Nutritional Revolution Podcast

SPECIAL SARAH STURM MINI-SERIES, PART 2: Pregnancy Body Changes as an Athlete: Weight Gain, Body Image, and Hydration

• Kyla Channell, MSc Nutrition & Human Performance

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 29:27

Send us Fan Mail

What you're about to listen to is something a little different.

This is not a traditional episode — it's an edited recording of an actual one-on-one coaching check-in with my client, Sarah Sturm, a professional athlete who recently found out she was pregnant.

After getting the news, Sarah approached me with an idea: she wanted to document her experience navigating pregnancy as a competitive athlete in real time, and she wanted to share it. So over five sessions, we hit record.

With Sarah's full approval and participation, we've taken those check-ins and edited them down into a 5 part series of ~20-minute mini episodes so you can follow along with her journey as it actually unfolded — unscripted and unfiltered.

In episode 2 we cover:

  • The mental side of seeing your body change in the first trimester
  • Calculating fluid needs - pregnant or not!
  • Where that weight gain is actually coming from
  • Whether calories need to increase right away, and how hydration needs shift in early pregnancy.

Please note: some portions of the original recordings have been removed for time or privacy. What you're hearing is a curated but authentic look at what real coaching support looks like during one of the most significant transitions an athlete can go through.

Thank you to Sarah for her openness and trust in sharing this with our community. 🤍

Please note that this podcast is created strictly for educational purposes and should never be used for medical diagnosis or treatment.

Mentioned:

  • hDrop: https://hdroptech.com/ref/83/
    • Use code HDROPNR to save 20%

MORE NR

CONNECT 

TRUSTED RESOURCES 

Welcome to the Nutritional Revolution podcast. This is our special mini series of episodes we recorded with Sarah Sturm during her first trimester. And in this episode, we're diving into first trimester nutrition, some of the biggest challenges that can come with. And then we talk about keeping blood sugar more stable, easy ways to work in regular small snacks. how much protein she should be aiming for, are protein powders a good option, and how to navigate common issues like nausea and constipation. If you're trying to feel better while still supporting your nutrition in early pregnancy, this episode will give you some practical takeaways. I've really appreciated other people talking about their symptoms. I've pretty much just turned to the internet, which is a scary place normally, but actually I find it quite helpful hearing about other women's symptoms. I think I saw some notes in your training peaks when you got really fatigued at one point. Yeah, it's been I would say if I had to summarize, it truly is up and down, you know, like last Saturday, I felt super great. And I did a group ride and ended up riding 75 miles and felt stellar, you know, chose to extend the group ride and did you know, my own little extension and yeah, it was awesome. But then the next two days after that, I felt kind of less good. And then, yesterday, I was able to ride and go to the gym. But then this morning, I got hit with some really bad morning sickness. Do you, are you actually throwing up? okay. I'm like not a big, I'm not really a big puker, but this morning I was definitely like in the bathroom, because I was like, this is it, I'm gonna finally puke. Yeah, oh Gosh, okay. you finding anything that's helping with it? crackers or? yeah, I definitely keep saltines by the bed. And I have been trying to do small meals throughout the day instead of big ones, because I have the craziest bloated stomach, but it's really unlike any other loading I've ever had it's weird. I look, I look pretty pregnant, but it's just air. uh No, that's what's crazy No, I have been getting constipated, which is not a normal thing for me. So that's been a new fun. Boy, this is really just great. It's going to make everyone like keep their IUDs in. honestly, I do the thing that a lot of women do where we get really nauseous and then you think this little meal is gonna help for a little bit and it does and then you get really nauseous and you're why did I eat that? I shouldn't have eaten that because now it's making me feel bad. But then you kind of convince yourself that this next thing that you're craving is gonna cure your nausea and um most of the time it just kind of tamps it down. Mm. Are you feeling nausea like all through the day? Oh, just decided that I just do everything nauseous. And sometimes it's worse than other times, you just can't have a dip in your blood sugar is what I've realized. I'm just starving so. often, but I don't want a huge meal. just need small things. the last couple days were pretty hard because my activity level was a lot lower, but my appetite was definitely still elevated. And I think as an athlete, that's kind of a hard thing to deal with. Yeah, and your body like starts to change and it's, it's a little bit, it's not upsetting because you're yeah, this cool thing is happening, but it's kind of alarming because we're used to having a lot of control and not having anything change and this is like daily. I was like, my pants aren't fitting. Totally. Yeah. lean into the spandex. Yeah, totally. And then I mean, even my spandex, my jerseys, because I was pretty flat chested, like, fits. my sports bras, my boobs are like up here now. The body is evolving. The body is evolving. wild. I really have a lot of appreciation for women who do this gracefully because I don't know if that's going to be my journey. Yeah, So I just wanted to ask you a lot of questions about protein. And I had questions about creatine because you can find anything on the internet to support either side of that collagen. Obviously, I'm taking my prenatals, but I've switched to taking them at night because they make me so nauseous. I would love to talk through like what just because food is such a big part of this right now, especially in the first trimester, trying to put together simple meals that are nutritious. But then you also get these crazy cravings for things like birthday cake pancakes with fried pickles was one of my mornings. Yeah. cake. But Dylan was like, well, we air fried them so they were healthy. The pickles. Yeah. nice. We birthday cake pancakes with air fried pickles. Yeah. So it's like sweet and kind of almost like tangy or sour combo and salty. had it's weird like chocolate out like that does not sound good to me anymore, which is weird. Yeah, I mean, I could spend this whole episode telling you like all the crazy things that have changed with my palate so right now your body is starting to increase that blood volume piece and to manage that increase in blood volume and pressure, you need to have appropriate amount of glucose and sodium in the blood. And so craving salt and sugar or like you're saying, keeping blood sugar stable. Hmm. be a piece of that. It is crazy how wildly different you feel from day to day. And it's been definitely harder for me to scale back on exercise because one, I mean, it's what I've spent my life doing for the past over a decade. But then, I just, I know that there's a bigger thing happening than, and it's not like I'm aiming for performance. It's mostly just mental health. Yeah. But yeah, it's hard to manage because some days you just feel like poo poo. Yeah. I feel like people don't talk about that piece as much. especially as an athlete, not even the disordered eating and body image component, like that aside, it's just we are fine tuned machines to do this thing. And now the thing that we're doing is a totally different goal. Right. it. and this is my question for you. should I be like, watching what I eat right now or following those cravings or would I feel better if I didn't eat pretty much I just want carbs I could just exist on pasta plain pasta and bread if I let myself but is that gonna make me feel better or worse or should I get some salad salad actually does sound good but the idea of making a salad sounds really hard. Yeah, that's a great question. mean, I think mother nature is is super smart and intuitive, right? And if your body's asking for something and telling you something, think there's certainly part of that you want to listen to. I think from a blood sugar stability lens, it certainly would be favorable to pair your carbs with a protein. or a fat to keep that blood sugar response a little bit more stable so you're not riding these really high highs and then crashes. I think that's probably been what I'm experiencing, I just, I just want carbs croissants, toast, pasta. And I mean, if you think about when you weren't pregnant, did you ever crave protein? most of my clients never like, man, I can't wait to get my hands on that chicken breast. Yeah, mean, occasionally, occasionally I'll crave a hamburger and I don't eat a ton of red meat. So I bet it was just some low iron. But yeah, no, I'm not never like, you know what I really want is a big steak. Right. Yes. Well, and I think you're totally not alone there. uh to get protein in because like eggs are really hit and miss and that's usually my go-to easy quick protein. But I think almost more than meals. I would love to focus on small snacks that are kind of healthy, that I can go to store and buy a bunch of this thing and pair, if I'm having kind of a sweet craving, it'll fulfill that. I don't really know how to do this stage, because big meals don't sound appealing, but small snacky things do. But I don't know if that's just like an energy thing. Yeah, I mean, it might be. would try and yeah, I'm trying the small regular snacks. I think it's totally fine. But yeah, I would make sure you pair it with a protein and or a fat to keep that glycemic response a little bit more stable. And then it could be if you wanting something sweet, it could be I don't know if fruit would give you the sweetness you're looking for. Yes. any berries or fresh fruit, dried fruit even, like dried mangoes usually are pretty sweet, dried pineapple are pretty sweet. um And yeah, you could snack on that with a handful of nuts or trail mix if you wanted. I yeah, maybe I need to relook at the I was like trying to do the meal stuff, but I was like, my god, this is like I couldn't It was like too much almost, but I feel like if I just did some meal prep on the days that I felt better, I could get some of those. the idea of trying to figure out how to cook lentils, but lentil like beans actually do sound good to me but I was cooking this miso soup because I was, I do a lot of tofu, but then Now, like we had it the other night and I was like, I can't ever eat this again. Which is so weird because I love it. But now I don't. appetite's like kind of unpredictable and your cravings are unpredictable. So prepping for a whole week doesn't make sense. Yeah, yeah. It's just one stage of life. This is just one stage of life. yeah, I think I mean, having options, right? And things that are maybe shelf stable versus, more perishable, whether that's frozen fruit that you could put in some Greek yogurt versus fresh, you know, berries versus dried mangoes or dried fruit that shelf stable. know, even pretzels or if you did want to do pasta, you could always do one of the like chickpea or legume based pasta. So you're getting protein and fiber with that. I think the fiber component is probably what my diet has been lacking. Yeah, that would lead to some constipation for sure. Is protein like, I mean, I know it's super in vogue right now, everyone's like, protein, obviously I'm going to try and get protein with each meal, but how much protein should I be getting and in what form like is it safe to just be doing the protein powder thing? Mmm, yeah. but, or like creatine, like where does that fall in? I do a collagen powder too, cause I'm like, well I'm going to be stretching. like. Right. Yes. Yeah. Bone. Well, you can do collagen powder. You certainly can do that while you're pregnant. You can also do it in the form of bone broth. you could sip on bone broth and that's a great source of protein as well. That's a little bit more complete. you will get a little bit more leucine with the bone broth versus just a collagen peptides powder. And yeah, that'll certainly help with the skin and all the tissues moving if we do like include mixed macronutrients, proteins, carbs and fats, as your body's growing this thing, it's kind of well, you're still active and doing your sport. But if we were a bit more. inactive or immobilized for any reason, including protein in the diet is one of those big things that'll delay lean mass losses and or support the muscle tissue that's there. So if we're um still stimulating it from exercise, that's a great driver to maintain it. And then if we can bring in amino acids to support that too, that's kind of the other lever there that we can pull. Okay, yeah, I feel like I could be doing better and I'm trying to be nice to myself, which is hard because, I just want to be doing everything right. Yeah. we'll start bringing in having a variety of protein sources and different sweet carb options that are perishable, fresh, frozen, non perishable. I love the idea of I'm just gonna try and focus more on fruit. because just those little small things around the house and maybe doing some steamed veggies for dinner. And yeah, I love I love any way of knowing what healthy, healthy carbs like with some fiber would be great. So I wrote down that. Yeah, beans. Okay. like chia seeds are a fantastic source of fiber. If you can throw some in your smoothie or throw some in your yogurt. I think one tablespoon of chia seeds roughly is five grams of fiber. So get a couple of those. do your daily like requirements change for that when you're pregnant? pregnancy, don't believe so. So there's a couple different recommendations for fiber for women. I think one is 25 grams per day. And then I think the other one is 28 grams per day. They're pretty close. And then men is like 38 grams per day, I think. But yeah, I would play with that. then feel free. I don't know how appealing it sounds from a nausea lens, but prune juice can certainly help if you are. Yeah. And then I've also been seeing a bunch of I don't know if it's old wives tales. And this is the downside of like now being on the like pregnancy algorithm on social media. But all these things about eating dates during pregnancy. But none of it supplies like why it's good to do that. They're just like, eating dates is so important. And I'm like, but why is it the fiber? Yeah. Well, I mean, they are a source of fiber, right? em And so, yeah, I mean, you also get some antioxidants, em but I don't know that there's any like specific magic micronutrient or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I would love to know what my macros should be for this. And maybe I just start paying attention and chronometer again, just so I have an idea. Because I just eat such weird shit throughout the day and randomly that I would actually be really curious to track But like, do I do think that like fueling your body for this with food first which is so annoyingly challenging to do if you feel nauseous all the time. Yeah. Yeah. But then I will say you do get used to the nausea and you're just like, well, I'm just going to power through and eat an egg. Yeah. I just think for like people who maybe will eventually listen to this podcast. it's weird because you don't want to like limit yourself, but is apparent that it's the thing that you're doing the most. And like, I just want to make sure I'm getting nutrients in. I don't want to overeat and overeat the wrong stuff because like you just yeah. I don't know, it's just like hard to like feel like you have any sense of awareness around it, because you're just kind of chasing like trying to feel better. um So I think the chronometer app will actually be really helpful to just know what I'm getting and where I need to get some more nutrients that don't come from bread and pasta. Yeah, no, I think this will be super helpful to see and like how far off the mark are we from protein and is it pretty obvious that like we're not getting it and that's why the blood sugar is doing maybe some erratic stuff. um be some insight into the nausea. Whenever I feel really bad. like, this is pretty cool. Like I'm trying to remind myself like even though it doesn't feel cool It is insane that my body just like knows what to do

Head Shot

Kyla Channell, MS

Host