Sports New Year's Fitness Goals

Adam Vickers Sports Editor

WwW the new year people always start flocking to the

gym, crowding both equipment and the all-familiar hamster wheels (treadmills). The question is how do we keep these goals within reach? Every year the gym is packed in January and suddenly in February is empty. Here are the top 4 ways

to keep to your New Year's fitness goals.

1. Eat Your Vegetables. One of the best ways to lose weight is eat more vegetables, which are essential

to a healthy diet and help curb a big appetite. Vegetables provide essential nutrient for the body and don’t carry any carbs, therefore, vegetables can be eaten in large portions and won’t cause weight gain. The more vegetables, the better!

2. Set Reasonable Short Term Goals. A big problem people run into when they set their New Year

¥

M We,

ae

Frank Gunn | The Canadian Press

DA eet OALY KAA KK VOX UR OR SR Sn % BY ae MURA Mateeneetan ange”

Canada’s Jake Paterson makes save agains

resolutions is that they set yearlong goals and try to achieve them within a month. Setting reasonable short term goals help a person see the progress of their labour, which is important to reaching any goal. Without progress, we do not go anywhere.

3. Let People Know Your Goals. Letting people know what your short term or long-term goals helps keep a person liable for reaching personal goals. People often feel pressure to complete a task much more often when they know that others will be watching to see if they actually achieve these goals. It also lets people see that a person is trying to reach fitness goals

and others will often give moral support to those that are at least sticking with it.

4, Have a Plan. Having a plan is the most important thing to have when trying to meet fitness goals. Often people go in without a plan and a few days later get bored and

Bay)

rereergtee Waray eee ANY

Adam Vickers Sports Editor

ith end of the World Junior hockey tournament we thought it would be good to get an idea where the best players for the World Junior’s come from. Players come from all over North America and Europe, but one league in particular produces the best in the world. The league that produces the most world junior hockey players for the World Junior Championship is the CHL (Canadian

Hockey League). The CHL is the most competitive junior league in the world and players come from all over to play in the CHL. The CHL is organized into three leagues; the Western Hockey League (WHL), The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League(QMJHL), and the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The WHL includes BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Washington and

is the league home to the Prince George Cougars. The QMJHL is

the league local to Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince

leave. Having a plan helps track progress; helps develop a routine, and helps keep you on track. Tracking progress is important to see that one is actually getting work done. Developing a routine makes it easier for a person to go to the gym because it is part of the schedule. Missing the gym becomes more difficult, because

you feel guilty if

you miss a workout.

All the previous factors contribute to help a person stay on track because a plan is a plan and to abandon the plan is to fail reaching fitness goals.

Following these simple ideas

it shouldn’t be to long before reaching those 2014 New Year's fitness goals. Just remember to why you are doing this and what you will get out of this in the end. Health is the pathway to a better life. Health is a product of being

fit and being fit is a product of hard work and determination. Hard work and determination made easier by the tips about and hopefully those New Year's fitness goals will be reached in the near future rather than later.

World Junior Hockey: Players & Potential

Edward Island, producing notable NHL players including Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux. The OHL includes Ontario, Michigan, and Pennsylvania producing numerous notable NHL players, the best current alumni being Steven Stamkos.

Although there have been a large number of NHL players and world junior players being produced in the CHL, there are a few different league that do produce talented hockey players. These leagues include the Swedish Elite League (SEL), the Kontinental Hockey League, and the NCAA. The Swedish Elite League is a professional league in Europe that used to be biggest league in Europe. The SEL is not a league geared towards juniors, but they do produce a number of junior players. The Kontinental Hockey league, KHL for short, is another professional European located in Russia. The KHL used to be the Russian super league and is another

league gear towards professionals and not towards junior hockey players. Probably the most well known league is the NCAA, which is the college hockey league of the United States. The NCAA produces NHL talent as well but they are often at a bit of a disadvantage because of their short seasons on comparison to the CHL, KHL, and the SEL. All these leagues produce the best NHL talent the Sedins from the SEL, Alex Ovechkin from the KHL, and Ryan Kesler from the NCAA, but as it goes, the CHL has a play represented on nearly every team in the World Junior Hockey Championships. The World Junior Hockey Championship is a great way for countries to show off their countries’ prospects to the NHL as well as give young players a chance to play for their country. As other countries become stronger so does completion to the CHL and perhaps a junior hockey league will be produced in Europe in the future.