Your Salsa Pub

If you are like everyone else who has hit rock bottom with their weight struggles, and have declared that this day will be the first day of your diet, then this article is for you.

Too often it seems that most dieters jump on the weight loss boat, yet fail to bring along a months pass. Instead, they are usually on the boat for a couple of days, or maybe a week at best.

We all have the motivation to lose weight and look good. Some of us even diet for medical reasons. Whatever reasons motivate you to lose weight, hold onto them.

To many of us fall victim to that one cheat day, or that one hour where we fall off the boat and can’t get back on. My experiences with people just like that have shed
some light on that missing element that makes people fall prey to losing their diet focus.

Consistency. Motivation is directly tied to dieting through consistency. If we feel that we are not seeing results based on our diet after a few days, or if we hit a plateau soon into the program, then we start succumbing to inconsistent eat habits. We eat whenever, usually whatever, and feel like crap afterwards. Sure, it absolutely feels good giving in and munching up what we have been starving our bodies throughout the diet, but usually what happens later is that we feel bad emotionally about what we just did and how hard we worked to avoid this behavior in the first place.

By getting it into our heads at the outset of the diet, that this process is a marathon and not a sprint, then we can reinforce our consistent dieting patterns and thus stay motivated to stay on the diet. We even get more motivated when we start seeing results. How do we see results?

Yep. By being consistent in our diet methods.

Whether it is drinking a gallon of water religiously throughout the day (which reminds me, I need to get up from this computer and do just that!) or eating 5 small meals through out the day at certain times, these events lend themselves to helping you stay consistent.

What you will notice after several months of doing this, is that your mental resolve to stay on the diet is incredible. Much stronger than what you started with. Another result you will see is that by altering your body’s eating habits and forcing your metabolism to process certain foods at certain times, the pounds come off at a faster rate. This, my friends, is the desired goal in ANY diet. Stay healthy and stay consistent. I’m rooting right along with you!

David Speringo is the administrator and owner of http://www.dietdiscussions.com, one of the internet’s most established weight loss sites. He has personally encouraged 100’s to continue in their quest to become leaner and healthier in whatever diet they chose to follow. For more information and articles like this one, please visit his site at http://www.dietdiscussions.com and join the community of hundreds losing weight every day. You can personally email him at contact@dietdiscussions.com

Saturday night brought us our Symphony Orchestra concert with harmonica virtuoso, Robert Bonfiglio. He not only performed a harmonica concerto; he delighted us with five or six encores. (I lost track after the fourth.) Excuse my ignorance; I had no idea harmonica virtuosos even existed…nor did I have any clue that concertos were written for this lovely little instrument. (The harmonica is an instrument?!?) The guy was incredible. I’ve never seennor heardanything like it. Please…check out www.robertbonfiglio.com to become enlightened yourself.

I got home around midnight last night, only to wake up and head back to the auditorium this morning to rehearse with one of our local dance troupes, our full symphony orchestra, narrator, lighting crew, and director for our annual Family Concert, the working committee for which I chaired. We interpreted the award-winning 1963 children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, by setting it to classical music and to classical ballet. Starting with The Creaky Door Overture, a little-known work by Kozinski, to an excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” to Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” the dancers performed to Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite,” one of my personal favorites (with a climax that leaves me choked up each and every time I listen to it.) Actor Keir Dullea, best known for his performance in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” narrated the prose as set forth in the book by Mr. Sendak.

This is not meant in any way to showcase our local, fully professional symphony orchestra, nor the dance company which performed so brilliantly today. Rather, it is used to illustrate a lesson that hit me like a ton of bricks this weekend. I had learned this lessonalbeit less intenselyyears ago when my daughter performed in ballets with her troupe. But too many years had passed and the lesson had been forgotten. I learned this lesson more palpably today by witnessing it firsthand. I observed the level of commitment requiredand cheerfully givenby many different people of many, varied talentsin order to achieve a highly desired result for a common cause, for the welfare of many.

The conductor needed prepared musicians; the musicians needed the conductor. The choreographer needed attentive, energetic dancers…and they needed her direction. The set designer needed the choreographer’s vision, and we all needed his set! The make-up artist needed the dancers who needed the make-up artist. The stage crew needed the lighting contractor, who relied on the stage crew, choreographer, director, and conductor for direction. We all needed concert-goers…and they needed this concert. This interdependence, lovingly given and enthusiastically accepted, mingled with emotionally charged music to produce a concert of significant aesthetic fuel. It will doubtless keep my tank filled for weeks.

So it is with all relationships. Husband needs wife and wife needs husband. Children need parents and parents need children. And political leaders need the electorate as the electorate needs leadership.

This is not an earth-shattering concept. But keep in mind, as you go through these next fifteen days before our Presidential election, of the interdependence of our citizens. Of how your vote will impact your neighbor, your brother, your employer, and your kids. Study the interdependence of the issues, how they fall like dominoes once stacked upon each other. And how we are, each and every one of us, in this life struggle together, like tiny separate dots…just waiting to be connected.

Carolina Fernandez earned an M.B.A. and worked at IBM and as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch before coming home to work as a wife and mother of four. She totally re-invented herself along the way. Strong convictions were born about the role of the arts in child development; ten years of homeschooling and raising four kids provide fertile soil for devising creative parenting strategies. These are played out in ROCKET MOM! 7 Strategies To Blast You Into Brilliance. It is widely available online, in bookstores or through 888-476-2493. She writes extensively for a variety of parenting resources and teaches other moms via seminars, workshops, keynotes and monthly meetings of the ROCKET MOM SOCIETY, a sisterhood group she launched to “encourage, equip and empower moms for excellence.” Please visit http://www.rocketmom.com.

Whatever your busines’s wants whilst transferring or exchanging foreign money, Foreign Currency Direct can often be able to help people save time or conceivably precious money FCD offer one off abroad transfers, regular abroad payments or furthermore have options whilst bringing money back to the Great Britain.

The company are also the leading independent foreign currencies negotiators having just been online since the year 2000 this is sort of impressive. The business appreciate a particularly great team of employees that have been well known in their experienced advice & aid Another reason Currencies.co.uk are so widely chosen is that for currency exchange Currencies.co.uk offer the best currency rates & the finest foreign money exchanges, this has been very much documented by The Sunday Times 2 2 Observer.

Currencies.co.uk is incredibly easy to use; once people have opened an account folk can only try to guarantee a foreign money rate by using telephone. If an exchange rate is declared that you yourself agree, The company will at once fax, email & post one’s confirmation. When you yourself buy foreign currency with the site, the currency rates can often be based surrounding live interbank foreign currency rates (the currency rate on that one bank retails to another) The aforementioned are also aggregated with a number of sources, are quoted within real time and might well be loads more competitive than frequently cited by high street money exchangers and building societies. The interbank foreign money rate, which the majority of sites or newspapers use is a mid market foreign currency exchange rate that is not actually for sale to exchange at. Folk can constantly get a foreign exchange rate somewhat below the interbank rate or maybe sell somewhat above; this is the primary way the business will offer the foreign money transfer.

For the reason that you can be found to be emigrating you yourself can be found to be feasibly going to be exchanging immense amounts of currency into a foreign currencies, your foreign money rate will result in the difference between affording quite a bit of luxurious extras or ending up with lots less than you budgeted for. Foreign Currency Direct specialise in foreign currency exchanges. They offer exchange rates at very competitive rates so view the rates online at their site.

In order to live a long healthy life, you must have a strong healthy body. There is no way around it. Proper dieting and exercise are a MUST. The good news is, it is not an impossible task. Like climbing a mountain, it will require some sweat equity. What a great investment of your time!

Just like building your financial strength, it is your responsibility to build your physical strength. No one can do it for you. We can encourage you and give you suggestions, but you must do it.

Two different types of exercises are required to become fit, strength training and cardio. The purpose of this article is not to go into the HOW’S, but to encourage you to get started and make exercise a part of your daily life.

My wife and I were headed down the wrong path physically. As health store owners, we knew better and had in the past been physically fit to a point. We had done it with cardio only. When we bought our business exercise stopped for several years and we became unfit.

In 2000, we heard of a fitness program called, Body for Life Challenge, by Bill Phillips. His challenge, “Do my program or go start an ant farm.” We took the challenge instead of the ant farm. In three months this one event turned our lives COMPLETELY AROUND.

Allow me to brag on my wife a little. Her dress size dropped from 12 to 4 in 12 weeks. Her weight dropped from 132 lbs. to 110 lbs. You would think that with such a change in dress size, her weight lost would have been more.

This is the beauty of combining weight training and cardio (which she had never done before), fat is burned and muscle build. Muscle takes up less body space than fat so her dress size dropped more than her weight, respectively.

We encourage you to go out and buy the book, Body for Life, by Bill Phillips, read it, understand it and get started with your transformation. The book is your road map. Or you could go start an ant farm. How boring is that!

You may say, “I am already fit.” Do the program and you will see that you may not be as fit as you think. If you know that you are not fit, then you most definitely need to do the program. For every mountain there is an excuse not to climb it. If you are not fit, it is those excuses that got you were you are today. We encourage you to climb this mountain. The view is worth the sweat it takes to climb it. We wish you the best!

Fred Fishburne and his wife are owners of ProHealth Nutrition, Inc., a very successful health store in McDonough, Ga. Visit at: http://prohealthnut.com

The Parador of Hondarribia is near the French border just a short distance from San Sebastian, and within easy visiting distance of Bilbao and the wonderful Guggenheim museum.
Parador Hondarribia is a 10th century castle built by the King of Navarre in the early days of the Christian re-conquest. The powerful Caliph, Al-Mansur, was a constant threat to the area in the those times, but King Sancho Abarca and the castle at Hondarribia were spared because the King had given one of his daughters in marriage to the Caliph - there have always been advantages to “keeping it all in the family!”

The castle was remodeled in the 16th century by Emperor Charles the Fifth. Napoleon stayed here for some time during the wars between Spain and France and many other notable figures in the history of Spain and Europe have stayed here as well.

The Parador of Hondarribia is situated on the banks of the Bidasoa estuary and provides beautiful views out to the sea. This is every bit the castle people imagine castles to be with its monolithic stone walls (still pockmarked by cannon-fire from old wars), and interior decorations of medieval armor, weaponry and tapestries. The Parador contains many charming nooks and corners perfect for quiet sitting, reading and intimate conversation.

Interesting nearby excursions from Parador Hondarribia:

- The fishermen’s area of the waterfront, and the La Marina quarter.

- The wonderful castle at San Telmo.

- Nuestra Seora de la Asuncin y Manzano parish church, Gothic 15-16th c.

- Calle Mayor and Plaza de Guipzcoa (admire the many stately houses).

- There are nearby golf courses, and plenty of opportunities for diving, sailing, surfing and fishing.

Interesting day trips include:

- Pamplona - Parador Hondarribia is a good place to find accommodations during the Fiesta San Fermin (running of the bulls) when they are nearly impossible to get in Pamplona itself.

- Bilbao - the Guggenheim museum is a “must see.”

- Rioja wine country - visit the wineries and vinyards along the Ebro river near Logrono.

- Biarritz and Bayonne - wonderful beaches, casinos and nightlife.

The Hondarribia Parador does not have a restaurant, but there are fine restaurants within a short distance, and the cuisine of this area of Spain is renowned. A well, the fascinating city of San Sebastian is only a few miles away, and it has some of the finest restaurants in all of Spain. The Parador does serve a buffet breakfast in a wonderful little dining room overlooking the water.

For intrepid travelers visiting north central Spain or Southwestern France - the Parador of Hondarribia makes a historically fascinating and culturally interesting place to stay for a night - or for a week of nights!

SpainParador.com makes it easy for you to plan and arrange your next trip to Spain. This time stay in palaces, castles, and other places of great historical interest and rare beauty - the wonderful Paradors of Spain. http://www.SpainParador.com

There are a ton of cotton baby clothes out there, however I am always hearing there is never enough. I swear no one is really looking. Besides the fact that is all that Hanes makes, or so it seems there are cotton baby clothes all up and down the aisles at every department store I seem to enter.

Why is everyone interested in cotton? You mean besides the elastic material, the fact your skin can breathe and you can move around? Cotton is also very easy to come by and wash, which makes a mother’s dream of never having to scrub out those stains that much better. Hey, just because Little Angelica is a baby doesn’t mean she can’t get a stain on her dress, shirt, shoes, pants, etc. In fact, she won’t only stain her outfits but she’ll stain yours too.

Another reason to buy cotton baby clothes is for those of you looking to go green, organic baby clothing seems to be all the rage these days. Course that also means the prices are going up, but you can find them pretty cheap over at DiscountedBabyClothes.com. Head on over and see what type of outfits you can find for your little ones. There are always a ton of them to choose from with more coming in every day.

Fifteen percent (15%) of the U.S. job force or 20.7 million people work from their home according to the U.S. Department of Labor. You might ask yourself, can these people truly be productive? Can I make a career from the comfort of my own home? Are there employers that will allow such an arrangement? My answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes! Provided you have the opportunity, the proper environment, the appropriate capabilities, personal characteristics, and technology; you can enjoy a successful career from home. This article is the first of several that addresses the various avenues and related obstacles surrounding those of you who wish to or currently work from home. Frequently I hear people ask “what opportunities exist,” “what do I need to get started,” “do I need to incorporate and how,” and “do I need a Website?” I will address all of these questions later in the series, but for now, I wish to discuss one of the most critical aspects of working out of your house; your work environment. In a home based business or home office situation, your work environment is the cornerstone of your success. In the paragraphs that follow I will help you identify, assemble, and equip your workspace to become your foundation for a productive and successful career at home.

When working from home, where you decide to establish as your workspace is extremely important. Your work environment is where you will spend most of your time. This area will become your office and it should fit your business needs. Our first objective is to identify the workspace you will be operating out of. For some, this may be an unused room in your home, and for others, this may be a corner of your bedroom. Regardless of where your workspace is, you must select an area that will be comfortable to you and your needs. You need to ensure that you can have a quiet area where you cannot be disturbed. Areas such as your living room or den are not ideal because of distractions such as the television or family members can decrease your productivity. You are a professional and you require a professional work environment. If you do not have an area where you are free from common household distractions, you will need to take the steps necessary to safeguard yourself and your work from them. For example, if you have a television in your workspace, I would suggest that you do not allow it to be on during normal work hours. You will need to explain this to family members to prevent them from disturbing you. Once you are able to stake your claim as to where your office is, and protect it from normal disturbances, you are well on your way to success.

After you have identified your workspace, the next step along our journey is to assemble your work environment. This is getting a desk or setting up a computer, adding pictures, wall hangings, installing a phone, etc. Your goal is to establish an area that you are eager to visit and spend time in each day. Personalization is important here. As I mentioned earlier, your work environment should be comfortable to you. Not in the sense that you would have no problem taking a nap in your workspace, but that you can work comfortably and allow your talents free range to operate. For example, if you work best with ambient music, make sure you have a CD player in your office with appropriate music. A particular picture might give you inspiration and you should insure that it is hanging where you can see it. All of these things create an atmosphere that fosters productivity.

There are certain tools that are required by your business or within your industry, make sure they are available to you while at home. If you were a mechanic, you wouldn’t try to fix a car without wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, etc? No, you are expected to use the tools of the trade. For most of us a computer is a necessity, a common work tool required by our profession. If you do not already have one I suggest you get one. If you are in the market for a new PC, I recommend PCMall.com or CompUSA. Both of these vendors provide quality name brand equipment and support, not to mention they cater to the home office/small office user. More critical than a PC for most home based businesses or offices is phone service. There are many who will simply use their existing phone service, but I would encourage you not to give into this impulse. There are several reasons or advantages for separating your personal phone line from your business or office. The first advantage is that there is no contention between you and your family members for use of the phone. Second, your business number will allow you to present a professional image. When people call your business number there is no need to try and distinguish the call between a personal or business call. You know that the call came in on your business line and you can answer accordingly. If you have an answering machine or voice mail on your business line you can have a professional sounding message as opposed to the message they would receive on your personal answering machine. Image is very important when you are operating out of your home. For those of you with high-speed Internet I would recommend Vonage Phone Services. Vonage offers very affordable phone, fax, and voice mail services to individuals and businesses for a single flat rate. Through Vonage you can add a business line without any additional phone lines from your local phone company. However, if you simply want to present a professional image by giving your customers and contacts a business number which has voice mail and call forwarding GotVmail would be my next suggestion. GotVmail provides you with a business number that you can hand out with features such as call forwarding, music on hold, multiple extensions, and auto-attendant. These are the features you normally hear when calling a fortune 500 company. There are many other tools and services that I can talk about here, but the point is that as a professional, you require specific tools and must insure they are in your work environment. Lastly all of these tools or services are usually tax-deductible and you may want to mention them to your accountant.

Now that you have identified your work area, assembled your environment, and equipped it with all the necessary tools, you are probably ready to get to work. However, there is one crucial step that we must not overlook. It is extremely important to make a schedule that you will live by while working from home. You now have a new workspace or office, but there will still be the temptation to put work off for other activities. If you make a schedule and put it in writing, it will help you maintain your focus and priorities. I suggest that you place your schedule somewhere you will always have to look at it. It might even be worth your while to place it where other members of your family can see it as well. This will help resolve any conflicts down the road related to your schedule. In the next article for this series I will address where to find legitimate home based opportunities and things to look for when evaluating which ones work best for you.

Jason Woods is a seasoned technology consultant and entrepreneur. His insight and information has helped countless individuals around the world. For more information on starting a business, home based opportunities, telecommuting, running a home office, and more, visit: http://www.4smalloffices.com

You usually find it on the comics page. Most people who read it make jokes about it; some, under their breath, comment on how spooky it is…

This is not astrology. Consider:

If someone wrote a column that broke all of us down into 12 “types” then proceeded to tell us what diseases we had, would you call that Medicine?

I’ve been an astrologer for over 36 years and I have a couple of things to say about what it’s worth.

First, it is worth studying for the Meaning it can add to our lives. Care must be taken here, though. Any astrologer that says it can predict your future is Dead Wrong.

Second, it’s good for broadening our understanding of just how many factors go to make up a complete person. We All Have All Twelve Signs In Our Natures! No one is lacking any of them. In a complete chart they are all there. True, most people have 4 or 5 emphasized but we all have all twelve.

A good place to get your whole chart for free (plus a free interpretation) is:

http://mychart.astrologyweekly.com/

Third, astrology is supreme at helping us track Cycles in our lives. It’s very good at answering questions like: Have these circumstances happened before? How can I face them this time with more of my true self? What in my past has a bearing on what’s happening now? How can I take what I have now and use it in the best way in the future?

So, more meaning, a broader understanding, and cyclic awareness. Not bad for something that can’t even predict the future, eh?

You can read much more about it in my new book:

http://www.lulu.com/amzolt

Alexander M Zoltai is a writer/astrologer who wishes he were a geek…