Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. I'm Coach Brie, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, and I'm so excited that you are here. If you are here, it's because you are likely a sports mom or sports dad looking for tangible ways to increase confidence and mental strength in your athlete daughter. Well, you have found the right place. That is exactly what we do on this podcast, in our program and in our communities, and I'm thrilled that you are here with us. Today we have an episode with Lisa Spencer. She is a functional nutritional therapy practitioner working specifically with girl athletes, and she is coming to us. She's actually a repeat guest on the podcast because we love her so much and we love her tips and her strategies on how to fuel our athlete daughters. Today, she's coming to talk to us about how to make this whole routine of our busy sports parent lives a little easier, especially when it comes to fueling our athletes. Because, let's face it, our lives and our schedules are very busy, especially now that we're in this like back to school time We've got school all day, we have practice right after school, we've got away games and then we're also challenged with making sure that our athletes are getting all the fuel that they need in order to play their best. So Lisa breaks it down for us. She gives us really good tips and strategies to help navigate the busy back to school that we've got going on right now.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Now, before we jump into the episode, I have two things I want to share with you. The first thing, if you're listening to this at the time of recording, so around August, towards the end of August, beginning of September, we are in this like back to school time. We were going back to sports, back to the routine, and to celebrate that and give you tools and resources, we are running a back to school special on our signature mental training program for girl athletes, the Elite Mental Game. This is our self-paced program for girl athletes to build their mental game and confidence. They go through a series of short videos through an online platform that they can navigate wherever they are, in addition to live support from our coaches. And this is the program that thousands of girl athletes have gone through to date to build their confidence and their mental game. And we, like I said, are running this back to school special for this limited amount of time, so that you can jump into the program with your daughter for $400 off. So to grab that discounted link you can head to elitecompetitorcom forward slash EMG. But I'll also leave the link for that in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 2:17

One other thing I want to bring to our attention is a shout out to a mom in our community. Our attention is a shout out to a mom in our community. One of our moms who was in the elite commensal game, posted this inside our group recently. She is talking about her daughter. She said she attended a high school camp recently. The team seemed to be divided JV and varsity.

Speaker 1: 2:45

I know some of us have been in that said she channeled her disappointment, anxiety and anger into her playing. Her team won the camp tournament. She even won a gift card for her high energy and positivity. One coach noticed her reset routine, her snapback routine, and said she stood out for her ability to bounce back, adding this to her list of strengths. Okay, this is pretty cool, because your daughter is going to be in situations in her athletic career that she can't control, just like Michelle's daughter could not control what court she was put on for this tournament. All she was able to control was how she responded.

Speaker 1: 3:17

And this is what we teach athletes inside of the elite mental game. You can't control all of the situations you're in. You can only control your attitude and your effort and your mindset and how you respond. And that's exactly what her daughter did. Right, channeled all of that energy into playing her best using her snapback routine, which is a failure recovery method that we teach athletes inside the program as well. And not only did this help her team win, she was also noticed for it, which is amazing. So congratulations, michelle, super proud of you, super proud of your daughter, and can't wait to hear how things go as you continue along in the program. All right, moms, let's get into this episode with Lisa. You're going to hear some awesome tips and strategies to help navigate this back to school. Remember, we do have $400 off the Elite Mental Game for your athlete, and the link to that is inside the show notes. All right, enjoy this episode. Hi Lisa, welcome back to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Hello, thank you for having me. I love being on your podcast. Thanks, yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:11

So Lisa is a repeat guest. She also has been in our community for sports. Moms gave a little community training for us recently and then she will be coming into our community again to talk with athletes at the end of the month, I think, or the end of next month I need to look at the calendar to talk about hydration and the importance of hydrating, how much of the they should be drinking, what they should be drinking, all those things. So you are just serving our community in so many ways. But, lisa, will you please, for the people who don't know, you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Great, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Thank you, I just love serving your community.

Speaker 2: 4:51

I so believe in what you're doing. I'm happy to be here and thrilled with supporting you guys. I am a performance nutrition coach for female athletes and I also specialize in the youth athlete being able to work with families, parents and the athlete themselves as they move through middle school and high school, club sports and beyond. My background is actually in education, so I have a doctorate in education. I was in the K-12 school system for a while and then a professor of education. I just lump all of those passions and interests together to support our athletes and families.

Speaker 1: 5:22

So great. I love that and honestly so. I also have a background in education not in higher education like you, but I think that actually serves us really well as we're relating to youth and athletes. So it's actually no surprise that is in your background and I don't recall that from the last time I interviewed you. So great.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Today we're talking specifically as we kind of head back into the school year For us. We were just chatting offline about how it's like right around the corner and also, by the time this airs, some of you are likely back into the swing of sports and the seasons. So we're talking about how to prepare for that, how to ensure that we are prepping so that our athletes are well-fueled and not really a whole family and like we're well-fueled as well, because, like we likely are eating what they're eating. But I am out here for all the tips and all the tricks of how to make that happen.

Speaker 1: 6:11

As a coach myself, I'm like already looking to all right, we've got to figure out how to plan when we have a game at seven o'clock or we've got practice from four to seven. Do you eat dinner at three or do you eat dinner at eight? There's a lot. There's a lot that goes into it. So can you just kick us off with what are kind of your foundational pillars, if you will, when it comes to looking for, like busy sports season? What are you trying to accomplish and help moms with when it comes to their seasons?

Speaker 2: 6:43

and help moms with when it comes to their seasons. Yeah, absolutely. It is a crazy time. We all know it, as parents, like you, look forward to not making lunches anymore at the end of the school year and maybe in the beginning you get all excited, but then the second week you're like I remember this was just a whole lot of work and you pick them up and maybe you worked all day and then you pick them up from school and you have an hour, or maybe you have two hours, or maybe you have 30 minutes to get them to practice. And all of those things just add up where we're putting so much effort into helping our athletes succeed and be ready and they're part of your community, so they're focusing on their mental game, which is fantastic.

Speaker 2: 7:23

We just don't want to let that fueling go to the wayside, because when the fueling goes to the wayside we're just not getting as much as we can out of the time we're putting in. So showing up to practice without having eaten really puts us behind the eight ball. It puts us like staggering out of the starting blocks to, I don't know, perform at practice. To even show up. Perform at practice, to even show up mentally at practice, let alone a game, a tournament, et cetera. So key to this is a little bit of prep, believing in it, getting your kids on board, your athletes on board, and then maybe a little bit of help. And I'll try to touch on all of those different things Really with the idea that with some planning it can all be a lot easier than we project it to be at the beginning of this busy season.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Yeah, okay, I'm excited to dive into that. One quick thing. It might seem obvious, but can you fill us in on why it's important, that really like for athletes, what should they be consuming when it comes to snacks? When I'm talking like timing, things like that, I'm just speaking as from the perspective as a coach. When I like a coach, high school and I have a lot of girls, so they go to school from 830 to 315 and then our practice starts at four and a lot of them are coming in and they haven't eaten since lunch or maybe they didn't even eat lunch and they're like burning out in practice. Like you said, they're not physically there, they're not mentally there, they're glycogen stores or glucose or energy, whatever. It's not happening for them and I was like we need to eat something, you need to pack a snack, and they just sometimes are like, yeah, okay, but we're talking about our athletes like how often should they be eating so they're prepared for that practice?

Speaker 2: 9:10

Yeah, let me first say just kudos to you as a coach and I'm sure there's other parent coaches out there. The younger we start, the better. It is If we can just set those kids, with those athletes, with the mindset of coming into practice fueled. Fuel your body so that you are strong and capable and everything else goes into place after that. When we don't fuel our athletes every three to four hours, they're really relying on some stress hormones to kick into gear to help them through practice. And the last thing any high school athlete needs is more stress, right? Really, the last thing any of us need is more stress. We want to be fueling with our athletes at least every three hours, which means if you're having lunch at sometimes in high school they're getting at 1130. Sometimes it's one o'clock, but you just three hours after that we need to be having some snacks. So that can be something that's made ahead of time or it can be a grab and go and then that gets them ready for practice. And, as a coach, if we're just reminding them like, hey, what's your go to snack this week? Or as a parent, we're having those on hand and we're talking to our athletes about that, we just start to change the culture of fueling for performing Every time we eat. This is like when you say what's the foundation here? We want you know. First is the every three hours. Let's just have that as a go-to. Sometimes we fudge that a little bit, right, but every three hours is a good rule of thumb. The next major rule of thumb is every time we eat, except for two circumstances which we could get into later, but that's pretty detailed. Maybe we'll save that for your community.

Speaker 2: 10:51

We want protein, fat and fiber. So we know that the fibers generally are carbohydrate. Right, that's generally our quick energy. But when we're fueling for an hour or two hour practice, like these kids often have, we want to make sure that we have sustainable energy. So a little bit of fiber, some protein, some fat in there really help create sustainable energy for our athletes to tapping into throughout their practice. So if somebody is going from school to training, I like to say how about just peanut butter pretzels, right? Something easy. They're non-perishable, they can stay in your bag. Not that I am affiliated, anyway, but Designer Wellness has these new protein smoothies that are just loved. Every single one of my clients loves them. They're kind of great to have on hand A little bit of protein, some good carbohydrate, a little bit of fat. That's what we need, going into all of our practices, so we can even do things like I don't know a cheese stick and apple. Some of the kids carry those pre-made protein drinks and have some pretzels with that or other crackers with that.

Speaker 2: 12:08

Those are like that's a mindset that we want to get around. So if you're just got a short period of time, you're thinking something fairly small. You don't want to go into practice feeling really heavy, right, but we want it to have some proteins and fats for that sustainable energy the longer we have before that. So the athletes that get to go home and prep some food we can do half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, right. We can do a little chicken taco. We can do something more like some hummus and apples and a little bit of cheese. All those different combinations we can brainstorm in the end if you want, but that's what we're really looking for For the moms that are picking their kids up. We can prep ahead of time which we'll get to a little bit, but like some Turkey and mozzarella cheese roll-ups is one of my favorites through that, with some apples or grapes and your kids ready to go.

Speaker 1: 13:09

Yeah, okay, I love that. Okay, let's go into the tips on prepping. I know him before. You were like meal prep is boring. I'm like, okay, well, I actually like meal prep. Okay, I like just to know because, just because I'm like organized and I want to like, I like to not have to be scrambling around. So what tips do you have for us, like knowing kind of the structure of what these snacks should look like? Yeah, what are some go-to things that moms and dads are listening to can rely on to help prep for this?

Speaker 2: 13:38

So we mentioned some go-to items, of course, having those on hand. So I would say some of the big challenges with meal prep are like, first, knowing what your family needs, and here we are sharing that. Your athlete needs to eat every three hours, so if you think about the day, that's a considerable amount of food. So let's not be shy about it, right? Just know that we have to have that much food on hand at any given time, and the confidence in doing that from the parents level is really important. When we get into a bind, when we start running out of food or it's the same thing over and over again and we realize, oh my gosh, they're not even eating what's in the cupboard anymore. That's where things start to spiral downward, and that's what we don't want, right? We always want the fueling to be almost a habit, like the go-to thing. I'm getting my water bottle ready, I'm getting my snack ready, here's my bag, I'll see you at three, whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Right. So planning that out, knowing that as a parent you've got to have snacks on hand or ingredients for snacks on hand for probably two snacks for your athlete, as well as the breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for five days and then whatever your weekend has in store, so again, the confidence in knowing that just has to be around the other hurdle or challenge or kind of prep that I see is just a conversation with your athlete about what they want and what they're interested in helping with or organizing for themselves. We can start that at a really young age. So our elementary school kids can be doing energy balls all on their own right. Our middle school kids can be rolling ham and cheese, putting them in a serving size Ziploc bag or making a trail mix and putting in the bag. Anytime your athlete helps create these snacks, helps plan them, helps put them on the grocery list, they're going to be more inclined to get them ready, eat them, etc.

Speaker 2: 15:57

It's a lot more rewarding for everyone involved when they have that buy-in.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Yeah, that was my next question. Well, I mean, you can go on with more, but it was like what about these picky eaters that are like I don't wanna eat this and that Is that kind of the number one tip is get them involved in it.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Absolutely get them involved in it. And you know what? Things on sticks, things rolled up and things that you can dip are tons more fun than anything else. Yeah, okay, things on sticks right, so it can be a skewer of whatever you want. It can be toothpicks into melon and mozzarella balls, whatever. If they make it and it's on a little skewer and a stick, they love it. Same idea.

Speaker 2: 16:43

And then, as the adult that's helping the mom or dad or older sister, older brother, is doing a double check, okay, you want apples? I love that. That's your carbohydrate, that's your fiber. What else can we add to that that gives us a little bit of protein and fat? Just that. Dialogue with them. Help them be creative. If they want a cheese stick with it every time, great, because in two weeks they're not, or two months maybe they're not. They can change that up to some almonds, I don't know. Let them choose, but guide them in this conversation. The time spent in the front of all this, talking about it, creating that base and that knowledge of just go to we got to fuel for practice, will pay off tenfold.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think you're educating beyond just like, okay, you need to have an apple and a cheese stick or you need to do this, and that it's like checking the boxes on, like, okay, you need to have an apple and a cheese stick or you need to do this. Not, it's like checking the boxes on like, okay, is there protein here? Is there fat here? Is there fiber here?

Speaker 2: 17:44

Yeah, yeah, and explaining to them why. Right, so then they can come home and be like, oh my gosh, I was so hungry I could like I could hardly see straight and they might not say that, but having them be in tune with what their body needs is kind of that's the empowerment that we want through all this, right.

Speaker 1: 18:05

Yeah, I mean kind of a tangent on that. It's so important. Like I know moms and dads that are listening you're like yeah, I know it's important, but I'll tell you like how this impacts kids and their confidence too. Because if they're not feeling properly for the demands of practice and then they're feeling weak and then they're not performing well, or I've had athletes were like I feel like I can't run dizzy and this, and I'm like what was the last time you ate? Okay, but then their confidence also is impacted in that because they're not always connecting their performance to that they didn't feel properly or they didn't eat, they're just like I guess I suck, and then they're starting to like go down this path of like negative self-talk and all of these things and like literally, that could have been solved with a snack, like a snack that you planned ahead of time and you packed, and so I mean it is really important, like this small thing is huge for us.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Absolutely. I mean, and you hit on it we're really empowering them to feel in control of their body. So you're in control of how you feel, showing up to practice.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Mm. Hmm, yeah, absolutely Okay. So having them kind of plan ahead as parent, make sure we've got like some options on hand, include them in the decision making when it comes to that, I think that's all really great. I would love to move in I know this is kind of more on like the parent side of it but like what do you do in a busy sports season when it's like grab and go, even like dinner, like we don't even have time in our four-month season, like we eat as a family probably like only two times a week? It's that some weeks and so like how do you, what are some good tips on how to navigate that so that we're not just going to like talk about every night or chipotle?

Speaker 1: 19:39

I mean not that those are things are bad, but like I don't want to spend the whole season doing that, yeah, absolutely, first off, nothing bad, right, we're all just doing the best we can with what we've got.

Speaker 2: 19:49

So if you've got 10 minutes, that's what it is, but let's see what we can boost, what can we add into. And I so, for your listeners, I love performance nutrition because I love empowering kids and families, and I love the physiology part, what nutrients do to our body and therefore what we can do with our body. Right, I am not a chef, do not love cooking, so I always I'll give you guys the easy way out, right, how about some batch cooked chicken breast, chicken thighs. Fill up a lasagna pan with them at the beginning of the week, and also fill up a lasagna pan with chopped up, diced or sliced peppers and onions. Now you have some. Go to vegetables and go to protein. That you can literally walk in the kitchen and you've got some food ready for your family. You know is healthy, you know that it'll nourish you and you. There you have your protein, your fiber. We can also batch cook our rice or farro or quinoa or whatever your family prefers. So then that is ready to go. It's pretty easy to throw together a quick fajita bowl with rice on the bottom, some beans out of a can. You've already cooked your chicken and your peppers and onions, right? It's in the fridge. So wrapping that is the challenge, right? Like putting it on the grocery list, shopping for it, chopping it all up whatever, and my hints to that are really whatever works for your family, but being up whatever, and my hints to that are really whatever works for your family, but being intentional about it.

Speaker 2: 21:29

So, taking the time to plan and it sounds like it's a lot for most people. You said you love it. Maybe some people love it, but some people, some parents, love the alone time, right? So it's Monday night. I never did it on Sunday because I didn't want the weekends to end. Yeah, I always taught. Yeah, so I like to do it on Mondays. It's Monday night. I am just going to take my time. I'm going to go to the grocery store, I'm going to prep all this, I'm going to cook all this. This is what I'm doing. Other parents love to involve the kids, right? So who's going to help me chop? We're doing this as like together time on Sunday whatever it is whatever works for your family.

Speaker 2: 22:12

Have that intentionally planned out and then it's just part of the routine, right? It's just what happens on Sunday night or what happens on Monday night. I think that makes it really helpful. I also suggest people tend to get really excited about it and carried away and I'll say, hey, how about just one new recipe every week, not diving into Pinterest and loving it and like the first week and a half.

Speaker 2: 22:43

You're all in and then it dies out. Just pick one one a week, pick two recipes that you've done before, pick one crock pot or instapot recipe and there you go. It seems much more doable at this right at that rate, keeping our goals, expectations in check, yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Okay.

Speaker 2: 23:05

So that might've been a long answer for some of those go-to prep cook things right. So, like the baked chicken or grilled chicken, the onions, the peppers, your grain, that you can just have ready in advance. Yeah, I also love chopping up mushrooms, onions, peppers, some broccoli, so that anytime that you can sprinkle in a little more vegetable, go for it. Even if you're picking up a meal and you already have a mason jar full of cut up broccoli, you can steam that real quick and you've taken your pickup meal to a whole new level.

Speaker 1: 23:43

Yeah, okay, these are really good. Let's talk a specific scenario. Your kid has an away game. I'm going to throw, I'm going to throw some arrows at you.

Speaker 1: 23:55

Okay, your kid has an away game that they're taking a bus to after school. So the bus leaves at four o'clock but they don't play until seven and the game is like 30 minutes away. You work, and so it's like you're not really there with them until maybe right before the game. What do we do there? They need to eat dinner. It needs to be probably bigger than a snack, but they need to be ready to go fueled for their seven o'clock game and then we're going to fuel afterwards. I'm assuming two. What do you do in that situation?

Speaker 2: 24:25

Maybe they're eating on the bus.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Okay, yeah, is that allowed? Oh, I guess that depends. Maybe not, but they'll probably be like getting to the school with enough time to eat something before their game. They'll be watching for us. It's like they watch the JV game or the C team game, or something.

Speaker 2: 24:40

We're going to be busy in the afternoon. We're probably not going to meet our caloric intake, is not going to meet our right. We know that. We're going to front load the beginning. Okay, yeah, good idea, yeah, we're working all the way back to breakfast, right? Yeah, we're gonna do our best in the evening, but we definitely need this is the coaching I do with my athletes, right?

Speaker 2: 25:04

Yeah this is the coaching I do with my athletes, right, yeah, we need to look at starting the day well fueled. So what could that look like? What do we have time for there? What can we prep even the night before so that we've got a good breakfast, so that we've packed our lunch, etc. Etc. Right, okay, drilling into more of what you were probably going for, what kind of thing can we take on the bus with us or have ready?

Speaker 2: 25:28

A sandwich is fine. If you're playing at seven, can you eat a half or three quarters of a sandwich before you play? Each athlete's different, but probably maybe you can eat half a sandwich, but then have some of those quick energy snacks, like the little squeezy pouches. You know what I'm saying. A piece of fruit, some grapes as the pre-game fuel? Yeah, right, so that's an option. How about a pasta salad with some chicken in it, not too many veggies, but easy to, very portable, can be cool in the morning, average temperature by the time you get on the bus and you're probably fine, right, so that's some good protein, some great carbohydrate, a little bit of fat to slow the release of blood sugar, to give us sustainable energy, etc. And then you have that pregame snack because we always want that pregame snack just a little shot of carbohydrate to make sure that our muscle glycogen stores are topped off, our liver is topped off and we're ready to perform for an entire game or time match, right.

Speaker 1: 26:37

Yeah, okay, that's good. So I mean kind of the theme throughout is if we could just plan a little bit like know when those moments are where we're like, okay, we're going to be on the bus. We need to make sure it's feeling starting at breakfast.

Speaker 2: 26:49

Yeah. And another thing is just asking the athlete a lot Are you going to be comfortable eating on the bus? Are you going to be comfortable eating when you get to the school? Some are, and so then the parent, having that knowledge, can really help them brainstorm what they can bring with them and where they can load their fueling right If you're not going to be all that comfortable beforehand. High nerves, you're new on the team, maybe you're a freshman, whatever it is, well, we need to really boost up lunch, yeah, yeah, and we probably need more smaller snacks. So then we get the cheese and meat roll ups, because you're not going to be comfortable just eating a whole sandwich, or maybe you are, and then that's great, that's easier.

Speaker 1: 27:41

Great tips. Well, Lisa, we've covered a lot, I think, a lot that can get people going, get people thinking about how we can accomplish this and get through our seasons while also being well-fueled and making sure we're taking care of our athletes. So can you give us a little more info on you know how our listeners can work with you, what resources you have out there for athletes or moms themselves? Just kind of fill us in there.

Speaker 2: 28:05

Yeah, absolutely. I work with teams, with families and with individual athletes, and you guys can find me everything's all the same Lisa Spencer Nutrition. So Facebook, instagram and my website. If you're listening here, just reach out, let me know that you're listening and you'll get a free 20 minute consultation. I'd love to just connect and be able to help you take your athlete to the next level on their fueling journey. Yeah, Cool.

Speaker 1: 28:32

Okay, that's very gracious of you to offer that Great. Okay, lisa, this has been awesome, and we can't wait also to have you back in our community to be talking with athletes, so I will see you very soon. Thank you very much.