What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I am one of the Performance Nutritionists for Loughborough Sport and have been at Loughborough Sport for 4 years – the first 2 as a placement student and now as a full time member of staff.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

Every day is a little different! I work across 3 sports – Athletics, Triathlon and Lightning Rugby – and also mentor some of our intern nutritionists – I love the diversity this brings to my day. Right now, Lightning Rugby are coming towards the end of their pre-season period, so a lot of my attention is focused on prepping the squad to fuel their bodies for their first competitive matches of the season. This might be in 1-1 athlete meetings, quick education sessions on the gym floor, providing protein slushies (a personal favourite!) or planning when and where the girls will eat across a match day.

With Triathlon being a highly demanding sport from a nutrition point of view, I take a lot of time planning race timelines, practicing supplement protocols and calculating carbohydrate requirements to ensure all our athletes can execute an effective nutrition strategy on their race days. Although Athletics are in their quiet period at the moment, we’re starting the process of reviewing of the previous season and planning the next, so we know what went well and how we can do even better next year.

Besides this, some of the other parts of my role on a day to day can include arranging and reviewing blood tests, planning CPD for our interns or other departments, completing occasional interview requests, running tonnes of ice on and off pitch (weirdly very fun) and working with colleagues to integrate nutrition across all the support services.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

There are so many to choose from, but working on Project Momentum in Lightning Rugby has been an incredible learning journey and immensely fulfilling as a practitioner. At the start of the last season, we identified a need to increase muscle mass in some of our squad. As a group of staff, we put a huge amount of effort into make sure these players had access to the right nutrition, Strength and Conditioning, coaching, wellbeing and peer support to make this happen, and they have absolutely flourished as a result. I’m so proud of the planning and collaboration that went into this project, and how we were able to keep players happiness, wellbeing and sense of support at the centre, whilst objectively improving performance.

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

Watching Cassandre Beaugrand win Gold in the Triathlon at the Olympic Games last year was really special. Being an Olympians Nutritionist in the lead up to the Games was not something I ever saw on my career bucket list, and I think Loughborough might be the only environment to make that privilege happen so early on in my development. I am incredibly grateful to have so much support from my fellow Performance Nutritionists at Loughborough Sport, and to access so much wisdom from colleagues who have been through Olympic cycles before. It was nerve-racking to watch, but she pulled off an outstanding performance!

Which University value do you most resonate with and why?

Creative – one of my favourite parts of my role is the freedom to exercise creativity and think outside the box. Food and nutrition can be such a fun topic (I promise!) and I love being able to bring that to life for athletes. Coming up with engaging, performance-driven approaches to translate nutrition science into stuff athletes can actually do on a day-to-day never gets boring. I have been known to use a combination of coat hangers, jelly babies, paper cups and string to demo energy balance, and have sieved lumps out of 6 litres of protein hot chocolate on a VERY cold November training session.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

I am a country music obsessive…if it involves boots or stetsons, I am there.

What is your favourite quote?

In the words of the great Dolly Parton – ‘We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails’

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk