How Gymnasts Can Build a Healthy Relationship with Food

Samantha Peszek is on a mission to connect athletes, coaches, and parents with the best resources the gymnastics world has to offer. Utilizing Samantha’s gymnastics network, (she really does have cool friends) guests will be experts in their field and shed a light on hot topics, tips for improvement, and inspiration. Listeners will have the opportunity to learn from some of the sport’s greats, participate in giveaways, and apply relevant tips to everyday life, in and out of the gym.

Nicole Jontony was a former elite collegiate gymnast at Ohio State, has helped her team make it to the NCAA championships during her senior year, and is currently a sports dietitian at The Ohio State University. Recently, Nicole was selected as the 2018 Young Dietitian of the Year by the Ohio Academy of Nutrition Dietetics. She graduated from Ohio State in 2013 with a degree in Medical Dietetics and has dedicated herself to helping athletes develop healthier eating habits and learn more about sports nutrition ever since. Alongside her husband, Nicole runs a sports performance practice that specializes in sports counseling and sports nutrition.

In this episode, Nicole emphasizes that there’s no such thing as a good food or a bad food, rather, people should be looking at food as fuel. She works to de-stigmatize food in order to help develop healthy habits for athletes. She mentions gymnasts should be having protein as a filling food to prevent binging or cravings and how increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet to get more vitamins and minerals can help you heal from an injury. Nicole lists several healthy eating tips such as fueling your energy using carbohydrates, using your hands to give yourself the right portion sizes, and enjoying food that makes you feel full!

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Key Takeaways

·Sam’s favorite memory of Nicole

·Nicole’s first memory of Sam

·Why did Nicole want to get into nutrition

·Nicole on getting the call to talk to Ohio State

·Did Nicole always know she wanted to be a dietitian in college

·Some advice to talk about the topic of nutrition

·College gymnastics compared to high school gymnastics

·Athletes should go to sports psychologists and dietitians for the best outcome

·Some healthy habits to build before college and de-stigmatizing food

·Bringing in a nutrition professional to prevent eating disorders

·Focusing on balancing your plate as a gymnast

·Using preparation to live a healthy lifestyle

·Dealing with injuries while maintaining a healthy diet

·Getting accustomed to foods you don’t like

·Listening to food cues and knowing your body

·Good portion sizing tips using your own hands

·Examples of healthy snacks for on-the-go

·Some healthy granola bar options

·Who should a coach speak to about nutrition

·Sam’s “desert island” analogy

·Whose job is it to discuss nutrition — the parent or the coach

·Buy healthy foods to avoid junk food cravings

· Keeping a healthy relationship with food

·Something Nicole wishes her younger self would’ve known about food

·Loving your body by having the foods that nourish it

·Making nourishment your routine

·Red flags to look for about eating disorders

· What triggered Nicole’s self-conscious eating

·A healthy way to open up a discussion about eating

·Something listeners can do to get one percent better each day

Tweetable Quotes

The best thing coaches and parents can do is support their athletes by encouraging them and by loving them.

Honestly, if you can, it would be a better idea for you personally to bring in a nutrition professional to talk about food because you don’t know what comments can trigger a future eating disorder.

Eating can be such a sensitive topic but there’s so much freedom when you find what truly a healthy nutrition lifestyle look like.

I started my nutrition major and I realized it was almost the perfect marriage of being in the science realm, having that physician mindset, following the science, following the evidence based research studies, and also using that designer mindset.

I work with our athletes on having a balanced plate at every meal. Have a good sized breakfast, a nice sized lunch, and a moderate dinner to balance out your day a little bit better.

When you are in high stress your body sends cortisol, which is a fat-storing hormone because our body is so good at protecting. With this high stress, your body is holding onto body fat.

Protein is the actual building block to repairing tissue. You actually need closet to 20 grams of protein, which is basically three ounces of chicken. 20 grams of protein turns on muscle growth.

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