There is no arguing the importance that nutrition has on achieving success with your training and your overall health. It doesn't matter if the goal is weight loss, performance or rehab you will realize success sooner and to a greater extent when you make the effort to eat as well as you can. But what does eating well mean? [caption id="attachment_4026" align="alignleft" width="300"] What does eating well really mean? Does this mean jump on the band-wagaon with everyone down at the local box gym and go Paleo? Or should I go low carb? Or low fat? Do I just reduce my calories overall to create a decifict? Can I just cut out sugar? What about the Mediterranean approach? The Zone? Eat right for my type? Confused? Yeah me too! Sometimes we just make things too complicated, don't we? Instead of trying to figure which nutritional approach to sign up for and get their tattoo on your forehead what about if we started with the basics? What about if we addressed what is in common with all of these approaches and those not following any plan? What if we made sure some of the key nutrients of metabolism were satisfied before we worried about cutting certain things out of the diet? That might a little more sense and be easier to follow. Because here's the thing...the problem is not one of not knowing what to eat. It's not one of education where I can show you what a vegetable, a piece of fruit, some lean protein and a glass of water looks like. I think we're good in that area and you know what these foods are. And I don't think it's an issue of wanting your goal badly enough. When you see reminders of what your body used to look like...

Do you like upgrades? Stupid question, right? I mean who doesn't like going from the a regular room to a suite. Or from a full size to a BMW. Or from coach to first class. Yeah, upgrades rock. Well the other day I was talking about nutrition with the some of the hockey players we work with and I was asking how much cold water fish they eat? I ask this because it's usually a good indicator of how much omega-3 they get in their diet. If they answer rarely or maybe once a week then I'll ask if they take an omega-3 supplement to ensure they are getting enough of this fatty acid found in grass-fed beef, fish, seeds (flax, hemp, chia) and nuts (walnuts) among other foods. One of the reasons omega-3 is so important is that it is an essential fatty acid which our body can't produce. And so we can only get it from the foods we eat. And while omega-3s are important for a number of reasons related to inflammation, anti-oxidation and indirectly to weight loss they are in short supply for most North Americans based on our nutritional habits. On the other hand there are omega-6s which are also essential but which get more than enough in our diets. What kinds of foods contain omega-6? These are contained in oils such as corn, safflower and sunflower and exert the opposable effect to omega-3s. So think inflammatory as opposed to anti-inflammatory. So while taking regular omega-3 supplementation is a great idea there is a better option. And while this better option, or upgrade, isn't anything new it only took a discussion with one of the hockey players to realize this would have benefit for many of our other clients as well. The issue this hockey player...