Fifteen years ago I was suffering from severe disordered eating and body dysmorphia. My college coach was completely unequipped to recognize or deal with this and in fact, triggered and perpetuated my disorder. As I went through my dietetics training, I knew I wanted to prevent as many human beings as possible from going through what I was going through which I why I chose to focus on eating disorders in sport.
After graduating, I continued building a strong clinical base working as an inpatient dietitian in the hospital system and later as an outpatient dietitian within a physicians practice. While I’m grateful for my time in the healthcare system and to this day, I recommend young dietitians develop their clinical skillset, I often feel like our healthcare system is more concerned with profits than people. It wasn’t aligned with my values or the quality of care I wanted to provide.
Early on, I had created Nutrition by Mel, originally as my side hustle, but with the foresight of knowing one day I intended to make it my full time practice. As it happens, the transition felt right around the time my husband and I were family planning. Becoming a mother was something I had considered but never fully embraced. To be honest, I was worried about my identity, my body, and losing touch with this work that I loved. I knew, theoretically, that is was possible to continue to be “me” and also become a mother, but I had my concerns.
So, I went to therapy and did some unpacking. I had to reevaluate deeply help narratives around pregnancy, career, sacrifice, and motherhood. After doing this beautiful, soul-affirming work we were fortunate to get pregnant. And by gosh did I love pregnancy. LOVED it. It felt so powerful.
Throughout my pregnancy journey, I spent a lot of time digging through the research (there isn’t enough), reading thought leaders on the nutrition side like Lily Nichols, and exploring how non-western cultures have traditionally cared for and nourished their mothers and mothers-to-be. I was able to connect the dots, both personally and professionally, between how to best fuel as an athlete and how to best fuel as a mother.
But throughout this process, I also discovered a rather large disconnect between the kind of care we should be receiving and the kind of care we were provided. This included overly general dietary guidelines, bogus recommendations on weight reference ranges, and unsubstantiated and generally unscientific training recommendations (keep your heart rate below 140!)…plus the ginormous serving of unsolicited advice we receive about what to eat, what not to eat, what to buy, what to wear, and how to move. Again, I found myself being called to address the gap and support the sisterhood. And that was it for me. I knew this is where I wanted to invest my time and energy - supporting female athletes before, during, and after pregnancy.
The fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum journey is the most powerful and vulnerable of our lives. For girls like me who struggled with disordered eating, low energy availability, and REDs, the process can be littered with triggers. From the need to address oligomenorrhea to understanding best fueling practices. From the acceptance that our body is going to change to the importance of nourishing our body postpartum so it may heal. From navigating the realities of contracts and performance expectations to handling the unrealistic timelines often imposed by people who have never been pregnant. From managing difficult conversations to building a support system of expert practitioners to offer guidance and insight that allow for a safe return to sport. There is a need for higher quality practitioners, higher quality research, and higher quality care.
So for me this isn’t work. It’s been a personal and professional journey, a labor of love, and a mission to challenge convention, confront my own obstacles, and hold space for anyone who invites me into their life to walk besides them.
