We've all heard the cliche's before: "It's the journey not the final destination", "No Pain No Gain."

All these things describing health, fitness, exercise and athletics in general. I have walked the path of a highly competitive athlete and it was a great path, a long walk and I think all I got out of it was two bad ankles! I shouldn't say that. The truth is I have great memories of my time as an athlete; the tournaments, the camraderie, the swarms of good-looking girls in the athletic centres :). But as I look back now after years of choosing to eat right, training both cardiovascularly and resistance, and ensuring my body is in peak healthy condition I begin to realize the failure to improve athletes for life by high schools and colleges. I realize now, during my time as a competitive athlete in high school and college, I was not taught the finer points in training practices or even an inkling of information on what one should eat when performing as much activitiy as I was in those days (2 hours 5-6 days a week). It took years of being sick with a cold all winter and being a lil too lean for my own good to realize that I was not eating all the pieces neccessary to live a healthy life let alone be a competitive athlete.

So, I decided to give up competitive sports and dedicate my time to researching proper training techniques and proper nutrition for humans of all ages, sizes, and activity levels. During this time I discovered, quite painfully, I had a large number of food intolerances. After years of suffering from what I was previously diagnosed with "Irritable Bowel Syndrome", I was finally free of daily, hourly, minutely (is that a word?!) pain from eating food (the food allergies were what I was really suffering from, I never had IBS). Being tested for food intolerances was one of the best decisions of my life and it has forever changed my life and my partner's. Here I was 22 years old, after years of being highly competitive and sick all the time, finally living the life a 22 year old should.....minus the pizza and ice cream! Darn it, guess you truly can't have it all!

The time I spent researching workout techniques paid off as well. Being 6'1 there were difficulties for me performing certain exercises properly (having a wingspan of 6'5 doesn't help either) and I wanted to make sure to avoid injury. So 4 years after I began training, my time and effort showed itself in a well-developed physique as I competed in my first Natural Bodybuilding (DRUG-FREE) Competition and took home top honours in my division and third in the open mens division. I have yet to compete again but have helped other individuals train for their own competition goals.

As of right now I work as an outside Sales Associate for a large Sports Nutrition Distributor and I have a small business on the side selling Custom Fitness Plans for a nominal fee. I have a listing here on Ebay if you are interested in checking it out (just write in Custom Fitness Workout Plan to see the listing). Now that you know a bit about me you can see what I have done, what I have gone through and how I have made it pay off for me into a career.

I hope there are plenty of other success stories out there too. I would love to work with anyone insterested in making themselves better physically, mentally and for the longterm by incorporating proper training and eating techniques into their life.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this. I will blog again.

C.