Abs are Made in the Kitchen: Perfect After Workout Snack

One of my main goals in life is to find the most efficient ways for people to feel awesome and look great too. From my years of wellness coaching, I know that most people want to look and feel good, but they also don’t have tons of time to achieve that. I’ve learned that we don’t have to work harder to get better results, we just have to work smarter. This applies to both being active and to what we eat.

Abs are made in the kitchen. You’ve heard me say it before, and I swear it’s true. I can keep giving you testimonial advice, or you can just try the ways I mention to make this work for you.

What to eat after a workout can make or break you in the goal-reaching department. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle (or reshape your body or improve your energy or boost your metabolism), it makes a difference what you consume when you’re done working out. And in all cases, it’s important for you to consume carbs and protein within about 30 minutes. You can be more strategic than that if you want to (carbs within 15 minutes and protein within 30, for example), but the bottom line is that from 0-30 minutes after you work out, you need to replenish the carbs you used and you need to intake amino acids (protein) because this is the time your muscles are most willing and able to uptake them.

I like to keep things pretty easy and very affordable when it comes to making your abs in the kitchen. You can be spendy and buy all kinds of expensive and fancy protein powders and gooey carb things to eat. Or you can buy some simple high quality ingredients and make your own snack.

This is why I developed the Perfect After Workout Gummies. They have carbs and protein to replenish, repair, and rebuild your muscles and your blood stores after your workout, they have both liquid and electrolytes for hydration, they are very low in fat (fat hinders efficiency of the carb/protein uptake after a workout–have some fat later), and they have a bonus anti-inflammatory ingredient that will help you recover faster and work out again sooner.

Perfect After-Workout Gummies

12oz coconut water
8oz tart cherry juice
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp gelatin
1 Tbsp or so sweetener of choice (I use grade B maple syrup for the mineral content)
bonus: 1/2 cup collagen hydrolysate* (optional)

Directions: Dump all the contents except gelatin into a bowl or blender container (only use the blender if you have a blender with a SUPER low speed, like a vitamix–if you use a standard blender on low, this will just turn to foam). Pour half the liquid into a saucepan on the stove and heat on medium. Bring to a very hot temp, just under a boil. While you’re waiting for the liquid to heat, sprinkle a little of your gelatin into the cool liquid mixture. Add the hot liquid to the cold liquid, add the gelatin slowly and blend (or mix/whisk) until all the gelatin has dissolved. If you’re doing this by hand (you can use a whisk or hand mixer with whisk attachment), you may not want to add the collagen hydrolysate because it will be more difficult to get it to dissolve. Once the gelatin has dissolved, scoop off any foam that has formed (eat it!), and then pour the mixture either into molds or a baking dish (9×13). Refrigerate for an hour or so, then remove from molds or cut into shapes or squares. You can use mini cookie cutters or just cut with a knife.

Gelatin is basically made of pure amino acids, so your body can use them very quickly when you consume these gummies. Your blood and muscles will replenish there glucose and glycogen stores, the tart cherry juice will assist with muscle recovery (reduce muscle soreness), and your muscles will have easy access for the uptake of protein for building and repairing muscles.

*Collagen hydrolysate is gelatin that won’t gel. It doesn’t change this recipe at all, except that it almost doubles the amount of amino acids in it. You can leave it out, and the gummies are still great for you. If you want more protein after your workout, add it in!