Jessica Spendlove is one of Australia’s most respected and experienced Sports Dietitians. She has accumulated more than 30 seasons working with various professional team sports, world record holders, Olympic athletes and many corporate organisations, schools and active adolescent athletes. Over the last decade, Jess has worked with many professional sports teams in Australia including the GWS Giants, Cronulla Sharks, Giants Netball, Sydney Kings, Western Sydney Wanderers, GWS Giants AFLW and NSW Waratahs. She has also consulted with Olympic athletes, Australian Defence Force School of Operations (special forces), high-profile personalities, large corporations, and respected brands.
In this episode Jess discusses:
- Her own history as an under-fuelling athlete.
- Some of the basic habits even high profile athletes lacked.
- The ‘elements’ we should consider in youth nutrition.
- What she considers to be the top 3 habits youth athletes need to form.
- How to get her free fuelling guide and join her “Eat like the Elite” program.
You can listen to the episode in full here.
You can see some of the amazing infographics Jess shares via her Instagram here: @jess_spendlove_dietician and download the free fuelling guide at her website: www.jessicaspendlove.com .
To learn more about the LTAD Network check out www.ltadnetwork.com or follow on Instagram: @ltadnetwork or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ltadnetwork . You can keep up to date with Athletic Evolution via our www.athleticevolution.co.uk , Instagram: @athleticevouk and Twitter: @athleticevouk .
Rob Anderson
Hey, Jess, welcome to the podcast. It’s awesome to go across the time barrier and line this up.
Jess Spendlove
Rob, thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It’s nice to see you in the future.
Rob Anderson
Yeah, and looking outside your balcony window. I’m envious of the Aussie sunshine because it is freezing cold here in Scotland.
Jess Spendlove
It’s finally got its act together. We’ve had like a year of rain, which is very Sydney like in particular. But yeah, it’s nice and sunny at the moment.
Rob Anderson
So before we dive into your day to day work as a dietitian and talk about the various topics to do with nutrition, etc. Give us a bit of a background on you. What was your physical activity and sporting kind of background growing up? What were the sports you delved into?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, so I guess the the catalyst for everything I do today is really about winding back the clock a good 25 years plus. So for me, I was the high performing active academic, adolescent. So I did a lot of sports, but my kind of main sport was, was swimming. So I really get the pre school sessions and the post school sessions and the driving all around to get to training and the juggling act, and really the juggling act by the whole family. So, you know, for me, that really was my lived experience. And I’d love to say I was just nailing it. And that’s why I’m on this mission to kind of spread that message. But probably like most people, the reason I became interested in nutrition was because I wasn’t, I wasn’t nailing it, I needed to go and see a sports dietitian. And it wasn’t because, you know, I was restricting or anything deliberate, it was purely not grasping the amount of energy and food and nutrition that I needed to consume being someone going through puberty and then training four hours a day. So that really kind of was the catalyst and I was like, Well, I like food. I like people. I like travel, or this sports dietitian thing seems like a really good you know, career path. And then yeah, I guess fast forward, you know, after high school like I did stop swimming in my in my later years, you know, you’re 11 and 12. Well, that’s what we call it down here anyway, and and the mood moved into university. So I have always been like an active, active person, but that really kind of high level training was really my my adolescent years and I wouldn’t say I chose swimming, it chose me and then away we went.
Rob Anderson
And anyone who works in the support services, sport, whether it’s sports psychology, or sports science, SMC nutrition dietitian, knows that you you spent a long time accumulating experience across internships here, there and everywhere. So what did that look like for you as you were coming out? And establishing your kind of reputation and your portfolio? As a dietitian, what were some of the stocks along the way?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, so five years at university two degrees, a year in between the two and then graduated, ready to get stuck in and it was kind of like, okay, there’s no opportunities, because there’s so many of us. So, where to, fortunately, and I feel like it was a little bit serendipitous. That’s the word, but all meant to be. But my dietician when I was a teenager, ended up being the lady who I did my research degree with, in my master’s in the last semester. And I, when I saw she was doing a research paper, I was like, I think I don’t even know how many times I emailed her basically being like, You’re the reason I am doing this, like, Please choose me for this opportunity. And I know things have changed a little bit. But when I went through uni, there really wasn’t any sports nutrition. It was really like one lecture. And then if you chose to do a research, your research semester on it, so she became my mentor, long story short, and, you know, I actually went and worked as a clinical dietitian for three years, I was pretty fortunate a few months out to start working in the hospital system, inpatient, outpatient. But during that time, it was like any and every opportunity, whatever shape or form in the in the realm of sport, I was putting my hand up, and it did help that I had made that connection. So the dietician was Helen O’Connor, or the light Helen O’Connor now but very renowned, sports dietitian, not only in Australia, but worldwide. So you know, I really have her to thank for everything. But also, you know, I think I put my hand up for a good few years, just saying whatever you need help with please like, think of me, that turned into doing some private practice around my hospital job that turned into doing some paid presentations. And then I think it was about three years out of university, the first kind of opportunity with the coronella, sharks popped up, which was a very, very, very, very tiny contract, but it was still a contract and it was a paid contract. And then that was really the starting point for the next kind of decade and everything that was to come.
Rob Anderson
Yeah, pretty much every nutritionist or dietitian I know. I’ve crossed paths with is that’s the sort of story of this, you know, five hours a week with this class. Been 10 hours a week with this club. And so one to one stuff here. And it’s, you know, a kind of multiple consultancy kind of roles tends to be the name of the game and that sort of thing, isn’t it?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, definitely. It really, you know, if I look at all of the, the sports and the codes I ended up working with, I mean, in another profession in professional sport, like a physio strength and conditioning coach, a lot of that wouldn’t be possible, because those roles are full time, whereas in the performance, nutrition space, and it is changing, like it is a really varied kind of spectrum. But the more kind of common thing that you will see is that consultancy role like that one day, a week, or two days a week, or a few hours a week type role, which is why I was able to transverse so many different, so many different codes. And I should say like, over time, like a lot of those roles did grow. And then I ended up being like a more head of nutrition, senior dietitian and getting a combination of interns and paid juniors into kind of spread that workload because, you know, I was on a mission to grow the importance of nutrition in the professional sporting space, which probably aligns with what I’m doing now in the kind of not Gen pop space, but not just in pro sport, just in environments, you know, sporting organisations, school programmes, corporate environments, trying to scale that importance. So I didn’t want to just grow the importance and go, oh, sorry, I’m working with three other clubs right now. I can’t do that. It was like, Okay, how do we get creative, leverage expertise, pay people who want to do this role and grow that kind of grow the capacity of the role. So yeah, I really loved all of that quite a lot.
Rob Anderson
And really interesting, as you said, kind of crossing codes between basketball with the Sydney kings and the GWS giants and AFL coronella, sharks, Sydney wanderers, football, but the one that really stood out to me was with the Australian Defence Force. Are you allowed to talk about that at all? What what did that like?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, so I think I’m allowed to talk high level about it so that that contract is still active. And the majority of that role is, like, I’m engaged, you know, once or a few times a year to go and present to certain ratios or cohorts. So the school has special operations, which is essentially that you know, your special forces or commandos going in and talking about the importance of performance nutrition to them, and how they can apply that and leverage that. And, you know, it’s always interesting, because it’s obviously like, well, there’s so much of what they do that’s controlled, and it’s not like, they can just control what they eat all the time. So it’s like looking at obviously, when they do have control, and looking at that, that short term and longevity piece of nutrition, and you know, those compounding effects of controlling the controllables and the benefits that can have. And, you know, for me, when I talk about performance, like, yes, that’s physical, but I’m talking mental and cognitive performance as well. And, and all of that is like feeding into the health and the well being of the person. So yeah, it’s really interesting, I really enjoy that. And it’s, it’s not consistent. It’s like an ad hoc base roll. But yeah, that’s something I’ve done for the last few years. And I still do every now. And I’m still ongoing.
Rob Anderson
I think nutrition is an interesting area, because there are a lot of different approaches. So like, you know, obviously, if you’ve got a five hour contract, and the appropriate club wants an approach of one on one, there’s any necessary five to 10 athletes, you can potentially impact versus doing some wider education pieces, which can be a bit hit and miss as well, in terms of how much athletes engage. So what’s been your experience of that delivery? Is that a, you know, a mix of that kind of one on one verse approach versus the group staff coach education as well, what’s been the kind of environments that you’ve delved into with these different clubs and organisations? Yeah,
Jess Spendlove
I mean, it’s, it’s changed, you learn a lot, and you evolve. And I guess the good thing about what I did, like, I look at it and go, Okay, that’s really curry in a decade. And I guess, like, I’m someone who, I’m a bit of an over thinker, but I also just do test refine. So because I was doing it in so many environments, so it’s probably able to learn and refine faster, but to your point, it’s a hybrid. And you’ve got to just depending on the resourcing you’ve got available. So, you know, one of my roles ended up being a full time role with that hybrid, you know, staff model that I spoke about when others were a few hours a week. So it’s like, okay, how do we impact everyone? So we look at the environment, what systems and processes can we put in place, we look at multiple forms of education. So, you know, I didn’t have an online programme then which I know we’re going to speak about, but it was kind of the, the start of the makeup of a lot of that it was, you know, the education like whether it was resources, webinars, presentations, infographics or posters just to display around the place, whether it was the group education in that, you know, in person or virtual kind of sense, and whether it was that one on one support and also then educating the staff and I know that sounds like a lot and wasn’t doing all of that at the one time for a five hour contract. But it was kind of periodized and weaving that in and I’m a big believer, you know, pick your low hanging fruit, nail that and then go to that next level or, you know, what’s that system or process that’s going to help everyone move the needle, not just your your one or two players. So multiple kind of hybrid approach. But yeah, that’s kind of how I went about things. And as I said, was lucky enough to test it in quite a few different groups to then really refine that that framework that I then continued to roll out.
Rob Anderson
Yeah, I think that’s a really important piece that people can kind of gloss over a bit with stuff is often and it’s been my experience with nutrition as well, as you realise, okay, everyone’s not a unicorn, a lot of people are doing the same things wrong. Like, we’ve got 10 athletes in missing breakfast. Okay, there’s a theme here, we should get these guys together and talk about the importance of breakfast rather than individually addressing them one on one. That was one of the things I realised early on is you kind of can have this scattergun approach of going, Okay, here’s the thing that I can see multiple people falling down on, and there’s one person who maybe has a very specific issue that we, you know, needs to be referred on to a one on one, but actually, a lot of times as you said, there’s a low hanging fruit, you can think, okay, we might have this athlete who wants to talk about this really specific supplement, but actually, I know the bigger the bigger issue is they’re completely under fueling and that’s irrelevant big until we get this bigger problem solved.
Jess Spendlove
100% it’s you know, and I think you learn I think the more the more experience you get, the less not even refined I want to say because it’s refined but with strategy but it’s just more simplistic you get so all I will never ever forget the very first like professional athlete I sat down with I was so excited. I think I spent two hours the day before writing out all these you know, perfect breakfasts, perfect snacks as per textbook done, you know, paper and 20 grammes protein 50 grammes, cobbles these things sat down with him, okay. You know, Wade told me about what you eat in the day. Tell me what you have the breakfast before you come to training. This was an NRL player. I don’t eat breakfast, and I’ve got my like, seven breakfasts with all the protein in the car. And it was like the the fastest lesson I ever learned where it’s like, okay, no assumptions, everyone’s an individual progress over perfection. How do we start to form the habit? So for me, you know, I’m really big on the whole habit formation piece. And Ali’s really the approach I take with nutrition and looking at behaviour change, like, how can we form a habit, you know, what does the athlete want to work on, that’s always the biggest kind of key on where you should start. And then if not, you know, to choose the thing, you know, that’s going to move the needle the most, which some of that also comes with practice, but you touched on it fueling 100% That is the thing that they will feel and see the difference on initially. So they will, you know, while their goal might be I want to put on X amount of muscle or I want to, you know, improve my speed like those things take time. They take repeatable change, to kind of get that, that objective measure. But when I talk about subjective measures, how they feel each day, turning up to every single training session, feeling energised, not just some good and some not so good, having more energy in the session, less so after the session, that’s the stuff which they can grasp straight away. And when you kind of like dial into that you get them aware of that, then that just starts to kind of shift from that deliberate, intentional and need to focus on it to just like, oh, this is something I now do. And as I kind of say to people, like you’re human, you’re not going to do it all the time, because you might have had a disorganised morning or you might have forgot to pack X. I don’t see that as a bad thing. Because when you then fall back into old habits, for whatever reason, that’s when you see and feel the real difference. And you go, Oh, wow, this is something I really need to keep doing. So. Yeah, that’s kind of the approach I take.
Rob Anderson
It’s interesting that you use the word disorganised because I, my kind of thought process around nutrition has really changed over the last few years. Now, I’m not a dietician. I’ve done a few certifications in nutrition. And obviously, there’s a difference between having a specialist and you know, someone with a more broad knowledge. One of the things that I’ve realised is that actually, a lot of times I don’t know if you agree or disagree with me on this. I’ve realised nutrition is actually an organisation problem. Actually, the person potentially knows what they’re supposed to do. But they weren’t bothered to spend 10 minutes putting their menu together or their shopping list or to do a weekly shop. So it’s now this last minute thing on the way to training on the way to school. Do you agree disagree? How much do you think molestation plays a part in nutrition?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, I think it’s a massive part. I think it is the execution. I think the knowledge I think most people have an idea. I think they’re still like maybe it’s refining that but it’s still like, yeah, I should eat before I should eat after probably in 30 to 60 minutes. But yeah, have they then gone and executed that so I I always talk about that two pieces to that knowledge piece like yes, knowing but doing and that doing is way more important than even the knowing because they’re either not doing it, they’re doing it sub optimally, or they’re doing it on the fly, and it’s probably costing them so much more money. So yeah, and you know, I really liked the kind of saying, that you may have heard before, you know, nutrition really is a weapon, when it’s used correctly, it can really enhance performance, but when it’s done poorly, it can blunt it. And it’s so true, I did actually use that same with the Special Forces guys, and I was at probably the wrong target audience, it was coming out of my mouth as that probably the wrong target audience for that quote, but, you know, I think for everybody else that it really, it really summarises it perfectly. So do you want to use it to its potential? Or do you just want to kind of be like I in nutrition, something I do, and not get the most out of it? And therefore probably blunt, you know, the purpose of why you train which is to get fitter, faster, stronger, more accurate, whatever it might be.
Rob Anderson
That really nice. That brings us on to one of the things you wanted to talk about, which was what are your thoughts on nutrition priorities? And what really matters versus what people think matters?
Jess Spendlove
hurdler. I love this. It’s, you know, the classic inverted triangle of like, what we want to spread the message on versus what people want to grab hold to. And, you know, I get it, like I’m probably for fallen victim in, in other areas, not nutrition, but you want the quick fix. So you get, you know, the shiny stuff, the you know, if I think about it in a business sense, like what’s going to help you grow your profit, or scale your business or whatever, rather than like, okay, foundations, what do I need systems and processes. So nutrition is the same, like that supplement that you might have heard about, which might not even be appropriate for your age, is, you know, right at the top of the summit. So I have a framework I talk about, it’s kind of like a mountain, it’s like base camp, you know, and this is where we want to start, we actually need to start at base camp, we needed to assess that every day. So how many times a day do you eat, is how many times a day you have an opportunity to optimise your performance. So it’s, you know, meeting general guidelines at a minimum for like, you know, your fruits and vegetables, which, as a high performing active adolescent or athlete, you actually need more, but we don’t actually know what that is. So at least meet the minimum, which, you know, I know, in Australia, less than that 5% of adolescents are doing, you know, looking at the fuelling and the recovery. So even if you’re every single meal and snack isn’t optimised, and when I say that I’m not about creating robots, I’m about creating, how do you like to eat? You know, do we have the protein do we have the carbs do we have the colours, just, you know, edit what you’re currently doing. But even if that, you know, is a little bit of a step too far, fuel for the work you’re going to do. So set yourself up for success with, you know, a primer or a pre training snack. So I’m really big on you know, getting that fueling piece nailed. And also, then that recovery, and if you’re at least doing that, plus also maybe some intro fuelling if you’re training twice a day, or if you’re training for more than 90 minutes at a high intensity, if you at least get that right, that will at least move the needle in terms of your performance. And then yeah, looking at my fruits and my veggies, you know, then moving into other things like the gut health, pasted all of that, but you need to really get that down pat, before you even then kind of go up to like, Okay, well, what’s my game date, nutrition, what’s my tournament nutrition? And then before you even consider, like, the sprinkles or the potential supplements that might work if you’re doing all the rest of it, right?
Rob Anderson
Yeah, I think that’s I mean, it’s the same in the training world. Like there’s everyone wants the stuff that sexy, right? Everyone wants to talk about this 1% thing, but no one’s talk about the 99%. Well, actually, it’s not that sexy. It’s doing the basics repeatedly for a long period of time. But that’s not what’s on the Instagram highlight reel, or that’s not the latest supplement people are talking about. It’s really interesting. You mentioned fruit and veg because that reminded me I actually grew up in Perth in Western Australia. So am I right in thinking that still seven fruit veg in Australia? That’s the recommended daily dose?
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, two to three servings of fruit and like five servings of vegetables?
Rob Anderson
Yeah. So you might be interested to know in the UK, it’s only five? In total? Yes, total. So yeah, yeah, exactly. So it’s funny, because people might be intrigued to realise that, as you said, people that hate math, but people don’t I definitely mean fibre over here. So yeah, it’s interesting, where the thresholds are people maybe what people thought was realistic versus what’s optimal. I don’t know. Because I have athletes that don’t get five a day. I remember one, I had one and this is an under 20, international rugby player who would hit we’d be lucky at five a week. That would have been a good week. So it shows you even you know, you’re absolutely right. It’s the fundamentals that that unfortunately want to gloss over and focus on the silver bullet frequently.
Jess Spendlove
And you know, I get it like a dietitian saying you need to eat more fruits and veg like boring so you know if it can really be like, how is this going to help me as an athlete? Okay, well, there’s a Uh, there’s a role in immunity, there’s a role in recovery. So, you know, definitely athletes who have higher intakes of your your vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are the athletes that do have lower levels of that muscle soreness. And so you know, while Protein helps like the integrity of the muscle to recover, you know, those those antioxidants, and those vitamins and minerals play that really important role in in clearing some of those damaged cells and definitely helping in that overall like soreness piece. So I find connecting with them like that. But also like I have a saying that I feel like I need to trademark it. I do say it a lot. But it’s given me a little snack. He’s only brown and white, it’s not complete. So it’s just getting them to look at their meal and go, it’s brown and white. Like, what can I add, and I don’t, I’m never prescriptive, it’s never like, this is the best fruit, this is the best vegetables, which I know you wouldn’t subscribe to either. It’s kind of like whatever you can add to that that’s colourful, that’s a win. Let’s start with that. So I find that gets a bit of traction.
Rob Anderson
That’s really interesting, because that actually that that was really aligned with my philosophy around like strength conditioning in terms of like, I can make any thinking the same thing like all the complex stuff, when I make them, I’m faster, fitter, stronger. And I realised actually, the biggest gift I can give you as an athlete, especially if you’re a team sports player, is more time on task, instead of being stuck on the sideline in the boot, or in a cast or wherever it is because you got injured, it’s the same thing. You know, if if eating more fruit and veg helps prevent illness, that’s more time on task, right? That’s instead of being sick at home in bed, you’re on the training pitch getting better. And it’s the same thing. But as you said, it’s going away from that boring thing of eat five Fruit Veg to here’s how this is actually going to help you be better at Rugby, or football or whatever it is. So yeah, definitely breaking it down. And then those fundamentals do become a bit sexier, I guess.
Jess Spendlove
Yeah, that’s exactly right. And, you know, with that, like, I’d love to think there might be a day when nutrition will just be people will just be like, okay, yeah, actually, I do eat, like four or 567 times a day, like other than sleep, it’s probably the second or equal most important piece of my performance puzzle, like, let’s prioritise that. But I do definitely see that it’s, once the issue happens, that’s when the they want to address it, or, you know, just it’s, it’s a it’s particularly like, if I look at males and females as well. You know, there’s quite a lot of research even just in terms of that nutrition knowledge at different age points. And, you know, there’s kind of two different types I was talking about the knowing and the doing. But I often do see it at that later piece of that career, where they’re looking for that, that thing that will prolong their career, or they’re just starts to become more important in their life. So I’m like, if I can just move that needle a few years back, or start to, you know, infiltrate when people are at school. So they, it’s not the first time they’re hearing it in their 20s or their mid 20s. That will that will really help them not only be a better athlete, but just a better person as well. So yeah, I guess the more we talk about it, the more we hear it, the more it might cut through. But yeah, I do tend to find it’s like, oh, there’s an issue, okay, need to address it, rather than like getting on the front foot with it. But coming back to that statement, like it is a weapon, you can use it to your potential and, you know, one of the services I offer now, in terms of one on ones is like premium coaching. And, you know, I think about I kind of have three different groups and active adolescents is, you know, really high performing is one group I do work with, and I’ve had parents say to me, you know, within a few weeks, the coaches are noticing, like, what’s the difference? Like there’s something you know, they’re running out the game, or the preseason, you know, longer or harder or faster than what they used to. So this external people are starting to notice the difference. And they’re kind of like, I feel like it’s our secret weapon. I’m like, it is definitely your secret weapon. So yeah, hopefully the message of this starts to infiltrate more people.
Rob Anderson
Yeah, I think nutrition definitely is an underutilised strategy until it’s, you know, bad body composition, or I can’t put on body weight or ever too much body weight that people start to think about. And I think it’s similar to like mental performance, you know, the sports psychologist office doesn’t get brought into and things are going really badly. And actually, it can be a proactive tool that you don’t doesn’t need to wait for, you know, the stuff to hit the fan before you go. Maybe you should have some sort of visualisation routine before you take a penalty kick. Have you thought about, you know, what is your routine? Or how do you set up for a lineup, you know, actually engage your brain instead of just rock it up and throwing it in? And I think it’s the same with nutrition people. It’s until it you know, things go wrong, and then I Oh, why am I not progressing as well as I want to, instead of getting on the front foot? So we’ve talked a bit about fueling a bit about fruit and veg, what do you think next sort of things in your in your checklist for you know, parents or coaches listening thinking, okay, what are the top three to five priorities that I want to get across? Or people need to be thinking about what would be the other things in your checklist? Yeah, so
Jess Spendlove
if I think about like high performing behaviours, you know that again, like I’ve managed to work with the 1000s of professional athletes, which is pretty impressive. It’s definitely like you start to see the trends on who’s doing what and you know that that noise is just a lot narrower for those those really high performing one. So just on the body composition point of view, like, you know, I feel like athletes get away with so much for so long when they’re kind of cheating the system but then those strategies stopped working and my thing I’m like, well, preseason isn’t a Weight Watchers programme like we’re actually here to move the needle forward, not just always be in this like deficit lose strips, so but yeah, in answer to your question, like putting it into practice, what does that look like? Number one, breakfast. So it’s the biggest meal that people struggle with. So they don’t have it, they don’t know what to do, they feel sick. But for me, I’m like, it’s just a habit. It’s just putting being intentional, knowing you need to do it, and then working on it. So I always say to people, okay, so when was the last time that you want to Grand Final on the day one of preseason, and they go, and it’s like a nutrition breakfast getting better at it is exactly the same. So it’s just you’re lacking nutrition training. Right now you’re training your stomach, you’re training your brain to get familiar with doing it. And, you know, if we can get that message to particularly that the adolescents because if they ever do get in any kind of professional programme, that becomes your job. And breakfast becomes what you do before you go to do your main sessions. So it is incredibly important. And if you’re at school, it’s the thing that setting your day up to focus in the classroom and learn and then also go to training in the afternoon. So that’s definitely number one. Two is looking at snacks and like snacking for success. So that’s kind of my other massive area people are not doing I’m not sure when like a piece of fruit, or a music bar, or a bag of popcorn became a snack. But it’s certainly not for like any kind of, you know, active person. So for me, I always talk about, I call it all the elements, but it’s basically my way of talking about macros and micros, so the four elements, protein, carbs, colours, and then healthy fats. And for a snack, I say you need to aim to have three of those ideally for if you have for a plus, but you want the protein, you know, and I say for adolescents 10 to 15 grammes and for adults 15 to 20. And if you’re professional, you know, 20 and over, but then you would have presence of whole grain carbohydrates, so you know, some crackers, maybe some cereal, depending on what it is. And then you want some colour there. So thinking about those snacks, and I turned them everyday snack, so they might be like your morning snack, if you’re in the office or recess if you’re at school, or for a professional athlete, like a snack, that’s more than two hours away from a training session. And then also knowing there’s actually other types of snacks to have in your performance toolkit. So having a pre training snack, which is around that one to two hours out. And that’s where we really shift into like performance mode for that session. So really big focus on carbs, protein less of a priority, like some people may still need it. Some people might not that’s a really individual, like how does that kind of stomach? How does that sit with you? You know, for my athletics kind of athletes, they might struggle more so than like a swimmer or a team sport, and then having a primer and that’s if all else fails, having a primer 30 to 60 minutes before a session will start to kick your body into that kind of preparation to to perform in this session. So that’s purely a carbohydrate, if it’s some colours because fruit is carbs. So fruit dried fruit might be crackers might be some pretzels, there’s some really popular options, and aiming for that kind of 0.5 to one grammes per kilogramme of carbohydrates, which, you know, depending on what you weigh, maybe 30 to 60 grammes. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot of really great resources on my Instagram, which I will talk about at the end. So you can you can check that out. But yeah, breakfast, they don’t skip it, they snack for success. And if I maybe give a third one, I’d say the other kind of from a nutrition sense, like, there’s a fair few more, but just in terms of top three, they don’t skip meals. So I guess it feeds into both of those. But, you know, this notion of periodized nutrition is really about having a nutrition strategy. And, and just executing it. It’s kind of a fancy way of saying that. So, you know, a high day, a low day, a medium day, at the end of the day, know what your baseline framework is. So for some people, you know, for most, you know, athletes, it’s three meals, and it’s probably going to be two or three snacks. And then it’s just about potentially dialling that up if it’s, you know, a medium or a high day. So again, do you need to add in an extra primer or an extra recovery snack or do you just need to maybe adjust the ratios of your plate and have more carbohydrates on your higher days? So I know more isn’t always possible because there needs to be that comfort level and I think that’s where a lot of people go wrong. They go I need to have more And then it’s really unpleasant process and then they don’t do that. So that’s where we need to get, you know, strategic, can we use liquids? Can we just adjust the portion of what we’re having to kind of be more supportive of what you’re about to do? So? Yeah, I’d say they’re the three biggest things, people in terms of where to start. That’s where you need to start. And that will really move the needle forward quite a bit.
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