Reservoir

Our Team

James "OPT" FitzGerald 

The guy that paints the picture, James is the founder of OPT and The International Center for Fitness.  When not coaching, he's a full time husband, father and fitness athlete. His 20+ years of experience and service as a strength coach/technician, tireless practice on refining energy system work, nutritional and lifestyle balancing techniques and training of other coaches has made OPT a sought after method of bringing fitness to a Higher Order.  James has found a desire and passion to understanding fitness through assessment, testing, research, programming and more.  He has had many years experience as an athlete from early childhood into adulthood, from playing top level soccer, short and long distance running to CrossFit where he was crowned "The Fittest on Earth", Winner of the 2007 CrossFit Games.

Max El-Hag

Max was a two sport division 1 athlete, playing both football and wrestling at Lehigh University.  After injuries cut his collegiate athletic career short, he searched for competition in his training.  After a brief stint on Wall Street, he found mixed modality style training as a form of conditioning for his mixed martial arts hobby and began his coaching career.  Max holds certifications as a level 1 PICP Biosignature practicioner, a level 2 PICP coach, a USAW Level 1 sports performance coach, and a variety of others.  After spending time under James as both a client and an OPT CCP coach, he is happy to have transitioned into a full time member of the OPT team. Contact Coach Max

 

Natalie Taylor

Natalie Taylor has been participating in sports and fitness activities for nearly 30 years. She was both a competitive gymnast and swimmer and enjoys running and triathlons.  Her interest in these activities led to coaching jobs while she earned her degree in physical education.  After graduating from California State University, Chico,  Natalie spent 10 years teaching physical education, health, and nutrition science in the junior high and high school setting.

Her athletic background was the perfect combination for mixed modal training.   As she progressed in the sport of crossfit, Natalie's interest in coaching other adults led her to make a career shift.  For the last 5 years Natalie has worked as a personal trainer, group class instructor, and manager at NorCal Strength and Conditioning.  During her time at NorCal, Natalie was steeped in the application of paleo nutrition, and is continually looking to increase her knowledge and improve her coaching.  Her experience with OPT CCP led her to a position with the OPT team.

Natalie's teaching experience, personal fitness background, and general love of movement create a superior combination for coaching.  Natalie has worked with clients of all ages and fitness abilities, but she specializes in helping clients take that first step toward fitness.  She makes health and wellness attainable for everyone by creating an appropriate training and lifestyle plan designed to improve time management, sleep, nutrition, and fitness.

She is available for individual or small group training, as well as remote programming.   Finding time for fitness isn’t always easy—however with Natalie you will work efficiently by including multi-joint strength development, speed, stamina and flexibility as part of your sessions. Natalie holds her NSCA CPT as well as a variety of CrossFit certifications. Natalie will help to make fitness a foundational and successful part of your life.  Contact Natalie.

 

James Taylor

James Taylor is a Georgia Tech engineering graduate with a passion for fitness and the process of achieving goals.  After running cross country and track and field in college, he started working out with mixed modality training with the mindset of staying in shape.  As he learned more about overall fitness, he discovered that it is a lifestyle - a journey including optimal nutrition and injury prevention from proper technique and mobility.  He is most passionate about individualized fitness consultation and program design and is eager to coach determined individuals.  James considers himself a student of OPT CCP and thinks the student mindset is important for growth as a coach.  He also believes that how you address your weaknesses in life defines you as a person.  James is a certified CrossFit trainer, especially enjoys Olympic lifting, and is a running expert.  Contact Coach James.

 

 Meghan Sweet

Meghan is a full-time athelte and coach at OPT. Growing up playing soccer she discovered early on her passion for training and performance. Her curiosity for fitness began while working at Gold's Gym in high school where she personally tested many types of training and nutrition programs to reach optimal fitness. 
 
After college she became a marketing manager for a large healthcare IT organization; while she enjoyed impacting healthcare, something was missing. During this time she was introduced to Crossfit which opened up her mind to a new way of approaching fitness that was fun. Soon after she went on to become a coach receiving several Crossfit and OPT CCP Coaching Certifications. Eventually she left her corporate job and became the general manager at her gym where she shared her passion for wellness of body, mind and spirit by coaching hundreds of people to achieve their personal wellness goals. 
 
Meghan discovered the OPT Big Dawg blog in her quest for a higher level training program for the sport of fitness. After joining the community she enrolled in the OPT CCP program and became an exclusive client. Experiencing such great results in her own performance, she joined to OPT team and is committed to transforming lives through individualized coaching. Contact Meghan to get started on your journey.

 

Matt Bryant

Matt comes to the OPT staff with years of experience coaching all walks of life. He has experience working with kids, the general public, fitness enthusiasts, sports teams, and high level athletes on program design, personal training, and group classes.  Matt was a college basketball player, and shortly after finding the efficacy of mixed modal training for himself, he began using it with success on clients and as a men's and women's college basketball strength and conditioning coach.  

Matt decided to come to OPT to continue to grow as a coach and athlete.  He has dedicated his life to this purpose and has learned from experiencing what he teaches first hand.  Matt is an OPT Athlete on site in Scottsdale, Arizona and a CCP coach. His competitive attitude keeps him striving to see his full athletic potential and helps motivate his clients to achieve more than they thought possible.  Matt's experiences as an athlete allow him to work exclusively with individuals wanting to take their fitness to the next level.  His experiences with personal training and his friendly personality also make him a perfect fit for on-site personal training and remote online training no matter what your goals are.  To have a consult with Matt contact him here.      

Sharon Prete 

Sharon is a human behavior specialist and CCP coach. She is the director of Integral Corporate Wellness a Calgary, Alberta based firm that specializes in assisting corporations to design and implement wellness programs in order to create a healthy and energetic workforce, which creates a culture of engaged, invested and productive employees.
 
Sharon spent ten years coaching gymnastics and swimming athletes from beginner to competitive and loved the art of teaching movements and athlete development. While in university, her undergraduate work in software engineering expanded her perspective of systematic and holistic thinking. After a career in Internet development, she returned to her two true loves: health and coaching both as a Demartini Method facilitator and OPT CCP Coach. Here she was able to combine strategic systematic thinking, her studies in human behavior and her love for fitness coaching.
Sharon is a Trained Demartini Method Facilitator with the Demartini Institute in Houston, Texas-- a private research, education and service institution dedicated to the development of human awareness and potential. She is an advanced student who has spent the last seven years mastering the universal principles of human behavior and development.

She is also grateful to have been in the last graduating class of Bernie Novokowsky’s renowned Higher Order Thinking program. As a mentor, Bernie challenged her apply her knowledge in highly efficient and effective ways that upgraded her coaching skills, business practice and understanding of universal laws.

Sharon is the co-conductor of the CCP Life Coach module, expanding the awareness coaches have of themselves and their clients in order to increase their level of coaching mastery. Sharon’s dedication to the study and integration of human behavior, health and wellness, and universal law has created the unique and dynamic perspective she brings to the OPT family.

Please send all inquiries for Sharon here.

Mathieu Lalonde

A big part of OPT - the nutrition expert. He is our OPT Coaching Certification Program Nutrition Module Course Co-Condutor. Mathieu is a research chemist with a genuine interest in human metabolism, nutritional biochemistry, health and athletic performance. Matt obtained his bachelor's degree of science with a concentration in chemistry from the University of Ottawa. He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to pursue graduate studies in organic chemistry at Harvard University. Upon completing his Ph. D., Matt decided to examine the primary literature on the subject of nutrition with the rigor of the scientific method in mind. This painful yet enlightening process underscored the flawed logic and experiments that lead to today's largely erroneous nutritional advice. Matt aims to teach individuals how to interpret published material such that they can determine for themselves what is fact and what is unsound. Ultimately, Matt's goal is to truly help the general public attain optimum health and fitness through proper nutrition.

Sean Greeley

Sean is all about making the most from of all you've got. We are very fortunate to have Sean as OPT CCP Business Module Co-Conductor . As a professional Wake Boarder he rose to the very highest level, representing team USA at the World Championships in Germany. As a fitness business owner, again, he far surpassed what many of his peers in the industry dreamed of accomplishing, creating a 653-strong client base and 2-location business in just 3 years, starting from nothing. Sean was also recognized as one of the Top 10 personal trainers in the country during that time.

After battling Stage IV cancer, Sean sold his fitness businesses and (along with his partner Eric) started another business from scratch and turned it into a multi-million dollar, industry leading company called NPE (which stands for Net Profit Explosion) that supports fitness business owners in all aspects of business growth and development. A feat recognized by the very best business builders in the world at the Glazer Kennedy Info-Summit 2008 where Sean & Eric won the "Info Marketer's of the Year" award. And now in 2010, NPE has been recognized as #131 on the Inc 500 list (and #16 in the Marketing & Advertising sector) of the fastest growing private owned US corporations.

Sean's biggest asset is his ability to systemize and then maximize almost every business essential from sales, to marketing, to management and more. If there's a faster, easier and more profitable way to do something, Sean will find it.

In his spare time Sean likes to "relax" by cranking out nausea-inducing OPT workouts, surfing in oftentimes shark infested waters, or being pulled at up to 23mph, hanging onto the back of a wakeboarding boat.

 Contact Sean here

Bernie Novokowsky

In honor and memory.

Bernie Novokowsky is the founder of Novokowsky Consulting Group. Bernie held a Master of Arts in Organization Development and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems –- both from The Fielding Graduate University (USA). Bernie's clients range from large multi-national companies to small business operations and individuals in many different industries.

Bernie co-authored the successful book "Creating Paths of Change" 1993, 1997), which has been a required text for Transition/Change management seminars at the University of Calgary and at the Banff School of Management. Bernie was also the author of a chapter in the recently published book "Transformative Phenomenology: Changing Ourselves, Lifeworlds, and Professional Practice" (2008). Bernie's first career was in the Canadian army; he then practiced leadership in the corporate sector as a Team Leader of Organizational Effectiveness in a mid-sized oil company. In the last 18 years, he remained a leader in consulting practices, as well as in his volunteerism.

Over the last 18 years, Bernie presented at numerous conferences, focusing on helping organizations survive and thrive in today's business environment. Bernie focused on applying "Higher Order Thinking" (HOT) frameworks for designing and implementing better organizational (and personal life) work practices, systems, and outcomes. His HOT schema emerged as a result of his doctoral research and practitioner experience into personal/professional power. After a three –year hiatus with cancer, Bernie is continued his practitioner-scholar research, development, and consulting of pragmatic "higher orders".  Bernie will always be remembered and the OPT team will forever be grateful for what he brought to this world.

Dr. Jeoff Drobot B.Sc., ND

Dr. Drobot is the Medical Director of the prestigious Calgary Centre for Naturopathic Medicine.

Dr. Drobot graduated from the University of Calgary with a Science degree in Exercise Physiology. He then pursued his doctorate degree from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon.

He is regarded by his peers as a leader in Naturopathic Medicine.

Dr. Drobot is a leading authority in the fields of European Biological Medicine, chronic and autoimmune disease treatments, detoxification, hormonal imbalance correction and customized sports medicine and nutrition programs. His love of medicine has evolved into a vast clinical focus treating men, women and children from the youngest to the oldest - all of whom benefit from Dr. Drobot’s constant quest for knowledge. This passion for learning has regularly led him to travel the world attending seminars and spending time with the most talented people in medicine.

Dr. Drobot has written health care articles for a variety of publications, including the Calgary Herald and Alive magazine, and he also routinely lectures for major corporations, sports teams and associations.

 Dr. Dick Thom, DDS, ND
 
Dr. Thom graduated from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry in 1974. He obtained his first Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from the Ontario College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1986, and in 1989 he completed a second Naturopathic degree from the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) in Oregon.  Dr. Thom is a full-time Professor and the past Dean of Naturopathic Medicine at NCNM.  He teaches clinical and physical diagnosis, gastroenterology, neurology, x-ray practicum and business entrepreneurship. In addition, he is a clinical supervisor and teaches various electives.  Dr. Thom lectures extensively on health and business topics and has written and collaborated in the writing of many articles and books dealing with drainage, nutrition and business. Dr. Thom has been in private practice in Portland, Oregon since 1989. In August 2009 he received The Vis Award from the AANP in recognition of one who represents the Vis, the Healing Power of Nature, as demonstrated through their work, life, and community service.

 

 Mike Kesthely
 
Mike Kesthely Mike Mike Kesthely has been involved in athletics his entire life, ranging from years playing box lacrosse, martial arts, rock climbing, mountain biking and Crossfit. He currently works as a Firefighter/Paramedic for the Lethbridge Fire Department, and is also the Health & Fitness Coordinator for the department. In his off hours, he works as a trainer with Crossfit Lethbridge, a high-quality strength & conditioning gym located in Lethbridge, Alberta. His passion lies with nutrition, and improving client performance, health and longevity through dietary analysis. His credentials include OPT CCP Nutrition, Level-1, under James Fitzgerald and Mat Lalonde, PhD; Precision Nutrition certified (Sport & Exercise Nutrition) through Dr. John Berardi and certified as a Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist. Mike has focused his passion for athletics on nutrition; he utilizes his knowledge, experience, and data to successfully augment performance, health, and longevity based on his client’s needs and goals.Contact Mike or visit his website for more information on his nutrition consultation services