Back to the Wildcats
- Emily Norman
- Jun 23, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 24, 2021
Current location: (Back to) Lexington, KY 📍
Current rotation: Community Nutrition at UK Athletics
Current mood: Ecstatic
To say that I am happy to be back in Lexington would be my biggest understatement of 2021. Although I genuinely enjoyed my previous two rotations and the experiences that came along with them, it was difficult being two (and then three) hours away from all of my family and friends. It was the first time I had ever lived alone. My preceptors were kind, as well as all of the staff and fellow interns at my sites, but there is nothing quite like coming home after a long day of work. I have never appreciated being close to the ones I love more than now, and to top that, I have finally reached the rotation and site that I have been MOST excited about.
Returning back to UK Athletics has brought both excitement and relief. I volunteered for the Performance Nutrition Team back in the fall of 2020 so that I could work with this program as one of my rotation sites. Monica, my preceptor and the Director of Performance Nutrition, made me feel welcomed and appreciated jumping back into UK Athletics on my first day of work, as she does everyday. I am thrilled to be back and working with this fantastic staff. I currently work with Rachel S., Taylor T. and Monica throughout the day. Rachel graduated from UK's dietetic internship last year in 2020, and Taylor will be starting the DI in 2022! Having these two to help navigate my way through both the end of the internship and this current rotation has been phenomenal.
My Day to Day Schedule (thus far):
Over the past two weeks, I have been at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility everyday at 7 a.m. to help with the Nutrition Fuel Center at the facility. There are currently football recruitment camps going on, as well as the football players' workouts and scheduled hours for strength and conditioning. There is quite a lot going on in the month of June!
We start out our mornings with refilling the Gatorade slushy machines in the weight rooms. These machines are good to have at the facility; They are great at helping and reminding the players to stay rehydrated.
Once the machines are rolling and creating ice, we start grabbing ingredients to make protein shakes for the athletes in the Fuel Center. We make these shakes with protein powder, all kinds of fruits, collagen, spinach, milk, juices, chia seeds, flax seeds, peanut butter, and more. While attempting to keep the players excited, we make new flavors every day to create variety and entice the athletes to consume enough calories after their intense workouts. Both "lean" and "gain" shakes are made; For the athletes who are attempting to gain weight, they will drink the gain protein shakes, and for the athletes who are trying to lose weight but still consume an adequate amount of protein, they will drink the lean shakes. We work with individual athletes who want to discuss what and/or how to eat in regard to gaining or losing weight. The nutrition staff has specifically been working with a culinary team called LeanFeast for athletes who want to keep their muscle mass and decrease their body fat percentage. Several individual educations and quick counseling sessions have happened this week to discuss those priorities.
CRDN 3.6: Use effective education and counseling skills to facilitate behavior change.
3. After the shakes have been made and put into the refrigerator, we start restocking the Fuel Center. There are plenty of snacks and meals for the athletes and staff to grab both before and after practices/workouts. I start stocking the dry stock which is full of granola bars, beef jerky, nuts, chips, graham crackers, cereals, and more snack options. Then I move onto the chilled foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, and drinks. The Fuel Center is full of nutritionally dense foods like carrots, eggs, turkey, guacamole, grapes, apples, yogurts, peppers, etc. There are plenty of meals to make and options to choose from!
Once I feel that everything is properly restocked and refilled, I'll make some pre-made sandwiches for a quick grab-and-go lunch. (I make a pretty good peanut butter and jelly sandwich, if I do say so myself.)
Throughout the day, we will gradually run through these tasks of smoothie-making and restocking several times over. One second the refrigerators are completely full, then a wave of hungry football players will run through, and before you know it, the food has vanished.
On Tuesdays, the food orders come in for Joe Craft and the Nutter Training Facility. This is always a chaotic day as we receive huge boxes and shipments from both Kroger and GFS (Gordon Food Service). It is great when the orders come earlier in the day so that we can take our time unloading the boxes and slowly refilling the Fuel Center. It is less ideal when the shipments come closer to the end of the day, but either way, Tuesdays always get completed successfully!
I have gotten the chance to review the ordering and purchasing process with Rachel and Taylor which has been great. It can be difficult to estimate quantities of food when thinking about hundreds of players and staff members who run by the Fuel Center and grab a snack or a meal. I know that it is definitely a great experience for me to see the purchasing process in choosing the GFS products and learning how to identify quantity sizes for future ordering on my own.
In the past two weeks, I have already learned so much and had an even better time doing it. I absolutely love being in this environment full of social, communicative, helpful and connected people. I feel that I really fit in with the constant activity and movement; I love jumping around from each room and completing every task while staying busy. As we gradually come out of the pandemic, there has been no greater joy to me than to rip off these masks and FINALLY see all the smiling faces again. The joy and energy radiate off of the people who work in athletics, and I could not be happier to be involved right in the middle of it.
References:
GO Forward With Us. Gordon Food Service | Distributor for Restaurants, Hospitals, Schools. (n.d.). https://www.gfs.com/en-us
Home. LeanFeast. (n.d.). https://www.leanfeast.com/
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