Welcome to the very first posting on the DESIGNER WHEY Health and Fitness Blog. Beginning today, this space will be devoted to providing you with practical, reliable and up-to-date information on nutrition for health, fitness and athletic performance. There will be a special focus on whey protein. Come back here frequently for summaries of new nutrition research, tips on using whey protein to achieve your health and fitness goals, commentary on topical nutrition issues and more.

In this first posting I would like to simply introduce myself as the author of this blog. My name is Matt Fitzgerald and I am a sports nutritionist certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. I write extensively on the topics of general nutrition, sports nutrition and weight loss. Among the many published books are Performance Nutrition for Runners (Rodale, 2005); The Lean Look (Broadway, 2008), coauthored with Paul Goldberg; and Racing Weight (Velo, 2008).

My background is in endurance sports. I started running at age 11 and was an All-State cross-country runner in high school. After college I moved to California and began writing for endurance sports publications such as Multisport, eventually becoming a staff editor with Triathlete. Under the influence of my work environment I expanded my athletic repertoire from running into triathlon, completing my first Ironman in 2003 and earning USA Triathlon All-American status that same year.

In 2001 I became a full-time freelancer, writing for publications including Men’s Health, Outside and Runner’s World. I also began writing books. Among my more successful books are Triathlete Magazine’s Complete Triathlon Book (Warner, 2003), Brain Training for Runners (NAL, 2007) and Maximum Strength (Da Capo, 2008), which I coauthored with Eric Cressey.

I first became associated with DESIGNER WHEY in 2005, after Next Proteins founder David Jenkins asked his friend John Duke, publisher of Triathlete, if he knew anyone who could help the company with its marketing writing needs, and John recommended me. (Thanks, John!) It was a good fit because I had long been a big believer in whey protein and had written about it extensively. My favorite DESIGNER WHEY product is the original powdered whey product in vanilla flavor. I like to mix it into the fruit smoothies I drink as mid-morning snacks.

Well, enough about me. The point of this introduction has just been to let you know who’s behind the new posts you’ll see appearing here once a week or so. I hope to meet you back here often!