How to earn respect

(Men's Health)

Pick up the tab. What? Buy respect? Of course not -- you earn it by showing it as you scoop up the bill. To your potential father-in-law: "Your daughter and I would like to treat you." On business: "Jim, it's the least I can do."
Try the sushi.
Never blunt the bad news.
Stay sober when no one would blame you for drinking.
Nail the toast.
Cook for 12.
Become what you told people you always wanted to be.
When some lemon- sucker asks, "Ugh, you actually like that book?" just reply -- with unwavering eye contact -- "Yes."
Say no when no's the answer. "We'll see," "I'll have to get back to you on that," and "I'm not 100 percent sure" are smoke screens for the person who's afraid to disappoint.
Become multilingual. Could be Spanish. Could be the secret language of the internal combustion engine.
Risk being hated for doing the right thing.
Show patience with those who can't do what you can.

Beat holiday hangover debt

Four Tips to Help You Stay Out of Debt During the Holidays

Keeping a Lid on Christmas and Holiday Spending
Here are four simple steps to help you stay out of debt this holiday season and avoid that financial "holiday hangover."

Set spending limits--Look at your monthly budget and figure out how much you can realistically afford to set aside towards holiday gift giving, without going into debt. Your intentions may be good, but the reality is that most people have a depressing amount of debt after the holidays and are not able to pay it off in as timely a manner as they had hoped.

Make a list--Follow Santa's example. Make a list of all the people you need or want to buy gifts for, including small gifts for babysitters, teachers, newspaper deliverers, etc. These small gifts can add up and are often the cause of going over your gift budget. Include money you'll spend on Christmas cards, postage, holiday parties, decorations, holiday entertainment, etc.

Set a limit--Decide how much you will spend on each person on your gift list, then add everything up and make sure it doesn't exceed your overall spending limit. Try to allow a cushion for unexpected items or price fluctuations.

Decide where to shop--As important as deciding what you're going to buy is deciding where you're going to buy it. If you don't wait until the last minute, you'll have time to comparison shop. Prices fluctuate significantly from store to store and from one month to another. Stores start cutting prices 10 to 25% on holiday items like decorations, gifts, and winter clothing the week before Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November). As Christmas approaches, some items are marked down as much as 40% but selections are limited. You'll need to decide whether price or selection is more important to you and time your shopping accordingly.

Follow these simple steps and you'll avoid the nagging feeling that you've overspent on Christmas or other holiday gifts. You'll also avoid the struggle to pay off the credit card bills for months to come. Instead you'll feel in control and free of the dreaded financial "holiday hangover."

Dads connect with daughters

A Letter to My Daughters is a father to daughter talk about life. It covers the issues and "life topics" that every teenage girl, young woman and adult women alike are currently facing, or will one day face in their lives. Keith Hudson shares the letters he has written to his three daughters covering essential life instruction and wisdom about some of the most powerful and provocative issues facing our young women today.

The book goes on sale today.

Proper tea etiquette

We have come a long way from the straight-laced Victorian tea times when tea etiquette was first established, but we can still set aside our fast paced lives for a little bit of gentility. So, lets brush up on our manners and spend a couple of hours (or longer) treating our self and friends to a proper tea.


Remember, no pinky extensions.

Need some organization?

Every busy household needs just one item to keep it running like a well-oiled machine: a monthly calendar. Unfortunately, paper wall calendars generally have only have a tiny space in each date box, and once you've written on it, any change of plans will result in a scratched-out, incomprehensible errand list. Overscheduled moms need a monthly wall calendar with magnetic dry erase board. Its surface allows you to freely write and erase without any messy marker residue as you usher in each new month. And the calendar is magnetic, so you can tack notes and such to it. Now all of your family's activities will be neatly organized on a bright board that can be changed with the swipe of an eraser.

Women and hair loss

Are you losing your hair? Is your hair thinning? According to a multitude of advertisements -- you can have longer, thicker hair in just two weeks! The advertisements for treatment of balding, and hair loss in men are hard to miss. These ads might lead one to believe that hair loss is generally a men's issue.

However the fact is that as many as two-thirds of all women experience hair loss at some point. The role of estrogen in hair growth in humans is not clear. However both oral and topical estrogens are prescribed by physicians to treat hair loss in women -- although there are no controlled studies to support this use of estrogen. Always check with your doctor.

Help for foster kids turning 18

By the end of this week, 15 former foster kids will be settling into their new Pembroke Pines homes. They're part of a program designed to be a safety net for youths who are forced to leave state foster care at age 18. Many aren't prepared for that transition, though. Studies show up to 40 percent of kids spend at least one night homeless within 18 months of leaving foster care. In this program, they can share a two-bedroom furnished duplex with another person for $350 a month. They receive a monthly stipend of a little more than $1,000 and are eligible for free tuition at a state college or university.

Don't fall down and go boom

Rates of fall injuries increased with age and were higher for women compared with men. The most common cause of fall injuries among older adults was slipping, tripping, or stumbling. Most fall injuries occurred inside or around the outside of the home. Studies have shown that injuries experienced as a result of falling may lead to a decrease in the ability to perform activities of daily living. Especially among older adults, falls increase disability, and those injured during a fall often do not return to their pre-fall level of physical functioning.

Find satisfaction at your job

From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,
Your Guide to Stress Management.



Enjoy Your Job More—Or Know When It’s Time For A Change:

If you’re overstressed and at risk for job burnout, you may feel that a major life overhaul is necessary for you to be able to enjoy your job and avoid burnout. Before making major changes, this article can help you to better enjoy your situation with a few minor adjustments, and give you food for thought on whether major changes may be necessary. The following suggestions can help you increase job satisfaction:
Be Clear About Job Requirements:
It’s nearly impossible to do a good enough job at your work if you don’t know what the requirements are. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s difficult to know all of the requirements at a job when those in charge are poor communicators. Some bosses and supervisors are vague with expectations, assign new tasks with little advance notice, request new tasks without providing training, and inadvertently set workers up to fail in other ways. While you can’t prevent things like this from happening altogether, you can gain a clearer view of what you need to do and help your situation quite a bit with assertive communication skills. Learn to speak up for yourself in a respectful way and you’ll improve your work life and your relationship, and decrease your risk for burnout.

Find Rewards and Recognition:
We all need to feel recognized and rewarded for what we do. If your job doesn’t have built-in opportunities for recognition, or if rewards are infrequent, you may need to add rewards and recognition to your own life. You may decide to take yourself to a movie, have a home spa experience, buy yourself something nice, or give yourself other small but nurturing rewards when you complete a project or complete another month of hard work. You can also team up with a supportive friend and agree to listen to each other’s successes and provide support to one another if you don’t get that support and recognition from your job. These things can nurture you emotionally and remind you of the importance of the work you do, especially if you work in a job or field where these rewards are sparse.

Maintain a Balanced Lifestyle:
Keeping balance in your lifestyle is important; if it’s all work and no play, you may find your ability to work beginning to wane. In order to maintain balance in your lifestyle, the first step is to take an overview of your current lifestyle and see which areas are out of balance. Do you have enough time for relationships, hobbies, sleep, self care, exercise, healthy eating, and other important features of a healthy lifestyle, in addition to your work responsibilities? If not, the next step is to look at your priorities and make some changes so that your lifestyle reflects them better. (You can find tools for doing this at the end of this quiz, or with this free e-course.)

Think Positive:
You can usually change your experience of your current circumstances by changing your attitude about them. Developing an optimistic point of view and changing negative self talk patterns can go a long way toward helping you see the glass half-full, as well as actually making you more productive and less stressed! Assess your current state of mind, and make some changes in yourself so that you see things in a more positive light, and you may just find you’re much happier where you are in life!

Know Yourself and Work With Your Personality:
Certain features of your personality make some jobs a better fit for you than others. If you’re in a job that’s not well-suited for your personality, you may be putting yourself under unnecessary stress every day you go to work. The following are some good questions to ask yourself:

Do you like to work toward deadlines, or do you like your tasks to come in a relatively steady stream?
Do you like to work as part of a team, or independently?
Do you like things to be structured and routine, or loose and variable?
Do you enjoy being a ‘big fish in a small pond’, or would you like to be a ‘small fish in a big pond’? (Meaning, would you like to be a small part of a large company or a large part of a small company, or something else?)
Do you believe in what you do, and is it important to you that you do?
These questions and others can give you a better picture of what kind of work would be best for you. If you find you’re not in the type of position that’s ideal for you, you can see if you can make additional changes in your job’s structure to make it fit better with your needs, or you might think of what jobs might be better suited for you and see if working toward a change in jobs is a good idea for you.

Cure yourself of workaholism

(Men's Health)

Admit that you're powerless in the grip of your addiction to work: This is not easy. You have to fight the common perception that to work until you drop is an admirable quality. You need to realize that you're not really happy, sleep is difficult, and your life is not fun, before you can cope with your addiction.
Acknowledge there are things in life more important than work: If you find yourself missing things, wondering why the hell you're doing what you're doing, sitting in front of a laptop while everyone else is playing Whiffle ball, you may be ready to accept that you're leaving much of your life behind. And no matter how much money you make, you won't be issued a second life.
Accept that you can't control everything in the universe: Workaholics are pursuing a perfect solution to the problem of existence. That's why they try to control everything within their scope. It's like a whack-a-mole. Trust me, you won't run out of quarters.
Appeal to the higher power of your choice for assistance with your transformation: This is hard for career workaholics. You tell yourself you're "doing it for them" whoever "they" may be, but really, you're lonely, isolated and self-involved. You need to move outside yourself if you're going to break the cycle of addiction.
Replace work with other things that give you satisfaction: This may be the most difficult step of them all. Perhaps for workaholics, there is a sunrise out there that will be as wonderful to behold as the closing documents on a smart acquisition.


Workaholics Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover from workaholism.

Workplace etiquette book

New Rules @ Work: 79 Etiquette Tips, Tools, and Techniques to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead



For anyone who's breaking in, moving up, or just trying to make a great professional impression, this essential guide offers real-life anecdotes and advice to help you build competence and confidence in the tricky arena of modern business etiquette. Includes:

- "Blunder Busters"-proven strategies to help you tackle anything from office dating to business lunches
- "Sir, your fly is unzipped!"-the art of verbal diplomacy
- Contemporary guidelines for goof-proof e-mail
- The top ten career killers and how to beat them
- Global gaffes: easy ways to avoid overseas embarrassment
- Grace under fire-surviving dining disasters, party faux-pas and everything in-between

About the Author
Barbara Pachter is a business communications consultant, speaker, and coach. She has conducted more than 1,600 skill-building seminars on assertiveness, business etiquette, and international communications.

Teens exposure to sex and violence

Two-thirds of parents said they are very concerned about sex and violence the nation's children are exposed to in the media, and there would be broad support for new federal limits on such material on television, said a survey released Tuesday.

Have tea for your hips

New research suggests that having a cuppa (tea, that is) may help strengthen older women's hips. "Those who drank tea in the study had a higher bone density over the four years that they were studied," the study author said. "These women lost less bone than those who did not drink tea. More than three-quarters of the women drank tea daily, and they consumed on average about three cups per day." Outside experts called the findings intriguing but still preliminary. Fractures, especially hip fractures associated with osteoporosis, are a major source of disability in postmenopausal women.

Keep kids safe from predators on Halloween

It's been a long time since children were allowed to trick-or-treat by themselves or eat the candy they collected on Halloween before parents could inspect it.

But now police are asking parents to go one step further: check the online sex-offender registry before allowing their children out on Halloween night.

On Halloween night sex offenders are ordered by law to keep their porch light off. They can’t decorate, and they can’t answer the door. Probation officers in both counties will be checking on them.

How is women's health in the U.S.

The United States isn't making the grade when it comes to women's health, a new report contends. The report gives the country an overall grade of "unsatisfactory" because it meets only three of 27 benchmarks for women's health. Those benchmarks are the percentage of women aged 40 and over who get regular mammograms; the percentage of women who visit their dentist annually; and the percentage of women aged 50 and over who are screened for colorectal cancer. Not one state received an overall "satisfactory" grade in the area of women's health.

Local Halloween fun

Halloween fun!

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Here's a round-up of some of the events tied to Halloween for adults, teens and kids in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Do not call list

Names will not be removed from the National Do Not Call List...yet.
A few weeks ago you may of heard that the list would expire, meaning you would have to re-register by June. But federal regulators changed their minds. The Federal Trade Commission will not remove any numbers while congress considers making the list permanent.
You can still add your number to the list if you would like to. The number is 1-888-382-1222.

Concierger pampers employees

Memorial Healthcare System's employees can get an oil change and their clothes dry-cleaned without leaving work. General Mills workers can skip traffic and long lines when they mail packages or get jewelry repaired. More an dmore companies are offering great work perks.

When guys put on the apron

THE AVERAGE MAN'S KITCHEN SKILLS
(Men's Health)

Number of men who believe their cooking skills are sound: 2 in 3
Number who say they have the Food Network to thank: 1 in 3
Number of men who cook to seduce women: 1 in 20
Number who buy cookware based on how they look rather than how they work: 1 in 5
Entree the average guy feels most confident preparing: Steak
Number of men who've started a fire in the kitchen: 1 in 4
Number who clean up in the kitchen as they cook: 1 in 2
Time the average guy spends at the supermarket each week: 30 minutes
Time he spends per day turning his groceries into greatness: 15 minutes
Percentage who are willing to pay more for organic ingredients: 23
Percentage who don't care how healthy the ingredients are as long as it makes a meal taste better: 46
Number of men who have successfully passed off takeout as something they slaved over: 1 in 14
Number of meals the average guy cooks each week: 7
Number of men who've had sex in the kitchen: 2 in 5
Percentage of men who've dropped food on the floor and served it: 36

Teen Dating Tips

Dating is a natural part of the teen years. But it's important for both teenagers and parents to review some basic dating safety information. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers these suggestions when talking to your teen:

Encourage your child to get to know someone over the phone or at school before going out on a date.
If your child wants to go out, make sure it's to a public place. Encourage fun and safe outings, like a picnic, a trip to the mall, or the movies.
Talk to your child about the importance of speaking up about what makes her comfortable and uncomfortable.
Make sure she -- and her date -- both understand what time she is to return home.
Be sure that your child tells you where she's going, who she'll be with, and how you can reach her.

Women and cancer

Sixty-three percent of American women think that if there's no family history of cancer, you're not likely to develop the disease, a new survey found. In fact, most people who develop cancer have no family history of cancer, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which sponsored the survey. The survey underscores the need for better education and understanding of the steps women can take to prevent cancer and to detect it early.

Halloween Safety Tips

A Happy Halloween Means Safety First
(HealthDay News)

Halloween costume? Check.

Goody bag? Check.

A head full of safety tips? Safety tips?

Yes, safety tips.

Before letting your little trick-or-treater loose this Halloween, make sure he or she is armed with a checklist of "dos" and "don'ts" that will make for a safe and fun-filled night for all.

Topping the list -- be sure your child can safely navigate the neighborhood, especially once darkness has settled.

An average of four deaths among children aged 5 to 14 years occurred on Halloween between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. every year from 1975 through 1996, compared to an average of one death during those hours on any other night of the year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The good news this year is that Daylight Savings Time doesn't end until Nov. 4, four days after Halloween, said Dr. Seema Csukas, director of child health promotion at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. That means more light this year than in years past. But children will still need supervision when they walk from house to house, she said.

"Any little bit of light that we can get on this night when so many children are out is a plus, but that doesn't take away from the need to be safe and careful," Csukas said. She also suggested that parents talk to their children a few days before Halloween, so everyone knows the rules ahead of time.

Her recommendations for parents and children:

Map out the trick-or-treating route beforehand.
Stick to familiar neighborhoods, and no darting between parked cars.
When crossing streets, stay on designated crosswalks.
Give children flashlights or glow sticks to carry for visibility, or attach reflective tape to costumes.
Approach houses from well-lit driveways and sidewalks, rather than dark lawns.
With so many children walking around in the dark on Halloween, families should clean up their yards -- rakes, bikes, garden hoses and the like should be put away, and outside lights should be turned on so kids won't fall. Drivers, too, should slow down and keep a careful eye on the road to avoid excitable children who might run into traffic without looking.

"Kids get excited, and adults do as well, and we want them all to enjoy the evening and enjoy it safely," Csukas said.

Costumes should also be assembled with an eye toward safety, Csukas said. Masks should have big eye holes to give kids as much peripheral vision as possible, and costumes should be short enough to allow walking without tripping. Shoes shouldn't be so big and unwieldy that kids can't walk properly.

Most store-bought costumes are made of flame-resistant material. But homemade costumes aren't necessarily flame-proof, so special care should be taken around pumpkins lit with candles. And stay away from sharp objects -- any make-believe swords, pitchforks, knives and the like should be made of soft material.

Then there are the treats themselves. Parents should check the candy bags when their kids get home. Parents whose children have food allergies should remove candies that could trigger reactions in their kids. And parents with younger children should look for small items that could cause choking if swallowed. Also, be cautious about homemade treats. Commercially wrapped candy bars that show no signs of tampering are safer.

Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and president of the American Dietetic Association, said that when children have a bag full of Halloween treats, their natural inclination may be to devour as much as they can as quickly as possible. In order to control consumption, parents need to do some pre-planning, she said.

"Start ahead of time. The day before Halloween start talking to your kids about all the treats they are going to get. Talk about how fun it would be to divide up candy, so it can be enjoyed over several days," Diekman said in a prepared statement.

Dividing treats into small packages that can be eaten over an extended period of time prevents overindulging and gives children something to look forward to over the coming weeks.

Here are more safety tips, courtesy of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), the U.S. National Safety Council (NSC), the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI):

Over-the-counter decorative contact lenses as part of a Halloween costume can lead to serious eye problems like inflammation, pain, corneal abrasions and even blinding infections, the AAO warns. To protect eyes, lenses should be fitted by an eye-care professional.
Make sure your child brushes his or her teeth after eating Halloween candy. Treats like sticky taffy and gummy bears are less likely to be washed away by saliva, and long-lasting lollipops and hard candies keep sugar and preservatives in a child's mouth, increasing the risk for cavities, according to the ADA.
If your child has allergies, the AAAAI suggests handing out allergy-safe candies to neighbors beforehand, so they can give them to your child when he or she comes trick-or-treating. Do the same for classroom Halloween parties by packing treats from home for your allergic child.
Peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, milk and soy are the most common causes of food allergies in children. Allergic symptoms include headache, nausea, sneezing and coughing, hives, swelling of lips, tongue and throat and itching. More dangerous symptoms can be difficulty breathing, hoarseness or a lump in the throat or tingling in hands, feet, lips or scalp. If your child exhibits any of these latter symptoms after eating, he or she could be having a life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, and you should call 911 immediately, according to the AAAAI.