions in order to achieve our body goals and ultimately be happy.
I’ve been through them too.
High carb and low carb, trying to follow keto
Intermittent fasting and entire food group restrictions
Clean eating, meat-free, only organic...
I could go on and on.
And then getting into what to eat around your workouts is a whole ‘nother ball game.
And we’re up to bat today, and that’s what we’re talking about.
Peri workout nutrition MEANS: before (pre) / during (intra) / after (post)
Know that nutrient timing is of lesser importance on the hierarchy of importance with nutrition. It comes after total calories and then macro- and micro-nutrients. Once you’ve absolutely locked in these vital elements, then you can consider implementing nutrient timing as like a ‘supplement’ to your routine to improve your results.
But again, it’s of much lesser importance, and in all honesty, if you’re not eating well to begin with, then this isn’t going to benefit you as much as it could. One step at a time, strong friend!
So a few little housekeeping tips to know:
Carbs are our body’s main fuel support – we need carbohydrates, especially if we are putting an emphasis on resistance or strength training to promote and support muscle development
Carbs are NOT bad for you, and you absolutely are not carb sensitive
I like to recommend consuming 60-70% of your daily C intake around workout (pre/post meals)
There are different kinds of carbs that we can consume, and I like to recommend consuming faster digesting options that will break down and absorb quickly and not ‘sit’ in your stomach. Because that heavy stomach feeling during a workout is not enjoyable! If you’ve never felt that before, you don’t want to.
I’m going to share some tips on each of these 3 meal times:
Pre workout:
PRE workout nutrition is the most commonly overlooked in my opinion
we always talk about POST WO meals/shakes/mobility/recovery... but what about preparing for it? What about the healthy habits that lead into our training performance?
have an adequate P intake – I usually recommend spacing your daily protein intake fairly evenly across all of your meals in your day
there are no benefits to having a higher P at certain times of the day
it can maintain consistent support for muscle protein synthesis (or muscle development)
high carbs!
‘high’ is depending on what your nutrition goals are, if you’re tracking macros then you can see what ‘high’ would be to you – again, reflect on your 60-70% daily carb intake to see where that range lies, how your day is set up, and what you can consume at this time
example of one of my pre WO meal staples is chicken breast, basmati rice, and some rice cakes with jam or honey
easy, delicious, fast, effective
Intra workout:
In my HONEST opinion, unless you’re training for more than 90 minutes AND are a high-performance athlete AND are trying to eat more calories, you likely do NOT need intra WO nutrition
sure, gummy bears are delicious to snack on, and if you see your favourite influencer nomming down on them and you want to have them too, cool, go for it
but for the most part, it’s not going to benefit you
Eating during your workout can affect your body’s overall training performance because now it has to focus less on performance and workouts and more on digestion – and we don’t want to distract from the training!
we’re already distracted enough from phone scrolling and selfies, so let’s not add fuel to that flame
in the rare chance that you do need to consume something during your workout, I would recommend something like dextrose power or even C-INTRA, which is a really awesome powder blend from Canadian Protein
Dextrose is a fast-digesting simple carb that easily turns into fuel for your long and strenuous workouts
Post workout:
First, if you haven’t seen my REELS video about this, post workout :30 minute anabolic window isn’t a thing, so relax on that – and if you haven’t seen it, please go for humerus education
To keep things so simple, you can basically repeat the PRE workout meal concepts:
adequate protein that’s consistent in all your meals
high carbs that are delicious and easy to digest – we’ve just kicked the butt out of our body and we need to recover – our energy systems have been drained and we want to fill that up and support muscle recovery and growth (but don’t panic, it’s not a :30 minute time frame!)
example of one of my post WO favourites: protein powder and fruit smoothie bowl topped with cereal – Canadian Protein whey isolate or concentrate, frozen bananas and strawberries, blend the shit out of that, and then top with a simple cereal like crispy rice (basically like Rice Krispies but without the added sugar element so I can eat more of them)
easy, delicious, fast, effective
You know I’m always honest with you, and just as a reminder: I don’t try to plug Canadian Protein in these episodes, they don’t ask me or pay me to tell you this. In all honesty, I don’t get anything for telling you about them. I have used their products for – OMG, what, 6 years now?! - because they offer superior for quality protein and overall ingredients. They have all of their products third-party tested and you can see the results. In my opinion: any big supplement company that has no problems sharing their product testing is QUALITY. So don’t sleep on choosing CanPro for your gains. Seriously.
I hope this helps!