Nutrition411: The Podcast, Ep. 13

Eat to Compete: Sports Nutrition for Dietitians

Lisa Jones, RDN, LDN, FAND

This podcast series aims to highlight the science, psychology, and strategies behind the practice of dietetics. Moderator, Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND, interviews prominent dietitians and health professionals to help our community think differently about food and nutrition.

 

In this podcast, Lisa Jones, RDN, LDN, FAND, speaks with Kelly Jones, MS, RD, CSSD, about plant-forward performance nutrition, relative energy deficiency in sports, and best practices in sports nutrition entrepreneurship to help dietitians reduce burnout and create opportunities for growth in the field. 

Additional Resources:

Lisa Jones

Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, speaker, and author (Philadelphia, PA).

Kelly Jones

Kelly Jones MS, RD, CSSD, is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, media, and nutrition communications and the owner of Kelly Jones Nutrition and Student-Athlete Nutrition.

 

TRANSCRIPTION: 

Moderator:

Hello and welcome to Nutrition 411: The Podcast, a special podcast series led by registered dietitian and nutritionist, Lisa Jones. The views of the speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of their respective institutions for Consultant 360.

Lisa Jones:

Hello and welcome to Nutrition 411, the podcast where we communicate the information you need to know now about the science, psychology, and strategies behind the practice of dietetics. Today's podcast is about sports nutrition and I am honored that Kelly Jones is here with us today. Welcome, Kelly.

Kelly Jones:

Thank you for having me.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. Well, we are excited to have you. I want to introduce Kelly. Kelly is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, a media and nutrition communications expert, and a busy active mom. She and her dietitians work with athletes and active individuals at every level providing practical performance nutrition strategies to enhance physical and mental performance. So obviously Kelly, you are very busy.

Kelly Jones:

A little bit.

Lisa Jones:

Do you want to tell us a little bit about your background from high school? I know you were a competitive swimmer.

Kelly Jones:

Of course. So I did compete in swimming in high school and then went on to compete in division one in college as well. And swimming, for those who don't know, is a year-round sport. We don't really get many breaks, so there are a lot of two-a-days and as you can imagine, nutrition should be a pretty big part of that. And when I was in high school, my mom ran into some health issues and our family started to eat a little bit differently, and I noticed pretty quick improvements in my performance and also saw her improvements in health and knew at that time that I, not only wanted to go into nutrition to help people find the benefits of it, but also to help athletes in particular. Because of that, I now work with a lot of swimmers, in addition to endurance athletes and a variety of others, but I always have a special place for swimmers in my heart.

Lisa Jones:

No, I love that. Yeah, we can always trace it back to something that inspired us to do what we do today, and you have a great story, so we appreciate you sharing that with us.

Kelly Jones:

Of course.

Lisa Jones:

I wanted to just highlight... Any disclosures that you want to note real quick? I know that we can link to any of them on your website, but if there are any that you want to speak to now that would be great.

Kelly Jones:

Sure. I do work with a lot of brands. I found my way into media nutrition as part of my work. I'm on the Orgain Nutrition Advisory Board, and I'm a spokesperson for Honey Stinger and do a lot of work with NOW Foods and The Wonderful Company. So I do work with some other brands here and there, but those are my bigger partners.

Lisa Jones:

All right. Well, thank you for sharing, and again, as mentioned, we will link to the rest of them so everyone is aware. And now I want to ask you some additional questions about your area of expertise, obviously sports nutrition, but I want to find out a little bit more about it, and I know you mentioned the history of how you became a sports dietitian, but how did you really come to specialize in sports nutrition and when exactly, besides that moment that was like the moment that you're like, "Oh, I want to be in sports nutrition." For people that are interested that are in college right now and want to be a sports nutrition, what advice would you give them about how you got started in the field, how can they then transfer those skills and how could they maybe follow in your footsteps?

Kelly Jones:

Sure. So I'll go into what I did, but then also, I do want to acknowledge that there are more opportunities now than when I was in school, and there are other ways to get involved at a younger age that I didn't really know of and things that just weren't available at that time. So for me, I went to school at the University of Connecticut and they have a fantastic kinesiology program. So I did have a minor in exercise science while I was majoring in nutrition and dietetics, and I did get to interact with some amazing professors that were leading researchers in the field, and that helped me just gain an interest in the research itself. Then when I went on to grad school, I was matched to the University at Buffalo for my dietetic internship and completed my master's degree there too, but decided that my master's focus was going to be in exercise nutrition versus just clinical nutrition.

When I was in my internship, we had our choice rotation and I really pushed for sports nutrition. They have division one teams there who had never had nutrition support and actually helped to found their first internship for sports nutrition, their first internship rotation. So I think it's important sometimes to be a little bit pushy and not be afraid to speak up when you're a student or intern because you can create opportunities that aren't there. And that made a really big impact on me and I think the trajectory of my career. It helped me realize I didn't want to work full-time for a college, which was helpful because, for me, family is important. Being in one place was important, and I didn't want to chase jobs all around the country. But also, I knew that working with specific athletes outside of that setting, I could have a little bit more impact on individuals' day-to-day lives versus just giving broad recommendations and working on catering and things like that. So there are a lot of ways you can go with performance nutrition, but that experience taught me a lot.

Students today, I encouraged to volunteer with professors that are doing research and volunteer with athletic departments so you can get that experience and see what you like and what you don't like at that moment. So I think that that's incredibly helpful. The other thing, I volunteered with SCAN, which is now SHPN, very early on and did their social media for a while, built a lot of connections, and did a lot of networking there. And right now, I would say yes, SHPN is helpful, but also CPSDA, the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association, definitely as a student get involved there, do their continuing education, apply for their boot camps, and go to their conference because it's a thing that didn't exist when I was younger that I know could have helped me figure things out sooner too.

Lisa Jones:

Well, that is fantastic because one of the things that you said that really stuck out was the fact that go out there and create your own opportunities. Even if you seem like you're being pushy, create your opportunities and that goes back, and I'm going to age myself here, but back when I was in college, there was Nancy Clark. She was the only sports nutritionist and she would have articles. It was back when articles were being sent out. You couldn't get them online and then she was the only one. So when I went to my professor and said, "Oh, this is an interesting field." And the professor answered, "Well, Nancy Clark's the only sports dietitian pretty much, don't even think about it." But now you're right. There are so many opportunities popping up and it's just fantastic to watch and see all these opportunities that weren't there before and now they are. But it goes back to what you were saying that even if there isn't the opportunity you think is available for you, go out and create your own.

Kelly Jones:

And we were both on the Nutrition Entrepreneurs Board at the same time in the past, and when I first started to get into Nutrition Entrepreneurs and volunteer there and network there too, Emma Fogt, another dietitian, made a comment about how anywhere there's food, there should be a dietitian. And I translate that now into anywhere there's food and fitness, there should be a dietitian too. So there are more opportunities out there than exist right now, for sure.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah, I love that. We need to put that on a T-shirt somewhere. Thank you for that. So tell us a little bit more about how you work with athletes and really develop nutrition plans that will support their training and performance goals in the future.

Kelly Jones:

Sure. My dietitians and I work with athletes of any age, and students, we work with pros, and then just everyday exercisers too. But no matter who it is, my goal is always to help people fuel without fear. There's a lot of fearmongering in the media and social media. There's a lot of fear of certain foods and food timing in sports culture, and I want to help people fuel without fear, losing the all-or-nothing mentality too, that's often ingrained in athletes. So understanding that part of the culture is really important.

But when working one-on-one it's, of course, essential to dive into the athlete's training program, their current struggles, their preferences, and whatever their current goal is. But I also love to take it back from day one, really before day one. I have them fill out a pretty lengthy form that we discussed in more detail when we meet, but where they tap into their relationship with food, relationship with their body, and this goes from childhood and what foods they were offered or not allowed to have, or what was instilled in them from a parent or coach or just things they picked up on their own seeming so that we can understand that.

And then their education can become a lot more personal. So from there, we can then have more individualized education, and determine how we can make practical tweaks to their current eating pattern because there's a lot of advice out there that's just not realistic. And then help them reach their goals. So we're taking performance nutrition science, which we know is lab-based and not always realistic, and integrating that with their experiences. And while I always want to encourage them to do certain things, it's on them to decide ultimately two to three things that they'll start to work on right away and how they can do that. And then in between appointments, we're always checking in weekly for accountability with what's going well, what's a struggle right now, and any random questions that pop up.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah. And I'm sure that that happens. That sounds amazing, and another T-shirt came up. You were saying fuel without fear.

Kelly Jones:

Yes.

Lisa Jones:

Do you have some T-shirts there? I

Kelly Jones:

I should just get that started.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah. No, I think that's really good with the fuel without fear because that's something that's memorable. And then that puts their anxiety at bay in a way, because if you think about an athlete, I just remember the last time I played athletics, I didn't play professionally, but I played in high school and it wasn't swimming where you had to do it twice a day, but it was field hockey and they made us practice right after. But I just remember we had to do the monster mile, and I remember that was difficult, and that would always cause anxiety because I wasn't a fast runner unless someone was chasing me with a knife type of thing, so those kinds of things.

And then I just remember the things that really stick out to me is the practices that in sports that were considered, I guess, I was thinking, this can't be healthy. If you're somebody that's in wrestling and they tell you to put a trash bag on, run around with it because you have to be at a certain weight, the stuff that they would do and I remember thinking to myself, "That can't be right." And you starve yourself all day because you're trying to make this weight.

Kelly Jones:

Yep. And there are so many risks to it all.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah. I really like your philosophy, the fuel without fear.

Kelly Jones:

Thank you.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah. So there's so much research and if you're not a sports dietitian, you're just a regular dietitian that may be practicing in another area and then you see all this research come out, or even if you're someone that's a sports dietitian, how do they stay current with the trends in sports nutrition?

Kelly Jones:

Great question. I am a big fan of, it's actually a subscription model, but examine.com, you can select the topics that are important to you and get a research brief every month so that something stands out, it's something that you're interested in, something that you've heard about recently or something that applies to your niche. Then you can click over, read the studies that they're linking to in more detail, and then, of course, make your own opinion on them. But I like their research briefs.

And then also, as a member of CPSDA that I mentioned earlier, they send out when they have research library updates too. And if you are a sports dietitian, just getting started out, again, SHPN, CPSDA, look at their fact sheets just as a start. The Sports Nutrition Manual for Professionals is a textbook that's updated by leading performance dietitians. I think they're on the seventh edition now. And is a great way to have just a book to grab and look at, an actual textbook, not digital, that you can highlight, and look at things that are important to you. And then personally, I do a lot of writing and webinars for brands that I work with and also for conferences. So that keeps me on my toes actually looking at research and researching on my own pretty regularly too for different topics.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah, so you're lucky there because that forces you to stay current because you can't be putting this content out there if it's not up-to-date.

Kelly Jones:

Exactly.

Lisa Jones:

As a dietitian, we're the first to tell you when something is not up-to-date.

Kelly Jones:

Of course.

Lisa Jones:

So what would be your advice to give to other professionals that, again, want to go into this particular field of sports nutrition?

Kelly Jones:

I think that it depends on where you're starting. If you're a student right now, then you have to maybe accept that your first job won't necessarily be in performance nutrition, but you can always find ways to integrate it on the side if you want. There are so many opportunities to just start doing one-on-one counseling or speaking to teams, even if it's a local high school or club team. You can, again, start volunteering or writing. There are a lot of opportunities in that way. And really the same goes if you've been a dietitian for 10, 15 years and decide, you know what? This is something I've always wanted to do. I always tell people to take a look at what they love about their job right now and see how their sports nutrition interests could relate to that. If you really do love writing, can you start writing your own blog to get practice and then do guest blog posts for another performance dietitian? And then from there, pitch yourself out to Runner's World. That's a path that you could take.

If you really love working with groups, maybe you can start group coaching in the sport that you're most comfortable with and put those types of services out there. So I'm really into the entrepreneurial side of things because I think that there's the most opportunity there for growth and to do what you really love and you just have to merge it with what you already love doing. Having said that, we obviously need to enhance our knowledge as well. So those resources that I mentioned, I think, are really important to get involved with from the get-go between SHPN and CPSDA especially.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And thank you for sharing that. Excellent advice because the one thing you're going back to is creating your own opportunity. How could you take your current skills and make the transferrable skills that you have like writing, for example? You could already be writing for another publication. Just really great tips there. Thank you.

Kelly Jones:

Yeah.

Lisa Jones:

Now, you might not know this answer, and it just popped up when you were answering the last question, but do you happen to know, I'm seeing more and more job opportunities on different job boards that'll pop up, whereas before, even 10 years ago, you didn't see them. I would probably say doesn't every college, at this point, have somebody on campus that is a performance dietitian or do you happen to know the stats on that?

Kelly Jones:

You would think that every college would. This is actually something that CPSDA was really founded on by dietitians who wanted to make more opportunities available because they weren't. And we still have a long road to go, but there's been a lot of progress. I think that there are still only around a thousand CSSDs, which are certified specialists in sports dietetics, and you're not necessarily going to be there when you get your first job in, let's say, collegiate or pro sports. But we're definitely making progress. As of 2020, I just pulled up a webinar that I gave. There were 275 full-time jobs available in collegiate and professional settings. So 275 with there being a thousand CSSDs, means that there are about 700 plus not accounted for in those numbers. So that's where, again, it might be a performance training center. There might be some working in a gym and a lot working in private practice too, but there are a lot of colleges that still don't think they have the budget.

There's actually a school that settled on a death lawsuit with a student-athlete who died from heat stroke a couple of years ago, and they had to pay out $14 million to settle that. So not only by not hiring a sports dietitian to educate coaches and athletes on hydration, not only because of that did they have someone die, but it's obviously costing them a lot of money too. So I always argue that you're saving money by having a performance dietitian, even though you can't necessarily look at the cause and effect between exactly how that dietitian is helping you revenue-wise or helping the athletes specifically, but it is very important, I think.

Lisa Jones:

Yes, definitely. That case that you were talking about, was that the one that was in the news? I think I saw something about it in the news last week.

Kelly Jones:

Just last week.

Lisa Jones:

The wrestler?

Kelly Jones:

Yep.

Lisa Jones:

And he was trying to get water and they like that was-

Kelly Jones:

And you see things like that, too, come out in high school athletics with football, with basketball randomly here and they'll be like, "Oh, they had a heart event." And it's, well, how much did hydration probably play a role in that? I see athletes always saying, "My coach said that throwing up meant that I was just working hard." And I have track athletes who will say, "Well, my coach said that if I'm still getting my period, I'm not working hard enough." These are the harmful messages that people are getting. And we can help performance and help so much by having more access to RDs out there.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And it's great to know that you're on a campaign to do just that. You and the fellow dietitians that work alongside you are there to do that and hopefully change that number. So that's just so great to hear and I would've thought the number would've been at least half of it, but the fact that it's only 275, that's still better than zero-

Kelly Jones:

It is. Right. When I was in grad school, I think I knew of maybe five dietitians that were full-time at that level. And so there are some that consult too. I will say the MLB, Major League Baseball, requires every team to at least consult with a sports dietitian mainly because of supplement issues. But again, there's a lot of progress that has been made with that.

Lisa Jones:

Yes, that's good to hear. Well, keep on the mission that you're on. Do not stop.

Kelly Jones:

We're trying.

Lisa Jones:

Well, I know I've seen you speak before about RED-S, and could you explain a little bit more about, first of all, what it is for those that don't know, and then the second question, its impact on health and the performance of athletes?

Kelly Jones:

Absolutely. So RED-S, you'll usually see it abbreviated, R-E-D dash S stands for relative energy deficiency in sport. And essentially this is a syndrome. We don't necessarily identify it as an eating disorder, which I'll get to why in a minute, but it results from something called low energy availability. Low energy availability is when the body is not getting enough energy or calories from the diet to support just basic health, basic BMR for basic body functions on top of the really high energy demands that they have from training. So the energy that's left over, there's really no energy left over, you end up being in a deficit.

And the syndrome that results from that harms both physical and mental performance and health. So from a performance standpoint, let's call it, because that's what athletes tend to care about more, this is where we catch their attention and say, Hey, here's a problem, we can see decreased endurance performance, decreased muscular strength and recovery and decreased training responses in general, which can then affect cardiovascular health and whatnot. But there's definitely an increased injury risk, and this can be that your concentration and your coordination are off and your mental energy is lower, you're dealing with brain fog. So you end up having a misstep that you should have been fine and you end up having a joint issue. Or sometimes more likely, and this is how we catch it, is with skeletal injuries. So stress fractures are almost always a clear indication of low energy availability in athletes, so if it's a metatarsal foot fracture. I get a lot of referrals for hip fractures, believe it or not. Those are a lot more common than you might think.

And that is when people have this wake-up call of, "Oh, wow, what I've been doing is really not supporting my training." So that all obviously bleeds into the health consequences which get into immune system function. For females, we also often see, as I alluded to earlier, loss of menstrual function or irregular menstrual function. So it is not normal and it is not healthy to lose your period. Unfortunately, in males, we can't see that. So for them, we're looking at a lot more are you're getting colds often? Are you getting sick a lot? How is your bone health? Are you having problems concentrating psychologically? How are you doing with mental health? So there's a wide long list of issues that can come about, and this isn't always intentional from disordered eating and trying to change their body. A lot of times it's just, especially in student-athletes, they have busy, stressful schedules, sometimes, again, training twice a day with a full course load and all the pressure they put on themselves too. It's hard to really find time to eat adequate meals throughout the day, and that's what dietitians can help them strategize.

Lisa Jones:

Well, it sounds like we can have a whole podcast episode just on RED-S.

Kelly Jones:

A thousand percent.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah. So we'll have to have you come back and talk about just RED-S. But I was astounded when you were talking about the hip fracture because you wouldn't think that that would be something that would be an issue unless they were at a certain age or something. But you're saying this is any age that this can happen to, correct?

Kelly Jones:

Yes. Especially in my practice, in the past, I spent a lot of time with disordered eating and RED-S, and while I do fewer one-on-ones now, my other dietitians still do a lot of these one-on-one consults. And it's especially in endurance athletes. So we'll have runners, triathletes, and cyclists come to us with these problems. But yes, you can have osteoporosis as a teenager or in your twenties because of under-fueling. And a lot of times, too, when women or females are younger, their doctor will just tell them to go on a birth control pill when they don't have their period. And really that just masks the problem because then we don't know that, "Oh, wow, you haven't had your period really in seven years?" And that entire time you've really had endocrine issues that have kept your bones from mineralizing the way that they're supposed to. So, unfortunately, there are a lot of issues out there with masking some of these problems too.

Lisa Jones:

Wow. You're almost like a detective too, trying to figure out, like what could this be?

Kelly Jones:

Right. And making sure that we can get the correct labs. We look at things like the thyroid and other endocrine hormones to piece it together. And sometimes there are parallels with PCOS, which makes it confusing, especially if they don't have an injury yet. So definitely a lot of detective work, especially too, because a lot of primary care doctors aren't really in the know on issues like this. So unless they're seeing sports medicine, it's hard to have those conversations.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And you also just made the point for why it's necessary if somebody's looking to transfer to become a dietitian practicing in another specialty area, they really have to get their knowledge base, a good foundation of their knowledge base before they move into the sports nutrition arena because there are just so many things to know. It's not like I can wake up tomorrow and be, "Hello, I'm a sports nutritionist now."

Kelly Jones:

Exactly. And this sounds like an area that anyone listening is interested in, there is a conference literally called the Female Athlete Conference every June that's in the Boston area, including all the leaders in research on this area. So that can help with the female athlete side of things. Though, again, with RED-S, it does bleed into any gender.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And I also read something that you were having too upcoming, I think April 17th, I believe. Do you want to just talk... Now would probably be a good time to talk about that for those interested in transitioning.

Kelly Jones:

Yeah. When the pandemic hit, another dietitian, Angie Asche, and I were supposed to be presenting a webinar at a national conference on diversifying revenue streams as a sports dietitian. And so because that was canceled, we said, "Okay, we're just going to give the webinar on our own." And we did that. And then we had so many students and other dietitians who were like, "Hey, I really want to get into sports nutrition. Do you do business coaching?" And we were like, "We'd love to, but we actually do sports nutrition, so we don't have time for that." So for about three years, we've been wanting to launch a course so that we can help more people really learn how to build the knowledge and more importantly, the business skills to become an entrepreneur in the area of performance nutrition and find all the different ways that they can get excited about working in sports nutrition outside of just one-on-one counseling. So we have a nine-week course that includes group coaching and a mastermind group launching on April 17th that we're really excited about.

Lisa Jones:

Oh, congratulations. That's fabulous. And much needed too.

Kelly Jones:

Yeah, definitely. Thank you. And there's a lot of people that are working full-time and it's a wonderful experience to get, but they're crazy hours and there's a lot of burnout with all the travel and long days and weekends that dietitians are working and sometimes without appropriate pay. So that's why we're really passionate about not only advancing pay in the field but also people moving into entrepreneurship if that's what feels right for them.

Lisa Jones:

And I think this will be something good on your resume too.

Kelly Jones:

Thank you.

Lisa Jones:

That's the website, sportsnutritionentrepreneurs.com. So we will put that link in our show notes.

Kelly Jones:

Thank you for bringing that up.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And I would love to hear from you because nothing brings something more to life than a story. I would love to hear if you can think of one particular story that you want to share showcasing your work.

Kelly Jones:

Sure. So this story brings together a few clients that I had in the fall. I have had a history of really being pro plant-based. I eat more plant-based on my own but do look at plant-based as mostly plants and not necessarily exclusively plants unless that's important to someone ethically. And I think that there's a big trend for people to just go plant-based just because right now, and a lot of elitist claims about it being the end all be all, you have to go vegan or else you're not going to be healthy, all this stuff. So especially in the endurance community, many people have caught onto that. And while I'm a huge promoter of eating more plant foods, I'm also a big pusher of protein, I say, and I had several endurance athletes come to me at the same time in the fall who were following vegan diets to "improve health" and improve performance.

And what we found in looking at their diets is that they weren't actually doing this for ethical reasons, and they were doing it just because they thought it was best, it really was more of a restrictive diet for them. And I don't only help people who come to me saying, "I'm vegan. How do I eat this way?" But I help people evaluate, is this really the best way for me to eat? So with these people, one of them ended up adding back in fish here and there because they really loved it, but they were also concerned with a family history of heart issues. And the other was traveling so often that they were just missing opportunities to even eat protein and fuel correctly because they were looking for whatever the vegan option was on the menu, which sometimes had no protein and sometimes was Beyond burgers on white buns with cheese and no vegetables on the side.

So to try to bring more balance for them in consistency and their refueling plan while they were training for an Iron Man, not to mention, it really became apparent to them that while they were at home, they could eat as vegan as they wanted, but when they were on the road, it was really important to them to add in animal proteins here and there. So I like that story because it shows how flexible we as dietitians need to and really should want to be with our clients so that they can achieve their goals and also continue to enjoy food and feel well too.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. What a great message that that story highlights. And I'm sure you have so many over the years, too, that showcase your work. And that one shows just the consumers are just bombarded with information. Even as a dietitian myself, I'll go in the grocery store and I'm like, "I can't keep up with all the products that are being released."

Kelly Jones:

I know, and all the trends.

Lisa Jones:

Yes. And then if somebody asks you, you're like, "Well, I don't know. I have to go look stuff up still sometimes." It used to be easier back in the day when there wasn't as much. Now it's like, "Okay, what happened? Where's this new product at?" And then you may want to try it yourself before you recommend it, those kinds of things. So there's just so much. And you and I as dietitians know because we study it, but imagine being a consumer that doesn't have any background knowledge of any of it.

Kelly Jones:

Right. It has to be so frustrating. And then you go on social media and you're scrolling and there's some random wellness influencer without a shirt on in a grocery store pulling a product you just bought saying that it's toxic. So it's a crazy world out there.

Lisa Jones:

Well, it's definitely entertaining too, I think.

Kelly Jones:

Yes, for us.

Lisa Jones:

Now, you had so many different things that we discussed so far today, so it's probably hard to boil it down into one bottom-line takeaway for the audience. But what would you say, if you could do that into one or two takeaways, what would you tell them that they should do or be aware of?

Kelly Jones:

Yeah, I think that we just want to look at fueling as an individualized thing that should be practical and realistic. We don't want to go for those all-or-nothing mentalities. And to add to that, probably should have mentioned this a little bit earlier, but the way that your body looks and the weight on the scale is not necessarily going to correlate with your performance. So start to look at other aspects of performance to guide if your eating plan is doing the right things for you or not. And then second, I'm always recommending, I think no matter who you are, for the most part, unless there's a specific condition that we have to consider, aiming to add more plants and more protein to the plate are always good goals to try to enhance your health and performance, whether fitness and athletics are important to you or not.

Lisa Jones:

There's another T-shirt. See? Kelly's got free T-shirts now. Plants and protein to the plate.

Kelly Jones:

Yep. Thank you for bringing this up because now I have to add that to my list of things to do.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah, let me know when the store's ready. Is there anything else that you want to share with us that you may have forgotten to mention or wanted to mention before we go into the fun round?

Kelly Jones:

No, let's just hit the lightning round. I think we've had a lot of good points and I'd love to leave people with those last two little bullets there. So I'm ready for the lightning round.

Lisa Jones:

So good. Good juicy nuggets. Okay. My first question for you, Kelly, is how do you celebrate Easter?

Kelly Jones:

So Easter has always been my favorite holiday, more than Christmas. I like that, for me, it's just been togetherness with my family versus the focus on the gifts and all the stuff and the decorations. Now that I have kids, we're super into the Easter egg hunts, so we love doing that and sending them around and just seeing how happy they are. But one big tradition for me is I have this cake pan that has these four bunny molds in it. It was my grandmother's. Ever since I was little, we make these bunny cakes every Easter. So that's one of my favorite traditions that I did with my mom. She did with her mom. And now I'm carrying on with my kids. And I love cake and frosting, so it just totally works for me.

Lisa Jones:

Aww, that sounds fun. You talk a little bit about your kids, how about when you were a kid? What is your favorite Easter memory that you remember to this date?

Kelly Jones:

So obviously, I love that memory of making those cakes with my mom and grandma, but I also grew up with so many cousins around. That's one thing that my kids don't have. And at my cousin's house, we would always have these huge Easter egg hunts. There were over a dozen of us just running around the backyard, and it was always just fun to be together and spend time afterward. We'd usually go to a big Easter brunch before that as a family, and we'd have tables and tables of our family there, a big Italian family, and then came back and would do our little hunt. So those are some pretty special memories that I have.

Lisa Jones:

Aww.

Kelly Jones:

I love these questions. They bring me back.

Lisa Jones:

I know. Easter egg hunts are so fun.

Kelly Jones:

Yes.

Lisa Jones:

All right. So I have to ask you this one, because you're a dietitian and you like to eat and talk about food. So I have to, of course, ask you, what are your favorite or traditional foods that you like to eat for Easter? If you were sitting down for an Easter meal, what would you prepare? What would Kelly make?

Kelly Jones:

Because brunch was such a big part of growing up for me, we never had a big Easter dinner like a lot of people do. So the past few years, especially with the pandemic, we don't really go out to brunch as much anymore for Easter. And I like to make a big brunch spread, so I usually do frittatas. I'm really into strata now with the whole-grain bread and spring vegetables in there. And then adding on fun little side dishes. We do like carrot pancakes to try to be on a theme, and I love making little homemade peanut butter Easter eggs. So those are some staples that are on our table.

Lisa Jones:

Oh, it sounds like I have to find out exactly where Kelly lives.

Kelly Jones:

Yeah, we're not that far. You can come over for Easter. I'd love to have you.

Lisa Jones:

It sounds delicious. All right. My last question for you is if you could travel anywhere for Easter, where would you go and why?

Kelly Jones:

Honestly, I would probably travel back in time to spend the weekend with my big extended family. We don't get to do that as much. I don't live in the same state where I grew up. And actually, the family member whose house always hosted us passed away in the fall, so I would actually travel back in time to one of my childhood Easters to experience that again.

Lisa Jones:

Oh, wow. That's a great answer. I didn't expect that. I thought you'd say like, "I'd go to Hawaii," or something.

Kelly Jones:

I know. I was thinking that at first, and then I went for the nostalgia of it all.

Lisa Jones:

Oh, so good. Well, who doesn't want to do that, right?

Kelly Jones:

Yeah.

Lisa Jones:

That's my answer too now, Kelly. I'm going to steal your answer and use it. It's so good.

Kelly Jones:

I love it.

Lisa Jones:

Well, thank you so much for being on our show today.

Kelly Jones:

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate for having me, and I loved all the questions.

Lisa Jones:

Yeah, thanks. Thank you for sharing your insights with us, and we'll share like we said, all the resources and links as we discussed. And to our audience, thank you for listening. And please tune in again and share your comments and feedback on our site. Have a great day, and enjoy a healthier lifestyle with The 411 in mind.

Moderator:

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