CHANEL, VERSACE, DOLCE & GABBANA, VUITTON, GUCCI, DIOR, FENDI, PRADA, COACH, MARC JACOBS et al.
As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, these are the brand-name clothing and fashion accessories that women will expect. But with the average cost of these items ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, how can the average woman afford these at all
Add to the mix the celebrity endorsements. Paris Hilton wears CHANEL sunglasses, Jessica Simpson totes a VUITTON Speedy bag, Jennifer Lopez wears a DOLCE & GABBANA dress.

The nature of cyberspace is changing fast with the rush now on to set up rss news feeds. Every gram of news and current affairs is gleaned from the four corners of the globe so that we may be informed as to what is happening in hundreds of different commercial fields of endeavour.
Everything from what new item is selling well on eBay, to what "Wired Magazine" is saying about the latest technology. More and more magazine and newspaper publishers are gaining a foothold on this new juggernaut which is going to change the way we gather news.
Advertisers too are not left out. Already some of the largest media companies in the world are now poised to find advertising space for their clients branding campaigns, on any available web page that regularly features in rss feeds.
The media companies with billions of ad dollars to spend, will they say, be spending less on newspaper and t.v. advertising in the coming years, and will concentrate instead on blogs and rss feeds.
Competition will be fierce for every available space on the most popular feeds, some run by newspapers!
Many freelance journalists will be running rss feeds in direct competition with the newspaper employers who now pay them to gather news for their publication. There will be no editor to censor their news items, they will be free to write whatever they want.
This new found freedom for anyone in the world to be able to express their opinions without it costing anything, will make for a new House Of Babel, with maybe up to several millions of rss feeds within the next five years run by private individuals all over the world. The only needed resource to set up a rss feed is free hosting on a server anywhere in the world, and these web hosts are plentiful.
Press releases submitted to the biggest and well known media release agencies are appearing rapidly on rss feeds, with the publishers of these feeds scambling to put content on their feed almost on an hourly basis.
Commercial enterprises have never had it so good to get their press release into circulation so quickly as more and more commercial news, via press releases, is needed to fill the ever available channels being run by rss feed publishers. Even badly written press releases that under normal circumstances would not find a publisher willing to print it, will be readily accepted by rss feed publishers looking avidly for more content. This content may only be on a rss feed for the space of one hour before it is replaced by something else, but it will have the potential to be seen by lillions of people world wide.
This is the potential that big media companies are now eyeing.
One rss feed publisher charges $6,000 for an item of news to be on one of his feeds for the space of one day. So the potential for earning substantial incomes from publishing your own rss feed can be huge.
Many web publishers will change tack and embrace rss feeds as being potentially more commercially viable than publishing a web site.
Many spammers will change to running as many rss feeds as possible to saturate the market, since spam filters are proving very effective for email.
How easy is it to put up a rss feed
If you have web hosting already, it can be set up in 5 minutes!
All it needs is a text file placed on the server, and the feed is live to the whole world. Instant rss feed publishing!

About The Author

Tony Dean is a published author and webmaster. Author of the bestselling ebook on setting up a rss feed "Really Simple RSS" available from Clickbank or his site:- http://www.ebook-sales.com/rss.html

Hair accessories offer an easy way of showing off your hair. Choose from a host of hair clips, scrunches, trendy scarves, bandanas and what have you. A well-chosen and well-coordinated hair accessory goes a long way in giving you and your hair a unique look. Hair accessories are almost a must-have in one

While surfing the net submitting my articles, reading, shopping etc. I stumped in to many articles title how not gain weight during the holiday

Once in a while a good title comes along and "Turn Off the Fat Genes" is one of those titles that just have to be written about. If you are not familiar with Dr. Neal Barnards work, he has been writing about how to lose weight on a high carbohydrate diet for at least a decade now.
Im amazed, as you might be, that his work is not better known. There are a number of advantages to using a high carb diet and as many disadvantages to the low carb/ high protein diets.
There is some great research in his books that document the ability to lose weight on a high carbohydrate diet, which may also be healthier in the long run than the ever-popular low carbohydrate diets.
You might think it surprising, as I do, that more people are not using high carb diets to lose weight. You might also conclude that this is solely due to a lack of awareness on the part of the public.
Turn of the Fat Genes, written by Dr. Neal Barnard features over 150 pages of menus and recipes. The recipe and menu section is very comprehensive and you can definitely find recipes that will delight you out of such a large compilation.
Dr. Bernard discusses the concept that some of the genes that shape and influence us as human beings are themselves subject to influence. The genes that affect taste, appetite and metabolism are subject to the influence of the foods that we eat.
Not only are they subject to influence, the proper use of foods can mean that you dont have to sacrifice and starve yourself of decent nutrition. You can modify your diet, eat perhaps even more frequently and still enjoy weight loss. Does that sound incredible It is real. You might feel incredulous because the masses of people out there have been told that low carb is the way to go.
I have been following some of the suggestions in one of Dr. Barnards books and I can tell you that a high carb diet can help you lose weight. Using his suggestions, I can eat a lot of food frequently and I still seem to stay thin.
To give you an idea of what kind of information "Turn Off the Fat Genes" can provide you with, here is a list of some of the Chapter titles:
Taste Genes: Broccoli and Chocolate
Appetite and the Leptin Gene
The Fat-Building Gene
Fat-Burning: Turning the Flame Higher
How Genes Influence Your Exercise
Children and the Fat Genes
Food Choices for Optimal Weight Control
Dr. Barnard writes, "Contrary to popular opinion, scientific research reveals that genes are not dictators; they are committees. They do not give orders. They make suggestions. Genes are not rogue tyrants exerting despotic control over your waistline. Rather, they work in groups, often with subtle effects, and you can nudge them in the direction you want them to go. You can counteract the fat genes and boost your thin genes."
In ancient times, Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." Of course we arent really talking about healing as much as we are discussing losing weight, but the principle applies.
One thing I learned from another of Dr. Barnards books is that carbohydrates dont make people fat. It is fat that makes people fat. And it makes sense. Carbohydrates pack around 4 calories per gram and fats have about 9 calories per gram.
By the way, even though it is correct terminology, the fact is that the calories discussed here are actually thousands of calories. In nutrition they decided to make a calorie equal to 1,000 real life calories as measured for energy.
Anyway I dont want to confuse anyone, because the RDA is based on nutrition calories, also known as Calories, but no one capitalizes the C as should be done. You can just keep thinking of calories as calories and dont worry about the technicalities.
Back to the story. Dr. Barnards books on high carb diets are great reading and may inform you about healthier weight loss than you are currently use to. Did I mention the recipe list
This article is for information purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or prevent any health condition. If you have or think you have a health condition or even just want to diet, please consult your physician.

About The Author

David Snape is a health, fitness and wellness enthusiast. His website is http://tobeinformed.com Dave also practices Falun Dafa : falundafa.org Subscribe to his email list: subscribe@tobeinformed.com.
david@tobeinformed.com

Visit Ebay or any of ten thousand other websites and youll see people offering reprint rights everywhere. They all tell you that with their great reprint rights youll be in business instantly with "your own product" and that you get to keep all of the money.
By can you really make money selling reprint rights and is it worth your time
Let me give you a few examples from my personal experience, and then you be the judge....
Ill start with the most recent rights I bought first. After reading Paul Hancox ebook "Small changes: Big Profits - How to quickly and easily make more sales from your website," I saw that he offered reprint rights for only $149. This product had a suggested retail price of $27, which I had gladly paid and I was very satisfied with the product.
To digress a little... one of my criteria for buying reprint rights is that I have to have actually used the product FIRST. I wont offer my list something that I have not seen, read, touched, experienced, and enjoyed. I suggest that if you are going to offer your list a product that you adopt the same rule.
Anyway.... I reasoned that if I invested $149 in Pauls reprint rights I only needed 6 sales to break even. So it wasnt a very big risk. Therefore I went for it! I sent a mailing to my list but before I even did that, I began mentioning the book in personal emails to clients and friends. In less than a day I had tripled my money. After sending a mailing to my I list had multiplied my money by some embarrassing number of times!
This product was the type of reprint rights that I like to buy. Its a product that I know is needed.... I can put up a simple sales page and I know that the product will sell itself for years to come. I know that with very little effort Ill earn over $1000 a month in profits from that simple product. You can check it out at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/thebook/ to see how simple my marketing is for this ebook.
Another product that I market the same way is a $19 interview on how to host your own seminars and teleseminars. Fred Gleeck who has done over 1350 seminars was interviewed by Jim Lanford and they recorded it. When Audrey Lanford decided to sell her business at WZ.com she offer reprint rights to Freds interview. The rights were less than $150...if I am not mistaken.
I run ads for this interview/ebook in various targeted ezines and mention it on a few of my sites. It routinely earns me $500 to $1000 per month. All this with very little effort on my part because the product sells itself. You can see how I have this set-up at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/your-own-seminar.html
A third example of how simple it can be, is that I purchased the reprint rights to Bob Serlings Power Copywriting For The Internet from Corey Rudls Internet Marketing Center. These rights cost me just under $1000 and the suggested retail price for the course is $147. It took me less than a month to recoup my investment, and every month I do very well with that product too. You can check it out at: http://PowerCopyWritingForTheInternetByBobSerling.com
Notice with that last example how I got a domain name that had my keywords in it and that its fairly easy to remember... if you know the copywriter That domain name costs me less than $8 per year and my hosting is only $5 per month. Thats for something that semi-automatically generates over $1000 per month :-
I could give you numerous other examples, but wont. You get the point. I put on a teleseminar on buying and selling reprint rights a while back and recorded that teleseminar. I then turned the teleseminar into another income stream as well as offered reprint rights to it! Do you see how easy this can be That teleseminar with myself and internet marketing expert and lawyer Dr. Bob Silber took less than 2 hours to do, and also generates an embarrassing amount each month. You can check it out at: http://AmazingProfitsBuyingAndSellingReprintRights.com ... another clever name :-
I mentioned that you can grab domain names for as little as $8 per year and host them for as little as $5 per month. I get my domain names through my own registration service at: http://williecrawford.com/domains/ I host many of my sites at Host4Profit. You can check them out at: http://WillieCrawford.com/myhost.html
So now Ive convinced you that you can do well with the correct reprint rights! The key again is to know and love the product. Know that it will provide your customers with genuine value. Check out my teleseminar for more tips on both buying and selling reprint rights at: http://AmazingProfitsBuyingAndSellingReprintRights.com
I did come across some terrific reprint rights this week that I will recommend. They are offered by Rebecca Hagel. She is only offering 20 licenses total, so you wont face crazy competition. I really love her material! You can check out Beckys reprint rights at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/becky.html
To answer my question, "Can you really make a fortune off of reprint rights" ... that depends upon your definition of "fortune." However, I generate several very nice income streams from reprint rights, as Ive just shared with you. I know many others doing the same. I dont see why you cant too.
------------------------------
Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford
Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an on-line business since late 1996. Frequently featured in radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews, Willie teaches the average guy what the top marketers are doing but seldom talking about. For example, Willie demonstrates the power of automated residual income through his system at: http://ProfitAutomation.Com Visit now for a business boost.

About The Author

Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an on-line business since late 1996. Willie demonstrates the power of automated residual income through his system at: http://ProfitAutomation.Com Visit now for a business boost.

To buy a used car is a great idea for saving money. Everyone knows that a new car lost 65% of its value in the first 5 years. But the case would be more extreme for a 1 to 2 years old car, it will lost its value 30-40%.

If you don

If youve been feeling like Tom Cruise climbing up the side of some remote jagged mountain in the blazing hot sun and concerned youre facing "mission impossible", chances are you own a web site.
Adding to the intense thrill of web site ownership are keyword comparisons and bidding for good keyword positions in search engines. You might hire a search engine optimization specialist who can track elusive algorithm clues and is unfazed by page rank drama. Your programmers and designers insist they get along. The marketing department actually believes deadlines are met. The new bank account is waiting for fresh revenue. And oh yes, its assumed someone will come looking for your web site and wants to use it.
You did build it for them, right
For every search result, there is the possibility that:

The engine will display a description that makes sense. Or not.
The page the search engine refers to does what the description said it would do and is about what the search engine said it would cover. Or not.

Your SEO/SEM, if you hired a good one, helped you write your title tag statement and Meta page description and structured it so it makes sense in SERPs search engine results pages.
Your Usability professional, if you hired one, evaluated the page to make sure it would meet customer expectations and convince visitors there are other hot pages inside the web site to look at too. Without call to action prompts, well displayed, logically labeled navigation links and credible content, the chance of someone remaining on that page is pretty slim.
Says Gordon Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc., in a recent Search Day article written by Shari Thurow, called Creating Compelling Search Engine Ads and Landing Pages, "Once searchers arrive on your landing pages, you have 13.2 seconds to convince visitors that they are on the right site."
Impossible Mission
Had enough of web page abandonment Are those cost per click fees putting you further in credit card debt and not producing any bang for your buck Which part of "understand your web site visitor" didnt make it to the drawing board
I know this is hard. Youre not a mind reader. Unless you have access to costly studies and data about who to build your web site for and their computer usage habits, chances are you simply wanted a web site and hoped people would find it and use it. By incorporating the skills and expertise of an SEO/SEM along with a user centered design specialist, you will not be wastefully tossing your web site off the search engine cliff. Rather, your adoring fans will clamor up the cliff to get to it.
Sometimes a web designer is also trained in these fields or is partnered with people who are. This is something to consider when shopping around for web site assistance.
Here are some things to keep in mind when studying your web site. You can also ask your team to consider these points.

What happens after your site reaches top rank Its lonely up there, if nobody notices your page or understands the page description. How effective is high rank Do people really click on "sponsored" pages vs. natural results
Pay attention to inside "landing" pages. Optimize them for easy indexing and point visitors to your homepage, sale products or free stuff.
Be wise about what you invest. Every cost per click must be productive. If not, a usability web site review can locate roadblocks.
Its about the user experience. Really. Its a common habit for web site owners to create the site for themselves based on what they like and want. When you receive a complaint, consider it a favor. Yes, some people are mean and critical. But, enhancements are improvements that sometimes benefit a lot of people, and you too, in the long run.
Dont settle for minimum effort. One of your goals is to reach potential customers and readers. Your optimized pages reach people looking for them. Your user centered pages reach people wanting to use them and will refer them to friends.
Your competition does it better. Not by packing hidden keywords and buying links, but by carefully targeting keywords, providing cleverly written content and delivering user centered design.
Think sustainability. If you plan on your web site being around for a while, make this a checkpoint for every future decision related to your site. If someone has an idea that wont impact the long-term sustainability of the site, the site may disappear out of sheer user boredom. And search do engines notice.
Understanding your visitors and customers allows for more creative keyword combinations. Put a feedback form on your web site. Ask them how they found your web site. Ask them what keywords they used. Ask them why they came or what they wanted to find. Ask them if they found what they were looking for and if not, provide room for comments so they can explain what happened. This information is a gold mine for you.
Never mislead your visitors. Be accurate with what you say a site or page is about. Search results relevancy establishes trust from the start.
The elegance of action. The act of landing on a relevant, accurate, persuasive, interesting page leads to the fluid, unencumbered desire to know more and click deeper. Aim for this.

Do not drop your web site over the search engine cliff without considering the usability effect. Design it to be productive and user centered. This will pay off in many ways. Remember your original requirements and goals and trace back every dollar you spend to meeting them. Marketing efforts are strengthened when you make your visitors feel welcome, informed and productive once they arrive at your web site.

About The Author

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, Cre8asiteForums.com and co-founder of Cre8asite.net. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.

Stand Out in Ways that Matter to Directory Users A Yellow Page directory presents a difficult challenge for advertisers. All the competitors are packed together, within the space of a few pages. Each ad within the directory category screams "Notice me!" so insistently, they blend into an muffled chorus. Its not easy for one to stand out with a clear, distinctive voice - like a soloist above the choir. That only happens when the business is clear about expressing its unique "song," and understands what buyers most want to hear.
It isnt surprising that most Yellow Page ads say pretty much the same thing. They were all prepared by the same directory employees. What do they know about marketing About copywriting About whats unique and desirable about your enterprise
The people making the ads "grind them out," using the same templates and guidelines for every ad, in every category. Originality isnt in their job description. Following the formulas for how an ad "should look" is a formula for being ignored.
These quick fixes cut away the bland sameness afflicting most ads. Disregard for now the related issues like the ads size and placement. Such factors just amplify or diminish an ads impact. A poor ad is still a poor ad, even if its very large. Coupled with fine-tuned copy its own topic, these fixes will improve the impact of any size of ad, for any directory heading.
Try these Quick and Easy Fixes You dont have to be a designer or copywriter to make your ad stand out. You just have to understand your customers unstated wants, so you supply precisely the information that theyre looking for. And you need to know how youre different than your competitors. Set yourself apart, so you dont fade into the background, as most ads do.
1. Shrink the business name. That is NOT the most important part of the ad in the readers mind. And it crowds out the space for information that that could sell them on you. Once you can get them to want you, theyll be able to find your name and contact information OK.
2. Ditto, shrink the graphics. They may be helpful to catch the eye initially, but add nothing to what directory users want to know. Images often distract from the ads message, wasting its moment of attention on trivialities.
3. Provide a headline that hooks the readers interest the category or business name isnt one, but most ads act like it is. A strong, emotionally-charged headline pulls attention into the rest of the information. It makes people stop skimming and actually read. Provide a promise that hits their hot button in a way that applies only to you but not every other competitor in the category
4. Make the location easy to find. Half of all directory users scan ads for the business location first, and then only consider those ads which are convenient. Location of the enterprise overrides an ads size or placement in the directory.
5. Display your expertise, along with a reason for buyers to seek out your specialized knowledge. Offer a booklet, class, in-depth information on your Web site, etc. This also establishes your credibility in customers eyes, which is crucial to building sufficient trust to complete a purchase.
6. Buyers are hunting for information that can assist in making a purchase. When they open the directory, theyre hoping to find a business that in some way communicates, "Im the one youre looking for." Make it easy for them to know its you, by giving ample information directed at their concerns. Organize it in bulleted lists.
7. Add your Web site address domain name and/or email address. Treat your Web site as a place to expand the size of your Yellow Page ad. Then state a reason why a person wants to check your site: www.mysite.com for 23 simple ways to keep your dog from over-eating Or www.myrestaurant.com for recipes to our award-winning desserts.
8. Arrange it all so the information flows logically, and to please the eye.
9. Eliminate images or phrases that appear in the other ads. Find a different, more interesting way to express it.
10. Dont let the directory do your ad for free. It will end up costing you too much.
The Ideal Yellow Page Ad The very best ad is the intersection between what a buyer is looking for, and what a business provides. When a business is attuned to its customers priorities and needs, it can say exactly what rings their bell. For example, a harried mother will respond with relief to the phrase, "Free Childcare Provided." That service carries no weight with a business person, who may consider "No extra charge for weekend service calls" the clincher.
What really makes an ad stand out is the specifics, not the generalities which is what every other ad says. Visit www.yellowpagesage.com for advice from many experts about getting more mileage from your ad. Or obtain a customized critique of your ad, that eliminates the guesswork about what needs fixing.
Directory users are ready to buy. Simplify their lives by making your products and services so "just right" that choosing you is their only sensible choice.

About The Author

Dr. Lynella Grant, an expert in visual communication. How printed materials send signals that strengthen or undo the words. Author, The Business Card Book & Yellow Page Smarts http://www.yellowpagesage.com Off the Page Press 719 395-9450
grant@yellowpagesage.com

P.T. Barnum, who dedicated his life to entertaining the masses, often relied on size-related adjectives to sell his attractions. His posters and announcements were peppered with words like mammoth, extraordinary, colossal, and gargantuan.
Unfortunately, if youre like most of us those words might be used to describe you as well. Americans have an obsession with losing weight and with good reason; the percentage of overweight people in the United States is doubling every ten years - from 1 in 200 in 1986, to 1 in 50 in 2000. Pretty soon there wont be enough room for us all on this continent!
Weve identified a curious paradox: Americans are obsessed with weight loss and spend billions on it each year, yet 140 million of us are overweight or obese - and that number grows pun intended each year. With all that energy and money thrown at it, why cant we lose that excess weight and why do we pack it on in the first place
Lets quickly move beyond simple, though true, solutions. We intellectually "know" that there are only three things necessary for maintaining our proper weight outside of a medical condition: eating the correct foods, eating less, and getting more exercise. We "know" these things are true, yet why dont we do them
The answer is simple and, luckily for you, so is the solution. As you learn the following diet you will realize that with a little willingness and discipline you need never worry about your weight again. You will come to believe, in short order, that you will lose your extra weight and you will never gain it back because you will see how logical and powerful my diet is!
Lets just be honest about it - we love food! Eating is an enjoyable ritual and we commonly use food to reward ourselves because it feels good to eat. Whenever we feel unfulfilled or frustrated when we need affirmation or esteem we are naturally drawn to fill that void with food. When were lacking pleasure in our lives we rely on the eating ritual to make up the difference.
And this formula works; overfilling ourselves with food does fill our emptiness. It works so well that, just like any addict, we become gluttons - regularly overstuffing ourselves and/or eating too much "comfort" food to fill our emotional void. The end result, despite our best intentions, is a constant, steady weight gain because were using food for a purpose it is not intended - support.
The healthful solution Ive created to fill your emptiness exists already inside you because you were born with it. Unlike food, this solution fills your void while also fostering lasting and sustainable health, vitality, energy, and fitness. Instead of food, what you need is more fun because fun is the most accessible and constant source of energy and support known.
Because it is an energy, fun is readily and abundantly in you and around you. Once you learn to find more fun in your relationships, your work, and your home life I guarantee you will quickly do away with those excess pounds - and theyll never return. And the best news is...I will teach you exactly how to do this using my Fun Factor Diet.
My Fun Factor Diet is based upon my unique prescription, The Fun Factor, because The Fun Factor delivers you to new heights of health, wellness, and success. Years ago a terminally ill patient, Lisa, taught me about the incredibly powerful natural medicine of humor. I used Lisas lessons to create my Fun Commandments, eventually molding them into my unique prescription, The Fun Factor, capable of producing health, energy, and vitality that others will envy.
My Fun Factor Diet works because it is based on my Fun Commandments and, thus, enables you to unleash your powerful humor nature on every aspect of your life. As you learn to have more fun in your relationships, your work, and your home life, you will rely less and less on food to meet your emotional needs. With the Fun Factor Diet the urge to overeat melts away, along with the excess pounds because you will be using food for its natural purpose - sustenance.
And, as a bonus, since my Fun Factor Diet is based on fun, you will laugh more frequently. Laughter is an excellent form of aerobic exercise; a hearty, belly laugh produces the same physical response as thirty minutes on the Stairmaster. When you laugh it gives your heart and lungs a good work out so...you are burning additional calories just by practicing my unique diet!
The first strategy of my Fun Factor Diet is to Always Go the Extra Smile. Smiling is a deliberate and controllable behavior that almost always calms inner stress and attracts outward fun. Smiling unleashes the natural medicine of humor anytime and anywhere because it has a profound physical and emotional impact.
The key is to increase your conscious effort to smile constantly, especially when there is nothing in particular to smile about. Before you begin an activity, you remind yourself to smile first; before each conversation, you remind yourself to smile. Youll soon be wearing a genuine smile on your face everywhere you go because the good results you experience will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And here is the beautifully powerful secret behind the first Fun Factor Diet strategy: your internal physiology is fooled by your smile. Whether spontaneous or forced, your body thinks youre having fun when you smile, whether you are or not, because smiling activates the pleasure centers of your brain. By smiling you literally become more physically relaxed and enjoy a greater sense of fulfillment and enjoyment.
The amazing benefit of this Fun Factor Diet tactic is that the lessening of your internal agitation decreases your cravings to eat when youre not really hungry. And, as a bonus, your smile attracts more social attention - leaving you less time to stuff yourself because people are mysteriously attracted to you without quite knowing why. By Going the Extra Smile youre well on your way to filling your emotional void with fun rather than food!
Step two in my Fun Factor Diet is to Be Willing to Laugh at Yourself. This is not a step of humiliation or self-denigration because those things are definitely not fun; it is a strategy of being willing to take yourself lightly. Easing your harsh expectations you impose on yourself, relaxing some of your self-administered pressure, sets the stage for astounding personal gains or in your case personal "losses"
At this stage of my Fun Factor Diet, you will make a deliberate effort to take yourself and your expectations less seriously. You will adopt a kindlier stance toward your fears and inconsistencies because you have been much too hard on yourself. The results will be a dramatic lightness both figuratively and literally of mind, body, and spirit.
Freed from the tyranny of your unrealistic expectations, you will be able to relax and have more fun. Things you have dreaded doing in the past will become enjoyable activities because you wont have expectations of perfection. Combined with your commitment to Go the Extra Smile, you will find your use of food to calm and comfort yourself almost extinguished because taking yourself lightly helps you see yourself as, literally, less "heavy."
The third step in my Fun Factor Diet makes the most dramatic difference in your actual eating habits. The employment of my Fun Commandment, Stay Focused, yet Flexible, keeps you grounded in the moment, the here and now, because it challenges you to give 100% attention to what you are doing right now. Staying Focused, yet Flexible provides the dramatic weight loss breakthrough youve been waiting for because you entire paradigm of eating is about to change!
On the Fun Factor Diet you Stay Focused, yet Flexible by not engaging in any other activity while you are eating. Activities that have commonly accompanied your eating are to be shunned while putting food in your mouth - including reading, watching television, or socializing at get-togethers. With the exception of reasonable table conversation, eating becomes a focused activity for you, not connected with any other behavior because you are about to halt the underlying cause of your weight gain.
Once you begin disciplining yourself to separate eating from all the pleasurable and stressful activities with which you have associated it, you will discover a disturbing fact: you will be shocked by how much youve been using food as both a stress reliever and a pleasure enhancer. Your weight loss can be dramatic when you change your use of food from pleasure enhancement and stress relief to simple nourishment. Youre ready for this change because, with the first two steps, youve already begun to fill your emotional and spiritual void with fun rather than food.
This step of my Fun Factor Diet has two primary benefits: you become more acutely aware of your opportunities for fun away from food, which allows you to become even more effective at satisfying your emotional needs with fun, and by eating with full focus you increase the enjoyment and appreciation for your food, which allows you to use food as nourishment rather than pleasure. When you combine having fun apart from food with getting greater enjoyment from the food you are eating, you eat less food because you are no longer using it in a contrived and artificial fashion!
The final step in my Fun Factor Diet will make your weight loss permanent because it centers you in the unique paradigm of lasting success. My Fun Commandment, Practice Wanting What You Have, Rather Then Getting What You Want, increases your awareness of gratitude because it stops the merry-go-round of always needing "more" to feel satisfied. Ongoing gratitude for what you have has the amazing benefit of making it possible to get and keep more of what you want.
We all make the mistake of taking for granted the things we truly value and focus, instead, on all the things we want that we do not yet possess. This focus makes us desperate and puts conditions on our happiness, because our success never satisfies us and we only wind up needing more. If you ever want to have more fun in your life as youre going to be doing on my Fun Factor Diet, you begin by counting the blessings you already have because that will make your gains and achievements lasting and real.
Becoming adept at this portion of my Fun Factor Diet does two things: it continually reminds you of the many gifts youve already been given and it decreases your appetite for those things you think you want will. Realizing that you have everything you need to be happy today eases the stress of not having everything you want because all the pressure is gone - youre already a success! The end result of this strategy is that you will not feel as empty, resulting in even less desire to fill your void with food.
Filling yourself up with gratitude is not a platitude, so to speak because it works in real practice. You eat in excess to fill an emotional and/or spiritual void, not because you are hungry; you eat too much to provide yourself with emotional comfort, fulfillment, and reassurance. The strategy of Practicing Wanting What you Have, Rather than Getting What you Want, actually fills this emptiness in a meaningful, lasting manner because your emotional appetite is satisfied by the things that really sustain it!
Smiling fools your body and attracts socially fun attention, Taking Yourself Lightly releases you from the tyranny of your unrealistic expectations, Staying Focused, yet Flexible teaches you to use food for nourishment rather than fun, and Wanting What you Have allows you to fill your emotional void with fun and gratitude rather than food. There you have it...my Fun Factor Diet. Welcome to a life free from weight worries!
By the way, in one of his museums, P.T. Barnum found that he was having trouble getting the crowds to leave once they had seen all the attractions. So he devised a clever sign, elaborately lettered to draw as much attention as possible, which read "This Way to the Egress"
Most of the patrons expected to see some bizarre animal that Barnum had collected from one of the far corners of the earth when they followed the sign through the door. What they didnt realize, however, was that "Egress" is simply another word for "Exit." Funny...and true.
Today you begin your "egress" from excess weight and from all your worries surrounding it. Start using my Fun Factor Diet right now!

About The Author

Clifford Kuhn, M.D., Americas Laugh Doctor, teaches people and organizations to be more healthy and successful through the use of fun and humor. A psychiatrist, and the former associate chairperson of the University of Louisvilles renowned Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Kuhn now dispenses his prescription for turbo-charging your health, success, and vitality from http://www.natural-humor-medicine.com/AC1. On his website you will find tons of fun, free ways for you to maximize your sense of humor, and enjoy a life others will envy.
Cliff@natural-humor-medicine.com