For all those people wanting to lose weight, develop muscle and get in shape – this episode is for you! We are expanding on what it looks like to eat fitness meals before and after a workout. Dr. Bryan Joseph interviews fitness expert Dr. Jason Hamed and nutrition expert Dr. Olivia Joseph to begin to share what you can do no matter what your age, health, and fitness goals are.
Table Of Contents
- An Introduction To Fitness Meals
- Fitness Meals Before And After Workout For Parents
- The Importance Of Pre-eating
- Recommended Pre-Workout Fitness Meals
- The Power Of Creatine
- Fitness Meals For A 10-Year Old Avatar
- Fitness Meals For a 37- 45 Year Old Avatar
- Fitness Meals For a Middle Aged Male Avatar
- Do Not Buy Fitness Nutrition
- Closing Thoughts: Know Your Goals
An Introduction To Fitness Meals
Dr. Bryan: All right, all right, all those people wanting to lose weight, get their muscles all developed, get in slim, slender shape and just trim that body out. This is today’s episode, episode 25 coming to you from the Wellness Connection show. Dr. Bryan Joseph here with my cohost, Dr. Jason Hamed.
Dr. Jason: Hello everyone.
Dr. Bryan: And my wife/cohost, Dr. Olivia Joseph.
Dr. Olivia: Hi everyone.
Dr. Jason: You’re slash.
Dr. Olivia: Slash.
Dr. Bryan: So, today we’ll just put the slash in there and hopefully that covers all the bases. So welcome as usual to everybody. I think the topic we’re going to hit on today came through the pipeline. It was a question that came in and had asked us to expand on what it looks like to eat before and after a workout meal and it’s not really a one-size-fits-all answer.
Dr. Bryan: So we’re going to spend some time with Dr. Jason’s help from maybe a fitness meals perspective, Dr. Olivia’s help from maybe a weight loss or dysfunctional standpoint, in regards to what those dietary needs before and after an exercise or workout routine might look like, so that we can help you reach the goal that you have, whatever it might be. If you want to see yourself get just a few pounds off your body, we’re going to touch on that or if you want to see yourself really get ripped out with beach muscles going into the summer season, we’ll try to add some input on that, too.
Your nutrition and workout should match your goals
Dr. Jason: I think one of the things, as we begin to dictate for the listener to really cognizant of is I’m going to really defer to Dr. Olivia to go into some of the deeper clinical aspects of some things that we just touched on that you want to share, but I do believe there’s some principles, Dr. Bry, that regardless of what your goals are, that if you honor … And I don’t want to use the word “manipulate,” but if you can really take advantage of some of the body’s built-in mechanisms, that regardless of what your goals are, there are some just tried-and-true formulas that if you do, you’re going to get results and I think we’ll expand upon that, both from a clinical aspect, but also a functional performance aspect between you and me.
Dr. Olivia: Well, I think there’s so many different levels, too. You have your people who do want to lose weight, people who want to build muscle and people who want to improve their athletic performance. You have people who want to slim down, people who want to beef up. You know, I think everybody’s type of exercise and whatever level of athlete they are, varies so much and, believe it or not, your nutrition has to vary based on what your goals are. So when you know what the goal is, you match your nutrition and your workouts appropriately. So, you’ve done a lot of training and you’ve done a lot of research and even races and weightlifting and whatnot. The people who come to me usually are trying to improve their performance or function in some way.
Fitness Meals Before And After Workout For Parents
Dr. Jason: Let’s start with the mom or the dad who is trying to improve their health, improve their body composition, because then when they understand these principles, then it becomes really easy, that when you are at the concession stand to stand for something because you understand how it makes you feel when you exercise and eat well. So, Liv, why don’t you kick that off?
Dr. Olivia: I think for that avatar, you don’t need to talk about a lot of the sports nutrition that people are using. A lot of people use things that we’re going to talk about like creatine, branched chain amino acids, arginine, whey protein isolate. Let’s reserve that more for the athlete. For your parents, the most important thing there really is stable blood sugar. And that goes hand-in-hand with kids. It’s making sure you’re combining protein with A, complex carbohydrate every two to four hours. That’s the most important thing. If you keep your blood sugar stable, your body can make muscle and burn fat. Helps keep your energy consistent, your sleep consistent. So I think that that’s the most basic level to start at.
Dr. Olivia: So a complex carbohydrate would be a piece of fruit, a sweet potato, oats. Lean protein would be hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken, things of that nature.
Dr. Jason: Deli meat?
Dr. Olivia: And then ideally, from a fitness meals standpoint, what I’ve been taught is how often should I work out? You could do it every other day. You’d be better off working out every other day than four days in a row, three days off, so that you’re constantly giving your body a chance to get the nutrition as well as the movement that it needs.
The Importance Of Pre-eating
Dr. Bryan: So let’s back up a little bit. Let’s go to just a mile-high view on a couple of concepts, is what’s the purpose of pre-eating before fitness? Why would we even want to spend any time, money and energy towards feeding our body before we work out?
Dr. Jason: Well, because you need the sugar from the food source, and I’m not talking about Snickers bar sugar, I’m talking about the sugar as Dr. Olivia talked about. The complex carbohydrates that are broken down into sugar to actually create a muscle contraction. And then we need the protein that Dr. Olivia talked about to actually rebuild the muscle after we’ve contracted it thousands and thousands of times during our workout, that creates micro-damage. So the protein is there to actually start to build new tissue which builds more muscle or more strength, so it’s hyper-critical that we feed our bodies correctly prior to the event to give us the circulating sugar in our blood to be able to perform it. But also now, we have a reserve in our bloodstream of protein that our body can access immediately after you start the healing process.
Dr. Jason: But then, as we’ll allude to in a moment, I’ll have Liv add to any input she wants on that, but there’s also the same reason on the backend after the workout. There’s very beautiful and very specific timeframes that if we leverage correctly will optimize how well we can perform and how well we can recover.
The ideal time to eat before the workout
Dr. Bryan: So, let me make sure I’m hearing you. You’re saying there’s an ideal time to eat before the workout? You’re saying like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour? Is that what you’re referencing?
Dr. Jason: That’s exactly right.
Dr. Bryan: So, what does that look like?
Dr. Jason: You want to be able to consume that meal minimally 30 and up to 45 minutes prior to engaging in that activity. At that timeframe, if I’m correct … I mean, I know what it does from a histological and performance standpoint, but it should have enough time to start to empty out from the stomach into the small intestine, correct?
Dr. Olivia: Right, but I don’t want people to mistake meals and snacks because if you do eat grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and a sweet potato, that’s a meal. That’s going to require more time to digest. I also think what’s relevant is the type of workout you’re going to be doing. Also, I think it’s relevant how long your workout’s going to be because you don’t approach your nutrition for burst training, high-intensity interval training, the same way you would approach endurance and that’s the thing with-
Recommended Pre-Workout Fitness Meals
Dr. Jason: So let’s just talk about someone who just wants an hour-long workout at a local gym. They’re looking for moderate cardiovascular maybe on a treadmill and/or they’re doing some weight, like a circuit. So, again, from your standpoint, what would you recommend?
Dr. Bryan: So, take any style workout. Let’s just say goal number one is I’m a mom and I’ve gotten a little soft and I actually have had three or four kids and I want to lose some weight. What is the meal before a workout look like for that individual? Regardless of what style workout?
Dr. Olivia: I think it shouldn’t be anything that’s hard to digest. It could just be a little smoothie. Ideally, that smoothie will contain some fruit because fruit is a slow carbohydrate. It’s got some of that sugar. It will contain some protein. We highly recommend plant-based proteins. They’re easy on the digestive tract. You could throw some veggies in there, spinach or kale to add more vitamins, but more fiber which will make it break down more slowly. You could just grab a couple of spoonfuls of nut butter. You know, one thing a lot of people will grab is a piece of fruit or one thing a lot a people will grab is oats. We have this notion that we have to carb up before a workout. I think that’s relevant to what your workout is and how long your workout’s going to be.
The right way to “carbing up”
Dr. Bryan: But, going back to what Dr. J just said a little bit ago is part of carbs are sugar and so that created an energy source, whether you’re right or wrong, that became our pregame meal and so I’m just wondering, was there validity to that idea or just these kids need to eat. They’re high school kids. We’ve got to make sure they eat.
Dr. Jason: There was some good thought behind it and I think then for a long period of time there was an entire part of especially the endurance community that talked a lot about carbing up with the whole thought of putting excessive sugars in the form of carbohydrates into your body so they now have a storage of glycogen so as you’re now doing long endurance racing, your body would actually be able to access that. I have to agree with Dr. Olivia. You can access a lot of those same benefits without dumping a huge pasta dinner into your body, which as she said, it’s going to take forever to digest.
Dr. Jason: So, if you’re hitting down a big old pasta from lasagna or whatever you guys were doing and then you go play a football game two hours later, that wouldn’t be something that the Hamet household would be doing. That would be potentially causing GI issues, cramping, problems with performance and even create a reverse effect, which makes it harder for them to perform because their body is still trying to figure out how am I going to digest this food and fight off this linebacker at the same time.
The Magic Window
Dr. Jason: Again, speaking about what Liv said, we’re going to separate the two between a meal, like a chicken breast and some veggies, versus I’m about to go into a workout. I haven’t eaten since lunch. It’s now 4:00. I’m not going to get a sandwich. Instead, I’m going to reach for a shake that’s got some carbohydrates and some protein in it and I’m going to try to get this down about 40 minutes before I actually do my very first set. So now, all of a sudden, I’ve got all the fuel I need. My blood sugar is up. My body’s got some protein floating as soon as it needs to start healing and then the next key, though, is afterwards. That’s the key.
Dr. Jason: So there’s this magic window that I remember learning during research and also applying many, many years ago. It was like a 60-minute window and, at the time when I was power-lifting, it was like, you could eat whatever you want in 60 minutes and there’s some truth to that.
Dr. Jason: If you wanted to just go bonkers, you can. Eat crappy food and your body finds a way magically to turn it into muscle tissue, which I have no idea how, honestly; however, as I’m getting older, I recognize that’s not as true as it was when I was in my 20s. So, afterwards, that 60-minute window is very important to again get those simple sugars into my body, but also protein. And, at that point, I don’t want any fats. I don’t want any fiber because I want that dumping directly into my small intestine as soon as possible to start the healing process.
Dumping protein for muscle recovery
Dr. Olivia: So, I think to touch on what you both said, that’s the biggest reason why people go towards whey protein isolate within 30 minutes post-workout because they’re trying to dump that protein into their muscle tissue for recovery and like you said, where you guys would carb up, so a lot of even runners will still carb up the night before a run, so you have enough time to digest.
Dr. Olivia: You guys eating a huge meal like that, I think your metabolism is different when you’re a teenager. Your digestive tract is different when you’re a teenager. So, I’m not saying right or wrong from a performance standpoint. Nutrition standpoint, that’s probably not the best approach. But that’s the reason why a lot of people use creatine. It is still one of the most popular nutritional supports because what they’re trying to do is they’re to get their body to produce more ATP for muscle contraction.
Dr. Olivia: So that’s why you would carb up before a workout. That’s why people take creatine before a workout. They’re trying to access those sugar stores because sugar gives you energy and then muscle helps repair, so you want some of the sugar in before and you want the protein in after.
Dr. Bryan: All right, well that’s a good general picture right there is sugar before … Not Snickers.
Dr. Bryan: Simple sugars in some capacity that can break down easily, from what I’m hearing, and then also proteins that are going to basically refuel, because when we’re working out, we’re tearing tissue down. We’re breaking tissue apart and then your body needs to repair that with some healthy materials, protein being one of the healthy ways of rebuilding that muscle tissue.
The Power Of Creatine
Dr. Bryan: Because inevitably creatine, as you mentioned, I remember going through that phase and I think you probably did, too, where we loaded up on creatine because we wanted to bulk up.
Dr. Olivia: Right, but it’s not just a bulking agent. That’s not what creatine is actually studied and effective for, so I have a little list, just because we’re on the topic of creatine. Creatine is more for burst of speed, energy, during short bouts of intensity activities, like weightlifting, sprinting, it’s only shown in research to help activities like swimming, sprinting, dribbling, jumping. So creatine is not your distance or endurance-type thing. It’s not necessarily going to make you bulk. Other nutrients are going to make you bulk up more than that. So, the whole goal of creatine is to convert to ATP to give energy for muscle contractions.
Dr. Jason: And going off of that, then the way that works so the listeners know is when you have more ATP, you can actually contract more muscle fibers or create a greater force of muscle contraction. What that means, translation? You lift heavier weights more often and that means the muscles break down more and it, in turn, means they build up more.
Is creatine beneficial for older people
Dr. Bryan: So would somebody that … Let’s go back to earlier where we’re talking about a middle-aged woman that wants to lose some pounds. They’re gotten a little soft after having some children, would they benefit from taking creatine or no way?
Dr. Olivia: I say no, unless they’re going into something that’s more high-intensity interval training, a totally different type of workout and even then you’d want to take creatine more for performance, no. If you’re just getting into it, I wouldn’t recommend it. A lot of kids start it, though. I mean, creatine is the most common supplement … You’re going to see these little teenagers playing sports? They’re taking it. Because, again, it is beneficial in some cases, but that’s just like using your nutrition and eating something that has sugar in it before a workout.
Dr. Bryan: Back when we were younger, we didn’t even know what we were doing. I mean, the intention behind, when I remember taking creatine was, because it made you swell, right? And everybody always, right or wrong, I didn’t know the science back then was that it retained water and it expanded the cellular size in some capacity so that gave you larger outputs of energy. It makes sense with what I’m hearing you say, but a teenage kid, what do they care about?
Dr. Jason: Getting big.
Dr. Bryan: Yeah, getting big and so inevitably I would say if your goal is to not get big, then maybe creatine may not be your first line of defense for your pre-workout meal.
Dr. Olivia: Yeah.
The holy grail after workout meals
Dr. Jason: There is a holy grail after workouts. My kids know that after workouts, there’s certain foods that we don’t put into our body. When they’re with me, I’m like, “Listen, we just trained. Training after training, we’ve got to put some good stuff in,” and so that’s in the form of a protein shake. If we’re out of nowhere and we can’t get anything. We’re at a snack shack? I’m like, “All right, man, let’s get a hot dog. Let’s get a hamburger. Let’s get some protein in your body. We’re not going to go fill up on a smoothie or on a Slushie or on a bunch of candy bars right now.” There’s a time for that and I’m totally cool. After the game, we’ve got your food in you, cool. On the way home, along the drive, let’s go get ice cream.
Dr. Jason: Again, some of you out there are maybe in the same boat where your kids are playing multiple sports, they’re playing at a high level, you’ve got three or four practices. Sometimes we have like four or five games in a day and now you want your kid to be able to get up the next day and be able to do it all over again because they’re in a baseball tournament, so there’s a window, that 60-minute window of creating some system. Bringing the Snickers or bring the protein bar with you to the field. Maybe pack the shake ahead of time. Have them whack it down. You know what’s in his system. All right, cool. Now he wants to go with his buddies and have a blow-pop or a Snickers bar, cool. But, right in that window, I’m getting that shake into that kid.
It’s all about the protein
Dr. Olivia: I think the reason behind a hot dog or a burger or a shake, why, why why? It’s a protein. Why the protein? Because of the branched-chain amino acids. They are the building blocks for healing, repairing, building muscle tissue. And branched-chain amino acids are not something that our body can make. It’s not. It’s something we have to get from food. So that’s why, when people talk about fasting, not fasting, how long, all that stuff, you just have to be conscious. Your body cannot make a branched-chain amino acid. It’s found in foods that contain protein and that’s why that’s what you want to grab after a workout.
Dr. Bryan: And we need those for what reason?
Dr. Olivia: For building muscle tissue. That’s literally what they do.
Dr. Bryan: To repair and build, right?
Dr. Olivia: Builds muscle, decreases muscle fatigue and alleviates muscle soreness. So I’m literally pulling the scientific studies on what this does and a branched-chain amino acid comes from protein. Your body can’t make it.
Fitness Meals For A 10-Year Old Avatar
Dr. Bryan: All right, let me put both of you on the spot, okay? We’re going to play a game of Jeopardy. So, inevitably I’ll ask you both the same question. First of all, the first person that’s in front of you is a 10-year-old boy, going to their game, baseball tournament. You get to give them one pregame food and meal. What are you feeding your son in that scenario before the game? And then what are you feeding him after?
Dr. Jason’s fitness meals answer
Dr. Olivia: The Jeopardy. We had to do this. We had to get our son out the door at 6:15 in the morning to meet you to go to a baseball game warm-ups, what did I make him? I made him a breakfast sandwich. I made him eggs on toast for him to eat, have plenty of time to digest before baseball warm-ups, before that game started. After, what’s in his bag? A Cliff bar so he can get some of that protein afterwards with complex carbohydrates.
Dr. Olivia: What am I giving him to drink? Water. If I really want them to have electrolytes, that’s why I’m pretty liberal with salting our kids’ food. Our son, who plays more sports than anybody, I give him sliced cucumbers with Celtic or Himalayan sea salt because you don’t need Gatorade to get electrolytes. That salt is a natural electrolyte, so I’ll actually put some of that salt on his eggs before I put it on his whole grain toast.
Dr. Jason’s fitness meals answer
Dr. Bryan: All right, I’ll give you 10 points for that answer. Okay, J, what are you feeding your 10-year-old before and after?
Dr. Jason: I actually do the exact same. We’ll do the eggs with the salt on it and then some piece of complex carbohydrate. It’ll either be toast or even a gluten-free waffle, something of that nature. If, for instance, we don’t have time, they’re getting a fruit-based smoothie with protein in it, because I want to dump that sugar in and give it a little binding with that protein and he’s drinking it on the way before.
Dr. Bryan: What about after?
Dr. Jason: Afterwards is literally the fruit smoothie again, but I may actually put a little more protein in it. So, I’m looking to give him a higher protein source, so if we’ve got one scoop is 20, 22 grams of the rice-based protein, I may put a scoop and a half in there, knowing that his body really needs it and also, I’ll put a banana in there because I want a high sugar fruit mixed with that protein. I intentionally want the insulin level to go up, to go grab that protein and go put it into his muscle.
Fitness Meals For a 37- 45 Year Old Avatar
Dr. Bryan: All right, 10 points for both of you. Let’s go on to the next question here. Now you’ve got a 37 to 45-year-old woman that wants to go take a Zumba class on Saturday morning. What are you feeding her? What are you recommending that she eat, Olivia, before that workout?
Dr. Jason’s fitness meals answer
Dr. Olivia: I don’t mean to be too nitty-gritty picky here, but if she’s waking up and working out, I’m not going to have her eat. I’m going to have her wake up, maybe have a bullet-proof coffee, take her Zumba class and then after, have a smoothie or if she’s hungry at that point, that’s where I would do … That’s how I work out. My favorite time of day to work out is first thing in the morning.
Dr. Olivia: There’s no chance I’m eating before that. I wake up, I have a bullet-proof coffee, within 30 minutes I try to start my workout. From the time my workout ends, I’ll grab and almond flour tortilla, I’ll throw some eggs on it, salt it with Celtic or Himalayan sea salt. So, if you’re going to work out first thing in the morning, I’m going to recommend you don’t eat before, you eat after, especially for a Zumba workout.
Dr. Bryan: What’s Zumba girl eating after then? What are you feeding her after?
Dr. Olivia: I would do a smoothie or if at that point because you didn’t do breakfast, you’re ready for food, I think like a bowl of fruit with a veggie omelet would be a perfect, perfect combination.
Dr. Jason’s fitness meals answer
Dr. Bryan: All right, this is fun. And I see J … I see you shaking your head a lot over there, saying yes in agreement.
Dr. Jason: Because, again, the goal for that human being is I’m trying to lose weight, so I 100% agree with Dr. Olivia on this one. You wake up in a fasted state. The body’s only choice to create energy for you to get through the Zumba is to pull from your fat sources. When you use caffeine, you actually will trick the body into mobilizing or using that fat faster, so 100% agreeance with Liv. If that’s your goal first thing … Even if you’re a man and you’re trying to lose weight or if you’re a female trying to lose weight, get up in a fast state and then knock out that 30 minutes of steady cardio, you’re going to start burning fat like crazy.
Dr. Jason: Now, on the flip side, though, where I wouldn’t agree with Dr. Olivia is that if your goal is not to lose fat, if you’re trying to bulk up and trying to put on some mass, even if you’re trying to get a little more mass for the summer, getting up and feeding yourself, you have to break that cycle. You have to put some sugar and some proteins back in. Give yourself the hour and then go crush a workout. There’s an absolute difference when you’re trying to build muscle first thing in the morning versus if I’m trying to go out and burn fat.
Dr. Jason: And both of them have that same hour, that golden 60 minutes afterwards, where I kind of agree with Dr. Liv. You want to get a protein/simple carbohydrates into the system to allow it to heal.
Fitness Meals For a Middle Aged Male Avatar
Dr. Bryan: I’ve got one final avatar on this one. Yeah, it’s a tie. This is going into the championship round, so the final avatar is basically, let’s take a middle-aged male that wants to get into endurance training because we touched a little bit about on gaining muscle mass and losing weight and what our children should do, but what about the middle-aged male that says, “I’ve always wanted to do a marathon or a half marathon or a triathlon.” Race day and they wake up and they know they’ve got a long day ahead of them. What is a pre-endurance meal look like and then what do you feed yourself after four hours of pushing yourself to that level?
Dr. Olivia: I’ll let J answer that. He’s got experience in that wheelhouse and then I’ll touch on some of it nutritionally.
Dr. Jason: As Dr. Liv said, did you have enough carbohydrates the day or two before, leading into the race? Hugely important. Again, we’re going to keep the answer real simple, but did you choose to use sugar as your energy source or did you actually choose to go into a keto-based training, where you’re using fat? So, I’ll just speak to what I had. I had never done keto to train on. I was traditional, using regular foods. Paleo for endurance athletes, so I used meats, fish, chicken, fats and carbs as my energy source.
Complex carbohydrades and electrolyts
Dr. Jason: So, speaking to what you said, moving into the race I’m eating lots of good complex carbohydrates. Tons of sweet potatoes, lots of rice in the days preceding. I also, in the days preceding, loaded up on coconut water, like a ton. I drank gallons of water and coconut water together in the days leading up to these races because I want to saturate my body with all the electrolytes I need.
Dr. Jason: All the good salts, everything to get me through that race. I’m going to be losing sweat and electrolytes all day long. And then as I get up, again, keeping it really simple. I’ve had GI issues on several races when I’ve tried to make it too complex, so if I go to, even slightly over on the fats, I’m going to get GI issues, because there’s a lot of nerves that go into these days. These are stressful days. You’ve been training for months or years for this one event. So keep it simple.
Dr. Jason: Dr. Liv said that protein and a simple sugar. But the other key is, during the day when you’re on this extended marathon, half marathon, Ironman type of things, you’ve got to have a strategy that you’re really fueling yourself the entire
Dr. Bryan: Yeah, that makes sense.
Dr. Jason: And then afterwards, I’m having a beer. No, I’m just kidding. Well, that’s true, but before I could put that down, I had to get some real food in me in regards to protein and some complex, or some simple sugars. So, anything to add?
Using arginine for recovery
Dr. Olivia: The one thing … I think you nailed it as far as the food. That’s not where I want to go. I’ve never done endurance racing, so I’m not the most qualified. He obviously is. The one thing I do want to add when you say middle-aged male. Not just middle-aged male, middle-aged female, one thing you become really concerned with, middle-aged, is even just cardiovascular health. You know I am a huge proponent of arginine, because arginine converts to nitric oxide which our muscles need. Studies show that arginine promotes nitric oxide which then stimulates the release of growth hormone insulin. And he was just talking about insulin, so you can push getting more oxygen into your muscle tissue using arginine. So, I think it’s very important for recovery.
Dr. Olivia: Yesterday, I had a middle-aged gentleman who is getting ready to bike the whole Katy Trail. It’s four days of at least 50-plus miles a day and that’s the one thing we’ve got him going on, the arginine mixed with magnesium because we want to get the oxygen to your muscle tissue so you don’t get a muscle cramp. Electrolytes are important for that. Your nutrition is important for that, but I’m a huge proponent of arginine which naturally occurs in beet root, beet juice, things of that nature.
Dr. Bryan: I think we’ve got to call it a tie.
Dr. Jason: Oh, totally.
Dr. Bryan: I’ll give you both 10 more
Do Not Buy Fitness Nutrition
Dr. Olivia: The only thing I just want to touch on is the biggest thing, if you are going to use sports nutrition, fitness meals nutrition, it’s probably the dirtiest nutrition world out there. And when I say the dirtiest, the most toxic, the most artificial ingredients you’ll see. If it contains artificial coloring, please, I’m begging you, do not buy it. If it contains artificial sweeteners, Sucralose, aspartame, NutraSweet, I am begging you, do not buy it. It’s garbage.
Dr. Olivia: And I know finding clean fitness meals nutrition seems like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, but it’s so important. The whole reason you’re doing this is to maximize the good things you’re doing. I am not a proponent of whey protein. I understand why people do it. Everybody will say science shows it’s the fastest way to get that protein into the muscle tissue because it breaks down so quickly, it makes it great for recovery, but it also makes it terrible for the digestive tract.
Keep it clean
Dr. Olivia: I cannot tell you, I’ve worked with professional body builders, fitness meals competitors that come to me with severe GI issues, Crohn’s colitis, they’ve completely destroyed their guts by taking in massive amounts of these proteins that are so hard to digest. So, just keep it clean, that’s all I ask.
Dr. Olivia: Whatever workouts you like to do, foods you like to eat, things you don’t like to do? I get it. I’ve got my own shtick where I know there’s some things that might be better for me, but there’s certain things that I enjoy doing because if I enjoy it, I’m going to do it. I enjoy working out in the morning, fasting. If I eat a big breakfast, I’m going to be nauseous my entire workout, so then I’m just not going to work out. Just keep it clean. That’s my only two cents I want to drive home.
Closing Thoughts: Know Your Goals
Dr. Bryan: No, very good, thanks for sharing that. I think that clearly there’s some things that were pointed out as principles here. Know your goals. Know what you’re aiming for and I think that the over-arching theme that I heard both of your answers have in everything that we ask was making sure before, consider a healthy sugar in some way that’s going to create some fuel for your body and then post-workout, remember you just tore apart and damaged and ripped down tissue that needs to be rebuilt, so make sure you find a healthy clean protein source after your workout and then go do whatever you want. Ice cream, beer, whatever, but those are the fundamental pieces that I heard, so thanks for sharing that information.
Dr. Bryan: Also, too, it’s a while back, but episode five was centered on a topic of conversation about burning fat and turning your body into a fat-burning machine, so if part of your goal was to help to burn fat and to actually know how to do that in the most advantageous way, then maybe that episode is right for you at this particular point. But, if you liked what you heard today, you can find this episode at thewellnessconnection.com/e25 and we thank you, as always, for assisting us in the mission that we’re on, in helping people to get well and stay well naturally and if you like what you’re hearing and you like the information, pass it to somebody else that you think may benefit from it. Until next time, we’re out.
Dr. Olivia: Bye, thanks.
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