For the Coaches - when an athlete wants to lose weight

 

With so many ways to enhance performance and to optimize health, two of the most popular sought-after strategies include diet and body composition changes. When done correctly, performance may improve. However, it’s not uncommon for athletes to engage in unhealthy weight control methods, resulting in great emotional and physical consequences. Whether for aesthetics, competitive leanness, body dissatisfaction or in pursuit of an ideal “race weight,” athletes often place unrealistic expectations on performance and their bodies. What may start as an innocent attempt to lean-up or to lose a few pounds, can easily spiral out of control, undermining health, training, recovery, performance and mental well-being.

If you are a coach, you have a responsibility to take care of your athlete - physically, emotionally and mentally. 

When your athlete feels pressure to achieve a leaner body composition, an increased fascination with nutrition, body fat, weight and calories can develop into an unhealthy group of eating behaviors called disordered eating. Typical disordered eating behaviors include obsessive counting calories, clean eating, carrying out food rituals, fasting, avoiding sport nutrition products, having an off-limit food list, or avoiding certain foods or food groups for non-medical reasons.

If you are concerned that your athlete may have an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, start the conversation with a non-judgmental tone in order to make your athlete feel safe and cared about. Making it clear that you care about your athlete’s health and well-being, you may say, “I’m worried about you because I’ve noticed that you are struggling to complete your workouts lately.” You may also say, “you’ve been experiencing a lot of injuries/sicknesses lately. It may be best to consult with a sport dietitian to make sure you can adapt to your upcoming training load.”

The most common precipitating factor in the development of an eating disorder is dieting. What starts as a well-intentioned diet plan, slowly transforms into skipping meals, undereating, removing specific foods or entire food groups from the diet and sacrificing calories before and after workouts. An eating disorder is a serious psychiatric condition that affects all types of individuals. Eating disorders are complex and multifactorial. Interestingly, athletes are at higher risk for an eating disorder compared to the rest of the population. A disciplined, goal-oriented athlete can be guilty of chasing perfectionism. Feeling great pressure to succeed, restricting food can become an easy way to exert control. Constantly pushing the body to the limits, athletes don’t realize how much energy is needed for training. Lastly, many athletes believe that leanness is an essential factor in improving performance. But as we can see in today's society, records are being broken by all different body types.

With several different genetic and socio-cultural triggers, risk factors for an eating disorder include dieting, need for control, weight stigma, body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, anxiety, biochemical imbalances, traumatic life events, behavior inflexibility, nutrition misinformation, low self-esteem, and being teased or bullied. With a strong stigma behind eating disorders, it’s important to show support to those who are struggling and to emphasize that help is available.

As a coach, routinely remind your athletes that optimizing performance should not require excessive training and restrictive eating. Resorting to destructive methods of manipulating body composition will only sabotage performance and health.

Pay attention to any warning signs that your athlete may be eating too little and training too hard. Fatigue, anemia, compromised bone health, hormonal imbalances, hair loss, notable weight loss, lack of energy, a decline in muscle mass and strength, mood changes, amenorrhea, restless sleep, and overuse injuries are common signs of an energy imbalance. Inadequate caloric intake relative to energy expenditure (RED-S) will result in extra stress on the body – increasing the risk for injury, sickness and burnout. 

Encourage athletes to maintain healthy training and eating behaviors that will favor long-term health and longevity in sport. It’s encouraged to partner with a Board Certified Sport Dietitian to provide effective, safe and personalized nutrition advice to athletes. If you are concerned about an athlete’s weight or health, a Board Certified Sport Dietitian can counsel athletes who are struggling with the physical and emotional consequences of dieting. 

As a coach, how much emphasis do you place on body image?

Do you often talk about weight loss, body fat or dietary trends to your athletes?

Body composition is a sensitive and personal issue yet far too many coaches share an overvalued belief with their athletes that a lower body weight will improve performance. Inadvertently, you may be placing your own values and attitudes regarding weight, dieting and body image on your athletes. As a coach, you should never assume that reducing body fat or weight will enhance the performance of your athlete. Every athlete has his/her own optimum performance weight where the body functions the best and this body type is achieved through consistent training, nutritious eating and proper fueling and hydration. Acknowledge an athlete’s strengths beyond the physical, for athletes are more than just a look. Making remarks about body composition and performance can trigger or exacerbate disordered eating thoughts and behaviors. Don’t be the coach who makes stereotypical assumptions about the ideal body type for athletic greatness.

As a coach, use your power and authority. In today’s fad-diet, body image obsessed society, it can be difficult for athletes to keep a healthy perspective on body image. Help your athlete understand the importance of maintaining a healthy body composition – even if that image doesn’t look like the idealized image seen on social media. Protect the physical and psychological well-being of your athletes by discouraging dieting and enforcing health and performance-promoting eating habits.

Extreme nutrition habits are extremely trendy while discussions of health are lacking. Be a role model and encourage your athletes to care for their mental and physical health. Eating is not cheating. Meeting daily nutritional needs and supporting training sessions with proper sport nutrition is a necessary component of athletic success, and it keeps sport fun, long-lasting and health-promoting.

Body image and athletics - something needs to change!

Unhealthy weight control/loss practices are a serious and ongoing problem in sport, especially in aesthetic and weight-bearing sports, like running and triathlon. Too often, athletes are pressured by media, coaches and competitors to change body composition in order to boost performance. There's the mentality that you have to be thin to wind.

But if losing weight was a guarantee to performance improvements, why don't more athletes excel at sport after they experience some type of weight loss?

Many athletes are told (or assume) that they would be more successful in a sport if they lost weight or changed body composition. Regardless of the performance outcome, athletes who are asked or told to lose weight.change body composition are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors such as fasted workouts, skipping meals, replacing higher calorie foods for calorie-free/diet foods, fasting/cleansing/detoxing, using weight loss supplements, diuretics or laxatives and/or overexercising. While a short period of performance enhancements may be seen, most athletes end up with broken bones/stress fractures, hormonal issues, amennorhea (females), fatigue and burnout. Far from the performance improvements that are told to happen from weight loss!

Although I am not a sport psychologist (like my amazing friend Dr. G), feeling the need to lose weight can be a form of emotional abuse. Whether you are told to lose weight from a coach, you are constantly comparing yourself to other people or your inner critic is telling you that you would be a better/faster/happier athlete if you lost weight, you may not be aware of the emotional trauma that you are enduring and how it affects your confidence and self-worth.

How can we change the mindset of so many athletes/coaches that weight loss = performance improvements? 

• It starts with the coach - who is directly involved with an athlete's physical and mental development. Many coaches and experts wrongly place their own attitudes, thoughts, strategies and personal experiences with weight, dieting and body image on their athletes. Athletes need a coach who is a good role model, promoting  positive self-image and healthy dietary and fueling strategies. Coaches need to recognize that an athlete is more than just a body and athletic success does not result from a number on the scle or body image. 
• Weight is a sensitive and personal issue for many athletes. You can't look at someone and tell if he/she has underlying issues with food and body image. Unfortunately, many coaches and experts do not realize how certain words can affect an athlete. For example, if a coach tells his athlete that its bad to eat carbs after 6pm and the athlete eats a slice bread at 6:05pm, the athlete may feel like a bad person. When a nutrition "expert" suggests to an athlete that weight loss will improve performance, that athlete will spend a considerable amount of energy trying to change body composition (often through quick fixes and extreme approach). If a coach makes a snarky comment about an athlete's size, the athlete may feel an overwhelming sense of distress - overlooking strengths and becoming obsessed with weaknesses. 
• Coaches need to see an athlete as more than an object - consider how an athlete's lifestyle choices, mental and physical health, emotions and individual development can contribute to performance. It's absolutely wrong and unjust to assume that if an athlete weighs less, he/she will become a better athlete.  We must stop assuming that when an athlete looks differently, he/she will perform differently. 
• You can't perform at your best if you are not in optimal health. Because most athletes do not seek out professional guidance from a sport dietitian, there is no one to closely monitor and watch over an athlete for extreme behaviors. A sport dietitian can also clear up misinformation and debate against unhealthy dietary practices that may sabotage performance and health.

As a coach, sport RD and athlete, I take performance and health very seriously. I never ever tell my athletes to lose weight - ever! 

We must stop viewing weight as a performance limiter or as the best next step toward athletic greatness. There are many ways to boost performance, like eating "enough", fueling properly, timing food with workouts, strength training, mental strength, quality sleep, good recovery practices and consistent training. While weight loss may lead to performance improvements, we can't assume that reducing body fat will benefit every athlete. There are no shortage of cases where athletes have experienced a temporary boost in performance in the initial phases of changing body composition but eventually suffer from eating-disorder/disordered eating symptoms, overtraining, hormonal issues, menstrual irregularities (female athletes), low bone density, a weakened immune system, chronic injuries and a performance decline (or a sporting career cut short) overtime.

Sports are designed to build self-esteem, boost confidence, promote physical strength, improve skills and teach life lessons. As an athlete, you should do what you like to do, which is participate in the sport you love. It's hard to love what you can do with your body when you are underfuled, undernourished and underappreciated.

If an athlete feels the need to lose weight (for whatever reason), he/she should be the one to voice the concern and the next step is to consult with a sport dietitian - an outside voice to provide non-judgemental, practical, realistic, effective and safe information.  With proper education, support and guidance, athletes are more likely to stay in good mental and physical health, experience athletic excellence and maintaint great enjoyment for sport for many years.

Athletes - love your amazing body and be sure to thank it. Rest it, respect it, nourish it and fuel it daily. 

Do you call yourself an athlete?

Tomorrow we will welcome 21 campers to Greenville for 4.5 days of endurance training as part of our 2018 Trimarni advanced endurance camp. While a stressful and exhausting experience for us coaches, it's extremely rewarding to see our campers break out of their comfort zone and stretch their physical and mental boundaries. These campers will be swimming, biking and running for several hours a day (and multiple training sessions) as we put them through challenging training sessions while also addressing skills, sport nutrition, form, pacing, execution and terrain management. Without a doubt, these athletes will be tested mentally and physically but will gain valuable tools to use in training at their home environment, and on race day.

Interestingly, many people struggle to self-identify as an athlete despite training for and participating in athletic events. And then there are those who struggle with motivation to stay active when they give up the identify of being an athlete because they are no longer training (hard) for an event.

Comparing yourself to someone who places high in their age-group, is well-known as a "fast" athlete or dedicates a lot of time, energy and money to training and racing doesn't mean that you are any less of an athlete. Regardless of how long it takes you to complete an event, you belong in the same group of "athletes" as those who will finish minutes (or hours) ahead of you.

If you register for a race and dedicate yourself to the training, you deserve to call yourself an athlete. If you are able to get to the start line and eventually the finish line, you understand the dedication, discipline, motivation, time, energy and sacrifices it takes to train for and complete an event. From the newbie to the elite, fitness level does not distinguish who is more worthy of the athlete status for everyone on the race course deals with the same conditions and must use physical and mental strength to get to the finish line.

If you are struggling to own your athlete title, I encourage you to take pride in calling yourself an athlete. If you can set a goal and follow through with the work that is needed to reach that goal, it doesn't matter what level of fitness you have or what you look like....you are an athlete. Yes, exercise is a way to maintain a healthy body composition, reduce risk for disease and destress from a busy work day but training for an event gives you a sense of purpose so that you aren't just exercising to burn calories. From the early morning wake-up alarms, the intense and exhausting training sessions and being creative to fit everything in - this is the lifestyle of an athlete.

There is no "look" of an athlete. It's a spirit, an energy, a passion and a focus that helps you prepare for an event. You don't have to be a certain size or weight to commit to training, to dig deep, to use sport nutrition to fuel and hydrate properly and to make your goals a reality. Personal bests and awesome workouts occur at every size and at every fitness level.

If you are hesitant to put yourself into an uncomfortable camp, group training or racing situation due to nerves, fear, anxiety or self-doubt for not being "good enough", I encourage you to own your athlete status. Just because someone else can go faster, further or stronger than you, it doesn't diminish what you have done or what you are capable of achieving.

M2M expert night wrap-up: The role of sport nutrition in a healthy diet

I couldn't be more excited to support and promote our local half ironman distance triathlon, here in Greenville, SC. Mountains to Mainstreet (M2M) is not just a triathlon event but a full festival weekend of events, with a 1K, 5K and half marathon on Saturday, followed by the half ironman distance triathlon (and relay/aquabike) on Sunday.

For a limited time, you can use the discount code tri35 to receive a $35 off discount code for the event. We hope to see you there and we can't wait for you to enjoy our gem of a triathlon playground, here in beautiful Greenville, SC.

For more info about the event:
Mountains to Mainstreet

In conjunction with the event, the M2M team is bringing together the triathlon community with a series of educational talks on all things triathlon - nutrition, swim, bike, run, injuries, race preparation, etc. I just love our triathlon/cycling/running community here in Greenville and I could not be more proud and excited to be a triathlete, living here in Greenville, SC. 

Earlier this week, I spoke alongside two other experts in the community for the first community expert night. I was joined by Dr. Kyle Cassas, Orthopedic Sports Medicine Doctor with the Steadman Hawkins group and Scott Kaylor, Physical Therapist at ATI sports therapy. It was an honor to speak alongside these experienced and knowledgeable experts and I feel we each brought something beneficial to the triathlon community as it relates to helping endurance triathletes safely and effectively prepare for an upcoming triathlon event. 

My talk focused on the importance of sport nutrition and daily nutrition planning for athletes but specifically, I educated the group on the role of sport nutrition in a healthy athlete diet. I thought it would be beneficial to share some of the nuggets of information that I provided the group, to ensure that you don't miss out on the health and performance benefits of proper fueling and eating in your endurance sport lifestyle. 

• It doesn’t matter what type of education that you have or your fitness level, proper nutrition is critical for optimizing performance and for keeping the body functioning well.
  
• For almost every athlete, there’s going to be a point your athletic development when your daily diet will no longer give you all the energy that you need to prepare for your upcoming athletic event. You may even get sick, injured or burnout if you don't adjust your current style of eating. In order to help your body safely continue to adapt to training stress, you will eventually have to take in some type of supplemental form of energy during your workout in order to meet the training demands that you place on your body.
  
  
• Nutrition advice is very conflicting and confusing but it's critical that you understand and accept that sport nutrition products can fit in with a healthy diet.
  
  
• Sport nutrition products are often linked together with sugar loaded foods, like processed foods, candy bars and junk food. Although sport nutrition products do contain sugar, these engineered products are formulated in a way to provide your body with a specific amount of carbohydrates, electrolytes and fluids to be properly digested and absorbed during exercise. In
  other words, these products are just as convenient as they are functional. 
  
  
• The reason why there are so many sport nutrition products on the market is because these products are designed to be used by athletes, dependent on sport, during intense and long workouts in order to help you properly adapt to training stress and to keep your body systems functioning well.
  
  
• Sport nutrition has a specific application, in which these products are designed to be used during intense and long workouts. In other words, if you are eating raisins, a banana and almonds during a long bike training session but eating a sport bar and sipping on an energy drink at work at 3pm in the afternoon, you are missing the application focus of sport nutrition and where it fits in with a healthy diet.
  
  
• Athletes should prioritize a real food diet throughout the day so that sport nutrition can be well tolerated during training.
  
  
• As it relates to the daily diet, your eating should always be well organized and planned. You will constantly feel like you can't "eat right" if your food choices just randomly happen.
  
  
• As a sport dietitian, I always consider an athlete’s unique situation when developing a solid foundation of eating and fueling. Every athlete comes from a different athletic background, with different dietary needs, a learned relationship with food and the body, training regime and body composition needs, that will all impact what type of nutrition guidance will work best in your individual situation.
  
  
• Every athlete can agree that triathlon training and recovery are enhanced by paying close attention to the daily diet. As an endurance triathlete, you need to meet specific daily nutritional needs to support your training. This nutrition planning should not start a few weeks out from your big race but instead, when you start your training after the off-season. As training demands shift during the year, you will need to adjust your eating style, caloric intake and macronutrient distribution, while still maintaining a high nutrient dense diet to support your health and athletic needs.
  
  
• As for finding the best sport nutrition product, I am a big proponent of powder sport drinks because they are easy to adjust to your unique needs and they make fueling and hydration incredibly easy as you can monitor your intake and also meet your fluid, electrolyte, calorie and carbohydrate needs all in one bottle. Because most sport nutrition powders tell you how to mix your drink into water, this is helping you create the perfect osmolality of the drink to be suitable for gastric emptying. To avoid those awful and annoying GI issues on race day, not to mention how scary and unhealthy it is for the body to experience dehydration and bonking, it’s important that whatever you consume on the bike and run for “fuel” that those products are easily digested from the stomach and absorbed from the small intestines. There's not point taking in nutrition/fuel if those products are just sitting in your gut as you are training/racing.
  
  
• The sport of triathlon is fun, challenging, confidence and skill building and above all, it can enrich the life to make a person a better human being. But sadly, there are far too many athletes who are abusing this three-sport lifestyle in an effort to simply lose weight. If you feel like you are using triathlon training as a punishment for eating "too" much, for being “too" fat or for earning something to eat that is “off limit” in the diet, consider if your unhealthy thoughts about food and the body are helping you become a better triathlete, and above all, keeping your body in good health. Since I specialize in working with athletes who suffer from disordered eating and body image issues, I’m sensitive to the fact that many triathletes do justify their extreme triathlon lifestyle with excessive exercise and restricting energy and sport nutrition in the diet, due to body image issues. Far too many age groupers are manipulating training and the diet for “weight control” versus learning how to eat well and use sport nutrition properly in order to adapt well to training and to properly prepare for race day.
  
  
• As a triathlete, it is important to always ask yourself if you are eating "enough", organizing the diet to support your training and timing your nutrition well with your workouts. I am extremely passionate about helping athletes improve nutrition and fueling habits, but I am also dedicated to helping athletes improve healthy living strategies to create athletic excellence while keeping the body in good health.
  
  
• For most athletes, working with a sport dietitian to help you structure the daily diet to meet your unique needs and to learn how to use sport nutrition properly, will be extremely advantageous to your performance and health. Having a trained professional will take the guessing away from what, how much and when to eat, so that you can put your energy into your training, meal planning, work and family life.

Life skills learned from sport

Tonight I will be speaking at Furman University to a small group of exercise science students for career night.

I will share my 11-year extensive educational journey and how it got me to where I am today. I will also share some of my real world experiences and tips of owning your own business (and lessons learned along the way). 

It wasn’t too long ago when I was listening to experts discuss various professions in the fields of nutrition, exercise, health and fitness.

I always found career night to be a valuable opportunity to learn about interesting and sometimes not so interesting careers. 

My hope is to inspire the students to continue their education and to explore the many job opportunities out there. It's a great feeling to make a living from doing something that you love. 

My best advice to the students is not to stress about finding the perfect career. Let it find you. There is no right or wrong path to finding your dream job. Whatever you eventually end up doing in life for work, always stay true to yourself and do what you love.
If you pursue your passion, you will always be motivated to work.

On the topic of careers, I realize how important education/schooling is when searching for a job but to be honest, I developed many life/job skills from being a lifelong athlete.

  

Although my education has always been a high priority in my life, sport has given me many useful skills that I constantly apply to my work life. 

Skills gained from sport:

-Self-discipline and dedication

-No short cuts

-Patience

-Hard work ethic

-Learn from mistakes

-Healthy and active lifestyle

-Confidence

-Team work 

-Time management

-Setting goals

-Being a leader and teammate 

-Learning from others

-Sacrifices and priorities 

-Dealing with pressure and stress

-Constructive criticism 

-Focus and concentration 

-It’s not always about being the best

Are you still an athlete if you don't race?

Ever since the age of 10 yrs I have called myself an athlete. I balanced my education with swimming all the way until I graduated from Transylvania University in my hometown of Lexington, KY. I specialized in the 200 meter butterfly, 100 breakstroke and 200 IM. For me, swimming was not a chore or a way to burn calories in my teenage years but instead, the pool was a place where all my friends were at, the place where I had fun and the place where I practiced in order to compete. 

My brother was also a student athlete. Aaron (my brother) started gymnastics at a very young age after my parents noticed that his natural ability to flip all around his room needed to be put to good use. Aaron continued to excel in gymnastics until his final year of college at University of Michigan. He finished on a very high note as the 2007 Big Ten High Bar Champion with this winning routine. 

                            

For most of our life, my brother and I shared a similar passion for sports but we also placed a lot of value on our education. 

Somehow, we were able to balance it all but I also feel that without sports, we would not have the skills that are needed in our careers in order to succeed. Still today, we both enjoy exercising and using our body and we both continue to train for races (my brother has raced in several half marathons) as a way to stay 'balanced'. 

If you call yourself an athlete here are some of the great skills that can come from training your body to perform.

-Work as a team or support others

-Be humble

-Embrace competition
-Discipline
-Goal setting
-Work hard
-Challenge yourself
-Overcome obstacles and setbacks
-Self-motivation
-Mentally durable
-Time management
-Can't procrastinate
-Self discipline
-Coachable and willingness to learn
-Can perform under pressure
-Can step outside of your comfort zone (or stretch your comfort zone)
-Be flexible
-Have a plan
-Great work ethic
-Be open to change and failure


As you can see, many of the skills that are needed in sport also work great in life. If you are thinking about signing up for a race/event, and you have a few of the skills listed above that you use in your every-day life, I have a feeling you are going to be very successful when you dedicate yourself to training for a race.

As a student athlete for all of my life, it was only natural for me to seek a new challenge when I graduated from undergrad and moved to the running/tri state of Florida. As much as I loved to exercise, I was raised with a mindset that my body loves to train and perform.

I discovered endurance running while I was in graduate school and quickly endurance triathlons followed. I was hooked immediately when I crossed my first marathon finish line because I not only felt a great sense of achievement and accomplishment but I also really enjoyed the amazing journey that I was able to experience with my body and mind while training for my race.

As we all know, life happens. So despite loving racing and training for a race and every high and low that comes with being an age-group athlete, there are times in my life when a race/event is not in my near future. However, I never feel as if my title of athlete goes away. 

I find that many active individuals who love to race, struggle with life when "it" happens. Injury, new baby, move, job change, relationship change.....On one side of your though process you know you can't balance it all and perform well at your race but on the other side there's this underlying fear of missing out or sense of "routine" that you feel you will lose if you do not race in the next few months. 

If you are considering signing up for a race or have competed in races but are currently struggling with the fact that you are unable to race in the near future, here are a few of my tips to help you out so that you can feel confident that you will never lose your "athlete" title. 

Injury

For any athlete - professional, novice, age group or elite - there's always a chance for injury.  

With no magic ball to predict the future, in order to gain the competitive edge athlete are often willing to take chances and risks. Sometimes those risks turn out great and sometimes there's a setback in the way. 

Returning from an injury can be extremely difficult, especially if you have a race on the schedule, if the injury is taking longer than expected to heal or if you feel as if you are losing fitness during the rehab/recovery process. 

As an athlete, you have the discipline, motivation and determination to return to optimal health and fitness and perhaps gather a greater understanding of your body. By focusing on what you CAN do, do not think about the past or what you use to do but instead, keep your eyes set on the future. You can only make progress if you are willing to do the work and when you do get to your next start line you can enjoy looking back at all the obstacles you overcame to make your finish line experience even more enjoyable. 

-Consider volunteering at a race to give back to your sport while you are injured
-If there is an activity that you are allowed to do (pain free), don't be afraid to change up your routine

-Don't think black or white, all or nothing. You may not feel it now but the water jogging, anti gravity treadmill, strength training will pay off. 

-Have a good support system. If all your friends/training buddies are posting on social media about epic workouts, it may be good to focus on only yourself for a while or surround yourself with people who give you positive energy to keep you moving forward. 

LIFE CHANGES

A new baby, a move, a new job, a relationship change. There are many exciting and stressful moments in life that need your full attention. Perhaps a race in the next few months is not on your to-do list or maybe that race that motivated you for months to get out of bed at 5am is no longer on the horizon. This can be very hard for athletes because everyone handles these situations differently.
What's most important is that you focus on yourself so you can stay balanced. What's great is that your sport of choice will not disappear in the next year. There will be more races and even if you have to change up your plans, you never have to lose sight of your goals.

-Consider getting involved with more groups so that your focus is not on "training" but instead working-out and exercising.
-Don't try to stick a plan if the plan is not accommodating to your new "life" or change. Maybe you can't follow a 6-7 day training plan like you use to but if you have a few days each week here or there that you can enjoy a little "me" time, take advantage of it.
-Communicate. Whether you need support from friends or need to talk to your family, it's important that you still stay active for health benefits. Find a balance.

-You are still an athlete even if you are not training for a race right now. You can still jump into "practices" or do a favorite workout and adjust the effort based on how you feel on that day. 

-No one can ever remove your past finishing titles or take away your medals. Celebrate what you have accomplished rather than placing negative emotions on what you are unable to do at this time with your sport career.
-Your motivation and inspiration will never go away so why not help someone else train for an event. Perhaps you can not maintain a structured training plan but your enthusiasm for sports can be a great asset for someone who is just starting out. 

NOT YET AN ATHLETEWhat if you are not comfortable calling yourself an athlete because you have yet to cross a finish line? Perhaps you are a bit hesitant to sign up for a race/event because you will be stepping out of your comfort zone? It's likely that you have the skills to train for a race so don't be afraid to get started (that's always the scary part). Once you register for a race or plan your upcoming race if more than 6+ months down the road and registration is not open yet, embrace your new title of an athlete. 

-As an athlete, you are no longer working out just to "be healthy" or "burn calories". Be sure to fuel your body so that you can adapt to training stress and recover well.
-Work with a coach so you can follow a plan that works for your goals, lifestyle and body. Remember, you are an athlete so a plan will have structured workouts to help you prepare for your upcoming race/event.
-Enjoy your athlete body. Your muscles may change, your heart may pump more quickly at times, your legs may burn and you may sweat more than normal. Enjoy what your body is letting you do and always thank your body for what it allows you to do.
-Involve others. Find other new and veteran athletes who can share your journey with you. The veteran athletes can give you advice and can also keep you motivated whereas your newbie athlete friends can share the excitement with you when milestones are reached. 

So.....are you an athlete if you don't race right now?

Absolutely.