Workout Nutrition Guide

I hope we all know how important the nutrition piece of the puzzle is by now when it comes to fat loss and staying in shape – nutrition takes up about 70-80%. Therefore, you want to make SURE you are fueling your workouts in the best way possible. After all, what you are eating around your workout is most likely not a leisurely 4-course meal with your boyfriend, so let’s try and make it nutritionally optimal. But you don’t have to plan it yourself! Lucky for you I have created this workout nutrition guide for you.

One thing that often gets neglected in the fat loss diet is the importance of consuming enough fruits and vegetables. You often see fitness models with egg whites and bowls of oatmeal, with no fruit or veggies in sight! Some might even claim that fruit makes you fat! Here is the deal – eating too much of anything makes you fat.  Fruit has been given an especially bad name due to the sugar that it contains. However, you’ll be happy to know sugar is not always bad.

Raw fruits and vegetables are absolutely ESSENTIAL to your fat loss diet because of all the vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber they contain. They also allow you to stay more full throughout the day while controlling your blood sugar and insulin levels.

Speaking of insulin… if you were to ask most professional fitness models what the most important hormone in the body for building muscle* is, they would tell you testosterone.

*: REMEMBER, in our world (meaning chicks who want to look fabulous) building muscle really means getting more toned, defined, and burning more fat. It does NOT mean getting bulky, so please, please don’t be scared of building muscle. Muscle will significantly help in your fat loss endeavors.

In fact, the most important hormone when it comes to building muscle is insulin. The nice thing is, unlike testosterone, ingesting insulin will not make you grow a set of balls or hair on your face. You can completely control your insulin intake with your diet without the use of any weird pills.

Insulin is a hormone which gets released in response to a rise in sugar in your blood. It’s action can be good or bad depending on when you ingest it.

Let’s start with the bad news – The downside of insulin is it stops fat burning.

Here is the good news- Research shows that increases in blood sugar during and right after exercise will NOT stop fat burning. In fact, insulin will send sugar and amino acids to your muscle, HELPING with growth and recovery. And better growth and recovery means better muscle building.

So, let’s put it all together -

• You need more fruit and veggies.
• You need to have something sugary during and after your workout so insulin can get released.
• You cannot realistically be eating food during or after a workout since the blood rushes to the muscles during exercise and it is hard to digest anything.
• One more thing… new sports nutrition research consistently shows that adding a small amount of protein to your workout drink will make a huge difference in your progress.

So here is the answer- You need to have a shake made up of all fruit (which takes care of the sugar) and some protein powder. You have a few options for this:

1. Go to Jamba Juice or your favorite juice bar and order an all-fruit smoothie with a scoop of protein.
2. Throw fruit and ice in a blender at home and add a scoop of protein. I prefer this protein powder due to its high protein content and natural ingredients. Blend well. This blender is super efficient to mix it up.
3. If you’re really pressed on time and you need something pre-made you will need to sacrifice some nutritional value. Grab a “Protein” Naked Juice or Odwalla. Definitely not the best choice, but better than nothing.

Drink this gradually throughout your workout and after. I normally start to drink it about 20-30 minutes into my workout.

Don’t be surprised when you start to see faster results.