Let’s Get Back to Your Healthy Diet

Food can be a tough subject for me. Without getting into it too much here, I did have a bit of a tormented past with food when I was younger, and I mean much younger- mainly, high school and college. But since then, I worked hard to get a handle on all parts of my life surrounding my body image and thus, food. During my early 20’s, I seemed to have found a harmonious balance with food, exercise, therapy and medication that settled my mind. I ate a healthy (mostly), well rounded diet that nourished my body. I ate when I was hungry and didn’t focus on deprivation. Food became social. I learned that I was much more satisfied when I was enjoying good, nutrititious food.

Given my past, dieting or restricting myself too much, doesn’t fare well for me. Even most recently, when I thought after all of these years that I could handle tracking food on an app for a fitness goal, it quickly brought back the stress my younger self felt doing fad diets to see how skinny I could get. I realized 25 years later that restricting myself still doesn’t work for me. Tracking what I was putting into my body only made me stressed. And I definitely don’t want to feel stress from food ever again. I want to continue to feel good from food. Needless to say, I no longer subscribe to that nutrition tracking app. It may work for some people, but it doesn’t work for me.

When I say that I want to get back to a healthy diet this month, it is so very different than the way I used to think of a “healthy diet”. Getting back on track this September for me, today, means less alcohol, less snacking, less processed foods, and more of the good stuff. The foods that make me feel my best. The foods that give me energy. The foods that fuel my body and help me meet my fitness goals. Those are the reasons why I eat what I eat today. So if this subject is at all triggering to you too, just know you are not alone. Most of us Millenial girls had some sort of issue with food growing up and maybe we still do. But lucky for us, our daughters live in a different world with different images of beautiful bodies around them.

So with that, here are some of the things I am interested in today when it comes to food and nutrition. I recently sat down with my favorite registered dietician, Megan Robinson, who helped me prepare for and successfully run my first marathon a few years ago. I wanted to ask Megan the questions and get the answers that hopefully you want to know now, too. And spoiler alert, none of those questions have to do with losing weight.

I started my conversation with Megan asking her about food for athletes. And I’m not talking about “athletes” in the sense of the word that you might think. I am talking about me and you. Yes! We are athletes! We are what Megan considers the “non-endurance athlete”. This is the person who is going to exercise most days for about an hour at a time. I wanted to know what that athlete should eat before and after exercising to get the most out of their workout. Megan says to eat a small snack or meal before exercising. The focus should be on easy-to-digest carbohydrates. Good pre-workout snacks include fruit, yogurt, a rice cake, a fig bar and pretzels. You want this snack to be low in fat and low in protein. Carbohydrates are important for the body during the workout to fuel the muscles for power and to fuel the brain for energy.

Foods high in protein and fat aren’t good before you exercise because they don’t sit well in the gut. Megan also doesn’t recommend fasting before exercising, especially for women. She explained that women are more sensitive to the the neuropeptide called Kisspeptin, which helps to regulate blood sugar and increases the appetite. When women fast, this Kisspeptin is the reason why women store fat. Eating before you exercise helps release cortisol, mobilizing fat stores and getting carbohydrates on board to perform.

During exercise, non-endurance athletes (like us) don’t need to eat anything, except maybe to add salt to their water if they are sweating a lot. The endurance athlete is the person doing strenuous work for more than 1.5-2 hours. I was an endurance athlete when I was training for a marathon, and eating carbs while I ran was crucial to my training and performance. But let’s get back to the non-endurance athlete. Megan does recommend eating within 30-60 minutes of a workout. When you exercise, blood is pulled from the gut to deliver nutrients to the muscles. Because of this, some people just are not hungry after an intense workout. So Megan recommends eating a meal within an hour of exercise, if it is mealtime. If not, a snack will suffice. Post workout, you want to bring more sugar to the muscle cell with carbohydrates, and you want to repair the muscle cell with protein.

Eating more protein has been my focus the past year. So I asked Megan what she recommends as far as the amount and of kind of protein. She says it depends on the person’s goals. A good starting point for an active person is 1.6-1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Most women need 25-35 grams of protein per meal, with about 1/3 of the meal made up of protein.

Whole foods as a protein source are always preferred over processed drinks and bars. These foods include meat or dairy products, greek yogurt, edamame, and baked tofu. You want to avoid peanut butter and nuts as your main protein source because these foods surprisingly aren’t that high in protein, and they do contain a lot of fat and calories. Nuts and peanut butter are a good compliment to a meal, but you don’t want them to be your main protein source.

Next, I wanted to talk with Megan about supplements, a topic that can be overwhelming given the vast amount of information out there. Megan says to get nutrients from food first. Supplements are good if there is a true deficiency, which you can learn about from a blood test or a DEXA scan. You should consult a dietician or physician before you take any supplements because there are a lot of products to choose from. Supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA, and some may contain fillers and other substances that your body doesn’t need. Megan likes supplements from Momentous and Klean Athlete because they are both NSF Sport Certified.

Creatine is having a moment right now. And I wanted to get Megan’s thoughts about taking it, specifically for women. She explained that you get creatine from animal products. Athletes who need power, muscle strength and speed, take creatine supplements to support their activities. Megan says that the general population can benefit from taking creatine supplements to increase power and strength during activity and help build muscle and aid in muscle recovery after. The recommended dose is 3-5 grams of creatine a day. Again, you’ll want to consult a professional when determining how much creatine to take. Megan says monohydrate creatine is the only type of creatine you should take.

I have also been hearing a lot about fasting lately. And Megan says a hard no to it all. The main reason being that the studies that show the benefits of intermittent fasting were done on inactive people. And the benefits are only short term. When you lose weight, 2/3 of it is muscle mass. For the active, general population, it is not beneficial to fast. And especially not for women, who will then store more fat and cause an increase in appetite when you fast. I guess it goes without saying that Megan doesn’t ever recommend fasting for active people or athletes.

Megan has been an excellent resource for me in my fitness journey so of course, I had to share her with you! Here is a little background and how you can get in touch with her: Megan Robinson is a registered dietician with close to thirty years of experience. She is a Certified Sports Dietician. She is also a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, working with children athletes with type 1 diabetes. Megan’s private practice, Megan Sports RD, is focused on counseling athletes of all ages, levels and abilities in nutrition. And she is also a running coach (my running coach). Reach out to Meagan through her website with any questions or to set up an appointment.