I care about my clients and I get a huge rush out of each session – seeing them grow. Seeing them succeed. I’ve got a big heart. But I used to be a lazy kid and a picky eater.

I grew up in Brantford in the 80s. Born in 1976. Wasn’t put into sports. I was told it was b/c I complained but later was told that mom and dad would have rather gone to the cottage. Both are probably true. The result was I watched a lot of TV.  

But I had the high school dream of being a jock. So when I wanted to play sports in grade eight, I completely sucked. I could climb trees, swim, and ride a bike. And ski. I watched my dad train a lot. But he didn’t take part in my development, other than skiing. I suddenly was living a huge misalignment of goals and I was about to transform myself into what I wanted, no matter what. About to find out that I was gritty.

 Grade nine I was 135 lbs and trotted out to the football try outs. The beatings I took were unreal. Guys like Davin Mason and Greg Newlove (seniors) absolutely blowing me up in nutcracker drills. The physical trauma in an utterly shocking. But I hung in there. Lots of bigger guys couldn’t take it. So I made the team and rode the bench that year.  

My diet was peanut butter sandwiches, KD, burgers, chicken fingers, bananas, carrots, and broccoli sometimes. Not exactly performance nutrition. A few times I awoke a night with splitting headaches, not understanding that I was massively dehydrated.  

I grew to six feet tall. That helped.  Eventually was a two-time MVP and also captain of the rugby team and went on to play at university.  

Sports science was in the dark ages. We knew enough to hurt ourselves badly and I did plenty of that in the weight room. I’ve had back problems since I was 20. Being all heart and no brains is a bad combination in the gym. So when I say I try to protect my clients in the gym, it’s out of vast experience.

 Being the gritty guy got old fast. In men’s rugby, I was once again too small.

 In the meantime, I lived in England for a year and bartended, trying to figure out what to do with my life. Then back to school for Nutrition.

Concussions piled up. That was about it for rugby. I was 30. Now what.

Triathlons were boring. Got into Jiu-Jitsu but that turned into fighting for mental health coping. Going too hard and not learning anything. Hey some good times in there and life-long friends.  

Weight cutting was interesting. I fought as light as 176 lbs and as heavy as 198 (I was a bit light for that weight class). For a while I was the go-to guy for fighters in Toronto.

In my late 30s it was group classes and powerlifting. That was all great. Then my knees gave out. Right on schedule as well. They gave me about 30 years of hardcore athletics.

And all this time I ate better and better. Diet experiments, body comp experiments, cooking experiments. I was walking the walk, that’s for sure.

Professionally I was grinding it out. Going from struggling for about five years to doing very well for about seven years. Got married and had kids. Two girls. And then the pandemic took a bit of a bite out of me and the business.

Now I train for functionality. Being able to play with my kids. Pain management. Stress and mental health management. And ya, I’ll be honest, I do like to look fit. But I certainly don’t care as much as I used to.

 And I eat ok. For a nutrition coach. I eat pretty awesome compared to the average person. Context is everything.

 I never project my values onto a client, other than a growth mindset and science-based information. Instead I try to reflect their values back onto them. Remind them of their strengths. Give them little effective changes to get them to the next level. And I believe in them because I see humans do great things every day. And I’ve done some pretty good stuff too.

 When a client wins. I win.