Blueberry & cream cheese stuffed french toast

 For over 2 weeks, I had most of my meals prepared by Karel's mom.

And we only ate out five times in the 3.5 weeks throughout our time in Austria and Czech.

I can't tell you how many new foods I tried or how many times I yummed.

It's very common that eating outside of your home environment, whether for a work conference, an event, vacation or celebration, can make you feel a lack of control, thus making you think you are doing something wrong.

I also hear individuals talking about how they feel after eating when traveling, using words like gross, fat, heavy, bloated and uncomfortable.

After extended periods of eating outside of the home environment, it's common that individuals will say things like "I need to cleanse" or "I need to get back on track" or "I'm going to be really good for the next 4 weeks" or "I need to diet".

There can be an immediate need to gain control and in the mind, the "best" option is to be extreme and restrictive with eating choices in order to feel better again.

I understand that sometimes we have great eating intentions and try to make good eating decisions in certain situations but hunger, wanting to please others, peer pressure, lack of variety or minimal available food options can lead to eating choices that are not nutritious, performance enhancing or comfortable in the belly.

I think it's normal to very occasionally eat too much or to indulge too much as that is simply being human.
Life will still go on, you'll digest the food and you'll be ok. 

Many times, the vast freedom of not eating on a set schedule and having a too many food options that are not normally in your daily diet can make you feel as if the eating that occurred while on vacation was bad and in order to be good again, drastic measures need to occur.

I can't speak for every situation but I will encourage you to think about your eating choices when you travel.

First off, I don't believe that you should ever eat something that makes you feel physically bad inside.
This extends beyond clinical issues or a food intolerance or allergy.

You do not have to eat something just to please someone else.
You do not have to eat something just because everyone else is eating it.
You do not have to eat something just because you feel you  need to clean your plate.
You do not have to eat something just because you are on vacation or traveling. 

You are allowed to say no to food.

However, sometimes, it is good to say yes.

Broaden your taste buds, try new things, indulge yourself and get inspired by new creations.

Don't eat on a routine, eat only familiar foods, bring all your "good" foods with you in Tupperware containers, eat only the foods that have a specific calorie count or eat alone for fear of eating food prepared by someone else. 

If "healthy" eating takes up way too much space in your life, meaningful life experiences will be missed because of extreme thoughts about food and the body.

As I return home from 3.5 weeks of eating a lot of bread (every day), eating dessert at least once a day, having lunch as my biggest meal every day and trying a lot of new creations, I feel just as healthy now, as when I left for Europe.

As I mentioned, not every traveling experience is the same but I feel that sometimes, we all need these eating experiences to break out of the normal routine and appreciate (or at least try), a new style of eating. 

My biggest take away during my 3.5 weeks in Europe was not thinking about food as being only healthy or performance enhancing. While I feel these are two important reasons as to why we should select the foods that we eat, I also felt a tremendous amount of joy by just eating.....for pleasure and not just for "nutrition". 

Not even 24 hours have passed since I arrived back to Greenville, SC and I have already caught myself wanting to go back to my normal routine - making a smoothie as a meal, eating peanut butter from the jar, preparing a hearty salad for my lunch, etc.


It's so easy to make food/meals quick, easy and tasteless or feel uninspired by food, stuck in a food rut.

While there is nothing wrong with the foods I mentioned, I was so inspired by my trip to Europe that I really want to continue to try new things when it comes to food and eating.

Even though nothing was wrong with my previous eating habits, my eating in Europe was such a pleasurable experience and it reminded me how much I love to yum over food. 

It also showed me that even as a board certified sport dietitian who spends every day helping athletes with body composition goals, health and performance, I spend a lot of time talking about health, nutrition and performance but not nearly enough time encouraging athletes to simply eat for pleasure.

Sadly, in our body obsessed society, I believe that our culture has lost the need to eat for pleasure as it's easy to assume that only those who eat for pleasure will eat "too much" or eat "unhealthy or will not lose weight or will gain too much weight.

Is it not possible to eat for pleasure and still reach and maintain health and performance goals?
I believe it is possible.

Grateful for our amazing neighbor Joey, who took care of our cats, fish and house while we were away, she made sure we had a delicious breakfast for our first meal home, which could be quickly prepared on the morning after returning home from 24-hours of traveling.

Not only was this meal super scrumptious, but it prompted me to write this blog.

You can't ask for a better meal to practice your "eating for pleasure" skills.

I believe this meal is healthy and performance enhancing but I have no doubt that you will yum over every bite, thus feeling great pleasure when eating it.

And no, you do not have to wait for your next long ride or run to "deserve" to eat this meal after your workout is complete.

You are allowed to eat this meal for breakfast, any day of the week.

Enjoy!

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
Ingredients 
(2 servings)

1 egg
1/4 cup 1% milk
1/4 tsp sugar

Butter (about 1 tbsp for skillet)

4 slices bread
Blueberries (handful)
Cream cheese (to your liking)

Maple Syrup (to your liking)

 (I didn't have the ingredient list, only the steps for prep, so I reached out to Joey so that I could share this creation with you)



1. Whisk together eggs, milk and sugar. 

2. Make sandwiches - spread soft cream cheese on both sides of bread, add blueberries and press bread together (seal the sides the best you can).
3. Heat skillet to medium heat and then add butter to coat pan. 

4. Dip sandwich in egg mixture and cook on both sides until golden brown.
5. Top with warm syrup.

YUM!

Happy meal.....salad

With so many food options available to consumers, there's really no reason why meal time should be an unhappy time. 

If we ever eat together, you'll notice that I yum a lot. Food makes me happy, especially when it is real food.
I love the taste when ingredients come together and I love exciting my taste buds with new or recently introduced ingredients end up on my plate. 

Almost every day, I make myself a salad for lunch.

Occasionally it is a warm salad (stir-fry) but I typically make a raw salad loaded with vitamins and minerals combined with a grain and vegetarian protein. I find that lunch is the best time for me to load up on veggies as I typically work out in the morning and evening and I don't prefer a lot of roughage after an evening workout and I recover best with a nice mix of carbohydrates (fresh bread, oats, homemade granola, raisins, fruits) and protein (eggs, yogurt or whey protein and milk) for my post workout morning meal.
(I always eat before a workout, no matter the length of the workout - always!). 

 Plus, I find myself enjoying a veggie-filled meal at lunch more so than in the early morning or late evening. I am a firm believer that you have to get to know your appetite and food preferences as knowing when I you will most enjoy and eat your veggies is an important component of meal planning.

 As you can tell from most of my Facebook  pics, I do a lot of stir-fry's for dinner with a mix of grains/starch/potato, veggies, oil/cheese and plant-based protein. There is no shortage of plants (fruits and veggies) in my diet but my lunch meal is often my most plant-dense meal of the day.

I made this salad yesterday and it made me smile. I think it was the starfruit. If you haven't had a starfruit before, it's like a very tart and sour kiwi.

Maybe it's just me but I can't help but smile when seeing stars on my plate...and I get to eat them too!

Here are the ingredients to my happy meal salad:
Thanks to batch cooking on Sunday, most of these ingredients were ready for me so all I had to do was assemble the salad in my bowl. 

Roasted chickpeas with cumin - about 1/4 cup
Tri-colored quinoa (about 1/2 cup)
Park skim mozzarella (more of it went into my mouth while making the salad than on the salad) - about an ounce
Starfruit - about 1/2
Hardboiled egg - 1
Sweet peppers - 3 (1 each; red, orange, yellow)
Onions - chopped to my liking
Avocado - about 1/3
Arugula - big handful
Mixed greens - big handful, then chopped
Lemon juice and olive oil - quirt of lemon juice, drizzle of olive oil

Fruit-stuffed french toast with hazelnut spread

Karel and I were set-up by mutual friends on a group bike ride in May 2006. I stood Karel up for a few weeks because I was really nervous to do the group ride so I kept making excuses as to why I couldn't meet him.

But on my 24th birthday (5/31), I decided it was time....not only would I meet Karel for the first time but I would face my fears and do the group ride.

After I said hello to Karel at the beginning of the ride, I felt a little less nervous but that good feeling didn't last long. I got dropped on the warm-up of the 3-mile loop course and I was so frustrated with my poor bike skills and a fitness level that wouldn't let me ride "fast" with everyone else. I had tears in my eyes as I was riding by myself on the other side of the road (in the opposite direction of the group) watching them go by and seeing Karel have so much fun attacking the group and pulling everyone along. I wanted so badly to be able to enjoy the ride with everyone else and I also thought Karel wouldn't like me because I wasn't a fast cyclist.

After the ride, a few of the riders always had food and beer at the Varsity Club restaurant across the stress from the bike course so I joined the group and had a chance to get to know Karel a bit more.

My friends were right...not only did he have a cute European accent but he was also fast, intelligent and super nice. What I noticed the most as we were dating was the Karel supported me as I was training for my first Ironman and he believed in me at times when I didn't believe in myself.

A ride with Karel in June 2013 that I will never forget. 

And wouldn't you know, I can now ride with Karel. Not only ride behind his wheel but I can now trade pulls with Karel without slowing him down. He is always challenging me to take my fitness and skills to a new level as an athlete and I am so happy we can make so many great memories together on our bikes. 

Thank you Karel for not letting me give up! You saw something in me that I never thought was possible. 

Every year since we met, I have always cooked breakfast for dinner on Valentine's Day. Or as you may like to call it, "brinner."

Fruit-stuffed french toast with hazelnut spread

This year I came up with the most delicious creation with the following ingredients. 

French bread baguette

Eggs
Bananas

Strawberries
Pineapple
Brie Cheese
Olive oil
Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (Justine's brand)

I know how much Karel loves hazelnut spreads (in Europe, peanut butter is not very popular) whereas I love peanut butter (Karel eats PB too - I introduced it to him when we were dating) so I choose a hazelnut spread because I knew it would make Karel super happy. I choose Justine's brand compared to Nutella because of the ingredients. 

This meal was for both me and Karel so I enjoy the same brinner, just in a slightly smaller portion to fit my needs (you can see the sizes of bread in the bellow pic - two slices for Karel, two slices for me. Similar foods just different portions for two different bodies.)

Justine's brand:
Dry Roasted Hazelnuts, Dry Roasted Almonds, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa, Organic Cocoa Butter, Palm Fruit Oil*, Natural Vanilla, Sea Salt.

Nutella:
SUGAR, PALM OIL, HAZELNUTS, COCOA, SKIM MILK, REDUCED MINERALS WHEY (MILK), LECITHIN AS EMULSIFIER (SOY), VANILLIN: AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

1. Heat large skillet to low-medium heat. 

2. Slice baguette into sections (about 4-6 inches per person) and then slice in half. 

(you can use any bread that you'd like) or replace bread with a crepe or pita)

3. Drizzle a little olive oil to cover bottom of the pan. A few tsp should be enough.

4. In shallow bowl, scrambled eggs. 

5. Place the flat side (inside) of the baguette in the egg mixture and then immediately place on to the skillet (only dip one side, the inside). Repeat for all of your sections. 

While the bread is cooking, slice fruit. 

6. After letting the bread cook for a few minutes until golden brown, remove bread from skillet. 

(you can also make this sandwich without the egg and serve as a hazelnut and fruit sandwich)

7. Add eggs to skillet (may need a little more olive oil to prevent sticking) and scramble. Turn off heat when eggs are finished cooking to your liking. 

8. Add a light layer of hazelnut spread to the bread. 

9. Add a layer of strawberries, pineapple and bananas to one side of the bread and then top with the other section. You may also do open face sandwiches. 

Secure with a toothpick. 

10. Top the bread with a light layer of brie cheese and serve with a side of fresh fruit (if you have extra) and scramble eggs. 

Enjoy!

2 weeks post IM KONA (recipes and pics)

Wow - I can't believe it's been two weeks since IM KONA.

After a few days, the aches, burns and chaffing subsided and that was a sign that I was officially in my off-season...and  I'm totally enjoying every day of it! Three full weeks of no weight bearing activity (ex. no running, plyometrics, etc.), no workout structure and no alarms. There's plenty of time to catch up on house chores, be super creative in the kitchen, take longer walks with Campy and just give a little TLC for my awesome body for what it allowed me to do this summer. And to rest up for a very exciting season of destination races: St. Croix 70.3 (May), IM Austria (June), IMWI (July). There's a lot of work to do in the off season after my recovery period and I am really excited to set new goals and to enjoy another exciting year with my healthy body.

Just to recap the past few weeks, there have been no post-race blues, no guilty feelings about no structured activity (typically 30-60 min of working out a day - swim, elliptical, walking, core/hip work. I've only biked once on my road bike) and a lot of transitions with Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition. There will be many exciting announcements to come but in the mean time I have been working on new services, camps/clinics, discussing coaching with potential athletes (love working with athletes who love hard work and dreaming big!) and Karel now offering Retul fitting and his pre-race "valet" bike tune-up service (IMFL is around the corner and there are many bikes in Jax that are now faster thanks to Karel working his magic on them).

And to summarize the past two weeks in pictures, I must say that my life post Triathlon season doesn't look much different than the training for two Ironmans over the past 22 weeks. Triathlons are my lifestyle, not my life. I will never stop eating for health as I know the same foods that help reduce risk for disease also help to fuel my active lifestyle. 

Can't beat this fall weather! I love my Campy walks!

What a stud - IRON DOGGY!

Sauteed kale with olive oil, tossed in a skillet with a stir fry of corn, cooked quinoa, mushrooms and onions - topped with asiago cheese. Side of cottage cheese (Daisy Brand 2%) and pineapples.

Road bike spin followed by a shop at the farmers market. Not a bad problem to have a bag overflowing with seasonal fruits and veggies. 

Putting my farmers market finds to good use - rye bread with scrambled eggs and fresh strawberries and a side of sauteed kale, onions, garlic, red peppers. 

Thin roasted, crunchy potatoes (425 degrees, slice thin and toss in olive oil and season with salt/pepper and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown) and a stir fry of quinoa, peas, tofu, tomatoes, chickpeas and mushrooms. 

Working at Baptist Medical Center South - I always leave with a better appreciation of my health and feeling so incredibly thankful that my body allows me to do what I choose to do with it. I also learn something new every time I see patient. Luckily, the day I worked last week wasn't filled with Cancer patients. Those days are always hard on my heart. 

Trimarni stew - broccoli, chickpeas, black beans, tofuy, garlic, onions, peppers, quinoa (or brown rice) + marinara sauce (about 1/2 - 1 cup) + water to meet consistency needs. Cook covered on low heat for 1 hour and plan for leftovers (they will taste great the next day).

Karel's Czech inspired egg salad - dill pickles, tomatoes, leeks, green pepper, eggs (hardboiled) and greek yogurt (0% Fage) on a bed of mixed greens. 

I spoke at 1st Place Sports as part of a panel of experts to a group of half marathon and marathon runners. My talk was on pre and during sport nutrition for training and racing. I gave away a lot of my special tips and suggestions and had lots of props. 

What a perfect combo for a snack (or pre dinner munchies) - cucumbers and feta cheese

Oh - SURPRISE! I got a new bike - thank you Karel!! 

.......Which means Trimarni and her one of a kind, custom paint job, is for sale! Email me if you are interested in the price and specs on the bike (Karel has kept this bike maintained since I got her with tune-ups at least every 2 weeks). 

And now - happy times are ahead. This weekend - Campy is taking his first trip to Miarmi for Miami 70.3 to watch Karel race and to cheer on all the amazing athletes (like Trimarni athlete Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point) who is doing her first ever half Ironman!

After 12 weeks of working together - coach and athlete are reunited at last!

That bike (and the legs behind it) have the need for speed! 

I love making memories with these two!


Happy 5 year anniversary (10/26/08) Karel!! I can't wait to keep making memories with you (and Campy)

What a lucky doggy!

Great times in Miami! Can't wait for race day tomorrow!