Favorite pre- and post-workout snacks – Tim Taylor

Team Fuel member, Tim Taylor, talks about his favorite pre- and post-workout snacks, including one of his original recipes for success. You don’t want to miss this info from the ’05 and ‘07 overall champ of WNBF Mr. Fitness Male Model Search and the ’06 Emerald Cup Men’s Fitness first place winner.

The two snacks I use most often, and the ones I’d consider my favorites, are these:

If I’m doing cardio in the morning, I don’t want to eat anything heavy. You’ve all likely heard the advice to jump on cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, but while I’ve done it, I really don’t enjoy the workout when my blood sugar levels are that “rock-bottom” after a whole night of sleep and no food. However, going with the general concept of wanting to tap fat for fuel instead of digesting food (blood glucose), I don’t want too much to eat either, so I’ll often have just a piece of whatever fruit we have in the house—an apple or a pear, but usually a banana—10 to 20 minutes before doing cardio. This is enough to give both my blood sugar and attitude a little kick, while leaving room for the workout to still cut into fat stores.

About this time of year, my kids’ school raises funds for various projects by selling citrus–grapefruits and oranges—so lately I’ve been splurging by having an orange along with my other fruit, at least ‘til we run out.

If I’m scheduled for weight-training or a harder cardio workout like sprints or plyos, I’ll want something a little more substantive. The following recipe makes three shakes. I’ll often “sandwich” the workout by having one shake 30 to 45 minutes before, followed by another immediately following, when the training stimulus has created the much-talked-about window of opportunity for nutrients to soak into the cells.

This recipe makes three shakes, about 24 ounces each:

• First I fill a large blender with 12 ounces of 1% milk
• Then, I add enough plain, low-fat yogurt to bring the liquid level up to 16 ounces
• Then I add 2 tablespoons of flax seed oil
• I throw in about 14 ice cubes, three or four frozen strawberries and ½ a frozen banana
• Then I pull out my tub of 100% Whey Protein Fuel® and add 2 scoops (approx. 50g of Protein).
• The I add ¼ cup of frozen blueberries, along with three or four frozen peach slices
• To keep it cool, I add another 14 ice cubes
• Now, into this large blender, I pour a mixture of grape and orange juices until the liquid level fills up all the empty space and rises to the 8-cup level. (I use a blender that’s very powerful and holds about nine cups of contents, so it’s pretty well near its top.)
• Last, but definitely not least, I’ll add one to three teaspoons of Creatine Fuel Powder (5,000 to 15,000 mg of creatine monohydrate).
• Then, while covering the top with a paper towel and putting my son’s earmuffs over my ears, I’ll blend for about 30 seconds. The blender is now full to about the 9-cup mark with what I think is a really great-tasting and highly nutritious shake. I pour about 3 cups into 2 thermoses for later in the day and drink the remaining 3 cups right out of the blender. I’ll sometimes drink the second one right after the workout and take the other one to work and
  refrigerate it if possible, otherwise, the thermos I use is pretty good at keeping it cool until the mid-afternoon meal.

And there you have it, my two favorite pre and post workout meals. I hope to write more about the rest of my day’s nutrition and meal-timing in the near future.