Gary Roberts: 7 Essential Habits To Achieve & Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle

Get exclusive tips from Gary Roberts, 23-year NHL veteran, Stanley Cup winner and Canada’s leading advocate for whole, natural and organic food-fueled high performance training!

Updated, June 26: Want to eat like Gary? Click here to check out his essential High Performance Shopping list.

Gary Roberts is a 23-year NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner with 1224 games played, 2560 penalty minutes and ranked 14th all-time in scoring for a left-winger (438 goals and 472 assists for 910).  Since his retirement after the 2008-2009 season, Gary has become a leader in high performance training and sports nutrition for both amateur and professional athletes.  Since 2011, Gary has been training many of the top NHL and junior players at the Fitness Institute.

July is Get Active Month here at Nature’s Emporium, and we were fortunate enough to get some exclusive tips for a successful transition to an active lifestyle from Canada’s healthy high performance guru – and long time Nature’s Emporium customer – Gary Roberts!

Here’s 7 Essential Habits to Achieve & Maintain a Healthy, Active Lifestyle from Gary Roberts!

“My philosophy on how to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle evolved through my own experiences – first, as a professional hockey player for 23 years and now, as a lifestyle coach to athletes.

It is based on an integrated approach that brings together three elements:  proper training; healthy eating; and, regular recovery strategies.  Ultimate success, in my view, is a commitment to all three.

It is worth mentioning the particular importance of healthy eating.  You can train hard and focus on helping your body recover but all those gains you make can be significantly undermined if you don’t eat right.

I believe the best approach to healthy eating is developing healthy habits.  Once you do that, sticking to a healthy lifestyle becomes much easier.  To help, I offer you my top 7 healthy habits:

1. Drink plenty of quality water to stay hydrated.

I recommend a natural spring water because it is clean and contains minerals our bodies need.  I like to start my day with a couple of glasses natural spring water with fresh lemon to hydrate and cleanse.

2. Eat natural whole foods as much as possible.

A variety of organic is best to maximize nutrients.  Focus on eating:

• lean proteins (e.g., fish, poultry, grass-fed beef, lean pork, beans and lentils, eggs)
• good carbohydrates (e.g., lots of vegetables, fruits, whole-grains)
• healthy fats (e.g., extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, raw nuts and seeds, unsweetened nut and seed butters, avocadoes, organic butter, fish oil)
• fibre (e.g., freshly ground flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, raisins, dates).

3. Engage in some type of physical activity everyday.

My rule of thumb for training is train more days than you rest – so I train at least four days a week. As a family, we all try to stay active everyday – e.g., swimming, sports, training, riding our bikes, going for walks.

4. Limit the amount of sugar you and your children eat.

You may be surprised how many processed foods contain some form of sugar, and much of it is highly processed like high fructose corn syrup.  I recommend choosing only natural sugars and using them sparingly (e.g., pure maple syrup, raw honey, and coconut sugar which is a low glycemic option that can easily be substituted for refined sugar).

5. Eliminate bad fats.

This means highly processed and genetically modified ones like corn oil, soybean oil, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. They are also in many processed foods like cookies, cakes, granola bars, cereals, pizza, salad dressings, condiments – the list is long!!! Instead, choose healthy oils – unrefined and pure like a high quality extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.

6. Get plenty of restful sleep.

That means get rid of the electronics in your bedrooms and get to bed well before midnight.

7. Do everything you can to reduce stress.

The above tips should help in that department!”

Thanks Gary – we appreciate the hard work that you continue to invest in today’s top performers, and the many thousands who look up to them. Thank you for spreading a positive message emphasizing the importance of natural & organic whole foods in all of our lives!

To learn more about Gary Roberts’ High Performance Training and get more healthy tips (and videos!) be sure to visit his program website by clicking here!