Episode Transcript

[00:23:00] Kim: [00:23:00] that mush and it was like little tiny cubes.

[00:23:04] It must’ve been like 20 of them in a pack, like small, a small pack of mush, ginger, frozen

[00:23:12] Jackie: [00:23:12] ginger. And there’s no like. Weird added stuff. I don’t see the problem. That sounds like a great option if you can’t find the real thing.

[00:23:20] Kim: [00:23:20] So I’m going to go look at the package when we get off, before I throw it out and see if there’s any additives in it.

[00:23:29] So we always here before we run a big race, we should carb load. Mm.

[00:23:34] Jackie: [00:23:34] Yes. And I know you have like a guide. I do have a guide. So if you go to my website, it’s www dot Jackie Kirchner, nutrition.com. There’ll be a little pop-up that, um, shows up and you can just enter your name and your email and I’ll send it your way.

[00:23:54] Um, but yeah, car bloating is something we want to do for any race. That’s over 90 [00:24:00] minutes. Um, so for most people that would be half marathon, um, unless you’re really, really, really speedy. And then for pretty much, um, if you are running a marathon or an ultra marathon, you’re good. You don’t want to carb load.

[00:24:14] One of the myths about carbo-loading is that it’s just. A big pasta dinner the night before. I’m sure. Like you’ve been to races that were like this, it was always

[00:24:23] a

[00:24:23] Kim: [00:24:23] pasta dinner always. Yeah. So that’s what we do as runners. We’ll sit there and eat like two plates of pasta, but is that really what car bloating is or what, what, what we should be doing?

[00:24:35] That’s

[00:24:35] Jackie: [00:24:35] what people think that it is

[00:24:41] proper carb loading actually starts. Like three to five days before your race frequently? Yeah, not the night before. So a lot of people think it’s just like eating a bunch of pasta the night before, but it doesn’t have to be pasta and really it should be done several started several days in [00:25:00] advance. So what you’re doing is, um, Replacing some of the protein and fat that you would normally eat with just more carbohydrates.

[00:25:10] And what that does is it helps load your muscles with glycogen. Glycogen is basically just stored carbohydrates. So we want to maximize the amount of glycogen in our muscles because on a long race, we’re going to be using all of it. So we want as much in there as possible, so that it’s less likely that we’ll bunk and hit the wall.

[00:25:33] Kim: [00:25:33] So three to four days before, are we just car bloating at dinner? Should we be doing it all day long? 

[00:25:43] Jackie: [00:25:43] Ideally all day long. So you would, uh, What am I trying to say, space out your carbs all throughout your meals. So you would have like a carb, heavy breakfast, lunch, and dinner because you don’t want to have like all of your carbs [00:26:00] at one meal, it would probably be so much, you’d be uncomfortable and really full.

[00:26:05] So it’s easier to just spread it out throughout the day. And 

[00:26:09] Kim: [00:26:09] you know what I think, I didn’t know that we should be loading days before and I’m sure a lot of runners probably don’t know that because we always get that myth of stuffing our faces the night before the race with a bowl of spaghetti or too 

[00:26:25] Jackie: [00:26:25] well, and then think about that.

[00:26:26] How are you going to feel after that meal? If you’re eating like two plates of spaghetti and then. Maybe you’re having like a glass of chocolate milk and you’re having a couple of breadsticks and a cookie, like personally, I would not sleep well at all. I 

[00:26:42] Kim: [00:26:42] know you’d be like super heavy. Like I usually, I used to try to do it earlier in the day so I can digest it and, you know, Not feel like a big old sloths all night in the bed, but yeah, I think I’m going to implement that in the future.

[00:27:00] [00:26:59] If I ever get the chance to run a marathon again, who knows with, at the rate that we’re going, but hopefully we will, 

[00:27:06] Jackie: [00:27:06] hopefully we will. There’s some small ones going on, but I think what you mentioned is really smart and that I’m trying to have your bigger meal. Um, At lunchtime the day before your race, um, it just gives you a little bit more time to digest and it might make you sleep a little bit better.

[00:27:26] Not that you can skip dinner per se, but maybe have your bigger meal at lunchtime, um, versus dinner time. So what are 

[00:27:35] Kim: [00:27:35] like the good carbs? Cause I’m like trying to cut down on pot. I love pasta. It’s like, it’s my favorite thing to eat ever. But you know, I try to have like Brown rice pasta, or whole wheat pasta instead of the white pasta.

[00:27:49] And you know, I try not to buy white bread any longer, but it’s hard when you live with growing boys who love their white bread, but what are the good carbs that we should consume? 

[00:28:00] [00:28:00] Jackie: [00:28:00] So most of the time we want complex carbohydrates. So that is going to be our whole grains, like the Brown rice, um, or the keenwah or oatmeal, or, um, you know, I have like Pharaoh right now.

[00:28:15] It’s a whole, it’s a grain. Um, so those are some good options, but other ones that people don’t think about when it comes to healthy carbohydrates, all over fruit are carbohydrates. So those are all good sources of carbohydrates and really healthy cause you get vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and fiber and extra fluids.

[00:28:39] So I know a lot of us are trying to drink enough water and not that you can have some fruit and skip a glass of water, but it just works towards your hydration goal. Um, starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, um, squashes. Those are all healthy [00:29:00] carbohydrates, um, and hate peas. Yeah. Most 

[00:29:04] Kim: [00:29:04] people like my worst.

[00:29:07] Jackie: [00:29:07] I think a lot of people have like bad memories of like canned peas from school. Like legs, canned peas. They will, if you do, they were never 

[00:29:16] Kim: [00:29:16] tasty. Like I’ve never had a good plate of peas. 

[00:29:21] Jackie: [00:29:21] I can’t say that. I eat them very often. 

[00:29:25] Kim: [00:29:25] So what I want to talk about fuel for our. Long runs in particular because I had, you know, I’ve been using, I sought her off with goo, but I didn’t really like the taste of goo and it’s hard to, you know, stomach and swallow and I mean, there’s other gels and things like that, but what is like, what are their other options  that we can try other than, you know, those artificial.

[00:29:59] Gels that [00:30:00] they pushed down our throats. 

[00:30:01] Jackie: [00:30:01] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so those are nice. They’re convenient, but a lot of people have a hard time with them. Um, they can add up and get really expensive after a while, but the good news is if you want to, you can have real food as fuel on the run. So some really great options would be like bananas.

[00:30:23] Um, but if you’re not into bananas, dried fruit is another really good option. Like I’ve used Craisins or dried cherries dates are another one, um, that you can use as a race. Our long run fuel actually did that this weekend. It worked pretty nicely. Um, Graham crackers. 

[00:30:42] Kim: [00:30:42] Now one of my friends did tell me that they, um, use dates for long runs, but like, I don’t like raisins.

[00:30:50] And data’s like the big brother to reason. So I figured that I wouldn’t like that either, but doesn’t really give you like, uh, energy. Is it like the [00:31:00] sugar in the fruit? The dried fruit? 

[00:31:03] Jackie: [00:31:03] Yeah. It’s the sugar. So when we’re running, we’re using a lot of our glycogen, like I said, so our stored carbohydrates.

[00:31:12] And so the purpose of these. Gels and chews and things is to give us carbohydrates quickly since we’re depleting, what we’re using. So, um, dried fruits and fruits have a fairly high natural sugar content. Some of our dried fruits have added sugars. So. It kind of is the same thing where our bodies digest them quickly.

[00:31:37] We can metabolize them and get them to our muscles where we’re using them for energy. Now, what 

[00:31:42] Kim: [00:31:42] about for salts? Because you know, we’re losing a lot of liquids when we’re running. What can we eat, eats or take in as a substitute for the salt that’s found in the gels? Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:31:55] Jackie: [00:31:55] Actually, a lot of Dells are pretty low in salt, which is interesting once [00:32:00] you like really dive into it.

[00:32:02] Um, I would say the easiest thing would be to, um, There are like salt tabs that you can take. If you know that you’re losing a lot of salt, um, or electrolyte drinks on the run are gonna provide some salt. Um, there’s plenty of different options out there. Um, if you want to eat salt, like pretzels might be a good option for you because those are really salty.

[00:32:31] Um, I can think of plenty of things that I would want to take after run, but I wouldn’t particularly want to do on the run, like, like pickle juice or tomato juice would give you plenty of salt, but yeah, tomatoes do serve V8 usually really high in salt, actually. So, um, that’s a great something to have after a run to help replenish your sodium, your [00:33:00] potassium.

[00:33:02] Kim: [00:33:02] Yeah. Now, do you, you know, sometimes when you’re at races, people finish and they’re like full of salt, like all over their face are those type of people. Are they like salt deficient? Like why do we see that some runners? 

[00:33:18] Jackie: [00:33:18] So when we sweat, um, we’re losing, not just water, but we’re losing electrolytes in the main electrolyte that we’re losing is.

[00:33:27] Salt. So this person, these people are probably sweating a lot on these races. Now, some people, some people lose more sweat in their assaults than, or more salt in their sweat than others. Um, so those people are more likely to have like the crusties around their face or on their skin. Um, And if you are one of those people, you probably do need to replenish with salt while you’re on the run.

[00:33:59] Kim: [00:33:59] So [00:34:00] give me like a, a balanced meal for around runner, because I saw one of your posts and it had like the plate with the triangle on it. So, which, what should we like, what should be on our plates as runners to aid with, you know, our feeling great 

[00:34:19] Jackie: [00:34:19] question. So. Always, you’re going to want some type of carbohydrate, some protein and some color, and then a little bit of healthy fat, and the amount is going to kind of depend on your training and your goals.

[00:34:34] So what I mean by that is if you have say really easy, like one or two mile run today, your proportions of all of those things are going to be a lot different than, um, if you ran. A marathon in two weeks, or even if you were doing say like a 15 mile long run tomorrow. So, [00:35:00] um, always, almost always though, at least a quarter of your plate should be a lean protein.

[00:35:07] So we talked about a few lean protein options. So again, like eggs tofu or tempeh Bay, um, Cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, and then our lean meat. So chicken, Turkey, beef, pork. Those are all gonna be good protein sources, um, colorful fruits and veg adjustables should make up a good portion of our plates. So that was going to kind of, the amount is going to kind of depend on the intensity of our training.

[00:35:39] If we’re having a real easy day than about half of our plate should be colorful fruits and nuts. Jeez. And then the remaining should be, um, quality carbohydrates to kind of mentioned a couple of those before, but like, Excuse me, the whole grains, starchy vegetables, lentils, fruits, things like that. 

[00:35:59] Kim: [00:35:59] Now [00:36:00] I want to ask you about bread because I read all of these things that we should be eating whole wheat bread, but all bread is not created equal.

[00:36:09] Like, you know, some, some bread says whole grain. Some bread says a hundred percent, whole wheat, some bread. We’ll just say whole wheat. So what kind of bread should we be buying? 

[00:36:21] Jackie: [00:36:21] That’s a great question. I think this is so confusing for a lot of, yeah, it’s so 

[00:36:25] Kim: [00:36:25] confusing. Cause I never know. I’m like I should get the a hundred percent, whole wheat, but I’m like, did they say don’t get the a hundred percent, whole wheat?

[00:36:31] Like we I’m confused. 

[00:36:34] Jackie: [00:36:34] Yeah. So mostly the time your, you wanted to choose a hundred percent, whole wheat or a hundred percent, whole grain. So if you were to turn the bread over, um, you bought it from a package and you turn it over and you read the ingredients label. That should be the first ingredient should say a hundred percent, whole wheat or a hundred percent, whole grain grain.

[00:36:57] Um, if it just says, like, [00:37:00] Whole grain, or if it says like enriched flour, it’s probably not actually a hundred percent. So you want to, you want it to say like a hundred percent, whole grain? 

[00:37:12] Kim: [00:37:12] What about those other breads? Like my friends told me. Try ZKO bread. I bought the Ezekiel bread and two days they have mold on it and then they tell me I should should’ve put it in the fridge.

[00:37:25] Yes. 

[00:37:27] Jackie: [00:37:27] That bread. Um, so it has tons of, um, whole grains in it. It is really, really healthy. Um, but it doesn’t have any preservatives in it. Like your standard. Store brought breads, which is why, part of the reason why you have to store it in the freezer. I believe it’s also sprouted. So it’s started like germinating.

[00:37:52] So it’s little bit more sensitive, we’ll say to being at room [00:38:00] temperature. So just to, yeah. Prevent it from sprouting, further growing. 

[00:38:05] Kim: [00:38:05] Anything else? They tell me to buy the bread, but you didn’t tell me to put it in the freezer. I was going to go back to trader Joe’s. I go on a rant, but I’m like, okay, next time out.

[00:38:13] I’ll put it in the freezer. 

[00:38:16] Jackie: [00:38:16] Yeah. That’s unfortunate. Cause it is like a more expensive bread, but it is like a high quality bread. 

[00:38:21] Kim: [00:38:21] But you know, like in whole foods, it’s in the freezer, you buy it out of the freezer, but like in trader Joe’s, they have it out on the shelf. So who would know to put it in the freezer, but.

[00:38:32] Jackie: [00:38:32] Oh, that’s yeah. You wouldn’t know? Yeah. I want to say it. My grocery store it’s in the freezer.  

[00:38:38] Kim: [00:38:38] but so now we know, put your  there’s another type of bread as well. That’s next to the ZTL bread. I don’t remember the name. I don’t know. I dunno if there’s another bread, but it’s like, I think Zeke,  the purple package and there’s another one in the arm and Joe vice versa, but they actually taste pretty good 

[00:38:58] Jackie: [00:38:58] too.

[00:39:00] [00:38:59] Yeah. I mean, there’s tons of like whole grains, different ingredients in it, like just like kind of a nutty like complex flavor versus like a standard process bread. Doesn’t have a whole lot of, much of anything to it anymore. Now 

[00:39:17] Kim: [00:39:17] what about those snacks that we think are healthy and they’re always advertising that, you know, Filled with whatever and great for you that we need, but they’re like really terrible for us.

[00:39:30] Like what are, what are some healthy snacks that we can buy that are like pre-packaged, Oh, 

[00:39:35] Jackie: [00:39:35] this is a good question. Cause we’re busy. 

[00:39:37] Kim: [00:39:37] I don’t have time to be chopping up fruit and you know, I know I need to buy my snacks ready to go. 

[00:39:45] Jackie: [00:39:45] So. First, um, always look at the label. So the, remember the front of the package that they’re gonna try and trick you like the marketers, the food marketers, their job is to sell a product.

[00:39:58] And if [00:40:00] they can do that by tricking you, um, they’re going to do that. So I’ve seen so many different crackers out there or. Chips or things like that, that make wraps, that sounds so healthy, like made with vegetables. Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen like the spinach wraps and basically it’s just a plain white flour wrap that just has a little spinach powder in it.

[00:40:24] Oftentimes there’s food coloring. So the only way to really know is to like flip it over and actually read the ingredients on the label and to see, you know, what is it actually made out of. Is there added sugar? Is there added fat, salt, things like that? 

[00:40:44] Kim: [00:40:44] So is, is it true about the supermarket? Like we should shop the outer.

[00:40:50] I ALS and you know, around the back and don’t go in the middle shop 

[00:40:54] Jackie: [00:40:54] the perimeter. Yeah. For the most part. That’s true. Although I would say there [00:41:00] are plenty of like good things to be found if you’re looking in the right spot. When you go down the aisles, like just because something is canned doesn’t necessarily mean that it should.

[00:41:10] It’s bad for you. Like you can find canned fruit that doesn’t have added sugar. You can find, you know, canned chicken or canned salmon or canned tuna that’s packed in water or olive oil. Um, canned beans are really awesome because they’re convenient. Like who has time to, to soak beans and then cook them for an hour.

[00:41:33] Like you have to think at least 24 hours in advance. Um, So there’s plenty of like whole grain cereals and you can find nuts and seeds and things in the, in the Isles. Um, so not everything in that in the Isles is bad, but that said there’s plenty of. Lousy lousy stuff to 

[00:41:57] Kim: [00:41:57] be found. [00:42:00] You know, the L the last thing that I wanted to ask you, because I know a lot of people get into running.

[00:42:05] I know I did for, you know, fitness to try to get into shape and try to stay in a shape because the gym, you know, becomes tiring doing the same thing over and over. But, you know, I see a lot of people running a lot of miles, but their physique is not changing. You know, they’re, I don’t, you know, they’re not building muscle.

[00:42:26] I don’t see them losing much weight. So are there any, um, tips that you can give or nutrition, you know, foods that are, will help us in, you know, trying to lose a little bit of weight or, you know, build muscle. 

[00:42:41] Jackie: [00:42:41] Yeah. Um, well first I would say that there’s so many reasons why someone’s physic might not be changing some people.

[00:42:51] Might not be eating enough. And so their body is resistant to change. Some people might be, um, eating enough, but maybe not [00:43:00] the right types of foods. Like they might not be eating enough protein or maybe they’re not eating the right balance of protein to carbohydrates, to fats. So that kind of depends on what your goals are, your goals actually, to lose weight or they to gain muscle or do you have performance goals?

[00:43:15] So the way that you fool, um, fuel. Kind of depends on what your goals are. So there is no one size fits all, just like there’s no one size fits all like training plan for runners. There’s no one size fits all diet for runners. Um, but I would say, um, make sure that you’re getting, um, a balance of protein, complex, healthy carbohydrates, healthy fats, plenty of fruits and vegetables, just, um, If you’re unsure how much you need of each, maybe it’s time to reach out to a dietician and help you figure it out.

[00:43:55] Kim: [00:43:55] Speaking of reaching out to a dietician, what kind [00:44:00] of services do you offer? Like if I, you know, want to, uh, a food plan and nutrition plan, if I want to build something for my training, how do I get in contact with you? And you know, what kind of plan. Could you put together, not specifically, but what kind of plans do you put together for runners?

[00:44:18] Jackie: [00:44:18] So I work with all of my runners one-on-one right now. Um, so, and I go over five parts of running, so we’ve got the base training part. So we want to make sure base training is like your everyday nutrition. So everyone needs good everyday nutrition, whether they’re running or not. Right. And you could be.

[00:44:43] The best marathon fueler. But if you eat like crap on a day-to-day basis, you’re probably not going to get very far. So we go over, um, the everyday stuff, we talk about the emotional side of eating, which. So many of us struggle with, you know, [00:45:00] boredom or stress or when it comes to running, like being scared to eat of certain foods because we’re afraid, um, it could change our physique or we’re afraid of gaining weight.

[00:45:11] So we talk about the emotional side of eating, and then we talk about, um, the running specific topics, like before run, after run, um, race day nutrition, and then our recovery. Which is like electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, like personalized recommendations as far as that. So, yeah. Um, however much time we spend in each part kind of depends on what you’re struggling with and what your goals are.

[00:45:40] Um, so everything is tailored to you. There’s no, Cookie cutter per se. I’m not just going to like print off a meal plan and send you to the wolves. Like, I want to make sure that you can actually implement what we’re talking about and if something doesn’t work, that’s fine. We’ll [00:46:00] just go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments.

[00:46:03] Kim: [00:46:03] Okay. So if our listeners are looking for a dietician such as yourself, how can they 

[00:46:09] Jackie: [00:46:09] contact you? Um, they can find me on Instagram. I am@fuelbetter.run faster. You can find me at my website, www dot Jackie Kirchner, nutrition.com. Or you can email me, Jackie at Jackie Kirchner nutrition. I’d love to hear from you.

[00:46:28] If you have questions, if you have, if you’re interested in working with me, please send me. 

[00:46:35] Kim: [00:46:35] A note and tell her that The Run Wave I’ve sent you listening. I Jackie, for being on The Run Wave Podcast, it was a pleasure having you on. And you’ve been a wealth of information that I know will help me and help other runners that are listening as well.

[00:46:57] And I believe all of Jackie’s information down [00:47:00] below. You can scroll up right now to, um, for her website, her Instagram and her email. So you can contact her for nutrition advice. 

[00:47:09] Jackie: [00:47:09] Awesome. Thank you so much, Kim. This is fun. 

[00:47:12] Kim: [00:47:12] It was, thank you so much for being on the show. 

[00:47:16] Jackie: [00:47:16] I’m happy to be here. All right. 

[00:47:18] Kim: [00:47:18] I hope you enjoy the interview with Jackie.

[00:47:21] I will leave all of her details down below. You can scroll up to get her website, her email and her Instagram handle. If you are looking for a nutritionist, definitely check her out. Jackie is a. Wealth of information. And I may be hiring her to do some nutrition consulting for myself, to be honest with you because I needed a lot of us needed and it’s nice to have a runner who is a nutritionist.

[00:47:49] So she actually knows, you know, what we need to fuel ourselves properly and just to be healthy in general. So again, I want to thank [00:48:00] Jackie for being on the show. Yeah. If you haven’t already done. So please leave a rating and, or review of the show, especially if you’re on Apple podcasts, you can scroll up right now, hit those stars.

[00:48:13] Hopefully you hit the five stars and, you know, share a little bit of words about them. The Run Wave Podcasts. If you have some time, I would truly appreciate it. And thank you again for tuning in, and I will catch you on the next one later. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Be sure to subscribe to The Run Wave on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review of the show on Apple podcasts.

[00:48:41] It would have really helped me out. If you are a runner that has a story to tell, and you will like to be on the show, you can email. Hello@ runwave.com or send us a DM on Instagram to the run. wave, see you next time. [00:49:00] .