Many of the health benefits of exercise can be greatly affected by the food you eat AFTER YOUR WORKOUT.

What you eat after your workout can actually influence its positive effects on your body. What researchers found was that all exercise sessions increased insulin sensitivity. Enhanced insulin sensitivity means that it is easier for your body to take up sugar from your bloodstream into tissues like muscles, where it can be stored or used as fuel. Yes, exercise causes your muscles to absorb sugar from your bloodstream. 

Exercise is one of the most powerful tools you have available to normalize your insulin levels. This is important because elevated insulin levels are one of the primary drivers for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and weight gain. But the foods you eat are equally important to maintain insulin levels. So you don't want to starve yourself after a workout. Doing so may prevent you from getting the full benefits from your workout. 

Differences in what you eat after exercise produce different effects on your body's metabolism

Training puts wear and tear on your joints, muscles and bones, and your body "uses up" nutrients during exercise, so this meal is all about putting back what you've lost and providing the raw materials needed for repair and healing.

Simply put, aside from water (which you should already know you need), your post workout meal needs to contain 2 things,

You should be eating protein and carbs. 

Let's talk carbs for a minute. I know carbs are the nutrient people are most afraid of these days, but, they're really not scary (or "bad") at all if you choose the right ones. In fact, they are an extremely essential part of your after-workout nutrition and play a key role in your post workout recovery.

Why? Carbs will be used by your body to restore muscle glycogen that was depleted while you worked out. If your post workout meal doesn't contain carbs, your body may instead break down muscle tissue for this same purpose (not what you want).

Carbs helps to move nutrients into your muscle tissue quicker. Let me explain this. Usually, when a meal is absorbed fast because of high glycemic or simple carbs, there is a good chance your blood sugar will rise too fast, and the carbohydrates will be stored as body fat. But after a resistance workout, you've just primed the pump with an intense workout (with weights), and you have a one hour window of opportunity to shuttle in nutrients, amino acids, glycogen, and other anabolic nutrients to help repair your damaged muscles  So the meal after a resistance workout is one time you want the sugars to be absorbed rapidly.

Protein

Let's talk about protein next. Consuming protein has important uses after exercise. Protein provides the amino acids necessary to rebuild muscle tissue that is damaged during intense exercise. It can also increase the absorption of water from the intestines and improve muscle hydration. The amino acids in protein can also stimulate the immune system, making you more resistant to colds and other infections. 

So, while chicken, meat, fish, and eggs are all fine sources of protein they aren't the ideal type of protein for the meal after your workout.These foods are solid foods, and the protein in solid foods digests pretty slowly. 

Keep in mind that after a workout, your stomach and digestive tract are not functioning efficiently. The reason is because your digestive tract is incredibly vascular and uses significant amounts of blood to do its job. The problem arises because much of your blood is in the muscles that you just finished training. So an adequate amount of blood is not available to digest food eaten after a workout.

For this reason, the best post workout meal is whey or hemp protein and a higher glycemic (fast released, starchy) carbohydrate. You can use a banana or date as your carb. The potassium in the banana seems to help with recovery. The whey or hemp protein is already pre-digested so it is absorbed rapidly.

Lets summarize what I have gone over so far and add in a few more points.

Eat within 15-60 minutes immediately following a workout, your muscles are ready and waiting to receive fuel to start the repair process. Eat or even better drink your recovery meal as soon as possible.

Eat foods easy to digest.  Just because you eat something it doesn't mean your muscles are getting the nutrients. Your muscles need blood to deliver nutrients to them. If you eat food which is hard to digest the blood is tied up in the digesting, the less gets into your muscles. Ideally you want to have your post workout snack in liquid form.

Consume protein & simple carbs in a ratio of 4:1.  

I am not someone who usually tracks numbers but there was so much information about this ratio I wanted to include it.  If you do a very intense workout it is recommended to have .75 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight, and include protein in a 4:1 ratio.So if you weigh 150 lbs you want 112 grams of carbs and 28 grams of protein.  The carbohydrates should include high-glycemic carbs (yeah, this the time you can eat some high glycemic food but I don't mean an candy bar). Dates are great as are bananas.

Balance the acid.  Exercising creates an acidic environment in your blood. So having something like lemons (these are actually alkaline not acidic once they get into your body) or green vegetables will neutralize those acids.  If you leave your body acidic it will use the calcium from your bones and nitrogen from your muscles to neutralize your blood. 

Drink lots of water.  If you want to weigh yourself before and after your workout, the formula is to drink 2 cups of water per pound of body weight lost during exercise.

Replace the lost electrolytes. When you sweat, you lose electrolytes, those little conductors that transmit electrical impulses throughout your body.  Some good sources of electrolytes are kelp, dulse, Celtic sea salt and coconut water rather than Gatorade or other sports drinks with all their chemicals and artificial colors.

This is what I have 10-15 minutes after my workout.  I make it up before I go and bring it with me.  If I have not prepared, I will at least have a few dates or one of the store bought energy bars I mentioned last week.  If you don't work out intensely then even just the simple  "glucose" carbohydrate within 30 minutes will be adequate to move the nutrients into your muscle tissue. 

Sweet Lemon Recovery Drink  

             (adapted from Brendan Brazier's book Thrive)

4 large Medjool dates, pitted

2 cups water

1 Tb protein powder (I like Sun Warrior Hemp or Rice (Vegan) or Tera's Whey )

Juice from 1 lemon

1 tsp ground kelp granules or dulse

1 Tb maca

1 tsp greens powder (chlorella or spirulina) (optional)

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender.