Topping Up: Friday, August 29th

There's always a time coming back from surgery when I step out to run or ride and I don't know if I'll be able to do things that I've done so many times before. Earlier in my journey with Crohn's, and the surgeries that have come along with it, it was difficult not to be frustrated by the fact that I used to be able to do something and I was back at what felt like ground zero. In our accomplish...

Topping up rounds up what's happening in my world and things that caught my attention. To subscribe to my newsletter, click the paper airplane icon on the right side of any page. It’s been a minute since I’ve had the ability to catch up with this newsletter. It’s not for a lack of news or interesting things I’m finding out there, more the opposite.  The Big News Last Wednesday, the Santa Cruz C...

When do food and science overlap? When we talk about food, it is not really the agriculture or ingredients of it; that is a separate thing entirely. And when we refer to science, we aren’t necessarily talking about cooking. Food science is the overlap of production, performance, and marketing to solve real-world problems when producing food. Switch Bakery, the gluten-free bakery my wife and I o...

After hearing Keira D’Amato on the Strength Running Podcast share her comeback experience from an eight-year hiatus and setting American records in the marathon and half marathon, I knew I had to get a hold of her upcoming memoir. I contacted the publisher and got an advanced copy, which I breezed through in a week. Keira’s story of resilience and courage to start over resonates with me. I’m no...

Coming home from the hospital after my surgery, I was under strict orders from the doctors to not raise my heart rate for 12 weeks. Last week  I passed the threshold and got on the Peloton for the first time for some very easy spins (below 100bpm) and this week, I was able to test the waters with a little training. I'll be talking about my goals for the next 6-12 months soon, but for now, the ...

Living with Crohn’s disease means I’ve spent over a decade trying to manage inflammation while maintaining an active lifestyle. Like a canary in a coal mine, my body is extremely sensitive to hard-to-pronounce ingredients lurking in food to the stress of the environmental load from the world around us. As both an athlete and someone who runs a gluten-free bakery, I’m constantly navigating betw...

Topping up is a weekly post rounding up what's happening in my world and things that caught my attention. Subscribe to my newsletter by clicking the paper airplane icon on the right side of any page. I was back in the kitchen this week, making sandwiches for the Santa Cruz Farmer’s Markets. It was fun to get creative, making cashew-based mozzarella for a vegan caprese sandwich and a buckwheat t...

 This was the busiest week I've had since my surgery at the end of March. I took a shotgun trip to Ashland, Oregon (that is Mt. Shasta in Northern California in the photo) to see a dear friend who turned 90, catch up with my dad who was in town, see one of my daughters, siblings, and celebrate my niece's graduation. If that sounds like a lot—it was—and it was 104 degrees out! Something to Remem...