Everyone is entitled to a rough day. A rough week. A bump in the road. But it's about how you deal. Sometimes that's part of being strong – it is just a different kind of strength. I see this sometimes with my clients when they fall into a rut and I often tell them that maybe they need change. Change is good. So last week I was feeling under the weather, being female can be crappy at times. I worked hard but felt drained and unwell all week.....

Athletes and active individuals don't always have a lot of time or money to spend on their diet. Yet, we know that food and beverage choices have an effect on health, performance, and recovery. Whether it's a university or college student living on their own while at school or a triathlete training away from home, healthy eating CAN occur on a budget. This may mean dealing with a tight schedule and limited cooking skills, but a little preparation can go a long way and allow you to do the same.

Let me start this blog off by asking you a question: do you think that if we were to duplicate your genetics, and we were to feed one of you 2000 calories of chicken, and the other 2000 calories of ice cream, your body would end up the same? Of course not. It just sounds hilarious to begin with.

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.

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.)