Supporting Your Girl Athlete Through Puberty + Beyond w/ Dr. Lisa Spencer

If you’re a parent or coach of a girl athlete, you know that puberty brings a whole new set of challenges. It can be tough to know how to best support them when their bodies and emotions are all over the place. That’s why I’m excited to have Dr. Lisa Spencer, a certified nutritionist who specializes in working with female athletes, on the podcast today. We’re going to dive into all those big puberty changes and how they impact our girls on and off the field.

What’s Covered

• The major body changes that happen during puberty
• How to support athletes with fluctuating energy levels and appetites
• Understanding the different phases of the menstrual cycle
• Strategies for optimizing performance during different cycle phases
• When to seek professional help for irregular cycles or potential RED-S

Ready to dive deeper and learn how to empower your girl athlete? Listen to the full episode for even more insights and practical advice from Dr. Lisa Spencer!

Come hang out with Lisa on social @‌lisaspencernutrition and learn more about working with her!

For Guest Interview Email: lisa@lisaspencernutrition.com

Episode Highlights: 

[00:00] Puberty and menstrual cycles in female athletes with a mental performance coach. Dr. Lisa Spencer discusses changes in girl athletes’ bodies during puberty and menstrual cycles, and how to support them.

[03:35] Puberty and menstruation changes in athletes, how to support girls during this time. Insights on supporting girls through puberty and menstruation.

[07:58] Puberty changes in girls, including physical and emotional changes, and how parents can support their daughters during this time.

[14:09] Menstrual cycles and their phases, with a focus on symptoms and how to optimize them. An overview of the menstrual cycle’s phases, including the follicular, ovulation, and luteal phases.

[18:54] Tracking menstrual cycles to optimize athletic performance. Hormonal changes during menstruation can affect athletic performance, hydration, and perceived exertion.

[25:09] Female athletes’ menstrual cycles and nutrition. The importance of being aware of the female athlete’s menstrual cycle and how it affects their performance and susceptibility to injury.

Next Steps:

• Join our FREE Training for Sports Moms - How to Strengthen Your Athlete Daughter's Mental Game so She Believes in Herself as Much as You Do
• Visit our podcast website for more great episodes

Thank you in advance for joining us on our mission and leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

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 am thrilled that you are here Today. We have a special guest, dr Lisa Spencer, talking all about the changes that are happening in our girl athletes as they're going through puberty and throughout their menstrual cycles, and how we can best support them. I think this topic is so important because I don't know what your experience was like, but mine as an athlete, when I was going through puberty and getting my menstrual cycle, was confusing. There were things happening to my body that I didn't really understand why. There wasn't a lot of education around it, at least that I was privy to understanding, so just kind of went through it, and I think that we can really change the narrative for our girls and really help support them better. And also, if you're like me, you have a girl athlete the whole reason why you're listening to this podcast and you probably are wondering how you can best support her as she's going through the very important changes that happen in her body through puberty, and Dr Lisa Spencer is going to be describing what those are and how we can optimize this window of time that she has as she's going through puberty and what that means for her bone density and just some other important changes that are happening, and then also how we can support them during the different phases of her menstrual cycle, when she's experiencing some different things in her body her mood, her hormones and how we can just help support her so that she can thrive during all phases of her cycle. So she goes over a lot. We cover a lot inside this episode and I cannot wait for you to dive in Now.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Before we do, I want to give us a shout out to a mom in our community. Her name is Laura. She posted this in our community the other day. She said my daughter is 11, plays soccer. I can't tell you how many times I've actually wanted to just pull the plug due to her crying and fighting with us. I have really changed the way I approach things with her and we've had an entire week without any crying or arguments. She also sent me this text message last night and there's a screenshot of a text that her daughter sent her saying this I use the thing that I've been working on in practice, like the deep breath, and I say my reset word, I do my signal with my finger, and it really helped. I did not get frustrated. What she's talking about is her snapback routine that she learned inside the elite mental game. So congratulations, laura, and also to your daughter, for applying these skills, and also Laura for changing your approach, because that makes all the difference too. That's really where we see these wins happening, so can't wait to continue to hear from you and how things go throughout the program.

Speaker 1: 2:15

All right, let's dive into this episode with Dr Lisa Spencer. Lisa is a certified nutritionist specializing in empowering the female athlete through fueling for performance. We actually had Dr Lisa inside our community of moms going through the elite mental game, so we have a monthly zoom call together and we bring in a guest speaker, and Dr Lisa was our guest speaker. So she did a deep dive on this topic and moms got to ask her all sorts of questions on specifics around puberty and menstrual cycle, and I'm really excited to have her on the podcast now where she can give you a high level understanding of what's going on and some general recommendations for how to best support your athlete. So I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Dr Lisa, and I will see you in the next episode. Welcome, lisa to the Raising Elite Competitors podcast. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Yes, I am excited because we recently obviously had you inside our community to do a deeper dive into this topic of puberty and menstrual cycles, and so now we're bringing some of this knowledge to the podcast. What you shared inside our community was so insightful and the questions that you were answering from our moms was amazing, so we're excited to. I'm excited to dive into this, but before we do, can you just give us an overview of what you do and how you work with athletes?

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, great. I was a multi-sport athlete through life, through college and beyond, and then I was a professor of education and school counseling. So I combined the two and I work with individuals, families, as well as teams, teams and small groups of athletes that want to improve their performance. Become empowered just through learning about their own physiology and then how to fuel for performance.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Amazing. I love that. Okay, well, we are talking specifically today about puberty and menstrual cycles, all of these good things that happen to our girl athletes that have happened to us as moms too, but sometimes we forget like what happened during that time and how can we support our girls as they're going through so really important and I know you have a lot to share, so we'll get right into it.

Speaker 1: 4:14

First of all, so we have a range of listeners who have athletes who are on the younger end. So they are going to be going through puberty within the next couple of years, or either they're going through it right now. So can you chat a little bit about the changes that are happening during puberty with our athletes and how we can support them?

Speaker 2: 4:34

I would love to share all this. I think what's so hard for parents is that we didn't talk a lot about puberty and menstruation when we were growing up and now it's a little bit more accepted to talk about it. We see some of the pro athletes talking about it or mentioning how their performance or their training has changed a little bit based on their cycle, and the more we know about it, the more each individual knows about how their body is working, just the more in control and empowered they are. So yeah, the first part is a lot of change, puberty, a lot of different things are happening. Not only well, we all know it's hormonal, but those hormones change your physiology in so many ways. We change our bone structure.

Speaker 1: 5:19

We change our cue angle.

Speaker 2: 5:20

We change. So that means everything in sport how a girl runs, how she might kick the ball, how her strokes are in swimming all of that changes as she goes through puberty and that's frustrating, especially when we don't tell the girls hey, this is going on your body's, yes, you feel out of control because your body actually is changing. It's not the same as it was a year ago. So with all of these big structural as well as hormonal and metabolic changes driven by hormones, things start to feel a little out of control for girls and unfortunately that's where we see a lot of girls either plateauing or not feeling comfortable in their body and leaving sport, which is just unfortunate for the girls, the families and society at large. Really, yeah, teaching the girls that this is going to happen as you hit puberty. The other big thing that we talk about as we get older is bone density, bone mineral density, and 25% of your bone mineral density occurs in the four years around puberty, and so that doesn't seem like a big deal to our 12 year old athletes, but as parents we know how important that is. As we get older, in reflection, we can see it's really important to the health of the athlete in their teens and 20s, warding off any kinds of stress factor injuries or breaks of the bones. So we need those bones to be nice and dense and we need to take great care of them in order to have an injury free season as the girls progress in their sport.

Speaker 2: 7:07

Free season as the girls progress in their sport. So I like to encourage around that time. I like to really encourage vitamin D, vitamin C, our omegas, calcium, of course, and then also some plyometrics. Let's strengthen those bones. These are just natural activities that our girls can be taking part in. It can be fun, right, do jump rope, like go to the trampoline, like run around a little bit. But we need to encourage this behavior as well as the healthy fueling during this time.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Yeah, oh, so important. I love that you led with how we talk about this time, because I also was one that, like my mom, didn't really talk about it at all Like the changes that were happening in my body and that's not like to her fault, that's how it was when she was growing up too. It was just kind of this taboo thing. But I noticed it as an athlete and I'm like why did things feel weird and like, yeah, there's just so much going on. So I think even talking about it can help relieve some of that like well, this is normal. Some of that like well, this is normal. Well, you know, what you're going through is normal and these are the changes you're going to be expecting, and so I want to put a pin in that and actually just go a little bit deeper. So can you help us know what changes we should be expecting from the girls? So you've mentioned a few things, but how can parents know that their daughter is like starting puberty, going through puberty and what's like the window again?

Speaker 2: 8:30

can you give us like the age window of when this time is? Yeah, I mean, we're probably looking around 11 to 15 is really the start of puberty. Most girls are going to see their first menses around 15. So we back up about four years to that right, Give or take a couple, six months a year. Part of what you said. The hard part is everyone's different too, right, so we all do this at different rates. Some girls are looking forward to it, Some girls are not looking forward to it right, and it's not really parents' fault.

Speaker 2: 8:56

Not only did we not talk about it during that time, they probably didn't have as much knowledge. So here you are, empowering your parents to empower their daughters. I love it. So what else is going on during that time? Well, is that where the question?

Speaker 1: 9:09

was leading yeah, yeah, like. How can parents, if they're like well, I wonder if she's going through puberty, you know, I wonder what changes should moms really be expecting or noticing to know that this?

Speaker 2: 9:20

is probably we'll see major metabolic changes. So your daughter, who just like, for example, ate three meals a day and a snack, was just happy with what you served at that time. Pretty much you might see phases of really increased metabolism, like she's just really hungry for a couple of weeks, right. Or you might see phases of really not very hungry for a couple of weeks. When they were babies we were much more in tune with this and we recognize this right, and sometimes our pediatricians even walked us through this. Well, we're going to see it at maybe a more exasperated level during puberty, so parents can be aware of that. You're going to see some mood changes.

Speaker 1: 10:00

We really are.

Speaker 2: 10:02

That's natural, it's going to happen. Changes we really are, that's natural, it's going to happen. And you might even pick up a little bit of a pattern, although it's not a hormonal cycle pattern yet. But you might pick up a little bit more of a pattern and we just deal with that with. You know, kid clubs, just patience, understanding. We can see some body changes. Your daughter might just not look as fluid in her sport as she did before and that's a great cue for parents to know things are really changing, her physiology is really changing and at that point in time we sometimes want to back up a little bit and let her get readjusted to her body in different ways, instead of pushing forward in an aggressive programming of the sport.

Speaker 1: 10:46

Okay, that's really good to keep in mind, because there's nothing really that you can do about what might be seen as like the clumsiness that comes with, just like adjusting to the new cue angle and the changes.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Yeah, except be patient for it and know that that's healthy. The fact that that's happening is healthy. So maybe it's a little bit of a reframe of like. We need to go through this so that we can move on to the next stage. This change is the new forever body. Right, the Q angle doesn't go back to the preteen. No hips, we have these hips, they're going to be there, and so the 10 year old that maybe the mom's thinking she's going to play in high school or college, she needs to get used to this new body and develop the structure, the tendon structure, the supportive structure, the muscular structure around this new body.

Speaker 1: 11:38

Yeah, how about weight gain? Because I do hear from parents that their athletes feel like, okay, now I'm gaining weight right now, and then they start to kind of try and adjust that with their eating and get into a tricky situation.

Speaker 2: 11:53

Yeah, very tricky, and maybe even weight gain and less energy. That's just a change in our metabolism driven by hormones. We also are changing where we're going to have our fat deposit. So instead of the whole overall sort of baby fat or evenly distributed that you might see in the eight, nine year olds, it's going to become more that female distribution, which may be more up in the chest or more in the hips and legs. So that's a physiological development that we're not going to change.

Speaker 2: 12:29

Again, helping our daughters understand that this is happening. And what I really like is reflecting on there's so many pro female athletes that are great role models right now and reflecting on them and how they are strong women and they look healthy and they're doing great things like to the sport and for society overall, empowering women and these are women, yeah. So having a role model is often helpful for these girls that are noticing their bodies changing In that, supporting healthy, fueling, supporting your daughter in being energetic. If she's lethargic and tired, she probably is lethargic. She probably really is tired. What we don't want to be doing is encouraging extra, more training to get through this just awkward phase, and noticing that tendency in your daughter might be something to look out for as well.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Okay, that's great, all right. So between those age that window that we have to really bolster the bone density, so we just need to be pumping them with vitamin D. Is that what I'm hearing? Let's not pump anyone with vitamin.

Speaker 2: 13:48

D, let's just be aware Our daughters are getting physical. So having the D checked making sure that's on point, we need that for bone mineralization, right? So definitely calciums. So our dairies or calcium probably not supplements, but it's in most processed foods, it's in all of our you know, our fishes and our dairies. So probably getting a lot of calcium, unless your daughter's on a restricted diet for health concerns, something like that, right? So yeah, good.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Okay, so we have hit kind of this puberty time and just what we can be looking out for and also normalizing what's happening in our girls' bodies, celebrating it. You know, this is actually something that's really great. Anything else to add in the puberty.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Yeah, I think also things I've heard you talk about with your community already so much of validating their feelings like, wow, yeah, this is hard, your entire body is changing. That's right. That's tough. Yeah, that's gotta be hard. It doesn't work like right. That's probably. I think you might say this. It's probably one of the most important things at this time as a mom is not to put it down and to validate how hard it is.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Yeah, yeah, so important to come back to that, just like yep, it is Name skills, yeah, for sure. Okay, so, assuming we can get through puberty which we all will with our girls, now we're moving into potentially more of a regular menstrual cycle. I know it takes a bit for it to become regular, but let's chat because it is, at least in my opinion, has come more into the forefront. Even as an adult, I am way more aware just in the past few years from people that I follow around cycle thinking. I know we're not specifically talking about cycle thinking, but just what is happening during the different phases of our menstrual cycle, how we can optimize, what we can expect and some considerations that we can help our athletes with when they're in more of the difficult phases. So can you first just give us an overview of the menstrual cycle, the four phases, and then we'll go deeper into what's happening?

Speaker 2: 15:51

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:52

So we have, we'll call them three phases, so we have our follicular phase we have our ovulation, which is right in the, basically in the middle, and then we have our luteal phase. The textbook is 30 days. That's just easy for math. We'll use that, although there's quite a range that is considered normal, medically normal and we'll also say starting around 15 years old is basically where we want our daughters to be starting their cycle. But there's going to be a little bit of range of that and it takes a couple of years for's going to be a little bit of range of that and it takes a couple of years for the cycle to be consistent Textbook consistent cycle.

Speaker 2: 16:31

It's monthly and the first half is our follicular phase, that is our low hormone phase. That starts day one of bleeding. Then we have ovulation right in the middle and then we have our high hormone phase and that's our luteal phase and that's generally the phase that we see these, the adverse symptoms. Shall we say All right, so we don't do much different in the follicular phase. Ovulation people either love it or they want to crawl under a rock. There's generally two camps right there and the girls that are tracking definitely know how they feel most of the time right Also know that everyone's feelings, everyone's symptoms are not exactly the same every month. A lot of things play into that fueling sleep, stress, all of those are going to play into the symptomology of this latter phase, but in general it's the latter phase that gives us these symptoms, shall we say right, right, and that's because, while estrogen and progesterone are really we think of them kind of as our fertility hormones, they have a lot of roles in everything else. So they have roles in our metabolism, they have roles in energy, they have roles in muscle development, kind of the use of different amino acids, proteins. So they have a multifaceted implication for us and when they rise we feel that metabolically. So our hunger changes, we feel that sort of how we regulate temperature. So in our high hormone phase, if it's hot out, our girls really need to stay hydrated, making sure they're getting their electrolytes, making sure they're absorbing their water, they're sipping on it throughout the day, throughout training, et cetera. It's just harder for the body to regulate temperature for a variety of different reasons.

Speaker 2: 18:34

That also relates to perceived exertion, so things that practice might just feel harder and again saying, well, that was a hard practice, huh. Hmm, just going with it, it might not be that hard in two weeks, right? So rate of perceived exertion is a little bit higher, vo2 max might be a little bit lower. For our asthmatic daughters, that they might be a little bit more symptomatic we need to be on the watch for that. More symptomatic we need to be on the watch for that. Let's see, some of the other things is sometimes in, like sprint sports, during training. It might be harder to reach those high end intervals during this phase of our cycle and girls just need to be aware of that. As an athlete myself, I know I left practice one of those days and it was hard and I wasn't reaching my targets or it was just really hard to get there. It's kind of a rough ride home, right.

Speaker 2: 19:30

It's a little bit hard to digest. That, on the back end, tracking your cycle, knowing what's going to happen, having a little bit of justification and being gentle with oneself during that time is just so important. We can also do a little bit to support that training by having some carbohydrates during training and definitely going into practice. So we always want to have a little simple carbohydrate, some protein going into practice. Even more important during this time of the month to fuel for this high hormone phase If we're supposed to be reaching. You know if it's a sprint practice or a high end expectation at practice, or in competition for that matter.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Yeah, oh, I think this is so great. I think one of the easiest things that can help with this is first having athletes track their cycle like knowing when it is, because that knowledge is so much power for them. I know as an athlete like myself right now in my training, I know when I'm in my luteal phase, like you said, I give myself a lot more grace. That doesn't mean I slack off, it doesn't mean I don't show up to training. It just means like I can understand well there's a reason why that high intensity workout I wasn't able to exert as much, because that's where I'm at in my cycle and that doesn't mean I'm losing anything as far as my gains and all of the goals I'm working towards, but just that awareness of like just what you said, in two weeks that same workout will probably feel a lot different.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Yeah, it's not an excuse, it's just understanding. It's physiology, right, like this is all just going on Now. Some girls may not feel it and someone might not feel it as much any particular month, but knowing that those being able to track and kind of after a really tough workout, looking or knowing going in, I would actually say, you know, looking back right, Cause we don't want to predispose to that thought pattern yeah, it makes a really big difference.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Yeah, how would you suggest that girls start to track like what's the easy way to help with that?

Speaker 2: 21:34

I mean apps are the easiest. Of course, it depends on how much somebody's on their phone or wants to use technology, but there are three apps that I really like. The Clue app is very informative. So somebody that wants to use technology? But there are three apps that I really like. The Clue app is very informative. So somebody that wants to just know a lot about their biology and what's happening. The Clue app is great. I really like Life. It gives a great options for reporting all the symptoms, so that's free. I also like Wild AI and Fitter woman. So there's I guess that's four.

Speaker 2: 22:06

There's some, there's great tools out there, and some of your listeners might already have their own different favorites. Pen and paper works too. Yeah, all of our kids. They've got a log for school. They've got a journal. Maybe they're even tracking their performance and just adding those in. I also like to add in energy level before and after practice. That helps us with any sort of building, low energy availability or red situation, tracking before, after practice energy and watching that pattern. That's probably also going to relate to where you are in your cycle, but it's good to know. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:42

Yeah, that's great. Okay, you mentioned in the luteal phase a little bit more carb. Is there anything else that athletes can be doing during that phase Because they can't adjust their workouts? You know like, like me, I tend to like prioritize different types of movement during different phases of my cycle because I'm not having to follow any coach, but for them they have to do what their coach says. So what else can they do? That's in their control to help.

Speaker 2: 23:10

So glad you brought that up. Yeah, you're going to show up to practice. You're going to practice hard, you're going to work hard. It's kind of what you do before and after practice that you're in control of, right? So let's say you're a swimmer and you have a great practice and all your friends want, or you have a tough practice and all your friends want to go surfing afterwards. Maybe that's really fun for you and social.

Speaker 2: 23:33

But if you have a meet coming up, maybe this is the time to think about relaxing, rolling out, prepping some food, taking a little time off for yourself so that you can rest and recover a little bit better, given the stage you are in your cycle and just how you are feeling again.

Speaker 2: 23:54

How empowering to really have that introspection and think about what you need as a person and as an athlete. Having some science background, knowing a little bit of what's going on in your body and making your decision based on who you are and what you need that's fantastic. So just taking a moment and being able to do that Maybe you need to be there with them for that kind of social boost, but maybe you need to be home and just enjoying a book or rolling out or whatever it is. So, yeah, we want to train hard and then be in tune with what our body needs and not push it really hard during this phase. I guess that goes back to even when our daughters are going through puberty, during the big times of change, more susceptible also to injury. So being in tune with that is really important, ending the play before somebody is getting injured or pushing to the limit.

Speaker 1: 24:49

Oh, I'm glad you touched on that, because I have heard things around being more susceptible to injury during different phases of the cycle. Is there anything to that or anything we should be paying attention to? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 24:59

It's physiological right. So our body is a little bit more lax during that luteal phase and so sprains were a little bit more vulnerable to that, or a little bit more vulnerable maybe even, to concussions, research is showing right now. So do we want to be super protective and be in a bubble during this high hormone phase? No, but the awareness, either for the parents or the girls, depending on the age, is important.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Yeah, for sure. I know we want to be like aware of how we're talking about that, because we don't want to have that interpreted as they're fragile or anything like that.

Speaker 2: 25:34

But I'd love to say we are not fragile, we are high performance. So think about sort of a Mack truck versus a Ferrari not fragile, but very high performance, and even more high performance during this phase of our cycle. So we're watching, really paying attention to how we're hydrating, how we're fueling, what our distribution of carbohydrates and proteins are, how we're taking care of our body during this phase, more than perhaps another phase. Now, again, the whole world doesn't revolve around our cycle, but internally, knowing how to take care of oneself is what's most important and what works for oneself. So, again, that tracking, that logging, yeah, so great.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Okay, speaking of tracking, logging, let's chat a little bit about those moms that are like my daughter's cycle is super inconsistent or it's missing, or I know we're not giving any medical advice here, but do you have any starting points that they can go off? If we've got a missing cycle? It's super irregular, it's too short, it's really long. Where do we start?

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yep, that's a great time to just reach out for help. So those are definite signs of needing some support. So that's the time to reach out to your doctor or a nutritionist and get some guidance. Everyone is super individual during this time. We have to be getting enough fuel for the amount of energy we're putting out. For females, it is utmost important that we are doing that on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis. So enough carbohydrate and enough fuel to have our body function the way that it optimally can function.

Speaker 2: 27:10

When we're seeing missed cycles, super short cycles, we're starting to see some really clear signs of the body not functioning the way it's supposed to be. We're lucky in that we have this monthly bio check right. Yeah, there's other signals, for there's definitely other symptoms and kind of signals to be aware of for a relative energy reds situation. So relative energy deficiency in sport is what it's called. It used to be called the female triad or low energy availability, but we have the umbrella of reds now. Some of those are increased kind of lack of temperament, so increased emotional state of being, lack of concentration, increased injury, general fatigue, increased overall heart rate. All of these things can be symptoms that we can be watching out for. But missing a period is definitely indicative of the body's not functioning. It's not getting what it needs. So let's figure out what it needs.

Speaker 1: 28:17

Yeah, yeah, totally, I think we chatted about. I've heard it's called the. Is it the sixth vital sign? I can't remember how many other, but it's up there as a vital sign that we need.

Speaker 2: 28:31

It definitely is, and as many times as athletes may not want their cycle to be happening. We are lucky that we have this indicator of of health.

Speaker 1: 28:41

Yeah, totally Okay. You've mentioned it a couple of times, but before we wrap up, can you hit again on red S or reds? And if somebody is listening they're like, oh, that actually sounds like my daughter. What should we be doing?

Speaker 2: 28:54

Once again. Go talk to someone right, it's multifaceted. There's so many different things going on and so many times as our daughter increase in their sport, right, so they're getting more competitive or they're overlapping maybe a club sport with something fun at high school, we're just starting to see an increase in energy output and they're getting really busy. So, unintentionally, they could be just not eating enough, not getting enough energy in their body to be keeping up with their demands. So often it is unintentional and therefore we don't even notice it. Right? We notice if our daughter's really not eating dinner. Or we notice if our daughter has a birthday party and then goes for a run. We notice that. But we're not noticing if they're just eating dinner, eating their snacks, has dessert but is also doing club and high school or two sports at the same time. Or just love surfing but also swim. So we don't notice these things as much. And that deficiency? So it's a relative deficiency, it's a balance of energy exertion and energy input, and that's where we start to see these signs.

Speaker 2: 30:12

The best thing is really work with someone and I hate to say that, but it's just. I hate to say, hey, there's nothing you can do. There's things you can do Like make sure she's fueling at the normal times, make sure there's grab and goes all the time in the fridge, in the cupboard, some great, nutritionally dense food that your kids can just grab, take with them at their next event and normalize that Right. But also having someone look at energy output, energy input what are the patterns of the day? How can we support you to eat food that you really like? Sometimes they hate taking food to school, or sometimes they just don't want to eat school lunch and don't have time to pack. So what are some solutions we can do that? What are your favorite foods Like? How can we package those? Like on Saturday, when do you have 45 minutes to bake some muffins that you can take with you everywhere? Those kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 31:05

Yeah, okay, that's good, good information. All right, lisa, where can our listeners find you and learn more about working with you? And then also that thought of muffins. Don't you have like some recipes or like a black bean muffin thing? I don't know. I was thinking about making those this weekend and I was like I think Lisa has something.

Speaker 2: 31:23

I do check it out Instagram lisaspencernutritioncom. So my love is for exercise science, not cooking. My recipes are straightforward, they're easy, they almost foolproof. So check those out there for people that are busy and just want good food to fill them up and provide energy for the rest of their day. So I do have some recipes on Instagram. I also have my website, wwwlisaspensernutritioncom.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Yeah, okay, we will link all of that, but thank you again so much for coming on the podcast. This is such an informative topic and I know our listeners have learned so much, so thank you.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Great. Thank you for having me.