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...

 So I just got back from a conference in California. And this means flights, hotel stays and long days of sitting in on presentations. For most this is a prescription to derail one's fitness and performance efforts. But not me.No sir! I feel like Superman when I travel. What do I mean by that?    Well basically it's that I have strategies in place that allow me not lose any of the forward momentum I've achieved with my training. And since we're into spring break here and many of you may be hitting the road for vacations this is a great time to share these tips with you.Here are my Top 10 Strategies for Staying Healthy on Vacation.Tip #1 - Bring a shaker cupThe thing with flights is that you get dehyrated. And with security rules limiting the volume of liquid to 100 ml you can't bring carry a drink with you. And once you're on the flight you get a serving of water as if you were rinsing your mouth at the dentist's office.To get around this invest in a shaker cup. They cost less than $10 and often are included at supplement stores when you purchase a bulk order. Don't bring a coffee cup or water bottle. The next points explain why.Tip #2 - Bring dried veggiesHave you ever noticed how great the salad bars are in airports? And how fresh everything is? And of course the variety rivals that of a Las Vegas casino. But the best part is how reasonable everything is. I'm surprised more people don't drive out to airports for their evening meals.Obviously I'm not serious about the points above. Therefore  it is that much more important to bring a number of dried veggies in envelopes. I use Prograde Genesis because I get 5-6 servings per packet and the...

If you're serious about your health and performance than you want to know that you're doing the best you can with your efforts. And if you're not where you'd like to be weight-wise, performance-wise or in terms of your rehab than there are probably some things you could be doing a better job of. And if you are having some success in these areas than you are probably motivated to see what else you could do to ramp up your results even more.I'll be honest...I know I could do more personally. A while back I stated some of my goals. A few of them included hitting targeted strength measures, improved fitness levels and a specific scale weight.And while I'm on track to hit my goals I know I could be further along. I know I maybe under-estimated myself by selecting goals I knew I had a pretty good chance of attaining.There's not a problem in doing that. But we want to make sure we are giving our best effort and setting new goals if necessary.So while I'll probably wait until I realize the current goals I've set  until I pick new ones there are a few things I know I can improve on until then. With that in mind here are 5 Things I Can Do Better to Improve My Health & Performance.1. Improved sleep - I need 8 hours of sleep a night. Not 8 hours of bedtime on my computer, reading or doing sudoku puzzles but 8 actual hours of sleep. I need to make sure that I get as many of these 8 before midnight as possible. And I need to make sure to be as consistent with my time to bed and time to rise as  possible.2. More soft tissue work - Every workout should begin with some foam...

 Hi there: Alright I'm not sure where you're at when you're reading this but here in Kelowna it is cold! -14 C to be exact! All the prairie people are rolling their eyes right now thinking 'wimps'. Speaking of prairie people maybe this is just our way of being hospitable to the Regina Pats who are in town to play the Rockets tonight. Yeah that's it, just our way to make them feel at home.But enough talk about the weather it's almost Thanksgiving weekend and with that means big meals, a few days off and maybe some football on tv. So whether you are south of the border or not I want to make sure you are well armed going into this weekend to stay on track with your training, to enjoy the holiday to the max and mostly importantly to stave off the weight gain experienced by so many. So here are 9 Ways to Beat Back the Thanksgiving Bulge.1. Schedule your big meal earlier in the day. Most of us tend to eat dinner at the end of the day after school and work. But school is out for this holiday and many get the day off work. Since this frees up the schedule use it to your advantage to schedule the big meal earlier in the day.  This will allow you more time after to work off some of the extra calories than if you finish late into the evening and simply slide in front of the tv before going to bed.2. Eat your veggies first. This is important for a few reasons including the fact that when our plates are left unfinished often times it is the yams, broccoli and cauliflower that go untouched. Secondly, there are many enzymes contained within vegetables that assist in the digestion and absorption of other nutrients. Lastly,...