Telling It Like It Is

For people that drink as much coffee as we do, our recent experience with a single serve coffee maker in our hotel room during our Chicago vacation created temporary disappointment. I can only guess as to why hotels choose to provide hotel guests with one-cup coffee machines versus one that brews more than one cup of coffee at a time, but we weren’t impressed.

The moment we checked into our hotel room and saw the tiny coffee making appliance sitting on the counter at the hotel we stayed at, we knew we weren’t going to make it through our entire vacation trip with that silly looking coffee maker. We made a beeline to the nearest store and bought a cheap, black 12-cup automatic coffee maker that was sitting all by itself on a discount clearance shelf for just ten dollars.
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I have been a Skype user for a long time now, keeping in contact with friends and family living in the U.S and abroad. One of my family members lives in Spain, and having Skype to at least instant message or chat while on different time zones has been great. Email only does so much, but Skype is better. While instant messaging with Skype helps keep me closely connected with family and friends who don’t live nearby, instant messaging on Skype isn’t enough for me anymore.

I’ve known about webcams for Skype but hadn’t taken the time to learn how to use Skype with a webcam, and I needed to find out more about choosing a good webcam to use with Skype. I’ve heard there is a way to use a digital camera with Skype too, but using Skype on my home computer with a webcam is all that matters to me at this point.
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Although 72 percent of Americans have fillings, caps or crowns and one in six had a dental emergency during the past 12 months, most are not prepared to deal with dental care emergencies, according to a recent survey conducted by Majestic Drug Company, a leading provider of oral care products.

Interestingly, in the national survey of 1,000 Americans, those with a lower income (less then $35,000) were more likely to have had a dental emergency in the past 12 months (vs. 14 percent of those who make $100,000 or more).

Of those who had a dental emergency, 23 percent involved a loose crown or cap, 10 percent involved a lost filling, while 72 percent said their dental emergency involved something else.
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Ever since I published the 30 Day Sex Challenge, I’ve heard from quite a few women who say they don’t want to have sex with their husbands, while offering a large number of reasons why they don’t want to have sex. I’ve also heard from a number of men who want more sex with their wife but can’t seem to figure out why the sex isn’t happening as frequently as these guys would like. “Is having sex once every 3-9 months normal?”, one husband asked.

“I don’t want to have sex” and “she doesn’t want to have sex” were the common subject titles from women and men who are reporting sexual dysfunction and low libido in their marriages. Most, if not all, were asking “is it normal” to not want to have sex very often (or at all), and what possible reasons there might be for their wives to not be interested in having sex. They also wanted to know how often married couples are “supposed to have sex” to keep the fire alive in their marriage, and some wives reported their husbands “weren’t doing it right”. Ouch.

It came as somewhat of a surprise to me that some women said their husbands don’t know how to please a woman in bed and can’t bring her to orgasm, but these same women admit to never (ever) telling or showing their husbands what they want or need in bed to be completely satisfied sexually. Really? Come on, ladies, it works both ways. Men aren’t mind readers and most men DO want to please their wives in bed, but if you have never talked with your husband about your personal desires or sexual needs, communication in your marriage is a problem to work on. Today.
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Abused men are men and teenage boys who are in physically, mentally and emotionally abusive relationships involving partners, girlfriends or wives. Men who are abused do not get the respect, understanding, encouragement or support from society as a whole and are often criticized and ridiculed unfairly, further victimizing men who are abused.

Victims of domestic violence are not just women, wives or girlfriends. Domestic violence occurs with men too, and it’s about time abused men and society in general wake up to the alarming statistics about women, girlfriends and wives who abuse men and stop turning a deaf ear to the abuse men are experiencing.

Boyfriend and husband abuse is a reality in society and men who are abused by women need help, encouragement and support just as much as abused women do. Domestic violence against men, and abusive relationships of all types, do not discriminate and abuse occurs in all ethnic, racial and socio-economic groups.

When you hear the words “domestic violence” and physical, mental and/or emotional abuse, do you tend to think about women or girls who has been slapped, hit, punched, kicked, bullied, ridiculed, degraded, criticized and humiliated by a man? Domestic violence against women by men who claim to love them has been a serious problem for a very long time, but what about the men? What about men who are abused by women? Why do abused men stay in abusive relationships if it’s so bad, you may wonder.
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Diet books are popular for people wanting to lose weight. Whether weight loss or fitness goals are achieved by joining a gym to help lose weight or if working out at home is preferred, diet books can help motivate and inspire people to get moving and lose weight once and for all. For many people, this is the time of year for self reflection and making resolutions to lose weight and start an exercise program. Diet books are a great asset towards weight loss and healthier living, but diet books won’t do the work of losing weight and getting fit for you.

Reading some of the best diet books to help in achieving your goal to lose weight, exercise, get fit and live a healthy lifestyle includes several new diets books listed on the New York Times best seller list for weight loss. Listed below are a total of 20 diet books that are amongst the most popular, best selling and best rated diet books in the effort to lose weight.

Best Diet Books of 2009

1. Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide by David Zincenko and Matt Goulding was the best selling diet book in 2009 as is just one of the very popular diet books included in the Eat This Not That series. This diet book includes nutrition tips and advice on which aisles in the grocery store are the best and which to avoid, with focus on healthy eating habits. Advice on how to decode and understand food labels, tips on selecting and choosing the healthiest foods for you and your family to eat to help you lose weight, save money and live a healthy lifestyle. This must read diet book offers practical lists and information about the 20 Worst Foods in the Supermarket, the Ultimate Supermarket Label Decoder, 17 Secrets the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know, Shop Once, Eat for a Week and How to Stock the Perfect Pantry.

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Should you join a gym or workout at home if you want to lose weight? Do you really need to join a gym or not? Can women lose weight without a gym membership or should you buy gym equipment and exercise at home? Which is better, yoga or aerobics for weight loss? Who says you can’t exercise without equipment?

These are just some of the questions that are often debated and discussed amongst friends and family, so it seems fitting that we begin the new year with discussions about losing weight, exercise routines, diet plans and getting fit. Personally, I hate the word “diet” in regards to wanting to lose weight and starting an exercise routine to help us get in shape and living a healthy lifestyle. For us, it’s not about being thin according to society’s standards; it’s about being as healthy as we can be in mind, body and spirit.

Several years ago, I believed that without a gym membership there was no way I could lose weight and get physically fit. I was wrong. You can lose weight by eating healthy and exercising at home, and you don’t have to buy gym equipment if you don’t want to or can’t afford to. I wish I understood that years ago before I bought and paid for a Bally’s gym membership that ultimately cost me thousands of dollars that would have been better spent elsewhere.
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Are you a people pleaser? Do you care what people think about you? Should you care what other people think about you or not? Do you have the “disease to please” people in your life to the point where you feel like you have become someone’s personal doormat to wipe their dirty feet on? Do you have difficulty saying no to requests and then feel angry or resentful because you said yes, again? Who is pulling your strings?

By definition, people pleasers are people who have a disproportionate and unhealthy need in their personality to give in to the wants, whims and desires of others around them, to the point of sacrificing their own wants or needs. People pleasers, pushovers and doormats lack assertiveness skills and hold back from speaking up and saying what they really think or feel, and they hold back from asking for what they need or want because they’re worried someone will get upset about it.

Having a people pleasing personality is great…..until. Being considerate, thoughtful, gracious and willing to help others are admirable traits and characteristics, but suffering from doormat syndrome or being a people pleaser to your own detriment are not so admirable. People pleasers put other people’s needs before their own, rarely doing things for themselves and then feel guilty about it.
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Are you making New Year’s Resolutions for 2010? Remember, New Year’s resolution statistics are not on your side, so if you really want to be successful at achieving any New Year’s goals for the year 2010, you have some hard work ahead of you.

Anyone can make a list of New Year’s resolutions, and the list may include the most popular top ten, twenty or more resolutions that are common each and every year. Trouble is, far too many people make New Year’s resolutions without actually making a real plan of sticking to or keeping the New Year’s resolutions that they’ve set for themselves.

Making New Year’s resolutions can be very beneficial for all of us, but the chances of sticking to these resolutions throughout the entire year usually doesn’t work out, unless you change the word “resolutions” to “goals”. Personally, I never make New Year’s Resolutions. Not ever.

“Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” – Oprah Winfrey

While I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, I do set personal and professional goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound, also called SMART goals. If you’re going to make any kind of New Year’s resolution for 2010, 2011 and beyond, you’re much better off and much more likely to achieve the personal and/or professional goals you set if you have a solid action plan to help you accomplish your goals.
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Oprah Winfrey fans, listen up! Amazon.com is currently running a “Magazine Steal of the Week” subscription deal on Oprah Winfrey’s “O” magazine for just five dollars, plus deals on other popular magazines HERE!

A one full year magazine subscription to Oprah‘s “O” Magazine is just five dollars, until the deal ends on December 19th. Oprah’s magazine usually goes for $18 for a yearly subscription– $5 is definitely a steal!

PLUS, you can use the $5.00 magazine subscription “steal of the week” on Amazon to extend your current magazine subscription to Oprah and other magazines, and this deal is not just for new subscribers!
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