21 Days of Accountability – Day 17

Today’s post is inspired by what’s going on in my world today.

I was enjoying a lazy Saturday morning with my family, when a friend showed up to invite me out to dessert tonight with the girls to celebrate her birthday.

Yay! Of course, right? No way I’d say no.

But hold on a minute, aren’t I trying to lose weight? Doesn’t eating dessert counteract my actions?

Well yes, and no.

If I were to go out and just overindulge in delicious dessertyness (I am female, hear me say yum) then yes, that’s a really bad choice but what happened is my brain when into problem solving mode.

Here is a super secret tip that I use when I am in ‘training’ mode and craving something that I know has very little benefit to my body. Not that I’m craving anything, but I’m also not a tightwad, and want to let my hair down with some female company.

Of all tips, this is by far my favourite.

You can eat treats BUT you should only eat them at a certain time.

The time to treat yourself is directly after you have been doing your weight training workout. There is about a two hour time frame, in which, believe it or not, you are allowed to eat a cookie, chocolate bar, apple pie & ice cream…whatever it is you’ve been craving.

It’s called the anabolic window. Only after intense weight training can your body absorb more nutrients than normal. Your body will absorb more than twice the nutrients that it regularly will in these next few hours.

There is a certain way to eat after strength training, your body needs to get protein and carbs into it asap. Amino acids and glucose are getting used up right then and there to repair the muscle you’ve just torn.  We already have stores in our body but our muscles are seeking more fast burning carbs and protein to continue fueling and building themselves up. Glucose (you know, that sugary stuff) is only stored as fat when the glycogen stores in muscle and liver are full, therefore, because you’ve just actively worked your muscles and they’re burning pretty quickly through your stored glycogen, you are at this time allowed to treat yourself.

Did you get that?

Basically, I just said, I’m going out tonight and although I want to order something healthy for dessert (like there is such a thing) I’m going to weight train the heck out of my body at a certain time before I leave the house, so that when I’m out the sugar filled treat I might eat will go straight to being burned instead of stored making me fail and feel miserable.

It’s all about planning

P.S. You still have to eat a really good diet to make this work. Used properly this tip can really help keep cravings at bay and boost your muscle building ability. Use this as a reward for good behaviour, not an excuse for bad.

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Tagged as: anabolic window, cheat, cravings, exercise, lose weight, strength training, tip, weight loss, weight trainging, work out