Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Next to flowers and jewelry, chocolate is a staple gift on Valentine's Day. Although much of Valentine's day is all about marketing (if you love someone/something - say it daily), chocolate has history as a love food.  According to a Smithsonian article , "passion for chocolate is well-rooted in Mesoamerican history. It was a highly-prized luxury item among Mayan and Aztec upper class elites, who were known to savor a drink that combined roasted cacao beans with cornmeal, vanilla, honey and chilies. Cacao beans were as valuable a commodity as gold, and gold, and were even used to pay taxes levied by Aztec rulers. By the early 1600s, the vogue for chocolate had swept across Europe. In London, chocolate houses began to rival coffee houses as social gathering spots. One shop opened on Gracechurch Street in 1657 advertising chocolate as “a West Indian drink (which) cures and preserves the body of many diseases." In France, Madame de Sevigne wrote about eno...

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...

I have had the most wonderful time over the past two days, visiting my alma mater - Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. This is my first real visit to Lexington/Transy since I graduated college in 2004. Wow - 16 years have passed by and so much has changed! Both in my life and in Lexington. After spending the first 22 years of my life growing up in Lexington, I have so many amazing memories here. Why am I here? I was invited to Transy to speak to the senior exercise science students, the triathlon team and the swim team, as well as to some of the sport/exercise staff/faculty. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and I will be leaving Wednesday morning. It's a quick 5 hour drive. I have been sharing my journey of how I got to where I am today and I owe so much of it to my amazing liberal arts education at Transy. Funny story - my high school swim coach is now the head coach at Transy. And the triathlon coach is married to one of my friends from my high school swim team. What a s...

Our Furman Faculty friends (and Pat) This morning was the 43rd Green Valley Road Race . With a new course and a running race that we have been wanting to participate in for the past few years, we were both excited for the event. However, I had to skip the race due to recent niggle with my hip/back. As you probably know, this is nothing new for me to experience these niggles. Luckily, this time was not as serious as what I experienced this past summer. While I am not sure exactly why this happens, my pelvis/spine often gets twisted. It's not painful but I struggle to move my leg (this time again it's my left leg) forward without feeling some catching, tugging, pulling or tightness in my groin/hip/adductor. Oddly enough, it comes without much warning - although I'm sure it slowly happens overtime. Because I often feel similar symptoms when this happens, I am quick to recognize when I need to back off or adjust my running. Interestingly, the treadmill is actually the place...

Instant Pot Minestrone Soup By Joey Mock, RD, LD, CLT If you are new to Instant Pot cooking, here are a couple of things to consider: -Instant Pots can be a great way to quickly pull meals together in one pot but it is important to consider the total cooking time of a recipe. A recipe may only suggest a 5 minute cooking time but before the timer starts its countdown the pot will take time to heat up and come to pressure (this can usually take an extra 10-20 minutes depending on what you are cooking). When the cooking time is complete, the pressure release also takes additional time. Be sure to factor in this extra time when planning your meals. -Make sure that you place your Instant Pot on open counter space (with no overhead obstacles around like cupboards since a “hot steam bath” from the pressure release could potentially damage them over time). -There are lots of fantastic Instant Pot recipes available in print and online to get you started. Search out well written recipes with s...

The Instant Pot has been termed the ultimate multi-functional kitchen appliance. It's a slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice maker, steamer, yogurt maker and warmer and it can be used for sauteing and browning. Although the Instant Pot has been around for a long time, it's been gaining a lot of recent popularity. Before you purchase one, here's what you need to know.  What is an Instant Pot? An Instant Pot functions as a pressure cooker, slow cooker and crock pot. For the at-home-cook, this all-in-one appliance can help expedite the cooking process of any meal/recipe. For the not-so-good chef, you can set it and forget about it - just throw the ingredients in the pot and let it cook throughout the day. In addition to these funtions, it can also cook rice, steam and sautee and keep foods warm. Different types Sizes range from 3-quart to 8-quart. The 3-quart is ideal for small familes, the 6-quart is ideal for families of 4-6 and then 8-quart is ideal for large families (or w...

At Trimarni, we believe strongly that education should be a primary component of coaching. We want our athletes to ask questions and we want to provide our athletes with a lot of educational content. To help with this, we have a weekly "check in" newsletter that includes the past weekend race results of our team members, a question of the week (and answer) and a timely educational article - on topics such as daily nutrition, sport nutrition, race day tips, mental strength, swim/bike/run skills/training/form and so much more. We also hold a weekly FB live chat (every Wednesday at 6:30pm EST) for our team on our private team page on a specific topic. For example, tomorrow we will be discussing fatigue and how to train through fatigue and how to know when to back off. We also post several videos throughout the week/month on various topics. Some are fun like "our favorite training/recovery tools" whereas others are more educational - like how to set up your gadgets...