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FitnessQuests
New York, NY
Just telling you the truth about fat loss and muscle gain through good health.
Recent Activity
Five tips to reduce lower back pain
Posted Mar 26, 2011 at FitnessQuests
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The truth about core workouts
What’s the best core exercise to get a six pack? Does this ab gadget work the way is say’s it does? Should I do any twisting motions in my core workout? Will sit ups make me lose this gut? So and so says not to work my core at all, do I need to? These are all questions that I hear all the time. Honestly, for most people these questions are misplaced at best and flat out dangerous at worst. This article should shed some light on core training for both performance and aesthetics. For the past ten years, the... Continue reading
Posted Mar 24, 2011 at FitnessQuests
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My #1 stretching technique to improve movement efficiency and strength
Posted Mar 16, 2011 at FitnessQuests
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Which brand of organic milk is the best?
Posted Mar 2, 2011 at FitnessQuests
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FitnessQuests is now following Andrew Anker
Feb 25, 2011
Chicken soup for that cold?
When I was younger I always wondered why Campbell's chicken noodle soup was supposed to be a cure all. While having mom make me that soup and grill cheese was always a highlight of being stuck home sick, I have to say that it never really made me feel any better physically. Why, if chicken soup is supposed to be so magical, didn't it ever make me feel any better? Because, like most other "phudes" you buy in the grocery stores, Campbell's soup just isn't real. Broth is something that if done right can take anywhere from 8-72 hours to... Continue reading
Reblogged Feb 17, 2011 at FitnessQuests
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FitnessQuests is now following Laura Combs
Feb 17, 2011
FitnessQuests added a favorite at Moving Strongly Forward
Feb 17, 2011
I'm back! Become a personal trainer and congrats marathoners!
Good Morning! For those of you that don’t know- the NYC marathon was yesterday! I personally decided a while ago that I’m not looking to run it for the next few years but I still went down and did some cheering on! I couldn’t get as close to the action as I wanted by I got in down at the 26th mile marker by Columbus Circle. I have to say it was inspiring! Here are 40k amazing people from all around the world who have worked in some cases for several years for this moment. Everyone from top sponsored athletes... Continue reading
Posted Nov 8, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant]
Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year. via sethgodin.typepad.com This has nothing to do with physical fitness but I'm a strong believer in being mentally fit. Seth's blog is one that I read pretty regularly. Even if you're not into business, his lessons are often priceless. Continue reading
Reblogged Oct 20, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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How to cure Type II Diabetes by Dr. Joseph Mercola
With one in four people in the US suffering from type II diabetes right now, I found this to be too valuable not to repost. The following is an exerpt from a recent article by Dr. Joseph Mercola. I encourage you to check out the complete article here if you or a loved one is suffering from this cureable disease. You CAN Cure Diabetes! As I said earlier, type 2 diabetes is virtually 100 percent avoidable and can be effectively treated without medications in about the same percentage of cases by recovering your leptin and insulin sensitivity. Leptin, a relatively... Continue reading
Posted Oct 11, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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How to Build Confidence
Over and over again when hearing from readers or talking to people I’ve found that one of the biggest problems in keeping up with a diet or getting the most from an exercise routine is, quite simply, that they lack the confidence to do so. Maybe they’ve failed before, maybe they don’t see themselves as having a great body, maybe they just don’t realize what they’re capable of--whatever the cause, the result is they fail to push themselves. And more often than not, that failure can be traced back to lack of confidence. If you’ve ever spent any time researching... Continue reading
Posted Oct 6, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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To be or not to be?
To be, or not to be? That is the question…isn’t it? As many times as we’ve heard this question, you’d figure it would represent something quite profound—and you’d be right. As humans, we have the unique ability to choose whether or not to be alive. We have the ability to take our own lives, but we also have the ability to choose instead to really live. Since you’re alive right now, the question is: have you made the choice to live actively or passively? I would like to suggest that people who actively make the decision to live are often... Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Campaign of FAKE Foods
We’re gonna start a movement! From now on it’s all about the word FAKE. As in FAKE food. No, it doesn’t stand for anything. It’s just what most food is. Here’s a list of fake foods: Anything processed Anything grown with chemicals Anything genetically altered Any meat or animal food coming from an animal that was not fed its natural diet Any animal food on antibiotics or hormones Anything that is not organic. **Organic processed foods are also fake. Anything grown with herbicides or pesticides Just about anything you can’t pronounce. Anything that has to be extracted through the use... Continue reading
Posted Sep 21, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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The 28 Day Baby Step Challenge
So last week I talked about taking developmental detours on the secret road to success and how important it is to take them often. A developmental detour is a detour we take to develop a new skill or understanding that will lend itself to a consistently better life. This could be anything from taking a class to moving to the top of a mountain for a few years to figure out who you are. While I encourage you to take these detours as much as possible, I do realize that they aren't always feasible. So today I want to give... Continue reading
Posted Sep 20, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Primal Gluten Free Pizza!
Posted Sep 16, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Advancing the 12 minute workout
Yesterday I told you about how I lowered my 12 minute workout time down to 8 minutes and 23 seconds in under a week by doing a modified version for a few days and then going back to it. Today I want to show you the simple modifications I made in order to accomplish that. If you aren’t familiar with the simple 12 minute workout and don’t feel like checking it out, here are the cliff notes. The workout is very simple and only consists of four exercises. It starts off with 20 bodyweight squats followed immediately by 20 lunges.... Continue reading
Posted Sep 15, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Potent technique for improving anything fast.
A few days ago I promised to tell you today just how I improved lowered my 12 minute workout down to 8 min 23 seconds in less than a week. Today I plan on fulfilling that promise. First a quick story… In 2003 a very unhealthy version of me walked into a gym in Clearwater FL with the intent of becoming hot. I was 23 years old. After signing up, I was paired up with an awesome personal trainer that had more certifications and degrees than I could count. He didn’t just study this stuff, helived and breathed it. Honestly,... Continue reading
Posted Sep 14, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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The Secret Road To Success
Posted Sep 13, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Power Smoothie Recipe... Kiwi Spinach
Posted Sep 9, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Thank you Holly for the comment and kind words. It's painful to see so many people spinning their wheels trying desperately get their health back only to be side tracked time and time again by the latest "if you're not doing this, you may as well not be getting out of bed in the morning" idea.
People are waking up though and I do love when I can help someone along!
Stop Complicating Your Diet If You Want Results.
If you’ve been reading for any amount of time, you know that I’m all about diet. To me, a healthy diet is not only extremely important to maintain but it’s also truly fascinating to learn more about. This said though, I’m going to say something that might seem a little surprising. Some of you a...
The single best fat burning exercise there is
Posted Sep 8, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Michelle,
That's a very interesting concept trying to blend the two ideas to create something that gets you going. I have two comments on that and then I'll get to my suggestion.
First, once you get going with your delayed gratification side, these things start to build momentum and a feeling of accomplishment that can be addictive enough to satisfy your IG voice. If you're on a role with working out and you suddenly miss a few days, you will start craving it. This is as far as I've found, the best way to blend them because...
Second, instant gratification is after all, instant. Anything outside of "right now" instant creates cognitive dissonance which is part of the discomfort that drives our need for instant gratification. Doing something else can actually make us physically uncomfortable and this is how the IG voice works.
It's an interesting thing that also connects in with a lot of our "OCD" characteristics. If you've ever had something like a piece of balled up paper on your coffee table that was just driving you crazy because you know it shouldn't be there, you know how it's physically uncomfortable until you or someone else get's up and moves it. Your brain knows the paper shouldn't be on the table (reality should be one thing) but since it is on the table (actual reality is different than your brain's "should be" reality) it actually causes you discomfort as your brain doesn't know how to process it. Cognitive dissonance at work. You have to move it to fix your perception, stop the dissonance, cure your OCD, and shut that IG voice off which as you can see are all really functions of the same thing.
That said, rewards don't work for most people unless they are HUGE and even then many times they don't. This is because of cognitive dissonance which works in real time.
Often times rather than rewards, the best thing to do is set up something that will provide even more discomfort than the cognitive dissonance. I hate to be so negative but in most cases it's true. Try this...
Call a few friends and tell them what you're going to do like "I'm going to workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week (barring sickness or emergency)." Tell them that if you don't do it, you will pay them each $100 and you want them to check on you. Cognitive dissonance is like gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe but the potential for loss is much more than a mere annoyance to us and will act as a major motivator for most of us.
Then once you get on a roll, you won't want to quit anyway and you can stop the negative reinforcement and just enjoy it.
One more thought... being aware of cognitive dissonance can lower it's effects on you. Next time you feel it, pay attention. Really experience it. Is it something you can deal with? Is it really all that bad? I bet you'll find it's usually not. Then just keep an eye out to try to recognize it in the future. You already know it's not so bad so then prove it to yourself and beat it. It only gets easier.
Silencing the Voice of Instant Gratification
There’s a battle going on inside you that you may not have fully realized. Two voices fighting for supremacy that have absolute control over everything you do. Individually, these voices determine whether you spend your entire life burdened by mediocrity or being lifted by greatness. It’s up t...
Stop Complicating Your Diet If You Want Results.
Posted Sep 7, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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Silencing the Voice of Instant Gratification
Posted Sep 6, 2010 at FitnessQuests
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