Recently my schedule has changed and I am working out later at night.
This has lead to a situation were my 1st solid meal pwo comes about 30 minutes before I got to bed. Usually I consume oats or yams for this meal (slow digesting carbs) but these foods are so filling that they GREATLY affect my sleep. It is extremely tough going to bed when trying to digest a boatload of oats Specially considering the fact that laying down slows gastric emptying.
Has anyone been in this situation or do any of you guys have suggestios for a healthy low gi pwo meal that will not hit my stomach so hard?(IE: easy to digest) Getting the cals in is important but so is getting a good nights sleep.
Doesnt it sucks the way life gets in the way of the perfect plan? Seriously, asssuming that you fall asleep reasonably fast and can tolerate interrupted sleep, try the following:
Load up on fluids immediately after workout. I sip water throughtout the workout and add a 20 oz. hi-carb PWO protein shake along with 20 oz. carb/creatine shake immediately after the workout.
Go to sleep as normal. When you wake up ~2 hrs later to piss (like a racehorse), eat a bowl of cottage cheese and back to sleep.
The PWO shake delivers the carb/protein spike at the optimal time and the cottage cheese delivers the slow digesting protein throughout the night for the anti-catabolic effect.
[quote]!vic wrote:
Doesnt it sucks the way life gets in the way of the perfect plan? Seriously, asssuming that you fall asleep reasonably fast and can tolerate interrupted sleep, try the following:
Load up on fluids immediately after workout. I sip water throughtout the workout and add a 20 oz. hi-carb PWO protein shake along with 20 oz. carb/creatine shake immediately after the workout.
Go to sleep as normal. When you wake up ~2 hrs later to piss (like a racehorse), eat a bowl of cottage cheese and back to sleep.
The PWO shake delivers the carb/protein spike at the optimal time and the cottage cheese delivers the slow digesting protein throughout the night for the anti-catabolic effect.[/quote]
I like the theory behind this, but you would want him to atleast get 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep, as a typical sleep cycle is 3 hours long (waking up 1.5 to 2 hours into your cycle is absolutely brutal). Also, there is the added effect of waking up in the middle of the night.
Instead of a solid, perhaps Grow! bars, Surge, and high GI fruits could supplement your PWO meal. Peaches come to mind. That’d also satisfy your carb craving as well. Try to grab some cottage cheese like vic said, as well.
[quote]Helix wrote:
Recently my schedule has changed and I am working out later at night.
This has lead to a situation were my 1st solid meal pwo comes about 30 minutes before I got to bed. Usually I consume oats or yams for this meal (slow digesting carbs) but these foods are so filling that they GREATLY affect my sleep. It is extremely tough going to bed when trying to digest a boatload of oats Specially considering the fact that laying down slows gastric emptying.
Has anyone been in this situation or do any of you guys have suggestios for a healthy low gi pwo meal that will not hit my stomach so hard?(IE: easy to digest) Getting the cals in is important but so is getting a good nights sleep.
Thanks for any advice[/quote]
I hear you bro, had the same thing happen. However, I did find that my body adjusted to the pwo meal in a week or so and I can now sleep well on a full stomach.
I am going to give it a week to see if I can adjust.
If I can’t my plan is to have a larger 1st PWO meal and then follow that up w/ a Grow Bar and some fish oil right before bed. I may also injest some psyllium to slow digestion as I wont be waking up to eating CC.
-If you’re eating and drinking properly, you WILL wake up to go to the bathroom. LOL
Cheers
[quote]Helix wrote:
Thanks all,
I am going to give it a week to see if I can adjust.
If I can’t my plan is to have a larger 1st PWO meal and then follow that up w/ a Grow Bar and some fish oil right before bed. I may also injest some psyllium to slow digestion as I wont be waking up to eating CC.[/quote]
I hear you bro, had the same thing happen. However, I did find that my body adjusted to the pwo meal in a week or so and I can now sleep well on a full stomach.
You may want to try it.[/quote]
My experience has been the same: my body eventually became accustomed to the late, large meal. Still, I try to put at least a half hour between this and bed time, since a full stomach keeps me awake more than caffeine or exercise. I think it also helps that all six of my meals throughout the day are basically the same size.
If you stick with it, I think it will work out in the end.
Personnally, the best results I have ever had were when i had to work out at 2am and get up at 9am. I had a large pre-workout solid meal about 2-3 hours before training and started 1 serving of Surge about 15min before training and finishing while working out. Then when i got home I had a Grow! shake with Milk, Peanut Butter and a Banana.
I was tired for work and then training and didn’t have trouble getting to sleep after the first week, I always work up starving and had a whey shake while I prepared a dozen egg whites with a cup of spinach mixed in, cup of oats with a 1/2 cup of berries, and one cup milk. Personally working out at night is hard at first but, you get to sleep right after your workout and recover faster - in my opinion. Good Luck and train hard!
I typically don’t get down to the dungeon to lift until nearly 9PM and I don’t finish until after 10PM, so I understand your concerns.
Personally, I try to get my last solid meal in before 6PM, after three hours of digestion, I start the iron game. After my workout I have a serving of Surge or a low-carb protein w/banana. Then, I take a shower and prepare another low-carb protein water-shake with 50g of protein for bedtime. I usually wake up at some point in the night and drink half of it, then I drink the other half in the morning (after my cardio ~ if it’s a cardio morning) at around 5AM.
Specially considering the fact that laying down slows gastric emptying.