The Truth I Wish Every Young Athlete Knew About Fueling & Performance – and why I became a Sports Dietitian.

How It All Started

I didn’t become a Sports Dietitian because I loved food — I became one because I was once an athlete who didn’t know how to fuel.

I grew up playing nearly every sport you can imagine (except basketball… short girl problems). I was naturally athletic, and from an early age, I noticed that people commented on my body and performance before anything else. At just 8 years old, I was praised for my six-pack abs and celebrated as the “tiny” cheerleader who could fly through the air.

Those comments seemed harmless at the time, but over the years they planted a belief deep in my mind:  Smaller meant better. Better at sports. More accepted. More celebrated.

By the time I was a teenager, performance, perfectionism, body image, and diet culture weren’t just influencing how I trained, they were shaping how I thought, how I ate, and how I valued myself. I tied my worth to how I looked and how well I performed. I was 8 when that belief took root… and 18 when it began to break me.

The High School Athlete Era

High school is often described as the time you “find yourself,” but for me — and for many other athletes — it was when I started losing touch with who I really was.

Competition intensified. Comparison became constant. It was no longer about enjoying the game or honing my skills—it became about how I looked while playing. I wanted to be identified as the leanest, the fastest, the most “put together.” And the unspoken pressure to be perfect skyrocketed.

Food became the thing I could control.
With no guidance, I turned to what I found online: low-calorie, low-carb, “clean eating,” and diet culture disguised as health. Compliments started rolling in, so I doubled down — more restriction, more control, more training.

I didn’t consciously notice the shift in mindset. I told myself I was fueling to perform, but the truth was, I was punishing my body to fit in. I didn’t realize it yet but the path I was on wasn’t sustainable – and it was slowly breaking me.

The College Athlete Era

I achieved what so many young athletes dream about — competing at the next level. I joined the cross country team and moved 1,200 miles away from home, still holding tight to the belief that smaller = faster.

My first year felt like a high. I was running well, setting PRs, and earning praise from my coach for my leanness and “clean” eating. On the outside, I was thriving. Inside, I was exhausted. Food controlled me. I feared certain foods and skipped social events to protect my “perfect” nutrition plan.

Then my body started to break. Stress fractures, chronic injuries, and relentless fatigue pulled me out of more races than I finished. My performance dropped — not because I lacked discipline, but because I lacked fuel. Without proper guidance, I listened to the wrong voices… and it cost me my college running career.

I learned the hard way: You can’t out-discipline a body that’s underfueled.