Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 134.How to Get Your Period Back as a Hybrid Athlete

Transcript

134.How to Get Your Period Back as a Hybrid Athlete · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
• 0:02
  today's episode. The information shared on this
• 0:04
  podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
• 0:07
  and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
• 0:10
  This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
• 0:13
  apply to your situation. If you are looking for
• 0:15
  personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our RBSN Period
• 0:18
  Recovery nutrition coaching program.
• 0:20
  Our four month period recovery program is designed to help you
• 0:22
  sustainably get your period back and keep it.
• 0:24
  You can apply now to get started in our program and we'll leave
• 0:27
  the link for the program below. This is the Eat more Carbs
• 0:29
  podcast. Hello and welcome back.
• 0:36
  This is the More Carbs podcast. We're RBSN and we're a team of
• 0:39
  dietitians and we talk every Thursday about sports nutrition
• 0:42
  for the girlies. If you're new to the podcast,
• 0:44
  welcome. We're so excited to have you
• 0:45
  here. I'm Jenna and I'm the host of
• 0:47
  the Eat More Carbs podcast, and I also work as a dietitian with
• 0:50
  our endurance athletes at RBSN. And I'm Riley, you'll see me on
• 0:54
  here as well. I am the founder of RBSN and I
• 0:57
  specialize in working with our team for.
• 0:58
  Athletes on today's episode, so we are talking about how to get
• 1:01
  your period back as a hybrid athlete.
• 1:03
  Before we get into that case study, Riley and I will do our
• 1:05
  high and low. So sharing just a little bit
• 1:07
  about our week, the good and the parts we wish have gone a little
• 1:09
  bit differently. As always, Riley, can you kick?
• 1:11
  Us off. Hi everybody, welcome.
• 1:12
  I have a very silly high and low.
• 1:14
  I'll start off with my high which is also my husband's high
• 1:18
  because after like 9 months of living in her house our picture
• 1:22
  frames finally have pictures in them.
• 1:24
  She's been busy. OK, What pictures did you decide
• 1:28
  to print out and put in your home?
• 1:29
  Like are these family photos? Did you go with wedding
• 1:32
  pictures? Like what did you?
• 1:33
  Pick mainly family photos like we tried to have like Charlie
• 1:37
  with everybody in our family and we've had a couple trips lately,
• 1:40
  so we have some nice photos. It's just been funny because we
• 1:43
  have a bunch of picture frames in the house and they're even
• 1:46
  hanging up in walls and like Rob's will walk by and be like,
• 1:49
  I love this hallway. This is my favorite hallway or
• 1:51
  like I love this structure and it's like the, you know, like
• 1:54
  the generic print that comes in. He was like, I we enjoyed our
• 1:57
  time like in this hallway and I'm like, OK, F off.
• 1:59
  Like I've been busy. That's so funny.
• 2:02
  He's like, this is such a beautiful picture of the Empire
• 2:04
  State Building that we did not take.
• 2:07
  I love our trip there. I'm like, OK, Sir, you can print
• 2:09
  out the pictures, but anyways, if the pictures are up, the
• 2:11
  pictures are up. Very excited about it.
• 2:13
  But now I'm like I need more picture frames because I print
• 2:16
  out too many pictures and then I'm just going to be in this
• 2:18
  cycle now of. Picture frames, top pictures,
• 2:20
  and then too many pictures kept. That's my high.
• 2:22
  My low is also very silly, but I have been on AI journey.
• 2:26
  I've shared a little bit on this podcast where I've been like on
• 2:29
  a glasses contact situation. I got some contacts and they've
• 2:33
  been working out pretty well, but I ordered mine in bulk and I
• 2:36
  have dailies. The daily contact comes in a row
• 2:39
  of five with five little. What would you call it?
• 2:42
  What do you put that? What do a contact come in?
• 2:44
  What is that like contact case? Like a contact but like it's the
• 2:47
  disposable 1 you like throw it away.
• 2:49
  Like the like the break off and then it's got the Peeli back
• 2:52
  lid, Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:54
  But like, yeah, right. It comes in a it comes in a row
• 2:56
  of five though. OK, And then how many eyes do
• 2:59
  you have? Two, right?
• 3:00
  So there's one set, 2 sets. And then you just have this like
• 3:03
  solo contact floating around. So I have all these solo contact
• 3:07
  floating around like scattered. I put them in the box, but like
• 3:11
  why can't they just be like a four or six in the row that.
• 3:14
  Doesn't make sense. Are your contacts the same for
• 3:16
  both eyes or is it like different Oh you're the same in
• 3:19
  both eyes? I'm like, blind, yes.
• 3:21
  Both very strong prescriptions, but at least they're the same,
• 3:24
  yeah. Well, that's wild and it's so
• 3:25
  silly, but it just like bothers me because I'm like, I'm
• 3:28
  definitely losing them even though I put them in the same
• 3:30
  place. Like I have a toddler, right?
• 3:31
  She's definitely trying to get into the contacts and like I'm
• 3:34
  like, why couldn't they just be in sets of two that doesn't?
• 3:36
  Make sense? Like hot dog buns not matching
• 3:39
  up with the number of hot dogs you get, You know what I mean?
• 3:40
  Yes, why are? We doing this and it's again,
• 3:43
  it's like the the silliest thing to complain of, but I do my
• 3:46
  contacts every day and I think about it every single day.
• 3:48
  I feel that frustrating. That's my very silly high and
• 3:51
  low, and if you're still listening to this, I'm so sorry.
• 3:54
  How's your week going? My high this week is that I made
• 3:57
  some muffins for like a snack and I recorded it all.
• 4:02
  So don't worry, everyone who follows me on Instagram will get
• 4:04
  this recipe. But it was one that I was a
• 4:07
  little bit nervous about making because like sometimes baking,
• 4:10
  you need to be awake way more specific with like your
• 4:12
  measurements and ingredients and things like that.
• 4:14
  And I don't know how to say it other than like, I hate
• 4:16
  measuring things. Like I am the kind of person
• 4:19
  that like I'm just kind of eyeballing it and throwing
• 4:21
  things together and sometimes making recipes to post on my
• 4:24
  social media is like frustrating to me because I actually have to
• 4:26
  measure it out to tell people like this is actually how much I
• 4:29
  used. But baking is so specific that I
• 4:31
  was a little bit nervous about like taking a idea for a recipe
• 4:35
  and then just creating it and I filmed it one off, which is
• 4:38
  sometimes what I do with my recipes.
• 4:40
  And it worked and I am so excited that it worked because I
• 4:44
  was like, I don't know about this.
• 4:45
  Especially like as it was in the oven baking, I was like, this
• 4:48
  could be a disaster of epic proportions.
• 4:50
  I don't know if y'all remember when I did like the banana bread
• 4:54
  and iced it in the silicone pan and it like exploded over the
• 4:57
  top because I had put way too much like baking soda and baking
• 4:59
  powder in there. But that did not happen and they
• 5:02
  turned out really good and I'm super excited to share it with
• 5:04
  everybody. So that's my high.
• 5:05
  My low is that for the past couple of days I just like
• 5:08
  haven't been sleeping well. I don't really know what's going
• 5:10
  on. I don't know why I'm just like
• 5:13
  kind of off with my sleep patterns.
• 5:15
  And yesterday morning I was working through some admin stuff
• 5:19
  and I was like, I am just so tired.
• 5:21
  Like there was a moment when I was like, I want to put my head
• 5:23
  down on my desk. Like, like, I don't think I can
• 5:25
  look at at editing a podcast any longer.
• 5:28
  Like I just need a minute. And instead I decided, I don't
• 5:32
  know why that a good idea would be to drink iced coffee, which I
• 5:37
  never do. I have One Cup of hot coffee in
• 5:40
  the morning. And then like, that is all that
• 5:42
  Jenna needs for the day for caffeine.
• 5:44
  Like she is cut off after that point.
• 5:46
  But my husband likes iced coffee.
• 5:47
  He has cold brew in the fridge. So I knew it was there.
• 5:49
  And I was like, I'm going to do it.
• 5:50
  It's going to be just fine. Riley, I could not fall asleep
• 5:53
  last night because I had had caffeine way too later in the
• 5:56
  day. So then I just like made my
• 5:58
  sleep problems even worse. So if you're listening to this
• 6:00
  and you think caffeine is the solve for low energy, it is not,
• 6:04
  do not do it. It is a trap.
• 6:05
  Do not fall into it, OK? Iced coffee has sneaky amounts
• 6:08
  of caffeine in it though. Yes, like double the amount.
• 6:11
  I was like, what have I done? Like after that I was like, I
• 6:13
  should probably clean the house and go on a Six Mile run and
• 6:15
  then after that I should probably solve world hunger.
• 6:17
  You know, just keep going and it'll be fine.
• 6:19
  It was not good. It's not good.
• 6:20
  I blame Nolan. I do.
• 6:21
  Too. Yep, he's at fault.
• 6:23
  He will never listen to this and so he won't year that I blame
• 6:25
  him but I do. That's my low.
• 6:26
  Well, don't drink it today because you didn't feel good.
• 6:28
  Yeah, I'm not doing that again. All of my high and low today are
• 6:30
  food related so. This is the More Cars podcast.
• 6:34
  We do love a food high and low. We usually like a food high
• 6:36
  though not food. Low.
• 6:37
  Yeah. On today's episode, we are
• 6:38
  joined by Lily. We're actually doing a case
• 6:40
  study where we're talking through how one of the athletes
• 6:43
  we worked with got her period back.
• 6:44
  We're actually talking about how a recent college graduate who is
• 6:47
  a very active individual got her period back.
• 6:49
  This is a client that Lily worked with for confidentiality.
• 6:52
  Some of the details about this individual have been change so
• 6:55
  that way we can share with all of you.
• 6:56
  But Lily, do you want to just kind of introduce yourself 1st
• 6:59
  and introduce a little bit of background about this client and
• 7:02
  how she was feeling when she first came to RBSN to work with
• 7:04
  you? Yeah, for sure.
• 7:05
  So I'm Lily. I'm one of RBSN's newest
• 7:08
  performance dietitians. I work specifically with post
• 7:11
  grad girlies who are just starting their nine to fives but
• 7:13
  are also very active. So they might be training for a
• 7:16
  competition specifically High Rocks or CrossFit is what I work
• 7:19
  with, but I also just work with girls who might not consider
• 7:22
  themselves athletes but are really athletes because they're
• 7:25
  training multiple times a week. In regards to this client, she
• 7:29
  same situation of just graduating college, starting her
• 7:31
  nine to five, working through some training and finding out
• 7:34
  what she loves post grad. Because we kind of hit that
• 7:37
  point where we are in a different environment and we're
• 7:39
  trying to figure out what works best for us.
• 7:41
  She would train in the morning before her 9:00 to 5:00 and then
• 7:45
  go to work all day and then afterwards, of course just have
• 7:48
  her evening. We really saw her feeling
• 7:50
  schedule be strong at mealtimes, but her work schedule was a big
• 7:55
  barrier and that's something that we really worked on right
• 7:57
  away. What were some other red flags
• 7:59
  that you noticed as far as fueling and maybe even fueling
• 8:01
  and training when she first came to you?
• 8:03
  At RBSN, we do a review of what your current intake is and what
• 8:07
  your current training is when you first start.
• 8:09
  So what were some of those things that you initially
• 8:10
  noticed that stood out to you that may have been contributing
• 8:13
  to the loss of a period? Of course, the initial feedback
• 8:17
  and things that I noticed in her was that work time, It's really
• 8:21
  hard for a lot of girls to find time to to be eating in their
• 8:25
  work day, especially when other people around them aren't
• 8:28
  eating. So there were long gaps where
• 8:30
  she would go from when she went to work to her lunch break where
• 8:33
  there was nothing in between. And it also translated to a big
• 8:38
  mismatch to her activity and her energy intake because she isn't
• 8:42
  just some sedentary individual that isn't doing anything
• 8:45
  throughout her day. She's training in the morning
• 8:48
  and then having to go to work and there wasn't enough time to
• 8:52
  catch up on her fueling throughout the day.
• 8:54
  I think one of the things that we see very often with this
• 8:56
  population who also train pretty strongly, that they don't really
• 9:00
  consider themselves athletes, but the amount that they're
• 9:02
  actually training, like the amount of times that they train
• 9:05
  per day. You were an athlete.
• 9:06
  And I think that they kind of underestimate the amount of fuel
• 9:09
  that they actually need. Did she have a background in
• 9:12
  sports or had she always been active?
• 9:13
  Or is this something that she picked up in post grad life?
• 9:16
  Yeah, so she kind of was always an active person and she did
• 9:19
  participate in sports growing up.
• 9:21
  She played volleyball growing up and so didn't continue that into
• 9:25
  college, but always kept that love for activity and so she
• 9:29
  just kept going with it and doing a bunch of different
• 9:31
  things and trying to figure out what she liked.
• 9:33
  Like this is so common for so many people who are, you know,
• 9:36
  involved in sports at a younger age, maybe don't play at the
• 9:38
  collegiate level, but still maintain some type of like club
• 9:41
  activity or just like kind of transition into like a group
• 9:43
  fitness or fitness competitions or things like that.
• 9:46
  That kind of create that same feeling of being on a team, even
• 9:49
  though they're not like actively competing, which I think is kind
• 9:51
  of plays into that idea. They don't feel like or they
• 9:54
  don't consider themselves an athlete, but just like we've
• 9:56
  already mentioned, like if you're training this much,
• 9:58
  probably an athlete. Did she have any history with
• 10:00
  food relationship that you noticed right away or body
• 10:03
  image? Anything like that?
• 10:05
  Yeah. So of course we had some
• 10:07
  restrictive patterns and I think it goes into what you were just
• 10:09
  talking about, not feeling like we're an athlete, so not feeling
• 10:13
  like we should be feeling like 1.
• 10:14
  So not wanting to add in those snacks because why do I need it?
• 10:18
  I'm not an athlete. And those feelings, as well as,
• 10:21
  of course, some fear of weight gain, that's something that we
• 10:24
  see very commonly in all of our athletes and it's a big barrier
• 10:28
  to period recovery. Definitely.
• 10:30
  Was there anything that was holding her back in terms if you
• 10:32
  only when she did start working the 9:00 to 5:00 and kind of
• 10:35
  move out of the maybe flexibility with scheduling that
• 10:37
  she had when she was in her university years?
• 10:39
  Yeah. So I mean, there's just a big
• 10:41
  change in structure of your schedule when you transition to
• 10:45
  this post grad life. Because when we are basically
• 10:49
  making our own schedule, of course we have set work times
• 10:51
  that we're going, but it's up to us when we take a lunch break or
• 10:55
  in her situation, it was up to her on when she took her lunch
• 10:59
  breaks and also when she worked out.
• 11:01
  We are in an organized sport, so she got to choose when it was
• 11:04
  time for her to be working out and when she didn't.
• 11:07
  And I also think that that made it hard for her to know how to
• 11:10
  fuel herself properly with inconsistent workout schedules.
• 11:13
  So was it more that her under feeling was a little bit like
• 11:15
  unintentional based on some like schedule changes and that
• 11:18
  adjustment of how to fuel for a post grad life in comparison to
• 11:22
  like fueling on campus? Yes, for sure.
• 11:25
  I think sometime in college, we take advantage of all the
• 11:28
  resources we have available to us, like in classes and things
• 11:32
  like that. In buildings, oftentimes there's
• 11:34
  vending machines, there's dining halls, there's things like that
• 11:36
  that we can take advantage of and take for granted that when
• 11:39
  we move into this post grad lifestyle, we're like, Oh my
• 11:41
  gosh, I have to plan all of my stacks.
• 11:43
  I have to plan all my meals before I even leave the house in
• 11:46
  the morning. And that's something that she
• 11:48
  definitely had to adjust to and working in that workout
• 11:51
  schedule. It just it was a new world for
• 11:54
  her like it is for most post grad girlies.
• 11:56
  Oh, this is such a good point. I think that that is something
• 11:59
  that we definitely take for granted when you have so much
• 12:01
  access to fuel. If you're on campus, whether
• 12:04
  that be like you're close to where you live and you can pop
• 12:06
  it back into your apartment and grab something to have or you're
• 12:09
  close to something on campus or something familiar.
• 12:12
  You might have like campus points to use towards fuel and
• 12:15
  all of those things kind of that we don't consider when we move
• 12:18
  into that post grad era and we're maybe in an office in an
• 12:21
  area that maybe we can't stop for fuel or things like that.
• 12:24
  So really interesting that she kind of experienced some of
• 12:26
  those things too. What were some of the first
• 12:28
  changes that you helped her implement to kind of work
• 12:30
  through scheduling adjustments to make sure that she could fuel
• 12:33
  consistently throughout the day? Yeah, one of the first things
• 12:35
  that we focused on was snacks, honestly, because having easy,
• 12:39
  packable snacks is something that we totally can control.
• 12:42
  And it's also something that's often overlooked because we're
• 12:45
  focusing on making sure we have lunch packed and things like
• 12:48
  that. So throwing in some extra things
• 12:50
  like beef jerky, trail mix, things like that into her lunch
• 12:53
  box that she can have throughout her day was a big thing that we
• 12:57
  changed to make sure she had a morning and an afternoon snack
• 13:00
  while she was at work. Were there certain snacks that
• 13:02
  she had an easier time implementing or certain ones
• 13:05
  that like you recommend for kind of that easy grab and go snack
• 13:08
  situation? Yeah, I also like to think about
• 13:10
  when we're talking about these snacks as ones that aren't very
• 13:14
  showy, especially when we're having a hard time implementing
• 13:17
  these snacks at first is we don't want to open up a bag of
• 13:20
  chips and be crunching on them in the office that's quiet.
• 13:23
  So really focusing on things like beef jerky or even like
• 13:27
  drinkable smoothies, things like that, that kind of low profile,
• 13:31
  you can eat them as your day goes on.
• 13:33
  You can sip on it. You can just eat it real quick
• 13:36
  so that way you don't feel like you're screaming.
• 13:39
  I'm eating a snack in the middle of the office in your work day.
• 13:41
  This is something that I hear quite a bit from anyone that
• 13:44
  works in an office and we want to implement snacks is that
• 13:47
  they're looking for those low profile options because they
• 13:49
  don't want the attention on them of I am feeling, especially at
• 13:53
  the beginning, if it's something new or it's not something that
• 13:55
  anyone else in the office does. So I love that you helped her
• 13:58
  kind of create some or find some snacks that kind of worked for
• 14:01
  both what her needs were and also kept that low profile.
• 14:04
  I think that's so important. How did she respond to some of
• 14:07
  those snacks and kind of eating more consistently?
• 14:09
  So of course she was a little hesitant at first, but then once
• 14:12
  we brought in those low profile snacks, she totally adjusted and
• 14:16
  added those in and she immediately noticed having more
• 14:19
  energy at work but also in her workout.
• 14:22
  So I think it's very common for people to think that 3:00 PM
• 14:25
  crash is normal and it's really not.
• 14:28
  It can very much be coming from under fueling.
• 14:31
  So I think she immediately noticed that that her energy was
• 14:35
  steady throughout the day. And that's something that she
• 14:37
  had never really experienced. She was always reaching for some
• 14:40
  kind of caffeine at 3:00 PM and she didn't need it anymore.
• 14:43
  So that was one of the big things that she talked about.
• 14:45
  Wow. I love that.
• 14:46
  I think that we have so many athletes not only in like the
• 14:49
  post grad era that start to feel like they have more energy to
• 14:51
  get through their work day, but there are a lot of athletes that
• 14:53
  we work with that are still in the schooling years or in their
• 14:56
  collegiate timeframe. And they're like, I don't feel
• 14:58
  like I hit that wall in the afternoon.
• 15:00
  I feel like I'm way more alert in my classes.
• 15:02
  And one of the things that we noticed for a lot of them is
• 15:04
  that they do feel like more mental energy too.
• 15:06
  So wonderful that she kind of experienced that as well.
• 15:09
  What were some of the things that you helped her implement to
• 15:11
  kind of get over that 3:00 PM like lull or that 3:00 PM slump?
• 15:15
  A big. Thing was having a complete
• 15:17
  snack, so pairing a carb with a protein or a carb with a fat.
• 15:21
  So that way we kept sustainable energy throughout the time as
• 15:25
  well as having a good lunch. I think that sometimes if we
• 15:28
  have a really small lunch or not a sufficient lunch that it
• 15:32
  causes us to then have that different energy.
• 15:35
  Also just getting up and walking around.
• 15:37
  So taking a lap around the office, maybe taking the long
• 15:40
  way to the bathroom, getting up, moving.
• 15:42
  It also is an opportunity for her to eat her snack too.
• 15:45
  If we're having one of those grab and go snacks, she can have
• 15:48
  it while she's taking a lap around the office and things
• 15:50
  like. That I love that idea of like
• 15:52
  creating a time for her to have her snack that again kind of
• 15:55
  maybe took away attention from her eating at her desk.
• 15:58
  If that's something that she was kind of nervous about at the
• 16:00
  beginning of you 2 working together.
• 16:01
  Was there a turning point that you saw in her mindset in the
• 16:04
  journey of period recovery and like adding more to her fueling?
• 16:07
  Yeah. I.
• 16:07
  Think a big thing of course, was her energy and that she realized
• 16:11
  that she was sustained throughout the day and being
• 16:15
  able to keep her full attention at work, like not hitting that
• 16:19
  3:00 PM point and not wanting to go home right then because you
• 16:22
  can't focus anymore. And having better focus, having
• 16:25
  better energy during her workouts.
• 16:27
  Waking up in the morning was a little bit easier for her
• 16:29
  because she was getting fuel in right away.
• 16:31
  And overall, she just had such better energy that it really
• 16:35
  motivated her to keep going. Did she notice improvements in
• 16:38
  sleep? Yes, she did.
• 16:40
  She noticed that she wasn't waking up hungry anymore, which
• 16:44
  was something that is huge for a lot of our clients as they wake
• 16:47
  up hungry in the middle of the night.
• 16:48
  And that was one of the biggest changes that she had when we
• 16:51
  implemented changes, was that she stopped waking up around
• 16:56
  2:00 or 3:00 AM starving. So this client now has her
• 16:59
  period and looking back, what do you think maybe helped the most
• 17:03
  in terms of like getting to that point of period restoration?
• 17:07
  I think kind of reframing her mindset that she deserved the
• 17:10
  fuel because she is training and she is an athlete and just
• 17:13
  getting rid of those lung gaps without fueling.
• 17:15
  We of course did focus on pre and post workout nutrition, but
• 17:19
  I think that a big issue for her was the work time schedule and
• 17:23
  making sure she she was eating enough in that time because it's
• 17:27
  hard to catch up at dinner if you haven't been eating
• 17:29
  throughout the whole day. So that's I think what really
• 17:32
  helped the most with her. This client was not only working
• 17:35
  on getting her period back, but she was also training the entire
• 17:37
  time too. And so you guys did focus on
• 17:39
  like making sure that her activity was fueled.
• 17:41
  Does she have to change any of her training or in any of her
• 17:43
  workouts in order to help with that period restoration?
• 17:46
  Not drastically, of course. We talked about a little bit how
• 17:49
  her workout schedule was a little inconsistent to start.
• 17:51
  So it was really about sending those habits that if you
• 17:54
  workout, we're making sure that we're feeling around training
• 17:57
  and even if you don't, or making sure that we're still having
• 17:59
  snacks throughout the day. So it was really just about
• 18:02
  consistency and stabilizing her energy intake.
• 18:05
  You bring up a really good point here that if we don't train on a
• 18:08
  certain day that we typically would have a pre and post
• 18:11
  workout snack in that time frame.
• 18:13
  That if we are taking a recovery day, we shouldn't just skip fuel
• 18:17
  in that time period. We should maybe implement like a
• 18:19
  more balanced snack. And that sounds like something
• 18:21
  that you did with her. Yes, for sure.
• 18:23
  So of course she was waking up super duper early to do these
• 18:26
  workouts before she was going to work, but she tended to still
• 18:30
  wake up pretty early before. So that kind of looked like, how
• 18:34
  can we maximize your feeling opportunities of having
• 18:37
  breakfast right when you wake up and then maybe a snack on your
• 18:40
  way to work or something like that that can fill that place of
• 18:44
  pre and post workout feeling. So we're still getting something
• 18:46
  there even if we aren't working out.
• 18:48
  A lot of people kind of tend to decrease their feeling in
• 18:52
  moments like that because they don't feel like they should,
• 18:54
  should have more or they should still be fueling on a day when
• 18:57
  they don't move. But making sure that you have
• 18:59
  fuel during recovery periods and still fueling throughout the
• 19:02
  day, even on days that you aren't as active is still really
• 19:04
  important. And it sounds like this is
• 19:05
  something that she really like kind of took to and you guys
• 19:08
  worked through a lot to make sure that she was always fueled
• 19:10
  not only on a training day, but on a recovery day as well.
• 19:13
  Yes, for sure. And that made a huge.
• 19:16
  Difference Where is she at now with training and recovery?
• 19:18
  Yeah. So she's had consistent cycles
• 19:21
  getting it back and she's still active.
• 19:24
  She's still doing what she loves, and we're still working
• 19:27
  on balancing feeling with energy availability.
• 19:29
  She's talked about getting back into running because that's
• 19:31
  something that she enjoyed in college.
• 19:33
  So our goals have kind of shifted a little bit and we're
• 19:36
  talking about what that means to increase training in accordance
• 19:40
  to her fueling. I love that now that she's had
• 19:42
  consistent cycles that you guys have been able to kind of work
• 19:44
  on other goals and other areas of making sure that she is still
• 19:48
  incorporating the things that she loves but fueling them
• 19:50
  appropriately. What advice or three tips would
• 19:52
  you have for someone in a similar situation who's maybe
• 19:55
  just starting the period recovery journey?
• 19:57
  The biggest thing is plan your meals and snacks.
• 19:59
  I think a big topic of conversation right now is
• 20:02
  fueling intentionally. Whereas sometimes intuitive
• 20:05
  fueling, while great, is not enough when we're in our period
• 20:09
  recovery journey because when we're training, so our needs are
• 20:12
  going to be increased. And two, most of our clients
• 20:15
  have been shutting off their queues for a really long time.
• 20:18
  So their queues just aren't as accurate.
• 20:20
  So there has to be some intentionality to it, because if
• 20:22
  we aren't prepared, then we. Aren't going to meet our goals.
• 20:26
  And so setting her up for the week with meal planning, meal
• 20:30
  prepping, and then also just in the mornings packing for your
• 20:33
  whole day is something that really worked for her and I
• 20:36
  think will work for a lot of people who are in similar
• 20:38
  situations. And also not skipping fueling
• 20:41
  because of schedule changes. Like we talked about having a
• 20:44
  snack even if you aren't working out and also you deserve the
• 20:46
  fuel, even if it's a rest, a recovery day.
• 20:49
  Of course, small sustainable habits will lead to your goal.
• 20:53
  So it was adding in one stack, then adding in another.
• 20:56
  We didn't make all of these changes right away.
• 20:59
  It was a matter of slowly but surely going along and it ended
• 21:03
  up working out for her. I think that's a big thing is
• 21:05
  that when we're talking through a athlete that's gotten their
• 21:08
  period back, we're talking about like a period of time that's way
• 21:11
  longer than the 20 minutes that we're talking about it on this
• 21:14
  podcast. These are changes that people
• 21:16
  have made over months, very small steps at a time.
• 21:19
  So that way it doesn't feel super overwhelming.
• 21:21
  So if you are feeling overwhelmed by all of these
• 21:23
  things that this particular athlete made, don't worry.
• 21:25
  It's not that she made them overnight or in a matter of a
• 21:28
  couple of days. Lily, thank you so much for
• 21:30
  sharing about your athlete. Congratulations to both you and
• 21:33
  her for her getting her period back.
• 21:35
  Yeah, thanks for having me to chat about it today.
• 21:37
  If there's a specific type of athlete that you would like to
• 21:40
  see highlighted on one of these case studies on the Eat More
• 21:42
  Carbs podcast, please leave that in the comments below.