What?!? No Bananas?
"Where are your bananas?"
It seemed like a logical question to ask.
For all of my forty trips around the sun, bananas were a key item to place in the grocery cart.
For the first time I could recall, the banana bin was empty.
So I asked a store worker where the bananas were."We don't have any," he replied.
"We'll be getting some in tomorrow."It took me a few moments to absorb this information.
"What do you mean you don't have any?" I thought.
"Every store has bananas."
True, sometimes they are almost green enough to pass for bent cucumbers.
And they occasionally appear to have lost an arm-wrestling match with a watermelon.
But there are always bananas of some sort in the store.Then it dawned on me just how foolish my expectations were.
I live well north of New York City.
Even if somebody invented a way to cultivate them in the Great White North, it was early April, and they would not bear fruit at that time of year.
For goodness sake, outside the snow was falling and inside I was expecting tropical bananas!If you commute in a big city, you might have noticed traffic grinding to a halt.
Why?
Look to bananas for the answer.
Just as I was frustrated by my grocery expectations not being met, millions of commuters are frustrated daily by their traffic expectations not being met.Consider some of the major machines in your life, such as television.
Twenty years ago, we would watch a TV show.
Ads would come and ads would go, but we would watch it from start to finish.
Who does that these days?
"What were you watching, honey?""I dunno.
But I think I caught 412 channels."And if ever you should lose the converter ... I know, I know, this is a family publication, so we'll cut the profanity.And what about the Internet?
If a web site takes more than five seconds to load, where are we?
"Did you order that book from Amazon for me?""I dunno.
But I think I reached warp speed with my clicking finger.
Ouch!
I think I sprained it."If fancy TV gadgets and high-speed Internet feed our impatience, what about car ads?
Vrroooooommm.
See how fast this car can go?
Wow.
It does zero to 60 in 5.2 seconds ... in the ad.
And zero to zero in half an hour stuck on the Santa Monica Freeway.As we expect our machines each day to break yesterday's speed record, our cars seem to be slowing to a crawl.
That's because more and more people are squeezing onto the same road space trying to zoom faster and faster and honking their horns louder and louder (because we all know that cars move faster when their horns get honked, right?
Especially when they get honked LONG and LOUD, right?).
Is it just me, or is this poor math?
A realist would expect traffic to get a little slower each year, which just proves how rare realists really are.
Every one of us expects to move faster and faster.And I expect bananas on the store shelf even when it is snowing outside.
So what can we do?
Easy, we can grumble and complain.
We can shout abusive words at store clerks and other drivers.
We can honk our horns (not recommended in the fruit section).Or we can step back and ask ourselves logical questions about what we should realistically expect.
For instance, "Can I really expect bananas on my grocer's shelves in the middle of winter when I know the truck is stuck in traffic?".
published by David Leonhardt, The Happy Guy, author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness at http://TheHappyGuy.com/happiness-self-help-book.html .
Visit his web site at http://TheHappyGuy.com.Info@thehappyguy.com
Online Sales for igourmet.com Skyrocket in 2005 due to the Aggressive Online Marketing Services of Pepperjam
Wilkes-Barre, PA (ContentDesk) January 5, 2006 -- Pepperjam, the industrys leading search, affiliate and media management firm, announced today that it has powered igourmet.com to record sales growth in 2005.
igourmet, the #1 online destination for gourmet food and gourmet gifts, grew its year-over-year search and affiliate sales by over two-hundred-percent (200%) thanks to the professional management services of Pepperjam.To learn more about Pepperjam please visit www.pepperjamMANAGEMENT.com and www.pepperjamSEARCH.comSpencer Chesman, President and CEO of igourmet.com, said Year-over-year affiliate and search-engine marketing sales skyrocketed due to the aggressive internet marketing management services of Pepperjam. This years overall sales from organic search, paid search and affiliate marketing grew by over two-hundred-percent (200%), helping igourmet...
Fruit baskets > Online Sales for igourmet.com Skyrocket in 2005 due to the Aggressive Online Marketing Services of Pepperjam
Low Glycemic Diet + Weight Loss Plan
The glycemic index is a system for classifying carbohydrate-containing foods according to how fast they raise blood-glucose levels inside the body. In simplest terms, foods with a low glycemic value generate small fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels. This makes them much more beneficial than foods with a high glycemic value that raise the blood glucose and insulin levels faster.
The glycemic index method classifies carbohydrates according to their effect on blood-glucose instead of according to their chemical structure of either simple (Simple carbohydrates are sugars, like glucose, fructose and lactose.) carbohydrates or complex (Complex carbohydrates are starches and fiber; wholegrain breads, pasta, rice, beans, fruits, and vegetables.) carbohydrates.
BENEFITS OF A LOW GI DIET:
All carbohydrate foods are not created the same and can behave very differently in our bodies. The glycemic index (GI) illustrates this...
Fruit baskets > Low Glycemic Diet + Weight Loss Plan
Chocolate: You've Come a Long Way, Baby
The history of chocolate is a rich and interesting one. Most of the world didn't know chocolate existed until Columbus went to the Americas and took the cacao bean with him back to Spain. However, it wasn't until the Conquistadors went to Mexico that the Spaniards really discovered the wonders of cacao.The Aztecs and Mayans worshipped the cacao bean and believed it was a food of the Gods. The Aztecs used it as both nourishment and currency. They believed the fruit of the cacao tree imparted wisdom and they made a special drink with it called xocolatl, of which the Aztec emperor Montezuma is said to have consumed large amounts every day.
When the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs, they were fascinated by cacao but thought the xocolatl drink was too bitter, so they added cane sugar to it and drank it hot, thus creating the first hot cocoa.The Spanish kept their new discovery a secret from the rest of Europe for about 100 years.
With the decline of Spain as a power, the...
Fruit baskets > Chocolate: You've Come a Long Way, Baby
Breaking the Breakfast Barrier
Why was breakfast fun when you were a kid? Because Mom made it, it was probably sugary, and you didn't have to do the dishes!Now you're the whole show, maybe for the rest of the family, and there's just never enough time in the morning to get the kids to school and for you to get what most nutritionists have pegged as the most important meal of the day. You know that sugar coating is not good, that persons who eat breakfast have an easier time maintaining their weight than those who don't, and a news report just informed you that breakfast-skippers don't perform as well at school or on the job. What a dilemma!Can you make a breakfast that's convenient, quick and healthy? Sure, and here are a couple of examples. The Thirty-Second Slammer. Atkins it's not, but it's quick, healthy and tasty.
A cold cereal is still at the top of the list for most Americans, but without sugar it usually tastes like wet cardboard. It takes literally about 30 seconds (I timed it) to slice half a banana...
Breaking the Breakfast Barrier
Fruit baskets > Breaking the Breakfast Barrier