Episode 68: How to Transition from Athlete to “Regular Life” with Katie Spada

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Episode Description

In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah are joined by registered dietitian, Katie Spada. Katie discusses the daunting question, how do you transition from being an athlete to a “regular life,” especially from a nutrition standpoint. She discusses common struggles from body changes to addressing guilt or stress around rest day. How can intuitive eating and food freedom fit into life after sport? Tune in to find out!

Katie is a registered dietitian and former athlete. She is the owner and founder of Spada Strong Nutrition LLC, a nutrition coaching business focused on helping athletes, former athletes, and active individuals fuel for training and for life. She holds a master’s degree in Nutrition from Northeastern University with a concentration in Sports and Fitness. Katie competed as an elite level synchronized swimmer on the national team and collegiate level before retiring and pursuing her career as a dietitian. Katie founded Spada Strong Nutrition with the goal of helping individuals learn how to fuel their body’s properly, work through body image struggles, and develop a healthy relationship with food that supports their lifestyle. Katie believes every person deserves to feel good in their skin, fuel their body well, and enjoy the foods they eat, guilt-free!

Be sure to follow Katie @fueling.former.athletes!

Participant #1:
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Up-Beet Dietitians podcast. In today's episode, we are joined by Katie Spada. Katie is a registered dietitian and former athlete. She is the owner and founder of Spada Strong Nutrition, LLC, a nutrition coaching business focused on helping athletes, former athletes, and active individuals fuel for training and for life. She holds a Master's degree in Nutrition from Northeastern University with a concentration in sports and fitness. Katie competed as an elite level synchronized swimmer on the national team and collegiate level. Before retiring and pursuing her career as a dietitian. Katie founded Spada Strong Nutrition with a goal of helping individuals learn how to fuel their bodies properly, work through body image struggles, and develop a healthy relationship with food that supports that lifestyle or their lifestyle. Katie believes every person deserves to feel good in their skin, fuel their body well, and enjoy the food they eat guilt free. Enjoy the episode. Enjoy. Hi, Katie. Welcome to the Appetizers Podcast. We're so excited to have you here. Oh, my goodness. Thank you guys so much for asking me on. I am so honored to be here. We are so excited and I cannot wait to get into all things because our audience loves all things sports nutrition. So this is going to be a very exciting episode for them. We always like starting off, though. We're kind of giving our guests the floor to kind of talk about tell us what a day in the life looks like. What do you do for work? Past education, hobbies, whatever kind of you want to share. This is your time to shine. Sure. I love that. So I'll do a day in the life. I work clinically as well as having my private practice, so I work as a peeds pick. You dietitian at one of the local trauma centers. So I do a lot of the critical care trauma nutrition support in my day job, which is a very big contrast to the work I do in my business, which is helping athletes, and specifically former athletes, really heal their relationship with food. So during my day job, I am communicating with doctors and nurses and doing lots and lots of math. So much math. And then when I come home is when I run my practice and I get to have calls with clients and dive into all the things. And then at night is when I spend time with my fiance and we cook dinner. I teach bar classes, so I shouldn't say we. I love taking bar classes and doing workouts and group fitness classes. So that's a rough day in the life. Clinical, private practice, personal time, and then we repeat the next day.
Participant #1:
Yeah. So busy. How long have you been teaching bar for? I've been teaching bar for almost four years now. Yeah, I love it. It's so much fun. I've actually never done a bar class before. I don't have to try that. That sounds like super fun. Well, if you're ever in Vegas, you are always welcome to take one of my classes. That'd be amazing. Oh my gosh. I was going to say when do you sleep? I do try and prioritize sleep. I try and get it's usually six to seven. Seven is really ideal, but I'm fortunate to have a supportive fiance and then family that helps me out with all of the daily life tasks that I feel like I think I've seen. Hannah has another job to it. It's just sometimes it gets to be a lot. So yeah, I'm very fortunate to have a lot of support to make all of this happen. Yes. Emily and I both work along with our own businesses and then we also have the podcast together, so we totally feel that I get it. We could not do it by ourselves, that's for sure. It takes a village. Yeah, it does. Awesome. So let's get into kind of the reason we have you here then. So as everyone knows, when we talk about primarily, hannah and I are struggling with words today. Apparently it's seeping on to me a lot too. I think I started I think it's Friday, but we're going to focus primarily on feeling former kind of athlete nutritionist. But the first question we want to start off with is kind of how do nutrition needs change from athlete life transitioning to quote unquote, for people who can't see the video regularly. I love this question and in true nutrition form, it depends, but I will categorize it into two main categories. And this is generally speaking, what I've seen in my work with former athletes, depending on what sport you're coming from and depending on the nutrition habits you had in your sport, really determines how your nutrition needs change. So I'll use aesthetic sports to start. My sport was artistic swimming. So very aesthetic, there's a huge focus on being lean. And a lot of those athletes are in low energy availability, they're under eating, they're not meeting their nutrition needs. And so oddly enough, they think that when they retire, their needs go down when in reality they weren't ever giving their body enough to start. So oftentimes they do actually need more than they were eating when they were competing. This is where I think there's that paradoxical belief of as soon as I retire, I need to eat less. And it really does depend on how you were fueling your body beforehand. In the reverse, there's the more like endurance bulking type of sport that athletes are oftentimes overeating their needs in order to gain muscle mass or to bulk up, depending on what their sport was demanding of them. When they retire, chances are they don't have as high of needs and they don't have to constantly be overeating. So when I'm working with former athletes, it's really important for me to understand what background are they coming from, what was their nutrition history as an athlete and that'll determine what their needs are and how we kind of approach it moving forward in our work together. That makes so much sense. And I feel like there's so much that goes into it. I'm just like thinking about it boggles my mind. Yeah, I didn't really think about the differences like you had pointed out. Like some actually to eat more, some need to eat less. Because I actually was in the mindset quite like most people who think when someone retires, they should be eating less because they're less active. Now think about the other side of it and how those who probably were underfeeling quite a bit would need more as they are no longer trying to achieve that, like lean aesthetic as much. Yeah. And a lot of the population I work with does have either Hypothalamic Amenaria or had a history of red S or something like that. And so in order to just get back to baseline general health, restore their health, they oftentimes have to eat significantly more than they were eating before. I know I always start a lot of my clients when I say I eat more than I did when I was an athlete. And they're like, what? And I'm like, yes. And it's totally healthy and it's totally important. So it was a learning curve for me too, because I came from the same mindset. I retire, I eat less. Well, that actually goes really well into our next question. So we want to go over very common struggles that you probably see working with former athletes, one of them being overeating or like their feeling of overeating or the fear of overeating. So I guess that one. First of all, how do you help your clients who do have that fear of overeating after retirement? How do you cope with that? Because it probably is not a fun feeling to feel that way. Yeah, and I think the main reason that athletes often feel this way when they retire is because they're not working out so much. And that food is fuel mentality makes it seem like we only need to eat if we're working out. And so something that I often talk to them about is our energy needs. I'll even break down, like what is resting energy expenditure? This is how much your body needs if you were just laying in bed. And often times they're really startled by that. So shifting the mindset away from food as fuel for exercise to food as fuel for all of these things can be really helpful for them to realize you're probably not overeating to the extent or at all based on what your body needs with the reverse. There is oftentimes the athletes who were used to just cleaning their plate completely, and so now they have this fear, this guilt that they're constantly overeating and cleaning their plate. And we talk about giving them permission to leave food on their plate and how that's okay, especially in sports like football or sports that do demand them to reach a certain bulk status. That's kind of what the sport is asking them to do. There's almost this like, learned behavior of I have to finish my plate. And so giving them that permission that you don't always have to finish your plate can be really freeing for the reverse side of the guilt of overeating. Yeah. I love how you brought up both points of mindset work that's of course very important. And then also the science, understanding how our body burns calories, what it needs calories for, what does it need protein for. I think explaining that often helps make so much sense of, like, how our body actually uses things and so then we feel better honoring our hunger and feeling our fullness and all of those different things. So I'm so glad you brought up those points up. That's huge. Yeah. I found with the athlete population and I think with many people, when you explain to them why it's really enlightening and they're like, oh my gosh, okay, so, yes, I can eat a bagel on a day that I'm not working out and it's totally fine. Whereas before, when they don't know why it's okay, it still feels very guilt inducing. So I love meshing the science with the mindset. Yes. I love pulling out like the RMR BMR when someone probably is under healing. I'm like, actually you probably need that many calories if you were doing literally nothing but breathing and having functioning organs. Like, you're not getting enough, my friend. Have a bagel. Yes. Totally agree. Music. I do know how much to add. I love everything you guys had a very common occurrence that happens on here. I'm like, yes, snaps for you. Everything you said. But let's talk about one of the next most common struggles. I feel like this is one that I've seen a lot. It's just also very popular in general is body changes that occur and transition out of sport. Yes. I think the biggest thing here that I try and remind all of my clients and then also just in my community is the body that you lived in when you were an athlete was likely a product of extremes. Right. Like, being an athlete really does require you to go to the extreme with food, with exercise, even with sleep and your schedule. We're not designed to live at extremes forever. And so I always say if you could only maintain that body by going to those extremes, it's probably not the healthiest body for you. There's this huge pressure that if you don't look like you're 18 to 22 year old college athlete self. You let yourself go. And I think that's just such a damage to the community because it puts us at risk for engaging in these unhealthy behaviors in order to obtain that or maintain that. And so talking about that, that really is more of, like, the mindset piece of why it's okay that your body changes, why this doesn't mean that you're letting yourself go, why this could actually be healthy. Especially for my athletes that come from the very lean aesthetic sports. Maybe they do need to gain weight, or the athletes who are used to bulking and overeating. Maybe they were living in a body that was larger than they're comfortable in. I see both sides athletes losing muscle mass, athletes living in larger bodies. And I always like to say, if you're eating well, moving your body regularly in a respectful way and getting enough rest, how your body looks is really you can't control it any more than that. You're doing everything you can. So oftentimes, my body image work is just coming alongside of them, validating that it is really hard because we do live in a thin, focused world, but that it is okay. And your body has permission to change and adapt as your life changes. Yes, I love that. I love how you separate the body from the athlete themselves, like the human soul and all else that entails, because who is on Instagram? That is Anna. I, like, adore her on Instagram. She always says skin suit. I just love that your skin suit in this stage of your life is going to be different than the skin sue in this day of your life. And that's okay. Yes, I love her too. She's fantastic. She's amazing. We got to have her on. She's amazing. Yes, you do. I feel like so many people also needed to hear what you just said where you have the permission. It's okay if your body changes, because sometimes, not even just in the sense of athletes, but also in general, people are, like, so fixated on looking what they look like. In high school, your body there was so much different going on. And then I think of Hannah and I have a little experience when we volunteered at Purdue in their sports nutrition department, and we just hear about their workout schedules. Insane. Insane. You can't keep that up with a full time job or copy of Social Life. Katie's like yes, I know. I'm just like I'm coming through the screen. The only people I feel like that look like that maybe are the ones who do that for their job. Their nine to five is going and working, practicing on the basketball court or lifting later. That is their job. They have very different, not only, like, resources, but also time and kind of what is going on, a very different life plan. That's fine. I think that's such a good point, and that's something that I'll often bring up is, like, value alignment. And admittedly I learned this from my mentor, Leslie Schilling. She's an awesome sports dietitian in the anti diet space as well, and she always says, like, is this value alignment? Are your actions in alignment with how you want your life to look? Because I'll ask my clients, like, what's important to you? And oftentimes they're saying things like, well, I want to date, or I want to have more time for friends, or say yes to happy hours with coworkers or whatever it might be, and going to the gym or tracking their meals or whatever it might be is stopping them from doing that. And so their actions aren't in alignment with the values that they want to have in their life. And so bringing that to light and seeing how we can really create a cohesive and enjoyable life for them is a really important piece. And that might result in body changes. That might result in less strictly following a quote unquote diet, not going to the gym every day. But if it's creating a life that you enjoy more, we got to weigh that out on the value scale. Right. And even though your exercise and your food choices might be different and maybe even less extreme, and you can still be an amazingly healthful individual, like, your health is not going to be worse off just because you are changing those habits. Exactly. I hear a lot of, what about my health? I'm worried about my health. And I love both of your pages, how you just interview the health piece into it because it's not abandoning health. I actually think it's putting more of a focus on your overall health in a much better way. I totally love that point. Yes. And when I always ask, your mental health is health, too, that's actually a pretty big part of it, actually. Yes, it is often neglected, but okay. Emily mentioned a little bit about exercise and kind of how it's, of course, much more extreme oftentimes when you're an athlete. And so I can only imagine that retired athletes have that fear of that change. You kind of are doing less exercise. So how do you help those who are experiencing that guilt or worry deal with that sort of thing? Yes, I think the guilt that the workouts aren't enough, they don't count. Like, it's never enough. I should be doing more, is something that really does drive a lot of stress in the athlete former athlete community. So, again, we'll talk about value, but we'll also talk about what does your body actually need and what actually counts as movement. I like to shift from working out to movement because then that can encompass so much more. Like, I probably won't do a formal workout today, but I was walking back and forth in the hospital multiple times. That is movement that still counts. So it's reframing, redefining what counts as movement, what does your body actually need and benefit from, and realizing you don't have to be completely dripping in sweat with a heart rate of 200 and your muscles shaking to the point where it's benefiting your body. In fact, again, that extreme may not be beneficial for your body. And so this takes a lot of deconstructing what we believe to be adequate from a workout standpoint, and rebuilding and redefining what is adequate for your life now. So there's a lot of breaking down previous mindsets and building new ones when we're tackling this topic. Yeah, I like to bring up too sometimes, depending on what the conversation is with the client, but I'll talk about needs and eat. So like non exercise activity thermogenesis versus like, eat exercise activity thermogenesis. And I don't think that we should just work out to burn calories, but we burn a lot more calories from that needs, the non exercise activity thermogenesis. So like walking around at work or tapping your foot or like getting up to the go to the bathroom or going to walk your dog, those more general, like, daily movements are actually going to do a lot more metabolically. Again, I think it's great to do intense work outlifts and weights, all that too. But talking about the differences, I think very helpful too, for some people to understand that you actually are getting a lot done by doing just like, daily movement. Totally. I love that. And I like the neat and eat. Yes, it all counts. And I think that's probably the biggest mindset shift is I'll have athletes say, like, well, yeah, I walked my dog, but that doesn't count. It's like, no, it does. So I appreciate you bringing up the neat meat because it all counts right there.
Participant #1:
Cool. I'm excited for this next one because I feel like especially from going such an intense lifestyle to games or in competitions and workouts and eating, there's not really I was not a college athlete, so I don't really know much about the rest day life in college sports. But how do you help individuals? What you talk through as a transition from athlete life to regular person life and working around that like guilt or stress around rest days and essentially not working out every single day or like every other day even. So, yes, I think this really ties into what we were just talking about and how even your just daily activities, they benefit and they impact your body in a beneficial way. I love how Hannah said it, like, metabolically. It does. And so I think the other thing too that I'll talk about here is how rest is actually really beneficial. And you were if they were a college athlete or professional, whatever level, you were probably realistically running your body into the ground for ten plus years, like a decade or more. Your body is going to benefit so much from rest, because when we rest, it recovers, it heals, it has time to build and grow. I think that's one of the things that I often hear athletes say is like, well, rest days aren't productive because I'm not doing any work. Resting is very productive, and in fact, you'll probably get more benefit out of the next workout when you rest. So we'll talk about that too, and how resting can actually allow you to improve in the gym. A lot of athletes are still doing CrossFit competitions or triathlons or they're engaging in some form of competitive physical activity, and taking a rest day is going to allow you to show up the next workout even better. So we'll talk about how you need rest in order for your muscles to rebuild, your cells to recover, inflammation to decrease. There's a lot of benefits to rest days that the grinds, never take a day off, never miss a Monday mentality doesn't really allow you to benefit from. But I think it does go back to a lot of the previous conversation we just had about what counts and why it counts and how it benefits you. Athletes are always wanting to be productive, and if they don't feel productive, it becomes that, like, tense, itchy anxiety feeling. So teaching them this is still productive can really help ease a lot of that guilt. So never taking a day off phrase. I know you said that, and I know you said it, of course, against it, but I'm like, grind and gain. All those rising grinds,
Participant #1:
it makes my skin crawl. Now, I used to be in the never take a day off. I think I went like three years without missing a workout. And I'm like, how did my body not completely fall apart on me? Like, thank you, buddy, but you deserve rest. Thank you, buddy. You worked so hard for me. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Well, those were kind of the big struggles that we kind of assumed that you often hear. Are there any others that you wanted to bring up that you hear from clients or whoever else that they feel when they go from athlete life to, quote unquote, regular life? Yeah, I think so many things impact our nutrition outside of just like, what we eat and how we move our body. And I think one of the biggest things is the identity and how that is tied to our body. And when our body changes, it's almost like this physical representation of, like, shedding that athlete identity. So oftentimes they're kind of pining after that body to maintain that identity. And I see this so often. And so one of the first things we do when it has nothing even to do with the food that they're eating, we talk about, like, who are you? Who are you outside of your sport? Like, what makes you an incredible person? And that's one of the most challenging things. But laying that foundation can be really beneficial and actually make healing their relationship with food and exercise and body image almost easier. It's never an easy thing to do, but it allows for them to see, oh, like my food choices don't determine who I am. There's a lot of the well, I was the fit one in the group, right? Like, their identities almost attached to their workouts and their eating. And so shedding that and redefining who they are separate from those things can be a really beneficial exercise or practice in healing their relationship with food and all of that. So I think that's one of the biggest things. And we don't even talk about what they ate today, but we talk about, like, who are you? That is such a good exercise. I didn't even think about that. But that's probably such a big part of their identity for years on end. This like, you dedicate your life to the sport, and then suddenly you probably still do like a recreational form of it in some way or another, but it's not like it was before. So I feel like potentially some identity crises might be happening. Yes. And one of the things I recommend to everyone, but almost all of my clients, too, is to find a therapist as well and do this work in combination with therapist, because there is so much of it. I think once we start talking and they realize their food choices are dictated by so much more than just, is this a carbo fat or a protein? And do I even like this food? There's so much that goes into their food choices that subconsciously they were unaware of. Having that therapy combination is really beneficial, and the therapist can dive deeper into the identity pieces that do step outside of my scope. But I think it's an important piece to talk about because it does go into, why are you choosing this food? Yeah, something I always say, it's rarely about the food when it comes to just in general, really anything when it comes to intuitive eating and food freedom and all of that. It's so much deeper than that. It's more why? Than it is what your food trips actually are. Yes. Oh, my gosh. We need to get that plastered. It's more wide. My next tattoo. I don't have any tattoos. I'm really surprised. You have some explaining to me, but we are a huge therapy advocates here, so I'm glad you said that, because therapy is great. Everyone probably has something they can work on, especially in this realm when so much of your life is changing. It's good to talk that out with someone. Yeah, it is. And I think one of the biggest steps going back to the body image piece is I always try and give my clients a space or tell them, direct them to a therapist, that it's okay to mourn your previous body, your previous life. Sometimes you need that space in order to do that, to be able to move forward. And I think they're often really surprised how much of this is like, sure, I can encourage you to eat more vegetables, have whole grains, but what's really going to benefit your health is when we dive deep and we get all of this other stuff just like, figured out and give you the tools and the resources to handle stressful situations. Because that's when I believe, when we really see like, okay, what is driving our decisions? And so I always say I rarely have to tell people, like, vegetables are healthy for you. No one needs me to tell them that. But coming alongside of you and guiding you on how you make food decisions when life gets tough or stressful or you're going through transition or change, that's what I believe is going to help you be healthy however you define health for your life. Yeah, absolutely. And we tell our clients a couple of times, like, eat this many carbs ish like per serving and try to get more veggies. You tell them that once and they do it and that's great. And it's going to be so much more of that behind the scenes work we have to kind of like, really dive into and figure out if you see someone for a long time, for example, as different life events come up, how to navigate those types of things. Because the food is not really going to change, but life is going to keep changing and adjusting and figuring out how to overcome different obstacles along the way. I say, like, 95% of our job totally agree that's it like you said, we can teach them all of those things, but learning how to actually navigate it when it's tough or it's not. This is why I know you guys agree, like, meal plans are not beneficial because you can't always have the things that that food life doesn't always go as planned. I want you to be skilled enough to know how to feel your body when X, Y, and Z happen. So that way you can feel confident in every food situation, regardless of what food is available and the circumstances around it. So, yeah, it's so much more. Yeah, you can honor your hunger and feel your fullness till the cows come home, but if you're scared of eating a bagel right, then your next trip to New York is just going to not be as exciting. Exactly. Well, clearly you are an advocate for intuitive eating anti diet space and we so, so love an anti diet sports dietitian because I feel like people do think of sports RDS often as macros and calories and working out and all those grind culture things. So our kind of final question for you, it might be kind of a very big question, but how can former athletes who are listening perhaps find that food freedom, that place where they're not. Thinking about food 24/7. They're not wrapped up in the way their body looks. All these things we've kind of already talked about, how can they get to that place? Yes. So I always like to compare this to our sport, right? This is probably something that is brand new to you. You are a beginner again because maybe you did have some one give you a meal planner. Everything you've learned about nutrition up till now might be in question now. So what I like to say is, like, when you're a beginner again, remember how you became elite in your sport time. Practice repetition. Give yourself grace. Because learning how to eat outside of sport is totally new. And I think we almost have this expectation of like, well, I should know how to eat right? I'm in my 20s or my 30s or my 40s or however old you are. Why is food so complicated? Give yourself the space to try new things. Be open to food, providing you feedback. Your body, providing you feedback. Using each eating experience this is one of my favorite phrases, each eating experience as an opportunity to gain more data and learn from it. And I think what helps that is to be curious instead of critical. As an athlete, and this is something I took into life after sport with me too, is constantly criticizing and critiquing everything I do. If we can shift that to being curious, why did I eat 14 Oreos? Why did I end up having three bowls of cereal? Well, why, whatever it is, did I skip lunch? Being curious instead of critical and getting hard on yourself gives you the space and the time to make a change the next time and to learn about why this happened. So I think, again, kind of a vague question, but more of a vague answer. I think really allowing yourself time to become an expert is one of the most beneficial things that former athletes just retiring or learning intuitive eating or how to navigate food freedom later on in life can be so beneficial. So that would kind of be my main advice there. Great answer. Great answer. I feel like the two words that I throw around the most that you mentioned too, I just love to use our curiosity, being curious, not judgmental, and also empowerment. Like, when you make your choices, you are empowered to make whatever choice you want to make without food. And then if you make a choice to make you feel very good, you get to be curious about it and figure out why it didn't make you feel very good anyway. I love that you're using the word curious. I think it's a very important word, and it shifts that mindset from like, oh gosh, I ate 14 Oreos. Why did I do that? I'm so bad. I should burn this off with a jog or whatever first. I'm just being curious. Why did I do that? Am I feeling emotional to not eat enough today and using it as learning opportunities. So I just love that you said that. Yes, I totally agree. Curiosity and empowerment. I love that. Those two words. We always like to kind of end our episode with a little kind of joke on the podcast that if our listeners would only listen to one part of this entire podcast, what would you want to tell them? To sum it all up? I know we talked about a lot. Sum it all up in one to three sentences. Okay, man, you only got the spot. I was going to say, if you couldn't tell from the last episode, I just really like to talk. So let's see. I think it would probably be what we just ended with, like, approach food and exercise and everything with curiosity and develop the skills to be empowered to make food, exercise, clothing, body image choices that make you feel good. I can see the canva infographic already, emily good. Me too. Okay, well, we like to end our episode. We always like, we're going to end it and then we keep going. We always do. A bonus question to wrap it up. So not related at all to the topic of the day. It's kind of a place for us to just have a fun time and talk about food discussions, really just Rd things. So today's bonus question. Katie, let our guest go first. The question is, what is the best type or flavor of cookie? And by that I mean things like chocolate chip or, like, white macadamia nut. Oreos are your favorite kind of whatever spin on that you see fit. But what is the best type of flavor of cookie? Oh, my goodness. So what's coming up for me right now is Snickerdoodle. And I know I just think it's like a sugar cookie, but then you get that cinnamon, the rich nuttiness of whatever snickerdoodle flavor is so good. I'm a huge Snickerdoodle fan, so that's what I'm going with. Are you a fan of, like, a more chewy, undercooked cookie or like, a crunchy, more firm one? It really depends on the type. Like, I like crunchy, more firm peanut butter cookies, actually. Interesting. And I think if I were to do, like, a white macadamia, I'd prefer that to be more crunchy. But my chocolate chip, my oatmeal raisin, my Snicker noodle, they got to be like, more gooey. I have to agree. That's how I like them, as soft and gooey. Like, not really sure if it's cooked enough. It might give you a stomachache from the eggs, but it's okay, right? Worse or risk it's fine. Backyard. Right? Hannah I know. I always try to get out of it and go laugh like everyone else says. Empowered decision. Yeah. Okay. I get curious about your guys'ideas. Okay. I'm going to have to go with, like, this is not a typical cookie, but like an oatmeal chocolate chip, not oatmeal raisin. I like raisins. They're fine, but I'd rather have an oatmeal chocolate chip. I just love the texture of the oatmeal. It's like I don't know, it roughens it up a little bit in a good way again, like, soft and undercooked and things like that. But the chocolate and the oatmeal together, just chef's kiss. So good. Yeah. I feel like it's a rare cookie. To find it's normally, you got to make it yourself. Really? You can't usually find them, like, in a bakery. Yeah. More substance with the oatmeal. I think that's why I like it. It's just like there's more texture to it. Yes. Texture. Yeah. Hi, Emily. You're up. I actually have the same answer as Katie. Well, I didn't know that about you. Yeah, I was thinking hard about it, and I was like, my go to answer is going to be, like, something with sprinkles on it, because that's very brand for me. But I was thinking about it. I'm like, a Snickerdoodle cookie is never bad. They're so good. I didn't even think of that until Katie said it's the cinnamon. And it's still good because it's not too crazy, but it's like I prefer my snicker noodles softer, but it's so good. It's so good. I don't know what it is. I'm thinking of the flavors now that you mention. I'm like cinnamon. What else? It's got to be something else.
Participant #1:
Well, that's why I did not want to go before you hand it, because I knew you'd feel a little bit pressured. That's okay. We all know that anyone listening knows that I can't make a decision to save my life. So I'm proud that I have one firm answer today. Usually I'm like, oh, it's a piece of my life. I don't like saying one answer because then I feel boxed in because I would gladly eat a Snickerdoodle, and I know you guys would gladly have a chocolate chip cookie too. Absolutely. I'm surprised this ended at least, like, a double agreement, because there are so many types that we could have. Like, I'll show them. That's what I mean. Normally, it's a three way tie of random things. Yeah. I think I'm also just blanking on different types of cookies. I know. Macadamia chocolate chip oatmeal raisin, like, MN Monster cookie, peanut butter, like Katie. And now I'm thinking, like, Insomnia, like dark chocolate mint. Yes. I like Christmas cookies, like molasses and, like, the ice. I didn't even think about those. Yeah, sugar. Just sugar cookies. Yeah. Right. And there's, like, Oreos chips. Ahoy. I feel like that's almost like its own thing, though. That's not like, what I was thinking with the question, but I think it could be a fine answer if one of you guys are cooking. Shut you down. You're out here. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, Katie, if the listeners want to hear more from you or work from you or see you, wherever it is, this is kind of your time to promote whatever you want, like social media, websites, whatever it is. Sure. Where did they find you? So I'm definitely most active on my Instagram at fueling former athletes. It's the same on TikTok, but I have not really broken into the TikTok game yet. That's been interesting, but same handle on both Instagram and TikTok. My website was just rebranded and relaunched, so it's brand new spadastrongnutrition.com. So it's my last name, it's my business name, spadastrongnutrition.com. All the information on how to work with me is there right now. I'm really enrolling my course the fueled former athlete academy. It's a self paced course that has live coaching calls for former athletes, so you really can transition your nutrition and life after sport and just find that confidence and empowerment with food again. So, yeah, I think that's basically where to find me. Come say hi to my little corner of social media. I'd love to chat. Amazing. We will share all those links in the description so you guys can find them. That's really a wrap. Katie, thank you again so much for joining us today. We always love having a sports Rdon, especially one who isn't like the anti diet space because like I said, oftentimes when you think of sports, you don't think of food, freedom, intuitive eating and all of that. I think it's a very important niche to have and to put out into the world. So this will be a good episode. So thank you again so much for coming on today. Thank you guys so much for having me. This was an awesome conversation. Amazing, of course. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone for listening to this episode. We hope you go you better go check out Al Katie stuff. Like, we don't hope you better do that, we'll find out if you don't. Yeah, we will somehow track that information shipping to that. Yeah, we will see you all next week. Otherwise, have a wonderful rest of your day and thanks for listening. Thanks guys. Have a good one. Bye bye.