There are countless pre- and post-workout snack recipes and ideas available everywhere you turn. You might only like some of those snack ideas as a vegan who works out hard, and your body needs the proper nutrients to carry you through any workout.

You no longer need to endure hunger pangs while exercising; you can snack on delicious vegan meals that will power through your workouts. These snacks with high protein content can keep you focused on your workout without making you feel overly full. You can prepare them in advance and take them with you. Let's define a plant-based vegan diet.

What is a vegan diet?

A small group of vegetarians who split off from the Leicester Vegetarian Society in England to become the Vegan Society created the term "vegan" back in 1944.

They decided to go further from refraining from meat to abstaining from all animal products, including eggs, dairy, etc. 

Veganism is "a philosophy and way of life that encourages people as much as possible to try to deny any kind of cruelty to and exploitation of animals for clothing, food and the rest," according to the Vegan Society's most recent definition.

If you’re on a vegan diet, you will typically avoid all animal products for ethics, medicine, and the environment. According to U.K. studies, there has been a 350% increase in vegans in the past ten years. Veganism, formerly considered a specialist diet, has become popular worldwide.

You might find the vegan diet difficult to stick to, excessively constricting initially, or worry about finding varieties of food. Still, with time you can find vegan substitutes for your favorite snack and meals, and all will be right with the world again. 

Vegan Pre-workout Snack

You might think it is already hard to find your perfect pre-workout snack; it will be harder to find vegan snacks. I bring you good news because, in this article, we will be breaking down a lot of different pre-workout snacks so that you can find the right one for you. 

Low-GI Carbs Vegan Snack Before Workout

Researchers advise consuming healthy carbohydrates an hour or so before a training session. However, investing in a snack with low GI (low glycemic index) carbohydrates is better than one with High GI carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are a primary fuel source for your body through a workout, but healthy carbs with high GI can raise your blood sugar levels, resulting in shallow energy.

Before your workout or physical performance, you should avoid snacks with high GI carbs.  Lucky for you vegans out there, the majority of the items in a vegan diet are high in carbohydrates and have a low glycemic index.

This implies that eating them won't cause your blood sugar levels to jump much. New potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other root vegetables, together with whole wheat bread, brown rice, oats, pasta, and muesli, as well as legumes like chickpeas, green and red lentils, kidney and butter beans, pinto beans, haricot beans, and Black-eyed beans, are typical vegan high-carb low GI foods. The following are some Low-GI carbohydrates snacks to try:

Whole Grain Toast 

Whole-grain toast is an excellent source of low-GI carbs. For a quick snack before your workout, toast one slice of whole-grain bread, and layer it with almond butter or avocado for longer-lasting energy. However, if you don’t have much time before your workout, eat the toast sans toppings, it will still taste great, and you won’t have to wait longer for the almond butter and avocado to digest.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is not just an average pre-workout snack for everyone; it is also a vegan snack. Including chia seeds or ground flax will give it a different texture and flavor. Add some fresh fruits if you’re looking for a big energy boost. 

Roasted Chickpeas

Chickpeas are a great source of fiber, antioxidants, and protein, making them the ideal snack to sate your crunch cravings. It's easy to cook roasted chickpeas, and they are a fantastic vegan snack high in protein, fiber, and gluten-free. Roasting chickpeas will make them crunchy and tasty.

It requires basic ingredients and can be made with two tablespoons of olive oil and two cans of chickpeas; you can also play around with sweet and savory seasonings to find the one for you. Chickpeas should be dried extremely well, roasted at 350°F, with the seasonings added after roasting, not before, and kept in a glass jar for best results. They go well with soup, salads, yogurt, oatmeal, and other vegan pre-workout foods.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Runners love sweet potatoes, and vegans can love them too. In addition to being a complex carb, sweet potatoes are rich in minerals and vitamins, and they taste fantastic when sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon.

Vegan Snack Before Workout: Protein Sources: High-Carbohydrate

Building and repairing muscles require protein; eating a snack high in protein after your workout will help your muscles grow. It is, however, just as essential to have protein before your workout to help your muscles grow. The best pre-workout foods that help build your muscles contain protein and low GI carbohydrates. Some vegan pre-workout foods include kidney beans, butter beans, lentils, and chickpeas. Here are a few examples of protein snacks with low GI carbs to try:

Garlicky White Bean Avocado Toast with BBQ Drizzle

If you’re tired of plain old avocado toast, this garlicky white bean avocado toast with BBQ drizzle will upgrade the taste. You can enjoy this easy-to-make snack before you head out to the gym in the morning, evening, or even noontime. It can be scaled up or down depending on your time.

Nutty Tropical Fruit Granola Bars

Nutty Tropical Fruit Granola Bars are like a tiny window into heaven. Orange juice, pistachios, pineapple, and young coconut meat combine with oats to form bars. They are yummy and fruity.

Vegan Snack Before Workout: Low-Carb Protein Sources

Vegan protein shakes are advised if you're attempting to lose weight. Before exercising, your meal or snack should contain more protein than carbohydrates. You will benefit from a vegan protein shake if you’re on a keto diet. Tofu, beans, seeds, nuts, and other plant-based foods are examples of low-carb protein sources. Check out the low-carb protein sources listed below.

Pina Colada Protein Smoothie

This delicious smoothie will take you there if you want to be transported to summer during a particularly harsh winter. The regular pina colada is usually premixed and loaded with processed sugar and dairy. Still, this smoothie version is created with healthy, easy-to-find ingredients like protein powder, ice, pineapple, banana, and coconut chia pudding. To make a quick snack, breakfast, or whole dish, prepare a large batch of chia pudding at the start of the week and store it in your refrigerator.

Fruit with Nut Butter 

For a quick snack, dip your banana or apple in nut butter to upgrade the taste. Fruit with nut butter will fully energize you throughout your workout thanks to the fruit's carbohydrates and the nut butter's beneficial protein and healthy fats.

Green Smoothie

You might not be hungry enough for a heavy snack before your morning workouts, but you feel you will get hungry during your workout, especially if it’s challenging, so what can you do? The solution is fresh juice! Fruits and vegetables that have recently been juiced deliver a powerful energy boost that is perfect for pre-workout nutrition.

Additionally, the fiber is eliminated when it’s juiced, giving you more endurance as you will save your body the trouble of digesting it before your workout. You can make this smoothie with half an avocado, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of protein powder, 1 tbsp of matcha powder, a frozen banana, 2 tbsp of maca powder, and 1 tbsp of fresh frozen spirulina powder.

Vegan Snack Before Workout: Beetroot

Beetroots have many health benefits, including increasing blood flow to your muscles. Therefore, use beetroot-infused supplements with caution, and you shouldn’t cook them before eating them. Check out some of the beetroot snacks for muscle soreness listed below.

Pink Beet Sorbet

This smoothie is one of the top vegan pre-workout snacks. It only requires basic ingredients, like beets, dragon fruit, strawberries, and water. Research has shown that beetroot can improve exercise performance, and dragon fruit also has a lot of health benefits beyond its color. 

To make this smoothie, you will need 3 to 4 strawberries, two teaspoons of beetroot powder, and 1/3 cup dragon fruit. Add coconut flakes to improve the texture and visual appeal.

Vegan Snack Before Workout: Caffeine

Caffeine can strengthen your endurance during rowing, cycling, running, and swimming exercises and help you get through more reps during intense workouts.

It does this by enhancing free fatty acids, slowing the breakdown of glycogen, and aiding your central nervous system to adapt quickly. Here are a few caffeine-infused foods.

Below are some examples of caffeine snacks

Eat Your Coffee Caffeinated Snack Bars

Everyone has different motivations for drinking coffee. Some enjoy its rich and deep flavor, others only love it for its caffeine content, and then there is a host of reasons in between. What’s common amongst coffee lovers is that we’re all seeking healthy and more practical ways to meet our caffeine needs.

What if I told you, you could eat your coffee instead of drinking it? Long-term coffee fans may view the idea of coffee you can eat as a form of blasphemy to the coffee Gods.  However, Eat Your Coffee makes it very apparent that it thinks eating coffee is not only doable but also a fun alternative for coffee enthusiasts to snack as pre- and post-workout snacks to achieve optimal performance.

Eat Your Coffee bars are 100% organic, caffeinated energy bars made with real coffee. It is both vegan and gluten-free. One Eat Your Coffee energy bar is an equivalent of a cup of coffee or a shot of espresso.

The company aims to revitalize people's lives by giving them access to nourishing and energizing superfoods. Made from wholly natural ingredients, the Eat Your Coffee bars come in delicious coffee-like flavors such as Fudgy mocha latte, Salted Caramel Macchiato, and Peanut Butter Mocha.

The Eat Your Coffee Bar Flavors

Fudgy Mocha Latte Flavor

If you love a vanilla latte, you will love this flavor. The Fudgy Mocha Latte Eat Your Coffee Energy bar is a very expertly crafted coffee; it contains the equivalent of a full cup of coffee. Each bar also includes a dash of cinnamon and a hint of dark chocolate chips. The energy bars are not only delicious, but they boost energy and are incredibly addictive.

The Caramel Macchiato Flavor

The caramel macchiato is like an actual caramel macchiato coffee, except it is in a pocket-friendly size and can be easily lugged around. The bar has a creamy and rich taste with a notable hint of espresso—one of the best ways to eat your coffee. 

The bars have some of your favorite flavors, like vanilla latte, and contain nutritious ingredients like dates, chia seeds, cashews, coconuts, oats, coffee, cacao nibs, and quinoa. Those ingredients are, however, just the tip of the iceberg of the nutritious goodness these bars contain.

If you can’t decide on a particular flavor, try them all by ordering a box of 6 bars to sample every taste before choosing a favorite. If you want to try them out, you can get three different flavors for free on their website, just chip in the shipping fee.

Post-Workout Nutrition: What to Eat for a Post-Workout Meal

Pre- and post-workout nutrition is essential. Good post-workout food will feature:

• Protein to facilitate muscle growth

• Carbohydrates work to replace muscle glycogen spent during your workout and improve insulin's ability to transfer nutrients into your cells.

Any food you eat post-workout should contain a good balance of both.