Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

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 ...

What a fantastic day to be a Registered Dietitian! As part of National Nutrition Month, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics celebrates Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day, which happens to be today! When you have a nutrition question, where's the first place you go? Do you check the Internet, read a magazine or ask a friend? While you may find a quick answer to your question, it may not be the most accurate, useful or personalized response. Although many people have nutritional experience, a registered dietitian is your nations qualified food and nutrition experts. Do you need nutrition help? Find a RD who specializes in a field that can be of assistance to your personal health and/or performance goals. As you may or may not know, the RD route wasn't originally in my career path. After obtaining a BA in exercise science and minor in psychology and then earning a MS in exercise physiology, I was focused on becoming a strength and conditioning coach. However, afte...

You are not alone. Everyone has that day when your stomach feels blah and you just want to feel better in your own skin. It's important to acknowledge that your body will change shape throughout the day. Sadly, there's no instant fix that will immediately change the way that your body looks or feels. In other words - don't restrict food and overexercise in order to try to escape this uncontrollable feeling. When you eat, the shape of your digestive tract changes. Your stomach may protrude and as your body breaks down food, you will retain water, develop gas and produce stool. This can all contribute to feeling bloated, "big" or heavy. Your physical weight (not body fat) can also increase due to constipation, sodium, water, hormones, exercise and medications. To optimize digestion, we want to be in a relaxed state - rest and digest. For athletes, this can be rather difficult as our body becomes rather stressed during (or in the hours after) a workout - fi...

                                       A throwback to Kona '18 and Acai bowls - yum yum. Wowzer - five weeks until IM 70.3 Haines City. I'm so excited to race I can hardly contain myself. My training is slowly increasing in training volume - specifically bike and run. My typical swim distances are between 3800-4600 yards (~1-1:15hr swim) and I swim five times per week. I also bike about five times per week and there's never an easy bike workout. As for the run, I also run about 4-5 times per week and while I have some solid brick run sessions (my favorite - I love love love running off the bike), my other runs are all about efficiency right now (around 45-65 minutes). With a long season ahead (20 weeks until Ironman Canada and 30 weeks until IM Kona), I'm being patient with my run volume/intensity (per the methods of my coaches). I'm lucky that I don't suffer from GI issues in tr...

Fitter, faster, stronger, leaner, more powerful, improved endurance.  These are among the top words that triathletes will often use to describe what needs to happen in training over the course of a season in order to be more athletically successful. While structured, periodized training can help an athlete develop sport specific fitness, it's especially important to have sport specific skills. If proper skills are not practiced regularly in training, you may struggle to reach your athletic potential on race day - despite putting in the physical work. Most triathletes are great at working out but when it comes to skill specific work, it's either overlooked, pushed aside or not valued. With an infatuation with metrics, distance and intensity, many triathletes overly obsess with gaining fitness only to find that skills don't match fitness. Without a proper skill set, there's a lot left on the table when it comes to performing at your best on race day. This is why it...

In our body-obsessed society, there’s a lot of confusion on dietary fat. “Fat makes you fat” has controlled the population mindset for many decades. Thankfully, nutrition research has evolved to prove that dietary fat, in the right amounts and types, is important to a healthy functioning body. In my varied and nutritionally-balanced diet, you'll find olive oil, eggs, avocado, nuts, seeds, 2% dairy, cheese and peanut butter. Yum, yum, yum.  Due to its slow digestion time, fat may contribute to satiety, delaying the onset of hunger pangs, cravings and overeating. Fat also acts as an energy reserve, provides fat soluble vitamins, supplies essential fatty acids, offers thermal insulation and protects vital organs.  Because it’s easy to overeat on delicious high-fat cakes, cookies and ice cream, it’s important to prioritize fat from natural sources, primarily plants.  Bottom line: there’s no need to fear fat in your diet. So what about the Keto diet?  On...

I always feel grateful and thankful for the ability to train like I do but sometimes I have bad workouts. Last week I had a string of three days of going into my training sessions feeling energized, positive and excited to train, but when it came to the workout itself, I felt blah. Thankfully, I got out of my funk and followed it up with three quality, feel-great-days of training. Ups and downs are part of training so it would be a mistake to assume that every workout needs to be amazingly awesome or easy to complete. As an athlete, it's assumed that you have high expectations for yourself and you probably want to do well (or impress your coach) every time that you train. But you need to realistic that not all of your workouts will be great. Plus, you can't let a workout put you in a bad mood. Progress is not about always having perfect or great workouts. Many times, progress is not something that is felt on a day-to-day basis. As much as we want every workout to feel g...