After-Workout Sammich
So, I work out quite a bit. Right now, that’s 7 days a week for at least an hour a day (6 days of the week @ 1.5 hours/day). I work out every weekday with two personal trainers and another guy trying to get in shape/lose weight. As far as my trainers, think Bob and Jillian from The Biggest Loser. They’re tough and work us hard. Before signing up for this 6 week regiment, I was in decent shape but not quite where I want to be; also my motivation goes to shit after more than 3 or 4 weeks of working out on my own. I’m a social person and respond better to being pushed by a team. Anyways, I need to eat a lot of protein and watch my calorie intake. I started making this sandwich after workouts and liked it enough to share it. It looks a lot like a wheat colored ice cream sandwich, so I guess you could name it something slightly ironic like “Tuna (Hold The Ice Cream) Sandwich” or something.Watch out, Sandra Lee; I got ‘em cute ironic names in spades. It’s really simple to make, which is really nice after a workout when you’re tired and need to get some protein in you within 45 minutes while making time for taking a shower and getting back to work/life. There are only four ingredients: So, grab your thin buns. What’s that? Double entendre? Oh man, Dane Cook: I’m gunning for you too. Anyways, these things are pretty cool. Unlike most “wheat” bread in stores, it actually HAS grain and fiber in it rather than being wheat-colored white bread with no real nutritional value. Also, two slices of thin buns are 100 calories; normal bread is 100 calories per slice. Cutting 100 calories out right off the bat is pretty cool. Since they’re a little smaller than bread slices, you’ll eat less of whatever contents you’re putting in it (like PB&J), resulting in less calories than the same sandwich with normal bread. Smaller doesn’t mean you’ll be less full. On the contrary, it has more fiber than normal bread so it fills you up better. Moving on! Toast those bad boys if you’d like. I do. Next, get out your relish. It took me awhile to find one that wasn’t full of high fructose corn syrup, calories, and/or sodium. I settled on Del Monte Sweet Relish. As the name infers, it’s sweet but only has 5 grams of sugar per tablespoon - way less than others. Bonus: NO high fructose corn syrup! It has 125mg of sodium, which looked to be about 100 to 150 milligrams less than other brands. Last but not least, it’s only 20 calories per tablespoon! Most others were at least 60, if not in the hundreds. 20 vs 60 is not a big difference, but it all adds up. Overall, I really like this brand of relish. It’s sweet (which is important to me) but you can taste the pickle flavor as well as red peppers and onions to a smaller degree. Spread about 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of relish on one of your buns, depending how much you like it. For nutritional reference, I’m putting 1 tablespoon on mine. Now, the mustard. I think spicy mustard goes best with tuna and relish. Whatever you prefer is generally fine - mustard is great for diets (just be mindful of the ingredients). I happened upon French’s Horseradish spicy mustard. I LOVE wasabi and horseradish, respectively, so I’m a fan of it. At 5 calories per teaspoon, you’re free to spice up about anything you want without having to worry about your diet, quite unlike mayonnaise and, to a lesser degree, ketchup (which typically has HFCS). Spread about 3 to 3.5 teaspoons of spicy mustard on the other bun. You can splurge (generally) as much as you like due to the small calorie factor. For the final nutritional count at the end of this, I’m using 3.5 teaspoons. Next up: Tuna! The main ingredient. I typically stay with one of the more well-known tuna manufacturers. I went with Bumble Bee’s “Prime Fillet” Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore in water. There are a few factors involved in my decision. Firstly, I try to keep my salt intake as minimum as I can. It’s not a huge issue for someone who sweats a lot and generally drinks a lot of water, but it’s something to be mindful of. Personally, when I’ve had too much sodium in my diet I tended to get headaches if I didn’t drink enough water to dilute the salt. Neither here nor there - you do what you feel is right for your body. Second, I got the solid tuna because it’s a little faster and easier for me to just put the whole slab of tuna on the sandwich. It’s also a little easier to manage than chunky, since there isn’t a whole lot of room on the buns. If you have the time and the preference, you could always mix the tuna, relish and mustard together and put it on the buns - similar to a traditional tuna salad. However, people wouldn’t ask why you’re eating an ice cream sandwich after working out, so what’s the fun in that :) Third, I always get tuna that is in water. Say what you will about the big debate on oils, water is ALWAYS better for your body no matter what! So yeah - tuna! This can packs 32 grams of protein, which is great for your body after a tough work out. With 70mg of sodium and 140 calories, your main ingredient keeps to your diet and tastes great. Be mindful that eating too much tuna too often can expose you to more mercury than is deemed safe by government standards. Although in this instance I went for the white albacore, it tends to have a higher concentration of mercury than that of light tuna. That said, most tuna caught commercially in the ocean is generally exposed to naturally occurring mercury, like underwater mineral deposits, vents, and volcanoes. Tuna from streams, rivers, and lakes are more prone to mercury from pollution; primarily in densely human-populated areas. With that in mind, err on the side of caution and be mindful of your tuna intake anyways. According to the EPA and the FDA, high-risk groups, including pregnant women, nursing mothers, women who may become pregnant and young children, should limit their weekly tuna consumption to no more than 12 ounces (two meals) of light tuna a week, or up to 6 ounces of albacore. (source) A can of solid white albacore tuna is about 4 ounces when drained. So generally, if you’re a high-risk group one to two cans per week is enough. Okay, so now we have a sandwich! Yay! After working out, I typically eat one with a small glass of chocolate milk, which has a lot of vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients beneficial for our body. I think it’s better than sports drinks, which are full of sugar and generally don’t taste as good anyways. I drank a small bottle of Gatorade after a 10k run one time and couldn’t believe people actually drink that stuff. After drinking mostly water and cutting out most sugary foods/drinks for the last year, I was astonished how body reacted so negatively to it. I didn’t even finish it. There is plenty of information on the subject of drinking chocolate milk after working out; it’s pretty interesting stuff. Now, in the end, this sandwich results in the following nutritional stats: Pretty good stats. Lots of protein, fiber to make it go further, not too much sugar. The calories keep it within what you should have for one of your meals. Want to lose weight quickly? Replace all of your sugar drinks (coffee w/creamer and sugar, soda, juices, etc) with water. Boring, right? Try unsweetened tea. Sure, it takes awhile to detox from all of the sugar you are used to, but it gets easy! Especially when you’re losing weight without having to work too hard. Anyways, when you DO have that delicious Caramel Frappuccino w/ Add Shot from Starbucks, it’ll taste better than it ever did before because that sweetness goes a lot further when your body isn’t so used to it! :)
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