Books To Buy This Holiday Season

 

If you are new to this blog, welcome! If you are a frequent reader, thank you for your continued passion for all things nutrition, health and wellness. It's crazy to think that I have been blogging since 2007!  Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to write three fitness/nutrition-related books.  Each book was a labor of love. Words are powerful and it can be difficult to get the right ones on paper to appeal to a mass audience. Writing a book can be a fulfilling and rewarding experience but it isn't without challenges.  Essential Sports Nutrition was my very first book. When a publishing company reached out to me to write this book, a long-time dream had been fulfilled. I put so much time, effort, brain power and research into this book as I wanted it to be perfect. I was then asked to write The 365-Day Running Journal. While this book was not as scientifically in-depth as my first book, the creative process required me to think differently when creating the content in this journal. Athlete to Triathlete was a challenge to write. With so many different opinions, thoughts and practices on triathlon training, nutrition and racing, I found myself putting in more time and energy into this book than I had originally planned. But like the other two books, it was worth it when the book finally went to print.  I realize this is a shameless plug to promote my own books for holiday gift giving but as a reader of this newsletter, there's a good chance that you (or someone in your life) could benefit from one (or all) of these books.

Essential Sports Nutrition Order HERE. Sports nutrition is a vital element for reaching peak physical performance. To maximize workouts and athletic ability, Essential Sports Nutrition offers the most up-to-date nutritional guidance along with delicious recipes to make eating right for an active lifestyle, easy. Essential Sports Nutrition is a user-friendly reference on fueling to meet your fullest potential. Essential Sports Nutrition teaches you how to nourish your body for energy with: A nutritional overview that includes new research on sources of nutrition and components of an ideal diet. Nutrient timing that teaches you what and when to eat before, during, and immediately after exercise for the best results. 24 recipes for before exercise or competition, during and after exercise, plus recipes for rest days.

The 365-Day Running Journal  Order HERE. Whether you’re aiming for faster time, longer distance, or just to have more fun, this journal supports your journey as a runner. The 365-Day Running Journal lets you log your runs so you can follow your progress week-to-week. The modern design and compact size makes it easy to write down location, time, weather, and distance for each run. Stay motivated with a list of your goals, races, and personal records. For casual joggers or ultrarunners alike, this running journal reminds you that it’s not always a race―but simply about doing what you love. The 365-Day Running Journal includes: Flexible dates―It’s no problem if you need to skip a week―the dates are left blank, so you can log at your own pace. Going strong―Get a pick-me-up with 13 monthly essays on motivation, body image, running form, and more. Practical tips―Weekly tips and fun facts help you improve your running skills and take care of your body.

Athlete to Triathlete Order HERE. Maybe you love to run, swam competitively in high school, or enjoy riding your bike. Perhaps you’re looking for a fun, new athletic challenge? Whatever the case is, you’re in the right place. Athlete to Triathlete delivers the ultimate triathlon training plan for Sprint and Olympic races to help you gain the fitness and confidence to complete your first race―and enjoy doing it. Transition from a single to a multisport athlete with advice on everything from injury prevention and mental fitness to pro tips for mastering each sport. The up-to-date information and expert guidance make your training journey and race day experience safe, fun, and memorable. This triathlon training book includes: Triathlon 101―All the triathlon-specific information you need to know, including helpful features like gear checklists, transition tips, and race day rules. Training beyond the basics―The chapters provide simple-to-understand details on training fundamentals, stretching exercises, and advice tailored to runners, cyclists, and swimmers. 12-week training plans―Follow a detailed, day-by-day training plan for either a Sprint or Olympic distance race.

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Also, for a delicious Chia Energy Ball recipe, be sure to check out our latest newsletter HERE.

Effects of dehydration on a body in motion

 

Although water has no caloric value, it’s the most essential nutrient required in your diet on a daily basis. Your body is made of water. It’s part of your blood, brain, heart, lungs and bones. As it relates to exercise, water maintains blood volume, reduces the risk of heat stress, regulates body temperature and is involved in muscle contractions.

To optimize your hydration status, you must be an active participant in your hydration regime by consuming adequate fluids and electrolytes on a daily basis - as well as before, during and after exercise. Leaving hydration to chance or ignoring dehydration symptoms can be hazardous to health and performance.

Sadly, once you are dehydrated, you can't 'make-up' for fluids lost.

Going into a workout dehydrated and/or not replenishing fluids and electrolytes lost during exercise can cause great strain on your cardiovascular system. As dehydration reduces plasma volume, blood becomes thicker and retains more sodium. This makes blood harder to circulate through your body. To compensate, your heart beats faster, which increases heart rate and blood pressure. Central venous pressure decreases which reduces the amount of blood returning to the heart. Less blood entering the heart decreases the amount of blood leaving the heart. An increase in core temperature leads to an increased rate of glycogen breakdown (carbs stored in the muscles), which causes an intracellular increase in acids. As lactic acid is produced, pH decreases causing skeletal muscle fatigue. Dehydration may also increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol - which reduces testosterone levels and impacts muscle growth.

Keeping your body well-hydrated on a daily basis - as well as before/during/after exercise helps your heart pump blood more easily, protects your body from heat stress and allows oxygen to reach your muscles to help the muscles work efficiently.

To learn more about mastering or fine-tuning your hydration needs during exercise, check out my book Essential Sports Nutrition. Not only do I discuss how to best hydrate before, during and after workouts and races but I also provide many guidelines on how to best fuel your incredible body in motion in training and on event day. 

Carrot Cake Muffins

Raise your hand if you also love carrot cake? I have a confession to make. I love carrot cake. Maybe because it’s a cake made with a vegetable. This sweet, spicy and moist cake is my favorite way to celebrate my birthday each year. A tradition that started with my dear friend Laura making me a delicious carrot cake for my birthday back in ~2009. 

With my carrot cake muffins, we can all yum over carrot cake all year long and feel great about the nutritional quality in the recipe. Because the typical carrot cake recipe (with cream cheese frosting) can be extremely high in calories, sugar and fat, you can feel good about this more nutritious (on-the-go) version which uses applesauce to cut back on oil.  Since carrots are naturally sweet, you’d never know there was only ½ cup brown sugar in this entire recipe.

Carrot Cake Muffins

Vegetarian, Dairy Free

Yield: Makes 12 muffins [1 muffin = 1 serving] / Prep Time: ~20 minutes / Cook Time: ~20 minutes

• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1½ teaspoons canola oil
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup finely chopped carrots (about 3-4 medium sized carrots)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (to make gluten-free, you can use gluten-free baking flour)
• ¼ cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with twelve muffin liners.
2. Process carrots in a food processor until finely and evenly chopped.
3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together applesauce, vegetable oil and sugar until combined. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add carrots and mix until combined.
4. Add the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and flour to the applesauce mixture and mix well.
5. Divide batter evenly between muffin lined cups in muffin pan (a #40 cookie scoop works very well to portion batter into liners).
6. Top each muffin with a few chopped walnuts.
7. Bake for 17-20 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

Time-saving tip:
Baking cup liners will make it easy to get these muffins out of the pan with minimal clean-up. However, to avoid some of the muffin sticking to the inside of the liner, make sure the muffin is cooled completely before removing from the wrapper. Also, choose nonstick liners.

Storage: Store in an airtight container for one week or freeze the leftovers in a heavy duty freezer bag for up to 2 months.

Sport Nutrition refresher

There's no right time to focus on your sport nutrition and daily diet as it should be an ongoing focus. Unfortunately, many athletes neglect proper eating until a setback occurs. It’s never too late in your life (or season) to appreciate the power of food and proper fueling. By staying up on your sport nutrition, macros and micros and hydration needs, you can protect your health, delay fatigue and consistently improve fitness.

When it comes to performance, nutrition alone doesn’t limit performance but it can certainly affect how your body performs. The best fitness routines and training strategies are only beneficial if your body is fueled properly.

Upon writing my book, Essential Sport Nutrition, my goal was to create a go-to source of practical and effective nutrition strategies to fuel and nourish your active lifestyle. On a basic level, nutrition is important to reduce risk for disease and to provide a source of energy to perform activities of daily living. For the extremely active, what (and when) you eat will help you meet performance goals without a health-related setback. Sport nutrition can appear confusing but it’s an essential component to enhance the adaptation to exercise. When you put principles into practice, you’ll find it much easier to perform to your potential.  

Performance involves more than the latest gear, strong muscles and a great coach. Whether you’re training for a competition or exercising to stay fit, fitness improvements are built off solid nutrition habits. Supply your body with the right nutrients at the right times and you’ll consistently be rewarded with high energy, great health and quick recovery.

Your body has increased energy demands during exercise. The food you eat throughout the day and during training provides your body with energy, electrolytes and fluids. Eating appropriately also reduces risk for sickness, injury and burnout. If your body doesn’t receive or have appropriate fuel, you’ll perform well-below your capabilities. As the duration or intensity of exercise increases, the body may not be able to keep up energy demands, resulting in fatigue. When you fall short on your requirements, you will sabotage your physical health and your psychological well-being.

Although sport performance and activity enjoyment depend on many different, yet intertwined, components – body composition, strength, endurance, psychology, sleep - many athletes are misled to believe that there’s one “right” way to eat. This reductionist way of applying sport nutrition research often ignores long-term health and performance consequences in an effort to adhere to a “quick fix” approach, typically to boost performance and/or change body composition. In my book, I have chosen to take a more all-inclusive approach to practical nutrition strategies to help you enhance sport performance, fitness and long-lasting health.  I hope you find my book easy-to-follow and simple to apply to your active lifestyle. 

At a glance, each section in this book includes sound information and practical strategies on a variety of sport nutrition topics:


Part One – Nutrition basics. Learn how what you eat affects your body and the components of a performance-focused diet. 

Part Two – Sport nutrition application. Learn specific guidelines on how to fuel around workouts and what to eat on rest days.  Get to know the facts behind supplements and performance enhancers.

Part Three – Optimize performance by understanding your individual nutritional needs, dependent on the specifics of your sport. Discover safe nutrition strategies for body composition change and learn to eat for recovery, brain and immune system health. 

Part Four – Put education into practice with delicious, athlete-approved meals, intended to meet your fitness needs.

With no standard prescription for sport nutrition, each section in this book will help you move closer to creating a personalized nutrition plan while gaining knowledge and appreciation for sport nutrition. Don't wait until it's too late to dial-in your daily diet and sport nutrition regime. 

ORDER HERE. 

If you already have my book, if you could leave an honest and authentic review on Amazon, I'd greatly appreciate it! 

Appreciate your body image

We all come in different sizes and shapes based on our unique genetic make-up. However, it’s common to turn to exercise to change the way that you look. Some athletes may desire a body composition change to help improve endurance, speed, strength, power and agility. Others may want to improve health. While health and performance may be of interest, athletes are often heavily invested in appearance - wanting to look leaner or more like the idealized image of an athlete in their sport. Keeping in mind that athletic success cannot be predicted based solely on body weight and composition, athletes come in vastly different body compositions. Because no two athletes are alike and sports invite athletes of all different sizes and builds, your body weight should not be your sole focus for sport enjoyment. 

Due to pressure from society and coaches, it’s not uncommon for many athletes to have body image struggles, despite not being overweight or over fat. In turn, many athletes resort to unsafe weight loss methods and strategies when feeling "too fat."

It’s not uncommon for athletes to significantly limit caloric intake, believing that a body that weighs less will lead to athletic success. Harmful or obsessive eating behaviors are often used in attempt to achieve a lower than normal body weight or in pursuit of an extremely healthy diet. Examples include rigid or righteous eating, fasting, anxiety, control or preoccupation with certain foods, food rituals, extreme concern with body size and elimination of food groups. 

Unfortunately, comments made by coaches, body shaming, fat talk, attributing poor performances on weight, and regular weighing intensify body image concerns, leading to disordered eating behaviors. Because many athletes are given a socially acceptable setting to justify excessive exercise and strict eating habits, it’s not uncommon for the performances by an energy starved athlete to be celebrated by coaches and on social media. Bear in mind that any initial performance improvement occurring from unhealthy weight loss is typically short-lived as nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, anemia, reduced cardio function, chronic illnesses or injuries and low motivation will eventually impair physical and mental health. 

If you are struggling with body image problems or fear gaining fat/weight, remind yourself that sport participation should improve the health of your body – not destroy it.  

As you learn to love your body image, I wanted to share this quote passed along to me by one of my athletes. 

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal (Vegan)

When writing my book Essential Sports Nutrition, it was important that I included a variety of recipes that everyone could enjoy - regardless of dietary preferences/restrictions. I couldn't think of a more athlete-friendly recipe than one that included oats and blueberries. I prefer this baked oatmeal served warm, but it is also good at room temperature or chilled (I’ll leave that up to you!). This oatmeal keeps well in the refrigerator so it's great to make in advance - make sure you plan for leftovers. It's perfect for a pre-workout snack or as part of your breakfast meal.

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal 

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40
Total Time: 60 minutes
Yield: 15 servings

INGREDIENTS

• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups almond milk
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• 2 large flax eggs (2 tbsp flaxseed + 6 tbsp water)
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil (measured dry, then melted)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make flax eggs by mixing two tablespoons ground flaxseed meal with six tablespoons water. Mix together and let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes until thick.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish. 
3. In a medium bowl, combine nuts, oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. 
4. In a separate medium bowl, combine the milk, maple syrup, flax egg, coconut oil, and vanilla. Whisk until combined. 
5. On the bottom of the baking dish, spread 2 cups of the berries. Cover the fruit with the dry mixture, then pour the wet ingredients over the oats. Lightly shake the move the baking dish to fully soak the oats, then gently pat down. 
6. Spread the remaining berries on the top. 
7. Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden. 
8. Remove your baked oatmeal from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. 

A few tips:

• Use gluten free oats to make this gluten free
• You can use cow or soy milk in place of almond milk for more protein. 
• You can use 2 large eggs in place of flax egg for more protein and fat
• You can omit the nuts to make it nut free. 
• If coconut oil solidifies when added to the wet ingredients, that’s ok. You can break up any large pieces with your hands.

More recipes like this in my book: Essential Sports Nutrition

Making sense of sport nutrition advice

The best fitness routines and training strategies are only beneficial if your body is fueled properly. To help you optimize performance without disrupting health, realistic, effective and simple sports nutrition information, based on sound science, will help your body safely adapt to exercise.

Did you know that athletes have unique nutrition needs compared to the inactive? The interrelated roles of macro (carbs, protein and fat), micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), water and electrolytes significantly impacts your metabolism during exercise. For example, low energy availability (not eating enough) can impair athletic performance as the body is unable to tolerate high quality training sessions and make favorable physiological adaptations to exercise. Reasons for being in a low energy available state often result from intentional restriction of nutrients (ex. dieting, body composition changes), lack of available food or unintentional restriction from not understanding how to increase energy intake (and time nutrition with training) to accommodate an increase in energy expenditure from an increased training load.

If an athlete continues to train in this low energy state as training advances, adverse effects can occur in terms of hormones (ex. estrogen, testosterone, cortisol), poor recovery, compromised bone health, decreased neuromuscular performance, fatigue and sickness. According to recent research, "Low energy availability is the fundamental issue driving the multi-system dysfunction in the endocrine, metabolic, haematological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, immunological and psychological systems in RED-S."

No single food (addition or elimination) will help boost your health, body composition or performance but instead, it’s the synergistic role of all the foods in your diet that affects the functioning of your body during exercise. And every athlete can create a unique diet that works for health, performance and body composition. If you are an athlete, making sense of how to eat for fuel, provide your body with optimal nutrients to optimize health and time nutrition with exercise is key.

As an example:

• Water is needed to maintain body temperature, remove wastes and lubricate your joints. 
• Carbohydrates provide energy for your muscles, maintain blood glucose levels and fuel the central nervous system.
• Proteins are the building blocks of your muscles and help with rapid recovery.
• Fat is an essential nutrient that provides energy while supporting body functions necessary for human health.
• Vitamins and minerals optimize immune system health and provide the flame to metabolic reactions to help you turn food into energy during exercise. 

Food is your fuel. Eating should never cause anxiety, worry or frustration.  Busy schedules, dietary extremes, body composition concerns, misinformation, digestive issues, dislike for cooking, poor appetite and/or dietary confusion can make balancing energy intake to energy output rather difficult for athletes. Due to the intense demands of physical activity on your body, your diet should be nutritionally optimal in both quantity and quality. 

Far too much of the information available to athletes is packed with confusing and conflicting sport nutrition advice and strategies, often prescribing extreme practices or restrictive measures by "experts". If you are an athlete, coach or parent, my book Essential Sport Nutrition will help clear-up the confusion so athletes can take away the guessing and begin eating and fueling in a way to reach athletic excellence with a nutritionally-rich and performance-enhancing style of eating. I provide simple, easy-to-follow guidelines suitable for every type of athlete (fitness level and eating style).

If you currently have my book, if you could take a few minutes to leave an Amazon review for future readers/buyers, your feedback/response is greatly appreciated! 

Recipe: Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes

Athletes love pancakes! Therefore, I knew that I needed a pancake recipe in my book Essential Sports Nutrition. However, I didn't want just a simple pancake recipe. When I make pancakes, I typically keep it super simple (basic ingredients) or I use a box of Kodiak cakes (which also works great for traveling) but I wanted something a bit more nutritionally complete to help meet the needs of an active individual.

Joey mentioned to me about her sweet potato pancake recipe that included cottage cheese. At first I was skeptical.....I love cottage cheese but in pancakes??? But these pancakes came out amazingly well! Satisfying, protein-packed and a perfect option for an on-the-go snack or for breakfast. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes
Yield 10 (4 1/2 inch pancakes)
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 1 cup 2% cottage cheese (my favorite brand is Daisy Brand)
• 2 large eggs
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Maple Syrup - for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Pierce the potatoes five or six times with a form and microwave for 5-8 minutes, rotating halfway through. 
2. Place the oats in a food processor and grind until they make a fine oat flour. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside. 
3. Place the cottage cheese in the food processor and process until smooth. Add to the bowl with the oats and stir well. 
4. Scoop the sweet potato flesh into the food processor and process until smooth. Add to the bowl with the oats and cottage cheese and stir well. 
5. Add the eggs, egg whites, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg to the cottage cheese mixture and stir well. If you prefer a thinner pancake, add a little water to achieve your desired consistency. 
6. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. 
7. Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, portion the batter onto the skillet or griddle. Cook the pancakes until bubbles form and begin to burst in the center, about 4 minutes. Flip with a spatula and cook until done, 3-4 minutes. 
8. Serve with maple syrup (if desired). 

Nutrition facts
Per serving (2 pancakes)
Calories: 192
Total fat: 4g

Saturated fat: 1g
Total Carbs: 25g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 13g
Sodium: 333mg

Recipe: Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls

While it's extremely important to think about what you eat before, during and after exercise, as well as on rest days, most athletes fail to plan ahead or question what and how much to eat. When you fall short on your meal planning and nutrient timing, you also fail to ensure that you are delivering the nutrients that your body needs to help you perform (and recover) at your best. When writing my book Essential Sports Nutrition, it was important to me that all recipes were nutritionally balanced and delicious. As an athlete myself, I want my recipes to come together quickly and to include easy-to-find ingredients.

To help you out, here are a few recipe ideas from my book to help with your meal planning:

Breakfast - Blueberry Stuffed French Toast

Lunch - Southwestern Salad

Afternoon snack - Carrot Cake Muffins

Dinner - Maple-Dijon-Glazed Salmon 

 

                                           Dinner - Sesame-Honey Tempeh with Wild Rice

Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls
Pg. 146 in Essential Sports Nutrition

Yield: 24 balls

Prep: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups bite-size pretzels

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Put the pretzels in a resealable plastic bag. Crush with a rolling pin until finely crushed but not too powdery. 
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. Stir in the crushed pretzels until well combined. 
3. Use a tablespoon to scoop the mixture and roll into 24 balls. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. 
4. Freeze on the baking sheet for 10 minutes to set. 

Nutrition facts 
Per serving (1 ball):
Calories: 67
Saturated fat: 1g
Total fat: 4g
Protein: 2g
Total Carbs: 6g
Fiber: 1g
Sodium: 63g

Becoming an overnight success

Today is a very special day for me for it's one that will be remembered for the rest of my life. Today is the release date of my first book, Essential Sports Nutrition. I never thought this day would ever come and I can't thank you enough for your support. Especially those who ordered the book before the release date! I'm so excited for you to get the book in your hands in this week. I hope the book lives up to your expectations and helps you better understand and apply nutrition to your active lifestyle.

Tonight I'll be on the Run In Facebook page for a LIVE discussion about my book. You can tune-in at 7pm EST or re-watch it at a later time. We will be following up the chat with a podcast interview (Seconds Flat Podcast) answering your nutrition questions.

It doesn't seem that long ago but ten years ago I started my educational journey to become a Registered Dietitian. It wasn't more than a year after completing my Master of Science degree in Exercise Physiology when I realized that there was something very important for me to accomplish in my life and I couldn't do that with a MS degree. Write a book on nutrition.

At a very young age, I loved writing. I always had so many thoughts in my head that just needed to get out. I always seemed to have my best thoughts when I was working out (ex. swimming). Getting those thoughts on paper was so relieving for me because if I didn't, my head would hurt. and I had a hard time focusing. Eventually, all my journaling turned into blogging and eventually my words reached larger audiences in the form of magazine and online articles. I feel honored that my words have helped others experience athletic and health success.

Shortly after graduating from graduate school with my Master degree, I became very interested in nutrition, specifically sport nutrition. I had just entered the crazy world of endurance sports and I started to apply the science of nutrition and sport nutrition to my active lifestyle. As I began to learn more about nutrition, I started to experience more success in my athletic lifestyle. I then wanted to share my knowledge with others to help other athletes. But I quickly realized that credentials are important when counseling. Just like I wouldn't put my trust in a doctor who is a health "expert," the purpose of credentials is to attest the knowledge and expertise of the person who is attempting to diagnose and treat a condition or problem.

Although the launch of my first book is very exciting, I am reminded that this was no overnight success. Ten years ago I started a 3-year journey to become a Registered Dietitian. This occurred a year after I completed a two year journey of earning a Master Degree. Two years later after becoming a RD, I became Board Certified as a Sport Dietitian. After graduating from High School in 2000, I dedicated the next 12 years on my education! This took a lot of time, money, effort, brain power and did I mention, money? It was not a quick process and there were many times when I wanted to give up. Sometimes I wondered if I all this hard work would be worth it? Would I have a job/career? Would I be happy?

There's a saying that it takes successful people 10 years to succeed overnight.

In today's world, everyone defines success differently. For some, it's all about money and power. To others it's about giving back to others. Then there are people who see "followers" and "likes" as success whereas some people see material objects as success.

Regardless of how you see "success" fitting into your life(style), many people try to skip a few steps in order to get to the top faster. In today's ever-connected, fast-paced society, people want everything right now. There's no time to wait. Sadly, this has caused there to be a lot of "experts" misleading and misguiding people when it comes to health, wellness and fitness.

As you think about your own life, do you find yourself frustrated that you aren't seeing/experiencing success as quick as you'd like? Are you ready to give up?

There's a saying that "the distance between you and success isn't a yard - it's an inch. To get that final inch is excruciating. You have to stay committed."

Like the process of writing a book (or waiting for the right publishing company to reach out to you to write a book), success isn't meant to be fast. Good things take time. 

Living in a world obsessed with instant success, it's easy to become impatient. A new career, more money, more fame, better athleticism, improved health, a change in body composition....it's easy to look for (and to take) the quick and easy path to success. Abandoning morals, values and respect for yourself, some people will do anything for success - even if it means compromising your health or quality of life. Short cuts often increase your chance of failing in the near future. When results/success happen quickly or you receive something that you didn't necessarily "work" for, you miss out on the aspects of hard work, struggle, commitment, dedication and overcoming setbacks. With these things, you feel more satisfied and grateful when you finally accomplish "success."

Do you have a big goal for yourself? Are you ready for a career change? A healthier lifestyle? Improved fitness/performance? Sadly, many people work really hard only for a short time because  results are slow to achieve.

Invest. Dedicate. Commit. Don't give up.

There's no quick fix, magic-bullet or secret sauce. The idea that you need to be all-in or just not do anything at all doesn't work either.

Hard work pays off. Be patient. Do things the "right" way. Don't go at it alone. Get help. It doesn't matter what goal you are chasing.

And most of all,  never compare your own journey to an "overnight success" story.

My Book Sneak Peak - Creating Your Food Plan

As I wrote this book on sports nutrition, my goal was to give you scientific and real-world based nutrition advice and strategies to help you optimize your performance. But with every tip, guideline and suggestion, there are no extreme practices or restrictive measures. While it was important to me to provide you with appropriate advice, I also wanted the book to be easy to read and to apply. Many athletes struggle with healthy eating and proper fueling and I feel confident that my book will make it easier to eat, fuel and hydrate as you work hard for your fitness and sport goals.

This book is not a quick-fix book or one with lots of rules and confusing guidelines. Sure, rules take away the guessing for how to eat "right" but these strategies often ignore long-term health and performance consequences. Regardless of your fitness level, sport or dietary choices, my all-inclusive approach in this book will give you practical strategies to enhance sports performance without compromising your health. Because there is no definitive standard prescription for sports nutrition, I hope that this book will help you move closer to creating a personalized daily eating plan as well as giving you knowledge and appreciation for sport nutrition.

Here's a little sneak peek before you receive your copy on October 23^rd.......

In the section Creating your Food Plan, I teach you how to prioritize the important food groups into your meals and snacks. This includes fruits and veggies, lean proteins and muscle and bone building goods, whole grains and energy giving carbs, healthy fats and water and hydrating promoting beverages. And guess what, there’s even room for the "extra’s" that bring enjoyment to your taste buds, add calories and fat to your diet and boost flavors. Within each of these food groups, I provide their role in your active lifestyle, food examples, how to plan your plate based on a percentage so you don’t have to meticulously count every calorie or gram of food and suggested serving size recommendations to ensure that you eat enough. I also give tips for easy meal prepping within each food category. While I want athletes to prioritize real food and to cook at home, all of this information can be applied to eating out and for traveling.

If you haven't placed your order yet, you can place your pre-order HERE.