Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Thanks for joining us on the
Speaker 1: Body and Soul podcast. I hope you are feeling healthy ish.
Speaker 1: I am Felicity Harley. Now, if you're a regular listener
Speaker 1: of this podcast, you will know that a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago I run a half marathon as part of
Speaker 1: the Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival. And helping me fuel my
Speaker 1: training and of course my race was Sarah Whierson. Now
Speaker 1: she's a senior dietitian and nutrition consultant specializing in women's
Speaker 1: health and fueling all types of athletes. She's also femi's
Speaker 1: resident dietitian. She was so good so I wanted to
Speaker 1: get her on the podcast to share all that she
Speaker 1: knows about eating before versus after your training. Which one
Speaker 1: should you do or should you do both? Well, she's
Speaker 1: going to help us out here and also recommend the
Speaker 1: best foods to eat. Hey, as you know, we keep
Speaker 1: our healthiest episodes short, so listening to extra Healthy Ish
Speaker 1: where Sarah talks about how to fuel your body to
Speaker 1: hit your fitness peak, you can grab that episode where
Speaker 1: we get your podcasts. Sarah, thank you for joining us
Speaker 1: on Healthy Today.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm good for Elasabe It's really nice to see you again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nice to see you again. And I have to
Speaker 1: say a big thank you. You helped get me over
Speaker 1: the line of the NAKE Melbourne Well half marathon. I
Speaker 1: didn't do the marathon, but you guided my nutrition and eating,
Speaker 1: so thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh you were so welcome. It takes like a good client.
Speaker 3: I feel like you were really receptive to information.
Speaker 2: So thank you. Yeah. Tell what do you do? What's
Speaker 2: your role with Narki and Fermi.
Speaker 3: So I'm a dietician and my special areas of interest
Speaker 3: in woman's house and then alsop and exercise nutrition. I
Speaker 3: kind of blend the two together to support female athletes.
Speaker 3: And when I say athlete, it can be like myself
Speaker 3: hobbyist just moves for joy, or it might be someone
Speaker 3: is a little bit more athletically gifted than me, and
Speaker 3: my role was for me. So we have like a
Speaker 3: team of health experts and I kind of sit as
Speaker 3: the dietitian and nutrition expert. And then obviously for me
Speaker 3: and Nik have an amazing working relationship and so I've
Speaker 3: got the joy of supporting and meeting you and that
Speaker 3: lead up to the Nike now the marathon festival and
Speaker 3: supporting your half marathon.
Speaker 2: Effit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, I found it personally really valuable because often
Speaker 1: we don't even think about nutrition when it comes to training.
Speaker 1: I mean I've never really considered it before. I mean,
Speaker 1: I kind of know what to eat before and after,
Speaker 1: but when I chatted to you, it made me realize
Speaker 1: but actually I probably don't know as much as I
Speaker 1: thought I knew. So when it comes to eating before
Speaker 1: and after a training session, is there any preferable before
Speaker 1: or after?
Speaker 2: What's what's best?
Speaker 3: The answer is kind of boss, yeah, And I think
Speaker 3: what you speak to is like nutrition is often the
Speaker 3: forgotten part of the training puzzle. You know, we're so
Speaker 3: good at thinking about our running shoes as an example,
Speaker 3: or your favorite sports bar or whatever it might be,
Speaker 3: but we don't think about the impact nutrition can have.
Speaker 3: And I always think, particularly with that pre workout, like
Speaker 3: literally imagining you're putting fuel in the tank, Like, it
Speaker 3: makes so much sense to me to be able to
Speaker 3: top up those nutrition stores so you can feel your
Speaker 3: potential during an exercise session and then after what we're
Speaker 3: trying to focus on is recovery, and lots of people
Speaker 3: will do those two time points with nutrition around their
Speaker 3: training without even thinking about it. But it's a nice
Speaker 3: kind of reminder to come back and think about what
Speaker 3: you're actually doing and could you be tweaking anything. So
Speaker 3: as an example, like if someone was training at four
Speaker 3: o'clock in the afternoon, they were going out for a
Speaker 3: training run, then their lunchtime meal would serve as their
Speaker 3: pre workout meal, so it's a natural meal that would
Speaker 3: fall in the day. But if someone was waking up
Speaker 3: at six o'clock in the morning to go out for
Speaker 3: a bit of a jog, then if they're not including
Speaker 3: that pre workout nutrition, and I think training your body
Speaker 3: to do that is a really important thing to do. Likewise,
Speaker 3: with recovery nutrition, most people might naturally come back from
Speaker 3: a training session and have their next natural meal. So
Speaker 3: that four o'clock example I gave you, you might come
Speaker 3: back and maybe Hoby's booked your dinner.
Speaker 2: That would be a recovery meal.
Speaker 3: It would be nice right in the Spanish ev end,
Speaker 3: but that would be your recovery meal. So it doesn't
Speaker 3: necessarily need to be additional food in your diet, but
Speaker 3: thinking about the timing of your training and including that
Speaker 3: pre and pops to work out nutrition is really important.
Speaker 1: Let's pick up on that six am one, because that's
Speaker 1: a really interesting one.
Speaker 2: If you are an early morning a runner.
Speaker 1: Or exerciser, how do you how should you fit in
Speaker 1: your pre training snack or meal.
Speaker 3: I mean, if I think about most runners, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure you would have seen this in your training plan
Speaker 3: for your half marathon if it's there, would have been
Speaker 3: like a different load across your week and would normally
Speaker 3: see like a long run. Usually a trainer would put
Speaker 3: that on a weekend or a day that's not at
Speaker 3: works to allow you time to actually do the training,
Speaker 3: but also to have those nutrition targets as well. So
Speaker 3: if I think about and we talked about this in
Speaker 3: New Console Felicity, but that long run nutrition, like timing
Speaker 3: that pre workout meal two to three hours before that
Speaker 3: long run is really important. So if you were getting
Speaker 3: up at eight o'clock on the weekend to go for
Speaker 3: your long run, then what I'm saying is at five am,
Speaker 3: which I know sounds really early and evil on a Saturday,
Speaker 3: but you should be getting up and having your pre
Speaker 3: workout meal or your breakfast at that time point. And
Speaker 3: the three hour spacing is to reduce your risk of
Speaker 3: what we call runners gut, which many runners will know
Speaker 3: that like yucky digestion tuning and need for a public
Speaker 3: toilet pretty frantically while you're out there training during the week,
Speaker 3: if you're kind of getting up at six o'clock in
Speaker 3: the morning, it would be uncommon to see big training
Speaker 3: efforts before a workday, and so you can get away
Speaker 3: with eating closer to the beginning of that training session
Speaker 3: and smaller portions. And an example are often of clients
Speaker 3: is if you're not eating before exercise at the moment
Speaker 3: during the week, then just start really small, so like
Speaker 3: a banana as an example of a really easy to
Speaker 3: digest carbohydrate, carbohydrates powering your muscles for your exercise effort.
Speaker 3: Most people can train their mind in their gut to
Speaker 3: tolerate just a banana before they heat out the door,
Speaker 3: and then you might start to play with increasing that
Speaker 3: if you notice, actually, hey, I really liked how I
Speaker 3: felt on that training session from having something to eat,
Speaker 3: you can start to play with increasing their food volume.
Speaker 1: What are some other go to pre snacks? I mean
Speaker 1: for those who don't like bananas, which is actually me unfortunately.
Speaker 3: I think I would remember that, but no, no, no, I.
Speaker 1: Don't even think I told you in that concept because
Speaker 1: I'm almost embarrassed so that I don't like them.
Speaker 2: Because the runners go to snacks.
Speaker 3: We are, we are, I'll be screened. So banana is
Speaker 3: just an example of like a quick and to eat,
Speaker 3: easy to deduce carbohydrates, or it's low and ruffage fiber.
Speaker 3: So other options that people love is like a piece
Speaker 3: of toast with like peanut butter or honey if you
Speaker 3: want some additional carbo hydrate. Some people love things like
Speaker 3: yogat or smoothies. I personally don't love the liquid slashing
Speaker 3: around my tummy while I'm training, but other people they
Speaker 3: can tolerate that just fine. A proting bar would be
Speaker 3: another kind of common option, particularly one that contains carbohydrate,
Speaker 3: or like a musli bar or some bliss balls or
Speaker 3: is another common one that people will turn to.
Speaker 2: It's just a bit of trial and error, isn't it. Really?
Speaker 1: They are great examples and just okay, maybe I'll try this.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I don't feel so good after having that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And is there any time frame before, like you know,
Speaker 1: you were saying the three hours, is there you know,
Speaker 1: anything an hour or half an hour? I mean, is
Speaker 1: there any kind of how close can you.
Speaker 3: Eat to a run, you can train yourself to tolerate
Speaker 3: it much earlier. So for like a big running effort.
Speaker 3: As an example I was giving before, that two to
Speaker 3: three hour time space is to avoid that runners gat.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned before, when you eat food, it takes
Speaker 3: about twenty minutes from the carbohydrate that you've had in
Speaker 3: your meal to turn into glucose in your small intestine
Speaker 3: and then into your blogstring. So and kind of allowing
Speaker 3: time to kick in is also really important. And when
Speaker 3: you include protein with a meal, it kind of juice
Speaker 3: is how quickly that car becomes glucose. So what I'm
Speaker 3: saying is you don't need to eat your banana and
Speaker 3: then you've got twenty minutes before it's in your bond
Speaker 3: stream and you got to head out the door. But
Speaker 3: if you do something make the banana and the peanut butter,
Speaker 3: you're slowing down how quickly that banana will become carver
Speaker 3: hydrate or glucose, if that makes sense, and can slow
Speaker 3: it down. And people have been running or exercising for
Speaker 3: a long time usually able to tolerate eating quite quickly
Speaker 3: or close in comparison to their training, but it takes time.
Speaker 3: To work up to that. So I would start with
Speaker 3: that morning example of six am, And I think what's
Speaker 3: practical for people is like five am, if you can
Speaker 3: get up and have something to eat and drink, is.
Speaker 1: It really damaging or how damaging is it on the
Speaker 1: body if you just go out for a run, you know,
Speaker 1: like to say do a six or seven kg trade yeah,
Speaker 1: like and not eat.
Speaker 3: For woman in particular, there's evidence that our cortisol, so
Speaker 3: that's a hormone that we make. Lots of people will
Speaker 3: be familiar with that hormone in the context of stress,
Speaker 3: but there's evidence that we make a bigger cortisole response
Speaker 3: when we train faster compared to men. And like in
Speaker 3: my work either with a lot with women who have
Speaker 3: problems with a regular ovulation or loss of period, and
Speaker 3: some of the things that I talk about is kind
Speaker 3: of understanding that cortisol impact on your brain and your
Speaker 3: brain controls ovulation, and ovulation is the event in your
Speaker 3: body that predates the period. The consequence would be potentially
Speaker 3: like risk of underfueling. You don't get the most out
Speaker 3: of your training when you're not fueling as well properly,
Speaker 3: and that can lead to maybe not necessarily a consequence
Speaker 3: in that six k run, But if you think about
Speaker 3: you've still got the entire work day or parenting day
Speaker 3: or study day to get to like through I'll often
Speaker 3: see clients talking about being really low in energy or
Speaker 3: really hungry craving sugar at like three o'clock, and I
Speaker 3: don't focus on that point in time with them. I
Speaker 3: zoom out and go all the way back to before
Speaker 3: that run. What did you do? And can we start
Speaker 3: there to make some changes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice, And just quickly before we go, let's
Speaker 1: just touch on after training. What's perhaps you know, your
Speaker 1: go two meal or something that we sh would be
Speaker 1: eating it at what time frame should we be taking
Speaker 1: it in?
Speaker 3: Really good question. So I try and focus on what
Speaker 3: I call the three hours, which is you want to rehydrate,
Speaker 3: so obviously replace fluids that you've lost through sweat. You
Speaker 3: want to promote repair of your muscles by including a
Speaker 3: protein source. And you want to replenish your carbohydrate stores
Speaker 3: that you've used while you've been exercising, so including a
Speaker 3: carb And I think a really easy way to think
Speaker 3: about this is trying to include like a glass of
Speaker 3: fluid and a protein and a carb on your plate.
Speaker 3: It can be your natural next meal or snack, and
Speaker 3: we want you to be replenishing those stores between like
Speaker 3: sixty to ninety minutes after a training session finishing. So
Speaker 3: for U six am example, you head your banana, you
Speaker 3: went through your six k run, you come back. Breakfast
Speaker 3: is your recovery meal, and most people would naturally include
Speaker 3: a protein and a carb at those meal times if
Speaker 3: that recovery nutrition is falling outside of a natural meal.
Speaker 3: I think smoothies are a really great example of being
Speaker 3: able to hit like hydration, protein and carb really easily
Speaker 3: thinking about what you're when we've got in this movie, Sarah.
Speaker 2: Thank you for coming on healthy Ish. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I like that. The three hours of recovery. That's a
Speaker 1: little easy thing to remember next time you finish your workout.
Speaker 1: And I'm just hanging on to the rest. We all
Speaker 1: want rest right now, don't we? More than ever? Anyway,
Speaker 1: I hope you did enjoy this chat. If you did,
Speaker 1: tell us rate and review this episode. You can subscribe
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Speaker 1: our print edition, which is out in your local Sunday paper.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, and stay healthy ish