Second breakfast? Elevensies?

I chose the title because "What the f should I do when my post-workout meal will not tide me over until lunch?" seemed kind of long.

My last dalliance into nutrition (at least in this blog) had me drinking milk and eating a piece of fruit for my post workout meal.  This in my opinion is already showing some results, but I'm hungry as hell by 9am.  I caught myself rocking the ho-ho machine last Tuesday...it was that damned bad.

Most of the strategies (suggested by most workout programs, including Body For Life) for improving your diet and physical condition involve increasing your metabolism through frequent small meals.  In other words, pigging out like a trailer park resident at a "Golden Corral" restaurant twice a day is not the appropriate way to improve your physical condition.  Bill Phillips, in his book "Body For Life" recommended eating six (6) meals per day, each with one carb and one protein (both the size of your fist) in it.  P90X and the Insanity have similar principles at a high level, but they are much more difficult to follow and evolve throughout the programs.

Hey - have you noticed something?  If diet is simple (Body For Life), I can stick to it pretty easily.  If diet gets too complex (P90X, the Insanity)...I pretty much ignore it.  Hmmm...I wonder if there's a future Fitness PM Thursday topic here...

My conclusion?  Add an extra meal in the morning...brining me to a grand total of four meals.  What I've started doing is going to our cafeteria at 9am and having an egg burrito with bacon and onions (hey - I'm not perfect) and skip the cheese, potatoes, etc.  I also liberally apply salsa to get my veggie and wash it down with water.  For lunch I have a salad, and for dinner I just fix whatever my lovely wife has put on the menu (usually something AWESOME that I have grilled...and used to have a mother).

While I'm thinking of it, WebMD has a nice slideshow list of how to boost your metabolism. Are you trying any of these?

Argh! My Alarm Didn't Go Off!

The only problem with working out in the morning is waking up.  In fact, for me the HARDEST part of morning workouts is getting up at 4:50am.  Why 4:50am?  I need:

1. Time to quietly find my shoes and socks
2. Time to let Dennis (our dog) out
3. Time to quietly stumble to the bathroom
4. Time to get the extremely f****ng slow blu-ray player started
5. Time to do the workout
6. Time to shower

All of this must be done before my kids wake up at 6:30am.  I have to be quiet otherwise the kids wake up.  I have to do most things in the dark otherwise the kids wake up (yes, their doors are closed).  I have to keep the volume down on the blu-ray otherwise the kids wake up.  Can you take a guess as to what unpredictable variable I have to be extremely cognizant of?

Today, my stinkin' alarm clock didn't go off, and I didn't wake up until 5:40am  Or maybe it did, and I turned it off without actually waking up.  Whatever.  I'm not here to cast blame (or accept responsibility as it turns out).  If I do not get this workout done in the morning, it is likely I will not get a chance to do it until after 9pm.  Aside from avoiding my little monsters, I have a number of reasons for working out right away in the morning (before eating):  

• Physiologically, working out on an empty stomach pulls energy directly from fat reserves within muscles (according to Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, published in 2008).  Since I'm still working on the 6-pack of rock-hard abs, this is important.
• Productivity at work goes up - this is not just my perception, there have been studies (e.g. 'Exercising at work and self-reported work performance' from Carnegie) which show that incorporating exercise into your work day enhances focus and calm and improves performance.
• If the rest of my day goes to sh*t - at least I got my exercise in.  This is just common sense.

If you are used to exercising in the afternoon or evening, exercising in the morning is quite a bit more efficient.  Personally, I feel like I can accomplish in 30 minutes in the morning what it would take me 60 minutes later in the day (I'm sure there is data to support this - I just didn't feel like looking for it).  You should, however, be aware that exercise is much more difficult in the morning; your runs may be slower than you are used to, you may not be able to lift as much weight or do as many reps, etc.  You are also limited in how much exercise you can do before running out of energy; it may be wise to limit your workouts at first.

Now, if I can just remember where that damned alarm clock went...