Athlete Profiles

Lean Eating women’s coach Georgie Fear is playful, bright, eager, and full of loving energy, like a happy puppy. Well, a happy puppy with PhD-level nutrition expertise and two cookbooks to her name, that is.

New mom – Amanda Graydon – is on a mission to help moms around the world stay fit, healthy and sexy during (and after) their pregnancy. In this article she shares her top strategies for avoiding fat gain and stretch marks while staying healthy and ensuring a safe environment for baby.

Back in March, Nike asked us to help organize the nutrition program for their upcoming NFL Pro Training Camp. Working closely with their culinary team, we prepared an awesome menu for the event, and hooked them up with a premium line of supplements. Then they flew JB and I out to their World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon to work with the athletes one-on-one. Here’s the story of our trip.

Once a scrawny, anorexic, distance runner, S2B Coach Paul Valiulis has transformed both his body and his mind to become an inspiring role-model and mentor. With a new body, and a new life, Coach Paul wants to show other guys that this kind of change is possible.

20 is an auspicious number for Coach Chuck, for it marks the transition between his own scrawny adolescence and his new brawny adulthood. And Ralph the turtle, who lives in the water behind Chuck’s new house, is a fitting metaphor for Chuck’s patient and steady progress to brawn and self-fulfillment.

MTV cribs is a popular show that features the homes of iconic athletes, stars, and public figures. In this episode of cribs, PN athlete and 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford is featured (along with her crib in Canmore, Alberta). And what’s on her kitchen table? A copy of Gourmet Nutrition V2, of course. Check it out. (GN appears about 40 seconds into the video).

Since our last S2B group wrapped in December of this year, anxious participants and observers have been blowing up our in boxes wondering who won the 10K in prize money for the best body transformations in this year’s Scrawny to Brawny program. Well wonder no longer. Click here to find out.

PN member YLR astounded the judges at the end of the second 2009 Lean Eating program. His remarkable transformation — losing 50 lbs and 13% body fat in 6 months — enabled him to walk away with a cool $10,000 as the winner of the men’s division. Was he a superstar? A keener? No, he was just a regular guy who got a second chance. Here’s his story.

PN member Cynthia was a clear winner at the end of 2009′s Lean Eating contest, showing that she knew how to stuff a wild bikini and walk away with our top prize of $10,000 as the winner of the women’s division. Here, she tells her story of losing 40 lbs and 20% bodyfat.

In just 3 years, Alaina has gone from a sedentary, gym-shy 200+ lb woman to a 155 lb international grappling champion. Check out this video, highlighting her grappling success, culminating in a bronze finish at the Fila World Championships.

What happens when the student becomes the teacher? When star basketball player Jody Burrows became the assistant coach of Northeastern University’s women’s team and learned about the PN system, she realized she had a chance to learn from her mistakes… and to share that insight with others.

Pam Boteler is a sprint canoeist and raw vegan advocate. Here, Pam talks about her diet, her champion mindset, and how nutrition fuels her world-class performance.

Making good food choices can become a deeply personal journey that teaches us about science, themselves, and the world around us. Many people turn to plant-based eating, and commit to a plant-based lifestyle. In this profile, I interview Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009) about her journey from twenty-year vegan to hunter-gatherer eater, and the emotional, social, and political changes she experienced along the way.

“Once you take it to the limit one time, you know what to do the next time and you just do it. No excuses.” So says Lonnie D, winner of the 2007 Male Under 40 PN Challenge. Find out how he’s doing now, and his tricks for staying lean even when he doesn’t have a PN coach on his case.

The results are in…announcing the female winners from our 2008 Lean Eating Body Transformation Challenge. Check out some of these awesome transformation photos.

The results are in…announcing the winners from our 2008 Lean Eating Body Transformation Challenge. Check out some of these awesome transformation photos.

What can you learn from these winners and true champions that can be applied to your own preparations and bigger journey? They exude “winnerness.”

PN Member Canada K just went the distance, dropping his body fat to an ultra-low 6%. How did he do it? And what can you learn from his experience? Click here to find out.

We’ve all seen magicians defy gravity, find quarters behind our ears, pick out our chosen card, or vaporize themselves out of seemingly inescapable constraints. Looks easy, doesn’t it? That is, until you try it yourself, and realize that there’s a lot of hard work behind the “magic”. The same is true of bodybuilding.

50 years is a long time for anyone except tortoises and rocks. It’s an especially long time for a country that’s used to winning. In 1959, the United States won its last title in men’s bobsledding. For 50 years, they were unable to repeat that feat. Until Steve Mesler and his team came along. Time to kick history’s butt, at 90 mph.

Is there anything sweeter in life than having wonderful children? Well, maybe your blood glucose levels if you’ve developed gestational diabetes. On the bumpy road to wellness, Danielle’s discovered that being “selfish” is, in fact, the most UNselfish thing she can do for her family.

Transforming one’s physique to be stage-ready is a challenging task. The training and nutritional diligence is arduous enough, but this transformation also challenges our self-esteem and the way we see our bodies’ natural flaws and unique features.

Pre-game plates of pasta and pitchers of sweetness, that’s not the diet that leads to eliteness. Shawn likes the mojo that eating well brings, now he finds mushrooms his favourite things. (Apologies to Julie Andrews.)

Among fitness circles, Dr Berardi’s conditioning workouts have become famous for getting people into top-notch shape in record time. In this video, watch as JB puts Alaina, Amanda, and Krista through a workout they won’t soon forget.

You hit the gym 4 hours a week. Great! But what do you do for the other 164 hours? A good workout plan only accounts for about 2-3% of your time. As baseball player Howie Clark discovered, it’s dedication and commitment OFF the field — including good nutrition — that really counts.

A good trainer or coach can be an important part of helping you meet your goals. But it can be pretty intimidating to choose one, especially in the middle of a strong-armed sales pitch, or just standing there looking like Apollo. How do you know who’s right for you? Here are some tips to help you on your journey.

For PN Lean Eating alumnus Peggy Rainbow, January 2009 roared in like a lion, but March went out like a lamb. A ripped, happy, trophy-holding lamb, that is.

Normally this is a G-rated site, but we’re turning up the heat a little, and getting our (surgically repaired) hearts pumping, to warm up the chilly slopes of Canmore. Adventure! Speed! Shooting! Nude Rick Mercer! (Oh yeah, and apparently some nice athletes also took their clothes off. For a good cause, of course…)

Most of us following PN are aware of how our carbohydrate intake can affect our athletic performance and/or body composition. And we know it’s okay to have the occasional indulgence. But what if the occasional indulgence had more serious consequences? That’s the case for type 1 diabetics, who must monitor their blood glucose closely. It’s a challenge for the most careful person… now imagine being a diabetic teenager who loves to play sports.

Just like the ups and downs of a mountain trail, cross-country skier Chandra Crawford’s had her highs and lows. Thanks to a positive outlook and the help of the PN team, she hopes to turn her latest valley into a peak.

Brendan Brazier’s traditionally-minded coach might have laughed at him when as a teenager, Brendan proposed a plant-based diet to fuel his tough endurance training. Now that Brendan has his own line of plant-based athletic supplements AND he’s a champion athlete, coach probably isn’t laughing any more. (Indeed, maybe he’s reading up on Brendan’s Thrive Diet and putting a little more spinach into his life.)

Advice to women for balancing career and family demands abounds. But what about advice for women struggling to balance their love of strength training and healthy eating with pregnancy? Kettlebell coach Lauren Brooks offers some innovative solutions and the voice of experience in her new DVD. Eat your heart out, Demi Moore; there’s a new icon for a fabulous — and fit — pregnancy.

A video update from featured athlete Mellisa Hollingsworth.

Serendipitous? Probably. Just last week, Jon Chamberg, strength and conditioning coach to UFC World Welterweight Champion, Georges St Pierre, was crushing me with a crazy conditioning workout and today this article appears in my inbox. Learn how to get into wicked shape with these high intensity training sessions.

Feel like the deck is stacked against you? Poor genetics, busy schedule, bad carb tolerance, full moon, and/or bad mojo standing between you and your goals? Relax. Stick with the program, pay attention to your habits, and you just might find, like James, that an “average person” can get above-average results.

From slob to submission wrestling champ, Alaina Hardie takes the world championships by storm, and discovers some good nutrition along the way. Just don’t take away her kale shake, or she might break your arm.

You’re doing all the right things. You’re patient and consistent. But you’re still stuck. It feels like your body’s against you. What do you do? If you’re like Deb DaSilva, you don’t quit. You take charge; you get smarter; you seek help; you find solutions… and eventually, you get results.

Torn rotator cuff. Two back surgeries. Skipped breakfasts and candy bar snacks. 47 years old. How did Sharon Briand go from this humble beginning to having a set of championship glutes?

Scrolling through the progress pictures of Pete Morgan in his Precision Nutrition bodybuilding prep log is like looking at a flip book: his transformation appears to occur right before our eyes, as if magical and without effort. It’s when you dig deep into the years and weeks leading up to Pete’s latest contest prep that you find the painstakingly developed pencil drawings. Behind the seamless illusion lie the grueling hours of hard work and determination, and several moments where Pete questioned his belief in the process altogether…

Whether it’s her standby, homemade healthy version she has after most workouts, or her once-a-week treat of organic oatmeal pancakes with warm peach compote from at a local organic restaurant, Peggy Rainbow owes much of her recent transformation success to the pancakes.