In today’s episode, we get to explore the dynamic journey of Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, CSSD, LDN, a prominent figure in nutrition and wellness. From her role as a sports dietitian for sports teams to collaborating with major food giants, Leslie’s journey reflects the power of nutrition

Shireen [0:32]: From a role as a sports dietitian for sports teams to collaborating with major food giants and all the separately initiatives, Leslie’s journey reflects the power of nutrition. Stay tuned. Leslie Bonci is a registered dietician who works with the surreal Kansas City Chiefs and real people looking to strive and thrive not just survive. Her goal is to help her clients be fit fed fearless, and change from foodies to foodies. Alright, Leslie, let’s learn more about it. Let’s unpack a lot of what is said in the bio. First of all, welcome to the podcast.

Leslie [1:17]: Thank you, I am so thrilled to be here. And pretty much everything I do, it rhymes. It’s alliteration. It’s just the way that it helps people retain what it is that I’m telling them. So all about the edutainment all the time. 

Shireen [1:29]: I absolutely love it. I do want to get into that. But first leslie I do want to take a step back and really understand from you just learn a little bit more about your background and your journey, sort of into this field of sports nutrition, which is unlike what we hear about, you know, sort of nutrition more broadly. And then also your focus on holistic wellness. 

Leslie [1:49]: Okay, so I’ve been in the field for 40 some years, and my undergrad degree was in bio psychology. I went to Vassar College in New York, hated it, hated it. So I graduated early, came back home. And my parents said, no, what, and so I went to graduate school in public health, the first class I took was the maternal and child nutrition course. And it was literally like, Oh, this is what I want to do with my life. And so that kind of started the journey of doing a graduate degree in public health and the undergrad requirement to become a registered dietician. So my focus has always been around public health prevention, instead of you already have a disease. So being impactful instead of just reacting. And so when I started in this field, I started at Wheeling Hospital, this tiny little hospital working with exercise physiologists, working with people who had underlying heart disease or lung disease, getting them to move, and it’s like, okay, well, this is important. And then we branch that out to working with high schools and community colleges. It’s like, yeah, it’s not either, or, you move and you eat, what a really nice combination. And so moved back to Pittsburgh, called the University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics, and said, I think you need somebody to work with your athletes. And they said, Yes, it was like, Oh, my God. Now we have to figure this out of, learning all about the sports, which I did, I learned about every sport, the energy demands of the sport. So you don’t say something like innings. When you’re talking to a football team, it’s like wrong. So knowing the language, the lingo, the all of it, and being active myself, a runner, always lifting fan a lot of years dancing, because you have to have the sweat equity, literally to relate. And it kind of been evolved from there to starting to work with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I do bleed black and gold. So I worked for them for about 14 years. And they went in a different direction. So did I, though, I went to the chief. So now I can bleed red, it’s a little bit more appropriate on the color thing. And then I’ve also worked in Major League Baseball, with the National Hockey League, with Olympic athletes, high school athletes, Masters athletes, all of them and performance artists. So you can imagine the Pittsburgh Ballet and a football team, I can fit the entire ballet company into my kitchen, one football player. So you know, it’s really been kind of cool to do all that and evolve from just talking to them to hands on. So we did things like steel, Chef Smackdown you can be in the kitchen, you can learn how to do it, because those are survival skills. But then you really get engaged when you’re figuring out how to feed yourself. So that’s my journey. 

Shireen [4:22]: I absolutely love that. And you know, for someone who’s listening, who goes, Well, I’m not an athlete, I don’t need sports nutrition, like what is this about? How does this apply to me? Let’s take a step back and really first help us understand what is that intersection between sports nutrition, why is there a different sort of almost this sub field, if you will, in sports nutrition, and how it even intersects with sort of our day to day lives?

Leslie [4:47]: Absolutely. So you’re using the word sport nutrition I do sometimes, but I would take a step back and say it’s performance nutrition, right? I’m performing to do my best in my workplace. I belong to a choir, and I want to be able to sing that I want to sing, I need to have the energy to run my kids to their practice, or violin lessons or whatever, you know, we’re all on the stage all the time, every single day. We don’t have to be a professional athlete to glean those benefits. But yet, we need to fuel ourselves, take care of our bodies, the way they do our bodies or our business, we just don’t necessarily get paid for it. They do. 

Shireen [5:24]: No, I see that really well. And are there concepts that also intersect into our day to day lives that are focused when it comes to performance nutrition?

Leslie [5:33]: Yeah, so absolutely. So a lot of times, and for many of us, we focus on what we eat. Well, that’s important. But when somebody needs to think about their energy levels over the course of the day, how about when you eat? Oh, I didn’t eat anything during the day and I’m dragging, really? How could that be? Well, maybe you haven’t eaten anything, and then you’re tired until you doing, thinking about the quantity, we all need an amount of food that’s appropriate for us. This is truly the three bears approach might not be papa, it might not be mama, and it might not be the baby bear. But we have to find what works for our bodies consistently every single day. And the third thing is consistency. That’s a big message for my athletes. But it’s a big message for all of us. If we’re really trying to have more energy, oh, I ate better one day. But by Friday, I don’t have energy. That’s because you only did it for one day, right? So what are we doing consistently that we can build on? And that is attainable, maintainable and sustainable? All three 

Shireen [6:37]: You know, your experience really ranges from a number of different clients that you mentioned, from sports teams to food industry giants as well. How did these varied experiences contribute to your approach in promoting a healthy relationship with food?

Leslie [6:53]: And that really what we’re looking at is that underlying healthy, so it’s not about confrontation. It’s not about vilifying, you know, and it’s not about idolizing either, right? So I have had various clients I’ve worked with and say, oh, let’s talk about super foods. So what does that mean? A food has a cake? No, it doesn’t work that way. Because there isn’t one food, that’s going to do it all. So we have to create that balance. And we also have to resonate well with people we’re talking to. So you know, I have to talk about foods in a way that people will do it, everybody has a different degree of culinary competency. So not everybody wants to spend hours in the kitchen, everybody has different food preferences, we have to be able to address that everybody has a different amount of time and budget that they’re going to put forth to the foods that they eat. And so it cannot be one size fits all. But at the end of the day, what is the goal, to help people do the best that they can with the resources that they have within their calorie cap within their salary cap within their hourly capital, how much time they want to spend doing something.

Shireen [7:57]: Noted, you know, as you sort of think about individuals, and how they can really benefit from the principles that you’ve seen work with athletes, you know, you talked about moms on the go parents just generally on the go and trying to keep up. Even with the kiddos, how do you sort of see the benefit of the principles, again, that you learned through working with athletes that apply to sort of broader nutrition counseling,

Leslie [8:21]: Right. And so I think athletes do this, because there’s what they get paid to do, they are their own priority all the time. Now, realizing when we have a family, we can’t just be the only one in the room. There’s other people’s there. But turning that around to say that if we are not taking care of ourselves, we cannot be the best caregivers and care providers for everybody else that is in our orbit. That is critically important. That doesn’t mean it has to take an extended amount of time. But when I’m talking to a mom who said, Well, I make sure that I make my kids lunch. What about yourself? Oh, no, I didn’t have time. And wrong answer. No, no. If you’re gonna make two sandwiches, that takes 30 seconds to make three. And there it is. So while we’re doing for our kids, it’s like, what’s the plus one? Where the plus one, we really need to be there in each one of those eating occasions? We’re not the afterthought.

Shireen [9:16]: Oh, I absolutely love that and I think, But, where my mind goes is something that I, you know, someone told me a long time ago, which was, you know, do what you would do on a plane? What do they instruct you on the plane, put the mask on yourself first, and then have the capability of taking care of others around you? So seems like it’s much in the same way of like, you have to also take care of yourself. 

Leslie [9:35]: Well, and yes. And not only that, and that certainly is true, but nobody can eat for us. I mean, we can’t even eat for our kids. We might finish what they don’t need, but hopefully they’re eating something right. But you know, this is it. It’s our movement, our choose our moves, what we decide to do physically, and our snooze, because all those things are part of components of living the best life that we can And we all deserve that we truly we do, we could separate from our bodies and our bodies to talk back to us. And they could say, What are you thinking? What are we doing here? Please pay some attention to me. This is what our bodies want. 

Shireen [10:14]: And working with athletes help us also understand this field around performance nutrition. What does that look like? How do you work with athletes?

Leslie [10:22]: And so when I’m working with a team, it isn’t the entire team. Because every player has different needs. Every position has different energy requirements, every player might have a goal, somebody might have a goal of saying I want to put on some mass, somebody might say I have a goal of wanting to lose some body fat, some people multitask, they want to do both. There are some that are trying to recover from injury or prevent an injury. And just like real people, there are surreal people that have baggage, they might have underlying health issues that need to be addressed as well. So for instance, an athlete has diabetes, we got to take care of the blood glucose before we do anything else, if not either are both are equally important. And just like the rest of us, athletes have issues that they deal with that might be away from the field of practice, and, you know, big issues around mental health, because it’s a tremendous amount of pressure each and every day to perform to 200%. You never know what can happen as a result of that to maybe things going on in their own home. And everybody’s looking for stress management. So some of the things that get chosen, may not be the best from a health perspective. So trying to help them find those things that are performance enhancers legally, and not performance detractors, you’ve got to get enough sleep, you can’t overdo on the caffeine, you really need to be careful with the alcohol, it doesn’t mean none. But it means that is not the solution after a hard day of practice. So you know, it’s kind of the mom message, but phrased a little bit differently. standpoint of, you know, maybe think before you drink that kind of a thing, so that we are ensuring that somebody’s doing the best they can. And and the other thing, I would say that I think it’s important for all of us, there are athletes that use supplements, because they do. But again, it’s not one size fits all, there’s a lot of things that are out there. And just because it’s on the shelf doesn’t mean it’s good for our health, it’s really important that we are selective about what it is we choose to take. And what an NFL lineman might need to take every day might be really different than what you and I would need to take on a day to day basis.

Shireen [12:34]: And if someone wants to kickstart that which by the way, can I just take a second to say I absolutely love that line, I am going to snag it if it’s on the shelf doesn’t mean that we have to consume it like we just don’t need to do that. And so with that, as we’re sort of thinking through the New Year thinking about, you know, getting in better health, you know, perhaps even exercising a little bit more, what are certain small steps that we can start with, again, small consistent steps that we can take to start with?

Leslie [13:00]: Yeah, and you know, I’m one of the things is, you know, a lot of people talk about after the first of the year, I’m making a resolution, right? The problem with that is it’s a real solution, which means the solution didn’t work before. So it’s not going to work this time. But instead of, that is, rather than just dive into something, we have that have a starting point, it’s like I’m driving to someplace I’ve never been, let me plug those directions in to see. So what’s the starting point, take a couple of days and write it down what it is that you were eating, when it is that you were eating, how you feel when you’re eating those foods, because then you can start to see patterns. If you don’t want to write it. And you don’t want to use an app, take pictures of your food, that is really easy. And you can kind of see oh, look, I had one cheerio for breakfast. But I ate a sphere at dinnertime. Well, that’s a little eye opening. But at least you can start to see that. And then you kind of get an idea of saying, Boy, I noticed I’m really hungry at four o’clock in the afternoon. But I didn’t have breakfast, and I ate a tiny little salad for lunch. This is not a surprise. But when we see those things and put them together, and then you pick one thing, instead of I’ve got to do the whole day over again. No, you don’t. Where are you going to tweak? Maybe if the afternoon is your trouble time do that. Maybe if you’re the person that finds yourself foraging in the kitchen after dinner, if like, in all cupboards simultaneously, maybe that’s what you think about and that doesn’t mean locking yourself in the bedroom. What it means is, could I eat something at night that maybe I will put into a bowl and I will sit down in a chair so I know what it is that I’m doing. Why? Because once you master that, then you go on to the next thing. And all of a sudden you’re thinking about things that are positive. It’s like, oh, oh, I made some change. I just had this conversation with somebody a little earlier today with like, lastly, you’re brilliant. I said no. If you’re doing these things and it’s working for you and you’re doing it consistently and you’re seeing the results, and I am brilliant. No I’m not, but again, I think it’s just some of it is common sense. But it’s also, be willing to take the time, we have to be willing to invest the time in ourselves to get the ROI on the back end. 

Shireen [15:11]: I absolutely love that, you know, it is really what you put in is what you get back. Right? You have to put that time in to reap the rewards on the other side, if someone has to sort of look at it and go, Okay, I have bits of time that I can make for myself, or I can meal prep for myself for the week. But you know, I can’t do more than that. Whatever it may be, how does one learn to sort of take positive steps in that direction and continue to stay on that path? Because as you know, in fact, to what you said, right, it is a real solution to something that did not work last year? How do we stay consistent?

Leslie [15:47]: And I think, first of all, it is not biting off more than we can chew. Many of us make very ambitious goals, which is great if we could, I mean, that’s in life, let alone what happens with our own personal health. It’s like, okay, can we take a step back from that, because the goal is to accomplish, not feel demoralized, as a result of what it is that we do. And that’s also why I think it’s kind of like the snapshot aspect of the day, just think about whether it’s one eating occasion that you’re going to change, or maybe I’m going to try and slow down the rate of my eating. So I actually have time to digest, or, Hey, you know, I should drink more water. Well, maybe you have a water bottle that you put on your desk. So with, at your eye level and you see it, you are more inclined to do it. When you make that a habit, write it down, you put yourself on your Google Calendar, do that it’s your “Do you” calendar, that kind of a thing. Because that way you become a priority. And from an exercise perspective, again, same thing happens, okay, January 2, we go to the gym, and we get really excited about it. And either we get hurt, because we try and do too much too soon. Or it’s like forgetting that I’m never going to do this again. So first of all, pick what you love. Everybody has something that they like to do movement wise, whether it’s I’m walking the dog, I’m taking a high, putting on some music and dancing. You know, if it’s lifting, it doesn’t matter. But rather than I gotta go to the gym and do all these things, one thing that you can do at home, that just gets you moving a little bit more and having fun at the same time. 

Shireen [17:21]: That seems easy enough. Now, I do want to get into a couple of your initiatives. So Leslie, tell us more about camp delicious and root camp?

Leslie [17:31]: Yes. So camp delicious, actually started, I think like in 2014. And it was a collaborative effort with a chef here in Pittsburgh. And what we did, it was for a week. And it was primarily inner city kids who really lower income kids and really hadn’t had a lot of exposure to different types of foods. We did this in cooperation with urban gardens. And we got eight chefs to volunteer their love and time, over the course of the week from their hearts to the kids bowls. Everybody learned how to cook we gave everybody knives if they learned how to use on the first day, if like 10, fingers up, I want to see 10 at the end of every day, not nine and a half and not eight. And so they tried everything we started with tasting. So you’re going to taste bitter and salty, and savory and sweet, and spicy. And then it was we’re going to learn how to julienne thing. We’re going to learn how to combine things differently and the chef’s all had, whatever it is we did fresh mozzarella, we made stir fry, they did elote corn, like all types of things. And the coolest thing about the week was the last day. And these kids were ranging in age from nine to 13, made from scratch a meal for their parents, guardians, they had to make it, they had to plate it, they had to serve it and they had to talk about it. I am telling you. It’s such an awesome experience. So it’s taken a little bit of a hiatus. But hopefully it’s going to be coming back. We have chefs that love to do it. We have kids that love to do it and to really understand where food comes from the ground. Surprise. So okay, and if you have a chance to try it, you’re more likely to eat it. If you never are exposed to it, then why would you even want to put it in your mouth. Root camp is a little bit different iteration of that, focusing really more on the appreciation of farmers because, again, 3% of the people grow 100% of the food that we eat, and they truly are our unsung heroes. And people just don’t know. So that idea of being in the dirt is Yep, you’re going to spread the manure, but you’re also going to pull the carrot and you’re going to pull the lettuce and you’re going to do the things and then that’s hands on hands in. That’s how you cultivate the appreciation for the foods that we eat. And because in this country one in 10 gets enough produce in that from kids all the way to adulthood. What I will tell you is what we found with both of these: When kids are eating produce more, that goes back to their parents, and then everybody does it. So we can start with a kid. We don’t have to start with the adult and go down. Let’s do it the other way.

Shireen [20:09]: I love that, I absolutely love it and help us understand why such initiatives are important right? To really educate kids, sort of start from the bottom going up? Why exactly is that important to create that recognition for kids? And how does it also perhaps influenced their health journey in the future?

Leslie [20:27]: Well, we certainly know that a lot of people focus on macronutrients, which is basically protein carbohydrate that nobody thinks about the micronutrients, which are vitamins and minerals, nobody thinks about the phytonutrients, which are the health components of plants. And we’ve got a lot of health issues in this country, even starting at very, very young ages. So the benefits of consuming those plants that can have an antioxidant effect, that can help to keep the cells healthy, that may have some impact on bone health, on brain health, on the health of our joints, all of that is critically important as well as lowering the risk of disease. And just because they’re not consumed as much for whatever reason, and sometimes that’s a parental bias. And I like it, I don’t buy it, that we’re kind of broadening the palette, early on, and doing that exposure, and really getting those foods in, that makes such a big difference for health. also fascinating studies on the impact of produce on mood in a positive way that consuming more produce does have an impact on our mood. And there’s always stressful things that happen, they do. But if we can mitigate that somewhat by what it is that we’re eating, it’s important. So this idea of bringing people around the table and feed that need to succeed, one of the ways that we do that is with produce.

Shireen [21:49]: Absolutely love it. And you know, with that this leads me to my next question is, you know, we’re constantly seeing this field of nutrition evolving. What trends do you foresee shaping the future of nutrition and wellness on a more broader scale?

Leslie [22:03]: One of the ones that I love, and I think we’re seeing it more is this appreciation of culture, not just respectful of other cultures, but the traditions in the kitchen, which are so critically important, and being able to hand that down from generation to generation. It’s cool, right now, to think about that. And to understand different seasonings, and what is Mediterranean and what is Asian cuisine, and what is that next cuisine and what is Southeast Asian, and all of those types of things. Because it’s really nice to broaden that palette, and to kind of see how we all reach across the aisles and reach across the table. That’s one. The other thing that’s happening, and it’s happening more even in kids is this interest in sustainability. So not just what it is I eat, but where does it come from? How is that food grown? How are those animals treated? What is happening to the earth and resources as a result of it. And that’s a positive because that’s impacting what’s happening in manufacturing, too. There are so many cool innovations that are coming down the line, even in terms of the types of bottles of what is biodegradable, or what maybe, disintegrates after you use it, so you don’t have that waste in the landfill. And then I think this idea of food waste, and how we minimize it is also something not only because it’s a cost, and it’s expensive if you throw food away, but also something that schools are becoming more aware of, and something that kids are asking about as well. So those three things. Hopefully we’ll continue moving forward because they’re all really positive ones. 

Shireen [23:44]: Absolutely love it. And with that, Leslie we are toward the end of the episode. At this point, I would love for our listeners to know how they can connect with you and just learn more about your work. 

Leslie [23:54]: Absolutely, so my website is activeeatingadvice.com on Instagram BonciLJ, both Facebook and X, formerly Twitter  @LeslieBonci and the same LinkedIn and certainly if you follow me, I promise I will follow back. Everything I do is rhyming. It’s like the Dr. Seuss of dietitians. It just is that way.

Shireen [24:16]: I absolutely love it. Leslie, It has been such a pleasure having you on thank you so very much and to our listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of our young English podcast. We want you to head over to our social media next to keep the conversation going and answer this quick question. What trends do you see shaping the future of health for you and your community? Again, head over to Facebook, head over to Instagram. Find us @Yumlish, find this very podcast post and comment below to tell us again, what trends do you see shaping the future of health for you and your community? We’ll continue the conversation there. And with that, Leslie, thank you so much again. It’s such a pleasure.

Leslie [24:55]: I loved it.

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