I don't know why I love you, but I do...

A few weeks ago I let the cat out of the bag and told you that although exercise is great for increasing strength, flexibility, cardiovascular health, ability to focus, energy production and heart health, it isn't your best bet for fat loss. What is? Lets say it together:

CHANGE MY EATING HABITS.

Great. Now that we are all on the same page lets look at what your priorities should be for fat loss

1. Nutrition
2. Interval training
3. Strength training
4. Traditional cardiovascular training

However, the something that should be included in the nutrition component is psychological training. Many people have psychological issues surrounding food and eating. Often they are emotional eaters who eat to feel better, or eat when they are anxious or perhaps even eat when they are bored. This doesn't even begin to mention how culturally we are conditioned to celebrate anything and everything by EATING.

I miss the days when people would have a dance party, or a slumber party or some other get together that didn't revolve around food. But now we celebrate Columbus Day by eating (okay, so maybe that's a bit far fetched, but not too far!) But I digress.

Take this next week to evaluate your eating habits. JOURNAL YOUR FOOD INTAKE THIS WEEK! See what times of day you eat, what types of foods you eat during the day and if there is any dramatic event that is associated with poorer choices in food.

Just make yourself a spreadsheet with the following labels across the top: "Time, Food, Quantity, Event?"

Then every time you eat something, put the time, the food, the quantity and list if there was any type of event or occurrence that may have led to the eating. If there was no event, then simply put which meal during the day it was for. If it was breakfast, type/write "breakfast". If it was snack, type/write "snack" in that column.

If you know why you are eating, you can get a better idea of how to control it and be the type of person who eats to live rather than lives to eat.

Have a great week off. The "Recovery Week Challenge" will be up Tuesday morning when I return from my motorcycle racing weekend!

Why am I doing this?

I've said it many times before. And I am going to keep saying it no matter how much parents don't want to hear it:

Developing movement skills, and thus athletic ability, is like developing any other skill - It takes time and there is a process. Just like there is a process to learning the rules of language.

So here at Peak Performance, we emphasize teaching skills through drills. Far too many sport coaches, whether they be volunteer or "professionals" are busy simply running kids through drills without teaching them the one thing that matters, WHY AM I DOING THIS DRILL?

You really have to make a conscious effort to teach kids how to move. So if you simply ask them to do a ladder drill. Yeah they will probably be able to do it, but if you can't teach them how it carries over to their sport, then you're simply making a "ladder" athlete (a kid who's great at ladder drills). And last time I checked, there wasn't a trophy or scholarships given out for being good at ladder drills.

At Peak Performance, we emphasize the big WHY. We want our athletes to know why they are doing a drill and what skill it is they are developing.

We want you as parents to know as well. So if there is ever a point that your young athlete comes to you and says, "we did such and such drill today...but I don't know why," PLEASE send me an email. I want you and your athletes to know what it is your kids are doing and why it is your kids are doing it.

Our Movement First Program will be starting on August 30th. This is for athletes ages 8-12 and the time is from 6-6:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sign them up today!! The cost is $48. And trust me, this will be one of the best things you could do to develop their movement skills and thus, athletic ability!