GoodLife, Good Food: How to Fuel Your Workouts Before and After the Gym

If you searched "goodlife" from anywhere in Canada, you almost certainly meant GoodLife Fitness. It began in London, Ontario, in 1979, after founder David Patchell-Evans developed a passion for fitness while rehabilitating from a motorcycle accident. Today, GoodLife and Fit4Less together operate more than 400 clubs and serve roughly 1.5 million members from St. John's to Victoria.

Which means a very Canadian thing is true: on any given Tuesday, a huge number of us are standing in the same lobby, scanning the same app barcode, walking past the same rack of barbells. The membership is not the hard part. Getting to the club is not even the hard part, once it becomes routine. The hard part is the other twenty-three hours — the breakfast you skip, the post-lift meal that turns into a protein bar in the car, the fourth straight night of dry chicken and rice that finally makes you order Uber Eats instead.

According to Statistics Canada's most recent Canadian Health Measures Survey data, covering 2022 to 2024, about 46% of Canadian adults meet the recommended activity levels — at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week, alongside muscle-strengthening work at least twice weekly. If you're already training at GoodLife, you're in the half that shows up. This guide is about making the food side hold up just as well.

Your class decides your fuel

GoodLife is one of the few places in Canada where you can do a barbell class, a spin ride, a hot yoga flow and a HIIT session under one roof, and those sessions do not ask the same things of your body. GoodLife runs live Les Mills programming in its clubs, and the demands differ more than most people assume.

BODYPUMP is a roughly 55–60 minute high-repetition barbell workout, depending on the class format — Les Mills also releases shorter 30- and 45-minute versions, so check your club's schedule. Whatever the length, it's built on repeated squats, presses, lifts and curls, and it draws heavily on muscle glycogen, the stored carbohydrate your muscles run on. Some people feel flat, shaky or underpowered during a hard morning session if they arrive under-fuelled. Indoor cycling and LES MILLS GRIT sit in the same bucket: hard, glycolytic, carbohydrate-hungry.

Heated classes and BODYBALANCE are a different problem. For hot yoga in particular, hydration becomes especially important, since sweating increases both fluid and electrolyte losses. Electrolyte and carbohydrate needs depend on how long and hard you train and how much you sweat — and a heavy meal beforehand is genuinely miserable in a warm room, so most people do better eating lighter and earlier.

Straight strength training on the floor sits between the two. You need enough carbohydrate to hold intensity across your working sets, and enough protein across the day to actually adapt to them. What you don't need is a giant, greasy pre-workout meal that sits in your stomach through your top set.

The pre-workout window: fast carbs, quiet stomach

The version of this that survives contact with real life is simple. Somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes before a demanding session, get some easy-to-digest carbohydrate in, with a modest amount of protein, and keep fat and fibre low. The amount is personal — a 55 kg runner and a 100 kg powerlifter are not working from the same number, and if you ate a full lunch two hours ago you may need very little. Research consistently supports eating carbohydrate before demanding exercise; it does not support one universal gram target for everyone.

What is fairly universal is the texture problem. Fat and fibre slow gastric emptying, which is great at 8 p.m. and terrible at 5:45 a.m. Oats are excellent food, but for a lot of people the fibre load sits heavy right before a hard session.

This is exactly the gap cream of rice fills, and why it quietly became a staple in bodybuilding and CrossFit kitchens long before it hit the mainstream. It's finely milled white rice cooked into a smooth hot cereal: low in fibre, low in fat, fast to digest, and gentle on a stomach that has been awake for eleven minutes. It cooks in about two minutes with hot water, which matters more than any nutrition argument when it's dark and minus eighteen outside and your class starts in forty minutes.

Bowl o' Gainz is our take on that base. To use the plainest example: a 32 g serving of Plain Jane — about two and a half tablespoons — provides roughly 110 calories and 25 g of carbohydrate, with 0 g fat, 0 g sugar, 0 mg sodium and about 2 g of protein. Its ingredient list is one word long: granulated rice. Flavoured tubs differ, so check the panel on yours, particularly the Loaded flavours with cookie inclusions, which carry real sugar and a heavier profile. And we'll say the honest part out loud: 

Bowl o' Gainz is a carbohydrate base, not a protein source. It's designed to be paired. Stir in a scoop of whey after cooking, mix it with egg whites into pancakes, or eat it alongside Greek yogurt. That's the meal — carbs plus protein — not the tub on its own.

After the session: protein first, carbs close behind

The panic around the "anabolic window" has mostly been walked back. The window is wider than people once thought: exercise keeps muscle more responsive to protein for at least 24 hours, although that effect gradually decreases with time. You are not undoing your workout because you got stuck in traffic on the 401.

What still holds is the boring version. The International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand recommends roughly 0.25 g of high-quality protein per kilogram of body weight per serving, or an absolute dose of about 20 to 40 g, ideally spaced every three to four hours across the day. For a 75 kg lifter, that's a serving in the neighbourhood of 19 to 30 g, four or so times daily — which is a lot less dramatic than the internet makes it sound.

Carbohydrate after training matters most if you train hard again within 24 hours, which describes plenty of GoodLife members: BODYPUMP Monday night, spin Tuesday morning. Restocking glycogen makes the second session feel like a workout instead of a punishment. A post-workout bowl of cream of rice with protein stirred through does both jobs in one dish, in less time than it takes to shower.

Across the whole day, the number that actually drives results is total protein. Most active adults land well between 1.4 and 2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight — for an 80 kg lifter, that's roughly 112 to 160 grams daily. Chicken, eggs, fish, dairy, tofu, lentils, protein powder: the source matters far less than hitting the total, consistently, for months.

Nobody quits because the science was wrong

Here's the part most gym nutrition articles skip. When people fall off a plan, it's almost never because their macro split was suboptimal. It's because the food got boring, and boring food loses to takeout every single time. The research on dietary adherence is consistent and slightly deflating: the diet people stick to is the diet that works, and enjoyment is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone is still eating that way in six months.

Which makes flavour a performance variable, not a luxury. The catch is that many of the things that make lean food taste good come with a real calorie cost. Traditional mayonnaise can run around 90 calories per tablespoon, almost entirely from fat, and creamy dressings vary widely but can still add up quickly — a couple of generous spoonfuls can quietly reshape a meal you built specifically to be lean. Do that daily and the training struggles to keep pace.

That's the entire reason The Flavor Gang sauces exist. Sweet Papi, Take-Out Sauce, SMV (sriracha maple) and Southwest Smash chipotle aioli are built to deliver flavour at a low calorie cost, so you can sauce a meal properly instead of rationing it. Check your bottle for the specifics, since the range varies. Two practical notes: Take-Out Sauce contains soy and sesame, which matters if there are allergies in your household, and low-calorie is not no-calorie — portion it rather than free-pouring.

Building a week around your GoodLife schedule

Most Canadian gym routines fall into one of three shapes, and each one has an obvious food fix.

• Early morning (5:30–7 a.m.): You have twenty minutes and no appetite. A small bowl of cream of rice with a scoop of protein, eaten while you find your car keys, is usually enough. Save the big meal for after.

• Lunch-hour session: Eat a normal, moderate breakfast, then train, then make lunch your recovery meal — protein, a starch, and a sauce that makes it something you look forward to at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday.

• Evening after work: The 3 p.m. slump is the trap. A small carb-forward snack around 4:30 keeps your 6:30 session from falling apart, and dinner does the recovery work afterward.

Then there's the seasonal reality. Canadian winter does two things to training: it makes the drive to the club harder, and it makes hot food far more appealing than a cold shake. A hot bowl you actually want to eat at 6 a.m. in February is worth more to your consistency than any supplement stack.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• GoodLife Fitness started in London, Ontario, in 1979. Today GoodLife and Fit4Less together operate more than 400 clubs serving roughly 1.5 million members. The membership is the easy part; the food is where consistency breaks.

• Pre-workout: a small, easy-to-digest carbohydrate snack 30–90 minutes before a hard session helps most people. The amount depends on your size, the workout and what you ate earlier. Cream of rice fits this window well because it's low in fat and fibre.

• Post-workout: about 0.25 g of high-quality protein per kg of body weight per serving, or roughly 20–40 g, every three to four hours. Add carbohydrate if you're training hard again within 24 hours.

• The post-workout window is wide. Muscle stays more responsive to protein for at least 24 hours, with the effect tapering gradually.

• Daily total protein beats perfect timing. Most active adults do well at 1.4–2.0 g per kg of body weight per day.

• Match your fuel to the class: barbell and cycling sessions are carbohydrate-hungry; heated classes make hydration the priority.

• Flavour is an adherence tool. Traditional mayonnaise runs around 90 calories a tablespoon; a low-calorie sauce protects the meal you built.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I eat before a GoodLife workout?

For most people, a small, easy-to-digest carbohydrate snack 30 to 90 minutes before training works well — cream of rice, toast with jam, rice cakes or a banana. Keep fat and fibre low so food clears your stomach before you start moving. The right amount depends on your body size, how long and hard you're training, and what you've already eaten that day.

Should I train fasted at the gym in the morning?

You can, and some people feel fine doing it. But for longer or harder sessions — a barbell class, an intense ride, a heavy lower-body day — eating a little carbohydrate beforehand often means better output and a session that feels less like survival. If you do train fasted, make your post-workout meal a real one.

Is cream of rice better than oats before a workout?

Neither is better in general; they suit different windows. Cream of rice is lower in fibre and digests faster, which makes it easier to tolerate close to training. Oats bring more fibre and a slower release, which is useful hours before a session or at meals unconnected to training.

How much protein do I need if I lift three or four times a week?

Most active adults do well between 1.4 and 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, split into servings of roughly 0.25 g per kg — about 20 to 40 grams for most people — every three to four hours. For a 70 kg person, that's roughly 98 to 140 grams daily. Consistency across the week matters far more than the timing of any single serving.

Does Bowl o' Gainz have protein in it?

Only a little. Bowl o' Gainz is a cream of rice carbohydrate base, not a protein supplement. A 32 g serving of Plain Jane, for example, provides roughly 110 calories, 25 g of carbohydrate and about 2 g of protein, with no fat or sugar. Flavoured tubs vary, so check your panel. Pair it with whey, egg whites or Greek yogurt to build a complete meal.

Are low-calorie sauces actually worth it for macro tracking?

For many people, yes. Traditional mayonnaise can run around 90 calories per tablespoon, and creamy dressings add up quickly too, so a couple of spoonfuls can meaningfully change a meal designed to be lean. Low-calorie sauces let you flavour food generously at a smaller cost — as long as you still portion them rather than free-pouring.

MAKE THE FOOD PART EASIER

Bowl o' Gainz cream of rice comes in flavours built for people who are tired of choking down plain carbs — and Plain Jane if you'd rather build the flavour yourself. Our sauce range is made to rescue chicken and rice from itself. Browse the Bowl o' Gainz collection and the sauce collection at theflavorgang.ca. Free shipping on Canadian orders over $100.