Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Enjoying the basil strawberry lemonade from  Laughing Seed . I have spent many, many years figuring out the role of food in my life. While I want my food choices to positively affect my health and athletic performance, I have also worked hard to discover a way that I can eat, perform well, and still function well in life to enjoy the things that mean so much to me, like being with Karel, traveling and spending time with close friends and family. Ultimately, my diet enhances my life and it does not control my life. Seeing that my career and formal education both revolve around food, it would be easy to assume that I am obsessed with food. While I am passionate about food and have dedicated my life to learning about food and how it impacts the physiology and health of the human body, food is not my life. I eat when I am hungry, I feel satisfied and I move on with my life. OR, I eat when I need the energy to perform, I train to maximize my performance, I recover and I stay consist...

For Karel and myself, eating out is typically reserved for special occasions and traveling. This pic (above) was taken a few years ago when we were in Athens, GA for the Athens Twilight Crit. Campy looks so young! Of course, we love dining out at pet-friendly restaurants.  I have ordered a few meals in my time that did not meet my nutritional needs and I was hungry after I ate (not a good experience especially when paying for food outside the home). I have also ordered meals outside the home that did not give me a memorable experience.  I don't stress about eating out or try to change everything on the menu so that I can order a "healthy" meal but what I don't like is when the flavors of my meal do not meet my expectations, the presentation lets me down and I am not inspired. And I still have to pay for it.  No chef or menu item knows what I need as a vegetarian endurance athlete and health conscious individual, on any given day or meal. ...

Dining out. We all do it. Whether it is for work, pleasure, convenience, travel, an event or for really, no reason at all. Eating out is part of our lifestyle.  But is it possible to stay fit and healthy when eating outside of the home? Despite close to 50% of all food spending from Americans being at restaurants, fast foods or food away from home, there was once a time when eating out was costly and inconvenient and an insult to your grandmother to compare her home-cooked meal to food served in a restaurant.  Karel told me that when he was growing up in Czech, they rarely ate out. Eating out was reserved for very special occasions and he said that for him and his siblings, it was a chance to practice their good manners.  Today, you don’t need a special occasion to have someone serve you, wait on you, prepare food for you and clean up after you.   Meal prep at home is far from a valued and necessary skill with available food at every street corn...

Yum....post-Ironman, day after food in Lake Placid!  Veggie burger and fries for me and a meat burger for Karel. These days, you don’t need a special occasion to have someone serve you, wait on you, prepare food for you and clean up after you. Close to 50 percent of all food spending in the U.S. is at at restaurants, fast food joints, or food away from home. With food available at every corner, cooking has declined in both value and necessity. Clean-up, dirty dishes and burdensome meal planning are among the most common reasons as to why many people don't make the time to eat home- cooked meals. Throw in training for a triathlon and you have a list of excuses as to why you can’t find time to properly fuel your active lifestyle. Despite its convenience, eating out comes with many dangers. Bigger portion sizes, increased calories, sodium and fat can make frequent eating out a problem area for athletes seeking to maximize their daily nutrition,and stay lean. If an occasio...

On Thursday, we (Campy, Karel and I) took a quick trip to  Greenville South Carolina . We have heard so many great things about this beautiful city and bike-friendly community that we decided it was a great time to go and take a little 6 hour road trip and stay until Sat. And if you know us - we LOVE traveling! After our morning workout (treadmill run for me and strength and trainer bike + run for Karel), we packed up for our trip. Yummy Trail mix! I never travel without it! Cheerios, raisins, pecans, peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts.  Sadly, we left our bikes at home due to the high chance of rain during our trip and it was a good thing that we listened to the weather channel. Two full days of rain...but that didn't stop us from enjoying beautiful Greenville! Grocery store salad - mixed greens in a container topped with hardboiled eggs, nutritional yeast, swiss cheese, cashews and olive oil/balsamic dressing. A simple and delicious Trimarni "fast food...