Nutrition Tips for Athletes: Holiday Edition

00:00.00
Alyssa C
Hi everyone welcome to the Uphill Athlete Podcast our mission is to elevate and inspire all mountain athletes through education and celebration I’m Alyssa 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 dietician Alyssa Leib. Alyssa we’re thrilled to have you on the team and we’re just saying our names are spelled exactly the same.

00:28.18
Alyssa
I’m stoked to be here. Alyssa.

00:35.20
Alyssa C
But slightly different pronunciation. So in the document, I was just like oh yeah I can’t just write my name. It has to be a little different.

00:41.83
Alyssa
I know I was reading through it and I was like huh who is this who is this referring to is this Alyssa or Alyssa though. Glad we got that sorted.

00:50.67
Alyssa C
Same I also just discovered sometimes people call me AAC but I just discovered my married initials are the American Alpine Club AAC so I was kind of stoked about that new nickname. We’ll go with it.

01:02.40
Alyssa
Very cool new nickname.

01:08.69
Alyssa C
So I’d love to hear a bit about your background and experiences and then what brought you to uphill.

01:16.00
Alyssa
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. I really dove into kind of mountain sports beyond hiking and skiing. As I got more into climbing and trail running I just couldn’t help but notice how prevalent underfueling 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. 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 just my friends and members of my community to fuel their bodies adequately. To prevent injury to improve performance to feel good. I went back to school to become a registered Dietician. That was a very long process. Ah, 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 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. I think most people hear the word dietician and just immediately think of weight loss but that could not be further from the truth. My experiences so far at uphill have really exemplified that.

03:14.20
Alyssa C
Well, that’s fantastic. Yeah, and I mean just from seeing what you’ve been doing I think it’s so cool you come at it from a multisport background. Because I think that a lot of us like we get kind of and running kind of in different avenues and so you have such a wide spectrum which is pretty awesome. I always say like primarily a traill runner. But more mountain Athlete. We’ll go with that at least for myself.

03:33.29
Alyssa
I think so to keep things interesting.

03:45.64
Alyssa
Yeah 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. Just the idea the number of people who I’ve met who are like oh well, I climb three days a week but I don’t call myself a climber which is a whole other topic for another day.

04:06.48
Alyssa C
Yeah, and we have I think a fantastic topic 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 complex topic and can be a really tricky time for a lot of people I know I feel sometimes the burden of it and there should be so much joy surrounding it but can also cause a lot of stress too. How do you prepare your clients for this time period and just kind of being like okay everything’s going to be okay out there?

04:50.60
Alyssa
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. Family obligations which of course can come in with a whole bunch of body image issues. People feel self-conscious about their nutrition eating in front of other people can be difficult for people. So yeah I think this is just such an important topic to talk about because like you mentioned, you’re absolutely right? You’re going to get through this. We’re going to survive. 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 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, you’re not going to take your progress after just a meal or a couple of days.

06:16.51
Alyssa C
Credit.

06:22.31
Alyssa
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 by eating 3 slices of pie. 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 3 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 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 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.

07:54.17
Alyssa
Can you go to the grocery store when you get to where you’re going and buy 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 isn’t 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 or something like that. And then of course a lot of people do face a lot of stress going into the holidays because of family’s, body image, all those things. I know we do have a question about that from some of our listeners later on so we can dive more into that. But I think that that planning piece can really come into play there as well.

08:58.79
Alyssa C
Yeah I love that and I think that it’s something I always do because I love vegetables and I am always like if say someone’s doing a potluck, I always offer to bring a salad or to bring you know something that I know like. Hey at least I’m going to feel super comfortable with at least some of this and some variety but like I kind of make sure that that is there which has always helped me to yeah, just feel better. Rather than kind of like a lot of the brown. This tends to happen.

09:38.78
Alyssa
I really like that idea. I think my family we’ve always liked 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.

09:51.20
Alyssa
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.

09:58.79
Alyssa C
Totally and man citrus salads are amazing. That’s one of my favorite things. Yeah.

10:04.23
Alyssa
Yeah, there are so many good ways to make it seasonal too. It doesn’t just have to be this like a summer salad.

10:13.14
Alyssa C
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.

10:32.10
Alyssa
Yeah, this is such an important question and honestly, I think it’s fair that this is the first one that we’re sort of diving into because I know this is such a prevalent issue. It’s something that I’ve had so many conversations with already this year. I think you know this is something that everybody struggles with not everybody but most people I think athletes in particular may face a separate kind of stress around this simply because as athletes we do have higher energy needs.

11:03.25
Alyssa
Which means that often we are sitting down at a meal and eating more than family members and that can definitely 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 you’re sort of having a 1 on 1 conversation and more of like an office party situation. So a couple of suggestions that I have 1 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. So if somebody is commenting on the food that you’ve chosen and you just say hey I saw the coolest bird on my run this morning. Do you want to see some pictures of it?

12:15.61
Alyssa
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 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 all it takes.

12:49.56
Alyssa
Another approach that I really like and I really encourage for 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 don’t appreciate you commenting on my food choices or my body right now it makes me feel self-conscious.

13:09.68
Alyssa
Just trying to do what’s right for my body and this is what I’ve figured out is the way to do that. 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 with them all right? 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.

13:46.32
Alyssa
Everyone has different nutrition needs and based on my activity level and my metabolism this is the amount that’s right for me. 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 so I think if you’re concerned about 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 commenting? 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 mhh.

14:51.43
Alyssa C
Now 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. Especially being a pro athlete one of the things people find most interesting is what do you eat and I think that I so I try to come with a little bit of compassion but it’s a curiosity 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 ate some carbs and some protein and some fats and., it’s really hard to say exactly what to eat because guess what it like changes every day and it changes of how hard my training is and yeah I don’t really have a blueprint to share. 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. Also I think what has 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. 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 confront the person right? But later they can be like. And 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.

16:55.65
Alyssa
That’s amazing that you have that kind of person on your team And yeah I think that’s something that you know a lot of people really can bring into the holidays is just having a teammate who can kind of have your back. You know, 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. Or yeah, maybe even something like that where they’re actually going up and confronting somebody and saying hey the comments you’re making are kind of inappropriate. Can you please stop? So that’s great. Thanks for sharing that.

17:24.81
Alyssa C
Yeah, no I love these though I am going to bring up I saw the coolest bird that’s great.

17:36.51
Alyssa
Everyone’s going to walk away and think oh that Alyssa that new Dietician for Uphill is a bird watcher.

17:42.16
Alyssa C
There are some amazing birds though, especially like did you 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.

17:48.78
Alyssa
I’m sure you see cool ones in Hawaii right now.

18:00.10
Alyssa
Yeah, you made it.

18:00.50
Alyssa C
And proud of you? Yeah, so awesome I think those are amazing tips. I hope that’s really helpful. I just feel like protecting 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, but, yeah. So another question that we had come in is what are some tricks to enjoy the holidays while progressing my training?

18:35.54
Alyssa
Yeah, this is a 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. 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 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 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 you load it’s the best. It’s all about food.

19:51.62
Alyssa C
Wait It’s mine too. Yeah, there’s no presents. I totally agree just about being thankful.

19:57.51
Alyssa
Absolutely, 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 color like you said it’s 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. You’re just adding these other things to provide a little bit more nutrition. 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. I think it can be really helpful, especially this time of year when maybe you don’t have as much control over what is going on your plate. To kind of use this mental checklist to build this balance plate that still has a lot of room for your sort of holiday staples and your go-tos 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.

21:21.81
Alyssa
I would say another piece of advice is to eat consistently throughout the day. 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 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 whatever it ends up looking like for more stable energy levels throughout the day I always recommend just try to maintain a normal eating pattern so focusing on having 3 meals maybe having 2 or 3 snacks that day. 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 from the time you wake up until Christmas dinner at three PM 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 afterward. 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 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 nontraditional 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 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. 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 with that meal but it still was packed with all those nutrients so it made you feel good eating it.

23:47.13
Alyssa
Yeah, and then I would say like lean into the holidays too 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 role for example and think oh, it’s just bread. It doesn’t give me anything but that’s a great source of carbs. If you’ve got a run-in or some other training session planned during the holidays that roll 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, unless I’m curious from your perspective 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. What are some tips that you’d give for kind of getting through the holiday season?

24:38.31
Alyssa C
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 until May and we’ve got wiggle room and exactly the same with nutrition. A few days off or like less structured totally fine 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 might mean just maybe like getting up a little bit earlier or trying to fit those workouts in. I also don’t want my clients getting up at four AM to go get a workout in because that’s it’s 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 mind if I get out in my run and you get out in 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 you’re not stressed about getting the workout in and so you can focus on the quality time. I think the other really fun thing to do and I think I got lucky growing up with an athletic family, it 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. Let’s go on a hike, let’s go ice skating and I think 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. I think 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. And again like it’s just a couple of 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 the foot off the gas. But so unless you know you understand like hey during the holidays I just want to soak that in so we go cool that’s your offseason and we’re just not going to put you in a position where you would fail, because you can’t devote a lot of time to training and a lot of people do use this as more of an offseason 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. So yeah I’ve got time off from work like I can train more. Other people are like nope I have no time and so for me, it’s just understanding where my client is coming from and what’s realistic. Because I don’t think just the stress of everything and then add in not getting your training in and feeling stressed about that like we just want to avoid that. So we want people to feel like their succeeding and able to fit the training in without losing the quality time.

28:17.21
Alyssa
I love that like not setting people up for failure and just really working with where they’re at.

28:27.37
Alyssa C
Totally yeah, so I try to do and I try to make it fun for people of like hey can you go cross-country skiing? Sick you go skating awesome like make it enjoyable as well.

28:38.70
Alyssa
Yeah I immediately when you were saying all of that thought about like doing a turkey trot and that’s like the ultimate family training activity I feel like during the holidays like the whole family goes out whether you do it all together. You do it separately. It’s still a thing where yeah, you’re able to have that time and that connection and that experience with your family members. But then yeah, still get in some sort of sneaky training.

29:04.60
Alyssa C
Totally yeah I managed to push I’d never pushed a double stroller and this year was pushing a double stroll was like wow this is hard.

29:13.40
Alyssa
Oh my gosh I got passed by somebody pushing a stroller at the Turkey Trot this year. 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.

29:25.79
Alyssa C
And yeah, no people are impressive. I would love to know I’m sure it’s out there. The number of people who run it’s got to be so like a huge number of people who run on Thanksgiving compared to the rest of the year.

29:43.37
Alyssa C
I would love to find that statistic. I’d be curious. So our next question. What can we do to avoid gaining weight during the holiday season? Can you kindly share some proven and simple practices for the holiday season 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.

30:20.20
Alyssa
Yeah, so this is 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 you know outside of the holidays just in general. Some strategies are the first one maintain exercise. So of course like we just talked about even if this looks different during the holidays, I think keeping up some sort of routine. Okay, yeah so I think even if it looks different during the holidays keeping up some sort of exercise.

31:07.22
Alyssa
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 maintaining exercise in some way or another can be 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 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.

32:02.19
Alyssa
Whatever that looks like whether it’s counting calories or macros or actually measuring things out. These are things that you know are shown in the research to help people be successful. Then on a related note with that just tracking food and monitoring weight. 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.

32:39.97
Alyssa
I don’t know if I feel the same way about tracking and me 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. 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 3 to 5 pounds during the holidays. And what they find is that typically when people then return to their routine. The weight comes back off. So ultimately stressing about your weight during the holidays is really just bringing you a lot of stress. And it it really should be a time to just enjoy the company of family and friends and not be stressing about weight. So this kind of leads me to that other piece. The question that just asks about how to compensate and really for those reasons I don’t recommend any sort of compensation. 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.

34:00.29
Alyssa
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 if you just spent that full 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. I think the other kind of piece around compensation is that it creates this idea that you have to earn your food. And that simply isn’t true. The vast, even for athletes, the vast majority of calories that your body uses aren’t going to exercise. They’re going to existence. Making your heart beat helping your lungs expand your eyes blinking walking from the couch to the kitchen. Whatever it is that is really what makes up the majority of your body’s calorie use.

35:06.46
Alyssa
And so even if you’re taking a couple 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? 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 and I keep coming back to this pie example. But I think that’s because I really like pie.

36:00.44
Alyssa
Thinking you know oh I have to make up for that pie yesterday 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 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 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 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 you know like I’ve said over and over.

37:33.91
Alyssa
It’s just a couple of days. And it’s not going to make or break your progress on anything.

37:40.70
Alyssa C
Yeah, I think so often it’s so easy to fall into that trap. It’s just not necessary and I think something I’ve really had to focus on as an athlete and it’s changed. First of all when 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 walk away I mean you can, but that’s not good. 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. So I think that’s just such 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 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. It’s something you should be proud of so, yeah, no I love the. I love what you said and just how compensation is definitely a rabbit hole that we can head down.

39:23.55
Alyssa
Yeah, and I think it’s so important you know I Loved your comment about comparing alcoholism with you know food and you can just give up alcohol Cold Turkey. You can’t do that with food. But I also think you know food provides so many things other than just energy. It provides a way to express your culture. It provides a social interaction. It’s a comfort and it tastes good I mean there are just so many things about food. 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.

40:11.63
Alyssa C
Yeah, yeah, it’s just it’s so complicated and so I feel for all these struggles. But I think it can also be such a beautiful bonding and amazing time to spend with your family too.

40:25.40
Alyssa
Absolutely.

40:28.71
Alyssa C
Yeah, yeah, and I think back on growing up like we had this tradition of making you know a bunch of cookies and candies and that was such a vital part of the experience like the chocolate chip cookie dough fudge and the bon bons and all of that and it was just joyful. 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.

40:58.87
Alyssa
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.

41:16.29
Alyssa C
Yeah, I’m actually a huge fan of Halloween because like normal size candy is a little bit too much for me to take in at one time but the Halloween size are perfect.

41:30.24
Alyssa
You’re so right.

41:32.62
Alyssa C
Like a bite size snickers I’m like boom I love when it’s Halloween for that.

41:37.80
Alyssa
One of my favorite things about winter is that I can take little like individual packed chocolates with me on my runs and I don’t have to worry about them melting big fan.

41:49.43
Alyssa C
Yeah, oh that’s awesome. So this has been amazing gosh I am so thankful that you’re part of the Uphill Athlete Community I think we got really lucky. So do you have any last tips?

42:05.74
Alyssa
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. I think you know 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, you know we always joke about this sort of after the holiday dinner I have to unbutton my pants. But I think it’s a good opportunity to just really tune in a little bit deeper and you know think about okay well you know I am 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 by kind of being compassionate about it I think it can 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 can be very stressful in many ways. For those of us who do have a little bit more free time you know for having time off from work. 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.

43:38.86
Alyssa C
That.

43:44.97
Alyssa C
Yeah I love that and probably the most important question of the entire podcast. What is your favorite pie flavor? Do we want to call kind say favorite pie kind?

44:02.73
Alyssa
Kind of pie sounds right? The answer is pecan, I will accept no other answer.

44:04.10
Alyssa C
Kind of kind of pie.

44:10.16
Alyssa C
All right wait where in the Appalachian are you from? Okay that makes sense.

44:16.32
Alyssa
I’m from Virginia. Yeah, although I think I mean we definitely had a lot of apple pie growing up and apple pie is pretty good but it’s definitely pecan. What about you? What’s your favorite?

44:29.49
Alyssa C
Okay, I think I’m going to 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.

44:42.14
Alyssa
But little scoop of vanilla ice cream on top that’s pretty good.

44:45.85
Alyssa C
Or blueberry the other day I was at a restaurant and someone said what does ala a mode mean I was like I think I’ve known that since I was about two years old with ice cream. The only way.

45:02.60
Alyssa
Ah, well Vermont. That’s also the home of Ben and Jerry’s so

45:06.44
Alyssa C
We pack a lot of great things into a very small area. Awesome. Well thank you so much Alyssa this has been such a joy and, yeah, do you want to give a little.

45:09.99
Alyssa
, yeah.

45:21.12
Alyssa C
Actually give the listeners an idea of what you’re offering through uphill athlete?

45:25.56
Alyssa
Yeah, absolutely. So the main thing that I’m offering is nutrition coaching. So it is you 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 2 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 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 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 new to fueling running. We can work through strategies for that. I end up talking with a lot of people who have like GI issues on their longer runs. So that’s something we can talk about creating a fuel plan for an expedition that’s something it really is you know if it involves food or nutrition. It’s something that you know we can probably work together on. I’m trying to think if I have anything else to add to that I think that’s kind of the gist of it.

47:07.68
Alyssa C
Well, that sounds great. 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.

47:14.10
Alyssa
Yeah, absolutely.

47:22.82
Alyssa C
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@uphillathlete.com or visit uphillathlete.com It’s not just one but a community. We are uphill athlete.