Nutrition: Good habits, how to swerve cravings, menstrual symptoms and behaviour change

Female Athlete Podcast

In this episode, we’re focussing on a BIG area when it comes to performance, recovery, training and general wellbeing- it’s Nutrition. Today, we have a great guest joining us who is a Performance Nutritionist and an international rugby player for Ireland- Lauren Delany.

Lauren has worked with some of the world's best athletes in her career and was the nutritionist for British Cycling for over 5 years. She also made her international debut for Ireland 15s back in 2018 and has recently started a PhD in Nutrition and Behaviour Change.

We chat about how a nutritionist works day-to-day with athletes in terms of a 'performance-backwards' approach, and how she applies the principles of performance nutrition to help her athletes get the best out of their training and ultimately performance at competition.

We also ask her thoughts on menstrual cycle symptoms and the impact nutrition can have and ask if the research is there yet to back up phase-based nutrition practices, plus why we get cravings in certain phases and how to avoid them.

We also talk about behaviour change and how behaviour change techniques could influence the decisions we make as humans specifically when it comes to nutrition and diet.
Georgie and Jess also give their practical advice around how to help with menstrual symptoms such as eating anti-inflammatory foods and avoiding those foods which are pro-inflammatory, examples of which are included at the end of the episode.
It’s a varied, interesting chat and we hope you enjoy it!

In 'Question Time' this week we answer a question around whether having an early hysterectomy can have a knock on effect on menopause symptoms.
Resources:
Lauren on Twitter: @LaurenVeronaD

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We would like to thank our title sponsor for series 2 -Pretty Athletic. Pretty Athletic is a unique skincare brand for active women who sweat.
Visit www.prettyathletic.com to view the amazing range of products available and use discount code FEMALEATHLETEPOD for 20% off.
*Disclaimer: Materials and content in the Female Athlete Podcast are intended as general information only and should not be substituted for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment