Cards Cut

The juicer has become one of the most necessary kitchen appliances in recent years largely due to the public’s growing concern for their health. Having a juicer means people can enjoy beverages that are fresh, tasty, pure and healthy whenever they want. They can also enjoy drinks that the average grocer never even dreamed of. This means that even for those who have never tasted a homemade blend of fruits and vegetables, the potentially awful yet rewarding taste is widely known.

But why the awful taste? Because not all of these things really go together, but the juicer was never just about health, it was about time. While it is by far one of the handiest and healthiest things to have around the kitchen, the juicer still owes its popularity to more than health trends. While that is by far the motivations end result, juicers are here to keep us healthy with less effort.

On their own, eating all the fruits and vegetables necessary to keep our bodies content each day can take time. Eating a banana, slicing an apple or dreaming up recipes in which you can include whatever vegetables are left in your fridge doesn’t always fit into the busy schedule of the average day. Enter the juicer.

Healthy time crunched people can throw whatever they want in their juicer, push a button and then gulp it down. Most concoctions should taste great but, because time and health is the main concern for so many, thinking up the best tasting combinations is not always a concern.

However it’s used in the end, for time saving, health or convenience, the juicer is still one of the best things to have around. Even if you’re like me and use your juicer for nothing but your morning orange juice.

Van Whitsett has published a number of articles, both online and offline. To learn more about juicers, please visit: Juicer

Depression is something that affects most people around the world from time to time and can be very hard to deal with. I have myself struggled with this problem in the past but have lately found ways to cope with this very much unwanted depression. I will write about how I go about doing this in this article.

I have been born into a family which include many members who find it hard to cope with life and are often worrying about something or other. I am one of these people and there does not seem to be a day that goes by where I do not have some issue in my mind, that is making me unhappy or stressed. I have found it very difficult to appreciate all of the things in my life which are basically good as my brain only seems to focus on all of my problems or potential problems.

In the last couple of years I have tried to deal with these what I now call challenges and have attempted to focus more on the positive aspects to my life. This has been very hard for me to do as I am a born worrier by nature as I have already explained.

What I now have decided to do is to try to compare my own life with that of other people who live around the world. As an example, in the last couple of days I have been watching the news programs on the television and have been hearing in horror about the current situation in Iraq. I am sure most readers of this article will be aware of what is going on in Iraq but a couple of events have really shocked me.

The first was a roadblock that was set up by people who were dressed up in police uniform. These people stopped a number of vehicles and dragged out the people who were in the vehicles, onto the street. They included young and old, men and women from what I have heard. Twenty one of them were shot and killed. I can only imagine how frightening this would have been.

The second event took place only the next day when fifty people were taken from their place of work and from bus stops. They were basically kidnapped and taken away in a number of vehicles. I am not sure what has happened to them since and can only hope that they are OK. This again is very disturbing and would have been a horrible ordeal for the people involved.

I am no expert on the situation in Iraq or why all of these things are taking place. I also have no idea on how things can be improved, but something needs to happen to help these people.

For me it shows me that I am very fortunate and if I ever start feeling a bit low, I then think of the people who live in Iraq and also people who live in other countries. I am sure that most of these people would love to swap places with me and if I tried to explain to them why I was starting to feel a little depressed, they would probably laugh at me.

It’s hard to believe but compact cameras can actually aid your photographic skills. I know that there will be plenty of prosumer and especially SLR users that will scoff at the idea, but I believe it to be true.

How could this possible be right? After all, compact cameras are small, lack flexibility and have that dreadful “shutter lag” which means that the camera will wait a few moments from the time you press the shutter till it takes the picture.

But, none of these are disadvantageous to your development in photography and can, in fact, aid your creativity.

How?

Consider the shutter lag problem. You see a picture you want and press the shutter button only to find that in the time the camera takes to fire the subject has moved. That special expression has been lost.

The problem is that you have suddenly rushed into taking a shot. The same happens with SLR users.

The issue here is anticipation. If you are in a situation where a decent image might be forthcoming (and being around children is always a good option) then try to look at the scene and anticipate the next image. In this way you can be holding your camera and have the shutter button pressed half way, ready and waiting.

Now you are into “creative mode”. You are now poised and waiting for the right moment, rather than having the right moment thrust upon you. It is creativity like this that makes a good photographer - not the equipment he has.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com.

The other day I was delivering some coaching skills
training for a company when a delegate asked me how
she should coach the person who is an introvert and
has little to say.

This is the type of person when you start your
coaching session by saying “How is everything going?”
they just reply with “OK” and then the tumbleweed
makes its way across the floor!

Overall, during a coaching session the coach should
be doing around 30% of the talking and the coachee
should be talking around 70% of the time.

This is a challenge when you talk to someone who either
does not have a lot to say or who is naturally shy.

This is what I recommend:

After you get the normal “OK” response ask this:

“On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being absolutely perfect
and 0 being the pits, where would you currently rate
yourself?”

If the coachee responds with a “7″ that must mean that
to have rated themselves a “7″ they must be comparing
themselves to what a “10″ looks like.

So the next response and question to ask is:

“A rating of 7? That’s great. What would a 10 look
like to you?”

Let them explain this and probe a little deeper.

What you are doing here is stimulating a conversation
by using an alternative method other than just saying
“What is going good right now?”

To someone who is naturally shy you are not going to
get a lot out of them by asking this question.

Then, the next steps would be to ask:

“So you have described a 10. And you rate yourself a
7. What do you need to do to bridge the gap?”

I hope you can see how powerful this method is?

And you can use it on all types of people not just
the shy ones - I use it all of the time!

I hope you enjoyed this tip? Add this technique to your tool box
of skills and make your coaching sessions more effective!

Sean McPheat is the Managing Director of MTD Training, a leading UK management training company. Sean is regarded as one of the leading authorities in leadership development has been featured on CNN, ITV, BBC and Arena magazine to name but a few.

Please feel free to download MTD’s FREE Management Skills Course at http://www.management-training-development.com/freeecourse.htm

For further details on MTD’s range of management training courses and programmes visit http://www.management-training-development.com

Many women experience emotional changes that make them feel low during the days before their periods. In some women, these changes may be mild and transient, disappearing with the onset of a period. In other women, emotional symptoms may be severe enough to interfere with normal activities. Common symptoms are depression, anxiety, irritability and aggression, resulting in what is sometimes called the “PMS blues”.

When emotional or physical symptoms of PMS are severe, this condition is called premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD. PMDD occurs in two to ten percent of all women of reproductive age in the United States. Women with PMDD may have feelings of hopelessness and guilt and a sense of being overwhelmed. Many women with PMDD report feeling very tense and become suddenly sad or are overly sensitive to other people. These symptoms may cause them to withdraw from normal social interaction and can seriously interfere with normal activities and relationships at home and at work.

Many of the emotional symptoms of PMS experienced by women are thought to stem from the brain’s reduced ability to utilize a chemical called serotonin during the premenstrual phase. Serotonin has a mood-enhancing effect. Therefore, the mainstay of treating more severe emotional symptoms is a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. These drugs act by improving the brain’s ability to utilize serotonin, thereby stabilizing a woman’s mood.

Some emotional symptoms are worsened by the effect of physical symptoms of PMS. A woman may experience pain and tiredness and not feel up to sticking to her normal exercise routine. Exercise releases natural mood-elevating and pain-relieving compounds called endorphins; less exercise means lower endorphin levels. Weight gain, bloating, and insomnia may worsen anxiety during PMS. Therefore, management of these physical symptoms through exercise, diet, and medication can help reduce emotional symptoms.

PMS provides detailed information about PMS, PMS remedy, PMS symptoms, PMS treatment and more. PMS is the sister site of Ovulation And Conception.

Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuilders’ training regimes.

It is useful, therefore, to describe in detail the processes involved in actually doing these exercises. This will help beginners to start out using the correct techniques before moving on to potentially more dangerous heavy weights. If it also helps more experienced lifters to redress some of the little faults that have almost imperceptibly crept in over the years, all the better.

In this article we’ll take a close look at One-Arm Dumbbell Rows.

MUSCLES TARGETED: latissimus dorsi, trapezius (mid), biceps brachialis

STARTING POSITION

Grasp a dumbbell with an overhand grip and palm facing body.

Rest your opposite knee on a flat bench.

The supporting leg should be slightly flexed with the foot flat on the floor.

The back should remain straight, parallel to the floor.

The dumbbell should be held at arm’s length.

EXERCISE TECHNIQUE

Pull the dumbbell upward in a straight line with the elbow kept close to the body.

Lower the dumbbell slowly to the starting position.

Repeat this movement until the intended number of repetitions have been completed.

Repeat on the other side.

OTHER EXERCISES WORTH CONSIDERING

Other exercises that tackle these muscles include Bent-Over Barbell Rows (mid trapezius), Chin-Ups (upper trapezius) and Lat Pull-Downs Behind the Neck (upper trapezius).

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Exercises to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

I’m often asked to come in to organizations and give a motivational speech to their employees. I reply that I’m not a motivational speaker. Never have been. Never will be. Don’t want to be. I do something else. I teach their people how to become motivational leaders. That’s a far more productive endeavor.

The concept and application of motivation are misunderstood in most organizations. The motivational industry is based on a fundamental contradiction; because the focus of motivation is misplaced. After all, leaders (salespeople included) should be motivated. If they aren’t, they shouldn’t be leaders.

Here’s where the focus should be: not on the leaders themselves but on the people they lead. Can those leaders transfer their motivation to other people so those people are as motivated as they are about the challenges they face?

Furthermore: Can those people who “catch” the motivation of their leaders then go out and motivate others — and those others go out themselves and motivate still others … and on and on?

Finally, can people at each phase of this “cascading of cause leaders” translate motivation into action that achieves results — and not just average results but more results faster on a continual basis?

All my books, articles, courses, seminars, workbooks and interviews are based on that simple sequence of ideas.

I have written many articles on motivation and how to transfer your motivation to others.

But there is another way of transforming your motivation to others that doesn’t take much explaining. It’s surprisingly simple, easy to use, and effective. Yet few leaders I’ve encountered use it, and those who use it, don’t use it well.

It’s the Way of the Question Mark. A “way” is a course of life one undertakes to advance in a particular discipline.

So it is with the Way of the Question Mark. It is not simply a technique; you’ll find it is actually a disciplined course of life. (I’ve been using it for years and am still a long way from mastering it. Because the question mark is often particularly appropriate in a highly charged emotional situation. However, in such situations, when strong emotions are getting the better of me, it takes practice and discipline to step back, gather my thoughts, and ask a question.)

Practicing the Way of the Question Mark can enhance your relationships with the people you lead so you get a lot more results as a leader.

From now on in all your leadership endeavors, make a conscious effort to put a question mark at what would otherwise be declarative sentences.

Asking the question rather than using a declarative is usually more effective because it gets people reflecting upon their situation. After all, we can’t motivate anyone to do anything. They have to motivate themselves. And they best motivate themselves when they reflect on their character and their situation. The question prompts people to answer, and when they are answering, they may engage in such reflection. You may not like the answer; but often their answer, no matter what it is, is better in terms of advancing results than your declaration. Also, their answering the question may prompt them to think they have come up with a good idea. People are less enamored of your great ideas than they are of their ideas, even if those ideas are simply average.

For instance, your organization needs to have people to from point A to point B. An order leader might say, “Go from A to B.”

Practicing the Way, one might ask: “Tell me what you think about going from A to B?” or “What’s the best way for you to go from A to B?” or “Tell me how I can support you going from A to B?” or “How will you take leadership of others going from A to B?”

Mind you, I’m not talking about pandering to people’s whims. I’m talking motivation, motivating people to get more results faster on a continual basis. (In fact, you can’t order people to get more results faster continually. Only motivated people can do it.) I’m talking about challenging people to undertake extraordinary things, to be better than they think they are.

The question mark, as opposed to the simple declarative, opens up a world of results-producing possibilities. And it’s a world predicated on their choices.

Make the Way of the Question Mark your way. Discipline yourself to ask questions rather than make statements. You’ll start getting more results.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com

The Thursday March 30, 2006 basketball picks are listed below.

Best: Spurs @ Lakers: The Lakers won in San Antonio last time they played, making the LA w/o Shaq 1-6 against the Spurs. With the #1 spot on the line, Greg Popavich isn’t going to lose to the Lakers on national TV. Tim Duncan doesn’t demand big performances like Kobe does, but if Duncan scores 30 it’s an easy win. This might become a first round NBA playoffs matchup. The odds of the Lakers being able to sniff victory is low but we will try to pretend this game is competitive. Predicted Score: San Antonio wins 97-91

Runner-up: Suns @ Pacers: Things are aligning for the Suns to win. Indiana plays a back-to-back after returning from Atlanta, where they’ve struggled. The Suns however come in having played just once in the past five days. With Jermaine O’Neal out and Amare Stoudemire in, Foster and Pollard will really have to step up. Who knows what impact Amare will have on this game? Predicted Score: Phoenix wins 103-89 in an utter blowout on the road.

The Pacers have had a great season this year with Peja Stojakovic and might become a very intriguing team to watch in the playoffs. The Lakers are starting to play some really good basketball and their success and effort in the past week cannot be ignored either.

If you are looking to bet on basketball, check out our basketball odds comparison website

Is your computer posture correct? Do you suffer from neck pain, a burning between your shoulder blades, lower back pain, headaches, digestive problems, breathing difficulties, eye strain … the list goes on. All of the above could be related to how you sit at your PC for hours at a time every day, barely moving, eyes fixed on the screen with deadlines to meet.

If you have adjusted the position of your chair, computer screen and mouse but still find you suffer from the conditions mentioned above? You are not alone and for good reason. Whilst you can easily re-arrange your furniture it is not so simple to follow the instructions aimed at the human elements, that is, your body.

Following advice on sitting correctly, such as, sitting straight with the shoulders back etc, is not as easy as it sounds. This is because the majority of adults have developed a poor body concept. What does this mean? We have lost the art of natural poise and movement through our sedentary lifestyles. Your computer posture is just one situation where it can go wrong.

In my role as an Alexander Technique teacher I have taught many people over the last 10 years and one issue that usually comes up is the matter of sitting at a computer. Many make the mistake of trying to sit up too straight and tighten their lower backs, causing more harm than good. As soon as people learn not to try and sit up straight, they find it so much easier!

Early warning signs that should not be ignored.

Any discomfort experienced at your computer is a sign you are doing something wrong. You may not be too concerned if the aches and pains you associate with your work disappear at weekends. But prolonged periods (and we could be talking years) of sitting in a poor position will alter your posture gradually until you begin to suffer all the time.

More serious signs that require you to take instant action are tightness or numbness in your fingers, hands, wrists, elbows or shoulders. This could soon lead to upper limb disorders, also known as repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is a difficult condition to treat successfully and in a many cases the sufferer has to change job completely to one not involving computers - not an easy career move to make in today’s hi-tech world!

If you experience any of the above symptoms, talk to your Occupational Health Advisor or visit your doctor. The longer these conditions persist the harder it will be to treat.

So your computer posture can have a huge influence on not only how productive you are at work, whether you get aches or pains, but also your body shape! You probably don’t want to look old before your time, but if you pay little attention to how you sit at your PC you could be rapidly attaining the stoop normally associated with old age.

Remember, you don’t have to sit up straight with your chin in, shoulders back …it will only cause more problems in the long-term. Just allow your body to be poised and let the chair and floor support your weight and remember to take breaks away from you computer.

Roy Palmer is a teacher of The Alexander Technique and has taught people about posture and poise for the last 10 years. He has advised many companies on issues relating to posture in the workplace. More information, photographs and online tests about sitting at your computer can be found by clicking Computer Posture

You can get buried by procrastination that is if you postpone or delay needlessly.

The word comes from the “Latin procrastinatio, formed from the verb procrastinare “to put off for tomorrow,” from pro-, “forward” + crastinus, “of tomorrow,” from cras, “tomorrow.” See http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2002/08/17.html (if you don’t believe me).

So don’t be procraastinatioing around.

I have a table next to my television chair. I always read while watching television and design grandiose plans to make me rich indeed. I need a place to put my stuff.

I pile my “get rich at your kitchen table” direct mail schemes on my table. I get a bunch of these in the mail each week and I read every word of each one to see if I can’t incorporate some idea in to a mail scheme that would actually be legal. I might say that I don’t solicit this mail. I get it because I place classified ads and mailing list companies grab my name and address and sell it to those who make large mailings to opportunity seekers, etc.

I get a lot of junk on penny stocks and gold stocks and energy stocks all guaranteed to make me as rich as an Arabian Oil Sheik. These offers come into my FAX machine too because my fax number is on one of my web sites that used to provide stock market information. That web site, www.chooseastock.com was one of my grandiose get rich schemes. I was going to be able to sell the site at a great profit because it has such a great name. Nobody bought it. (Warning: There is no paper in my fax machine. I erase all faxes coming in. I use the fax machine only to send faxes to my suppliers.)

I go to the Idaho Youth Ranch store where my wife volunteers on Thursdays and to Barnes and Noble in the big town of Twin Falls. I check Barnes and Nobles bargain book tables and come home with a boodle of books. I buy books for a quarter at the Idaho Youth Ranch store. These all go onto my table. (I usually read two or three books at the same time to break up the monotony of it all. I don’t read fiction so I don’t have the problem of mixing up the story lines.)

Lastly, I get tons of free magazines. These are gifts to me by the airlines, hotels, and such that I patronized heavily for so many years. After they have gone through the “table period” I put them in boxes and cart them to the library here in our small town. When the library screams “NO MORE,” I take them to the Idaho Youth Ranch store where they sell them for a dime or quarter.

It’s amazing how my table changes from an organized play place to the Matterhorn. To see some neat pics of the Matterhorn and to plan your climb, go to http://ski-zermatt.com/mattnet/features/matterhorn_climb/.

My wife often feed me in front of the television. It’s one of the perks of being retired and too lazy to move to the table. She comes in with a couple of plates and a glass of milk or juice or such and wonders where in all creation she can put the stuff. I shuffle stuff around, get my bib around my neck (which I also keep on the table), and grab all the stuff she couldn’t find a place to land. After a while it gets ridiculous. I must clean the junk off my table.

I read a good article on procrastination once in one of those slick magazines that dispels important but boring information to the elite. A couple of years later I wrote to the publisher and told him (or her) what a great article it was. My letter wasn’t published. I guess it was not very timely.

You can procrastinate doing the following things:

1. Cutting the lawn: When the grass grows above the height of the lawnmower so that your wife will not see it to remind her to tell you to cut the grass, you may have won. In Idaho your lawn may well just blend in with the wheat field next to your house.

2. Shoveling snow: This is good to procrastinate. It could save you from a heart attack or sore muscles. Here is a little chant you can use: Snow, Snow, Go away. Try again in July or May. That’s when the sun will come out and save you.

3. Doing your income tax: Always put this off until mid-April unless you have a big refund coming. Then do your taxes in January. You can file for an extension on April 15th and do your taxes in the fall after the fishing season.

4. Cleaning your Desk: It’s better to stare at your desk than to clean it. You might misplace an important paper.

5. Paying your bills: If you leave this tedious task long enough maybe your spouse will pay them.

6. Cleaning the garage or basement: Never do these chores in the winter months. The yard sale season is not yet up on you. When you see need money to buy a new fishing pole that is the time to clean your garage and have a yard sale.

7. Planting the garden: When you have missed the last date for peas and radishes, you better hustle down to the nursery and buy that last tomato plant which is now three-feet high.

8. Starting your weigh-loss program: This is a dandy to procrastinate. It consists of diet and exercise and you can procrastinate one or both. Gear up by buying weight loss books and polishing that contraption you bought from a television infomercial.

9. Writing a letter to or visiting your dying aunt in Duluth: At the funeral say that you were just going to write her when you got the telephone call saying she was dead.

10. Mopping the floor: My wife gave me this one. There are some things you just hate to do.

I’ve wanted to write this article for a long time. I’m glad it’s finished.

I’m staring at my desk. I cleaned my table last night.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com