Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Nutrition Tips for Athletes: Holiday Edition
9.3k Plays1 year ago
In a special holiday episode, Alyssa sits down with Uphill Athlete’s new registered dietician, Alyssa Leib. The two tackle listener questions about fueling well through the holidays and the unique challenges athletes face. The questions range from how to handle comments about your eating habits to staying on track with training and nutrition during the holidays. RD Alyssa offers advice on adding, not subtracting with your nutrition choices as well as tips on approaching potentially stressful holiday meals. The two wrap with RD Alyssa’s words of wisdom including, eating consistently throughout the day, and practicing compassion and flexibility during the holidays. Listen along for great advice to help you through the stress of the holidays.
Write to us at [email protected] or visit uphillathlete.com to learn more.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Uphill Athlete Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the uphill athlete podcast. Our mission is to elevate and inspire all mountain athletes through education and celebration. I'm Melissa Clark, and I will be your host today. I also have a little bit of a cold, so I apologize in advance. I'm stoked to welcome our newest addition to the uphill athlete team, registered dietitian, Alisa Lieb.
00:00:33
Speaker
Alisa, we're thrilled to have you on. I'm stoked to be here, Alisa. Sweet. And we're just saying our names are spelled exactly the same, but slightly different pronunciation. So in the document, I was just like, oh yeah, I can't just write my name. It's supposed to be a little different. I was reading through it, and I was like, huh, who is this referring to? Is this Alisa or Alisa? So glad we got that sorted. Same.
00:01:02
Speaker
just discovered, sometimes people call me AC, but I just discovered my married initials are the American Alpine Club, AAC. So I was kind of stoked about that. Very cool. New nickname. New nickname. We'll go with it.
Alisa Lieb's Journey into Dietetics
00:01:16
Speaker
So I'd love to hear a bit about your background and experiences and then what brought you to uphill.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in the Appalachians in a hiking family. So the mountains have always been kind of something that was close to me. But it really wasn't until I moved to Colorado in 2016, which suddenly feels like a very long time ago.
00:01:41
Speaker
that I really dove into kind of mountain sports beyond hiking and skiing. And as I got more into climbing and trail running, I just couldn't help but notice how prevalent under fueling was in these communities. I know in climbing, it's so common to hear this sort of light is better culture, lose weight so you can send harder, that sort of thing. And I know that that carries over into ultra running, that carries over into mountaineering to an extent.
00:02:10
Speaker
And that was ultimately what kind of spurred me to switch careers. I was working in public health research at the time. And I just realized that I really wanted to play a role in helping athletes and really just my friends and members of my community to fuel their bodies adequately, to prevent injury, to improve performance, to feel good. And so I went back to school to become a registered dietitian.
00:02:40
Speaker
That was a very long process, but we're here. I started a private practice almost a year ago where I was working primarily with ultra runners, but then also with some climbers. And then I joined the uphill athlete team just a couple of months ago.
00:02:56
Speaker
So I'm still kind of getting my bearings, but it's been such a fun experience so far. I've gotten to work with such a broad variety of athletes already, which I think has been really fun.
Focusing on Health and Performance, Not Just Weight Loss
00:03:08
Speaker
I think most people hear the word dietician and just immediately think of weight loss, but that could not be further from the truth. And, you know, my experiences so far at uphill have really exemplified that. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. And I mean, just from
00:03:25
Speaker
seeing what you've been doing. I think it's so cool. You've come at it from a multi-sport background. Um, because I think that a lot of us like we get kind of been running kind of in different avenues. And so you still have such a wide spectrum, which is pretty awesome. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. I always say like primarily trail runner, but more mountain athlete. We'll go with that. At least for myself.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, I you know, and I think I think we could talk for like ever about sort of identity as a multi sport athlete, because I think that's such an interesting topic. And yeah, just the idea the number of people who I've met who are like, Oh, well, you know, I climb three days a week, but I don't call myself a climber, which is a whole other topic for another day. Yeah, and we have, I think a fantastic topic.
00:04:19
Speaker
for the relevancy of the time period that we're in. That was a horrible way of saying we're talking about holidays and we're talking about fueling for the holidays and just nutrition and kind of the body image and it's just a really complex topic and can be a really tricky time for a
Managing Nutrition and Mental Health During Holidays
00:04:38
Speaker
lot of people. I know I feel sometimes the burden of it and there should be so much joy surrounding it, but it can also cause a lot of stress too.
00:04:50
Speaker
how do you prepare your clients for this time period and just kind of being like, okay, everything's gonna be okay out there? Yeah, you know, I think this is such an important question and an important conversation to talk about because holidays can be so challenging for so many reasons. You know, people are balancing, in this case, training with nutrition, with family obligations, which of course can come in with a whole bunch of body image issues,
00:05:19
Speaker
You know, people feeling self-conscious about their nutrition, eating in front of other people can be difficult for people. So I think this is just such an important topic to talk about because like you mentioned, you're absolutely right. Like you're going to get through this. We're going to survive.
00:05:34
Speaker
My approach that I take as far as preparing for this time of year with my clients, just like anything else with nutrition, does depend on individual goals. My nutrition philosophy in general is that mental health matters really just as much as any food you put in your body, just as much as nutrition. So it is really important to find that balance. So, you know, at the beginning of everything, I, of course, just encourage my clients to enjoy their time with family and
00:06:03
Speaker
you know, relax and enjoy a time off. And part of that does involve enjoying the meal that you're sharing. So, you know, I think sort of general ideas, reminding them it's just one meal or maybe a couple of days at the most. So whatever you've been working on as far as training, as far as your nutrition goes,
00:06:23
Speaker
You're not going to take your progress after just a meal or a couple of days. I also during this time like to encourage my clients and anybody I talk to really to focus on how they're feeling. So, for example, ultimately you're going to feel better if you have some vegetables on your plate or if you include some protein. Eating three slices of pie.
00:06:47
Speaker
while it might taste good, isn't going to make you feel very good. So just really focusing on that. And then you have the ability, you have permission to make that decision and say, well, you know what, I know I'm not going to feel great if I eat three slices of pie, but it's really good. And that's totally okay too. But I would say kind of regardless of what their sort of overarching nutrition goal is,
00:07:11
Speaker
My strategy in working with clients is to help them come up with a game plan for whether it's a big holiday meal or just figuring out nutrition while traveling because that on its own even without the holidays can be really challenging for a lot of people. So I think just coming into anything with a game plan with a plan in mind can help improve people's confidence and just really empower them to make decisions that are aligned with
00:07:37
Speaker
their goals. So for example, and this is something I personally have to focus on during the holidays, is making sure you're getting protein on all of your plates. I know when I travel for holidays and visit family, it's usually very easy to find carbs. Protein is typically a little bit more of a challenge to come across. And so a good strategy for that is can you go to the grocery store when you get to where you're going and buy
00:08:06
Speaker
yogurt or canned beans or whatever makes sense so that you can have that on hand so that when breakfast is this gourmet pancake meal, you can say, hey, I'm going to have some yogurt with this because it's going to make me feel better. It's going to better meet my nutritional needs. Kind of similarly, if I have a client who anticipates breakfasts being kind of a challenge for family reasons, maybe their family just
00:08:31
Speaker
isn't really breakfast eaters. And so they find when they're traveling to visit that family member, breakfast just doesn't really happen. In that case, we're planning a portable breakfast, you know, maybe it's instant oatmeal and a protein shake, something like that. And then of course, a lot of people do face a lot of stress going into the holidays because of
00:08:52
Speaker
families, body image, all those things. And I know we do have a question about that from some of our listeners later on. So we can definitely dive more into that. But I think that that planning piece can really come into play there as well. Yeah, I love that. And I think that something I always do, because I love vegetables. And I am always like, if say someone's doing a potluck,
00:09:18
Speaker
I always offer to bring a salad or to bring something that I know like, hey, at least I'm going to feel super comfortable with at least some of this and a variety. But I make sure that that is there, which has always helped me to just feel better rather than a lot of the brownness that tends to happen.
00:09:46
Speaker
I really like that idea. I think my family we've always like salad has always been a thing that we eat at holidays. But as I've started doing holidays with my partner's family, I'm learning that's not always the case. So I think something like that is a really great idea where you can just make sure that whatever it is that you need to have on your plate to feel good is going to be there. Totally. And man, citrus salads are amazing. That's one of my favorite things. Yeah.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's so many good ways to make it seasonal too. It doesn't just have to be this like summer salad. Totally. So we had listeners send in some questions to help kind of further guide our conversation. And this one, gosh, I feel this very deeply, is how to handle people making comments on how much you eat? Yeah, this is such an important question. And honestly, I'm
00:10:43
Speaker
I think it's fairly telling that this is the first one that we're sort of diving into because I know this is such a prevalent issue. Um, it's something that I've had so many conversations with already this year. Um, I think, you know, this is something that everybody struggles with not everybody, but most people, um, I think athletes in particular may face a separate kind of stress around this simply because as athletes, we do have higher energy needs.
00:11:11
Speaker
which means that often we are sitting down at a meal and eating more than family members and that can definitely
00:11:16
Speaker
you know, result in some unwanted questions. This is also one of my favorite questions to answer simply because there are so many different approaches that you can take when there is somebody, whether it's a family member or somebody else commenting on what's on your plate. And I really think how you choose to respond just depends on your relationship with the person who's commenting, whatever the context is. You know, if you're sitting down at a large family meal versus
00:11:45
Speaker
if you're sort of having a one-on-one conversation in more of like an office party situation. So a couple of suggestions that I have. One is simply change the subject. So this could be a direct option where you just say, hey, I don't really want to talk about my food choices today. Have you been skiing yet this season? How's the snow? Or you could take sort of a less confrontational approach and sort of ignore the comment while changing the subject.
00:12:15
Speaker
if somebody is commenting on the food that you've chosen. You just say, hey, I saw the coolest bird on my run this morning. Do you want to see some pictures of it? Whatever it ends up looking like. Another option is sort of the deflection option. And so this one I think is a little bit confrontational. You know, definitely you would want to
00:12:36
Speaker
consider who it is you're talking to. Maybe your boss at the office party is not the best option for this. But if you get a question about, you know, hey, aren't you concerned about how much food is on your plate right now? You can just say, no, I'm not worried about gaining weight from eating this extra slice of pie. And that's really all it takes. Another approach that I really like and I really encourage for
00:13:01
Speaker
people to have this sort of conversation if it's somebody who they're close with is just to be honest about how that comment makes you feel. So this could be something like, hey, I really don't appreciate you commenting on my food choices or my body right now.
00:13:15
Speaker
makes me feel really self-conscious. I'm just trying to do what's right for my body. And this is what I figured out is the way to do that. And that one, of course, is a little bit more vulnerable. And so that can be a little bit trickier, but in the right context, I think can really drive home that you don't want to talk about this.
00:13:34
Speaker
Yeah, and then another option is just to hit them with some science. So, hey, thanks for pointing out that I'm eating more food than you are. Everyone has different nutrition needs and based on my activity level and my metabolism, this is the amount that's right for me.
00:13:49
Speaker
And then, of course, you always have the option to just dip out. You don't owe anybody an explanation for how much or what is on your plate. You don't owe anybody an explanation for what your body looks like or what size it is. And if it feels right for you to just leave the situation, that's always an option for you. And I think if you're concerned about
00:14:14
Speaker
this type of conversation or this type of comment coming up, I think it can be really helpful to try to do some planning ahead. So just really anticipating, okay, who that I'm going to encounter, am I really concerned about making a comment? You know, if my aunt Sally makes a certain comment, what way do I want to respond to her? And coming up with kind of a cheat sheet to help survive these conversations, just so that you have those options in your back pocket to respond with, and you're not sort of stuck in that moment being like,
00:14:45
Speaker
So these are fantastic and I can fully attest, I've been asked all of these questions and had people think that commenting on what I eat and what I look like is a totally appropriate response, which yeah, it's not super fun. It's also, I guess what I tried to do with varied success
00:15:12
Speaker
Um, especially being a pro athlete, one of the things people find most interesting is what do you eat? And, um, I think that that I, I, so I try to come with a little bit of compassion, but it's a curiosity, um, of like, I think people kind of want that one fix or like, they're just really fascinated by it. And so I tend to be like, huh, well, everyone's super individual and like eat some carbs and some protein and some fats and
00:15:41
Speaker
Um, it's really hard to say exactly what it gets, but it like changes every day and the changes of how hard my training is. And yeah, I don't really have a blueprint to share. Um, that's when I'm being really nice. And then other times, honestly, I'll just be like, you know, I don't really feel like talking about this or I'll just kind of walk away. Um, also, I think what's been really helpful. I have a family member in particular who is very invested in what I eat and what I weigh and makes a lot of comments and.
00:16:10
Speaker
My partner is actually one of my best defenses, I guess, in that he understands how it makes me feel. So he's amazing at stepping in and advocating for me and just kind of taking the pressure off. So I think maybe having someone that has your back as well in the situation and can just be like, even if I step out of the room or I seem uncomfortable, they don't have to
00:16:36
Speaker
confront the person right then, but later they can be like, they're like, he will go and say, Hey, stop commenting on what she eats. It makes her really uncomfortable. And that's been really helpful just knowing that he's looking out for me for sure.
00:16:50
Speaker
That's amazing that you have that kind of person on your team. And yeah, I think that's something that a lot of people really can bring into the holidays is just having a teammate who can kind of have your back. Maybe if you don't feel comfortable changing the subject, maybe they can be the one who changes the subject at the big family meal.
00:17:09
Speaker
or yeah maybe even something like that where they're actually going up and confronting somebody and saying hey the comments you're making those are kind of inappropriate can you please stop um so that's great thanks for sharing that yeah no i love your i love these though i'm definitely gonna bring up i saw the coolest bird that's great everyone's gonna walk away and think oh that that elisa that new dietitian for uphills is a bird watcher there are some
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. There's some amazing birds though. Cool ones in Hawaii right now. They are super cool. Yeah. Whenever I see a turkey that's kind of survived the season, I'm like, you go dude. You won. Good job. I'm proud of you. You made it. Yeah. So awesome. I think those are amazing tips. I hope that's really helpful. And I just feel like
00:18:07
Speaker
protect your space and hopefully people are becoming more self aware. That's the hope at least. I don't know if that's always true. Yeah.
Training Consistency and Quality Time During Holidays
00:18:20
Speaker
So another question that we had come in are what are some tricks to enjoy the holidays while progressing my training?
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, this is a really great question, especially, I don't know about you, but I think the kind of period in between Thanksgiving and New Year's all just sort of runs together as this sort of endless, oh, it's just the holidays, it's fine. So this can definitely be a concern for athletes who do have goals in mind.
00:18:48
Speaker
So I know I already mentioned this, but I'm just going to reiterate that this is only really a couple of days and nothing that you do nutrition wise or I imagine training wise is going to make or break your progress and I think it can just be really helpful to have that at the front of your mind anytime you do start to get
00:19:05
Speaker
down on yourself and discouraged. Just remember it's a very small drop in the overall training bucket and it's not going to make that much of a difference. All that said, I do have some pieces of advice to try to stay somewhat on track, whether it's for
00:19:24
Speaker
keeping up with your training goals or just for not feeling sluggish and kind of gross during the holidays. The first one, and this I think is good advice all the time, not just during the holidays, but really focus on what you can add rather than what you can take away. So I have Thanksgiving on my mind because it's my favorite holiday, even though it already happened, but it's mine too. It's the best, it's all about food. There's no presents like, yeah,
00:19:54
Speaker
I totally agree. It's just about being thankful. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but yeah, so like you you load your plate up with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese rolls. That's awesome. Like your muscles are going to be very well fueled with carbs. So in that situation, I'd encourage you to think about okay, what can you add to get a little bit of protein on your plate? Maybe it's some turkey or some ham. What can you add to get some fiber and just a little bit of
00:20:20
Speaker
Color like you said, it's the the brown foods So maybe it is adding a little bit of that salad that you bring to the meal just to make sure that that exists you're not cutting out the potatoes the rolls the mac and cheese and
00:20:34
Speaker
you're just adding these other things to provide a little bit more nutrition. I, in general, like to focus on a balanced meal, being one that includes carbs, protein, fat, and color, so color being our fruits and veggies. And I think it can be really helpful, especially this time of year when maybe you don't have as much control over what is actually going on your plate, to kind of use this mental checklist to build this balanced plate that still has a lot of room for your sort of holiday staples and your go-tos.
00:21:04
Speaker
So just really sitting down and looking at your plate and saying, okay, I've got my carbs there. I've got my protein. What am I missing? Oh, I'm missing some color. Let me go add some vegetables to it to the extent that you can. I would say another piece of advice is eat consistently throughout the day.
00:21:21
Speaker
With these big holiday meals, I know it can be really easy to kind of fall into the trap of just not eating until your, you know, Christmas dinner or whatever you're having, whether it's intentionally trying to sort of save up those calories or if it's just that's the nature of the day. You know, everyone's busy cooking. Nobody really has time to sit and eat.
00:21:43
Speaker
whatever it ends up looking like. Um, for more stable energy levels throughout the day, I always recommend just try to maintain a normal eating pattern. So focusing on having three meals, maybe having two or three snacks that day. Um, and this is going to give you better energy levels. You're not going to feel quite as sluggish and you're also going to be less likely to overeat when you sit down for dinner. If you've been nourishing yourself all day, if you go,
00:22:10
Speaker
from the time you wake up until Christmas dinner at 3 p.m. without eating anything, by the time you sit down to dinner, you're going to be ravenous and it's going to be really hard to not overeat and then feel like crap afterwards. What else? You don't have to healthify your favorite holiday dishes either. I think this is a really important one. I cannot stand the thought of cauliflower mac and cheese. I do not like that.
00:22:40
Speaker
If you like it, great. But if you're just trying to do it to decrease your carbs, that is not the move. You can absolutely cook regular mac and cheese, but you can also cook sort of non-traditional holiday dishes. And so I think like that salad option that you mentioned is a really good option. Just a really good example of that.
00:23:01
Speaker
Like you don't have to stick to mac and cheese, ham rolls. Like you can be a little bit creative to add a little bit of nutrition to that meal.
00:23:13
Speaker
Um, I know my cousin brought one year when I was in high school, I think to Thanksgiving, this amazing meal. It was like a salad and it had quinoa and pecans and pomegranates and orange slices. And I think it had shrimp in it too. And so it was so good and it was very like seasonal. It felt very in place, um, with that meal, but it still was packed with all those nutrients. So it made you feel good eating it. Um,
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah, and then I would say like lean into the holidays to like all of these foods that are on your holiday plate are foods that are providing your body with something. So I mean, I think it can be easy to look at like a roll, for example, and think it's just bread. It doesn't give me anything, but that's a great source of carbs.
00:24:00
Speaker
you know, if you've got a run or some other training session planned during the holidays, that role is an awesome thing to eat before you head out the door. That gives your muscles carbs so that they can, you know, help you move your legs. I think that's great. Yeah, and I think, Alyssa, I'm curious from your perspective, like this is obviously a really good question and involves the nutrition piece, of course, but also a little bit of that training piece. So I'm just curious from a coach's perspective,
00:24:29
Speaker
what are some tips that you'd give for kind of getting through the holiday season? Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of factors that come into it. Because first off, I have kind of this like, okay, is your goal coming up in January? Is it coming up in February? Like, do we kind of need to stay pretty on top of things? Or is your goal not to like, May? And we've got wiggle room and exactly the same with nutrition. A few days off or like less structured, totally fine.
00:24:58
Speaker
like go have fun. It's not going to make or break your season. If we're a little bit closer, we probably need to think about being a bit more regimented. That being said, with the regimentation, that might mean just maybe like getting up a little bit earlier or trying to fit those workouts in. But I also
00:25:23
Speaker
don't want my clients getting up at 4am to go get a workout in because that looks like you're taking away from everything. But it might be like, hey, you all are cooking like everything's good. I'm going to do the dishes. You modify, get out of my run and you get out your run. I also find that if you leave it towards the end of the day, it's probably not going to happen. So if you can focus on the training in the morning, then you have the rest of the day to spend time with your friends and family and
00:25:51
Speaker
you're not stressed about getting the workout in. And so you can focus on the quality time. Um, I think the other really fun thing to do, and I think I got lucky growing up with an athletic family is to go make the training part of sharing time with people. So whether that's going, like bringing someone who's never been to the climbing gym before, like, Hey, let's go try to climb. Um, let's go on a hike, like let's go ice skating. And I think,
00:26:19
Speaker
thinking of training maybe just slightly out of the box and making it a chance to get quality time like, Hey, we want to go on a run. We want to go on a hike. You know, that can be such a great way to get good training in or like a family core session. Um, I think that that's a super fun way to get the training in without feeling like you're missing out on something and you'll probably feel better. You'll kind of maintain your routine. Um,
00:26:48
Speaker
And again, it's just a couple days. Obviously, if you go from Thanksgiving until New Year's, that's a decent chunk of time. So we don't want to just be totally taking the foot off the gas pedal unless you understand like, hey, during the holidays, I just want to soak that in. So we go, cool, that's your off season. And we're just not going to put you in a position where
00:27:18
Speaker
you would fail, um, because you can't devote a lot of time to training. And a lot of people do use this as more of an off season. So I'm totally fine. Like most of all, I want my clients to be super honest with me, like, Hey, can you get much training in during the holidays? Some are like, Oh yeah, I've got time off from work. Like I can trade more. Other people are like, Nope, I have no time. And so for me, it's just understanding,
00:27:46
Speaker
where my client is coming from and what's realistic. Because I think just the stress of everything and then add in not getting your training in and feeling stressed about that, we just want to avoid that. So we want people to feel like there's this succeeding and able to fit the training in without losing the quality time.
00:28:12
Speaker
I love that. That's like not setting people up for failure and just really working with where they're at. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I try to do. And I try to make it fun for people of like, Hey, can you go cross-country skiing? Sick. Can you go skating? Awesome. Like make it enjoyable as well. Yeah. I immediately, when you were saying all of that thought about like doing a Turkey trot, um, that's like the ultimate family.
Balanced Mindset Towards Holiday Eating
00:28:41
Speaker
training activity I feel like during the holidays. The whole family goes out, whether you do it all together or you do it separately, it's still a thing where you're able to have that time and that connection and that experience with your family members, but then still get in some sort of sneaky training.
00:28:57
Speaker
Totally. Yeah. I managed to push. I'd never pushed a double stroller. And this year I was pushing a double stroller. I was like, wow, this is hard. Oh my gosh. I got chased by somebody pushing a stroller at the Turkey Trot this week. And I was, I don't usually run fast and I was going kind of fast. And that was a little disheartening. I was like, Oh, you go. Yeah. No, people are impressive. Um, I would love to know, I'm sure it's out there.
00:29:25
Speaker
the numbers of people who run, it's got to be like a huge bump of people who run on Thanksgiving compared to the rest of the year. I would love to find that statistic. Yeah. Like they never run and then they do the turkey trot. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be curious. But awesome. So our next question, what can we do to avoid gaining weight during the holiday season?
00:29:55
Speaker
Can you kindly share some proven and simple practices for the holiday season, but also in general? Is there some good and practical literature on this topic? How to maintain a weight and compensate for holiday seasons, family events, late dinners with clients?
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, so this is an important question, right? So I am going to start by telling us what the research says, and then I am going to tell you what I think. So what the research tells us is that to maintain weight during the holidays and even outside of the holidays, just in general,
00:30:35
Speaker
Some strategies are the first one maintain exercise. Yeah, so I think even if it looks different during the holidays, keeping up some sort of exercise activity movement routine, I think it can be really good for your mental health as well as obviously the physical benefits, the training, the weight piece, especially if you're traveling. So, you know, beyond just that weight management perspective, I think that
00:31:02
Speaker
maintaining exercise in some way or another can be so beneficial. Research also tells us that people who prioritize their food choices are more likely to maintain their weight. So this could involve some of the strategies I already mentioned, so kind of keeping that mental checklist of food groups during your meals.
00:31:20
Speaker
just really focusing in on, okay, if I eat this second piece of pie, how is it going to make me feel? Maybe I'll stop at one and I can always come back for a second one. Sort of related to that, research tells us that people who maintain their weight during the holidays are more likely to monitor their portion sizes.
00:31:40
Speaker
whatever that looks like, whether it's counting calories or macros or actually measuring things out. These are things that are shown in the research to help people be successful. And then on a related note with that, just tracking food and monitoring weight.
00:31:56
Speaker
So that's what the research tells us. And I think that there are some good things from this. Of course, as I already mentioned, that exercise piece I think is really important for so many reasons beyond just weight. I think that prioritizing food choices to an extent can be beneficial just because it can really help you to feel better.
00:32:19
Speaker
I don't know if I feel the same way about the tracking and the monitoring what you are eating piece during the holidays. And there are several reasons for this. First, like I already mentioned, the holidays are just a few days a year. If you are concerned about your weight, you're not going to gain 20 pounds from what you eat on Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's just not going to happen. I looked up, I did some research on this because I was curious and one study found people gain about three to five pounds during the holidays.
00:32:54
Speaker
And what they find is that typically when people then return to their regular routine, that weight comes back off. So ultimately stressing about your weight during the holidays is really just bringing you a lot of stress. And it really should be a time to just enjoy company of family and friends and not be stressing about weight. So this kind of leads me to that other piece of the question that just asks about how to compensate.
00:33:23
Speaker
And really, for those reasons, I don't recommend any sort of compensation. And I mentioned this earlier, but compensation could look like, okay, I'm going to save up all of my calories this morning so that I can eat them all in dinner tonight. And that often backfires. If you sit down and you haven't eaten anything all day, your body thinks it's starving. And so you're going to be more likely to overeat versus
00:33:48
Speaker
If you just spent that whole day eating on your normal schedule, eating consistently, nourishing your body, then you can sit down at dinner and maybe you'll eat a little bit past fullness, but it may not necessarily be that same sort of out of control over the top overeating like it would if you had tried to save up your calories for that meal.
00:34:11
Speaker
I think the other kind of piece around compensation is that it really creates this idea that you have to earn your food. And that simply isn't true. Even for athletes, the vast majority of calories that your body uses aren't going to exercise. They're going to existence, making your heartbeat, helping your lungs expand, your eyes blinking,
00:34:35
Speaker
walking from the couch to the kitchen, whatever it is, that is really what is making up the majority of your body's calorie use. And so even if you're taking a couple of days off from your training to really lean into the holidays, you still need to eat. And by sort of looking at what you're eating with this view of, okay, how can I make up for this? How can I compensate?
00:35:02
Speaker
you are dismissing that important fundamental fact that your body needs food and you don't need to earn food. You know, this can just be a really dangerous mindset. It can be a slippery slope into disordered eating, which can cause a whole host of issues to your mental health, of course, but also physical health and performance. I think this type of mindset also can set certain foods on a pedestal. So for example,
00:35:30
Speaker
And I keep coming back to this pie example, but I think that's because I have, I really like pie. Um, but thinking, um, but yeah, thinking, you know, Oh, I have to make up for that pie I ate yesterday.
00:35:44
Speaker
Now what this means is pie is, in your mind, bad, and I'm using air quotes here, and then you were bad for eating that pie. And so what's going to happen now is that the next time you encounter pie, which realistically might not be until the holidays next year, most of us aren't eating pie very often, now you're going to be more likely to overdo it because you have been sort of restricting yourself from eating pie and
00:36:11
Speaker
having this mindset of, well, I can't eat pie, pie is bad. But of course, when Thanksgiving comes around next year, you're going to sit down, you're going to eat that slice of pie, and you're going to find it even harder to stop at one slice. And this is a pattern that I see so often, not just with what we're eating during the holidays, but really with any kind of food that somebody really puts on this pedestal. And it's normally the foods that you are
00:36:38
Speaker
restricting. It's the foods that you tend to overdo it on. I've talked to so many people who say, Oh, no, like I can't keep
00:36:45
Speaker
XYZ food in the house because I can't control myself around it. And it's that same idea where it really isn't about control. It's about scarcity. It's about your views of is this food good or bad, moralizing that food. So for all of those reasons, I don't really think that you should need to compensate or make up for what you eat. I think
00:37:09
Speaker
you know, like I've said over and over, it's just a couple of days and it's not going to make or break your progress on anything. Yeah, yeah, I think so often it's so easy to fall into that trap and it really, it's just not necessary and I think something I've really had to focus on as an athlete and it's changed it is, first of all, when
00:37:38
Speaker
there's uncomfortable situations we can often just avoid them by not doing them and you have to eat like you have to eat you cannot avoid it you cannot just um you know walk away i mean you can but that's not good uh like you need to eat to survive and as you said fuel all of these functions and especially as an athlete like that is how you perform um and so i think that that's just such a
00:38:08
Speaker
a good thing to remember throughout all of this. Like the other day I was talking with my husband and saying, you know, alcoholism, a lot of addictions, you can just stop doing them. And you can't do that with eating. And that I think makes it really hard. But it's also like, it's such a beautiful thing. And like those memories are so important. And
00:38:33
Speaker
you know, maybe you landed the deal when you went with your clients and that's awesome. And like, you know, maybe it was a few hundred calories you weren't expecting, but then, you know, you did something amazing, something you should be proud of. So, um, yeah, no, I love the, I love what you said and just how compensation is a, uh, definitely a rabbit hole that we can head down.
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's so important. I loved your comment about comparing alcoholism with food. And you can just give up alcohol, cold turkey. You can't do that with food. But I also think food provides so many things other than just energy. It provides a way to express your culture. It provides a social interaction.
00:39:25
Speaker
It's a comfort and it tastes good. I mean, there are just so many things about food where if you try to distill it down to just, oh, well, I need to control what I'm eating so I don't gain weight, you miss out on all of those other things. I think that's just especially important during the holiday season. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's so complicated and so I feel
00:39:53
Speaker
I feel for all the struggles, but I think it can also be such a beautiful bonding and amazing time to come with your family too. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. When I think back on growing up, like we had this tradition of making, you know, a bunch of cookies and candies. And that was, that was such a vital part of the experience, like the chocolate chip cookie dough fudge and, um, the bonbons and all of that. And it was just joyful.
00:40:23
Speaker
And so I think making sure that's a big part of it too. And also, gosh, I wish I had some cookie dough fudge because that would be amazing for my next run. Yeah, that's something too. The first turkey trot I ever did, there was an aid station halfway through that gave everybody a spoonful of pumpkin pie. And I thought that was the greatest thing ever. And I think holiday foods can often lend themselves really well for fueling workouts.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah, I'm actually a huge fan of Halloween because I actually like normal size candy is a little bit too much for me to take in at one time, but the Halloween size are perfect. You're so right. Like a bite size Snickers, I'm like, boom, done, done. I love when it's Halloween for that.
00:41:14
Speaker
One of my favorite things about winter is that I can take little like individual pack chocolates with me on my runs and I don't have to worry about them melting. Big fan. Oh, that's awesome. Um, so this has been amazing. Gosh, I am so thankful that you're part of the athlete community. I think we got really lucky. Um, so do you have any last tips that you want to share?
00:41:42
Speaker
Yeah. And thank you for that comment. That's really sweet. And I'm very happy to be here and get to have conversations like this.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think the other tip that I would add is really that the holidays can be a really good opportunity to practice compassion and curiosity, I think. We always joke about this sort of, oh, after the holiday dinner, I have to unbutton my pants. But I think
00:42:18
Speaker
I think it's a good opportunity to just really tune in a little bit deeper and think about, okay, well, am I judging myself for having eaten to this point? Would there have been a point earlier in that meal where maybe I could have set my fork down midway through and just checked in with myself? And of course you have permission to keep eating that food, but
00:42:40
Speaker
By kind of being compassionate about it, I think it can really help shift our mindset so that we can get to the end of that meal without just instantly feeling guilty or anxious about having to make up for things the next day. I think the holidays, while they can be very stressful for many ways, for those of us who do have a little bit more free time, for having time off from work,
00:43:07
Speaker
it can be sort of a slower time to just really sort of practice tuning in and practice learning to listen to your body, practice showing yourself compassion and just really taking advantage of that opportunity. Yeah, I love that. And probably the most important question of the entire podcast, what is your favorite pie flavor?
00:43:32
Speaker
Do you want to call it kind? Say favorite pie kind. Yeah, kind of pie sounds right. Kind of kind of pie. Thank you. The answer is pecan. I will accept no other answer. All right. Wait, where in the Appalachian are you from? I'm from Virginia. Okay, that makes sense.
00:43:55
Speaker
Yeah, although I think, I mean, we definitely had a lot of apple pie growing up and apple, apple pie is pretty good, but it's definitely pecan. Okay. What about your favorite? Oh, I think I'm gonna have to say apple. Growing up in Vermont, we have a lot of apple orchards and good Macintosh, Granny Smith combination, you get that tartness. Oh, apple crumble or blueberry. Little scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. That's pretty good.
00:44:23
Speaker
The other day I was at a restaurant and someone said, what does a la mode mean? I was like, I think I've known that since I was about two years old with ice cream the only way. Well, Vermont, that's also the home of Ben and Jerry's. We pack a lot of great things into a very small area. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Elisa. This has been such a joy.
Individualized Nutrition Coaching at Uphill Athlete
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah, do you want to give a little actually give the listeners an idea of what you're offering through uphill right now? Yeah, absolutely. So the main thing that I'm offering is nutrition coaching. So it is
00:45:06
Speaker
know, in a way similar to regular coaching that you do, Alyssa, where it's on a monthly basis. But as part of that, you would get two sessions in that month with me, so we would meet over Zoom or on the phone, whatever is easiest for you, and talk through your nutrition concerns, set some goals for you to work towards, and then
00:45:27
Speaker
In between those sessions, you would also have some access to me over whether it's text or email so that you can get that sort of continued ongoing support throughout the month. It is totally individualized, so I think a lot of
00:45:41
Speaker
people expect it to be a meal plan or, you know, for me to sort of go through this curriculum about this is nutrition for Mountaineers or something like that, but it is entirely individualized. So whether you have some struggles with your relationship with food and you just want to feel a little bit more at peace around your food choices, we can work on that. If you are
00:46:05
Speaker
new to fueling running. We can work through strategies for that. I end up talking with a lot of people who have GI issues on their longer run, so that's something we can talk about. Creating a fuel plan for an expedition, that's something. It really is, if it involves food or nutrition, it's something that we can probably work together on.
00:46:31
Speaker
So yeah, I'm trying to think if I have anything else to add to that. I think that's kind of the gist of it. Well, that sounds great. Um, yeah, I think that will be, that's really great for people to know what you're doing and what you can offer. So awesome. Sweet. Well, thank you for listening to the uphill athlete podcast.
00:46:56
Speaker
If you could rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, that really helps us to reach more athletes. If you'd like to write to us, please email coach at uphillathlete.com or visit uphillathlete.com. It's not just one, but a community. We are uphill athletes.