Food plays such an important role when it comes to having a successful exercise routine. This applies to pre-workout and post-workout. Before a workout, food is necessary to be able to get the energy you need to complete your workout. After a workout, you need food for the recovery and building process. While you have probably heard of eating nuts and seeds, bananas, or trail mix before or after your workout, have you ever given the avocado a thought?
Avocados are great for a pre-workout snack or a post-workout snack. A medium-size avocado contains about 225 calories, nine grams of fiber, and three grams of protein. They also contain about 35% more potassium than a banana does, which is funny because people always recommend eating bananas to help with the muscle recovery process. They also have a fair amount of folic acid, copper, magnesium, and calcium in them. On top of that, avocados contain about 20 vitamins, phytonutrients, and minerals in them. In general, avocados are known to help your body in a way that it can defend itself better against heart disease, premature aging, and cancer. So, even if you are not using avocados to help your exercise routines, you can benefit from eating them!
However, avocados also have special traits that extend beyond general life health. Avocados contain a good amount of healthy fats. The monunsaturated fats can help your blood cholesterol levels. These fats also help you to increase the amount of calories in your diet without eating something unhealthy. Eating that valuable healthy fat a few hours before your workout will provide you with an energy boost when you run out of carbohydrates to keep you going.
There are also many benefits from eating an avocado after your workout. For example, the magnesium, calcium, and potassium that one can find in an avocado is critical for muscle function, muscle recovery, and fluid balance. As we mentioned before, avocados can be more effective than bananas! They are a carotenoid-rich food that will help your body’s immune system, too.
There are many different ways to eat an avocado, so you will not ever get bored of using them in your workout diet! You could eat them plain, or with some lemon and pepper on it. You could also cut it up and put some slices on some bread with tomatoes and other vegetables. Another option is to create some guacamole with it! Do not worry, it is okay to snack on a few pita or tortilla chips after your workout. You will need those carbohydrates and it will be a nice addition to your guacamole. You could also put an avocado in a smoothie. One option is to blend it together with blueberries, banana, chia seeds, and pomegranate juice. Another option is to try out an avocado, milk, sugar, and vanilla option. One thing to note is that you do not want to blend the avocado too much. If you blend it too much, it could “cook” and become bitter. Yuck.
As you can see, there are a lot of different ways to get avocados into your workout diet. Plus, by doing so, you will be helping your general life become healthier as well!
(Photo courtesy of Adrian Van Lean)
