The Most Important Meal of the Day

Now I’m sure you have heard the saying, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” While I agree that breakfast is a very important meal (your body has gone around 8 hours without nutrition and your cells are begging for nourishment), I can’t agree that this meal is the most important. Now assuming that you are an active adult who partakes in some sort of sport, whether it be Crossfit, pumping iron, running, or whatever, you have a different need than the sloths of this world. Your body needs nutrition at specific times during the day. Ideally you never want to go more than 5 hours without having some sound nutrition in your body, which is why you can see that breakfast is a very important meal, however, there is a time when that need for nourishment is even greater and this time is immediately following a workout cleverly titled the Post-Workout Meal.

So now that you know what the most important meal of the day actually is, lets go into why this meal is so important. When you work out, your body enters into a catabolic state. What this means is that your body is breaking down the muscles. You actually get small tears in the muscle fibers and tissues due to the stress that your body is undergoing from the workout. You don’t want to stay in this catabolic state for very long, instead you want to move toward an anabolic state where your muscles build and repair, leading to bigger stronger muscles. Your body will stay in this catabolic state until the muscles can find the proper nutrients either from nutrition or from the actual muscles themselves causing your muscles to deteriorate. It is to your benefit to assist your body to get out of the catabolic state and into an anabolic state (building up/repair of muscles) as quickly as possible and you can do this by having a proper post-workout meal.

The time frame for this post-workout meal is from the moment the workout ends to about one hour after, so time is really of the essence here. Not only do you want this nutrition in your system, but you also want your body to have absorbed the nutrients by the end of this hour. This is because your muscles are depleted of stored nutrients and as I stated earlier they will get those nutrients even if it is from the muscle itself. But if you give your muscles the right nutrients they need through nutrition then your muscles will begin the rebuilding/growing process.

The right nutrients that your body needs are carbohydrates and protein, not fat; fat slows down digestion and remember time is of the essence. Your body needs the carbs to replace the depleted energy and it needs the protein to aid in protein synthesis. With time being a big factor you want the fastest digestible carbohydrates and proteins. All that healthy living of eating complex carbs like whole wheat breads and brown rice is out the window here. You want simple carbs with little to no fiber; fiber also slows down the digestion of your carbs, and remember, you want those carbs to be absorbed as quickly as possible, so stick to the simple carbs like fruit juices. The simple carbs will cause an insulin spike which in this case is good because insulin pushes nutrients into your body most effectively and from there your muscles will absorb the nutrients. You also want your protein to be absorbed as quickly as possible and an easy way to do this is by using whey protein and mixing it with liquid (liquid whey protein is the fastest absorbed protein). A good idea would be to mix a scoop of whey protein into about 8 ounces of fruit juice.  This mix will deliver to your muscles the much needed carbs and protein fast and easy, and in no time your body will enter into an anabolic state.

Hopefully by now you have realized the importance of a sound post-workout meal and from here on out you will no longer starve your muscles of those much needed carbs and proteins. You work hard in the gym and you wouldn’t want all that work to go to waste, so give your body the proper care that you know it deserves.

The Hard Routine

 

I read an article a short while ago in the CrossfitJournal.  The article was about British SAS commandos that would use the term “hard routine” any time they would need to be super focused and complete a task or mission.  This mindset would make the commandos be fully focused on the task at hand, no goofing around, no wasting time, everything they did from that point on would be focused on achieving their goal or set target.  What ever the task, they would just buckle down and do it, no complaining and no distractions.

This mental toughness that is practiced by the Brittish SAS commandos can be transferred over to people’s everyday lives.  We often times get so caught up in the distractions of life that we need a reminder to buckle down and focus on the truly important tasks at hand.  Just by telling yourself to get in the “hard routine” can help you to gain focus and drive toward those goals that we all to often say, but never actually acomplish. 

I am a firm believer in motivation and this is truly one tool that has helped me self motivate myself to get my life in order.  I hope it inspires something inside you to accomplish some of your goals.