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Go to any mall on February 13th and you’ll see a sad sight: zombie-like men wandering through the stores trying to decide what to buy for Valentine’s Day. Why do some men wait until the last minute to get gifts?

The reason is fear; fear of getting the wrong gift and paying for it for the rest of the year. And I know what can happen when a guy gives a bad gift. One male friend of mine got his wife a vacuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day. You can imagine what her response was. He tried to explain that he thought it would be a great gift since it was red. Right. Then he said that she needed one. Oops, even worse. He’s been paying for that one for a long, long time.

To help the man in your life, I’ve come up with some simple guidelines. Just cut this out and hand it to him.

Gift Giving Guidelines for Valentine’s Day

Are you wondering what to give your sweetie for February 14th? Forget the toaster and red fuzzy slippers. When thinking about gifts do not think practical - think romantic. Here are the top three gifts to delight your wife or girlfriend:

1) Jewelry
2) Candy

3) Flowers

1) What kind of jewelry should you get? Look at what she normally wears. Necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are usually good choices because you don’t have to worry about picking the correct size. Buy something sparkly and be sure to include the receipt. Even if she returns it, she’ll be thrilled that you tried.

2) Candy should be packaged in a big heart-shaped box. Size does matter. The only time, that you can’t give candy is when your sweetie specifically tells you that she’s on a diet. Even then, you can give her a tiny heart-shaped box of candy and tell her that she looks great the way she is. (That will score big points.)

3) When you’re looking for flowers - think red or pink. A big bunch of flowers is wonderful, but one single long-stemmed red rose can be very romantic. Some men dislike the idea of buying flowers because they’re going to die in a few days any way. Remember I said that Valentine’s Day gifts shouldn’t be practical.

Gifts that mix several of these categories are even better. For example, you can put a ring in a box of candy. Just make sure she doesn’t bite into it. And if you can include a cuddly stuffed animal with the gift, you get extra bonus points. Give her a teddy bear wearing a necklace that’s for her. Add a heart-shaped box of candy and you have a great gift.

You may have noticed that there are several things that are not on the lists. Forget any gifts that have to do with cooking, cleaning or business. Remember this is a romantic holiday. You shouldn’t get her something that she needs, even if it is red.

So remember the big three - jewelry, candy and flowers. Just add a romantic card and get ready for a Valentine’s Day that your sweetie will remember for a long time.

This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

Laura Browne is the author of a practical, fun & easy-to-use book for women, Why Can’t You Communicate Like Me? How Smart Women Get Results At Work. To register for her Free Teleconference on How To Deal With Difficult People, go to http://www.inyourfaceink.com (This book is available at the website and at Barnes & Noble online.)

When Laura isn’t writing, she helps women be more successful through WOMEN Unlimited, a nationally recognized resource for cultivating leadership excellence, http://www.women-unlimited.com.

(This article was originally printed in The Point North Magazine.)

Is it possible to replace our Patriot missiles in the battlespace with man portable laser weapons with in the next three to five years? Can we make these a shoulder launched or easily transportable to set up on a temporary stanchion and ready to fire at will? Can we use compressed gas canisters for the chemical laser system of the defense weapon? If so would these be less weight and more bang for the luggability for the men carrying these units into the battlespace? Would it be better to simply mount the system into a fast moving robotic Sandia Labs “Sarge” type unit or would it simply be easier to mount the whole friggin thing on the DARPA Challenge Award Winning Volkswagon?

One positive aspect to a laser system is unlike the Patriot Missiles, you do not have to take all those missiles with you only the gas canisters to light up the laser unit. Could you have enough seconds on the target with a man portable unit to take out a SCUD Missile? Would you have enough power output? If this devices was on a backpack could the soldier even aim it and hold it steady enough to take out such a fast moving target using hand-eye coordination? Probably not, as the human would need an electronic lock-on and fire device associated with the system. So then could one say that this devices would be very high-tech, complicated, difficult to use and with all its needed electronics too heavy and “Murphy” prone?

Indeed and the man portable would not work if fired off the shoulder because a human is a top heavy organic unit and would wobble when firing something that has to be that accurate in time and 3D space to work, which a laser must be to take out an incoming aircraft or missile. Should it be mounted on a tripod unit like the multi-Stinger systems? As why would you want a shoulder launched system, as men hesitate and have to wait for orders, choke under pressure and by then the missile has gone by, you lose.

Would it be better to mount such a system on a robotic unit floating off shore or an aerial mine field, with pre-determined protocols and just let everyone in the world know the stuff is there and don’t be flying in at Mach 1 or greater unannounced then it will be disintegrated and will disappear into a million tiny pieces of debris.

The more you ask of such a man-portable or shoulder launched device the bigger the weapon becomes, the project gets and thus eventually you run up the costs and cannot compete with current already proven systems. This of course makes it quite a challenge, but also worthy of the effort of man’s mind, as war is a sense which gives us purpose or so it has been said in past and present periods by philosophers of the sound and fury.

Now then is this possible, can we really make something that is lightweight, easy to fire, accurate to a grape fruit size at 1-3 miles while the target travels at the speed of sound or greater? Hard to say if this is a feasible endeavor, although such a defensive weapon is needed for our “Blue Force” in the Battlespace can it actually be built and if so, will it actually work? Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A whole house air purifier system, added to existing central HVAC equipment, is not a cost effective solution for home air quality.

With the exception of those who can afford both types, our money is best spent on other aspects of the indoor air quality situation.

Since such a filtration system shares the central system’s blower and ductwork, the first concern must be the condition of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning) internals and ducts.

Dirty HVAC systems and ductwork will spew fine particles. Adding an expensive upstream filter system will not change this.

Standard fiberglass HVAC air filters are installed ahead of motors and fans to protect them from sandpaper-grit sized particles, not as air purifiers.

Central HVAC blower systems, which may seem powerful, with up to 1000 cubic foot per minute (cfm) airflow, do not set up a strong enough air current in most areas of the house to be good air purifiers. The air flow at the duct is about as strong as a small fan.

Air from whole house registers does not flow evenly through the cross section of the home, it seeks the path of least resistance. Cooled air cuts a path straight to the bottom, without sweeping the upper nooks and crannies.

Warmed air fans out along the ceiling until it finds a cool surface to start a downdraft. Where corners, steps or obstacles are encountered, eddies form and particles accumulate. While the house as a whole may receive many air changes per hour, the net result in the lower flow areas is impure air.

Picture a meandering stream, with surging bank cuts and rapids, followed by lazy flats with sandbars; the velocity is not uniform across the whole stream. This is not an efficient model for air purifiers.

With a whole house purification system, the HVAC blower must run all the time. Home HVAC blowers are not powerful enough to draw air through a large, tightly sealed, whole house HEPA air filter. They must be protected from overheating which might occur with an ordinary dirty fiberglass furnace filter.

HEPA filters create serious static backpressure, so they cannot be installed directly into the standard residential system. Vendors have incorporated costly bypassing vent circuits and more powerful secondary filter blower mechanisms to get around this. Partial bypass systems are grossly inefficient, allowing dirty air to bypass through the main duct.

Air duct cleaning, an expensive job for fully qualified professionals, should be considered before a whole house air purifier installation is purchased. Many consumers are unhappy with their central air filtration installation, only to discover the vendor and contractor passing the buck to the other.

We take our central air conditioning systems for granted, out of sight and mind. Adding a whole house air cleaner could change our perception. When a portable air purifier fails, we return it without interruption of heating or cooling. You won’t be returning unsatisfactory home modifications to a vendor.

Old folk wisdom applies here: “If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.”

For best indoor air quality; remove all toxic sources, ventilate often, clean HVAC system including coils, pans and ducts, upgrade present furnace filter, use premium chemical-capable portable room air purifiers in bedrooms, put less expensive HEPA air purifiers elsewhere.

With additional money where available, consider installing a central vacuum system for the whole house, which exhausts 100% of all dirty air outside. Or choose a quality sealed HEPA filter vacuum cleaner.

Click for the web’s best ==>Air Purifier Reviews.

The Author, Ed Sherbenou, is an experienced air purifier user, with 40 years of direct experience due to chemical sensitivity and severe allergies. He writes indoor air quality articles, posts blogs, and maintains a leading air purification website:

http://www.air-purifier-power.com

“Look at you.”

“You look absolutely amazing.”

“How did you finally lose the weight?”

If any of this sounds familiar, you have at some point in life achieved your weight loss goal. The days of calorie counting, exercising, and venturing into unchartered territory every morning as you stand on the great equalizer - your bathroom scale, have finally paid off. You’re perfect and you deserve to be praised for this tremendous accomplishment. But the true test has just begun.

Thousands of us lose weight each and every year. The downside to this is that many of us gain the weight back after less than a year.

And thus the vicious yo-yo is born. The yo-yo dieter is easy to spot. They are the ones who are a different size every time you see them. There sizes range from tiny, 5lbs. heavier, really gaining weight to the ultimate insult, “She’s huge!”.

Your closet consist of about four different dress sizes. To your absolute horror, you probably can’t fit any of them.

You and only you can bring this cycle to an end. The first step is realizing that dieting is an absolute no-no! Changing your lifestyle by modifying your behavior is key.

As humans, we are instinctively creatures of habit. We usually have a difficult time adapting to change. Nevertheless, it can be done.

Start Simple

Meal planning is an excellent first line of defense. Abandon the fast food restaurants and start doing a little grocery shopping. Purchase fresh fruit, vegetable and low calorie, low fat snacks. When purchasing meats keep in mind that fresh is best. If the meat can be eaten without cooking, you don’t need it. Luncheon meats are generally higher in sodium and other harmful additives to help preserve the meat’s shelf-life.

Meal Preparation

Through out the deep fryer! Baking, broiling or boiling cuts calories, fat and cholesterol. Once you’ve made the appropriate food selections make sure your preparation is on the same sheet of music.

Make Exercising Fun

Make exercise a family affair. Take brisk walks in the morning after dropping the kids off at school or an evening stroll with the hubby and kids before or after dinner. Aerobic tapes and DVDs are great. But who wants to jump around in a house all alone? Even working in the yard can be a great source of exercise. Just remember - some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week can do wonders.

Hydration

Get back to the basics! Drinking plenty of water is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Water is a great way of flushing toxins from the body. Most of us cringe at the thought of drinking 6 to 8 - eight ounce glasses daily. Once I realized that an eight ounce glass was the same size as a standard white styrofoam paper cup I was hooked for life. Avoiding sodas and other beverages which are loaded with empty calories can be replaced easily with a refreshing glass of water.

Take A Break

One of the worst mistakes is never moving past your mistake. Okay, you’ve been doing great and one day out of nowhere you find yourself wrist deep in one of the biggest burgers you’ve tasted in a long time. After devouring it, you’re riddled with guilt and decide to just give up. Wait just one minute! You’ve come to far. Get back up and forge ahead. We learn from our mistakes, right? Why should this be any different. I suggest having an off day. Choose one day out of the week to have a reward meal. Now, don’t go over board. However, one of your favorite meals is a good way of keeping things exciting and not completely throwing your body into healthy eating SHOCK!

Living The Life

Once you’ve started eating and living healthier the weight will begin to disappear. Again, there will be a multitude of compliments. Who knows. You may even turn a few heads! Now ask yourself this, was losing the weight really that difficult? The answer is no. So, keep it up. Resorting back to the old you will transform you into the “old you”. Isn’t that the person you intentionally left behind?

Roschelle Nelson is the founder of Wah4life.com. She lives and works at home with her husband and two sons. Visit her website: http://www.wah4life.com and http://www.wah4life.blogspot.com

“Make the state of your mind more important than what you
are doing.”
–Hugh Prather

My husband, David, and I had a little tiff yesterday. We trade
off making the meals and it was his turn to make dinner.
And, one of the changes we are working on is eating earlier
and taking a walk after dinner in the extended twilight. When
I noticed that it was time for dinner, I didn’t remember him
leaving the office to make dinner. Turns out he hadn’t - he
was busily trying to get ONE MORE THING done.

This is a classic example of the ongoing struggle with time.
Probably every one of you has more to do than time to do it.
We hurry. We rush. We are absolutely convinced we can do
more than one thing at a time. And, do in 5 minutes what
actually takes more like 30 minutes to do. Somehow, we
continually trick ourselves into believing that we can get it all
done.

There is nothing to do about time. Time marches on, as they
say. You can’t manage time; you can only manage yourself.
Everyone has the same amount of time in every day and, as
much as we want to speed up what we do in that amount to
time, there is always a limit. David is always wishing he was
The Flash but even The Flash can’t go fast enough to get
everything done.

Here are some things you may be doing in hope of getting
more time:

*Missing vacations - Because there’s not enough time to
stop working.

*Microwave your meals - Who can afford the time to really
cook when it’s so much quicker to just zap it?

*Choosing cut up frozen vegetables - Chopping that
broccoli is just plain tedious.

*Limping along on 6, 5, 4, or 3 hours of sleep - Who needs
repair and regeneration of the body, anyhow?

*Recess? - Get rid of it. Put those 5-year-olds to work
learning something for heaven’s sake!

*And using all that technology that’s suppose to save us
time - When not waiting on downloads, answering IMs or
sleeping with our beepers, that is.

And on and on.

Keeping up with the times can deceptively keep you from the
things you really want to do. Rather than being a victim of
time or having time be your taskmaster, you can begin to
look at how you can better manage yourself in relationship
to time.

Ultimately, you are the one who gets to choose what you do in each moment of time in each day. When you choose to do
something, you are simultaneously choosing not to do
many other things. That simple fact often escapes our
conscious recognition. So choose wisely.

When David chooses to get ONE MORE THING done, he is
also choosing to forget about our exercise and accept the
natural consequences of that choice. Which is me being
upset

The first step to managing yourself in relationship to time is
to keep reminding yourself that you are in charge of your
actions. You can break the grip that ticking time has over
you. You can chose for yourself and stop getting caught up
in tyranny of the clock. You can manage yourself and give up
trying to manage time.

” You are in the driver’s seat of your life and can point your
life down any road you want to travel. You can go as fast or
as slow as you want to go … and you can change the road
you’re on at any time.”
–Jinger Heath

Mary Ann Copson is the creator of the Evenstar
Mood and Energy Management System for Women.
With Master’s Degrees in Human Development and in
Psychology and Counseling, Mary Ann is a Certified
Licensed Nutritionist, a Certified Holistic Health
Practitioner, a Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician, a
Professional Life Coach and Human Development
Consultant. For resources about reconnecting to your
natural rhythms through better management of your
physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual
energy visit http://evenstaronline.com.

“It’s a new world out there,” was something I was told when I was little. Today, I realize that it sure is!! The speed with which technology is fast developing today is quite enthralling. It began with computers, infrastructure and then, the internet. Well, it’s high time this mass network be put to use, not only for its efficiency but also for it’s speed. Thanks to it, today, “loans” are just a click away!!

Debt Consolidation Loans replace your multiple existing loans and debts with a single consolidated loan from another creditor altogether. A debt consolidation process brings together your pending debts and multiple payments like store, gas and phone bills, medical bills, taxes, overdue rent etc. This consolidation reduces your monthly payments by lowering the interest rate or extending the repayment period or sometimes both. So finally all you have to do is pay off one loan by making single monthly payments. The creditor of this loan corresponds with all your previous lenders and you no longer have to deal with them. The main attraction of this loan is its low interest rate. Debt Consolidation Loans that are applied for and dealt with online, are called Online Debt Consolidation Loans.

Online Debt Consolidation Loans are very efficient and time saving. Instead of walking into a bank the traditional way, these loans allow you to apply online. The internet presents you with an opportunity to find detailed information on all the loans available, interest rates, repayment options, credit scores and lists of the innumerable companies offering them. With Online Debt Consolidation, you can compare quotes, choose your loan, fill out the required documents, apply for the loan, get an answer and manage your finances, all from the comfort of your home.

There are infinite loan companies that provide the online facility. It is not only easy for you but also for your creditors to deal with all their clients without having to personally visit them. They can maintain records and keep you informed by the minute. To find the best deals, you can simply start off with a search engine by typing “Online Debt Consolidation Loans”. From there, look up companies and check for reviews to see which are the most reliable when it comes to online debt consolidation. It may be a good idea to ask the company you are thinking of using, for references from former clients that had similar debt problems.

Remember:

•There are endless online debt consolidation programs available on the internet. Get as many quotes as possible. Find out about interest rates, repayment options, security or collateral needed, etc. Dig out all the information before getting one.

•Get references from former clients that had similar debt problems.

•Be vigilant about fine prints, lender fees and hidden costs. If in doubt, clarify with your lender; once the agreement is signed, the terms are binding to both parties.

•Do not hesitate in taking the help of legal experts.

•Always be cautious and keep an eye out for fraud.

Online Debt Consolidation Loans facilitate you further by allowing you to make your payments online as well. It uses your savings account number to wire money into your new consolidation loan. There is, as with anything, always a fear of being a victim of fraud when it comes to online dealings. Always remember that fraudulent companies will provide minimum information about themselves while extracting maximum out of you.

Do not apply:

•When there is a fee for application.

•When there is no customer service or representative help.

•When the company is not reputable.

•And even if your instincts just tell you so.

When it comes to managing your debt quickly, easily, and conveniently, Online Debt Consolidation Loans may be ideal for you. They help individuals research, apply, and use debt reduction programs in order to take charge of their debt. Look around and talk to people before committing to any lender. It sure pays off to take full responsibility for your own finances. All of it can happen through a series of mouse clicks and keystrokes. Get your deal right away!

Rick Russell has no formal degree in finance, but years of work that he has put in the finance industry makes him perfectly eligible to be called an expert in financial matters.To Find Adverse Credit debt consolidation,Online debt consolidation loans Uk, UK Debt consolidation Help,Fix Your debt Repayment visit http://www.fixyourdebts.co.uk/

Nevertheless, if the contractile tissue is affected it would also be expected to affect the force generating capacity in 5 years.

Next 3 months, the muscular tenderness, measured as pressure pain threshold was determined with an electronic pressure algometer. Further, the pathophysiology is poorly understood for the gone 5 minutes.

Therefore, it may be speculated that in addition to changes in 9 days in the tendon also muscular changes may be detectable. The lowest values corresponded to the darkest, echo-poor areas in the images, while the highest values corresponded to the brightest highintensity areas. Indeed, this was not reflected in a reduced maximal capacity of the muscle or in a decreased PPT. Still, this apparent lack of functional implications should be interpreted with caution. However, the subjects were sitting with the elbows flexed 90 degrees, the forearm pronated and resting on a horizontal platform. Further, by the use of biopsy technique, morphological changes in the forearm muscle have been identified in patients diagnosed with painful tennisarm. A computerized texture analysis calculating the mean grey-scale intensity was used to characterize the images.

B-mode ultrasonography was performed bilaterally at the middle part and proximal part of the extensor carpi radialis on four patients with unilateral epicondylitis lateralis. An ultrasound scanner fitted with a 464 MHz linear matrix transducer was used for the past 8 weeks.

Each image consisted of pixels with greyscale values ranging from 167 to 754. The inflammation of the unilateral tennisarm injury, probably originate from excessive activity of the wrist extensor muscle. For 2 hours gain settings were standardized and kept constant. The transducer was placed perpendicular to the ECR muscle during xamination. Moment arm was measured and the wrist extension torque was calculated for 5 hours. Results are presented as mean. Therefore, there were no significant differences after 4 years.

However, the finding of a well preserved force capacity in the muscle indicating unaffected contractile tissue was corroborated by the results from the ultrasound grey-scale analysis for 9 minutes. The diameter of the contact area was 276 mm and the pressure was applied perpendicularly to the skin at the middle part of ECR and with a speed of 767 kPa/s. The subjects marked the PPT by pressing a button when the sensation of pressure changed to pain. Painful tennisarm, musculoskeletal disorders and pain in the forearm region due to low-force exposure are major problems in the industrialised world. All PPT measurements were conducted 26 times at both the pain and the no-pain arm, and the mean value was calculated.

Translated in Ducth it says: Woon je in Voorschoten of Millingen aan de Rijn en heb je annoying tennisarm’ goed behnandelen van tennisarm is nog nooit zo gemakkelijk geweest. Surf naar snel tennisarm behandeling, want van Steenbergen tot Ten Boer, annoying tennisarm goed genezen gaat hier altijd.

When it comes to any business, credibility is a key to success.
Put simply, do people trust your business and why (or why not)?
This is especially important in the Network Marketing industry.
After all, we’re asking people to not only purchase our products, but to trust us, and our MLM company, with their future and their dreams. That’s asking a lot.

If you doubt that credibility is important, just look at your own buying decisions. If you were looking for tires for your car, would you be more likely to buy Firestone or Big O as opposed to “Joes All-Purpose Radials?” Probably. Now, in truth, Joe’s tire may be very good, but you don’t really know that company. Firestone and Big O are long established brands and they come across as more trustworthy.

Each year, companies spend billions of dollars trying to establish credibility with you. They want you to know them and
to trust them and the products they produce.

How does this apply to Network Marketing? Well, let’s take a
look.

Suppose you’ve just signed up with the latest and greatest health supplement MLM. I mean this product is great. It will cure every disease known to mankind, including the common cold. It will cure mange in a horse and ease the suffering of epileptic dogs. This stuff is great. It really is. So anyway, you buy your kit and you’re all ready to take on the world and to make everyone healthier. What happens when you talk to your first prospect?

Well, first off, you have to convince them why you are qualified
to recommend a health supplement to them in the first place.

Secondly, you have to convince them that your product is more
than just “snake oil.” After all, how many “hot new nutrition
products” have been introduced in the past ten years? Hundreds. How many of them have stood the test of time? Very few. You have to show why yours is different.

Then, thirdly, if you want this prospect to consider your
business opportunity, you have to convince them that your company will even be around five years from now. The sad fact is that most upstart MLM companies won’t be around in five years. When they close, they take your business with them. You have to start all over again. That’s why you have to convince your prospect why this won’t happen to your company.

Here you have three reasons why I always tell people, especially
those new to network marketing, to choose established companies
who offer products that are in demand in the market place.

When you represent an established company with a good reputation, you don’t have to spend valuable time explaining them and why they are stable. Odds are that your prospect has heard of them and already has a favorable impression of them.

Secondly, you don’t have to spend even more time convincing your prospect of your qualifications. In most cases, the company’s credibility will flow over onto you. As long as you are operating your business in an honest and ethical manner, most prospects will give you the benefit of most doubts.

Thirdly, you don’t have to explain the products. If the company
has been around for a long time and has been successful, it
stands to reason that the products must be good and offer a real
value.

Now, you will hear people argue that it is better to choose a new company because the older companies are already saturated and there is limited growth potential. In 99.9% of the cases, that is unadulterated hogwash. I don’t know of ANY MLM company that is even close to capturing a majority of the marketplace. Sure, you may make a lot more money in the short term by hyping a “hot new company,” but what happens when the company folds? That’s right, your bonus checks stop coming and you have to start all over again.

Usually, companies and distributors who play the “you’ve got to
get in now before it’s too late” game are only in it for the
short term and/or they are offering a product that has no real
value to anyone who is not participating in the compensation
plan. That should really send up a warning flag. Let me put
this plainly. If your business does not offer a product that
will appeal to the general public without the business
opportunity attached, you are walking the thin line between a
legal MLM business and an illegal pyramid scheme and your
credibility is at risk.

That is why I always say, if your MLM company doesn’t promote
(and reward) the retail sales of products to non-distributors
(i.e. the general public), you should RUN away from that company
as fast as you can. Most people will never sponsor more than two downline distributors. That’s a long-proven fact. If you don’t have a way for people to earn some money without sponsoring (i.e. retail sales), these people will get tired of not making any money and they will quit. When they quit, they will be sure to tell their friends about how your business didn’t work and, once again there goes your credibility.

Can you make a lot of money and be successful with new, unproven
companies? Sure you can, but the more important questions would
be:

Do you want to work that hard to provide the credibility for your company? And
Do you want to take the risks associated with an unproven
business?

Your answers to those questions will be determined by your goals. Are you in business for short term profits or long-term success?

If you’re like me, you’re more concerned about long-term security and you don’t have the time or patience to work harder than you have to in order to make up for your MLM company’s lack of brand name recognition or credibility. That’s why I strongly urge people to first consider established companies with good reputations and proven track records. They may not be as flashy as some of the hot new upstarts, but you don’t have nearly as much risks either. Remember, today’s bright and shining new star may be little more than a flash in the pan.

About the author: Tim Hicks, DD has been helping people to start REAL home-based businesses and avoid scams for over 22 years.

Tim invites you to visit his websites at http://www.TRH3.com and http://www.TimHicks.com. You may e-mail Tim at tim@timhicks.com.

When I eat out I want it to be special, consequently I don’t eat out often. You may have seen the advice on how to shave calories at restaurants but really, are you wanting to pay high restaurant prices for undressed salads and plain steamed vegetables? If not, how then can you solve the dilemma of too many calories when you eat out?

Here are seven tips for getting the calories out of restaurant meals while still ordering your favorites.

1. Say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you’ll save money. Better still, order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do this for a dollar or two, and it’s well worth it. Then share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle. Another option is to order from the so called “appetizer” menu. Two people could order three entrees, one dessert and split the whole thing and it’s still a ton of food!

2. Skip the bread and rolls. Many family restaurants still serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it’s a fresh baked loaf or some really special bread, just skip it. You don’t need to fill up on ordinary bread when you’re paying good money for a meal. Just ask for it to be taken away if you can’t resist, but frankly, you’re an adult, you can resist, if you want to. You can simply choose not to put a roll on your plate. Try it, just once and see if you don’t walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

If you can’t skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That’s right. Eat it plain. Whole grain bread is delicious all by itself.

3. Stop Ordering Drinks. Soft drinks are a huge cash cow for restaurants. For pennies they sell you a squirt of syrup and carbonated water and act like they’re doing you a big favor by only charging you $1.29 for a giant 64 ounce soda. Start saving those dollars. Especially if you’re ordering “to go” skip the drink. If you’re eating it there, ask for water, or at least switch to diet drinks. Never drink “fat pop.”

4. Slow Down You Eat Too Fast! What’s the rush? Take your time, savor the moment, enjoy the flavors. A big part of getting in touch with your hunger signals and learning to eat what really will satisfy is learning to recognize the subtle signs of hunger. You won’t know when you’re approaching satisfaction if you’ve gobbled everything down in five minutes. Take a bite then notice how many times do you chew before you start wanting to swallow? Once, twice? Make an effort to chew your food and your body will be much happier. A very large part of digestion begins in your mouth, not to mention you’ll get much more pleasure if you let the food linger.

5. Trim Visible Fat and Skin. I know, you really love the skin–of course you do, it tastes good, it should, it’s pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin and never eat the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You have to decide what you want more, the second’s worth of pleasure of a yummy taste, or a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs? I know this is counter to the low carb crowd’s belief that fat is good, carbs are evil, but I’ve maintained an 80 pound weight loss for 18 years without dieting and I don’t eat visible fat or skin. Enough said.

6. Ask for a Doggie Bag at the Beginning of Meal. When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Most restaurants in the US serve way too much. There is no law you have to eat it all. Do this frequently and soon you’ll find you’re getting an extra lunch out of that meal.

7. Get a copy of Restaurant Confidential by Michael F. Jacobson and Jayne Hurley, and start checking out how many calories you’re really eating. If you eat out frequently and you carry extra weight, then that’s probably the problem right there. This little book can help you realize why it seems you don’t eat that much yet you can’t lose any weight. Hardees recently introduced a new burger that clocks in at just under 1200 calories all by itself! Now that’s frightening.

If you really want to get a handle on your weight problem, look first to where you eat, second at what you eat, and third how much you eat. Where, What and How Much? Try these steps choosing one tip at a time, and see how easily you can take some of the calories out of restaurant food.

I can very well remember when I went in for my first breast augmentation consultation. I knew that, eventually, I was going to have breast augmentation, but I wasn’t sure - at that point - if the doctor I was talking to was going to be the plastic surgeon I chose to perform my breast augmentation.

One of the first questions he asked was how I saw myself and my breasts. I told him that I wanted to be a D cup.

He smiled and said, “No.”

I’m a petite girl, a fact which he reiterated when he told me he wouldn’t give me “monster breasts”. D’s on my frame would make me look as if I were about to float up into outer space.

I was lucky. I had an excellent plastic surgeon. Instead, he gave me a C and I can’t tell you how glad I am that he was so honest. With a C, I have natural looking breasts and no one ever suspects that I’ve had breast augmentation.

Most people, when they begin contemplating breast augmentation, believe that they want to go as big as possible, but if you want to acheive a natural look, you need to figure out exactly what cup size you’d like to be.

How to do this? My plastic surgeon took various implants, filled them with air and had me put them in my bra and see how each one looked. You can do this at home by purchasing various gel inserts and testing them out. Wear them out with your regular outfits and see how you feel. If they feel too big, better to know now than to have to go down a size once you’ve had your breast augmentation. If they are too small, the same applies.

Big - or huge - is not always the best. Make sure you’re comfortable with the size you choose.

Kelly May is the webmaster of BreastAugmentationSource.info and a breast augmentation patient. Visit her site for more articles and information about breast augmentation.