3 pillars of fueling as a female athlete

Learning to fuel as an athlete is a life long journey, but curating your digital diet, checking your mental game, and making time to do it are a great place to start.

Learning to fuel has been the single most magical thing I have done for my running. I am able to consistently show up for runs and workouts because I have embraced the journey of learning to eat. If I were the fairy godmother of running, I would give everyone the gift of being well fueled, and at peace with their diet. I try to give this gift to my husband too, and he's a far more accomplished runner than me, so if you don't believe me, believe him, he's a sub 2:35 marathoner. (Yes, I'm equal parts proud, and using his accomplishments for my own gain!)

But, as big of a fueling fan girl as I am, it's super important to say that I am not qualified to give nutrition information. I think many of us have challenging relationships with food and nutrition because damn near anyone is willing to pretend they are qualified and spout off “facts” and “best practices,” without really understanding the science behind what they're saying, and where that information is coming from. I don't want to add to THAT noise at all, so let's just start there.

These are my experiences, and practices that I have formed for my own life as it is right now. Everyone is in a different financial situation, has different values around where their food comes from, has different culture around food, and history with food. That list doesn't even begin to cover the different metabolic needs and physiological differences we all have. My goal is to share some of the things I've seen and experienced on my journey to more intentional nutrition habits, as a way to encourage you to go on your own adventure, not to prescribe solutions or give advice.

There are three pillars that I try to stay honest about when it comes to my relationship with fueling as an athlete:

Curate Your Nutrition Information Diet¹

The realization that most of what you get from the internet when it comes to nutrition advice is paid for by “the bikini industrial complex,”² was an important realization for me to have. I also did a lot of the unpacking of my beliefs around body image and food with my therapist, but working with an RD helped me learn actual facts and science about how our bodies work, and how we use food, which I was (eventually) able to apply to my own life with more consistency. I try to reflect on the information diet that I have pretty regularly.

When auditing my information diet here's a few guidelines I try to use:

Review regularly. When you scroll through your feeds on Strava, Instagram, or whatever else, who shows up? Who is making money off of the things that are being shared? About once a quarter I go through my social media accounts and unfollow folks whose content is not serving me. For me, this isn't just the BeachBody Fitfluencer types, but even professional athletes, or others in recovery from eating disorders, because it triggers me. Regularly asking myself “Whose voice is in your head that thinks about food and nutrition?” If it's not someone you trust as an expert in the field, then find ways to tune them out, and replace them with the kind of voice you want in your head.

Avoid anything that promotes supplements, extremes, or all or nothing thinking. Supplements may have a place in many people's nutrition practice, but often they're sold to us as snake oil, a magic cure, or a miracle of some sort. That's just not how science works. I believe that it is beneficial to get your nutrients from natural food sources when you can, and not from a green powder drink. I'm not saying “Those things don't work!” because maybe they do (remember I'm not a professional, and what works for some may not work for others!) It's just important to realize that a supplement is not magical, and there is no reason to believe your HRV will skyrocket if you drink it, no matter what the people on the podcasts say. Same goes for “superfoods”, most of that is just branding. Same goes for things like “paleo” “whole30” “keto,” etc etc etc. Anything that comes with a long list of rules and little flexibility is going to be 1: really hard to actually practice 2: probably isn't very scientifically sound.

If it makes me feel like shit at any moment in time, I unfollow it. Period. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood because I'm tired or jealous, maybe that person really is sharing toxic things, I can unpack that later. The internet is the one place where we can just mute people, or save our sanity with a quiet little unfollow and no drama.

Learn to have compassion, and make space for others ways of being. This likely just helps you be a better human too. I think back of some of the things I've shared, comments I've made and rather than feel shame, I choose to feel compassion for past me, and major gratitude for the friends who have loved me along this journey. Be that friend (to your past self and to others)

The Mental Side of Fueling

Realizing that my information diet mattered was the first step for recognizing that most of this work starts in your head and not on your plate. Along with the endless messages we're all told about our bodies, come the endless messages about some foods being virtuous and some being “guilty pleasures,” or “cheat foods.” Then come the messages about how eating those virtuous or guilty foods reflect on you as a person. I spent years thinking I may have some undiagnosed mental disorder that led me to occasional outbursts of hysterical tears, but it turns out I was just really hungry, and had so much unhelpful chatter in my brain that I couldn't even feed myself.

If you aren't willing to think about your own internal dialog, question your own beliefs, and adopt a growth mindset about food and what you consume, you're going to leave a lot on the table. (pun 100% intended.)

Some of the things that helped me with my own mental game around what I eat included logging not just what I was eating, but how I was feeling when I ate. I did this during 1-1 work with a registered dietitian who was certified and specialized in working with athletes, and I encourage anyone logging their food to do so with intention and accountability. Logging my food and acknowledging how I felt going into a meal helped me understand that I was often not carving out time to eat and feed myself well.

When eating feels like one more chore, or one more thing you HAVE to do, it makes sense that you might resent it a little bit. For me, I feel best when I have some time to put effort and intention into my meals. Don't let this confuse you- I'm not eating beautifully plated perfectly balanced meals all the time. I'm just not eating a ton of fiber before a hard run, or Eggos with a heavy pour of syrup before I head into a big travel day and know protein rich snacks may be harder to come by than carby snacks later on. When we get take out because I want to go do something fun with my friends that evening, I enjoy those extra salty garlic noodles more than when I pick up take out because I didn't even remember I had to eat dinner because my work day was too crazy.

Take the time you need to get your head right, whatever that means for you.

Making Time to Eat as an Athlete

Speaking of taking the time to get your head right- eating as an athlete takes me a lot of time. Planning and thinking about eating, preparing to eat, and also, just actually eating, all take up a lot of time. That might sound absurd but I found myself skipping meals, eating convenience foods at times that didn't line up with my training schedule or sometimes just not having options for what my body was telling me it needed. A lot of that is just time management. I have an alarm on my phone for 3x a day to remind me to eat. I haven't had to use it in several months, but it was a good practice for awhile! I used to have 30 minutes every Thursday time blocked on my calendar (this used to be the time I did my 1-1 call with my RD!) that I typically use to reflect on what I've been eating, think about how I'm feeling, and make some loose plans for the next week. I usually start my grocery list and next week's meal plan during these 30 minutes on Thursday. I feel super fortunate that I love to cook, and love to grocery shop, so I actually look forward to the meal planning, grocery list making, and wandering of Trader Joe's aisles. I also love to feed others, so if you HATE this stuff, we should pair up, at least 1-2x a week I'm cooking a meal big enough to share, and few things give me more joy than feeding people!

1. 1.Diet just being, the kinds of food (or information) that a person, animal, or community habitually eats (or consumes). Definition by me and Google.
2. 2.I learned this term by reading Emily and Amelia Nagoski’s book “Burnout,” I recommend it! But, you can understand the Bikini Industrial Complex with this article too: https://ideas.ted.com/if-youre-unhappy-with-your-body-just-repeat-after-us-you-are-the-new-hotness/