4 Foods You MUST Eat When You Start Working Out!
Starting your fitness journey is probably one of the biggest leap of faiths you’ll have in your life. This path comes with numerous changes that take time for your body to adapt to. One of those big changes is the foods that you eat on a daily basis.
When you start to workout, you’re body begins to turn into a fat-burning, muscle-building machine. During this epic process, your body has to be fed in a totally different way for this transition to happen successfully. Before you started working out, you were feeding your body “83 REGULAR” gasoline in a sense. Now you’re turning your body into a Ferrari so it will only accept “93 PREMIUM”.
Here are 5 foods that you must eat when you start working out!
1) ANY LEAN PROTEIN
If it was an animal, start eating it. The process of building muscle involves eating the muscles of other animals to build more muscle, strength, endurance and power. When you start working out, these are the exact components of fitness we are looking for. Start by keeping it simple and ask yourself “what part of the animal am I eating?”. This is important because some parts of the animal are leaner or fatter.
The key word I wrote in the heading is “LEAN” protein. Lean means there is more muscle than fat in that cut. When we consume more lean proteins, we have to worry less in the gym to burn the extra fat on top of the amount of fat we ALREADY HAVE. We’ll be able to create lean, tone, sexy muscle without the added fat sticking to our body.
The top leanest protein from largest to smallest are chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, beef and pork. There are many more sources but these are the most familiar to people. There are leaner cuts to each animal like chicken breast compared to chicken thighs. Just be aware that we want to consumes the LEANER choice.
FOR MY VEGANS: This is the hardest part about your fitness journey since your choices of protein are limited and incomplete. You have to rely on protein powder supplements DAILY in order to meet your body’s requirement.
2) FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Vegetables and fruits are the most lacking food group in the American diet. We are too hooked on sugar and fat that we unconsciously will find fruits and vegetables less appetizing. This is the reason why we are experiencing an obesity epidemic. Fruits and vegetables have all the power and magic to makes you live a long, healthy and energetic life.
Keep it simple and buy pre-made salads at the grocery store. I know you’re “too busy” so that’s why this is the most simple way to start this habit. All you have to do is dump the amount you want to eat in a salad bowl, add the components that came in the bag, add the dressing, use a spatula to mix it up and dump the finished product on your plate next to the protein.
When it comes to fruit, use them frozen and add them to protein powder smoothies. Eat them as snacks in between your main meals. Add them on top of yogurts and eat them as dessert at night. When you begin to incorporate fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, you’ll find a big bulk of that energy you’ve always been looking for!
3) FATTY FISH, AVOCADOS AND HEALTHY NUT BUTTERS
The number one killer in our country is HEART ATTACK. It's because we consume way too many BAD FATS and not enough HEALTHY FATS. Bad fats are solid at room temperature like butter, margarine and bacon fat. Healthy fats are liquid at room temperature like olive oil, the fat of fish, or the oil that sits on top of almond butter. These type of fats help keep your arteries clear of plaque buildup, break up hardened body fat and give you long-term energy.
The reason I chose fatty fish, avocados and nut butters is because these are foods you can actually chew and swallow. Fish should be consumed as a top choice of protein, avocados should accent all of your salads and nut butters should be blended in all of your protein powder smoothies.
4) PROTEIN POWDER SUPPLEMENTS
Even though this is not technically “food” but it is CRITICAL to have in your kitchen when your start working out. The reason is because of the LACK OF TIME you have to cook all of your meals. When you’re trying to build strength, endurance and power, your muscles need the building blocks of protein to grow and make the adaptations.
You use the protein powder supplements before and after your workouts to protect and grow your muscles. You can combine them with frozen fruit and nut butters to make protein powder smoothies for breakfast or as snacks in between main meals. You may also use them after dinner, right before bed to curb late night cravings and heal your muscles faster overnight.
In a perfect world, I’d love everyone to cook all of their protein to feed their muscles but the reality is we can’t. We have too many competing commitments in our lives to make that happen. Protein powder supplements gives us the “Amazon Prime” delivery of large quantities of complete proteins.
So there you have it. Notice that these aren’t “news breaking” foods but foods that are whole, less-processed and support a healthy and fit lifestyle. Focus on “long-term” results and just start incorporating them little by little, every day. You get the best results when you’re consistent and staying on the path!
Thank you all for reading! Feel free to comment and ask questions. Send me any topics or questions you’d like me to write about, I’m open to anything!
- Carl Anthony Grande
Creator and Owner of Empyrea Group Training (Cedar Grove, NJ)
Follow me on IG and FB: @trainempyrean
Email me: manager@trainempyrean.com
