Dancers and plant-based eating plans.

Plant-based eating plans can 100% work for dancers. However, it may require a little extra intentionality to ensure you’re getting enough overall nourishment and meeting your micronutrient requirements.

All dancers should educate themselves on sports-focused nutrition; the vegan and vegetarian dancers aren’t alone in this. Whatever eating style you ascribe to, there’s potential that you’ll overdo it in some areas and miss out in others.

The most common way dancers create shortcomings in meeting their nutritional needs is by not eating enough. When you under eat, it’s easy to end up undernourished.

Switching to a plant-based diet.

I was vegan for a long time, nearly a decade. I started moving towards veganism while I was dancing in an effort to cut out more and more foods. Following a vegan eating plan meant there were a lot of social situations where I could say, “Sorry, nothing here is vegan,” and get out of eating altogether.

So, if you have decided to be vegan or vegetarian, it’s essential that you ask yourself: why? Are you making this shift for environmental reasons? Animal welfare? Because your research has told you it’s healthier? If you feel strongly in your conviction for any or all of those reasons, then it may be the path for you right now.

Pay close attention to how you feel and stay incredibly mindful of your true motivation. If there’s even a hint of a restrictive mindset attached, it’s time to reevaluate.

Release the need to label yourself as vegan or vegetarian.

This is another thing I learned from personal experience and have seen again and again with my dancer clients: if you put a label on yourself like vegan or vegetarian and share that with others, it will impact your food choices. 

If you’re following a vegan diet and suddenly you feel a strong desire to eat some eggs, that could be your body telling you something. If you ignore that signal because you must be 100% vegan, you might end up missing out on some necessary nourishment. 

I suggest not labeling yourself at all. Allow yourself to eat what you wish, whenever you want, even if you happen to eat a lot of plants and avoid meat, dairy, and most animal products. That way, you’re truly giving yourself the space to listen to your body and to become an expert on your own personal needs.

Ensure you’re getting enough food.

While plant foods are exceptionally nutrient dense, they’re generally less calorically dense. So, it’s easy for plant-based dancers to under fuel. In order to ensure that you’re getting enough, many plant-based dancers will need to include lots of healthy fats.

Here are some ideas: include nuts, seeds, avocados, hemp or flax oil (rich in omega-3’s), olive oil, and avocado oil. You may also include coconut oil. While coconut oil includes saturated fat, if you’re on a vegan eating plan, it would likely be your only source of saturated fat. If you’re eating a vegetarian diet, you may have ample saturated fat sources from butter, eggs, or cheese. In that case, you may want to limit coconut oil (or the animal sourced saturated fats).

Vegan nutrition for dancers.

There are some really important nutrient considerations when eating a plant-based diet. Iron is needed to transport oxygen throughout the body to keep you energized. When most people think of iron, red meat comes to mind with few other examples. You can get plenty of iron on a plant-based diet and would benefit from including iron-rich foods like lentils, cooked spinach, and blackstrap molasses. Include sources of vitamin C (like leafy greens, citrus, or blackcurrants) when you eat your iron-rich foods for optimal absorption.

It is important to supplement B12 on most plant-based eating plans. Vitamin B12 is found naturally in animal foods, and some packaged plant foods are fortified, but supplementation is still essential for most. Vitamin D supplementation may also be necessary. This is true for all eaters as our food supply is quite low. If you’re curious about the optimal dose for your needs, have your doctor do a blood test. They can then customize a recommendation to your needs.

If your plant-based eating plan is all about the veggies and starches but undercuts important protein and fat sources, you’ll likely end up fatigued. As mentioned earlier, include those healthy fats and stay mindful of protein, iron, B12, D, omega-3’s, zinc, and iodine.

What do vegan dancers eat for protein?

Ahhh, the protein question. Meat eaters particularly love to badger vegans and vegetarians about where they get their protein. Here’s the good news, you can 100% get enough protein on a plant-based eating plan. If you’re eating some animal products (like eggs and dairy), it’s a bit easier, but it’s still possible on a fully vegan diet.

Here’s a list of 15 high-protein vegan foods. As with all things, you’ll likely be better served if you incorporate a variety of these foods. That way, you can easily add them into your meal plan throughout the day. 

Dancers and plant-based eating plans.

To reiterate: the number one thing I want you to ask yourself if you’re considering a vegan or vegetarian eating plan is, “What’s my motivation?”

Before you start cutting anything out of your current eating plan, simply start by eating more plant foods. Include additional fruits and vegetables. Add in some plant-based protein sources and more healthy fats. As you start to add in more plant foods, notice how you feel.

If you start to notice favorable shifts in energy or digestion, keep it up. Then you might start eating more fully plant-based meals. Release any pressure to make drastic or overnight changes. 

Eating more plant foods is a benefit to most people. See how it works for you, and remember, your best eating plan is completely unique to you. It takes time and experimentation.

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Dancers and Emotional Eating

Many dancers who I work with consider themselves “emotional eaters.” And while I’m not into labels, I’ve been there and I know it can feel like you’re eating all your stress and emotions. Emotional eating was a big part of my story in dance, and food was one of my primary coping mechanisms.

Here’s the thing. Emotional eating on its own isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you eat for fun or in celebration, that’s perfectly normal and doesn’t have to be a big worry. If that’s what you think of when it comes to emotional eating, just work on being OK with that recreational eating.

But emotional eating can create challenges if it’s your primary or only coping mechanism for big emotions or stressful situations. This is why it’s an important topic to discuss — particularly around how it might impact dancers.

The discipline of dance and its impact on emotional eating.

There are some fundamentals to dance training and the dance mindset that naturally lead to emotional eating. You’re taught to toughen up and develop a “thick skin.” One of my ballet teachers said that when we entered the studio, we should forget everything going on outside. I see some value in this for sure — ballet provided relief from the drama of teenage life.

However, if you leave the drama outside and never face the emotions you’re experiencing, you may end up avoiding your feelings altogether. Food can become a way to suppress and push away negative or heavy feelings.

When you dance, you don’t speak (in most cases); therefore, many dancers identify as nonverbal communicators. We use our bodies to express our emotions and to share ourselves with the world. Again, that can be really beautiful, but if you leave certain emotions unresolved, you may turn to food for solace. Some dancers have a greater tendency to turn to food when upset because they’re otherwise being restrictive with food or under eating.

The perfectionist mindset in dance and secret eating.

The perfectionist mindset can also lead to emotional eating or secret eating. From an eating standpoint, many think of impeccably healthy eating as “perfect.” Never eating processed carbs, cookies, or sweets and instead staying “virtuous” and sticking to vegetables, fruit, and salads.

If you’re still living at home with family or even living with roommates, this may manifest in you eating “perfectly” when people are around and then losing control and eating whatever “bad” foods you can get your hands on when no one is looking.

Secret eating often leads to feelings of shame and guilt. When we feel shameful, we’re directly attacking our sense of self-worth. Secret eating and emotional eating can become patterns that are extremely hard to break on your own.

Why dancers struggle to work through emotional eating.

This leads to the next piece of emotional eating for dancers — when it comes to all things technical and artistic, we believe we can work through it and find the solution. 

If we just dedicate ourselves enough, we will find the way out. Keep working, strengthen your willpower, find greater control — these are the tenets we try to adhere to because as dancers, this is what we’re taught.

It would be kind of crazy to think that these thoughts wouldn’t infiltrate other parts of our lives.

So if you find yourself using food as a coping mechanism, you might tell yourself that you should be able to overcome emotional eating on your own. You might think you just need to control your food intake better or be more disciplined. In fact, the opposite is true. You need to strengthen your alternative coping strategies and acknowledge that some emotionally driven eating is OK.

7 ways to move through emotions without using food as a buffer.

Practice talking. 

Find out who you feel most comfortable sharing heavy emotions with. Is your mom the best at listening and responding? Maybe a best friend, mentor, or coach? By practicing communication and doing it more consistently, you’ll get better at it. Just like pirouettes.

Find alternative coping mechanisms. 

Instead of food, is there an activity that might support you through what you’re feeling? Journaling, stretching, or walking in nature might do the trick. You just need to find ways to make those things as easy and readily available as the food in your pantry.

Eat “bad” foods in front of people. 

When you get into the habit of hiding your eating practices, those hidden foods start to seem forbidden and off-limits. That mindset is going to make you crave the “bad” foods more, and finding a healthy balance can feel impossible.

To move away from this, commit to eating “bad” foods in front of people. No secret cookie eating. Enjoy the cookies openly with friends, family, roommates…even in front of your artistic director.

Ask yourself, “What am I feeling right now?” 

When stress eating or emotional eating, you might go into autopilot. It’s possible you feel totally out of control. 

Try to get into the habit of pausing whenever you eat and asking yourself if it’s true hunger motivating you or something else. This is going to allow you to take a step back and determine what you truly need. It might be a hug, or to chat with a friend, or yes, it could also be the cake!!

Look at your “Primary Food.”

In integrative nutrition health coaching, “Primary Food” includes career, physical activity, spirituality, and relationships. Most likely for dancers, career translates to dance (even if you’re currently pre-professional), and physical activity would likely encompass calming and uplifting movement outside of dance (like walks in nature or restorative yoga).

Explore connections between sleep, emotions, and eating behaviors.

Your sleep routines, and quality and quantity of sleep have a big impact on your hormones, which have a big impact on your needs and desires for food. Take some steps to improve your sleep, and take notice of your ability to cope with emotions. 

Practice self-compassion.

Be kind to yourself. This will allow you to find motivation for helpful behavior change. When you’re kind and understanding towards yourself, you’ll be able to accept negative emotions. Then, feel the feelings. The next step is to let it go or find a way to cope in a way that’s aligned with your values. Finally, the emotion will start to pass naturally. 

These 7 suggestions can be a great starting point but you don’t have to tackle this alone. Ask for help if you find yourself emotionally eating. Try new strategies to overcome it. There is a way out, but if you haven’t found it yet, you might need support. You’re worth it.

This post was originally published in July 2018

It was edited for content and clarity in September 2021

The post Dancers and Emotional Eating appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

After a non – stop morning, I figured I had about 20 – minutes to eat my lunch. I really wanted to roast some vegetables but I definitely didn’t have time for that! Instead I decided to simply heat up some curried lentil soup I had made earlier in the week.

I was SO hungry by this point because I hadn’t even had time for a couple bites of a snack in the few minutes I had between appointments.

It was about 2pm and I hadn’t eaten since 7am (that’s more of my own advice I didn’t take yesterday – leaving that much time between meals is pretty much guaranteed to leave you ravenous). I put what looked like a lot of soup into a pot to heat up – eyes wayyyyy bigger than stomach!

Photo credit: whitneyinchicago via VisualHunt.com / CC BY

In the 10 minutes before I had to run out the door I scarfed down a HUGE bowl of soup. Almost immediately after I felt sick..

I had eaten so much so quickly it honestly gave me a stomach ache.

One tip I give many of the dancers I work with is to remind yourself that you don’t need to finish the entirety of any meal in a single sitting. If you have 10 minutes to eat your lunch, it’s OK to only eat a few bites – or whatever feels comfortable and moves you past distracting levels of hunger.

Eat just enough to sustain you until you have more time to sit down to that food again.

Eating slowly and listening to your body is key to reaching your best body. When you eat slowly you give your stomach and brain the opportunity to communicate and ensure that you don’t overeat past the point of comfort.

See that, even I have imperfect experiences with food. I just have to remind myself to make a better choice next time I’m in a similar situation (it happened today haha so I ate a lot less for lunch and avoided the stomach ache).

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