Welcome And Why Fuel Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So you're thinking about running, but not sure how to take the first step? My name is Brian Patterson, and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's ROM pod. And in this podcast is for everyday runners, whether you're just starting out or looking out to get a little bit further and feel a little bit better doing it. Now, today's episode is a really important one because we're not just talking about running, we're talking about the relationship you have with your body. Joining me is Lauren Ganmin. I hope to get that right. Lauren is a registered dietitian, a runner, and a former collegiate athlete. What she really shapes her work, uh what really shapes her work is her own journey. She has spent 16 years dealing with uh an eating disorder and chronic gut health issues, and that experience completely transformed how she understands health, nutrition, and what it really means to feel well. In this conversation, we're going to go and explore something that doesn't get talked about enough in the running world: underfueling, over-exercising, and the pressure to control everything from pace to calories. Lauren brings a really refreshing perspective. Instead of rigid plans and strict rules, she talks about something called body-led healing and learning to listen to your body, rebuild trust and move away from that cycle of perfectionism and frustration that so many runners quietly struggle with. So if you've ever felt confused about what to eat, worried about eating too much, or just not quite sure why you're feeling tired despite doing all the right things, this episode is for you. So let's give a Brian's rumble. Welcome to Lauren.

Lauren’s Running And Career Path

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Hi. Welcome to the podcast, Lauren. How are you doing? Good. How are you? So uh how I what I do is with most of my um my guests is just to get a bit of a background as to kind of how you got into your space. Um if you kind of go back to pre-college and high school, were you were you a kind of a like a natural athlete?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Oh God, no. Honestly, I was never hand-eye coordination was ever my strong point. I was never really good at sports. But when I got to high school, I had this, I really wanted to do some sort of sport. And I ended up honest, only reason I did cross-country and track originally was because there were no tryouts. So if you wanted to be on the team, you're automatically on it. So I was like, this is perfect. I joined and that I ended up being just naturally pretty good at it. It came really easily and quickly I ended up being like on varsity and it just went from there. I fell in love with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Okay. So you took that forward into uh when you went to college. Did you did you sort of major in a kind of sports physiology degree or did you do something completely different?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

So running started my interest actually in nutrition because I was like, how can I get better? And then I got into health and nutrition, and I originally didn't go to school for it because I was, I mean, I was 18 and I was worried about like, what do I do? What if I don't like nutrition, then I have that degree. So I went to a business school and did marketing. Oh, right. Okay. And I ended up doing a full switch and went back to school to eventually become a dietitian. So originally, no, I did run cross-country and track for at my college, but I didn't go for any sort of health anything at that time.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So um just sort of moving on to find out about let's get into the knob we've seen. This podcast is uh about runners very much sort of at a beginner's level in terms of beginning their journey into running, but they may be going, you know, and those that may be taking it further forward. What do you think runners do get wrong uh at a basic level about nutrition and as to how it can help their performance?

Common Nutrition Mistakes For Runners

SPEAKER_02 4:20

I think at a basic level, a lot of people don't understand the role of certain just bigger nutrients that they play. So they kind of just Yeah. I think sometimes they try to figure it out on their own. Some people some people use it for originally they get into it for maybe weight loss purposes and then they fall in love with it, or some people just want to start running because they're interested in it. So usually it's kind of the amount. I think they don't realize how much more they need to eat versus when they weren't the biggest piece.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Because I've heard and speaking to other people who've been on the podcast, that the sometimes one of the factors that can lead to injury is basically you're not fueling

Underfueling And RED-S Explained

SPEAKER_00 5:05

your body properly. Um what's your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

100%. There's a big, I don't know if you've heard of reds. Um it's basically it's relative energy deficiency in sport. And that is usually a cascade, but it's gonna be you don't have enough fuel. So usually it also, if it's a woman, it's gonna be a combination of like irregular missing period on top of that, but also decreased bone mineral density. So your bones are stress fractures and things like that become a lot easier to get.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

So um I know I did sort of say you know into going back into the introduction, is that um, and I hope you don't mind me talk talking about this, is it that um you did have a sort of you were dealing for 16 years with a sort of a like an eating disorder and sort of some uh chronic gut health issues. Did that kind of steer you into the path into sort of having finding out much more information about nutrition and how you can help others?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yes. So the eating disorder started, it wasn't inherently started because of running, but it was started because it was an accident. I was quite literally Googling how to become a faster runner.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Oh, right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah. I was 15 years old, and this article came up, and it was the skinnier you are, the faster you'll go. And I was like, okay, I'll just uh eat breakfast. And then it just escalated into this huge thing over time. And I did it. That took me from then until like what 31 to finally actually get out of it. I didn't realize I was in an eating disorder. Really, to be honest with you. So that made me really want to work with the I love working with athletes, but really like athletes that have some sort of you don't have an eating disorder, but issues with fueling, body image, anything on all of those lines.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Right.

unknown 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Do you think it has become, I mean, obviously you work through it and you've come out the other side, but do you think um that has increasingly become a problem now because of the pressures of you know social media compared to when you were just starting out. I mean, you just saw an article. So um, I mean, whereas now there's a lot more pressures, you know, you know, we you see on Instagram or or whatever. And it it seems to be people, it's can be so easy for people to f to to go down that rabbit hole, as it were.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, you know, for my realm, it was more like there were it was on TV shows and media and that in that kind of uniform, but it wasn't 24-7 in your face. And now it's honestly, if I had, if Instagram, TikTok existed when I was younger, I think I don't even I don't want to know what would have happened. It probably was. So yeah, I even get people that come to me now that had eating disorders because of they were trying to be healthy and were following things on TikTok and now here we are. So definitely.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So I mean that kind of leads me on to um that that sort of the next stage is basically that um how, like you said, you know, your performance is kind of you felt that your performance is linked to having the right nutrition or less of it or that that kind of thing. Do you think now there's more information that basically people are more likely to, you know, can uh can can grab hold of that can sort of set them on the right path?

SPEAKER_02 8:40

I hope so. There's the that's kind of the blessing and the curse of this social media and everything online. You have both sides, you have more information in the right direction, and then some, you know, in the wrong. But I hope so, because I did used to say if I I was so focused, I got really into health as a teen when I started running and nutrition, and I eventually, you know, kind of went down the wrong path. But had I everything was about health for me, and had I understood and had somebody that came to me and explained this is actually what you need to eat for your running, and this is how you can get better, and this is what's healthy, and this is what's not healthy, I really don't think I ever would have had the eating disorder in the first place. So, yes, hopefully there is enough online to get some people that maybe would have gone down that route not to go down that route.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Right. Okay.

Gut Health Basics And Diet Variety

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Um I I have talked to other nutritionists here on the podcast and in terms of about gut health, um, and I kind of I'm afraid it seems to me that it was I came from a very um, you know, ignorant, as it were, uh point of view, not knowing enough about gut health. For someone you know who's very new to it, how what's the best way you can explain to them um and educate them about gut health and as to what are the types of things that they should be looking at to help them sort of you know educate themselves?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Okay, on like a pretty basic, easy level, essentially when we say gut health, we're thinking intestines. So if you think of your intestines, it's living in there. There's a bunch of bacteria that's alive in there. That's what everyone calls probiotics. That's just the name of the bacteria. You want that as diverse as possible. So to do that, the more diverse your diet, the more diverse your gut bacteria or microbiome. So if you eat, I usually tell people like eat the rainbow, not the Skittles version of eat the rainbow, but actual like fruits, vegetables, different starches. If you are just eating a diversity, if you if your diet is diverse in general, it will help your gut be diverse. And it also is a matter of eating enough too, because also not eating enough will that can be where like constipation comes in, digestion slows down. But generally speaking, if you want a healthy gut, just have a diverse diet.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Right. Okay, so it's not just about eating specific foods. So from what you're saying, it's just having a much broader range of of of your of your diet. So Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Being more like, you know, the whole food sources. So your proteins, carbs, fats, colours, but coming from like um fruits, vegetables, grains, starches, all of that. Right. Yeah. It's just variety.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I know uh, well, my youngest daughter is um uh she's sort of vegetarian, and I think it, you know people now, either through from an eco ecological and environmental point of view, people are moving more towards that now. Do you think people who are either, you know, on the vegetarian side, do you think they are more likely to have a better gut health than those that take sort of eat eat meat or poultry or that kind of thing?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

I guess this could be more speculative, it would be, generally speaking, it might be easier on a vegetarian side of things because you are going to be eating more things like beans, veggies regularly, versus some people that eat meat just eat like meat, potatoes, and they don't really touch vegetables. So I think it would actually be a lot easier for vegetarians because that's the brunt of their

Simple Meal Framework For Energy

SPEAKER_02 12:20

diet as a whole. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

If we're if we're looking, let's say, um, okay, so I'm uh running maybe three, four times a week. I'm just uh uh a recreational runner. Um, what would be kind of my my starting point in terms of helping my new having my nutrition helping me enjoy my running as a sport? So I know that's a very broad question and is kind of a little bit of a you know, how how long is a piece of string type of thing? But um are there any that say I've you know I I want to, I'm I've got motivation to change my diet to try to help me enjoy um uh either my training or I'm going for a race or that kind of thing. What have what what advice can you give?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

There's two things that come to mind. Um one would be this some people will know, some people won't, honestly. One will be every time you sit down to have a meal, if you give your body everything it needs at that meal, you're in a pretty good spot in terms of like vitamins, minerals, even electrolytes are in food. So you're getting your electrolytes as well. That would be a protein, whether it's a animal or vegetarian source of protein, a protein, some sort of carb, some sort of fat, and then colored, which I just call it colored to the fruits or the veggies. If you're doing that every time you sit down to have a meal, you're in a pretty decent spot. The amount that you need is something you might have to play with to see where you feel best. Um and then making sure, depending on when you're running, that you have enough fuel prior to your run too.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah. I mean, the other thing is I know not everyone, I mean, certain I know sometimes people have this kind of energy clock that um you're like at the beginning of the day, people will feel a lot more energized that they can go training, you know, in the morning.

unknown 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Where as opposed to, let's say, I mean, I'm like, you know, myself, it's just that by the end of the day, it's like the the amount of energy if you if you consider like you have a hundred percent at the beginning of the day, that's kind of gone down to like say, I don't know, 10%, and then you just don't feel like running or training or going to the gym or that kind of thing. Is there anything we can do on the nutritioner's side that can help us add fuel to that uh to that tank, as it were?

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yes, some of that's preference. I'm kind of the same. I'm much more I'm a morning workout person. It takes a lot of motivation to get me to do anything later. But if you want fuel-wise, if you just need energy, it's always going to be anytime, even if you're sitting there and you're like, ah, at 3 p.m. I seem to have this slump. If food is the body's source of energy, then it's food is what you'll go to. And if we're thinking about what specifically, it would be carbs, the number one energy source that your body and your brain use first. So it would be a source of carb. If you need a faster there's two types of carbs. So if you want quick energy, if say you have an hour or less before your workout or your run, that would be like the white carbs or even like chips, candy, sodas, not that I recommend eating that all the time, but those would be.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

No, no, no, no, sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Yeah. So anything quick, fruit, anything like that is pretty easy to get in, and that would be a good energy source.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Do you think the sign of the us as uh as human beings or if we are working, we tend to go through a particular cycle in terms of let's say we it's so easy to be doing, you know, okay, we have our breakfast, and then maybe we wait like four hours till we have our lunch again, and then we don't eat again until either we get home and then we'll have our, you know, our dinner, which is later. But is there anything that we could break that cycle to help, you know, either having mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks just to help, you know, disperse that or that energy to help with our running for later on in the day or even at the beginning of the day?

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yes. If so if you're I usually recommend if you're running first thing in the morning, if you get up and go for a run, usually recommend having something, some sort of carb than it does. It could be a single banana, it doesn't have to be a whole meal, but something then.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

And if you're more of a later runner, because usually sometimes the strength Even even before even before the run? Let's say if you're doing it before, let's say you get you you know, you're you're getting up first thing before work, have have a quick banana, and then you go for a run. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yep. Yep. That's usually what I do. I it'll be um a banana. Sometimes I forget, so I will be honest. Sometimes I forget. All right. It'll either be a banana or um like a few dates. That's usually what I do. One of those those are just a quick source of energy. And you'll you will likely notice a difference in energy levels because those carbs that you eat, you're immediately using. Your body's immediately taking that and using it, versus like taking what's been stored, you know, in your muscles overnight and converting that. So that helps a lot. Um if you're like an afternoon exerciser or like after work, yeah, that might be you you'll need some sort of either afternoon snack or an hour or less. You can even do it 30, 15 minutes before you run. Um but you'd want it to be the quick carb. So that's where it's like the the fruit, the dates. Um you could do like crackers, you could do a piece of you could do rice cakes, anything. I've had rice cakes before with nothing on it. It's not the most appetizing. You could do graham crackers, anything just um for a little bit of energy. I used to eat like a bowl of melon

Body-Led Healing And Listening Skills

SPEAKER_02 18:10

beforehand too. That can help too.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

So you we I I said in this introduction about body-led healing. Um, what does that actually mean?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

So the body is essentially the body is the body is smarter than all of us. The body is smarter than everyone. And we're kind of we have this narrative that we're either fed or we just believe where the body a lot of times we need to control it or it needs fixing or something's wrong with it. So we try to do all these things externally, but really the body is the one that's been there's like this whole language that we have with our body that we don't know. So lighting was getting weird there. Okay, here we go. So the whole language that our body has, and it's almost like this superpower that we were never taught how to listen to.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

So if you It's quite an incredible machine.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

It's it's insane. And the body can do a lot, but it's nothing, but eventually it catches up to you. So really the body is always the one telling you. Like, even I find sometimes runners, um we love running and we hate taking days off sometimes and we do a little too much. But if you actually listen, there's gonna be certain days and times when your body's asking you not to, and you push through it, and that's actually doing more harm than good. So it's letting the body lead everything. If you consult your body before you do things, consult your body even like before you're eating, it will help a lot with how do I know if I'm eating enough? How do I know if I'm sleeping enough? How do I know when my body needs rest? Everything's given to you. So we almost, it's like letting the body be the guide.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

How so how can you read those signals? I mean, how how can we learn, teach ourselves how to read those particular signals?

SPEAKER_02 20:00

So that is that's a whole I usually take people through a whole kind of long process to do that because if it's something you've never done, uh the first step you'll have to do is actually just start to pay attention. Pay attention to everything. It would be how you feel after you ate something. If you got a bad night's sleep, what do you tend to eat more of after that? Okay, my lining keeps getting so weird. If you notice you got to eat more of after that. If you um how are you feeling on your runs? Do you notice that you just the amount of water you drink, do you feel better drinking more? Do you feel better drinking less? Like every single thing after you eat what your energy level is like, do you feel like after you eat you um kind of get mucusy, like in your throat? There's all these things telling you with certain things that fit. And it's just starting to pay attention is the first piece.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

So it's I know sometimes dietitians will give a food diary sort of thing. So is it that kind of thing? But instead what you're doing is that it's not just about you writing down as to the food you've you've eaten, but also as to how you felt when you're eating how those particular foods.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah, kind of. I I usually tell people I'm like, they you can call it your wellness journal, whatever you want. You don't even have to share it all with me, but it's what you ate, how you felt, even like bowel movements, pay attention to all of that, but even beyond food, like what are you how are you feeling throughout your day? And if this it's specific to runners, how are you feeling during your runs? Are there specific days where they're harder, specific times during if you're tracking your heart rate, what does that look like on different days? Everything. And it's almost like this big data set, and eventually you'll be able to get a better feel for what your body is asking you.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Okay. So is

Journalling Signals And Making Baby Steps

SPEAKER_00 21:55

that sort of like a starting point? And then from there you take that information and you kind of either tweak um the diet on or sort of in consult consultation with the client, you mean and and or you know, so as refine it so as that it it will help enhance them as an individual and how they feel, and then that will obviously in turn help with their training.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Yes, we we go that route. So we'll refine from there. Um, because it it gives me a lot of data points too to look at. And I'm like, all right, we have to change things, X, Y, Z. If they're having issues with their gut, it helps me a lot too. Um, but then we also that's almost like the second step. The second step I go through with people is having them write things down. The first step is almost we explore even further back through like their whole history of their life essentially. But um this would be more if people want to do this on their own, it would be kind of analyzing and then from there it's baby steps. It might take a while, but it's baby steps to make the changes.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Right. Okay. So don't make massive changes initially, but it would be just sort of like tiny little changes. Um, and then obviously to keep monitoring it as you go along.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Yeah, especially if you're like actively running and if your changes are primarily in your diet, you don't want to do too much at once because that might not be fun on a run if your body doesn't love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Yeah. Yeah.