Date with Purpose by Tracy Montgomery - HTML preview

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anywhere where you can begin subtly testing the strength of your internalization.

If you feel awkward or shy about it, think of it as a secret psychological experiment on unsuspecting strangers. Think of your power to attract as something you can switch on or off like a light bulb, and which you need practice in order to wield properly.

Keep at it daily until you begin to feel or notice a change in yourself and in how people glance your way as you enter. Count the number of times people have glanced your way and given you a second look.

The theater actor’s process of internalization can also give you further clues as to how to conduct yourself beyond catching people’s attention.  Once you get the attention of people, you need to show supreme confidence with the words that come out of your mouth.

Remember all that work to expand your horizons? All that hard work and painful growth was for wisdom and character building. From now on, when you open your mouth to speak, your words have depth of meaning. What you say will naturally reflect what you’ve become: an educated, confident and charitable person.

Sounds old-fashioned?   It’s just a simple, classic truth. And that’s where true poise comes from.

Smile, make yourself approachable, and show others that you are someone very easy to talk to. Captivate your audience,

wherever you are. It’s your job to get people smiling back at you, and the more people smile at you, the more people will want to be around you. Use your words wisely, or not at all. At all times, try to have a light presence about you. Show

intelligence, and a sense of humor. Everyone loves to laugh, and when you are the source, people will want to surround you. Remember, you can attract anyone to you if you have all the essential traits working. You need to believe you have all the tools, and can attract anyone to you, and it will happen. Overall Health

Be as perfectly healthy in body and mind as you can be. If you want to attract people, you need to feel good, inside and out.

A lot has already been said and written about physical health and beauty. I’m going to try cramming every single valuable beauty tenet into a list, because we should all simplify our lives!

1. Eat right.

 

Unless you’re an Olympic athlete or someone with similar caloric needs, an average adult like yourself needs to eat a maximum of 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day. And these calories should not be from useless junk food! You should get the proper nutrition from a balanced diet of whole grains, vegetables, fruit, seafood, chicken and other meats, dairy products, eggs, essential fats and oils. You should also be imbibing the equivalent of 6 to 8 full glasses of water per day—

whether it’s from an actual drink or the liquid in food. Go easy on the caffeine and alcohol in drinks, taking in no more than one small glass of red wine or a cup of coffee per day. Avoid eating too much fat, carbohydrates or sugars.

I know, I know…easier said than done, right?   So here are a few tips that might help you.

• Always have breakfast. Take a cue from the word: “break- fast.” In olden times, the reason for naming the day’s

first meal this way was because people had very little to eat the night before. It was a survival tactic. They were going to sleep, anyway, so why splurge on food that could be eaten for tomorrow?   How much one ate in the morning to break the fasting depended on one’s choices and cultural habits. In France, for instance, they would eat what we call a “continental breakfast”, which is bread, jam, fruit and coffee or tea. Meanwhile, the Chinese

would be horrified at this small meal because they would typically have to do all the hard work first thing in the morning, so a big breakfast is in order. However, a few rules are common to all healthy breakfast habits, regardless of culture: Go easy on the fats, eat something made of natural whole or fibrous grains (e.g. oatmeal, whole wheat bread, plain steamed or brown rice), a piece of fruit, perhaps a bit of protein (e.g. some fish, an egg, a bit of cheese, or yogurt), and something healthy or plain to drink.

 

• Eat only when you’re hungry. You’re hungry when you start feeling your energy going down, and there’s that empty, nearly aching feeling in your stomach. Any other feeling isn’t hunger.

• Don’t starve yourself. You’ll become malnourished and sickly. Worse, if you’re overweight and try to starve yourself, you’ll either pass out—or ironically trigger your body’s anti-starvation defenses, lowering your metabolism so you don’t burn any fat or lose weight.

• Eat only what you need to fill your stomach, not bloat it.  You need to put an effort in doing this. Savor your food, and don’t chow down too fast, too much.

• Unless you’re famished, don’t eat a big supper. You can eat a big breakfast or a big lunch, but eat a small supper.

•  Drink half a glass of water immediately after every meal.

 

This cleanses your palate, and you’re less likely to eat dessert because you’ll feel too bloated to do so.

• Do as the Chinese do—drink tea in between meals. This has the same function as the half-glass of water. And if it’s green tea you’re drinking, you may benefit from its reputed anti-cancer, metabolism-boosting properties.

Do not drink anything that’s carbonated, overly caffeinated or sweetened. Avoid drinking soft drinks altogether, and avoid too much coffee or bottled iced teas.

 

• Drink alcohol in moderation, or none at all. If you must drink alcohol, stick to red or white wine, and drink no more than one small wine glass per day.  Note: if you like the taste of alcoholic drinks with your food, you can use wines in cooking instead of drinking it, which is much healthier. Cooking breaks down the alcohol in wines, but retains its taste, giving your food that “kick” that makes it more delicious.  By adding a bit of wine in cooking food, you can reduce the amount of cooking oil you use, and so reduce fats.

Find ways to eat only the healthiest stuff. Fresh food, cooked in the simplest ways, is best. Avoid processed foods, or food that comes to you laden with fats from too much frying.   Use only a little cooking oil, or none at all. Try to eat food that’s been cooked through boiling, ste