2012 - Lightweight Eats

A year ago, I was in a very different place than I am now.

In January, Dan and I got married!

In May, I gave up coaching to start training full time.

In August, I left Piquant Prose behind and moved the blog to my own domain name.

In November, we moved from an apartment into a house, and I started working.

I hope the new year brings as much joy and as many wonderful developments as this one has. Every year, my life has gotten better and brighter.

Rowing has a very strange race and training calendar. Because we have two seasons, we have racing scheduled for most of the year. At the elite level, we race 4-6km in the late fall season and race 2km in the late spring and summer.

The 2000m distance is the primary race distance and is the focus of our season. As such, the end of summer marks the end of our training year.

In the fall, we try to focus on longer training and building our training base while also preparing for the fall racing season. This is the most awkward season--do you focus long-term on preparing for spring or do you do the work that will best prepare you for fall racing?

Once the fall season ends, training shifts focus to volume work. This is the season of epic workouts: two to three hour bike rides and 10-mile runs.

This type of training helps improve the efficiency of your muscles. It provides the infrastructure you need to add increased intensity: it's like adding and repaving surface streets and highways to your city in anticipation of a significant increase in automobile traffic.

There is nothing quite like slogging through two hours on the bike at heart rate 130. Fortunately, I've learned some tricks to help pass the time! I'm a huge fan of watching movies on my computer, chatting with friends and even doing work online from the bike seat.

Epic runs are a bit harder to manage. I hate carrying water with me, so I get super thirsty. I also inevitably have to use the restroom, which severely restricts my list of possible routes. I listen to music, enjoy the scenery and spend time thinking. Sometimes, I menu plan or figure out what I'll eat when I get back. Now, I can also check my heart rate or my mileage.

Even though they are boring, these are my favorite workouts. There is something very meditative about them--the slow, consistent pace doesn't require much thought and lets me get lost in its rhythm and repetition. The sweat clears my system but the intensity doesn't completely wear me out of the rest of my day.

What's your favorite type of training? What are you doing right now?

Soups are easy. They are much less about precision and more about tasting, simmering and using up the things in your fridge that are starting to wilt anyways.

My father-in-law's birthday is the day after Christmas. Needless to say, celebrations are usually muted, and definitely don't call for a cake the day after feasting. Instead, we decided to make a healthy, satisfying soup that had a lot of his favorite things.

We have tons of leftover that will make great lunches for the rest of the week.

I didn't take any photos because, frankly, lentil soup is not very photogenic. I also prefer to eat my food when it's hot.

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Curry Cauliflower Lentil Soup

4 stalks celery
3 carrots
0.5 onion
1 head cauliflower
3 cups black or green lentils
curry powder (about 2T)
cumin seeds (about 2t)
water or veggie broth

1. Dice/chop the first four ingredients and saute in oil until softened.
2. Add the lentils and spices and stir to coat. Cook for a minute, or until the spices become fragrant.
3. Add enough water/broth to cover the veggies. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes or until the lentils are softened.

Serve with bread or rice.
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As part of our new Christmas tradition, we celebrate Christmas Eve with my parents in the Bay Area and then fly up to Oregon on Christmas morning for a second round of celebrations.

We are currently enjoying some down time on the Oregon coast while Dan's office is closed for the holidays and my teammates are mostly out of town.

Here's a peek into our time up here:

Dan got me a Garmin for Christmas!

My first run with the Garmin. Very cool! Average heart rate was 154.

We visited the local health food store to get groceries for the week. Dinner plans include lentil soup, black bean & sweet potato tacos and a giant salad. Yummy!

Dan went out and took some photos while I was on my computer doing work.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays! Hopefully I will have the opportunity to update once more while we're up here.

Have you ever been on FoodGawker or Tastespotting? Or read a food blog? (Yes, I'm guilty of this as well.)

In case you're wondering, every recipe either has bacon or is "healthy". With a myriad of fad diets out there, from gluten-free to paleo to raw vegan, everybody has a different definition of healthy. And, frankly, if you have to call a recipe out as healthy, it probably isn't.

Take these "healthy" chocolate coated gingerbread balls:
http://www.nutritionistinthekitch.com/2012/12/13/chocolate-coated-gingerbread-bliss-balls-vegan-gf/

Between the dates, the maple syrup and the molasses, I don't consider these particularly healthy.

When I picture healthy, I see a huge fresh veggie salad topped with an avocado-based creamy dressing and lightly toasted nuts, served with a whole grain and beans. Or a grain bowl. Not chocolate-covered anything.

Of course, somebody on a paleo or raw diet might look at the "healthy" I just described and wrinkle their noses in judgement.

So in this new year, let's resolve to be a little bit more specific. "Reduced calorie", "low fat", "veggie-ful", "paleo", "raw" and "vegan" are all great descriptors. Even "butter-free". But please, don't go calling your fudgy brownies healthy because you added prunes. They're still brownies.

As I mentioned earlier, I've received a lot of comments and questions about my eating habits since dropping most animal products from my diet. To give you a sense of what I eat to maintain my health, I decided to track my intake and record it here. These days are not consecutive, but are over the course of a week or two.

Since we eat a lot of homemade foods, and tracking recipes is really time consuming, I definitely made some approximations. This is pretty close, though, to what I ate.

You will notice that I regularly consume over 120g of protein, plenty of fiber, and a good balance of macronutrients. You will also notice that I eat a lot of sugar. Yum.

Note: I am currently on a 500-calorie deficit to try to slowly drop down to racing weight by mid-January. The calorie budget reflects this, and is 500 calories less than I theoretically burn in a day.

Also note: I'm not a nutritionist, and I'm probably making mistakes. This is not necessarily the right or the best thing for you to eat. I'm trying it out, and it's what I think works best for me right now.

Day One:

(80' of rowing, 60' running)

Day Two:

17k row, short lift

Day Three:

2 hours on the erg

Day Four:

19k row, plus a lot of walking/cycling

Day Five:

19k row, plus hard afternoon erg session

I am working on decreasing my sugar intake some and replace it with more complex carbohydrates and fats. My diet used to be incredibly high in both fat and sugar; I'm doing better with both, although I think I dropped a bit too much fat from my diet--I've read that at a certain point you begin to increase your risk for injury.

You may also notice that I'm using a lot of protein supplements--protein powder, vegan sausage, etc. Partly, this is because of the decreased calorie load. Getting 120g of natural, vegan protein is a cinch when you're eating 3500+ calories a day; it's much harder when you take away 500 calories; I eat about 15% protein, so 500 calories takes away about 18g of protein. One scoop of protein powder or one veggie dog eliminates that deficit easily.

I'm also fairly certain that the program I use (MyFitnessPal) underestimates the number of calories I burn in a day. When I track my food, I definitely miss some stuff, and I still lose weight at least as fast as they expect, usually faster.

Sorry for the tardy publication.

Monday:

I said goodbye to my old boat this morning with a 15K steady state row. It took almost 2K to get used to rowing in the single again, but it was a decent row. I was having some issues with the shoes in this boat, but it forced me to make some good technical changes.

A 60' run in the afternoon was a good opportunity to escape the computer for a while, and I explored our new 'hood some more.

Tuesday:
Today was all about volume. The morning started off with an easy 30' erg, followed by 45-50 minutes of biking. I spent the whole day moving, between biking to and from the boathouse/BART and walking in the city to work and lunch with Dan.

In the afternoon, I completed the most boring workout in the universe: two hours on the bike at heart rate 130. I tried doing some work and reading, which was effective for the first 70-80 minutes, but just absolutely fried my brain afterwards.

I had hoped to lift today, but didn't find time.

Wednesday:
I woke up to rain, heavy rain. At the boathouse, we knocked out an erg workout instead of rowing: three 15-minute pieces at around HR170, low stroke rate. (I averaged a 2:05 split.) I followed up with a lift and core work.

Thursday:
Finally back on the water! We headed out in a quad for 20K of steady state. We threw in a few drills, but mostly just enjoyed the calm conditions. I had the steering, which kept me on my toes.

In other related news, the club purchased a new boat for me! It arrived Wednesday and I unwrapped in on Thursday. It's a lightweight Hudson, and it's gorgeous.

Friday:
On the erg again, we did a 30' erg test, drag 125, stroke rate 20. I got another PR, adding another 40 meters or so to my piece from last week for a total of 7266m. I would really like to reach 7500m on this piece, but I think it will take me at least another 3 months to get there. A lot of lifting is going to make a big difference. I followed this up with a lift, stretching and a short bike.

The afternoon was another epic 2 hour bike ride. This time, I watched a movie and some trashy TV. Much better.

Saturday:
Another epic morning practice, we started on the water in a quad. All told, we did 17km, including two 2.5km races against some men's boats. Afterwards, we hopped right onto the erg for 2x4km (~16 minutes), at around our 30 minute test pace. It felt awesome to be able to pull those number for 4000m that easily.

Sunday:
The workout schedule included a 45 minute run, but I ended up spending the day running around doing house shopping and lifting/moving/assembling furniture instead.

Fruit is really expensive. Shopping at the farmer's market didn't allow me to fully appreciate this, but seeing it on my receipt really demonstrates that. We've cut back some on fruit consumption (~3 pieces/day instead of 5+) and are eating the oranges in our backyard.

We are also forcing ourselves to eliminate food waste. I know a lot of food waste results from businesses tossing perfectly good food, but we were also guilty of wasting food. Things started to go south in the fridge and, instead of using them, we let them languish until we had no choice but to toss them. Not shopping on a set day has really helped with this--it allows me to almost fully empty the fridge before I begin to plan my next set of purchases.

I've been using the extra room in our food budget to purchase more organic products. We've put a list of the dirty dozen and clean 15 up on our fridge. It's a constant reminder that the price is worth it for those 12 items. I've also been starting my shopping in the organic section.

As it turns out, most of the items not in the dirty dozen are fairly comparable on price for organic vs. non-organic. The huge price differences are usually on those items in the dirty dozen. To help with the budget, I've started buying items from the clean 15 more often--switching sweet potatoes for white, for example, and eating more onions.

So far? It looks do-able. We will definitely still purchase some non-organic items. For example, organic pineapple and organic corn*** are usually pretty pathetic looking and expensive, if they are even available. Organic cabbage and avocados are incredibly expensive.

There are other places we can make the switch, too, from dried legumes and bulk grains to tofu and soymilk. (The organic soymilk is actually cheaper at our local natural foods store, probably because it's a lesser known brand.) Yesterday, I paid the extra 60 cents to purchase organic vegetable bullion, and chose organic canned tomatoes instead of conventional.

Other things that have helped our food budget? Eating plants! Organic dairy, eggs and meat are really expensive. If I'm going to eat animal products, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it's organic. By drastically reducing our consumption of animal products, we have completely changed our food budget.

*** I know that GMOs are an issue with conventional corn. Yes, this is of concern; at the same time, I really like tasty corn. I certainly hope I don't turn green or start growing corn silk out of my ears, but I'm going to risk it.

I get a remarkable number of inquiries about my ability to get enough protein and calories without eating animal products. I can tell you without a doubt, I have no trouble getting enough calories.

When I first started training, I did have trouble eating enough. As I got used to the training and eating volume, though, I started emphasizing grains and beans instead of trying to make up the calories by eating larger salads.

Being very picky about consumption of animal products has actually improved the quality of my calorie intake significantly--I can no longer mindlessly munch on cookies and pastries, consuming endless quantities of sugar in the process.

Protein is another matter. I've touched on this several times before.

There are lots of opinions on protein consumption. Some people (mostly weight lifters) think you should eat as much protein as possible. Others (mostly endurance athletes) emphasize carbohydrates instead. I'm sure there are lots of exceptions to this generalization.

I fall somewhere in between the two categories. I do want to increase my strength, but I have a limited amount of bulk I can add. I do also need to improve my endurance. I've also done some of my own research on maximum and minimum safe and/or beneficial protein consumption. I'm not a nutritionist, but I'm smart, discerning and well-versed in food science; I feel confident in my ability to make conclusions based on the information available.

In light of this, I've decided to take a middle approach. I could list the pros and cons of high protein/carb consumption here, but I'd rather you formed your opinion.

In any case, that middle approach is still a lot of protein. I have absolutely no problem consuming my goal grams when I'm exercising normally and not dropping weight. However, if I have a light exercise week or do not match my calories in to calories out, I have some trouble.

To help, I do turn to protein powders and bars. I would really rather use whole foods to get my protein intake, but I've found this to be very difficult without relying very heavily on soy products.

So far, I've tried two protein powders, hemp and Plant Fusion's chocolate powder. I definitely preferred the former--sure, it tasted grassy, but it also tasted natural. The Plant Fusion powder has stevia in it, which make it a gross kind of sweet, and is a really dominant flavor in everything it goes in.

Still, I enjoyed it thoroughly in this protein shake. I also appreciate that I drank it and three hours later I was still so full I couldn't fathom eating--all for about 250 calories.

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Chocolate Raspberry Protein Smoothie

serves 1

10 ice cubes, crushed

0.5c frozen raspberries

1 scoop Plant Fusion chocolate protein powder

0.5c cooked overnight oats (optional)

0.75c light soymilk

1. Put all ingredients in blender. Add enough soymilk to cover.

2. Blend until smooth.

Note: You could probably replace the oats with banana, but we didn't have any. It added fiber and thickened the smoothie a bit.

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In our old apartment, there was no place to keep our rowing machine. It ended up living in our bedroom, which was really unfortunate.

In our new house, we contemplated arrangement of the office/exercise room/dining room quite a bit. We had three rooms to use, and we intended to dedicate one of those rooms to a second bedroom. We ended up dedicating the largest of the three rooms to a combination of office and exercise room.

Although I wish we had a couch in here for watching movies on the computer monitor, I can use our awesome speakers for my workouts. You win some, you lose some. Overall, a huge step up from our previous solution.

Our old room divider is actually super useful for storing overflow stuff and books.

This is our exercise corner and extra closet space. People watching from the erg is quite fun.

We bought this weight set to make lifting at home a possibility. Our apartment building

had a gym, so Dan wanted another option for our house. These are super compact and are

a fairly good option. We also have resistance bands.

So this corner isn't really fully organized yet, but whose office is? We are working on

finding some additional storage solutions, since the desk has no drawers. We have some ideas.

I've been terrible about keeping and posting training logs, but I would like to restart in earnest. It keeps me honest about my extra workouts, and gives me a record of what I've done and how far I've come.

This week, training started full swing after a light week for Thanksgiving.

Monday:
I woke up to a sick husband, and a cold, wet, foggy morning. I headed down to the boathouse, but it was too foggy to go on the water. We ended up doing 3x5k on the erg at super easy pressure. Our coach came and took blood samples during the workout to make sure we were in the right training zone.

In the afternoon, I headed out for a short 45' jog through the neighborhood. I promised myself I'd explore the area around our house sooner than at our old place, and running is a great place to start. I finished up the day with a short max-weight lift.

Tuesday:
I hardly worked out today, I told Dan, before recounting my exercise for the day. 20' bike to and from the boathouse/BART in the morning, 24' of erging for a lactate test, about 75 minutes of walking, and another 40' of biking later in the evening.

Wednesday:
High winds kept us off the water. The erg workout was 60' on, 4' off, 30' on, all at our "steady state" intensity from Tuesday's lactate threshold. The workout was difficult to perform, but I recovered quickly. In the early afternoon, I squeezed in a short max-weight lift.

Thursday:
Despite rough conditions, we managed to make it out on the water for 15km in a quad (four people, eight oars). We spent most of the row battle wind and waves, so not a lot of technical work, but a good workout. I followed this up with a run. (We were supposed to do 20km on a water, but we had to go in early.)

Friday:
The morning started out with a 30' erg test. For those readers that erg, we are supposed to do these at stroke rate 20 and drag 125 (a really heavy load for me!). It's been quite a while since I did a 30' test, so I got a huge PR. (I went from 7115 meters to 7221.)

We were supposed to follow this up with an 80' run, but the pouring rain easily convinced me to bike instead. I also added in a lift at the boathouse: bench pull, bench press, and single leg squats, all high weight, low rep.

Saturday:
I went down to the boathouse in the hopes of going on the water, but high winds and heavy rain brought in even the men's eights. There were no ergs left at the boathouse, so I headed home and did 3x20' on our erg at home. I should have done 4x20', but ran short on time.

In the afternoon, I did two 30' bike rides across Oakland, followed by about 3.5 hours of what amounted to very slow yoga/dance. (It left me very sore, and reminded me that I need to stretch more.)

Sunday:
One of the women from Lake Merritt Rowing Club, the master's team I cox for, came over in the morning and we did a lift. She does CrossFit, and is generally much more confident about lifting heavy than I am, so it was great for me.

I followed up with a 60' run with a few short sprints. Along the way, I also found a nearby playground and squeezed in some pull-ups on their monkey bars.

Yum. This dish was super tasty, savory, nutty and satisfying. It more than made up for the lack of turkey on my plate at Thanksgiving, and would also be a festive addition to a Christmas feast. (In fact, I might bring it along to our traditional Christmas Eve meal, seeing as none of the dishes that are normally served are dairy/meat free.)

All of the pieces can be prepped individually and just thrown into the same bowl a few hours before serving. The cauliflower should be made no earlier than one day ahead, unless you expect zero leftovers. (It doesn't start to smell funk until about 4 days later, but taste deteriorates by the end of day two.)

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Quinoa Cauliflower Kale Salad
serves 4 as a main, 8 as a side

1c quinoa, dry
2c water

2 heads cauliflower, cut into florets, leafy bits reserved
spray oil

2 bunches kale, deveined and well chopped
1 onion, sliced
1T olive oil

1c pomegranate arils

For the dressing:
(from Smitten Kitchen)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
0.5c lemon juice
6T tahini
4T water
4T olive oil

1. Put the quinoa and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a light simmer for 15 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes covered, then let cool fully.
2. Spread the cauliflower on a baking tray. Spray with oil. Roast in a 375°F oven until lightly browned all over, about 30 minutes. Stir regularly (about every 10').
3. Saute the onion in olive oil and a pinch of salt over medium-low heat until golden. Add the kale, sauteeing over medium until tender. (If necessary, add about 0.25c water and cover the kale to help it steam to tender.) This will take about 15'.
4. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Taste and adjust as necessary.
5. Assemble: Mix all of the cooked elements, at room temperature, in a large bowl. Add half of the pomegranate arils and the dressing, tossing to combine. Garnish with the remaining pomegranate. Serve at room temperature.
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Recently, I've been thinking more and more about purchasing organic produce. The move to our new place has helped with our budget enough that we can start to consider organics.

At our old place, we bought nearly all of our produce from the market. Much of the produce was pesticide free, although not certified organic; other items weren't available in organic form, or weren't affordable. I also felt good enough about purchasing locally that I wasn't as concerned with organics.

The local farmer's market at our new place is pretty pathetic--it's got maybe four stalls, one of which sells candied nuts and candy. Instead, I've started shopping at Farmer Joe's, our local natural foods store.

I'm still not entirely sure how much produce makes sense to purchase as organic. However, the logical side of me has a lot of good arguments in favor of organics:
It's better for the environment. It's better for the people who grow my food. It's safer. Most importantly, it's better for my body, and if I'm going to spend 2-6 hours a day training my body to be the best it can be, I should be fueling it with the best I can find.

I do have a few arguments against organics, though:
The produce isn't always high quality. (The poor organic bell peppers are always squishy..) It can cost significantly more. It isn't always available--although this is becoming less and less of an issue.

I've posted a list of the dirty dozen and the clean 15 on our fridge. I'm going to make an effort to purchase the dirty dozen as organics as often as possible. Otherwise, I think I'm going to try to start my shopping in the organic produce section and then follow up in the conventional section instead of the other way around.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make. Although I've never done an all-organic experiment, I have never felt a significant difference in my body after consuming more organics. Certainly I haven't felt the same changes I felt when I switched to not eating meat, or even to eating more vegetables and fruits.

I will keep you updated on my position on organics as time passes. Please, let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter!

P.S. Happy birthday, Kat!

At our old apartment, the living room, dining room, office and kitchen were all one room. There were certainly perks: if Dan was working and I was cooking, we could still chat and hang out. It also made it easy to transition from cooking to eating to hanging out.

There were also major downsides. When we moved in, getting our furniture to fit was like playing Tetris. The wheels on our kitchen cart were crucial, and helped us allocate space to either the kitchen or dining area as necessary. And we hardly used our "living room": the solitary couch and lonely chair were just awkward.

In the new place, our furniture has room to breathe!

This means we need a lot more decorations, which is awesome. I look forward to making this space home--putting up pictures and purchasing decorations (vases, sculptures, plants, etc.). I can't wait to hang curtains, mirrors and clocks. We're even thinking about doing some painting!

This house is much cozier--it's begging for a warm cup of cocoa and a Christmas tree. Maybe it's just the season, or maybe it's the central heating and the fireplace, which we aren't allowed to use :(, but I already feel more at home here. (It could also be the spacious kitchen, the well-stocked pantry and the yard.)

The fireplace + mantel. We aren't allowed to use it, but I like having it.

The red + black theme from our old apartment works better than expected.

Dan is home sick from work today. Poor guy.

Over on the left is our front entryway. I love having a place to dump

our stuff when we walk in!

Clearly, we need some more decorations for our living room. We are slowly working on acquiring decorative elements. We were thinking about buying a crappy, old 10 speed, taking it apart, and hanging the various elements on the walls. I think the frame would look nice above the fireplace, and some wheels and chains between the windows.

There were so many things to be grateful for this weekend, and this whole year. My life is so different from this same time last year and looking better every day.

For this year's Thanksgiving, we decided to have a low-key celebration at home. It's been a stressful month for both Dan and me, so having the long weekend at home was much needed. We're both feeling much more relaxed.

Dan came home from work early on Wednesday and found me elbow deep in cooking. A lot of people find cooking for Thanksgiving very stressful--I had the opposite experience. It was fun and relaxing to plan and execute the menu!!

To help, I planned my dishes so that many of them could be made ahead of time. We had a few rowing friends over to our place for Thursday dinner and wanted to spend our evening enjoying good company, not slicing, dicing, chopping and cooking.

On Wednesday, I managed to make:
- bean salad: garbanzos, edamame, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion and a lemon-thyme dressing
- quinoa, roasted cauliflower, kale salad with a tahini dressing and pomegranate aril garnish (recipe coming soon)
- vegan pumpkin bread and accompanying cranberry sauce (recipes coming after more testing)
- Mmmm sauce, intended for broccoli

Thursday morning, Dan and I worked together to put the finished touches on the meal:
- oven roasted turkey
- super garlicky mashed potatoes
- broiled broccoli spears

Dinner was an absolute blast--we spent the evening laughing and eating until late.

Friday, we headed into San Francisco to see what all the Black Friday hubbub was about. Neither Dan nor I can remember going shopping on Black Friday, and it was quite an experience. I've never seen lines so long for deals that could also be found online. It seems to be as much tradition at this point as actual deal scavenging.

Saturday and Sunday were both spent around home. I had Saturday morning practice, and we spent the afternoon going grocery shopping, making dinner and generally putzing about the house.

Sunday morning, we made pancakes and went for a nice bike ride on the waterfront. In the afternoon, we explored our new neighborhood and went on a coffee date! Lovely!

Overall, a great way to spend a long weekend with an incredible husband.

This coming week, we start training in earnest after a light training week due to Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to the increased eating that comes with increased training! I'll also be putting in a number of hours at work while we prep for our launch.

As I've mentioned, the West Coast Speed Order this past weekend was our biggest and last race of the fall season. I definitely had mixed results.

The race was a two day event, with a weigh-in and 6K test on the erg on Saturday, followed by a 4K race on the water on Sunday.

In college, our weigh-ins were the night before the race. This gives you about 16 hours to recover from the effort. Generally, lightweights sit slightly above their race weight during the course of the season; in college, it was standard to sweat out at least a pound of water weight for weigh-ins, knowing that you could replenish your body before the race.

For this weigh-in, I did a really poor job of weight management in the month leading up to the race. I left myself too much weight to drop in the last two weeks, and ended up depleting my store of carbohydrates in my system. I managed to make weight easily (129.6 pounds, after eating half of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and having breakfast and snacks throughout the morning), but at a pretty significant cost.

The weigh-in was two hours before the start of the erg test, and about 75 minutes before I started my warm-up. This really didn't leave enough time to refuel. Having never tested this process before, I was stuck guessing what and how much to eat. I guessed wrong, and my 6k test suffered as a result.

Mentally, I was in a pretty bad place after that 6k, and it took some work to get back. Fortunately, my awesome family, a La Farine baguette and some football helped a lot. The Ducks' loss to Stanford Saturday night reminded me that even great athletes have bad days.

I went out Sunday morning, fueled, calm and ready to race. I've spent the last three months perfecting my steering over this race course, and I would give myself a 9.5/10 during this race. I made some of the same steering mistakes I always make, but I caught myself before they got too bad.

On the water training before the race.

I raced conservatively in the first half, still cautious after my previous day's experience, but managed to pull off a decent time. Next time, I would row with a higher stroke rate, plan a few power moves throughout the course, and spend a few more minutes warming up on land before launching. Overall, though, I was very happy with my Sunday performance on the water.

Going forward, I plan to research refueling options for post weigh-in, and do some practice runs, much like marathoners practice fueling during long runs.

Six months ago, I left my job as a coach and made my way back to the other side of the megaphone. After college, I wasn't really planning on continuing to train, and my efforts to stay in shape during my year long hiatus were pretty pathetic.

I had done some running, a bit of erging, and spent a few hours on the water, but I was out of shape. I've come a long way in the last six months!

May:

I spent my time in May suffering through getting in shape. I was exhausted all the time, but I was having a great time. My comfort level in the single sky-rocketed, as I more than doubled my meters in the boat.

June:

We started June off with an inter-club race at a local course. I did way better than I expected, and got super pumped for training. I also started adding in supplemental lifts. Throughout June, I got a lot more comfortable with my role as an athlete.

Bad water and high winds often interfered with practices, but my determination to get out and row even through wind and chop toughened me up and made me a much better technical rower. Forcing myself onto the water even when it was questionably safe (there was always a coaching launch, just in case!) has proven instrumental in my technical abilities.

July:

July was spent preparing for Canadian Henley. We did a lot of lifting and a lot of shorter, harder rows. I started the month dragging a bit, but when we got a new mattress, the better sleep made a world of difference. During July, my steering also improved a lot, which allowed me to focus on rowing well instead of my course.

August:

Canadian Henley was a wake-up call--I have a long way to go. While we won the women's quad, I placed 6th in the semi-final of the lightweight single. We followed up the racing with a "summer break" of sorts. I'm proud of how much I worked out over this break--historically a weak point for me. I focused on lifting in the first half and cardio work (mostly running) during the second half of the break.

September:

High volume workouts, running and weight lifting filled September. We often broke 20K on our rows, and did a lot of long lifts as well. My bike was out of commission for most of September, and I ended up taking BART to practice a lot. This definitely took away from some of the volume training. The time on the water, and the good conditions, allowed me to make even more technical improvements.

October:

The beginning of October was similar to September: high volume with lots of running and lifting. I didn't do as much weight lifting as I should have. We also added in more intense work on the water, including a lot of 4k race pieces.

During my week in Boston for the Head of the Charles, I did a lot of running and walking, but not enough serious training. The end of October was spent catching up, and my performance suffered as a result. I did make a few huge technical break-throughs in the last week of October, though.

November:
November so far has been crazy and hectic. I let my weight slide upwards and had to drop weight over the first two weeks of this month to make weight for our biggest race of the season: the West Coast Speed Order. The combination of a light calorie load, a full work schedule and the stress of moving has left me battling a cold just days before the race.

Still, the preparation for the race has given me a great sense of how far I've come in the last six months. My body has changed shape, making me leaner and meaner than I've ever been. I'm looking at the possibility of trashing previous PRs, despite weighing 30 pounds less than when I set them. I'm comfortable enough to experiment with drills in my boat. And I'm finding a way to train and live life at the same time.

I look forward to the next six months of training (and another three years after that!) I'm very thankful for everything my body has allowed me to do and hopeful that if I continue to treat it well, it will take me places I never dreamed I would be.

Before I even had access to our new place, and before our lease had officially started, I had already bought our first pantry staples. Therefore, I think it's fitting to start the tour of our new place with the pantry.

This move, while not motivated by this, was a great excuse to overhaul our pantry. It was a long time coming.

In our last two months at our apartment, we had phased out most packaged goods, including cookies, crackers and chips. This was as much an effort to use up some of our neglected pantry staples as an eating overhaul. Still, the effort was a success. Neither of us went hungry, and both of us began to choose healthier snacks. (No, we didn't find ourselves running across the street for candy bars and ice cream.)

Before we got keys to our new house, I spent some time scoping out local grocery stores. Mostly, I was looking for high quality fresh produce, but in the process, I also stumbled upon this incredible little store.

Our pantry? Thoroughly stocked.

Of course, I made sure to only purchase things I wanted to be eating. I've started judging foods by their overall consumption experience, not just the process of eating them. Of course, gobs of milk chocolate taste delicious while you're stuffing your face. Feeling ill right afterwards? Not great. Being a total crabby bitch the next day? Also not great. On the other hand, eating a big bowl of red lentil coconut curry kale soup? Reasonably pleasant. Feeling satisfied and clean for hours afterwards? As they say: priceless.

Without further ado, here is our new pantry:

Top shelf: pasta, pasta sauce, jarred salsa

Second shelf: various grains (quinoa, rice, polenta, barley, oats, noodles) and potatoes

Third shelf: nuts, nut butters, seeds, dried fruit (i.e. the new "snack shelf"), unsweetened cocoa powder, and a new addition, PB2!!!

Fourth shelf: dried legumes (black beans, garbanzos, split peas, red lentils, kidney beans, mung beans, black lentils, pinto beans); popcorn; extra spices and olive oil

Bottom shelf: large slow cooker (yes, we have two), ice cream maker, more rice and garlic

Canned goods: coconut milk, pumpkin, canned tomatoes, black beans, chickpeas and corn

Cold cereal is pretty much our only packaged purchase, and we're evening moving away from that and towards oats and other yummy breakfast foods. Our standards? Usual less than 100 calories per 1 cup serving, and fewer than 4g of sugar.

Our spice collection: paprika, dill, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, thyme, garlic powder, cumin seeds, bay leaves, whole cloves, turmeric, chili powder, oregano, coriander powder, juniper berries, crushed chilis, more chili powder and curry powder, along with several types of pepper

Our condiment collection: chia seeds, flaxseed meal jam, gochujang, sesame oil, almond butter, hummus, red curry paste (not veg, but delicious nonetheless and great in lentil soups), sunbutter, tahini, BBQ sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, rice vinegar, concentrated vegetable stock (omg incredible!), and a collection of soymilk

The freezer: berries, leeks, kale, edamame, spinach, breads, yeast and a few types of hard cheese

The baking drawer: bread flour, all purpose flower, sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, vanilla beans and extract, mint extract, baking soda, baking powder, jiffy cornbread mix

We also have a few miscellaneous items, like these winter squashes decorating our mantel, sea salt and olive oil, soy sauce, canola oil, apple cider vinegar, corn starch, nutritional yeast and vegetable oil.

Coffee and tea are also staples. We buy our coffee from Peet's and generally keep one herbal tea, one green tea and one black tea. The current selections are Holiday Blend coffee, peppermint tea, green chai tea and black chai tea.

Overall, I'm proud of everything in our pantry.

I would like to be able to afford all organic ingredients, but a. sometimes they aren't available and b. sometimes they don't make financial sense. Out of respect for my body and the bodies of the people growing my produce, I like to make an effort towards buying organic produce. Ultimately, though, I have a budget and I can't always allocate the money I'd like towards organics.

Anything we're missing from our pantry?

Moving is stressful. Racing and prepping for a weigh in? Also stressful. Managing work, training and keeping house? More stress.

I get stressed out easily and often unnecessarily. I think of it as a bad habit. In high school, I tended to take my stress out on the people around me. In college, I learned to manage stress by finding outlets like exercise and baking. Now, I try to avoid stress. Here are some of my solutions for managing stress:

1. Just say no. Your time is precious--which is why so many people ask for it. If I did everything people asked me to do, I would have absolutely zero time left, so I've learned to say no.

2. Ask for help. As it turns out, other people aren't so great at saying no. If you're overwhelmed, ask the people around you to lend a hand. Even if it's something unusual--like an extra set of hands and eyes in the kitchen while you cook or help mowing the lawn--you probably know somebody who is capable and willing.

3. Schedule down time. Sit on the couch and devour a book for 20 minutes. Use your commute to close your eyes and listen to music. Sing in the shower, even if air guitaring slows you down. Eat a leisurely breakfast. Whatever you choose, flee to it whenever you find your stress unmanageable.

4. When shit hits the fan, ask yourself this: will it matter in six months? So the barista accidentally made your latte with 2% milk instead of nonfat. Will you even remember in six days? Probably not. The guy at Home Depot mixes up paint two shades darker than you wanted. Will you remember in six months? Most definitely! Freak the f*** out!

5. Be honest. Seriously, people understand way more than you might expect.

How do you prevent stress? de-stress?

P.S. I'm using #1 as my excuse for not having posted pictures of our new place, yet.

Moving has begun! I picked up the keys to our new place on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday morning, we took over the first load and things have progressed quickly from there.

Dan and I don't have tons of stuff, and we're using this move as an opportunity to sell and donate a lot of unused items. Mostly, we have a lot of old clothing and unused books. There is definitely some furniture we wouldn't mind parting with, but our new place is quite a bit larger than our current space so we need the furniture to fill out the space.

Some of our furniture will get repurposed into something more useful. I'm looking forward to spending some real time planning out our space instead of just trying to figure out how to fit it all in.

So far, we've managed to move about half of our stuff without purchasing a single box. Our giant Ikea shelves have bins in them, and by unloading the bins after we take a load over, we've managed to take a lot of the little stuff over.

We've also used suitcases and duffel bags to take a lot of stuff: sheets, clothes, etc. Our most recent trip, I packed plates and bowls amongst clothing in Dan's rolling suitcase. Our plates are super heavy, so it was a great way to move them without carrying too much.

A burst of rain this afternoon has given me a moment to pause and plan the rest of our move. I'm currently working on making a list of everything left to move over, and then sorting it into trips. We hope to get everything moved by Sunday evening, in time to catch a 7pm showing of Skyfall.

That will also give us three days to bring over any straggling items, and clean the old place. Because I'm racing next weekend, I knew I would want this buffer to help alleviate stress. Things are starting to come together nicely, though!

Pictures will follow as soon as I have some.

We row on the Oakland Estuary, situated between the city of Oakland and the island of Alameda. I rowed here in high school and know the waterway incredibly well.

Since I rowed here, the number of teams on the estuary has increased dramatically, as well as the number of boats. Yesterday's Head of the Estuary was an opportunity for a lot of those local boats to get out and race, so there were a lot of high school boats out on the water.

CRC entered a few boats: lots of singles, two pairs and two eights. We book-ended the regatta with our entries.

Once again, we trained through this race. Our Saturday morning workout was a toughie--a 5.6 mile run followed by a long to-failure workout (51 minutes of total work). After my poor performance at Head of the American, I knew I needed to experiment some more and see if I could race hard even with a tired body.

I made sure to get plenty of rest (the time change helped!). I also showed up, raced and left. This was a home race, which simplified matters, but I need to approach away races similarly.

My warm-up was a bit scattered. I launched later than I had hoped to and so I cut my warm-up a bit short to get to the start line 5 minutes before my race time. (This is pretty standard, if a little bit close.) Then, it turns out, the race officials were running late, so I had an extra 4 or 5 minutes to kill. I was very grateful for my 20-minute bike ride (so my muscles were really warm) and the warm temperatures (so they didn't cool down too much during the wait).

I started 4th of five women's singles (all from CRC). I'm normally fairly close in time to my teammate who started behind me, so I was anticipating some great racing. Unfortunately, she ran into some debris in the first 1000m and never fully recovered.

The last 3200m of the course is a straight shot down the estuary, but because the shoreline weaves back and forth it's incredibly difficult to steer. I held a pretty perfect course, kept my stroke rate high and powered through the muscle fatigue. Overall, a great race.

I placed third, I think largely because I steered the course well. I learned that a rested brain can make up for a lot of a fatigued body. I also learned that I should always look up the course map before the race--I wish I had known some of the distance markers a bit better. One more race under my belt!

In the past few months, my schedule has changed a lot. When I first started training at CRC, we trained twice a day on weekdays, every day, and once on Saturday mornings. At that point, we had fewer athletes, and the lead up to the Olympics meant training was everybody's top priority.

While I miss that atmosphere, the new schedule has allowed me to find work, which has been both fun and financially beneficial.

Currently, we train once as a group and sometimes once on our own on weekdays. To make up for the reduced weekday load, we often have four practices on weekends.

This is what a typical weekday looks like right now.

5:30AM - wake-up and eat breakfast ASAP; pack snacks/clothes for practice
breakfast: oatmeal, sunflower seeds, frozen berries, dried fruit, hemp protein powder, soy milk; coffee
6:15AM - bike down to the boathouse
6:45AM - arrive at boathouse and launch for practice (easy/medium 17 km row)
8:45AM - finish up practice, clean/put away equipment, bike home

The oars and boats all have to be washed and put away after each practice.

9:15AM - arrive home, eat snack, check email
snack: grapes!
10:00AM - shower, nap (yes, this is a crucial part of my daily schedule)
1:00PM - wake up, eat lunch
lunch: two homemade veggie burger patties, red cabbage slaw with quinoa and avocado
1:30PM - work (copy editing, responding to emails, etc)
2:30PM - snack! I think best when I'm moving, and even chewing helps; if I eat while I'm working, I will just keep munching mindlessly forever, so I chew gum. I'm usually starving by the end of an hour of furious gum chewing
snack: half PB&J, apple
2:45PM run errands and snack again
snack: granola bar, handful of peanuts, handful of cranberries
3:30PM - get ready for second workout (short, hard erg workout; 20' supplemental lift)
5:30PM - blogging, catching up on workout log
6:00PM - dinner!!!
dinner: Field Roast sausage on Acme bread, brussels sprouts, apple; Kashi GoLean with frozen berries, pomegranate seeds, soymilk for dessert
7:00PM - chores (getting ready for move, dishes, packing for tomorrow's workout, etc.)
9:30PM - bedtime!

After my poor performance in the race this past weekend, I'm working on sleeping more. I really think sleep deprivation negatively affected my race. It's such a preventable issue that I'd like to nip the problem in the bud. Fortunately, my schedule affords me the opportunity to take two hour naps and still go to bed at 9:30PM.

In 2011, I gave up meat for lent. My body has loved the change. I certainly missed meat for the first few months, and for about a year after that, I continued to eat meat on rare occasions.

In the past six months or so, I have given up meat completely. Once we learned to cook without it, it has become so natural.

Dan requested chicken recently so we bought one and roasted it. Making meat-free meals is so habitual that I had to prompt him several times to use the meat before it went bad.

After some recent events, I'm ready to take the next step.

First, I read The Food Revolution by John Robbins. I definitely don't agree with everything he said, but I agree with the general message of the book. Since reading it, I've definitely thought twice about consuming non-organic animal products, including those used in commercial baked goods.

Second, we stopped buying most packaged foods. Dan and I had begun to rely on crackers and cookies to round out our diets. When hungry, I found myself reaching in the pantry and eating Triscuits by the fistful. I told myself it was ok, because I purchased generally healthy choices--graham crackers, Triscuits, and a very small selection of cold cereals. Still, I knew that wasn't how I wanted to eat.

Third, I travelled for a week. I didn't have any of my usual staples--cheese, milk, sugar, etc. I essentially got to create my diet from scratch and I made great choices. I ate a lot of nuts, fruits, vegetables and grains. What didn't I eat? Dairy. Sweeteners. Animal fats. What happened? My acne went away. No, seriously. I've had acne since I was 12, and while it's gotten better in the last few years, it's now 95% gone in a week. I'm convinced. And it really wasn't that difficult.

Fourth, it was happening slowly already. I've talked before about my reliance on dairy, and my desire to eliminate that. Well, I was having success. Recently, I've severely cut back on my cheese intake. Breakfasts now involve oats and PB&J's instead of cold cereal with milk every morning. I still eat eggs once a week or so, and I'm ok with that.

In light of these changes, I'm ready to really commit to a plant-based diet. I still plan to take fish oil supplements, because I believe they improve my training. I also still expect to eat eggs on occasion.

Overall, though, I'd like my diet to be at least 95% plant based.

It's going to be a lifestyle change, and it's going to have to change the way we cook and feed ourselves. Whole, single-ingredient foods are going to have to be the center of our meals--nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds. That's a great thing--these are the foods that make me feel best and keep me healthy for training.

Since I started eating more fruits and vegetables, as a result of eliminating meat, I've hardly gotten sick (even when the people around me do), I've solved a lot of digestive issues, and I've improved a lot of aspects of my life.

Please bear with me as we make these changes. I'm sure we will adjust the specifics of our diet several more times as we tweak it to figure out what foods work best for our bodies, schedules and needs. In return, I will try to be open and honest about the process of finding our own diet.

Dan and I did a decent grocery stock-up this weekend and are hoping to make it through our move with no more groceries! We've got a little over a week until we begin the moving process, and about a week and a half before we expect to move our kitchen over to the new place.

The plan of action:
- Eat as much perishable food as possible in the next week. I would like to have very little refrigerated food to move over.
- Finish off boxes of cold cereal, dried goods and other snack foods (dried fruit, sliced bread, nuts, etc.)
- Make a few big batches of soup/pasta to eat while the kitchen is packed up; this is also a great way to use up some pantry goods, like potatoes, pasta and dried legumes

At this point, I've stopped buying things that aren't good for me to eat, so I shouldn't be stuck finishing off boxes of cookies or eating chips in our last few days. Still, I expect that we'll have at least one weird meal. Hopefully pre-cooking a lot of options in the next few days helps us continue to eat at home even when we're busy with moving logistics.

Any advice for moving and finishing off the pantry? Or what we definitely need to have in our new place to survive?

"So what do you do?" People always ask me this--an innocent question with an incredibly complicated answer.

My primary occupation is training. This takes up a good chunk of my time and energy, and is a scheduling priority for me. But training doesn't pay the bills, and often costs money.

I am fortunate enough to have a husband who helps support my training, but my extra income really makes a difference in our quality of life. It allows us to buy high quality organic produce, to eat out on occasion and to put money back into our savings.

Finding work that jives with my schedule hasn't been easy, though. I actually work a lot of different jobs.

My first work came in as personal training work. The connection is pretty obvious--I spend my whole day thinking about exercise, so teaching others about it is fun. Unfortunately, the hours are a little bit difficult to schedule--most people want to exercise outside of work hours, and this is when I have the biggest demand for my time.

So when our training schedule started settling down, I began perusing Craigslist for additional opportunities. I started by looking at the jobs section of Craigslist but with limited success--most of the jobs posted there required fixed hours and offered little flexibility. The opportunities in the gigs section have been much more suited to my needs.

I've added a few hours here and there of fit modeling and tutoring. This work is super flexible--it is usually one to three hours at a time, scheduled the week of, and fits well between my practices.

The fit modeling happens during work hours, which is incredibly convenient. The tutoring usually happens after school, but before work is over. This can be a bit difficult to schedule around practices, but is very doable for a few hours a week. Both of these jobs do require quite a bit of travel time, but I use that time to catch up on reading, blogging, recording workouts and replying to emails when I can.

Finally, I recently started an internship with a startup in SF, AnyRoad. I don't have an official title, yet, but I curate the tours and work with the tour guides to help perfect their submissions. The work is perfect. It's interesting and variable, and I get to read about cool experiences around the work. I can also schedule my work as it fits with my schedule, and a good portion of the work can be done from home.

Of course, it would have been nice if these opportunities hadn't all come in the middle of racing season, and right before we move into a new place, but when it rains it pours. I'm excited for all of these opportunities, and for the financial comfort they are providing. It's also nice to be busy!

So that's what I do--work here and there in a number of different fields and positions. It definitely keeps life interesting.

I know, I know, it's been forever since I updated. Access to internet in Boston was spotty at best, and life since has been insanely busy. I have TWO races to recap!

Head of the Charles:
This wasn't a super serious race. A bunch of former Princeton lightweights raced in the alumnae category as the Fat Cat Rowing Club. We had a blast, and in the meantime, I got another run down the Charles race course. I imagine this will be helpful if I race it in my single next year.

The trip to Boston was also a great time--I met about a million new people, caught up with a lot of old friends, and go the chance to actually explore Boston. I've been a few times before, but never navigated the city myself. I feel much more comfortable with the layout of the city and generally getting around. I'm looking forward to visiting again!

Head of the American:
I got back from Boston on Tuesday evening and was back at the boathouse Wednesday morning to prepare for another race. I had an incredibly busy week last week. Between early morning practices, busy days and late nights getting things done, sleep definitely took a back burner. As a result, my training and my performance suffered.

Saturday, I raced in two events--the open quad and the open single. The quad was a last minute addition to my day--I filled in for a sick teammate--but I was glad to have a run down the course once before my single race. We won this race easily, but it definitely helped with nerves.

My second race was a few hours later in the single. I managed my day really poorly--I spent way too much energy wandering around, and let the heat drain my energy as well. I will need to improve this for future racing.

By the time I launched, I was already exhausted mentally and physically. My stroke rate sat lower than it should have, and I had a really hard time finding the last 5% on my pressure to really race the piece. It showed in my results.

We followed this race up with two hard practices Sunday morning, both of which also suffered from lack of sleep. I'm beginning to realize that sleep is more important to the quality of my training than the food I eat--I often associate hunger with tiredness, and eat when I should nap.

Today, we have the day off of practice, and I'm using it to sleep, work and start packing for our impending move! Long to-do list slowly getting shorter.

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