Episode 29: Interview with Erin Sparrold, CN, Sports Nutritionist
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Welcome to Chasing Life Podcast, where we talk about fitness, running, career, and life tips to inspire you to live your best life. I'm your host, Sarah Kane, and I hope you enjoy today's episode.

Welcome to another episode of Chasing Life. Today's guest is Erin Sperald. Erin is a sports nutritionist working in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the American Dietics Association and has her degree in nutrition science from the University of Arizona. She holds a sports-specific nutrition certification in metabolic efficiency training and has been mentored by Olympic team dietitians to improve her skills in meeting the needs of high-performance athletes.

Erin has been helping people live healthier lives for over 20 years. Her focus is on sports nutrition, health and wellness, and weight loss. During this episode, we discuss Erin's career, fueling and nutrition tips for endurance athletes, of course camp roundabout, one of my favorite topics, and our outdoor adventures and goals. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Hi Erin, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. What's

Tell us how you became a nutritionist. What made you pursue that career field? No, it started at a pretty early age, to be honest with you. I grew up in a family full of women who are constantly dieting. So that always kind of, it was always a part of our vernacular. It was, you know, good and bad that came with that. And thankfully I did learn some really wonderful things and how to help people who are struggling with weight by dieting.

through the environment that I was raised in. But my passion really started from the time I was a young swimmer and my coach would always put us on like a different train, like you have to eat this way the night before a meet and then don't eat this on meet day. And I just I like and this is like when sport nutrition was in its infancy. And so I just it just sparked a curiosity in me. So when I went to school at the University of Arizona,

I followed that curiosity and that passion, and I just started studying nutrition. And I've always loved food. I mean, even when I was little, I loved to cook. And so then to learn there's a deeper story behind just food tasting good, that it is this really powerful tool that we can utilize to build our health, and then combine that with growing up around women who are constantly trying to follow the latest fad diets and

I just was like, I'm going to be the one that figures this out. And so I'm going to go to college and figure it out. So that was a lot of the passion. Like I love food. I love what it can do for you. And I have such respect for people's emotional relationships with food as well and helping people to develop a different perspective on it. So I just

went to the university, followed that passion. While I was getting my degree, I got personal trainer certification. So that started to build more and more of the sport aspect of it. And then it just kind of kept growing from there. I had my babies and then dove back into my career. And when I did, it couldn't have been better timing. I was out here in the Lehigh Valley and I'd always kind of worked a little bit, but out here in the Lehigh Valley, I really got a toehold and

Met some wonderful people and developed a great community and I just was able to really dive headfirst into full sport nutrition, which is what I've always wanted to do. Instead of just health and wellness mixed with a little bit of sport. I was really able to drive consistently in the performance nutrition lane and now

I'm working with division one athletes, division one teams. I've coached Lehigh wrestling. I've coached multiple Ironman triathletes. I am a half Ironman triathlete and an endurance athlete myself. So I've gotten to do so many cool things and I love it so much because it's how I live my life.

You know, the Monday morning drearies, like you have to face the day and go to work. You're like, oh, I don't want to go to work. The weekend's over. But I always come home so enthused, so happy I got to go to work because I genuinely love what I do and working with athletes. That's awesome to hear that you really...

I have such a passion and really enjoy what you're doing. It's just so great to hear that you followed your path and you were able to find that community where you live now and work with a high caliber performers in the athletes that you work with. So that's, that's pretty cool.

It is cool. It's really fun. So you mentioned that your family has experienced a lot of fad diets. And so with so many plans and fad diets out there, what is your biggest struggle as a nutritionist when it comes to educating people on healthy eating habits? That's a really, really good question. Yeah.

It's a constantly evolving one. So one of the things with the fad diets is like some of them, there's some legitimate science behind them to be respectful of. And the thing I don't like about them is they tend to come at every human being with this approach that one diet fits all. And without a doubt, that is not true. So and

Unfortunately, people take on that message that, well, my friend did this and they had great success, so I'm going to try it. And then their body doesn't respond or their lifestyle is not conducive to that specific type of eating plan. And so they then assign themselves as a failure because it worked for somebody else and not them. So I think the most important thing is looking at diets and nutrition through a filter of like the first question I ask my clients all the time is you need to look at the diet.

And you need to look at the meal planning and ask yourself, can I do this for the rest of my life? And if the answer starts with no, then maybe you need to step back a little bit and reevaluate whether or not it's the right plan for you. And then

Then take a look at it even further. I mean, sometimes it's just intuitively it makes sense. I mean, there have been some crazy things like the hot dog diet or like the cabbage soup diet, like these things that are just really intensively restrictive that are so obviously really not good for you. And I think most people have a genuine and a general sense of what's healthy and what's not. So if something feels too good to be true or too far out of that context, it probably isn't true. And then the other issue that I'll have is matching the right diet

diet or the right meal planning to the person because every single person, every single athlete has different lifestyles, different demands or requirements that their bodies may have. And so matching the right type of

eating to the client, that's really where a lot of my work comes in because it isn't one size fits all. And everybody kind of needs a slightly different approach. And I do utilize some of the more trendier fads right now momentarily. Like I've utilized ketogenic diets for some of my athletes momentarily. I would never do it in competition season, but I have used it

during downtimes to help them lose a little bit of body fat a little bit faster. But when I put somebody on a ketogenic diet, 365 days, they're for the, no, I probably wouldn't unless it was medically necessary. Things like that, like,

you have to kind of take a little bit of a pause and where I feel like the fad diets tend to fail people is they give people this idea that one size fits all. And if it works for this person, then it's got to work for me too. And that's not, it's just not the case. And it also depends on the person's goal. Are you trying to gain weight? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to train your body for an endurance event? Are you trying to gain power and strength in what you're trying to do?

Nutrition is a powerful multi-purpose tool and it can be utilized very specifically to help people reach different goals with their body. And it's easy to get lost in the details, which is where somebody like me comes in handy because you're like, I don't know which one's the right one to fit for my life. And I have the science knowledge and the education and understanding and practical experience to be able to help people match what's the right pattern and program for them. But obviously there's other obvious truths like

the more clean and whole food you can go with the better, but then how you balance out the macronutrients, how you periodize it, all that stuff that comes down to the individual person and what's best for them and their lifestyle.

Thank you for that. I personally follow a meal plan and it's something I've been following for like three years. So that sustainability aspect is really key for me, but sometimes I still wonder, am I eating enough? Am I eating the right things as an endurance runner? Am I, you know, having the right amount of calorie intake? And so sometimes I kind of play around like bumping up my bracket, if you will, of eating two or 400 more calories a day and seeing how that impacts my body and

So it was really interesting to me to hear you talk about how everybody is really different. And so that's, I think, a very important message to share, but also that it really varies on your goals too. As we just said, it's not a one size fits all, but speaking to women athletes in particular, do you see anything that...

is maybe a bigger struggle for women athletes or things that maybe they should try to focus on more. We'll pick an endurance runner, for example, half marathon runner to any tips that you could share that maybe runners should try to focus on doing in order to increase their performance. Well, one of the things I think that

is negatively impacting female athletes right now is the low carb trend because we need a little bit more carbohydrate than men do, especially during specific times of our cycle. We're in the higher hormone phase when our estrogen and progesterone levels are higher. And if we're exercising a lot, it's really easy for our bodies to dive into muscle and start to burn it up and

and use that as fuel. And if we're not getting enough carbohydrate in our day, then our body's going to dive towards that protein to utilize it for a fuel. So carbohydrates are protein sparing, meaning like they, if you have enough carbohydrate in your system, then your body's able to utilize the proteins that you're consuming as building material to repair and recover and restore your muscles from training. But for female athletes, I think it becomes important to

periodize and use your carbohydrates strategically so that when you are training that your body has the fuel available and preserves your proteins

so that you don't break down. We work so hard to train those muscles. We want to add adaptations. We want more mitochondria. We want them to be more responsive. They want them to talk to our central nervous system better. And then we don't eat enough, so our body just eats them up. So we want to make sure that we're getting enough fuel energy so our bodies can preserve those proteins and our muscles. The other thing is protein.

We have got to consume protein consistently throughout the day. Like a good rule of thumb is around two grams per kilogram of protein per day. But people will take on this idea that like, okay, then I eat some protein at lunch or I eat it at dinner. But the important part isn't as much the total volume of protein that you eat in the day.

But the consistency that you consume it because your body's constantly going through the build and repair cycle. So consuming protein at breakfast, a little bit at snack, having some protein with your lunch and some protein in the afternoon snack and protein at dinner, that consistent exposure to that protein building material is going to keep

the muscle rebuild and repair and recovery cycle stimulated in a woman, which is critically important. Not having those amino acids or those proteins in your system, it's sort of like trying to show up at a job site to build a house and not having two by fours. You can't do it. So you need to make sure that you're consistently consuming protein throughout the

that today. Now that doesn't mean like you have to sit down with a bowl of like tuna and just all day you're taking a bite every like it's just every meal or snack should have some volume of protein in it for female athletes. Does that also impact our energy levels throughout the day by having those smaller meals versus larger meals? Do you have any input or insight on that?

I think that's one of those ones that it depends on the person, to be honest with you. There's a lot of people who do very well with the time-restricted eating patterns and not consuming foods earlier in the day. But I get a little bit hesitant with the time-restricted eating if somebody has a high training volume because it's difficult to get the full amount of calories that your body may need if you're eating it in a smaller window of time. But sometimes the time-restricted eating pattern fits perfectly.

it's people's lives really well. So it really just kind of depends on the person and their metabolism. And it's been kind of a train of thought for a long time that we need to eat smaller meals consistently throughout the day. I think there's some good information there, but I also think that there are benefits to some of the time restricted eating information too. So I think that that really kind of boils down to what fits the person and their goals best.

I don't typically eat much breakfast, but I also do most of my training in the afternoon. I don't like to eat breakfast. It just never has settled well in my stomach unless I know I need it because I know I have a big effort or energy. And when I was doing my triathlon training, I ate breakfast because I knew I couldn't keep up with my calories if I wasn't for the training volume I was carrying. But when I'm just back into a, I work out about an hour a day, I typically don't really eat much breakfast because I don't, it doesn't, I don't like it.

doesn't sit well in my stomach. I think it really depends on the person, but you know, my fiance, he wakes up in the morning and he's starving. So if he had to time restricted eat, he'd be like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, like it doesn't go well. So it just, it sincerely depends on the person. Everybody's metabolically a little bit different. Thank you for that insight. Speaking of fueling before your performance, do you have any particular tips to share

with runners or triathletes on, you know, how soon prior to their workouts they should be eating, what type of ratio and fuel they should be having, how soon after, or again, does that depend on the person? There's a little bit more consistency with that one. Obviously not everybody can eat a ton of food and then go train. Some people have slower GI motility. So you throw a bunch of food in their gut and then they go for a run and then they

lose half of the food halfway through the run. So being mindful of that and altering what you eat before the run so that you don't get an upset stomach, it really depends on the volume that you're going to run. So if we want to put some context to it, so let's say you're going to go for a long run. So you're looking for like maybe two hours or a little under two hours or maybe a little bit over somewhere in that mark. Then you want to make sure that you're consuming a

obviously a healthy volume of food, ideally 90 minutes before you go run so that it has time to make it lower into your digestive tract. It's not sitting high on your stomach before you go run because as soon as you start running, you start shifting blood away from your GI tract to your muscles, your heart and your lungs.

So that makes it a little harder to digest. So you want to try and get that food a little further down into your GI tract. I like to see women consuming around a three to one ratio of carbohydrate to protein before a longer effort like that. The reason for the three to one ratio is you want a little bit more carbohydrate so that your body has

a sustainable fuel and a nice slow burning carbohydrate. You don't really want to spike your blood sugar before you go out there. It's like oats or I would always like before a triathlon, I'd love to have sweet potato and potato in my eggs in the morning. And that was just kind of my thing and it settled well in my stomach and it was filling. I know a lot of my clients really like to utilize oats

and some protein like oats and yogurt or oats and egg whites before they go run. The reason for the protein is just to help slow down the blood sugar release so that whatever carbohydrate you're consuming doesn't digest too fast and spike your blood sugar. The other reason for the protein is to put some of those building amino acids into your system so that when you're running, your body has a little bit more cue and signal to leave your muscle alone and not start burning it up as fuel. One of my personal favorite things

fuels is Generation UCAN. Anybody listening to the podcast can get a 10% discount on it, actually. I love the stuff. If I'm going to be out on a run or a training effort that's longer than an hour and 15 minutes, I always take UCAN before I go. And if I'm going to be out longer than two hours, I resupply my system with UCAN while I'm out there. On the bike, throughout the triathlon, that's all I used. I swear by this stuff. It's a slow-digesting carbohydrate. It's

So it's great if you're trying to keep your body fat adapted and able to mobilize and utilize fat from storage for fuel. The carbohydrate from Generation UCAN digests nice and slow. So it's like a nice, slow, steady drip of carbohydrate into your system without a blood sugar spike and an insulin surge. So it keeps you nice and steady. So I love, love, love, love, love the stuff. It's a great proactive strategy for fueling.

It is not, unfortunately, a good reactive strategy. So any runner who's been out there for more than like a couple minutes

We know how it feels when you start to hit that energy threshold and you're getting tired and your legs are getting heavy and you're just starting to feel a little bit miserable. That's when you want something a little bit more of a proactive strategy, something that's actually going to elevate your blood sugar a little quicker. We want to elevate blood sugar if you're getting into that state. For that, I've used Huma gels. I like to use those. I like Sprite.

spring. The spring products, they're all whole food and natural, which I really, really like. And I've also used dried fruits when I'm out. So I'll use dates and I've used them like pineapple chunks and things like dried pineapple chunks. Of course, I'm not running with like canned pineapple or anything. Um,

The dried fruits are really handy to have. I really like them. And then after, I love that you asked that question because we get so focused on preparing ourselves to train and preparing ourselves to run. And then we also acknowledge and pay attention to, okay, well, what do I want to eat when I'm out there? Because you get hungry and we start to hit that like energy threshold and feel gross. But a lot of times the recovery piece just kind of gets dismissed because

But that recovery is hugely important. For female athletes, again, I like to see a higher carbohydrate in the recovery. Male athletes, a two to one ratio of carbohydrate to protein is a good ratio. Female athletes, I'd like to see a little higher carbohydrate and absolutely got to get some of that protein and set your systems right away because we need to make sure that in that recovery process,

Our bodies don't get catabolic, that we don't start breaking down muscle too much. And the introduction of the proteins are great to help recover that and to help blunt some of that catabolic process, enter that anabolic process to build and repair and recovery process.

Yogurt is a fabulous option. Cottage cheese is a fabulous option because they're dairy-based proteins and dairy-based proteins are high, naturally high in branched chain amino acids, in particular the branched chain amino acid leucine. That is the one that helps us to trigger the recovery and repair process, the mTOR process in our muscles. So having that amino acid there is sort of like gives your muscles the green light to repair and recover.

So a little bit of exposure to some like, you know, yogurt and some granola would be perfect. Greek yogurt preferably. So you get a little bit more protein. Thank you. I will definitely have to keep some of those in mind. And just that reminder of the ratio too. Often after my runs, I'll have maybe some scrambled eggs on a tortilla show, um,

Not a bad choice either. And have a piece of fruit too, just to help with the increasing that energy level and refueling my glucose again. That's usually one of my go-tos. Fruit's awesome for that. The one thing is that if the fruits are high antioxidant and some of those antioxidants can blunt some of the adaptive processes. I love having fruit after I drink, but sometimes if I'm like...

Really trying to dial in solid adaptations and I'm trying to get towards a training goal. It's not just like, oh, I'm just going out for a run for a run. I'm building towards an event. I'll try and put off having fruit in my yogurt or making a protein shake with fruit in it and I'll just take

keep it kind of plain for about an hour to get through that. Some of the oxidative stress is what triggers the changes in the adaptations in our muscles that we're training for. So if we blunt that with too much antioxidant right after we train, we might lose some of that. But again,

how many of us, what are we training for? Like if you're going for like Olympics, then you want to get every single little thing you can out of all the adaptations. But if you're just like, no, that was a really fun run and I want pineapple in my yogurt, then go for it. That's fair. Is there a particular fruit that maybe you should avoid? Like is banana better than oranges or apples? Banana is not a bad one because it's not super high in antioxidants. So you're not going to

to turn off some of those reactive oxidative like species. So the other things like berries and things like that, that are not in vitamin like oranges, things that are typical, pineapple, which is why I joke like, no, I want pineapple in my yogurt. So I'm going to have it. I don't care about blunting the oxidative process. I don't care. It just sounds really good. So those are the things, things that we know that are traditionally high in antioxidants. So bananas are a good, I'm not a fan of orchard fruits or apples. They have a little bit higher fructose content. I love apples. I eat them every day. I

I just, for preparing you to train or recovering you from training, you need glucose and apples, orchard fruits are a little higher in fructose. So I tend to go for other stuff that's going to put the glucose back in the muscles faster. Very helpful to know. I love fruit too. I don't ever see myself over here in an Olympics, but just that little bit extra of, am I doing what I can to at least help to reach a goal? Because those little

little habits will build up over time. So, so these have been really helpful tips for me personally. So I hope everyone else listening has found it helpful as well. Oh, good. I hope so. I just also want to make sure to pass on that. It's important to like your food and have a healthy relationship with food. It doesn't mean like anybody listening to this, take the message that I can never have fruit after I run ever again, because that is not the truth.

He just gives you knowledge so you can use it for how you want to use it. That's a great reminder. Thank you for that. So if people want to connect with you more or learn more about sports nutrition, where can they find you? Most of my contact is through social media. So that's why I keep relatively active with social media. I kind of took a little bit of a step back with

all the craziness in the last year. I just sort of gave myself a little bit of a social media break, but I'm getting back into it more and posting more stuff out there. And so Instagram and Facebook are the better ways to find me publicly like that. And it's just ES Performance Nutrition on Facebook.

and Erin Sparrow on Instagram. I also have a Twitter, but I never check it. So I mean, you can try getting ahold of me on Twitter, but it may be a hit and a miss. All right, great. And I will link those social media accounts in the show notes as well. So a couple of fun questions to wrap up our episode. I feel like I could ask you all these questions, but then that would probably just be all the more reason for me to just sign up and work with you, you know, get that more personalized experience. But yeah.

What's something that you are currently obsessed with or loving right now? Oh my gosh, I have to think about that. You know, I know this is going to sound like totally trite, but I found this new protein powder. I tried a new protein powder and I'm freaking loving it. Like I look forward to my protein shake every day. It's just like a garden of life vanilla, but it's got this amazing flavor with like a half of a frozen banana and my chia seeds and my hemp hearts. I'm like...

jamming on that every single day. Like I've never had a protein shake that I looked forward to having every day, but like in the afternoon, I'm loving it. And then the other, honestly, I just right now, I don't know how everybody else on the East coast feels, but these sunny days, I seriously have a pile of clothes to put away because I'm over winter. So I'm like right now a bit obsessed with the weather and the sunshine. And I feel like I, yeah, like really,

freaking Mary Poppins right now. So happy it's sunny out. You know,

You know, I felt the same way. Usually I'm pretty indifferent. Like I've lived in New York or the Northeast my whole life. And I usually don't complain about the weather. I just kind of, you know, accept it like, okay, it's still winter. Like I don't really think that winter is over until April 1st this year. And then after that, then I might get a little cranky of like, why is there still snow on the ground? Last year, New York got snow in May. That was a little ridiculous, but I feel like this particular year in general, because of

of the pandemic and everything being more shut down, I feel like cabin fever is up like even higher this year. And so I've been really looking forward to spring weather of like, oh gosh, we can get outside more and be outside and just enjoy the nice weather. So I'm right there with you. Yeah. We went yesterday. It was nice and warm and we went out for like an eight mile hike on the Appalachian trail. I have so many blisters on my feet because I totally wasn't really prepared for it. I wasn't like,

prepped or trained to like walk that much in my new shoes, but it was totally worth it to be outside for eight miles. Totally worth it.

That's great that you live so close to the Appalachian Trail. Do you spend a lot of time on there? Yeah, actually we do. And we're hoping we've hiked like yesterday, pretty close to almost hiking the entire ridge here around the Lehigh Valley. So we're starting to think about branching out and trying to finish section hiking the whole thing. That's pretty neat. Yeah. Yeah. We're lucky to live out here. I mean, literally I could jog a half of a mile and I'm on the trail. That's cool. Yeah, that's great.

So I actually met you at Camp Runabout. Can you just tell us a little bit about your experience with camp, how you got involved? We heard a little bit about your story with Megan, who was a previous guest on the podcast, mentioned how you guys met the camp director, but I'd love to hear your side of things and what your memorable experiences are with camp too. I know, you know, I listened to Megan's podcast with you and I was like, oh my gosh, those were just the best memories because we've seriously, we had just finished that run and then

Like, we're there and like this guy's handing out cards and he hands the cards and like, well, do you need a sport nutritionist and a sports psychologist to talk at your camp and let us come there for free? Right? So what?

And then we went and we just all hit it off so well. Bill's great. The camp is so much fun. Laura and Sarge, the whole camp counselor camp. I'm like almost 50 years old and one of my jobs is a camp counselor. Like how does that suck? Not at all. So it's so much fun. All these adults come to camp. It's just this collective release where everybody just gets to have fun and get to meet new people. We've heard so many

really cool experiences. I think that one of my favorite things about camp is the first day because you're welcoming everybody there and you see people coming in and you can see people are still like a little apprehensive. They're a little bit shy. They're kind of, if they came with people, then awesome. But if they didn't, then they're just kind of trying to feel their way to meet people. And then when they leave, they're like crying and hugging everybody. And like, they're just like, they met their new, like these great friends getting to watch this

happen over time and getting to see it like every year, it is just the coolest thing ever. Cause we just, as adults, we adult so hard and we just don't get these moments to have that kind of just fun for the sake of having fun. And it sounds really intense, like camp run about, and we do, we run and there's fitness classes and we talk about sport and we talk about training, but our tagline, they're a little running and a lot of fun.

because it really is. And getting to do it with my really good friend, Megan, and it's just, it's so fun. But yeah, we got started totally happenstance. And then we all, we met Bill and then we...

at our first camp. And ever since then, we've been official camp run about staff and I couldn't love it more. It's just so much fun. And we missed it last year because of the pandemic. And we are so excited to be having our two camps

We are so excited and we feel this like collective pent up excited energy from all of our campers like just ready to do something fun and get out. So I think camp this year is going to be pretty much epic.

And normally I go into the September camp, but maybe I should come to the June one or see if I can swing that one because I feel like it's just going to be like a huge party that maybe excitement won't carry as much over into September because it's like the second camp of the year. You know, like the June one, everybody was waiting and waiting and then it's like, yes, we get to do this. And then like September will come around and you're like, yeah, like this is so cool. But like we had a lot of fun in June and you guys missed out on that. Yeah.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun at both camps because anybody coming to the September camp is also going to be, that's the camps that they get to have their moment. And we get to help facilitate all of that, which I just, I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait either. Oh, and that's the other thing we've been looking for, not just to wear a year, but almost two years now. So I signed up right after I left camp in September of 2019. So I've been looking forward to it since then. So, you know, the last, um,

quite a few people in my podcast interviews have been from camp runabout so probably people are sick of hearing us talk about it but they should just come and experience it themselves right without a doubt without a doubt because it's just like it sounds so intimidating camp runabout well yeah we run but then there's also the mobile bar that follows you everywhere you go there's karaoke and there's a themed dance like we're in high school again and

And we get to like dress up for the theme and we got campfires and s'mores and rock climbing walls and trapeze, which is amazing. Just all kinds of fun stuff. Yeah, beach. We're going to definitely take advantage of the waterfront. The campsite that we're going to be at this year has a huge beach of waterfront. So we are going to be utilizing that a lot.

lot. Anybody out there who's a swimmer, it's a big body of water. I'm bringing my wetsuit and getting in for sure. Lead the way. Yeah.

So one of my favorite questions to ask all my guests is what does chasing life mean to you? I like that question. That's a really, really good question. You know, I've been on the planet for a long time and I, there's this one phrase and I, I just, I absolutely love it. And in every situation there's good and bad. It just depends on what you focus on. And, um,

I think that like the importance of being really intentional and your day-to-day life and finding the good things and finding the positive and not dialing in too hard on the negative and just doing everything you can every single day to push towards your goals, keep your mind in a positive mindset.

and pass that on to other people. Because especially in the year like this last year that we've had, people are carrying a lot more weight. And I don't mean that like as a nutritionist, I mean like we're all feeling bogged down by everything that we've been through. So the more that you can be a person who lightens somebody else's load, I think that that world needs a little bit more positive energy pushed out there for sure.

So being intentional to be very positive and chase after my goals and encourage other people to do the same thing. That's chasing life for me. I love that. Thank you. So speaking of goals, are you chasing any goals right now? Well, the whole section hike thing keeps coming up. My fiance John wants to do a full through hike. I'm not sure I want to be out on the trail for four months solid. That might be a little aggressive for me. I think that I wouldn't enjoy it as much. I'd get tired of it.

So we're really pretty seriously looking at doing the Appalachian Trail, section hiking it, and doing all the sections within a year. That sounds like a great goal. How far are you into the planning and how many miles usually designates a section? Oh, it just depends on how much time you can give to it. So if you can get out for a weekend and overnight, if you can get out for a couple of weeks and pull down a lot more miles, yeah.

It really just depends. There's a lot of logistics to it. And that's probably the piece right now that's making me go, I'd love the idea, but I'm not sure I can still adult and work my job and parent my three children. They're all teenagers and adults. But yeah, the logistics of it, the one piece that are giving me a little bit of pause. But either way, I don't care if I get the T-shirt that I finish it in a year, if it takes me two years to do the whole thing. I'm totally good with that.

with that. So I think that that's seems to be the goal that we're striving towards now. I joke that I tend to have exercise or training and sport event ADD. So I was doing mud runs and obstacle course races. And then now I'm going to do road relay races. No, now I'm going to do triathlons. Now I think I'm going to do section hiking. So

I can't pick a lane and stay in it. So, and I'm all good with that. But I think there's something very courageous about being a beginner and do things too. I was just listening to a podcast before we started with ours and it's

Do you just have that confidence to try new things and go down those rabbit holes instead of just like sticking with one thing? I think that's kind of what adds to life too, of exploring all these different fitness challenges gives your life more adventure. Yeah, for sure. That's a solid way to look at it. I just joke that I can't pick a lane and stick with it.

I like your reframe. That's better. Think of it that way. Yeah. Right? And I just get to keep buying new cool gear. Yes.

Oh, we've got so many bikes now and now we've got the backpacks and the sleeping bags and the tents. It's just, it's kind of fun. Yeah. Accumulating my own sporting goods stores. Probably from your sports nutritionist background too, to be able to try these different activities helps to maybe like add to your knowledge base too of like, well, you know, this is kind of what I went through or what I learned when I was doing this activity. And absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Without a doubt. My ability to coach triathletes is much better now that I've actually been on course and experienced some of the things that you experience out there on course. Yeah, definitely. It dials it in a little bit more from just theoretical. Right, right. Again, with the caveat is what you said is everybody's different, but at least you have that experience that you can speak to. So it's pretty fun. I have a similar goal in New York. We have the 46 high peaks.

I think there are 4,000 feet and above mountains. I should look into that. I don't know the exact details. You don't really need to know all the details. Just go do it. I just know there's 46 feet in New York and...

One of my friends and I is a physical therapist. She was a guest on a prior episode too. I just recruit all my friends and talk to them on my podcast. But anyways, we've talked about starting to plan logistics to hike those 46 peaks. And again, the biggest thing is planning it and knowing, because a lot of them are in the Adirondack park, which is like three hours from where we live. Adirondacks are gorgeous. Yes. We even talked about maybe next summer, just planning.

planning a week and staying in a cabin and then kind of taking little day trips to hit the peaks. But yeah, it comes with a lot of planning to know where we're going and what trails to follow. And so we don't get lost. So she's thankfully really good with directions. I talk too much when I'm hiking and I forget to look for trail markers. So it's, we're a good team. She keeps us on track. Oh, me too. And I'm always watching my feet because I'm afraid I'm going to step on something and roll my ankle. Oh, I do like that.

And, you know, at camp, camp runabout, you know, that loop around the lake. I've done it for how many years now? I go the wrong way every time. I get lost every time. I just get, I get lost. People will be out on the trail like, hey, where do we go? I know I'm a counselor. I know I went to the camp, but asking me for directions is a really big mistake. So you're the one we're always waiting for in front of the bus because you're the last one out there. Yeah.

or I'm out trying to find the people that I gave the wrong directions to. Oh yeah, that's fair. So yeah, one of the reasons I brought up the 46 Peaks too is we don't care how long it takes us. It's just one of those things where it gives us kind of an activity to do, especially during the summer when it's nice in New York. So some people do the Peaks in the winter too, but...

really want to do any ice climbing. So I prefer not to. Yeah. Yeah. I totally, totally get that. And I think that there's, it depends on what motivates you and how you find, um,

excitement and a sense of accomplishment from doing this sort of stuff. John, he tends to be like, he likes like the intense goal, the time goal. He likes to push. He likes, that's why he like, he wants to just like, I could do the Appalachian trail in like X amount of time. Like he's like, he really wants to like challenge that challenge for me. I'm kind of like, but I want to enjoy where I'm at. So I don't want to get

so caught up in accomplishing the goal in a certain time period, I'd prefer to be able to savor every moment or every view instead of being like, yeah, whatever, there's another view. I got to get these miles in. Yeah. So, so I totally get where you're coming from that. Like you want to do the peaks and you want to experience that, but you want to do it

at a pace that's enjoyable. That's a great message. Thank you for sharing that point. That is really important reminder. I think that everybody's goals are different and to just like our eating plans, it, what might motivate me may not motivate someone else or might be of interest to someone else. And so I think that's, that's a

It's a great summary of what we've been talking about with our adventures and our goals. So thank you for that. I'm excited for you. I can't wait to see your hikes, the Adirondacks. That was my favorite Ragnar was Adirondacks. So pretty. I haven't done any peaks yet. So far, I've just done like local state parks, but at least it's like on my radar. A few years ago, I saw a friend hike Mount Marcy, which is the tallest peak in New York. And when I saw her do that, it's like...

17 mile hike, like down and back. It takes, you know, quite a while, right? Like all day. And we're like, well, I want to do that because I'm competitive. And so when I see someone do something, well, I want to do that too. But it's also a balance of like hiking. I don't want to twist my ankle. Yeah.

When I'm maybe training for a marathon. And so it's just trying to find that balance of fitness activities. As you mentioned, like fitness ADD of like, well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And then it's like, wait, maybe I'm also trying to focus on this particular marathon goal right now. So to just take a step back and you just have to evaluate your priorities of fitness activities and just realize that you can't multifocus if you have a particular goal that you're working towards. So that's something I have to remind myself of.

Yeah, sometimes you have to dial it in and pick one thing. This winter before triathlon, we were building up for the first triathlon, which was in June. John was trying to teach me how to ski. I don't ski. I put sticks on my feet and try not to die on ice. And so I just was like, I tried it a couple of times. I'm like, I really want to do this triathlon. I want to learn how to ski, but I really, really want to do this triathlon. Skiing is going to have to wait because if I get hurt, I'm out.

So I totally get that. So sometimes you do have to prioritize. And the awesome thing is that those, the peaks are still going to be there. Right. And like all these options, it's great to have options and have all, you know, the next fun thing you get to tackle.

I agree. And I think that's one of the things that I love about running is I don't sign up for a lot of races. I sign up for one that's like every, every couple months, basically. So I'm always working towards something or have a goal race. And that helps to keep me motivated. Just kind of having those goals in the future help to give me something to look forward to and train for and...

And I think whatever your fitness activity is, that kind of gives you motivation. Yeah, without a doubt. I think a lot of people struggled this last year with events being taken away and options and people. It was a struggle. They did a great job offering virtual events and stuff, but a lot of people really had a hard time losing their events this last year. So again, just like Camp Runabout, it's going to be this collective like...

I think all these events that are starting to happen, people must be like, "I'm running a 5k with other people. I'm so happy I can't contain it." Like crying, like ugly crying through the whole 5k because you're so happy to be out there with other people. Yes. Yeah, I love that.

And what a great emotion to wrap up our podcast. I just want to say thank you so much for your time, your insight, and all your energy and your stories. And I really hope we spent half the episode talking about nutrition, the other half talking about goals and fitness. So hopefully people found something enjoyable about this conversation. Thanks for having me. And I can't wait to see you at camp. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for having me.

You've heard me talk about Camp Runabout several times. For more information, go to camprunabout.com and use discount code INF101 to save on your registration. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it on social media. Tag me at SarahChasingLife or at Chasing Life Podcast. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe and rate this podcast. That helps me to reach more listeners.