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Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:00

It's that time of year. Along with the leaves starting to fall, we are back in school. Time to get the schedules back on track and squeeze in all of the things. Figuring out meals can be a challenged period for all of us. Next to laundry, isn't it one of your least favorite parts of adulting?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:18

I know it's one of mine, but for any parent who has been shuttling kids to practices and games can tell you this time of year, it can feel next level. Our guest shares some tips and unpacks some of the myths around feeding or fueling, as our guest calls it, kits, as well as giving us the big picture on the real foundations your student athlete needs for success.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:42

If you stick around to the very end, you'll also learn that the foundations we talk about. Our guest was able to apply to her own personal life when she hits some unexpected twists and turns and realized that these foundations are important for each of us. I'm glad you're here. I think you'll get a lot out of our conversation today.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:05

Welcome to the Grit show, where our focus is growth on purpose. I'm your host, Shawna Rodriguez, and I'm honored to be part of this community as we journey together with our grit intact to learn more about how to thrive and how to get the most out of life. It means a lot that you are here today. As you listen, I encourage you to think of who may appreciate the tidbits of knowledge we are sharing and to take a moment to pass this along to them. Everyone appreciates a friend that thinks of them, and these conversations are meant to be shared and to spark even more connections.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:42

Stephanie Rock is a certified sports nutritionist specializing and the nutritional and foundational needs of youth and teen athletes, which is incredibly rare. So we're very lucky to have her. She's the owner of Rock Performance. She's a guest speaker and nutritionist for athletes, teams, camps and organizations around the world.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:00

And we are going to talk to her more about the ways to strengthen your student athletes back to school foundation. And we are going to get some information that we can apply for ourselves as well. So thank you so much for being here today. Stephanie.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:02:12

Thank you, Shawna. I'm so happy to be here and see you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:15

Yes, I love and for everyone. We'll talk at the end about her instagram, but you need to follow her on her social media because she gives such great tips that when she tells you like, oh, yeah, that's kind of easy, I can totally, right.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:02:27

Right? Life is stressful enough. How we eat should not be adding to our stress. We've got enough life stress. This shouldn't be one of them.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:34

No, that's what's great is you make it seem like, oh, this is practical, this works. And you do a great job of helping parents and individuals feel like nutrition is simpler than it needs to be. And there's this whole industry trying to make it more complicated and trying to sell adult stuff to kids, and you help undo that.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:02:56

Yeah, you're so right. And, you know, part of it is I've lived this world, too. You know, my. My kids are now 20. Oh, my God, 23 and almost 22. But I've done the sports world with both of them where it's like you're on the go and you're traveling and you're here and you're there and you're running all over the place. So much information that's being flooded to you that, oh, they need to eat this. Okay.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:03:19

When they're trying to eat like the pros, I don't remember the pros playing five games in two days. Like, these are growing bodies, and they have to have their own nutritional needs addressed because it is truly different. And even with, you know, 20 years as a certified, licensed massage therapist, as a yemenite sports nutritionist, it wasn't applying to my kids. And that's when I kind of started realizing that, you know, even when my kids were, you know, 910 years old, that this stuff doesn't work for what we're. We're looking at for a growing child. It's just. It's not applicable. Some of it's wrong.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:04:00

Some of it's downright dangerous. But there's just so much information out there that parents and athletes, they want to know. But it's hard to discern of what's nutritional fact, what's marketing crap, and what's in the middle of that. And really, it doesn't have to be that complicated. There's a lot of simplicity to it, and I try to make it approachable for both the athletes. Both and the parents, because, like I said, life is stressful. This part doesn't have to be. Knowing how to manage these stresses now is really a tool we're going to use for life, not just for one sports season.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:04:37

It's. It's an ongoing process.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:39

Yes. And I love that. I love that we have, like, these ways in this bigger system for more of a foundation. And I think that we're gonna. We're gonna get into more of that nutrition stuff because I think that's the stuff that I'm fascinated with, too. But let's start with those, those pillars or those ways. What are the four umbrellas that you feel are the most important?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:04:57

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when we talk about sports nutrition and our student athletes fueling their food is the one we think of most often, you know, what they're eating, what time they're eating. And, you know, there's a difference between eating healthy and fueling and all of these ideas and trying to create a healthy relationship between food and our teens as well. You know, that's certainly a component of it, but how they eat is definitely important, but it's not enough. There's more things we have to address, because how they hydrate is what will have one of the greatest impacts on their. Their energy, their endurance, their focus, their quality, quality of sleep. Same thing for us as adults. But for athletes, that element is super important when we're looking at stress management and mindset, just because we kind of sometimes as adults fall into the.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:05:47

Their kids, what do they have to be stressed about? They're not paying bills, they're not paying the mortgage, they're not driving all over the place. School is stressful enough as it is. Relationships, social media, navigating this world as a adolescent is stressful, for sure. And the mindset component, you know, where we get into, a lot of these kids are juggling school, juggling sports, juggling relationships, juggling just friendship dynamics and figuring themselves out in their place in this world. There's a lot of tools that we kind of expect that they'll have. Whether it's breaking up negative cycles in their minds or helping them to learn how to ask for help or, or create these patterns are really, really important. And also sleep. We have all these athletes who are looking to be bigger and faster and stronger.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:06:39

And I always tell the cat, tell the kids and tell the parents. If getting stronger and getting faster and building muscle is your goal and you're not prioritizing sleep, you either need to have a different goal or you need to change your priorities because they are combined. Cause sleep is when your body repairs, it's when it recovers, it's when it grows. And as these growing athletes, we tend to forget that part, too, because the brain's still developing til they're about 25, their bones are still hardening until they're about 21. So there's a lot of invisible work we forget about. You know, my kids were like 13 by the time they were towering over me. And we think, oh, my gosh, they're so big. They've got the biggest shoes in the house, or they're towering over us, that they're done growing.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:07:22

There's so much still happening. And those four pillars, how we eat, how we hydrate, how we sleep, how we manage stress, that's really the foundation for everybody. Yes, for our teen athletes, yes. For our kids, but for ourselves as well. They're never truly in perfect balance. We might, as adults, know, oh, my gosh, I've got a lot of work projects coming up. I'm going to have a lot of late hours. Well, maybe we need to make sure we're focusing on having food with us to fuel to keep our energy and focus going, or how we need to add our sleep, you know, for reaching for three cup.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:07:57

Three a cup 03:00 cup of coffee, where we, you know, binge watching Netflix, where are we, you know, skipping meals because we were working or something. These four elements kind of become that foundation for our entire lives. So, yeah, you know, it's important that they're gaining these tools now.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:19

And recognizing that that's something we can offer them and teach them and help them with when they're at the stage, they're open to learning that. And it will help them throughout their lives, because even as adults, there's things that we can struggle with, too.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:08:32

Absolutely. Though, you know, even deep breathing or, you know, getting the body doesn't know the difference between stress in a car, you know, we're stuck in traffic, we've got deadlines, we've got. The body's gonna react the same as that if we're getting chased by a bear, it doesn't know the difference. So in reducing our risks of illness, reducing our risks of injury, helping to promote this. This healthy environment within our bodies, managing those stresses and learning how to accommodate them is really, really important. And having multiple tools to do so is just as important, too. You know, a lot of kids will say, oh, working out is how I. You know, how I manage my stress.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:09:09

That's great. But during COVID when all the gyms were shut down, now what are you going to do?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:14

Yeah, right.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:09:15

You know, and when you're in the middle of class and you've got a huge test to take, they're not really going to let you get up and start lifting weights during class. So what other tools, what other techniques do we have that we can utilize wherever we happen to be?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:28

Yes. So as we talk about, I want to get into each of these. These elements and pillars a little bit more deeply. But to start with, let's talk about the ages we're talking about. Because again, I start to go to teens and thinking about like the teens developing brains and their reactions to stress and that piece. But it seems like a lot of it's because even we have, you know, kids start sports much younger than that. So are we talking about from second grade, third grade, kindergarten? Like, what are the ages that we're really talking about with this stuff?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:09:58

So generally, my focus, my primary focus happens to be the age range of about eight to 19. That's kind of my key focus. But I do have a lot of families I work with where it's not necessarily that every athlete needs some sort of meal and snack guide and planning how exactly they're going to eat or what they need for their specific nutritional needs. A lot of parents who are like, I've got four kids and I'm trying to juggle all these schedules, help me understand how to fuel them, because really, sometimes with the, with the fueling, it just comes down to differences in, in quantities and amounts. It's not because they play the sport, they have to, you know, inundate themselves with all these different supplements and stuff that's on the market. They don't have to do that. We have this cool, unique thing in this age range too, that for the most part, between this eight to 19 range, there's seven to 10 hours. Again, depending on where they fall on that spectrum, seven to 10 hours required sleep.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:10:58

They have this cool benefit of it's over a 24 hours period. So, like, for us as adults, we're trying to get these seven 8 hours of sleep at night. Obviously, we want them to get as many hours of sleep as they can at one time. But as student athletes, many of them are getting home late at night. Many of them are starting school. My kids started high school. Classes started at 07:05 in the morning. It was ridiculous.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:11:20

So they're not getting enough sleep and it's really difficult to do it in that time. But naps count. Trying to catch up for a whole week in one day, like over a weekend or something, doesn't work, but they're actually reaping the benefits of getting their required amounts of sleep in a 24 hours period. And that's really unique to that, to that age group.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:11:40

Oh, that is amazing. And so I'm surprised it goes down to only 7 hours. Like, I really thought kids required 9 hours. Like, you know what I mean? Like, they required more sleep than that, but can be as low as 7 hours. Is that like higher?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:11:53

Yeah, once we kind of get to the higher ranges, you know, 18, 1819, it starts to kind of come down a little bit into that, that seven hour range which some of those kids I find do benefit still from more sleep. But as far as the recommended amount, it does drop just a little bit. But yes, once we get lower than eight, you know, younger than eight, then we're, you know, 9 hours, 10 hours, you know, definitely sleep is huge. Their bodies are growing. That invisible work is. It's a lot.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:12:22

And how can you tell, like, how much is enough? Like, is it because they're, like, grouchy the next day or they're tired? Or, like, how can you tell if you're like, you know, our bedtime is 09:00 and we're getting up at 07:00 a.m. or 06:00 a.m. if we had to school, well, 530 be school at seven. But, like, you know, how can we tell, like, if we need to start going to bed earlier, if we need to make sure we're getting a nap, like, what do you think are the best ways to kind of guess that? And do you need more sleep if you're an active athlete? Is that add to how much is required?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:12:51

You know what, there's different elements to that question. So recovery is a big part of it. So when I see kids who are having a hard time bouncing back from tough workouts, they're really muscle. Their muscles are really sore. They're just feeling like their legs are super heavy. Couple things. Either their bodies are being inundated with protein, which is also whole other half of this. This is crazy marketing.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:13:16

Push of more protein, or they're not getting, they're not prioritizing sleep. Those are two key components. Frequent injuries, frequent illnesses, injuries that are taking a longer time to heal. Those can be indicative of not getting enough sleep. When we're looking at kids that are tired, especially athletes, we're also looking at, are they fueling consistently throughout their day? Because we're not trying to do these three meals. We don't want these waves and crashes of, of energy. So fueling consistency, hydration. Are they stressed? Like, all four of these sort of all bounce off of each other.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:13:53

So when we're seeing, hey, my kid's super tired, it could also be a growth spurt. And we see that, too. Like, if it's not nailed down, my kid is eating, they want everything to eat, and now this week, they're not very hungry, but they're sleeping a lot. So we have these growth spurts we have to look at too we have girls who are kind of introducing into this whole menstrual cycle thing that changes their sleep needs. So it becomes a little bit individualized, it becomes a little bit of helping athletes know themselves. You know, hey, you're tired, you're sore, are you eating consistently? Have you hydrated? Are we super stressed? Then we can kind of also start to look at sleep amounts, too. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues[: 00:14:33

Okay. So they all, they fold in together. So it's less of learning about each one and more about seeing how all the four work together to see what they need changes in.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:14:41

Exactly, exactly.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:43

Yeah. So with the hydration, then, what are your primary recommendations with hydration?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:14:47

So here's one of my biggest pet peeves that's out there because it's super dangerous. A lot of kids, and I know this becomes like a whole big TikTok craze too, is hearing that they need to drink a gallon of water, which is really dangerous advice. It might be exactly what they need, but they need to know why. So the, the actual formula that we kind of go off of for what your, what your minimum needs for daily hydration are forgetting, you know, heavy sweating, forgetting the activity part. But just what your minimum needs are is about half your weight in ounces. So if you're 100 pounds is about 50oz of water, 150 pounds, 75oz of water, that's kind of your minimum basis. When we're looking at a gallon of water, that's 128oz. And I'm hearing kids who are 910, eleven years old carrying around these gallons of water and coaches telling me, yeah, it's a visual, but over hydrating can be deadly.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:15:49

I mean, there are definitely risks to it just because being dehydrated is dangerous. And, you know, it's even a small percent, one to 2% dehydration factor does affect your focus, your hand eye coordination, all those things. But over hydrating does throw off the electrolyte system in the body, and it can be really dangerous. So at some point in their life, 128oz might be exactly what they need. That might be close to half their weight. That might be what they need. When we start adding and sweating some of my 1918 year olds, that is about what they're at. But they need to understand it's because that's how many ounces it is, not because somebody's telling them drink a gallon of water.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:16:29

I always tell the athletes, too. A great way to check to see how you're doing with, with hydration. It sounds kind of gross, which is also partially why they'll actually do it. Is look at the, look at the color of your pee. Another tic tac thing going around is telling these kids, hey, your pee should be totally clear. No, that's a sign that your body's getting over hydrated. If you see that frequently, have a couple salty snacks, like a few pretzels, a few salted, you know, almonds, something a little bit salty to help restore that balance. It should be the color of like a pale yellow if it's darker than that.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:17:06

Probably need some, need some water. If it's, again, nearing that clear, have a little bit of, you know, a couple tortilla chips, something a little bit salty, and it'll fluctuate during the day. You know, when you get up in the morning, it might be one color when you're finished working out. So it is kind of a great way to self regulate, self check. No matter where you're at, if they're at school, if they're at home, if they're at the gym, that they can kind of see, oh, I should probably go have a drink of water, you know, and to help them understand, this is what my body needs right now.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:17:34

Yeah. So half of your weight in ounces and then up from there, the more you're sweating, the more you're exercising. And a good check is to see the color of your pee, which kids are totally game with that.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:17:46

Exactly. And if you have a big listener in Canada, then it's your weight in kilograms with about five extra kilograms. So if you, you know, you're 70 kg, it's about 75 kg. So that would be your equivalency there. If you use metric system.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:18:04

Yes, no, we, we have a big international, actually. So the metric system, that's how you do the operation.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:18:11

That's how you do it for metric system.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:18:13

Yes, yes. If you're not pound, that's how you do it. That's too funny. Important detail. You're on it.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:18:18

It is important. It is important, yes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:18:21

Those little pieces. And so what are your tips around? Like the stress and the mindset and how to do a check around that and strategies around that.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:18:29

So a couple different things. You know, mindset, especially if you watched even, you know, five minutes of the olympics, you heard this all the time, of, you know, the way that they have to mentally prepare, the way they have to physically prepare that mindset is an actual component of competing and of life. And at this age, again, they're in a brain development stage where the brain really develops from like the back to the front. So it kind of begins in this whole, like, amygdala area, which is this emotion. And we see it, you know, kids get emotive, right? And we all know these kids who react like, you know, that, and they get angry faster, they, you know, cry faster. They just have heightened emotions. And at some point, usually that eight to nine range is when parents and coaches start to kind of get frustrated with it. When they get older and they're taking, you know, penalties or things that are affecting the team, they kind of get negative about it.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:19:28

What we forget is that this pathway from the emotion to the front, which is the prefrontal cortex, is the area of reason saying, I should think about that. Maybe that's not such a good idea. You know, it's partially why kids are so prone to addiction. It's why they make kind of risky behaviors more often. They've got this system that'll go from, like, zero to 80 in 0.2 seconds, but they don't have a break system. So navigating that idea of, hey, what could you have done instead? You know, not necessarily what were you thinking? Why were you doing that? But switching the conversation a little bit to what were your other choices? Because that is almost equally as difficult of a practice system as the skills that they do both in school academically, the drills that they do there, or skills as athletes, that's a building process of what other options did you have? How else could you have done that? When we look at our female athletes, not understanding the different stages of the menstrual cycle and how that affects you, your physical performance, your recovery, it's easy to get into this idea of, my gosh, this was so easy for me last week. Why is this so hard? Maybe if I slept less or ate less or did this, like, all of these patterns, we can get into our heads and then realizing, oh, it's just this different phase of my cycle where my energy is a little lower, I need to support myself a little bit differently. It might be taking more naps.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:20:58

It might be the way I'm changing how I eat. So the more tools we can give them for understanding the crazy and the intense changes that are happening in the body, whether it's breath work so that they can calm themselves before a test or before a game, whether it's interrupting these cycles of, oh, my gosh, my coach isn't playing me, what do I do? We saw again in the Olympics that, you know, looking at the men's basketball team, team is stacked with some of the best players in the entire world, and yet many of them sat on the bench. That's not a role that they're used to. And many kids see that as a negative thing. That's a 100% inactive role of a team. So what's your role? What's your role as offense? What's your role as defense? What's your role on bench? Because you're going to play all of them. And understanding how that works, all of these different components. Visualization, you know, we have athletes who go to these sports, but they don't have the equipment at home.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:22:01

You know, if you're a gymnast, really, do you have all four pieces of equipment at home? Even kids, you know, if you play soccer, if you play football, if you play basketball, you might not have that gear accessible to you at home. Understanding and learning visualization tools are just as effective as going home and practicing for an hour, practicing these visualization skills. So it's within your body, you still have these same muscle memory benefits that when you get to practice, it's like you were physically practicing also. So a lot of these tools we bring in, both on an academic side as a mindset, stress reliever side, to help, again, reduce their risks of injury, reduce their risks of illness. One in three us kids right now has either allergies, asthma, adhd or autism. We need to change some of these statistics and understanding the role of these foundation pillars and mindset for it is a crucial part of it also.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:22:57

Yes. So if you don't have a hockey rink at your house, there are other ways you can work on visualizing and doing those pieces if you play hockey.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:23:06

Exactly.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:23:08

Yes. And so for kids, like you mentioned, some of the ways that you can help them with thinking through alternate ways they could have handled situations. How can you even do checking in? Because I feel like with parents, checking in with kids on stress levels, especially teenagers, can be a difficult conversation. So how do you do those stress check ins or try to figure out how much stress is playing a role in their performance or where they're at? Is it because you're checking in all four of the areas that it kind of helps that you're not just checking in there or what, what are your thoughts with that?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:23:38

It does help, you know, checking all four areas. It does help, you know, and it's tough as a parent, but keeping these lines of communication open. And we have, you know, this influx of parents who are also coaching, hey, you should have done this. You should have done that. Opening up the conversation in a different avenue of, hey, it was great watching you play. How did you, what did you feel about your performance today? If you're noticing, you know, you know, did you feel tired out there today? Did you feel, you know, these stressors generally play a role in changes in their energy. You know, they might not have the same endurance that you would normally see. Sometimes they.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:24:22

They appear more aggressive, sometimes. Another. Another signal that we see, and I tell coaches all the time that when you see this, this is 100% telling you that your kid, that your athlete is not ready for the work that you have going. Kids carrying around energy drinks, they're using Celsius, bang, Red Bull, you know, any number of the different energy drinks, they have huge risks, not just for teenagers, but huge risks for athletes as well. When we're seeing that if you need, especially as a youth or teen athlete, an energy drink to get through a practice or a game, guaranteed at least one, if not more of your foundation levels are off. Either you're super stressed, so you're not sleeping, and because you're not sleeping now, you're waking up and you're tired, so you think you need this energy drink, which is going to then also affect you getting quality sleep later. Again, you're at higher risks for injury. Like, it's this whole crazy cycle that is perpetuated with the foundation being completely out of balance.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:25:28

So seeing energy drinks is a good tip off that something is off in their foundation. Again, it might be stress, which is generally leading to the lack of sleep.

Shawna Rodrigues[: 00:25:39

That makes perfect sense. And so that kind of like walks us right into the nutrition piece, which I'm guessing is a cornerstone you get to talk a lot about. And so, energy drinks, not good plan, huh? Not for student athletes, probably not in general, but tell us more about that.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:25:56

So, yeah, energy drinks have this huge risk, and I know that they're available everywhere. They've got these flashy names, they've got flashy marketing. The problem is they're not required to say that. They're not intended for anyone under 18 in the United States, many other countries. You have to show id to get them. They aren't available just everywhere, but the caffeine levels are problematic. But beyond that, the herbal supplements that are in there also have caffeine effects. So what we have are, we have, we have athletes who are exercising, so their heart rate increases, they're sweating, which means they're getting a little bit dehydrated, which also increases their heart rate.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:26:35

We put this energy drink on top of it again, and their heart rate is elevating again. So although they might feel like they have this crazy burst of energy, they also will have a significant drop in their energy. Hand eye coordination goes down. They're more apt to aggressive behaviors that slowing that emotion to reason slows way down. They do have the heightened emotions and more aggressive behaviors. They're more susceptible to headaches and migraines, seizures and heart damage. So, you know, again, I tell the coaches, I tell their teammates as well. When you see your teammate with a different, with a energy drink in your hand, know that their passes are probably going to be off, their catches will probably be off, and you better know where that defibrillator is because you might have to use it.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:27:23

Energy or emergency room visits from kids using these energy drinks is skyrocketing. And they're dangerous. They're dangerous in and of themselves. But as an athlete using it, because we have so many other elements compounded and some of the ingredients can be banned by certain sports organizations and teams and stuff, too. So there are significant risks that go with them. Yes. So that's the first thing we need to know. Don't those are bad idea, bad idea in general, definitely for kids and your foundations off and.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:27:49

Yes, yes, yes. So what are some of the good tips for? Like, because you mentioned we kind of breezed by it, but that like three meals for growing kids, especially athletes, like, may not be enough. And that fueling them is kind of the term that you use, which I love. So can you talk a little more about the need to fuel kids and student athletes?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:28:19

And this is kind of a little bit of where, again, we have this fallout between how we're fueling adult athletes and kid athletes. We have this idea of carb loading and the myth of more protein, but kids bodies can't store as many carbohydrates as an adult can, and they're turning them over super frequently, both from activity levels but from growth. And again, we forget even our older teenagers at might be as tall as you're going to get. There's still so much happening within their bodies, so they're using them frequently. They have to be replenished frequently. When we look at these, you know, three meals a day or skipping meals and having like, this huge lunch, then we kind of get into these energy waves and crashes. We don't want, especially our athletes, to feel starving or to feel full at any given point. We want kind of this consistent basis of energy so that they're maintaining focus, they're maintaining endurance, and it's also supporting recovery from the work that they've already done or have coming ahead of them as well.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:29:27

So when I'm working with kids, when I'm working with families, I am not of the mindset at all that there's good foods and bad foods. Waffle fries are freaking delicious. Pizza, ice cream, all the like. They're all amazing. Food is social. We have. We have, you know, social memories. We have family memories.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:29:45

We have celebration memories with our foods. But we also have to be cognizant of digestion times, too. So proteins, fats, they take a long time to digest. There's nothing wrong with, you know, cheeses and yogurts and. And steak, but they take a long time to digest. And when it's still sitting in the belly and they go to. To exercise, just that physiological change. Remember I said that, you know, the body doesn't know if you're stressed, if you're being chased by bear, if you're winning a championship game.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:30:17

It doesn't know the difference. It's going to slow down digestion. So when we've got this food still hanging out in the stomach, then it has to pull water from muscle, pull water from other areas of the body to help support this food that it can't digest. Right now. Now we're looking at cramping. Now we're looking at nausea. Now we're looking at, their legs are a little bit tired. So the timing of foods does play a part as well.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:30:45

And looking at fueling versus healthy. You know, I have a lot of kids who will be like, yeah, our coach said to go eat healthy. So I've been eating salads between my games. Salads are amazing, right? They're totally nutrient packed. They're going to protect the body in amazing ways to help, you know, reduce injury, to help, you know, circulate oxygen. But there's not enough carbohydrates to give enough energy for the work ahead. Your carbohydrates are really the gasoline of the car. And when we're looking at kids, they're kind of like a race car.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:31:18

They need that gasoline. They're not, they're not getting. They're not the Prius that's getting like 800 miles to a gallon. They're not getting that. They need this gasoline replenished constantly. And when we think about protein, it's a little bit more like the oil of the cardinal. It's really important. It's significant for muscle repair, muscle growth, for every chemical reaction happening within the body, but it will never be that energy source.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:31:44

It will never make the car turn on. It has to have that gasoline to do those other jobs. And when we're requiring it to step up as an energy source, it's really, really bad. It's slow, it's inefficient, and it has to stop all those other jobs. So especially when athletes are coming to me, oh, you know, I want to gain muscle. So I'm eating, you know, all this protein and protein shakes and protein powders and trying to come up with their own little mathematical equations of how much protein their needs, their body needs. It's actually defeating the purpose because the body doesn't have enough gasoline in the car to make it run. It's relying on protein.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:32:19

It can't do those jobs. So carbohydrates, you know, especially as parents, we want to think, oh, my gosh, my kids working so hard. They're doing so much. We need to make sure they get protein. It is important, but the timing of it doesn't matter if you get an oil change during the morning, during the afternoon, at night. Right. But when your body needs gas in the car, when you need gas in the car, you better go, yeah, that's how the body is. It needs this, especially for kids, needs this continual refueling every two to 3 hours of some sort of carbohydrate.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:32:51

We add in proteins and fats depending on how much time they have for digestion before a workout. So it's kind of like this whole backwards math thing. But, you know, I have a lot of parents who are like, yeah, my kids super picky. They won't eat anything. They don't. They only want, you know, pastas or rices. They'll eat chicken. That's okay.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:33:09

Let that be where they're comfortable. We can build into that. Where we like to add variety is with color. So you've probably heard, like, eat the rainbow. Every color of our produce, reds, orange, yellows, greens, indigo's, violets, and white, like garlic and onion and cauliflower, each protect a different area of the body, just like protective gear does. Mouth guards, shin guards, elbow pads, all of those things protect different areas of body. All of these different colors do also. So when we're looking especially for our picky eaters and I, hey, you know, they're not getting enough variety.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:33:46

They don't have to like 15 different red foods. Find one. Find one that they'll like. Maybe it's apples. And if they like red apples and green apples, now you got two, because they do count. They're different colors. So if they eat grapes, if they eat carrots. Carrots were originally purple, so now we have purple carrots, we have white carrots, we have orange carrots.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:34:04

They're. They're still getting these variety of nutrients, even though it feels like. But they're only eating carrots. It's okay. We can build this variety later. Our variety needs to come with the different colors that they're hitting for their bodies. If we can hit four or five colors a day, that's awesome. If you can hit all seven or eight, you're protecting your body pretty amazingly.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:34:24

So let that be the variety. And then we build from there. It takes time to introduce new foods, but once the kids start to understand, oh, okay, green foods are going to help my legs have more endurance for. For running, for skating, for swimming, whatever it happens to be, okay, I'll eat. I'll try a green food. Okay, which one do you want to try?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:34:46

So you say green grapes and green apples. What about zucchini and lettuce? And it's a bit. But green grapes and green apples are enough to start. We don't have vegetables. It can be fruit that's green. It doesn't have to be.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:34:59

If that's where they're going to start. If that's where they're going to start, sure. Start where they start, where they are. You know, then we start to look at. Then it's kind of branching into. Okay, well, now we've got games all day long. My kid will only, you know, we don't want to keep chicken in the car all day. Cool.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:35:16

Edamame is also a complete protein source. Also happens to be a green vegetable. So we kind of slowly start to introduce these different things to the kids. Most of them will gravitate towards the fruit first. It's a start. It's actually more carbohydrates, which their bodies need. You know, an apple is going to have way more carbs than spinach will. Different protections for the body.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:35:39

But once they start to get familiar with how their body feels, getting these different colors, it becomes a little easier to introduce new things.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:35:48

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I love that. And I think that that advice, like, covers even more than student athletes. And every parent's like, oh, thank you. It's very, very helpful. That's very helpful. That's very helpful.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:35:59

And I love that. The whole thing is like blending all of those elements together so it's not just one. Like, you don't just look at sleep, you don't just look at hydration. You look at the nutrition, and you also look at the stress and the mindset to kind of put it together and kind of start with whichever one's easiest that day, perhaps, right?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:36:17

And, you know, and they're not ever in perfect balance. You know, life just isn't in perfect balance. But it is a little easier to look at your week and be like, okay, we've got a really stressful week. And maybe instead of hitting the drive through because you're just not going to be home for cooking, maybe you order in, you know, like the catering plates of chicken that's already cooked or fajitas or something. So it's already all done for you, you know, yes, you're going to pay more, but maybe this week having that stuff prepared for you is a little bit easier. We're not running through the drive through. You've got, you know, chicken and peppers and rice already set. Now you can make your salad, you can make your right, your tortilla wraps.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:36:56

You can make, you know, things on the fly quicker. Maybe you have more time this week. This might be a time where you're going to grill 15 chicken breasts and you have them all set ready to go for the week. So depending on, are we short on time? Are we short on, you know, maybe we're going to be out of town. Maybe we've got not just sports, but we have tests and grandparents having to come in. You know, whatever this happens to be, we can look at our schedule and be like, okay, we know sleep is going to be a challenge this week. We better make sure that they're taking a nap in the car. We know that this is going to be, it's going to be, you know, really, really hot and humid.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:37:34

We better make sure hydration's a focus this week. You know, whatever it happens to be for that particular week, that particular day, everything's going to need a little bit more attention, you know, just depending on life.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:37:48

No, definitely. And do you feel so with kids, like you've said, like, having more meals? So obviously breakfast is important for kids. Do you have, like, simple, easy breakfast or thoughts on breakfast?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:37:58

You know, I think it depends also, because a lot of athletes will have early morning practices and some blending kids who go to a practice before they're going to school. So in that instance, if you've got a six or 07:00 a.m. practice, you're not going to get up at three or four in the clock in the morning to have a full breakfast. You only have a couple hours. So it might be grabbing, you know, a piece of fruit and, you know, half a bagel or a piece of french toast or half an english muffin or a piece of toast with, you know, a little bit of peanut butter and maybe some honey on it. I try to look more at the timing of things rather than specifically breakfast, lunch or dinner. When you're finishing a game at, you know, 11:00 at night, when my son just got his, his schedule for. He's playing college hockey.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:38:42

He has two college games that start at midnight.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:38:47

What?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:38:48

Right.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:38:49

Oh, my word. That's crazy.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:38:51

So when you're finishing at 02:00 in the morning, you might be going to get pancakes and, you know, a skillet or something like that afterwards. So really, you can have that at any time. Smoothies are a great thing in the morning and run into kids, which I myself, I was one of them. I don't particularly like breakfast foods, at least not in the morning. Shrimp fajitas all. I will have a shrimp fajita for breakfast anytime. I think this morning I actually had pasta with clam sauce for breakfast.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:39:18

That was hilarious.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:39:20

So if your child doesn't like to eat breakfast, is there something that they would be willing to eat? Would they eat last night's dinner leftovers for breakfast? Would they be willing to have a grilled cheese? It doesn't have to be necessarily what we think of as breakfast foods. Some kids might just be more open to something a little different. And as long as we aren't looking at, you know, having to go to a practice right away, you have pretty good flexibility. I do have a really good breakfast cookie recipe on my website. That is awesome. What's, what's cool is it's really just a general base and then it helps you add in, you know, so you can accommodate around food allergies. You can accommodate with what you have in the house and really make it customizable so that whether you cut them into, you know, cookies or bars, they're super fueling. But it's an easier way than, you know, having to go out and buy all sorts of bars.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:40:10

And I, and generally kids will eat a cookie for breakfast, but it's their nutrient packed. But they're, those are really good.

Shawna Rodriguesv [: 00:40:18

That's awesome. No, that's a nice trick because you make them and you have them all week.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:40:22

Exactly. And you can freeze them. You can freeze them. So then you get them, you know, for another time, too.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:40:27

Yes, that's, that's so beneficial when things are busy and there's a lot going on to have tricks like that up your sleeve.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:40:33

Yes, for sure. For sure.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:40:35

Yes. We like, we love the tricks. We love the tricks. That's awesome. And we are going to get to that, those elements of kind of how to connect with you in just a minute here because we are getting kind of to our wind down. But I wanted to take a minute because you've been through a journey over the past year and you've kind of been able to put to the test your own application of these foundations for yourself. So do you want to share a little bit that a year ago you had a diagnosis and you've been through some pieces to kind of learn how you can apply these foundations for as adults and our own health, how important these four foundations are?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:41:10

I have, yeah, I had a little bit of a wake up call, a reminder of why all of this is important. And obviously, I try to focus on these four pillars of my life, too. But last November, I was in Baltimore speaking at the National alliance for Youth Sports Congress and working with military and YMCAs and organizations from all over the country, helping them understand these foundation pillars and how we can support kids in different, you know, elements throughout, throughout the country. And within three weeks of speaking at the conference, I was tested, biopsied, and diagnosed with breast cancer. So it was a really quick reminder, okay, how I sleep, how I eat, how I manage my stress, how I hydrate over these next few months. February, I ended up having a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. And they all became crucially important. And just like we're talking about now, they're never in perfect balance.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:42:15

I didn't necessarily have a huge appetite, but we were finding and, you know, like I do with kids who have lower appetites, finding foods that were nutrient dense but not feeling overwhelming like I was eating. I had to truly prioritize sleep because I was exhausted. The body's repairing, it's rebuilding. It's doing all of these things. Sleep is when that happens. And I had to give myself the grace to. To honor that. Like, you can't do all the things right now.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:42:41

You have to sleep if you're going to recover. So, yeah, I am now seven months cancer free. And, you know, it was. It was a. It was a wild little journey for a little bit, and not. Certainly not when I expected to have this, you know, part of. Part of this course, but here we go. But it did definitely reiterate, this is why this is so important.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:43:12

This is not just about fueling athletes for a season. This is not just about, hey, what should my kid eat before a game? This is about, these four pillars are going to pop up over and over and over again in our life.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:43:25

Yeah.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:43:25

And it is the reasons why, the stresses, the challenges, all of that will change, but they will fit into one of those four categories. And if we don't, you know, pay attention, we kind of get forced to pay attention sometimes. So, yeah, it's always elements we have to deal with. The younger we can help kids have the tools, the knowledge, the empowerment to know how to support themselves, how to understand themselves, especially in such a loud society where doesn't mean that the loudest voices are always right. Helping them to understand themselves a little bit better through that as well. So that's. It's really important. It's important to me.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:44:13

You know, it's making. Keeping these kids safe and keeping them healthy and changing some of these horrific statistics that are out there right now. We want to keep these kids well.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:44:23

Yes. And that we can show them by example that you've, obviously, you live this as well as teach this, and you found the importance of living this and helping you cope with some big things in life beyond being an athlete and having strong performance and doing that, that it's really about having balance and well being in your life, that you take care of yourself. You need to do these things.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:44:44

Absolutely. And it's a process. It takes time. This is not an overnight. You know, it's the consistency. It's building up. You know, to know that I've been doing this for a long time, why do I not see the results yet? And then it's like everything we were talking earlier, building a house, you know, it's like they're building this foundation forever. It's like, oh, my gosh, they're never going to build this house.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:45:05

They've been, you know, pouring the concrete, they've been leveling things for months, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, there's a house here. Once that foundation, you know, we pay attention to that and nurture it and water it and give it all the attention and focus it needs. Then when we get to sports, we get to academics, we get to stresses in life, it becomes much more manageable because that foundation, it's all built on is way more solid and supportive.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:45:31

Yes, yes, yes. And I feel like in our, in our full conversation today, you've done a beautiful job of saying what you do to take care of yourself, essentially doing these things right. So that's definitely our, our self maintenance is like what you've talked about. But as we look at our grit, wit and what we want people to take away from this, like, do you almost feel like that first step is for them to look at themselves and how they're doing these foundational pieces in their own life? Or would you start with how they could first apply one of these to their work with their kids? And where they would start with one of the pillars, which do you think is most important?

Stephanie Rock [: 00:46:06

You know, I think I don't have an athlete that I have worked with where I couldn't say, hey, these are the four pillars. You know, can I explain it with the four are, which is most challenging for you right now? And they know, and it's like they have an answer that they're aware. They don't always have the reasoning of it, but they can say, oh, yeah, this is, this is kind of hard for me right now, or I'm super stressed about this. They can generally, when you've laid it out to say, here's the four things we're looking at. What do you feel like this week is challenging for you? Sometimes with our younger kids, we just have to look at what our life is like. If it's like, oh, yeah, I know my kid doesn't drink a ton of water. Here's how we're going to start to incorporate this a little bit more. Or if it's not eating frequently throughout the day, or we've only been eating one big meal, let's try to break up some snacks or understanding when they're asking for a snack between dinner and lunch, they might need it.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:47:06

Their body probably does need it. So just having just a general awareness of them also is beneficial, too. The peacheck is always an easy one for little kids. They'll jump all over that one. Look at my pee. Yeah, sorry, parents, because they're probably going to come in and look at yours, too.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:47:24

So just start with asking, like, which one of these four is where I need to look. And this is where we start either with yourself or with your student athletes. Think, which these four areas do we need to start with? And that can be the first step. I love it. I love it. So where is the best place? It sounds like maybe Instagram is the best place to find you.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:47:42

Instagram is a great place to find me. There's all sorts of videos and recipes and there's checklists and there's, you know, different ideas of, hey, you, shorten time for dinner. Here's some shortcuts for dinner. Like, there's a ton of helpful information on there. There is a part of the new student athletes fueling pack. So ideas for snacks at school between classes when you kind of have that go to school straight to sports things for that managing stress. There's a few pages on there. You're kind of limited on what you can do for Instagram, but the complete pack is 16 pages.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:48:17

Happy to send it to your listeners if they would like to reach out for Instagram. Messaging is absolutely an easy way. My website does have a contact, you know, portion on there as well so they can reach out there. There's that breakfast cookie recipe is on the website. So, yeah, I'm here. I'm happy to answer questions. I'm whatever you guys need. I'm happy to help make life less stressful in this.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:48:43

So tell us, tell us your Instagram handle. We'll have it in the show notes as well. But your Instagram handle is @rock_performance perfect.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:48:52

And your website is rockperformance.net.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:48:55

Awesome. And that's where we'll have that recipe. And you also the best place. You also have a tool for athletes that we can get on your website as well, right? We'll put that link in the show notes, too.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:49:05

I do. Yeah. Student athlete planner is on there. It's both a physical and a digital planner that's available for you guys. It's really one of the first student athlete planners out there that helps you organize both schools board schedules and school schedules. But every week has a tip to help strengthen foundations. Every week has either like a recipe, a, hey, we're heading out of town. Here's some foods to have with you for the hotel room.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:49:29

Like all of these different supportive techniques for every week goal setting. But really organizing that sports and school schedule and understanding your fueling times to support that as well.

Shawna Rodrigues[: 00:49:40

Amazing.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:49:41

Digital. Or if you're like me and need the physical, you know, I got to write everything down that's there too.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:49:48

Wonderful. And then if people actually are wanting to work with you about how to figure out some of this, people can actually connect with you and work with you more individually and how to work with their student athletes in depth, too. Wonderful. So on your website, they can contact you for that. Correct.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:50:02

100%.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:50:03

Perfect. Thank you so much. It's been so valuable. Stephanie, I appreciate you.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:50:07

Thank you so much. I appreciate it, Shawna.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:50:09

Have a great day.

Stephanie Rock [: 00:50:11

You too.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:50:13

I value the time we shared together today. Thank you for making time to be here and to continue taking steps towards growth and bringing more ease into your life. I'd love for us to stay connected on instagram @shawnapodcasts or @the.grit.show. There's even a link in bio at The Grit show where you can send me an email to let me know what you thought of today's episode. Hearing from you helps to make the effort that goes into producing these episodes worthwhile. After all, you're why I'm here. And since it's been a while since you've heard this, you are the only one of you that this world has got, and that really does mean something. I hope you realize that I'll be back again soon, and I hope you're following along or subscribed so that you'll know and be here too.