Blog Takeover: Meet Kelsey.
Even though I may be classified as a “retired athlete,” my heart and passion for sports, fitness, and nutrition will always be a part of who I am. Some of my biggest triumphs and biggest struggles have been with sport and especially nutrition.
Growing up, soccer was my whole life. “Sorry I can’t hang out, I have practice,” was something I said almost daily. I missed countless birthday parties, time with friends, family vacations, went straight to homecoming from a soccer game, and even skipped my college graduation to go play professionally overseas. Needless to say, my journey as an athlete was always about how much could I give to be the best. What can I sacrifice and where can I get an edge over everyone else who is also trying to be the best? This mindset undoubtedly got me to the high level I was able to compete at, but it was also the cause of some of the biggest struggles I had as an athlete.
This leads me to the story of my college soccer career. As a freshman, I started and played significant minutes. I was so proud to represent my team and have such an important role from the start. I could see my hard work paying off, and it drove me to give more. On top of soccer training I was putting in a lot of extra work on my own. I was always the first to the locker room and the last to leave. My second year of school, I started struggling with some stomach issues and because of it, started cutting out certain foods (dairy, bread products, and sweets). I became scared to eat these foods knowing the amount of pain that accompanied it. I didn’t want to have to train or play a game and deal with the pain at the same time. I couldn’t figure out what exactly was causing the intense pain, but because of cutting out a lot of food and my high level of exercise I noticed myself getting leaner. A size two waist and a six pack are definitely not a part of my genetics by any means, so in my head this meant I was really working hard and my self prescribed diet was really “healthy”. Before I knew it, in a matter of 5 months, I ended up losing almost 20 pounds. My coaches and support staff took notice and got really concerned. It got to the point where I had to sit out most of our off season and had a ton of limitations on what I could and couldn’t do. I couldn’t believe how all my hard work was actually keeping me from playing instead of making me better. Those months of getting myself back to a good place, were some of the hardest times of my life. Looking back, it’s so easy to see that it wasn’t healthy and I was close to really hurting myself but at the time I was feeling good and performing at a high level, I thought it was ok. Slowly I gained some weight back through nutrition counseling with our team dietitian and through the process of learning that my body was working so hard that it needed extra food and that was a good thing, I was able to get back to playing and ended up having the best season of my college career.
This momentum carried over and I was able to continue playing professionally for a season as well. If I hadn’t gone through this trial and made some big changes in my nutrition and outlook I don’t know if I could have kept playing or what would have happened to my body physically.
Some main things I learned:
Healthy nutrition is not the same for every person or every teammate...it’s so different!!
Food is a tool that can give you an edge in competition if you use it right!
View food as fuel, not the enemy or something to be afraid of.
Sport can become an idol in your life and give you tunnel vision where you see nothing but your performance. This is a really dangerous place to be. Life is about so much more than your sport. Nutrition is the same, it’s not meant to be your only focus.
What does nutrition look like for me now?
I’m on the road and traveling the world most of the year with my husband, who is a professional golfer so nutrition is very different every week. I have to be flexible because food in Japan, Thailand, and Europe are very different to what we eat at home. It’s also different because my husband’s nutritional needs are much different than mine, as golf nutrition is very different to soccer nutrition. I enjoy the challenge of finding the right choices for the both of us on the road! If you’re curious about what life traveling the world looks like, click here.
If there’s two words that sum up my approach to most things now, it’s balance and flexibility. From my experience, the athlete's’ world is typically very structured and scheduled, embracing these two aspects allows some freedom and has completely brought me peace of mind.
- Kelsey