Free Glide

Diet information is everywhere. In advertisements, on TV, in magazines; the bookstores are crammed with books on many different diet options – The South Beach Diet, The Atkins Diet, Weight Watchers, The Cabbage Soup Diet. The message is ‘you should think about your weight’. If you aren’t already thinking about dieting, you will be before long.

Most of the clients that come to see me want to lose weight. They have typically tried out a few diet options, but still haven’t achieved what they are looking for.The big question is what are they looking for?

It all starts off with that glance in the mirror. What we see staring back at us is often an image we don’t like or at least we don’t rave about. The instant reaction too often can be – ‘I need to go on a diet’.

You don’t like the package, so you need to alter it in some way. But the truth is that often it is the ‘packaging’ that is distorting the picture – distorting our image of ourselves and not you (the package).

Consider this: Everything about you is perfect as it is, and has a purpose. Your shape, your height, your size, your hair colour, your eye colour, the shape of your features, and the size of your knees – they all combine to create you. Having a negative personal image can lead to weight gain or weight loss. Most eating disorders occur as a result of a negative body image.

Your packaging – or your style and your way of dress – has a huge impact on your personal image – how you see yourself, how much you like the way you look and …how large or small you look.

Just imagine how you feel when you are presented with a gift that is packaged with the fanciest ribbon, shiniest paper and with care and attention. In fact, it almost doesn’t matter what is inside the package! It is the same for you, your packaging has an impact on yourself – how you feel about yourself, your confidence levels, and how others treat you.

So before you go on a diet, please consider the following:

Are you wearing clothes that don’t fit you?

Squeezing into an item of clothing is just plain unflattering and although you think you can stay in denial of your true size, every other person that passes you in the street will notice that you are squeezing in. You will only draw more attention which can make you feel more sensitive about how you look.

More importantly wearing clothes that are bigger than you or too small for you will make you look bigger.

Tips

Go through your wardrobe and clear out all items that don’t fit you. Be ruthless! You don’t have to throw them away. But putting them in another area – like the top shelf – so they are out of visibility will ensure you a) don’t wear them and b) you don’t reinforce your negative concerns each time you wear them!

Cut out the size tags. This will take your mind off what size you are wearing, and hopefully you will forget all together and start enjoying what you wear
And of course buy clothes that fit! You think that’s just common sense? Well it is one of the biggest wardrobe mistakes that people can make!
Are you wearing clothes that suit your body shape?

Wearing the wrong shape clothes can add pounds. A square shaped t-shirt in structured cotton will cut off any curves you have, either roll up to expose your stomach or make your torso look like a square box. Oh no! However that is what we can mistakenly go for. The same goes for a pair of jeans – a key item in all our wardrobes. They are often cut to fit a squarer body shape.

Tips

Jeans for a curved hipline – drop the waistline but ensure you have a larger waistband, and/or no back pockets. Also, opt for jeans with stretch. This will follow your natural contours better. For men: go for jeans with a pleat around the waistband to accommodate a softer belly line.

Jeans for a narrow hipline – most jeans look a dream on you, but ensure you opt for structure. Stretch could make you look like you have puppy fat.
T-shirts for a curve – use softer fabrics with drape and soft stretch that have a curve in the cut. Avoid front pockets, too high a neckline, square short sleeves. Instead, feminine touches – flowers, soft textures and chiffon, depending on your style. For men: go for softer fabrics.

T-shirts for angles – use structured fabrics, stripes and lines, boyish cuts, and heavier stretch. You can do pockets and sheer looks.

Are you investing in yourself?

If you are having concerns about your weight then you may have put a stop on your wardrobe spending ‘until you lose weight’. This is just plain unfair on yourself. It can only lead to you feeling more miserable if you are living in three outfits and haven’t got anything you feel really good in. You may feel it will force you to take your diet wishes seriously, but again is dieting what you need, or what anyone needs for that matter?

Tips

Go out now and buy yourself something that you feel really good in, that suits you, that is perhaps an extravagance and that looks slightly sexy or suave. Regardless of whether you have been starving your wardrobe. This doesn’t require emptying your wallet. The action in itself, spending some quality time for you to value yourself, will improve your spirits.
For women: Go out and buy some new make-up. A fresh gloss for the lips – natural or bright – whatever is your preference, and a shimmer or rouge for the cheeks. Invest in good mascara and some colour or base for the eyes.
For men: invest in a new shampoo, a facial lotion and an upgrade your shaving system.

Consider this: You don’t need to lose weight. But you do want to be healthy and have a positive self-image. If you achieve the latter, your own appearance and weight will find its natural way.

Being healthy is mostly achieved by finding balance. Balance between the stress in your life and the peace you have; a balance between your nutrients and your addictions; a balance between being active and being passive. You also want to be well.

With the amount of toxins we have in our foods and environment and the amount of pressure we have living in the Noughties, your health is very important. Dieting can be unhealthy. What is healthy is loving yourself for how you are, appreciating that as you age your body will change, and that a healthy self-image is far more important than whether you can fit into a size 2. In fact, that is quite dangerous.

Dieting can be a quick fix – you see some results so you feel like you have dealt with the problem. But if you are not happy with your own personal image, then weight loss or not, you will shortly be back in front of that mirror complaining about how you look again.

www.thewardrobeshrink.com

Sarah Whittaker runs her own Image Profiling business using her own unique typology of thirty-five Image Types. The Image Types are a reflection of your own ‘blueprint’ and help you to understand how to express your natural self and attract more of what you want.

About once a week I grab my laptop and head to a café to work, brainstorm, and map out business plans. I usually enjoy a latté, cappuccino, or green tea while I work and I’ve found the change of scenery ignites my creativity and jump starts my productivity. For years I’ve gone to the same café on Yale Avenue for my weekly ritual, but last week I stopped into a Barnes & Noble Cafe. I approached the counter to purchase a latté and the sales person immediately responded with an “up selling” offer. She asked, “Can I get you a slice of cheesecake to go with your Caramel Macchiato?”

I wasn’t even thinking about dessert, yet I somehow let the unexpected query: “Can I get you a slice of cheesecake to go with your Caramel Macchiato?” entice me into accepting a rich slice of cheesecake.

The lady at the Barnes & Noble Café flawlessly executed the “up-selling” technique and without any hesitation I accepted. Not once in the three years of my attending my usual café has anyone tried to upsell me. As I enjoyed each delectable bite of the cheesecake I wondered, “What would it mean to Barnes & Noble’s bottom line if every salesperson in the Café attempted to upsell beverage seekers? What would it mean to the bottom line if just 2% of customers everyday were upsold?” What would it mean to your bottom line if every one of your employees flawlessly upsold your customers?

In my experience both as a consumer and as a Business Growth Strategist, I have discovered that many businesses avoid up-selling because they’re concerned that the customer may feel irritated or pressured, and often customer service professionals are reluctant to upsell because they’re uncomfortable with a “selling” role. But here’s the thing: If you don’t try to upell you are 1) Leaving money on the table and 2) Withholding value-added services from your customers. When done right, upselling offers translate into sales 5-20% of the time. And research shows that most customers appreciate up-selling when they are offered additional benefits that are relevant to their needs. Read on to get 5 tips to help you confidently and successfully upservice your customers.

Think of upserving as “Up-Servicing” – When done right, upselling is simply offering a “suggestion” to an already receptive buyer to enhance the value of her service. This is exactly what I experienced at Barnes & Noble Cafe. I was already a receptive buyer and the cheesecake most definitely enhance the value of my experience. When viewed as truly upservicing as opposed to upselling, selling doesn’t feel so overwhelming.

Make sure your upserving offer is always relevant to the customer’s needs. Offering a buyer of a latté a book on Feng Shui tips may not be relevant and is likely to be rejection waiting to happen. But offering dessert truly offers to enhance the receptive customer’s experience.

Be more interested in being of service than in getting a commission. Always focus on offering products or services that are relevant to the customer’s needs and will arguably enhance the customer’s experience. If your sole objective is to get a commission, customers will smell you a mile away. And trust me, they will not buy.

Recognize that upservicing increases customer satisfaction. Surveys and research has found that offering products your customers might find useful is a proactive effort on your part that conclusively leads to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Think of “up-servicing” as a proactive service initiative. When you add upservicing to your skill repertoire, you will increase customers satisfaction and grow your bottom line.

Myra Golden is an award-winning professional speaker and principal of Myra Golden Seminars, LLC, a customer service training firm serving clients in food and beverage, banking, healthcare, hospitality, and other industries. Her client list includes McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Michelin Tires, Pirelli, and Procter & Gamble, among many others.

For hundreds of ideas for customer service improvement for use in customer service training, visit the customer service training resource portal by going to www.totalcustomerservicetraining.com

The president of Belarus is unable to go away. Though most people think he should. Most likely Alexander Lukashenko remains the president for unlimited term as a result of outrageous lie and falsifications of election. For our security forces the tension is so great, that you cannot imagine”, – the president said.

Belarus is threatened with the destiny of North Korea. According to Alexander Milinkevich, one of the opposition candidates, polar night can let down the country. And the main result for opposition will be that the authority will discover a new portion of disloyal people which wait for repressions after election.

Alexander Lukashenko repeatedly declared, that he will not give out the power without fight. “We’ll blow so, that it will not seem a little to them, we’ll turn off heads, we’ll kick from left to right and from top to down, they’ll rush out in one day.” He named contenders at president election as “frozen imbeciles”. The authority equates practically the opposition to terrorists.

There are low chances that a lot of people will express against distortion of election results. Belarusians are intimidated by propaganda and existing total control and slavish contract system. Disloyal people are threatened with dismissal from work, arrest and beating.

THE AUTHORITY DISCOVERED THE IMAGINARY PLOT OF OPPOSITION

They arrested first 4 heads of unregistered public association Partnership – the organizer of independent observation at election. These guys wait now for 3 years of prison. KGB declared, that Partnership was created, controlled and financed by the American organization National Democratic Institute.

One of the arrested persons Nikolay Astrejko married some days before arrest. His wife Polina speaks that KGB members threatened with a pistol to her husband. They brought with themselves witnesses which live in the other end of city. They took away Astrejko’s mobile phone In the beginning of the search and replied the incoming calls. They took away all the information, even writing-books which Astrejko a long ago used in University. They took away also the money presented by guests on the wedding and keys from an apartment.

Later the president declared, that KGB discovered the plot of opposition and crushed 72 organizations which were going to observe the election and withdrew millions of dollars, PC’s, mobile phones. “They prepared to make blow up in a crowd on March, 19 and then block main Minsk city structures and make revolution”, – said head of KGB Stepan Suharenko.

Representative of KGB declared, that they have also withdrawn already filled exit-polls reports prepared by the Vilnius office of Gallup which should be carried out during president election on March, 19. As though the opposition wanted to sound off these figures simultaneously with the official data and to declare their victory.

Rasa Olishovskene, the head of the Gallup Baltic office denied this statement and named it a forgery. This organization was not going to make exit-poll during president election in Belarus at all. Experts speak, that a forged documents have bad quality as there is not figures “against all candidates” and “refused to answer”.

According to Pavel Mozhejko, press secretary of Alexander Milinkevich, the authority have data of the population polls. These figures coincide with those information which authorities named as preparing provocation. According to documents withdrawn by KGB, the victor in president election is the leader of opposition Alexander Milinkevich with 53,7% voices of voters. Alexander Lukashenko has 41,3%. Another opposition candidate Alexander Kozulin 3,8%, Sergey Gajdukevich 1,2%.

THE OPPOSITION AS THOUGH TRIED TO BUST UP BELARUS WITH MOSLEMS

In absence of the editor-in-chief A.Karol, oppositional newspaper Zgoda reprinted a caricature on prophet Mohammed which already have done a lot of noise in the West. Most likely provocation has been made by the introduced employee of KGB.
The criminal case is up. The president has declared that the newspaper will be closed and guilty persons will be in prison.

THEY ARRESTED AND BEATEN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE AND JOURNALISTS

Alexander Kozulin wanted to get to All-Belarusian People’s Congress which was made as Lukashenko pre-election propaganda action. By the way, speakers of this event sent their speeches in the administration of the president a week before event.

In a Railway Palace building, where Kozulin tried to be registered as member of Congress, 6 guys in black jackets and sport caps tumbled down 2 meter high candidate on the floor quickly and professionally.

“They started to beat him with fists and legs, – the head of candidate staff Mecheslav Grib speaks. We could make nothing. Journalists tried to photograph and every one got down. They pressed them to a wall. Each photographer was held by two persons. Television cameraman for Reuters was also beaten. They destroyed his camera”.

After beating, men in black lifted Kozulin up, drag off the building and pushed in the dark blue bus. They jostled me as the ram under a seat in unnatural position, someone sat down from above. In this way I was driving about an hour through the city, – speaks Kozulin himself.
The crowd of people gathered at police building where they delivered Kozulin. Correspondent of KP in Belarus Oleg Ulevich was beaten when tried to photograph as the police began to detain people. The police broken his nose. Later in hospital it was found out that the journalist also have a craniocerebral injury.

Soon two policemen from the press service came to him in hospital like to apologize, but when the journalist could not describe people which attacked him, the police assumed, that he strike with head on the fence himself.

SCANDAL CONFESSIONS OF KGB EMPLOYEES

A few days ago site www.ucpb.org received e-mail signed by staff of KGB. Here is the full text of the letter.

We are employees of Committee of State Security of Belarus and declare the following! After TV statement of opposition candidate in president Alexander Milinkevich and especially Alexander Kozulin, we started to receive messages from places that the population of Belarus actively discusses them, expresses support to those politics and negatively expresses to the side of running authority.

Our information shows, that these days the rating and trust to the working president has sharply fallen. Even in the Mogilev area (native area of Lukashenko) it does not exceed 23%. Talks about TV statements of opposition candidates and also an opinions about events are active on workplaces, in transport, in shops and the markets. The main part of people shows extreme displeasure with suppression and distortion by authority of a true state of affairs. The anxiety for result of voting on March, 19 and confidence of their falsification from authorities simultaneously grows by people.

We see that the authority is frightened. The meeting with heads of power structures carried out by Alexander Lukashenko was really hysterical. Chairman of KGB Stepan Suharenko got the sanction to immediate performance of special actions. These articles of criminal code are on the top: Action on behalf of the unregistered organization and Implication in illegal activity of minors. That’s why have begun searches, checks and detentions.

Round-the-clock closer watch are established for Milinkevich, Kozulin and also for their nearest colleagues. Detachments and checks are reinforced on borders, especially with Russia. They made lists with numbers of cars of disloyal people, including members of families.
Struggle against the organization Partnership is the beginning of provocations of our department. Copies of the fabricated polls are prepared by our structure and we know those people.

And what is ahead?

1. In the day of voting Lukashenko's headquarters will be in Administration of president. This day there will be all basic heads and all power structures heads.
 2. The day of election is the working day for all officials. Everyone should manage process and be at phone.
 3. One day before elections - personal care of all leaders of opposition. In day of elections - keeping out leaders from people.
 4. Switching-off of the Internet and mobile telecommunications is planned.
 5. There will be all possible measures on denial of arriving people from places to Minsk in the day of voting. They prepare the official statement that because of probable provocations arrival to Minsk will be limited: cancellation of electric trains, buses, check of cars entrance.
 6. They prepare variant of finding the weapon or an ammunition in one of offices, in garage or the car of the oppositionist. It's the basic direction of provocations.
 7. Members of the election committee will instruct voters, that they will be responsible for carrying out of the bulletins (intimidation).
 8. The central places of Minsk in day of voting will be closed, tightly and in various ways (in advance).
 9. There is the task to find "skunk" with the big sum of dollars which he should give out to other people for coming out on the streets. Certain people will give out themselves for members of opposition.
 10. In the day of voting TV all the day long will reporting about course of voting. Positively about Lukashenko and all dirty about Milinkevich. In other words: mass infringements, purchase of the voices, a drunk active, etc.
 11. There will be an instructing of all power structures heads on March, 17 in a Lukashenko's cabinet according analysis of the received information. After that there will be command how to act: with whom and when.
 12. The plan for oppositionists is approved: arrest, police, court,15 day in prison. 2-3 hours time for all this actions. By evening on March 19 there will be no most active members at all.
 13. The task is only 1 round and more than 73% of voices to Lukashenko, Milinkevich is not the second.
 14. Groups of certain sportsmen are created. They will engaged in fight with police passing themselves off as drunk opposition and also will beat members of opposition.
 15. Till March 10, 2006 all members of the election committee will know about measures of their encouragement.
 16. The tasks also are:
 - To break utterly meetings with voters
 - To release and arrest as though Milinkevich brochures
 - 3 video sign against opposition are ready.
 - During broadcasting of Milinkevich statements, in 2-3 areas to switch off light.
 - Police should not let independent mass-media in post boxes of people.
 17. They already spy on international observers.
 18. Before the election, after TV statements of all candidates Lukashenko will give "estimation" and conclusion to all oppositional candidates.

The authority is ready to do anything. They afraid to lose all feeding troughs, the stolen money and power.

The most part of force and police structures are decent, patriotic people. They said years to us that coming opposition authority will dismiss everybody and the most enthusiastic will imprison.

Let’s work with our colleagues and to win over to your side. We collect and analyze the information understanding essence of the today’s moment and will present it to society when there will be conditions for this.

The order on beating of presidential contender Kozulin has given personally Lukashenko. And chairman of KGB went to look who is stronger: one marine or 30 special force men.

What for we need to serve to such executioners?

Michael Garmahis (28) is journalist working in one of the Belarusian newspaper. Some time was engaged in NGO’s work and also worked as a tutor of German and English in college.
For further information, please visit his web site: http://garmahis.worldfreeweb.com (Garmahis’Belarus stories-articles, jokes, photos, drawings,wallpapers)

It doesn’t matter if he’s a
potential wife beater or has latent schizoid tendencies or she’s a terrible nag
or wants to live in the country when you are a real
townie. Your genes don’t take personality into account. They
are on a one track mission to get you to have sex and reproduce.

It all started with some rather interesting experiments on mice…

Minnie wasn’t drawn to Mickey beause he was a fun loving little ball of fur
with good prospects and a loving nature, but because his genes were very
different from hers.

Scientific experiments have proved that, if your genes are different from his
or hers, and he or she has a certain look, you’ll be driven crazy with
lust.

After experimenting with mice, they did some tests on humans with surprising
results. They selected a number of women and men who had both similar
and different genetic MHC genes [that stands for major histocompatibility
complex]. MHC genes check out protein markers on cells and help the body
recognise hostile organisms This sets off the immune system.


If someone mates with a person whose MHC genes are differen from theirs,
the offspring will get a double dose of hostile organism checkers.. That means
their kids will have a better chance at resisting disease.

The testers asked a number men to wear brand new t-shirts for two days
and nights, never taking it off. They were not allowed to use anything on their
skins that had any kind of scent. They wanted them to get naturally
whiffy.

Women in the test were then given six t-shirts. Three of them were from men
who had similar MHC genes and the other three from men whose MHC’s were very
different from theirs.

The results showed that the women were more attracted to the scent of
the guys who had different MHC genes from their
own.

The interesting thing is that women taking the birth control pill, which
makes the body think it’s pregnant, preferred the scent of men who had similar
MHC genes to their own.

Some scientists reckon that this is because a pregnant woman doesn’t want
attract men to mate with during pregnancy, but is more drawn to men/women
who are family members i.e. with similar gene-induced odours! This has
something to do with a desire to find protection and care from within the family.

This research suggests that attraction isn’t just some unexplained ‘love at
first sight’ thing, but rather the immune system doing what’s best for the
future progeny – going for a guy or girl whose genes combined with his or her
own will give their kids a stronger immune system,

Of course in humans it’s not just a matter of whether he or she
smells right, because there are other factors that determine whom we fancy or
not.

Have you noticed how some couples look like each other? Think about this.
Most of us hold a physical attraction template based on the features of our
opposite sex parent. If we look like the opposite sex parent, then chances
are we’ll end up with a mate who looks like us.

If we look like the same sex parent but very dissimilar to our opposite sex
parent, and we’re attracted to someone who looks like our opposite sex parent
that person may look quite different from us! So nature has provided
us with a simple formula for attraction

He or she’s gotta smell ‘right’ and have some of the features of our mum
or dad.

Now that’s all well and good for primitive beings who don’t care about
personality traits or social status. These things are
important to evolved human beings. That’s where the
problems start.

Those whiffy genes are pretty powerful and combined with the ‘attraction
template’ they are going to kick off a huge surge of ‘lust hormones’. Our body
produces these hormones to make us want to have sex. This is
determined by the programming in our DNA that says ‘REPRODUCE’.

The ‘lust hormones’ are so strong that they often override every ounce of
common sense. While our bodies are overflowing with desire, our brains are
unable to make rational decisions. That’s why it’s called love
sickness!

So when those long term couples who claim to have fallen in love at first
sight claim ‘I just knew’, they didn’t. Their >genes
knew they’d make strong kids with that person and they’d been programmed to
fancy the way that person looks. It’s pure chance that on top of the
genetic and physical compatibility, they also have matched personalities.

And of course we NEVER hear about those couples who had a gene and looks
match but didn’t quite work out so we assume that there is a magical syndrome
that we call ‘love at first sight’.

Next time you’re irresistibly drawn to someone, tell yourself to wait at
least one year before making any major decisions. It can take anything
from up to six months to two years or more the lust hormones to die
down and the pink clouds of ‘perfection’ to fade away.

Give your brain an opportunity to check out all the stuff that
we should be aware of before committing ourselves to marriage, buying a
home or even more important the decision to make babies.

For more information on our Pulling Power Weekend playshops go to http://www.attractionacademy.com

TESTIMONIAL!
“Peta is a dynamic energetic and inspirational teacher. I would recommend this
course highly for people who need to enhance their confidence in a relaxed and safe
environment. Lorraine C Clinical
Psychologist”

TESTIMONIAL! Thank you for a fantastic and fun time this weekend. I really enjoyed the playshop I got so much from this weekend like learning to shut up the self conversation in my head – the- importance of longer eye contact – - reading signals for space and how small they can be (I’ve always been looking for big things) Being in the now/body so the observations can be taken in rather than listening to the chit-chat – - and above all knowing how I am when I’m being at my best. Steve Nichols

Check out the Attraction Academy website http://www.attractionacademy.com