Net Income Diary

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”…Norman Vincent Peale

Crystal Palace-born singer Speech Debelle was the shock winner of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for her album Speech Therapy, which was inspired by a trouble childhood life.

Her father walked out when she was six, thrown out of the house by her mother at 19 for using drugs, spend years sleeping in homeless hostels and on friends sofas.

Now at 26 years old she has won the coveted Mercury prize, beating established acts including Kasabian and Bat of Lashes. Welcome to the world of Corynne Elliot.

This is the amazing story of a young girl who has managed to turn her life around. Using her troubled past for inspiration, Corynne Elliot is now destined for great things.

Her album called Speech Therapy, despite having previously sold only under 3000 copies, mainly at her small gigs….has seen massive increase in sales on Amazon since winning the Barclaycrad Mercury Prize.

Julian Monaghan, head of music buying at Amazon, said: “This is arguably the most unexpected win in Mercury Prize history.”

After collecting her award Corynne Elliot said: “This proves if you believe in something and you think you can do it, you can achieve it.”

Well said by a girl who was expelled from school at after being suspended 11 times, what an amazing turn around in her life. Shows the power of beliefs, if you believe you can achieve great things in life.

Smart Weight Loss Management

From the 1st of March when I started following a strict weight management lifestyle, I have gone from a fatty and heavyweight 17 stone (108 killograms) to what I believe is a healthy 14 stone (about 88 killograms) now. All this was achieved through hard and smart work at the gym and being selective and very careful about what I eat.

I have never felt this good for years!

In the beginning, the Treadmill was my best friend at the gym. I was not good at running then, but now I’m very good at it. I would do circuit training with light weights and less resting time between sets. And I remember in my first month I managed to reduce my body weight by a massive 6 killograms.

My Gym Plan – These days  my gym plan has changed, my focus is now more on training with heavy weights to build more body strength and muscle, compared to the early days when my focus was more on burning body fat. That’s why I was doing more of running in the early days.

Healthy Diet – As for my diet, a lot of things have changed. No more junk food, but sometimes I spoil myself with some things I really really like but only once in a week.

But there is NO more ‘binge drinking’ as I think this was one of the main cause of all those fatty bits on my body (some call them love handles). No more Big Mac (sorry McDonalds) with extra packet of fries and ice cream, no more coke and other fizzy drinks. Green tea and plenty of water is what I drink regularly now.

Portion Sizes – I also had to reduce the  portion sizes of my meals. This is one of the most important things if you are to achieve your weight loss goals. The trick is eating about five to six small meals in a day. If you know the right food to eat, then you will not have problems in managing your diet.

Love Yourself – So, are you following any weight management programme? How are you getting on? Feel free to share your views and advise.  And remember love yourself and follow what works for your.

From the title you get an idea on what this is all about. Be your own Guru is a book that I have just started reading, written by Olivia Stefanino. The author calls it an essential guide to emotional and spiritual intelligence. So how do you become your own guru?

The book promises to teach personal and business enlightenment in just three days. So the journey starts now! But what does it mean to be your own guru? When you discover how to be your own guru, you’ll be happier, healthier and wealthier. And who doesn’t want to get all these three elements? Here is a Guru Success Tip: ‘What you think about dictates your actions, and your actions dictate your results. So be careful to think about what you want, not what you don’t want.’ To be an achiever you need to focus on the positives im your life. Feel free to add your views on being your own guru and any other ideas on personal development.

Well, some things are better left to the ‘kids’. But one thing grown up man should do is to read Manshealth magazine, I love it and I think you will like it too. It’s full of expert advice and in the May issue they list 12 things grown up man should never do, for example you should never say thank you for sex and neither should you apologise.

In this article I take a pick of the things which I definately think grown up man should never do:

1. A grown up man should never comment on the attractiveness of his girlfriend’s best friend.

2. A grown up man should never be ashamed to read instructions.

3. Never wear shorts to the office.

4. Wear camouflage clothing, unless it’s mandatory for work.

5. And they also say never admit to not having seen the Godfather. It deals with all the problems we face as modern men.

So, what do you think? Feel free to share your views and everything else grown up man should never do.

Well, it happened to a Chinese worker Mr Wang Zhaoqing. It took him two months to get home after being fired from his job.

Poor Mr Zhaoqing did not have enough money for a train ticket for the 1500km journey to his home in Guiyang, Guizhou province. The poor guy had to walk all the way, but he went the wrong way only to be found by the police sleeping under a bush. Lucky for him the police gave him a ride home.

Lose weight by sleeping more. Doctors claim that ‘short sleepers’ are fatter than ‘long sleepers’.
Tests found that suffering sleepless nights can reduce levels of appetite suppressing hormone Leptin, causing you to eat more.

Stress may also reduce the length and quality of sleep and increasing eating and other habits which can make you add more weight.

So, if you want to lose make sure you have enough sleep. Eight hours will be a good enough hours to sleep. Don’t forget you still need to do your exercises and control what you eat.

To your healthy living, feel free to share your ideas by posting your comments.

I think the health dangers involved in medical experiments or operations carried out by non-trained people should be enough to put you off if you were thinking of doing some DIY botox on yourself. Now these botox kits are said to be available on eBay and at cheap prices as well. With the number of people obsessed and never satisfied with how they look. Somebody is going to regret it.

But who in their right minds would consider DIY Botox?

Doctors have warned that DIY Botox can be very dangerous, so I guess the best is to stay away from it. Even when it’s done by medical practitioners, some people regret it when they see the outcome. Not everyone looks good after these so called ‘beauty’ enhancing procedures.

Learn to love yourself the way you look and be yourself. Don’t be obsessed by what you think other people see you. Living your life for other people is the reason why people go for these ‘beauty’ enhancing operations.

But does Botox and all these other operations make people look beautiful? Are the benefits you may get worth the risks involved?? Feel free to share your views.

The two British comedians, Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross left some pretty outrageous and offensive phone messages on the answer machine of actor Andrew Sachs. The pair repeatedly left taunting messages on the Fawlty Towers star’s answering machine claiming Brand had slept with his granddaughter, aspiring model Georgina Baillie. Now the BBC has received nearly 30 000 complaints.

The BBC should have been more responsible, why should people pay license fees to be insulted by BBC workers? When the BBC is fine, it’s still the tax payer who pays the bill. Maybe we should not pay license fees.

Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross’s supposed to be ‘funny’ act has caused a lot of anger and complaints which led to the pair being suspended by the BBC.

But these two guys are getting more publicity, which I guess is what all these celebrities crave for isn’t it? And they surely have more work assignments in line already.

This was a case of comedy taken too far, and things like this should never be allowed to happen again. People should not be allowed to make money or gain publicity whilst insulting other people.

These presenters should learn what’s socially acceptable and what’s not acceptable. What message do they send out to kids when they say such things on national radio?

Is it just for identity or is your name supposed to mean anything?

I remember back in Zimbabwe when families would give children names that tell a story reflecting on the family situation. But giving children unusual names is something that happens in different cultures.
In New Zealand, a girl was taken away from her parents so her name could be changed. The girl had been left with an unnecessary social disability and handicap because of the name her parents gave her.

The girl called ‘Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii’ pretended she was called ‘K’ to avoid being teased by friends and other kids. The judge in this case criticised the poor judgement which the child’s parents have chosen in choosing this name.”

The girl from Hawera, New Zealand has had her name altered.

Kids have been called different names including, Number 16 Bus Shelter, Midnight Chardonnay and Violence. There was also a couple that was allowed to name their twins Benson and Hedges, however a bid to name twins Fish and Chips was blocked.

Given that names have the potential to to embarrass and affect children’s self esteem and confidence, why do parents go for such unusual names? But, isn’t it better for the parents to change their own names if they so much like those unusual names?

Have your say by posting your comments.