What’s the deal with pop tarts?

I was going through my blog and noticed that I talk A LOT about pop tarts, so what’s the deal? Well they are delicious. That’s it...





















Lol jk. Besides being super tasty, they are actually a go to food for post-workout and I will try my best to explain why. When we exercise, it creates a highly stressful state for our bodies. We naturally release cortisol as a reaction to the physical exertion we are putting ourselves through. Post workout our insulin spikes and our cortisol lowers, which then starts the protein synthesis cycle (rebuilding of musclear tissue). Post-workout you want to initiate protein synthesis as quickly as possible to replenish your body and start muscle repair. The best way is by getting a quick and large boost of insulin into the bloodstream and this can be done by eating high glycemic index carbs (simple carbs/sugars).

Simple carbs include foods such as bread, fruit and our yummy pop tart treats. Whereas complex carbs include things such as sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, rice, quinoa, etc. And no eating pop tarts will not make you gain weight. Post-workout your body can handle the amount of simple carbs and sugars you are eating in order to start protein synthesis. If you’re sitting around and eating a box of pop tarts everyday, then yes you’re going to gain weight. And it’s not like you HAVE to only eat them post-workout, if you’re an IIFYM’er like me, I sometimes eat them as a dessert as long as it fits my macros for the day. But most of the time I will eat them post-workout because if I don’t eat anything I get really shakey, light headed and feel weak. I also drink a protein shake because I’m all about those gainzzzz. Yep, totally sounded like a meat head.

"But Ashley pop tarts aren’t healthy!” If you go back a few posts you will see that I don’t believe in good or bad foods. Life is about eating what you like in moderation and that is exactly what I am doing. I used to be able to eat a whole package in a sitting, sometimes two, but now I only eat just 1 pop tart a few times a week. So I’m not promoting you to eat a whole package whenever you do 10 mins of ab exercises. They are more beneficial after an intense workout session such as lifting weights and strength training. And if you don’t feel comfortable eating pop tarts I would suggest other simple carbs post workout such as fruits. I’m bringing an apple for my post-workout food today because that actually sounds better to me than a pop tart at the moment.

Here are some good videos that explain simple carbs post-workout:
http://www.youtube.com/water?v=M5mjQPjR5VE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOoi5XZhbEg

And the place I got this information from=
http://bmhfitness.weebly.com/3/post/2013/05/post-workout-poptarts.html

What I ate Wednesday

Let’s see how long these “What I ate Wednesday” lasts, espeically since I have school and work. I’m running extremely low on food in the house, like there is nothing left, so good thing I get paid tomorrow. Luckily I was still able to hit my macros pretty dead on, which really matters.

I went to a concert last night and come home late and super hungry. It was midnight so I counted my bagel w/cream cheese towards todays macros. When I woke up this morning I had two blueberry waffles with 4 turkey sausage’s. It must have not filled me up enough because I was hungry like 2 hours later :/ I think I’m going to start eating bigger breakfasts, with smaller lunches, and then a big dinner to keep me full throughout the day.

I go straight from school to work and only have about 15 mintues before my shift so whatever I eat has to be quick and filling to last me. In my junk food days I lived off of hot pockets and recently added them back in my diet (ha). I can’t quite fit actual hot pockets in my macros because of the large fat content, but lean pockets are just as tasty. I also had one of those vegtable steamables because I’m really bad at eating vegtables but those things are quick, easy and somewhat tasteful. 

I had tons of protein, lil carbs and fat leftover, which left me with limited dinner options. It’s kinda fun messing around in MyFitnessPal to see what fits my macros. I ended up with 4 oz of 90/10 ground beef, 1C of black beans, and 1/4C cheddar cheese. Surprisingly it was pretty good with some tapitio on top.

I STILL had protein left over and needed to hit my micronutrientes so I made up a protein shake for my “dessert”. 1 scoop of vanilla whey protein, 1C frozen kale, half a banana, unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon and a lil water. I don’t care for kale too much. No matter how I’ve made it I can’t get over the taste but it’s pretty much tastless frozen. Frozen bananas are also my go to’s for my shakes. When they are raw they make shakes sludgy, but when frozen they make them icy and act as good base for the rest of the ingredients. I also had a pop tart <3<3<3 still on the look out for the pumpkin pie ones!

Here is what my macro breakdown for the day looks like. Oh and I added 10g of carbs (reverse dieting) and have yet to change it on MyFitnessPal so that is why it says I went over by 15g.

What I ate Wednesday

In my last post I mentioned that I would post a day of IIFYM (If it fits your macros) meals to show you what it’s all about. When I started IIFYM I used to track my meals throughout the day but recently I’ve been doing it the night before for accuracy. Like I’ve said before it may seem tedious to track everything I eat but I actually enjoy it so it doesn’t bother me at all. It lets me know what I need to eat more of or what I need less of for the day. Anyways, below are screenshots of my meals from today with breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. As well as an overview of what my macros look like in total. I try my best to hit them dead on, but as you can see I went over on my fat by 4 grams. But as long as I am close to them I don’t stress too much. My macros are 130 protein/200 carbs/50 fat. The numbers are a little off in the screenshots because unfortunately MyFitnessPal only lets you change the macros by % rather than grams. 

Breakfast was a breakfast burrito with full fat cheddar cheese, 2 turkey sausage links, and 2 egg whites all rolled up in a flax flatbread. I tend to eat more egg whites now because the yolk has about 5 grams of fat and I would rather eat my 50 grams of fat for the day in nut butters or avocados. Total macros are = 13 fat, 18 carbs, 33 protein

Lunch was an everything bagel thin with cream cheese, and a gala apple with almond butter. Yes I actually measure both the cream cheese and almond butter, all for accuracy. Total macros= 22.5 fat, 51 carbs, 14 protein

Dinner was penne alfredo pasta with chicken and a side salad with fat free calorie free italian dressing (why I didn’t log it). I kept my carbs lower for breakfast and lunch so I could have pasta for dinner. Total macros= 11.5 fat, 94 carbs, 50 protein

Snacks were a protein shake with water and little cinnamon (post workout) and a 1 cookies and cream poptart for dessert, YUM. Total macros= 7.5 fat, 42 carbs, 32 protein

And this is what my macros look like for the whole day! I don’t have a rhym or reason for how many grams of each macro to hit for every meal, as long as I get it in at the end of the day. The only time I schedule specific macros are for post workout when I shoot for lots of protein and simple carbs (pop tarts) for recovery and muscle repair. But other than that I eat what I want and when I want, as long as it “fits my macros” of course! :)