My Sports Nutrition Story
Hi there! I’m a former young athlete turned pediatric sports dietitian. As a child I began figure skating and instantly fell in love with the sport. Weekly practices, following around other skaters’ private lessons in hopes of learning just one new skill turned into group lessons, which turned into private lessons, which quickly became 5-days-a-week practices and 6 week summer training camps. In middle school I decided to join my school’s cross country team and soon became as committed to running as I was to my ice skating. I practiced with the team but also on my own as it would fit around my skating schedule. All-in-all, I was one active (and, thinking about the additional voice lessons, theatre and cheerleading, probably overcommitted) teenager.
As my commitment to and love of these sports changed and grew, my attitude about and understanding of food did as well. Initially I was mostly focused on the negative impact food could have and what foods not to eat. I also, being in an aesthetic sport, had the impression that the less food you ate the better (not something my coaches or parents impressed upon me but something I concluded, inaccurately, on my own). So, for a while, my food intake most days was too little to support all of my training and, on top of that, the food choices that I did make were not always the ones I needed. It wasn’t until high school, when I started to get more competitive, mastering more difficult elements in skating and working to improve my running times in cross country, that I realized the crucial role nutrition played. I suddenly realized that I couldn’t show up to practices tired and hungry and that what I ate at lunch or at breakfast MATTERED. At that moment I started playing with food and creating different breakfast, lunch and dinner combos, eating scheduled snacks, eating more regularly, and overall, eating more. It was really cool to see the positive effect on my sports and on my overall health and attitude that this simple change made. While I finally figured out my nutrition strategy and how food affected my practices and performances on my own, I did so through lots of trial and error. I realized later how much better it would have been and what more I might have achieved if I had had a professional around to (a) talk to me about the positive role of food sooner, (b) help me create my strategy and answer my questions as I figured food out, and (c) talk to me about food and help me establish a healthy relationship with and understanding of food from the start. For these reasons, when I got to college I decided to study nutrition. I knew that someday I wanted to be able to help young athletes understand the importance of nutrition. I wanted to be that person helping them create their best sports nutrition strategy so that they would not have to figure it out on their own.
My nutrition philosophy
My food and nutrition philosophy is that all foods fit and that every athlete’s body is different, requiring its own unique nutrition strategy. I don’t do fad diets. Instead, I help athletes and their families understand what nutrients the athlete needs, what foods they can get these nutrients from and how to structure meals and snacks that incorporate these foods, support the active athlete and taste delicious. And I do this in a body and food positive way because I feel strongly that while what we tell our child and teen athletes about nutrition is important, the way we talk to our child and teen athletes about nutrition is equally, if not more, important. How we talk about food & nutrition can play a big role in their relationship and understanding of food and nutrition now and into adulthood.
my goal in working together
My goal is to simplify complicated sports nutrition principles and make them easy for you and your athlete to understand and incorporate into daily life. I want you and your athlete to be able to make confident food and recipe decisions that optimize the athlete’s health and performance and I want you to be able to do this in a way that instills a healthy body image in the athlete. Take some time to look around my site and please feel free to comment or reach out to me with questions or if you would like to work together!
Happy Fueling!
Taylor
Professional Bio
I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Nutritional Sciences from Texas Christian University. I then moved to my hometown to complete my dual Dietetic Internship and Masters program at the University of Memphis. I graduated in 2009 with a Masters of Science in Clinical Nutrition and quickly sat for and passed my RD exam.
Right out of grad school I began working at Le Bonheur Children’s hospital in Memphis, where I reinforced my love of working with kids and teens. I was able to gain experience in everything fro the CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit for babies) to surgery and burns to weight management and wellness to disordered eating and eating disorders. This job proved my love of pediatrics.
I then moved back to Texas to work at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, TX in 2011, where I worked in pediatric clinics as well as oversaw their employee wellness program for 10+ years. I now have the opportunity to continue to work with the sports medicine team in their sports medicine clinic while also working with athletes in my virtual private practice. In these settings I have been able to and continue to work with athletes on nutrition strategies to improve performance and on nutrition for recovery and injury prevention in those diagnosed with sport-related injuries such as stress fractures, female athlete triad, male athlete triad, RED-S, overtraining syndrome, disordered eating, and ACL tears.
I’m a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Sports Cardiovascular and Wellness group, and Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association.
As a sports dietitian I’ve spoken at numerous conferences, in schools and to local sports teams. I’ve also appeared in interviews on local tv stations and podcasts.