Post-Workout Korean Snacks
Maintaining a workout schedule is hard, but establishing a healthy meal plan is even harder, especially when you have all of these delicious Korean snacks staring you right in the face. How is it possible to exercise and not gain back all, if not, more calories than you had just worked off? Creating a healthy meal plan does not mean that snacks have to be cut out of your diet completely. Regular snacks no longer have to be replaced by bland snacks composed of only fruits and vegetables either. The key to a healthy diet is moderation. After a workout, one should eat to satisfy the stomach rather than fill it. Here are some tasty snacks that do not ruin the integrity of a hard workout:
Gyeran Mari
Protein is one of the best kinds of food to have after a workout. Although boiled eggs are easy to make, they can become boring after awhile. Why not try dressing up your eggs with a few more ingredients? Gyeran Mari is a Korean rolled omelet usually served as a side dish but works perfectly as a small snack. The omelet filling is composed of finely diced ingredients such as scallion, carrot, bell pepper, kim (dried seaweed), mushroom, or ham. The flavor combinations are endless! Don’t let the small appearance fool you. Just a couple of pieces of your Korean rolled omelet is good enough to satisfy your stomach. Prepare your gyeran mari ahead of time, and you won’t have to prepare another post-workout snack for the rest of the week!
Dried Squid
Have you ever had the urge to eat something? Not necessarily craving anything in particular - just wanting to eat anything? This dried squid snack can help you! Dried squid not only is an excellent post-workout snack full of protein but is also good for tying you over to the next meal. The salty and savory flavors are enough to satisfy the urge to overeat after a hard workout.
Roasted Chestnuts
Chestnuts can help with digestive health, immunity, blood pressure regulation, and weight loss. Although the calorie content seems high for such a small snack, it contains complex carbohydrates which take longer to digest, making you feel fuller for a longer period of time. By eating a few roasted chestnuts, you’ll also have enough energy to fight off that post-workout fatigue.
Soondae
Don’t let Korea’s blood sausage scare you. The flavors of the noodle, rice, vegetable, and blood filling balance each other out, creating a wonderfully mild taste. With blood being the star ingredient in this sausage, soondae is a dish that is high in protein. Lightly dip a few pieces of it in a salt and pepper mixture, soybean paste, or soy sauce, and your protein-rich post-workout snack is ready to be eaten.
Kimbap
Kimbap is a popular Korean dish that is often packed as a meal for outdoor events or eaten as a light meal with a few side dishes. Inside the roll of seaweed there is rice, various vegetables, egg, and sometimes meat. A few pieces of kimbap would serve as possibly the most satisfying post-workout snack there is. If you would like to know more, this article can tell you all there is to know about the beloved rice roll.
The trick to healthy post-workout snacking is to not eat until you feel full. Instead, eat just enough to satisfy your stomach, being sure to drink plenty of water while eating. A healthier diet does not mean that snacking has to disappear completely. To maintain a healthy diet, some cravings have to be satisfied or else you can end up over-indulging yourself. Treating yourself in moderation is key!
We’re all here to help and encourage each other. Let us know in the comments what your favorite post-workout snacks are!
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