16 | Unlocking Athletic Potential with Nutrition: Insights from Amie Farmer

How can the power of nutrition elevate your athletic performance? Join us as we unpack this crucial topic with Amie Farmer, the head dietitian and owner of Target Nutrition and Physique Science. Amie’s journey from initial skepticism to becoming a leading expert in sports nutrition is nothing short of inspiring. She shares her background in CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, and powerlifting, deep-diving into how a well-crafted nutritional plan can significantly enhance performance and recovery, focusing on overall well-being beyond mere body composition.

We tackle the real-world issues athletes face, such as inconsistent energy levels and cravings, shedding light on the vital role of carbohydrates and proper food timing. Amie explains how dietitians, with their extensive training, stand apart from nutritionists, stressing the importance of qualified guidance in a field often marred by misinformation. By addressing common nutritional misconceptions and sharing practical strategies, we offer listeners actionable insights to maintain consistent energy and optimize their training routines.

Find Amie on Instagram at @targetnutrition or www.targetnutrition.com.au

This episode is part of our recovery series. Tune up your body with three of the best in the bizz, Megan Pomarensky, Jeremy McCann and Amie Farmer and be sure to hit subscribe and give them a follow.
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:21

Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and minds. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Welcome to the next episode of Uplift you strong bodies and strong minds. Today, I have not only a guru in the nutrition and sports performance world, but I also have a very good friend, Amy Farmer. Amy is one of the many reasons I'm excited to have you on my show is your understanding of how nutrition relates not only to performance and body composition, but also how it relates to the pillars of this podcast, which are creating a strong body and a strong mind. So welcome to Uplift U, Amy.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Thank you, very excited. I am very excited.

Speaker 2: 2:27

So I'm just going to give our listeners a little bit of a background of who Amy is. You are the head dietitian and owner of Target Nutrition and Physique Science, and you fell in love with learning how to adapt your nutrition to support exercise and performance learning how to adapt your nutrition to support exercise and performance. So I know, amy, that you've competed personally in strength sports, that being of CrossFit, olympic weightlifting and powerlifting over the last several years, and you do show a great interest in the CrossFit world, because correct me if I'm wrong, but this is where you started with your performance, yeah, and so you've trained there for many years and you understand how nutrition does play a significant role in recovery and performance, and I know our audience are interested in both of those components of nutrition recovery and performance. And I also know, amy, that one of your greatest joys is teaching your clients how to eat the right food at the right time in order to increase their quality of life, their energy levels and their performance. So it's not just all about body composition changes. You want the best for your clients so that they feel like they can function at their highest capacity and they have the energy to do that.

Speaker 2: 3:55

So that's it. That's a really great fit for this podcast and for our audience. Um, so, getting right into it. Amy, the first question. I've been thinking long and hard because I know you well, but I know that some of the audience may not know you, so can you share a personal anecdote or a story that shaped you into who you are today in the nutrition?

Speaker 1: 4:27

in the nutrition sport dietitian world. I think so. When I graduated so what? 10 plus years ago I guess when we went through uni we were told good luck ever trying to get a job as a sports dietitian really hard to do, there's no point, basically, or you have to work early mornings, late nights, and that's just what it is. So I kind of graduated with the thought that that was never going to be an option for me. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll do.

Speaker 1: 4:56

You know, just coming out of working in a hospital, work in pregnancy or work in gastrointestinal disorders and disease, because that was quite interesting and I was very heavily involved in the CrossFit space, my life was living and breathing CrossFit at that point in time and I decided I still wanted to go. We had like a four-day course we could do to become a provisional sports dietitian at that point and I was sitting in the class at that point and just thinking this is the stuff that I love. Like I just I know it. Everything that they had said to me because I doubted my knowledge, everything that they had said in those classes, I was like, okay, I know that, I know that what I'm doing is working and it's correct and you know, just some extra things to fine tune and obviously, as new research comes out, I can adapt. But yeah, I just kind of sat there realizing that's what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1: 5:53

I want to work with people that want to help themselves and you know, have never turned back from that one moment, but yeah, it was a very, very defining moment. You know from that one moment but yeah, it was a very, very defining moment you know, 10 years ago now, that I was like, no, this is what I want to do. I want to help people be the best that they can, and it's always been a performance and quality of life thing. I've never really been. I have to focus on helping people have the best body composition in the world and I just it's never been a massive priority Like, obviously, if that's what the person wants, I'll help them, but if you can perform the best that you possibly can, it's such a nice feeling. You know, more people get enjoyment from being able to perform and feel good at the same time and yeah, that's what I love.

Speaker 2: 6:40

That's a really important piece that you just said right then. Yeah, that's what I love. That's a really important piece that you just said right then that it's important for people to be able to perform and feel the best that they can. So I'm going to give the audience a bit of a background on how.

Speaker 2: 6:54

The first time I worked with Amy, I remember the very moment I was over in my weightlifting shed doing snatches and I was doing some crazy amount of training back then and I do believe I was about in the 63 kilo, around the 63 kilo mark. So it was sort of at the beginning of my weightlifting journey. And I remember doing a snatch this one day and I was exhausted. But I thought at that time just train more, train harder, train more, train more, because that's the way to get better. So I was doing a snatch and I dropped the barbell on my back and I thought this is not working, I'm exhausted, there's a missing piece here, because I'm training as hard as I can. I can't train any harder. So I walked outside the shed, I picked up my phone and I rang you because you had been referred to me.

Speaker 1: 7:55

You dropped the bar on your back.

Speaker 2: 7:59

It was a very defining moment for me because I realized if I kept going the way I was, I all I was going to do was injure myself and I something. Maybe I'd had a conversation with my coach, who at that time would have been miles and, um, he would have said something about working with you or you would have been cut. You must've come onto the Olympic weightlifting scene at that stage, yeah, not long ago. And so I just rang you and I remember standing under the trees outside my shed saying, just giving you my story. So, if we think about the relationship between performance and feeling good and feeling well, can you feeling good and feeling the best that you can, can you, can you think about some situations where people are performing really well but not feeling the greatest because of and, from your point of view, because of a lack of education or of nutrition, the importance of nutrition and what differences that can make in people's performance once they get a really good understanding of how important nutrition is.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Yeah, I think you don't know you could feel better until you do Like, if you've never experienced that feeling before of going, I feel like the barbell weighs absolutely nothing, like it's just flying, you know. Or you could run as fast as you possibly can and you just feel like you know you are flying through the air and it's no effort whatsoever. If you don't truly know what that feels like, you don't have that level of comparison or if it's just hard every day and you don't get that endorphin rush because you do feel the best you could possibly feel. And I think, until you know what that feeling actually is, you don't know. The difference and that's probably the biggest thing that I find with clients is they just don't know any better, and I think whatever they're doing is is good enough and that's just the way that you have to feel.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Um, and I think that's a very big trust. Process, too, because they'll come in and go, I don't you know. Process, too, because they'll come in and go, I don't you know. Sure, that's just how I experience things and live, and until they actually try and eat the right food at the right time, they, yeah, they just don't know any better, and it's hard to fault a person if they don't know what, they don't understand it, or they just might think inconsistencies is a part of the sport or how you're meant to feel as an athlete or you know, recreational athlete is. Inconsistencies is there and so this is just must be what everyone experiences.

Speaker 2: 10:55

Yeah, because I know that a lot of people that listen to this podcast are what we would term recreational athletes. They might go to the gym five times a week, however, they might be working out five or six times a week, um, but and and you just talked about you know they don't know, um, how it feels. So I can actually, I can actually give the audience my experience of that. Before I came and worked with you, um, I had only just been doing olympic weightlifting, not for very let's go a year or two.

Speaker 2: 11:28

Before that I, um, my only experience with with nutrition was um 1200 calories a day, not many carbs, and keeping myself with a certain amount of body fat or a certain shape. Actually, I wasn't even aware of body fat back then. I was more about just a weight on the scale and did my clothes fit me, and this is, I was locked into this calorie amount that I had to eat every single day to remain that shape, and that was my background. That was all I knew. And then I started Olympic weightlifting and, of course, the energy demands and my whole goal has changed. So how do you come across that? How do you come across what people are telling themselves, even as athletes. Like what is the most common thing that you come across with? People's lack of understanding of how nutrition plays a role with feeling good, performance and recovery.

Speaker 1: 12:38

I think it's just in the questions that I ask, because I guess there's a certain level of questions you get as a general population and it's really in the questioning style how often are they craving food?

Speaker 1: 12:59

What are their sleeping patterns like? I think I spend more time in a session talking about everything else but food, because that's actually what gives you a good idea as to whether they're recovering well enough or not, and it really comes down to the questions I ask them as to tell whether they're getting the best out of their sessions or not. Yeah, and that just comes with you know, doing this job for 10 plus years, as you learn, and especially doing the sport, you then know what it feels like Like I'm not going to go and tell a triathlete how to feel the best, because I don't experience that. Like I don't know exactly what it feels like to do all of those things where I do know strength, sports and I think that me having that awareness of how it feels to get it right is what helps educate the person in going okay, do you feel like this, do you feel like that? When does this happen? And yeah, it's just all in the questions that you ask as to whether you know that they're enough or not.

Speaker 2: 14:05

So for the people listening that are wondering, you know, am I eating the right foods at the right time and am I even like recovering enough? What are some of the common things that you come across that you see, when people aren't eating the right foods at the right time and will go into the right time soon, because that's something that I talk about a lot as well, which I've learned from you but what are some of the common things that you see that tell you that someone isn't recovered or their nutrition is not meeting their needs?

Speaker 1: 14:43

So like if they're tired or sore, often like there's soreness but there's like I'm sore, all the time, non-stop, worse pain. I'm taking anti-inflammatories to just deal with the pain. Um, and unless you're a newbie to training, sure you'll have that feeling, but if you've been doing it for a while then then you shouldn't have that level of pain all the time. If they're inconsistent with their training sessions, so one day they can lift a bar really well, or they can go at an intensity, and then two days later they try to lift the same thing and they can't do it. It could be they're craving food all the time, or it might be at nighttime They'll be craving things and wanting to binge because they haven't probably eaten enough earlier in the day. Um, struggling to concentrate, struggling to focus in the day, oh, my goodness, this sounds like 90% of the population.

Speaker 1: 15:42

And that's why food timing is is really important. Because because and that's why I enjoy my job is because if I can teach these people that, then they can work out. Oh, this is why I feel like this okay, but again, you don't know until you know, um, and yeah, the the inconsistencies and energy, like why can you feel good one day but feel horrible the other? You know and you can get through it, but then other times you can't, and it's generally not all the time, but most of the time. Like if you've slept well, you know, and you have still eaten some amount of food, but not completely under-eaten, then you generally something's probably going to be.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Food timing is out or food quantity, okay, so, so, um, for those, for people that fit into that box that are inconsistent with their energy levels and their performance, and some days they go into the gym and they can kill it, and then other days they they barely have the energy to get out of bed what would be like your top three strategies for them to start looking at with their nutrition? Um, you know what are the most common top three things that people, um, either don't have the knowledge of, or or neglect yeah, really it comes down to carbs.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Like, I think carbs are demonized so much, but, but again, it's learning how to eat it in the right amount at the right time. So number one are they eating enough pre and post training? That is the first thing I'll always look at, because if you don't eat enough after you exercise and within about a two-hour period, you will always be looking for more carbs.

Speaker 1: 17:24

So it'll be like that you're full but you're not satisfied feeling yeah, so even though, like you are physically full, you're just looking for something sweet to kind of tie the meal off. That's a really common one, so I think like that's the one that I would always go to first is they eat their meal post-training. They get half an hour after. If they're still looking for more food, they probably haven't eaten enough carbs in that meal after.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Okay, so that's the most common one, and I'll put my hand up to say that I have been one of those clients for you for many years, for you for many years, and it really is. It's a very deep, ingrained story and narrative that carbs will make you like fat, make you put on weight right, or even just make you put on weight, because the other thing yeah, the other thing that you deal with as a sports dietitian is that you're dealing with people who have weight classes, and that's another whole thing that we're going to get into soon, because I'm sure you've got some great stories with how you've helped people meet those weight classes in different scenarios. So number one is their carbs. How many carbs are they eating before and especially after training? What would be another common thing that someone could look at if they're really struggling with energy levels and being inconsistent in the gym or just not feeling good?

Speaker 1: 18:58

Just not eating consistently. Most people will go longer than three four hours without eating at some point. Most people will go longer than three four hours without eating at some point With your brain like your brain's only fuel source is carbs to get you through. So even if people do like a keto, low carb diet, you're still having some level of carb go in and that's because your brain needs to feed off that. So if you aren't eating enough or consistently through the day, your energy levels will go up and down. So if you have breakfast and it has carbs in it, like, you kind of have to be all in with carbs or all out. You can't be in between.

Speaker 1: 19:36

So if you kind of go and have one meal in the morning that has lots of carbs, and then you don't have anything at lunch, like you have meat and salad. By the time you get to 2 o'clock in the afternoon you'll be ready for a nap, and then, if you've got to go and train after that, you're not going to feel very good going into training because you're still coming off the slump.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Okay, so it's eating carbs, or eating them, especially post-training, but it's not enough carbs. Number one. Number two it's inconsistent eating, yeah, having two longer gaps.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Yeah, two to three hours, not two to three hours, three to four hours If you go longer than four. Generally you'll look for eating a lot more food after or later in the day.

Speaker 2: 20:23

And one thing so that's very interesting because I was about to ask you that question One thing that I come across a lot as a coach and people come to me for nutrition advice and I only give them the very basics which I was speaking to you before the podcast about, because that's not my forte. But one very common theme I have is these people that stay up, like, firstly, they, they must be night owls because they stay up quite late and that's when, that's when the sugar cravings come in. And I know people that are eating lollies and, and you know, ice cream. And that's when I say to them what do you think is the? You know the one thing that if you could change in your nutrition, what would it be? And the majority of people who have problems with their body composition, like they think you know they're too big or they've put on a lot of weight, the one common thing is that they're eating a lot of sweet stuff at nighttime, yep. So how would you, what would be your advice for that particular scenario?

Speaker 1: 21:29

Because there's a lot of reasons. Generally, if your body feels restricted at some point in the day and that could be at any point in the day it'll look to compensate and that might be the reason why it could be again not eating enough post-training. So there's a lot of reasons. It's just trying to find what is the one for that person. Or they're told they're not allowed to eat it and so that makes them want to eat it even more because, well, I'm not allowed to eat these lollies normally. So I'm going to eat all of it now because I don't want tomorrow. Like they're going to be gone tomorrow and I'm going to start again and that's what it's going to be. But people just go through that cycle day in, day out. Um, so you know it's trying to understand the reasoning behind. Like I do a lot of exposure with food. If someone tells me they're not allowed to eat something because it's good food, bad food, then I put it in their diet every day until it becomes something that they can say no to if they want to, Because the more you eat it, you know, if you were to go, I'm not allowed to eat, Like for me actually. I'll give you the example of me.

Speaker 1: 22:36

I had a very, quite an intense eating disorder as a teenager going into uni. I was then easily manipulated by a lot of people in the crossfit world and I had to go down the paleo route and at that point my crossfit coach at the time told me that bananas were the worst food in the world. You're not allowed to eat bananas. It's too too many like carbs, and I didn't really understand enough about carbs at that point either, but I just knew I wasn't allowed to eat bananas and I think I didn't eat them again until maybe four years later took, yeah, four years for me to actually work up the courage to eat it again. But then you eat it every day and then you get to a point where you don't demonize a food because it's not something you, you're just used to it. You know if you find a weight that's really scary, the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. That weight doesn't become so scary anymore.

Speaker 2: 23:36

So it's the same kind of exposure. Yes, and that's why I said I was so excited to have you on Uplift U, because I'm so passionate about getting people strong in their bodies but also their minds. And you can see, in this nutrition world that you live in, you absolutely can't separate the two, I believe, out of all of the modalities around training. So there's nutrition, there's hydration, there's, you know, there's rest and relaxation, ice baths, all those modalities that surround training. Sleep obviously I put sleep as number one, but very closely under sleep is nutrition, and if you don't have the right nutrition, you can't sleep properly anyway. So that's amazing how the two are just so interlinked.

Speaker 2: 24:29

But going back to that story that you had about the banana and the CrossFit coach, one question that I'm sure our audience has, and I certainly have, is what is the difference? So, okay, like I said to you already, people come to me and ask me for nutrition advice. I can give them very basics, but then I would refer them to someone like you. But what is the difference between a dietitian and you're a sports dietitian and a nutritionist? Because I think there's a lot of misunderstanding that occurs for people, for our audience, because they're listening to so many different sources. So what's the difference there?

Speaker 1: 25:13

So with dieticians, dieticians are actually allowed to write meal plans and prescribe things for people. Like it's very, very descriptive, prescriptive, where nutritionists aren't actually allowed to write meal plans. They're allowed to give guidelines, which is kind of under the realm of I guess what, like what PTs can do. They can give a certain amount of guidelines but they can't actually write an individualised meal plan for a person. And you know like I go through.

Speaker 1: 25:45

My basic level of study was four years um, and then I did.

Speaker 1: 25:50

I had to do two years worth of provisional work, um one, to just become a dietitian, like accredited dietitian, and then I had to do another year to become a sports dietitian and I had to have someone guiding me through the whole of those two years.

Speaker 1: 26:09

So it's quite in-depth, got a lot of professional development where for a nutritionist they do have university degrees but some can be called a nutrition coach or a nutritionist after four days of study, which is very hard for me to watch because you know people are entrusting their life into a person. And if I look at my history, my disordered eating and eating disorder was led on because of a coach and he didn't stay in his lane and that enabled all of the struggles that I had then for many years after. I'm not saying he's the cause of it, but it definitely didn't stay in his lane and that enabled all of the struggles that I had then for many years after not saying he's the cause of it, but it definitely didn't help. Um, and that's a common thing I have with a lot of clients that are struggling is it's actually come from a coach or someone in that position over them of that kind of trust and authority that's caused a lot of issues for them?

Speaker 2: 27:11

Yeah. So that's why I think, like this conversation is really pivotal in helping people understand the difference between a qualified dietitian and someone who has, like myself, who has a little bit of knowledge about nutrition that I've picked up along the way from people like you. But if they have specific requirements for you know, like, if they have a real, if they have a problem or a specific reason or goal that they need to really delve into the nutrition, then they should go and see someone like you. So a dietitian is that correct? Because we need to get the terminology right here.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Yes, yeah, dietitian um dietitian yeah, definitely, definitely, really like it was something that used to aggravate me a lot, especially in my first, probably four or five years, um, but at this point, you know, you kind of go, you can kind of just helping the people that you can help and the ones that come to you, you know you develop those relationships with and you take them along.

Speaker 1: 28:11

You know, like some clients I work with for quite a long time, even just in the disordered component of it, it's a couple of years of work to undo something that's done in three months. And it's such a horrible thing because these people, you know they don't deserve it, you know they haven't.

Speaker 2: 28:26

No, to be honest, I've got a few people that I coach and I feel like they're living in a jail a jail within their bodies and mind about what they can and can't eat, and their eating is so structured and so locked into their stories and their narratives that they've developed over the years, and some of that's come from their parents, some of that's come from the social media, some of that's come from advertising. There's a whole heap of ways that nutrition narratives become entrenched in someone's mind. Narratives become entrenched in someone's mind and um, for, though, for anyone listening, that's like feeling like that. They feel like they, um, they're constantly like craving sweet things, or, or, and feeling like they're, they're not good enough or they're, you know, they're just punishing themselves with food. Are they the type of people that you can help as well, because I know that you love performance, and no doubt some of the people that you help with performance have those stories as well.

Speaker 2: 29:35

But, do you help people that you know, just general gym goer or the general person who really has an issue, a big issue with their nutrition and it's really making them, it's dictating their lives.

Speaker 1: 29:51

Yeah, absolutely. To be honest, it's kind of the field I'm moving more into. It's people that are very active and they enjoy it. You know, not like athlete-athletes in this phase, but you know ones that have had all of these issues and they do feel like they're locked into this belief system, that they have to like identity, that they have to look a certain way for people to either accept them or, you know, for them to accept themselves, which, if that's their identity, they'll never accept themselves for who they are, because it's never going to be good enough.

Speaker 1: 30:29

And you know it's such a sad thing to see, like you know, these people that may have gone through trauma. A lot of the issues are people that have actually experienced a lot of trauma in their life and a way of finding control is through food, um, and you know it's such a hard thing to watch and you feel so there's so much empathy for a person because they don't know any better and until you educate them and teach them, um, and that's what I guess I find the joy out of is being able to go. The smallest things and change are better than no change or going backwards, and so I will absolutely throw a party if I could. For some of these people because they've made one simple change, and I think that's a big part is in order to be successful, you have to change everything at once, where if you're just changing one or two things at a time, that's still better than no change at all.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Yeah, 100% yeah, and it's really hard. I can think straight away about someone. You know that I've done a lot of mindset coaching with who comes along comes like a long way with the things that she's telling herself about what she's eating and her exercise and how much training she's doing. However, you know, the one thing that is really hard for her to change is the scale weight. So if she sees that 500 grams on the scale weight, then what happens next is you'll see that person out doing a 10-kilometer run and it's a really hard cycle to break. So when you say you have worked with those type of people and that you are getting more into that, do you find that, along with you, they also need other help?

Speaker 1: 32:40

Oh, absolutely, yeah, Absolutely yeah, most of them have a psychologist, psychiatrist, gp at least. Yeah, that are very aware. What's great about, you know, being here in Australia is now they give you 20 Medicare, like visits with a dietician, and you can get 20 with a psychologist as well, which makes the payments for me like $30 out of pocket to then see me that many times. Oh, that's amazing, yeah, so you know, like it's because it's quite intense, like you kind of want to be seeing people in that situation every couple of weeks because you can't rationalise yourself, like you can't rationalise it for you, you need someone else external to go.

Speaker 1: 33:27

That thought is incorrect, that thought isn't actually defining you as a person or that isn't actually going to help you with whatever goals you have in mind, and especially when it's in like a strength-based or they're active, like most of the people are active, yeah, yeah, the one thing they care about is how they perform, yeah, and so you get to use that to your leverage, because I know food will help them perform, and that's actually what is a driving factor. For people to eat is because then, once they know again, my performance is better if I eat. It makes it easier to find some kind of common ground and you know strategies to go.

Speaker 1: 34:05

Yeah, well, we've got to eat this and this and find ways to remove it. But, yeah, it's great, medicare, allow us to do that. Right, but as a result, they need at least a GP involved.

Speaker 2: 34:17

So they would have to get a referral from a GP to get that Medicare rebate to work with you. Yeah, right, okay.

Speaker 2: 34:27

So, that's a very handy thing to know for, you know, anyone that's really struggling, that's stuck in that pattern and may have been there for many, many years. So well, going on to then, I know, because I've been involved in weightlifting for like almost 12 years now I know that when it comes, if we bring it back to performance and weight classes, okay, there are many times in weightlifting where people have to make the decision or they get to make the decision, should get to make the decision. Should I go up to the next weight class so that I can perform better there, because I, you know, have more energy, I'm eating more, I'm recovering better, or should I go down a weight class to qualify for something right? And I'd say this is one of the biggest things that you would encounter in your work with strength, like powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting in particular. So what are the top three things that you consider there?

Speaker 1: 35:38

Their age number one, mm-hmm. Number one. Um, you know, after working in the making weight space for you know, nine years, I think now 10 years um, my first exposure to making weight was having an athlete at the commonwealth games um first exposure to so this is a pretty intense situation. She had to lose 11 and a half kilos in 18 days. We got there we were 100 grams away and she didn't make it.

Speaker 1: 36:16

Very very sad day and I wish, like the things that I knew now I wish I knew back then, because probably we would have got a little bit closer. But that was kind of my first exposure to it is, you know, at least if it's you're helping a person, do it, it's safer than them doing it on their own. Oh, 100%. And that was kind of the thing I learned. But I feel like that was a bit of a double-edged sword for me, because there are times that an athlete came to me and were like I want to qualify and do this and I'm like, well, it's probably not super safe and have my reserves, I would still help a person rather than standing my ground. And I think that's where you know I will say I have caused some eating disorders or helped develop them, and you know, the clients that I've talked to are very much aware of it and now we're fixing them. Now we're on the other end of it because of the weight categories, like it's a very, very hard thing and you just enable it. And so one, their age is a huge component because they don't have the ability, like if they're a teenager, they don't have the ability to understand right or wrong at that point, um, or their parents are forcing them to do it like you should just do it, like that'll look better, like it looks better. You're sitting at a higher level where it's not taking in the full, um, full picture of being able to grow into it and taking advantage of them being so young and growing and the muscle changing and okay, if you want to qualify, and having a range, and there's more research that's come out now in comparison to 10 years ago. That's helped people as to what's healthy. It's come a long way.

Speaker 1: 38:06

But you know it's number one, their age. Number two, how much they have to lose in a certain time period and, like their body composition will come into it. But then the overall thing is actually how much food they're eating at that point in time. Because if we've got a short timeframe, you know, like, even if it's a couple months, and they're not eating enough to make weight or put them in a position where you know, most of the time I can get a person to lose two to three kilos in the last week.

Speaker 1: 38:42

So if they're not in a physical position with food to be able to lose that weight safely without them not eating, um, then I won't do it, um, because it's just, you know them not eating for a couple of days. I don't think I've ever had a person not eat for longer than 24 hours, and that was probably earlier on on um. But that they're the things that I just don't do. You know I don't sort on my athletes most of the time, like I could probably count on two hands of how many times I've sorted them um or it's. You know they're soaring off one to 300 grams, which isn't much, you know, in the grand scheme of things. So you know it's definitely important to question where their starting position is, um, as to whether they should stay in that category or go up and just go into it uh, and this.

Speaker 2: 39:39

There is just so much behind that, um as well, because when you said you know, I've helped cause eating disorders, um, like when you say that, how does, how does that actually make you feel like saying horrible, like I think that actually true, is that actually true?

Speaker 1: 40:00

oh, look, I I'm not the only hand in the in the bucket with it, but I've enabled it.

Speaker 2: 40:10

I feel like you're at the end of the chain, however, because at the top of the chain if you really want to look at it, at the top of the chain would be, you know, like, if they're younger, if you're talking about a younger person, you know, like, even the sport itself, even the sport itself allowing younger teenagers, especially girls, to compete in weight categories when they're still growing that in itself is challenging for everyone involved. But then, underneath that, you've got the overarching sport, which is the federation, and they make the rules. And then, under that, you've got, uh, you've got, like, the coaches, um, you know the that person's coach. And then, underneath that, you've also got, if it's a young person, you've got parents. But then if the, if it's a, if it's a, say, a 25 year old, um, it ultimately rests with that person.

Speaker 2: 41:14

And so if they come to you and say I really want to compete in the fifth, I don't even know the weight classes anymore but just say I came to you and said I want to compete in the 64-kilo class and I'm currently 70 kilos and I have two months, and you say that can't be done safely. And then if I said to you well, I'm still doing it, I'm going to do it with or without. I'm still going to do that. That's what I want. So at that point where you said you felt like you were responsible, it still comes back to the individual making that choice.

Speaker 1: 41:52

Yeah, but when they're younger, when they're younger, that's it's different yeah, the younger people are different. Yeah, yeah, but I guess at the same time is, even when they're in their early 20s, they still don't know. You know, like a lot of people that are trying to as well make weight in in field, like it's easier now, like if I even look back at five, ten years ago, the methods that athletes used to make weight were atrocious.

Speaker 2: 42:22

What were some of those methods? Because not all the audience got involved.

Speaker 1: 42:26

They were assault on, like their body, while they're in a sauna to be able to make them lose more weight. They would even sauna the night before a competition, which is the worst thing to do, you know, like they would have lemons. They'd just suck on lemons to be able to do it Lemons.

Speaker 2: 42:46

What in the world does a lemon do?

Speaker 1: 42:49

Like a diuretic. They act as a natural diuretic. You know like I've even um clients recently that are giving people like loads of vitamin c to help be a diuretic and I'm like well, that can actually cause diarrhea.

Speaker 2: 43:04

I probably wouldn't be doing that yes, have you ever had any like funny stories about people that have used some of those methods which have backfired on the platform? Because I can imagine there'd have to be a couple yep.

Speaker 1: 43:17

So the diuretic was one like I and this is like what a client of mine, um, with the vitamin c like I, was not the one. It was the coach at a international competition that told them to do it. Um, even though they were fine, like they were going to make weight, completely fine, everything was planned have helped them make weight many, many, many, many times. Um, and because they were still young, like they're in the 20s, they're still young. They don't they go.

Speaker 1: 43:43

I trust a coach like the yeah, which is the person that's meant to have my back and look after me, and you know, it's such an entrenched sports culture that you, just you don't want to do anything wrong. You want to do whatever they say to do. Um, and yeah, go, take all this. Gave them diarrhea right before they had to compete. Um, off, they go. I've even had other ones where, um, the coach was worried. You know, and again, this is out of completely out of my control because I'm not at the competition Um coach didn't want to wake up early in the morning to um, make sure they were making weight, okay, so they put them in the sauna the night before to lose 300 grams, 300 grams which they would have lost when they went to bed overnight. Um, he woke up and he performed terribly the next day.

Speaker 2: 44:35

So, if there's any coaches listening, what would be your advice to an actual coach on, if you know, on, helping the athletes make weight Like? What would you tell a coach to do to do it in the best way?

Speaker 1: 44:53

Have they actually got the right person helping them? If they don't, okay. How have you actually educated yourself to help a person make weight if you need to, because there's a lot of information out there from a making weight perspective. Now, are you the best educated in the different forms of making weight? What are the number one go-tos? You know, just chuck in a person in the sauna, depending on how much they've had to lose, like I've had some clients who've had coaches put them in to lose two kilos in an hour before weigh-in.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Yeah, so you know like it's a lot, but I think trust is, but I don't under, to be honest, that is to me it's so counterproductive because we're talking about a strength sport where you need to be explosive and strong and we know that dehydration can yeah is the worst for you know Explosive power, you actually it is, it is and it can reduce your performance up to I've I've read even up to 10 to 20 percent it depends on how long they've been dehydrated for right.

Speaker 1: 46:07

So, um, it's better if, like, if they're gonna sauna, they sauna right before weigh-in, or if they're going to sauna, they sauna right before weigh in, or if they're using any kind of method, where I've known a lot of people that have saunas the night, hot baths the night before, all of that type of stuff. Um, it always. I guarantee you how many people I've seen bomb out or not make the weights anywhere near because it's, you know, too long. If you're going longer than two hours with a loss of 2% of your body weight, it will destroy your competition session, like the competition.

Speaker 2: 46:42

So to put that into context, let's just choose a weight class, a very popular women's weight class, which is either the 64s or the 71s, because that's where the average woman sits. How much if you're in 64, is it 64? I should know, if you're in the 64-kilo weight class, how much of that can you lose to still be able to perform close to your best?

Speaker 1: 47:11

In a sauna you'd only be able to lose like 1.2 kilos as a max, which is still quite a lot, but I've known people that have done that or more.

Speaker 1: 47:22

Yeah, and especially if you don't do the rehydration strategies. But even if you lost 500 grams the night before and you're sitting ready because you're dry, because you haven't drunk anything all day, you're gonna take that into consideration. Whatever other strategies they've used to make weight, um, if they're already really dehydrated because they haven't drunk for a day in a bit and they've done some kind of activity let's say, for example, they were doing cardio to help sweat out the weight they could have lost 2% already, and the sauna is just something that's just tipped them over the edge. So, yeah, it's definitely very much my last go-to, because it makes a person warm too, like if you're warmed up to that extent before a weigh-in, you then cool back down. Your endorphins or your adrenaline will come back down and then it has to come back up for the actual competition itself. Right, psychological impact actually is, yes, bigger difference and and that's the evidence too, actually, so this is because I've been doing my masters in making weight.

Speaker 2: 48:30

Um, the evidence shows that you can masters in making weight. That's an amazing masters, I know I'm very, very excited for my.

Speaker 1: 48:39

One of my papers is almost out.

Speaker 2: 48:41

Um, it's just with that to be with the reviewers for the last revision, so fingers crossed it all comes through, um well, for all the olympic weightlifting audience and powerlifting as well audience out there, that would be definitely something If you're interested in. If you're one of these athletes that's stuck between two classes or not, sort of sitting back thinking should I lose weight to qualify for something or get a better Sinclair score or get a better Wilkes score or whatever it may be, or should I stay in the weight class I'm in or should I go up, then that would be a great paper to get your hands on correct.

Speaker 1: 49:23

Yeah, it's knowing that, like technically, you can lose 5% of your body weight and not have an impact on strength and power and not have an impact on strength and power.

Speaker 2: 49:37

So for a 64-kilo female, what?

Speaker 1: 49:39

is that in kilos, 67 kilos. So if you drop from 67 to 64 in the week before so that's one week then it should not impact your performance. However, in saying that it won't impact you physiologically, but it can impact you psychologically, so you'll have and how does that happen? Fatigue feelings. So if you think about going up to a bar, if you don't have very good psychological strength, um, you are not going to be able to lift it, because if you think, oh, it's just a bit heavy, how much does that psych a person out when they're lifting?

Speaker 2: 50:21

so, oh, 100. Because whatever you tell you, whatever you tell your, your mind tells your body, your body beliefs. So if you're saying, oh, that feels heavier than normal, um, even though you've reassured the person and the person knows the scientific facts that they haven't lost too much weight to lose strength if their brain is telling them that that feels heavy, then that will 100 percent affect their performance regardless to take into consideration.

Speaker 1: 50:51

So you know, if they're losing two to three, then it's fine, like it shouldn't. Like in the week before that'll be fine. But once you get to that three to five, I think it's very individual on the person.

Speaker 2: 51:06

Okay, yeah, because that's interesting, because I've seen in my years of competing, I've seen some people that can just lose every single competition lose two or three kilos going in and they're fine, they perform absolutely amazingly, whereas myself, I remember when I first met you, I was in the 63-kilo weight class. I used to walk around at 65 kilos because I'm quite tall. Yeah, I used to walk around at 65 kilos because I'm quite tall and I used to walk around at 65 kilos and I'd always have to lose that two kilos going in. And the first thing that how it affected me mentally, psychologically, was as soon as I started pulling that bar off the ground in a clean, not in a snatch, in a clean, so it's a heavier one. I would think this feels heavy and so, yeah, maybe my strength may not have been affected, but I swear it was.

Speaker 2: 52:04

So the best thing that I ever did for my performance and myself was to go up a weight class. So I went to the 69s back then and it changed my world. It changed my entire world, because now I could eat a little bit more of what I wanted to eat, because up until then, to be in that 63 class, I was eating very little carbs, lots of salad and meat. And then, all of a sudden, I was allowed to have you know, I could walk around at 69 kilos and, honestly, it was life-changing for me and, I'm sure, many other people.

Speaker 1: 52:43

Yeah, and I think that's a big part of then helping make. That deciding factor for whether you go up or down is if you struggle to maintain a like, say, it is 65 for 63, if you struggle to maintain 65 in order to lose two kilos, then you obviously shouldn't be there. Because if it's hard at all times, you know that isn't just your normal weight, that you can eat whatever you need to and do what you can, then obviously that's not the class for you. Yeah, um, or you're looking at I have some that go. You know why don't you just compete at your body weight, whatever you weigh in at, see what it does psychologically to having no stress about making weight. It's so much fun when you don't have to think about making weight there's, you know, because it's like a competition. You know, like the whole making weight process itself takes a lot of energy.

Speaker 2: 53:37

It does. It takes a lot of energy, both it's mental, it's physical and it's your central nervous system. All take a hit from having to lose weight and in fact, from my experience, what most people stress the most about going into a competition if they need to lose weight is losing weight, making weight. When they're not going in a competition to lose weight, they're going in a competition to lift as heavy as they can, but they can't focus on that because they're too worried about losing the weight.

Speaker 1: 54:09

And that's it. So you know, if you go and you're like you know what, I'm lifting the same, if not more, by not making weight, then maybe that isn't the option for you. And you know some will be like, but I can't qualify this. I'm like, all right, well then maybe you do that twice a year and that's all you do. But if you've got this big, massive rebounding weights in between where you lose five kilos instead of two, well then what's that doing again to you psychologically? And then does that cause?

Speaker 2: 54:39

also also from from your experience, and this we can go away from, because I'm sure not all the audience are not all of my audience compete in in the strength sports. But here this is a very, very um pertinent topic and something that I see a lot of just in the general population is um people that yo-yo their weight in really big, like we're talking five kilos, you know, five kilos, even more six kilos, even 10 kilos if it's a male, and it's just that yo-yo, yo-yoing of weight. What does that actually do to you physiologically? How does that occur and what does that do to your, your body?

Speaker 1: 55:24

long term. Uh, it kind of depends on how, like why they're yo-yoing. Sometimes it can just be dirty fluid. You see, if they've gone from not eating a lot of carbs or salt and eating a lot, then it'll just go up and down depending on that. If you throw in the female, you know menstrual cycle into that and you're eating a lot of carbs, a lot of salt, you got your cycle. You could retain four kilos. Um, I think it depends on what is going on from that perspective.

Speaker 2: 55:54

But I think it impacts the person. But I'm also talking about yeah, I'm also talking about the people, and I see quite a bit of this like they're, you know, let's go on sizes, then let's not go on weight on the scales, because we know that weight on the scales is fluid, can be fluid and carbs and all of that. But I'm talking about people who let's go clothes size women that are size 16 and then they're size 10. The next time you see them they're size 20 and then they're back down to a 14. And this is something that I, as a coach, encounter a lot with women in particular yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 56:32

So what will happen? So you'll have, like the period where it like the first time they ever go to lose weight per se, um, they'll generally lose fat because it's a whole new um stimulus to the body, um, and it generally will preserve the muscle. Generally, um some cases, depending on how little a person is eating, they will lose about 50% fat, 50% muscle, right, if they then go back to eating what they used to, so not more, but just back to what they used to because they've lost that percentage of muscle, it's then more than what they needed to maintain their body weight at, say, size 16. So the food that they're then eating at size 16 leads them to becoming a size 18 or 20, because it's more than what their body actually needs, because they don't have the muscle tone that they used to when they were then. So that's where you get a yo-yo, but it just consistently gets higher and higher because they lose the muscle, still go back to eating the same gain more.

Speaker 2: 57:40

so for those people that are out there who are really reliant on the scales to number one, um use that. They use the scales as an indicator of whether you know their training's working or if they're losing weight, and they just can't seem to get out of that, weighing themselves all the time and basing and using that information to number one. What I see the most, which frustrates me, because I care so much about people's health and their mental health, is I've put on two kilos. I'm a bad person, my life isn't worth living. I just can't seem to get any consistency. But it's all the numbers on the scales. What would be your suggestion for that? For, like people who are so reliant on that number on the scale, throw them away, throw them away Because it's just.

Speaker 1: 58:41

you know you can't define health by your scale weight. There's nothing that it's giving you.

Speaker 2: 58:48

Yeah, and obviously me coaching strength they're going to be. If they're following the program correctly and they're building muscle, the scale doesn't change and it might even go up a little bit, and then they're like this isn't working for me. Then they go out and do kilometers of running.

Speaker 1: 59:05

So you know number one that and that's why I then do like DEXA scans, because it's body composition. It's not just looking at scale, lean mass and fat. Especially if you're doing strength training, you've got more of an understanding of what your body's capable of doing and I think even with people that are struggling to understand what their body is, you know where their body composition is at. It gives a person a much more realistic understanding of what it's capable of doing. So if you go okay, I want to lose. You know, very common thing I see is people will come in and go I want to lose 10 kilos of fat. I'm like, well, where did you get the 10 kilos from? Is that actually what you need to lose? Cause I don't think you need to lose 10 kilos Like. You'll look like a bodybuilder, for example, and I'll go actually for your height and how much muscle you have by doing the dexter. I can go. You know what. You've got a maximum of four or five kilos that you could lose.

Speaker 1: 1:00:01

You don't have to lose that in fat or in total in four or five kilos of fat mass, not not scale weight, right, and that might not look like that on the scale.

Speaker 1: 1:00:12

It might look exactly the same way and actually really enjoy educating people around body composition, because that was always something, you know, I used to be so fixated when I was at my worst. So I'm quite tall, like I'm 175 centimeters tall. At my absolute lightest I was 57 kilos and I was fixated. I know I was fixated where normally I sit 71 to 75 now, fixated on my body weight being there, you know. So, knowing that that is not what we want, we don't want to have that fixation or understand what body composition is. At that point I probably still had a decent amount of fat because I wasn't feeding my muscle, um, and then it rebounded to 71, because then I just started eating like a normal person again and then regained. And then that's where the issues come is you are defined by your worth or you feel like you're defined by whatever you weigh Until that goes away and you check.

Speaker 1: 1:01:16

Yes, it's a lot easier to be like oblivious, I guess is probably better, but it's not even necessarily oblivion, it's looking at that you're purposely triggering yourself by stepping on a scale. And looking at that, if you know it triggers you, like some people can hop on a scale. And looking at that If you know it triggers you, like some people can hop on a scale and they don't care whatever. If you have a person that steps on and it triggers, why are you purposely triggering yourself?

Speaker 2: 1:01:49

Right. So, because I do believe that you know there needs to be a lot more education around this, which is why I have you on this podcast and which is obviously your passion. So if someone throws their scales away, right, goes and gets a Dexar scan, consults someone like you to get a dexar scan, um, and what else can they do to um, monitor, self-monitor, the like, their progress so that they can see?

Speaker 1: 1:02:21

their progress, like how your clothes fit, like you're generally going to know how you're going by that it really depends on how much they've got to lose. Like if they're losing 20 or 30 kilos, that's going to be a pretty definitive measure. If they're losing a couple kilos, to be honest, they're probably not going to really notice enough to be able to figure it out either way. And I think that just kind of comes into the challenge of mentally challenging them too, because again, when it might be a couple kilos, are they ever going to be happy?

Speaker 1: 1:02:56

them too because, again, when it might be a couple kilos, are they ever going to be happy? Um, so yeah, it's a really hard position to be in and I think that's where you've got to adapt people's expectations depending on where they're at. Or, you know and I think we're talking about this pre-podcast is you know, people's identity or how they have to be a certain body fat percentage or a certain kilo to be able to be okay? Well, if you, having one more kilo of body fat than you'd like, allows you to enjoy your life, not feel restricted, be able to just have a good time, well then, what's wrong with that?

Speaker 2: 1:03:29

100%. So you're looking at their lifestyle and their other health and wellness factors, not just the number on the scale or even the DEXA scan numbers. It's quality of life. It's quality of life that is key and for me and any coaches that are listening, for me and any coaches that are listening, I'm always pointing people to because I work predominantly with women from the ages of 30 through to 75, 76, my biggest message to a person is trying to build and maintain muscle. Because what is your take on because we're going to wrap this up soon, but this is a really important point and there's so much research on it now and what is your take on the value of muscle mass for people, not just women, of course, men as well, but women in particular, as they're going through, per you know, perimenopause, menopause um, what's your take on the value of building and maintaining muscle?

Speaker 1: 1:04:41

number one importance.

Speaker 1: 1:04:42

Um, I think that's probably one of the biggest things I actually educate people on is now that there's more awareness and I guess the people that are sitting in that age bracket have come from either their mothers being very much it's about your scale, weight, and you have to weigh as little as possible to then moving to a generation where understanding that muscle is what will help, you know, elongate your life in terms of force risk, in terms of just being able to do your normal day-to-day life when you get older and even going through menopause, how important it is to have that muscle there when you go through that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:17

So you know, I think educating people on the benefits of it and why it's so important there's definitely been a shift, you know, even in the last five, six years. And again, like when people come in, they are, you know, especially females are much more interested in their bones and their muscle and you know, they know that they might have body fat, but it's actually more of a focus on at least making sure they're keeping their muscle or gaining muscle while that fat mass changes. So it is nice to see that the narrative is changing.

Speaker 2: 1:05:49

It's still obviously not the norm, but it's definitely getting closer to me, which is nice and so in um gaining and maintaining muscle for for quality and longevity of life and regulating hormones and protecting us against diseases, and better mobility, even like less chance of, you know, falling over and breaking your hip or breaking your leg or arm because you don't have, you know, you don't have good hip sort of strength and glute strength, for example. That's very common in older females. Thinking about that, what is like? What are your top strategies as far as nutrition or diets go, in doing that, in building and maintaining muscle?

Speaker 1: 1:06:37

eating protein four times a day. Number one if you are training three, four days a week, it takes 24 to 48 hours for your muscles to recover, build, grow. So you know, if you've got we're talking about kind of eating regularly before if you've got a serve of protein each time that you eat, that is going to help, um, keep that muscle there or build muscle. Um, and if you, you know, even if you struggle to do that because a lot of people actually do really struggle they might eat a lot of their protein in one or two meals but then struggle to have that regularity through the day, even Even if you're taking, you know, halving your portion size and you're having it regularly, that's more important. So I think that's probably the number one thing.

Speaker 1: 1:07:23

And then doing your strength training consistently, especially females. It doesn't take long to lose that muscle and it takes 18 months to build it, to keep it. So you know it's such a long time. So if you're not consistent for a long period of time, right like it's important to feed it. So, even if it's shakes or bars or, you know, meat, it depends on what it is. There's protein breads out there, yogurts, high-protein yogurts. Yeah, just trying to be consistent and do that four times a day. That's, to be honest, the biggest thing. I will always promote um, and the most yeah, so that would be for most people.

Speaker 2: 1:08:03

Um, that would be around, you know, between 30 and at least 30 grams of protein per meal. Um, you know, per meal, wouldn't it?

Speaker 1: 1:08:10

generally I say 120 to 160 grams of protein per meal, wouldn't it so generally, I say 120 to 160 grams of protein a day.

Speaker 2: 1:08:19

And the older you get, the more protein you need. Apparently, I've been told.

Speaker 2: 1:08:24

You go over to one Once you turn 50, when you're 50 plus, you need 160 as a minimum which is crazy, and I'm telling you from my point of view, because I'm 51, 160 grams of protein is a really high target and very hard to achieve unless you actually are structuring that into your. You have to put some thought into this. This is not like I'll just do it as it comes. You have to have those. I believe that having those high quality protein choices at your disposal, ready at home, is so important, otherwise you're not going to meet that.

Speaker 2: 1:09:04

No, you're really not, you're not. It's very hard, it's, it's a hard thing, but you know like um, so is strength training four times a week and I think so combining those two hard things together proves to yourself that you can do hard things you know, and especially if you're going okay, well, that just seems so unachievable.

Speaker 1: 1:09:24

Well, even if you're getting four meals that you do have protein, that isn't that full amount, it's just something. Again. It's still better than not having anything you, you know through your day. Or even if it's like I only eat protein actually one time a day, let's go to two, so you know, like it's still going to help you.

Speaker 2: 1:09:44

It's the same as your weight training, right? You're not going to go in there and do 100 kilo deadlift straight on day one, but you can start at 20 and then add a bit more and go to 40, add a bit more and go to 60. So it's the same thing with your nutrition, just one step at a time. Because, as you said before, when people try and make a whole heap of changes at once, they become overwhelmed. Then they give up and we don't want people giving up. We want people to just continue just to take those small steps until they get to a point where they have that like eating that, that protein, becoming aware of what, what their nutrition, what they're actually eating, and making that part of their daily routine where they don't have to think about it as much. Because if you do something for long enough you don't have to think about it as much. It's the same as training.

Speaker 2: 1:10:38

If you do training like I I've been training for 12 years now I don't think about going to train. I just turn up and train. It's part of my routine. I don't question it. I don't think should I train today? That never goes through my head. Of course I'm going. I train today. That never goes through my head. Of course I'm going to train today and of course I'm going to eat protein four times a day and as much as I can, you know, in each serving. So, to round things off, because I could sit here and talk to you all day, and, yeah, because it's just so much in nutrition and there's so much in nutrition with performance. But to round things off, I've got a new question, which I just started on my last episode, and I like to ask my guests at the end of each podcast, what is one thing that you do to uplift yourself?

Speaker 1: 1:11:40

It's a very hard question. I say I am pregnant right now, so that makes things a little bit different.

Speaker 2: 1:11:42

I feel like we need to have like a little clap. I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 1:11:47

My life priority is a bit different to what it used to be in terms of performance, cause I'm not, you know, competing at the moment, um. So. So you know that used to really bring quite a lot of joy, like I competed for 12 years, that, no longer than that, maybe 14 years within sport, um. So you know, like not having that definitely put a big hole into my life by not doing that. And I think now it's actually like I garden, do you know? I love it. Just go outside and I'm still moving, I'm still doing stuff, but very much enjoy it. Or I actually just spend time with my husband because I'm not doing the training that I used to. It means I actually get to see my husband a little bit more, because you know that's nice. So that, to be honest, in itself makes me very happy.

Speaker 2: 1:12:38

Well, that's fantastic to hear, because you know seasons of life right. Things don't remain the same. There's nothing more certain than change, and it's being able to adapt to the different changes that you encounter in your life. So where can people find you, amy? Because I know once they listen to this, I know there's some of my audience like I'm not going to rattle off names because you don't do that on podcasts, but I know there's some people that really could use your expertise. So where can they find you?

Speaker 1: 1:13:13

So Instagram is through the main one. Target nutrition, um, and then either email us as well um info at target nutritioncomau, um, and then we can answer any questions that you might kind of have from there all right, that sounds fantastic.

Speaker 2: 1:13:31

So if you're, you don't need to be an athlete, you can just be anyone. Anyone that wants to know more about how to fuel their body to make their lives better. Yeah, contact Amy.

Speaker 1: 1:13:44

All about it. Love helping people feel better.

Speaker 2: 1:13:48

Definitely Yep, highly recommended. Amy has made me feel better many times and I've learnt to trust Amy over the years. Very quick, this is the last story and then we're signing off. The last competition I went to with Amy guiding me through making weight because I was one kilo over. Since rectified that, amy. I'm now sitting at 70 kilos because I don't want to do that again. I don't want to do that again. I'm I don't want to do that again.

Speaker 1: 1:14:16

You know I don't want to drop weight. You're just not a person that makes weight. It's too much stress.

Speaker 2: 1:14:21

I don't. I can make weight, but I don't want to make weight, so what I do is I just sit underneath the weight class and then I don't have a problem. But it was national titles last year and, um, amy flipped the script on me and I almost had a heart attack because she didn't prepare me. We got to the competition the couple of days leading in and all of a sudden she's telling me to eat honey sandwiches and many of them. I'm like you're telling me to eat a shitload of carbs. Yeah, right before a competition to lose weight. Actually, I think it was Worlds in New Zealand. Yeah, I was going to say it was in New Zealand, and then we did it again at Nationals.

Speaker 1: 1:15:01

Yeah, yeah, is that right? Yeah, because it's, I guess, the things that I would usually do to help you make weight, because it had been such a long time. My strategies have then changed too. So, you know, as I've learnt more, I have adapted my strategies accordingly. So, yeah, in the last 24 hours I just feed people carbs.

Speaker 2: 1:15:25

And I couldn't believe it. I'm like this is too good to be true. How can I eat bread and honey and still lose weight? And I really. Honestly, it took a lot of mental fortitude and trust because I'd worked with Amy for so many years. I had the trust, I followed the process and it worked, yep. So if you're a competitor out there and you want to eat lots of carbs before a comp, go see Amy, because it's brilliant.

Speaker 1: 1:15:51

It's a nice feeling. It's a nice feeling, except for the days previous that I'd normally take it away from them.

Speaker 2: 1:15:59

Don't tell them that. Don't tell people that Just want them to focus in on the honey sandwiches right on the day before.

Speaker 1: 1:16:05

Like I say, the last 24 hours normally when it's like hell, it's actually not that bad.

Speaker 2: 1:16:10

It's fantastic, highly recommended. So all right, thank you for being here and stay strong, and I'm sure we'll have you back again. Amy, to finish off some more conversations, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.