So dinner is when I fill the grains corner of my plate, this here is eggplant tomato rice gratin, recipes TK, though not exactly this recipe because I made this with leftover white rice from Chinese takeout we had and usually I make this with quinoa; there are also zucchini and summer squash versions. If I deconstructed this gratin, probably it would be about a quarter plate of vegetables. And half an egg, and a couple tablespoons of parmesan—light protein before workouts, and there's also protein in quinoa.
This is actually a useful representation of how calorie dense starch is compared to fruits and vegetables, and also portion size before a workout. You don't want a full plate of starch like my spaghetti plate, haha, because trust me that's way more calories than you bargained for, and you don't want a full plate of food before you work out, because trust me you don't want to work out on a full stomach. I swear every single practice somebody groans to me skating around during warmups, shouldn't have eaten dinner before practice. Your mileage, as always, may vary, but you want enough food to fuel your workout and not too much to weigh you down. I don't mean that too much food will literally weigh you down, I actually mean that your body diverts its blood supply to where it's needed and you want your blood going to your muscles and not your stomach when you work out. And it probably will go to your muscles not your stomach, which means you might get a stomachache during your workout.
So portionwise I always think to myself that I'm getting half my dinner before my workout and half after, because you know that your post-workout snack is totally important. You know that, right? You have a forty-five minute window after working out to refuel your muscles; you definitely want to eat, and pretty much immediately, after your workout but you don't want to stuff yourself for the same reason above about diverting your blood. I guess I should photograph my snack plate, brb.
You don't see starch on my other plates because I save starch for dinner. Starch is quick fuel for performance, you want fuel because, well, why wouldn't you want fuel, and you want quick because why wouldn't you want quick and because what quick means is that it's the simplest and easiest for your body to break down i.e., digest. You don't want your body to work hard at digestion, you want it to work out hard. So starch, specifically for this.
