Julie Schoenfeld is a mom of two who lives in Park City, Utah, and is also an UnTapped Maple Fanatic. She recently sat down with UnTapped’s Aliza Lapierre to talk about balancing being an athlete and a mom, how she approaches fueling for herself and her family, and what advice she has for embracing your athletic ambitions after you have kids.
Aliza Lapierre: You’re an athlete, you’re a mom, you’ve got really active kids. How do you approach nutrition for yourself and for your family?
Julie Schoenfeld: Nutrition is so nuanced for parents these days because we want them to eat a healthful diet. But as a lot of athletes have experienced, we also want to have them have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies and not have this restrictive dialogue of ‘good food, bad food.’ I do want my kids to be gravitating towards nourishing foods that are going fuel them and last, but I don’t want to restrict it. The important thing is finding balance that works for your family, where everybody’s getting close to what they need and checking all the boxes.
Aliza: When you go grocery shopping, are you a label checker?
Julie: Literally every time. I have celiac disease too, so I’m always checking for ‘gluten free’ for myself. And then, yes, to put a new packaged food in the cart, I always read the label.
Aliza: What did you know about UnTapped before you came on board as a Maple Fanatic?
Julie: My friend who’s from Vermont and is very Vermont proud, introduced me to it. We were on like a long run and we were both bonking and she was like, “Here, take this UnTapped Gel.” It was like, “Whoa, that just hits.” From there on out, I started buying them. It’s one ingredient, doesn’t upset your stomach – that’s huge for me. The very simple ingredient list with actual food and not a ‘flavor’ is even better.
As soon as the Recovery Drink Mix came out, I switched to that immediately. As a parent, that is amazing, because often I’ll go for a long run, and get back home with 30 minutes to grab snacks for the kids, shower, and change. And if I have Recovery prepped and ready, I know I’m getting the refuel I need. It has the protein, it has more carbs. I usually put some matcha in to give me a little caffeine and some cinnamon or something. If I’m making a smoothie, I’ll throw Recovery in.
Aliza: Do you have any signature recipes using Recovery?
Julie: I’ll mix peanut butter, banana, Recovery Drink Mix, and then ice and water, and that’s a good hearty snack.
Aliza: Tell me about you as an athlete. What are your sports? What’s your level of competition?
Julie: I’m a 40-something, recreational, competitive athlete that’s been in athletics my whole life. It’s a fun hobby that makes me feel good and is social. I have a lot of friends here andwe do a lot of high alpine stuff, kind of borderline between like running and alpinism. Scrambly stuff around the Wasatch would be my highlight, trying to do longer ridge link-ups and traverses. In winter, I compete in longer-format Skimo races. It’s trying to challenge myself and have fun and get outside my comfort zone.
Aliza: You had an Instagram post about how some people feel they have to give up their adventurous lifestyle once they become a parent, and you said, “You keep your adventurous lifestyle as a parent by raising adventurous kids.” How does that work in your family?
Julie: My kids are five and seven, and are pushing the bar at some sports now, like mountain biking. We’ve spent their whole lives paying into this bank, right? Sometimes you’re like, “The easy thing would be to leave the kids at home, and then my husband and I switch off and go do something for the day.” But we decided to do things together as a family. We’ve modified things to bring the kids along, whether it’s rock climbing, skiing, or mountain biking. Now that they’re both in grade school, they’re amazing. They are on board. It’s just fun. We’re just getting payback from that effort we put in early. Skiing is the fastest to pay off. You’re just like, “Oh, this is so fun.”
Aliza: Give me a tour of your snack bag. If you’re all going mountain biking, what’s in it?
Julie: Usually it would be some UnTapped waffles, a meat stick for protein, and then some dried fruit gummies or real gummy bears. You want to have all the bases covered: something that lasts a little longer, something meaty, and then just straight candy for when you’ve got to give it to them. They love the UnTapped waffles. Those are great for kids.
Aliza: How do you help them understand the importance of fueling and that food gives them energy to learn and grow and be active?
Julie: I talk about it as ‘fast energy’ versus ‘long energy.’ “Okay, you want some fruit. Great. That’s going to give you energy right now, and that’s good fast energy. What do you want for long energy?” That would be more of a protein. They get it now. “I’m gonna eat this and then I’ll also have that, and then I’ll feel good.”
Aliza: You mentioned you have celiac disease. How did your athletic nutrition evolve with UnTapped?
Julie: I’ve definitely changed a lot. I was often under-fueling and as my training load started to increase for these races, I worked with a dietitian. I told her, “I’m just tired and hungry all the time.” She said, “You’re eating half as many carbs as you need and not fueling enough while training.” Really, the common things women naturally do to ourselves because we’ve been conditioned that carbs are bad.
UnTapped Energy Gels
Recovery Drink Mix
Since then, I’ve really increased my training fueling and when I’m getting close to a race, I increase it even more so I train for the consumption I need during a race. For a baseline, I’m always eating every 45 minutes, but as I get close to a race where I want to fuel with more than 60 grams of carbs an hour, I’ll do that in training.
Aliza: What differences did you experience when you made that caloric shift?
Julie: Oh my gosh, it was so much better. I got the fittest I’ve ever been in my life. You just feel like you can go forever. If I’m not fueling, I would hit a wall at two to three hours. “I’m bonking. I’m tired. I’m done.” I thought that was my endurance limit. But then I started fueling, and I was like, “I can go forever.”
Aliza: How did that impact your recovery?
Julie Schoenfeld: It’s so much better. As a women, it’s so hard mentally to eat as much as you need for that many hours of training.
Aliza: Yep, I completely agree. If I don’t eat as much as I should during racing or training, recovery is harder, both mentally and physically. My mood will suck and all of the above. But if I go out for a six-hour run, and I eat about 60 grams of carbs an hour and then do Recovery, the next day I’m completely fine.
Julie: Especially at my age. I have the engine, I have the power, I have the mental game, but I have to eat enough or else my body doesn’t recover at all.
Aliza: Walk me through some of the UnTapped products you use and your strategy.
Julie: I did the Grand Traverse ski race last year, which took about 11 hours, and I consumed 16-ish Gels. Every 30 minutes during the race, I was hitting an UnTapped Gel. And then Mapleaid. I usually keep one water bottle and one Mapleaid bottle. And then the Recovery Drink Mix after; that’s the best.
Aliza: What are some of your triumphs as an athlete mom, whether it’s the mom part or the athlete part.
Julie: Honestly, it’s not the athletic performance or achievement. It’s when you can’t do the thing you want to do; that’s always been the hardest as a parent. My biggest triumph is to be able to say, “I will do that at another time, it’s not happening today,” and be present with my kids, while still being able to put my athletics – not on the back burner, but maybe move it around the stove, so to speak, to make the family work. That’s a big challenge for my kind of personality that craves a high level of output to feel good in my body.
Aliza: Tell me about your Instagram feed, Utah Runner Moms. Where did that come from?
Julie: So there’s another Instagram handle, Utah runner girls. They’re these 20-something girls doing makeup tutorials and wearing matching little outfits and stuff. My friends and I said, “It would be funny to have the mom’s version, where you’re just pulling whatever you can out of the closet and getting out of the house as fast as you can. No makeup, no hair, none of that.” It’s also my very best friends who push me to perform better and I push them. We’re so supportive, it makes everything way more fun and there’s a sense of community that we find with each other.
Aliza: For a mom out there who’s just getting out of that super little kid phase – like infant to two years old, where between feeding and napping and the rest, you have zero time – what would your advice be to somebody who’s like, “I want to get back to being me as a runner or a cyclist” or whatever their sport is?
Julie: You just have to seize your time. No one is going to give it to you, unless you have a nanny or a very good childcare support system. You have to look at your schedule – we always talk about the extra time slot, and unfortunately, it’s the 5:00am start. If you start your day with that – sure, by 3:00pm, you’re exhausted – but the rest of the day is pretty good. You’re like, “I did that. I did it for myself. I started with a clear head. I feel good. I feel like myself, and then I can go face the rest of the day.”
Also, knowing when it’s your time to push and knowing when it’s time to just be like, “Okay. I have to chill.” The chilling part for a lot of athletes is the hardest part.
Another thing: Let go of the metrics on your watch. Don’t look at that stuff. It’s just going to make you crazy. Let go of a super rigid training schedule or a coach that doesn’t understand about being a parent. When there’s an opportunity, you have to grab it and go for it. And when you’re getting blocked, you just have to take a deep breath and move through that and be okay with it.
Aliza: Have you ever had any other people tell you that pursuing your own athletic goals and pursuits is selfish?
Julie: Probably just my husband. [Laughs] No, he’s really supportive and reasonable. But no, I don’t surround myself with people like that. my friends are my biggest hype crew and we’re here for each other.
