It’s not just elite athletes that benefit from advice and guidance from rehabilitation professionals. At North Shore Sports Medicine, we have a team of health care providers that deliver comprehensive support to all our clients to promote wellness, performance, and healing. When it comes to sports performance – recreational and competitive athletes need to think about how they use their bodies but also how they fuel their bodies. Working with a dietitian can help you optimize training, performance, and overall wellness. Let’s have a closer look.
First, let’s start with some simple facts about nutritional science. There are all kinds of folks out there claiming to be nutritional experts while touting all kinds of misinformation that can be misleading at best and down-right harmful at worst. Dietitians are registered health professionals that undergo several years of rigorous education and training to provide evidence-based, client-centred nutritional counselling. Every person (athlete or otherwise) will have different nutritional goals and needs, and our dietitian at North Shore Sports Medicine is dedicated to working with clients to understand their goals to coach them for success. However you define wellbeing and health, our dietitian provides holistic advice and guidance so you can achieve your goals.
So then, when it comes to sports nutrition, what can you expect from dietitian services? Using a strengths-based approach, the North Shore Sports Medicine dietitian helps clients understand how nutrition can fuel athletic performance by supporting your training and recovery. Not only can you learn what to eat and when to eat it, you’ll learn strategies that align with your personal values and goals. Ultimately, delivering effective sports nutrition advice relies on expert knowledge about how the body uses different nutrients (e.g. carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) to support daily activities. Your dietitian can help you understand what to eat before and after a workout or competition but also how to develop nutritional habits that support your wellbeing year-round and beyond.
Most importantly, working with a registered dietitian, you can learn to develop a healthy, non-judgemental relationship with food. The way we talk about food and nutrition in society can have negative and sustained consequences for the way we eat. Particularly for individuals and athletes who are also managing chronic illnesses such as diabetes, getting expert advice for managing nutritional needs can be so important for maintaining both your physical and emotional health.
Our dietitian can help you set and achieve evidence-informed, sustainable goals to support not only your nutritional wants and needs, but to do so in a way that fosters self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-acceptance.
