TBP 240 :: Nutrition Session with Climber Who Has Fatigue at the Crag and Poor Recovery

Date: August 30th, 2023

Listen on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify

Neely Does a Live Nutrition Session with a Climber Struggling with Fatigue

In this episode I do a full nutrition session with a climber who has been struggling with feeling fatigued most days, especially at the crag. Fatigue is something I see in a lot of my nutrition clients that is often improved really quickly with nutrition, so I thought this session would be great for everyone to be able to listen in on.

My client was Leah Thomas, a 31-year-old climber who is basically living at a crag and climbing most days of the week. She just feels tired and is very dependent on caffeine to get her through her days and she wanted to change that by trying to eat better. She just was confused about how to do that, which is not uncommon at all.

In this session we talk about her weekly schedule of exercise and work, her daily schedule of eating, climbing, working, and sleeping, and then we looked at her diet log on myfitnesspal to see what was going on to contribute to her fatigue.

I gave her really concrete suggestions for small changes to make in her diet every day, what to do differently at the crag, and I gave her some advice about her climbing schedule to decrease her fatigue levels and increase her recovery so she’s not feeling so tired all the time.

I hope, if you struggle with similar things, that this episode is helpful for you!

Follow Along with Her Diet Log Analysis on YouTube

I’ve recently begun uploading all of my podcast episodes to youtube and this one might be super useful to watch so you can see Leah’s diet log as I analyze it and make suggestions for her.

>>>Watch Session on YouTube

Work with Me on Your Nutrition

I’m currently taking new clients for the first time in many months, and if you’d like to work with me to improve your climbing performance, overall energy levels, digestion, and blood glucose, I’m here for you!

We can do an hour session, a month package, or you can do my self-paced nutrition course, Nourish, and add a single session onto that for more personalization.

>>Find Out More about My Nutrition Services

If you’re not ready to pay for nutrition services quite yet and you just want something free to get started, I have a mini-course you can sign up for that includes 6 days of informative emails (with a discount code for my Nourish program included). Scroll down to sign up.

Transcript

Neely (00:00:01):

If you’re really confused about nutrition, especially as it pertains to climbing, I’ve got you covered. I’ve been working with climbers exclusively as a nutrition professional since 2013, and I’ve been seeing nutrition clients since 2007. I have a lot of years of figuring out what works for climbers, and I made a program called Nourish where I go through my process that I take my clients through, and I give you way more education than I even do with them because I give you four hours of video with me covering things like how to analyze your own diet log, how to time your meals and snacks properly, how to create a diet plan for yourself that doesn’t involve major changes. Just small tweaks here and there can make a big difference. I go through things like healthy fat loss if that’s a goal of yours, optimizing a plant-based diet, talking about food quality considerations, and I go through digestive things such as bloating, gas, heartburn, and food sensitivities. I also talk a little bit about the keto diet and intermittent fasting for climbers. All of this can be found@trainingbeta.com slash nourish, and this program will give you everything you need to improve your diet so that you can climb harder, have more energy through the day, and recover faster. Training beta.com/nourish.

(00:01:43):

This is the Training Beta podcast, and I’m your host, Neely Quinn. Thanks for joining me for another episode all about training for rock climbing. Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different. We’re going to talk more about nutrition. I’m actually doing an entire session with Leah, and she very kindly volunteered to be on the show while doing this nutrition session. So thank you, Leah. I really appreciate it, and the kinds of things that we’re going to talk about are exactly, this session is truly how I do my nutrition sessions. And so one thing I want to tell you is that for many months I have not been seeing nutrition clients. While I was finishing coaching school, I just didn’t have the time or brain space for it because seeing nutrition clients is, it’s like mentally and emotionally intensive, and so I just didn’t have the time for it, and I recently started seeing clients again.

(00:02:48):

I’m really enjoying it again, it’s just like I’ve said so many times, it’s such low hanging fruit, and I feel like people in climbing are generally on the right track with their diet. It’s just these really small changes that they need to make in order to make huge differences. So I’m seeing clients, again, if you want to work with me, you can go to training beta.com/nutrition. It’s really easy to remember, and I have a few different options. So I either see people hourly, which is kind of like what you’re going to see here with Leah, where we just go through her dialogue. We talk about her lifestyle, her schedule, her energy levels, what she wants to get out of the session, and then I try to give her as much great content as possible, really direct suggestions, exactly what to add to her meals, take away from her meals, how to change timing of her meals so that she can move on in the same day, make those changes.

(00:03:57):

I’m not into making giant changes for people. I know that that’s overwhelming and it’s most of the time really unnecessary. So when people think about working with a nutritionist, usually this fear comes up of like, oh, I’m going to have to change everything. I’m just not prepared to do that. But in reality with me, I really just want people to maintain their status quo for the most part and just make small tweaks that are delicious and make sense for them. So I know that it’s sending season right now, and people don’t necessarily want to make giant changes to their diets, but I want to help you make small changes so that you can send and so that you can train along with trying to send and do all the things that you want to do and have the energy to do it. So you can work with me by, like I said, doing an hour or I’ll do monthly packages with people where we meet two times and I do two email check-ins with you between those meetings.

(00:04:59):

And that’s been really helpful for people who need a little more accountability and a little bit more help than just one session. And then I also have my Nourish program, which is an online self-paced program, and you can also add a session with me for an hour and we can talk about questions that you have about the program. But the Nourish program takes you through all of the things that I talk about with my clients that teaches you how to analyze your own diet log and all the good stuff. So all of that again, can be found@trainingbeta.com slash nutrition. I’m taking on about three clients right now, so if you want to work with me, get in there. And so you can get on my schedule and then if too many people sign up, I might have to close it down a little bit. I also need room in my schedule to see my coaching clients, which if you want to work with me on your mindset, I would really love to work with you.

(00:05:55):

And you can find that at trainingbeta.com. And just go to the mindset tab at the top. Today I have Leah Thomas as my client on this podcast. We are going to talk about how she’s feeling a lot of fatigue during the day. She doesn’t feel like she has the energy she needs to climb. She’s basically living at a climbing area and she’s climbing a lot and she just doesn’t feel like she’s recovering. She feels tired throughout the day. She feels like she needs a lot of caffeine to get her through her days. And this is really common. A lot of people struggle with fatigue and feeling like they’re not super recovered and all of that. So hopefully you can relate with this. And I gave her some really clear and direct suggestions for what she can do differently. And yeah, hopefully it’s helpful for you. And this kind of gives you an idea of how I work with people. And so you can see if you want to work with me too, I have another one of these coming up. I’ll probably put it out in a month with another guy, and we did the same thing, so you’ll get to hear even more of me doing sessions like this coming up soon. But in the meantime, here’s Leah and I’ll talk to you on the other side. Alright. Hi Leah, how are you?

Leah (00:07:15):

Good, how are you?

Neely (00:07:16):

I’m fine, thanks. Yeah, so thanks for doing this with me. I really appreciate your vulnerability and willingness to have the world here all about your diet, so thanks.

Leah (00:07:27):

Yeah, no worries. Figure I can help someone. It’s good. And it helps me too.

Neely (00:07:34):

Yeah, right. We’re killing two birds with one stone. I hate that saying. I don’t even know why I say it. Okay. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what you want help with in your nutrition.

Leah (00:07:46):

I guess 31 climber just started working on twelves this year. Got my first 12 C Sunday I think. So congrats. Exciting. Yeah, thanks. And kind of nutrition wise, I guess not really sure what I should be eating to get the best performance. I know I’ve had a lot of issues in the past dealing with fatigue and things like that. And I don’t know if it’s associated with what I’m eating or I’m sure there’s things I could be doing to help manage it better or during the day climbing, what should I eat, when should I be eating the things? And my boyfriend’s a climber too, so he kind of knows a little bit more than I do, but he’s also much larger than I am. So we definitely have totally different amounts that we’re eating and different styles that we’re eating. So I guess help with it all, I guess. Okay.

Neely (00:08:52):

All right. And just so people know you, for the people who are watching on YouTube, I thought that your background was fake, like a Zoom background. It’s not. So where are you right

Leah (00:09:05):

Now? I am in a little town called Woodstock, Maine, or it’s right at the base of Shag crag, which is kind of like a rare granite climbing area up in New England.

Neely (00:09:21):

Cool. All right. Yeah. Cool. And so are you on a trip right now?

Leah (00:09:25):

I actually moved out here to a little, my boyfriend brought property out here in April I think. So we’ve been here for the whole summer. It’s been pretty great. Yeah.

Neely (00:09:35):

All right, great. And I was asking just because curious, but also because being on a trip is a little bit different than being at home and climbing. Yeah,

Leah (00:09:44):

For sure

Neely (00:09:44):

What you can. So do you have all of the comforts of home there with cooking?

Leah (00:09:49):

Yeah, mostly We’ve got a stove and fridge, air fryer, pressure cooker, so it’s not like we’ve been just eating instant mac and cheese the whole time.

Neely (00:10:00):

Okay. All right, cool. Okay. So what I heard is that you are looking to know a little bit more about what to eat, when to eat and for performance, but also because you’re feeling fatigued throughout some days of climbing and not climbing.

Leah (00:10:20):

And I know I do consume a lot of caffeine, so I don’t know. I’ve had occasional sleep issues, but I don’t know if it’s related to that or not. In the past, I have gone off caffeine for a month and haven’t really noticed anything too different, and I’ve been trying to not drink coffee or anything after 11 or noon, but sometimes if I’m climbing a lot, it just feels like I need a little extra energy. And maybe I could be doing that with eating better. But for now I’ve been just like, I’ll just have more caffeine.

Neely (00:10:58):

Okay. All right. And when you say you drink a lot of caffeine, how much is that?

Leah (00:11:05):

I’m probably two or to three cups of coffee in the morning, and then I’ll bring whatever extra coffee I have to the crag or sometimes some energy drinks also, but not more than one energy drink a day and then whatever coffee I’ve been drinking.

Neely (00:11:27):

And when you say the rest of your coffee, how much might that be?

Leah (00:11:32):

Probably another two to three cups I would say.

Neely (00:11:37):

Okay. And when you’ve experimented with not having it, did you feel any difference in anything or just not in your sleep?

Leah (00:11:48):

Not that I really noticed in anything. It felt like my days were kind of about the same, but I guess maybe I wasn’t paying as close attention to that as I could have. But I guess overall I didn’t really notice a huge difference and I didn’t really get any withdrawal headaches or anything either. So maybe I’m not drinking as much as I think I am.

Neely (00:12:14):

Well, I mean you are drinking more than I will say most of my clients drink, but everybody’s genetic tolerance to caffeine is different. It seems like yours is pretty high, especially if you’re not having the withdrawal from it, but just the fact that you feel like you need this constant energy is more of the information that I want. And I would love for you to just feel really energized and not have to drink all of the coffee.

Leah (00:12:48):

Same. So

Neely (00:12:50):

We’ll try to remedy that today. Okay. So I’m just going to pepper you with questions.

Leah (00:12:59):

Yeah, go for it.

Neely (00:13:00):

We’re going to learn all about your exercise, your typical schedule, and then we’ll take a look at your diet log. And so for the people on YouTube, you are going to be able to see Leah’s diet log as well. I asked her to, sorry to talk about you in third person. I asked her to fill out some days in this app that I use called MyFitnessPal, and she did a great job and did it’s like six days in there, which is super helpful. The more data we can have, the better, but, so that’s kind of where we’re going to go with this. And at the end of it, I will give you some really clear cut suggestions for changes to make. And the way that I work is I’m not generally in, I don’t make big changes for people or big suggestions, and usually climbers don’t really need that. They just need little tweaks here and there. So that’s kind of what we’re looking at. Cool. Okay. Ready?

Leah (00:14:00):

Ready.

Neely (00:14:01):

Okay. So tell me about your typical schedule through the week. How much do you work? What do you do for work, and how much do you exercise?

Leah (00:14:15):

So kind of taking the summer off a little bit from my regular job. So we opened a little bakery stand here, so I’ve been doing that in the mornings, maybe three to four hours in the mornings, but maybe three or four times a week. Also as far as exercise, I guess a little bit here and there, I keep trying to get into running, so I’ve been doing that maybe once or twice a week, and then a little bit of other training, but I don’t have a very good training routine I guess. But yeah.

Neely (00:14:58):

And then how much are you climbing?

Leah (00:15:01):

Probably three to four days a week. And then I guess I’ve been kind of counting the hike up to the Craig is exercise. It’s like a 45 minute hike up.

Neely (00:15:13):

Okay. And is it hard?

Leah (00:15:15):

It’s pretty straight up the whole way.

Neely (00:15:18):

Okay, so you’re kind of counting that as our exercise? Yeah, 45 minutes straight uphill with a backpack on. Yeah, that’s exercise. Yeah. Okay. So about an hour and a half of hiking, three to four days a week.

Leah (00:15:34):

And then I’ve gone up by myself too on non climbing days. Okay. So probably about three to four.

Neely (00:15:41):

Okay. Three to four, sometimes more than that.

Leah (00:15:44):

Yeah.

Neely (00:15:46):

Okay. And when you go running, how much are you running?

Leah (00:15:50):

Usually out for half an hour, 45 minutes, but it’s not running the whole time because I’m not quite in shape enough yet to run that whole way, maybe three-ish miles.

Neely (00:16:05):

Okay. And are those on your rest days?

Leah (00:16:08):

Yeah.

Neely (00:16:09):

Okay. And let’s see, anything else? Any yoga, anything else?

Leah (00:16:16):

I’ve been doing a little bit of yoga since I’ve been feeling stiff from climbing, do an occasional ab workout. And then we do have a moon board here, so I’ve been getting on that maybe once or twice a week also.

Neely (00:16:35):

And is that on your outdoor climbing days or

Leah (00:16:38):

No, the outdoor climbing days, we’re pretty much there the whole day, so kind of spent by the time we get back.

Neely (00:16:46):

All right. So the moon board is on your rest days from outdoor climbing?

Leah (00:16:50):

Yeah.

Neely (00:16:51):

Okay. So let’s just go through this Monday through Sunday. So to get a really clear idea, what did you do yesterday? Yesterday with Monday,

Leah (00:17:04):

Yesterday was a rest day and I did nothing. I slept really poorly, I guess Sunday night, so it was just felt, I did go for a hike, actually, that’s a lie, like an hour long hike, mostly flat though. So that was what we did yesterday. It was kind of a rest day hangout. And then today we went up and climbed. We were up there from nine to about four 30.

Neely (00:17:36):

And in that time, about how many pitches are you doing?

Leah (00:17:44):

About four or five, sometimes up to six, but that’s rare. I think today we did about five.

Neely (00:17:52):

I’m assuming you’re projecting?

Leah (00:17:54):

Yeah.

Neely (00:17:55):

Okay. And then did you do anything else on that day?

Leah (00:18:00):

No.

Neely (00:18:01):

Okay. Then do you want to go forward or do you want to take me back to last week?

Leah (00:18:06):

Probably back would be, I think I’ve got that slightly better down. So I guess Sunday was another climbing day about the same. I think we were up there nine to three, nine to four maybe, and did about four to five pitches again

Neely (00:18:33):

On Saturday.

Leah (00:18:35):

Saturday. I’m going to have to check my phone. I think I took a picture or two as I don’t remember. Saturday, I think we climbed a little bit that morning, just like a couple pitches and then had some family obligations Saturday afternoon

Neely (00:19:07):

And Friday

Leah (00:19:09):

Kind of rained all day, I think went for a run on Friday and then did a yoga flexibility circuit workout

Neely (00:19:25):

And Thursday.

Leah (00:19:27):

Thursday. So it is hard to remember. I wouldn’t be able to, yeah, I want to say we probably climbed Thursday again, maybe just in the afternoon on Thursday.

Neely (00:19:43):

Okay.

Leah (00:19:45):

We’ve been, the weather’s been really terrible up here for the past month, so we’ve just been on any sunny day. We’re just kind of climbing as much as we can, just had so much rain for a bit, but it kind of varies. We’re trying to stick to climb on the weekends, so then two rest days during the week and then a training day or something.

Neely (00:20:11):

Okay. So then what happened on Wednesday?

Leah (00:20:16):

Probably also a rest day, I’m assuming.

Neely (00:20:21):

And when you say rest day, what did you actually

Leah (00:20:23):

Do? Kind of active rest day is like do chores or something like that. I probably worked in the morning and then I have a dog, so took him for a walk and then keep telling myself I’ll get better about doing some flexibility routine or something, but I haven’t done that yet.

Neely (00:20:45):

Okay. So you said you were moon boarding one or two times a week. Do you think you did that at some point?

Leah (00:20:51):

Yeah, maybe last Tuesday or so, or it might’ve been Wednesday evening also.

Neely (00:21:04):

Okay. So on a rest day you would moon board

Leah (00:21:07):

Possibly. I feel like I should have kept a schedule down.

Neely (00:21:11):

Okay. Okay. So I’m just going to read this back to you. Monday, one hour flat hike, Tuesday, hike and climb nine to 4 30, 4 to six pitches.

Leah (00:21:28):

Sounds good so

Neely (00:21:28):

Far. Wednesday walk, moon board, Thursday, hike and climb half day.

Leah (00:21:37):

Yep.

Neely (00:21:39):

Friday run and yoga.

Leah (00:21:41):

Yep.

Neely (00:21:42):

Saturday, climb two pitches and hike up to the Craig Sunday hike and climb nine to three or four or four to five pitches.

Leah (00:21:51):

That sounds pretty accurate.

Neely (00:21:54):

Okay, so that’s 1, 2, 3 or five days of climbing and no rest days.

Leah (00:22:09):

Yeah, there was probably, I think Friday might’ve been, well,

Neely (00:22:16):

When I say rest days, I mean nothing.

Leah (00:22:18):

Not like a full day.

Neely (00:22:21):

So this is something we can talk about right now. I’m not a climbing coach, but I talk to a lot of them. Nobody would ever expect you to not be fatigued on this schedule and nobody would expect you to climb at your potential on this schedule either. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. And especially when you’re projecting outside and you’re trying to train and you’re moon boarding and you’re running and you’re doing all these things, the fact that you are going to caffeine a lot is not surprising at all to me. And I know that that’s really hard for people to hear, and I don’t expect you to do anything. But if I were to give you my unsolicited advice, which I guess this is solicited, but as far as your exercise goes, I would definitely say take a couple rest days, full rest days during the week, we’re taught that more is better in ways and we think that more is better, but this is how you’re going to climb five 13 is by resting more.

Leah (00:23:23):

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah,

Neely (00:23:26):

You’re just tired. You’re tired, and it might be contributing to your lack of sleep. You might just be overtrained.

Leah (00:23:35):

Okay.

Neely (00:23:35):

Yeah, so we’ll look at your diet too, to talk about the

Leah (00:23:38):

Sleep stuff. Okay, sounds good.

Neely (00:23:39):

Okay, so then your daily schedule, can you just tell me around the times when you wake up, when you eat and when you go to sleep?

Leah (00:23:48):

So I usually wake up anywhere from six to seven 30 probably, and then have coffee, and then breakfast kind of around 8 39 or probably anywhere from eight to nine breakfast. And then lunch is probably anywhere from noon to one 30 or so. And then dinner, probably same range of five to six 30. I try to be in bed probably like nine, and some days I’m better about going to sleep at 9 30, 10 ish. And then other days I just can’t go to sleep. But I think that’s more of a anxiety thing at night sometimes or just keep thinking about things throughout the whole day or night. But mostly if I do a more chill activity read instead of watch tv, I think that helps me a lot.

Neely (00:24:55):

So typically, I mean there’s a difference between what we want to happen and what actually happens. What time do you typically go to sleep?

Leah (00:25:06):

Probably like nine 30 or 10 ish I would say.

Neely (00:25:09):

Okay. That’s when you actually are sleeping?

Leah (00:25:12):

Maybe like 10 30, so actually asleep. All

Neely (00:25:15):

Right, cool. Okay, great. And then are there any snacks in there during the day?

Leah (00:25:21):

Oh yeah, usually we usually have a fairly large breakfast, so not many snacks until the afternoon. And then probably depends on climbing days. I just eat small meals throughout the day, I guess. And non climbing days or a snack around two to three ish.

Neely (00:25:47):

Okay. Snack. And then you’ll snack throughout the day when you’re climbing?

Leah (00:25:53):

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I usually have breakfast and then snack throughout the day, climbing, and then dinner are the two big meals, I guess.

Neely (00:26:03):

Okay, cool. And then let’s talk a little bit about your energy levels, so well, are there times during the day when you notice the low energy more than others?

Leah (00:26:18):

Sometimes immediately after waking up, I feel a little groggy. I’m not sure if that’s just because I haven’t fully woken up yet. And then definitely sometimes in the afternoon I’ll start to feel kind of draggy.

Neely (00:26:37):

After lunch or before?

Leah (00:26:39):

Yeah, after lunch.

Neely (00:26:41):

Okay. And any other times?

Leah (00:26:49):

Sometimes it’s kind of like a constant fatigue, not debilitating or anything, but I don’t feel as energetic as I would like to, I guess.

Neely (00:27:02):

Okay. And then I didn’t ask you this in the beginning, but how tall are you and how much do you weigh?

Leah (00:27:08):

I am 5 6, 5 7, I think, and 1 35, 1 40.

Neely (00:27:15):

Okay. And are you content with your weight and body composition?

Leah (00:27:21):

Mostly. I think it’d be nice to, I guess get more strength and then maybe a little leaner just for climbing. I know I store a lot of my weight in my legs too, so sometimes it’s my legs feel heavy, I guess, but those are more days I’m also tired.

Neely (00:27:45):

Yeah. Yeah, just high gravity days. But this isn’t something that you want to focus on, I’m assuming?

Leah (00:27:53):

Not entirely, I guess, but I feel like if I lost five pounds, that would probably be helpful for my climbing, but not something I am like, this is number one priority, I guess.

Neely (00:28:10):

Okay. Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. So I’d like to take a look at your diet now. Okay. I’m going to share my screen. So for everybody who’s listening to this, I’ll try to do as good of a job as I can with just describing what I’m seeing, but you can’t always just find it on YouTube. Okay. Can you see that?

Leah (00:28:37):

Me?

Neely (00:28:38):

Yes.

Leah (00:28:39):

Yeah.

Neely (00:28:40):

Alright, great. Okay, so I’m starting with Thursday, August 10th. So what I’m going to do here is ask you some questions about what kind of exercise you did that day and sometimes even about when you might’ve eaten these things. So Thursday, August 10th was two Thursdays ago actually. And so do you have any idea what you did on this day for exercise?

Leah (00:29:17):

I just looked at my phone and I have a few pictures of us at the crag, so went climbing. Alright, great.

Neely (00:29:26):

So let’s see, your breakfast was two eggs, some bread, and some cheese. Is that pretty standard or

Leah (00:29:38):

It kind of varies. I think we have, I would say a lot of variety in what we’re eating at the moment. We haven’t really had a standard breakfast, I guess. Okay.

Neely (00:29:53):

That’s okay. We’ll look through those days and find those variations there. So what I’m looking for here is your total calories per meal, your total carbs, fat, protein, and sugar per meal, which we can see way better on the computer than on your phone. And then I’m also looking, so I’m looking at that per meal, and then I’m also looking at that per day for your totals. Then because I pay for MyFitnessPal when I click on this, I can see your percentages, which is really helpful because we can also see it here per meal. I’m going to go through this day and then I’m going to go through a couple other days and then I’m going to make some observations. So

Leah (00:30:44):

Lunch.

Neely (00:30:44):

Oh, go ahead.

Leah (00:30:45):

Another thing I’m not sure, I might’ve gotten the amounts incorrect. I tried to guess on what things were, so it might be close, but it also might be more I might eat more than what I put down.

Neely (00:31:02):

Okay, gotcha. All right, so this lunch, and you were up at the crag this day. So you had an energy drink, you had pickled beets, tuna, a can of tuna, and then the snacks were peaches, one peach and then an I P A. I’m assuming that was after when you got there?

Leah (00:31:24):

Yeah. Also, I think on this day, I was driving that day too, so I didn’t get to the crag till early afternoon.

Neely (00:31:36):

Okay, so you did less, fewer pitches than normal?

Leah (00:31:38):

Yeah. Yep.

Neely (00:31:40):

Okay. So that means that you had this lunch when you were driving, and then you went up to the

Leah (00:31:46):

Crack? I think I had a late breakfast and then drove and then hiked up.

Neely (00:31:54):

Okay.

Leah (00:31:55):

And there should be coffee in there too, I think. I didn’t forgot to add the coffee and creamers also. Sorry about that.

Neely (00:32:03):

That’s okay. And then this dinner was mixed greens, fish, filet and mustard.

Leah (00:32:10):

Yeah,

Neely (00:32:11):

A crispy fish filet. Is that battered?

Leah (00:32:16):

I think so, yeah.

Neely (00:32:17):

Okay. So you can see that this is four filets. I’m assuming you didn’t have 480 calories worth of fish or did

Leah (00:32:26):

Might’ve. We’ve been doing this kind of thing where you get one of those giant salad tubs from the grocery store and then just dump the fish sticks on it and eat it that way. Okay. Yeah. Sounds gross, but it’s actually pretty

Neely (00:32:42):

Tasty. Oh, no, I don’t think it sounds gross. It’s just abnormal for what else I’m seeing on here, so that’s why I said that. No, there’s no judgment there whatsoever. Yeah. Okay. But the crispy fish plate does mean that it’s battered. So there’s some, there’s a breading on it

Leah (00:32:56):

Or like a fried thing? Yeah, yeah, breading.

Neely (00:33:03):

Okay, cool. So then we have 1,421 calories for the day, 118 grams of carbs, 57 grams of fat, and 69 grams of protein, and 31 grams of sugar. And the percentages here were 37 carbs, 41 fat, 22 protein. And we’ll get into what that means in just a few minutes here. I’m going to move on to Friday. Do you know what you did this day?

Leah (00:33:29):

Let me see if I have any pictures. I think probably went up and climbed. Let me check real quick. That was Friday the 12th,

Neely (00:33:51):

Friday the 11th.

Leah (00:33:52):

The 11th went up and climbed. Got up there around noon, I believe, and then stayed till about four.

Neely (00:34:06):

Okay, so did a few pitches.

Leah (00:34:09):

Yeah.

Neely (00:34:09):

Or four maybe.

Leah (00:34:11):

Yeah.

Neely (00:34:12):

Do you have any idea how many you would do in that amount of time?

Leah (00:34:15):

Probably like three to four I would think.

Neely (00:34:20):

Okay. So this day you had non-fat Greek yogurt, some jam and peanut butter for breakfast, which is different than the day before your lunch was. The bing energy drink, protein powder, coffee, sliced pickled beets and tuna. And then your snacks were coffee, creamer, pickles, and the beer when you got back, I’m assuming. Yeah. And then your dinner was crispy fish filet the salads, and then peanut butter and oatmeal raisin cookie. So this day we had 390 calories for breakfast, 2 68 for lunch, 7 97 for dinner, and 2 75 for snacks. So if your snacks minus the 200 for the I P A were about 75 calories, and this day we had 41% carbs, 37 fat, 22 protein, 68 grams of sugar, and 1730 calories, which you can see is a pretty big difference from the day before where we had 1400 something.

Leah (00:35:31):

Yeah, yeah. I’ve noticed on some days, I guess days after I do an activity, sometimes I’m hungrier than the days I am climbing, I guess if

Neely (00:35:45):

I’m like, or the day. Yeah, that makes sense.

Leah (00:35:47):

Yeah. Yeah, the day after I climb a lot, I sometimes feel hungrier.

Neely (00:35:52):

Yeah. So let’s just talk about that because this is really common. You can see. So we’ll just go back to this Thursday. So for a person your size, and just as a caveat, everybody’s caloric needs are different. A person who’s exactly 135 pounds, 5, 6, 5 7, your same age could have a very different caloric need, like a thousand difference than you. But knowing, having worked with a lot of people, this 1400 calories, for a person your size doing the amount of activity that you’re doing is pretty low. And so I would’ve expected, and I would’ve even asked, how did you feel this day and how did you feel the next day? Because most of the time your body’s going to be like, what are you doing to me? I need way more than this. And so it’s going to be a calling out for calories, but also it’s going to be calling out for carbs. Especially a lot of times people have sugar cravings the next day and it’s mostly going to make you feel really tired that day or the next day.

Leah (00:37:08):

Yeah, that makes sense.

Neely (00:37:10):

And so you might start noticing if you did continue logging, just even for a couple of weeks, you could say, all right, I did this amount of exercise, I ate this many calories, and then I was this hungry, and the next day I was this hungry or this tired, and start putting those things together. But you shouldn’t need to because if we balance these things out, you’re just going to start feeling better. So let’s just go through another couple of days and then we’ll start making some changes here. So this day you had the second day on Friday you had 17 31, 62, 66 fats, 89 protein, 68 sugar, and then the next day was Saturday. And do you know what you did on this day for exercise?

Leah (00:38:03):

Keep looking at my step counter on my phone. This is the same amount of steps to go up to the crag. That was the 12th.

Neely (00:38:14):

Yeah.

Leah (00:38:17):

Looks like also up to climb from about 11 to, I think probably four to five pitches that day.

Neely (00:38:33):

All right. So this day your breakfast was peanut butter, coffee creamer, a muffin, and a peanut butter protein crispy bar. So it was then your lunch was carrots, orain protein powder and coffee, no snacks that day. And then dinner was chicken drumstick, cookies, i p a and beans and rice. Okay, so let’s just get into this here.

Leah (00:39:11):

Yeah,

Neely (00:39:12):

The good things are that your breakfasts are sometimes a good size and you’re eating three meals a day and you’re not really eating an excessive amount of sugar. So those are all good. Obviously the foods that you’re choosing are generally really whole foods. I don’t have anything to say about the foods that you’re eating. And this is super common with climbers. Climbers generally are really good at eating whole foods. They’re making most of their food, and they’re a lot of times having three meals a day. So those are all good. And now I’m going to ask you, so having done this exercise of logging your diet, which I know is really tedious, so thank you for doing it. Yeah, worries. What did you learn and what do you think could change,

Leah (00:40:09):

I guess while doing it? I noticed that we rarely have the same meal for breakfast, I guess. And it varies a lot. I feel like some days I had a larger breakfast and then it ended up not really eating that much for lunch or during the day, which maybe affected how I felt or my climbing that day too. And then would have a larger dinner at night too, I guess sometimes if I didn’t eat enough during the day. So I guess that was, there was more to that question.

Neely (00:40:51):

Oh, just what you think could change.

Leah (00:40:54):

I guess knowing what I should be eating to get the most I can for climbing days and rest days, usually while I’m climbing, I guess. I don’t like to eat big meals during the day, just it feels like it weighs me down and makes my stomach hurt kind of a little bit if I’m eating something huge and then climbing hard. So I prefer snacks throughout the day or a protein shake or something, I guess. And then sometimes a bigger breakfast before we go climbing, and then usually a larger dinner at night, I guess. But just more knowledge on if I eat this, this’ll help me perform better at this time or things like that.

Neely (00:41:45):

Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. So I do think that you’re right, the consistency thing could help you, I think, because let’s take a look at Monday, the 14th, for instance, you had, for your breakfast, you had blueberry pie, non-fat, Greek yogurt, peanut butter, and coffee and creamer. So this was 527 calories, which I think is an appropriate amount of calories for breakfast for you. And you had 66 grams of carbs, 37 of which were sugar from the blueberry pie and 19 grams of protein. So let’s start with the protein in general. Most days you are not getting enough

(00:42:41):

In my experience. And so I would shoot for around 30 grams per meal, and then you’re going to get a little bit extra in your snacks. And this is the number one thing that helps people have better energy is having a more protein in their breakfast and B, more protein overall and very evenly dispersed. So this breakfast, you had 19 grams of protein. Let’s look back on Sunday. You had 11 grams of protein in your breakfast. This was a really small breakfast too. You just had protein powder, coffee with creamer and honey crisp apple. And so there were 11 grams of protein in there. And then Saturday we had 18 grams. One day you had 30, 25 on Friday, and that came from the yogurt and the peanut butter. And then this day you had the eggs, the cheese, and the bread, and that was 33 grams.

(00:43:41):

So this kind of breakfast is going to be really nice for you here because it’s really balanced. You could even have more carbs or you could put a piece of fruit in this on a climbing day because we want to start our day off with plenty of food. It is really counterintuitive how we do eat compared to what we do to ourselves during the day, because your tendency to have a medium-sized breakfast, a very small amount of lunch, and then a pretty big dinner, it’s totally normal. I see it all the time. And people have energy issues because they’re not fueling themselves through the day. We need actual calories to do all the work that you’re doing, and you’re not giving yourself enough. And so of course you’re going to feel tired. And this will also affect your sleep because your blood sugar isn’t managed well during the day, and that causes cortisol levels to increase adrenaline, to increase all of the stress hormones. And so then you’re just spinning at the end of the day. And sometimes you might even find that your sleep is interrupted during the evening, during the night when you’re sleeping, and it’s because your blood sugar is still being mismanaged because it was mismanaged during the day, and that carries through into the evening when you might have these blood sugar lows and your body responds by spiking these stress hormones.

Leah (00:45:00):

That makes sense.

Neely (00:45:01):

And you’re also spiking your stress hormones by drinking all the caffeine that you do. So every time you drink it, you’re just telling your body that something stressful is happening and that it should secrete cortisol, adrenaline and everything. And so you just got more of these hormones circulating in your body every day. And so it doesn’t surprise me that you’re having these sleep issues. I have a lot more to say, but what do you have to say so far?

Leah (00:45:29):

What do you think? Yeah, that all makes sense. I’ve heard bigger breakfasts are a good idea and kind of I guess consistency in what you’re eating also, but I guess just haven’t done those things. Everything you said makes sense and I’m like, oh, yeah, I should be doing that.

Neely (00:45:51):

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s good. Sometimes it just takes a little nudge from hearing it out loud

Leah (00:45:56):

From somebody or hear somebody else say like what you’re thinking you should be doing, I guess. Yeah.

Neely (00:46:04):

But it’s also about exactly how you implement it, and it needs to be delicious. It needs to be easy and doable, and so we’ll make that happen. Let’s look at this day here on Thursday, you had for lunch, basically up at the crag, you had an energy drink, beets, tuna, and a peach. So all of that together was about 170 wait 160 calories, which is nothing. And so I would expect on this day, even though you had this in your words, big breakfast, which is actually just a normal sized breakfast,

(00:46:47):

I would expect for your energy to have been pretty low that day, and for you to maybe even be shaky on climbs, and you’re probably like, why am I getting pumped so fast? Things like that, and I want to do another pitch, but I just feel so tired. That’s the kind of things that I would expect. The other reason for that is because your lunch only had 10 grams of protein, and so it’s just not sustaining you. The only saving grace was that you had some peach, you had peaches, which gave you a tiny bump of sugar, which is going to help you on those days, but on this day, you could have brought this same kind of sandwich up, or you said that you don’t like to eat big meals because they weigh you down. And the thing with that is that most of the time people are bringing foods that do make them feel bloated. And so then we have to experiment with what foods don’t make you feel bloated.

Leah (00:47:51):

That makes sense.

Neely (00:47:52):

And eating just enough of it so that you are fueled but not overly stuffed. So if the bread, for instance, makes you feel bloated, what about bringing up a container of rice and chicken and vegetables and having that be your main source of food, and then having peaches and other sugary things on the side to give you that energy boost that we use as climbers, which is glucose.

Leah (00:48:24):

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

Neely (00:48:26):

What kinds of foods can you think of that do not make you feel bloated or weighed down?

Leah (00:48:34):

Just the breakfasts. They’re doing a lot of yogurt and peanut butter lately. It’s more like quantity, I guess, of food that makes me feel like that, or I feel like bread sometimes does, but we don’t really eat. We haven’t been eating too much of that. I’m trying to think. Fruits usually are pretty good, or the canned tunas and meats are good, but maybe on a wrap or something would be slightly more beneficial.

Neely (00:49:13):

Right. Yeah, because not really getting that many carbs when you’re up there. We really do need these carbs for our energy, but also to keep our blood sugar really balanced. And I like to have a combination of starch and sugar, and you don’t really have that much starch. You’re having these sliced, pickled beets, which gives you the majority of your carbs, and it’s all sugar. And then you have this protein powder that has 12 grams of carbs, but that’s really negligible with the amount of work that you’re doing. So it looks like, oh, you’re getting 30 grams of carbs, but they’re not very substantial. And so if you wanted to bring up the yogurt and put some granola in it and some protein powder and not make it non-fat, make it have some fat in it so that it’s a really balanced meal, if you could have that up there and just bring it in a Tupperware and put it into a tiny little cooler pack,

Leah (00:50:19):

That

Neely (00:50:19):

Makes sense. So it just doesn’t go bad. Right. Yeah. You know, can digest it, it tastes good. It’s going to be palatable when you’re climbing and even put some fruit in there or whatever. But like I said, the yogurt with some fat in it, then some granola because that’s going to give you some starch too, oats and then some fruit in there for some extra sugar and anything. You could bring peanut butter packets, you could bring sandwiches like you said, or a rice wrap or whatever kind of tortilla you want with some Turkey or some chicken leftover, whatever you want.

Leah (00:50:59):

That makes sense.

Neely (00:51:01):

Does that sound doable at all to you?

Leah (00:51:05):

Yeah. I think also just thinking of this now, another concern is I know I’m not getting enough protein, I guess, throughout the day, and I’ve been trying to do more, but I guess I’m not sure how to get protein consistently throughout the day.

Neely (00:51:22):

Yeah, yeah. So let’s just talk about your breakfast lunches and dinners. So this day you got 89 grams, which for a person your size, I would want you to be getting at least a hundred grams a day. And there was one day when you got 120, and we could talk about how you did that on that day, because I mean, you did it. So yeah, this, say you had 53 grams in your lunch, which was from venison and beans and rice and two eggs. That’s a really heavy lunch. And that’s fine, it’s great, but it could have been a little bit more balanced where you got enough protein from this venison sausage, and you could have just had the beans and rice or just the rice if you wanted the beans and rice is fine, that gives you all this starch and some protein. And then instead of the eggs, you could have had some vegetables.

(00:52:28):

Then we’re getting into some more nutrients there, some micronutrients, and then that would’ve been a little bit less calories. And I’m not saying you should be on a diet restricting calories at all. What I want is to even things out. So this lunch was 700 calories, and part of the reason that this was so big is because your breakfast was only 200, and that’s when you’re going to notice I am so hungry for lunch, or I am so hungry for dinner, and then you kind of overeat. Whereas if you were to just eat 500, 5 50, 600 calories per meal, then we’re getting into 1500 to 1800 calories in meals. And then on top of that, we’re having snacks, which is a lot of times what you’re doing anyway, so we’re not really eating more. It’s just dispersed better over the day.

Leah (00:53:23):

Okay, that makes sense.

Neely (00:53:24):

Yeah, so some of these protein calories should have been in your breakfast instead. And when you have protein powder for your protein source, that’s fine, but the 10 grams is just not enough. So you’ll want to do two scoops or two and a half scoops and then something along with it, like some nuts or some whatever into the drink. And again, this breakfast, it was just the coffee, the protein powder, the creamer and the apple. There’s just got to be more substance. And most of the time you do do that. And so I’m not going to harp on it too much. Then the dinner you had, the tenderloin and the stuffed pepper and all of that was 33 grams. That was great, right?

Leah (00:54:13):

Yeah.

Neely (00:54:15):

Again, there weren’t that many carbs in this dinner. It could have been a little bit more evenly spread out. I mean, you don’t have to have a ton of carbs in your dinner. I’m mostly concerned with your breakfast, lunch, and snack when you’re fueling yourself for activity. I’m not saying your dinner should be no carbs. This is actually okay, because this amount of carbs, you’re still at just like 34%, which is a little bit low for a big day out. But if your breakfast had been bigger, your lunch had been smaller and your dinner had been just a little bit bigger, then you would’ve been better off, I think.

Leah (00:55:01):

Okay. So trying to get even amounts of all of the nutrients throughout the day should be more my goal rather than huge breakfast protein mounts and then nothing for lunch, and then all of my protein again at dinner.

Neely (00:55:19):

Dinner, yeah, exactly. Okay. Yeah. So I’m just going to look at a different day.

Leah (00:55:26):

Yeah, yeah. No worries.

Neely (00:55:30):

This amount of calories for you, 1461, it’s just too low.

(00:55:36):

And I mean, you can play around with that, but it worries me that amount of calories worries me for a person your size, because if you’re doing as much exercise as you say you’re doing, which you are, I am not doubting that and you’re eating this many calories, that’s when we start to get into hormonal issues. And sometimes your body will start to go into starvation mode where it’ll hold onto fat and it doesn’t let it go because it’s like, this isn’t enough. I’m going to hold onto this. And you might start to see thyroid issues and adrenal issues just because you’re kind living on stress hormones.

Leah (00:56:18):

That makes sense.

Neely (00:56:19):

The other thing here is the reason that you can get away with having such little, if I ate the amount that you eat at lunch and snacks, I would die. And especially if I was climbing, I eat so much food and it’s because I do not consume caffeine, and the caffeine is also an appetite suppressant,

Leah (00:56:43):

That

Neely (00:56:44):

Probably doesn’t help. Yes, you’re drinking it at breakfast and you’re eating breakfast, so you’re having it at the same time as your breakfast, which is good because it allows your body to eat as much as it wants to at breakfast. But then for the rest of the day, when you’re having your five, six cups of coffee, you’re just completely suppressing, not completely, but you’re suppressing your appetite quite a bit. And then by the time dinner comes around, you’re like, oh, I’m really hungry because the drugs have worn

Leah (00:57:13):

Off. Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed throughout the day, especially climbing days, I feel like if I’m active and doing something, I don’t think about eating as much, I guess. And then by the time we finish up for the day and are packing up, I’m like, I need to eat right now.

Neely (00:57:30):

And that’s so common. It’s so common, and this is honestly why I chose you for this is because I see this same thing over and over and over. And so what I recommend that you do is, like you said, try to make your meals be as consistent with each other as you can. So aim for five to 600 calories per meal and try to have the percentages work out to be around, well, let’s just go for grams here. So with protein, try to make it have around 30 grams per meal. Okay. And then with your fat, you’re going to want around 35%. And let’s see, so 20 to 25 grams of fat per meal, and then 50 grams of carbs or something like that. And if you’re going out climbing, do whatever you want, have more carbs. But those are some very basic guidelines, and that could be for each meal, and those are really easy to hit and try to make most of them be starch and not as much just sugar.

(00:58:46):

It’s okay to have sugar while you’re out climbing, that’s fine. But you got to focus on the starch too. And you’re going to get these protein grams from your eggs, your cheese, your yogurt protein powder, all of the meats that you have, some in beans and rice, but it’s just the amounts that you’re having. If you have tuna fish, you’re bringing up two to three ounces, and I don’t love tuna. It’s actually really high in mercury. So you could go for canned salmon, canned chicken, whatever, if you like the canned or canned sardines or mackerel or whatever, but you can also do deli meats or leftovers or whatever. You’re going to want four to five ounces instead of just two to three. And then, oh my God, you’re eating bear meat.

Leah (00:59:34):

Yeah. My dad’s a hunter, so he gave us a whole bunch of bare meat, which I’ve never had before, but it’s pretty good.

Neely (00:59:43):

Yeah, I’m sure it fits your background very much. Yeah. Yeah. So all of the meats, that’s where you’re going to get that from. You just have to be really intentional about how much you’re putting in each meal. Okay.

Leah (00:59:56):

Okay.

Neely (00:59:57):

Makes sense. So those are the main suggestions, and I think if you do this, you’re going to feel less like you need to bring as much caffeine up there with you, if any at all. I mean, caffeine is going to be a performance enhancer, whatever, but five to six cups of it, including your energy drinks, it’s quite a bit. And it can throw your hormones off quite a bit and your sleep and all the things. So I think if you stopped, I’m not saying stop drinking it, but do experiment with going down in the amount and then watch your sleep. So when you sleep poorly, ask yourself, what did I eat yesterday? Did I eat enough? Did I get enough protein? Did I skip basically meals and all those things. And when you sleep, well ask yourself, what did I eat? And that’s for that day and the day before that.

Leah (01:00:59):

Yeah.

Neely (01:01:01):

Okay. Questions. Okay.

Leah (01:01:04):

No, that sounds good. Everything you’re saying makes sense. I’m like, oh, yeah, obviously I should be doing that. But I guess it doesn’t make sense until somebody tells you that it makes sense to

Neely (01:01:18):

You.

Leah (01:01:19):

Yeah. If that makes sense. I know,

Neely (01:01:21):

Right? It’s not rocket science, it’s

Leah (01:01:24):

Just

Neely (01:01:24):

Little details, and we get into these habits, right?

Leah (01:01:28):

And then I’ve had the habit of not really bringing that much to eat, climbing, I don’t feel like I want to, and then having someone be like, well, you should bring more. I’m like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Neely (01:01:42):

Yeah. So some good breakfasts for you could be the bread, the cheese, and the eggs. That’s fine. If you wanted to have the bread, some sausage and cheese, that would also be fine. Okay. The yogurt maybe with some protein powder in the yogurt with some fat source, whether that’s peanut butter or just non-fat yogurt. And then some sort of starch, whether that’s granola, oats, toast, whatever you want. And I know that we’re told to not have carbs. Carbs are bad, but they are not really just not. We have to have them. And when we have them in the right amounts and the right types, they help us climb better. And then for your lunches, we talked about a bunch of stuff, and your dinners are generally okay, and I think you should be good, but do you have an idea of changes that you might make this week specifically?

Leah (01:02:45):

Probably trying to bring more snacks or a main meal for climbing days, I guess. And then focusing on trying to make sure I have more, even nutrition, I guess, throughout each meal, rather than having a heavy, heavy dinner or breakfast where all of my proteins coming from rather than not from the lunch, I guess is two things I’ll try to do and maybe cut back on the coffee a little bit.

Neely (01:03:21):

Okay. All right. Great. And as a nutritionist, I have to say, I do think that eating more vegetables would be good for you. I think it’s good for everyone, unless those vegetables are making you feel bloated or whatever, but you can figure out vegetables that don’t do that.

Leah (01:03:39):

Yeah, for sure.

Neely (01:03:40):

So yeah, anytime you can add them into your lunches or your dinners or even your breakfast, that’d be great.

Leah (01:03:47):

Yeah, that makes sense.

Neely (01:03:49):

Okay. Any questions about anything?

Leah (01:03:52):

That all sounds good to me. Yeah, I guess, yeah, I think I’m probably going to try and track my food and maybe a note of what I did that day too. I think that’ll be helpful for me to figure out what days I’m tired or more tired and what I ate and what I’m doing too, to kind of see all of that.

Neely (01:04:18):

Cool. Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. And how much water are you drinking?

Leah (01:04:23):

Two to three nalgenes worth. So it’s like 32 ounces per water bottle.

Neely (01:04:30):

Okay. Yeah, that’s pretty good. Great. Okay. Well, I think that we covered everything, and if you don’t have any questions, then I think we’re good, but I would love an update to see how you’re doing even in the next couple weeks to see if any of these changes make any difference for you.

Leah (01:04:53):

Yeah, definitely. I’m looking forward to actually trying this out and seeing how it works.

Neely (01:04:59):

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One more question for you. Yeah, yeah. Could you see yourself changing anything about how much you are exercising?

Leah (01:05:10):

I think more of a structured training program for climbing more specific, but possibly more of, I find it hard to not do anything all day for a full rest day, but maybe not a hike and change it to a regular walk or something that’s slightly less intense.

Neely (01:05:41):

So just one note on that, because you’re hiking so much and you’re doing it uphill with a backpack on, it is really leg intensive. And so your body is actually storing a lot of glucose in your legs or glycogen in your legs, and then you’re running on top of that. And so it’s also storing more glycogen in your legs. And your legs are also constantly inflamed because you’re doing so much with them. And all of that is to say that you are storing a lot of water in your legs.

Leah (01:06:17):

That

Neely (01:06:17):

Makes sense. And so if you want to get rid of the extraness in your legs, you can certainly do that by not running. You don’t need to be running. You’re going uphill for an hour and four or five days. It’s a lot. I know we’re told that we should run by society,

Leah (01:06:40):

Everyone, but

Neely (01:06:40):

I can tell you that you don’t need to do it to be a better climber, and it’s not helping you lose weight in your legs if that’s what you’re trying to do.

Leah (01:06:51):

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah,

Neely (01:06:54):

So everyone hear that? Please

Leah (01:06:59):

Don’t have to be a runner.

Neely (01:07:01):

No, you don’t. You are a hiker. You are an elite hiker.

Leah (01:07:06):

Yeah. But I always say, I’m like, I think I’d running more if it was just hiking. I never liked running, but I’m like, I should do it.

Neely (01:07:16):

Yeah. I mean, there are so many other things you could be doing at that time, including the mobility that you really want

Leah (01:07:20):

To incorporate for sure. That might be more beneficial or to some upper body something instead,

Neely (01:07:30):

Or mobility even with your legs. I mean, I think that most of all, you trying to do full rest days and also logging like, okay, I had a full rest day, didn’t do anything. How did I climb the next day? I think that if you continually do that and you make these changes in your diet, you’re going to see probably a really big difference in your climbing.

Leah (01:07:57):

Okay. Yeah.

Neely (01:07:58):

Which

Leah (01:07:59):

Is a good, yeah, that makes sense. I feel like we haven’t really given ourselves that many full stop, don’t do anything rest days. And then I’ll get up to the crack and be like, why am I so tired? So I’m like, oh, maybe a rest day be a good thing.

Neely (01:08:16):

Yeah. And you’re stoked. It’s commendable. Congratulations on finding something you’re super passionate about.

Leah (01:08:23):

Well, thanks most days. Yeah. Let’s

Neely (01:08:27):

Keep that fire going.

Leah (01:08:29):

Yeah.

Neely (01:08:31):

Cool. Well, thanks again, Leah. I really

Leah (01:08:32):

Appreciate you being thank you

Neely (01:08:34):

On the show.

Leah (01:08:35):

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Learned a lot. Excited to make it happen, I guess.

Neely (01:08:44):

Great. All right. Well, good luck with it all. I hope to hear from you

Leah (01:08:47):

Soon. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. All right, bye. All right, bye.

Neely (01:08:53):

All right. Hope you enjoyed that session with Leah Thomas. We got into a lot of topics and all of them are relevant for a lot of climbers, and so I hope that if you get inspired you do some diet logging for yourself just to see what’s going on with your diet, how it compares with what I was talking about with her, and then make some of your own tweaks so that you can feel less fatigued, have better recovery, have better performance, and all of that good stuff. And if you want my help, you can go to training beta.com/nutrition and sign up to work with me for an hour or for a month, or do my Nourish program or do my Nourish program plus coaching with me. Those are the options that I have. The other option I have for you for free is I created a six day mini nutrition course on email, and you can sign up for that by going to training beta.com/free nutrition, all one word.

(01:09:59):

You just give me your email. I will not spam you, I promise, and you’ll automatically start getting six days worth of really great nutrition information and I give you a discount on my Nourish program if you do that. Okay? So that’s what’s going on right now with training beta with me, with my coaching. Again, if you want to work with me, training beta.com/nutrition, and if you want to work with me on your mindset about things like fear of falling, fear of failure, not knowing how to prioritize your climbing in your life, wanting to understand more about your priorities with climbing anything else in your life, whether that’s career changes, performance at your job, stress with work, stress with your relationship with your partner, anything. I’ve been working on some super challenging and interesting topics with climbers on their mindset about life and climbing and all of it.

(01:11:11):

And it’s just been so rewarding for me and from what I can tell really helpful for my clients. So if you want to work with me, you can go to training beta.com/neely-coaching or just go to training beta and you’ll find it on the mindset tab. I’m really excited about working with clients right now. If you can’t tell, I’m like, after I’ve finished school, I just feel so energized. And I also recently found, I haven’t talked about this and maybe I should, but I recently found a solution to these migraines that I’ve been having for three years or so. Now. I get around 10 migraines every month, and it’s been a little bit debilitating. I don’t know why. I just laughed. It’s awful. And I know that a lot of people struggle with migraines and can relate, but I finally found a medication that just makes them go away, so I don’t suffer as much.

(01:12:17):

I’m still working on the root cause of it, and I actually start acupuncture today, which I’m really excited about, but it just gave me a new energy for life. I feel like my life force was kind of being sucked away by them, and by the end of this spring, I was just pretty depressed and I didn’t have much motivation, and I certainly didn’t have the bandwidth to help others as much as I wanted to. And now that I know I can just get rid of them, it’s just so relieving. And so I feel like I’m present and I’m capable, and I’m accessing my intuition to help people, and I’m just ready. So yeah, I’d love to work with you and thanks so much for listening to this and for supporting the podcast and training beta in any way that you do. I really appreciate you and I will talk to you next time.

 

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