There can be a lot of confusions when it comes to making a choice on what to eat before working out in order to avoid feeling bloated/ heavy or experience gastric distress during the workout.

Goals to have Pre workout snacks are to optimize your glucose availability and glycogen stores and provide the fuel that you need for your exercise performance.

As a Athlete and a fitness enthusiast, I get how stressful it can be in choosing the right meal which is not heavy enough making you feel uncomfortable during the workout. 

Sometimes we skip our regular lunch time due to work or irregular food timings and just want to garb a quick bite before working out empty stomach feeling hungry or weak during the workout.

It can be a little tricky to choose what kind of snacks you want to have considering the nutritional part of it and how it can affect your session.

So I am here to make it easy and help you in choosing the right kind of meal so that you can feel comfortable and focus on your exercise goals.

Some nerdy tips on the nutritional content based on research and it says a pre exercise meal or snacks should be 

• Relatively high in carbohydrate to maximize blood glucose availability.

• Relatively low in fat and fiber to minimize gastrointestinal distress and facilitates gastric emptying
  
• Moderate in protein

• And well tolerated by the individual.

Some research also suggests that eating a relatively small carbohydrate and protein containing snack 30-60 mins before workout helps increase glucose availability near the end of the workout and decrease exercise induced protein catabolism.

I prefer having my pre workout meal containing oats to make sure to fuel my exercises with carbohydrate packed oat smoothies which makes me feel energetic and also keep up my performance level high during my 90 mins workout session.

Now the question that generally pops up to our mind is when to have these meals. Eating them right before the workout can make us feel pukish or bloated ending up with an uncomfortable feeling of whether to continue working out or not.

I generally have my pre workout meals before 30-60 mins of the workout to avoid stressing out and focus on my training.

Here are few of my favorite Oat Smoothies recipes that I can assure you are tasty and also easy to prepare.

Watermelon Oat Smoothie

Ingredients required

Watermelon chunks (½ cup)

Oats ( 2 tbsp)

Honey ( 1 tbsp)

Lemon (1 tsp)

Chia seeds (1 tbsp)

Grind the oats. Take watermelon chunks, powdered oats , honey and lemon on to your juicer and grind them.

You can add chia seeds on top which makes the right kind of nutritional finish to your pre workout snack. 

Chia seeds are loaded with fiber , amino acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids and calcium making them good for weight loss, improved athletic performance and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

 Mango-Pineapple Oat Smoothie

Since it is the season of juicy mangoes , why not include them in our smoothies.

Ingredients required

Mango chunks (¼ cup)

Pineapple chunks (¼ cup)

Oats (2 tbsp)

Honey (1 tbsp)

Cashew ( 3-4 grated)

Almonds (3-4 grated)

Grind the oats. Take Mango and pineapple chunks with honey and powdered oats on to your juicer and grind them.

You can add grated cashew and almonds on top of it to make it even better as they consist healthy unsaturated fat making them one of healthiest nuts during your weight loss routine.

Watermelon-Pineapple Oat Smoothie

This one is my favourite because it just blends in well together making it very tasty. 

Ingredients required

Watermelon chunks (¼ cup)

Pineapple chunks (¼ cup)

Oats (2 tbsp)

Honey (1 tbsp)

Chia seeds (1 tbsp)

Mango chunks ( smaller)

Grind the oats. Take watermelon and pineapple chunks with honey and powdered oats on to your juicer and grind them.

You can add smaller chunks of mango and chia seeds as your topping.

Watermelon-Kiwi Oat Smoothie

To all the Kiwi lovers, this one is going to be your favourite.

Ingredients required

Watermelon chunks (¼ cup)

Kiwi chunks (¼ cup)

Oats (2 tbsp)

Honey (1 tbsp)

Mint leaves (2-3)

Flax seeds(1/4 tbsp)

Grind the Oats. Take watermelon and kiwi chunks, powdered oats, honey and mint leaves on to your juice and grind them.

You can add mint leaves and chia seeds as your topping giving it an additional touch on making it tasty.

Kiwi-Pineapple Oat Smoothie

Ingredients required

Kiwi chunks (¼ cup)

Pineapple chunks (¼ cup)

Oats (2 tbsp)

Honey (1 tbsp)

Cinnamon powder (½ tsp)

Grind the Oats. Take Kiwi and Pineapple chunks, powdered oats, honey and grind them .

Add cinnamon powder as your topping as they are loaded with antioxidants.

Here you have these Oat smoothies which you can quickly prepare without much ingredients or consuming a lot of your time and also be tasty because as I always say Healthy does not mean that it cannot be tasty!

Stay Tuned!