Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 135. Signs Your Period Recovery Plan is Not Working

Transcript

135. Signs Your Period Recovery Plan is Not Working · 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
• 0:12
  or may not apply to your situation.
• 0:14
  If you are looking for personalized guidance, be sure
• 0:16
  to apply to our RBSN Period Recovery Nutrition Coaching
• 0:19
  program. Our four month period recovery
• 0:21
  program is designed to help you sustainably.
• 0:23
  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.
• 0:28
  This is the Eat More Carbs podcast.
• 0:35
  Hello and welcome back. This is the more carbs.
• 0:37
  Podcast, we're RBSN. And we're a team of dietitians
• 0:40
  and we talk every Thursday about sports nutrition for the
• 0:42
  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 athletes.
• 0:59
  On today's SO, we're talking about signs your period recovery
• 1:02
  plan is not working. Before we get into today's
• 1:04
  episode, Riley and I are going to share our high and low.
• 1:07
  So sharing just a little bit about our week, the good and the
• 1:09
  parts we wish had gone a little bit differently.
• 1:10
  Riley, as always, can you kick us off?
• 1:12
  Yeah, I'm gonna start with my low.
• 1:13
  I usually start with my high but can start off with the low this
• 1:16
  week. If you are new to the Emark
• 1:17
  Carbs podcast or if you're new to RBSN.
• 1:19
  I have a like 20 month old daughter, Her name is Charlie.
• 1:24
  The low has to do with her, but it's not about her.
• 1:26
  She's great. I love her so much.
• 1:27
  She's a sassy independent woman already.
• 1:29
  I love that recently I was actually at Kohl's looking for
• 1:33
  some clothes because you have a kid or if you've been around
• 1:36
  kids, like they grow like crazy. We're flying through clothes.
• 1:39
  I was like just looking for some pants, looking kind of for
• 1:42
  everything, but looking for some pants since it's getting a
• 1:44
  little bit colder. I was really struggling trying
• 1:45
  to find pants for Charlie because all of the girls clothes
• 1:49
  were like tight pants. Like the only clothes available
• 1:52
  were like tight jeans, tight leggings and a lot of the like
• 1:55
  pants that were more like utility, right?
• 1:57
  Like that were thicker. We're like boys pants and they
• 2:00
  were like wider. They had pockets.
• 2:03
  And I really struggled with this because all of the girls clothes
• 2:07
  were like form fitting and all the little boys clothes were
• 2:09
  like, I guess a little bit more practical.
• 2:11
  So now Charlie has a bunch of boys pants.
• 2:13
  I just felt like it was kind of like disheartening that like
• 2:16
  even at a young age we're already grouping like form
• 2:20
  fitting clothes for girls and then not for boys.
• 2:23
  Not to mention the fact that it's already hard to shop as
• 2:25
  females, like we're starting that at such a young age.
• 2:27
  So really interesting because we don't discuss our high before we
• 2:30
  record these, but mine is kind of similar to this.
• 2:33
  So I'm like very, very interesting that you brought up
• 2:37
  like shopping and pants specifically.
• 2:39
  Yeah. And I don't know if I explained
• 2:40
  it correctly, but it just like was really interesting to me
• 2:43
  because I even like went back and like looked at more of the
• 2:46
  girls clothes because I was like, maybe I missed something
• 2:48
  because I was like, Dang, they don't really have any pants.
• 2:50
  And then we walked a little bit farther away and I saw that
• 2:53
  there were pants, like jeans and like, you know, just pants.
• 2:57
  I was like, wait, these are boys pants.
• 2:58
  I was like, nobody's gonna know. I just think it was like it was
• 3:01
  just weird to me. I don't have kids to shop for in
• 3:03
  that sense, but I can imagine that I would probably feel
• 3:06
  similarly, yeah. My high though, actually is a
• 3:08
  huge shout out to one of our mutual friends.
• 3:11
  I'm not going to disclose her name, but maybe she will let me
• 3:13
  share. One of our mutual friends has
• 3:15
  really been helping me and kind of coaching me for my marathon
• 3:18
  that's coming up. I just want to give a huge shout
• 3:20
  out to her because it means so much.
• 3:22
  And I was really, really stressed when I started my
• 3:24
  marathon training because this is my first marathon and I
• 3:27
  didn't really know what I was doing.
• 3:28
  And she kind of came in and, like, saved the day.
• 3:30
  She like came in and was like, I'm gonna kind of, you know,
• 3:32
  take over in a really nice way. And it's honestly made such a
• 3:36
  difference. So I just want to give her a
• 3:38
  huge shout out if he listens to. This I know exactly who you're
• 3:40
  talking about. And yes, there have been so many
• 3:42
  moments that she has done something so thoughtful for
• 3:45
  either one of us. And I know that we're both just
• 3:46
  like, really thankful for her and for her friendship.
• 3:48
  Yeah, so I might cry. I feel like I'm gonna cry.
• 3:51
  But yeah, I just want to give her a huge shout out because I
• 3:53
  think it just means so much. And that like individualized
• 3:56
  support and her just being like on my team, on my side has just
• 3:59
  honestly completely changed the game for me.
• 4:01
  I'm so. Excited about that?
• 4:02
  Yeah, How are you? How's your week?
• 4:04
  My week is good. I feel like I always say my week
• 4:06
  is good in that same tone every single time and I'm gonna have
• 4:08
  to edit it out because I get annoyed with myself that I do
• 4:11
  that every week. I'm gonna share my low first as
• 4:13
  a Weld and that's just like Jean sizing for women.
• 4:16
  I have such a hard time finding a pair of jeans that fit.
• 4:19
  And of course, I know that I could probably go and get them
• 4:21
  altered or something like that. But jeans are so expensive
• 4:24
  nowadays that I don't necessarily want to spend 100
• 4:26
  plus dollars on the pair of jeans and then 100 plus dollars
• 4:29
  on altering. Also, like Jean fashion changes
• 4:31
  so much that I'm like, I just can't keep up with like what's
• 4:34
  in trend and what's not. And it's just complicated.
• 4:37
  But I feel like I spend so much time reading reviews on jeans
• 4:40
  because I know what size I might typically be, but then you have
• 4:43
  to read the reviews and people will be like, this runs true to
• 4:45
  size. This runs small.
• 4:47
  And I wish we just had like an easier way to shop for clothes.
• 4:50
  And I think it's just really, really hard to do that.
• 4:52
  And especially if you're like working through the period
• 4:54
  recovery journey and you might be experiencing body changes and
• 4:57
  stuff like that. But like shopping is freaking
• 4:59
  hard. It is.
• 5:00
  There's so much like demand and like reliance on online
• 5:03
  shopping, but like a size is different at every single store.
• 5:07
  Like I have a different size and everything.
• 5:09
  Like I'm pretty sure I have an extra small, a small, a medium,
• 5:12
  and a large shirt like in a. 100% yes.
• 5:14
  In my closet, yeah. And then Jean sizes are even
• 5:17
  more confusing because some stores measure like 252627 and
• 5:21
  then other brands will be like, it's a 00024, you know, like,
• 5:24
  you know, switching or. Small.
• 5:25
  Medium. Large.
• 5:27
  Yeah, exactly. I'm like, how do you keep it
• 5:28
  straight? Like I saw a pair of pants
• 5:30
  because I actually tried to shop in person and the lady was like,
• 5:32
  well, what size are you looking for?
• 5:33
  And I was like, well, what sizes do you offer here?
• 5:35
  And she's like, I think this specific style of jeans runs
• 5:38
  small, medium, large. And I was like, OK, but what
• 5:41
  about this one? She's like, these ones run true
• 5:43
  size 2220, you know, like that type of thing.
• 5:45
  And I was like, how on earth are we supposed to keep up with
• 5:48
  this? Like it's just so complicated,
• 5:50
  so complicated. And then a brand that has like a
• 5:52
  28 and a size is different than a 28 another size, yeah.
• 5:56
  And then sometimes in the comments, if you're doing online
• 5:58
  shopping is like this is true to size and then you get it and
• 6:00
  you're like not true to size because I ordered my true size
• 6:03
  and it doesn't fit. It's so frustrating.
• 6:05
  It is, it is and not it's even going a tangent, but like how
• 6:07
  can your like bra size be like a medium and your shirt be a small
• 6:11
  or like how's your yeah, the same space from the same brand
• 6:14
  it. Doesn't make sense.
• 6:15
  So anyway, for the 12 hundredth week in a row my low is online
• 6:19
  shopping. This isn't a Bananas episodes
• 6:21
  but it really does drive me bananas.
• 6:23
  We are so spicy this month. I don't know guys.
• 6:26
  We are just over it just like you.
• 6:28
  Something in the air. This October weather.
• 6:30
  My high We talk a lot about books on this podcast, but an
• 6:33
  author that I really like is coming out with a new book.
• 6:36
  I actually think it's already out.
• 6:37
  So my husband and I decided that we're both gonna read like some
• 6:40
  of the books in the series together and we're almost gonna
• 6:42
  do like mini book club. I've read a few of the books
• 6:44
  already. You don't really have to like
• 6:45
  read them in order or read them like in a row or anything like
• 6:48
  that. But I've really enjoyed the ones
• 6:50
  I have read. So I think like, it'll be a good
• 6:51
  thing for us to kind of do together.
• 6:53
  And I'm excited that there's a new book.
• 6:54
  What series is that? Dan Brown's series, like the Da
• 6:57
  Vinci Angels and Demons and all of that.
• 6:59
  I've read The Inferno, I've read a couple of the other books and
• 7:02
  I'm super excited. I don't remember, I think it's
• 7:04
  like Secret of something or other.
• 7:06
  I'm not sure the new book, but I'm really excited about it.
• 7:08
  And so we went to like a used bookstore this past weekend, and
• 7:10
  we picked up a copy of like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and
• 7:12
  Demons, since those are the first books technically in the
• 7:15
  series and we're going to read those.
• 7:16
  I love his books. I didn't know he's still
• 7:18
  writing. Yeah.
• 7:19
  I think he took a break for a really long time, or at least
• 7:21
  that's what the individual said at the bookstore that like, it
• 7:23
  had been a minute and like everybody's really excited about
• 7:25
  the new book. I need to put it on my like very
• 7:28
  long list of books to like reread again.
• 7:30
  I was going to try to read Hunger Games again because I I
• 7:32
  haven't read it for a while and there's like going to be a new
• 7:34
  movie coming out from one of the prequels.
• 7:36
  And then I got distracted with something else.
• 7:37
  But. Always happens.
• 7:38
  It's so easy with books. There's so many good ones.
• 7:40
  Yeah. I love that for you guys though.
• 7:42
  That's so exciting. I'm.
• 7:43
  Excited On today's episode, we're actually talking about
• 7:46
  signs your period recovery plan isn't working.
• 7:48
  So things to look out for. If you have started the period
• 7:50
  recovery journey and you still have yet to get your period
• 7:53
  back, these are going to be things that you should be on the
• 7:55
  lookout for that would signal that your period every plan
• 7:58
  isn't what it needs to be to help you get your period back.
• 8:01
  Riley, when we're thinking about like HA and low energy
• 8:04
  availability and if you've been working on the period recovery
• 8:06
  process for a little bit of time, how do you know if your
• 8:09
  body is still in a state of low energy availability even though
• 8:12
  you've maybe started adding in more fuel?
• 8:14
  I mean, I think the obvious sign, right, First off is like
• 8:16
  you haven't gotten your period back.
• 8:18
  But to make it even more confusing, like you can get your
• 8:21
  period back and still be in a state of low energy
• 8:24
  availability. And I think that's probably the
• 8:25
  most challenging part about this journey is it's not really, you
• 8:29
  know, perfectly mapped out. It's very different for
• 8:32
  everybody. And there's not like necessarily
• 8:34
  a concrete timeline on how you can get your period back, right?
• 8:38
  You can't be like, OK, this week I'm going to do these five
• 8:40
  things. And then four weeks I'm going to
• 8:42
  get my period because I implemented these five things.
• 8:44
  That makes it really stressful. I think you hit a big thing
• 8:47
  there with the consistency piece, like adding in those five
• 8:51
  things that maybe you've decided are comfortable for you to add
• 8:53
  to work towards your period recovery.
• 8:55
  That's really important that you add them and you stay consistent
• 8:57
  with them. But I think a really difficult
• 8:59
  piece is recognizing that those five things might not be enough
• 9:02
  and we have to add on top of those five things.
• 9:05
  Like, yes, those were great first steps that you took, but
• 9:08
  we can't just say that like those five things alone are
• 9:11
  going to be what creates the environment to help you get your
• 9:14
  period back. You probably need more than just
• 9:16
  those five things. If you still haven't gotten your
• 9:19
  period back yet, you've implemented some changes.
• 9:22
  Oh yes, I love that you brought that up.
• 9:25
  In our period recovery program, when we're working one-on-one
• 9:27
  with athletes, we often have them start at some place and
• 9:31
  maybe they don't even know it, but we're slowly pushing them to
• 9:34
  increase more because again, like you just said, oftentimes
• 9:37
  we implement like one or two changes and we think that's
• 9:40
  going to be enough. For example, if you're not doing
• 9:42
  any recovery fuel after training, implementing
• 9:45
  something, right, like it doesn't matter necessarily what,
• 9:48
  but just implementing something, maybe something that's 10 to 20
• 9:51
  grams of carbohydrates is a wonderful first step.
• 9:54
  And that might feel like a really, really big change for
• 9:57
  you. And it could be, but that isn't
• 9:59
  going to be enough. So yes, you've implemented a
• 10:01
  positive change, you've incorporated more carbohydrates,
• 10:05
  but that's not going to be enough to tell your body that
• 10:08
  it's safe and to give it adequate fuel.
• 10:09
  That consistency piece of keeping that post workout fuel
• 10:13
  or whatever change it is that you've made is, yes, very
• 10:15
  important. And I think that's where a lot
• 10:17
  of athletes sometimes get hung up is that they think that that
• 10:20
  should be sufficient because in comparison to what they were
• 10:22
  doing before or once we've kind of made several changes and
• 10:25
  we've maybe worked up to a more sufficient post workout or post
• 10:28
  training snack. And they're like, why isn't it
• 10:30
  back yet? Because I'm doing something that
• 10:32
  feels so drastically different from what I was doing before.
• 10:35
  So in their mind, they think it should be back.
• 10:37
  And in reality, like we underestimate what our body
• 10:40
  actually needs. Something that we say like so
• 10:42
  often is like, we can't just put somebody into like a single
• 10:45
  bucket when it comes to period recovery.
• 10:47
  We have to think about fueling you as a person, fueling you as
• 10:49
  an athlete and correcting the deficiency of low energy
• 10:52
  availability. And maybe we just filled one of
• 10:54
  those buckets with increasing our post training snack.
• 10:56
  And we still have other areas that like we have to give
• 10:59
  attention to in order to get your period back.
• 11:02
  So I think that that's such a big thing with so many athletes
• 11:04
  is like that experience of both consistency and wanting that to
• 11:07
  be enough, when in reality we still need potentially a little
• 11:11
  bit more. Like just adding a snack
• 11:13
  probably isn't enough to help get your period.
• 11:15
  Back. And I think that is really hard
• 11:17
  for a lot of people to grasp and that can be really, really
• 11:20
  mentally challenging because if you've been implementing the
• 11:23
  changes, you've been adding in some things and you haven't seen
• 11:26
  any cervical mucus, any PMS symptoms, your labs haven't
• 11:30
  changed and it's been two to three months, it really shows
• 11:32
  that what you're doing is not enough.
• 11:34
  And that can be really hard to hear sometimes.
• 11:37
  Very hard to hear, especially because fueling with more
• 11:39
  sometimes is uncomfortable. Maybe both like physically and
• 11:42
  mentally uncomfortable. It's challenging.
• 11:44
  If someone is using more fuel throughout their day, why could
• 11:48
  their cycle still not be back if we have like what would seem
• 11:51
  like an adequate amount of energy coming in to match like
• 11:55
  the training load? So two things again, it still
• 11:57
  might just not be enough energy. Like we just kind of talked
• 12:00
  about that and you probably don't realize how much fuel you
• 12:03
  need. So I think that's the first one.
• 12:05
  If you are, you know, hitting your energy goals, we need to
• 12:08
  look at nutrient timing because we have 3 macronutrients.
• 12:12
  They all provide energy and they all have different roles within
• 12:15
  the body. And we have to make sure that
• 12:16
  the macronutrient that our body is utilizing is available at the
• 12:20
  time that it needs to. So you might be a really busy
• 12:23
  athlete, you might be at school all day or at work all day, and
• 12:26
  a large amount of your energy intake is happening at night.
• 12:28
  But if you train in the morning, that energy might not be
• 12:31
  available for you to utilize because you're consuming it most
• 12:35
  of it at night. 100% we see this very often in period recovery
• 12:39
  with the athletes that we work with.
• 12:41
  I think the other thing that we could add to this too would be
• 12:43
  like nutrient balance and potentially getting enough
• 12:45
  energy, but it's not again, kind of the right balance of
• 12:48
  nutrients just like Riley alluded to with timing of things
• 12:51
  and having the right types of fuel.
• 12:52
  But if we're getting enough energy, but we're only using,
• 12:55
  you know, protein and carbohydrate and we've
• 12:56
  completely neglected fat, we need to kind of revisit where
• 12:59
  that energy is actually coming from and maybe make some
• 13:01
  adjustments with the balance of things and the timing of things.
• 13:04
  A huge mistake that I see, and I don't know if you see this too,
• 13:08
  but especially in the beginning when people are kind of
• 13:10
  navigating this on their own. Is they here, I need to increase
• 13:13
  my energy intake, I need to increase my energy intake, I
• 13:16
  need to possibly increase my weight.
• 13:18
  And they think, OK, I'm going to increase my weight by increasing
• 13:22
  lean mass, so I'm going to increase my protein.
• 13:24
  And if you're eating 200 grams of protein and 150 grams of
• 13:28
  carbohydrates, I'm not shocked that you don't have your period.
• 13:31
  Just being real. I feel like we're doing some
• 13:32
  tough love today, but the calories might be there, but the
• 13:36
  nutrient availability is not going to be.
• 13:38
  I think that kind of ties into my next question about like
• 13:41
  healthy eating because a lot of times will be like, I just need
• 13:43
  to clean up my fueling patterns in order to get my period back.
• 13:46
  So can this idea of air quotes healthy eating actually hold
• 13:50
  someone back in recovery? Definitely.
• 13:51
  I hear this a lot. Just eat more plants or if you
• 13:55
  cut out gluten and dairy, I feel like gluten and dairy is a very,
• 13:58
  very common one. But if you cut out these
• 14:00
  nutrients, if you just clean up your diet, your hormones will
• 14:03
  probably balance out and you'll get your period back.
• 14:06
  And this is a not and what drives us bananas episode.
• 14:08
  So I'm not going to go down that route.
• 14:10
  But I do think this idea of healthy eating with air quotes,
• 14:14
  healthy eating holds a lot of people back because what is
• 14:17
  healthy for you is going to look different from what is healthy
• 14:21
  from your friends or your family.
• 14:23
  And if you you don't have your period, I don't care how clean
• 14:26
  your food is with air quotes. Again, you're not eating
• 14:28
  healthy. I also think that it's
• 14:29
  incredibly misleading to tell someone that they should just,
• 14:32
  you know, clean up or eat healthier, eat more plants,
• 14:34
  whatever it is, cut out dairy, cut out gluten.
• 14:37
  Because there's not a lot of guidance given for like a very
• 14:39
  like broad generalization of that of trying to get your
• 14:42
  period back. Like we need more guidance when
• 14:44
  it comes to nutrition and helping you get your period
• 14:47
  back. It's way too vague.
• 14:49
  It's way too general, yes. And it's not just like one thing
• 14:52
  or another or like you don't just only need to eat
• 14:54
  carbohydrates and you don't only don't need to eat vegetables.
• 14:57
  I was actually thinking about this this morning because a lot
• 15:00
  of athletes, you know, if they listen to this podcast, it's
• 15:02
  called the more carbs podcast, right?
• 15:03
  Like we want you to eat more carbohydrates because most
• 15:06
  athletes are not eating enough carbohydrates.
• 15:08
  But that doesn't mean like stop eating vegetables and fruits.
• 15:11
  It's not one or the other. And I think too often we're
• 15:14
  doing that, especially on social media where we're like
• 15:17
  demonizing one specific nutrient or one food group.
• 15:20
  And that's not what we're saying, right?
• 15:22
  We're not saying don't eat your foods.
• 15:23
  And vegetables. You need to eat your fruits and
• 15:25
  vegetables as an athlete, but you also need to eat your
• 15:27
  carbohydrates. When it comes to looking at
• 15:29
  training, which is something that we do with our athletes,
• 15:31
  we're looking at are we having recovery days in our period
• 15:34
  recovery journey? What if someone is training less
• 15:35
  but they still don't have a period?
• 15:37
  I think it really depends on the situation, a common thing that I
• 15:40
  see, and it may or may not apply to you if you're listening to
• 15:43
  this. Oftentimes when you're cutting
• 15:46
  exercise, you're also going to be cutting fuel.
• 15:48
  And it might be unintentional. But I do think that is why I
• 15:52
  don't love the like all or all or nothing approach because it
• 15:55
  can sometimes be really challenging to cut out exercise
• 15:59
  and then increase your fueling. But that's just my personal and
• 16:02
  maybe my professional opinion, No one. 100% I agree with you
• 16:05
  like resting and recovery is so important for all athletes, but
• 16:09
  especially can be important for period recovery athletes to
• 16:12
  allow for a day for your body to recover from all of the training
• 16:16
  that you're doing. But if you're fueling all of the
• 16:18
  sudden decreases because you're training less than, we're
• 16:22
  actually like doing a disc. And that's one of the reasons
• 16:24
  why, like RBSN is so passionate about like keeping you training
• 16:27
  during your period recovery journey.
• 16:29
  Because we don't want you to get to the point where like we've
• 16:32
  dropped intake so low because you're like, I'm not training
• 16:35
  anymore. And then we have even more of a
• 16:37
  deficit to kind of work through to get your period back.
• 16:40
  Yeah, we actually had a group call in the period recovery
• 16:42
  community earlier this week. One of the athletes in there
• 16:45
  who's a runner was talking about how stressful it was because she
• 16:48
  had stopped her running, how stressful it was for her to
• 16:51
  increase her fueling. And she was also in Michigan,
• 16:53
  the social component of like going to run club and things
• 16:56
  like that. So she was actually shocked when
• 16:58
  I said like, a goal for you this week is to go to run club.
• 17:01
  Like obviously we need to make sure that we're fueling around
• 17:03
  the running. But it was more motivation, I
• 17:06
  think, for her to like actually fuel with energy because she
• 17:09
  kind of felt like she had a purpose.
• 17:10
  I don't know if that makes sense.
• 17:11
  I think that definitely makes sense.
• 17:13
  I think that a lot of times we hear that we have to completely
• 17:16
  remove exercise in order to get our period back and that's not
• 17:19
  always the case. I'm not in saying that we should
• 17:21
  all the sudden like drastically increase our training if we're
• 17:24
  in the period recovery process either.
• 17:26
  But I think it's very dependent on the person.
• 17:28
  And we have to like keep all of those components in mind, like
• 17:31
  this individual in the period recovery community who is
• 17:33
  experiencing like increased stress and like the lack of
• 17:36
  motivation for fueling because we'd removed running completely.
• 17:39
  So all of those things are important when it comes to
• 17:42
  looking at like whether or not your period recovery approach to
• 17:45
  training adaptations or to training modifications or maybe
• 17:48
  too aggressive for keeping your like mental health like in a
• 17:51
  good place too, because it does offer a lot of of like stress
• 17:54
  relief. So like helping with those sides
• 17:55
  of things too. What are maybe some subtle signs
• 17:58
  that we can see, like perhaps physically, that your plan isn't
• 18:01
  enough in period recovery and you don't even realize it?
• 18:04
  So biggest thing I think is like, do you have cervical
• 18:06
  mucus? And like if you've had cervical
• 18:08
  mucus for eight months and you're not seeing changes in it,
• 18:11
  you probably need to push a little bit harder.
• 18:13
  So I think that's the first one. I feel like I see a lot of the
• 18:16
  times athletes reporting that they're no longer cold.
• 18:19
  That's a big one. And you might not even realize
• 18:20
  that you're cold. I feel like a lot of these
• 18:22
  symptoms like people don't even realize that they're going
• 18:24
  through them or they have them until they don't have them.
• 18:27
  So lack of energy, like I just said, you know, being cold hair,
• 18:30
  like losing hair, that's a huge one.
• 18:32
  Having like weaker nails also one.
• 18:34
  What am I missing? Probably ongoing like GI
• 18:36
  bloating and discomfort in your guy I would say would be another
• 18:39
  big one, decreased workout performance for sure.
• 18:42
  And then the last one I would probably add would be like
• 18:44
  continued obsessive thoughts around like fueling and food.
• 18:47
  Yes, adding one on to was like poor recovery.
• 18:50
  Yeah, just like we've talked about so many times, I think
• 18:53
  that people drastically underestimate the power of fuel
• 18:55
  and how much better you can actually recover from training
• 18:59
  in order to be prepared for your next training session.
• 19:02
  Energy during workouts, improved recovery are ones that are
• 19:05
  almost hard to recognize that you don't even have because you
• 19:08
  might have not even experienced what that means in the 1st
• 19:11
  place. So you might be like, oh, my
• 19:12
  energy during my training is fine, or my recovery is
• 19:15
  perfectly fine. I don't have any issues with
• 19:16
  that. But my challenge would then be
• 19:18
  like, can we increase something and see if it does change?
• 19:21
  Even like something that manifesting like, you know,
• 19:23
  you're not able to complete like workouts later in the week or
• 19:26
  you're not able to lift as much later in the week or things like
• 19:28
  that. Because again, your recovery is
• 19:30
  poor. And that just might not be a
• 19:31
  connection that you're making because you're like, I'm fine.
• 19:35
  I feel fine after my workouts. But were you able to actually
• 19:37
  advance in your workouts or hit the goals within your training?
• 19:41
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 19:42
  We underestimate how much of an impact fueling can make on those
• 19:45
  types of things. We got some tough love for
• 19:46
  everybody's today. It's.
• 19:47
  Important that we talk about this though, because if you are
• 19:49
  working through the period recovery journey and you haven't
• 19:52
  seen your period come back, there's a chance that what
• 19:54
  you're doing just isn't enough, which is a hard thing to hear.
• 19:57
  It's a hard one to have a conversation with yourself about
• 20:00
  being at the point that we potentially need to do more
• 20:02
  because it can sometimes be uncomfortable.
• 20:04
  We have a wide range of resources for you available
• 20:06
  through RBSN. If you are working through
• 20:08
  period recovery and you're feeling a little bit stuck.
• 20:10
  As always, you can reach out to Riley and I if you do have
• 20:12
  questions, or you can leave them in the comments of this podcast.
• 20:15
  You can find Riley online at EC Sports Nutrition and you can
• 20:18
  find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot nutrition.
• 20:20
  Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
• 20:22
  Please make sure you. Subscribe and review and as
• 20:25
  always remembered to me, eat more carbs.