As a Sports Dietitian for NCAA, professional, and recreational athletes alike, I know how powerful nutrition can be. I also know how quickly a female athlete ca...
207. Supporting Female Athletes' Mental Health and Performance with Therapist and Former NCAA Athlete Olivia Papakyrikos
This episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast is with mental health therapist and former NCAA field hockey player Olivia Papakyrikos. Olivia specializes in athletes’ mental health, sport psychology and eating disorders. We start off by discussing our own experiences with mindset challenges as former athletes, including navigating injuries and identity shifts as we moved away from competitive sports. Olivia shares how she helps athletes overcome challenges such as eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and injury recovery to perform better in sports and life. We highlight some of the social pressures high school and college athletes face that make them particularly susceptible. Team culture, coaches and available resources all also impact athletes’ mental health, and seeking professional support from therapists like Olivia can make a big difference on performance and wellbeing.
Olivia is also heavily involved in the Female Athlete Conference, helping to elevate female athlete health and research. We speak to the huge lack of research into female athletes and knowledge gaps, such as the impact of the menstrual cycle on performance and mental health. We finish off with the usual end of the podcast questions, and recommend you check out the Female Athlete Conference here!
TOPIC TIMESTAMPS:
4:20 How sports psychology helped Olivia as an injured athlete
7:50 The importance of embracing different identities and being more than an athlete
15:00 Recovery processes and timelines for treating eating disorders, injuries, performance anxiety and more
19:45 The impact of social pressures faced by high school and college athletes
25:00 Supporting athletes’ mental health: coaches, resources and outsourcing professional support
29:45 Female Athlete Conference and the lack of research in female athletes
33:10 Understanding the impact of the menstrual cycle on performance and mental health
38:15 End of the podcast questions
Find Olivia at oliviapapakyrikos.com
Follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviapapakyrikos and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, @female.athlete.nutrition
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL LIST: https://riseupnutrition.activehosted.com/f/6
Check out our NEW website with resources, blogs, and more: www.FemaleAthleteNutritionPodcast.com
Join our amazing "FANS": Female Athlete Nutrition Supporters by considering a contribution of just $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/femaleathletenutrition
Health Practitioner or Dietitian? Check out ThatCleanLife for recipes & meal planning software:
https://get.thatcleanlife.com/femaleathletenutrition
Check out more brand partners and affiliates at: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/affiliatepartners
We are so grateful to our FANS and listeners! I hope you enjoy the episode.
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43:45
206. Nutrition for Ironman Triathlons + Sustained Elite Performance with Dede Griesbauer
Trigger warning for talk of disordered eating behaviors and weight control. Feel free to skip this episode or fast-forward from 34:00 to 43:45.
This episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast is with professional Ironman triathlete Dede Griesbauer. Dede shares her remarkable story from an NCAA DI swimming career to working on Wall Street. Over a decade later, she returned to competitive sport and became a professional Ironman triathlete aged 35. At 52 years old, Dede won the Ultraman World Championships, a multi-day triathlon event, and is still performing at an elite level now. We discuss tips for career longevity and how Dede has maintained her health and love for sport throughout.
Dede’s events, Ironman and Ultraman triathlons, are long endurance events requiring considerable fuel before, during and after training and racing. We dive deep into fueling during exercise, comparing real food and sports nutrition products like gels and chews, creating a fueling plan, and problem solving GI issues. Dede shares advice for meeting your nutrition needs on a busy schedule, as well as how she uses food trackers to her benefit. We highlight how, with the support of a professional, trackers can support performance nutrition goals. This is not something I recommend my clients do because the risk of negative impacts is too high. Dede opens up about the negative food, body and weight messaging she received in college, and how her mindset has totally shifted to not monitor her weight, instead fueling for health and performance.
TOPIC TIMESTAMPS:
5:15 Returning to competitive sports as a master’s athlete
8:35 Finding Ironman triathlon
10:30 Becoming World Champion aged 52 after turning pro at 35
12:20 Tips for career longevity in elite sports
16:10 Female vs male performance differences
18:20 Increasing opportunities for women in sport post-college
21:40 What is an Ironman and an Ultraman triathlon?
24:35 Nutrition for an Ironman vs Ultraman; sports fuel vs real food; problem solving GI issues in races
28:00 Fueling with sports nutrition products vs “real food”
32:30 Daily vs performance nutrition
34:00 Shifts in fueling, weight and performance mindsets over time; Dede’s NCAA swimming experience 35 years ago
35:45 Uncoupling weight and performance; food is fuel
38:50 Dede’s current nutrition habits to fuel elite performance
39:55 Using food trackers and numbers to help performance
43:45 Performance supporting habits outside of training
47:00 Tips for fueling with a busy schedule
51:25 End of the podcast questions
For more on food tracking, check out Episode 146: Nutrition Apps + Fitness Trackers: Helpful or Hurtful?
Find Dede at dedegriesbauer.com
Follow on Dede Instagram @dedegriesbauer and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, @female.athlete.nutrition
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL LIST: https://riseupnutrition.activehosted.com/f/6
Check out our NEW website with resources, blogs, and more: www.FemaleAthleteNutritionPodcast.com
Join our amazing "FANS": Female Athlete Nutrition Supporters by considering a contribution of just $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/femaleathletenutrition
Health Practitioner or Dietitian? Check out ThatCleanLife for recipes & meal planning software:
https://get.thatcleanlife.com/femaleathletenutrition
Check out more brand partners and affiliates at: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/affiliatepartners
We are so grateful to our FANS and listeners! I hope you enjoy the episode.
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58:18
205. New Year Updates + Diet Trends with Lindsey Cortes, RDN
Happy New Year! This is a solo episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast with me, your host, Lindsey Cortes. Instead of fad diets and quick fixes, we’re talking about health-promoting changes and real life transformations. That’s why I start this episode with some exciting updates! Firstly, Rise Up Nutrition is back! I’m now taking clients looking for nutrition support to achieve their highest athletic performance. I’m expanding my offerings beyond the female athlete and RED-S spaces, open to helping anyone level up their fueling. Get in touch today!
Secondly, I share that I have begun writing a book, hoping to share healthy fueling tips with a wider audience. And it wouldn’t be the New Year without talking about health and fitness! I get ahead of some expected 2025 trends: high fiber and protein diets, plant-based proteins, GLP1 agonists like ozempic, personalized nutrition, intermittent fasting and more. I take a little longer to discuss affordable nutrition, with tips for eating well on a budget.
TOPIC TIMESTAMPS:
6:10 I’m writing a book! The story behind the book and how it’s going
11:35 Goal setting framework for 2025
15:10 Expected food trends for 2025: fiber, plant-based proteins, affordable food
18:15 Eating well on a budget
20:50 Food trends continued: GLP1, high protein diets, personalized nutrition, intermittent fasting
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL LIST: https://riseupnutrition.activehosted.com/f/6
Check out our NEW website with resources, blogs, and more: www.FemaleAthleteNutritionPodcast.com
Join our amazing "FANS": Female Athlete Nutrition Supporters by considering a contribution of just $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/femaleathletenutrition
Health Practitioner or Dietitian? Check out ThatCleanLife for recipes & meal planning software:
https://get.thatcleanlife.com/femaleathletenutrition
Check out more brand partners and affiliates at: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/affiliatepartners
We are so grateful to our FANS and listeners! I hope you enjoy the episode.
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29:13
204. Your Diet (+ Social Media Influencers) Sucks with Zoë Rom & Kylee Van Horn
This episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast is with two special guests, Zoë Rom and Kylee Van Horn. Zoë and Kylee cohost the Your Diet Sucks podcast, a new show debunking diet culture and nutrition misinformation. Zoë Rom is the Editor-in-Chief of Trail Runner magazine, entrepreneur with her own Microcosm Coaching business, author of Becoming a Sustainable Runner, accomplished ultrarunner, journalist, comedian and more! While Kylee Van Horn is a Registered Dietitian and founder of Fly Nutrition, writer, lifelong runner and coach.
Our discussion today is all about the dangers of social media influencers. We explore how social media and unqualified influencers are shaping (and often distorting) the way female athletes approach their nutrition, body image, and training. No one is immune to influencers –myself, Zoë and Kylee included– and we share why people are “influenced”, the rise of young girls wanting to become influencers, and where athletes fit into this. Supplements are a particular area of concern we dive into, explaining how a lack of regulation and scientific support allows influencers and supplement companies to run wild with marketing claims for expensive and potentially dangerous products. We give listeners tips for discerning fact from diet fad, finding experts over influencers, avoiding falling for fantastical supplement claims, and cultivating a healthy social media experience.
TOPIC TIMESTAMPS:
4:30 Your Diet Sucks podcast; Zoë and Kylee’s backgrounds
10:30 Being “influenced” by social media; why we get “influenced”
17:45 Supplements on social media: how influencers are selling fake, unscientific and unsafe claims
21:05 Responsible and ethical social media marketing and use; deciphering good and bad messages
25:50 Athletes as influencers and athletic endorsement
28:30 Mental health and social media use
31:00 Social media pressures
34:30 Using social media safely and for good
36:35 Who to trust? The blurred lines between experts and influencers
40:20 Tips for separating experts from influencers and not falling for misinformation/ untruths
47:00 How women and men consume media differently
53:30 End of the podcast questions
For more just like this, check out this episode of Your Diet Sucks: The Dangers of Social Media and Influencers in the Nutrition Space and Zoë’s Athletic Cheese reel
Listen to the Your Diet Sucks podcast here!
Follow on Zoë Instagram @carrot_flowers_z Kylee Your Diet Sucks @yourdietsuckspod and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, @female.athlete.nutrition
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL LIST: https://riseupnutrition.activehosted.com/f/6
Check out our NEW website with resources, blogs, and more: www.FemaleAthleteNutritionPodcast.com
Join our amazing "FANS": Female Athlete Nutrition Supporters by considering a contribution of just $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/femaleathletenutrition
Health Practitioner or Dietitian? Check out ThatCleanLife for recipes & meal planning software:
https://get.thatcleanlife.com/femaleathletenutrition
Check out more brand partners and affiliates at: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/affiliatepartners
We are so grateful to our FANS and listeners! I hope you enjoy the episode.
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1:00:42
203. Heat Training 101 + Her Strength Support for Girls with Julia Casadio
This episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast is with sports physiologist Julia Casadio. Julia’s work includes helping Olympic athletes prepare to compete in the heat, as well as educating coaches, parents, and athletes involved in youth female sport.
We dive straight into Julia’s area of expertise: heat training. She talks about the what, why, how, and when to heat train for both professional and everyday athletes. This includes differentiating between acclimation and acclimatization, passive and active heat training, and strategies we can all implement. Julia talks about helping Olympians prepare to compete in the heat, as well as easy heat training protocols we can do ourselves. Julia highlights differences in how women and men should heat train, variance in sweat rate between genders, as well as the influence of the menstrual cycle on temperature and fluid regulation.
We talk about Julia’s most recent project: Her Strength, an online learning platform for coaches, parents, and athletes involved in youth female sport. Julia speaks to the importance of educating coaches working with adolescent female athletes on a variety of topics: female puberty and sport, health, nutrition, training and recovery optimisation, and psychological considerations. We discuss the impact of puberty on performance, normalizing plateaus and body changes, and how working with your body as it changes results in better long term performance. We give listeners tips for improving performance through puberty without controlling your body and food. Julia answers the end of the podcast questions and shares her plans for future athlete- and parent-focused resources on Her Strength.
TOPIC TIMESTAMPS:
3:30 Heat training 101: what, why, when, and how; heat training protocols and strategies
9:45 Heat training for the everyday athletes
11:40 Adaptations and benefits of heat training
14:30 Sweat differences in female athletes; the impact of the menstrual cycle on temperature regulation
16:30 Her Strength: supporting young athletes
21:05 The importance of educating coaches on female athletes
26:10 Understanding puberty challenges: body changes and performance plateaus
29:00 Improving performance through puberty
34:05 Her Strength’s online course for coaches and parents; future resources for athletes
36:40 End of the podcast questions
Check out Her Strength.
Follow Her Strength on Instagram @_herstrength.co_ and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, @female.athlete.nutrition
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL LIST: https://riseupnutrition.activehosted.com/f/6
Check out our NEW website with resources, blogs, and more: www.FemaleAthleteNutritionPodcast.com
Join our amazing "FANS": Female Athlete Nutrition Supporters by considering a contribution of just $5 a month: https://www.patreon.com/femaleathletenutrition
Health Practitioner or Dietitian? Check out ThatCleanLife for recipes & meal planning software:
https://get.thatcleanlife.com/femaleathletenutrition
Check out more brand partners and affiliates at: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/affiliatepartners
We are so grateful to our FANS and listeners! I hope you enjoy the episode.
As a Sports Dietitian for NCAA, professional, and recreational athletes alike, I know how powerful nutrition can be. I also know how quickly a female athlete can fall into the trap of disordered eating, under fueling, or amenorrhea which severely limits their health and physical potential. That’s why I’m sharing my knowledge of female-specific nutrition, training, body image, and mindset to help you fuel your body to perform at your highest level. Whether you are looking for a competitive edge with your nutrition training and mindset, or looking to overcome harmful nutrition habits and body acceptance, you’ve come to the right place!