Kind of a perfect combo for a post-workout snack that couldn't be easier, almonds and a glass of chocolate silk. Or chocolate milk, if you drink milk.
Not gonna lie, I drink an immoderate amount of chocolate silk: that's a pint glass. I know I said that I don't count calories, except that sometimes I do as a sanity check. So a pint of chocolate silk is 280 calories plus, what, 200 calories for the almonds, speaking of calorie dense. So we're talking close to 500 calories for a snack, that's a pretty good-sized snack. Which is to say, a meal. Not real worried—say I'm shooting for 2000 daily calories, I eat four meals per day so 2000 total calories divided by 4 meals is 500 calories per meal; that's my basic rule of thumb, I did actually scale back from laying on the couch with the jar of almonds open on my stomach to get under the five hundred.
I said earlier that I get half of my dinner before my workout and half after, now you can see that caloriewise I actually get a whole meal before and a whole meal after. They just look like half portions because they're the calorie-densest meals I eat. So this is a little about knowing your food and adjusting for what it is with regard to how much room it takes up on your plate.
Whatever nice things you may say about chocolate milk, you're basically talking about a glass of sugar. A more nutritious glass of sugar than a Coke, but still. That's why I have it in the upper corner of my plate, which is probably more accurately "starch" but I'm gonna keep calling it grains for now to encourage myself to think about getting my starch from whole grains like brown rice and quinoa. But also as you know I put beans in that corner, and also potatoes, so perhaps I'm slouching toward a plate that's half fruits and vegetables, a quarter starchy vegetables, and a quarter protein...
[ETA: Now that the weather has turned cold, I guess I was so wild about drinking so much silk because I was hot and thirsty. I'm back down a jelly jar of milk, about eight ounces. This might also be a good time to note that you can burn out on a plate, mine are supposed to last thirteen weeks but you can tell that you're done with a plate when you're awake in bed ideating about all the mochi you can eat and that it's time for a new plate.]
