235: Beyond the Triad, Fueling the Female Athlete & Intuitive Eating with Greta Jarvis

(soft music) Food is fuel for your body, your mind, and definitely your sport. But let's face it, nutrition is confusing and the expectations on girls and women to be thin and have a six pack are exhausting. If you've ever been confused about nutrition, frustrated with your body, obsessed with eating healthy or feeling guilty when you don't, under eight, over eight, or over trained and overwhelmed with all the pressure, then this podcast is for you. Nutrition can be easy, you can take control of it, but it might start with letting go of control by asking the experts and making a change. I'm Lindsay Elizabeth Cortez, sports dietitian entrepreneur at Life Long Athlete, mom and host of the female athlete nutrition podcast, where I empower female athletes to overcome nutrition concerns and perform at their highest level. To stop being confused by all the mixed or harmful messages and finally have confidence in nourishing your body as a fierce fit and fueled female athlete. Follow, like, subscribe, share, and send to a female athlete in need and head to LindsayCortez.com for more content, all curated specifically for female athlete nutrition. Hey fans and listeners, it's Lindsay Elizabeth Cortez, registered dietitian sports dietitian and your host of this podcast. Our guest today, Greta Jarvis, is the founder of the Center for Active Women. I was so excited when she reached out to me and we connected on email to have this conversation today because as I read off her bio, you're gonna say, yeah, this is exactly the type of person you wanna hear from on the female athlete nutrition podcast. So Greta Jarvis holds her master's of public health in health promotion and master of science in nutrition as well as certifications as an intuitive eating counselor and an integrative health coach. The heart of her work is equipping women and girls to build peaceful and confident relationships with food, body, and movement. She sees individual clients and facilitates customized group events as the founder of the Center for Active Women. She works as a marketing and media manager for ED RD Pro, an organization providing online education for eating disorder professionals and she's the assistant for Evelyn Tribbley, who is the co-author and co-creator of intuitive eating. In the spring, you can find Greta coaching high school women's lacrosse and teaching graduate level eating disorders and intuitive eating elective at the National University of Natural Medicine. Greta, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. - Thank you, Lindsay and high listeners. I'm so excited to be here. I'm a longtime fan of the show. So this is very fun to connect. - Yes, and I think there's so many reasons that you tuned in yourself as a listener and of course, as your bio-explained while you're now a guest on the show. But you have your degree in nutrition, you have this intuitive eating experience and you're an athlete yourself and competed and I think all female athletes have some story of their journey with food, positive negative neutral. We have a story about it and you do as well, but I first love to hear just kind of your athletic background and then what made you want to pursue degrees in health promotion and nutrition. - Absolutely. So as my bio alluded to lacrosse is my sport. I started playing in sixth grade and continued on in high school and college and that just very quickly became my passion. I spent a lot of my time there. That's where I made my friends. It's such a fun sport and about sophomore year of high school was when I started to play more competitively focused on it year round. And at that point I stopped getting a period and my mom took me to the OBGYN. I went every single year. She took me to dieticians. I had every resource at my fingertips. As a college athlete, you need to be cleared by their sports medicine clinic. And I never heard any reason for concern. If they even asked about it, it was, oh, that's common for a competitive athlete. And of course, you believe what you hear. I now always like to say, medical professionals are human. It's impossible to know everything. This is an area where we need to see a lot of advocacy and learning. So I hold nothing against those medical professionals. And from my coaches, from my teammates, from those medical professionals, it just felt like something normal. And in my mind, I thought, well, it's just me but my doctor says it's fine. And as a whole, your listeners will know by now, it's just because it's common. Doesn't mean it's normal. And it actually has quite a profound impact far beyond just wanting to have a baby. That's if they said anything, it was come back when you want to get pregnant. So your college, there was just this feeling inside of me of I can't accept this as normal anymore. So I started into it. I found Nico's book, No Period Now What? Shout out to her. And really started off on this journey, figuring it out for myself. And that's like so many of us in this field. What drew me out? Realizing we need more work here. We need more education. I don't want this to happen to another young athlete. And so that's really the heart of what I do. - It really is crazy how such little information was available on this topic. And I think still is. Of course, now I'm living in my own bubble of I'm talking about it all the time and connecting with other people who research it and study it and help. And so like in my world, I'm like, no, people know this is a thing, right? But there's so much work to be done because I know that's not true. That's why clients keep coming to us, saying nobody's helping me. Thank God I found you. But it is shocking that it was really, really just normalize. Oh, athletes, female athletes might not get their period or like, oh, the female athlete triad is common. It's like just because it's common doesn't make it okay. There's plenty of common things aren't okay. You know, or that are harmful or dangerous. - Exactly. And you know what, it's an interesting experience is I actually coach lacrosse where I went to high school. So to be able to have that experience of how it's been over a decade, we've made no progress here. And if anything, we know, we've almost COVID, just ordered eating challenges with food and exercise absolutely have gotten so much worse. And now they all are on social media. When I was in high school, maybe sophomore year, we kind of started to have Facebook, but we didn't have that. So you're right, of fortunately, there's a lot of great clinicians in this space. Your podcast is an amazing resource. And when I'm talking to coaches or athletes and ask who's familiar with diet culture, who's heard of relative energy deficiency in sport? Maybe one or two hands go up. And if you look at the numbers, this is not just, oh, it happens every once in a while. This happens in every sport, likely every team. So we really, really need to get the word out. I think we have seen some positive change, but long way to go, we need all hands on deck. And now your listeners are really gonna change too. So I hope they're empowered by having this information. You now can be part of that ripple effect. - Yeah. Nice little plug, Greta, go ahead, share this episode with a friend. (laughs) Make sure you get the word out, send it to your coach. If you learn something today, you find this insightful because yeah, you learn something for yourself and it's like this still needs to be shared and spread. And I do, I think that obviously sports dietitians are doing a pretty good job now, where even 10 years ago, sports dietitians, well, the term reds only even was coined like 11 years ago. And then research really took off, right? And it doesn't mean that reds didn't exist before that. It's just, we didn't even have a term for it. We were just calling it the triad, which was maybe oversimplifying some things and excluding some things as well. Like the female athlete triad, excluded male athletes. So there was a lot that we've done in the past 11 years. What I'm getting at is because of research and certain professionals like those who work in eating disorders or sports dietitians, I think are doing a really good job of helping spread the message about reds, underfueling amenorrhea for elite athletes and like the college programs that have sports dietitians on staff. But what about all the college programs that don't have nutrition resources? What about all the not elite athletes? What about the high school athletes? Because this is where a lot of it starts is in the high school years. It's when we start to form our relationship with food and body and also where it's really challenging because of certain changes going on with our hormones, with puberty. And so I think getting the word out at the high school level is where they're still so, so, so much work to be done. Right. Absolutely. And just jumping in on how we continually learn as a field of I actually remember hearing at some point along the line about the female athlete triad, which for those of you unfamiliar, that would be disordered eating, bone loss, menstrual disturbances. And I knew of course that I was missing my period, but I said, well, I don't have an eating disorder. My bones are fine, so that's not me. And then when you hear the words disordered eating or eating disorder, that didn't resonate. Those feel very scary for a lot of athletes, which is why I think relative energy to fish. and sports gives us such a helpful runway into this conversation of, now I look back and say, "Wow, I was very rigid around food." What I called discipline then, I would call disordered now in some ways, but I think reds is such a valuable framework for that because not only is it a broader spectrum, it also says, "Hey, this happens, whether it's intentional or not." And if you're a high school athlete or spent time with them lately, it's a holy moly, you're in class six, seven hours a day, you have two hour practice, just logistically, to get your nutritional needs met, takes intention, takes time, takes effort. So this is something that can happen with or without disordered eating and because it's such a broad spectrum of symptoms, it's a really helpful tool for getting to know your body better and saying, "How might my body be communicating with me in a way that I don't even connect with food, but now having this framework I can see, it makes sense." Food fuels, every single organ, every single cell, of course, there will be impacts beyond just those three things of the triad. - Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is such a great point. I'm gonna go one step further even 'cause I don't know that when I was a high school athlete, I don't think that I was educated or exposed to the term of the female athlete triad, but then in college, I'm studying nutrition, I'm exposed to it. But I didn't resonate with an eating disorder or disordered eating, but agree with you in hindsight now. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that was." But the stigma is associated with it. I didn't see myself in that category. I didn't have bone issues. I was a gymnast and had never broken a bone. Actually, I did break a bone once when I was like, "5 bowling." But otherwise, "Woling, never." High stakes sport. Yes, that's a story for another day, not my listeners. And so I didn't have any bone issues. I had good strong bones. And I had my period, I was on the pill. So in my head, I didn't check any of those boxes. It wasn't 'til years later, working as a dietician, hearing the term breads, and really just reflecting on my journey with food, because I did have to make some massive changes for multiple reasons. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I wasn't an energy deficient state when I was competing as a college athlete." I did have energy deficiency, even though I didn't check the box on any of the three things of the triad. And again, just for clarification, which I know you agree on, this does not dismiss the triad. And there's lots of good research with the triad. But we're just saying breads, I think it really helps the everyday athlete. And I'm gonna say, we're not trying, okay, let me clarify this. We're not trying to say that everybody has breads or we're not normalizing that. By any means. But there's so many pieces of it that if we can actually encourage every athlete to have adequate energy availability, to take care of their body, to respect their body, we're gonna be the strongest athletes, probably the healthiest versions of ourselves. And this reds really is on a spectrum. And even if you don't have reds, you might have certain symptoms that can be addressed by learning proper nourishment. Did any of that make sense? - Absolutely. - Okay. I think of it as a road map in some way, where I would love every coach, every athlete to be aware, kind of have this checklist of needing to pee all the time is one that I never would have connected back to my eating. It's something I remember asking my doctor about and she kind of paused and said, well, does it happen when you don't drink enough water? And I thought, well, maybe I don't know. But now looking back, saying, oh my goodness, that's actually on the red's diagram. So again, like you said, it's not saying every athlete has this. And we do know athletes are a high risk group for this. It is way more common than we think. The most common concern I hear is, I'm afraid of overeating, but actually, we really need to be more upfront about the risks of under-eating, intentional or not, because that's way more common. It's any age, but especially adolescent athletes, you're growing, you're at practice two hours a day, you're studying really hard, your lungs are expanding, your heart speeding without even you giving it conscious thought, all of those things require nutrition. And so this fear and this idea that I need to be very rigid around food can come from a well-meaning place, but for a lot of athletes, it does then slip into reds and having that awareness that this even exists puts you way ahead to be just with your body and understanding what are the signs it might send you. - Yeah, I think our culture plays into this a lot, that the messages that are heard in Western civilized cultures is like eat less, move more, watch your portions, stay away from sugar, we've all heard this. Like I'm not saying anything that people don't hear every day. And I say, I actually even struggle, I'd love your take on this. I struggle to accept that this is what some people even need to hear, 'cause I want to sit here and say, but athletes need to hear something different, they need to hear fuel more, fuel enough. Like we don't need to be scared of overeating, but I even part of me even thinks, I'm not even sure that I don't think the general public even needs to hear that other message. It needs to be something different, like what we're trying to do with athletes of encourage what is food doing for your body, fuel up, be energized, recover, make sure, all these things like your GI health, your urinary health, your mental health, that food is helping you be your best at those things. So that's what I'm hearing from you really is like, yeah, we're not saying everybody has reds, but there's pieces of the roadmap reds that, oh, like we can learn from this, these little symptoms that, ooh, this might tie back to energy availability and encourage these young athletes to be eating enough when they're performing, growing, developing. And yes, I'm kind of shifting gears here, but that cultural influence that we're always hearing of eat less, we really have to shift that to fuel up. And I think that would be a good message for everybody, not just athletes. - Right, absolutely. When I teach by elective in the spring to the graduate students, we always come back to this idea of, we need to be considering the individual, but also the systemic. So when I went to school for nutrition, it was pretty focused on the individual, what habits can you take to improve your health, whatever the narrative might be. That's valuable, you can make powerful changes in individual, but we always need to have that system in mind of let's take college athletes as an example. So many of them are experiencing food insecurity and that's not something, we maybe had a class or two in my nutrition program on that, but in my public health program, it was way more focused on this systemic conversation. Social determinants of health is the term for that for any public health people in the audience. So I think we need to be really mindful of both components, whether we're talking to athletes or not of no one's going to be surprised that vegetables are beneficial. But do you have access to a grocery store? Do you have time and energy and a location to cook all of these things that you can bought people over the head with a bunch of kale, but if those other components aren't there, it's not really something that's under their individual control. So this is a bit of a pivot, but I think relevant. Anytime you speak about nutrition, there's so much nuance both at the individual level and also systemically. And so I think it is really important of when you heal your own relationship with food, you can be part of that cultural change. You can advocate for these water cultural shifts, but that's something I also never want to lose sight of. We have our work cut out for us. It is not in full. So for so many reasons, it makes sense that food, body, exercise would be a challenging space, whether you're an athlete or not. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Greta, I have 18 different places. This conversation can go. So what you're exciting, but frustrating, because we're not going to get to it all. I just-- you opened my mind to a memory when I was working as a sports star to Shen at a large university. And I was helping out the football team. That was a big football program. And I was-- the coach wanted this particular player to cut some weight. And football is an interesting sport like that, where size and mass is good. But then he also needed to move more. And the coach wanted him to cut some weight. So comes to the dietician. I was trying to do a 24 hour recall. And his kid had neat in. And I'm like, OK, is he lying to me? Or what's going on? And it turns out, football was his life. And he was at school because of football and social determinants of health. Like he said, he didn't have money to go to the grocery store. He didn't have money to buy food. So he was there giving everything he had for football. And it's like, I was there as a dietician thinking, wait, how do I get him to cut weight? I can't tell him to eat less. He's not even eating. Wait, he has not breakfast. In that moment, as we were at a university where we had a fueling station, I said, do you want a bagel right now? Because we had food all around. And he was such like this. He didn't take the food. even though it was free food, that wasn't like how he was raised, right? So I had to walk him over to like go get a bagel and I was like, eat breakfast, you know? So thank you for allowing me to share that story on this podcast because it's a huge reminder of social determinants of health that access to food, food cost, play a huge role in this as well. So here, I had to report back to the coach. I can't put him on the traditional reduced calorie diet plan. Right now we need to focus on him having access to food and honestly kind of forget how that conversation with the coach went, but I know it was difficult because he was a very high-up coach and I was a newbie sports dietitian. But I knew in my heart I was doing the right thing for this person's health. Absolutely. So it's a nuanced conversation in so many different ways. And I think too, if you are a coach or you're an athlete, having that awareness of one benefit of a team sport is, okay, let's have a conversation about this as a team. Let's strategize. Can we have a wish list of our favorite snacks and have some athletes or parents or coaches chip in? So we have snacks in a designated locker or something like this of really taking away the shame and stigma around disordered eating, reds, body image challenges, food insecurity, any of these things and just remembering, yes, we're athletes, that's powerful. We can celebrate that strength, but we're all people first and we all are going to face challenges. So can we come together as a community instead of retreating into that shame or isolation? And really bringing everyone into this conversation because everyone listening to you have good ideas, you have a voice, you have influence and so we really need you to use that. Absolutely. Yeah, and going back again to the term reds and how inclusive it can be, it includes that football player that was unintentionally underfueling because of the issue of access to food. It also includes a different sport of lacrosse player like yourself who has a menoria and that's your only sign and then it includes the potential gymnast who's concerned about her body weight and therefore intentionally watching her intake. There's so many different angles and yet the root problem is how can we fuel better and have enough energy available to support our health and our performance. So yeah, that's why this term reds is so inclusive to meet a variety of different nutritional and health needs that are currently being unmet. Right. So all the issues in society and the conversations about eat more vegetables and eat less and all that that just aren't really helpful. Right. And one thing too, just jumping off your example of even those three examples of how reds they show up, just getting back to this idea that your body is on your team. Our bodies don't know the difference between this is a life-threatening famine or oh, proms coming up. So I'm trying to watch what I eat or I simply don't have the resources to fuel myself. And so really reframing that conversation if any of this resonates with you, remembering your body is on your team, your body's working so hard to protect you, something I learned early on regarding amenorea. So my missing period of how genius of my body to say we're not getting enough nutrition instead of shutting down the heart or the lungs, the reproductive system's kind of a nice to have. So there are broader reaching impacts. I ended up getting a bone scan in my early 20s and saw pretty severe bone loss. And that's so much better than having my heart stop. So this is an important mentality shift. If this is something you're working through, it can be tempting to feel frustrated with your body. But can you reframe your mind to say my body is my most valuable teammate, how can we work together to address something that he she is asking for? Right. Right. And those little things, you know, they're not little and yet to your point, they're a little compared to how severe things could get like, oh, my period's missing this month. That's just a little like warning, warning flag, you know, red card, like pause, red flag, take a look at this. And that's if we actually listen to and said, oh, yeah, this is my body's working with me. It's telling me to pay attention to this, listen to this. Because if we continue down this road and we ignore it, that's when things can get a lot worse. I would love to dive into your story of was it just osteopenia or osteoporosis that you were diagnosed with at a young age? So I was I believe I was 23 or 24 and this is I don't remember the exact timeline, but sometime in June, let's say, was when I began to discover that, hey, this missing period thing is not so normal. I was now done with college athletics. I actually wanted to run the Portland marathon. So I went back to my doctor and said, I really want to do this, but my health is the most important thing. So I want to resurrect this conversation around my hormones. And she actually that was the first time suggested the pill. So I was on the pill for a month. I did have a withdrawal bleed, which as your listeners know, hopefully at this point, that does not mean your period has quote, come back if you don't make changes to your nutrition to your rest, it just it masks the issue. So for me, I felt so off on the pill and it just didn't quite sit right with me. So I stopped taking it after a month. And once I found no period now, what it was a it was a pretty overnight shift of yeah, this makes sense. My body thinks I'm in a famine. I need to make these changes. So I wasn't close conversation with my lovely, she's wonderful OBGYN, but she said, no, don't gain any weight, don't stop exercising. This isn't going to work. And then three months to the day, my period came back. Wow. Somewhere in there, I requested a bone scan and really had to push for that too. And it's interesting since this was now eight or nine years ago, I'd be curious to to look back at those results because there is some controversy of oh, some practitioners aren't taught how to interpret those results in a woman who's pre menopausal. So what did show what I remember hearing and the results I got was osteophenia and my hips and osteoporosis in my spine. And I did have a bone scan two years after that that showed some improvement, but I had switched insurances. So it was a different machine. It was a different practitioner. I still'm not sure if they fully were equipped to know how to read those results. So all that to say, it still feels a little fuzzy in my mind, but what is very certain is that it's lower than what it should have been. And as an athlete, using my bones, using my muscles, you would expect that to help build bones. But I now sense that fueling piece wasn't there what should be building up bone density actually ends up stressing your bones, thinning them. So the most important thing you can do is regain your hormones, hone in on your fueling. I haven't gotten a bone scan since then, but I'm happy to say in those eight or nine years, I have not missed a period. I am very aware of my cycle. I track it. I had the unique experience of actually being able to go back and play lacrosse as a grad student. So in my late twenties, early thirties was on a team. It just felt so redemical to engage in high sport and have my cycle every month perform really well. And I am so curious of gosh, what would my performance have looked like as a high schooler, college athlete, I'm playing at a high level. I was recruited to play in college. But now realizing my body was in high alert emergency mode that whole time. So it was cool to go back and say, no, you can perform at a high level. It just had your cycle. Great. Exactly. It just takes learning your unique body and finding that rhythm that she feels nervous and safe. Yeah. Yeah. I love that you were able to play when you returned to grad school. That's just so cool because it's something that's so often for many of us like college athletes that don't want to work can't or aren't going to go on to the professional level. Like it is such a sad chapter that closes. And we find ways to fill the void with recreational sports. But that is so cool that you got to actually go back and compete because that's always been a question the back of my head of like with everything I learned in proper nutrition also mindset because a lot of my struggles with performance in college were also like meant like I feel like I'm a pretty confident person. But in I started losing my confidence about junior year of college and junior and senior year were really tough years for me to compete like mentally like I did track and field. And I was like kind of like scared and anxious going up to the starting line every time. Right. And yeah, it's like in my late 20s when I started really running and performing great again for a variety of reasons. And I was like wish I could go back with this new bound confidence and everything I've learned with how to deal with my mental you know issues and how to and fueling was a huge piece of that because a lot for me also like getting it started in line. I was so self-conscious and overthinking like, I body and just wasn't necessary. So anyways, tangent there, but I love that you were able to go back. Another thing that you hit on with the bone health here is the difficulty of getting dexascans or bone-density scans. So I don't know, you just like inspired me because we early in the conversation were like talking about how we need to now advocate for certain things. This like insurance, like this typically dexascans, insurance will cover them for women after menopause. But I'm like, I need this like 17 year old, otherwise seemingly healthy athlete to get it done, you know? And sometimes you really have to fight for it. You fought for it with your doctor. You were bringing it to the table saying, I want this done. And you did and that's great, but then that's also where there's been the lack of follow up because there's no like procedure routine for it. You know, there should be standard protocols. Fans, I'm pausing the conversation again to check in on you. Are you concerned that you have reds? That's relative energy deficiency in sport. It's a syndrome of not ideal health consequences and performance consequences that all stem from the idea that you're not fueling optimally or fueling enough for your sport needs. I've become an expert in this over the years because unfortunately, a lot of female athletes have struggled with this. We have research that shows sometimes up to 90% of female athletes might be suffering from at least one of the side effects of reds. Other research says that up to 45% of female athletes are struggling with disordered eating. These are big statistical numbers. And I don't like it. I'm here to help you become fierce, fit and fueled. So first and foremost, head to Lindsay Cortez.com/reds to learn more about reds, listen to past podcast episodes, and take our free reds quiz to see if this might be a concern for you. From there, I've got three ways to help you. One, download the Reds Recovery Guide and start taking action right away. Two, join our Reds Recovery Membership for a very affordable $15 month. You will have access to me as a sports dietitian to educate and empower you to fuel better. We meet once a week for live calls. Q and A, you have access to the recordings. If you can't join live and a community group chat, support, encourage and motivate you along the way to fuel fiercely. Last, spots are limited for one-on-one help, but I can help you personally through one-on-one coaching, be it my fast track program, the female athlete, system of transformation, or perhaps fuel school, depending on your age. All of that is on my website, Lindsay Cortez.com. But because one-on-one spots are limited, I really want to encourage you to join the Reds Recovery Membership. We live in a world where it's very easy to just pop online, read an article, listen to a podcast, and I think we do a decent job at getting information out there, but we all need someone to talk to and really ask those personal questions and also be open and honest in a community that's going to support you in your fueling need and goals. And that's exactly what this membership is. So only $15 a month, we meet once a week. And you will be provided with so much education and empowerment and support I know you won't regret joining. Head to Lindsay Cortez.com/Breads, and there you will see the Reds Recovery Membership that you can join. Join us this week. It's time for you to be fierce, fit, and fueled. And we know that osteoporosis impacts women so much more than it does men, but the conversation starts, okay, at menopause, bone loss. And the boss falls off. But I'm so curious how many of those women in their younger years had these hormonal disturbances and either were on the pill so it masked it or they just thought it was normal and fine. Right. This is something we really need to be talking about if we're thinking about health across the lifespan, bone health doesn't start being relevant at menopause. We really talk about those younger years and that's something that I would love to see more integrated into the conversation. Me too. So I have no clue if there's any medical doctors listening to this, sports physicians, OBGYNs, but my advice or guidance, and I'm not taking this from specific research. This is just my brain at work. I would say that any female athlete who's experienced amenorrhea for more than three months get a bone scan done and follow up every six to 12 months until they're in normal ranges with a cycle. Because let's just say maybe they've been amenorrhea for three months, their bone density is fine. That's great. But six months later if they still have amenorrhea, do it again because that could be great tangible knowledge for people to start making changes if they see their bone health decline or also to stay the path if they see their bone health improving because I've had a client, she's one of my longest standing clients that we were able to see that she gets a bone scan done once a year and she was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age like 17. And we've been able to see her scans improve and in many areas she's just in the osteopenia range now and she's been having a normal cycle for a couple of years now as well. So it's so encouraging to see that improvement. And another question I had for you as well, just on a personal level was knowing that you had these results with your bone scans, did that challenge your confidence in participating in sports at all because I've experienced that, the lot of clients that when they, you know, they kind of get nervous to am I should I be training? I have osteopenia or they want to run a half marathon but they're like, I don't know if this is safe and it's scary to engage in, you know, a three month training plan without having trust in your body. So what was that like for you? Oh, this is such a tough one because the only way through it is through it. And I like to describe it, it's a, it's a two way street. You're learning to trust your body and your body's learning to trust you. So when I started playing lacrosse again, this was gosh, I probably had had a regular cycle for six years at that point. So I had to back to center my belt but I started so slow if I wasn't a place where I was in my first master's program so I wasn't playing on a sports team. I didn't have that pressure. And I just very slowly eased in to adding movement. It really felt like going through puberty in my mid 20s it just such a interesting experience of there are physical changes. I was tracking my cycle. If my period was even a few days late, I really had to stay centered and not spiral. So I will say it is absolutely possible but it does take time. There's not any shortcuts because your body is unique. So being able to say I'm collecting data on myself, I'm figuring out what works and paying attention again of every month you get to check in from your body from your period. So if it is a little wonky that month, it's not cause for panic. You have the tools you know what to do. It's in prevention. And we go through so many seasons of life of going through grad school. Now many of my friends are having kids of just saying it's not like you figure it out and then the work is done. It's more of how can we have this dynamic relationship with our body that acknowledges there's so many different seasons of life and it's a continual journey. So the more you get to know the signs of your body, the more you can see, oh, I'm feeling really overwhelmed. Maybe a low day would be more beneficial when I was in college if I was stressed, I would run longer distances because that's how I managed my stress and you can be a competitive athlete, you can come back to sport, but learning how it fits with your body. So with the fear around bone to circle back to that, oh my goodness, it was so scary. I was horrified when I got that diagnosis and it was interesting because I've never had stress fractures or bone injuries. So it felt concrete because I knew I had been missing my period for so long, but it also felt like this invisible, scary nightmare 'cause I never felt concrete impact. So I think ingredient one was being confident in my cycle and saying, okay, I've introduced back running and improvement and I'm still getting my period. We know that's the most important thing for building bones. - For your bone health, right. - And we know that lifting weights, high impact exercises are beneficial for building bones. So my mentality is priority number one, keep those hormones on track. They're already number two. Now's my time to build back those bones. Unfortunately, I missed a really important stage of development with my bone health, but bones, we think of them as this kind of, just stagnant organ, but they're dynamic. They turn over, they can improve, like you've seen in your client and it's, I think there's no shortcut, but just to be able to say, take your time, take it slow and every story's unique. And in myself, in clients, in research, we see it as possible to return to sport and to do it in a healthy way. Just a reframe around how you approach food and rest and all of these things. I love how you said too, like it's a two way street that you have to trust your body, but your body's learning to trust you. And so as I've worked with clients, going through the process of like going back to sport or engaging in sport while they actively have this diagnosis of low bone mineral density or osteophenia osteoporosis. It's hey, did you eat enough today? Do you have your period this month? And if you're doing those two things and you can say, well, I'm doing yes, I'm going to go to practice today, which I know is a little scary considering my bone health, but I've done all the things to ensure that I'm taking care of my body. And I so anybody who's still dealing with that that fear, you know, if while you're getting back to sport and you still don't have your period, maybe that fear is bringing something up that we need to listen to. Versus we have this fear, what if I get another fracture, but wait, I've had my period for six months, I'm coordinating with my doctor and dietician, I know I'm eating really well, I ate a great meal today, I ate great all week, then you have more confidence to say, okay, I'm going to go to practice. I'm going to trust my body because my body is learning to trust me as well as I've been providing it all this care and nourishment. So yeah, it is it's a two way street and I love this language, which brings us back to here you are, you know, somebody who is passionate about sports, girls and sports and and reds, but also a lot of the language you've been using on this episode in conversation so far is very reflective of your work within two to eating as well. And yeah, you reached out to me, you said, I'm an assistant to Evelyn, trivel, who is the author and founder co founder of intuitive eating, which you know, here we are in 2025 where this is a phrase, I think that gets spread around a lot just intuitive eating, you know, what you want when you want and it just sounds like this great natural beautiful easy thing, but it's so many people struggle with it and also it's actually a process. You know that it's a 10 step process of becoming an intuitive eater maybe we're all born into the leaders, but it gets screwed up pretty quickly at the young age it gets influenced by peers and yeah different just everything right like my oldest son is only three and a half but two days a week and he goes to a little program so I can work and record this podcast and you know he's influenced by what the other kids are eating they have structured meal times so it's not all even as young of an age of three and a half it's not all intuitive immediately anymore things are influencing your decisions and behaviors around food not although he is still children are still pretty good in two to eaters but what I'm trying to get at is we have to relearn it. And so anyways just for anybody who's has questions concerns about into the meeting we wanted to highlight that Evelyn really is a co founder of the 10 step process wrote a book in 1994 and it has four or five editions now. A couple of editions I have edition number four is that or are there five editions now there are four I actually just confirmed this morning to make sure this is public but Evelyn at least are working on writing the fifth and final addition right now. So this is very exciting and I've just I've been so lucky to work pretty closely with them both and this is a great example of their first book was published in the 90s there have been so many changes and they are such great examples of changing your mind learning shifting your perspective they say at the beginning first edition it was evidence informed they didn't just write this book blindly but I'm not sure if I can do that. But as we've gotten more research has we've learned more and more they have shifted their language and the way they describe this work so I think that's one of my most important lessons learned that's consistent through my work with Evelyn and Elise through my work as an athlete now as a professional of what a journey we always get to keep learning and growing and shifting our mentality around things and just like there's no short. So it's like there's no shortcuts to regaining your cycle to figuring out reds learning your body same within two and a half eating you can listen to podcasts and read books all day long those are awesome resources but you got to do the work it's like an instrument you wouldn't expect to read the manual and then be able to immediately play it your first time so this is something. So social media I think is a very powerful tool it's helpful and sometimes there is that expectation of gosh why am I still struggling with this why isn't this something that now I know about diet culture I know I don't want to be a part of it but how come I keep feeling pulled back and struggling in these different ways so. So yeah I think that's a good point because again to that notion of people just think oh I'll just do into a defeating or I'll just start trying to be intuitive but if you don't actually go through the steps and really put in that work then you might not really know what that means it sounds easy it sounds just try to do the thing and actually when you do the work and you can say I am a. I am a two to be there it is easy but each of those 10 steps requires learning some unlearning some practice and you mentioned already on this podcast this is a journey our needs with health and food and body are always changing so maybe you're really good at into defeating when you were you know single or young and maybe it's harder when you have a family or you know time or money is an issue so things happen in life. Where what's great about the 10 steps of into the beating is you revisit them it's like okay used to be really good at my hunger and fullness cues but now I'm pregnant and this is really confusing and I don't know what the heck is happening re read that chapter revisit the you know the cues of how to practice hunger and fullness and you re learn it for that phase of your life yes this is something that hopefully this is maybe your listeners have heard before but there's no failure here if you have an experience around food that doesn't feel good this is not a mistake this is more information just like anything to know what works you also have to know what doesn't work so really having that open mind self compassionate learners mindset of this is equally as valuable now I have this experience how might I approach it differently next time. One of the things so exciting news that they are coming out with the fifth edition somewhat sad to hear it'll be their final but they've had decades of work to contribute to the community in the world so we're so thankful for them one my favorite things about the fourth edition was all the research that was presented not just throughout the book in the beginning they kind of like did like I don't know it was like a 30 year update of research on into the beating and I thought that was so helpful. So that it's not this like fruit fruit thing yes into the beating is so interesting because it's so personal how you eat as an intuitive eater can be a completely different experience or way of eating then somebody else and yet if those fundamental principles are in place it's so effective and so seeing that research of how it's effective with increasing body satisfaction even like reducing traditional measures of you know ill health like let's say like blood pressure and things like that that are cholesterol levels like you we have that research to say intuitive eaters have health and biomarkers that are within healthy ranges and then just I love like the body awareness that comes with it body satisfaction was huge so I love all that research so hopefully they'll include some of that again in the city. I know they certainly are there's so much exciting work happening and exactly like you said it can sound kind of woo woo but we actually have the data to back it up and anecdotal eat just I think if we really pause and think about it makes sense that our bodies are so wise for so many reasons we live in such a fast pace hectic society we can't sit down with candles and meditate every meal that's not realistic but what are small baby steps we can integrate how can we pay attention to the signals our body is sending and just returning back to what we talked about beginning saying my body's on my team. How can I work with my body instead of seeing it as this opponent to fear. Yeah. Hey Greta I forget the organization but you know like every January there's some news outlet that says like what's the best diet of 2025. That's diet right have you seen those things. Yes absolutely like why isn't it because I know into a defeating isn't a diet but I feel like it should be thrown in there because it's right it's a framework it's a way of eating framework because typically what comes up over the past few years Mediterranean diet comes up often because it's less of a diet and more of a framework of like here are some general foods to sometimes eat right yes and and that one comes up a lot and I'm just thinking right now like how do we get these news organizations to throw into a beating in the mix. Yes we're starting to see more of that but just have your critical thinking hat because diet culture really likes to hijack into it of eating and I - As it does. - There are 10 principles. If we're just picking out one or two, that misses a lot. So if you are interested in intuitive eating, go straight to the source. They came out with a new workbook in January 2025. The fifth edition will be coming out, I believe, 2027. So no, there are resources out there because especially with social media. It's gaining popularity, which is great, but that also means misconceptions and misrepresentations are much more common. Which is, I can't imagine how that must feel for them because I'm over here as a fan, saying, "Go read the book, I encourage it. "I've learned so much, my clients have learned so much, "but I imagine it's frustrating "when your work gets criticized or misunderstood as well." - Yes, I really admire both of them. They will engage in conversation with people who are critical and I've always seen them take in the high road, kind of their mentality and where I've landed is, there's so much noise on the internet. So just put out that good content, keep the conversation going in good faith, but when it comes to your own healing and your own process, really keeping your eyes ahead, let's not play the comparison game, making sure you have a working understanding of what intuitive eating is and what it isn't. And also your personal learning style, what makes you feel good, use your unfollow and follow button to your advantage and really curate your social media, your social circles into a place that reinforces, rather than challenges that healing. - Yeah, yeah, amazing Greta. So we're almost out of time, but I need to share more because you, in this conversation you've shown, you have a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of understanding and a wealth of resources at your fingertips, that you tap into resources and you provide resources. So for the Center for Active Women, you are providing one-on-one consulting, you consult with groups and teams that we would love to give you some time to shine and share more about your work, how you can help other people and how they can get in contact with you. - Absolutely. Well, this conversation gives a good appetizer. I would say to the work of, I love working one-on-one with athletes, with active women. You don't have to identify as an athlete to work with me. So I love having those conversations of, okay, this is all great, but how do I concretely apply that to my everyday life? How do I have a safe space to process and ask questions? So please reach out if you are interested in that one-on-one work. And then I love speaking to teams, to parents, to coaches, to trainers. Like we said, we have a long way to go. Whoever you are, trust you have a role to play. And so that's a really special part of what I do. Like I said, I coach LaPros at my high school. So they were my mini pigs. When I first started getting into this work of we have this conversation every year. And now I've been able to teach the nutrition unit in the health class as well. And I love having everyone learn these frameworks and then be part of that change. So I am based in Portland, Oregon, but I do a lot of remote work too. So my website is centerforactivewomen.com. I recently got on Instagram, so I would love to connect with anyone there. But if any of this resonates with you, I love to collaborate. There's so many ways to do this work. And it's very customizable. So I really see my clients and people I work with as teammates, as collaborators of I have this specialized skill set and training. You are the expert on your life, on your sport, on your team. And so really there's an infinite way to apply it. I'm mostly excited about starting that conversation, being that facilitator. So I would absolutely love to hear from you. If you're listening to this podcast, it shows we have a lot in common already. So yeah, we'd love to hear from you. Yes. And I want to share with my listeners that Greta is a very friendly person to get to know. So if you're interested in one-on-one consulting, she will listen to you with an open mind and open heart and receive you well. And also she's really engaging as a speaker. So whether in person or virtual, I think you would hold people's attention quite well. So I definitely want to encourage people to reach out to you, head to your website to get in touch with you if they're interested in your services. Thank you so much, Lindsay. Likewise, it's always so energized to connect to people who are in this space and to have similar interests. So I'm really grateful for the work you do as well. Oh, thank you. We'll stay in touch. Yes, absolutely. We almost forgot our rapid-fire questions, which admittedly I've been slacking at lately because summer was crazy. I had lots of other things going on personally and lack of childcare. And I lost my mind. So let's do our rapid-fire fun questions. And I'm excited to hear your answers. So Greta, if there's one food you could eat every single day for the rest of your life and never be sick of it, what would it be? This is the hardest question of the bunch. I don't know if this is cheating, but I'm going to say Thai food as a category. It's so delicious. Could eat it every day. All the flavors. There you go. I do love Thai food. So my husband's in the military and for whatever reasons of the past in US history. There's a lot of Thai food restaurants around military installations. Really good. Wow. What up, Rick? It is. It is a perk. Yes, so I'm not, you know, again, US military history and things that led that way. But yeah, it's delicious. And I'm grateful for that because it's flavors that I cannot cook myself. Yeah, I don't know why that is. I've tried, but it never is the same. No, they do it the best. Okay. What is your favorite sport to participate in? I'm going to have to say lacrosse. It's so much fun. And it's a harder one to stay plugged into as an adult. So now I'm more engaged through coaching, but it's such a fast-paced sport. I love the teamwork component. I love that it's outdoor and it's just, it gives me delight every time I'm able to step back onto that field. That's awesome. How about as a spectator, is it the same or what's your favorite sport to watch? Well, I love watching lacrosse. I will also, as a Portlander, give a shout out to the Thorns, our Women Soccer team. I have season tickets. So we love going to support our Portland Thorns. And we also will have a basketball team here pretty soon. So I'm excited to watch Portland Fire. I don't know too much about basketball other than you got to put the basket in the hoop. But so once lacrosse and that it's fast-paced, pretty high score. Yeah. And so I'm really excited to get to know that sport, Nutter. Yeah, it's a great spectator sport. So that's awesome that you're getting a new team there, I wasn't aware. So yes, we're excited. All right, last question, hardest question. If there's a female athlete out there that you want to give a shout out to for being a role model or inspiration, who would that be and why? I am going to say all of my lacrosse teams, I think it's so special when you create that environment where you're supporting each other. I coach JV in high school. And when I played as a grad student, we had a lot of new players and I love that environment where you have girls, young women who have played for 10 years or zero years and still there's that mentality of we're all here to learn, we're all here to lift each other up. And that's just such an important skill to have as a teammate, but also as a human. So if I've ever played with you, it left such a lasting impact. I'm super grateful to have the opportunity to have such amazing teammates. Who many of them are now lifelong friends. That's amazing, Greta. And thank you for sharing that. It's so heartfelt and so true that sometimes it's not about one person who's like the role model. It's about everybody collectively making this such a positive experience in your life. And beautiful sentiments. Greta, Greta, thank you so much for coming on this podcast and sharing your conversation, your knowledge. And I hope people reach out to you. Thank you so much. This is such a blast. I loved connecting. Thanks so much for listening and I really hope you enjoyed that episode. Please help spread the message of empowering female athletes to be fierce, fit and fueled by giving this podcast a five star review and leaving a comment. You can also help more female athletes by sending this episode to a friend. Head to LindsayCortez.com for more resources, information, more episodes, ways to work together, downloadable guides and e-books. And if you're interested in becoming a guest on the show or have a guest suggestion, head to LindsayCortez.com/podcast and there's a form for you to fill out to get on the show. Hey, there's more resources on my YouTube channel, Female Athlete Nutrition, Instagram @female.athlete.nutrition and Private Facebook Group, Female Athlete Nutrition. I think you get the point. I'm here to support female athletes by fueling better and becoming fierce, fit and fueled. Most importantly, if you need help, reach out. Thank you for listening and I'll see you in the next show. [Music] If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.