Listeners Nutrition Clinic 5

This is the 5th of our Listeners Nutrition Clinic episodes. These are episodes dedicated to answering questions we have received from YOU, our listeners.They are questions linked to YOUR nutrition for your running, performance and personal goals. We host these episodes every few weeks so, if you have any questions you would like us to answer/discuss in this space then please get in touch with us at hello@runnershealthhub.com. We have TWO interesting questions to discuss today and they are: Q1. How do I overcome anxiety under race conditions, which leads to poor performance?Q2. How do I manage low ferritin levels post-menopause?Download our FREE E book TOP Running Snacks and Nutrient Timing to Fuel Peak PerformanceSHOW NOTES(07:16)Q1. How do I overcome anxiety under race conditions, which leads to poor performance?Giving some background and context to the question received from one of our listeners and outlining some potential psychological and physical reasons for her race-anxiety. (13:43)Outlining some TIPS to help alleviate race-anxiety including:Focus on completing a negative split in-race and during trainingUse a positive mantra Focussing on running the whole distance (21:27)Q2. How do I manage low ferritin levels post-menopause?Giving some background and context to the question received from another of our listeners and outlining WHY it is important to test for both Hemoglobin and Ferritin when completing a blood panel test. (24:42)Highlighting some of typical symptoms associated with iron insufficiency/deficiency including:Tiredness/fatigue/lethargyPale skin of inner mouth/nails, Pale on inner lining of eyesThin, brittle, pale, spoon shaped nailsBrittle hair (26:37)Outlining potential causes and risk factors for low iron/ferritin status including:Reduced iron intake Reduced iron absorptionIncreased iron requirementsIncreased iron loss (31:59)Highlighting iron rich foods to consider to help support iron storage as ferritin. Iron rich foods are divided into TWO categories: Haem iron food sources Non-Haem food sourcesHaem iron is predominantly found in red meat in fact, red meat contains the highest amount of iron of any foodNon-haem iron is found as an iron salt in plant foods, however it is also found, in small amounts, in meat, fish, and poultry(37:43)Outlining ways of enhancing iron absorption from the digestive tract including:Eating foods containing Vitamin CMeat, fish, and poultry have an absorption enhancing effect Low pH in stomach(40:44)KEY TAKEAWAYSIt is well recognised that race conditions can lead to anxiety in runners…even professional and elite runners suffer from it….but there are things a runner can do to try to overcome their anxietyWhen anxious it can lead to negative thinking. A way to try to alleviate this is to find a positive mantra that you can tap into during a raceAnother tool to help minimize anxiety is to concentrate on different aspects of your running to help crowd out any anxious thoughts. For example, for Vanessa, I got her to focus on her running speed and achieving a negative split over a 5K distanceStored iron is known as Ferritin and when testing for iron status it is important to check ferritin levels too because results could show normal...