Another Awesome Grass-Fed Butter

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Before I get started  I wanted to provide a final reminder that today is the last chance to capitalize on my 20% OFF Online Training & Nutrition Consulting! Shoot me an email at brian@brianstpierretraining.com, and let’s get your training or nutrition headed in the right direction!

Moving on, today I wanted to showcase an awesome product that I have never discussed before. Many of you have become fans of Organic Valley’s Pasture Butter, which I have blogged about many times. It is an absolutely delicious grass-fed butter that is available nationwide, and I highly recommend it. The only downside is it is often not available in traditional supermarkets, and you have to check out a Whole Foods or local health food store to pick it up.

Fortunately for you I have come across another amazing grass-fed butter, and I came across this one right in a traditional Hannafords. Not only that, I personally think it might actually be better than Organic Valley Pasture Butter! It ranks right up there with butter I bought this summer that was straight from the farm in Maine!

It is called Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. This is a delicious grass-fed butter straight from Ireland. Let me tell you, it is a beautiful yellow color, and makes the most amazing scrambled eggs!

I will point out that I found this butter on accident, while perusing the cheese options in fact. I had heard of Kerrygold butter before, but did not expect to find it in Hannaford’s! So check your local grocer, and make sure to check the butter section as well as the near the cheese.

Enjoy!

Posted on January 31st, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

3 Comments »

8 Reasons Carbs Help You Lose Weight, or Something Like That

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

A reader sent along an interesting link to me to an article titled 8 reasons carbs help you lose weight.

To be totally honest I don’t have a huge problem with this title, as you can certainly make an argument that carbs can help you lose weight. A reasonable person would simply point out that they provide fuel to help you train more intensely, and they help you to recover from that training, among a few other things.

Unfortunately reasonable recommendations are not sexy, and sexy sells. So instead this article has paragraph headings like eating carbs makes you thin for life, carbs control blood sugar and diabetes, and carbs blast belly fat. It also focuses on the term resistant starch, without providing any real world examples of resistant starch foods.

The author refers to research without providing any references. I will admit that I do this in my blog too, because it is a blog, not an article. However when readers ask for the references, I gladly provide them. There were requests, but no follow through as far as I could tell.

This just might be my favorite quote in the whole piece:

“A recent multi-center study found that the slimmest people also ate the most carbs, and the chubbiest ate the least. The researchers concluded that your odds of getting and staying slim are best when carbs make up to 64% of your total daily caloric intake, or 361 grams.”

First, you can’t conclude anything from observational research. It simply provides data to generate a hypothesis, from which you do intervention trials to test that hypothesis. You want to know when your odds of getting and staying slim are best? When you don’t eat to caloric excess. Lame I know, but true.

I also love how we all require 361 grams. So a 110lb 75 year old sedentary female requires the same amount of carbohydrate as a 250lb 22 year old linebacker? Does that make sense to anybody. Your carbohydrate needs are dependent upon many, many things, not some pre-determined number.

How about carbs control blood sugar and diabetes?

“The right mix of carbs is the best way to control blood sugar and keep diabetes at bay. In one study at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Center at the USDA, participants who consumed a diet rich in high Resistant Starch foods were able to lower their post-meal blood sugar and insulin response by up to 38%.

Eat the carbs you want, but you need to combine them so that they don’t cause a spike in your blood sugar. Instead of eating white rice, switch to brown and combine it with beans, corn, or other high Resistant Starch foods that keep your blood sugar more balanced than low-carb diets.”

First of all, extrapolating data on blood sugar and insulin response in healthy people to a diabetic population is a recipe for disaster. People with diabetes have an altered metabolic response to carbohydrate, and their post-meal blood sugar and insulin will be vastly different than that of non-diabetics.

Second, when are people going to realize that the difference in blood sugar response between white rice and brown is virtually non-existent? On top of that, blood sugar response to any food is highly variable by person, as well as the other foods in the meal.

Third, yes let’s tell diabetics to just eat the carbs they want, but to simply combine them with these special foods and magically their blood sugar will remain stable. Pay no attention to amounts, those aren’t important.

Finally, carbs blast belly fat.

“Carbs help you lose your belly fat faster than other foods, even when the same number of calories are consumed.

When scientists fed rats a diet rich in Resistant Starch, it increased the activity of fat-burning enzymes and decreased the activity of fat-storing enzymes. This means that the belly-fat cells were less likely to soak up and store calories as fat.”

Again, this research is simply theoretical. Ok so it certainly seems like resistant starch might be helpful, but did these altering of the enzymes actually lead to less fat accumulation? Soft end points are all well and good, but if the research did not look at a hard end point (like actual weight loss), you can’t extrapolate it out to actual weight loss! Where was the control? Did the control group also see the same result? This research could be completely meaningless.

In the end I think articles like this do more harm than good. Are carbohydrates these evil foods that they have recently been made out to be? Clearly not. Do some people do better with less of them in their diet? Absolutely. Do some people do well with lots in their diet? Yes to that too. Telling people that simply eating carbs, and resistant starch, is going to lead to long-term weight loss is ridiculous. Its like telling people that just eating protein is going to lead to weight loss. Neither is true.

Long-term weight loss or maintenance of a healthy body weight is not achieved by a singular focus or removal of any one macronutrient. Especially one as easy to over-consume and make poor choices with as carbohydrate.

The key is to focus on the actual food sources of your carbohydrate intake. Foods that have sustained humans throughout history, not nutrient-empty refined foods (white flour, sugar, HFCS, etc). Things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, fruits, vegetables, etc should make up the majority of your carbohydrate intake.

The next focus is on amount. I firmly believe that most people would do best with a moderate intake of all of the macronutrients. Obviously there are exceptions to this, but I think it fits best for the majority of the population. As long as you maintain energy balance and the majority of your intake is from real, whole, minimally processed foods you should be A OK.

Posted on January 28th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

13 Comments »

Stuff You Should Read

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Saturated Fat and Insulin Sensitivity – by Stephan Guyenet. Researchers and nutrition experts claim that saturated fat decreases insulin sensitivity all the time. Stephan actually looks at the evidence, and you might be surprised by what he finds.

Eating Fat and Diabetes–Response to Bix Weber – by Chris Masterjohn. I can’t link to this one directly, but it was written on January 10th. It is an awesome discussion of research in rats that was purposely misinterpreted that I think is really interesting. Chris is a brilliant guy and I am enjoying his work more and more.

Are Energy Drinks Dangerous? – by Me. I think this was a good piece that parents and kids should read.

Posted on January 25th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

The Fragility of Whey Protein

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

I have written before about pasteurization and some of the problems associated with it, such as 7-keto cholesterol formation. I have also written about the health benefits of whey protein, mainly its ability to boost glutathione (our master antioxidant).

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about both, but first I wanted cover glutathione in a bit more detail.

Glutathione has many important functions:

  • Neutralizes free radicals and peroxides
  • Maintains blood levels of antioxidants vitamins C and E
  • Helps the liver and white blood cells in the detoxification of foreign compounds and carcinogens
  • Is essential for the immune system to be maximized
  • Plays a key role in a plethora of metabolic and biological processes like DNA synthesis, protein synthesis, prostaglandin synthesis and more.

We know that whey protein’s cysteine content is responsible for much of its ability to boost glutathione, but not all of it. This ability may also come from two biological fractions: beta-lactoglobulin and serum albumin. These proteins contain some very unique glutamyl-cysteine bonds that tend to enter our blood stream intact, and are much more readily turned into glutathione. Unfortunately it seems that when whey protein undergoes extensive heat treatment, these two delicate fractions are destroyed.

Not only is this a problem in whey protein powder processing, it is a problem with pasteurizing milk. In fact, pasteurization in general decreases the whey protein concentration in milk. The heat causes the proteins to denature and associate with the casein proteins. The higher the temperature, like when milk is ultra-pasteurized, the greater the denaturing of whey.

In fact whey normally makes up about 20% of the protein in raw milk. Gentle pasteurization (high temperature, short time) causes this to drop down to about 12-13%, while ultra-pasteurization causes whey to fall to only about 5% of the total protein content!

On top of that, exposing raw milk to different heat treatments also affected those delicate biological fractions of whey. In raw milk beta-lactoglobulin makes up almost 90% of the whey protein. After gentle pasteurization it made up just under 70%, and after ultra-pasteurization it dropped down to just over 20%!

In addition to the beta-lactoglobulin, serum albumin levels are also affected by pasteurization. Gentle pasteurization has been found to decrease serum albumin levels by 40%, while ultra-pasteurization reduced it by 77%!

I point out all of this simply to highlight the fact that much of what we have done to our food supply, and this is just one example, has significantly decreased the benefits of those foods. We have gone away from using traditional (and by that I mean non-industrial) methods of food preparation and food safety, and much to our dismay our health has diminished and our food safety is not what it should be. Is pasteurized milk healthier? I would say no. Is it safer? Maybe.

I am not telling you that you need to drink raw milk, in reality you don’t need to drink milk at all. I am simply giving you the information so that you can make an informed choice.

From a personal standpoint I was consuming raw milk before my wife was pregnant, but have not done so since. As much as I feel it is a healthier food, to me the difference between that and the Maine’s Own Organic Milk (gently pasteurized) that we drink now is not enough to justify the risk of listeria to her and our unborn daughter.

Posted on January 24th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

72 Comments »

Your Food Environment Atlas

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

A reader sent me a pretty cool link the other day. It is called the Food Environment Atlas.

This atlas allows you to see things like access and proximity to grocery stores, availability of grocery stores and restaurants as well local food options such as number and percentage of farms with direct sales, farmer’s markets and more.

You can see these and more in your home state, as well as across the country. Check it out and see what you find!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Posted on January 21st, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

You Asked, I Answered

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

In my recent blog on the awesomeness of potatoes, I got some interesting and common questions from people that I thought should be shared more fully than on the comments section.

Q. Good information and makes a good case to eat potatoes. However, how much of the nutrients do you think are in the skins – the part that most Americans don’t eat? Haven’t done the research myself but I’ve heard most of the nutrients are in the skin.

A. The idea that most of the nutrients are in the skin is a myth. While it is true that some nutrients, and much of the fiber is in the skin, the flesh itself contains plenty of nutrients and some fiber too. I honestly don’t think it makes too much of a difference if you eat the skin or not. If you enjoy the skin, eat it, if you hate it, don’t eat it. It isn’t worth forcing it down and making your meal less enjoyable for extra gram or two of fiber.

Q.Great articles, as always, Brian.

I’m wondering what your thoughts are on the glycoalkaloids and saponins found in both potatoes and quinoa? For someone with no known auto-immune of GI dysfunction, are the levels contains in these foods even worth worrying about? For myself and most of my clients, I’m a big fan of adding in quality starchy carbs in the form of peeled yams, sweet, red and white potatoes. Quinoa seems like a nutritional powerhouse, but the saponin levels are much higher than that of peeled potatoes. Cause for concern, or overblown hype?

A. The glycoalkaloids of potatoes are tightly controlled and monitored in the US. The most common varieties have incredibly low quantities of glycoalkaloids.

The level that is generally recognized as safe is 200 mcg/g. As you can see, only the flesh of one variety exceeds this level – snowden. I have never seen these sold anywhere, and I believe they are only used for potato chips.

It is absolutely true that glycoalkaloids can be toxic at high doses, and can cause low birth weight, liver damage, anemia, weight loss, diarrhea, and even death. However, pretty much every plant on the planet (and some animal foods too) contain some form of toxin. These defenses are how they prevent themselves from being eaten. There are dangerous levels of these toxins, but we are adapted to tolerating them in small doses.

On top of that the research that showed the ill effects from glycoalkaloid consumption used amounts that far exceed anything we could get from normal potato consumption. Stephan also explained this in great detail in one of his posts, so I am just going to post what he laid out, because it was incredibly well done:

“What happens when you feed normal animals normal potatoes? Not much. Many studies have shown that they suffer no ill effects whatsoever, even at high intakes (12). This has been shown in primates as well (456). In fact, potato-based diets appear to be generally superior to grain-based diets in animal feed. As early as 1938, Dr. Edward Mellanby showed that grains, but not potatoes, aggravate vitamin A deficiency in rats and dogs (7). This followed his research showing that whole grains, but not potatoes, aggravate vitamin D deficiency due to their high phytic acid content (Mellanby. Nutrition and Disease. 1934). Potatoes were also a prominent part of Mellanby’s highly effective tooth decay reversal studies in humans, published in the British Medical Journal in 1932 (89).

Potatoes partially protect rats against the harmful effects of excessive cholesterol feeding, when compared to wheat starch-based feed (10). Potato feeding leads to a better lipid profile and intestinal short-chain fatty acid production than wheat starch or sugar in rats (11). I wasn’t able to find a single study showing any adverse effect of normal potato feeding in any normal animal. That’s despite reading two long review articles on potato glycoalkaloids and specifically searching PubMed for studies showing a harmful effect. If you know of one, please post it in the comments section.”

In my opinion the skin and the glycoalkaloids are not worth worrying about. There might be conditions where they aggravate the symptoms, like inflammatory bowel disease, but in an otherwise healthy person, the choice is yours.

As for the saponin content of quinoa, that is another example of a bitter plant-based toxin to prevent itself from being eaten. In most commercially available quinoa’s in the US, the saponin content has already been removed, so this is not an issue whatsoever. Another concern is the phytic acid issue in all grains and seeds. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that binds to minerals and prevents their absorption.

Quinoa does contain phytic acid, but the same process used to remove the saponins also removes about 30% of the phytic acid (reference), so this isn’t a big issue either. If you want to ensure that their are no saponins, and decrease the phytic acid content even further, you can germinate or sprout the quinoa.

To do so, you simply soak the quinoa in water for 2-4 hours, and then rinse well in running water in a fine strainer. Quinoa has a very short germination period, which is convenient. This step will probably improve your quinoa even more, though it isn’t necessary if your quinoa has already been washed and/or rubber to remove the saponin content.

Posted on January 19th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

1 Comment »

Avoiding Surgery, Green Tea for Performance, and Lifting Weights Improves Endurance

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

Many of you have probably heard the phrase “When you all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” This is often used in reference to orthopedic surgeons. When people with knee or other joint problems seek them out for counsel on their pain, more often than not, they get surgery as the answer. Makes sense, surgery is what surgeons do, even if it is not the best course of action.

Recent research actually found even more damning evidence against orthopedic surgeons – If you see an orthopedic surgeon who also owns (or co-owns) a surgical facility, you are even more likely to get surgery. Awesome. While orthopedic surgeons most definitely have their place, see a good physical therapist first. They will let you know if physical therapy alone can solve the issue, or if surgery is the next step. Its worth a shot. Surgery should be the worst-case scenario, not the immediate solution.

In other interesting news, among the growing amount of research done on green tea it was found that EGCG, green tea’s major antioxidant, can actually raise your VO2 max. Your VO2 max essentially tells us how well your body uses oxygen – ie your cardiovascular fitness. We aren’t talking hugely dramatic increases (about 4%), but since we already know that green tea improves endothelial function and increases blood flow, it makes perfect sense. The study used EGCG pills, which were equivalent to about 3 cups of green (or white) tea per day.

On top of that a diet rich in flavanols (of which EGCG is one) found in tea, wine and dark chocolate improved blood vessel dilation up to 47%. This separate research only makes the above study make even more sense, and lend further credence to the idea that what you eat is just as important as how much.

Lastly a recent 12 week study looked at Norwegian cross-country skiers. They had half of them lift weight and do cardio, and compared them to the other half who did cardio only. Unsurprising to those who actually lift weights, but probably very surprising to those who want to believe that cardio is god, the group who lifted and did cardio were able to perform at a higher level for a longer period of time than the cardio-only group. Just one more reason to do cardio, and lift weights for your best performance.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Posted on January 14th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

9 Comments »

Online Training & Nutrition Consulting – 20% OFF!

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

Today I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. With the New Year upon us and many people making their resolutions to improve their health, body composition and performance, I want to let you know that I am here to help.

I just recently wrapped up some consulting with a few clients, and had some spots open up. I figured with the New Year, that people might be interested in my online coaching services. To top it off, I have even decided to offer a 20% discount on my services, for anyone who signs up before Jan 31!

This is includes a discount on any of my online nutrition consulting services, as well as my online training services. Below is a general idea of what my nutrition and training services include:

Nutrition

  • Comprehensive Nutrition Questionnaire – this provides me with your likes, dislikes, allergies, intolerances, and more to help me customize the consultation specifically to you!
  • Complete Dietary Analysis – this provides me a snapshot of your normal dietary intake, and I provide you thorough and detailed feedback to maximize your results.
  • BSP Nutrition Tips & Guidelines Packet - you will learn the nutrition principles to guide you through your lifetime, and dispel so many myths and misconceptions along the way! This packet along with my feedback on your actual eating habits will teach you the skills to make you nutritionally bullet proof.
  • Personalized Meal Plans built specifically for you, no cookie-cutters here!
  • Unlimited Email Access to my personal account 24/7.
  • Training programs written by me to work synergystically with your unique nutrition program, all specifically designed for your needs and goals.

Training

  • Comprehensive questionnaire covering your health and injury history, prior training experience, your goals and your schedule. We will look at postural photos, any videos you can send of you performing exercises and more to ensure you maximize the effectiveness of the training.
  • Video demonstrations and/or pictures with descriptions of how to properly perform every exercise I program for you.
  • Personalized One-Month Training Programs built specifically for you, based upon all the information gathered in your questionnaire. Each program will cover proper warmups, soft tissue work, dynamic mobility, recovery modalities, corrective exercise and whatever training modalities your goals warrant; fat loss, strength, power, mass, athletic, general fitness, etc.
  • Unlimited Email Access to my personal account 24/7.
  • I bring the knowledge and the ability to put the whole package together. You just need to bring the attitude and effort!
  • Nutrition Programs written by me to work synergystically with your personal training program, catered specifically to your needs and goals.

If you are interested in my specific consulting offerings at 20% off, please shoot me an email at brian@brianstpierretraining.com.

For those of you skeptical of working with me online, I have worked with dozens of clients online, from all over the world, and here is what a few of them had to say:

“I can’t say enough good things about working with Brian!  I will admit, I was a bit skeptical about working online/from a distance with someone for nutrition purposes, but Brian quickly put that skepticism at bay.   I was most impressed with the amount of time he took talking to me in our initial phone consult and then all the subsequent emails answering any question I had in a very timely fashion.  There was no cut and paste programs here–he really focuses on you as the individual.   His feedback on all my nutrition logs was incredibly detailed and extremely helpful for making the necessary positive changes to reach my goals.  I also loved all the recipes he gave me.  I had a real issue eating unhealthy snacks because I lacked the knowledge/creativity to create healthier more interesting snacks.  Brian gave me so many options for easy to create, healthy snacks that filled a real void in my daily diet.  I highly recommend working with him!”

Jeanne Higgins, Seattle, WA

“In late March 2010 I contacted Brian St. Pierre for a nutritional consultation hoping that he could assist me in cleaning up my diet.  At the time I felt as if my eating habits were “good” but I was certainly aware that they could be better.  Brian was thorough and exhaustive in his evaluation and critique of my eating habits and provided me with the perfect ideas on how I could alter my diet to achieve my goals.  What I liked the most about Brian’s services is that he didn’t try to totally revamp my current ways but instead offered ideas and insights into how I could do things better.  He worked with my food choices and how I schedule my meals and provided me with a path to success that I am confident will last forever.”

Joe O’Leary, Brighton, MA

“After working with Brian, I can say, without a doubt, that it was the best decision I’ve made for my training in a long time.  Being a facility owner, I found myself neglecting my own training, and when I did train, I only did the exercises that I favored the most.  I decided to get in touch with Brian because of two reasons 1) having visited CP before, I knew how creative Brian could be with his programming, and 2) he had the nutritional knowledge to back it up!

The results speak for themselves – in 3 months of being a training/nutrition client with Brian I not only added 7.7 pounds of lean weight, but I also increased my Front Squat by 27.5 pounds, my 3RM Chin Up by 14.3 pounds and my Deadlift by 17.6 pounds – all this after I broke my finger the first week of the program, was put into surgery in the second week, and couldn’t do any grip intensive work until after the first month!

The best result, though, was that Brian showed me how to make quality food choices, and helped me develop solid nutritional habits – something that will last with me throughout my whole life.  If you’re on the edge of deciding whether to use Brian or not, my advice is just do it – you won’t regret it.”

James Garland, Strength Coach, Australia

Again, this is a limited time offer, so if you are interested in hearing more about my services, please contact me at brian@brianstpierretraining.com. What do you have to lose?

Posted on January 10th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

2 Comments »

Stuff You Should Read

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition, Training

I was able to visit CP yesterday for the first time since September. I gotta say, it was nice to train in that environment again, compared to my normal gym these days it was a nice change of pace. I brought a few friends with me who had never seen the place, I think they enjoyed seeing what a non-commercial gym actually looks like. Meeting Kevin Youkilis probably didn’t hurt their opinion either.

The renovations are looking great, and the space is going to kick even more ass. I have to admit that it is a little bittersweet every time I visit, as I greatly enjoyed my time there. It would be really nice to coach in the new set up too, as it allows for improved vision of the entire floor.

Anyway, I thought I would leave you guys with some interesting articles for the weekend. Some of these were inspired by my trip to CP, some were just awesome. Enjoy!

DeFranco Prowler Training – Joe DeFranco. This is a brand new T-nation article from Joe DeFranco on proper utilization of the infamous Prowler. When he talks about the love/hate relationship with the Prowler, I can totally relate. I mainly hate it though. Enough that I wanted nothing to do with it yesterday, so we did some sledgehammer swings instead. Regardless, Joe provided a quality article on some excellent ways to utilize the prowler.

5 Loading Protocols that Suck – Eric Cressey. First I want to state that EC did not choose that title, and it does not accurately represent the content, so keep that in mind when reading. This is another T-nation article inspired by my trip to CP. Eric takes a look at 5 common loading protocols and discusses their strengths, weakness, applications and times to try something else.

Wheat: In Search of Scientific Objectivity and New Year’s Resolutions – Chris Masterjohn. While many of you may know that I am not a fan of large amounts of wheat consumption, I do think that preparation makes a huge difference. Hence why I like sprouted grains. In this article Chris digs into the study that is often cited to support the idea that “wheat is evil”. It is excellent, and he pokes some serious holes in the study. I highly recommend reading more of his stuff, as he provides some fascinating and top-quality information.

Posted on January 7th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

2 Comments »

5 Things to Look Forward to in 2011

Filed under: General Health

Eric wrote a great piece recent on the 17 Reasons He’s Excited for 2011, and it inspired me to write a similar piece of my own.

I had a lot of incredible experiences in 2010: we got a puppy, my wife got accepted into her desired residency in our home state of Maine, I got accepted into the University of Maine Master’s program and Dietetic Internship, I got to work at Alternity Healthcare, we moved home to Maine, my best friend returned from Afghanistan, and so much more.

In 2011 I have much to look forward to, and here are 5 of my favorite ones:

1. Having a baby girl!

My wife and I are expecting a baby girl on May 6th, 2011. We are incredibly excited, and that excitement certainly seems to be rising as we get closer and closer to her due date. There is much to learn and prepare for!

2. Learning more about the birth experience.

I never in my life thought I would say that, but lately my wife and I have been reading and learning a lot about the whole birth experience. I always pictured birth as how you see it in the movies or on tv – loud, painful and relieved when it is all over.

We have recently watched the Business of Being Born, and I am in the process of reading Your Best Birth, while she reads Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. These resources have opened our eyes to the mess our medical system has made of the process of childbirth. How you see it on tv is NOT how it has to be.

We are learning that we can choose the birth experience we want, whatever that may be. But the the choice is ours. This is an area that I look forward to learning so much more about, and I am sure will learn the most as we go through the actual experience.

3. My Dietetic Internship.

My Dietetic Internship begins in May, and is the journey I have to undertake to become a Registered Dietitian. Clinical dietetics is also an area that I am woefully lacking, as I have never worked in a hospital in that capacity. I look forward to expanding my skill set and finally becoming a RD.

4. Continued growth of BrianStPierreTraining.com.

This website has grown by leaps and bounds each year, and I learn just as much from writing about topics as any of you doing by reading about them. This blog has been one of my greatest accomplishments. Here are my year end statistics:

  • 117,263 unique visitors
  • 321,878 visits
  • 961,010 page views

This is an increase in 40,000 unique visitors, 150,000 visits, and 460,000 page views over 2009! Thank you all for continuing to read my site and make it a success!

On top of that there will be some continual improvements on the site in the very near future. I will have a free newsletter set up very shortly that I think you will all love. As well the site will be moving to bspnutrition.com at some point as well. It is a much more user-friendly URL, and I think gives a more accurate representation of my site. These are just a few of the improvements I have planned for 2011!

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Yeah, this is pretty much going to kick ass. I would even bet that just like Return of the King, this final chapter in the will win some much-deserved awards in recognition of the excellence of the entire series.

I am sure there are many more things I could write about, like writing more articles, potential new projects and the like, but I wanted to keep it simple.

Again, this site would not be possible without you my readers, so please let me know what you would like to see more of in 2011.

Posted on January 4th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre

5 Comments »

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