You have put in all the hard work in the gym and now it is time to refuel. What do you reach for? I know you have already been thinking about this long and hard during the last couple sets of your workout. You are literally now done with your workout, so what are you putting in your mouth?
Does your local gym have a nice juice bar that you like to hit up afterward since their juices and smoothies are all marketed as post-workout fuel? Well, it is time to actually rethink about hitting up that juice bar after a workout. At least, you may just need to start ordering something different.
It is time that you skip the juices, especially the fruit ones. After a workout, your body needs fuel and not sugar. See the largest problem with juices is that a lot of them still contain a whole crap ton of sugar and when I say crap ton, I literally just mean it is crap you are putting into your body. A lot of those juices contain more fruit than vegetables which means you are putting into your body fructose. Fructose causes the body’s insulin levels to spike dramatically. And although you have been told it is good to replenish your glycogen stores (and you are not wrong), you just shouldn’t rely on fructose to do so.
What your body really could use after a workout is a vegetables based smoothie with protein and a hint of fruit. Yes, a smoothie because in the smoothie you at least get the fiber from the produce that you are not getting otherwise in a juice. So next time, you find yourself at the gym and want to hit up the juice bar afterward, ask to make a couple modifications (because you know they can) and fuel your body right. Or you can always create your own vegetable and protein smoothie, like our ‘3 Ways to SPRUCE up your Protein Shakes‘.
