Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

One of the most common New Year resolution is weight loss (or changing body composition). If you are feeling dissatisfied with your body, wanting to improve your health or feeling tempted to lose weight fast, you may be thinking that a diet, calorie restriction or extreme exercise is the solution. A desire to lose weight coupled with body dissatisfaction can easily turn unhealthy and dangerous. It's easy to take a diet too far. It's not uncommon for people to make extreme changes - like not eating grains, dairy, sugars and processed foods - severely restricting calories and nutrients all in the name of weight loss. A "diet" may offer quick fixes and a black and white method of dictating what you can and can not eat, but the truth is that these methods are extreme and impossible to maintain in the long term. Plus, they teach you nothing about changing your lifestyle habits which is how long lasting weight loss is achieved. You can take a pill, injection, supplement, pu...

  The Importance of Breakfast Where are my breakfast lovers at?  🙋‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏼 As the name suggests, breakfast (or the first meal after you wake in the morning) breaks the fasting period that occurred throughout the night.  Despite the many benefits of starting your day with a nutritious meal, I've heard many convincing reasons for skipping breakfast:  Not feeling hungry Not having time Wanting more sleep  Can't tolerate food first thing in the morning Desire to lose weight The rest of the family skips breakfast  Having nothing to prepare Poor appetite  Having nothing to eat  Having no one to prepare breakfast There's been a considerable amount of research to try to answer the question "Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?" and while the results are mixed, there are many noticeable benefits for starting your day with a meal.  Eating regular meals and snacks - starting with breakfast - allows for more opportunities throughout th...

Do you want to take your health and performance to the next level? Say hello to NUTRIENT TIMING⏰. Nutrient timing can be the link that takes you from a good athlete to a great athlete. It can also help with better quality training sessions and reducing the risk for injury and illness. Nutrient timing refers to the intentional manipulation of nutrients at specific times in and around exercise in an effort to achieve a specific outcome (ex. performance, health, body composition). Although the definition is simple, the application can get complicated when you factor in workout type, duration, frequency, timing, intensity, purpose and time of the day. When it comes to nutrient timing, evening workouts can be tough to nail. Knowing what, how much and when to eat before and after the workout can be tricky as you have to be extra intentional with making sure you time your nutrition appropriately before or after the workout. The upside of an evening workout is that (if timed well) you already ...

  I love our Tuesday night workout. Karel and I leave our house at 4:40pm and ride to Donaldson. This takes us around 75-minutes to cover 17.5 miles. To get to the group ride, we bike mostly on the Swamp Rabbit trail with a few miles on the road and two short sections on gravel. I love the start of the ride because it serves as a great warm-up before we meet the Spinners A-Group at 6pm. Plus, it's so much better than sitting in the car for 40-minutes to drive to the group ride. There are several others (probably 10-20) that ride to and from the group ride, which makes it fun to chat before and after the ride.  The A-ride includes a police escort (everyone chips-in $5) for safety as the group of 50+ riders loops around the "Perimeter." We do 5 loops which comes to around 37 miles. The ride is around 90 minutes depending on the speed of the group. The ride is fast and it requires so much focus. There are a lot of surges as the riders in front try to breakaway and then the g...

  Self-sabotage has a simple definition - making choices that undermine your own goals and values. As a dedicated athlete, as it relates to nutrition, you may be making choices that directly conflict with your commitment to training - this is self-sabotage. For example, are you guilty of any of the following? ❓Intentionally undereating before a workout in order to "save" calories. ❓Forgetting to fuel before an afternoon workout, only to cut the workout short because of low energy/fatigue/hunger. ❓Saving calories to validate consuming sport nutrition products during the workout. ❓Intentionally underfueling during a workout in order to indulge post-workout. ❓Restricting food in order to lose weight. ❓Skimping on recovery nutrition because you are pressed for time or not hungry. Whether your self-sabotaging behaviors are intentional or unintentional, everybody engages in self-sabotage at some time. If done occasionally - such as indulging in a big meal or forgetting your sport d...

  It's National Nutrition Month ! The theme this year is Personalize Your Plate.  We are all unique with different bodies, goals, fitness levels, backgrounds and tastes. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition and health. When your diet is varied – without restriction – it’s much easier to meet energy needs and to supply your body with adequate vitamins, minerals and macronutrients to support your health and performance goals. Eating should always remain a source of pleasure, not panic. Eating should never be extreme or all-consuming. Don't diet. Personalize your plate. The fact that there are thousands of diets out there, promoting different tips and tricks, should be enough to tell you that no one diet works. The diet industry loves to profit from exploiting your expectations and insecurities as they damage your relationship with food. No food is the enemy. Every food serves a purpose – from nourishment and fuel to fulfilling hunger, making memories and celebrati...

“The goal of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is to shine the spotlight on eating disorders by educating the public, spreading a message of hope, and putting lifesaving resources into the hands of those in need.” According to the the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness , 29 million Americans will experience a clinically significant eating disorder during their lifetime. Yet, only one-third of people with eating disorders will ever receive treatment. Eating Disorders Awareness Week was developed to reduce the stigma, raise awareness and provide better access to support for those suffering from an eating disorder. In a field where marginalized communities continue to be underrepresented, it's important to welcome conversations on raising awareness, challenging systemic biases, and sharing stories from all backgrounds and experiences ( NEDA ). If you or a loved one is currently struggling with an eating disorder, it’s important to know that you are not alone. Know that a li...

A 30-day challenge is a great way to implement new healthy habits into your lifestyle, push yourself through fears or to try something different. Hey, it's only 30-days....what's the worst that could happen? Although time-bound challenges can be effective for behavior modifications, many people fail to reach the finish line. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you jump on the 30-day challenge bandwagon: 👍PROS: Changing habits is hard. With it comes great pressure and self-doubt as you think about committing to "forever." In the big picture of the year, 30-days is a period just long enough for you to experiment with what works and what doesn't work. You can begin to understand how the change affects you emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually. A challenge allows you to open your mind to new possibilities or a new ways of doing things and gives you confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Plus, it can put you well on your way to making something...

If you are on a quest to change your body composition or boost your health, you may find yourself overwhelmed by all the different dietary approaches.  Traditionally, the word "diet" describes how you eat. However, over time it has evolved to mean "restriction" or "elimination" - often in attempt to lose weight.  To help you out, I want you know that the perfect diet doesn't exist. There is no one "best" diet that works for every person around the world. Every human being is different - different genes, lifestyle habits, nutritional needs, emotions, activity regimes.....and so much more.  While there are several universal nutrition principles that have consistently shown to improve health, reduce risk for disease, maximize longevity and to help with weight maintenance, I'd like to offer a different way of thinking about food. In other words, if you are on a quest to improve your health or change your body composition, there's much mor...

A hearty bowl of stew in the winter and a refreshingly cold bowl of fruit in the summer. Have you noticed how your appetite changes based on the season? This change is partly as a result of the body needing less calories to function at an optimal body temperature - less energy is needed to maintain homeostasis. Even though in the heat, the body slows down a bit to try to conserve energy to not overheat, if you are an athlete who trains high volume/intensity and you only listen to your appetite to direct you when to (or not to) eat, your loss of appetite can result in a massive energy deficit. While you may think that this energy deficit will help with weight loss/body composition changes, training in an extreme energy deficiency affects normal body functioning, which can affect metabolism, immunity, heart health, bone health, menstruation, endocrine health, recovery, muscle strength and power and mood changes. Another reason for a loss of appetite in the heat relates to ...

People are hungry for nutrition information but how do you know if you are being fed the truth? There's a lot of conflicting advice when it comes to nutrition as the media is quick to report every nutrition study that comes out. Believe it or not, there was a time in the not-to-long past when research studies were read by scientists and collectively, only the most useful information, from the most useful studies, would make it into the newspapers. While it's great to take your personal health into your own hands by making your own nutrition decisions, being too reliant on every nutrition "fact" can lead to information overload. With so much nutrition information on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, websites, TV, magazines, radio, advertisements, friends and family, it's easy to feel confused and conflicted. Accurate nutrition information is science-based, peer reviewed and can be replicated. Nutrition fraud is information that is not supported by science or is ...

When it comes to sports success, diet is a big piece of the puzzle that many athletes struggle to appreciate and master. Around this time of the year, when the temps are moderate to cold, overall training load is low and the training stress is not extremely high, it's easy to get away with haphazard fueling methods and inconsistent eating habits. However, as training intensity and volume increase (especially with the added stressor of heat), the previous style of eating that you thought was working for you, may soon present major issues for your health and performance. Karel and I are currently in Clermont, Florida for a mini train-cation. 3.5 days of a training overload in a different environment. While we can't completely check out of our daily work responsibilities, there's the understanding that we are here to train and to absorb as much training stress as we can. With this comes a huge responsibility to our bodies to make sure we are fueling and hydrating well ...

We have all been there - that unpleasant race-day incident that you hope will never happen again. Although we'd like to think those "oh-no" moments are no big deal (hey, no one is perfect), it's not easy to move on from the Worst. Mistake. Ever. As you think back to your most embarrassing race-day moments, check out a few of my nutrition tips in my recent Triathlete Magazine article (July 2018, pg 66), to help you successfully recover from the most humiliating situations. 

Meet my nutrition athlete Christine. She is in the 70-74 year age group and she recently placed 1st in her age group at Ironman Lake Placid, in a time of 16:16.37. She was the oldest female finisher of the day and earned a slot to IM Kona (she declined the slot in order to focus on IM 70.3 WC). Meet my nutrition athlete Stacey. She recently earned a spot to IM Kona at Ironman Switzerland by placing 3rd in the 55-59 age group in a time of 13:07.58. These two inspiring ladies are among several older female athletes that I have the honor to work with on nutrition, along with several Trimarni coaching athletes who race in a 50+ age group category. Although it's easy to classify age based on when you were born (chronological age), these ladies, among many other female athletes, are showing us that sport can play a positive role in the aging process and that age is just a number. What can you do with your body at your age? Although aging may negatively affect the physiol...

Picture source Nutrition plays a very important role in health and performance. But I don't have to tell you what you already know. You are well aware that if your body doesn't get the nutrients/energy that it needs, your risk of illness, injury and sickness increases as your body struggles to adapt to intentional training and life stressors. With proper nutrition, you are rewarded with performance gains and a strong, healthy and fit body.  As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, I have an important role as it relates to the performances by athletes. For countless reasons, many athletes are invested into improving "nutrition" with the help of a sport dietitian. At the most basic level, improving nutrition will lead to better strength, resilience, endurance and recovery but nutrition also plays an important contributing role in the development, management and prevention of mental health problems as well as in achieving and sustaining a healthy body composition.  ...

The human body is an amazing machine. In our daily life, we only use a very small part of our true physical capabilities.  But as athletes, unlike our daily life, our training is a big stressor on our body. Understanding that training for an athletic event places such a high demand on the cardio, respiratory muscular, immune and other organ systems, it’s important to recognize that preparing your body for an athletic event is so much more than just checking off workouts. I am sure I don't have to tell you this but your athletic success depends on proper nutrition.  Last night, I had the opportunity to give a presentation at Run In on my Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes.    Before getting into the talk, it is important that I tell you a little about myself and why I am so passionate about nutrition and sport nutrition.  As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian with a MS in Exercise Physiology, I have dedicated much of my educational career to studying ...

What does "healthy food" mean to you?  To me, healthy food is included in a varied, nutrient dense diet which keeps my body functioning well.  But in a world where unhealthy food is so available, it can be difficult to define and follow through with healthy eating.  Busy schedules, misinformation, poor planning and low motivation can make healthy eating extremely challenging.  Here are a few tips on how you can get back on track with healthy eating.   -Stop the dieting and food rules. Restriction and deprivation doesn't work as it's not a sustainable style of eating.  -Plan and prep ahead. When you are prepared, you make better food choices. Plus, by learning how to be a great meal/snack planner, you will create long-lasting "go-to" strategies for maintaining healthy eating habits even during your most busy, stressful and exhausting times in life.  -Don't make your meals too complicated. Keep healthy eating simple an...