Have you ever said to yourself you’d workout in the afternoon and then that never happens because you get the 2pm crash and you have no energy after to do anything let alone a workout.

This used to happen to me all the time. I was eating healthy (or so I thought) and didn’t want to (or couldn’t get my butt out of bed) exercise in the morning and so I would say I would do it in the afternoon or early evening.

I should also mention another problem was I didn’t want to eat anything too heavy and have it sitting in my stomach for the workout. I like exercising with a light meal in my tummy, not a ton of food sloshing around.

So I used to have an apple around 1 or 2pm and go for a walk or a run around 3 or 4pm. But 3 or 4pm hit and I was like “hmm thanks, but no.” And I’d sit on the couch instead.

What I didn’t realize was that the apple I was having as my healthy snack was part of the problem.

Sugar from an apple is natural sugar, so that’s good right? Right. But it still is sugar so it will give me a crash if I don’t pair it with something else.

The best way to balance out a meal or a snack is to have all the major macronutrients in the meal or snack, so that is protein, fat and carbohydrates.

But, the apple is healthy. Yes, it is but it’s only the carbohydrates part of that macronutrient equation.

So how do I make it a better afternoon snack?

Still keep that apple, that’s good. Add in a cheese stick or peanut butter for some fat and protein. Bonus if you’re having peanut butter mix in some protein powder to add more protein.

Simple as that. Now you have a healthy, well balanced snack that’s delicious and not too heavy.

To recap: An apple for an afternoon snack, although it is healthy, it doesn’t give a balanced snack so you aren’t going to have the energy for that afternoon walk or run. Have your snack be well balanced with protein, fats and carbohydrates to have the energy you need. A good way to change this snack into a better snack is add peanut butter to the apple and mix in some protein powder into the peanut butter. 

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