Workout Timing Makes A Difference

Hi Friends, Happy Hump Day!  Recently my scheduled changed at work and adjusting to it has been a bit of a challenge just like any change in schedule would be.  Today, I finally feel like I got it down.  I started today with a delicious greek yogurt.  Since Mr. Hungry’s food sensitivity test I had been trying to be supportive by avoiding dairy along with him, I forgot how much I love greek yogurt.  This Whole Foods find was AMAZING.  It’s actually not yogurt, it’s like a blend of cottage cheese and greek yogurt.  It’s a cheese at heart, so it has a delightful thick and creamy flavor without the tartness of yogurt.    The best part about it was that it’s blended, so no fruit on the bottom (which I can’t stand.)  Usually I have to get vanilla so this was a nice treat to have a blended.  The downside was it was $2.50 a piece, so definitely a Whole Foods “treat.”  I’ll look for sales 🙂

On early days I usually eat a Quest bar but man did I feel like I was getting reliant on those, the yogurt was a great change and kept me full and moving until 10am.  I didn’t really expect that but I’ll take it!  At 10am I knew I was going to workout at 11am and I was feeling hungry so I had a UCAN bar.

Workout:

1000 meter row

2 Rounds:

• Chest Press (double, single, single) 15 reps
• Row (double, single, single) 15 reps
• Single Arm KB swings, 12 each side

15 minute intervals on stairmaster (workout coming soon)

Before I was working 6 days a week but now I’m working 3 long days, one regular day, and one half to full day.  It’s better because I can be available to my clients through a wide variety of hours but also have more time to myself.  Hence the return to regular blogging so far 🙂  Before I was trying to workout in the least busy time of the day, around 2 or 3pm.  To me that time was REALLY hard to get motivated for and to get nutrition timing down.  It’s right after lunch so you kind of want to eat lunch, but not too big, so then you snack, and then you snack again after, and sometimes find a place for lunch.  Today I worked out mid morning and it was perfect! I still had all my morning energy, my nutrition timing was perfect so I could have UCAN before my workout and lunch after.  Which was leftovers from yesterday…

I’m obsessed that Vitamin Water Zero is sweetened with Stevia, I don’t know when that happened but I’m a happy customer.

Plus carrots  and a water bottle with aminos in them, that I didn’t take a picture of.  To me, it was crazy how much better I felt ALL DAY simply by moving my workouts.  I know that morning or mid-day is the best day for me to exercise given my stress and resilience test, I just didn’t know how much it would change my whole freaking day.  Multiple people told me I was calm today, I just felt even keel, like I had found the golden ticket.  Usually around 3pm I’m starving or craving food like crazy.  Today it was 5pm before I realized I was even slightly hungry so I finished my carrots and had a Ostrim Turkey Stick.

That held me over nicely so that I was able to come home still even keel and make dinner without snacking to0 hard core.  I made myself an egg with canadian bacon for dinner.

Plus leftover sweet potato from yesterday, straight out of the container… cold…. sweet potatoes are definitely my favorite food.

I also had a piece of cheese while I put lunches together for today.

 

Sorry for the fuzzyness, iphone photos aren’t the best.  Definitely not the best day I’ve had so far in the vegetable department, but it’s the best I’ve felt since I’ve started working long shifts.  I even had energy to put the dishes away while my egg cooked, start this blog post, and finish up some laundry.  That’s something that sadly never would have happened a couple of weeks ago!

Question of the day:

What’s your ideal time of the day to workout?

Mine is definitely any time before 12pm, ideally with a bit of fuel in my stomach but not a full meal.  Avoid hunger and have energy but not a real meal.

How do you fuel yourself for long shifts or to start really early?