Get creative in the kitchen
One of Danica’s biggest diet dilemmas is maintaining a healthy weight while keeping up her strength. “I worry about the scale like anyone else, but I have to make it through five-hour races,” says Danica. “It’s a constant battle for me.” To stay fueled, she sticks to a high-protein diet with plenty of complex carbs. She starts every morning with a three-egg-white omelet and a bowl of homemade oatmeal with cinnamon, flax meal, brown sugar, and a scoop of peanut butter on the side. For lunch she prefers open-face turkey sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, mustard, and sometimes a slice of cheese. “I get hungry every three hours, so I also like to munch on an apple or whole-wheat toast with peanut butter,” says Danica, who adds, “I like my food to be tasty.”

Cooking is a source of pleasure for Danica and her husband too. “I knew Paul and I were made for each other when I asked him, ‘If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?’ He told me, ‘An egg, because you can cook it so many ways.’ That was my pick too!” The couple enjoys making over not-so-healthy dishes, like pizza, together. “We add homemade tomato sauce, spinach, basil, and lowfat mozzarella,” she says. They love to cook so much, Danica gave Paul a two-day class at the Culinary Institute in Napa Valley for Christmas last year, and he surprised her with a bread maker. “I’ve already started modifying the recipes,” says Danica. “It kills me to put 3 cups of white flour into that machine! I’m testing my own creations with healthy ingredients, like whole-wheat flour; bran; flaxseeds; flax meal; and sesame, sun-flower, and pumpkin seeds.”