The Best Way to Pre and Post Nom

While scarfing down a cheeseburger, or even a full, healthy meal before a workout may be satiating at the time, there is nothing worse than getting the "I think it's coming back up" feeling when you're trying to bust a sweat. Your body will also be using more energy to digest the food than focus on your workout, so all of that sweating will be somewhat in vain because your body won't be working to its top potential.

However, working out on an empty stomach doesn't exactly say "power up" either, because you won't have all the proper fueling in your body to complete the necessary exercises. If you're working out in the morning, your body has most likely already digested what was had for dinner the night before, so you may feel sluggish or light-headed if you dive straight into intense cardio.

The proper pre-workout snack should be light, yet substantial enough to leave you feeling ready for the workout ahead. It should be eaten at a minimum of 1 hour before a workout, so that you don't get the uncomfortable feeling I wrote about earlier... Some quality snacks include bananas (Jillian Michaels eats 1/2 a banana with almond butter before her workouts) or oatmeal, so that's exactly what I did before my morning workout.

I got up around 9ish munched a quick 1/2 of a medium banana, so that I wouldn't waste too much of my morning waiting to digest. It worked! I did my 3rd day of Insanity without feeling exhausted or nauseous, and managed to push myself even harder despite my sore muscles (and I mean SORE. I keep waking myself up when I roll over because it feels like my muscles are yelling at me).

After my workout, I took a speedy shower and, 20 minutes later, drank a glass of 1 scoop Designer Whey chocolate protein powder (Obviously from Trader Joe's, my obsession) mixed with 1 cup of water. Not only were my pre- and post- snacks low in calories, but I felt satisfied with both my choices, and my workout :)

-KIM