Post-Exercise Snack - Most Important Meal of the Day

This past weekend, the weather was gorgeous outside (it was about time since we've mostly a crappy summer over here in Montreal!) so I decided to go for roller blade ride with a good buddy of mine.

After riding for 45 minutes and breaking a good sweat, we took our blades off and stopped by a little snack bar. He bought a water and I got myself a healthy shake.

Knowing I was going to a family dinner in less than 90 minutes, my buddy looked at me funny and asked me why I was getting a shake right before a family dinner.

My response: "I'm having the most important meal of my day!"

Clearly, by the look on his face, he didn't get it.  So, I went on to explain.

I started with a question:  “If I told you that you could literally screw up everything else in your diet, but if you did just ONE thing correctly, you’d achieve much better results than if you did EVERYTHING ELSE right and left this one thing out?  Would you be interested in knowing?

“absolutely!”, he replied.

So I pointed to my shake and told him: “THIS is that one thing.”

You see, research has shown that right after exercise, there is a "critical window"; a 30-minute period where you must feed your body in order to maximize recovery and results.

That means that you should always eat something within 15-30 minutes of the end of your workouts, practices, and games. Doing so will accelerate your recovery because it is during that time that your body is starving for energy and extremely primed to suck up nutrients to recover and regenerate itself.

But it only occurs IF you give your body the proper nutrients during this critical time. You must choose high-quality foods. A mix of complex carbohydrates and protein is the ideal.

After 30 minutes or so, you've completely missed a great opportunity to accelerate your recovery and maximize your results.

And that’s the truth.

The interesting thing with this concept is there is no controversy around it and it's pretty much a consensus within the sports, fitness, and nutrition community.

Now, you know what you have to do right after your workouts, practices, or games.

Leave me a comment below to share your thoughts with me.