When you google supplements, walk into a supplement shop, or browse the supplement aisle at the supermarket, it can be very overwhelming and confusing.  There are thousands of supplements on the market, many opinions, and many that are unnecessary. So, how do you decide if you should take a supplement… let’s explore a little.  Firstly, there are different supplements. These include, but are not limited to: Dietary supplements (vitamins and minerals): iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin c, vitamin D, B-complexes, omega 3s, multivitamins, magnesium, probiotics, collagen, etc  Sports su ..read more

Puberty, the natural transition from childhood to adolescence, is a pivotal stage in a young athlete's life. While it's often associated with physical and emotional changes (which often are focused on negatively), it also plays a significant role in improving athletic performance - both in the short term, and for life!  It’s no lie it can be a challenging at the time for young athletes and adolescents; but if we can support athletes to embrace it, change training and sport to suit them, and fuel appropriately, they are going to stay happy, healthy and be in sport for the rest of their li ..read more

As I write this blog, it’s currently World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness month… so I wanted to explore with you how we can support our mental health and well-being through food, nutrition and other lifestyle habits. There are key nutrients which support a healthy and happy brain, but we need to combine this with other daily practices and healthy habits around exercise and self care. We all have our own journey we are on, and different strategies will work for different people, or at different times in your life, so please keep this in mind. If you need extra support, please re ..read more

To build your race plan, there's a few things we need to work through: Carbohydrates Hydration: fluid requirements and what you will have Sodium First up, we're looking at carbohydrates. HOW MUCH For carbohydrates, it's best to work off an hourly goal amount. Sports nutrition guidelines tell us that for endurance sport over 3 hours, aiming for 60 to 90g of carbohydrates per hour is useful for maintaining energy, preventing cramps and optimising performance. You may have heard before about aiming for 1g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, or to aim for a certain amount of calories pe ..read more

Just like we can train our muscles or heart to adapt and improve performance, we can train our gut as an athletic organ to improve our performance too. LISTEN TO THE BLOG HERE Gut training is a sports nutrition strategy that can be really helpful for athletes who suffer from gut upsets or irritations; are wanting or needing to take on more fluid and carbohydrate during exercise, or are needing to tolerate more food / nutrition before and after exercise. So, let’s dive into the details and see how you can implement this into your training. GUT TRAINING THE GOAL: Improve gastric emptying and abs ..read more

A topic I find myself discussing lots with people is how nutrition for sport is a little bit different to life. There’s a misconception that nutrition for sport or eating as an athlete (aka anyone who does planned exercise) has to be “perfect”, “healthy”, and “clean”... but what do those terms even mean? LISTEN TO THE BLOG HERE I want you to view foods as functional. Every food has a purpose. There’s no “good” and “bad” foods…unless you’re intolerant or allergic to something!! There are foods we want to eat around exercise because they give us fast fuel (for example higher GI, lower fibre, hig ..read more

A topic that has been coming up regularly in chats with my athletes recently is stress. Stress both internally and externally. LISTEN TO THE BLOG HERE While we all know stress isn’t good for us, unfortunately the current world we live in seems to keep pushing the boundaries of just how far we can go. Work stress, family stress, training stress, emotional stress and mental stress. Stress is one of the biggest drivers of our health. Our hypothalamus, which is like the gatekeeper of our body, is continually assessing internal and external stressors and adjusting for them. It sends signals to the ..read more

You may have heard recently about ChatGPT…or perhaps you haven’t. Either way, there’s lots of interest in it at the moment. Is it going to change how we work? Is it going to replace jobs? Is it going to replace me - Christie the sports dietitian - and give everyone a dietitian in their pocket for free?! Well, let’s take a look at what it is, what you can use it for and why I think most people will still need a real-life dietitian What is ChatGPT? Well, instead of me writing it out, I asked it that exact question? And as ChatGPT just told you, it can be helpful for meal planning, recipe inspo ..read more

You’ve probably heard the saying before that coffee dehydrates you. But in fact, drinking moderate* amounts of coffee, and around exercise, doesn’t actually dehydrate you. If this has just put a smile on your face, keep on reading before you go and grab another coffee… Many studies over the recent years have looked at different beverages and their effect on hydration status. Drinks included: water, sparkling water, orange juice, beer, milk, oral rehydration solutions (ORS) and coffee. They found that ORS, milk and orange juice were top performers when it came to hydration and retaining fluid ..read more

A new year or a new season often prompts athletes to think about new goals or things they want to achieve…whether that’s in sport, life or health. But, to be successful, it’s not just about thinking big or setting something that scares you... Sure, this can work for some people, but we need to think about how you will achieve that: the process, what you can control, barriers, troubleshooting strategies, and accountability. Here’s my 5-step guide to setting successful goals Once you have thought about what you want to achieve (it can be big or small), work through the following to flesh it out ..read more