Saturday was a day filled with travel out to Kingston for a game against RMC (who we beat 5-0 last week).

However, this past Saturday’s game was one of the worst football (soccer) performances I’ve ever witnessed from our team.

We barely squeaked by with a 1-0 win.

And RMC is one of the weakest teams in the country!

Sunday we played Ryerson – one of our rivals from Toronto – and drew 1-1.

I had to miss the game because we had an opportunity to check out a potentially awesome house in Port Perry (about an hour outside of Toronto).

Both Amy and I are pretty much set on moving out of the big city. We think Port Perry would be a great place to raise a family. Plus, Toronto can get tiring after a while.

Anyways, this house was in need of some serious fixing up, which we were looking forward to. It’s always nice to fix up a house to your liking.

However, our offer wasn’t excepted and the seller chose a higher bid.

In retrospect, it was probably a good thing that we didn’t get the house.

Here’s why….

There was a crack in the foundation which we would have had to repair (cost = $5k-$10).

PLUS…

There was potentially some urea formaldehyde residue from the insulation lingering in the house!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think raising a family in a house with potential cancer causing agents floating around is a good thing.

The cost for getting rid of all that could have been up to $20,000!

No thanks!

So the lesson I want to share with you today based on this experience is that you need to have the ability to just move on (especially in when looking to buy a house).

There’s no point in getting hung up on things that you can’t change.

Just move on.

So what if you didn’t workout last week.

So what if you ate like crap this weekend!

Just put it behind you and move forward.

Today is the start of a brand new week and that means you get a fresh start.

In fact, every single day you wake up is a fresh start and a new opportunity for you to start living the life of your dreams.

So don’t dwell on what did or didn’t happen yesterday.

Live now and put a smile on your face because life is pretty awesome!

Let’s make it a great day.

Your friend and coach,

Yuri

P.S. In case you aren’t yet aware, we’re less than 24 hours away from releasing a brand new beginner marathon training program.

If you want to cross “run a marathon” off your bucket list, then be sure to check your email first thing in the morning for the big release!

In fact, it’s been a part of yours as well, even if you don’t know it. After all, you did crawl, then learn how to walk, ride a bike, run every now and then, and so forth, right?

As human beings, our bodies were designed for movement. That’s one of the primary reasons that we have the muscles that we do.

Because of my passion for being fit and living an active life I decided a long time ago that I would dedicate my life to inspiring and helping to do the same. Over the past 12 years, I’ve worked with over 1,200 personal clients and hundreds of athletes of all levels.

And today, I want to share 2 lessons that exercise has taught me about people. I’m sure you’ll find some value in these lessons.

As always, if you have anything you’d like to add just drop your thoughts in the comments below.

Alright, here we go…

LESSON #1 – How you do anything is how you do everything

I first heard this saying from personal development guru, T Harv Eker. And when I heard it, it really got me thinking about some of my clients and how they worked out and lived their lives.

What do I mean?

Well, I started to wonder whether my clients who were able to push themselves through grueling workouts (even when the didn’t feel like it) lived life in the same way?

Were they able to get out of their comfort zone in other areas of life and stretch their limits? My intuition told me YES. And so too did my findings.

On the flipside,  I also had clients who would give up when they were tired, when their muscles were burning, or when they simply didn’t feel like like working out on that particular day.

Well, you know what? These same clients were also doing this in their life!

That’s when it hit me – HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING!!!

Because of this, I can almost predict how successful someone will be in their life based on how they workout. I know that may sound pretty limited and I know it’s not cause and effect. But there is definitely a strong correlation.

Let me highlight this point with one of the players that recently graduated from our soccer program at the University of Toronto. His name is Nevin and he’s now in medical school after having played 5 years between our program and that of Queens’ University (in Kingston).

Here was a guy who was always early to practice, always willing to help out, always encouraging and pushing his teammates, and always at the front of the pack when it came to our fitness sessions.

A real leader he was (and still is).

I’ll never forget one fitness session I ran in late October. If you live in Toronto you’ll know just how cold it gets in late October, not to mention that our practice was at 8pm at night!

My fitness session had the team run an all out 12-minute run fitness test. This is a grueling test and requires you to run as fast as you can and cover as much distance as possible in 12 minutes.

Guess who finished first and covered the most distance? That’s right – Nevin!

But it got even better. Check this out.

After completing the 12-minute run, I brought the guys in, congratulated them on their great work, and gave them some time to recover and grab some water.

Then I dropped the bomb on them!

“Guys, get ready because we’re doing it again!”

Their jaws dropped to the floor and the swear words began to fly. Sure, I probably pissed off some of the guys but this second test wasn’t about measuring their fitness. I wanted to see how mentally tough they were.

I even told the guys that if they covered more distance than in the initial 12-minute run test, they would be exempt from fitness the following week!

Once again, the guys pushed themselves and a few of them even surpassed their previous distance. But something made me laugh and appreciate the human spirit, at the same time.

During this second test, I see Nevin running around the track (again in first) without his shirt on! It was freezing outside and here is Nevin running topless and loving it!

Nevin later told me that he loves the feeling of lactic acid building up in his legs. He thrives on it. Imagine that!

Most people associate that feeling with pain and an unpleasant experience. That’s one of the reasons that more people don’t exercise – because it gets them uncomfortable.

So here’s Nevin – loving the pain and even smiling at it.

Do you think he’s the same way in his life? Of course!

He doesn’t necessarily enjoy physical pain but he has learned (perhaps through exercise and soccer) how to push himself out of his comfort and reach new limits. And, as a prospective doctor, I’m sure Nevin is going to go on to do some incredible things for a lot of people in need of his help.

Nevin’s story is just one example of what exercise can do for us. Most people who workout regularly know the benefits that exercise brings them in other areas of their life.

How about you – what have you learned about yourself?

LESSON #2 – We are capable of incredible growth

I’m fascinated by the human body, aren’t you?

It is definitely the most intricate “machine” ever invented – without a doubt!

And one of the amazing things about our body is that when we stress it (with a positive form of stress), it grows and gets stronger. It becomes more resilient to this same stress.

Just as we grow when we get out of comfort zone, so too do our muscles when we push them beyond the status quo.

If you need proof of this, just look at the millions of bodybuilders all the world who have taken the human physique to the limits. Through consistent and specific exercise training, they have enabled their bodies to grow and bring the possibilities of the human body to the forefront.

But maybe bodybuilding isn’t your thing. It isn’t mine but I still respect the incredible discipline these guys and girls have. And the results show. Look at any athlete and you’ll see similar (ok maybe not so similar – lol) physical adaptations.

Growth isn’t just limited to our muscles. When you exercise and have the ability to challenge yourself (maybe through sport or just working out), you also begin to grow as a person.

I can tell you firsthand that playing soccer for the past 30 years has taught me more about myself than any psychology degree!

And the same holds true for any physical endeavour.

For instance, running (which I used to loathe) is now a form of movement I use to clear my mind, push my boundaries, and to feel great.

Tennis – my 2nd love (after soccer) – has helped me grow out of my “John McEnroe phase” of swearing and throwing my racquet across the court to becoming more zen and focusing on the now.

At the end of the day, exercise is an incredible vehicle for helping you reach your true potential. I think this is important because we are not our resumes or what we’ve accomplished in the past, but rather what we are capable of being and doing today and tomorrow!

=> What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

You might be asking yourself, “Yuri, what on earth are you talking about?”

Well, let me tell you.

What I plan on doing in this blog post is comparing two similar concepts that have nothing to do with each other – food and team sports.

The Individual vs. the Collective

I’ve played soccer my entire life. I love the game and I’m so happy now that I get to watch the World Cup every single day – talk about being blessed!

One thing I’ve realized in my years playing and coaching soccer is this…

No ONE player is greater than the team. I don’t care if your name is Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo – no single player can ever have a great impact the synergy created by the collective unit called the team.

After all, don’t some people refer to the word TEAM as “Together Everyone Achieves More”?

Makes sense to me.

Let me show you what I mean…

To give you an example from my career let me quickly tell you about my last year playing at the University of Toronto in 2002.

On paper, this was the weakest team that we had fielded in 4 years. Our strongest team had been the year prior where despite not making the national championships (losing in a heartbreaking semi-final loss) 4 of our players, including myself, were nominated to the All-Canadian team!

However, we lost 6 key players from that year’s team and the team in my 4th year would need to get by on something other than individual talent.

Because it was my final year as a player, I decided to take matters into my own to give ourselves the best possible chance of kicking butt. So, in the summer, I rounded up the troops and we began running “informal” fitness sessions each Saturday morning. That was the beginning of the best season I ever had.

After going through some tough challenges during the season, we bounced back and triumphed to win the provincial championship and placed 4th at Nationals – the best showing by U of T soccer in almost 10 years!!!

So what was our secret?

Good old fashion teamwork, collective belief, and a never give up attitude.

No one player stood out but as a team we came together to beat teams who had some real individual talent.

Look now to this World Cup. Personally, I feel the Germans have played the most effective and beautiful soccer. And their star player – Michael Balack – isn’t even playing because of a busted ankle.

Each of the German players plays within their system. No one needs to do anything spectacular because if everyone just does their job, then collectively they will be unstoppable.

And these examples are just from soccer but they can be applied to any team setting on the world from families to businesses and everywhere in between.

Food vs. Diet – Which is More Important

Now, with the “single vs. the collective” in mind, let’s look at specific foods vs. your overall diet.

A lot of people ask me questions like…

“What’s the best food to eat for more energy?”

“Which foods will help me burn belly fat?”

And on and on.

My answer is always the same.

Are you ready?

Here it is…

There is NO single food that is more important or has more of an impact than your overall diet.

Please re-read this sentence and take it to heart because it’s very very important.

I have nothing against superfoods like goji berries, noni, acai berries, and many others but I think too many people get caught up on the latest “miracle” food and forget to focus on the basics – natural whole food nutrition.

Here’s the thing guys…

If you spent more of your energy (and money) on quality plant-based foods (and some organic meats and eggs if you like) you will reap far greater health and energy benefits than drinking one ounce of mangosteen (or other) juice each day.

Now don’t get me wrong, if your diet is already sound and want to include such superfoods into your diet, then by all means go ahead – I certainly have and continue to do so. I personally use green barley grass as my “drug” of choice.

I think you can now see where I intended to go with post.

Are you with me?

Whether we’re talking about food or sport or anything else, the collective will always outweigh the individual. But let’s not forget that the collective (the team, your overall diet) is made up of the individual components, which, in and of themselves, need to be of the best possible quality!

After all, you are an individual. So what can you bring to the table to better the outcome of your “team”?

=> What are your thoughts on this topic? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

P.S. If you’ve enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends by simply clicking on the appropriate icon below (ie. Twitter, Facebook, etc…). I really appreciate you taking the time to spread the word.

Last night, I was at U of T,  training our soccer team in the Athletic Centre, when one of our guys did something absolutely ridiculous!

I confronted him immediately and there’s a VERY valuable fitness training lesson to be learned from this situation.

I put together a little video describing what happened and how you can learn from this BIG mistake.

Watch it here:

It’s going to give me a heart attack.

We’re here in Langley, BC for the university soccer championships and we just finished our first game – what a heart wrencher.

We (University of Toronto) played the University of Victoria Vikes (the Canada West champions) and earned a huge 2-1 victory. In all honesty, we should have been up 4-0 in the first half but with a 2-0 lead at half we knew that they would come after us.

And they did.

UVic played a great 2nd half as they continued to pump balls into our box. They finally pulled one goal back in the 70th minute to make it 2-1.

But our boys defended like their lives depending on winning this game and we emerged victorious.

Now, we move onto the semis against Laval tomorrow.

This year, some of the things we’ve really hammered home with our team is having a “do whatever it takes” attitude and having the tenacity to “never give up”.

Our last 3 games have been absolute battles and our boys have endured the hardships and glories of top level soccer. And me and the rest of the coaching are so proud of our team’s ability to get a result playing our style of soccer and fighting for the win – no matter what!

Tomorrow’s another huge game and we must WIN in order to advance to the championship final on Sunday. I’ll keep you posted.

If you want to follow any of our games you can do so through www.ssncanada.ca to see all the games that are being streamed live via webcast.