Fuel Your Performance
Sports Nutrition Services for Omaha, Nebraksa
As a Sports Dietitian I provide individual and group/team nutrition counseling and education to enhance the performance of competitive and recreational athletes, on-site and during travel. This includes counseling individuals and groups on daily nutrition for performance and health; translating the latest scientific evidence into practical sports nutrition recommendations; tracking and documenting outcomes of nutrition services, serving as a food and nutrition resource for coaches, trainers, and parents; providing sports nutrition education for health/wellness programs, athletic teams, and community groups.
RED-S and Low Energy Availability
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) happens when an athlete isn’t taking in enough energy to cover both training and the body’s basic needs. This is called low energy availability. It can happen to athletes of any gender, age, or level, from high school and club athletes to collegiate and masters competitors. It isn’t always intentional. Heavy training loads, busy schedules, poor appetite, and well-meaning “clean eating” can all leave an athlete under-fueled. For some athletes it overlaps with disordered eating.
Common signs include persistent fatigue, stalled or declining performance, frequent illness or injury, stress fractures, missed or irregular periods, GI problems, trouble recovering, and changes in mood or concentration.
With my background as a collegiate athlete, a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics, and years of experience in eating disorder treatment, I help athletes restore adequate fueling in a way that supports both performance and a healthy relationship with food. I work closely with physicians, athletic trainers, coaches, therapists, and parents so each athlete has a coordinated team. I welcome referrals for athletes with suspected or diagnosed RED-S.
Sports Nutrition Counseling may include the following:
- Assess and analyze dietary practices, body composition, and energy balance (intake and expenditure) of athletes in the context of athletic performance and health.
- Assesses and treats Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) and low energy availability, including related concerns with bone health, menstrual function, recovery, and performance.
- Counsels athletes on optimal nutrition for exercise training (match nutrition to training phases and goals), competition, recovery from exercise, weight management, hydration, immunity, disordered eating, travel, and supplementation.
- Counsels athletes on achieving and maintaining a level of body mass, body fat, and muscle mass that is consistent with good health and good performance.
- Provides personalized meal and snack plans to promote achieving short- and long-term goals for athletic performance and good health.
- Addresses nutritional challenges to performance, such as food allergies, bone mineral disturbances, gastrointestinal disturbances, iron depletion, and iron-deficiency anemia.
- Provides medical nutrition therapy, as needed, to help manage or treat medical conditions.
- Counsels athletes on optimal nutrition for recovery from illness or injury.
- Coordinates nutritional care as a member of multidisciplinary sports medical/sports science teams.
- Evaluates nutritional supplements, including herbal supplements, for legality, safety, quality, and efficacy; monitors use of appropriate supplementation.
- Collaborates with the individual’s family, physician, coach, and other health professionals, as appropriate.
Getting the right nutrition is one of the key ingredients to optimal athletic performance.