The RED-S Recovery Podcast

Today I’m joined by Hayley Munn. Hayley has a marathon best of 2:37 and holds a masters degree in Exercise Physiology. She currently is a coach for Runners Connect and a host of the Extra Kick podcast. She is a lifelong runner, who has struggled with RED-S for what she now recognises as being a number of years. A stress fracture in her heel has forced her to reevaluate her relationship with training and nutrition. She shares her insights into the development of a healthy runner and how she can learn from the mistakes she made in her own training and injury management.

Today I’m joined by climber Duncan Bottrill. Duncan is a sports climber and coffee fanatic who discusses his diagnosis of RED-S, his eating disorder, and his relationship with his sport as he works his way through recovery.

Rebekah is an international level bodybuilder and she has a Master Practitioner in Eating Disorders and Obesity as well as being a qualified PT. She has been involved in sports her whole life, starting with swimming and county level athletics. She has a long history of disordered eating and exercise addiction, as well as battling substance and alcohol abuse in her past. In this conversation we delve deep into her past experiences, her history with food and exercise, and her experiences in bodybuilding as a sport. We talk in detail about some things that are quite challenging, so some listener discretion is advised, as we mention eating disorder and addiction themes. We discuss her current strategy for recovery from RED-S and how she is finding her own version of recovery.

Lindsey is a specialist in Sports Dietetics with a background working with athletes at all levels, including Division 1 NCAA and with the US military. She owns a nutrition coaching business called Rise Up Nutrition where she supports athletes of all levels, ages and sports to learn healthy nutrition around their performance goals. She works extensively with people who suffer with RED-S and focuses on getting them back to their sport as heathy athletes. We discuss her own background as a runner at University and her own brush with disordered eating. We look more carefully at her programme for RED-S recovery: the Female Athlete System of Transformation. Finally we discuss the recent revelations by Mary Cain about her experiences at the Nike Oregon Project and how her weight became a tool for abuse and toxic bullying, leading her to suffer from stress fractures and drop out of the sport while still in her early 20s. We address how Mary’s interview has been received in the running community and the ignorance of these issues that her story has revealed. Find Lindsey at: www.runwithlindsey.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/riseupnutritionrun?igshid=bj5rtl73ca0w. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RiseUpNutritionRUN/?modal=admin_todo_tour. https://www.riseupnutritionrun.com/blog

In this episode I interview climber Mina Leslie-Wujastyk. Mina recently published an article on the UK Climbing website about her experience of RED-S. She has competed in bouldering internationally and in outdoor sport climbing, sponsored by Arc’teryx, FiveTen, Sterling Ropes, Beta Climbing Designs and Organic. Find her @minaclimbing. Article at: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/relative_energy_deficiency_in_sport_-_a_cautionary_tale-12345

In this episode I interview Jen Hamer. Jen has a MSc in Clinical Nutrition and Eating Disorders and is currently applying to pursue her PhD research into RED-S and energy availability and how it impacts on performance in athletes. Her MSc research involved a systematic review into treatment strategies for bone mineral density impairment in athletes with hypothalamic amenorrhea as a consequence of RED-S. She herself was a high level athlete who suffered with eating disorders and eventually her own diagnosis of RED-S and osteoporosis at a young age. Jen gives a fantastic insight into this condition both from her academic standpoint as as a personal story. You can follow her on Instagram at jehamer1991: https://instagram.com/jehamer1991?igshid=g3jlz703f8qr

I interview Muay Thai boxer Lena Kessler about her experience of dealing with RED-S while competing in a sport that involves “making weight”. Lena is also a sports psychologist and brings a unique perspective to the nature of the condition and ideas on recovery and return to sport.

Rachel Langbein is a PhD research student at the University of Lincoln in the UK, whose research focuses on the experience of athletes who are affected by RED-S, with particular emphasis on the psychological aspects of this disorder.

In this podcast I introduce myself and give some background on my own history and experiences, and explain what Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport is and how it can be recognised.