Dear PB Readers,

Technology is amazing. This week's newsletter is being written on the beach in Honolulu, Hawaii where I have just finished doing a live Internet broadcast of the WORLD CUP TRIATHLON RACE. Jeremy, my Canadian webmaster, had to travel to Pakistan on business this week so my words are traveling from Hawaii to Pakistan to your office or home computer all by Monday morning. The world is truly getting smaller and smaller. By the time I got back to my hotel room, my sister in southern Ontario had emailed me her enjoyment of listening to the live Internet coverage of the World Cup Race and wanted to know how Canadian Brent McMahon had finished.

One of the benefits of traveling the world is you get a chance to see how many other people live, think and behave. While there are obviously negative and destructive people in the world, traveling continues to help me appreciate how many truly positive people there are. I can still picture my two-week home stay in Auckland, New Zealand two years ago. A family I had never met before provided me a room, their kitchen and access to their car for the two-week training camp I was running. A dozen families took my athletes into their homes and spoiled them like they were their own children. Negative people don't understand that by giving away your energy to others, you are actually gaining more.

Instead of having the positive thoughts and prayers of a few, you have the positive thoughts and energy of many. This Personal Best email began because of the 20,000 emails that came to me in Sydney, Australia during the 2000 Olympic Games. What began as me giving positive energy and behind the scenes stories to a few then grew into tens of thousands of people enjoying the positive stories. Our goal each week is to be just one source of positive energy for each of our readers. Our newsletters go to teachers, principals, ministers, priests, Olympic athletes, stay-at-home mothers, coaches and disabled athletes.

When I was leaving Sydney nearly five years ago I could have never imagined that there would be interest and a demand for our newsletter. In retrospect, I really should have understood that 99% of us are attracted to positive energy and I just happen to be fortunate enough to be the medium you can use to access those positive vibes. Don't be fooled into thinking you can never have a down day or make a mistake. Positive people accept what they can't change and make the best of what they can. Every week we get 30-50 new readers from people who sign up their office colleagues, family or members of their athletic team. Keep your ideas/contributions coming by emailing barrie@personalbest.ca or going to our Personal Best website at www.personalbest.ca.

APRIL 18th PB HIGHLIGHTS

* OPRAH WINFREY QUOTE ON USING WHAT YOU GOT
* TANIA PERSAD DISCUSSES THE RIGHT CARBS TO EAT
* PB EMAIL OF THE WEEK
* BARRIE'S REVIEW OF EXCELLENCE AND A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
* JOIN BARRIE AT HIS JUNE 2ND GOLF DAY FUNDRAISER & SUPPER
* MAY 7TH SWIM, BIKE OR RUN SKILLS CLNIC OPEN TO ALL IN CALEDON

OPRAH SAYS

"Don't complain about what you don't have. Use what you've got. To do less than your best is a sin. Every single one of us has the power for greatness, because greatness is determined by service - to yourself and to others."

PS: While it's easy to say you can do anything you want when you are a multi-millionaire, it is for this reason I respect and appreciate Oprah even more. Few people get out of bed each day and make more of a contribution to society when they really have the money and health to not worry about anyone else.

NUTRITIONIST TANIA PERSAD SAYS: CARBS ARE KING FOR ENERGY

In this era of popular low and no carbohydrate diets, people may be swayed to limiting their carbohydrate intake to unhealthy levels. If your carbohydrate intake does not equate to approximately 40-65% of your daily calories on average, you may be depriving your muscles and your brain of a much needed energy source. The precise amount and type of carbohydrates you will want to ingest in a day will depend upon your metabolic rate and activity level.

Why are carbohydrates so important? Carbohydrates are the preferred source of energy for your muscles and brain, and they are the "cleanest" fuel, meaning they produce the least amount of waste product in the process of your body converting the carbs to its energy source - ATP. For athletic performance, carbohydrates are the "limiting" fuel, because if you don't have an adequate supply, both consumed and stored in your body, energy production, and thus performance, suffers. Your body will use carbohydrates either for immediate energy, to store as glycogen in your muscles or your liver, or if there is excess, to store as fat. Therefore, it is important to consume the right amount and type of carbohydrates for your activity level and metabolism.

The different types of carbohydrates are best described categorically, because not all carbohydrates are equal:

1) Fruits and vegetables: These are the nutrient powerhouses, able to provide your body with the much needed compliment of essential nutrients required for optimum energy production and health. Aim for 4-6 cups daily (mainly veggies), with 2 cups being the leafy green variety. Buy local and/or organic produce, if possible.

2) Starches: Included here are grains and grain products (e.g. wheat, rice, barley, rye, buckwheat, millet, quinoa), and starchy vegetables (e.g. corn, potatoes, squash). Choose a variety of whole grains over refined, and limit to 1 cup or handful per meal, unless energy expenditure is extraordinary (e.g. 2 hours + training per day). Don't substitute for fruits and vegetables.

3) Sugars: Limit refined sugars (e.g. white, brown and powdered sugar, corn syrup, barley malt), and opt for natural sugars (e.g. maple syrup, honey, sucanat) to provide more nutrients to the body. Athletes can consume a limited amount of refined sugar solution (5-10% glucose/fructose) for workouts > 1 hour, at the rate of 8oz per 20 minutes.

Next month's nutrition section will discuss how to determine if a person is consuming too much sugar, and what health concerns this may give rise to.

PB EMAIL OF THE WEEK

Dear Barrie, Thanks so much for the kind words. It never gets old hearing from people who like your movie. Also thanks for passing the word on, it will be a huge help. Yours, Mike MCGowan.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mike is the author and director of Saint Ralph. A fantastic Canadian produced movie about hope and power of positive action. Mike's main character is a fourteen-year-old boy who's believes that only a powerful miracle can save her. The movie revolves around this high school boy training to try to win the famous Boston Marathon and producing the miracle that he believes will save his mother. If you only go to one movie this spring/summer make it Saint Ralph. You will enjoy the message and equally important we will pass our positive energy onto Canadian Mike McGowan and motivate him to keep telling his stories!

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE

A month ago I asked a simple question. What does it take to achieve excellence? My brother-in-law and I had sat around the house brainstorming on the topic and I came up with a formula. EXCELLENCE equaled the product of PASSION, DISCPLINE, GENETICS, and LUCK. Over 400 of you emailed with very interesting perspectives on what you believed it took to achieve excellence. It could be excellence in business, sport, academics or the arts. Virtually everyone agreed that passion and discipline were two of the most critical elements required to achieve excellence. A number of you added the element of time to the formula. Great passion and discipline for a short period of time (a week, or month) won't likely achieve the same level of excellence that prolonged passion or discipline will achieve over months and years.

Research continues to indicate it takes nearly ten years to become an expert in anything. Ten years of dedicated focused practice to become a great surgeon, chef, teacher or Triathlete. Unfortunately our high paced self-gratification society often believes that you have to see success in days or weeks to continue going. I love to watch young children playing. I am convinced that the stubborn child who continues to go back and try to re-stack the building blocks, after they fall, is much more likely to be the successful business person or athlete in the future.

Many readers believed that support from others was a key element to success. While many may like to believe that they are an island, I can think of very few of the successes in my life that I don't owe to my wife, family, business partner or triathlon colleagues. Excellence often has a contributory element, where mentors, friends and family have quietly contributed to our success. Things really got interesting on this topic with the divergence between readers who believed that excellence was achieved from love/positive energy, versus numerous readers who believed that excellence was often achieved through an unstable inner-drive. My old roommate Dave Riley is one of the most balanced and talented people I have ever met. Dave represented Canada at many international White Water Kayak events and had to make a decision on whether to do his graduate degree in exercise and nutrition or continue paddling full-time. There is no question that some (I would argue not most) people fall into Dave's category of trying to achieve excellence to fulfill an unhappy or non-complete aspect of themselves. In trying to be rich, fast or the best musician they somehow believe they will achieve some magical moment of contentment.

One of my Olympic coaching colleagues sent me the following email this past week:

Barrie, your newsletter wanted to know what sort of people achieve excellence. My answer is not normal ones. Normal, nice people are average and no matter how much physical talented they might have it is unlikely they can achieve excellence. In today's competitive world excellence means to over-achieve. I am not saying that stars have to me mean, impolite or selfish, nor that some stars do not have these flaws. Rather, what I am saying is that to be driven there has to be some imbalance that creates the extra motivation. Maybe they are stubborn and someone told them they would never do something. Maybe their parents were town heroes and they think they have big shoes to fill. Maybe they are insecure. Maybe they are trying to help or impress someone else. Whatever the reason, they have extra drive. Just my two cents. D.R.

One of the things that make the world so interesting is the fact that each of us is able to express our own values. In this week's quote Oprah Winfrey believes that you have to use what you've got and that each of us have the power for personal greatness. Because greatness is determined by service - to yourself and to others - I find this particular topic fascinating and I realize I have to take some more time to re-think my personal formula. As a high performance coach it's my responsibility to challenge people to find something in themselves they didn't know they had. To challenge athletes to find that inner drive that takes them from ordinary to EXTRAordinary! Clearly, excellence is a relative term and each of us will view it with our own biases and experiences. I hope you have enjoyed this four week topic as much as I have and I appreciate the many of you who took the time to think/reflect and most importantly write me on the topic.

HELP BARRIE HELP OTHERS

Once a year I run a non-profit golf tournament to help athletes that have world-class talent and little financial resources. This year's tournament is Thursday, June 2nd at the beautiful Caledon Golf & Country Club. The afternoon 18 hole social tournament includes lunch, 18 holes of golf, draw prizes, silent auction gifts, a great post-day supper and a motivational speaker. Often, this is the only round of golf that I play each year. Please consider joining me in this fun, motivational and important fund raising day. To register for the tournament, the evening supper, or to donate some draw prizes for the day please contact Judy Riseborough at golf@c3online.ca.

DON'T MISS OUR MAY 7TH SWIM, BIKE OR RUN SKILLS CLINIC

The May 7th full day event is for athletes of all ages and abilities. Located at Mayfield High School in Caledon, the day will consist of speakers, coaches and instruction on getting active and staying healthy. If you are interested in the very inexpensive full day clinic contact the C3 office at 905-838-2662 or email Shirley at info@c3online.ca.

TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF AT LEAST ONE PERSON THIS WEEK!