Barbell Shrugged  — Nutrition, Hormones & Coaching w/ Laurie King  — 319

Laurie Christine King nutritionist, an athlete, and a coach. Laurie pursued a degree in Nutrition & Dietetics partly to remedy her own health issues, including an underactive thyroid and an eating disorder, and partly to put herself in a position to help others to never be in her situation.

Laurie has learned that women’s health is very underappreciated and misunderstood, and that most females don’t truly realize how hormonal birth control impacts them, and more importantly — that the period is a monthly feedback report on the current state of their health.

Through tons of research and years of working with others, Laurie learned a lot about how to build a happy & sustainable lifestyle, and how to eat in a way that supports gut health, thyroid health, mental health, happy adrenals, & a balanced sex hormone profile.

In this episode, Laurie walks shares how she works clients through the basics, and how she adds layers of complexity as the relationship develops. She also dives into why men should be proud of their morning wood, the 3 P’s of protecting hormones, why you should invest in quality food, and much more.

Enjoy!

– Doug and Anders

A post shared by Laurie Christine King 🥑 (@lauriechristineking) on May 15, 2018 at 5:16pm PDT

Leading from the front

Laurie King, with a degree in dietetics, bounced around for a while coaching crossfit and running seminars, before she started coaching in nutrition. Laurie’s role is helping to answer questions for nutrition coaches that they hire, serving as a resource for “outside the box” information. Laurie explains some of the most common conditions she addressed, namely low testosterone and how little awareness there is around hormonal issues, offering strategies for addressing these issues.

Laurie walks the Shrugged crew through how to she works clients through the basics and how she can add layers of complexity as the relationship develops. She also explains how her two day certification seminar works, providing information on physiology of nutrition and the science behind nutritional coaching. Day 2, she explains, revolves all around application of information, including behavior change and psychology.

Laurie often starts coaching clients by using FaceTime to help people clean out their pantry, and help clients with a full house sweep. She believes that if it is in the house, they will eat it. She would rather start with a clean slate and build out the right looking fridge from zero. She also explains how all coaches specialize in a certain type of client. She personally prefers to work with people in a dark place with severe hormone or gut issues.

“Don’t live life like an asshole. How much sleep are you getting at night? How much caffeine are you consuming? How often are you training?” — Laurie King

A post shared by Laurie Christine King 🥑 (@lauriechristineking) on May 26, 2018 at 9:32am PDT

Key Takeaways

• Testosterone  —  Low testosterone is a huge issue with men in the CrossFit community. Two obvious signs of a testosterone issues are the lack of a morning erection and being more excited about training than sex. Men should be cautious about supplementing with exogenous testosterone and should start with lifestyle before any other treatment.
• The 3 P’s of protecting hormones  —  Plastics, parabens, and pesticides are all known chemicals that can have a huge hormonal impact on us. All of the P’s include chemicals in the environment that mimic estrogen. This includes skin care, body wash, hair products, and chemicals in conventional food.
• Start with the basics  —  It isn’t necessary to get complex blood work done if you are not covering the basics. Make sure you are eating right, sleeping right, and recovering. Once you have fine tuned the basics, you can start to dig into the minutia if you’re still feeling like crap and doing everything right.
• “Leading from the front”  —  You cannot tell clients what to do or what to eat. It is important to show them what to do. It might start before counting macros, like teaching someone how to clean out the pantry and start to meal prep. Coaching isn’t about throwing macro numbers at someone.
• Coach from experience  —  The best coaching happens when the coach has been through it themselves. Laurie was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at 17, so she really excels at addressing similar issues with clients. If you just had a baby, you are better at coaching someone just finishing a pregnancy.
• Always invest in quality  — Never skimp on low quality foods, especially meats. Meats should be grass-fed, wild caught, and of the cleanest quality produce that you can afford.

“More data you have, the better.” — Laurie King

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