Nutrition Case Study: Oly Lifter Wants to Improve General Wellbeing & Performance
Written by Charissa Sutliff
Can you relate to this athlete’s story? I met with an athlete on the Invictus Olympic Weightlifting Team to chat about his nutrition. He wanted to schedule a consultation with me to create a gameplan to help him improve his performance, maintain and gain lean muscle and overall feel and function better.
Whenever I sit down with anyone, I ask them, “Paint me a picture of your life, current eating habits, training, sleep, stress, all of it, I don’t need you to impress me I want a realistic painting of everything you have going on so I can help identify gaps and then together we can create a gameplan for those.”
The struggles this athlete came to me with were feeling okay but wanting to feel better. He felt like most of his training days felt EH and like feeling sluggish, not performing well, not being able to hit the weights he wanted or feel as strong and powerful as he wanted during Oly sessions. He also identified that he hadn’t been as routine or structured as he had been in the past when he felt like he was performing well and felt good. He had been more lax lately and he didn’t feel good about this either. He desired to get back to the structure and routine because he could clearly see that worked well for him. He also identified that there was likely a lack of knowledge in addition to discipline wasn’t there or where he wanted to be.
He also noted that he didn’t sleep well. I dug deep into this! He revealed that he didn’t feel safe at night because the back door didn’t lock so this made him not sleep soundly. So we discussed what he could do to help him feel safe. This was so exciting to me, because feeling safe in our environment is a basic human need that needs to be met in order for us to thrive. A lack of feeling safe can increase cortisol and if these are elevated for too long can decrease performance.
Our nutrition coaching at Invictus utilizes a multi-faceted approach to locate and refine habit change opportunities unique to the individual and their life. We accomplish this by helping them improve their life in the short-term AND the long-term utilizing our 4 Pillars of Health.
Nutrition
There were some snacks to adjust that would help him to feel and perform better. Like eating more minimally-processed whole foods, and less processed foods. We also worked together to come up with a routine and schedule for meal times and identified the need to vary protein, carbs and veggie sources. For his sport he also needs and needed to eat more carbs and protein but less fat.
Movement
Keep crushing the lifting bro!
Sleep
We came up with a plan to improve his sleep hygiene through a new bedtime routine. We decided he would turn his electronics off 3 days before bedtime. LOL just kidding, however we did implement getting away from the screen an hour before bed. We also got rid of all the little lights in his room and made it darker with curtains. We implemented his new bedtime routine, taking a hot shower and drinking tea to help him relax. Also set an intention for a specific bedtime as well as consistent sleep and wake times. He was also advised to have a new lock installed on the back door to ease his mind.
Stress
We didn’t really give any solutions or gameplans for stress but I think creating a system that works for you that will routinize and make easier choices the path of least resistance.
Also, this athlete seems to laugh, have fun and enjoy life which can go a long way!
Recovery (Bonus Pillar)
Active recovery: Normatec leggings, foam roll
Passive recovery: bring post-workout meal with him and eat after lifting
Some key takeaways?!
Structure is good! Discipline is good. Structure, discipline and routines can help us focus on what we want to focus on and also give us freedom because our brains want to take the path of least resistance. By creating a plan and meal prepping ahead of time – that frees up mental space and time in your schedule and life so you can set your sights on training sessions. A little bit of discipline and planning ahead of time to create systems in your life will help you!
It’s about food and it’s not about food! It’s about nutrition but it’s also multifaceted and these other pillars such as sleep, rest, recovery, stress, mindset and even environmental factors impact our performance just as much as training and nutrition do.
By implementing these changes, he saw improvements in his energy, his performance and is feeling and functioning better. He is also seeing what he wants to see in his bodyweight and has made PRs in the gym!
Do you need some nutrition help? Learn more about our online Nutrition Coaching Program and get started today! It doesn’t matter what your goal is…You won’t regret it!
