157. Pro Runner At 17 To Future Dietitian: Lessons on Weight, Diet, + Performance with Alexa Efraimson

This episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast is with former professional runner Alexa Efraimson. A high school phenom and one of the best junior runners in US history, Alexa signed a professional contract with Nike aged 17, and ran professionally for 8 years. Alexa shares the highs and lows that came with such early success, including challenges with confidence and comparison as an elite athlete. We discuss how athletics can be a vehicle for personal growth, and how that intersected her recent athletic retirement and future career in nutrition.

Throughout her running career, weight and food became a constant and unhealthy obsession as Alexa fought to maintain her “fast” high school self. We hear how a lack of nutrition education and support hurt her mental health, as well as her food and body relationships. Alexa and I discuss the need for sports nutrition resources for all athletes, including working with sport-specific Registered Dietitians, and debunk myths around weight and performance. Now in grad school, pursuing a Master of Science in Nutrition and Nutrigenomics, Alexa wants to help athletes foster healthy relationships with eating and their bodies in her future career as a Registered Dietitian. 

In this episode we talk about:

8:00 Alexa’s early running success: turning pro aged 17 as a high school phenom 

13:45 Struggling with confidence and comparison

18:30 Personal growth and identity in athletics 

21:40 Retiring from pro running; Losing the love for your sport 

27:00 Alexa’s challenges with her weight and diet 

30:50 The lack of nutrition education as a pro runner; the importance of dietitians for athletes 

38:00 Linking weight with performance 

40:45 Alexa’s future career in nutrition 

45:25 End of the podcast questions 

We mentioned Female Athlete Nutrition podcast episode 23: Nancy Clark: Founder of Sports Nutrition: https://www.riseupnutritionrun.com/podcast/episode/30166805/23-nancy-clark-founder-of-sports-nutrition 

Follow Alexa on Instagram @alexaefraimson and me, your host Lindsey Cortes, on Instagram @female.athlete.nutrition 

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