Mitch Calvert

To slim down sustainably and boost health and fitness, you can’t rely solely on any weight-loss drug, no matter how highly-hyped

The Oscar goes to… Ozempic!

Sweat doesn’t equal success

Almost everything you need to know about strength training is included in this column.

Visceral concerns

We recently returned home from spending a week down in the Dominican Republic.

Momentum over motivation

I get asked all the time: “How do you stay motivated?”

Real change in fitness requires hard work, resolve

As it’s January, fitness is at the top of many resolution lists.

Limiting indulgences to actual holidays can keep fitness plan on track

It’s December. The month fitness routines fall by the wayside. And that’s OK, to some degree.

True motivations for change can be difficult to openly explore

When people come to me to improve their health and fitness, we talk about their reasons for change.

Sticking to health plan most of the time will help during holiday seasons

Fifty-five — that’s the number of days remaining in 2022.

Stick to the basics

Life — and dieting — are not fair sometimes. We all know the guy who can cut out a few beers and wake up with a six pack, or that one gal pal who takes up exercise for the first time and is bikini-ready in a few months. What gives?

Fall speed ahead

I turned 38 on Oct. 4. You stop “celebrating” birthdays as you get closer and closer to the big 4-0, right?

No end to evolving

I got on the plane for my flight home from a conference in Las Vegas on Saturday and a guy was in my seat.

Don’t put off your health plan in hopes of a do-over someday

I had a tough conversation this past week.

Simple, but effective

Fat loss isn’t rocket surgery, but don’t confuse simple with easy.

Genetic ‘glitch’ could explain why some have easier time keeping weight off

Growing up, I felt like I was captain of the “look at cake and gain weight” team.

Don’t fall into all-or-nothing approach to summer fitness

It’s a real catch-22 this time of year, isn’t it?

You want to look and feel comfortable in your own skin, but you also want to partake in all the extra fun that summer brings — which usually involves food and drink that has the opposite effect on helping you look and feel your best.

I get it. The problem is the plan you think you have to follow.

I used to do that too. I’d get super lean with extremes like a keto diet and hours of exercise. But then I’d struggle to stay lean and eventually gain it back when I tried to regain some semblance of a social life.

Fitness and fulfilment

I want to get real and raw with you today. I lost my grandmother when I was very young. She was the most caring person I knew. I wish I had two decades more with her. I wish she would’ve seen me get married. I wish she could’ve met (and spoiled) my daughters. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Now, could more awareness around health and fitness have given her those extra 20 years? I don’t know. But the science is clear that so many diseases today are triggered by lifestyle choices, not fate. This is why I am so passionate about preventative health as the first line of defence.

And it’s also why I hate hearing this kind of thing… “I’d die for my kids.” It should be, “I’m going to do everything I can to live for my kids.”

So many are sacrificing self-care in an act of selflessness. But the most selfless thing you can give your loved ones is the version of you who prioritizes your own health. After all, how can you guarantee you’ll be there for them if you’re not taking care of yourself?

The clock is ticking

I took a punch to the gut the other day.

I was finishing off a workout with some planks and my four-year-old daughter, Grace, was downstairs playing nearby.

She suddenly dropped down and held a plank… just like she saw me do.

This has been a big realization since becoming a parent. Being a father has shown me how deeply our actions impact others. Some of the impacts are conscious, but the majority are unconscious.

The wake-up call

Today, we start at the beginning. Because, well, that’s usually where stories start. So here goes: I remember the moment I hit rock bottom. It was gym class in my senior year at Shaftesbury High School, and one of those hand-held body-fat measurement devices was making the rounds. I tried to avoid the test with an extended stay in the bathroom, but one of my classmates called me out.

The results told me everything I already knew: I was overweight. The reading came up at 36 per cent body fat — the worst score among the guys in the class that I saw.

I wanted to do better, but I dabbled for several years after that, and you know where dabbling gets us: a big, fat nowhere.

So, what did I finally do to lose 60-ish pounds and keep it off going on nearly two decades now? (I didn’t lose it right away, as I’m about to share.)

Packing your bags doesn’t have to mean packing on the pounds

After a rough day of travel delays returning from Nashville on Monday, I’m feeling a little more human.

And despite sampling plenty of the local cuisine (fried chicken!), my weight actually went down nearly a pound on a diet that was not like one you’d think would have that effect.

How? It’s pretty simple. This is what I did:

I purposely booked a hotel about a mile from the conference venue.

Commit to never quit

What’s the secret to stopping yourself from self-sabotaging your fitness and diet goals? That would be attacking the problems at the root, re-wiring our internal thought processes and resisting blaming something or someone else for your struggles.

The fact is, I guarantee everyone reading this could reach their goals over a long enough timeline if they committed to the basics.

There’s a member in our program, Michele, who has lost 80 pounds and has been a star pupil, no question.

But I’m sharing her story because the very excuses I hear from people why they can’t start are exactly the ones she overcame.

Working out some myths

If you’re reading this column, you’ve probably spent a lifetime figuring out fitness “dos and don’ts.” So, when science suggests something you believed to be true might actually be ineffective, it can send your head spinning. Believe me, I know. I read fitness science all the time, and that steady churn of the latest “study says” has stirred up plenty of questions over the years.

The nice thing is the basics still work. But sometimes it’s hard not to get sucked in by something new. Google is filled with conflicting advice. One site tells you to eat carbs. Another says to avoid them entirely and just eat fats. Eat gluten. Don’t eat gluten. Only buy organic vegetables harvested in the far northern plains of New Zealand. Buy soy. Oh, wait, no, avoid soy; it’ll give you high estrogen levels.

But don’t worry — I’m here to set you straight. We’ve cleared up nine of the top myths circulating on the internet, so you never get sucked into one of these again.

Myth 1: You need to buy a detox tea from that random Facebook friend

Finding your own weigh

Most people have really unrealistic expectations of how fast things should happen for them.

That’s no more relevant than in weight loss. Heck, I’ve been there. After I had my big “weight” wake-up call in my early 20s, tipping the scales at 260 pounds, I wanted to lose every pound as fast as possible. That didn’t happen. That first year ended up being a rude awakening for me.

Why? Because things didn’t happen as fast as I thought they would. I had expectations of being ripped in three months. Instead, I lost 10 only to gain back 10, rinse and repeat, jumping from one quick fix to the next.

So when I only lost 10 or so pounds in that first year, I considered that a failure. But I was 10 pounds further along than I would’ve been if I did nothing. In fact, I was adding at least 10 pounds a year prior, so it was a 20-pound swing. But I didn’t see it that way.