Now…Thursday’s are going to be your 2nd helping of Good ol’ Sharky….you know you love it.

~~~~ShArky~~~~

by Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief a Yahoo! Health Expert for Women’s Health

Usually I like to go big: Dream big (I want to cut 5 minutes off my 10K time), breakfast big (I actually like to have two A.M. meals–one at home early and one when I get to the office midmorning), and give big (ask my friends, family and coworkers–my gifts are usually generous).

But I’ve also come to realize that sometimes little tweaks are all you need to make a big difference. Last year, I adjusted my running technique ever so slightly, and within weeks I had shaved a minute off my mile pace and my legs felt great.

So while going big is still my preference, I like these simple changes you can make to get trimmer and more toned without having to make a totally grand transformation. Try them today!

Grab a Granny Smith
An apple a day can keep pounds away, a study from Penn State University at State College reports. People who ate the fruit before a meal consumed 15 percent fewer calories overall than those who didn’t munch on a Macintosh. Apple eaters spend more time chewing, so they feel full on fewer calories.

Speed up
Calling all walkers: If you want to shed inches in less time, speed up to a trot. When one group ran for 30 minutes at a moderate pace and another walked at an incline at the same perceived effort level, the runners burned 2 more calories per minute, a study in the Journal of Sports Sciences reveals. The quick math: That translates to almost 5 pounds lost in a year!

Set a goal
Simply making a mental note to curb your calorie intake could help you cut back on stress eating. When offered dried fruit and chocolate after sweating through an anxiety-induced task, dieters ate 32 percent less of the snack than nondieters, a study in the journal Appetite finds. Seeing a healthy option may remind dieters of their eat-right goals. Keep nutritious food in view when tension mounts. Join the SELF Challenge for inspiration and motivation to eat right and work out.

Work it
Offices can help support your workout goals, a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reveals. Workplaces that made changes, such as adding pro-fitness signs, say their employees maintain their weight during the year while those who toiled at businesses without such emphasis on exercise gained weight. Researchers suggest posting inspiring magazine pages deskside to stay on track. For more ideas to get inspired, visit the Fresh Fitness Tips blog.

Read the fine print
Checking out the calorie counts on menus might affect your choice. After New York City required some chain restaurants to post the data, 53 percent of diners said the numbers were higher than expected and 82 percent said the counts influenced their order, a survey from Technomic, a consultancy in Chicago, indicates. Many eateries have the stats online, so log on before you dine out.

Take note
Picking up a copy of SELF might be the only trainer you need! When people who aimed to work out for at least 2 1/2 hours a week received monthly printed fitness advice, they kept exceeding their goal up to a year later, according to a study in Health Psychology. Researchers say that written reminders are key. Register for free at Self.com and get your own personal online workout logs.

Keep a journal
You’ve heard it before, but just in case you weren’t paying attention, I’m going to refresh your memory: People who write down what they eat are the most likely to drop pounds, research at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon, finds. The reason: Food diaries reveal your healthy eating black holes. Jot down every bite for four days, without changing your diet. At the end of each day, look up each food you wrote down and tally up the calories.

To analyze your records, draw an x when more than four hours went by without eating, circle high-calorie meals, highlight fruit and veggies and underline anything that triggered guilt after you ate it. For day 5 and beyond, change your diet based on your notes. Replace x’s with 150-calorie snacks and circled meals will magically downsize. No highlights on day 2? Hit the produce aisle! Didn’t need those underlined cookies before bed? No late-night snack tonight!

Track down more news and advice on firming up, trimming down and looking great with one of our four fabulous newsletters. Sign up to have fresh tips delivered to your inbox.

I’ll be reviewing something once a week…could be a website or a local business….could be anything…

And I’ll give it a certain number of fins and let you know if it sunk or swam….

Congratulations to last months winner –Anna – who proved that her cleavage deserved more than just a dollar shoved down in there!!!

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This month, the contest is less “adult” and anyone can try for the $20.00. We are making it very, very simple…anytime, between Aug. 1st and Aug. 31st…if you leave a comment no ONY post on SharkysWorld.com; your name goes into a hat for a random drawing for $20.00 cash! It’s that simple!!!

If you leave more than one comment, your name goes in for each comment you leave.

Comments must be REAL comments; not spam, links to other sites or short, few words, like – “cool site!”.

You can comment on the gorgeous Sharkettes, the great articles or just the random shit we post on Saturday and Sundays.

We updated daily, so you could get your name in that hat 31 times!!!

Hmmmm…so it was a little harder to find a chocolate term that really applied to this posting so I did the best I could.

I wanted to talk today about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. I think in the grand scheme of things her nomination has been pretty standard and so I want to focus on one comment, which drew a lot of attention about whether she would be a good choice for the Supreme Court or not. Her comment that, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” raised a lot of eyebrows and put her under the fire for a little bit. I started to think about this and wonder is she right?? Which lead me to the title…

I am on the fence on this…honestly I feel like I can see both sides and honestly done know if one is right or one is wrong…or if they are both right…or if they are both wrong. So here is how I see it. I can’t begin to say I know exactly what she meant by her comment but what I got from it was that, in her opinion, someone who has lived life as a minority might have had experiences that someone whom is not a minority would not have had, which she believes would enable them reach a better conclusion. (I also have to point out I don’t think “better” was a good choice of word to use there. Different yes better…we who knows.) This is where to me it gets into a “grey area”. I mean I am always preaching to friends and family when they come to me asking for help, that a lot in life is all about perspective….which I really believe. One example of this to me is a simple one…. I am a size DDD. So when I think of large breasts I think along MY lines, like a D or so is big to me. I have a friend whom is very small and is like an A cup so to her anything bigger than a B is large??? Okay just wanted to give a simple example that everyone would understand lol. Same thing with skin color. I think of light skinned as me, but my dad whom is much much darker than me, considers himself light because most of his family are extremely dark (but to them they are average so proves perspective even more lol)….. okay enough examples I think you all understand what I mean. So I feel that everyone’s experiences in life make them who they are. So do I agree that a Latino woman might have had different experiences than a white man…yep…do I think that experience will affect their choices and opinions on life…yep…..do I think that makes them “better” well I don’t know….

One part of me says yes and another says no…and here’s why. I am a black woman and I have had many experiences in my life that I know were strictly brought on because of my race…good and bad I would like to add. These things have made me a better person in most instances and built character as my mom would say. So here is where I am torn…do they bias me?? Yeah I think they do, but I think that as a society we need to accept that we all have our own personal biases?? If you think you don’t then you are not being honest with yourself. So, say I had personal experiences with racism and I was a judge on a case relating to racism would that give me an advantage or a disadvantage? I really don’t know. If all you ever knew was eggs were white…then one day someone showed up with something brown and told you it was an egg, wouldn’t you doubt that?? But if you had say…grown up on a farm and you had seen a brown egg before then you would be more likely to accept it as an egg right?? But is that a good thing…to me that is an even bigger question?? I can’t speak for everyone but I know for me when I hear of things happening that I have personally experiences it takes me back to my experience and depending on the situation makes it seem like I am having MY experience all over again..

So back to the original question…is the experience a Latino woman might have as apposed to a white man…good or bad when it comes to judges?? I mean all judges can’t be the same…I think I can see both sides. I can see how it would be good because to me different perspectives on things help…isn’t that why when we have a problem we turn to friends and family to get their opinion…but we can’t rely on that. There are going to be experiences that a white male may have had that would be beneficial in making a decision as well. In the end we all make our own decisions. But on the other side I could see how “biases” could be a negative trait for a judge to possess, but that is impossible to weed out. People are people and regardless of race, sexuality…any of that…in the end of the day, the way I see it is all we can hope for is others to hopefully life by some kind of moral compass that will lead to the greater good for everyone. To me judges are, I know it’s funny, but hard to judge.

On a side point…isn’t the supreme court supposed to make it’s decisions based on the law and not personal opinion anyway????

Just my thoughts…till next time…

So last week I posted part of a story that I have been working on for a while. Admittedly, it has some extremely foul language. Foul language has never bothered me much. I know quite a few people find some of the words I used, especially C-U-Next-Tuesday, offensive, but to me they are just a few letters put together to make a words. Words that really don’t hurt anyone or anything, but that’s just my point of view, and I’m not easily offended.

As you may or may not have noticed, one reader called me an “idiot” because of my choice of words in a fictional story. Again, that doesn’t really bother me because that is their opinion and it takes more than that to take the smile off of my face. What I did want to do is show that I can write without “the icky words” and make something beautiful.

I feel that the reader rushed judgment in calling me an “idiot.” I mean, I am an idiot so they were right in their assumption, I just feel the assumption was made for the wrong reasons.

I am gifted in making ugly things with ugly language and ugly imagery. I believe I can also do the same for the things that I feel are beautiful. I have a child, a five year old daughter, and I write her beautiful songs to sing her when I lay her beautiful little head down for bed each night. I tell her stories of a beautiful princess, who looks a lot like her, and the amazing adventures she embarks upon.

I take time to notice when something wonderful is happening or when the nothing that is happening is wonderful. I try the best I know how to acknowledge these moments the best way I know how…the written word.

All I’m saying is I’m not as bad as one might think just because of some words others may find unsettling to read.

So here’s to all of those who love everything beautiful about the world. And let us remember to take time out of every special moment to acknowledge its existence by claiming the following: “If this isn’t nice, what is?” (Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut.)

Please enjoy this.

Her Middle Name

Her laugh is what makes me smile the most
The sound of utter happiness
Void of any misgivings

And it comes so easily; so naturally
As natural as her bright blue eyes
And her hair that gleams in the sunlight

She races through the grass that’s almost as high as her ankles
And she doesn’t care where she’s going
Because to her it’s all about the journey

She stops suddenly as something has caught her attention
She falls to her hands and knees
Burying her face in a bed of the neighbors flowers

After a short pause she rises; again blasting through the grass
She approaches me frantically trying to explain
While still catching her breath

Daddy, she exclaims, I smelled the flowers
I smelled the roses
Just like my middle name

-For Delaney Rose Parcher-

Thanks for reading.