Episode 19: Pre/Post Workout Nutrition with Kristina Parrish, MS, RD, CSSD
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Episode Transcription
Emily:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast.
Hannah:
Hi, guys. Welcome back. Today, we have a very special guest with us. We have Kristina Perish all the way from the Carolinas. So we know Kristina from Purdue. She was a few years ahead of us in Dietetics, and Kristina is a very wonderful sports dietitian. She's going to be going through with us kind of the correlation between nutrition and exercise and how they kind of go together. So start us off, Kristina, why don't you take us through kind of a day in the life, what you do for work, talk about your education and all that good stuff.
Kristina:
Sure. So kind of like Hannah said, I went to Purdue for my undergrad, where I got my dietetics degree. And then while I was there, I volunteered with the sports nutrition Department, which is kind of where I found my niche. I really enjoyed it, had a lot of fun with it. Then I also worked in athletic dining room with Hannah and Emily as well, and just kind of further my interest in sports nutrition and everything like that. So I kind of knew that's what I wanted to pursue after I finished my internship. But you need a lot of experience to get into it. So after I finished my internship, I applied to a bunch of fellowships, internships things like that where they were paid positions. But you weren't really paid very much, and they weren't full time positions either. So no benefits or anything like that. But you get really good experience. So I started off at the University of Virginia, where I had a year long internship there and continued to learn and grow as a dietitian. And then it was kind of weird because that ended in December, and most colleges aren't really hiring around that time. So I found myself in another internship. This time I was at Rutgers in New Jersey. But the cool thing about that job is the director of sports nutrition. There was on maternity leave, so I kind of got to fill in her role and kind of take over a director position without fully being a director, which kind of propelled me into the position I am now, which is the director of sports nutrition at East Carolina University. So awesome. Sports nutrition. It's a crazy field. I know you and Emily have had more experience in that than I have for sure. I just had my time at Purdue when I did like the volunteer stuff, but you always just hear about all the different experience you have to get to finally land like your dream roll one day. Hopefully everyone ends up getting there. But it takes a lot of work. Yes, a lot of work, a lot of time, but you usually get free food, so it's kind of worth it pays off. Well, tell us kind of about a whole day in their life. So I know it's probably dependent on the season, but take us through kind of what you do day to day as a sports Rd. Yeah. So kind of like you said, depending on the season will depend on how early I have to be in. But usually it's around six or seven in the morning. And at East Carolina, typically, football is lifting in the morning, so we will do that. I'll help with post workout stuff. We'll do, like breakfast sometimes things like that that will basically take up my morning until, like, ten. Then I might do some restocking. And I guess I didn't mention. So East Carolina didn't have a sports dietitian before they hired me. So I'm the first one, and I don't have any assistance or anything yet. So I kind of rely on myself and then some of the strength coaches help out a lot. And then I have undergraduate volunteers as well. It's definitely not as structured as it was when we were at Purdue, but I'm kind of working on getting it there. So if I don't have a student, I kind of do the restocking and all that fun stuff, then I might meet with some athletes. Do, like one on one consult, things like that. I might do some buy comp stuff depending on the time of year again. Who's in season, who's not my go to Sam's Club. I might have other meetings with administration or athletic training or coaches. Then I usually go up to lunch. So we kind of have a much smaller athletic dining room than we did at Purdue, but it's similar to, like when we were there, where it's just football and men's and women's basketball. And then we just added baseball this summer as well. So I'll go up there, make sure everything's ready to go help the athletes make good choices. Things like that between lunch and dinner, it will kind of be the same as the morning. I'll just do some stocking. I might have meetings I might do consult, and then we'll do dinner again at the training table. And so I'll typically get off, like 637 unless it's football season and practice will usually get over around six or seven. So then I'll have dinner after that. Then I go home and go to sleep and repeat the next day. My gosh. Yes, a very busy day. Kind of like I feel like every day there's always something going on. It goes by fast, though, when you're busy, like you're never sitting around staring at the clock. So that's kind of one of the things I enjoy. Definitely very nice. I feel like especially those office jobs I just think of that. Yeah. People call my office phone and I'm barely ever in there, and they're like, you didn't answer your phone, and I'm like, call my cell phone.
Emily:
Cool. So when you aren't working for average, 12 hours a day, what do you like to do for fun in your free time?
Kristina:
Really typical dietitian. I really enjoy cooking. So I like looking up new recipes. I usually just go on Pinterest and we'll look something up, but maybe not so typical. I really enjoy baking. So that's what I usually do on the weekends. If it's not football season, we have games, but I'll try to Bake something and then I usually bring it into work, so I don't need it all unless it's really good, then I might keep it for myself. But also just because I'm in that kind of environment, I enjoy working out. I've always been a runner, so I enjoy doing that as well. And then maybe some reading. I always have, like, a book to read during the season just because we travel so much. So it's kind of good to have a book on hand. I'm not one to sleep on a plane, so I keep myself busy for those long trips.
Hannah:
Very cool. So I guess we kind of discussed a bit of it with your day to day and what those responsibilities might look like. But what exactly for people took, I guess, give them, like, a more general understanding of what a sports dietitian is because I feel like a lot of people know about the clinical setting and they know food service, but they might not be as familiar with sports. And basically what your take is on what a sports dietitian is and then also how to become a Sports dietitian.
Kristina:
Obviously, you do all the stuff you do to become a dietician. But I feel like the main difference is your focus is more on performance and that might entail body composition and losing or gaining weight, things like that. But I feel like the main focus is always going to be performance because you're always trying to enhance the athlete's performance, whether it's getting them to run faster, jump higher, jump further. Whatever the case might be, that's always what your nutrition kind of revolves around. Now, subcategories of that might be they need to lose fat or gain muscle or whatever, and you kind of help them with that. But while keeping in mind that their performance is ultimately the biggest factor of their lives right now. So to become a sports dietitian first need a lot of experience, whether it's working in the collegiate setting or the professional setting or even your recreational athletes. A lot of dietitians work with marathon runners or triathletes bodybuilders cross fit people things like that. So I would include all of that as being a sports dietitian. But I feel like you always have to work kind of under someone who has that experience, because a lot of it is the hands on learning and kind of depending on what setting you want to go into, whether it's collegiate or professional or whatever the case might be learning. The nitty grittiness of that is often almost always hands on versus reading. But there is the reading aspect as well, because most sports dietitians end up wanting to get their CSSD, so they're certified specialist in sports Dietetics certification. So you have to be a dietitian for at least two years first, and then you have to sit for an exam and you also have to log, I think, 2000 hours. I think it might be 1500 now, but it was 2000 when I took it, but I think they decrease it a little bit because they count your Masters as some of that some of the hours now as well, which is super cool considering you have to have your Masters. I think pretty soon 2024th. Yeah. So you have to have your Masters anyway, so that's super helpful that some of your master's hours can count towards that. But after that, I really think the most important part of that experience. So it's definitely not a field you can just jump into and do, especially since in your internship, I feel like it's mostly clinical based, maybe food service kind of depending on what internship you do. But I know in mind I didn't really get too much sports nutrition experience. Do you feel like what we did, like an undergrad and even volunteering with Purdue? Do you feel like that prepared you at all for your first sports Rd job? Or do you feel like you have a lot of learning to do that? First time when I was first applying the job, I felt like I was ready. And then when I actually got into it, I realized everything I didn't know. So it's kind of like you don't know what you don't know. So I thought I was. And then when I started at UVA, I was like I never thought about having a budget and making sure that you don't go over your budget or little things like that that you might not think about that's not going to be on the RG exam or that we didn't know when we were volunteering, but we just went and got the muscle milk and put them in the fridge. Right. Check the expiration date and that's it. So I feel like it definitely gave you a starting point. And I think volunteering well, at least for me, I know volunteering helped me decide that that was the path I wanted to take, but I think it minimally prepared me, but I didn't know it at the time. Yeah, because like what you said most Rd positions, like clinical or food service, we focus so much on that during school and barely anything on sports that it makes sense that after graduation, when you learn the most so that's probably stressful, but also really fun to just get to learn all that all at once. Like with your hands getting your hands dirty right away.
Hannah:
Yes. Exactly. All right. Cool. Well, let's get into talking more about the specifics kind of like what you would tell. Maybe like, your athletes tell us about the importance of pre workout nutrition and kind of give us some examples of, like, good pre workout snacks as well, if you will.
Kristina:
Sure. So my favorite analogy. And I really don't even know where I learned it, but I still use it to this day. And I've used it probably since I started working with athletes. But I always think of pre workout nutrition equivalent to gas that you put in your car. So you never take a road trip or you never really go anywhere on an empty gas tank. And that's kind of how you have to treat your body. So if you're about to expand all this energy and break down all this muscle, you want to have a full gas tank or you're just not going to get as much out of your workout as you can, which in turn kind of defeats the purpose of working out anyway, because at least when I work out, I want to get everything I can out of it. I don't want to waste my time and energy and then not see results. So that's kind of how I explain it to my athletes. And then when you're thinking of pre workout fuel, you think mostly carbohydrates. So the closer you get to working out, the simpler the carbs you want them to be. So if it's 1520 minutes before you work out, you want to have, like, a really quick source that usually tell athletes to just drink some juice or Gatorade or some type of liquid because it just tends to sit better on their stomachs. You've got more time, maybe a bagel or a piece of white bread, maybe goldfish fruit snacks, more of the solid foods, but still simple carbs. And then if you've got two plus hours, you can have a regular, well rounded meal. I know there are so many different types of, like exercise and everything, and I'm sure people are wondering if they should change their pre workout nutrition based off the type of activity. Whether that's more of, like, a cardio heavy workout, weight lifting, really, anything in between. Whatnot? Yeah. I feel like generally, if you're doing more of the cardio type exercises, that's when you're worried about feeling heavy or having that kind of full feeling in your stomach. You don't really want that sloshing around. So that's when I would go for a smaller but, like, quick carb and would stay away from the proteins and the fats. So if I'm having a bagel, I'm not slathering it with peanut butter cream cheese. If I'm doing pretzels and hummus, I'd probably just skip out on the hummus. If I was doing a more intense or, like, higher heart rate cardio type stuff. Now everyone's a little different. So if you can tolerate it, that's cool. But if not, then I would kind of stay away from those types of things, like the proteins and the fats. If you're doing more of a weightlifting session where maybe your heart rate is not getting as high, you're not jumping, running things like that. I think you can generally tolerate something a little heavier so you can add the peanut butter to your bagel, or you could dip your pretzels and hummus. You can have some nuts on the side. I don't think those types of foods generally weigh down when you're lifting weights.
Emily:
I realized you kind of went into the next question a little bit, but I know I got a request for this podcast because only people want to hear from a sports dimension about this because a lot of people do have or they have expressed me that they have very sensitive stomachs and they don't like eating a lot before workout. So just I guess to kind of reiterate that part of what you just said. If you'd like to go over any recommendations you have for them and examples of what they can eat even though you already provided.
Kristina:
All right. Usually if you have a more sensitive stomach, I would either give yourself more time to digest before working out. So it's a lot easier if you're working out in the afternoon. So if you're someone who's getting up at 06:00 a.m. To work out, that might not be as feasible. And then for people like that that are doing those early morning workouts, or if you're going straight from work to the gym, that's when I would focus on those liquid calories. Maybe you're drinking some Gatorade, and maybe you're drinking some Apple juice, Orange juice, something like that or having a light smoothie and then also know that you can train your stomach as well. So if you've got your whole life working out on an empty stomach, your body is just used to doing that. So you start slow. You're not drinking a whole 32 ounce Gatorade, like maybe you're drinking a cup of Gatorade, and then you slowly increase that and see how you feel and you wait till you tolerate it until you go to the solid food. So you can kind of train yourself just like your training during your workouts. To tolerate more, you can lift more, but not initially. So it's kind of the same way so you can eat more, but maybe not initially. So you kind of have to treat your training and your nutrition as a whole. So you're training your stomach and you're training your muscles.
Hannah:
I love that. Yeah, that's a good analogy. That was awesome. That was really good. Just a lot of good general tips for pre workout nutrition. So let's jump into post workout now. So kind of the same question. What is the importance of nutrition after your workout?
Kristina:
So just like pre workout, post workout, you want to replenish everything that you did during your workout. So you burned all those calories, you're breaking down muscle. It doesn't really make sense again to put in all that work and not get all the results you could. So if you're skipping out on your post workout because you're trying to lose weight still really doesn't make sense because you're not going to build muscle, which is generally what people want, especially if you're trying to stay fit or whatever that the case might be. And then especially the case for athletes. Obviously, you want them to recover, so they're ready for the next session or they might have practice later, or they might have competition the next day. So if you skip out on that post workout, you end up being more sore sore for longer. You're at risk for injury, just a lot of bad things that tend to snowball over time as well. Yeah, I know. I just feel like starving after workouts. I can't imagine, like not wanting to eat right after. Right. Well, also, just like the pre workout does the foods that you choose after your workout depend on whether it's like cardio weight lifting, anything between, like Emily said, does that kind of matter as well? Yeah. So usually also, I guess how long you're working out for as well, because the longer you're working out, the more calories you're burning, the more glycogen and your muscles you're breaking down. So the longer the workout, the more carbs you might need. And then also, if you're doing more cardio type exercises, that means you're burning more of the glycogen store. So you want to include more carbs in your post workout. If you're doing more of a weightlifting type workout, you typically don't need as many carbs afterwards, but in both cases, you want to hit that protein. So you want to make sure you're having some kind of source of protein after whether it's your typical protein shake or you can have a normal meal, too. I feel like usually if you work out in the morning, then you eat breakfast or if you work out in the evenings, you probably eat dinner. The people that work out during their lunch break might be the ones that have more trouble getting a meal in, so they might opt for maybe something quicker, like a yogurt parfait or chocolate milk or something like that. And I know a lot of people have talked about how with protein shakes, I see it all the time where they have them ready at the gym. And I feel like so many people have talked about how they need to take it right away or else it's not going to optimize their muscle building. And I love to hear from you. You're too fence on that in terms of getting some type of post workout nutrition in after workout and how much the timing matters.
I feel like there's so many tips out there, like, some people say 30 minutes. Some people say an hour. I feel like as long as you're getting something in within an hour, you're going to be fine. And that's not to say that if you don't get it in an hour that your workout was a waste, your workout and your blood flow increases. So it is the quicker as long as you're eating. While that blood flow is still there, it tends to help you recover and get to your muscles quicker. But it's not going to just not be good for you if it's past an hour past half an hour, I think you get it in when it's convenient for you. Now, if you work out at night and then just go to bed, then you're going to have some problems or if you work out in the morning and then get coffee on your way to work and just go to work without eating, and then you don't eat till lunch, then. Yeah, you're not going to recover as well. So I think there's a happy medium in there. But people have taken that guideline a little too seriously. Yeah. I feel like it's like people either hit like one or the other, or I have to get all my nutrition right away. Or people are like, not at all. Yeah. And I think it's the convenience, too. Like it's convenient to drink a protein shake after because you don't have to Cook it. You don't have to blend it. It's like in a bottle and ready to go. But it just kind of depends on your lifestyle. And if you have that time or if you don't. Yeah. I love a good protein shake, but I think it's silly to be literally walking out of the gym drinking it because you feel like you have to get that protein synthesis going ASAP. Thankfully, we have more leeway than that.
Hannah
Yes, for sure. Dietitians get it
Kristina:
Yes. Just wish everyone else listened to us a little more. That's a whole other topic.
Emily:
It is. So I guess just to, like, wrap up everything we've kind of discussed in this episode. Now, what is kind of your final verdict statement? What you want the people to know to basically take away from this episode? It can be about preamp post workout nutrition, whatever you'd like to give your two cent on.
Kristina:
Sure. So this is something I say to pretty much all my athletes, especially when I first meet incoming freshmen. And we do, like a general nutrition talk. One of my nutrition rules, if you will, is to always book and your workouts. So by that, I mean, you're always eating something before workout and you're always eating something after workout, and you never, ever, ever miss those two eating times or snacks or whatever it might be just because that's how important it is, and especially for athletes, because they don't get a lot of off days. They don't have a lot of time to recover. So every little thing that they can do is only going to help them. And then every little thing that they don't do is only going to hurt them even more. So that's kind of my golden rule that I'm like if you don't remember anything else I ever teach you in your four years here, it's at least to eat before and after a workout.
You heard it here, folks, make sure you are eating something before and after because I think I know most people I know I think don't actually do that now they know one or the other. And usually after. I feel like people are always trying to exercise fasted for some reason.
Emily:
Yes, to our fun section of where we get to debate. I'm really excited for this one because I don't think any of us are going to agree, so that always makes it more fun, and we always let our guests go first. So what is the proper way to eat an Oreo?
Kristina:
I don't know if this is weird or not, but I really, really like frosting, so I always separate it. And then I eat the part, the end of the cookie without the frosting, because that's my least favorite part. And then I decide with the frosting, because then you have a lot more frosting and a lot less cookie. But that's how I think the proper way to eat an Oreo is.
Emily:
Hannah, how do you eat one?
Hannah:
Yes, I'm not the weird one. I am the exact same way. I love the frosting a lot more than the cookie itself. I will say I like to try all the different crazy flavors, and so what I do if I get a new one is I usually do two at a time and I'll take a just full on bite of it, whole of the first one, and then if I keep eating them, that's when I separate them. But if I try a new Oreo, I like to get the full experience of, like, the full cookie itself. But if I know it tastes like already, that's when I have to separate it and take it apart like that.
Kristina:
I look at your Instagram and I see all the different flavors. I've been trying them, too, not as frequently. And I feel like the grocery stores around here don't have as many fun flavors, but I just tried the carrot cake one. I think that's my favorite one right now. Those are so good. I love them. I feel like there's been a lack of new flavors.
Hannah:
I have two new ones coming out right now, like right now they're in stores. I don't know why Oreo is not sponsoring me honestly, but the one that is out right now in stores. I should have looked for it today. Darn it. I was a Kroger this morning. It is a salted brownie one. So that's the newest. And then in this fall, they're going to have, like, a Apple cider donut one. Oh, that sounds so good. That does sound good. So the brownie one is out now. So when I get it, you guys will know.
Emily:
Be sure to check out Hannah's Instagram for the review.
Hannah:
Okay, Emily, let us know how you eat an Oreo.
Emily:
So I also have two ways, but it's based off of my laziness. If I don't feel like making a mess or I'm just, like, more hungry, I'll eat it altogether. But I really like separating them. But then I feel like I don't know if this is normal where I like eating the frosting by itself. And then I put it back together and eat it as like, oh, no. I like frosting so much. We would not enjoy it that way. That's too much cookie. Too much cookie. Yeah, that's way too much cookie. If I eat the frosting off of it, I just throw the cookie away. I would literally get a tub of just frosting, like, just that.
Hannah:
I would too. Maybe Oreo should sell their two components separately.
Kristina:
Right? I would totally buy that.
Emily:
Hang on. I was going to ask you eat yours? No, you do, because you didn't like how I ate it. You eat the frosting with the cookie when you separate it.
Hannah:
Yeah. Occasionally I'll have just the frosting itself. I'll just Peel that part off and just eat that and just discard the cookie. I guess I have, like, three ways of eating it. Then it just really depends.
Emily:
Look at us. There's so many fun ways.
Hannah:
Do you guys use milk? Do you guys dip them in milk or is that, like, a no go?
Kristina:
I haven't in a really long time. I don't do it with any of the new flavors because I feel like the new flavors have enough going on. But like, the original. I used to when I was in high school and younger still, but not since then. But I never buy the regular Oreos anymore.
Hannah
I don't either. There's so many new ones. I don't know why you would normally. Do you ever use milk? Not real milk for you, probably.
Emily:
No, no milk or anything. Okay. No, I don't think that would fit my eating method.
Hannah:
That's true. Might moisten them a little bit, I guess. The cookie is so dry. I know it's why I don't like it, I think.
Kristina:
Yeah, me too. I don't know. I can't imagine, like, dipping the carrot cake one in milk or like, the birthday cake one. No, I feel like it would make it work. Yeah, the brownie one, though, that you talked about might be good in milk. That's true.
Hannah:
Yeah, that's true. I'll do it with milk video on Instagram.
Kristina:
That's the post workout. You'd get your carbs from the Oreo, your protein from the milk. There we go. Or you could just eat the Oreo before workout. I might not go for a run, but I could lift some weights after eating some Oreos.
Hannah:
We kind of like to end our guest sessions by asking you where you would like listeners to find you at or any really resources you'd like to share with them.
Kristina:
Yeah. So I have an Instagram, but it's pretty much just a personal account. I don't really like post things that are going on at ECU and maybe like personal recipes and things like that. But you'll find a lot of baking stuff on there, but that's just Parish P-A-R-R-I-S-H. My Twitter is a lot more. It's all nutrition, a lot of, like, ECU stuff as well, obviously, but that's Parrish: P-A-R-R-I-S-H.
Emily:
And we'll be sure to like that, too, in case you did not get that just now.
Hannah:
Well, Christina, thank you so much for coming on here. We are so excited to see you again since I don't know. The last time we've all talked, it's definitely been years.
Kristina:
Yeah. I feel like I either respond to you guys' Instagram stories a lot, or I think I've texted you guys a couple of times as well, but it's literally been since our Purdue days, which is so long ago for me. Not you guys. Not yet. But I do miss it. I miss being at Purdue. I do, too. Think about it all the time. I know. Sometimes I'll see posts from them and everything is under construction. Everything's gone. Then that makes me feel old, too. I know. I feel like if we ever go revisit, it's going to be like a totally new campus. Yeah. I won't recognize anything. We're getting old. Yeah. It's sad. So sad. Well, yeah. Christina, we really appreciate having you on such a good episode for our listeners. Yeah. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Of course. Thanks for having me. It's great talking to you guys and catching up already.
Emily:
Thank you so much for tuning into another episode, and we hope you tune in again next week.
