Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Joey and I received a lot of great feedback/comments after our recent  Instant Pot blog . Here's what you had to say...... Is an Instant Pot practical for just one person? Even the small one? -I use mine for just one person, particularly for making a bunch of lunches at once, or cooking up big pots of rice or chicken to have on hand. If you’re a person who likes to cook one meal at a time, at each meal, I’m not sure it would be as practical. -I am just one person, and I have the six quart (plus an embarrassing number of accessories). It makes it possible for me to prep all of my food for the week in 4 hours or so, plus do things like ferment injera batter (or beer for home brewing), proof bread or pizza dough, make perfect hard boiled eggs, steam just about anything, etc. Imo, the 3 quart is restrictively small unless youre only cooking enough for 1-2 meals at a time. The 6 quart is the same size as your average crock pot, but way more versatile. Just recently bought an...

Picture source As a lacto-ovo vegetarian, Tempeh is one of my favorite, go-to plant-based protein sources. An Indonesian staple, tempeh is a cultured food that makes for a protein-rich plant based meal. Unlike tofu, tempeh is dry and densely compact, which makes it great for marinating, crumbling or grilling. And denser than tofu, is is also more concentrated in calories and nutrients. For example, a 3-ounce serving of cooked tempeh (~1/2 cup) contains ~166 calories, 10g fat and 17g protein. In a 3-ounce serving of firm tofu, you will find ~53 calories, 2.3g fat and ~6g protein. Tempeh is also a good source of iron (4.5 mg in 1 cup) and a complete plant protein providing all nine essential amino acids. Although tempeh does contain probiotics, the short fermentation period and cooking decreases the lifespan of the beneficial live bacteria. The process of making tempeh involves fermenting cooked soybeans and binding them together when exposed to a mold culture from the Rhizop...

Back in March, I wrote a blog post about rice. Although the topic was informative, it wasn't the most timely post as March is all about Spring and when I think of spring, I don't think of rice as my food of choice. But now that we are in the middle of summer and the days are long, and packed with training and other activities, rice is the perfect "quick" and healthy food for anyone, but especially for athletes who are busy, exhausted and in need of fuel. Here's the article for your viewing once more and if you missed it, happy reading! --------------------------------------------- For almost half the world population, rice is a staple food. But for much of the US population, rice is seen as a "bad" carbohydrate There are many varieties of rice but what they all have in common is that they contain carbohydrates, protein, trace amounts of fat and sodium and are gluten free.  Compared to white rice, brown rice is often viewed as the ...

For almost half the world population, rice is a staple food. But for much of the US population, rice is seen as a "bad" carbohydrate There are many varieties of rice but what they all have in common is that they contain carbohydrates, protein, trace amounts of fat and sodium and are gluten free.  Compared to white rice, brown rice is often viewed as the "healthy" rice. Whereas white rice appears to be nutritionally inferior to brown rice because it is a refined grain (bran and germ are removed during the milling process which removes B vitamins, iron and fiber), white rice is typically enriched with iron and B vitamins. Unlike brown rice, containing 3.5g of fiber per cup (cooked), white rice has less than 1 gram fiber. The noticeable difference between brown and white rice is that brown rice is a whole grain (the bran and germ are retained, which means it offers a good source of antioxidants, vitamin E and fiber).  But having said this, athletes shou...

                                   We ate a lot during the two weeks that we were in Florida for our training camp in Clermont + another week in Jacksonville for RETUL fits (Karel) and I spoke to the Delafina Women Cycling club. Despite eating a lot of food, no meal left us feeling bad, stuffed, bloated or guilty as we always eat with good intentions and have a great relationship with food. (even when Karel eats his frozen chocolate "recovery bar" - inside joke, ask us about it when you see us in person :)  During our trip, we had a nice combination of food prepared at home (well, our homes away from home) and a few inspiring meals from restaurants. After our Clermont training camp, we spent a week in Jacksonville, FL (where we use to live from 2008-2014 and stayed with our friend Shawn B. and his family. On Thursday evening (3/24), Karel, Shawn and I left the house around 5pm a...

I am really excited to have recently discovered black rice. I love all types of grains and not shy to try them out in my plant-strong diet. Rich in antioxidants, phytonutrients, protein, fiber and iron and gluten free (for those sensitive/intolerant to gluten), this popular Asian rice has been known for being great for the kidneys, stomach and liver. I cooked a big batch of rice on Sunday so I could combine it with any meal. Earlier this week, I added it to a stir fry veggie dish with edamame and tossed with pesto sauce and yummed until the last bite And for your further reading, y ou are probably familiar with one of the grains on this list but have your taste buds become familiar with the other four grains mentioned in this article ? 5 must-try grains

The other day, someone asked me what I eat when I am really busy. I suppose I needed to give the reply of what fast food I order out or what's my favorite microwave dinner when I have no time to cook. Now, there's always an exception as I do not believe that there is a perfect way of eating but you will not find a microwave dinner in our freezer and Karel and I rarely (less than 5 times a year) go out to eat (unless we are traveling).  This doesn't mean I am good and you are bad but there's a reason why I wanted to write this blog.  I absolutely love real food and I make time to cook, even in my busy lifestyle. I know you can do it too. It's a lot easier than you think. You, me.....we are all busy. Who isn't busy? If there were more hours in the day, we would find a way to fill those up as well.  But it is because of my/your health that we are able to thrive in a world of craziness, business and never ending to do's.  The foo...

On Saturday, my body did not disappoint me. I was actually very impressed with how my body performed with 6800 feet of climbing over 85 beautiful, hilly miles. Our ride included a 45-minute (for me), 5 mile climb to the top of Ceasers Head which has an elevation of 3215 feet. And to finish off the fun, I had a good two more hours of riding behind Karel's wheel to finish off our workout. In the past I would have called this a training camp but now it's just part of our training, in our new backyard. I will do a separate blog on this ride soon. In the mean time, let's eat! After our 85-mile ride and 4 mile run, we did a little resting coupled with computer work and then it was time for some meal prep for our first house guests in Greenville! Our friends Kristen and Trent Norris (and Trimarni athletes) came to Greenville from Charleston for their own personal Trimarni mini training camp in prep for Ironman Boulder and since nothing beats a home cooked meal, I coul...

Pomegranate smoothie 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds 1/2 large orange (without peel) 1 large celery stick (chopped) 1/2 large banana (very ripe) 1 tsp ginger chopped 1 tbsp chia seeds 1/2 cup  milk 1/3 cup greek yogurt (Fage 0% plain) Small handful spinach 1 tsp cinnamon ~25g protein powder 10 ice cubes water to meet consistency needs. 1. Blend ingredients for 90 seconds to make a smoothie meal that is thick enough to eat with a spoon.  Zucchini pomegranate banana bread 2 bananas (very ripe), mashed 1 egg 1 tbsp olive oil 1/4 tsp salt 1 tbsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup skim milk Pinch nutmeg Pinch all spice 1 tsp cinnamon 1 cup zucchini (shredded) 1 cup pomegranate seeds. 2 tbsp white sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup oat flour 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8 x 1 1/2 inch pans with non stick spray. 2. Combine all ingredients except flour and mix well. 3. Add the flour until evenly combined. 4. Pour batter in one pan until 3/4th filled. Pour leftover batter ...

  While at our friends house (Stefanie and Kenny Swanger) from Thursday evening until Saturday (for our race - which I will be writing our race report soon), we enjoyed lots of delicious food creations. Seeing that Stefanie has been a long-time nutrition and coaching athlete, and Kenny is an amazing cook, we are always incredibly spoiled in our belly's when we go to visit them for a race in Georgia.   To start off the morning before a pre-ride warm-up on the Rock N' Rollman race course, we both enjoyed a delicious oatmeal creation. Stefanie and Kenny set up their kitchen like an oatmeal buffet with all the fixings on the counter and us to create something delicious.   I measured out 40grams of oatmeal on their scale (150 calories) to ensure I was getting enough to meet my needs for the morning. I then added 1/2 large banana (sliced) + 3 large strawberries (sliced) and a little each of cinnamon, PB2 (chocolate kind - delicious) and ground flax seeds. I mixed ...

What a beautiful weekend! The highlight of my weekend was being on my bike for 4 hours/80 miles on Saturday morning with the wind gusty like normal and meeting up with a group ride filled with fast guys with big ego's (or a lot of testosterone - or both). There were two other females on the ride and they were impressive as well. I didn't  have the legs to rotate as just drafting was enough for me. It hurt so good :) After I warmed up, did the ~90 min group ride and after little extra "social" time with friends for ~20 minutes, I finished the workout with 4 x 10 min Z3 low w/ 5 min EZ spin in between. To cool down, Z2 steady effort (I tried keeping my cadence steady but so hard for my legs at that point + the wind would not let up) until I was back at my starting point. It's interesting that as I progress with my journey of living a balanced lifestyle, my body is typically in a happy place most days of the week. My life doesn't revolve around w...