As a lifelong runner, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with food. It wasn’t until I learned how to fuel my body well that I was truly able to increase my performance and improve my running experience. Now, I’m bringing you these lessons–along with tips, personal stories, interviews, and more–in this brand new podcast, Fueled for More.
In this first episode, I’m explaining why I decided to start a podcast and why I think they can be so valuable to runners in particular. I’m also sharing my three best tips for rewiring your mindset around food and nutrition. Plus, I’m opening up about my goals for this show and for you as we continue to learn together.
What’s in this episode:
- Why I started this podcast and what I want to share with you through it
- Why I think podcasts are particularly valuable to runners
- How I hope to uplift BIPOC voices through this podcast in a community where they’re underrepresented
- How proper fuel and nutrition can improve your running performance and experience
- The truth about low-calorie diets for runners
- Why you shouldn’t compare your running journey to others’
- How nutrition creates a foundation for your running journey and your health overall
Subscribe to the Fueled for More Podcast on Apple or Spotify. Love what you hear? Please share with your friends and leave a review so more women can finally overcome the health issues associated with chronic stress and burnout.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Download my free resources for runners
Connect With Me
Follow me on Instagram
Like The Healthy Shine on Facebook
Visit my website
Transcript for Episode 1 of Fueled for More
Hey runners, welcome to Fuel for More a podcast where we help new and experienced runners alike improve their nutrition and feel their bodies. I’m Starla, a dietitian, Olympic Trials marathoner and body and cultural diversity advocate. I believe in showing up for your run, for your life and for yourself at full capacity. And when you feel your body well, you set yourself up for success in your sport and beyond. Ready to run? Let’s go.
Hola! Hey runners, it’s here and I am finally on my own podcast after so many colleagues and friends and even clients have been asking and encouraging me to start a podcast. I finally broke through my own limiting beliefs about starting on it at the end of 2021. Now that we’re in 2022, I really wanted to find a new way to start to connect with more of you guys and also create a community for all of us. Since starting my sporty church and coaching business, the Healthy Shine in April 2020. Wow, that feels like such a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? This has been on the vision board for my community for a really long time to bring you guys up to five feet for runners who are not familiar with the healthy shine. It is my private practice and this is where we really work with runners who are struggling, confused or stressed about nutrition and help them feel more energized, stronger and be able to align their health choices or habits with performance goals so they can fully show up for themselves and others.
Now I know I’m normally on Instagram and in runner email inboxes, but while I was training for fall races this year, I realized how many podcasts and audiobooks I listened to that helped me become a better version of myself. So I was training for the GOP 50 miler that I did in November, and I am also pacing the three hour group. When this episode airs, I would have already paced the three hour group, so definitely a lot of training and running and hours and miles put out on the trails of Houston. So definitely got through a lot of podcasts and audio books this year, and I started to think about you guys really and how runners can’t necessarily be looking at their phones, looking at Instagram or their inbox while they’re running, and also being able to learn how to fuel your body, reframe your mindset on cultural experience and gain confidence for your big race days, too. Another thing I realized was how few interviews there are BIPOC runners, BIPOC runners that are in the podcasting space and how little and nutrition information there is that incorporates a BIPOC running community. So this podcast, I am really hoping to integrate and incorporate more cultural food themed around cultural foods as well. So I’m really, really excited to be taking you guys on this journey with me as you explore more cultural trends and sports nutrition. Starting out, this podcast is a little emotional for me because this is something I hope will resonate with.
Many runners who are also struggling with nutrition don’t know how to incorporate their favorite foods into training. Feel like they need to have a lot of self-control to be able to run their best or even feel like they need to be thinner to get that next PR. I was there, too, about a decade ago while I was in my college running program at University of Houston, and how I wish there was someone who I could relate to that I could turn to for help when I needed it the most. If you are a new or experienced runner, an ultra trail runner or even somebody who’s training for a 5K to marathon, I hope this podcast is going to help you get to the next PR people to incorporate more healthy habits into your lifestyle and really help you become an overall better athlete and help you in your journey to become a better human being as well. To start off with all the nutrition, info and tips, I really want to give you guys three tips that helped me in my own journey and what I have seen that helps my clients of the healthy shine start to make strides. They need to perform better. We’re also going to be hitting the trails each week to make a bigger impact for our whole running community together.
So tip number one is following a low calorie diet does not help your performance and running. Don’t leave running and the need for more calories or energy scare you. It’s actually a really good thing. Calories can give you energy, and instead of using it as something restrictive, you can start to reframe it so you can thrive. This is something I really had to work through from coming through my own journey through an eating disorder and fully being in recovery almost 10 years now. Really understanding that a low calorie diet is also a low energy diet as well. And whenever you are unable to have enough energy, it really makes everything else really suffer. Beyond just our running tip number two, stop comparing your timeline for running your career and your like others. We all had different nutritional needs, bodies and preferences as a collegiate athlete, I constantly compared my body to all of my peers all of the time, and now is a really, really hard thing because I really wanted to be a great athlete. At the time, and once I learned that while my biggest asset that I have is really focusing on my body and doing what it needs to, giving it the fuel that it needs as well, being able to have body neutrality and understand that my body is a combination of my culture, my family, my gene pool as well, and also a reflection of the strength of all the women that are in my family. So that was really helpful when I started to understand that not comparing my body was not serving me and it was only just holding me back.
Tip number three is reframe how you view food and learn how nutrition in and out of sport can make the biggest impact. So be open to change and let go of all of the all or nothing mentality learning about nutrition, allowing it to evolve, change and be in a continuum with you as you go through your training. Maybe one of the best and also challenging things you have to learn about nutrition, and that was something I also had to work through. It doesn’t have to be micromanaged learning about spiritual attrition and understanding when to apply them to perform well and choose things intentionally during training. Build ups, race days or pivotal training runs can be key to also knowing when to select foods that make you happy, connected and also cared for. So a runner, you can also care for yourself. Today, I want you to choose self-care over self-control. One big way you can also practice self-care is to make sure to stay connected to this podcast and hit the Subscribe button. Let me know how you enjoy these three tips and share with a running friend. Because we are going on a journey together what I will be bringing all the food, snacks, lessons and interviews for you to learn from. If you are needing more help in this area right now, head over to my website www.thehealthyshine.com and download the grocery guide to start finding some tasty things to bring along. See you out there on the Trails Runner. Adios and Bye!
Thank you for listening to Fueled for More. Ready to jump start your nutrition? Download my free grocery guide for endurance athletes at thehealthyshine.com. And be sure to connect with me on Instagram @starla_shine. Adios amigos. See you out on the trails.
