Hello, World!

Hey everyone out there in internet land, my name is Matt Thatcher, a personal trainer located near Toronto, Ontario, Canada and I am attempting to finally start my own health and fitness blog (as I'm sure you have guessed if you are reading this).  My family and friends have been telling me for quite some time now that I should get this show on the road and share my passion with as many people as possible.  However, I not so secretly believe that they are actually just sick and tired of listening to me talk about the latest research on nutrition or the next physical goal I am attempting to achieve.  So now, hopefully, you will all be my willing audience.  I really hope I can share some insightful information and help people no matter where they are on their own personal journey; from the beginner who thinks a calorie is a planet in another galaxy, to the advanced athlete who wants to squeeze out that last 1% of performance.

I want to keep this first post fairly simple, just like my training and nutrition philosophies.  I believe that living a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be complicated at all.  In fact, I believe it has to be simple and straightforward for long term success.  You don't need fancy equipment or special powders and pills.  The message I want to send isn't fancy, it is just to eat real food, move heavy things in a safe and effective way (even our body is pretty heavy so move that!) and take care of stress in our lives.  I know that may sound too easy, but in today's society it is equally easy to be stressed and confused as to just what exactly real food is and what exactly the best method of working out is.  While I believe there is no one "BEST" method for everyone, I do believe certain principles are the best starting point for almost everyone.  I myself follow a Paleo lifestyle and have never felt or looked better.  Do not confuse this way of eating with a focus on eating low carb or Atkins, to put it simple, Paleo is a way of eating that shifts the focus to consuming the most nutrient dense food that YOUR body assimilates the most effectively.  

I wanted to keep this first post short and sweet.  Nothing I do is too sweet, and this isn't that short. I have some ADD issues so that probably doesn't help the situation any.  Don't judge me as I run off on a tangent in my first post.  I will now attempt to bring this back to health.  There are just so many ideas, topics and information to discuss and I assure you future posts will be more pointed and specific... I hope.  Future posts will include tips and information on workouts and exercise, nutrition and recipes and various other lifestyle factors that relate to health.  For now I will leave you with a few sources of my own inspirations and people that I look up to in the industry.  Some of my favorite health and fitness blogs that I get a lot of my information and inspiration from include Robb Wolf, Charles Poliquin and MarksDailyApple.

I'm really looking forward to sharing my wealth of information on health and fitness as I continue to always learn and evolve myself.  Hopefully you guys can help me continually improve and learn new information as I want to encourage you to leave a comment or question and I'll do my best to answer it. 

Looking forward to hearing your feedback! 

Matt.

Typical day: Log clean and press at a local strongman competition.