Oprah - You’re Going to Love Us!

Christine Lakatos and I are on a mission.  The Oprah mission.  We are self-publishing authors struggling to get exposure.  We have thousands of hurdles ahead of us, but we are determined to conquer them all.  We have the drive, the heart, the tenacity and NOW, we are allys. Read Christine’s recent Blog post, and you’ll understand how we met, and what an amazing a breakthrough she had with GOOGLE because of our alliance. 

I believe some of the important ingredients to our marketing success can be understood by watching a few of my favorite reality shows - The Apprentice, Survivor and American Idol.  Particularly, you’ll notice on the first two, it’s essential to have allies (at least at the beginning).  Luckily Christine’s and my books are complementary to each other, rather than competitive.  This is really fun - I will get to enjoy her victories and she’ll enjoy mine.  We’ll help each other race past our competitors.

We accomplished our first goal, which was to write reviews for each other - she wrote wonderful reviews of my two books, Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty and Dream Home Profile, and I wrote one for her book, My Diva Diet and posted it on Blog Critics.

That’s why I can confidently say, "Watch out Oprah, we have our eyes on you!"  Ladies, you can help us out by sharing our websites, books and posts with your friends.  Because of you, we’ll land a spot on Oprah and we’ll share our success with you.  How about it?
 

Take a Chill Pill

This is not meant to be a cliché.  It’s a real suggestion because I’m just like you, personally experiencing stress & anxiety related to the econmy.  And, perhaps unlike you, I experience it all day at work because home furnishing sales are directly linked to housing, and the mental mood of the country.

 ♥

So, I know firsthand how difficult it is to remain stress-free, healthy and happy.  But, I also know that I have resources available - my own personal Chill Pills.  The Chill Pills I take aren’t related to drugs, alcohol or professional intervention.  Rather, they are self-help, natural things I do to "chill out".  Here’s my list, and hopefully some of these things will be great Chill Pills for you, too:

Watch the Dream Movie.  (I’ve watched it at least 50 times in the last few months, and I never get tired of it - it’s tremendously inspiring and soothing.) 

 

I sometimes treat myself to a massage if I need a high dose of chill.

 

I talk about my feelings to my closes friend and loved ones.  But I never talk about my anxiety to any one else.  How boring is that?  I prefer not to add a heavier load to those around me.  I try to stay calm and unafraid (I give myself lots of pep-talks.)

 

I try to add more "Favorite Day" elements to my day, and eliminate my triggers for stress.  (The "Favorite Day Finder" helps me identify the good and bad elements of my days.  It’s available in The Duck Directory, The Ugly Duck Makeover, and The Not So Famous Celebrity Makeover.)

 

I use the Awakenings Program from Centerpointe to de-stress whenever I have an extra hour of quiet time.

 ♥

So, if you need a little something to take the edge off things, just pop a few Chill Pills, and see if you don’t feel a little better.   And as our friend from England, Duncan, says … Cheerio! 

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A Diet Book for Tired-Of-Dieting-Dieters

Another diet book.  Thousands upon thousands of “wanna-be diet gurus” confusing most of us, most of the time with some recycled diet and weight loss idea. 

However, The Younger (Thinner) You Diet by Eric R. Braverman, MD is really different!  I’m inspired by a few things.  It approaches anti-aging, dieting and weight loss from a "brain perspective," not a "time and stomach perspective."  And Dr. Braverman uses an integrative approach in his medical practice, which puts him in the same niche as Dr. Andrew Weil.

The first rule that I use to evaluate a non-fiction book is to see if it sufficiently addresses the problem or situation addressed by the title and tag line. The title, The Younger (Thinner) You Diet, draws me in (as a resistantly aging baby-boomer) by suggesting that I can be younger and thinner with this particular You Diet.  What a hook!  It intrigued me!  Of course that’s exactly what I care about, and will likely care about for the next 20 years.  Next, his tag line, How Understanding Your Brain Chemistry Can Help You Lose Weight, Reverse Aging and Fight Disease, places him in a very unique niche as far as diets go.  Wow, this tag-line promises all this from “Brain Balance!”

Okay, did he succeed?  Yes, he delivered a do-able, anti-aging diet and weight loss book - one that I’m going to use.  Of course, not all of it appeals to me. The beginning of Part II offered quite a few details, along with the rational of the Diet.  For me, this was TMI (too much information) for my time constraints.  However, the latter part of Part II was filled with fantastic recipes, which he coded to the specific brain chemical deficiencies that I discovered in Part I, when I took his Younger Thinner Diet Quiz.  The quiz was so practical, and completely held my interest.  I also felt the results were quite accurate.

Another interesting part of Braverman’s book is how he uses herbs, foods and supplements to balance out the four brain chemicals, suggesting prescription medication as the last resort.  The premise he uses in his medical practice is mind-body balance, and it’s the foundation of this book.  I totally buy into this primal connection in regards to natural beauty, health and wellness. 

Would I recommend this book to you?  Yes.  I would suggest that you get a support group started of “Tired-of-Dieting-Dieters” because you can have a lot of fun identifying with someone who is deficient in the same brain chemicals as you are.  I always feel that accountability helps in our diet and weight loss journeys.