Weight loss is an interesting topic these days. For some, bringing up the topics of keto, intermittent fasting, plant-based or some other popular nutritional topic of the day leads to heated discussions. Unfortunately, some conversations are prefaced with 'I believe...' and then whatever nutritional opinion follows. Emotions can become so strong with nutrition that facts and evidence get thrown out the window. And positions can be maintained as though defending a religious perspective. When discussing weight loss there are two predominant positions popping up on social media. One supposes that creating a caloric deficit is all that matters. You can eat fast food every day as long as you are eating fewer calories than you burn in a day. This ignores what the other position claims is vital, which is the quality of the nutrition. Maybe you've heard the expression 'as long as it fits your macros' to justify eating certain foods. By macros we're referring to the macronutrients i.e. proteins, carbs and fats. The truth is that both sides are correct. It matters how much you eat. A caloric deficit is needed to achieve weight loss. And the quality of the matters as well. You cannot achieve healthy weight loss with low quality nutrition.. But there's one more piece to the puzzle that typically tends to get ignored. And that's the timing of our nutrition. In other words, would you expect eating the same foods in the same amounts at different times to have an impact on our weight loss efforts? For example, if you ate a 2070 calorie breakfast, a 600 calorie lunch and a 330 calorie dinner... Would this have any difference on our fat loss efforts than if we ate the following: 330 calorie breakfast, 600 calorie lunch, 2070 calorie dinner. The answer is that it does...

Have you ever noticed how the people who have the best physiques tend to share certain traits? For example, they are dedicated to their training. They make sure to capture every training session with a dozen or so selfies and an overuse of hashtags. And they are also meticulous with their meal planning.You know what I mean?You see the pictures on their social media of their Tupperware for the week all neatly arranged and labelled. They make sure to snap a pic of every low-carb, low-sugar treat they have for a cheat meal. And they show us what their groceries look like after coming home from the grocery store.Now as easy as it is to poke fun at these dedicated health nuts, they do get great results. And maybe we can steal a page from their meal prep to reap some of the benefits for ourselves.Below is a step-by-step process for your weekly meal prep.Step 1 - Pick Your ProteinAlmost all of the clients we work with would benefit from an additional dose of protein. For almost every goal, whether it be the endurance athlete, the individual with a physique goal or the bodybuilder, additional protein may not only help it may be essential to achieving the best results.When we think of protein we can look at seafood (shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, crab, lobster), fish (salmon, halibut, bass, snapper, tuna), meat (look for grass-fed rather than grain-fed options including beef, pork, wild game) chicken ,turkey, eggs and dairy. Opt for grass-fed rather than grain-fed dairy options.  Products here include milk, cottage cheese, yogurt and cheeses.  A couple of comments related to yogurt are that Greek yogurt is one of the healthier options and secondly you should avoid the ‘fruit on the bottom’ styles of yogurt.***Quick aside***There are a number of healthy vegetarian and vegan options...

Hi there: Last weekend we met for our weekly stairs workout. Everything was as per usual leading up to the workout. Rest was good. Motivation to train was good. I had hydrated well before the workout and had breakfast before training. As we showed up for the workout we began with a general warm-up consisting of an easy jog around the soccer fields. From there we went into our dynamic warm-up, some skip drills and then a short jog over to the stairs. After a few leg swings and some ankle mobilizations we then proceeded to walk up the first flight of stairs. By the top of the stairs everything was feeling loose, warmed up and ready to go.But I wasn't feeling too hot. I wasn't sure why but thought the feeling would pass.So we proceeded on with the workout. And I was having difficulty getting my legs going. You know the feeling I'm talking about? Even though you've gone through a thorough warm-up your body still feels sluggish.Well that's how I felt. Add to that my heart rate was at or above the normal level for this type of workout. Then I realized what I had done wrong. The day before I had made an omelet. And whenever I cook I like to make extra on purpose. This saves me time then next time I go looking for something to eat.So when I woke that Saturday morning all I could think about was the left over omelet calling to me from my bed. 3 eggs, a good dose of shredded cheddar, more than enough bacon with some peppers. After getting ready I was in the kitchen warming up these left-overs and looking forward to my pre-workout meal this omelet would make.Bad idea.I should have known better. When we load the...