How to Fuel Your Workout

Have you ever stepped back and really thought about how to fuel your workouts? The importance of preparing the body with the proper food to give you the energy you need to train at your peak?
Here are some basics tips to get you started down the right path:

• Eat whole, nutrient, dense rich foods, if it grew on a plant, breathed, walked, swam, flew, grew, something you could eat if you did not have a grocery store, that is likely to be real food.
• Retrain the body to burn fat for fuel, having fat as your main energy source. This will entail eating high levels of fat and moderate carb and protein. This will give you a long lasting clean burning energy source.
• Eat enough carbs to have the energy your body needs to perform. Carbs are your friend with hard training. The key is to have enough, but not so much that you begin storing the excess as fat. Signs you need more carbs: tired, not sleeping well, not having the energy you need to workout, brain fog, among others. Good carb sources, any type of potatoes, sweet, finger ling, new potatoes, white rice, winter squash, quinoa, figs.
• Consume enough protein to build and maintain muscle and recover, but not be in excesses that it turns to fat and is stored. Go somewhere between 0.5 to 1.5 grams per pound of lean body mass. 
• Have your electrolyte stores up before your workout. You need all those minerals for your nerves and muscles to be able to fire properly for your workout. Then when you deplete them during training, you are not as far gone in your electrolytes stores. This will help with recovery. Things like sprinkling sea salt into your water, coconut water, bone broths, pickle juice, these are all great things to drink before, during and after a workout. 
• Recovery begins before the workout even starts and preparing for the next workout begins with recovery. They are one in the same.
• Make sure you are sleeping. Sleep! Strive for 7-10 hours most nights. During sleep, the body, recovers, builds, repairs, and so many more important things. Sleep is your friend.

Begin implementing a few of these at a time, see what works best for your body, what helps you train and feel your best. Everyone is a little different in the amounts of what they need. 

Go forth and train hard.

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.

God bless,

Jenn