Case Study #1 is a 40 year old woman attempting to lose weight. Let's call her Mrs. T. Two years prior, Mrs. T hired a personal trainer to design an exercise program for her. An absolutely fantastic program, it helped her maximize calorie burning while giving her a total body workout. She also developed a nutritional plan that she follows in precise detail, logging her diet each day and ensuring she maintains caloric balance while eating healthy, natural foods.

I enjoy training with one of my athletes in particular, since we are closely paced. This allows us to both stay in our heart rate zones without having to modify our work outs or wait on each other. We recently met on a warm and humid morning and began a tough brick work out. Right off the bat her heart rate was significantly higher than our normal discrepancy which is about 10 beats, and her pace was slower. Our disparity only increased as we continued our work out and her performance continued to decline.

You are probably familiar with carbo-loading or consuming extra carbohydrate in the days leading up to a race. This "topping off the tank" attempts to maximize energy stores. Some athletes are now adjusting their diets to consume mainly fat in a period of a few days to a week prior to carbo-loading. This is in an effort to get the body to utilize more fat as a fuel source and spare precious glycogen stores.

Coach Wendy writes: It sounds like something your mother, partner or best friend would say, but often it is in a shortened request form - "Look after self!" Often when it is said to you, it feels more like a safety message than a request of care or an expression of concern. Looking after yourself is about developing lifestyle habits that enable you to manage your life so that you can have the style with the life you deserve!