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Teen Athlete


jsunnen

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I am on day 10 of my Whole30. My daughter is 13, 5'10, 165 lb volleyball player. She practices a minimum of 2 hours daily, does mobility and light work with a trainer 2x/week and often weekend tournaments with an average of 10-15 sets played/day. She has expressed an interest in trying this for 30 days to see how she feels. Although I am excited about this, I am wondering if it would be easier after the season is over (late Oct) or if now is the best time to start. Also, how do you keep them full???

Any insight appreciated!

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I'd let her jump in, just make sure that she has PLENTY of food available to her. sweet potatoes, other starches, fruit, compliant apple sauces, etc are ALL going to be important for her. If she's hungry, let her eat.

Just be careful about going too crazy and dogmatic about compliance, because it could foster/reinforce food hangups that teenage girls already have to deal with, you know? We're trying to break that cycle :) So just give her healthy options, empower her to make healthy choices, and make it easy for her to get more food/fuel if she needs it, quickly (rather than grabbing for a power bar or something)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick update! Daughter decided to start today; only committed to 2 weeks. I am ecstatic about that! We did a lot of planning yesterday and I am hopeful she feels so good by the end of the 2nd week she continues. Our biggest problem this morning is that she is a coffee drinker (long story-suffice it to say we opted for morning caffeine rather than ritalin to help with ADD. It's worked for years) and she cannot handle black coffee. I tried to make a paleo pumpkin latte but she thought it was terrible. My only concern is that without the caffeine she will struggle with the ADD symptoms. Any stories about Whole30 combatting those symptoms?

Thanks!

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ADD is associated with sugar and gluten intake and the other things that you're going to cut out during the two weeks. It may be rough in the beginning, but coming out the other end may surprise both of you.

Is black tea an option? Not the same caffeine hit, but it's something. Have you tried regular coconut milk in the coffee?

I'd really encourage you to leverage the program as much as possible and see if the ADD is improved with the diet change, though! Good luck!

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jsunnen- When I read your post I immidiatley fell in love with your daughter. I played club volleyball all through junior high and high school and played college volleyball as well. I think you daughter has to be one of the coolest people, I know what kind of food is typical for teenage girls at tournaments and the fact that SHE WANTS to try this is amazing! I didn't find Whole30 until the end of my college career and I have always wondered how much better of an athlete I could have been if I had known about this at a younger age.

please keep us updated! I would love to hear how she is doing with it!

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