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Friends at Utah State University

July 2019

By Natalie Christensen, RD, CSSD, LD
Sports Dietitian, SCORE

Utah State University ICON Sports Performance Center

Every year Sports Dietitians from around the nation gather at the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA) meeting. I love going to these meetings! I have met so many brilliant, successful and generous colleagues at these conferences over the years. This year I was lucky enough to meet and spend time with Rachel Robbins, Sports Nutrition Graduate Assistant at Utah State University. Rachel is a Registered Dietitian specializing in sports nutrition and working part-time in the USU Sports Performance Center.

Inside this Sports Performance Center is a beautiful fueling station. Within the athletics world, a fueling station is basically a big kitchen where the athletes can come and grab or make food before and after workouts to fuel their bodies. The science behind performance, recovery, well-being, and nutrition is convincing and universities across the nation are spending millions to create places for their student athletes to easily access healthy foods.

Here at Idaho State, we have been discussing the possibilities of creating a bigger fueling station for our athletes. So when Rachel invited me to visit their top-of-the-line fueling station in Logan, Utah, I jumped at the chance! Their fueling station has a specific summer schedule and I arrived about an hour before the doors would be open to the athletes. Rachel gave me a tour of the facility and we discussed their processes of ordering and inventory. We prepped fresh fruit and vegetables, portioned them out, put them into individual containers and placed them in clearly labeled areas of their large, clear glass fridges. We mixed pre-cooked, frozen, diced chicken with barbecue sauce and portioned it out into 3-ounce containers.

The athletes started coming in at noon, as soon as the doors were opened. Many of them quickly made toast, grabbed fruit, chocolate milk or yogurt and went on their way. However, many others took time to create high protein snacks in the microwave with the chicken, black beans, cheese, salsa, and tortillas and sat down at tables with fellow athletes to eat. Natalie Norris, their Director of Sports Nutrition, came in with more food and instructions of what to pre-prep for the next day. She knew all of the athletes’ names and spent time interacting with them. Her office is directly connected to the fueling station with the door always open unless she is counseling an athlete. The vibe in the fueling station was friendly, calm, safe and respectful. The student athletes were grateful and kind and cleaned up after themselves.

Top-of-the-line fueling station at Utah State University

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to network with other sports nutrition professionals and to learn from them. I am also grateful to work at Idaho State University, a place that has supported each step in creating a flourishing sports nutrition program and two functioning fueling stations for our athletes.

Yes, sports nutrition programs are about improving performance and gaining that competitive edge, but they are much more than that. They are programs that bring teams together. They are programs that provide safe places for athletes to mindfully nourish their bodies and minds. They are programs that will set the stage for health and wellbeing throughout the lifespan and ultimately throughout generations.