Under-Fueled Athletes? Simple Nutrition Fixes Every Coach Should Know

Under-fueled athletes drag in games. Fix it fast with simple athlete nutrition tips that help your athletes with peak performance! Want more coaching tips?Head to https://coachfreetraining.com

Tired legs, moody practices, nagging injuries…sometimes it’s not “just being a teen.” ⚠️ In this coach-to-coach breakdown, we show high school and middle school coaches how to spot under-fueled athletes and apply simple, realistic athlete nutrition tips that boost energy, consistency, and peak performance without calorie counting or complicated meal prep. Then we connect fueling to the mental game, so your team plays with confidence under pressure. 💥

I’m Coach Bre, a mental performance coach for girl athletes, Co-Founder of The Elite Competitor, and a long-time head volleyball coach & 4× state champion.

Today’s guest: Lindsay Cortez, MS, RD, CSSD is a registered sports dietitian specializing in nutrition for girl athletes and host of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast. She’s part of our Dream Team expert staff and breaks down what coaches need to know about RED-S, puberty, periods, breakfast refusals, and practical pre-/post-practice fueling that fits real schedules. 🍎🥯

What you’ll learn 👇
 • Red flags of under-fueling (and why they look like “attitude” or “laziness”)
 • Coach-friendly fixes: easy carb + protein combos athletes will actually eat
 • How often to fuel (simple schedule for teen athletes in season)
 • Pre-practice snack cart ideas your parents can stock at Costco
 • Why better fueling = fewer injuries + stronger mental game and focus
 • How to talk to athletes who “aren’t hungry” at breakfast (and build the habit)
 • Female-specific must-knows: periods, bone health, and long-term development

🕓 Key Moments
00:00 Introduction to Athlete Nutrition
01:34 Meet Lindsay Cortez: Sports Dietician
03:54 Understanding Female Athlete Nutrition
05:59 Common Nutritional Challenges
11:49 Practical Tips for Coaches and Parents
19:16 Understanding the Importance of Nutrition for Female Athletes
19:35 Meal and Snack Guidelines for Young Athletes
20:51 Pre and Post-Practice Nutrition Strategies
28:16 Addressing Common Nutrition Challenges
31:30 Introducing the Dream Team Program

Coaches — comment below: what’s one fueling red flag you’ve noticed in your athletes lately? 💬

📌 Build your team’s mental game confidently:
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🔹 Follow and hear more from Lindsay on the Female Athlete Nutrition Podcast: https://www.femaleathletenutritionpodcast.com/

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Head to coachfreetraining.com to grab our free training for coaches to quickly level-up your team's mental game!

Transcript

1:04

Coaches, if your athletes hit a wall halfway through practice, it might not be due to lack of effort. It might be due to lack of fueling. And if you're like, I have so much on my plate, I don't have time to dive into their nutrition on top of all that, first of all, I hear you. Second, it could be a simple fix that could make a really big difference in their performance, and that's exactly why I brought on Lindsay Cortez, who is a sports dietician who works specifically with female athletes. To break this all down for us as coaches, she's going over the basics of nutrition, what every athlete needs to know, and how you as a coach can help your athletes with this. I know as a coach myself. I've been able to chat with my athletes just on basic things, on how much they should be eating, how often the timing of things, some snack ideas, all of which Lindsay will talk about in this episode. And it's actually made a big difference because a lot of times athletes aren't listening so much to what their parents are saying in this category, but when you say it as a coach, it holds more weight and they start to make changes in some of their nutritional habits. So. You are going to gain a lot of this information, kind of how to spot the red flags if your athletes are not fueling themselves correctly, what you can be doing, what education you can be providing as a coach. And just simple things that I've actually done with my athletes, like implementing a snack station before practice and how to know if they should be eating more. Um, all of those things we're gonna go into it. In this episode, so I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed sitting down with Lindsay, and I'll see you in the next episode. All right. Welcome back to the podcast, Lindsay. Thanks. It's been a long time. I'm happy to be here. Yes, I'm so excited. Lindsay has been. In and out of our world for, for the past several years and yeah, probably five years. Yeah. Um, and so we're really excited to have you back and plugged in, working with our dream team athletes on nutrition and all the things fueling, and also today on the podcast that we can educate moms and coaches, um, anyone that's working with girl athletes mm-hmm. On just some of the basics of fueling so. For those, uh, in our community who aren't familiar with you, will you please give us just a little intro to who you are and what you do? Of course. I'm Lindsay Cortez. Um, I'm here because I'm a registered dietician and a sports dietician. Um, but you know, background on me. So I've kind of been a lifelong athlete. I was a division one track and field athlete, and I got my degree in nutrition, so I always liked how. Nutrition beyond just like health and medical, like how it related to fitness and performance. Um, that was always a passion of mine, which is why I decided to get further into sports Nutrition because I was an athlete myself. Um. I worked at three different major universities as a sports dietician, Florida State, university of Georgia, and University of Texas, San Antonio, as well as a performance dietician for military special operations. And um, yeah, when I got married I started my own business online consulting and I also really felt that was important for my life because I'm now a mom. As well, um, of two young children. So not the age that most of the parents listening to this podcast are, but it's been an amazing process being, um, becoming a mom. And I love using nutrition to help fuel and nourish my own children as well. So I think that's just so important of nutrition, not just for your own performance, but even providing for the family. Um, I still consider myself an athlete. Nowhere near as competitive as I used to be, but I like to practice what I preach and so I do that in my own life as well with fueling my body for performance. In my own private practice, I specialized in fueling female athletes. Although I've worked with, you know, a variety of sports and a variety of genders, uh, I think there's so many unique needs for female athletes regarding nutrition from the physiology, you know, changes that our body goes through. Through puberty for one, which is huge for the age category we're talking today. But all throughout life, you know, again, pregnancy, menopause, um, there's a lot of things that women experience, physiological differences that affect their nutrition that are different than men. And then of course there's those social, um, experiences that are different between male and female generally. And, uh, we see that show through food as well that, you know, maybe. Like, and I say this in the context of eating disorders, for example, can happen to any gender, any sex, but we do see that teen girls struggle with eating disorders a lot more than boys do. And why is that? It's societal pressures or expectations on appearance, body image, or even just a girl's. Interest in health and the way that her brain thinks about food and body is different. Our thoughts, our behaviors around food. And so for all those reasons, I love focusing on female athlete nutrition. Yeah. That's my specialty and my experience. I love that. Yeah. And I'm excited to dive a little bit into that as well because, um, yeah, I'm also, obviously we're passionate about supporting girl athletes in their sport as well from just a different angle. But, um, yeah, there's a lot of, there's, there's so many differences in just having like a one size fits all for everybody is maybe not the best approach. So yeah, we'll get into that. Um, but I am curious kind of what you see. Across the board when it comes to fueling teen and tween girl athletes, where you're seeing some of these nutrient deficiencies or red flags. Um, yeah, let's start there. Anything that like coaches and parents need to be aware of? Okay. This is where it just, it's crazy. The difference from one athlete and one girl to the next because you're gonna have, you know, a teen or tween girl athlete that has no. Knowledge about nutrition because we don't do a good job of teaching it in our school systems. Mm-hmm. Um, so minimal knowledge and in the society we live in today, you know, we can easily grab food anywhere, everywhere there's process, there's packaged things, there's, Hey, I wanna hang out with my friends and go, you know, grab this. High calorie, high sugar smoothie thing or go get a milkshake, or we're having pizza night, uh, we're getting fried food, fast food maybe because people are busy, parents are busy. Two, working parents is a common thing these days. Maybe you've got a 15-year-old who dinner's on their own tonight and if they're not knowledgeable, um, and they haven't ever really learned how to nourish their body. We have a lot of teen and tween athletes that really aren't putting good nutrients in their body. They're not getting whole complete meals. They're not getting enough fiber, they're not getting enough fruits and veggies, they're not getting enough protein. Um, they maybe are overdoing it on the fried foods and the sugary foods because that is very abundant in our world today. Um, so we have that going on in these young teen tween athletes. Yeah, and then you have the exact opposite. Which is athletes generally and parents of athletes are mindful of the body and naturally health conscious and thinking, oh, you gotta put good food in your body. And we start at a young age, um, making these associations between this is a good food, this is a bad food. We start fearing. Fat. We start thinking, I should only eat more fruits and veggies. And again, we hit puberty. Maybe our body changes, maybe that feels uncomfortable. And we're thinking, I don't like these changes. I need to adjust my diet, be more strict. I need to eat less, I need to eat cleaner. And we can very easily with these people who are, and girls and, and even their parents who are innocently trying to be healthy. Mm-hmm. Actually. Under fuel. And what happens when you're under fueling is, you know, for any athlete, if you under fuel, then you can underperform because you're not giving your body enough energy to perform. You're not giving your body enough nutrients to recover and get stronger. But even more importantly is this age category. If you're under fueling, then you're also under developing. You know, when we're thinking about a 12, 13, 14-year-old girl that's supposed to be developing, you need enough nutrients to go through puberty. You need enough nutrients to build your bones. This is a huge issue with our teen athletes, is bone development. That's, mm-hmm. By age 18, female athletes should have about 90% of their bone mineral content, uh, formed. Wow. And if you're under fueling during that time. Not getting there. This is where bone injuries can really drastically increase during teenage years or early twenties in competitive athletes because you need those nutrients to, to de develop. And so again, these are two, these are, it's like, man, we just gotta meet in the middle, right? We have to meet in the middle. But this is what I see in the age category of our female athletes. We're either just. We have no knowledge, and so we are doing some things not quite right. We're not holding ourselves accountable for fueling our bodies with good nutrients. And then we've got people who are. Trying to fuel their bodies with good nutrients, but we're going about it the wrong way and we actually end up hurting ourselves. And again, that's that side where there is a high prevalence of undereating and eating disorders and that kind of gray area of disordered eating. I mean, research shows it's, the numbers are wild. It's like anywhere between 41 to 90% of female athletes struggle with energy deficiency or disordered eating. Wow, that's a, yeah, and I know that's wide range and it's because it kind of depends on if we're looking at a specific age category or even a specific sport, you know? So we do see like high school runners, that's where it's like. Uh, tragically high numbers are struggling with energy deficiency, disordered eating, menstrual irregularities, delayed, delayed puberty. Um, and then we also see in some of our aesthetic sports or weight class sports, so whether that be synchronized swimming, dancing, or weight class, you know, for those. Girls that are into wrestling or combat sports, we see a lot of those behaviors and developing to their, they're at higher risk of disordered eating, eating disorders, energy deficiency. Um, but it's, you know, nobody's immune to it. You know, I still, I've, you know, I, I've seen it in softball players, I've seen it in soccer players, I've seen it in basketball. Um, so it's a wide range that I'm saying, but it's there. It's, it's a concern for sure. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I, as a coach, I see the same thing. My kids are still on the young end too, so they still just eat whatever I give them for the most part. But, um, yeah, I see the same thing. It's like they just eat kind of whatever's available, the fast, anything, anything they can grab, they're like, hungry, there's food, I'm just gonna eat it with no, I don't really care what, what the contents are. Right. And definitely on the other end where they're coming to practice and I'm like. And they're like, oh, I'm just so tired. And I'm like, what is what you eat today? I haven't eaten anything today. Why are you eating anything today? I can't even imagine not eating until four. You know, like, and then have expecting to have some sort of like energy for a high intensity, two and a half hour practice. And so, yeah. Yeah, there's, I definitely see, I agree with you. And so I guess, where do we, where do we go from there? Like, yeah. What, what's the how, what's the guideline, I guess? Yeah. So I. Again, like I said, we've got these two sides of the story, so we have to meet in the middle, and so parents and coaches, it is important to talk about nutrition. We have to start talking about it, but the way that we talk about it will really. Change, uh, the how it, how it ends up. So for the people who don't know anything, you know, we gotta start talking about it. We gotta start saying, Hey, let's get some fruit and veggies in your diet. Let's get some lean protein in your diet. Let's make sure that you're eating a good balanced meal before you show up to practice or a game. We definitely wanna be saying that, but our language unfortunately does matter.'cause if we start demonizing food, if we start saying, don't ever have a milkshake. Right. That can really hurt the other people who are already like, you know, health conscious. They're thinking I can never have a milkshake when in fact a milkshake would help that girl who is under fueling. Right. Like she needs more. Right. So we don't, the language matters because we don't wanna demonize fueling. Mm-hmm. We just wanna promote fueling. We don't wanna give a, don't eat this list a no list. Hmm. We do wanna have a, these are foods to encourage list. We wanna encourage food, but we don't wanna discourage food. Um, and I think that's where, you know, sometimes I've heard coaches and parents, they're trying to encourage good, healthy eating, but they'll say things like, oh my God, don't eat those Cheetos. That's full of bad crap for you. And it's like, ah, that's where the demonizing, you say, oh, Cheetos before practice. Wow. How does that feel on your stomach? You know? And if the kid says. I feel fine. I feel great at practice. Okay, cool. Well, maybe after practice we could also get some protein in and some fresh vegetables. You know, you just start saying, okay, you had Cheetos today. That's fine. It feels fine for you. Let's also make something great for after practice and just start encouraging, um. Because again, I also wanna say maybe you as a parent or a coach, maybe, you know, like, oh my gosh, Cheetos, like that would be awful for me before practice. Or that would, you know, I know that's not helping my body, but we don't want to take that away from a teen or tween athlete that frankly does need a lot of calories. Right, exactly. I'm like, fuel fueling is better than not, I suppose. Fueling is better than not. Yeah, they need a lot of calories. Um, and I'm, I'm sorry to throw my three-year-old in the mix here, but man, he eats so much food. He's three and he looks six. He's huge. And I tracked his diet the other day because it was hard for me to keep up with. Yeah, kid. Kid ate 80 grams of protein in a day. I was like, that's better than most Americans. Okay. He's three and a half, so it was wild. So I'm telling you, he eats a lot of food. So it's like, as much as I'm trying to put, put, you know, nutritious things in front of him, I'm like, yeah, eat the cookie because I just need you to get calories in right now. Yeah. You know, and so this is the thing, as as adults, as parents, we forget what that feels like to be growing. Mm-hmm. We forget that development takes a lot of energy. Mm-hmm. So the most rapid time period in uh, most rapid growth in somebody's life is from age zero to two. Obviously, massive growth, uh, changing from an infant to a 2-year-old. You know, I think you triple your body weight in a year, right? So that's crazy. So that's the most growth. That we see in somebody's life. And the second most rapid time period of growth is the teenage years. Mm-hmm. So it's like they need calories, they need nutrition. And so yeah, we want them to eat chicken and Greek yogurt and quinoa, but also. If you give'em a cookie, at the end of the day, they need the calories, right? So I, so that's why we don't wanna demonize the Cheetos. We don't wanna demonize the cookie because they still need calories. But yes, let's also, this is why the language matters. Let's also get these other nutrients, and we need our antioxidants. We need our protein, we need our calcium, we need vitamin D, we need iron. All of these things and you're not gonna get iron from a cookie. Right? So that's why these discussions about are you getting your iron in, are you getting your meat in, are you getting your dairy in? Are you getting your whole grains in? Is we just wanna add that on top. Um, and I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Is that okay? I'm just like things are popping to in, but Okay. No, that's great. Like, this is super helpful just to get a, a sense also of like the why behind it and some foundational things. Yeah. Because I think that's super important. And something I said earlier too when I brought up the Cheeto example is as a parent to ask like, well, how did that make you feel? Mm-hmm. Because this, this is such an important question for us to ask our athletes and our children, um, because yeah, we don't just wanna say like, don't eat that. It's not good for you because what if it actually is making them feel good? Right. Okay. Uh, what if it is giving them energy? And if we just take that away, then they're feeling fatigued, lethargic, right. But also they could, they maybe say, yeah, the Cheetos, like, I eat them and I'm still hungry. It's like, oh, okay. You could do with whole wheat bread and peanut butter you could do with a, a peanut butter sandwich instead. Guidos before practice. Let's try that and see if that gives you more energy or satiates you better. Because I think when I do talk to. Athletes that you mentioned, going back to the two sides, if you're, is this video, are they following video? Are they following my hands of the air? Okay. Um, the, the gals that are kind of eating whatever they want, not really paying attention to it. If you ask them how do they feel. Some of them actually, if they really stop to think about it. I keep probing, asking questions. How did you feel at practice? How did you feel during school? How do you feel at night before bed? Most likely something will come up. I'm, I'm tired. That's the most common one. Yeah. I'm tired. Um, I don't really have the motivation to go to practice. I'm sore. Mm-hmm. Um, or honestly, just like the apathetic, like meh. I don't know. I dunno how I feel. And when they start nourishing, well. I had energy, you know, it's like, yeah, I went to practice and I'm still motivated to do my homework at night before bed. I'm not just wanting to crash. Um, yeah, I was able to focus during school better, you know, so asking them how they feel is so important, and that can be their motivation for making those adjustments in their diet of, you know, whatever it might be. Eating Cheetos before practice or eating a PA peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread before practice is like, oh yeah, I felt better. That's their motivation. More so than you as a parent or coach, just saying, don't eat that as bad for you. Mm-hmm. How they feel and how they perform. I think that's really empowering because a lot of times athletes don't make that connection, um, of like how they performed in practice or in a game, and then tying it back to like, oh, well I didn't eat anything, or I ate something that was like, super heavy or just not enough to fuel that. Um, and so they're not, they're not always making that connection. And I mean, speaking from a personal experience, sometimes they don't realize how good they could feel if they're just meeting like that for a long time. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. Some, some girls just don't know how good they could feel. And that's why even if they're not complaining about feeling bad, if they're just like, I don't know, I don't know how I feel, suggest make a few suggestions. Um, and then, okay, now how did you feel? How did you perform? How was your energy levels? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's good. Okay. Can you give us just, um, I know that everyone is bio individual and you know, there's all sorts of things that, you know, depending on age and, and all of that, but like for like the typical girl athlete, like how many meals a day, how many snacks, like. I don't, I don't know think, I don't think we need to get down to like the macronutrient grams and all of that, but can you a general like guideline of how much they should be eating and how often Fundamentals. Yeah. There some sports nutrition fundamentals. Right. Alright, well I'll start this conversation by saying it's pretty typical, average person should probably have three meals a day. We kind of say that that's super general health guidelines. Um, but. You're an athlete and you're growing. So we should have three meals a day plus snacks, or maybe it turns into four meals a day, three meals a day, plus three snacks, three meals a day, two snacks. Um, so I just wanna encourage that first and foremost because oh my goodness, how many high schoolers and middle schoolers just. Skip breakfast, right? Or don't participate in lunch in, especially if they're in like a school setting, right? Like, I skipped lunch or just didn't buy it that day, whatever. So it's like we gotta get at least those three meals in and then we're supposed to have snacks on top of that. Um, I definitely encourage fueling pre and post. Uh, I'll hit on the post practice or game first. We wanna no matter what, have that and that shouldn't. Necessarily be a meal. So many people are like, oh, I have practice. I just go home and have dinner. But well, again, the average person has dinner, you're an athlete, you just did something. You need to recover. So even if it's just, if it's a snack, like a chocolate milk or a protein shake or a bar, um, or anything like, we've gotta get protein and carbs in, let's have something post. And your next meal. Mm-hmm. And I'm a big fan of having something pre-practice or pre-game as well. That just really varies based on what time of day it is. So, you know, if you're training in the morning, it, maybe it is breakfast and then practice or, or maybe it's pre-practice snack, then practice, then breakfast. So that can look a little weird. But we definitely want to eat before practice. We don't wanna not have anything. So you should always eat something before, always eat something after. And the after. I'm going to say shouldn't be a meal, or if it is a meal, just know you need something even extra in your day. Right? Um, so you need that extra recovery. So at least three meals, at least. Always eating something before, always eating something after exercise. Um, another kind of general rule of thumb is to avoid fasting or not eating for more than four hours. Um, so I typically give that. Advice of you should be eating every two to four hours. And I like to map that out. Like if you eat breakfast at seven, then you could eat a snack at nine and lunch at 11. That'd be every two hours. Yeah. Or breakfast. Seven snack. Nine lunch at 12. Mm-hmm. It's two and three hours or it's breakfast seven, four hours later, lunch at 11. You know, something like that. Right. Yeah. And the reason I say four hours, um, a few different reasons for that, but. It's giving your body consistent energy, making sure that your muscles are nourished, getting protein all throughout the day. It's also helping you regulate your hunger and fullness. The longer you go on without eating, then you're gonna be really starving later. Um, and then from a female specific standpoint, for the gals who are going through puberty or have their menstrual cycles, um, we see the importance of hormone regulation and every four hours, if we're not fueling every four hours, we can see some effects on our hormones that might. Suppress our hormones, and that's not good for our metabolism. It can suppress our thyroid. We could lose our menstrual cycle. So there's some research specific to females about fueling. They're not going much longer than four hours without fueling. Yeah, I think that's so important. Yeah. I mean especially'cause even as an adult, like I, I struggle with that. I still consider myself an athlete and do CrossFit and all this and like definitely struggle with losing my menstrual cycle. And I've had to go back to that, those basics of yeah, like need to eat ev at least every three hours or else I grew away. Yep. Yeah. Yep. E exactly. And that's why, um, again, going back to starting this conversation, there are some reasons that being female makes our nutrition needs. Different. Um, and that's one of them, just that, you know, if a, I would say a grown boy should also be eating that often just because they're growing so much, they're gonna be starving and they need a lot. But like when a, a boy's fully developed into a man, this is where men can kind go five, six hours without eating. And I'm not saying they should, but they don't see those detrimental effects on their hormones. Um, or you know, so I'm not saying that's optimal for them, but it's not detrimental where we see, oh, this could be detrimental to females. Yeah. Okay. I know that's like a whole nother conversation too. I love to. Dive into that, but, um, one thing for that just popped up, like for coaches that might be listening, I mean, even parents like the pre-practice snack and like making sure that there's some good carbs and a little protein in there. We, this year for our season did like a. You know that it reminded me of like when kids are in elementary school and the, the teacher's like, Hey, can people contribute to the class snack fund? Yeah. So I, we're gonna do a pre-practice snack cart and so I like gave a list of things for the parents that like would be good to, if you're gonna Costco this weekend, this is what we need. And we have seriously a full closet of snacks now. And so. So girl, we or practice go in and like get carbs, get some protein. So just love that for coaches if you're listening. So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's what I did when I worked as a dietician at our, like universities as a sports dietician for the athletics departments. Obviously I was in an environment where there was also like funding and this was supported. Um, but we set up. Fueling stations in you, ty e, either typically in their locker room.'cause even though there might've been at these universities like centralized fueling stations, which is a thing at these big name like A-C-C-S-E-C um programs. There might be like a smoothie bar or their own athlete cafeteria, but we also had like right there in the locker room, um, just a fridge or a little shelf, a little pantry that had some quick options. And typically what we did for that was some easy digesting carbohydrates. Um, whether it be a. Yeah, package of those, um, like rice cakes mm-hmm. Or apple sauce, or honestly, we did some fresh fruit too, which, you know, had to be kept up so it didn't go bad. Um, fruit cups, small granola bars, things that are just like, oh, if, if it's been three hours since lunch and you need to pick me up before practice, just get a quick, pick me up, get some energy in. And then we always had like chocolate milks, Greek yogurt, uh, maybe a few protein bars for after. Again, it's like afterwards you also, you know, we want you to fuel up with probably more than these little snacks. Like, we, we wanna make sure you're getting enough, but this was just a way to make sure we never went into practice completely on empty, and that you had an option available immediately after practice, even if you were gonna hit up the dining hall, you know, an hour later. And so in the case of your, your younger, um, clientele that we're working with here, I think. In this scenario, it's very often like I'm at school, I had lunch, but it's been a few hours and now I've gotta go to practice. You need to pack your bag with some of those quick fueling options that are easy on your stomach. Um, or if like you with your team, it's like actually as a team, we all pitched in. In our facility we have this, when I was a young athlete, I was a gymnast, so obviously I went to the gym. We had a little fueling station at the gym. You know, that's a little harder for like. Soccer, when you're out on the field, I think you gotta take your own responsibility, pack your own, um, snack. And then again, it's also having something for after, because you think, oh, after practice I'm just gonna get in the car, drive home. But that whole process takes a while, you know? Right. Yeah, that's a good, remember mom's five minutes late to pick you up and then you hit traffic, and then you get home. You just wanna shower, and then you start your homework and all of a sudden you haven't actually refueled. So whether it's packing something or asking your parent or your pickup person to have something readily available when they come pick you up, those are some things that can help. Yeah, that's good. Okay. I just have a couple more questions, um, that I typically get whenever we talk about this nutrition topic with parents. One, what if you have an athlete who's like, I'm just not hungry for breakfast. I don't want to eat, but we know like either they have a tournament or like, of course we wanna respect like the hunger and fullness cues, but also like we've gotta get something in you. Any recommendations there? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's a requirement in order to participate. You don't wanna put your shoes on, then you can't play like you have to eat before you go into a tournament weekend. So yeah, I am a big fan of listening to your body. I'm a big fan of some intuitive eating concepts. There are things that, when it comes to sports, that's like, this is part of your job of being an athlete. Um, it, it's irresponsible to not eat before playing. It's irresponsible to yourself. It's irresponsible to your teammates. So, okay. You're not hungry. Try something. What? What's the most appetizing thing? Like, could you get down a bowl of plain Cheerios? Start with that. And what's also really interesting is a lot of. Athletes that say they're not hungry. Once they start eating, it's like, oh yeah, I could do that. Or actually over time it builds up their appetite and next thing you know, next month after just forcing themselves to do this, a month later they're like, I wake up and I'm ready to eat. You know, you just have to, you just have to practice it. You, you can train your body. Um, so that's where definitely working, you know, with a dietician, we can figure out, like if you're really resistant, we can work with you on providing different options and ideas. Um. And kind of help you build up to what the ideal scenario of eating might be. But you gotta get something in. Yeah. That's, that's just accountability. Yeah. For sure. Okay. Um, and then this one for the moms, I guess just any like tips for if they're feeling like a little overwhelmed with. I know that my daughter needs to eat, but she maybe is a picky eater or like we're going from place to place. Either we're eating dinner at like three 30 or nine o'clock. Like just any, any quick tips that you can give. Um. Join your Dream team program so they can learn from me. And, um, but ultimately, because I think, again, if your daughter's being resistant and you're like, I'm trying to get them to eat breakfast, and they just won't do it, they're being resistant to me. It, it's, you know, they, they need to understand why this matters to them. And that's where that nutrition education piece comes into play. Um. And so again, if, if you as a parent don't feel equipped to educate them on nutrition yet, that's why joining a program that can educate you and or you and your daughter or your daughter directly so that they can take that accountability will really be helpful. So if you can understand what not just eat breakfast.'cause I said, so it's, why do I need to eat breakfast? Mm-hmm. And how is this important? Um, so if they're really resistant, we gotta get that basic education and then. Um, yeah, really just like tailoring it to them. Sorry, I'm kind of like, I'm somewhat forgetting your question now. Did I answer it? Yeah, I think so. I think Okay. Education is, is really important and Yeah. Um, I mean, and that is a good segue. We mentioned Dream Team a couple of times, so for those that aren't familiar, dream Team is our high touch coaching program. We have a six month container for athletes who are, it's by application only. So these athletes have applied to be a part of. Program. Um, they are all working to play at the next level. These are athletes who have big goals, so they get mindset coaching. They get a one-on-one coach for that. But then also every month they get education and coaching from a guest expert that comes into the community and supports them. So everything from recruiting to college prep, leadership, communication, rest recovery. And then Lindsay is in there. She's actually, by the time this, um, episode airs, she will have just been in with our community and in. Group with the girls talking all about nutrition and helping support them. So can you give a little, um, insight into what you're gonna be working with our dream team athletes on when you're with them? Sure. So I'm providing that education that they need on why nutrition is important for them as athletes, and I am provi and, you know, motivating them as to this is a good thing to pay attention to. And this is, like I mentioned earlier, a requirement to being an athlete because. If you don't get this right, um. If you don't get, if you don't get the nutrition right, you're not setting yourself up for athletic success in a variety of ways. Not just in your physical health and therefore performance, but also in just like, yeah, your enjoyment and participation of things and you know, if you're not fueling. You're gonna have a higher risk of injury and then that's not fun. And then what we drop out early, that's not fun, right? So I really want you to get this piece right, because it's part of being an athlete. So that's what I'm providing is a lot of the education. And then I'm giving you those practical like steps, those take homes of how do I get it right? How do I build my plate? How do, what should I be packing for before and after practice? Um, how do I make a fueling schedule? Um. Again, considering the age group, it's this combination of taking accountability for myself while also like working with the parents and getting, like, maybe I go to the grocery store with mom or dad, um, maybe I write out my own list even if I'm not the one cooking, I write out some requests. Um, or if this doesn't work for the rest of the family, these are some things I need to do to hold myself accountable. Um, and there's a lot to, I'm really excited for like the live q and a that we do in the D team dream team program, because that's where I think, you know, girls have so many questions that it's like, okay, I hear you. I know the importance, but this doesn't work for my life, or mm-hmm. But I feel this way, or, but I don't like that food. You know, it's hard for me on a podcast to just say what to eat because. Yeah, well they don't like that food or you know, like doesn't work for their body or, but this one, you know, isn't, like I say chocolate milk for recovery all the time, but you're lactose intolerance. So what do you have? So I think that's where having the live q and a so helpful'cause there's so much nutrition information out there. But what I'm providing a dream team is that female specific sports nutri. So you can trust that this is helpful to your daughter or athlete. Whereas again, online it's like, is this for a man? Is this for a bodybuilder? Is this for a pregnant woman? Who is this for somebody trying to lose weight? Like who is this information for? The information I'm providing with Dream Team is female specific sports nutrition, and then with the q and a, they have an opportunity to ask those individualized questions, which is just so helpful because again. The amount of stuff online is confusing with nutrition, so being able to ask somebody a question and get more individualized guidance is so valuable. Yeah. Yeah, I'm super excited. And honestly, nutrition is definitely one of those things where as a parent you can tell your athlete all the things. And then when it comes from someone like Lindsay, they're like, Hey, did you know I should be eating protein and carbs before I compete? And as a parent, you're like, I'm trying. So I know that, you know, in my own private practice, I, I always let the parents know. I'm like, I am. Like there's a good chance that you've been telling them you know, the right things or very close to the right things all along. Mm-hmm. But, um, having the opportunity to work directly and, and create that space for them to express themselves, where it's not just a parent telling them what to do. There's nothing wrong with that parent. That's your job. But handing over the reins to someone else creates a whole new experience. For your daughter and they might be more receptive to it. And so it's, it's, again, I know that must be so hard for parents, but to just recognize, you know, you're already all the things. Take this one thing off your plate. Let somebody else do that education piece of food education. You're still gonna be the one buying and prepping and cooking probably. So just let somebody else do the educating and motivating piece. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Okay, well we will link information for Dream Team below because our next. Um, cohort will open up in November and it'll start at, um, early 2026 for our next six month program. Um, but where can parents find you? I know you're like semi-active on social right now, you know, all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm only semi-active. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm super excited to be linked up with Dream Team because my own business has just had to be on pause for a little bit. But with that said, I do produce, um, a weekly podcast. Female Athlete Nutrition Podcast. So I've got, oh my gosh, over 200 episodes. It's been going for five years, so loads to keep, to go back and listen to. Um, and then I produce a new episode every week, so Female Athlete Nutrition Podcast, which is on all major listening channels, and now also up on YouTube. That I'm most active with. I am on Instagram at Female Athlete Nutrition, but honestly, at this point in time, it's mostly just posting about the podcast. Yeah, yeah. Um, and a few stories here and there. And then my website, lindsay cortez.com. That's Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-E-Y, Cortez, C-O-R-T-E s.com. And I still have tons of resources, blog articles, you know, I, I try and keep up with it, but again, I, I've been doing this for so many years, so there's a lot of. You know, material from two years ago that's still relevant. So check all of that out. Cool. Okay, awesome. And if you wanna dive deeper with Lindsay too, of course Dream team is a great option as well. So there's that. But thank you Lindsay, for kind of going, going into it a little bit. I know that there's so much more we could talk about, but I think this gives a really good foundation for parents and for coaches who are listening. So thank you so much.