Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 147. How to Get Your Period Back as a College Runner
Transcript
- 0:00Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
- 0:02today's episode. The information shared on this
- 0:04podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
- 0:07and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
- 0:10This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
- 0:13apply to your situation. If you are looking for
- 0:15personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our RBSN Period
- 0:18Recovery nutrition coaching program.
- 0:20Our four month period recovery program is designed to help you
- 0:22sustainably get your period back and keep it.
- 0:24You can apply now to get started in our program and we'll leave
- 0:27the link for the program below. This is the Eat more Carbs
- 0:29podcast. Hello and welcome back.
- 0:36This is the Eat More Carbs podcast.
- 0:38We're Riley Beatty Sports Nutrition, and we're a team of
- 0:40dietitians and we talk every Thursday about sports nutrition
- 0:43for the girlies. I'm Jenna and I'm the host of
- 0:45this podcast. And I'm Riley.
- 0:46I'm the founder of Riley Beatty Sports Nutrition.
- 0:48We like to call it around here our BSN.
- 0:50Before we get into today's episode, we are going to do our
- 0:52high and low, so sharing just a little bit about our week, the
- 0:55good, and the parts we wish had gone a little bit differently.
- 0:57As always, Riley, can you kick us off?
- 0:58Hello. Yes, I usually start off with my
- 1:01high, but I'm actually going to start off with my low because
- 1:03it's something that's been like really bothering me and it's
- 1:05such a silly thing. I don't know what is happening
- 1:08right now. I I'm like a static ball of
- 1:10energy. Like you probably can see it
- 1:13maybe in the video, but like I am so staticky.
- 1:15I don't know what has been happening for like the last
- 1:18couple of weeks now that we're like in winter.
- 1:20Every single time I like touch something like I get a static
- 1:23shock. Like I was at the grocery store
- 1:24this past weekend. Every single time I picked up a
- 1:26food product, I got zapped. Is it a lot drier?
- 1:30Yeah. But like, not that dry.
- 1:32Like, it's not like the desert. I mean, you know how it is like
- 1:35Arizona. We both lived in Las Vegas.
- 1:37It's not like that at all. One of the craziest things too,
- 1:40was like, Charlie and I keep zapping each other.
- 1:42So like, every time she comes in, like, give me a hug.
- 1:44We're like, like, and I don't know how to get rid of it.
- 1:46And it's driving me bananas. I know this isn't a Drive says
- 1:49bananas episode, but it's like literally driving me bananas.
- 1:52That's so wild. It is.
- 1:54And like you can see my hair a little bit.
- 1:56Like I'm just so staticky. I can, yeah, I can see it.
- 1:59Yeah, and I don't know how to stop it.
- 2:01I don't know, I'd Google it. Is that a thing?
- 2:02You can Google how to stop I. Don't know, I feel like I go
- 2:06like a little like superhero or something like I don't know,
- 2:09it's just very inconvenient because I just I'm getting like
- 2:12zapped every time I do something.
- 2:13So it's a very silly low, but it's something that's driving me
- 2:16banana. It would.
- 2:17Drive me nuts too. What about your?
- 2:18High, my high is we always do a family trip every single year
- 2:22with Robbie's family, who's my husband.
- 2:24If you're new to the podcast, Rob's and my husband.
- 2:25I have Charlie. I guess I talked a little bit
- 2:27about her earlier, but she's my daughter who's going to be two
- 2:30this month, which is crazy. We are going to Disney World.
- 2:33OK, I saw that you marked yourself out of office coming up
- 2:37and I was like, I can't wait to hear where they're going.
- 2:40Oh my gosh, that's going to be so much fun.
- 2:42Yeah, we're so excited. Charlie is like in her Princess
- 2:46era kind of right now where we like, love to wear a Princess
- 2:49dress. We also still do love trucks.
- 2:51So it is hilarious because we'll be walking down the street and
- 2:54she's like driving her little truck in her Princess dress.
- 2:56You go, girl. We're really excited because she
- 2:59has been wearing like pull ups that have Mickey Mouse on them.
- 3:01So she like loves Mickey Mouse and she also loves to like be a
- 3:05Princess. So we're going to Disney World.
- 3:07Is she going to wear Princess dresses in the park?
- 3:09Yes, I mean, maybe we'll see. Like I think so she wears
- 3:12Princess dresses when she goes to like our nanny share like or
- 3:15the grocery store. It's like the only thing that
- 3:18she wants to wear and she calls them tutus.
- 3:20So she'll be like Tutu. No, mom, mom, Tutu.
- 3:22I'm like OK, sure, whatever you want.
- 3:24You can wear your Princess dress in your Crocs like whatever.
- 3:27So we are the crazy people that are taking their two year old to
- 3:30Disney World, but if she's under 3, she gets in for free and she
- 3:34gets to eat for free. So that's a bonus.
- 3:36They get to. Eat for free.
- 3:37If you do like certain restaurants, because we were
- 3:40looking at like maybe trying to do like character dining with
- 3:43her. Like I've never, I've gone to
- 3:44Disneyland before. And if y'all are new here, I
- 3:46used to live in California and we were annual pass holders to
- 3:49Disneyland and Disneyland, even though it's similar to Disney
- 3:52World, it's just a little bit of a different experience when you
- 3:54live in Southern California. But I've actually never done
- 3:57like character dining or anything like that.
- 3:58And like, I'm an adult, I don't need to do that.
- 4:00Some people love doing it, but we are thinking about doing that
- 4:04like with her just so she can meet the princesses and like
- 4:07meet Mickey Mouse and all of that stuff at those restaurants
- 4:10or a lot of the table service restaurants.
- 4:12Like you don't have to pay for kids under two.
- 4:14Wow. It's also like ridiculously
- 4:16priced for an. Adult, but I'm sure, yes.
- 4:18But you know, anything to put a smile on that little girl's
- 4:21face. Yeah, and she's not going to
- 4:22remember it, but like, she's going to have a ton of fun.
- 4:24To see her, like, have so much fun.
- 4:26It's the memory for you guys that's going to be so special,
- 4:29yeah. I just think it's funny because
- 4:30like, you know, two years ago we were like going to Europe for a
- 4:33family vacation. Or, you know, last year we went
- 4:35to Sedona and I got to see you. And then, like, now we're like
- 4:37officially suburban parents. Like we're going to Disney
- 4:40World. Like to watch a kid experience
- 4:42that magic for the first time. Like, are you kidding me?
- 4:44Like, I love that. Yeah.
- 4:45So. We're very excited.
- 4:47We're going in April. So yeah, you did see my out of
- 4:50office. Yes, yes, I did.
- 4:51I was like, I wonder if that's the family trip.
- 4:53Suspicion confirmed, Yes. What about you?
- 4:56How's your week going? Well.
- 4:57Not as good as announcing a trip to Disney.
- 4:59My God, my low is a bittersweet low.
- 5:02I said goodbye to one of my clients I have been working with
- 5:05for quite a long time this week. And it was just like, we've
- 5:08talked about this before, but after working with someone for
- 5:11such a long time, like the goodbye is the hardest part.
- 5:13And like I am so proud of her. She's had six periods through
- 5:16our time working together. Like she is doing wonderfully,
- 5:19she is fueling, she is confident.
- 5:21Like she is such a different person from the person that I
- 5:24started working with. And I'm just so proud of her.
- 5:26But like saying goodbye was so hard.
- 5:28Like, we were at the point where like, she was updated me about
- 5:30her dating life, things like that.
- 5:31Like, you have a relationship with these people that we get to
- 5:34know so closely. So it's just hard for me this
- 5:36week to say goodbye to her. And like, we want them to say
- 5:39goodbye eventually. Like, we want you to feel
- 5:40comfortable and confident in your feeling, but that doesn't
- 5:42make it any easier to say goodbye.
- 5:44So that was my low. It's just like a very
- 5:46bittersweet week for me to have to have, like, my last session
- 5:49with her and say goodbye. But really proud of her.
- 5:51Really thankful that she trusted me to help her through her
- 5:54journey and super proud of, like, everything that she
- 5:56accomplished. Yeah.
- 5:57That's my low. It is such like a bitter sweet
- 6:00moment, like you said, where you're like, I'm so proud of you
- 6:02and like, I love you, but like, I don't want you to keep working
- 6:06with me because like you have accomplished your goals.
- 6:09And I think it's so crazy to see.
- 6:11Do you like, I would call it character development if you're
- 6:13like reading a book, but like, you know, just their development
- 6:16from almost like sometimes like a shell of their personality to
- 6:19like becoming their like full person.
- 6:22And I think that's something that's not talked a lot about
- 6:24like on this journey. And yes, our program helps
- 6:27athletes and is focused on getting their period back, but
- 6:30there's so many other changes that happen during this journey
- 6:34that we can't even put them into words.
- 6:35I feel like like if we were like it's life changing, I don't
- 6:38think anybody would actually believe us.
- 6:39Right, And I think that she would definitely say that it was
- 6:41life changing for her. Like the person that I met is so
- 6:44different from the person that she left us.
- 6:46And like I couldn't be more proud of her.
- 6:47Like it's a transformative process of like what her goals
- 6:51started at, but who she became along the way.
- 6:53It's like it just makes me so happy.
- 6:55But like so sad to say goodbye. But like that's what we say at
- 6:57the end of it is like, I want to stay in touch with you.
- 6:59I want to want to hear about all the amazing things you
- 7:01accomplish, but I never want to see you again for period
- 7:03recovery and like we truly mean that.
- 7:04Yeah, Like, come on, if you want to, like we can do sports
- 7:07nutrition, we can focus on other goals, performance, nutrition,
- 7:09all of that fun stuff. But like, we don't want to do
- 7:11this again. Yep, exactly like that's what we
- 7:13want. I know.
- 7:14Bittersweet, so bittersweet. I feel so late without compared
- 7:18to yours. I'm almost embarrassed to share
- 7:20it but I'm going to share it anyway.
- 7:22I am currently in like my tea era, like I am drinking a lot of
- 7:25tea. It's cooler here.
- 7:27It's harder for me to drink like water this time of year, so I'm
- 7:30just drinking a lot of tea. And for Christmas, my husband
- 7:32got me the Ember mug. What have you heard of those?
- 7:35OK, I have it on my desk right now.
- 7:36It's looks like a regular mug, but it's the one that keeps your
- 7:40tea warm or your coffee or whatever hot beverage you choose
- 7:43to put in it. And I don't mean to be dramatic,
- 7:46but I'm being dramatic. It is a game changer for me
- 7:50because like the last couple sips of your tea when it gets
- 7:52cold, like I'm like, meh, I'm not about it.
- 7:54But like this, you get to the end of your cup of tea and it's
- 7:57still so nice. It's so it's like such like a
- 8:00subtle luxury I feel like, and I feel like now that my husband
- 8:04bought me one, he's gonna want to buy himself one.
- 8:06Even though he doesn't drink tea, he has like 1 cup of coffee
- 8:08in the morning, then he's gone. So I don't really think he needs
- 8:10one. But it's so much of A game
- 8:11changer for somebody who just like wants a warm beverage on
- 8:14your desk for like the morning. Like we're mid morning now.
- 8:17I've seen clients already, like the entire time I was like
- 8:19chatting with clients and the beginning part of like Riley and
- 8:22I's meeting today, like I had warm tea and that's it's so
- 8:25nice. I've also got that you had warm
- 8:27tea because I was 10 minutes late to our meeting.
- 8:29Which is fine, there's a lot going on right now.
- 8:31It's a game changer. Also, like mom life over here,
- 8:33like the amount of times I'm like heating up my coffee
- 8:36throughout the morning because I'm like trying to drink it and
- 8:39then running around doing things or you know, like you just said,
- 8:41like we'll have clients on workdays and things like that.
- 8:43I think that's a great eye. I can imagine that this would be
- 8:47a huge game changer as a mom but 10 out of 10 would recommend.
- 8:50Like it's worth it. It's I know it's pricey but it's
- 8:52worth it. What type of tea are you
- 8:54drinking right now? This is kind of embarrassing.
- 8:56I'm going to tell the story anyway.
- 8:57It doesn't matter. No one cares In Boulder, from
- 9:00Colorado, in Boulder, Co, there's the celestial
- 9:02seasonings. Like tea, that's where it's
- 9:04from. So I've toured their facility
- 9:07and I know it's technically not a tea because they explain it
- 9:09all and it's like technically flavored warm water or whatever.
- 9:12Because like tea has a very specific thing.
- 9:13Like their mint tea is so good. I don't know what it is about
- 9:18it, but their mint tea is what I'm drinking right now.
- 9:20I can't believe. You've got on a tea tour.
- 9:21I know it's really lame. No, I didn't know you were like
- 9:24such a tea person. I feel like I should have known
- 9:27this about you. I.
- 9:28Love tea, so good. Oh, good.
- 9:30OK. This is such a great high.
- 9:31Like I feel like it's these things that are like these
- 9:33little positive things that happen every single day that can
- 9:36like really make a huge. Impact.
- 9:38It's like romanticizing my own life.
- 9:39I get warm tea all day long as long as I charge it.
- 9:42It doesn't last all day, but it lasts a good amount of time.
- 9:44I love that for you. On today's episode, we are going
- 9:46to walk through a case study of how one of the athletes we
- 9:48worked with it got her period back or confidentiality.
- 9:51Some of the details about this person have been altered, joined
- 9:54by Lily, and we're going to talk through this together.
- 9:57Yeah, I'm super excited to hear how you helped this client out.
- 10:00Can you kind of just walk us through her back story so we
- 10:03understand where she was at when she first started working with
- 10:06you? So this is AD 1 runner and she
- 10:08hadn't had a period for over 5 years.
- 10:10She had lost it late in high school and it just never came
- 10:13back. She did initially work with
- 10:15someone when she first lost her period to try to help her get it
- 10:17back, but it never came back. Some of those habits that she
- 10:20had from working with that person still were there, which
- 10:23was a good thing that she had kind of carried some of those
- 10:25forward. Now she's kind of in the later
- 10:27parts of her collegiate career and she started to wonder and
- 10:30think about the long term implications of not having a
- 10:32period and she wanted to restart working on period recovery.
- 10:35So that's why she came to us and we worked together to help her
- 10:39get her period back. Awesome, I think.
- 10:41It's such a realization moment for a lot of athletes when they
- 10:44realized there are the long term health benefits and it does
- 10:47serve as a motivator for some. So what were some of those
- 10:50habits from her previous period recovery attempt that she was
- 10:53able to keep up? With yeah, one of the things
- 10:55that she was really good about is that she always fueled before
- 10:57her training no matter what. One of the things that we talk
- 10:59about so often here is how important pre training fueling
- 11:02is. Not doing any fasted workouts,
- 11:04not doing any fasted runs. And for her, this is something
- 11:06that came pretty naturally because she's been doing it for
- 11:08over 5 years now. So that wasn't something that we
- 11:11needed to work up from. We've talked on multiple
- 11:13episodes before of the Eat More Carbs podcast about athletes
- 11:16that we headed to start very small for making sure that they
- 11:19weren't doing fasted training for him, starting with like
- 11:21water, then progressing to juice and then having more of a
- 11:24substantial snack before getting into any type of training.
- 11:26But for this specific athlete, she already had that as part of
- 11:29her fueling routine, which was really helpful to already have a
- 11:32starting point for pre training and pre running fuel.
- 11:34We love good fueling foundations for sure.
- 11:37What were some of the initial red flags that you noticed that
- 11:41were contributing to her not having a period when you first
- 11:43started working with her? Like so many runners, she really
- 11:46struggled with the mindset that smaller equals faster.
- 11:49Even though we know that this is not true, it was something that
- 11:52her team was really kind of in the thick of.
- 11:54Like everyone on her team had that kind of mindset that when
- 11:57they were smaller, they were faster.
- 11:58So it was a lot of that culture that she was kind of continually
- 12:01surrounded by that kind of contributed to making her feel
- 12:04like she should continue to stay under fueled when it came to her
- 12:08period recovery because she was fearful of any type of change
- 12:11that would then impact her performance.
- 12:13That's such a hard thing to overcome for so many women
- 12:16because it's hard to be different out of everyone that
- 12:19you surround yourself with. What were some of the barriers
- 12:22she had when starting to make these changes in her period
- 12:26recovery journey? I think there were two main
- 12:27things, one of which is that we had no control role over
- 12:30changing any of her training. Her workouts were set by her
- 12:33coach and it was a non negotiable.
- 12:34So we had knew we had to keep up with the training demand.
- 12:36Like there was no way that we could change any of that in
- 12:39order for her to keep her scholarship and that was her
- 12:41number one priority. Like there was no changing that
- 12:43whatsoever. I think because of that, that
- 12:45contributed to needing to fuel more because we couldn't add an
- 12:49additional recovery day or anything like that.
- 12:51Like her demand for fuel was going to be extremely high
- 12:54because we couldn't manipulate training.
- 12:56We had to make sure that all of her fueling was supporting all
- 12:58of the training that was needing to be done.
- 13:00I think if we had kind of jumped in and all of a sudden said this
- 13:03is how much you need to fuel in order to keep up with all of
- 13:05your training, that would have been really, really difficult.
- 13:07So we really focused on some of like this small more sustainable
- 13:10changes in order to gradually increase her intake in order to
- 13:14support all of the training that was necessary for her, I think.
- 13:17Our approach in the period recovery program is great for
- 13:20these kinds of athletes. Just because she didn't have an
- 13:23option, A scholarship's a huge important thing and running's a
- 13:27part of her life. It's not something that she can
- 13:29just stop do doing, so the small sustainable definitely helped
- 13:32with that. What were some of the starting
- 13:34points that you think helped her?
- 13:36I think one of the big things that really helped with her was
- 13:38consistent fueling throughout the day.
- 13:39And that wasn't like we all of a sudden were consistently feeling
- 13:42throughout the day. It was slowly adding pieces into
- 13:44her fueling so that it added up to consistent fueling throughout
- 13:47the day. Even though we had great feeling
- 13:49before training and she maybe had some good feeling
- 13:52foundational pieces already, there were still large gaps of
- 13:54time where she was going without fuel and that's where we really
- 13:57focused on implementing some changes so that way she always
- 14:00had access to energy. How did she respond to that one?
- 14:03She started eating more consistently.
- 14:05So I think one of the big things that you have to remember is
- 14:07that you're not just an athlete when you're training.
- 14:09You're an athlete all the time. And that's what we had to kind
- 14:11of take as her approach to thinking about making sure that
- 14:14she was fueling more consistently throughout the day.
- 14:16Because she is a collegiate runner, we had a lot of like
- 14:19variables that were playing into consistency with fueling, like
- 14:22her training schedule and her class schedule.
- 14:24So we had to be really flexible about what consistent fueling
- 14:26looked like for her and making sure that it fit into her day.
- 14:29So finding things that did work, changing things that didn't work
- 14:32and like just remaining flexible about how fuel could actually
- 14:35fit in. So that way she wasn't going
- 14:37long periods of time without fueling.
- 14:38One of the biggest things that she noticed from like a positive
- 14:41standpoint, like so many of the athletes that we worked with, is
- 14:44that she noticed that she had a lot more energy, not just when
- 14:47she was running and when she was training, but like during class
- 14:49as well. Like she had a lot more energy
- 14:51to go and do things and like be social.
- 14:53She wasn't like constantly tired, feeling like she needed
- 14:55to take naps after training. Her recovery was going so much
- 14:59better and because of that, that really helped encourage her to
- 15:02continue to make changes in order to help support the
- 15:05training that she was doing. So that like kind of positive
- 15:07feedback of just feeling way more energy really helped I
- 15:10think with like her changes and like the sustainability of
- 15:13making progress towards period recovery.
- 15:15And I think it shows how important an athlete centered
- 15:18approach is because there's a lot of general information
- 15:20online of how often you should be eating and things like that.
- 15:23But for this athlete, it sometimes is dependent on the
- 15:26day with her training and her classes, and so really making
- 15:29that a schedule for her is what really helped and helped with
- 15:33her energy. What challenges did she face
- 15:36with increasing her feeling? Like a lot of athletes, there
- 15:39were challenges when it comes to changing your fueling.
- 15:42First, I think that there are fears around like what might
- 15:44this do to my performance, what this do to how I'm performing,
- 15:49and that's a big fear to overcome.
- 15:51So I think a lot of like the challenges that she faced were
- 15:53more mindset related versus like actually following through on
- 15:56increasing her fueling. The other big one was comparison
- 15:59from a team perspective. I think that period recovery and
- 16:02just loss of a period in general is so unfair because like we've
- 16:05talked about so many times on this podcast and we've talked
- 16:08about with so many of the athletes that we work with is
- 16:10that you can still be under fueled and have a period.
- 16:13Like you don't necessarily have to lose your period in order to
- 16:16be considered under fueled. So I think that there could have
- 16:19been a lot of that happening around her where she was
- 16:21surrounded by teammates that were under fueled but still had
- 16:24their period. So for her, it was really hard
- 16:26to consistently keep up with fueling before fueling during
- 16:29fueling after, after all of her training in comparison to what
- 16:32her teammates were doing, who maybe were under fueled but
- 16:35still had a period. So that was really hard to kind
- 16:37of like look around and play that comparison game.
- 16:39And even though every single athlete's needs are different,
- 16:41like, my goodness, we've talked about that a whole bunch too, as
- 16:44far as like you're a person 1st and your needs from person to
- 16:47person are going to change and then your needs from athlete to
- 16:49athlete are also going to change.
- 16:51That was just really hard for her to be in that kind of
- 16:53environment where no one else was really prioritizing fueling
- 16:57the same way that she was. So we had a lot of conversations
- 17:00around like mentally approaching, changing her
- 17:02fueling, how she could keep up with that and stay consistent
- 17:04with it when her teammates weren't, especially when they
- 17:06would like spend so much time together.
- 17:08Like when you're on a team, you are constantly with your
- 17:10teammates, whether that be in practice, traveling for meets,
- 17:13things like that. And that was just really hard
- 17:15for her. And especially like I mentioned
- 17:17before, because this team specifically really had kind of
- 17:20thought about the mindset of smaller equals faster.
- 17:23A lot that I think that contributed to the challenge
- 17:25that it was for her for changing her fueling in order to work on
- 17:29period or recovery. Like she knew it was super
- 17:31important and carrying out feeling changes was maybe easier
- 17:34than the mindset piece. Yeah, I know we talk about it a
- 17:37lot and people might be sick of us talking about comparison and
- 17:40mindset and all those things, but it really is such a deal
- 17:44breaker for a lot of people and wanting to be the same as
- 17:48everyone else and not stick out with having snacks and things
- 17:52like that. So I'm really thankful that she
- 17:54had you in her corner and was able to hear those things and
- 17:57that it's OK to properly feel her body because she became I'm
- 18:00a better athlete because of it. Has she got in her period?
- 18:03Back yes, she has a period, which is the wonderful outcome
- 18:07after working through something like this, I think it can be
- 18:09really, really hard to work through period recovery because
- 18:12we don't necessarily know when that is going to happen for
- 18:15people like we can't predict the future as far as when your
- 18:17period comes back. So she had a lot of trust and
- 18:20faith in the process that if she stayed consistent, continued to
- 18:23work on increasing her feeling. So that way it did support her
- 18:26not only like baseline needs, but her training needs that she
- 18:29could eventually get her period back.
- 18:31And she did. So I'm really proud of her.
- 18:32It is amazing and it shows that anyone can get their period
- 18:35back, no matter what they're doing.
- 18:37It's just a matter of being intentional and doing all the
- 18:40things. So did she have to cut back on
- 18:42her workouts? I know we talked a little bit
- 18:43about how her training's a little bit more rigid than a lot
- 18:46of athletes, So what did that look like throughout her working
- 18:50with you? So we could not touch training
- 18:52at all. A lot of times when we're
- 18:54working with athletes, like there might be some flexibility
- 18:56with training depending on the approach from the care team and
- 19:00things like that. But in this specific case, like
- 19:02training was a non negotiable, it wasn't going to change the
- 19:04entire time. We didn't know in advance what
- 19:06the training was going to look like because her workouts were
- 19:08written for her. So we could talk through them,
- 19:10talk about what changes we needed to make.
- 19:12One of the things that we really focused on was like fuel first,
- 19:15increase second, because we were working through season together
- 19:18and we anticipated that there would be an increase in mileage.
- 19:21So that was our approach always was just to think about how we
- 19:24were going to increase her fueling first before her mileage
- 19:27went up. She did get at least one full
- 19:29recovery day per week, but like so many athletes, like was very
- 19:32under recovered even with just one recovery day.
- 19:35So like I mentioned before, because we couldn't change
- 19:37training and we didn't have any manipulation with that, like we
- 19:40couldn't add another recovery day.
- 19:41So we had to be really intentional about how else we
- 19:44were finding recovery for her. So looking at like her activity
- 19:47outside of training, like what was walking to class looking
- 19:50like? What was activities of daily
- 19:52living like? Did we have room for
- 19:53manipulation for any of those things?
- 19:55Like could she ride the bus versus walk to class?
- 19:58So all of those little things. That like might not seem like
- 20:01they add up. We were trying our very best to
- 20:04keep that like as low or as light from an activity
- 20:07standpoint as possible. And that might seem kind of
- 20:09silly to some people, but we had to maximize any chance that we
- 20:12could from a recovery standpoint for her.
- 20:14It's kind of like looking at what the negotiable aspects of
- 20:18lifestyle are, because some people, they can negotiate their
- 20:22training load. This athlete could not.
- 20:24So it looked like negotiating how many steps she was taking
- 20:27outside of activity because that is what she could control.
- 20:30So where is she now in training and recovery and has she
- 20:33maintained her cycle? Yes.
- 20:35So like I mentioned, she did get her period back for this
- 20:38particular athlete the within the first four months we did see
- 20:40spotting and since then she's had three consecutive full
- 20:43periods. I'm super excited for her.
- 20:45She is an athlete that chose to work continuation with us.
- 20:48So she has continued to work beyond what we consider like the
- 20:52base of our period recovery program.
- 20:54So right now when we're recording this episode, she is
- 20:58in the middle of her kind of break between the end of cross
- 21:01country and the start of indoor track season.
- 21:03So we actually have some great time to kind of continue to
- 21:06build a good fueling foundation leading into spring racing for
- 21:09her, which has been really exciting and really fun since
- 21:11we've got to kind of work a little bit more on the sports
- 21:13nutrition side of things versus just talking about period
- 21:16recovery. And so that way she can walk
- 21:18into spring racing season in the best possible way and she can
- 21:22show up as the best possible version of herself to race in
- 21:25the spring. I think this is like the best
- 21:27use of continuation with our athletes is when goals are
- 21:30really changing because yes, we do have the initial goal of
- 21:33period recovery. While that's what we're going
- 21:35for, we're so much more than just someone trying to get their
- 21:38period back. These athletes have goals that
- 21:40they're chasing after, and so being able to have your support
- 21:43going into a new season and having that strong foundation is
- 21:47really important and great. So what advice would you give to
- 21:50someone in a similar situation with running at a collegiate
- 21:53level and not able to modify their training?
- 21:56I get that it feels really intimidating when we're thinking
- 21:59about working through recovery when you're on scholarship, you
- 22:02have non negotiables with your training and you want to keep
- 22:04that scholarship. Like I think that that is such a
- 22:06valid fear to think that maybe it's not the right time to work
- 22:10on period recovery because of that.
- 22:12But that doesn't mean that period recovery is impossible.
- 22:15Even if you have to continue to train as a high level athlete,
- 22:18you can still make adjustments to your fueling to improve your
- 22:22energy availability and work to get your period back So you can
- 22:25do it. It is possible.
- 22:27It's just going to require that you're ready to make changes and
- 22:30consistently fuel in order to support what you need as a human
- 22:33and what you need is an athlete, and then correct any
- 22:35deficiencies that we might have on top of that.
- 22:37So even though it might seem really scary or really
- 22:40intimidating, which is so valid, it's possible to work on period
- 22:43recovery while continuing to train.
- 22:45You don't have to be able to manipulate your training in
- 22:47order to get your period back, and this athlete is a great
- 22:50example of someone who did. That and it also benefited her
- 22:53as an athlete too, in way more ways than just getting her
- 22:57period back. Like she's getting the support
- 22:59from you you to be a better athlete just as much as she is
- 23:02to support her cycle. Yeah, I think one of the things
- 23:05that's kind of a overlooked piece of period recovery is that
- 23:08the same things that are holding you back from getting your
- 23:10period are the same things that are preventing you from
- 23:13progressing with your performance.
- 23:15It's so important that we address fueling because fueling
- 23:17impacts so much. And yes, we talk about period
- 23:20recovery, but like fueling also impacts your performance.
- 23:23And if you're under fueled, you're not performing at the
- 23:25best version of yourself. Like just imagine what you could
- 23:27accomplish as a fueled athlete. 100% I think that that should
- 23:31serve as a motivator along the way for a lot of athletes
- 23:35because the performance improvement might come before
- 23:38you get your period back. So looking at this athlete and
- 23:41seeing that she was still able to compete at a high level even
- 23:44while her period was still working its way back is really
- 23:48inspiring and great to. See, you don't have to wait for
- 23:50offseason to work on your period recovery journey.
- 23:52You can start your period recovery journey at any time.
- 23:55If you do have questions for Lily and I about working through
- 23:58period recovery in season, out of season, or just any general
- 24:02period recovery questions, please reach out to us.
- 24:04You can always find us online. You can find Lily at Lily Reimer
- 24:07dot nutrition and you can find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot
- 24:10nutrition. Thank you so much for listening
- 24:11to this episode of the Eat More Carbs podcast.
- 24:13Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
- 24:15And as always, remember to eat more carbs.