Here in the Nutrition Mechanic Shop, we are busy helping athletes fine-tune aspects of daily and training nutrition to support health and gear up for a strong racing season ahead.
You might just catch the Mechanics doing Jazz Hands when athletes team up with credentialed nutrition professionals to clear confusion, get in the know, and ultimately, save time from social media timesuck listening to the 1,482,677 nutrition opinions out there in the NutriBizarroWorld.
We are often asked by athletes seeking nutrition coaching, “What is your approach?” - it’s a valid question indeed. The trouble is that we aren’t a Cookie Cutter Shop where we dole out 21-day meal plans, outright prescribe the single Diet du Jour, and then say ByeBye. We also can’t effectively tell you what we are going to do together until we get to know you.
However, we do have a framework in place that I wanted to share. Even if you are not currently shopping around for a nutrition coach, you can use this as a reference to help guide your decision making in aligning with a nutrition professional in the future.
Disclaimer: The steps below are still subject to change in order of priority and based on what you are trying to solve, treat, or improve.
Assessment
Have you ever experienced a doctor’s visit where you aren’t given the opportunity to share what you are feeling nor have your burning questions answered? It’s super annoying and you are left with a WTH feeling.
In our initial assessment, we spend our time learning your story, gathering insight around Who Are You, What’s Your Past, and What Is Going On right now. There is no judgment or “shoulda couldas” thrown into the mix.
This assessment looks at everything from past dieting/nutrition history, health and medical history, to food preferences, your daily routine and lifestyle, sleep habits, to supplements/medications you take, menstrual cycle details, to training programming. We look at any diagnostic testing you’ve had done in the recent past. We strive to understand where you are right now and meet you where you are right now.
Tracking
Lemme say up front, we aren’t big on the calorie counting and macro counting bandwagon.
Certainly there can be a time and place for this, but it is not common or frequent. Instead, we like to have you note these kind of things:
Subjective observations: This can be things like energy levels, mood, cognition, fatigue, cravings, mojo, and kickassability (<— yes, this is a new touchy feely metric).
Time of day you are eating: This gives us a sense of your meal timing and how well your meals are keeping you satisfied.
Okay, we do like to learn WHAT you are eating for your typical days, but you don’t have to weigh, measure, or count your morsels in order for us to learn this. We can use pictures and free form journals to see composition.
Exercise/Training: Time of day, modality, intensity/duration, fueling/fluids in and around; training programming, fitness/competition goals.
Objective observations such as bowel habits, sleep patterns, stress management practices, and support system involvement.
…and much more. It’s important to look at as many “inputs” as we can in order to figure out next best steps and then be able to monitor and adjust as we go along.
Diagnostics
Some healthcare professionals start you off with thousands of dollars of testing before they hear your story and get to know you. In contrast, we may on occasion start with a few hundred dollars of testing when there is an indication to do so.
For example, we may have you do a sweat composition test due to your recent race DNF when you became so dehydrated that you had to go to the Medical tent. Or we may ask you to get specific blood work to see your current iron status, due to your complaints of severe fatigue combined with a high training load and a vegetarian dietary pattern.
The point here is that we don’t outright order gobs of tests for you before they are warranted. And while we are definitely big fans of the “Test, Don’t Guess” mantra, we are also mindful of the financial aspects of testing in addition to the benefits of what the test results will provide. After all, we want to treat YOU, not treat a marker on a diagnostic test.
Alrighty, so that’s an overview of how we start. But remember, we apply an ‘art’ to our approach. You’re not a robot, so let’s not do Robot Nutrition.
Thanks for reading and drop us a note when you’re ready to dive in or book a Discovery Call with one of the Mechanics to chat about your needs.
Nourish your fire,
Dina