If you train regularly, eat “well,” and still feel like your body isn’t responding the way it should, this is something that should be on your radar. Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a common thing I see in clinic and even though it’s more well known now than years ago, most people aren’t sure how to assess if it’s something that is affecting them. It can be tricky as it’s not extreme, not always intentional and it can affect the weekend warrior just as easily as it can affect an elite athlete. What is RED-S? RED-S occurs when the body doesn’t have enough energy available to support both exercise and normal physiological function. It was once known as the Female Athlete Triad, which focused on: We now know ...
Tart Cherry Juice: The Natural Sleep and Recovery Booster for Active Women and Perimenopause
Tart Cherry Juice: A Natural Support for Sleep, Recovery, and Inflammation If you’ve ever found yourself tossing and turning at night or waking up feeling sore and tired after training, tart cherry juice could be for you. Poor sleep, muscle soreness, and lingering fatigue are common complaints among both athletes and women navigating perimenopause. But what if something as simple as a glass of tart cherry juice could help? Tart cherry juice, especially from Montmorency cherries, has been studied for its benefits on sleep, recovery, inflammation, and even heart health. It’s one of those small, evidence-based tweaks that can make a noticeable difference to how you feel and perform. Natural Melatonin for Better Sleep Tart ...
Gut Friendly Bliss Balls
These bliss balls aren’t just a tasty snack – they’re designed to give your gut microbes a little love. The nuts, seeds, and fruits inside are rich in soluble fibre, which acts like fuel for your beneficial bacteria. When these microbes ferment soluble fibre, they produce short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, which keep your gut lining healthy, support your immune system, and even help regulate inflammation. We’ve also loaded these balls with ingredients high in ellagic acid (from berries and nuts) and other polyphenols (like those found in green tea or cacao). These plant compounds act as powerful antioxidants and are metabolised by gut bacteria into smaller, bioactive compounds that benefit not only the gut, but also brain, heart, ...
Maximise Your Race: The DIY Sweat Test for Athletes
Nailing your nutrition and staying hydrated is like rocket fuel for your performance. However, we are all very different when it comes to hydration, genetics, build and ethnicity all have different sweat rates. That's why the sweat test is your secret weapon to fine-tune your race day nutrition plan. I'm here to show you how to do your own sweat test so you can rock your runs and rides. Firstly, you want to do the test on a day with the same temperature and humidity to your race day, this will give you the best results & accuracy for race day. Let's Go! This is what you need to do: Now for the maths to calculate your sweat rate: Sweat Rate (L/hr) = (Pre-workout weight - Post-workout weight + Fluid Intake) / Workout ...
Be a Marathon Rockstar: Fuel Your Success from Start to Finish
I work with a range of running levels from novice to the well-seasoned ultra-athlete. This blog has information for all runners; however, it is intended for the newer marathon runners. I ran my first half marathon with no knowledge of running, nutrition or recovery. I went in 100%, I trained at 100%, every run was at effort, I thought if I ran every run as fast as I could, I would naturally start to run faster, wow, was I wrong! I was under fuelling, not intentionally, I truly believed I was eating well at the time. I trained with an old school phone (way before owning a Garmin) that shouted out when I had hit another “k” that I for some strange reason decided to not take to the event. This all led to a bucket load of excitement at the ...
Is Breakfast Really the Superstar?
Breakfast has often been referred to as the most important meal of the day and for pretty good reason. It’s a common story in clinic for patients to experience afternoon energy crashes, sugar cravings, fatigue, difficulty meeting protein goals and binging throughout the day. For many people it can be as simple as starting the day fuelling the body with the right nutrition. Eating a balanced breakfast that includes all three macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) can help stabilise blood sugar, help with meeting protein goals, sustained energy throughout the day, performing better, less injury and not getting sick, sounds pretty good right? Breakfast is especially important for people experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned, ...
7 Benefits of Creatine Supplementation for Lean Muscle & Perimenopause
Creatine is a supplement I talk about often in consults with my perimenopause clients and clients wishing to gain lean mass and currently undertake resistance training. I realised I haven’t included a social post, which is not helpful for those of you reading here and not yet working with me directly! What is it? It’s an amino acid made up of glycine, methionine, and arginine. which you can gain from diet (meat & fish) or via supplementation. Increasing creatine intake increases phosphocreatine levels. Why is this important? When we exercise, we use ATP, when this runs out the body builds its own ATP, which we do this better at rest. We use phosphocreatine to build ATP, so if you have additional stores, you can make ATP a little ...
Red Witch Immune Tea
Supporting the immune system via food has been in place for centuries and there are simple ways to do this here and now in 2022, shocking, I know :) Supplementation holds a valuable place in supporting the immune system and easing symptoms, however, it is important to know you can't out supplement a bad diet! This tea is a great one to sip on at the first sign of cold, flu, or viral symptoms. Ingredients 2 cups boiling water1 fresh lemon, sliced3 cloves garlic, crushed2 tsp apple cider vinegar2 tsp fresh ginger, grated1 tsp fresh turmeric, grated1 pinch cayenne pepperSweeten with raw honey or Manuka honey Add all ingredients (excluding ginger & turmeric) into a saucepan and bring to a boil with the lid on. Simmer for 5 ...
Can health be packaged into a convenience product?
Can health be conveniently packaged into a product we buy off the shelf? No. Health is multifactorial and essentially, we often need to make changes to improve health. The old “doing the same thing produces the same results” is kind of true. Health requires change. Change can be hard and we tend to make changes when the current reality becomes too uncomfortable. Change can be initiated from a health diagnosis, mental health decline, job change, meeting new people, being inspired by others, so many factors that can initiate change. And change is constant, we grow, we learn and we change I turn 47 this week. I used to be well known for celebrating “birthday month”, however, this has toned down a little over the years. Perhaps age and ...
Coco-Green Smoothie
Smoothies can be an alternative way to increase your vegetable intake if you are finding it hard to increase vegetables in the morning. They also can be a great option post-workout/long runs when your digestive is not quite ready for whole foods and you need to refuel, this is particularly important if a second session is scheduled for later in the day. Adding vegetables to your smoothies increases the nutrient profile in the meal and also over the day. Remember to chew your smoothies - sounds odd right? Slowing down and chewing allows time for digestion to work as it should, this is super important if you tend to experience bloating. Ingredients 1 small lebanese cucumber30-40g vanilla protein powder1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple1 ...
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