Low glycemic carbs are cool prior so as not to affect energy levels due to insulin spikes. Go to google.com and type in glycemic index. It gives you a lot of listings for low, medium and high GI foods.

Post workout, you want to get in a protein shake with high simple carbs to spike your insulin and shove the nutrients into your muscle tissue. Post workout is the only time you really want to consume simple carbs (sugar).

yup yup, I usually eat 10 egg whites and one yolk and maybe a piece of toast for pre-workout. Then everything goes for post-workout