Top Nutrition Mistakes Dancers Make When Preparing for Auditions
Alright y’all audition season IS UPON US! We’re already into the second month of 2023, and auditions will be here before you know it.
Have you started putting in the work for your nutrition goals? I sure hope so, but if not that’s okay too, I’m here to help.
Whether you’ve already started, or you’re working on formulating a plan to get cracking, I want to walk you through the most common mistakes I see dancers make when preparing for auditions. And, more importantly, give you the knowledge to avoid those mistakes and know exactly what to do instead.
Let’s get into it:
MISTAKE #1 — Waiting until the last minute
I’m sure you knew I was going to say this, but it’s SO true! The absolute worst thing you can do to yourself is wait until the last minute. Cause you know how that goes…come mid-February you have that “oh sh*t” moment and realize time got away from you. With only a few weeks left, you feel pressured to crash diet and hit the gym every single day. But crash dieting and severely restricting calories never works. At best, you just don’t really see the results you hoped for. At worst, you’re absolutely miserable the entire time, you’re starving, and you do longer term damage to your health. Under-eating, especially in women, can lead to some pretty serious harmful effects on thyroid function, reproductive/sex hormones, metabolism, sleep and stress (hello, cortisol dysregulation), gut health, and more.
SOLUTION = Start NOW!
Like, right now. Today. None of this “diet starts Monday” bullish*t because guess what? The idea is not to “diet” at all. The goal is getting to a place where you confidently make healthy choices the majority of the time, but not always. We’re not striving for “perfection” because there is no such thing as perfect when it comes to eating. It’s just food. So start making good choices today, but allow yourself some freedom to be flexible and eat a wide variety of foods that make you feel good inside and out. Protein and veggies often, but also chocolate croissants and pizza sometimes.
MISTAKE #2 — Intermittent Fasting or Skipping Meals
DISCLAIMER: If you’ve been intermittent fasting and it truly does work for you, by all means carry on (though I challenge to ask yourself it it reeeaally is working for you...) This message is meant for those who have maybe been curious about it, or dabbled in it, and don’t feel great doing it. OR more commonly, those who fast (intentionally or not) by skipping meals, particularly breakfast. I’m here to give you the tough love you need: COFFEE IS NOT BREAKFAST!
Skipping breakfast (or any other meal) almost always results in overeating later that day (or the next day). It typically plays out like this: You don’t eat breakfast because you had coffee, you’re stressed and running on adrenaline, so you don’t feel that hungry. By 11 or 12 you’re pretty hungry and eat a normal sized lunch. 3pm rolls around and you can’t stop thinking about snacks, and the office candy stash gets the best of you. By 6 or 7 you eat a normal sized dinner and feel proud for eating protein and lots of veggies. Later that night, you’re watching your fav show (true crime for me) and cannot stop thinking about food. All of a sudden you realize you’ve eaten half a bag of tortilla chips, 4 peanut butter cups, and an ice cream bar. Now you’re kicking yourself for “being bad.” (Hint: you weren’t “bad” and you didn’t “fail” — your body was just hungry for more food!)
SOLUTION = Eat 3 larger sized meals a day and pay attention to your body’s hunger cues
There is rarely good reason to skip a meal. Our bodies require food for energy. We feel better when we eat. Really get in tune with your hunger and fullness cues, and listen to your body. Eat when you’re actually hungry–don’t mindlessly eat when you’re not hungry at all, but at the same time don’t avoid eating when you start to feel hungry just because you feel like you already ate, or it’s not time yet, or you’re busy, or whatever the excuse. When you do eat, really pay attention to your level of fullness and satisfaction. I always say stop eating when you’re satisfied, not overly stuffed. Paying attention to hunger and fullness cues and listening to your body is going to help SO much in the long run with intuitively figuring out how much you need to eat.
MISTAKE #3 — Restricting and binging
In the dance world, we tend to do this thing where mentally we have this subconscious idea that we need to be smaller and thinner, and to do so we just need to eat smaller amounts and consume less calories. But it really doesn’t work like that, especially for dancers a.k.a. athletes who have high energy demands (and, therefore, high calorie demands). If you’re undereating, you’re going to be hungry. And that’s when you end up “giving in” to desserts and snacky foods and overdoing it on foods that perhaps you’d rather not overdo. That yo-yo’ing we’re all familiar with is almost always a result of simply not eating enough consistently throughout the day.
SOLUTION = Eat more real food, especially protein, and eat to balance blood sugar
Give yourself permission to eat MORE, especially more foods that are in their whole food form. Have 3 or 4 eggs instead of 2, or 6-8 ounces of salmon instead of 4 ounces, or the whole potato instead of half. You get the idea.
Reeeeaal quick Macros 101 here: our bodies need adequate amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat to function optimally.
Protein → Breaks down into amino acids, which are the building blocks of lots of things in our bodies, like muscle, tissue, organs, nerves, and more. Protein is essential for muscle repair and recovery.
Carbohydrates → Break down into sugar (glucose) and gives us energy.
Fats → Break down into fatty acids, which literally become part of our cells, all of our cell membranes are fat-based; fats are also essential for hormone production.
Aim to eat at least 80% of your bodyweight in grams of protein each day. For example, if I weighed 150lbs, I would take 150 x .8 = 120, so I would shoot for 120 grams of protein. I typically recommend each meal has at least 25 grams of protein. Protein is always getting used and recycled by the body, so we need to constantly replenish it, which is why you want protein at every meal. Protein also helps us feel full and keeps blood sugar stable.
Eat to balance blood sugar. Stable blood sugar in general is extremely important for overall health, but it is KEY if you’re trying to lose weight. This means eating 3 meals a day where each meal has protein, fat, starchy carbs or fruit, and 1-2 servings of veggies. I always say ½ (ish) plate veggies, ¼ plate protein, ¼ plate carbs, and then the fats are kinda sprinkled throughout with cooking oils, avocado, cheese, nuts, or something like that. You will be amazed at how great you feel following this simple plate building formula!
MISTAKE #4 — Running your body into the ground
Not sleeping enough. Not eating enough. Running on stress, caffeine, and adrenaline. Working out way too much. I love a good intense workout (Crossfit junkie here) but excessive cardio and other tough workouts is a physical stressor on your body. When you don’t sleep enough or eat enough to recover properly, you can really harm your health and also put yourself at greater risk for injury.
Even IF you lose weight living like this, your physical, mental, AND emotional health will almost certainly take a hit. And when you DO make the pro team, I promise you living like this is not sustainable during the season.
SOLUTION = just, don’t do this :)
And refer back to solution #1 — start early so that you don’t feel the pressure to do this to yourself. No one likes doing this, it’s not fun or healthy or sustainable.
MISTAKE #5 — Not having a plan at all
“Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Cliche, but so true. Not having any plan will likely lead to the other mistakes mentioned above. And not having a plan means you almost certainly will not reach your goals!
SOLUTION = Always keep foods stocked at home that easily enable you to make good choices
Prepare every week by buying plenty of groceries and doing some batch cooking. Buy 4 to 5 proteins (my go-to’s are eggs, greek yogurt, chicken, ground beef, and canned tuna or salmon), 2 to 3 carbs (I love potatoes, black beans, rice, and oatmeal), some fats (I always have grassfed butter, raw cheese, peanut butter, and avocados), and whatever fruit and veggies you will actually eat.
Set aside some time on Sunday or Monday evening to do basic prep — steam the eggs or bake an egg casserole, roast and shred some chicken, cook the beef in a pan with salt and garlic, precook some rice, chop veggies and lettuce for salad, make overnight protein oats, etc. Anything to make your life easier when packing lunches or cooking dinner that week!
