You Get Less Competent the More You Run Away from Challenges

July 10, 2019/in Blog, Developing a Disciplined Mind, Philosophy

Believe it or not, personal competence is actually like a muscle. If you haven’t been to a gym before and you start lifting weights, what do you think will happen?

Well, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that in the morning, you’re not going to feel all that well. It seems like your muscles are aching all over the place. It’s like they’re screaming at you to stop working out.

You put a tremendous amount of pressure on muscles that are not used to that stress and pressure. What do you think will happen? That’s right, a lot of pain. The secret here is that you must work through the pain.

A lot of people are under the impression that if their body is telling them that it’s in pain that this is their signal to stop. This is the most common mistake rookies make. When you listen to your body, you’re basically listening to that part of yourself that is telling you to take it easy. You’re listening to that part of yourself that does not want to be stressed, confronted and challenged.

What do you think it will ask for? That’s right. It will ask for you to take it easy. It will ask you to do something else that is more pleasurable. It’s going to ask you to just lay off anything that may involve discomfort, inconvenience or sacrifice.

But it turns out that if you want to make the pain go away, you go to the gym and lift more weights. Sure, it feels like murder the next day, but if you keep going, the pain evaporates. It turns out that the pain is temporary. It’s the small price you pay to achieve higher levels of muscle discipline and strength.

The same applies to your competence. If you want to just focus on your current level of expertise and knowledge, you’re not going to improve. You’re not going to be curious about what else is out there. You’re not going to challenge what you think you know. You’re not going to break things apart and try to put them back together and figure out how to connect the dots and see the big patterns.

You’re not going to achieve any of that. Those are the things that will take your knowledge to the next level. Those are the things that will enable you to become a greater expert and authority in whatever field you’re in.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that they can coast or take it easy based on their current level of expertise. They end up running away from challenges. They focus on the things they know. They focus on the “tried and proven.”

Unfortunately, the more they do this, the less competent they become because the value of their knowledge erodes over time. Also, if you don’t want to challenge yourself, chances are you’re not going to figure out better ways to articulate what you already know.

The Worst Kind of Pollutants Are The Ones You Can’t Detect Physically

July 9, 2019/in Blog, Detoxing Solutions, Nutritional Consultant

“To see is to believe.” How many times have you heard that saying? Unfortunately, a lot of people have made that statement their life’s mantra. In their minds, as long as they cannot empirically perceive something, then it doesn’t exist. Well, I don’t want to bring back nightmare memories of you back in high school or college philosophy class, but do you remember your professor asking this classic philosophy question?

If a tree falls in the woods and no one was around to hear it, did it really fall? This is one of the most basic philosophical questions because it goes straight to the heart of our conception of reality. The obvious answer, of course, is yes. If a tree fell in the woods, and we know what a tree is, and we know how falling works, and we know that falling often involves some sort of vibration in the air, and we know that vibration in the air can be perceived as sound, then the answer is a resounding yes.

In other words, reality operates according to certain rules that don’t change regardless of perception. I want you to wrap your mind around this truth, because when thinking about detox. Believe it or not, the worst kinds of pollutants in your life are not the ones you can detect physically.

They go beyond your drug test. They go beyond the alcohol level in your blood or breath. They go beyond your x-ray. They go beyond any kind of test that involves the human sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. In other words, the worst kinds of pollution are mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Why are they necessarily worse? Well, what if I told you that regardless of what physical shape you’re in if your mind is in the right place, you will be able to do things that you previously felt you were incapable of doing. This happens all the time. People who have serious physical limitations are still able to do what they want to do because they have the right mindset.

That’s how powerful your spiritual self is. If you’re completely honest with yourself, it makes everything in your life possible. Your choice of clothing, your physical shape, your overall health, your lifestyle, all of those began as choices, and where do you think choices come from? They start out with an idea which is processed through your mindset.

This is stuff that you cannot see. But just because they remain locked within the deep confines of your consciousness doesn’t mean they have an effect. You find yourself going around in circles unable to do much about the patterns you constantly find yourself living out. Talk about feeling trapped. This is not the way to live. But, if you are stuck within this type of life pattern, you feel there’s not much you can do about anything in your life. It’s as if you are bound to repeat the same bad decisions over and over again.

Self-esteem without Competence is a Recipe for Failure

July 8, 2019/in Blog, Developing a Disciplined Mind, Philosophy

For the longest time, in the United States and elsewhere, educational policymakers bought into the idea of self-esteem. Please understand that self-esteem is a good thing. Nobody’s disputing that. However, according to this educational policy philosophy, for students to perform well in life, they need to have their self-esteem built up and encouraged early on.

Again, just like the observation that self-esteem is a good thing, this seems pretty good on the surface. What’s there to argue about. The problem is if you are going to be building your self-esteem based on affirmations and being made to feel good about who you are without any accomplishments or physical results produced by your efforts to back it up.

You are building your house on sand. This is precisely what happened with generations of youth fed on the steady diet of self-esteem stimulation. That’s really what it is. You just stimulated the formation of self-esteem not through actual achievements, accomplishments, sacrifice, hard work and other traditional indicators of success.

Instead, people got self-esteem by being respected for showing up. That’s it. That’s all you need to do. You just need to show up and you get a prize for participation. According to this school of thought, your feelings are paramount.

If only things worked that way. Sadly, a lot of people who base their self-esteem on the fact that they happened to show up know deep down inside that their confidence is hollow. They know that this is not the way real life works. They know that the world may have some rude surprises waiting for them. No wonder, many people with supreme self-esteem are very frustrated and confused.

As long as you’re feeling okay about yourself, then there’s really not much difference between what you think and what everybody else thinks. You are entitled to your estimation of yourself, the rightness of your action, so on and so forth.

What this created is self-esteem that produced very hollow self-confidence. People definitely can feel that they can do stuff, but they can only do it in theory. When they’re actually given challenges to produce and deliver results, most people, who focus primarily on self-esteem without the matching competence, fall apart like a house of cards.

Self-esteem without competence is a recipe for failure. If you’re having a tough time in any area of your life or you feel you’re frustrated or stuck in any area of your life, maybe it’s because of this. Sure, you feel good about yourself and it seems like you have a high estimate of your ability to get things done.

Unfortunately, unless and until that high estimation is based on actual experience and results, you’re just wasting your time. It’s probably going to be very hard for you to overcome challenges. It’s probably very tempting for you to just quit the moment you’re confronted with actual difficulty.

If you’re suffering from any of these, thankfully there is a fairly straightforward and simple solution. Click here for the solution.

How To Lose Weight Permanently Without Fad Diets Or Surgery

June 7, 2019/in Blog, Dieting Vs. Surgery, Personal Training

Many persons have tried and fail at weight loss and I need to admit that this is because there is much misinformation and also mis-truths out there when it comes to weight loss. The excellent news is that the truth on the subject of fat loss is not a secret, and you do not have to pay wads of cash to lose weight.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on slimming programs, but we still are getting fat. I am sure you, like me, are constantly bombarded with weight loss ads, emails, banner ads, and solicitation. Even now I get them, and I usually do not need to lose any more weight. Can we have some reprieve?

If you, yourself are to experience and enjoy permanent fat reduction, then some fundamental changes will have to take place in your lifestyle. And unfortunately, this is the most difficult aspect of the diet. Weight loss programs look and sound good on paper, but unless they offer a lasting solution to your weight loss, you will visit the same road over and over. Therein lies our dilemma, too many calories and not enough activities.

The first one we want to look at is the type of foods we eat or what we eat. It is no surprise that we are the fattest nation in the world if you look at the typical American diet. This diet consists of obtaining calories from 35 to 50% fatty foods, mostly from animal sources.

With all the marketing and food placement tactics that supermarkets use to try to get us to purchase junk, we will have to be disciplined not to buy them.

Fat not add is fat not needing taking away. Are you confused by that? You see if decide to eat a 6 oz steak which is regarding 1200 calories instead of a wholesome vegetarian meal which would consist of just 500 calories, you will have to work hard at losing those seven hundred added calories. If you had eaten the vegetarian meal you would have to do nothing.

Eating smaller in general meals throughout the day will help cut down on overeating. will not snack, but instead, eat fruits or a salad or some raw nuts. Success starts with breaking your fast! Have breakfast every day.

If you stop the habit of eating late at night after 8 AM, then you will begin to notice a change in your energy levels the next day and you will be more inclined to eat breakfast. It is better to eat more frequently throughout the day but with smaller portion sizes at each meal.

Here in the USA, we have become a very sedentary bunch of couch potatoes. The less we become active, the more we get fat, and the more we get fat is the less active we become. Start small just by simply walking around the block, and then build up from there.

Liquid Diets Or Surgery Can Make You Lose 50 Lbs…But is it Worth?

June 6, 2019/in Blog, Dieting Vs. Surgery, Personal Training

When it comes to weight loss all of us wish to come across a wonder! The dieters are willing to spend any amount of money to lose more weight is less time. Innumerable advertisements suggest that you could lose 50 pounds in a month. Using liquid diets and the surgical methods they have actually made it possible. But is this worth the gamble? We wish to become slim in order to look pretty. But can an unhealthy person look that pretty & attractive?

Here are some diets and surgical means to lose 50 pounds in a month and their side effects:

Liposuction

This is a cosmetic procedure that involves injecting some medicines & herbs in the skin. It targets specific areas like thighs, breasts, arms, belly, etc. If not done with the right medical & technical expertise, this can lead to hazardous consequences. These include bruising, swelling, pain, scars, etc. In some cases, people have even fainted with a high fever. Besides, the worst side effect is that women can not conceive after getting this done. Nursing mothers also avoid it. So, are willing to lose 50 pounds in a month at that cost?

Tummy Tuck or Abdominoplasty

Another wonder of science, this is a surgical process that involves a major operation. Like all major surgeries, this is risky and calls for a lot of care and attention after the process is completed. The worst part is that the moment body forms more fat, you become bulky again. That means even if one loses 50 lbs. in 30 days, it is sure to come back in another 60 days. What’s the fun then of spending a fortune and ill-treating your body for this result?

Liquid Diets

The doctor’s had devised this process to cleanse the stomach of the patients before they get operated. But the Hollywood celebrities have started using it to become super skinny. They become fat again, yet they are willing to screw their muscles & become weak. The fact is that if you stay only on a liquid diet for more than 10 days, you shall land up in a hospital. Also, the weight you lose is not the body fat, it is your water weight and the muscle mass. It can never help you reduce 50 pounds in a month.

There are healthier means of weight loss to consider. These include natural diet supplements like Acai Berry and Colon Cleansing.

Which Is Best For Weight Loss? (Diet Vs Surgery)

June 3, 2019/in Blog, Dieting Vs. Surgery, Personal Training

Nowadays weight loss becomes a huge business and there are various procedures that promise results, but it is very difficult to navigate in this jungle. Almost most of these procedures are expensive and they often give varied results from one person to another, this would make it even harder to find one that works better for you.

Many people want to lose their weight, but for the persons who are overweight, surgery may be the only option to successfully do this. Some others may lose weight by making changes to diet. So, it is better to consult your doctor to find the right option that works for you.

There are many points you need to consider while choosing a weight loss method, such as:

Candidates:

Most of the doctors, who perform surgery for weight loss, including bariatric surgery, only do so if a person is overweight. The candidates should have their body mass index as 40 or more to undergo weight loss surgery. If you are obese and suffering from medical problems like diabetes, but the BMI is not high, then also you are eligible for the surgery. Weight loss surgery should be considered as a last resort. If your body mass index is below 40 and you are healthy, it is better to make changes to your diet rather than going for surgery. Changes in diet can reduce your calorie intake and increasing your workout activity is a good option to lose weight and keep it off.

Time:

Having surgery to lose weight results in a larger reduction of weight in a less period of time because after weight loss surgery, your stomach is unable to take too much of food, resulting in a dramatic reduction in calorie intake. If you are obese and have surgery, you would likely reach your aim much more quickly than by reducing calorie intake. If you want to lose your excess weight by making changes to your diet and exercise habits, then it will take much more time. The amount of time this would take will depend on how much weight you want to lose, such as a 20-pound loss would take 10 to 20 weeks.

Procedure:

Different procedures are available for weight loss surgery. These procedures vary from one surgery to another surgery that depends on which surgery you choose. Each surgery needs anesthesia. The surgery takes almost four hours and after surgery, you need to stay in the hospital for at least three days. After surgery, you need to make some changes in your exercise patterns and eating habits. To avoid temptations, simply it requires perfect planning on meals and focusing on regular works.

Risks:

Mainly to reduce the health problems and injuries, you need to take suggestions from the doctor before starting a new diet and exercise. Weight loss surgery contains several risks, so before undergoing the surgery, you need to consider all those risk factors.

Workout Motivation: How Supplements Can Help

May 30, 2019/in Blog, Motivation, Personal Training

You’re all set. You are stoked to get your workout started. You work out for a few days and then you lose motivation. What happened to the plans for that fit, six-pack abs and rippling muscles? It is easy to become discouraged or even lack inspiration especially during the early days of one’s workout plan.

In the end, you have to make exercising and getting fit a habit so that you don’t feel like it is a chore. The initial days of burning muscles and sore backs can definitely hurt, nevertheless with a few useful tips, you’ll be able to remain focused.

Straightforward Motivational Methods

Remaining motivated isn’t easy. Most people battle with it because it is so easy to miss a workout or put it off until the following day. However, it’s possible to mentally boost your inspiration levels.

Work together with an equally devoted partner. Don’t let one another down. Get a lifting partner equally as determined, or maybe more so, than you are.

Give yourself rewards as you go. Rewards shouldn’t be things which yank you back, though. A giant, fatty meal isn’t the route to take. Rather, take a day off, find tickets to a sports event or purchase something for yourself when you accomplish a goal.

Mix things up. Don’t try doing an identical routine and workout plan each day. You’ll get bored even if you are elevating reps or pounds. Repetition may bring you down quickly. You’re basically bored.

The psychological steps you take to raise your enthusiasm are crucial. You need to tell yourself it can be done. You have to provide yourself with stimulation to keep going, even if that means listening to motivational tapes!

Nutritional Supplements Will Help

There are actually supplements which can help you to ultimately stay motivated. While you will not likely discover a specific supplement available on the market for motivation, you will discover other supplements that can improve your state of mind.

Make certain you are taking the best post-workout supplements. The right supplements and protein levels following a workout will decrease the painful burn you experience the very next day. It is challenging to stay motivated while you are really hurting from a rigorous workout.

Look for natural supplements that give a boost to energy levels. Unless you possess the right energy levels, you can easily find yourself struggling to remain on top of your workout. Supplements including Asian ginseng, bitter orange, caffeine, and capsaicin, will provide you with the boost of energy you require in a healthy way.

Consider supplements to help you to get enough rest. Sleep is definitely the body’s method of restoring and healing itself. If you don’t get enough proper sleep, try taking supplements that can help. Valerian, Kava, and melatonin are among the best options available.

The most significant supplements for motivation for the muscle builder are the types that encourage muscle growth. There isn’t anything more motivational than seeing your muscles grow and develop and seeing the numbers on those weights increase. If you’d like to build motivation, give your body the nutrients it needs to build muscles fast enough.

With proper nutrition, the body can accomplish everything you want to accomplish. However, you have to take the steps to stay motivated. After you make working out a routine, you’ll feel great about it and will want to do it. Keep your motivation levels up in the meantime.

4 Workout Motivation Tips

May 29, 2019/in Blog, Motivation, Personal Training

Sometimes, you just don’t want to work out. Well, use these tips to provide workout motivation next time you are having trouble getting motivated to workout.

Here are some workout motivation tips!!

1) Change things up.

This is the easiest way to get motivated to workout. Just do something completely different from what you’re doing now. For example, if you do total body workouts, try doing an upper/lower split, or vice versa. If you’re doing bodybuilding splits, then change to total body workouts.

Another example: train in a different rep range. If you train in the typical 8-12 rep range, try lifting in the 5-6 range for a change of pace (no, ladies, this will not make you big and bulky). If you do primarily dumbbell and barbell exercises, switch to a bodyweight only workout. The key here is to completely change your routine. Get creative if you want, just come up with something that gets you excited and motivated to work out again.

2) Set a goal.

This is my favorite method for finding workout motivation. As an example, you could set a date to compete in a local powerlifting event, race, or other competition. Maybe you want to run faster, jump higher, lift a certain amount of weight. Just set a performance goal, set a deadline, and schedule your training accordingly. Having an end goal in mind is a great way to keep you motivated and excited to get into the gym.

3) Workout with a partner.

If you train alone, you may want to find someone to workout with. Warning: train with someone who will be consistent and is positive and encouraging. The last thing you want to do is get a workout partner who is constantly negative or will make excuses not to go to the gym on a consistent basis. A great workout partner can encourage you, motivate you, provide social support, and help push you to improve your performance.

4) Hire a personal trainer.

Some people simply won’t go to the gym unless they know they are paying someone who will be waiting on them. That is one of the main reasons people hire me. Warning: do your homework before hiring a trainer. Most trainers don’t truly know what they’re doing. Ask questions about their experience, certifications, and ask for client referrals. If they are hesitant to give you any information, walk away and save your time and money.

Oh, one more thing. Here’s an easy test: tell them you are interested in losing fat quickly. If they recommend anything other than a total body or upper/lower split (and they tell you to do a lot of long, slow cardio), they don’t have a clue what they are doing. Get away . . . fast.

What Can Functional Fitness Do For You?

May 24, 2019/in Blog, Functional Fitness, Personal Training

Functional fitness is a type of work out that concentrates specifically on training your body to cope with real-life situations using real-life body mechanics. This revolutionary technique takes fitness to a whole new level by combining multiple muscle groups and joint movements to work together rather than isolating them to function separately.

Working out on the machines is terrific; however, the machines don’t prepare you for everyday life. A patient, Laura came to me after a back injury and said, “I don’t understand, I went to the gym 3 times a week and felt much stronger, yet when I went on my trip and had to carry my suitcase by myself, I hurt my back. How could that be? That’s because exercising on a machine and performing functional exercise is quite different. Here’s why…

EXAMPLE OF FUNCTIONAL FITNESS EXERCISE:

Tricep extensions performed with dumbbells on a bench is a functional fitness exercise. A seated tricep extension performed on a machine is not. Exercises performed on either a bench or without the use of machines integrates muscles of the back, shoulders, arms, and legs to stabilize your body making the exercise dynamic, meaning your body is in motion. When comparing this dynamic exercise to an occupational therapist bending over to transfer a patient, or a person putting away groceries, they are similar because both functional activities require the person to use a variety of muscles.

However, if you do a seated tricep extension on a machine that isolates the tricep muscle, guess what is doing the work? The machine does most of the work and that movement doesn’t mimic real-life activities. Because in real life, when you’re carrying suitcases, bending over to retrieve something, reaching into your closet, you don’t just use one muscle group to perform functional activities.

That’s why you can train at the gym for months and even years on the machine and one day you go to put groceries in the car and ouch – you strained your back!

Machine-based exercises also limit your range of motion and therefore don’t allow your body full range of movement that is required of you when doing day to day activities.

In this tough economy there is a multitude of reasons for you to incorporate functional fitness into your exercise routine:

Benefits Include:

No expensive equipment.
Decrease back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain
Decrease risk of injury o Enhance joint mobility
Keeps you doing all the things you love and need to do
Can be done by virtually anyone, regardless of fitness level

How Functional Fitness Benefits Seniors

May 23, 2019/in Blog, Functional Fitness, Personal Training

Functional fitness is all about teaching your body to handle real-life activities. It is a way of exercising that helps your body be strong in those areas that the body needs to be strong in your everyday life. This type of fitness can benefit anyone but can benefit seniors perhaps more than others.

The Idea Of Functional Fitness For Seniors

Functional fitness involves putting your body through the paces that are necessary for everyday life. As a senior, you can lift weights or use a weight lifting machine to strengthen certain muscles of your body to the exclusion of others and may find that you are strengthening certain muscles, which leaves a deficiency in others.

Without functional fitness, you can strengthen your arms in a biceps machine but still throw out your neck when reaching for something out of your reach or throw out your back while lifting your grandchild.

Seniors especially make the mistake of exercising their arms or legs in ways that may strengthen those muscles but avoid exercising their back, for example. This can lead to back trouble that could have been avoided if you had recognized that your arms and legs are intricately connected to your back and are useless without a strong core.

As a senior, you need to use all your muscles and joints in concert with one another and not just isolating out certain muscles to the exclusion of others.

Helping Your Muscles Work Together

Many seniors make the mistake of using weight machines or free weights while at the gym. They are isolating out certain muscle groups for strengthening, strengthening some muscles more than others. They may believe that to have a good biceps bulge is a sign of good health when their triceps muscles are not exercised at all. This means that the muscles cannot work together to do the everyday lifting and stretching that needs to be done as part of your regular day.

Everyday movement is not idealized. You don’t lift or move things by isolating out your muscle groups and in fact, it takes a strong back, strong legs, and strong-arm muscles to move a box or carry groceries. If you isolate out a muscle group to the exclusion of all others, you can set yourself up for injury to those muscles you have neglected.

How To Make Functional Exercise Work For You

Functional exercise is all about integration of muscle parts. It is about showing the muscles how to work together to accomplish a task rather than isolating muscle groups that may be exercised out of proportion to the rest of your muscles.

If you like rowing machines, for example, think about the posture you are in when you do that exercise. Your back is stiff and your arms are bent repeatedly with your legs doing very little. This strengthens some muscles and not others.

A better activity is to use a free weight standing up. First, you bend over and strengthen your back in picking up the weight. Then you strengthen your legs by holding the weight with your entire body. Finally, put the weight in various motions around your body so that your latissimus dorsi muscles are activated, along with your biceps and triceps muscles. Even the small muscles of your hands are strengthened by holding the weight.

All your muscles are working in concert by that simple exercise. If you repeat it on the other side of your body, the muscles of your back, sides, legs, and arms are exercised for the other side of your body and you haven’t missed any muscles in the process.

This type of exercise better mimics the regular activities you do every day and you will have fewer injuries because your muscles have learned to work in concert.

Balance And Control

Functional exercise is all about using your body to balance yourself while having control over your muscles. For seniors, it may mean skipping lifting weights completely and instead of working on things like squats and lunges that use all your muscles and help your balance. You don’t need bulging biceps to have good functional use of your body.

Can you stand on one foot for any amount of time without falling?

If you have questions about functional exercise, talk to a trainer about those exercises that will best mimic those things you are doing in everyday life. It is a different way to exercise that will keep you balanced, strong, and free of injury.

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