If you picture a nutritionist's kitchen, you're probably imagining colour-coded meal prep containers, a fridge full of smoothie ingredients, and a very organised pantry.

You're probably not imagining a 9pm bowl of four different cereals, or a nearly 90-year-old housemate who needs to be talked out of having her wine before dinner.

But that's Teigan O'Shannassy for you, and honestly, she's all the more relatable for it.

Teigan is a powerhouse defender for the NSW Swifts, an accredited Associate Nutritionist, and the founder of her own nutrition education business, Tossed Together.

She recently sat down with former netball champion and host Liz Ellis on Full Plate, a podcast in partnership with Woolworths, where she opened up about what it actually looks like to fuel a life that's as full as hers.

It's a conversation that's equal parts practical and profound, packed with insights on food, balance and making life work when there's a lot on your plate. Here are some of the lessons she shared.

The full plate in question.

Right now, Teigan is mid-season with the Swifts, which alone would be enough to fill most people's schedules.

But layer on top of that a nutrition business, a book she recently released, workshops, recipe content she films and edits herself, and a household that includes her sister and her grandmother (more to come on Nanny), and you start to understand why she's the ideal person to talk to about having a full plate.

Teigan plays for the NSW Swifts. Image: Instagram/@teigan_oshannassy.

"I'm probably someone who says yes to a lot of things and then looks at my schedule and thinks, 'Oh my goodness, it looks a bit full.' So for me, it's really about scheduling downtime just to do nothing. I love just going to the beach and switching off and reading my book. So I think for me, it's that balance as well," she said.

The key word there is scheduling. For Teigan, rest isn't something that happens when everything else is done. It has to be deliberately carved out, or it simply won't happen.

Teigan's story behind Tossed Together.

The reason Teigan cares so deeply about nutrition education isn't abstract. It's personal.

"I was diagnosed with an eating disorder when I was 20. Food and nutrition had always been something I loved — my mum had a veggie garden when I was growing up, and my family were big foodies. But when I started pursuing netball more seriously, I really struggled," she said.

"I'm a tall, lanky athlete. I wasn't the best in the gym or the best in fitness testing, and I got caught up in food and nutrition, and it really just took over my life in a negative way. I tried to compare what I was eating to someone else, thinking if I ate like them, I'd look like them or play like them.

"And I guess that was the big struggle. It came from being uneducated about the fact that nutrition is individual, and what I needed was going to be completely different to someone else. I just never knew that."

What followed was years of healing, and then a pivotal reframe.

"From that healing process, and studying nutrition as well, it really opened my eyes. And I was like, 'I really want to help educate these young kids coming through,' and hopefully they don't get to the point of feeling like they have to stress about their nutrition or compare it to someone else," she said.

"That comes through the education piece first, about understanding that food is food. Yes, it fuels our bodies for performance, but it also fuels our soul and our social life as well, which is something that disappeared a bit for me. So yeah, I'm very passionate about that."

The reset meal (and the cereal sommelier).

Despite being a qualified nutritionist, Teigan is human about her own eating habits. Her reset meal? Simple.

"Steak and veg or salmon are my go-tos. I'm also a big tofu fan because it's so cheap. I'll throw it in the air fryer with some frozen veggies and microwave a rice cup, then add sweet chilli sauce and a bit of mayo, and it's done in about five minutes. I love meals that are easy and don't require too much thought," she said.

"Or eggs on toast. I can't go past a good eggs on toast. I'll usually fry them and I do a chilli honey on them whilst they're cooking so they almost get a bit caramelised, and I'll usually have that with avo and cottage cheese or feta as well."

(If chilli honey on eggs isn't already in your rotation, consider this your sign.)

And when training runs late and she's already eaten dinner but needs more fuel? Enter the cereal situation. "For me, it's definitely something like cereal, because it's done in five minutes, or something like toast and peanut butter, or banana and honey. I'm probably more of a sweet over savoury, quick meal kind of person."

Teigan is, by her own description, a committed cereal mixer: wheat bites, yoghurt, berries, a sprinkle of granola for crunch.

An elite athlete's secret weapons.

When asked for her one convenient shortcut for busy people, Teigan's answer was quietly brilliant.

"For me, it's frozen veg. If they're frozen fresh, and usually all the Australian products are, I just toss them in a bowl, heat them up in the microwave, add some protein. I feel like that's a big one. I'm also a big yoghurt fan. Yoghurt, for me, I could have at any time of the day. They're two things I always have in my fridge or freezer."

And when there's been a big training day, Teigan has a system. "I always have canned tuna, or I love these frozen sweet chilli chicken bites in the freezer."

She's also a fan of what she called "ingredient prep" over full meal prep: cooking a batch of protein and vegetables at the start of the week so she has flexible building blocks, rather than being locked into eating the same thing five days in a row. Genius.

Why a mental reset matters as much as a physical one.

Elite sport means Teigan has thought deeply about recovery, and not just the ice bath and sauna kind (though she does these, too).

"Listening to your body is a big one for me. Sleep is a massive one. I love being in bed by like 8pm, reading my book. If I know I have a few late nights and I have training the next morning, sleep is obviously something I'll try to prioritise. We talk about it at the Swifts too," she said.

"We have our physical recovery, like ice baths or saunas, but also that mental recovery, which I think in the past people have forgotten about. I love going for a sunset walk around my block. It's in the bush near the beaches, so there are lots of animals, and I won't bring my phone. I feel like that really helps me mentally as well."

Life with Nanny.

If you want to understand the details of Teigan's day-to-day, you need to know about the household she comes home to. She lives with her sister and her nearly 90-year-old grandmother, and if that sounds like a wholesome, calm arrangement, Teigan would gently correct you.

"Nanny is funny. I feel like she's almost like my child sometimes. It's like, 'No Nanny, you can't have a glass of wine if you haven't eaten dinner.' She kind of brings a lot of chaos to our lives, but in a good way," she said.

Teigan with her nan. Image: Instagram/@teigan_oshannassy.

"It's a fun dynamic at home, because obviously she wants her independence, but we want her to be safe and happy as well. It's that fine line of letting her live her life, because she's nearly 90. So it's like, do whatever you want."

Nanny also, for the record, goes to the supermarket every single day, buys food she doesn't eat, and has commandeered the largest fridge in a three-fridge household. The chaos is real. But so is the love.

Listen to the full conversation with Teigan O'Shannassy on Full Plate , wherever you get your podcasts.

Featured Image: Instagram/@teigan_oshannassy