All posts tagged: nutrition

Nutrition Daze and Concussion Recovery

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Literally it has been a few months since my last post.  Recovery from a concussion incurred when walking my dog has set me back months on 1) Resigning my from eighteen year post as the lead nutrition strategist for Clif Bar & Company 2) Launching my own nutrition strategy company, and  3) Training for mountain adventures! No matter how a head injury is obtained, it is no joke. After a febal attempt at slowing down for two weeks and coming back to full speed the third week post concussion, I set myself back further. Big plans and big ambition have had me in over drive for the last year. When my doctor said take two days off and take it easy for a few weeks, she had no idea how ampt up my baseline was. Leaving one of the best offices and companies to start my own business from the mountain town of Truckee has been a year in the making and had me in a whirlwind of driving, texting (not while driving, thank you!), …

Mother’s Days. Adventures Are On!

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Mother’s Day doesn’t seem right unless I am on the Northern California Coastline unplugged and with my dudes soaking up all the outdoor adventures we can squeeze into a long weekend of car camping. Some moms long for breakfast in bed, pampering of the nails, or brunching fine-dining style.  Those things are great but, me? Nah, I ask for a family adventure. Even car camping is an adventure when you add kids and a new puppy to the mix! I wouldn’t have Mother’s Day any other way right now. Last year we opted for a Mother’s Day of regularly scheduled little league and a nice home cooked dinner. It was great but, we all longed to be under the oak tree near the stream hiking, biking, trail running and roasting s’mores. So this year we went back to the tent. This time of year Mama is usually training for some kind of mountain running/scramble race. My sights are on running the  Broken Arrow 26km which, covers some of Squaw Valley’s  famous terrain ascending to elevation of 8750 …

Performance Nutrition Behavior Number One: Eat!

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Working along side some of the world’s most talented athletes and athletic adventurers I  see and hear a lot of interesting food-related behaviors. Not all are good.  Some folks seem to have a challenging relationship with food that gets in their way of helping them accomplish their goals. Whether those goals are to pick up running again after having a baby or to traverse the big ridge lines in the mountains, it isn’t just what you eat that is important but, also HOW you eat. Through my work and my  own experimentation with food as fuel for my tara-sized adventures  have identified  three easily stated but, most difficult to accept practices around food. I refer to these behaviors as practices because like a yoga pose, there is always somewhere to realign or let go. Over the next three weeks I will share my food practices. Eat! Yes, just eat. That is practice-pose number one. Eat in a way that helps you achieve what you have in mind for the day. For example, if you plan …

Energy from Your First Chair to Last Chair

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The layers of clothing are on. The gear is packed. Poles, boards, boots, and helmet are ready for a great day of whatever the mountain has to offer. Only one thing can stop us is now, lack of energy and dehydration.  When I say “energy” I don’t mean the kind you get from the stimulating effects of a good cup of coffee. While that is a nice boost to help feel energetic, it is not actually the energy muscles and mental focus need to keep moving all day. Hitting the last chair as hard as the first is challenging for us all. You can however, increase your odds of sustaining the energy you need if you plan good nutrition to support your activity. As a snow sports enthusiast, a mom of two boys who love to charge, and a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) at Clif Bar & Company, I know a thing or two about nutrition for sustained energy. Her are my top nutrition strategies for full day of snow packed adventu Make the activity …

Hits from the “Debunking the Diet” Archive: Fools for Fiber

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For some the word diet is a four letter word that means deprivation, restriction and missing out on the sexy food in the world. To me, diet is simply a word describing the food that goes into the body each day. This little video was made as part of a “Debunking the Diet ” campaign I did for LUNA BAR several years ago. While the campaign is long over, the nutrition information and humor still stands. What also still stands is LUNA’s mission to empower women to rise above, and be the leaders our world so desperately needs right now. We are not trapped in this world that white men driven by power and wealth have created. Today, more than ever before we need the sensibilities of the feminine nature in leadership. Yeah, kind of a hard to follow that paragraph up with a video about fiber. It isn’t just about fiber. It is about using humor to ditch the obsession with how our body looks, and to start being proud and grateful for the …

Setting 2017 Diet Goal? Start Here First. Seriously.

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  Along my journey tinkering with my dietary habits and eating patterns I consciously reshaped my relationship with food to support the way I live. So many people live to eat or just eat to live. Either one of those relationships with food can seriously mess with the mind and body! I eat to support what I set out to do each day.  I don’t eat for some result in my physic. The results are a side benefit of eating to support my active lifestyle.  The purpose of food is to support my experiences by keeping me nourished, energized, and ready to try the next thing that interests me. Recently that thing was skate skiing! Most people interested in being healthy and nourished  know what to eat. They too often let their judgement be clouded  however by negative thinking about what should or shouldn’t be eaten. Eating based on mood can also lead people astray from what they know. Here are five things to get in order before setting course for dieting in 2017: 1. …

Dealing with Halloween Candy as a Parent and Dietitian

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Halloween candy is gross. It is full of NOTHING good. Unless we happened to Trick-or-Treat in a Utopian food bubble, it is pretty much guaranteed that my kids are not getting candy made with simple and real ingredients like cane sugar, coco, and nuts to name a few. Oh, and forget the peanuts since my oldest is allergic to them. Yet, just like I am not going to be the rigid mom who makes their kids go to bed on a school night before game five of the World Series is over (Red Sox!!); I am not going to be the rigid dietitian-mom who denies her children the joy of collecting as much candy as they possibly can on Halloween. Our neighborhood is the best neighborhood ever for Halloween. It is a parade of kids from all over the area. Everyone decorates and most decorations are over-the-top with theatrics like strobe lights, haunted mansions, and candy casinos. Check out this traveling haunt we came across in the parking lot at the pool: Yes, our house …

Caffeine: One Athlete’s Elixir is Another Person’s Poison

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Coffee. I love it. I love the aroma, the sounds of it brewing, the rich flavors, and of course the pick-me-up. Coffee makes me feel happy, calm even. I hear the irony in that statement. Coffee has caffeine, which can agitate anxious people into an even more anxious state. Me however, the whole ritual involved and the clutching of my warm coffee cup like a comforting  “woobie” actually relaxes me. The caffeine perk is also welcomed by me in the morning when I feel like a sloth who can’t keep up with the barrage of morning thoughts flowing from my enthusiastic and happy child, or my husband running through the logistics of the day with abandon. All the while, I either want to crawl back deep under the covers and hide with my youngest son, or bulldoze everyone out of the way to reach the morning cup of calm wakefulness. Aaaah, yes, first sip. Now I can hear what you are saying. Now I can try and keep up with the pace of the morning …

Deep Nutrition Thoughts: Sweet Potatoes

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  One of  the favorite parts of being both a runner and a dietitian is observing the eating habits of other runners before, during, and after a long training run or race.  The variability is hardly surprising given a lot of people are either afraid to eat, don’t know what to eat, don’t think about it enough, or do think about it and have  adapted a routine that suits them. It gets even more interesting to observe athletes who are traveling to compete or train. I have seen suit cases full of persimmons and most recently met a runner who goes no where without fresh sweet potatoes! She throws sweet potatoes into her suitcase to have just in case she has difficulty finding foods that will giver hear a boost when she is traveling to races. She can eat them whole, cooked, raw, whatever, and be all set to do what she loves, run. Carbohydrate is of the highest priority before (3-4 hours), during, and after a long run, and a sweet potato certainly has …

Let Them Eat Cereal

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The other day I shared a photo of my son surrounded by his cereal box “walls” while he devoured cereal and milk for breakfast. A comment from a “more experienced mother” who’s children are now grown was, “The one thing I regret the most is feeding my children cereal”. My first thought was WOW that is pretty good parenting  if this is  her ONE regret after raising her children to functioning adults. My second thought was, “Why does she regret this move?” My son was surrounded by non-organic cereal my husband bought him while I was out of town. They were the lesser-evil cereals with a positive role model on the box, so I let it be. W could certainly have demonstrated healthier choices in the photo, but it was more than that. This was about not  feeding children cereal of any kind, and that didn’t make sense to me. Cereal is a balanced breakfast complete with whole grains,fiber, protein, and fat. Not to mention it is something my kids can serve themselves! Upon further investigation …