Wowsa! A LOT has happened this past week.

First, the Boston area has been blanketed in snow - 40.5 inches in 7 days will do that to anyone. While it's not Buffalo, I'm now reneging on what I wrote last week about this snow not being a big deal. Old Man Winter has obviously never had to deal with street parking, and the ridiculousness of saving your space by putting a lawn chair/garbage can/life-sized teddy bear in it. (In fact, I'd like to argue that these parking space shenanigans are literally the Tragedy of the Commons....just on a different scale.)

In fact, I'm pretty sure the 3 year old in the following video accurately sums up New England's collective feeling towards this snow:

And, how in the world did the Patriots win the Super Bowl? Even though I'm a Giants fan, it was a game that was fun to watch and I was happy to see the Pats win. Blame it on my 5 1/2 years in Boston, but there's something different when the hometown team wins (even if it's not yours). But let's be honest - if the Patriots had lost, do we really need pissed off Boston drivers to be more pissed off? I think not, which is another reason I was rooting for them.

Moooooving on, I wanted to quickly highlight my upcoming nutrition lecture this Saturday (warning: plug plug plug plug plug). The title is "Are All Calories Created Equal" and it's somewhat of an enormous topic. Specifically, I'll have my crosshairs on some of these questions: 1) Is a Calorie a Calorie? 2) Do Calories Count? 3) Does the source of your calories impact your body differently? 4) Does Channing Tatum have the best six pack in all of Hollywood (if you're sensing a man crush, you'd be correct..)

In addition to some Lolcats and Back to the Future references, there will also be some time for Q&A. And most importantly, you'll finally be able to see what I look like when I'm not wearing a Cowboy hat....or picking up heavy deadlifts.

Having said all of that, I've found myself out of time to write a full blog post this week. In its place, I wanted to share some other great articles I've read through the past couple of weeks. I haven't done a "Good Reads" in a while, but I really need to get back on the wagon. There is a ton of great content out there!

Here's the Problem with Flexible Dieting & Why It Doesn't Always Work

Maybe it's because I'll be in a nutritional mindset until after Saturday, but I thought this piece by Jordan Syatt was pretty on point. As he discusses, the problem with Flexible Dieting (and a ton of other diets) are that they are very advanced approaches. With many clients, I usually have to take a step back and make sure they're actually eating fruits and vegetables - nevermind discussing which type of butter they should put in their coffee!! (Yup, that's a thing) Anyway, it's a great post as it highlights that there can never be a one-size-fits-all approach.

Yoga For Athletes: Why Activation and Inhibition Matter More than Stretching

I know, I know....a Yoga post? Yes, a yoga post.

I'm about as far away from a Yogi as you can possibly be. For me, "Namaste" can always be replaced by "Let's Deadlift Today!!"

Jokes aside, my train of thought on Yoga has always stemed from this: rarely is it ever a good idea to blindly stretch something. Most of the times that we're tight, it's actually because our bodies are helping us to avoid becoming a giant ball of fail. Hamstrings are tight? That's your body's way of making sure your spine doesn't collapse on itself. Your hips are tight? Same thing.

That's why, when I read this post a few weeks ago, it really resonated with me. I'm not shy about being a PRI/breathing guy, because it helps get to the source of the problem (misaligned pelvis)....not just the effect (tight hamstrings). As such, this article really spoke to me, and when Yoga is done correctly, it deserves more props than I was giving.

How to Actually Stretch Your Hip Flexors

Beyond the references to both Communism and the Might Ducks' Flying V (triple deke, glove side!!!!!), this article by Dean Somerset does such a good job explaining how to actually stretch something thats "tight." In fact, there are a lot of parallels between this post and the one above, and that's not by accident. Let it be said: simply stretching usually doesn't work. Instead, there's a reason you're tight in the first place, and this article does a great job explaining it.