Understanding what and when to eat for exercise excellence ⚡

So I feel a little bit guilty about today's podcast because while you're listening to this, I'm going to be on holidays. And I'm not guilty about it, really, because I'm wrapped to be on holidays because I haven't had a holiday for so long. Now I won't be lying on a banana lund drinking a panicolata. I'll be running around after my four crazy kids. But I think you'll

How important is doing a cool down after a workout? What ratio of my workout should be cardio and what ratio should be resistance?

Why is it important to get a heart rate up when exercising? And what's actually happening to our body while it's up.

But I'll get to them later. So, like me, sit back, relax and enjoy the woodlife. We are very lucky to be joined in the studio today by Andrea Sapentus, and this incredible nutritionist is not only someone that I admire for the nutrition knowledge, but they are also the nutritionist at my gym, the Woodshed, so someone that is very close to my heart. Andrea, Welcome to the wood Life.

Thank you. Sam.

We've had lots of different food, nutrition diet chats on this podcast in its very short life so far. But today, with your expertise, we're going to tackle food. We're going to tackle nutrition from a different angle. We're going to talk about what to eat or how to eat for maximum performance. What are the key things we should be thinking about if we want to eat for performance rather than aesthetics.

So eating for performance it always goes down to what your goals are. Is it weight loss, is.

It muscle gain, fitness strength, whatever goals you are, always have a goal in mind that you want to work towards because it gives you purpose to go that extra step further.

So if it is weight loss.

You're looking for what is the best nutrition diet, all those other little one percenters to give you the results you need In regards to performance, any form of exercise, the only way you're going to get energy to be able to do your forty thirty whatever minute session you're doing, is by the food you put in your body.

So it's twofold, isn't it, Because it's what do we put into our body to fuel our performance when we train, and then what do we put back in our body to refuel our body post training? Yeah, so what about if you're training in the morning, what's your tape on should I train on an empty stomach or should I have breakfast before I train? And what if it's at my six am class or I see my trainer at six am, or I go for a run at six am. Should I still eate then or should I eat afterwards?

That is actually one of the most common questions, like what do I eat in the morning if I'm training or after I train? And it just depends I guess on one what time you're training, And then I like to say, go back twenty four hours, so it gives you a better understanding of again going back to that

I'm glad you say that, because that's usually the advice I give. But I love that you say go back twenty four hours because I think that's a mistake we make. We have a very short term view of this. It's like, what have I eaten ten minutes after finishing training? And what did I eat?

Oh?

I've only just waken up, so it can only be today. Whereas you're still going to have that fuel in your system. If you had a really good, wholesome, good carbs and good protein in your system from dinner the night before.

That's exactly right.

I think at the end of the day, if you are having three quality meals and then those two snacks, isn't wrong. If you're more likely to stomach five small meals, that's fine. Every person sure is different. I guess these are my three rules that I stick by daily. Two to three liters of water, tick, seven cups of vegetables.

Seven cups of vegetables, wow.

And two pieces of fruit today. And I think everything after that becomes secondary. Okay, So I like to really stick to the whole foods because I think, well, I know that your whole foods have all your key nutrients, vitamin's, minerals, everything there, and then after that your protein to carbohydrates, those other complex little nuts, seeds, all that stuff becomes a little bit more secondary to the foods that we should be fueling our body with.

So I'm a big protein guy, so that I don't disagree with your advice, but it's not necessarily the hierarchy. I would maybe maybe explain it in let's talk post training. If the question of what should I do refasting and eating before training or not comes up the most, the second most is how long do I have like the

I always say the window in regards to eating after a session would be thirty to forty five minutes, so pretty close after eating. It doesn't have to be a massive meal. Like again, depends what time of day you're training as well, so all those other things fall into place as well. But having some sort of protein sauce is obviously ideal, whether it's meat sauce, vegetarian sauce, anything

We often put so much focus on the workout. Yeah, but the workout can be great, but if you're not refueling, you're not getting sleep, you're stressed all the time from a mental state, you know, you're constantly anxious. All of these things. The quality of your workout is not going to really matter unless you address those those other key those other key health elements. So can we talk specific foods?

In terms of particular foods, I would always say, again, those whole foods, Like food is medicine, So the whole foods, any plant based foods or your real meat sources, all that stuff is always.

Going to make the best results.

So things just like I said, being that extra ten percent organized and scheduling, I guess some.

Sort of foods. So particular foods.

People love boiled eggs because they are easy to carry if you're on the go, and unfortunately most of us do live that fast, quick paced lifestyle where we don't have time to really sit chill out.

About twelve eggs every weekend and say things are mad, but then I've just got them ready to go with me every day to work. Just the best snacks.

Exactly, and then other things like cheer puddings are great. You can make them a bit more nutritionentally dense by adding other seeds and bits and bobs. So at the moment, I'm really hooked on coconut water, cheer seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and raw buckwhet with some gojiberries and I.

Make like a little breakfast, I guess or like that.

So another awesome meal that's really balanced and kind of gives that idea.

Of a guess of fat's carbohydrates.

Protein would be a like sushi bowl, so you can get those again going with time. Poor life meals is those microwavable rice pods that you can get with those multi bang chuck it in the bowl. You can do half a avocado, a can of tuna, and a handful of rocket and that is perfect because you've got your rice, which is a great source of carbohydrates.

If it's brown rice, there's extra magnesium in that.

If it's post training as well, you've got your avocados, which is your essential fatty acids, keeping you full of for longer keeping that so tidy. And then you've got your proteins, which is your tuna, which will keep your body getting refreshed.

So you got your protein sauce. And then I personally really love rocket because it is a bitter.

Green and it helps to support your liver, and you get those extra greens in your diet as well, beautiful, So that's a really great deal.

You said before seven cups of veggies. Haven't been able to move past it yet. It feels like a lot.

It does seem like, what are your tips.

To get those veggies in? Because that might make a few of our listeners drive off the throat. How do you get seven cups of veggies into your day?

I personally like to stick to three savory meals, So for example, breakfast would be some sort of toast with some avocado, sliced tomato, boiled eggs, and some my favorite rocket chucked on top, and I'd have that would probably be equivalent to two cups of vegetables.

So that's all of a sudden you break it down like that, and the way it doesn't if you're going to get too close to seven, you've got to have some veggies in your breakfast. Brecky's the tricky one, isn't it, particularly if you've grown up. You know, I grew up eating wheat digs and toasted veggie, you know, not a veggie inside, it's white carb, you know. Central. So that can be a big shift for some people, for sure,

It can even if you're just only sitting it again, two or three cups, depending where you're at, just getting that extra cup in and then slowly you notice to feel a little more energy, and then you just read your body and how you're feeling, and then you want to make those other changes, and.

It's baby steps in the right direction. And as we say with the water thing, you know, some people have half a cup of water a day and you tell them the've going to drink thre e leaders and they're like, oh my god, that's yeah, exactly exactly. That's that's a bladder issue right there. But you do it gradually, get to one hold one for a week. Next week you can get to one and a half. So I also don't encourage people to measure and weigh everything all the time.

I don't disagree with supplements. Again, it just always depends on what your goals are. I would say that everyday athlete having some sort.

Of bcas or.

Some branch channamin acids for post recovery, We'll give you those muscles that fuel to then recover quicker. Again, it's injury prevention as well. And again, like we're discussing before if you are time poor after training and having or before training with protein shakes, Like I'm not against protein powder, but I think those are my two main go to so BCA's branch, channamine acids and protein powders.

Andrew, I've got one final question for you, shoot. Now, the thing I love about you is you're not only very knowledgeable with your food, but you also train incredibly hard yourself. So I feel like you've got this great understanding of pushing yourself to the limits and how nutrition can help you with that. And I know everybody's different. This is not this is not the plan. This is an example of a plan that could work. But I'd love you to paint a bit of a picture for

So let's say that person this ideal plan. They wake up at five point thirty to train at thirty.

I lost half hours already.

So they wake up at five thirty, they train at six yep. Before that again I would go back to the night before.

They would have.

Finished eating dinner by seven thirty, eight pm in bed bye again, very ideal world. Nine pm, sleeping that whole time, falling a sleep straight away, so they've been asleep.

Wake up five point thirty.

Then they're training six till seven again, whatever training they're doing. Come seven point thirty, they're eating their breakfast. They're having a piece of spelt toast with some goat cheese, avocado, tomato, two boiled.

Eggs, and some rocket sounding good so far, tick tick tick.

Then, traveling through their day, they might have a cup of green tea or a coffee whatever.

Again that floats their.

Both coffee in your eyes.

Yes, one cup of coffee I wouldn't say is harmful. And then they've traveled their day, so they're hitting around ten o'clock. I would say they would be getting hungry by then. They would have a small.

Source of food.

I would say a cheer pudding with some coconut water. I love coconut water, so it has some natural electrolytes keeping youth hydrated for longer. So I always swap out normal water at any point, even through smoothies, for coconut water, maybe with some a half cup.

Of berries, so that's a serve of your fruit there.

And then they've hitting lunchtime, which is twelve thirty, they would have let's go so with that rice example, with avocado again, tuna, maybe they put some pickled ginger throat and making more of a sushi ball with seaweed maybe and mixed with rocket three o'clock hits. They might be a bit peckish, maybe some carrot sticks, cucumbers, any sort of vegetable sticks and hummus or a dip, and then

So when you're talking about and forget the training. I mean, out of all of that, only a sixty minute could be any intense workout. The rest is all about the food. A bit of sleep in there, but really about the food. But training for performance and eating for performance. It really is getting quality food in every few hours, sleeping well and then getting the most out of those workouts. And if you do sleep well, then you do get the

Yeah, and I think at the end of the day we overcomplicate it. We've got to a party, have a piece of cake, like, don't eat the whole cake. But it's all about balance, Like you have to find what your idea of ideal is.

It's really interesting. Every nutrition expert and we obviously are talking to the right people, and great people that we have on this show comes from things from a very different angle. But the fundamentals don't change. Eat whole food, move your body, get enough sleep, stay hydrated. I mean, they just don't change. And until we accept that those things are there for a reason. We're never going to get anywhere. But Andrea, thank you so so much for

Thanks for having me.

So nice to hear food spoken about from a performance perspective. You know, it's the nutritional value and the energy that it gives us rather than restricting ourselves and canning calories and obsessing about it. And I think we could all learn a valuable lesson from the little tips that she gave us. We're now going to take it. I wouldn't say, are you turned a little side step to the left. And we're going to answer some of your exercise questions.

Hey, Sam, I just wanted to know how important is doing a cool down after all workout and what kind of stretches or exercises should I be doing? Thanks?

Are the cool down? It really does get forgotten about, and it shouldn't. I'm not saying it's the most important part of your workout, but I'm definitely guilty of not cooling down or stretching as I should at the end of a workout. And it's one of those things that has caught up with me as I've gotten older. I think when I was younger, I used to just spring back a bit and not get injured, not feel as tight, recover much better between sessions, no matter how hard or

Hey, Sam, You've spoken a lot about.

Cardio training and resistance training in the past, and I'm just.

Wondering what ratio of my workout should be cardio and what ratio should be resistance.

Thanks well, Jess, that's a zinger. The conversation I'm normally having is if you're a cardio nut, I'm encouraging people to add resistance training, and if you're a weight training person, I'm sort of not lecturing but advising you to add some cardio into the mix. Now. I don't think it needs to be a perfect fifty to fifty necessarily. I don't think if you do six workouts a week they need to be three cardio and three strength. But there should be a pretty good balance there. The great thing

I was wondering why is it important to get our heart rate up when exercising and what's actually happening to our body while it's up?

Thanks, what a great question. Our heart the forgotten muscle, the most important muscle, Isn't it a funny one? I did say cool downs were forgotten. Why we need to train our heart weirdly, because it is so important is often forgotten about two Look, I mean what is happening is well, in simple physiological terms, our muscles when they're working, require oxygen, and the way they get that oxygen is