One of my clients, neh, several peeps in general, are always asking for what to eat pre-workout. This particular one was directly geared to someone needing some gluten free ideas. In general, the no-time, I hate to prep and cook and live in the kitchen thing, is an issue for many. That is to whom this is geared to.
You will ultimately need to find the proper calorie, macronutrient balance that works best for you, but below are 10 samples of around 400 calories with enough phytonutrient promoting,energy from carbs to fuel your workout, enough protein to help the repair process and to stabilize your blood sugar and satiety, and in most of these, just enough fat to help with the energy balance, hormones, as well as to help keep your joints healthy and reduce inflammation. (Not to get complicated as it is a separate article all together, but reducing inflammation before training is ok but right after you actually want to hold off on high doses of fats and antioxidants.)
There are a ton of bars that you can make as well as that are on the market, but those listed here are simply ones that I chose because they are so easy to find here. Accessibilty means a greater likelihood of these options over other less than stellar options.
In a perfect world we would all have pre-prepped magically delicious meals of THE best nutrient density but these are easy peasy and take little to no time:
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Quest Bars (get the ones without sucralose)
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Purefit Bars
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Clif Builder’s Bar
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Protein shake – (I have various recipes if you want but to keep it simple for your immediate needs) one scoop with 1 cup of mixed berries, 1 tsp of Udo’s Oil, pinch of cinnamon, ¼ cup of unflavoured kefir
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1 tsp of honey mixed in ¾ cup of Oikos plain greek yogurt with a small apple
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2 plain rice cakes with a total of 1 tbsp of almond butter and 1 tbsp of jam, 1 inch (about the size of your pinky) of Allegro cheese
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½ cup of cooked quinoa or rice with mixed veggies, spices, salsa for taste, 10 walnuts
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½ cup of greek yogurt mixed with 1 tsp of peanut butter, pinch of cinnamon, dip apple slices in it
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1.5 tbsp of low fat (no sugar added if possible) peanut butter mixed with one scoop of protein powder and ¼ cup of chocolate chips and a sprinkle of dried cherries (ball these babies up or just eat as a pile of yummy mush with a spoon
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10 almonds, six dried NATURAL apricots cut up, ¼ cup of uncooked oats (most oats gluten free like Red Hill but not sure how sensitive you are) and ¼ cup of fat free cottage cheese
Nothing fancy but these are some easy options for you to test out. Most people I deal with are either professional bachelor/bachelorettes, single parent super busy peeps, or those who are not foodies and don’t care to be. There is a separate more elaborate side but this is the majority so I hope this helps you even a little 🙂
