One of the most inspirational people I know is a professional triathlete named Hillary Biscay. I don’t encounter much sports in my life these days—pretty much the only cardio I get is when I wake up in the morning to check Rich and Chelsea’s blogs.
I am very skeptical of athletes as inspirational to the rest of us, because usually when athletes talk about how they “worked hard” and then got great, it’s not totally true. For example, when I was a kid, my dad drove me down to Irvine, CA, so I could listen to an Olympic swimmer give an inspirational talk.
He told us (a crowd of junior high school swim nerds) about how he was SO BAD but worked really hard and made the Olympics, and eventually won a gold medal. I thought, “Oh, there’s hope for me! I must keep working hard,” and then, on the car ride home, I realized that his definition of “so bad” was “not winning nationals.” But he still qualified for nationals! And finished seventh, I think.
It’s like how every model feels she has to insist that she was gangly and unpopular in high school. And yeah, I get that saying “I’m a genetic freak of wonder” isn’t interesting, but it would often be more honest.
But Hills is the real deal! And I know this because I grew up with her, she is one of my best friends, and we carpooled to swimming. (I don’t want to give you the idea in any way that I’m a good athlete; in fact I remember wishing I could just study for swimming; I’d be so fast.)
On her website, I found a list of what she keeps in her pantry. It’s a good reminder of all the healthy plant-based foods out there one can consume:
- red onion
- hummus
- brown rice pasta
- quinoa pasta
- pesto
- fuji apples
- rice milk
- honey mustard and barbecue brown rice chips
- cucumber
- zucchini
- tomato
- carrots
- jumbo box of organic spinach
- bagged mixed greens
- raw almonds
- tempeh
- tofu
- Nature’s Path Vanilla Sunrise Cereal
- Nature’s Path Envirokidz Peanut Butter Panda Puffs Cereal
- olive oil
- aged balsamic vinegar
- Vega Antioxidant EFA Oil Blend
- corn tortillas
- Daiya non-dairy shredded cheese
- garlic salt
- Bragg’s liquid aminos
- quinoa
- brown rice
- garbanzo beans
- gluten-free pretzels
- Amy’s Organics black & pinto refried beans
- avocado
- bell peppers
- gluten-free veggie patties
- Enjoy Life or other gluten and dairy-free cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl-flavored Purely Decadent Coconut Milk “ice cream” (freezer, obvi)
Tumblr without Kerry would be not so awesome. This is exactly what I need to help my grocery shopping process.
