Thursday, March 11, 2010

What's Going On nom nom nom

So now I've organized my meal plan around my workouts:

BEFORE
complex carbs &
light protein

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE
simple carbs
 
WORKOUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
simple carbs &
light protein
AFTER
complex carbs &
light protein
BETWEEN
complex carbs &
heavy protein

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes, before/after means within 1-3 hours, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts.

Complex carbs and light protein before workout

So my workouts mostly happen evenings during the week and mornings on the weekend, that means some kind of Veganly Beans or if I'm driving to USA speed Peanut Butter Sandwich for dinner during the week, and Oatmeal with Banana, Almonds, and Silk for breakfast on the weekend.

If I may interject, I was just handed a plate of cheesy stuffed poblanos with a big pile of rice and black beans. And I'm asking pit crew if this is his own recipe or off the internet, and am told that he just googled "poblano" and "tofu." There's tofu in this?? Om nom nom.

Simple carbs immediately before workout

I really like what it says in THRIVE:

While the pre-exercise snack is not unimportant, its value should be minimal. What I mean by that is, try to ensure that the previous workout was properly recovered from and that the body is so well fueled on an ongoing basis that what is consumed immediately before the workout is not a major factor, fuel-wise.
That seems so mature, my kneejerk reaction to working out is to eat like a plague of locusts. I don't mind eating if I'm hungry, I mind eating mindlessly. Being that I usually only have an hour after I get home from work —or you know, get out of bed— before working out, I don't feel like I need dinner and then a snack. So I only have the snack if I'm doing two practices in a row and need to top up in between, or if I'm doing a late practice like 9:00-11:00 PM that's well after dinner.
The body's first choice for fuel during intense exercise is simple carbohydrate.... It's best to ensure the body is provided with enough simple carbohydrate to fuel activity so that complex carbohydrate is not relied upon. If the body has to resort to burning complex carbohydrate while exercising at a high intensity, it will have to use extra energy to convert the complex carbohydrate into simple carbohydrate.
Also, protein is not what you want to have your body burning as fuel. Protein is for building muscle, not fueling it. When protein is consumed in place of carbohydrate immediately before exercise, and therefore burned as fuel, it burns "dirty." meaning that toxins are created from its combustion. The production and elimination of toxins are a stress on the body and cause a stress response, ultimately leading to a decline in endurance.

There's a recipe in the book for little bites made from dates and coconut oil that you can whip together in a food processor, but you know that I'm just going to process some dates with my teeth. I'll have a banana, too. It doesn't seem like a lot of food, but I've made it through Kru boot camp on that & Kru is omg hard.

Also you know, that's the reason I drink OJ2O during workouts. But also the book is big on coconut water, I want to try that—

Oh and, I guess also I need a little sugar before my early morning workout. The charming thing that I've been doing is drinking out of the orange juice carton, then doing my 300s. Don't tell pit crew. He doesn't read this blog, anyway. And I think he doesn't drink the orange juice.

Oh and also, did I tell you about the water? See if I have dinner at home, I have water with dinner & then I go to practice; but for going to USA speed, I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the car & I was cracking into my OJ2O to wash it down, and having muscle exhaustion during speed practice. I mean, speed practice is hard. But also I thought that I might be underhydrated, I started bringing along an extra bottle of water to drink in the car & it's been so much better.

Simple carbs and light protein immediately after workout

So then immediately after working out, first you need to refuel & that means carbs, and just a little bit of protein:

To speed recovery, the body needs simple carbohydrate to enter the bloodstream—the quicker the better. This means that the post-exercise snack should contain very little fat (even the good kind) and no fiber since both slow the rate at which carbohydrate enters the bloodstream.... Up to one part of protein for every four parts of carbohydrate can be beneficial. This small amount of protein helps speed glycogen synthesis, the rate at which the muscles absorb the carbohydrate. However, a greater amount of protein, in excess of 4:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, will slow recovery.
For this I bring along a little carton of chocolate silk and drink that right after practice; that's 25 g carbohydrate to 5 g protein, which I figure is close enough. I had this idea of adding a little almond milk to the soy milk, but the day that I am organized enough to do that...

I mean, I suppose that day could be nigh. I'm not unorganized, after all.

Complex carbs and light protein after workout

During the week I have my chocolate silk and go to bed, I don't feel like I need food before bed. If I'm really hungry like after speed practice, I'll have some brown rice and tofu with one of the billion little hot sauces that we keep collecting from Taco Burrito Express. Besides that the meal after a weeknight workout is breakfast, which is oatmeal.

After practice on the weekend, I go out to brunch or I go home and eat leftover veganly beans.

Complex carbs and heavy protein between workouts

This is lunches during the week and dinner on weekend, and the latter as you know is Taco Burrito Express and Choppers. For lunches during the week, I've been bringing bread & deli meat and cheese to work and making sandwiches. Just because it's the easiest thing ever, but is not even slouching toward veganism. But this is going to solve itself when it gets warm and I start eating salads again.

Somewhere in all that, I eat oranges. Oranges are in season.