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Enjoy the holidays while staying on track with a few handy tips and tricks. The holiday season is a joyful time of the year, it's full of festivities, celebrations with loved ones, and lots of delicious food. Being able to indulge in good food and some extra treats is a given during the season, but it's also important to maintain a balanced approach to eating that supports your overall health. You shouldn't fear certain foods, all food can be enjoyed in moderation, especially

Balancing a busy life and work schedule while also working toward your health and fitness goals can prove to be a challenging endeavour. Fuelling your body with nutrient-dense foods that support your fitness goals is one of the most important aspects, good nutrition will not only fuel your workouts but also promote recovery and help build muscle. Finding time to cook healthy meals each day can often feel overwhelming and time-consuming, however, this is where meal prep comes

What is intra-workout nutrition and should you even consider it? Have you ever heard the term "intra-workout nutrition"? This type of nutrition has been a bit of a hot topic lately in the fitness world. So let's talk about it! What is Intra-Workout Nutrition?  Intra-workout nutrition refers to nutrients that you consume during your training session. This type of nutrition can help you maintain energy levels, enhance performance, and accelerate recovery.  Types of Intra-Wo

We've talked about pre-workout nutrition in a previous blog, so now let's discuss post-workout nutrition and how it could benefit you and your recovery... Fuelling your body after a workout is just as important as fuelling your body before a workout. Pre-workout nutrition will help give you the energy to complete your training session, whereas, post-workout nutrition will help you recover from your session. Ensuring you have a balanced meal after training will help promote re

Let's deep dive into pre-workout nutrition and why you should be fuelling your body before your next workout... Understanding how to fuel your body properly before and after a workout can make a difference in both your performance and energy levels during a workout and your recovery after. In this blog post, we are going to focus on pre-workout nutrition. We will discuss post-workout nutrition in the next blog. Proper pre-training nutrition enhances your ability to train with

If you slip up on your nutritional plan, all is not lost. Let's talk through some strategies you can apply to help... Adhering to your nutrition plan can feel like a consistent battle, I totally get it! It can feel even more challenging when you are face-to-face with tempting treats or you've gotten yourself into a stressful situation and are longing for some comfort food. Slipping up on your diet can happen from time to time, but what matters the most is how you bounce back

Does nutrient timing have any benefit, let's discuss... Nutrient timing refers to consuming nutrients at particular times for maximising performance, recovery and overall health. This particularly concerns macronutrients which include protein, carbohydrates and dietary fats. It is a strategic approach that is more important for those who train at a high level and are looking to maximise their results. By carefully planning when to consume these nutrients, you can maximize the

Understanding the nutrition panel on packaged food can be a little confusing, let's break it down together... Understanding food labels can be an extremely helpful tool on your fitness journey, but also in regards to your overall health. By understanding how to read nutrition labels, we can ensure we are making informed choices when it comes to the food we eat. If you are currently flexible-dieting, reading nutrition labels will help you determine the caloric and macronutrien

So you want to lose weight and are in a calorie deficit. Here’s what you can expect… I’m just going to get straight to the point with this one… If you are truly in a deficit, you are going to be hungry at some point in time. This is something you need to accept if you want to lose weight. If you are hungry, chances are your deficit is working. Being hungry is a part of the process. Your body is using more energy than it is taking, therefore, you are in a successful deficit. T

We can make our long-term goals seem more achievable by breaking the ultimate goal down into smaller goals throughout the journey. This becomes our short, medium and long-term goals. Previously, we have discussed SMART goals in relation to our fitness aspirations. You may refer to the blog “How to Determine Your Fitness Goals: A Strategic Guide”. This blog will give you a more in-depth run-down of creating goals using the SMART method. To briefly recap, SMART is an acronym wh

Can alcohol lead to weight gain? If so, why is that? Let’s discuss… Alcohol is sometimes referred to as the fourth macronutrient. Our main macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates and fat. So why is alcohol considered the fourth? Alcohol contains calories and this is why it is considered a macronutrient, however, unlike the other macros - Alcohol does not contain any other nutritional value, e.g. vitamins, minerals, or fibre. Let’s compare the four macronutrients and their c

What is the 80/20 approach and can it help you achieve your health and fitness goals in a balanced way? The 80/20 approach (aka. 80/20 Rule) is an everyday nutritional approach where you aim to eat 80% whole foods and 20% “soul foods”. Now when I say “soul foods” I’m not referring to dishes from the Southern United States, I am talking about foods that make you happy and warm your soul. These types of foods may be less nutrient-dense, e.g. your favourite treats or snacks. Whe

Have you ever wondered how fast or slow you should be completing each rep of an exercise? This is where we can manipulate our training tempo and Time Under Tension… Tempo training/training tempo in relation to resistance training is the speed at which you complete a single repetition of an exercise. We can modify our training tempo for different exercises to manipulate the amount of stress our muscles are under during a specific exercise. When we are strength training, we use

By now, you have probably heard the term “macros” thrown around once or twice in the health and fitness world. So what are they? What are ‘macros’ you ask? Macro, is short for ‘Macronutrient’, and macronutrients are nutrients that your body needs in order to function. ‘Macro’ specifically means ‘large’ and ‘nutrient’ means a substance that provides essential nourishment for both life and growth. So basically, macros are needed in quite large amounts for the body to be able to

When you are choosing a comp prep coach to help you with your journey to the stage, you must take into consideration many different factors