Exercise and What to Eat

I am often asked about what to eat before and after exercising so I thought it might be a good idea to blog on this topic.  The following rules are guidelines only. If they don't seem to work for you, try something else (or make an appointment with a nutritionist!).

•  If your cardio workout is 30 minutes or less, you don't really have to eat anything beforehand, but drink some water.
• If your cardio workout is longer, it would be best to eat first, about an hour beforehand. 
• Always eat before doing weight training.
• Before a workout: eat a combination of protein and complex carbohydrates such as whole grain bread and nut butter, oatmeal with berries and milk or a protein shake with some healthy oil/fat.
• After a workout: protein and carbohydrates with little or no fat such as a smoothie with protein powder. It's important to eat within 45 minutes of finishing your workout to make the most of the protein's ability to help you recover and repair your muscles. It also helps you burn fat.
• Avoid sugar before and after a workout since this can dampen the fat burning and muscle building capacity of your exercise.

And of course, drink water before, during and after your workout.
Happy exercising!

Sugar Fast

Have you ever taken the time to read labels and see how much sugar is in many processed foods? You might be surprised.
Here is an interesting article about one family's week of avoiding sugar and what they learned:
The Sugar Fast

Would you be up to the challenge?

Book Review: Eat Your Way to Happiness

I just finished reading an interesting book called Eat Your Way To Happiness by Elizabeth Somer, a registered dietician. She discusses 10 diet and 1 lifestyle secrets to improve your mood, curb your cravings and maintain a healthy weight. The book also includes a 2 week menu plan with recipes.

Elizabeth offers a lifestyle, not a restrictive diet, that's basically about eating whole foods and limiting processed foods and sugar. She talks about how carbohydrates affect our mood and how eating the right kind of snack before bed can help with sleep, which helps with weight control, and mood. Carbohydrates, when eaten alone, have a calming and relaxing effect on your body which is great when you want to sleep, while combining carbohydrates with protein and water help to boost your mood and your energy which is best in the morning.

This book is filled with useful information including what to look for and avoid when buying pre-packaged foods, how to choose good quality carbs, how much sugar we can safely eat per day, which supplements can help with mood and why exercise is so important.

I agree with most of what Elizabeth has to say. However, she does recommend the use of Splenda in some of her recipes. Splenda is an artificial sweetener. Yes, it's made from sugar but... chlorine atoms are added to sucrose to make sucralose or Splenda. Most of the artificial sweetener goes through the digestive system unmetabolized, but there is some evidence which shows that Splenda does some damage on its way through by disrupting the bacteria balance in the intestines. This means fewer 'good bacteria' and more 'bad bacteria'. This can lead to a multitude of problems including food allergies and digestive problems.  So, I would suggest that you use a natural sweetener like honey, agave or sucanat, even though they are not calorie free. There are other natural, calorie free sweeteners such as Organic 0 or stevia that could be substituted.

Elizabeth also mentions that coconut oil is bad for you but there is lots of research to suggest that coconut oil is a healthy saturated fat, composed mainly of short and medium-chain saturated fat which is easily digested, is anti-inflammatory and may contribute to weight loss.

I am also a little confused about the snack ideas. Elizabeth talks about how carbohydrates, when eaten alone, help with sleep, but then she makes suggestions about all-carb snacks that can be eaten either before bed or in the afternoon. Based on what she is saying about carbohydrates, I wouldn't want to eat an all-carb snack in the afternoon when I still need to stay awake for several more hours!

Generally, I like the book and would recommend it to anyone struggling with issues related to weight, sleep, mood and energy levels.