My Vegetable Chili

What a great post work out meal, healthy, and power providing.

Kidney beans or pinto beans are a traditional starting point, but if you want to get creative, try chickpeas, black beans, cannellini beans, navy beans, or even lentils.

Serves: 6 Prep: 30min Cook: 40min  Total: 1 hr 10 min

• 3 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2 lb ground beef, pork, turkey, or chicken (optional)
  
• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 sm eggplant, cubed
  
• 1 med zucchini, chopped (or use more eggplant)
  
• 2 carrots, chopped
  
• 1 C quartered mushrooms
  
• 1/4 tsp crushed red-pepper flakes
  
• 4 C canned kidney or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 1 box (26 oz) chopped tomatoes (about 3 c) (we used Pomi)
  
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1 tsp dried oregano
  
• 4 C water or stock
  
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or parsley (optional)

Chicken Legs with Vegetables

Make a delicious and nutritious dinner with only four ingredients.

This super-simple recipe gives you lean protein, carbs, and fiber, along with a host of vitamins and nutrients. To maximize the health factor, leave the skin on your vegetables. Total prep and cook time will run 45-60 minutes

2 skinless chicken leg quarters
1 cup chopped Zucchini
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup quartered baby red potatoes

Chicken Legs with Vegetables

It’s All About You!

Brad Applegate

FC Tucker

Juice Fast Overdrive

Advocates of short duration juice fasts suggest that the discipline of restricting dietary intake to freshly juiced fruits and vegetables for a specific period of time offers a number of exceptional health benefits, including enhanced fitness, extra energy and loss of excess body fat. Does it work? T.J. Murphy, Editorial Director for Triathlete Magazine and Inside Triathlon, fires up a juicer and gives it a try.

“Discover the power of all-juice diets to restore good health, lose weight and increase vitality.”

“You will become as convinced as I am that there is no better way to improve your overall health—and you’re quality of life.”

“We must get rid of the toxins that are building up in our bodies, otherwise those toxins—probably sooner, rather than later—may very well get rid of us. The good news is the best method of toxin removal starts with [juice] fasting.”

“For many people, raw juice fasting supplies more nutrients than they were getting in their day-to-day diet.”

“During juice fasting, when no solid foods, proteins or fats are consumed, your body will decompose and burn all the diseased and inferior protein and fat tissues.”

Trust me, this is only the beginning, and while I’m skeptical of just about anything making incredible promises, it’s hard not to want to check it out. I figure that if I were to reap just one of the benefits it would be worth it. Mostly, to be honest, I just want to burn off a few pounds so I’ll slide up a little bit closer to a satisfactory racing weight. Plus, it’s not some futuristic pharmaceutical conjured up in a chemistry lab. It’s juice. So what the hell?

During the month of April I will experiment with juice fasting per Dr. Cabot’s recommendations, and report back on the experience and anecdotal results. Tomorrow I’ll chat some about the overall guidelines I’ll be following as I attempt to burn off a few pounds and explore what happens when you spend a few days not worrying about having to chew.

History of Triathlon

What started as off-beat training exercises for runners, has evolved into one of the fastest growing sports in the world. The first known swim/bike/run triathlons were held at San Diego’s (Calif.) Mission Bay in 1974. One athlete who raced at the first Mission Bay Triathlon, John Collins, took the triathlon concept to Hawaii and used it several years later to combine three of Oahu’s endurance events – the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Around-Oahu Bike Ride and the Honolulu Marathon – into one race: the Ironman.

Read More

It’s All about You!

Brad Applegate

FC Tucker

Athlinks is the #1 Social Network for competitive endurance athletes.

I stumbled on this site last fall and found it to be very useful in finding all of my race results as well as finding friends within our race community. If you have not checked out this site before I encourage to do so. Whether you run, bike, swim, or an endurance junkie this site is a great way to connect with many others that have the same goal as you and me and that’s getting to the finish line. Sign up today its free! Hope to see you on athlinks so send me a friend request….

Register athlinks

It’s All About You!

Brad Applegate

FC Tucker

Breakfast of Champions

This article was originally published in the American Council on Exercise’s (ACE’s) Triathlon Training blog. Visit the American Council on Exercise for free health and fitness information and to view the full article, and read on for an excerpt below.

After hundreds of morning hours spent cycling, swimming and running, the timing and choices you make for your pre-competition fueling can make the difference between racing flat or to optimal performance—especially when it comes to longer distance races (Half Ironman 70.3 and Full Ironman 140.6).

Chances are good, if you eat too much, too close to race start or ingest too much fat or fiber, you’ll suffer gastrointestinal problems. On the flipside, if you don’t eat enough prior to race start, you may go flat or “bonk” during racing.

sometimes experiment for years before they learn what types of foods work best for them during what time to achieve peak performance.

The following pre-competition nutritional guidelines provided by two nutritionists—Monique Ryan, M.S., R.D., owner of the consulting firm Personal Nutrition, and Dr. Natalie Digate Muth, M.D. and R.D.—and breakfast choices by real Ironman and 70.3 San Diego-based veteran triathletes offer fuel for thought and body.

Rule No. 1

The more time you have to digest a meal, the larger the meal can be.

“Most athletes are comfortable with eating a breakfast-type meal 2.5 to 3 hours before competition,” according to Ryan.

“Good choices are foods that are relatively high in carbohydrate to maximize blood glucose availability, relatively low in fat and fiber to minimize gastrointestinal distress and facilitate gastric emptying, and contain moderate protein,” Digate Muth added.

This is especially important for people racing 2 hours or longer.

Here’s one example of a breakfast choice with one part protein and four parts of carbohydrates: One slice of wheat toast topped with a quarter cup of egg white (such as scrambled eggs), one tablespoon of peanut butter spread on a banana and an 8-oz. orange juice drink.

Rule No. 2

The closer you get to race start, the more cautious you need to be about putting solid foods or liquids into your body

Hydrating on race morning with a sports drink will give you extra carbohydrates and sodium, which you will need to replace during racing as well. Try sipping about 4 to 6 ounces of a glucose electrolyte drink every 10 to 15 minutes within the hour to race start.

Rule No. 3

Don’t try anything new nutrition wise on race day.

Continue reading the full article on the American Council on Exercise Triathlon Training blog

Brad Applegate

FC Tucker

Homemade protein/energy bar recipes

Ingredients:
5 tbsp natural peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1/2 cup dry oats or whole grain hot cereal (uncooked)
1/2 cup oat flour * (double the oats if you do not have oat flour)
6 scoops chocolate whey protein (~132 grams protein)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)
1 cup non-fat dry milk
1/2 cup water (depending on what type of protein you use, you may need to add more)

Directions:

Spray an 8×8 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Combine dry ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix well. Add peanut butter and mix – the mixture will be crumbly and dry. Add water & vanilla. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, everything until a dough forms. The dough will be sticky. Spread dough into pan using a clean wooden spoon or spatula that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Refrigerate a few hours (or freeze for an hour) and cut into 9 squares. Wrap bars individually (use sandwich bags or plastic wrap) or store in covered container between sheets of wax paper. Keep refrigerated.

Modifications: Use vanilla protein and replace ~1/4 cup of the oatflour with a variety of nuts, seeds, or dried berries. Chopped almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts, flax seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, or dried cranberries would all work well.

* Making Oatmeal/Oat Flour: To make your own oat flour, all you need to do is put a cup or two of oatmeal in a regular household blender and blend it on high…it will turn into a flour. Store in a covered bowl in the pantry. It takes 1 minute and is VERY easy and cheap alternative to buying in the store.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:
197 calories, 21 g protein, 7.2 g fat (8% saturated), 13.7 g carbohydrate, 1.6 g fiber

Brad Applegate

Six Tips For Top Nutrition While Traveling

Triathlon is a global sport, and travel for the triathlete can be exciting, but there are always challenges associated with leaving home for an event—and eating properly while on the road is one of them. When you’re racing close to home the nutritional considerations may be just a matter of getting things right for a day or two, but when you’re traveling further afield, nutrition can become more complex. Here are six tips for triathlete travelers.

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Endurance For A Healthy Life

Sarah Reinertsen will be the keynote speaker at the Jordan YMCA Saturday March 13th. If you want inspiration to stay in shape, just come out tomorrow and listen to Sarah. In 2005 she became the first woman with a prosthetic leg to finish the Ford Iron Man World Championship in Hawaii. This is the 3rd annual YMCA Endurance Symposium with a day long event with 30 sessions on running, swimming, adventure racing, nutrition and other topics. Learn More

Eating Back The Clock: Using Your Nutrition To Stay Healthy As You Age

Anytime I come across an article regarding reversing the effects of aging as a triathlete and how  the right nutrition habits will minimize the negative effects of aging your health, fitness and performance I dig a little deeper into the how. Nutrient dense, healthy foods including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and quality proteins are required for both performance and health. As we age, our caloric needs can decrease slightly so it is even more important the calories consumed are from functional sources instead of empty calories to avoid nutritional deficiencies and minimize body fat storage.