Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Do you feel guilty when you make time for yourself to exercise?  Does your spouse/significant other/family/friends feel like they are low on your priority list because you are an athlete?  Do you have a hard time saying yes to your own fitness needs because you feel like you are always saying no to someone/something else?  Are you in a relationship with someone who doesn't understand (or fully support) your active lifestyle or training/racing goals?  From the outside looking in on your lifestyle, it may seem like exercise is an obsession to you or that it must come before everything else in life. Despite having all the tips and tricks for integrating exercise into your extremely busy life, your mindset may keep you from staying consistent - because everytime you begin a workout you feel like you should be doing something else. On our Trimarni Women-only private Facebook page , this topic was recently discussed and several of our female team members provided some excellent

Raise your hand if you also love carrot cake? I have a confession to make. I love carrot cake. Maybe because it’s a cake made with a vegetable. This sweet, spicy and moist cake is my favorite way to celebrate my birthday each year. A tradition that started with my  dear friend Laura  making me a delicious carrot cake for my birthday back in ~2009.  With my carrot cake muffins, we can all yum over carrot cake all year long and feel great about the nutritional quality in the recipe. Because the typical carrot cake recipe (with cream cheese frosting) can be extremely high in calories, sugar and fat, you can feel good about this more nutritious (on-the-go) version which uses applesauce to cut back on oil.  Since carrots are naturally sweet, you’d never know there was only ½ cup brown sugar in this entire recipe. Carrot Cake Muffins Vegetarian, Dairy Free Yield: Makes 12 muffins [1 muffin = 1 serving] / Prep Time: ~20 minutes / Cook Time: ~20 minutes ¼ cup un

I've heard some recent talk by athletes of their concerns of a post-workout smoothie containing berries and greens. Athletes are hearing that they should avoid berries and greens for at least 4 hours post workout in order to optimize recovery. The case for avoiding antioxidant rich foods immediately after exercise is based on research saying that "antioxidant supplements seem to be working against the beneficial effects of exercise: Promoting, rather than reducing, oxidative stress." In other words, antioxidants can actually increase inflammation, rather than decreasing it. As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, I'd like to share my thoughts on this topic. But first I'd like to say that this is a topic that needs much more quality research before we (nutrition experts) can make a general recommendation to apply to all athletes. A free radical is an unstable molecule that’s missing at least one electron in its outermost orbit, which causes it to be negatively c

From the Quality Supplements website:  "The term “dietary supplement” describes a broad and diverse category of products that you eat or drink to support good health and supplement the diet. Dietary supplements are not medicines, nor should they be considered a substitute for food. Dietary ingredients can be one or a combination of any of the following: -Vitamin -Mineral -Herb or other botanical -Amino acid (the individual building blocks of a protein -Concentrate, metabolite, constituent, or extract Although some herbal and mineral compounds have been used for hundreds of years to treat health conditions, today dietary supplement manufacturers are not legally allowed to say their products cure, treat or prevent disease. Supplement makers can say their products support health or contribute to well-being. That is because Congress does not regulate dietary supplements the same way it regulates medicine. Except for new dietary ingredients, dietary supplement manufact

Although life is never easy, 2019  gave us several difficult moments that left us emotionally and physically drained. My intention for 2020 is to bring, share or see the sparkle in all my workouts and events this year. I am constantly on a journey of self-improvement and growth and I learned a lot about myself last year. So for 2020, my mantra is to sparkle. It may sound silly and childish but to me, it serves as a reminder that life is short, you are only guaranteed today and no matter what, it's important to see the bright light and find the positive in every situation. To ensure that my life has a bit more sparkle in it, I received the most beautiful paint job on my Ventum (and race helmet) from Mike Furtek with Kcycle. Mike is an incredible artist who has a vision for creating masterpiece paintings -on bikes. After painting  Karel's Ventum  for the past two years, his work was so well received by the owners of Ventum that they hired him as the head painter of all