Blog - a healthy way to healthy

I am in my 6th year of training clients and offering nutritional consulting as a professional in the field. Over four of those years, it has been my only full time job. I am very confident in my training practice and in my skills for adjusting nutritional programs, training programs, supplement programs and the like, but I want more. I am unbelievably passionate about this industry and here is why....

Back to the subject of mental training: I tapped into this in Orlando. This is something that has been a weak spot. I used every visualization technique and positive thought I could delve into. Not having the confidence in sport growing up makes mental training a bit harder. I chose to see each lift as light and successful, as well as see each positive attribute of my training. I wrote things down, I used my mind's eye – whatever it took. In turn, even with some nerves this was the best I felt going into a meet.

There are a lot of traditional boot camp exercises out there (running, sit ups, mountain climbers, etc.). Unfortunately, most of them will not get you great fat loss results. Most of them are hard to do if you are injured or managing a chronic injury and cause a lot of frustration with your weight loss results. With that said, a boot camp must provide a dynamic, periodical program with progressive overload so clients can build more muscle, raise their metabolism, and thus burn more fat.

Recently a client confessed to me that she loves running because it "makes her feel free." She injured her foot about a year ago and for roughly six months she couldn't walk without pain, let alone run.

Someone told me that a person like me couldn't lift. So my job became: who is a person like me? And why CAN I lift? I like to meet challenges head on. So my journey began. I am in the final phases of prepping for the North American Powerlifting Championships. I have trained, I have devoted time to hot yoga to prepare my mind and I have eaten clean.

Am I ready? As ready as I can be. Each competition brings new mental and physical challenges and emotional hurdles. Finding the ways to deal with these is interesting. I think this time around I am better prepared.....

I have a confession to make -- I love the original Beverly Hills 90210. When I say love, I mean LOVE. Luke Perry (a.k.a. Dylan) is still one of my favorite actors. (I like him so much I listened to his interview on a sports podcast called theB.S. Report. It is a little bit pathetic considering that none of the sport references meant anything to me, but it is the truth nonetheless.)

Part of my training for Everest is not just increasing endurance, cardio and strength. There is also gear prep and making sure the systems all work together the way they should. With that in mind, I have been marching around in my new high altitude boots to break them in.

In 'Quest For Everest' Steve Whittington is sharing his training experience with us as he prepares for a big challenge: climbing Mount Everest in March. Make sure to check out the other blog posts in this series.

In 'Quest For Everest' Steve Whittington is sharing his training experience with us as he prepares for a big challenge: climbing Mount Everest in March. Make sure to check out the other blog posts in this series.