About a Man.... (Old school... had to bring it back)

If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away.
If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay.
Stop making excuses for a man and his behavior.
Allow your intuition (or spirit) to save you from heartache.
Stop trying to change yourself for a relationship that's not meant to be.
Slower is better. Never live your life for a man, before
you find what makes you truly happy.
If a relationship ends because the man was not treating you as
you deserve then heck no, you can't "be friends".
A friend wouldn't mistreat a friend.

Don't settle. If you feel like he is stringing you along,
then he probably is.
Don't stay because you think "it will get better." You'll be mad at
yourself a year later for staying when things are not better.
The only person you can control in a relationship is you.
Avoid men who've got a bunch of children by a bunch of
different women.
He didn't marry them when he got them pregnant, why would he
treat you any differently?
Always have your own set of friends separate from his.
Maintain boundaries in how a guy treats you. If something
bothers you, speak up.
Never let a man know everything.
He will use it against you later.

You cannot change a man's behavior.
Change comes from within.
Don't EVER make him feel he is more important than you are...
even if he has more education or in a better job.
Do not make him into a quasi-god.
He is a man, nothing more nothing less.
Never let a man define who you are.
Never borrow someone else's man.
If he cheated with you, he'll cheat on you.
A man will only treat you the way you ALLOW him to treat you.
All men are NOT dogs.
You should not be the one doing all the bending...
compromise is two way street.
You need time to heal between relationships...
there is nothing cute about baggage...
Deal with your issues before pursuing a new relationship
You should never look for someone to COMPLETE you...
a relationship consists of two WHOLE individuals...
look for someone complimentary...
not supplementary.

Dating is fun...
even if he doesn't turn out to be Mr. Right.
Make him miss you sometimes...
when a man always know where you are, and
you're always readily available to him - he takes it for granted.
Never move into his mother's house. Never co-sign for a man.
Don't fully commit to a man who doesn't give you everything that you need.
Keep him in your radar but get to know others.
Share this with other women and men (just so they know)...
You'll make someone smile, another rethink her/his choices, and another
woman prepare, and a man aware

- OPRAH

Pat Summitt... early onset Dementia... yikes!

Tennessee's Summitt has early onset dementia

Tennessee's Pat Summitt plans to coach "as long as the good Lord is willing" despite recently being diagnosed with early onset dementia.

The Weeknd - Thursday... new Mixtape!!! :)

The Weeknd: “Thursday”

by Life and Times

Download The Weeknd’s new mixtape HERE

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Original audio source (291729.mp3)

Hilariousness at its best! Jersey Shore Sucks! lol

Abercrombie & Fitch Offers To Pay "The Situation" To Stop Wearing Its Clothes

by Ben Popken

2 people liked this

Abercrombie & Fitch issued a press release last night saying that they would pay Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino from The Jersey Shore to stop wearing its products. Is it stunt marketing or trying to preempt an anti-all-things-Jersey-Shore-related backlash?
The release says:

We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans. We have therefore offered a substantial payment to Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino and the producers of MTV's The Jersey Shore to have the character wear an alternate brand. We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response.

Because the last thing you would want associated with Abercrombie & Fitch is casual sex and loose morality, nothing like its infamously erotically charged catalogs of young adults.
ABERCROMBIE & FITCH PROPOSES A WIN-WIN SITUATION [Press Release]

Very interesting.....

Walgreens To Start Selling Health Insurance

by Chris Morran

Come this fall, when you go to your local Walgreens to pick up your prescription, you may also be able to shop for a health insurance plan, as CNN reports that the country's largest drugstore chain is about to get into the insuring business.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNN says that Walgreens will begin selling a variety of plans with different price ranges and coverage levels starting this fall. It will all be done through a private health insurance exchange.
CNN also says this is just one of many companies that plan on setting up a health insurance exchange in advance of the coming health care reform mandates in 2014:

Retailers, financial services providers and a large payroll processer are among firms that are actively looking into starting private health insurance exchanges that are separate from public exchanges, industry watchers said.

A rep for Walgreens wouldn't comment to CNN specifically on its plan for selling health insurance, but did say, "As always, we're looking at a number of options in light of health care reform as we continue to seek ways to help our customers better navigate today's health care system."
Walgreen Co. plans to sell health insurance [ChicagoBreakingBusiness.com]

This is what is wrong with the American health system..

Man with breast cancer denied coverage

Raymond Johnson, who has breast cancer,  doesn't have insurance and made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. But he thought a federal assistance program for patients with breast and ovarian cancer would help him - until he learned only women qualified.

Breaks my heart.....

Video: Thousands under 5 dead in famine, US says

Inside Somalia, three million people are starving and thousands are fleeing famine in the south, desperate to escape to Kenya or to camps in the capital city Mogadishu. NBC’s Richard Engel reports from Mogadishu and NBC’s Kate Snow reports from Dobley, Somalia. (Nightly News)

Trying to find focus at work...

Play vs. work.... How do I choose? Lol

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My name is Mechelle... and I am a Sugar Addict.. Lord Help Me!

Sugar and Addiction

by Skip Hellewell

The quick answer:  The objective in eating less sugar is not to replace sugar with sugar-like substitutes, but simply to eat less sugar.  The split pea soup recipe attached delivers wonderful sugar-free flavor.
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Addiction
What’s addiction but the inability to resist harmful behavior.  Though known through out history, the rapid spread of addictive behavior is a phenomenon of our time.  The growing variety of addictions suggests a fundamental human vulnerability triggered by the modern diet and way of living.  Though some people are more vulnerable than others, with repeated exposure anyone is susceptible.
Food addictions, as we have seen, make a good business for the suppliers.  The success of Coca-Cola, which originally contained cocaine, and of other caffeinated and sugary drinks is testimony to this.  These and other sugary foods are mildly addictive to most, but some find them highly addictive.  A central challenge of healthy eating and living is to live free of addictions.
Occasionally we hear the refrain, “moderation in all things.”  This is actually a way of saying everything is okay, and we know that isn’t so.  Some things, like tobacco, or trans fats, should be avoided completely.  Other things—like sugar or sugar substitutes—should be minimized.  It would be wiser to say, “moderation in all goodthings.”
The reader comments to the last post suggest that even diet sodas are addictive and one reader asked for ideas on how to quit.  Serious addiction requires professional help and programs exist to provide such assistance, but here are a few suggestions for the mildly addicted:

1. Make your home a safe place:  If something desirable is in your home, it will be eaten.  So keep your addictions out of the home.  Healthy Change #8, for example, said to “buy candy a piece at a time; never bring a box or bag of candy into the home.”  So if you’re unable to resist soda drinks, just buy one when you do your weekly shopping.  And get a hacksaw and cut the drink holders out of your car.  Ha ha.  
2. Seek friends who don’t share your addiction.  A recent book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks, followed the behavior of people who stopped smoking, a difficult addiction.  Those who were successful gravitated to social groups who didn’t smoke.  Try inviting your friends to quit unhealthy practices with you; the best outcome is when friends improve together.
3. Eat a healthy diet.  Poor nutrition is addictive nutrition—some researchers, for example, describe sugar as “the mother of all addictions.”  The science is not complete but there is evidence of the depressive effect of sugar on neuro-transmitters like serotonin, which leads to addictive behavior to compensate.  The sugar substitutes may also have this effect.
4. Remember you’re being watched.  There is scripture about the sins of the fathers passing to the sons, and their sons.   If you want to protect your children, work very hard at eating well and avoiding addictive behavior.  The generation X’ers who embraced street drugs grew up in a culture where adults abused prescription drugs.
5. Replace your addiction with something better.  Take a walk when you’re tempted to reach for a diet drink.  Water always tastes better after a walk.

Stevia
Readers have asked about stevia as a replacement for artificial sweeteners.  I think the question misses the point—to improve our diet the safest approach is to reduce all sweeteners, not just our sugar intake.  There is no research, to my knowledge, that shows a total health benefit from replacing sugar with any chemical that has the same sweetening effect.  To improve health and longevity, we need to de-sweeten the modern diet and return to traditional flavors.
Look at the history:  A new chemical or product is regularly discovered and marketed to replace one found addictive or unhealthy.  Since sugar was shown to be unhealthy in the amount being consumed, we have seen a series of potently sweet new chemicals being introduced, from saccharine to cyclamate, to sucralose, to aspartame to the most potent yet, neotame (acesulfame potassium).  Short-term, these products are probably safe to use.  The long-term safety remains unknown and may never be known due to the needle-in-the-haystack difficulty of proving what makes us ill among the thousands of foods we eat.
Stevia is a traditional sweetener in Latin America and is now used around the world, especially in Asia.  China—not generally considered a safe source for processed foods—is a significant exporter of stevia sweeteners.  The leaves, once used intact, are now chemically processed to isolate several of the sweetening molecules.  Two,stevioside and rebaudioside A are marketed in different forms.  Rebaudioside A was approved for the FDA’s GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list in 2009, which simplifies its addition to food products.  Coca-Cola and Cargill developed a stevia product called Truvia, and Pepsi-Co developed PureVia.  The use of these products will grow and we eat at our risk.
We have used stevia products in our home but have stopped.  My beautiful wife didn’t care for the after taste and I decided I just didn’t know enough about how they are manufactured.
Please comment:  Reducing sugar intake to the AHA guidelines of 6 tsp daily for women and 9 tsp for men is about a 75% reduction for the average American.  The goal is to de-sweeten our diet, not just to replace sugar with non-sugar sweeteners.  Please share your experience with eating less sugar (whatever the form). 

Praying... I like this....

Mindless Prayer

Read: Joshua 1:1-9

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. —Joshua 1:5

Bible in a year:
Psalms 63-65; Romans 6

Sometimes I am ashamed of my prayers. Too often I hear myself using familiar phrases that are more like mindless filler than thoughtful, intimate interaction. One phrase that annoys me, and that I think might offend God, is “Lord, be with me.” In Scripture, God has already promised not to leave me.

God made this promise to Joshua just before he led the Israelites into the Promised Land (Josh. 1:5). The author of Hebrews later claimed it for all believers: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (13:5). In both cases, the context indicates that God’s presence has to do with giving us the power to carry out His will, not our own will, which is generally what I have in mind in my prayers.

Perhaps a better prayer would be something like this: “Lord, thank You for Your indwelling Spirit who is willing and able to direct me in the ways You want me to go. May I not take You where You don’t want to go. May I not enlist You to do my will, but humbly submit to doing Yours.”


When we are doing God’s will, He will be with us even without our asking. If we’re not doing His will, we need to ask for His forgiveness, change our course, and follow Him. 

God Himself is with thee—
Thy Savior, Keeper, Friend;
And He will not forsake thee,
Nor leave thee to life’s end. —J. D. Smith

May our prayers not be mindless, but instead mindful of God’s will.

Wine is very good for me! :)

Drink wine, don't get sunburned

Igor Dutina / featurepics.com

By Melissa Dahl

Important health tip for the summer: Drink more wine! A better protection against harmful sunburns might be a healthy dose of SPF sauvignon blanc, suggests anew Spanish study.

A compound found in grapes or grape derivatives may protect skin cells from skin-damaging ultraviolet radiation, report researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Spanish National Research Council. The flavonoids found in grapes work to halt the chemical reaction that kills skin cells and causes sun damage. Here's what happens: When UV rays hit your skin, they activate "reactive oxygen species," or ROS, which then oxidize big molecules like lipids and DNA. This activates particular enzymes that kill skin cells.

But grapes' flavonoids work to decrease the formation of the ROS's in skin cells that were exposed to UVA and UVB rays. The researchers, led by Marta Cascante, a biochemist at the University of Barcelona and director of the research project, note that this finding may lead to better sun-shielding drugs and cosmetics.

The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.