Business in Science and General Truth

For the Love of Food - or Not…

Often times, obese members of society are stereotyped as lovers of food. Many diets have been designed to “curb your appetite” (Dexatrim) or let you “eat as often as you like” (Atkins.) The extremely obese population, who desire to lose more than fifty pounds, cannot generally find success in this type of diet program. Why?

Severe obesity generally stems, not from a love for food, but for a lack of love for oneself. A diet which keeps one from overeating does nothing to reduce one’s stress, or increase one’s self-esteem. Increased stress levels result in an impaired metabolic rate and an increase in fat cell production. Most instances of overeating are not even related to one’s appetite. Rather, someone who suffers from extreme stress or depression may have been turning to food to comfort oneself.

The best medication one can take is a healthy dose of self-esteem. This may mean seeking some variation of professional help. Not everybody needs a shrink, per say, but if someone is experiencing marital distress, marriage counseling is highly recommended. Those experiencing the empty wallet, empty bank account syndrome should most definitely gain financial counseling. If someone hates his or her job, career counselors are readily available from a variety of sources to help people change careers. Classes or training for a new field are also advisable.

The most common issue in personal dissatisfaction, leading to low self-esteem and obesity, is a consistent failure to accomplish one’s dreams. In the most simple forms, achieving goals seems easy, but it is the ultimate dream which always seems impossible towards which all smaller goals should lead. When this does not happen, discouragement sets into the human heart.

For instance, suppose you are a single parent, living off Welfare, but you want more than anything to be a professional writer. The first thing you should do is look at the prize: a professional writer. Then you need to know what qualities and training a professional writer must have in order to be hired. This can be done by sifting through the job boards and classified ads. From this point, you should work your goal steps backwards until you are at your present situation. Once this is done, you will have a road map leading you from Welfare to working professional.

When you work your plan from the end result to your current position, you will always be headed in the right direction as you proceed through the steps. Therefore, if you are obese, and you want to lose weight, you need to observe several people who are at the proportions you would like to be. These become your survey subjects. What characteristics, in general, separate you from them, besides the weight factor? You should be able to compose a list of factors common to most, if not all, of your survey subjects. These factors become the requirements of the “advertised job.” Now all you have to do is work backwards to develop a plan.

It is not usually for the love of food that we, as a people, grow obese. There are many underlying factors which slow our metabolisms, but we can change. We can work backwards to set appropriate goals to correct individual problem areas, so we can move forwards, toward our dreams.

Stress can affect your life in many ways that you may believe unimaginable. It can affect your behavior and the way you think and feel. It can lead to physical illness. It can rob you of the joy you should be experiencing when associating with family and friends and, if stress goes unchecked, it can, ultimately, kill you. Knowing this, what can you do to fend for yourself? Seven ways to help cut out stress are:

1. Meditation
Think about things you enjoy and have enjoyed. Cherish memories shared with loved ones and take to heart any advice offered to you by someone close to you. Sometimes spending a few moments reminiscing can make a huge impact in reducing stress.

You can also pray and meditate on Scriptures or inspirational sayings/quotes/songs which motivate you during critical moments.

2. Get adequate sleep
Eight hours of sleep should suffice and it does wonders, physically and mentally, because you don’t begin your day feeling drained and exhausted before it’s begun. Your mind is more alert, thus more capable of making challenging decisions which may, otherwise, seem overwhelming.

3. Don’t fret about things you can’t change.
Control what’s in your power to control and avoid worrying about things you have no control over. Don’t complain about the weather; you can’t change it so you may as well embrace it. Try singing in the rain or skating on an ice-covered road. It may put a smile on your face.

Grumbling about the traffic won’t make the number of vehicles lessen; instead, perhaps try leaving home a little earlier to beat the traffic. It will save you a lot of frustration and unnecessary stress.

4. Believe in yourself
Realize that you are not perfect and people who expect you to be are the ones with a problem, not you. When you begin to feel overwhelmed because of an upcoming confrontation, exam, driving test, interview, date, and so on, tell yourself that you can handle anything which comes your way. Say it often enough and you’ll believe it.

5. Flee abusive relationships
If you suspect, or know, that you are involved in any type of abusive relationship, take the nearest exit and never look back. It’s not worth the pain, heartache, and anxiety to stay in such a relationship, hoping someone may change for the better. It rarely happens and, in the rare cases it does, it’s at great personal cost…so flee.

6. Be firm in your convictions
Know yourself and what you stand for and don’t allow others to compromise you, nor your beliefs. If you are adamant in your stand for or against issues, you won’t experience stress which people-pleasers experience. At the end of the day, you’ll feel comfortable and at peace with the decisions you’ve made.

7. Be faithful in your relationships
In your relationship to money, be responsible; in your relationship to time, be wise in how it’s spent; in your relationship to your body, treat it with utmost respect.

On other fronts, cheating on your spouse will shatter your heart and home. Stealing from your employer will rob you of your income. Making your children feel like they are idiots will turn them away from you. Alienating people who don’t share your opinions will leave you in a sea of loneliness.

Take as much time as possible to spend with those you love, even if it means cutting down on the hours you work outside the home. It’s worth it; after all, your employer can always replace you but, for your family, there’s only one “you.”

With identity theft on the rise, it is necessary to be aware of how thieves operate and what you can do to protect yourself. This article will deal specifically with these issues regarding debit cards and ATM cards.

With ATM and debit cards, it is the PIN that poses the risk for identity theft. An identity thief can illegally obtain your PIN and gain access to your bank account using three primary methods.

The first of these methods is keeping your PIN with your ATM or debit card, especially if it is designated as such. If a thief grabs your wallet or purse and gets his hands on your debit card, it will be useless to him without your PIN. If he has your PIN, he can fully access your bank account without anyone even knowing it isn’t you.

The greatest risk to your debit card security is using it in a crowded public place, particularly a restaurant or bar. There is always a risk of being watched or overheard while giving identity information and it is especially so when there is a crowd around an ATM machine. One well-known method used by identity thieves is called ’shoulder surfing’ where the thief tries to see what PIN is entered when you make a transaction. There are other risks that are not as obvious, too. Though you may trust that the person you are dealing directly with is honest enough, you can’t be sure the same is true of those nearby who may be able to see and hear what is going on.

Your best defense is to be habitually aware and vigilant. Always keep in mind that obtaining your PIN is going to be followed by the theft of your card or your card number. You are at risk of being mugged for your card a short time later if you let a thief see or hear your PIN.

The third method of obtaining your PIN by an identity thief is through a magnetic strip reader or keyboard entry logging applications. Some of these have a very sophisticated design. Some will use a pinhole camera to get a recording of your PIN. The thief affixes these devices to the ATM or similar machine for the purpose of capturing the details of your card. This is called ’skimming’. In recent years, skimming applications have increasingly become a risk because of the advancements in technology but they are not as yet commonplace. The thief no longer needs your physical card to gain access to your bank account once he captures your card information in this manner. Though they do look very much like a real card swiping machine, a frequent user will most likely discern the difference.

Another method of theft that is rare can occur at the point of sale but card swiping that is beyond what is necessary for the sale is harder to hide. The best way here to protect yourself against identity theft is to be aware of what is happening to your card if it is out of your personal possession.

PIN number security is the best way to protect yourself from being a victim of debit card identity thieves.

Contact your bank and have your PIN number changed if you believe your PIN number has been stolen but you still have possession of your card. For a lost or stolen card, Cancel the card as soon as possible and get a new one issued. Be sure to get a new PIN number, too. Never use your old PIN number after you have replaced a lost or stolen card.

Using the information above will help you to avoid becoming the victim of identity theft. Being vigilant in protecting your information can save you money, time and stress.