June 9, 2022 • 26 mins
In this episode of the PlayBooked Podcast, Chloe touches Emily’s creative process in writing her novel “athlEATS,” her experience in connecting with her agent, how she became interested in nutrition, how she is handling her recent diagnosis with Celiac disease, and the way in which she began her journey as an athlete-preneur at Duke.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Playbooked is a production of I Heart Radio and the
College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is Chloe Vie Mitchell
and you are listening to the Playbooks podcast on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
(00:22):
via the I Heart Radio app. Okay listeners, Today, I
have a very special person. Her name is Emily Cole.
She goes to Duke and she's going to be a senior.
In this episode, I talked to Emily about her creative
process in writing her novel app Eats, and her experience
in connecting with her agent, how she became interested in nutrition,
and how she's doing with her recent diagnosis of Celiact disease.
(00:45):
Make sure to stay tuned because this episode is definitely
not one you're gonna want to miss. Well, guys, today
I am here with an incredible Duke athlete named Emily Cool. Emily,
will you give a little rundown on who you are,
what sport you do, and where you're living, just everything
for our audience. You're the best quoite. So Hi, I'm Emily.
(01:07):
I am a junior at Duke University. I guess I
just finished my junior year, so I'm a senior um
but I am on the track and fields and cross
country teams here, and I am majoring in computer science.
But I'm very passionate about nutrition and health and wellness.
So I've actually written a guide disported Nutritian called Athletes
(01:28):
that I'm super excited to talk about and just really
honored to be on the podcast. Thank you for having me, Clary,
Are you kidding me? We are honored to have you.
I have so many questions for you, especially about athletes,
and I know that it's coming, it says in your
bio coming September. Tell me what that's been like for
you as an entrepreneurial athlete. How has it been balancing
(01:48):
to school, your sport, writing a novel? Tell me all
about that. So it's definitely been hard. I did a
gap semester my sophomore year during the fall whenever we
had COVID hit. We didn't know if we would have
across country season, so I decided to take the break,
and my coaches were super comminating with it and very
(02:09):
grateful that they let me do that, And that's when
I started writing the book. It's kind of something that
I had wanted to do since I fell in love
with nutrition my senior of high school. And at first
I thought I wanted to write a cookbook, but then
I found this program through Georgetown called the Creator Institute,
where they walk you through the process of writing a
book from beginning to end and the partment's publisher, and
(02:31):
I was like, okay, like, I love to write an
actual full book, and so I wanted to make it
on a sports tituation guide, something that I wish that
I had had whenever I started out as a young athlete.
And I interviewed a bunch of different incredible athletes like
April Ross and Jesse Thomas and Marshall Kazowski, like I got.
I'm so grateful that they were all willing to speak
(02:53):
with me. Basically, I gave them each their own chapter
and asked them all what they wish they had known
when they first started out and in their career, and
then I have a core lesson coming from each of
their interviews in each chapter, and then at the end,
I have a recipe. So for every chapter there's a
(03:15):
recipe teaching you how to implement the lesson that you
just learned. Iuntly Hello, Wow, I'm so excited to read it.
I am so excited to read it, especially when it
comes to nutrition, and I feel like there was an
important piece to this being a woman and being a
college at and seeing the changes that happened with your
(03:36):
body when it comes to our hormones are periods, etcetera, etcetera.
Some of our listeners are like, yeah, we don't want
to talk about that. Well sorry, here on the Playbook podcast,
we're brutally honest, right. I mean, I'm I'm so excited
to delve into that. How did you fall in love
with nutrition? So I never really grew up in the
(03:57):
household where we ate super healthy, and I was always
just brushing from basketball to volleyball. I I didn't even
really focus on running until my senior high school. And
so my junior year and senior year, I started just
getting more interested in it and learning to eat healthier
and felt incredible gains in my running, and I was like, Wow,
(04:19):
I guess there is something to this whole eating correctly
for performance thing. And because I was able to see
such incredible gains and I got to a place where
I could run in a place like Duke when when
I started my junior year. I didn't even think i'd
be running in college. It was a really big life
changing thing for me, and I was like, Wow, I
(04:40):
wish more people knew about this and understood how you
can also make delicious like desserts, but they're just healthy,
like you're just using more You're using ingredients. I have
more nutrients and fiber and whatnot. So I became really
passionate about that, and basically whenever I was able to
do that my a senior year, I came into college
(05:02):
and knew that I wanted to be able to share
that with other athletes. So I guess back to what
I was saying earlier about it being a little tough,
was I didn't expect finishing the book to take so long.
And when you start a project, you get so excited
about it, and I was like, oh, gosh, I can't
wait to write this babble, and then you actually dive
into it and you're like, wow, there's so much here.
(05:24):
And that's why I wanted to write it, like I
wanted to write this book because that's how every athlete
feels whenever they try to start eating healthy, and they
want to be able to feel better, they get so
overwhelmed by all the different resources, and even from great
resources like registered dieticians, there are still some like conflicting
opinions and things like that, so it's confusing on what
(05:46):
who you should follow. And everybody is different, and that's
something that I really do focus on the book, is
that you are going to have your own nutritional journey.
And as much as I'm giving you the foundation of
each different topic that is really important for you to
be able to have a like increase your longevity and
have a successful career, You're gonna have to find what
(06:08):
works best for you on your own and everybody's journey
is going to be different. Well said, very well said,
thank you. When it comes to and I'm sure some
of our listeners are wondering this because I am myself
as a college student when it comes to eating healthy,
is it's a complete myth that it's financially impossible for
(06:29):
a broke college student to eat healthy. Absolutely, I think
that that's something that There was one particular book that
I read in high school that really kind of opened
this new world to me and is written by too
incredible people, at least Ku Picky and Chilean slant again
and they it's a book called Run Fast, Cooked Fast,
(06:49):
Eat Slow, And for the whole beginning part of it,
they actually talk about their struggles with amenorrhea and under
feeling and like the running coal True World of Thinners Faster,
and they talk about like how learning how to cook
their own foods and use nutritious whole ingredients really help
(07:10):
them to find love with food again. And they even
gave different budget saving tips. So I think the biggest
things like going to places like farmers markets. This is
the highest quality nutrient food you can get because it's
from right around you and they're typically pretty great prices.
But then also just going to like the bulk sections
(07:31):
of grocery stores and I love getting like frozen vegetables.
I don't know, there are definitely a million different ways
that you can make sure that you're getting the nutrients
you need without breaking the bank. And obviously, if you
want to spend a bunch of money healthy, it's really
easy to spend your money on healthy food. But you
can also do it on a budget for sure. Yes, yes,
(07:55):
Oh my goodness, I love that answer because I feel like,
obviously that's such an easy excuse use it's a cop
out to be like, oh, it's too expensive, you know,
I might as well go to drive through, when in reality, no,
it just takes a little extra effort and pays off
of me. And well, we're heading in to our first break.
You were listening to the Playbook podcast. I am Cloe
Vie Mitchell and this is the College Athletes Network. Welcome
(08:38):
back to the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network.
This is Cloyevie Mitchell, and make sure you subscribe to
the podcast so you don't miss a show. Okay, everybody.
We were just chatting about how being a health conscious
athlete and talking about finances and saying that it's too
expensive is ultimately a myth and I who's working on,
(08:58):
you know, breaking that stigma and educating college athletes on
how to eat hellalthier. But if I really want to
know one thing from you, Emily, how often do you
have quote unquote cheat days and how do you feel
when you have them? So I definitely went through a
phase where I was like, oh, I'm never gonna have
(09:19):
like I'm never gonna Okay, I'm gonna start it with yeah,
go ahead. So I definitely went through a phase where
I just didn't have treats that often, and I would
go like three weeks and realize that I have had
ice cream or hadn't had a brown near or whatever,
and I was like, wait a second. And it's whenever
you start eating healthier and you don't have as much
sugar in your diet, you don't crave it anymore. So
(09:40):
that's why it was so easy for me to go
that long. But it's fun to have chocolates. I was like, Emily,
why are you You're treating yourself? So now I definitely
I'd say I probably treat myself like once a week, um,
But I love doing it, and I love that I'm
now at a place where I can have I can
have a peanut butter cop or brownie or whatever whenever
(10:01):
I want, but I just have like smaller portions and
it's the perfect treat after a meal off like a
well balanced, nutritious meal and whenever you have I think
that one of the coolest chapters in my book is
with Jesse Thomas, and he talks all about how your
diet doesn't need to be exactly perfect all the time,
and so he has like this rule and basically, as
(10:27):
long as you're keeping the majority of your diet super healthy. Basically,
as long as you're keeping the majority of your diet
nutritious and full of whole foods, then you should enjoy
the other tent of it and really just let yourself
be a part of the social event. If your team
is going to get ice cream or have part of
the birthday cake that's for your teaming. They are definitely
(10:49):
extreme social benefits that come from being able to be
a part of those different things that no athletes should
be missing out on. And so that's something that I've
had a really interesting experience of, like learning, going back
and forth and now being back in a place where
I feel like I shoot myself all the time. But
it's just like little bites here and there, and it's
the perfect accent to well balanced diet that isn't solely
(11:13):
based on peanut butter cups. Sadly, of course, I like
how you kind of realigned your view on what a
treat is and how I mean, obviously, like you said,
you don't need it as often when you're even intritious meals,
you don't crave that sugar. I want to get there.
I want to be where you're I'm obviously trying to
(11:35):
be more health conscious as a college athlete in general,
but um, this summer, I'm thinking about going vegetarian and
see what that's going to be like. That be awesome? Yeah.
And I also just feel like whenever you let yourself
have these treats here and there all the time, it's
not something that you're restricting yourself from. And I feel
like everyone has probably heard this, but whenever you tell
(11:56):
yourself I can't have this, I can't have this, then
it becomes more more of a thing in your head
that you think about all the time, and then when
you finally do let yourself have it, you'll have the
whole cake or just really binge out on it. And
so it really enables you to have a more healthy
relationship with food whenever you allow yourself these little treats
along the journey. Amen to that. And I know from
(12:19):
looking at your socials and doing my research that you
were recently diagnosed with celiac and you are a runner,
and when it comes eating carbs and when it comes
to docking up and being fueled, being celiac can be
a little problematic, right, So walk us through that. What
was it like getting diagnosed. What was your initial mindset
(12:41):
and were you diagnosed with Celiac Celiac whilst writing your book. Yeah,
so all great questions, and I will touch on them all,
I promise, But basically, I so my senior year whenever
I started eating healthily and running well. I didn't realize,
but I was unintentionally eating gluten free and so my
(13:06):
body felt great. I was running all whatever. I got
into college and I've really struggled athletically running here, and
I just couldn't see the performances that I wanted. But
I also would have great practices, and then I just
couldn't perform whenever we were competing, and I was so confused.
I just had no clue what was happening. Especially this
cross country season. I was having great workouts and then
(13:27):
I mean I died halfway through these races and it's
a six k, so this is a mile and a
half in. You still have a mile and a half
to go and homegirl. When I say I was dead,
I was done. I was like, this is not normal,
like this should not be happening, and so I finally
went in. I've spoke with a nutritionists several times here,
(13:48):
but that time, I went in and I was like,
I love to do any test you can think of, like,
I know there's something wrong. And they did some tests
found out that I had macro cytosis, which is essentially
a large red blood cells and it's an indicator of celiac.
And my doctors here are amazing and she had actually
thought ahead of time that I might have celiac in
(14:10):
the past I got I did little tests for it
my freshman year, but the full test for it is
getting an upper endoscopy. So after cross country season ended,
goth the endoscopy and the test came back positive. So essentially,
for those who don't know, celiac is disease where whenever
you have anything with gluten in it, which is sweet
(14:33):
barley rye, it sneaks into a lot of different things
you wouldn't think of. It's not just bread. It destroys
the villa on the insidelining of your stomach, so you
can't absorb any nutrients. So essentially, I was under fueled
all the time and super inflamed throughout my whole body,
And the reason why I was still able to have
(14:54):
good workouts was because I wasn't really eating that much
bread all the time, but I would have it here
and there. I have like I love doing triple Decker
PP and J side note, they're my favorite. Um But anyways,
right before my racist, I would carbload like any other runner,
and I would have a bold pasta and I would
just be eating carbs all day and my body is
(15:16):
so my bodies like, Emily, what are you doing here?
That's why I felt so terribul during your races. Yeah,
that was a big break through this year, and I
think that it's been really cool. I'm feeling really good
running this outdoor season, so I'm really excited about that
and what's going to happen. But for the most part,
just really grateful that I was able to figure that
(15:37):
out because it's been years of not knowing what's happening
in my body. Oh my goodness are and what a
journey to document as well, Like seeing that on your
socialism you obviously have a following. How many other young
runners are going to look up to you and be like, Okay,
I'm struggling. You advocated for yourself. You there was something
wrong for your body, and you pushed obviously for that answer.
(15:59):
So props to you, Like that's hard to do with
stuff going on to like school and practices. I know,
doctor's appointments are the worst, the last thing that you
want to do. Oh my goodness, absolute chaos. Right, And
your other question was was I still writing my book?
And yes, I was. Literally I had written all of
(16:20):
the first drafts of all the chapters, but I was
kind of doing I started this editing process over the
summer last summer, and I just kind of had to
drag out the process longer than I would have loved
to because I had school and reading and couldn't do
a million things at once. But yes, I had already
(16:41):
done the majority of the book, and then I get
this diagnosis and I'm like, but my recipes have wholly
flower in them, like I'm supposed to do. Yeah, so
it's been an interesting journey. Yes, you really had to
take a step back. Oh my goodness. I'm just fascinated
with you. I mean, I could talk to you all day.
Oh my gosh, you're the best. You are the best.
(17:02):
Coping up. I want to talk to you all about
how you got in contact with these amazing athletes that
are within your book. We're heading into our second break.
You were listening to the Playbook podcast. I'm Cloudie Mitchell
and this is a College Athletes Network. Welcome back to
(17:36):
the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network. This is
Clodie Mitchell. Subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss
the show. Emily, tell me all about being an athlete
preneur and getting in contact with these high level, big
name athletes for your book. Yeah. So I had a
lot of people that were great resources, and they just
(17:57):
told me that you know nothing to lose, and so
just reach out to as many incredible athletes as you
can and see which ones will respond. And I actually
had a connection to April Ross. So my sister shout
out Julia Cole. She's a country music singer in Nashville
and she's incredible. She has a bunch of songs that
have gone viral on TikTok and she's doing really well.
(18:20):
But she's sponsored by Mazzuno and so is April, and
so her in April have done some promo videos together
for them, and so Julia connected me with her and
she was awesome. I just talked on the phone to
her while I was on a road trip with my
parents and did my little interview with her, and she
was incredible. She's got a great story. She actually didn't
(18:41):
make her first volleyball team that she tried out for.
She was a multi sport athlete and struggled with nutrition
in college and so it's it was really cool to
hear her journey and how she's gotten to be the
incredible athlete she has today. She's got gold, silver, and
bron's Olympic medals for USA Beach volleyball. So she's an
absolute stud and just an even better person. So it
(19:02):
was just an honor to get to talk with her. Wow,
I see, I would assume that you had an agent
reaching out, or you had somebody I don't know, I
don't know, somebody else. But the fact that you were
just reaching out and you're, you know, networking in your
own way and getting those responses is a testament to
how close knit the college athlete community is and how
(19:25):
people are willing to help people. That is that. Yeah,
That's what I always say to him, like, reach out,
ask questions, and a huge question that I get is clearly,
how do I come up with my rates for an
Instagram story post? And I'm like, this is this is
my biggest advice guys ask each other, Ask somebody else
who's done UM endorsements who have a similar following to you,
(19:48):
and ask how much they charge. Yeah, I love that.
I love I love that so much. That's a great
point too, because a lot of people it's really up
in the air what rates are right now. And as
long as we can create like an open community of
everyone being able to collaborate and talk about it, we'll
all benefit from it. That's what I've been saying the
whole time, exactly, Like we get that question all the
(20:11):
time in the playbooked office. These actletes are coming to
us and they're like, Hey, this big name brand is
coming to me and they're offering me this much money.
I don't know if it's low, I don't know if
it's high. Uh. And just navigating that space is definitely interesting. So,
speaking of rates and speaking of deals, talk to me
about the hr block deal. How did that come about? Yeah,
(20:34):
So this was something they went through my agent, Mac Raymond.
He's awesome, and he was reached out to buy H
and R Block and they did a female empowerment campaign
and they were really just trying to close this gap
in N I L compensation between male and female athletes,
and they they did higher rates than most deals going
(20:57):
around right now. But basically they had to create a
lot of content ht on on all of my channels,
Instagram and TikTok and just really promoting our voice as
female athletes and how we do the same amount of
work as them and so we deserve the same amount
of reward and acknowledgements for that. And it was just
a really cool opportunity to be a part of. Whenever
(21:18):
he reached out to me about them, I was absolutely
I would love to be a part of this, and
everyone on the team was incredible to work with. It
was just a great experience all around. So I was
really grateful for that to my first big deal that
I really did, because it really set the set the
bar high for sure. I I really like how you
ordered the post. You have a way of being very
(21:41):
genuine through the phone and through social media, and I
think that that's really learn No, I mean it, I
think that's really rare because you're sharing this vulnerable side
of yourself, especially when it comes to your body and
when it comes to nutrition. Obviously you have you have
to be willing to be vulnerable. But even like we
talked about your diagon with Celiac and now you're doing
(22:02):
this deal that empowers women. Emily. You just keep getting
better and better. Any brands are to this dom the
Emily right now. She's awesome. Okay, Well, I have one
final question for you, Emily, and I'm really interesting to
hear what your answer is going to be for this.
What advice would you have given your freshman year in
(22:26):
college self as a new college athlete. That's a great question.
I think we kind of touched on this earlier, but
just really not being afraid to reach out to anyone,
and because it is such an incredible network to be
a part of. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten
(22:47):
a lot more comfortable reaching out different athletes and it
is such a unique group of people to be a
part of. Everyone who's a student athlete is an incredible human.
I haven't met one, but I don't like no, but
I mean serious, Whenever you're able to reach out over
social media, different things like that. I think one of
the biggest things that I'm really grateful for on my
(23:08):
team is that we have a great culture of everyone
else's success is also your own, and because you're a
part of it and we all work together every day,
and I think that that's something that I would love
for everyone to help continue cultivating in the student athlete community,
Like we're all just going to make each other better.
(23:28):
And so I think that whenever you're a freshman, you're
coming in it can be intumidating, but also everyone else
is a freshman is feeling lonely and like they don't
really know anyone and they're kind of lost. And if
you're able to be vulnerable about that with your other
athletes and friends, you can really create some strong bonds
that will last a lifetime. And so I'm grateful for
(23:50):
those that I did my freshman year, but I've definitely
gotten more into it as I've gotten older and really
created these long lasting bonds and I'm grateful that I'm
going to have, you know, the next year and what
not to be able to do that. But really, is
a freshman everyone is so much more open to making
friends because they don't have their groups yet, and I
think that that's a really great opportunity to make these
(24:12):
lifelong connections and man and especially as like even an
aspiring creudd athlete too as a senior, I feel like
you could still even reach out to say, young Emily,
say you wanted to go to Duke. You could have
reached out to the people on the team. I could
have reached out when I was being recruited to upper
(24:34):
classman within the teams that I wanted to be on.
Having a voice and using it is so important. And
also I feel like I wasn't nearly as active as
I was on Gmail freshman year, so I feel like
that as well. Beyond your Gmail email people, it's normal,
it's fun, and it's what business people do say. I
have young athletes reaching out to me all the time
(24:57):
with different random training questions and life questions, and I
try my hardest to answer all of them because I'm
just so glad that they're vulnerable enough to be willing
to reach out. And there are so many athletes out
there who will take the time to respond to you.
So make those connections. Reach out to those people. And
I promised to be work with it. I love it.
I love it well, Emily. I thank you so much
(25:20):
for your time. You've been an absolute dream and I'm
looking forward to reading your book. Everybody makes sure to
follow Emily on Instagram and when will you give all
your handles to the listeners. Yes for sure, so on
both on everything, I am just e Emily Cole, E
Emily Cole with too ease the beginning and the end.
(25:40):
And you can also sign up to be on the
like early list for my book in my bio. Oh
my goodness. I hope you guys just fell in love
with Emily Cole just as much as I did. She's
such an incredible person and athlete. And be sure to
pre save her book as it is coming out soon. Also,
if you ever want to find me on my socials,
you can find me at Chloe V. Mitchell everywhere. As always,
(26:02):
thanks for listening to the Playbooks podcast on the College
Athletes Network. Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
I'm Chloe view Mitchell and we'll talk soon by Playbooked
is a production of I Heart Radio and the College
Athletes Network. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Playbooked is a production of I Heart Radio and the
College Athletes Network. Hey everybody, this is Chloe Vie Mitchell
and you are listening to the Playbooks podcast on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
(00:22):
via the I Heart Radio app. Okay listeners, Today, I
have a very special person. Her name is Emily Cole.
She goes to Duke and she's going to be a senior.
In this episode, I talked to Emily about her creative
process in writing her novel app Eats, and her experience
in connecting with her agent, how she became interested in nutrition,
and how she's doing with her recent diagnosis of Celiact disease.
(00:45):
Make sure to stay tuned because this episode is definitely
not one you're gonna want to miss. Well, guys, today
I am here with an incredible Duke athlete named Emily Cool. Emily,
will you give a little rundown on who you are,
what sport you do, and where you're living, just everything
for our audience. You're the best quoite. So Hi, I'm Emily.
(01:07):
I am a junior at Duke University. I guess I
just finished my junior year, so I'm a senior um
but I am on the track and fields and cross
country teams here, and I am majoring in computer science.
But I'm very passionate about nutrition and health and wellness.
So I've actually written a guide disported Nutritian called Athletes
(01:28):
that I'm super excited to talk about and just really
honored to be on the podcast. Thank you for having me, Clary,
Are you kidding me? We are honored to have you.
I have so many questions for you, especially about athletes,
and I know that it's coming, it says in your
bio coming September. Tell me what that's been like for
you as an entrepreneurial athlete. How has it been balancing
(01:48):
to school, your sport, writing a novel? Tell me all
about that. So it's definitely been hard. I did a
gap semester my sophomore year during the fall whenever we
had COVID hit. We didn't know if we would have
across country season, so I decided to take the break,
and my coaches were super comminating with it and very
(02:09):
grateful that they let me do that, And that's when
I started writing the book. It's kind of something that
I had wanted to do since I fell in love
with nutrition my senior of high school. And at first
I thought I wanted to write a cookbook, but then
I found this program through Georgetown called the Creator Institute,
where they walk you through the process of writing a
book from beginning to end and the partment's publisher, and
(02:31):
I was like, okay, like, I love to write an
actual full book, and so I wanted to make it
on a sports tituation guide, something that I wish that
I had had whenever I started out as a young athlete.
And I interviewed a bunch of different incredible athletes like
April Ross and Jesse Thomas and Marshall Kazowski, like I got.
I'm so grateful that they were all willing to speak
(02:53):
with me. Basically, I gave them each their own chapter
and asked them all what they wish they had known
when they first started out and in their career, and
then I have a core lesson coming from each of
their interviews in each chapter, and then at the end,
I have a recipe. So for every chapter there's a
(03:15):
recipe teaching you how to implement the lesson that you
just learned. Iuntly Hello, Wow, I'm so excited to read it.
I am so excited to read it, especially when it
comes to nutrition, and I feel like there was an
important piece to this being a woman and being a
college at and seeing the changes that happened with your
(03:36):
body when it comes to our hormones are periods, etcetera, etcetera.
Some of our listeners are like, yeah, we don't want
to talk about that. Well sorry, here on the Playbook podcast,
we're brutally honest, right. I mean, I'm I'm so excited
to delve into that. How did you fall in love
with nutrition? So I never really grew up in the
(03:57):
household where we ate super healthy, and I was always
just brushing from basketball to volleyball. I I didn't even
really focus on running until my senior high school. And
so my junior year and senior year, I started just
getting more interested in it and learning to eat healthier
and felt incredible gains in my running, and I was like, Wow,
(04:19):
I guess there is something to this whole eating correctly
for performance thing. And because I was able to see
such incredible gains and I got to a place where
I could run in a place like Duke when when
I started my junior year. I didn't even think i'd
be running in college. It was a really big life
changing thing for me, and I was like, Wow, I
(04:40):
wish more people knew about this and understood how you
can also make delicious like desserts, but they're just healthy,
like you're just using more You're using ingredients. I have
more nutrients and fiber and whatnot. So I became really
passionate about that, and basically whenever I was able to
do that my a senior year, I came into college
(05:02):
and knew that I wanted to be able to share
that with other athletes. So I guess back to what
I was saying earlier about it being a little tough,
was I didn't expect finishing the book to take so long.
And when you start a project, you get so excited
about it, and I was like, oh, gosh, I can't
wait to write this babble, and then you actually dive
into it and you're like, wow, there's so much here.
(05:24):
And that's why I wanted to write it, like I
wanted to write this book because that's how every athlete
feels whenever they try to start eating healthy, and they
want to be able to feel better, they get so
overwhelmed by all the different resources, and even from great
resources like registered dieticians, there are still some like conflicting
opinions and things like that, so it's confusing on what
(05:46):
who you should follow. And everybody is different, and that's
something that I really do focus on the book, is
that you are going to have your own nutritional journey.
And as much as I'm giving you the foundation of
each different topic that is really important for you to
be able to have a like increase your longevity and
have a successful career, You're gonna have to find what
(06:08):
works best for you on your own and everybody's journey
is going to be different. Well said, very well said,
thank you. When it comes to and I'm sure some
of our listeners are wondering this because I am myself
as a college student when it comes to eating healthy,
is it's a complete myth that it's financially impossible for
(06:29):
a broke college student to eat healthy. Absolutely, I think
that that's something that There was one particular book that
I read in high school that really kind of opened
this new world to me and is written by too
incredible people, at least Ku Picky and Chilean slant again
and they it's a book called Run Fast, Cooked Fast,
(06:49):
Eat Slow, And for the whole beginning part of it,
they actually talk about their struggles with amenorrhea and under
feeling and like the running coal True World of Thinners Faster,
and they talk about like how learning how to cook
their own foods and use nutritious whole ingredients really help
(07:10):
them to find love with food again. And they even
gave different budget saving tips. So I think the biggest
things like going to places like farmers markets. This is
the highest quality nutrient food you can get because it's
from right around you and they're typically pretty great prices.
But then also just going to like the bulk sections
(07:31):
of grocery stores and I love getting like frozen vegetables.
I don't know, there are definitely a million different ways
that you can make sure that you're getting the nutrients
you need without breaking the bank. And obviously, if you
want to spend a bunch of money healthy, it's really
easy to spend your money on healthy food. But you
can also do it on a budget for sure. Yes, yes,
(07:55):
Oh my goodness, I love that answer because I feel like,
obviously that's such an easy excuse use it's a cop
out to be like, oh, it's too expensive, you know,
I might as well go to drive through, when in reality, no,
it just takes a little extra effort and pays off
of me. And well, we're heading in to our first break.
You were listening to the Playbook podcast. I am Cloe
Vie Mitchell and this is the College Athletes Network. Welcome
(08:38):
back to the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network.
This is Cloyevie Mitchell, and make sure you subscribe to
the podcast so you don't miss a show. Okay, everybody.
We were just chatting about how being a health conscious
athlete and talking about finances and saying that it's too
expensive is ultimately a myth and I who's working on,
(08:58):
you know, breaking that stigma and educating college athletes on
how to eat hellalthier. But if I really want to
know one thing from you, Emily, how often do you
have quote unquote cheat days and how do you feel
when you have them? So I definitely went through a
phase where I was like, oh, I'm never gonna have
(09:19):
like I'm never gonna Okay, I'm gonna start it with yeah,
go ahead. So I definitely went through a phase where
I just didn't have treats that often, and I would
go like three weeks and realize that I have had
ice cream or hadn't had a brown near or whatever,
and I was like, wait a second. And it's whenever
you start eating healthier and you don't have as much
sugar in your diet, you don't crave it anymore. So
(09:40):
that's why it was so easy for me to go
that long. But it's fun to have chocolates. I was like, Emily,
why are you You're treating yourself? So now I definitely
I'd say I probably treat myself like once a week, um,
But I love doing it, and I love that I'm
now at a place where I can have I can
have a peanut butter cop or brownie or whatever whenever
(10:01):
I want, but I just have like smaller portions and
it's the perfect treat after a meal off like a
well balanced, nutritious meal and whenever you have I think
that one of the coolest chapters in my book is
with Jesse Thomas, and he talks all about how your
diet doesn't need to be exactly perfect all the time,
and so he has like this rule and basically, as
(10:27):
long as you're keeping the majority of your diet super healthy. Basically,
as long as you're keeping the majority of your diet
nutritious and full of whole foods, then you should enjoy
the other tent of it and really just let yourself
be a part of the social event. If your team
is going to get ice cream or have part of
the birthday cake that's for your teaming. They are definitely
(10:49):
extreme social benefits that come from being able to be
a part of those different things that no athletes should
be missing out on. And so that's something that I've
had a really interesting experience of, like learning, going back
and forth and now being back in a place where
I feel like I shoot myself all the time. But
it's just like little bites here and there, and it's
the perfect accent to well balanced diet that isn't solely
(11:13):
based on peanut butter cups. Sadly, of course, I like
how you kind of realigned your view on what a
treat is and how I mean, obviously, like you said,
you don't need it as often when you're even intritious meals,
you don't crave that sugar. I want to get there.
I want to be where you're I'm obviously trying to
(11:35):
be more health conscious as a college athlete in general,
but um, this summer, I'm thinking about going vegetarian and
see what that's going to be like. That be awesome? Yeah.
And I also just feel like whenever you let yourself
have these treats here and there all the time, it's
not something that you're restricting yourself from. And I feel
like everyone has probably heard this, but whenever you tell
(11:56):
yourself I can't have this, I can't have this, then
it becomes more more of a thing in your head
that you think about all the time, and then when
you finally do let yourself have it, you'll have the
whole cake or just really binge out on it. And
so it really enables you to have a more healthy
relationship with food whenever you allow yourself these little treats
along the journey. Amen to that. And I know from
(12:19):
looking at your socials and doing my research that you
were recently diagnosed with celiac and you are a runner,
and when it comes eating carbs and when it comes
to docking up and being fueled, being celiac can be
a little problematic, right, So walk us through that. What
was it like getting diagnosed. What was your initial mindset
(12:41):
and were you diagnosed with Celiac Celiac whilst writing your book. Yeah,
so all great questions, and I will touch on them all,
I promise, But basically, I so my senior year whenever
I started eating healthily and running well. I didn't realize,
but I was unintentionally eating gluten free and so my
(13:06):
body felt great. I was running all whatever. I got
into college and I've really struggled athletically running here, and
I just couldn't see the performances that I wanted. But
I also would have great practices, and then I just
couldn't perform whenever we were competing, and I was so confused.
I just had no clue what was happening. Especially this
cross country season. I was having great workouts and then
(13:27):
I mean I died halfway through these races and it's
a six k, so this is a mile and a
half in. You still have a mile and a half
to go and homegirl. When I say I was dead,
I was done. I was like, this is not normal,
like this should not be happening, and so I finally
went in. I've spoke with a nutritionists several times here,
(13:48):
but that time, I went in and I was like,
I love to do any test you can think of, like,
I know there's something wrong. And they did some tests
found out that I had macro cytosis, which is essentially
a large red blood cells and it's an indicator of celiac.
And my doctors here are amazing and she had actually
thought ahead of time that I might have celiac in
(14:10):
the past I got I did little tests for it
my freshman year, but the full test for it is
getting an upper endoscopy. So after cross country season ended,
goth the endoscopy and the test came back positive. So essentially,
for those who don't know, celiac is disease where whenever
you have anything with gluten in it, which is sweet
(14:33):
barley rye, it sneaks into a lot of different things
you wouldn't think of. It's not just bread. It destroys
the villa on the insidelining of your stomach, so you
can't absorb any nutrients. So essentially, I was under fueled
all the time and super inflamed throughout my whole body,
And the reason why I was still able to have
(14:54):
good workouts was because I wasn't really eating that much
bread all the time, but I would have it here
and there. I have like I love doing triple Decker
PP and J side note, they're my favorite. Um But anyways,
right before my racist, I would carbload like any other runner,
and I would have a bold pasta and I would
just be eating carbs all day and my body is
(15:16):
so my bodies like, Emily, what are you doing here?
That's why I felt so terribul during your races. Yeah,
that was a big break through this year, and I
think that it's been really cool. I'm feeling really good
running this outdoor season, so I'm really excited about that
and what's going to happen. But for the most part,
just really grateful that I was able to figure that
(15:37):
out because it's been years of not knowing what's happening
in my body. Oh my goodness are and what a
journey to document as well, Like seeing that on your
socialism you obviously have a following. How many other young
runners are going to look up to you and be like, Okay,
I'm struggling. You advocated for yourself. You there was something
wrong for your body, and you pushed obviously for that answer.
(15:59):
So props to you, Like that's hard to do with
stuff going on to like school and practices. I know,
doctor's appointments are the worst, the last thing that you
want to do. Oh my goodness, absolute chaos. Right, And
your other question was was I still writing my book?
And yes, I was. Literally I had written all of
(16:20):
the first drafts of all the chapters, but I was
kind of doing I started this editing process over the
summer last summer, and I just kind of had to
drag out the process longer than I would have loved
to because I had school and reading and couldn't do
a million things at once. But yes, I had already
(16:41):
done the majority of the book, and then I get
this diagnosis and I'm like, but my recipes have wholly
flower in them, like I'm supposed to do. Yeah, so
it's been an interesting journey. Yes, you really had to
take a step back. Oh my goodness. I'm just fascinated
with you. I mean, I could talk to you all day.
Oh my gosh, you're the best. You are the best.
(17:02):
Coping up. I want to talk to you all about
how you got in contact with these amazing athletes that
are within your book. We're heading into our second break.
You were listening to the Playbook podcast. I'm Cloudie Mitchell
and this is a College Athletes Network. Welcome back to
(17:36):
the Playbook podcast on the College Athletes Network. This is
Clodie Mitchell. Subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss
the show. Emily, tell me all about being an athlete
preneur and getting in contact with these high level, big
name athletes for your book. Yeah. So I had a
lot of people that were great resources, and they just
(17:57):
told me that you know nothing to lose, and so
just reach out to as many incredible athletes as you
can and see which ones will respond. And I actually
had a connection to April Ross. So my sister shout
out Julia Cole. She's a country music singer in Nashville
and she's incredible. She has a bunch of songs that
have gone viral on TikTok and she's doing really well.
(18:20):
But she's sponsored by Mazzuno and so is April, and
so her in April have done some promo videos together
for them, and so Julia connected me with her and
she was awesome. I just talked on the phone to
her while I was on a road trip with my
parents and did my little interview with her, and she
was incredible. She's got a great story. She actually didn't
(18:41):
make her first volleyball team that she tried out for.
She was a multi sport athlete and struggled with nutrition
in college and so it's it was really cool to
hear her journey and how she's gotten to be the
incredible athlete she has today. She's got gold, silver, and
bron's Olympic medals for USA Beach volleyball. So she's an
absolute stud and just an even better person. So it
(19:02):
was just an honor to get to talk with her. Wow,
I see, I would assume that you had an agent
reaching out, or you had somebody I don't know, I
don't know, somebody else. But the fact that you were
just reaching out and you're, you know, networking in your
own way and getting those responses is a testament to
how close knit the college athlete community is and how
(19:25):
people are willing to help people. That is that. Yeah,
That's what I always say to him, like, reach out,
ask questions, and a huge question that I get is clearly,
how do I come up with my rates for an
Instagram story post? And I'm like, this is this is
my biggest advice guys ask each other, Ask somebody else
who's done UM endorsements who have a similar following to you,
(19:48):
and ask how much they charge. Yeah, I love that.
I love I love that so much. That's a great
point too, because a lot of people it's really up
in the air what rates are right now. And as
long as we can create like an open community of
everyone being able to collaborate and talk about it, we'll
all benefit from it. That's what I've been saying the
whole time, exactly, Like we get that question all the
(20:11):
time in the playbooked office. These actletes are coming to
us and they're like, Hey, this big name brand is
coming to me and they're offering me this much money.
I don't know if it's low, I don't know if
it's high. Uh. And just navigating that space is definitely interesting. So,
speaking of rates and speaking of deals, talk to me
about the hr block deal. How did that come about? Yeah,
(20:34):
So this was something they went through my agent, Mac Raymond.
He's awesome, and he was reached out to buy H
and R Block and they did a female empowerment campaign
and they were really just trying to close this gap
in N I L compensation between male and female athletes,
and they they did higher rates than most deals going
(20:57):
around right now. But basically they had to create a
lot of content ht on on all of my channels,
Instagram and TikTok and just really promoting our voice as
female athletes and how we do the same amount of
work as them and so we deserve the same amount
of reward and acknowledgements for that. And it was just
a really cool opportunity to be a part of. Whenever
(21:18):
he reached out to me about them, I was absolutely
I would love to be a part of this, and
everyone on the team was incredible to work with. It
was just a great experience all around. So I was
really grateful for that to my first big deal that
I really did, because it really set the set the
bar high for sure. I I really like how you
ordered the post. You have a way of being very
(21:41):
genuine through the phone and through social media, and I
think that that's really learn No, I mean it, I
think that's really rare because you're sharing this vulnerable side
of yourself, especially when it comes to your body and
when it comes to nutrition. Obviously you have you have
to be willing to be vulnerable. But even like we
talked about your diagon with Celiac and now you're doing
(22:02):
this deal that empowers women. Emily. You just keep getting
better and better. Any brands are to this dom the
Emily right now. She's awesome. Okay, Well, I have one
final question for you, Emily, and I'm really interesting to
hear what your answer is going to be for this.
What advice would you have given your freshman year in
(22:26):
college self as a new college athlete. That's a great question.
I think we kind of touched on this earlier, but
just really not being afraid to reach out to anyone,
and because it is such an incredible network to be
a part of. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten
(22:47):
a lot more comfortable reaching out different athletes and it
is such a unique group of people to be a
part of. Everyone who's a student athlete is an incredible human.
I haven't met one, but I don't like no, but
I mean serious, Whenever you're able to reach out over
social media, different things like that. I think one of
the biggest things that I'm really grateful for on my
(23:08):
team is that we have a great culture of everyone
else's success is also your own, and because you're a
part of it and we all work together every day,
and I think that that's something that I would love
for everyone to help continue cultivating in the student athlete community,
Like we're all just going to make each other better.
(23:28):
And so I think that whenever you're a freshman, you're
coming in it can be intumidating, but also everyone else
is a freshman is feeling lonely and like they don't
really know anyone and they're kind of lost. And if
you're able to be vulnerable about that with your other
athletes and friends, you can really create some strong bonds
that will last a lifetime. And so I'm grateful for
(23:50):
those that I did my freshman year, but I've definitely
gotten more into it as I've gotten older and really
created these long lasting bonds and I'm grateful that I'm
going to have, you know, the next year and what
not to be able to do that. But really, is
a freshman everyone is so much more open to making
friends because they don't have their groups yet, and I
think that that's a really great opportunity to make these
(24:12):
lifelong connections and man and especially as like even an
aspiring creudd athlete too as a senior, I feel like
you could still even reach out to say, young Emily,
say you wanted to go to Duke. You could have
reached out to the people on the team. I could
have reached out when I was being recruited to upper
(24:34):
classman within the teams that I wanted to be on.
Having a voice and using it is so important. And
also I feel like I wasn't nearly as active as
I was on Gmail freshman year, so I feel like
that as well. Beyond your Gmail email people, it's normal,
it's fun, and it's what business people do say. I
have young athletes reaching out to me all the time
(24:57):
with different random training questions and life questions, and I
try my hardest to answer all of them because I'm
just so glad that they're vulnerable enough to be willing
to reach out. And there are so many athletes out
there who will take the time to respond to you.
So make those connections. Reach out to those people. And
I promised to be work with it. I love it.
I love it well, Emily. I thank you so much
(25:20):
for your time. You've been an absolute dream and I'm
looking forward to reading your book. Everybody makes sure to
follow Emily on Instagram and when will you give all
your handles to the listeners. Yes for sure, so on
both on everything, I am just e Emily Cole, E
Emily Cole with too ease the beginning and the end.
(25:40):
And you can also sign up to be on the
like early list for my book in my bio. Oh
my goodness. I hope you guys just fell in love
with Emily Cole just as much as I did. She's
such an incredible person and athlete. And be sure to
pre save her book as it is coming out soon. Also,
if you ever want to find me on my socials,
you can find me at Chloe V. Mitchell everywhere. As always,
(26:02):
thanks for listening to the Playbooks podcast on the College
Athletes Network. Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
I'm Chloe view Mitchell and we'll talk soon by Playbooked
is a production of I Heart Radio and the College
Athletes Network. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Host
Chloe V. Mitchell
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