Obstacles to Women's Weight Loss: Fears Surrounding Sexuality

Are you one of those women who have repeatedly tried but can’t seem to lose weight? Or maybe you lose a little weight and then put it right back on again. For many women weight loss can be subconsciously sabotaged by fear. They don’t know exactly how people will react to them being thinner and, depending on their past experiences, that can be a bit scary.

As much as we would like to think so, issues surrounding women’s weight loss and weight gain are not altogether cut and dried. If it were as simple as taking in calories and expending energy weight might not be so difficult to manage. More often than not, however, women’s weight concerns include emotional and psychological components that must be dealt with in order to experience success. Although it may seem a bit strange to some, the process of losing weight can actually invoke a fair amount of fear in some women surrounding sexuality.

Fear of Being Sexually Attractive

Probably the number one reason that losing weight can be frightening to women is because of the unwanted sexual attention that they will get as a thinner person. Many women don’t know how to handle the increase in sexual attention, or in some cases, it may make them feel unsafe.
Oftentimes, when a woman begins to lose weight they draw attention that they are not accustomed to getting. For example,.........read more

Original Articles. Constant-Content.

Cooking Tips: Butter, Flour, and Eggs

Over centuries of baking, our forefathers (and mothers) have discovered various tips that solve various common baking problems. Here are some of the most helpful tidbits for using a few common ingredients that should prove useful in the kitchen when creating your baked creations.

Butter

Called for in many recipes, butter is one of the most universal ingredients used in baking and, as far as taste goes, there is really no substitute for real butter. Butter should be stored in the refrigerator, but can be safely left out for as much as a couple of days in a covered dish when you want to soften it, or for ease of spreading. For long term storage, butter can be wrapped and frozen with no problems at all.

When using butter in a recipe, your measurements will be more accurate if you use the stick form. Because the whipped variety has large amounts of air incorporated into it to help maintain its ability to spread easily, the net weight is less than the stick variety.

Flour

Although most people associate flour with ground wheat, flour can be made from grinding a number of different ingredients such as barley, almonds, or chickpeas. In baked goods, flour is what binds the other ingredients together, adding structure, flavor and texture. It can also be used as a thickener for sauces, gravies, and dessert fillings.

When baking with flour, proper measuring is a must. A common mistake in baking is to measure out too much flour which results in heavy or ..........read more

The Evolution Of Body Image – Thin Wasn’t Always In

It took 400 years after Gutenberg invented the movable press for the public to begin to be exposed to fashion images in the United States. Harper’s Bazaar and New York Daily Graphic were among the first publications to display such imagery and it wasn’t long until a more powerful medium for showcasing the female body was introduced – the film industry.

Nestor Studios was the first film studio to make its debut in Hollywood in 1911 followed by fifteen other studios by 1912. Mass media was here to stay bringing with it the “ideal” version of how a woman “should” look. Unfortunately, it also brought a public obsession with body image that has lasted until the present time.

Beauty Defined

With America’s swift progression into the industrial revolution came many lifestyle changes. People were moving from rural settings to cities and buying food from stores instead of growing it themselves. This meant that body image would change as well.

Prior to this time, carrying quite a few additional pounds was a sign of wealth and prosperity, since not everybody had access to ample amounts of food. The revolution of industry, however, brought prosperity of the nation and also changed body image philosophy. Food was plentiful so overly “plump” became............................read more 

Banishing 4 Common Parenting Myths

Parenting is a challenging endeavor and many moms and dads complicate the process by adopting some rather frustrating myths.  What do you believe concerning good parenting and well-behaved children?  Common Myths Consider the following myths about parenting and honestly evaluate whether you are consciously or unconsciously buying into them.

Myth #1 – Committed parents who are emotionally connected have children that are naturally well-behaved. The truth of the matter is that even loving, committed and engaged parents have children that act up from time to time.  The mistake that parents make is unfairly associating a child’s actions or imperfections to the level of love and care that a parent offers their child.  The fact is that children are human and they are going to throw temper tantrums and pitch fits no matter how emotionally connected their parents are to them.  Those types of behaviors are just part of being immature and they are not a direct reflection on your level of commitment to the parenting process.  Conduct that adults label as “misbehavior” is really a very integral part of the maturing process. Actually, acting up or acting out is necessary for children to learn to make positive adjustments in their behavior, and to grow as a person.

Myth #2 – If you love your child, you will automatically have all of the parenting skills required. Loving children comes quite naturally for the majority of parents, but having naturally-occurring parenting skills is rare, indeed.  Becoming a skilled parent is a learning process and, since every child is different, there is not a cut and dried set of rules. Children don’t come equipped with owner’s manuals so, in many cases, there are no definitive rights or wrongs.  Parents must tailor their parenting approach to each individual child by sorting through the information they have and they must gain parenting experience simply by doing what they think is best.

Myth #3 – Good parents have an endless supply of........read more

The Dynamics of the Blended Family

Would you be surprised to learn that for the first time in history, step families are more common than non-step families?  Life in a step family, which modern terminology refers to as a blended family, isn’t always smooth sailing and, in fact, can be quite challenging.

Expectations

Because blended families come with their own unique dynamics, it is implausible to assume that step families will always behave like intact families.  Many parents enter a blended situation with misguided expectations.  They think their desire to love and nurture their stepchildren will be grounds for full-fledged acceptance and reciprocated affection and that possibly their stepchildren will even regard them like they do a natural parent.  In reality, however, the circumstances take on some serious complexity and conditions are rarely so cut and dried.  In natural families, children are an extension of the parents.  Because of this, natural parents are usually jointly motivated to devote hefty amounts of time, energy, and money into their progeny.  Step parenting, however, is not that predictable and often drifts into uncharted territory for both parent and child.  It takes awareness on the part of the step parents to come to the realization that the dynamics of their new blend won’t be the same as a natural family.  With this recognition, the blended family has a better chance of tracking a more positive course.

Sex and Biology

In a natural family, a man and a woman come together to have a child.  Most of the time, both parents have the interest of the child at heart.  They combine their energies to tend to and nurture the child.  In step families, however, sexual energies of the couple and biological energies of parent/child relationship can cause family members to move emotionally in opposing directions.  This polarization can be the beginning of divisive influences that affect every member of the family.  Oftentimes, this damaging rift opens the way..........read more

Workplace Productivity and the Hawthorne Effect

The principles of the Hawthorne Effect studied many years ago are still utilized in the business world today.  Essentially, the Hawthorne Effect is a temporary increase in productivity in response to certain modifications to the workplace environment.Even though the Hawthorne studies were conducted many years ago, they are still referred to today when a company researches productivity issues.

What is the Hawthorne Effect?

The Hawthorne Effect refers to the results of a series of experimental studies done on human productivity at Hawthorne Works, a factory in Illinois that produced a variety of consumer products such as telephone equipment, electric fans, and refrigerators. Originally, the studies were designed to test the theory that increased lighting in a work environment would increase productivity. The results were very interesting.  Improved lighting did, indeed, increase productivity. These results caught the eye of more university researchers who studied the phenomenon.............read more

Who Benefits From You Lowering Your Cholesterol Numbers?

How surprised would you be to find out that people with higher cholesterol levels live longer? After you get over the initial shock of this seemingly absurd statement and clear your mind of the societal brainwashing that has taken place, maybe you can begin to understand the integral role that cholesterol plays in human health.

A Few Facts about Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a substance that belongs to a group of chemical compounds known as lipids. Throughout the human body, cholesterol is used in many capacities such as building cell membranes and insulating nerve tissue. It is also needed to produce hormones that act as regulators for specific biological functions such as digesting fat. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver and a person need not consume food containing cholesterol for the body to produce what it requires. Interestingly, the body regulates its cholesterol levels automatically. If a diet high in cholesterol-containing foods is consumed, the liver produces less. If a person ....read more