That dreaded four letter word again. It needn’t be the big boogeyman that it is. Everyone has a diet. It’s not just about losing weight. It’s what and how we eat. That’s it.

Problem is, you do it wrong and you get fat. (Added to by the fact that it’s easier to take it easy rather than expend energy.)

So you go on a “diet”. Most diets aim to cut calories. Fair enough I suppose if you don’t want to burn off the excess food calories by exercising.

Unfortunately people frequently make the mistake of assuming that if you’re losing weight on 1000 calories a day then you’ll do twice as well on 500 calories a day. Over-zealousness like this is counter-productive to losing weight because it results in muscle loss and flabby loose skin that looks as bad as skin tight with fat.

It’s true that you won’t lose fat if you consume more calories than you burn. But over dieting means that by not eating enough you won’t add any more muscle which burns extra calories simply to sustain itself. In fact you’ll actually be losing muscle instead of losing weight from fat supplies – making fat loss even harder!

The solution is to diet right.

* Eat plenty of muscle-building foods, high in protein, complex carbohydrates and fibre. The good protein foods are chicken (not the skin), lean red meat, tuna and other fish, egg (particularly the whites) and milk.

* Make sure you eat protein with each meal because the protein slows down the digestion. This helps to avoid spikes in your blood sugar levels.

* Good carbohydrate foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, potatoes and whole grain products.

* Avoid foods with a lot of calories in a small portion. It’s too easy to over eat on these foods as they feed your fat cells and kill you appetite for muscle-building foods. These are fatty foods like chips, hot dogs, oils and so forth, and sugars: cakes, sweets, soft drinks and desserts. You won’t be losing weight by eating a lot of this food.

* Processed foods generally contain lots of fats and sugars so avoid them as much as you can.

* Use vinegar, lemon juice or non-oil herbal dressings. If you must use oil use a cold pressed olive oil.

* Eat more, smaller meals rather than 3, 2 or even one meal a day as some people do. Four to six, small quality meals are better than 3 or fewer larger ones.

* Limit between meal snacks to fresh fruits (bear in mind they are sugars), nuts (the fats in nuts are mostly the beneficial form of fat), lettuce or bell peppers and other raw green vegetables.

* Drink plenty of good quality water. It not only helps to suppress appetite but helps to clean out the wastes from your body.

* To help cover the nutrient gaps in your diet you could take a multivitamin with minerals. The nutrients your body doesn’t need will be excreted in your urine.

* To help burn fat you might also consider a couple of free form amino-acid capsules and a lipotropic fat burner with your meals. Any of these thermotropic fat burners and fat burning potions however are not even worth wasting your money on though if you aren’t tending to the basics mentioned above.

They are the simple facts of diet and losing weight. It’s not really rocket science. But remember that diet is not the only part of the equation. If you support your diet with the right sort of exercise you give your diet more latitude to accommodate some of the not-so-good things you like to eat. Of course, you must also deal with the mental and emotional aspects of the weight problem as well.

But as far as the diet side goes, while it can be made as complex as you like, and there are certainly many things to consider, the simple fact is, to lose weight you must consume slightly fewer calories than you expend, and how you do that is important as well.

I don’t have to tell you that time is money. Compound interest is proof of that. When you’re serious about getting out of debt, some gurus would have you get ‘gazelle-like’ and use a snowball or avalanche to get out of debt. While you live on beans and rice like no one else, it’s ironically like the all the third world countries, interest is being added to your debts. The experts won’t put a time limit, but you should. Here’s why.

Life moves by quickly. That’s time. Financial goals need to be met like buying a car or a house, or saving for retirement. The time you take to get out of debt slows down your ability to meet other goals. The more money you spend getting out of debt slows down this process even further. What do you do when you’re stressed out and backed into a corner? You do everything you can to avoid the devastation of facing a possible bankruptcy because that would the be the worst thing ever, right? Read on.

Choices are the cornerstone of freedom we have in our country. That’s great news that you actually have choices when it comes to getting out of debt. First, we’ll explore each option. Then, we’ll look at the numbers using an example of what it would cost under each method. From there you can make a better choice of the option that is right for you.

A debt avalanche (also known as “debt stacking”) targets debts with the highest interest rates first. A debt snowball plan, in contrast, prioritizes your smallest debt first no matter the interest rate. Each time the smallest one is eliminated you move to the next smallest.

Alternately, consolidation is a new loan that rolls all the debt into the new loan. The average annual percentage rate (APR) on a consolidation loan is around 18.56%. To put that into perspective, the average range of interest rates charged on consolidation loans typically falls between 8.31% and 28.81%. Negotiating and settling debts for less than what is owed requires that you pay some of the debt and then pay taxes on the cancelled debt. The main problem with debt relief companies is the fact that they cannot stop lawsuits and it wreaks havoc on your credit report due to late and missed payments.

You can follow the gurus and use a snowball or avalanche method and repay your debts as you lose weight on beans and rice. Other options include consolidation and negotiated settlements, paying less that what you owe. Paying less than you owe does come with a tax bill for the cancelled. Each method has its pros and cons and affects credit availability. All the while interest continues to accrue, your credit score drops as you fall further behind and you may even get sued. What if you could find a way to repay your debts with all of these benefits rolled into one? Let’s look at the numbers.

Let’s use the example of someone who has a total of $30,000.00 spread over two accounts and a student loan. In addition, you are able to set aside an extra $200 toward debt payments after making the minimum payments on all three accounts. 15000

• Credit Card A has a balance of $15,000, a starting minimum payment of $285, and an interest rate of 22.25%
• Credit Card B has a balance of $8,400, a starting minimum payment of $150, and an interest rate of $18.85%
• The student loan has a balance of $6,600, a monthly payment of $246, and an interest rate of 6.2%

1. Avalanche will cost you $881 per month for 5 years paying a total of $44,528
2. Snowball will cost you $936 per month for 4 years paying a total of $44,898
3. Consolidation will cost you $552 per month for 10 years paying a total of $66,240
4. Settlement will cost you $475 per month for 5 years paying a total of $28,500 including fees and taxes
5. Chapter 13 will cost you $500 per month for 5 years paying a total of $35,000 including fees

Now that I’ve laid out the numbers, you can see that the least expensive ways to eliminate debt fall between negotiated debt settlement or a chapter 13 bankruptcy case payment plan. Even though debt settlement appears cheaper than bankruptcy, if a lawsuit is filed, the program will typically remove that debt from their program and leave you hanging. Also, if you’re looking to preserve or improve your credit score, this program is not right for you because the debt relief agency won’t make a payment on that debt until you have enough money in reserves for them to negotiate a lump sum settlement. So, even though it appears to be the cheaper way, it may not be the best way based on ruined credit score, tax consequences and you may still wind up dealing with debts on your own if you’re sued.

A 5-year payment plan in chapter 13 may be proposed to repay less than what you owe too, depending on the amount of assets you own and your income. So, the total amount you owe could be even less. Some of the benefits of chapter 13 include zero interest and no income tax consequences on the cancelled debt. Even better is the improvement to the credit score because bankruptcy protection means that you can’t be sued while paying debts through bankruptcy and since you’re making payments, you should see your credit score improve while you’re in repayment.Now that I’ve laid out the numbers, you can see that the least expensive ways to eliminate debt fall between negotiated debt settlement or a chapter 13 bankruptcy case payment plan. Even though debt settlement appears cheaper than bankruptcy, if a lawsuit is filed, the program will typically remove that debt from their program and leave you hanging. Also, if you’re looking to preserve or improve your credit score, this program is not right for you because the debt relief agency won’t make a payment on that debt until you have enough money in reserves for them to negotiate a lump sum settlement. So, even though it appears to be the cheaper way, it may not be the best way based on ruined credit score, tax consequences and you may still wind up dealing with debts on your own if you’re sued.

The question that often arises in the fashion world is if something is simply a trend, or is it to become a classic? This same question is posed by those interested in a belly piercing and wearing one of the many belly button rings that are in fashion right now. If you check the blogs and the social media outposts such as Facebook and Twitter you can find a lot of discussion about whether or not the belly ring is here to stay.

To answer this question it is probably best to take a step back and look at the roots of body piercing in general to see if it has been able to withstand the test of time. You can read about accounts in the Old Testament that indicate that some women had nose piercings. You can look at pictures coming out of the ancient ruins to see that there were piercings in the nose and the ears. And you can find evidence in Eastern cultures of various piercings related to religions and social status. Even in our Western culture ear piercings have become pretty mainstream.

Although some may still believe that belly button rings are nothing more than a temptation of the flesh; young women of all ages and across many cultural backgrounds are embracing the jewelry that they can wear in their navel. The perceptions of some will never be altered. However, many women choose their belly button rings as a sign of their femininity and confidence – not as a sign of their sexual habits.

Many fashions are designed which compliment the wearing of belly button rings. And, of course, the bikini is here to stay so summer is an ideal time to show off your body jewelry and your tan.

So are belly button rings losing some of their steam? Look in any fashion magazine or watch what the celebrities are doing and it would appear that this trend will continue. With so much body jewelry to choose from women will certainly continue to express themselves and their style with the use of body bling.

No matter how good you are at handicapping, sooner or later you end up on a losing streak. It’s really discouraging when you do what’s worked for you before and it doesn’t work now. You begin to question your skill at picking dogs and wonder if you’ll ever pick a winner again. Unless you’ve radically changed what’s worked in the past, you will pick winners again. But it may take a while, and some changes, to get back into your stride.

When I hit a bunch of losing races, the first thing I do is take a break. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can’t just immerse yourself in the dog races without coming up for some fresh air once in awhile. You get stale if you don’t have some other interests in your life, something to balance the strain of going over programs and the stress of betting money on your own judgment calls.

Sometimes, losing streaks can come about when you move away from logic toward impulse. Are you picking dogs with a good handicapping factors, but then betting other dogs on the spur of the moment? Or, are you betting dogs you pick with a good handicapping method, but then “covering them” with “insurance bets” just in case they don’t come in? This is one fast way to lose money and pick winners, while losing at the same time. That’s not something you want to do, because it makes you feel like a fool.

If you’re spending more money on a race than your bets can reasonably recoup, it’s time to stop and take a look at your methods. Sit down somewhere quiet with a cup of coffee – preferably decaf – and really think about how you’ve been betting lately. Are you spreading your bets all over the place? Are you betting on races you don’t have strong feelings about, just because you want to have something going every race?

Are you aware of how much money you’re spending – and losing – at the track? Or are you kind of glossing over it so you won’t feel so bad about how much you’ve thrown away lately on bad bets that you didn’t think about too thoroughly first? Maybe what you need is a fresh start. Maybe, it’s time to change the way you operate before you blow your whole bankroll.

One good way that I’ve found to do this is to take a break for a few days. Then, go to the track on a day when there’s a good program. Take a smallish amount of CASH with you. No credit or debit cards or any other source of money. Just cash. Pick out the dogs you want to bet on and bet them the minute you walk into the track. Then, get yourself something eat and drink and sit down and watch the races.

Don’t get up except to go to the bathroom or leave the track. No outside bets, insurance bets or bets because “the 7 dog looks really good” and someone tells you it’s a lead pipe cinch. Just watch the races and collect your money and go home. If you lose every bet, at least you didn’t spend more money than you planned to spend. Sometimes, it’s more important to do what you promised yourself you’d do – to show some self-discipline – than it is to win money.

Do this a few times and you might get into a winning frame of mind again, where you’re picking dogs and betting them with smart money management – and winning. Do this as a regular routine and you might just find that – on more trips than not – you go home from the track a winner and losing streaks are few and far between.

A freshman high school debate team traveled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Newark, Delaware to battle other high school teams across the nation for the nation’s top debating award, worth an undisclosed sum of money. As a result, the Pittsburgh team won the tournament. Unknown to them, their school was to be awarded a special prize, but nobody on the team was ever informed about the type of prize.

The prize included a facsimile of a rare book by William Shakespeare, known as the “First Folio” inside a box which Dr. Titus Tweet – a wealthy elderly book collector who owned many rare books gave to Mr. Garble – the school’s debate instructor. Then Mr. Garble gave it to Mike Donavan, the team captain, who gazed at it while pretending to smile in false triumph. All the other members just smirked and made faces at it. Mike held the box above him as pictures were taken of him holding it as if it were the Super Bowl trophy. However, nobody on the team knew anything about the book which didn’t include a title on the box. The book was then handed back to the debate team instructor who knew the real title of the book inside but decided not to share it with his team.

A few hours later, the team and the instructor got on their school bus which was taking them back to their school in Pittsburgh. Mr. Garble placed the box with the book in it directly in back of him on the seat. One of the team members walked up to him and asked, “Why did we get a book and not a trophy, or even money?” The instructor replied, “It’s a reproduction of an old book, called the “First Folio” by a William Shakespeare.”

The boy didn’t know what to say; the title made no sense to him. So, he turned around and walked back to where his buddies started drinking bottles of beer which were they had poured into empty soda bottles to fool the instructor. Within thirty minutes they were drunk.

One of the drunk students quietly stumbled down the aisle, picked up the box while the professor had fallen asleep. One of them opened it and took out the book without their instructor knowing it. The book looked old, but each team member rummaged through it while carelessly handling it.

“A book? A damn book?” one of them said. They took turns looking at it while laughing hard as they passed it around. “We got plenty of books back at school. What do we need this for?” “Here… David, Keep it!” This woke David up. He looked through it for a few minutes but thought the book was worthless.

Two hundred fifty miles later, their bus stopped at a deli for dinner after exiting on to a ramp, all of the students got off, leaving David who was still turning the pages carefully. But when he got up, everyone had gone inside.

David took the book with him, chuckled and threw it in an outside trash can. Then he walked in to order food with his friends. As they chatted while looking at the menu, a middle-aged man wearing a moth-ridden old coat, walked into the same diner. His head was long and wild looking as it stood out beneath a moldy cap. He wore a full gray mustache, which connecting downward with a long beard.

When the students saw him, they couldn’t help but point to him and chuckle. But the poor man was used to it. His name was Jim. He had given life his all, teaching at several colleges until he got married to a seemingly nice woman who turned into a trashy nightmare of a rich harlot. They had several children who ended up in jail on charges of selling dope, stealing and beating up people they didn’t like. The wife threw him out of their home after considering he was a “nobody” who couldn’t keep a job due to physical illness.

When the students finished their meal, they were ready to board the bus back to their school. As they walked in and took their seats, they all had forgotten about the book they had passed around. A couple of hundred miles later, one of the boys remembered it and asked what happened to it. Nobody knew except, of course, David who had been given the book.

“I threw it away at the diner. What did you expect me to do with it?” David confessed.

“Why? That belonged to Mr. Garble. We won that book at the conference! What are we going to tell Mr. Garble?”

“We have to go back and get it. We’ll be punished.”

“We’re too far away. David, can you get the book at the library?”

“I’ll try! As soon as we get off the bus when we get home, I’ll go to the school library and get a book like the one that was in the box,” David replied anxiously. “Let’s just make sure Garble thinks we have the book.

Mike said, “If he asks, just tell him we’re reading it.”

Later, Garble was sleeping as the bus approached the school. When it stopped, Garble started to feel sick and as he stepped off the bus he vomited. Some of the boys stayed to help him as two of them rushed toward the library with the empty box to find a copy of the “First Folio” masterpiece. They found a common book full of all of Shakespeare’s works, checked it out and put it in the box. When they ran back to Mr. Garble, who was still sick, they gave him the box.

Back at the diner, the poor man had only eaten what he could afford, which amounted to half of a dry burger. He couldn’t afford to tip but apologized to his waitress that he had no money. As he opened the door to leave, he stumbled to the outside trashcan and started to rummage through it. He saw the book laying on top. Curiously, he picked it up and opened it to the first page. It read Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. In the middle was a large etched image of William Shakespeare. The bottom read London… 1623.

Jim examined the book, not believing what he was seeing. Shakespeare?? Couldn’t be, he thought. It was certainly old. He looked around, walked back into the restaurant. He spied his kind waitress and asked her if he could have a bag without telling her he wanted to protect the book he had hidden in his coat. Then he decided to take a short bus ride close by to the University of Delaware where he could examine the book more closely.

When he got out, he walked to the closest library and was let in even though he didn’t carry any id. Everyone in the library looked at Jim’s ragged attire but did not bother him. For the moment he kept the book hidden, not trusting anyone to see what he was holding. He walked to a desk at the back of the library.

Within an hour, Jim had examined the book as much as he could. He wasn’t sure but believed it was a modern facsimile of some sort of a famous book by William Shakespeare called the First Folio. Jim looked up and around him. He intended to use the computers but he didn’t want to appear so disheveled. What could he do?

Despite his appearance, he decided to ask a librarian. So, he looked around and eyed a middle-aged, dark brown haired woman who was shelving books. He walked towards her until he stood a few feet from her and asked, “Excuse me. I have a question about a book I own.” The lady looked at him and did a double take when she saw he looked like a bum, but she smiled as she approached him to look at his book. She stopped her shelving and took the book. “Come with me. We’ll go to my office to take a look at it.”

Jim walked behind her as they made their way to her office downstairs. He asked her name. “I’m Donna Schmitt, head librarian. But please just call me ‘Donna’.” “Glad to know you’re the head librarian. My name is ‘Jim’ by the way.” “Nice to meet you, Jim,” she replied.

As soon as they walked into Donna’s office, she cleared her desk and placed the book in front of her. Jim sat off to the left chair next to her and watched Donna as she carefully examined the book’s exterior. Then she opened the title page and her eyes open slowly. After minutes of more studying it, her eyes grew as far as they would go. She turned her head and asked sternly, “Where did you get this?”

Jim lied and said, “It’s been in my family for many years.” He lied because he knew she probably wouldn’t believe that he found it in a trash container on the other side of town. “Actually, I… “

She interrupted and her hands started to shake. “From what I can determine, you own a genuine, rare book called the First Folio of all of Shakespeare’s thirty-six plays. Based on condition and rarity… your book… I… believe is worth over a million dollars.”

Jim opened his mouth quickly. “I’m a little hard of hearing, but did you just say what I thought you said?” “Yes. You have an extremely rare book and I’m going to call Heritage Auction House,” she replied. Jim thought a moment and began smiling. He couldn’t believe his luck.

“Don’t worry! I used to work there selling extremely rare books.” Jim sat frozen in place, unable to reply. Donna looked up the Heritage’s website and wrote down some information. Jim felt numb; from all of those years of living on the streets, his fortune was coming his way faster than a Tokyo subway.

“I can’t believe it!” Jim replied.

“You look like you could use a place to stay. It’s a little late. In the morning, why don’t we arrange for your book to be auctioned?” Sensing Jim couldn’t afford a place to stay, she called a road-side inn and asked for a reservation for one night for Jim. Jim hardly heard her as he was counting how much a million dollars could do for him.

She drove him to the Calhoun Inn. She left him there, paid for a room with an understanding she would pick him up in the morning. Donna let him keep the book. When she left Jim at the Inn, he walked into the room and took a long needed shower. Then he fell asleep dreaming happily all night.

At the mansion of Titus Tweet, the wealthy book patron looked on his desk and spotted the original Shakespeare “First Folio”. He stared at it and looked away for a few seconds. Then he anxiously looked at it and picked it up. “Oh no!” Tweet opened the cover. The facsimile. Horrified, he realized what he had done – accidentally given the debate team his original copy.

Tweet called the high school and demanded to speak with Mr. Garble. The operator transferred him to his office but only received his voice message. After the beep, Tweet told Garble that he accidentally gave him an original copy worth millions – not the facsimile. He wanted it back immediately.

The next morning, Garble walked to his office with the box with the library book in it and unlocked the door. He still felt nauseous, but better. He checked his phone’s messages and noticed someone had called. He punched the button and heard Dr. Tweet’s message. When the message finished, Garble tore open the box and found the copy. Confused, he immediately called all of his debate club members through the school intercom.

They knew they were dead when they heard his voice but slowly made it to his office. “Did you know that you were given an original book from the time of Shakespeare? Dr. Tweet called and said he gave you his real copy?”

Every team member felt stunned and looked guilty. Dave bravely told him, “I threw it in the trash when we ate at that restaurant.”

“What?? That book is worth millions of dollars? I don’t believe this! What’s the number for that restaurant? Never mind. I’ll look it up!” As he did so, each team member prayed the book was still there. However, after Garble got hold of the manager and asked him to look in the trash to see if there was a book, the manager told him that the trash was picked up that morning.

“We’re screwed!” Garble said angrily. Actually, they were all screwed. The high school would be on the hook for another authentic “First Folio”, which could bankrupt the school.

In a week, Donna helped Jim get the iconic book to Heritage Auction. In the meantime, she gave him money to get a much-needed haircut, and clothes for him to wear. Donna regarded Jim as a handsome man. Feelings about him began to stir in his heart. She had been divorced for a decade and had one son. Jim thought of Donna as his guardian angel because she had been so nice to him.

When the finger biting auction began, Jim and Donna kept track of it live on Heritage’s website. Donna reassured him the price would go above $1 million, but they both wanted it to go as high as possible. She reached for his hand and held it as they saw the amount climb. During the last thirty minutes, they couldn’t help chewing their nails. At the end of the auction, the book sold for $4.75 million.

They cheered and hugged each other. Then they stared at each other without saying a word. Perhaps there was no need for words. It wasn’t long before they became a couple and started dating. After a year, Jim popped the question to Donna, who cried when he kneeled and pulled out a beautiful gold ring. She told him in a tearful “yes.”

The foolishness of the rich man made the poor man rich, but a “rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” (W.C. Fields).

Losing streaks are an unfortunate part of betting on horses. Sooner or later, if you are trying to make a living handicapping horse races, you will go on a losing streak. I think it is like catching the flu. You know you’re going to feel losing and have a rough time and that it won’t be over for a while.

Just like the flu, there is no known cure for losing streaks, but there are ways you can alleviate the symptoms. For one thing, never ever think that by betting more you will somehow overcome the jinx. If it is on you, then it is there for a while and you can’t buy your way out.

This is when some prior planning comes in handy, so if you have no alternative plan, better start devising one now, because sooner or later, it will be your turn. When I say an alternative plan, I mean having an idea of how you will survive a losing streak when betting on horses for money.

There are several ways to deal with a streak but before we discuss them, let’s talk about how you can recognize one. First of all, you shouldn’t go on tilt just because you lose a few bets. On the other hand, you should have an idea of your strike rate and if you are way far off it for more than a day, then you are probably on a losing streak.

If you arrive at the conclusion that luck has turned against you, don’t get emotional about it or take it personally. It happens to everyone, just like the common cold. The important thing is what you do about it. I recommend having an alternative activity, a hobby or getaway, that you can lose yourself in for a few days and completely, or as nearly completely as possible, forget that the track and racing exist.

This will serve two purposes, first, it will give you a chance to rest and refresh yourself, physically and intellectually. Secondly, it will save you money. The worse thing you can do is to keep betting during a losing streak. It is demoralizing and also expensive. It is better to spend the money on an unrelated activity and consider it an investment in your health, rather than wasting it on losing bets.

What are the Benefits of Heavy Weight training?

Women can shy away from weight training because they think it will develop too much muscle. This is an unfortunate misconception. Women, in particular do not have enough testosterone levels to develop muscle mass as much as men.

Weight training raises the metabolic rate after the training ends. It works equally for men and women. The calorie burn can last up to 38 hours after the workout. Training with weights enables you to hold onto and tone the muscle. The body burns body fat to release energy to repair and rebuild muscle. So you build muscle and lose fat at the same time. A win win situation.

What lifting heavy weights does for men and women is raise the metabolic rate after the training.

You can lose muscle as well as body fat when rely on cardio training alone.

The Big advantage in Weight Training is the Calorie Burn Factor.

Consistent weight training 2 or 3 times a week will keep the metabolic rate running faster. The training enables you to build up a larger amount of lean muscle mass.

Cardio and Calorie Burn

You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound of body fat during a cardio session.

This is all well and good, but to keep burning fat you have to continue doing these long cardio sessions. The time factor as well as boredom can have a big demoralizing effect on your motivation.

Once the cardio sessions stops, the fat burn stops. Weight training does not burn as many calories as cardio during the session. However, the calorie burn afterwards outweighs those of the cardio session.

The weight training sessions are much shorter, more fun and more effective.

To Round-Up

Cardio training has its benefits in heart and lung efficiency, no doubt. It can also contribute to weight loss. However, the weight loss can include losing body muscle as well as body fat. Unlike weight training, it will not help body shape either, especially in the upper body.

We are not suggesting you stop all cardio training. You need to do a 20 minute cardio warm up before weight training anyway, to avoid injury. Any gym instructor will tell you this.

Weight training is the more effective way to loose body fat. Increased muscle helps burn more fat and helps promote a better body shape for both men and women.

Weights combined with cardio and better diet burns fat far more than cardio and diet alone.

For anyone worried about becoming muscle-bound, don’t worry. It takes a lot of effort and will not happen with a standard 3 session a week program.

So why wait? The health benefits are obvious.

Here are some ideas to get you started

• Walk into any private or public gym.
• Set up an Induction day. A gym instructor will talk you through a strength training program to suit your needs.
• Don’t worry, you will always train within your ability range. The gym instructor will set up a progressive strength and fitness program for you. It will suit your goals and yours alone.
• The fat drops and the body shape improves. It will turn peoples heads. You’ll feel stronger, healthier and happier. Especially when your friends tell you ‘Wow, you’re looking good, what did you do?’.

Many mobile business owners and professionals struggle with payment options. While on the road, moving from one job site (or client) to the next, it can be difficult to keep things organized. Most small business owners have the luxury of a storefront, cash register, and credit card processing terminal. For them, there’s no guesswork or potential “run-around” involved – either the card has funds, or it doesn’t.

Mobile business owners, such as landscapers, trades people, merchants at craft fairs, and others simply do not have these luxuries. Most are limited to accepting cash or check; the latter with no guarantee that there are funds in the account. It can be difficult for them to find a payment method that is convenient for both them and their customer, especially for big-ticket items. Unfortunately, this may often mean that the sale goes instead to the brick and mortar merchant, simply because they accept credit cards and/or provide a financing option that doesn’t involve some sort of collection arrangement.

(In other words, the credit card company acts as the “creditor” for them, in a sense, and gives the customer a self-directed financing plan on their own terms.)

Are you losing sales because you don’t or can’t accept credit cards? This is a problem shared by many mobile business owners. Imagine the sales you might have had at your last trade show or job fair, if payment of a large sum had been easier and more convenient for your customer.

Customers are carrying less and less cash around. We are quickly becoming a plastic consumer society and few people like to bother any longer with the hassle of cash or check books. They prefer the ease and convenience of their credit or debit cards. Are you losing valuable sales because you don’t accept this most convenient method of payment?

Many business owners also prefer credit cards. They offer the advantage instant approval. There is no waiting for days for a check to clear and money to be deposited in your account. Credit cards provide 24-hour payment in a 24-hour world. Payments can be processed quickly, on demand.

What if there was a way for you to accept credit cards from your mobile office or job site? This would enable you to build your business from anywhere, any time. Why should brick and mortar businesses get all the customers?

What would this do for your business? Your business could potentially grow by leaps and bounds – and you’d be making life a lot easier for both your customers, and yourself.

Here’s the good news – you do, in fact, have options. Here are two solutions you should consider:

1. Use a Wireless Credit Card Terminal.

If your typical business day consists of a large number of smaller sized transactions (for example, a pizza delivery business with an average of 40 sales under $30 a day), then you should seriously consider getting a wireless credit card processing machine.

Your monthly fees for the merchant account (and equipment, if leasing) will be average, as will the discount rate per sale, but the convenience factor in addition to the potential increase in sales from customers who don’t necessarily have cash on hand will likely more than make up for the monthly fees, and then some.

2. Accept Credit Cards by Phone

Now, if you run a business where you’re only closing on a few sales a day, but at a higher ticket ($x00 – $x,000), then you’ll want to minimize your merchant account costs because your credit card transactions will be more of an occasional occurrence – even though it will certainly impact your business in regards to convenience, efficiency and potentially even sales.

For example, if you own a landscape business where the average transaction is $600, you’ll find that quite a few clients will want to take advantage of either their card’s built-in rewards points (like “air miles”), the flexible financing – or in most cases, both of these added benefits combined.

The benefit for you is that credit doesn’t “bounce” and in most cases, you’ll have access to the funds much faster than with a check.

Now, here’s the best part – you can accept credit card payments on the spot from any touch-tone phone, including your cellular.

Also, the leading “pay by phone” services available have very low monthly fees and operate in more of a “pay as you go” fashion.

This is the perfect solution for a mobile business – or professional – where occasional credit card transactions are necessary (and profitable), but don’t quite warrant the hassle of using a traditional terminal.

Some services cost as little as a few bucks a month at about 4% per sale.

So there you have it – two very viable options for mobile business types that would otherwise have to remain stuck in the “dark ages” of cash and check payments.

Do your due-diligence to see what service might be best for you and your customers.

Have you ever had the awful experience of losing your voice? Of having to miss out on conversations, make people wait while you scrawl out words on paper for them to decipher, or cancel events, work and classes?

I had laryngitis once when I was a kid, and once was too much!

Here’s how it happens: the vocal cords create sound when they come together and vibrate; when they can’t come together in a healthy way, you have less sound.

If the vocal cords (aka vocal folds) are irritated and strained, they can get inflamed and tense to the point that the muscles overcompensate, cramp up and stop the vocal cords from coming together.

Laryngitis is basically a vocal cord cramp.

The more you strain your throat muscles to create sound, the higher you increase your chances of getting laryngitis, vocal nodes or polyps.

Vocal nodes are like calluses that can grow on your vocal cords if they are slammed together too tightly and too often – for instance if you constantly clear your throat.

Vocal polyps are like blisters filled with fluid that can burst.

Vocal nodes and vocal polyps can create chronic breathiness, pain, loss of range and fatigue.

What can you do instead to consistently keep your voice healthy, clear and strong – especially when you need your voice in order to make income, create music, save a life, or connect with someone you care about?

10 Do’s to Prevent Losing Your Voice

1. Learn physical and vocal warm-ups that help to relax your throat and vocal cords
2. Learn to keep your throat and vocal cords relaxed at every level when you speak or sing
3. Take care of your back and neck so that they are aligned (alignment helps keep your throat open and relaxed, and your breathing easy)
4. Drink lots of water (8 or more glasses a day is recommended)
5. Sip warm healthy liquids like teas and soups (for most people, I recommend hot water, honey, lemon, with 4 slices of fresh ginger)
6. Protect your immune system and emotional health with healthy foods and vitamin supplements – especially vitamins C and B12 (I follow Dr. Jonny Bowden’s recommendations www.jonnybowden.com and also eat healthy Korean foods)
7. Take care of health issues such as viruses, bacterial infections, allergies, acid reflux, etc.
8. Use a humidifier, or steam with essential oils
9. Use a natural throat spray, natural throat lozenge, or Vitamin C drop that will help heal, moisturize and clear your throat before speaking or singing
10. Clear your sinuses of bacteria and snot with a neti pot

5 Don’ts to Prevent Losing Your Voice

1. Avoid strained yelling, screaming, singing, speaking or whispering (there are healthy ways)
2. Avoid smoking and second hand smoke (all smoking – including cigarettes, pot, cigars and pipes)
3. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, ice, dairy and nut butters 4 hours before speaking or singing
4. Avoid antiseptic menthol throat sprays and lozenges that numb and dehydrate
5. Avoid clearing your throat (try a swallow, small cough, or warm liquids)

Learning to take care of your voice with these healthcare and voice training tips will help you prevent vocal health issues, so that you can make sure you’ll be able to use your voice every day to fully live your life and do your work.

Below is a letter I received from a soccer coach who was losing and wanted to know how to improve his team.

Hi SoccerHelp,

Since my original letter we have had varied success. The next soccer game we played, we won 3-0. I moved player 3 back to stopper for half the game and used player 9 at stopper in the second half. The boys played great and I thought that I’d finally cracked the code on where to have the different boys play.

But the next week we lost again. We were scheduled to play a team that by all means, we could have played even, or based on our play the previous week, beat. We lost 5-1. My boys played with no energy at all and I found it extremely frustrating watching them rotate in place as they watched the other team run between them. At least half if not more of the team was playing as spectators. Most of the soccer goals were scored because my defenders were out of soccer position and not attacking the ball.

We lost our game this last weekend by 8-0. I started off playing my stronger players in the opening quarters to try and keep the score down and the morale up. We were playing the number one team and we started off playing them fairly evenly, but we couldn’t convert on anything in front of the soccer goal, because our offensive players weren’t in position and we gave up three goals in the first half because our soccer defenders were out of position. Once again, we had a lot of spectating on the field and after a while the defenders I had, who weren’t playing very aggressive to begin with, stopped playing completely. I had to take one player out because he actually stopped moving, it was like watching the Bad News Bears play soccer. Towards the end, even my good players were giving up.

I am obviously not being very effective in my soccer coaching. What are some activities I can do to try and help the boys play their positions? We cover it in soccer practice regularly but it doesn’t seem to be sinking in? Also, what are your thoughts on even play for the kids? I have enough good players that I could mount a fairly good team, but usually half the team at any one time is on the not so skilled side. I’m trying to give everyone close to equal time, but when kids are not trying I think I should take them out (I have not been doing this as it would mean some players are going to sit almost all the time).

Coach T

Hi Coach T,

I want to encourage you not to get too discouraged by your loss to the number one team. It’s very important for you to be realistic — keep in mind that you were SUPPOSED to lose to that team. What happened was that your team saw they couldn’t win and gave up in the second half. It’s not pretty, but it’s understandable, and practical (Why keep killing yourself if you can’t possibly win? That just saps your energy. I think it’s better to just admit that it isn’t your day and mentally focus on the next game. Save your best efforts for the teams you have a chance to beat). I suggest telling your team that they are improving but that the opponent was just better that day and losing that game is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s very important for you to be realistic about your team and their potential. You aren’t a miracle worker and can’t do the impossible. All you can do is do the best with the talent, speed, aggressiveness, and practice time you have. You are SUPPOSED to lose to a better and faster team – all you can do is minimize the damage and try to not let your team’s morale and confidence suffer too much.

I have some ideas for you to consider:

1. Do you scrimmage at practice? If you do, stop scrimmaging. kids play with more enthusiasm in their real matches if they don’t scrimmage at practice.

2. I notice that you use the iron-on patches with your team. Your biggest needs are aggressive play, defense and scoring, so I would only give patches for those 3 things. I would give a patch NOT ONLY for actually scoring, but also for BEING IN POSITION TO SCORE – if your players do the right things, they will start to score. Once they learn to score, you might want to stop giving patches for goals, but for now you need to do that to teach them how to score. Your team must also develop a DESIRE TO WIN. If you get more patches, buy the V and A patches… when you win, make a big deal of it. Don’t give patches for participation – give them for effort, achievement and aggressiveness. The exception might be a patch for practice attendance, but you can give one for each 2 or 3 practices attended. Practice attendance is critical to the success of your team.

3. To keep yourself motivated, try the Motivational quotes on Premium… I read them myself.

4. Do you play Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race Practice Game? Use it to teach Aggressive Receiving – this is important – your players need to get more aggressive about winning the ball. Play it with pairs and give the winners a patch. You will get better, faster results from focusing on Aggressive Receiving than you will from focusing on passing – Aggressive Receiving is more important to teach.

5. Do you play Dribble Across a Square at every practice? This is important — play it at the start of practice as a warm-up — twice with a 10 step wide square and then twice with a 14 step wide square.

6. Don’t try to emphasize passing yet, except by playing the Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race game — tell your scorers to try to score and teach them to look for rebounds and to be aggressive. Tell defenders to kick it hard straight ahead and teach Forwards to Win the Ball and give them a patch if they do.

7. Do you have sports drinks and water at the games? If not, try that — it can make a difference (there’s a good article about Hydration on Premium)

8. Play the Shoulder Tackle and Strength on the Ball Game to toughen up your players.

9. Regarding equal playing time: Most leagues require each player to play 50% of the game – check to see what your league requires. If a player won’t try or hustle or do as you ask, they shouldn’t expect to play as much as someone who does — I think that’s a fair approach. You have an obligation to the players, but also to the Team.

10. Have you taught Coaching Rule # 3? It’s worth 2 goals per game at U-9

11. Have you taught First Defender/Second Defender? How to teach it is at Quick Team Improvement.

12. I recommend that you make a BIG DEAL of BRAVERY and give a Red patch for it and ONLY for that — the BRAVERY patch (also called the Blood Patch) — believe me, that works — I used that myself.

13. You’re right – you MUST have brave players at Fullback and Stopper — that is CRITICAL. If you Defend Deep they don’t have to skilled or fast, but they MUST be brave.

14. If you Defend Deep (if you leave your Fullbacks deep), think about letting your tough Fullbacks play most of the game or even the entire game (perhaps rotating 3 players at those 2 positions).

15. Try the Win the 50/50 Ball Game and use it to teach players to slow down the attack if they can’t win the ball.

I think you are closer than you think. The key is to motivate your players to play hard. Don’t judge your progress by the 8-0 loss — that loss is understandable — it was like an avalanche, once it got started you couldn’t stop it — it was best to just try not to get hurt by it.

Please let me know which of these ideas helps and other ideas that help you.