A close friend of mine initially introduced me to the internet marketer’s lifestyle and ever since I got a glimpse into this world I haven’t really turned back.

I mean look at the benefits, my “office” is anywhere with internet access, my target customers never sleep (worldwide), and I don’t have to sit in an office listening to people complain and plot their 25 year plan of escape all the live long day.  Umm… where do I sign?

Now, almost 18 months after liftoff I am almost at the point of generating a full time income for myself and hopefully escaping the cube farm corporate zombies forever (my apologies to the zombies reading, no offense, it’s just not for me.)

 As I am still on a learning curve into the business, I’ve found the best way to learn anything, is to try EVERYTHING.   With so many social networking/marketing websites, tools, and software you never truly know what will help you reach your goals quicker and most effectively unless you try them all and stick with what works. 

Throughout the past year I’ve experimented with sites like Hubpages, Squidoo, Xanga, Facebook Ads, Facebook Fan Pages, Ezine Articles, Adwords, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, GetResponse, BlogSuccess, and the list goes on and on and on…. and on.   

This is a tiresome task that seemingly has no end, but if I ever get discouraged I just remind myself that I could be a meeting discussing quarterly reports, synergy, and team dynamics.  Barf.

This tactic was especially relevant several months ago when I was introduced to Twitter. 

My buddy, who is currently enjoying a lot of success selling his info. product online called me up and said, “Man, you HAVE to get on Twitter if you want to be successful in this business. It is going to be the next facebook.”

“Oooh the next Facebook!” I thought.  How exciting! I’m in.

Trusting his advice I went and signed myself up for an account. This would be my big breakthrough.

 I quickly became familiar with my twitterfeed, Tweet deck, MrTweet, Tweeting for dollars, Tweeterific, Tweet, Lose and Draw or whatever other silly services were out there and really went full steam ahead into Twitter.

  I spent 3-4 weeks of cultivating a following of about 700 follower and was now spending at least 2 hours a day Tweeting(maybe more).

At the end of my testing period, I looked at my progress in regards to certain projects I was working on and everything was suffering. The new website I was currently building had fallen behind schedule, the online PPC class I was taking took a back seat, and I had been writing fewer posts on all the sites I was currently managing.  Something wasn’t right.

The culprit: I was Twittering my life away.  

I decided to look further into Twitter and study some of the fundamentals of the community that was, for whatever reason, throwing themselves onto this new Social Networking site like women onto Matthew McConaguey (i don’t care if I spelt that wrong ;p).

But speaking of McConaguey, it seemed as if the only people with a true community of faithful followers were Hollywood celebrities, Athletes, and TV personalities.  Everyone else seemed to merely be following one another like lemmings en masse onto Twitter in hopes of… hell, who even knows.

A fury of marketing products quickly hit the online community as well (like Twitter Traffic Machine);  All claiming to provide thousands and thousands of followers in no-time flat, generate millions of dollars and all the success you’ve seen in your blogging dreams (cue informercial with Don Lepre).   

Those of us that are online chasing the dream seem to always be vying for the next big thing, whatever that may be. Yet as we chase the newest and “best” medium to get our message and/or product onto into as many screens as possible it seems many of us are forgoing the vetting process of how effective these new mediums actually are.

So today, I’d like to put myself on record, Twitter, as a whole is U-S-E-L-E-S-S. 

That’s right kiddies, Useless.

Twitter may contribute to several new contacts and collaborators, maybe even a new cyber friend in which to compare Wordpress Plugins, but overall, do you really think it’s an effective use of your time (aka. Your Life)?

Could your Tweet-time not be better spent on more productive activities? Like looking at the road while you’re driving perhaps? Or maybe, just maybe, actually paying attention to the President’s State of Union address? (ya, that’s right, I’m talking to you Senators.)

Even if you have 50,000 followers (which you likely don’t), are your followers converting into readers? Or buyers? Or clients? If they are, at what rate?

In my opinion, I think there are dozens of other ways to spend your Twitter time.

Yesterday I saw a condo company in Toronto that had a “Follow me on Twitter” button on their sales page. REALLY?

 Maybe I am seriously off base here, but I don’t see how your once a day Twitter update to 85 people (likely employees) is supposed to generate the necessary traffic or cultivate a personal enough following to sell a $300k condo.  Again, in my mind, this is not an effective use of this marketer’s time and/or resources.  It’s just another way to look busy without actually doing anything productive.

So, I’ve happily quit Twitter, as has my good friend who touted it as “The next Facebook”. We both found our efforts are much better spent refining our content, learning more about Adwords, SEO, or even just getting further into a new book.

One my business partners, Dave, still uses my Twitter account to advertise new blog posts for www.TheFatLossAuthority.com/fat_loss_tips but unless I receive a genuine direct message I never log in.

I think as an online community, either as bloggers, marketers, or both, we ALL need to stop following one another into huge collective groups of mindless action, making popular what should have been killed during its beta testing. 

When I look at Twitter I see nothing but the marriage of the trend follower and the Count Dracula of time Vampires. 

Mark Twain said it best with, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” This is the case with most trends.

Unless Twitter changes its platform dramatically, then to me, that is all it will ever be, a useless trend; like a one big, ugly, cyber Von Dutch hat.

Just because everyone is wearing it, doesn’t make it cool.

We get up and brush our teeth, wash away our less than pleasant aromas, go to work, deal with it on a reactive level, come home,  maybe make a little dinner, watch a little TV, and get ready to shut ‘er down and start it all over again the following day.

Personally, fitness is just one weapon I use in my arsenal to break up this boring cycle.   Three or four times a week I’ll step into a gym, or onto a running trail and tell myself, “Self, you are going to be better than you were the last time we were here.”  Then I don’t just “work out”, I train.

To be stronger. To be faster.  To be better than I current am.

I admit that I am learning to train harder and push myself a little harder but like everything worthwhile, it’s a process.

Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed, but after each challenge I put myself through I learn a little more about whom I am what I am capable of.  This way, I am forced to face the results and myself, for better or for worse.

My findings have been the more I challenge myself, the better the person I become.  Or at least I have a better understanding of my weakness so not to play to them in the future.

In the past I’ve challenged myself to things like a 24hr fast,  with very successful results. I’ve also set goals of strength for my bench press (2- 45lb plates), the Squat (300 lbs), and the Deadlift (300 lbs).  So far I’ve hit 1 of 3 targets, but again, it’s a process.

My fasting challenge alone has shifted my weight lifting and nutritional paradigms away from the traditional bodybuilder mindset into a new and more informed view of eating and training.

I have also given myself will power exercises to improve my personal productivity. I’ve boycotted Facebook and MSN messenger for extended periods of time, usually 30 days (some failures, but mostly successes),  simply to see if it increased both my productivity and quality of life.

But last week I set up another gauntlet…

On June 14^th, while disposing of several Campari and Sodas in the midst of a rather lengthy discussion on the rampant short-term and long-term consequences of alcohol consumption, not only on fat loss goals and muscle building, but on the body in general, I was presented with the coles notes version of the following information:

Here are a summary of alcohol’s effects on fat loss and muscle building:

• A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat
• Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.
• The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces fat as a source of fuel.
• Alcohol increases appetite

Alcohol affects testosterone levels
Not only does alcohol put the brakes on fat burning, it’s also one of the most effective ways to slash your testosterone levels. One fun night of heavy drinking raises levels of the muscle-wasting hormone cortisol and increases the breakdown of testosterone for up to 24 hours. The damaging effects of alcohol on testosterone are made even worse when you exercise before drinking.

Nutrient deficiency
Alcohol also affects the body’s ability to break down proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Too much alcohol in the blood can lead to a deficiency in Vitamins B1, B2 & B3, as well as magnesium and zinc. These nutrient deficiencies can eventually cause weakening of the heart muscles, poor skin, arthritis and prostate gland disorder.

The bottom line
While an occasional drink or two every now and then is not going to affect the body negatively, excessive drinking will not only put the brakes on your fat loss efforts, it will also prevent you from building muscle tissue. So the hard no-nonsense truth is that if you’re looking for a leaner, stronger body, alcohol just doesn’t mix.

The bottom line is that alcohol and a leaner, stronger, better looking body just doesn’t mix. Not to mention all of the other side effects on the rest of your organs.   For a more detailed and easy to read summary of alcohol’s effects on the body click —-> HERE

With this new knowledge in my hands, I’ve decided to start my first: 30-Day Challenge With ZERO Alcohol.

Now just to be clear, I am obviously not a heavy drinker to begin with.  I do however, enjoy the odd glass of red wine in the evening, and when the weekends come I have been known to be seen with more than a couple Heineken or Corona in my hands.    I am absolutely a victim to good advertising.

But for the next 30 days you won’t see me with one beer, nor a sip of wine, or even a Campari and soda (sooo very good).  It’s all gone for 30 days.

But this decision was not made in haste, because as the start of summer could be seen just over the horizon, I wanted to make sure that I was sacrificing my first four weeks of patio and bbq weather for a good reason, umm the greater good, if you will.

This past weekend I happened to be hanging out with a close friend of mine Sacha Ragueneau who had just won a World Competition in fitness modeling, and is also a successful bar owner in Montreal, Quebec. If there is anyone that could tell me the cost/benefit equation for boycotting alcohol it was Sacha, and he did not disappoint.

Here is Sacha on competition day:

This is your body without Alcohol

Sacha said after two weeks healthy eating and zero alcohol, “My bed was like a trampoline,” He told me. “every morning I would spring out of bed and have more and more energy every day, honestly Mike it was amazing.” That testimonial was enough for me.

I challenge all of you to either take this challenge with me or at the very least, come back and visit and I will keep you posted on my progress… or utter and total failure.

And FYI- with a weekend of birthday BBQs, summer patio parties and a reunion dinner that just passed, this challenge may have already bit the dust.

I wish you all the best of luck in your own personal challenges, be it physical or emotional.  I will update you soon.

I decided to do my first 36 hour in mid-July on the basis that I felt quite disgusting after eating possibly the largest burrito ever assembled this side of Mexico.  At the time of eating said burrito I was at the home of a girl I was then dating.  As she observed the look of plentiful satisfaction on my face as I polished off my dish I wasn’t sure if the look on her face was, “I’m impressed he finished that whole thing”, or “That’s disgusting”, either way, I thought to myself, self you won’t be needing to eat tomorrow. Just like that on a Saturday night I decided that if I was man enough to eat that whole burrito I was man enough to not eat for the next 36 hours.

In the midst of Sunday I was a total vegetable with small pains of hunger and next to zero mental capacity, my concentration levels were also at an all time low.  I have since found that stimulating the brain with activities like reading is an incredible way to get your cerebral muscles flexing without challenging them too much.  Though my first 36 hour fast was definitely arduous, it was oddly much easier than my first 24 hour fast.

As I awoke at 7am on Monday morning I felt like the scarecrow from the wizard of oz. I existed in a state of numbness, no fatigue yet no energy, no opinions and nothing particular to say. I just was. But when I walked into the kitchen I had a smile on my face and a goal to accomplish.  I felt like Frankenstein on a mission from his creator, “foooooood”.

I made myself a 4 egg omelet with every vegetable I could find in the fridge; tomatoes, eggplants, onions, peppers, zucchini, all topped with a generous helping of goat cheese.  Gordan Ramsay himself would have been shaking my hand.  After finishing my triumphant breakfast I felt amazing.  It was as if I could literally feel my physical body and brain being fed all the nutrients and resources it had been looking for.  I was calm, alert, and nothing short of a nuclear bomb or a Sarah Palin supporter could have raised my stress levels.

The fast I am in the midst of now was supposed to be a 36 hour jobber but I need to do some work tonight so I will be making myself a nice bean salad around 830pm.  This go-round has also been my first time experimenting with supplements while fasting.  I took an omega 3 capsule in the morning, and just before writing this post and my mental clarity immediately jumped from “out to lunch” to “ready and able”.  There’s no way I could have written this post before that capsule.

The effects of fasting are unbelievable and I still highly suggest anyone that is in decent shape give it a shot.  If you have diabetes or are considerably overweight I would suggest speaking with your doctor, although unfortunately not many doctors know what they’re talking about when it comes to fasting, which is a shame.  Thankfully there are a number of forums and groups regarding intermittent fasting that are very reliable. Because there is seldom anything to sell when it comes to fasting it is much easier to find an accurate depiction of someone’s experiences.

One of the only books I have seen written on fasting is an ebook called “Eat Stop Eat”.  This is an ebook on Intermittent Fasting which recommends a lifestyle of fasting every few days to allow the body to heal itself and function as nature intended.  The best part about the book is that helps dismiss many of the typical myths about fasting. i.e. a 36hour fast is starving yourself (it isn’t).   There’s a great review about it the book that you can see here: Eat Stop Eat Review.

The reason why I think I may be addicted to fasting every few weeks is because its an incredible feeling.  I never breathe as clearly as I do on fasting days.  During normal days for whatever reason I can typically only breath clearly through  my right nostril but today the left side is functioning at an unheard of level. Its still not perfect but its a monster improvement.   My skin is clearer than it normally is, and I’ve even lost a couple pounds, nothing drastic (fat loss is just a sweet byproduct of fasting) but  just a little fat that had built up on a count of a couple Italian thanksgiving dinners.

The future of my fasting lifestyle will include a number of experiments I want to test drive.  I want to hit the gym on a fasting day and I also want to force myself to write something like an involved post or story while fasting to see if I can force my brain into a higher level of thought without any fuel.

The body, I’ve learned is very adaptive to necessity.  For example when you lift very heavy weights repeatedly your body adapts by producing more muscle and becoming stronger. My hypothesis is that I can train my body and mind to function at a decent level without consistent access to food.

I base my hypothesis on the difference in difficulty between my first and subsequent fasts.  My first fast was torture.  Its believed that during the first fast the body is trying to distance itself from the brain’s addiction to food as it has been taught through habit to eat often and on schedule (breakfast, lunch, dinner). During the last few fasts I have not felt any hunger pains at all and I believe this is because my brain knows it needs food, but now understands that there is a purpose for this abstinence from eating.

As I said before, and I will continue to say on my blog, I highly recommend anyone out there to try a 24 hour fast.  Do it with a friend or spouse if you need help with willpower.  During my first 36 hour fast I found myself repeatedly walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge without evening thinking.  At one point I took out an apple and was halfway through washing it before realizing I was still in the middle of the fast and had more than 12 hours to go.

I would obviously like to toss out a disclaimer that I AM NOT A DOCTOR, PHYSICIAN OR NUTRITIONIST of any kind.  I am simply providing you with my opinions and experiences with fasting and making my recommendation on those basis.

If any of you decide to take me up on this please come back and report your results. Or should you have any questions for me please don’t hesitate to ask.

Happy Not-Eating.

The past few years have taught me quite the number of things:

• Traveling will change anyone’s life for the better (booze vacations to Mexico not included)
• Every relationship is as volatile as the stock market during a recession… more or less
• Don’t write about pregnancy unless its in a journal that will never be seen by a woman
• Though your job should not dictate how you define yourself, it influences who you are, and we’ve allowed ourselves to define others by their jobs
• North American values are about as misplaced as my keys when I’m in a hurry
• Common sense is just about as rare as the dodo

These are just a few of the things I’ve picked up along my travels through life so far, of course they’re just opinions but that’s what everything in life is about, opinions, since it appears there are few and far between that seem to have any regard for facts these days.

One thing I realized when I returned from Barcelona is that I need a new way to make money. The job I had was fun for what it was, but not something I wanted to do anymore.  So when I got home I started interviewing people in every job I thought I may want to get into.  By interviewing I mean taking these people out to lunch and just chatting about their jobs and industry.

I sat down with a handful of Investment Advisors, Real Estate Agents, and a variety of guys in one sales environment or another.  None of the positions interested me for one reason or another.

I realized I’m not one to just sit around in the penalty box of life and wait for my time to expire, and I will likely be interested in a number of ventures throughout my life. I am not anticipating to follow a linear career path.

My main objective is to be outside of the rat race and working on my own terms by 35. I think these are reasonable expectations that I can meet.  But the freedom I was looking for could only be met by founding an online business or having some sort of revenue generated on the WWW.  I want to have the freedom to work from home (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) and so as of March/April 2008 I started trying to figure out how to do that.

Since there are no schools for starting an online business, I realized it was basically up to me to fill my head with as much new and helpful information that I could.  A lot of people online are scam artists, looking to make a quick buck on the backs of the desperate with no sense of ethics or business longevity. Then there are others that provide a substantial amount of great content but the hardest part is…WHERE THE HELL DO I START?!?

Affiliate marketing is where I decided to first plant my roots as I decided if i started a site designed to sell other people’s products it would teach me about web design, the challenges of affiliate marketing as well as eventually force me to learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which is how to get good search rankings within Google and other search engines to have people visit my site for free.

My first site is almost complete and is called www.TheFatLossAuthority.com

The video on the front page (should be available within a week) is literally the best of about 17 other videos and unfortunately was filmed on the first day of a very short haircut, lesson learned.  I’ve also learned the consequences of outsourcing work to “professionals” you’ve never worked with before.  The saying “its hard to find good help these days” sticks out in my mind.

My second site which is still in the building stages is called www.HeartMyShoes.com and is geared strictly towards women looking to have a little leisure time at work and check out what other women wear on their feet and of course….judge them accordingly.  (If you are female and reading this PLEASE visit the site and submit some of your shoes, I NEEEEED more submissions).  This site is barely out of the beta stages and there is already an argument going on between 2 girls.  This has been a lot of fun so far and my goal for this site is strictly to generate as much traffic as I can.  In the 3 weeks I have been working on this site I have learned more about web design and coding than my entire year running this blog.  IT IS EXHAUSTING.

My third attempt might be learning how to develop membership sites online and every intricacy that goes along with that. That’s something I am currently looking into during my current ZERO SUM PAYCHECK 14 HOURS DAYS.

So that is what’s going on in my world these days.  Its a lot of fun but the challenges are steeper than climbing Mount Fuji (not as bad as Everest, but still bad).

Both my biggest challenge and advantage at the moment is living at home.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love my family dearly, and the fact that they’ve been accepting of my current aspirations is a clear testament to the type of people they are, but after living on my own for so many years, the desire to leave the nest again is extremely strong.

But the paradox is that this is also my advantage.  I can pursue these current goals on the savings I’ve built without the responsibilities of a mortgage, family, or 9-5 job. These are huge blow backs to face later on and would easily cut my productivity  90%.  So though living at home is my biggest challenge as I want to be residing in my own residence (even if i’m renting) and starting to build up my savings again, being back in the nest is easily my biggest advantage at the moment.

I hear so many people say, “well, I’m buying a new place so lets have fun now, because once I get my place I won’t have any money left to do much more than maybe go out for dinner once a week”. Needless to say, hearing this reminds me of what I am working towards, the freedom to, not just do whatever I want, but the freedom to do exactly what I want. And I think that’s worth the struggle.

So I figure I have another 2-3 months of serious working and hustling to do before I will have to get a J-O-B and scale everything else down to part-time in hopes of a breakthrough.

But its been a blast so far, well minus the fact that I am hemmoraging money.

I will do my best to post more often and keep you updated. Please subscribe to my updates so you’ll know when I update Perfectly Turbulent.

If anyone out there wants to provide a Guest Post for Perfectly Turbulent that you think would be good, let me know.