Ep.5 / Maddie Nickal, RD
Life After Sport: Food and Body Challenges of Former Female Athletes, and How to Overcome Them.
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Maddie Nickal is a Registered Dietitian working with former female athletes to help them understand nutrition, reconnect with their internal signals, and improve their body image in life after sport. Upon graduating from Penn State University and retiring from a long career in track and field as a heptathlete, she felt there were not enough resources to help athletes transition into the next chapter, especially those struggling with their relationship with food. With years of studying, passion for impact, and personal experience, she created the Fueled Beyond Sport Approach Nutrition Coaching Program where she helps women to reframe the way they see food, nourish their bodies, and bring their best to the world in life after sport.
In this conversation, we go over all of it. We talk through Maddie’s personal experience of falling into disordered eating during her athletic career, and how this can come from good intentions. She shares about the unique experiences of athletes transitioning out of their sport, and how this time of transition influences their relationship with food and their body. Maddie shares advice for how to support yourself through that transition, and she gives some tips for current athletes as well to help set you up for success so that you don’t fall as hard into the identity crisis and food & body challenges that many face when you eventually leave your sports career.
Even for those who are not athletes, this is an insightful conversation about your relationship with food and body, and anyone can benefit from listening to this episode.
Find Maddie on Instagram @mad.fuel
