Lightweight Eats

Like most families, we have some go-to meals. For example, we try to always keep black beans, tortillas and red cabbage on hand so we can whip up tacos with cabbage slaw. (Thanks to my sister for the slaw recipe!) Smoothies are another great option: we keep veggie scraps and bargain bin fruit in the freezer to blend with protein powder for a fast, easy, healthy dinner.

Another favorite is the stirfry. Every week, we buy two blocks of tofu and it almost always gets used in a stirfry.

When we first started making this, we usually ended up with soggy veggies and tofu crumbles. After much trial and error (and equal amounts of simplification), we now consistently produce crisp veggies, tasty sauce, and chewy tofu. Learn from our mistakes.

If you're super new to making stirfry, I recommend using one piece of advice per attempt.

1. Start your rice first. It takes about 30 minutes to make white rice, so this needs to get going right away. By the time everything else is ready, your rice will be ready. If it's done early, it can wait. Rice stays hot.

2. Use two pans—a flattish pan for tofu (non-stick is ok) and a higher sided, thin pan (one that gets really hot and tends to burn things) for veggies.

3. Once the rice is going, cut the tofu into bite-size pieces and pat it dry. Heat up your flat pan with a bit of oil; once it's hot, add the tofu—it should sizzle. Cook it until it's brown (2-3 minutes) and stir. Get at least two sides browned. Feel free to chop veggies during this process (or use pre-chopped). Set the tofu aside (or leave it on low heat, stirring every 4-5 minutes).

4. Use no more than 2 types of veggie. We love broccoli and carrots—easy to cut, easy to cook. Some other ideas: baby greens, shiitake mushrooms, canned bamboo shoots, green onion, celery. Any other suggestions?

5. Cook the veggies lightly over very high heat. Start with the veggie you'd least like to eat raw—in our example, broccoli goes in first. Then add the second when the first is almost ready to eat. When your veggies are crisp but cooked—don't try to brown them—add half of your sauce (see below) and toss together.

6. Make a simple sauce. Sweet soy sauce is a good stand alone. You can also buy bottled teriyaki sauce. Or, mix peanut butter, minced ginger and soy sauce.

7. To serve, assemble bowls with rice, browned tofu, veggies and a spoonful of sauce. Top with sesame seeds and chopped green onions if you're feeling fancy.

One of our requirements when we moved last year was finding a place with a washer and dryer. If I weren't training, and we produced just one mildly dirty outfit per day per person, a washer and dryer would be a convenience.

But the thought of lugging three or four outfits a day of often soggy and always smelly clothing to the laundromat was just soul crushing. Did I mention that we'd have been doing the lugging on our bicycles?

But we found that we were running the dryer through its full cycle two, even three times just to get a load dry. It hardly seemed efficient. With all of my spandex workout clothing—which really shouldn't be dried—and the inconvenience of checking and restarting the dryer, we decided to do what any Bay Area hippie would do: got a drying rack!

We still use our dryer. Cotton t-shirts, towels and jeans all go through the dryer. Sometimes, a load donates just two or three pieces of clothing to the dryer, meaning we can combine dryer loads.

We aren't keeping track of our savings. I'm sure we're saving some money here and there from running the dryer less. More importantly, my favorite pair of spandex will last much, much, much longer.

Of course, a load can easily fill up a drying rack; a crowded rack doesn't dry as quickly. What if things don't dry in time? Well, then I throw what I need in the dryer for 10 minutes to finish it up. There's nothing better than climbing into a warm pair of long spandex on your way to a cold, wet, windy row.

(Note: This post is re-published from Piquant Prose.)

I don't enjoy watching people come close to injuring themselves when they try to use one of these:

A rowing machine, aka an 'erg'

4. Fast on the drive, slow on the recovery
Rowers are pretty smart. We named a part of our stroke 'the recovery' for a reason—you're actually supposed to spend some time recovering from your incredible exertion on the drive. With a good rhythm, you'll spend about twice as much time on the recovery as on the drive.

5. Learn what the monitor means
The big number in the middle of the monitor can be changed between various settings, including watts, calories/hr and split. The split tells you how long it would take you to go 500m if you kept rowing the same pace; the lower it is, the harder you're working. I like this value because it has relatively small changes in value for a change in exertion, so it's pretty easy to try to maintain a consistent pace. If you're just starting on the erg, try for under a 2:30.

The other important number is in the upper right hand corner. This little number is your number of strokes per minute. Try to keep this number between 20 and 30—20 for long, slow workouts and 30 for short, fast interval work. This range will give you the best control over what you're doing and help prevent injury. During a give workout, try to stay in a pretty narrow range. For example, our steady state workouts are usually at a 20-22, and our faster workouts are usually at 26-28 or 28-30, and we try to stay in this range for the whole workout.
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I have a 100 more tips, but most of them you'll figure out just by trying it a few times!! If you're interested in using it, let me know and I can give you tips and workouts. If you use it right, you're really unlikely to get injured and you'll get in really great shape.

Have you ever read an article about all the foods athletes shouldn't eat? Sure, there are the obvious reasons: nobody should be eating chemicals and food dyes, especially not in large quantities. But what about sugar? juice? fatty foods? Should athletes really be eating whole grains, lean proteins and a heaping pile of veggies at every meal?

If you think so, I challenge you to eat as much as a heavyweight male rower for a day. You will either give up at lunch or put on a pound in a day. And do you know how much fiber is in 5-6000 calories or whole grains, lean proteins and veggies? More than most Americans eat in a week. Seriously, you're talking about 150-200 grams of fiber.

Even at a mere 3500 calories a day, I'm looking at 100 grams of fiber daily—even when I'm choosing a number of lower fiber options. What's the problem with that? Well, the short turnaround between meals and workouts doesn't jive with slow digestion. And there are no bathroom breaks in the middle of a 2-hour row.

It can also be challenging to keep up with calorie intake for a lot of athletes. Depending on the training load, I can have trouble finding the appropriate time to eat enough calories—this is even more problematic if I'm still full from my previous meal when I get an opportunity to eat.

So what's my solution?

1. Eat a basis of whole grains, lean protein and veggies.
Imagine what a non-athlete would eat in a day. I try to eat about that much in whole foods. After that, I give myself some leeway to eat white rice, snack on sugary crackers and jams, sip juice, or fried potatoes.

2. Pick high-calorie, low-fiber produce for heavy training days.
Bananas, mangoes, squash, pineapple, melons, peas, and beets are all good options on days when I'm burning through fuel faster than a Hummer. I use my 'off' days to eat the fibrous options: berries, pears, apples, leafy greens, etc.

3. Use a 'bad', 'medium' and 'good' system.
Oreos? Definitely bad. Kale? Definitely good. White rice? The jury is out, so I put it in the medium category. Soda? Definitely bad. Green tea? Definitely good. Juice? Unknown—medium. I eat less than one item a week from the "definitely bad" category, and more than one item a day from the "definitely good" category. Other than that, I don't worry about it.

The best thing I ever did for my diet was to trust it. Instead of avoiding this or eating that, and wondering whether it made any difference, I decided to just eat.

The ergs have moved and TVs have been added since this photo was taken. Now I can erg and watch football!

I joined a gym. It was $50 for a month, with unlimited 24-hour access and free fitness classes. I've been going twice a day most days, or sometimes once for 3+ hours, with a quick snack break between workouts. It's a nice change of pace.

The gym has a dry sauna, which is nice for post-workout meditation. There may be other benefits, but I just enjoy it because it feels good.

It's also been fun using a wide range of weight equipment. Our equipment at CRC was limited and generally oversized for a lightweight woman. The leg press was too heavy and I couldn't reach the sled. The bench for bench pulls was too wide and too high. We didn't have any dumbbells, so the lightest weight was a 45-pound bar: too heavy for 6x20 bench press. The selection of weight machines has also let me really push the weight for very specific target muscles.

All of that makes lifting weights a lot more enjoyable—which is great, since that is generally a huge focus of the winter season.

And, of course, there's the always amusing rotation of gym-goers attempting to use the rowing machine. Ten amusing minutes breaks up a 90-minute sweat session nicely.

"Why are you reading a book about traffic?!" my mom asked in disbelief. Assuming nerdiness isn't a valid explanation, I'd also like to point out that driving is the most dangerous thing most of us will do on any given day. Why did I think about that? Because I read Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.

Since we got our first car (!) last month, I thought it would be wise to read about the wild world of roads. Tom Vanderbilt has changed me into a 10 and 2, cell-phone free, 55mph driver, and I'm totally ok with it. His book talks about how traffic works, what the most dangerous conditions are, urban design for safer streets, and you'll just have to read the book to find out the rest.

It's definitely an easy read, more like an extended magazine article than an extended essay with points and counterarguments. For those of you that like microhistories (history books about a very specific topic) or who have an interest in urban planning, I'd recommend checking it out from your local library.

Plus, this is a great book to read before the holidays: everybody has been stuck in traffic, so it's a wonderful conversation starter.

Last week, I drove from California up to Oregon to start our long cross-country journey.


Before we decided to move, we had Thanksgiving weekend plans in Eugene, Oregon, and we weren't going to miss them.

But first things first.

Thanksgiving Thursday, I trudged down to join the other dedicated gym-goers for a morning workout. I'd pushed pretty hard Monday through Wednesday so I could enjoy Thursday and Friday without 3 hours of gym time.

We left the coast by 10AM to drive to Portland-area, where we picked up Dan's Grandma Kate before heading to his Aunt Karen's for a Thanksgiving feast. Dan's family is incredibly welcoming, and had prepared more delicious vegan dinner options than I could possibly eat. As Dan's dad puts it:
"This isn't vegan food. This is delicious food that happens to also be vegan."

Post-dinner, we drove a few more hours south to Eugene, home of the University of Oregon.

Friday morning, I woke up so excited that I completely forgot it was my birthday until I watched the morning news over breakfast. What got me so excited? We had front row tickets to watch the Oregon Ducks football team face off against the Oregon State Beavers!



Of course, since it was my birthday, the Ducks managed to pull of a 1-point victory with the winning touchdown not 30 yards from our seats. Who cares if they go to a national championship? That game was a blast.



We also got a chance to explore downtown Eugene a bit, including vegan donuts at Voodoo. Yum!

Nomnom. Donut.

Saturday morning, we hit the road again, heading into Portland for some exploration, before returning to the coast.


Saturday evening, I was back at the gym with the post-Thanksgiving repenters and dedicated weight lifters. The rest of the weekend was spent working out, watching football/movies and grocery shopping—some of my favorite things. And although weekends are rather meaningless at the moment since neither of us is working, it still feels like we're back to the daily grind this Monday morning.