Candace Cable, 48, is a world-class cross-country skier and the winner of over 50 marathons worldwide. She has competed in the Olympic games in Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona, and Lillehammer. Oh, and she's in a wheelchair.

A 1975 car accident paralyzed Candace's legs, but it didn't take away the love of being physically active that she had developed while growing up. Candace enrolled at Cal State University at Long Beach as a physical education major and became involved with many disabled sports programs aimed at helping and educating the handicapped. She became a member of the able-bodied swim team and in 1979 competed in her first swim meet at the National Wheelchair Games in New York where she admittedly "almost drowned."

The next year a track coach pointed out that Candace had a perfect physique for wheelchair racing. Candace started racing wheelchairs competitively in 1980, and has been a dominant force in the sport ever since. Her courage and determination to succeed have helped her break world records in all distances.

In 1984, Candace won a bronze medal in the Olympic 800 meters at the Los Angeles games. She won another bronze in Seoul in 1988. Again in 1992, Candace made the team that traveled to Barcelona, Spain, where she competed in the Exhibition 800 meters and finished fifth. Also that summer, Candace competed in the IX Paralympic Games. There, she won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay, setting a world record on the way to victory. Also, by winning the Long Beach National Half Marathon Championship, she completed the rarely proclaimed "Triple Crown" of wheelchair road racing. In West Virginia, she won the Marathon National Championship and in Wilkes-Barre she won the 10K National Championship. As a result of her triumphant year, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the National Wheelchair Athletic Association.

In 1988, Candace's love for skiing emerged after a visit to the Tahoe Handicapped Ski School. She took up ski racing for the disabled and gained a spot on the US Disabled Ski Team for the 1989-1990 season. During that season, she competed at the World Disabled Ski Championships and placed fourth in the Giant Slalom and sixth in the Slalom. Since then, she has maintained a spot on the team and at the V Winter Paralympics in Albertville, France she garnered one silver and two bronze medals. Candace's steady improvement earned her a spot on the "A" Team for the 92-93 season. In the 1993-94 season Candace made a change in her athletic career. She retired from competitive road racing and track, and took up cross-country skiing full time. She became a member of the US Disabled Cross-Country Ski Team that traveled to Lillehammer, Norway for the Vl Winter Paralympics. Candace continues to be a member of the US Disabled Cross-Country Ski Team and is currently making a comeback on the track and road racing circuit.

Candace sees diet as a vital aspect of being a world-class athlete.

"You won't achieve your highest physical potential without a good diet. I think that part of the problem is that most people are young when they're into athletics, and young bodies compensate, overcome obstacles, and repair themselves in amazing ways, even without a good diet. When you become older, your body doesn't work as well without the nutrition that it needs."

As a devotee of the Warrior Diet , she has found renewed energy, support for her competitive racing and skiing, and overall balance.

"Last January, my chiropractor and nutritionist showed me the Warrior Diet and I was like, 'Oh, wow, that looks interesting.' It seemed to make sense, with the undereating phase during the day and overeating phase at night. I read the whole book and I started playing around with the diet. I was eating fruits and vegetables and drinking juice and protein shakes during the day.

I felt at first that eating so little while being so active on the ski team might mean not having enough energy. But we have a lot of ski races in the winter, so I really tested the diet out. The races were in the morning, so I would have a bowl of oatmeal (the book says you can have some carbs in the day if you're active) and some fruit, and I definitely had enough energy. I sometimes would go back to the way I ate before, just to see the difference, but I'd always go back to the Warrior Diet. I didn't want to eat heavy eggs and bacon before events anymore.

In the evening, I stick to that salad before eating anything, and I notice that it really does help my digestion. Being in a wheelchair, my digestive track is compromised. Eating salad first makes everything move through at a better clip. After I get done with the salad and protein, I find that I really do eat fewer carbohydrates, because I've gotten full on the other stuff. I notice too that if I want some type of dessert after the meal, it's usually yogurt or a piece of fruit, or something like that rather than cake or cookies.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is that I don't have the sugar cravings in the afternoons that I used to have. I'm not saying that I never eat cookies; I still do sometimes. But I started to crave the things that my body really needed rather than the extra food that I thought I should eat. I used to think, 'Oh, I need to carbo load because I have a race tomorrow.' And I don't feel that so much anymore. Now, loading up on carbs means eating potatoes and yams - more complex carbohydrates - rather than bread and pasta. One of my biggest cravings used to be French fries - I liked those a lot. But I don't eat them much at all anymore because the saturated fats feel really heavy on me. Whenever I eat them, I go into a food coma!

I used to have a low energy period in the afternoon, and although the diet hasn't taken that completely away, it has gotten rid of the greater part of it. I used to feel like taking a nap around 3 pm, and I don't feel that anymore. I feel energized and clean.

The diet is pretty mainstream and easy, and I think it can work for almost anyone. You don't have to weigh your food or do weird things like that. Maybe the biggest downfall about it is that it contains the word 'diet' in the title. That word has a really negative connotation for most people. They don't think of it as a way of eating, which is what the word really means; they think it means 'restriction.' The thing that saves the title is the word 'warrior,' which feels empowering and inspiring. Hey, maybe we should just call it The Warrior Way of Eating!

In April, after four months on the program, I started to feel that my body was really balancing itself out. I haven't lost a ton of weight - maybe five pounds - but I now crave a clean and natural eating system, and I definitely feel more balanced and energized."