Fat does not make you fat! I just hung up the phone with my teammate from 2006, Mike Lowell. Mikey was musing about how he buys low fat ground beef for his chili, sometimes even turkey. He can’t help it; he’s simply doing what society told him to do. By the time we hung up the phone, he was amped to add a splash of real mayonnaise made with farm fresh whole eggs to his tuna and replace fake “low fat spreads” with high quality, grass fed butter. But why did Mikey feel like a low fat diet made… Traveling can cause even the most dedicated, disciplined eater to stray off course. Here’s a pretty natural unfolding of events. You arrive in a foreign city, and your body’s clock is off. You’ve been stuck on an airplane and taken the strong, bold step of avoiding snacks at the airport, assuming you’ll grab a meal first thing upon arrival. But you ate breakfast at 6:00 am and the flight was delayed ninety minutes. By the time your bags arrive and you’ve groggily thrown your gear into the rental car, it’s been seven hours since you received an injection of… A friend recently asked me if I have a sweet tooth. The answer is unequivocally yes! What I’ve found, however, is when we change our lifestyle to remove nearly all the added, refined sugar from our diets, real food begins to taste sweet. We can satisfy our desire for decadence in a manner consistent with our fitness goals. Low carb eating plans are a popular fad, but I am not a fan, particularly for athletes. We are not solely dependent on our bodies for high-level athletic achievement. A sharp, strong mind is instrumental to our ability to compete successfully… Improving sleep seems to be a pretty common goal. Turn on a TV and you’ll see dozens of ads; Lunesta commercials are my personal favorite. I’ve always wanted that electric green butterfly to visit me. Good sleep is so delicious that folks are willing to chance aggressiveness, confusion, hallucinations (the good kind?), risk of suicide in depressed patients, unpleasant taste, dizziness…well, at least the people in the ad sure are sleeping soundly. What is it about a quality night’s sleep that makes people dream these risks might be worth it? Sleeping less than your body needs, even by an… Ensuring you have an appropriate warm up is essential to any successful program. Warm ups prior to exercise are important to prepare your circulatory system and muscles for exertion and reduce the chance of injury. Unfortunately, traditional stretching routines are ineffective. The most potent way to warm up for an athletic activity is by performing the same movements you will be doing with substantially less intensity. If you’re going to take swings in the cage, take swings from both sides at 25%, then 50%, etc. If you’re getting ready to do heavy squats, perform the exercise with your body’s… Workout classes blast their sound systems for a reason, folks. Music enhances your training sessions. Your favorite tunes are capable of subconsciously encouraging you to train harder and distracting you from pain. From the New York Times in 2010: Multiple experiments have found that music increases a person’s subjective sense of motivation during a workout, and also concretely affects his or her performance. I have a deep passion for all kinds of music. From Coltrane to Biggie, from Prince to John Lee Hooker, I love all genres. When I’m working out, however, I want something to draw out my physicality and push… Water is the answer. My son and I start our afternoon grabbing lunch at a restaurant in Malibu; one we’ve never tried. I decide on the salmon over quinoa with a mango salsa. The waiter delivers the dish to our table; it looks fantastic. It tastes as delicious as it looks, and I wipe it out in four bites. In my mind, I feel like it wasn’t enough food, even though there was plenty of nutritious density. Getting home, I head into my office to resume my work day. I’m immediately hungry. I know I won’t be eating again…