 Keto, Intermittent Fasting, IIFYM, Carb Cycling, low carb/high protein, Detox…. there are pros and cons to all of them and different approaches work for different people. I remember when the biggest decision you had to make when deciding to lose weight is if you wanted to join Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, however nowadays it seems like there are 100 strategies to chose from. Everywhere you turn someone is talking about their success story with a particular strategy, and you think, “Great, I’ll try that”, and then the next day some one else tells you they failed with that plan, but succeeded with another plan. You end up flipping back and forth between plans and getting nowhere. So now what?  Wine and beer have some health benefits, but alcohol can also have detrimental effects on weight loss and muscle growth. Other than empty calories and reduced will power, alcohol also effects your hormones, your quality of sleep, protein synthesis (needed to build muscle) and fat burning. So can you drink alcohol and still lose weight? 
Detoxes and cleanses are often touted as a beneficial - even necessary - way to rid the body of harmful toxins, and there are many products on the market available to help you do so. Are they an ideal way to help neutralize and reset our system, or are they a potentially dangerous waste of money? 
Intermittent Fasting has become a popular diet concept for fat loss in the last few years; many swear by it, and many swear it will cause potential long-term problems. Will you be able to reap a multitude of benefits from it? Or will it ultimately cause you to gain fat, lose muscle and put you on the brink of eating disorders? Read about the basics you need to know: the great ways it can help you lose weight, the potential ways it might backfire, and my personal experience with Intermittent Fasting (what worked, what didn't).  The ketogenic diet has helped many people lose weight and gain control of their health, but like any diet strategy there are things you need to know before you embark upon it. Is the ketogenic diet right for you? Read about the concept, benefits and drawbacks and how it might help you lose weight.  Chronic inflammation wreaks havoc on the body, contributing to fatigue, depression, weight gain and many diseases. Insulin, sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) and cortisol play big roles in how the body controls inflammation. So how to you control these hormones?
 You have goals and train for them, so make sure that you have the best pre, post (and perhaps peri) workout nutrition to help you achieve your goals.  Women struggle with symptoms of PMS and think that they are powerless to change it. Granted, there are sometimes underlying medical causes for heavy periods and PMS symptoms, but in the vast majority of cases symptoms can be relived by dietary and lifestyle changes. Even if there are medical conditions, these modifications can help everyone.
 Ask my kids what my favourite vegetable is, and they will tell you broccoli. I call it the wonder food and preach its glory in an attempt to get them to love broccoli as much as I do; sadly, to no avail!
If I’m being 100% honest, taste wise, broccoli is not my favourite vegetable, but I eat it almost daily as I truly believe it when I call it a wonder food and know how many benefits it has.  Metabolism: anabolism (building up) and catabolism (breaking down); commonly used to refer to the breakdown of food and its conversion into energy.
This conversion into energy is what we think of as “burning calories”, and each person has a different rate at which we do so. Each person is born with a certain metabolic rate, fast, slow, medium; so are we stuck with it? Or can we change it? 
Insulin: how do we control it to to our advantage? I first learned about insulin when I read a book called Sugar Busters shortly after it was originally published in 1995. I have to admit, it changed my whole perception of food, what I put into my body as fuel, and helped shape my path towards a fit lifestyle. It taught me the basics of how insulin is produced, how it acts within our bodies and how to control it in order to not gain body fat. Skip forward about 20 years and I still control my insulin daily, however I now also know how to use it to help me build muscle. With correct nutrition, insulin can help you control your body fat, as well as enhance muscle gain.  What we use to fuel our bodies can either enhance all our fitness efforts in order to help us achieve our body composition goals, or it can render all our hard work redundant. In-depth nutrition analyses can get complicated, even confusing, so here is an overview of the basics you need to know to get started.
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