Smart Nutrition with Sam

18/07/2025

**🎓 8 YEARS AGO TODAY, I BECAME A DIETITIAN!**

This was me on graduation day in 2017 —excited, clueless, and ready to change the world 🌍 (or at least your snack habits 😉).

**What I know now**:
✅ Nutrition isn’t one-size-fits-all (especially for my ADHD/autism, athlete, and teen clients!).
✅ Food is SO much more than nutrients—it’s joy, culture, and connection.
✅ The best part of this job? YOU. The people who trust me with their stories. 💛

**To celebrate, I’d love to hear**:
🔹 What’s your biggest nutrition struggle?
🔹 What topics do you want me to cover? (Recipes? Myth-busting? Meal plans?)

P.S. New posts coming soon—thanks for sticking around!

04/04/2024

Throwback Thursday Time! As I’ve worked with more and more neurospicy teens and adults, this message couldn’t resonate more. Fuelled brains are happy brains! 🧠

.nutrition.with.sam with .repost
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Wait what?⁠ 🤯
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Yeah you read that right! An organ that is ~2% of our weight uses a whopping 20% of our energy AT REST 😲  This can increase by 8% when its working / thinking hard. And this is in neurotypical brains.⁠
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But what if you’re not eating enough? Well like in any body, you don’t eat enough, and the brain isn’t happy. The brain can’t store energy like our muscles so if we don’t eat enough everyday, well that stands to reason your brain might not work as well.⁠
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For NTs, that might make them irritable and tired. But for NDs, this could be so much worse. ⁠
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You need food. Its ok to need more food. Food runs your brain. Go eat something 💪

26/03/2024

This vs. That Tuesday! Let's talk about fluid.⁠
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Hydration is definitely a key part of performance for any athlete. Not only can it prevent nasty muscle cramps (at the worst time) but also it helps make sure your brain is fully switched on!⁠
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The good news with hydration is that ALL fluids count; water, milk, juice, sports drinks and even tea and coffee! ⁠
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For optimum hydration leading up into a competition, an athlete should be checking the colour of their morning p*e - aiming for a light straw yellow. If its resembling something close to apple juice, we have some work to do!⁠
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Hydration can take 24 hours to take effect, so knowing how hydrated you are in the days leading up to competition is vital so you know if you need to start drinking more fluid. If you do need to hydrate more, I suggest using some hydralyte or even sports drinks on the days leading up to your competition.⁠
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What are your favourite drinks to improve hydration?

10/10/2023

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Hey there! Yep I’m still around! It’s been a while but I’ve sorted out the time to be back on here more regularly and I’m starting off with w fresh new logo 😁 looking forward to interacting with you all again!

25/01/2023

The Snickers ad got it right - you're not yourself when you're hungry! 😡

Being a teenager is difficult enough (no amount of money could convince me to do those years again), so don't make it harder by underfuelling! 🪫

Teens are good at just keeping going, but every year they'll have higher nutrition needs just from growth, not to mention if they're increasing their training loads too! Teens should consistently gain weight all through 12-20+, regardless of height change. Just because you finish growing taller doesn't mean you're done growing! 🤯

If you're a teen, are you eating more than you were last year? 🤔

18/01/2023

If there is one thing I want on my gravestone, it's this; There is no substitute for sleep. 😴

This goes for adults and kids alike, but for kids and teens this is VITAL. Sleep is where the body can recover, repair, convert learning and, most importantly in this space - GROW. All of us have our biggest spike of growth hormone in the middle of the night - as adults we use it for repair mostly - but kids and teens will shoot up overnight, literally! ⬆️

Teens should be aiming for a MINIMUM of 50 hours, preferably 65 hours of sleep per week. Naps count in this space too! 💤

One of the hurdles teens face is a change to their circadian rhythm as they go through puberty - they'll be wired to stay up later and sleep in later - which doesn't usually gel with school and sport schedules! 🙃 This is one of the things I work on with teens and their families and even their coaches - extremely important considering summer season sport coming up in Term 1!

You can put all the training, physio, nutrition, psychology and everything else into an athlete - sleep is still king. Go have a nap.

13/01/2023

CARBS ARE GOOD
CARBS ARE FOR ENERGY
CARBS ARE FOR SPEED
YOUR TEENAGER NEEDS CARBS

Thank-you for coming to my TedTalk. But yeah, if there’s a sure-fire way to grind my gears, it’s when I hear this. A teen athlete needs not only so much more total calories but also so much more carbs than your typical sedentary adult. Don’t compare your needs with theirs.

Champion Health

11/01/2023

This is so common on the school holidays!

Imagine this scenario. Teen trains in the morning, maybe it might even be a bit later than usual. Comes home, BIG breakfast and then either;
1. Goes for the worlds longest nap 😴
2. Races out the door to hang out with their mates 💨
3. Crawls to the lounge to watch netflix / play games all day 🎮️

Fast-forward to early afternoon, time to go back for afternoon training. Teen may have snacked, maybe not. Teen may have had lunch (less likely if they had to make it themselves) and now they have to go training severely under fuelled compared to their school day nutrition. And believe me, coming from being a coach for 13 years, coaches notice.

All of this boils down to lack of planning / forethought. So what can be done?
1. If staying at home, teen has a lunchbox "similar" to school, which they know they need to finish before the afternoon training.
2. If heading out with friends, take shelf stable snacks and enough money for lunch if they need to buy it out.
3. Alarms in phones to trigger teens to eat - like a school bell!

There are plenty of other strategies too - what works in your house?

09/01/2023

Wait, what? 🤯⁠
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This is honestly one of my favourite nutrition facts. A HUGE systematic review looking at milk consumption and growth found for ever 245ml of milk consumed per day (during growing years) results in an extra 0.4cm growth increase per year! 😱⁠
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So if your teenager is a milk fiend, nothing to worry about. But if they are avoiding dairy, this might help to change their mind! Active kids especially have a HUGE requirement for calcium, but all teens need it! 🥛⁠
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Note: Sorry short adults, if you're done growing, you're done. My 5'5 self feels your pain 😅

04/01/2023

How cool is this? Love getting to work in an environment that supports health for all ages 😁

💪Did you know that strength training for kids is AMAZING and SAFE?⁣💪
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Our superstar Bryce just hit a personal best of lifting 60kg (the same as his own weight) today!!⁣🤩
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Many kids report issues with sleep, sickness, attention, mental fog, body fat and neck/back pain from using technology.⁣
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Bryce would tell you that getting strong has changed his life.⁣
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Bryce sleeps easily, is rarely sick, can focus in school better (even with ADHD), likes the way his body looks, confidently attempts new activities while feeling safe and most importantly…⁣
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He is EVEN BETTER at gaming because he’s not always in pain 😊.⁣
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Keep up the amazing work Bryce!⁣🙌
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If you’d like to see your kids happier or healthier in 2023, call or message us!⁣
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📞Slacks Creek 3299 2794⁣
📞Eight Mile Plains 3709 5554

04/01/2023

We're over half way through the school summer holidays and I bet you've noticed some changes to your teens eating habits!

This is very normal due to the change in routine from being at school, but its important to monitor the following;
- How active is your teen being, and does their intake match?
- Are we only eating main meals and no snacks?
- Are we only snacking all day without main meals?
- Are we missing meals (due to being out with friends, sleeping in etc)
- Are they doing a different amount of sport on the holidays to their usual school days?

All of these factors can impact teenagers needs over the school holidays. In order to set them up for success for the new year, it's important to make sure their input is matching their output. This can get a bit overwhelming, but I am here to help!

03/01/2023

Hey Everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I know I've been super quiet on this page - I won't go into it here but feel free to check out my story for the full update!

What you guys need to know is;
🏫 I am now working as a Sports Dietitian under Champion Health in Slacks Creek
📖 I have opened my books for new clients for the new year (limited spots!) and can do both in person and telehealth!
👀 Expect to see a lot more of me on this page from now on!