Building Your Decision Muscles
"When something bad happens, you need to take action to recover, say life couch Christine Hassler, who offers the following tips to help you strengthen your coping skills.

Make Every Decision Solo
Don’t ask for help for a week — with work dilemmas or choosing an entrée at dinner — to get in touch with your ability to be decisive.

Take a Trip Alone
Even if it’s just two towns away, get away for the weekend. You’ll be out of your comfort zone and in full-time decision-making mode.

Decide for Right Now
Dump the what-if mentality — not every choice has a domino effect far into the future, so try to stay in the present.

Get Out of Your Head
...And into your body. You make better decisions if you’re intuitive. So listen to your physical signals to access your gut.

Sisig as is popularly known today is actually sizzling sisig, a Philippine dish made from parts of pig’s head, liver and usually seasoned with kalamansi and chili peppers. The dish is served almost in every Filipino restaurant.

We ordered the DIY Sisig- which means you'll be able to choose your Sisig's "flavor" from the following:

a. Honey Mustard
b. Garlic Mayo
c. Wasabi and there are other flavors which I really forgot.

Then they have the SoMa (South of Manila, mayo-based sisig) and the NoMa which is the vinegar-based variety. What I love most about their sisig is how they present it to the customer- with the mini sizzling plate on top of a wooden base and a little "barrier" made out of cardboard to refrain those messy oil/fat from staining your clothes or making hot oil splatters on your skin. And to make it even better order some "salad" (dunno what its called so just stuck with the term "salad) its served with salted eggs, tomato and onions - a good dish to wipe down the sisig's fatty tast from your mouth and another way to enjoy your yummy sisig. (which BTW is a healthy option too)

And then for the thirsty customers they offer the Macho Mug which BTW is also good for sharing if you and your friends are part of the not-so-drinking-too-much-drink group. (Okay that's a bit confusing). You can choose from Apple Iced Tea (in picture), or Soda. I think it would be a liter or almost a liter of iced to or soda to gulp down.

Anyway, when I last ate there the Sisig was around P90-P100 per order and then the Macho Mug around P40-50 I think. (Not sure of the prices)

Well if you want to indulge on some Sisig and stay at a cozy, cool place, try out House of Sisig.

Deception Points

1. Lying to Save Face

• Think long-term. When you’re tempted to be less than truthful, consider your ultimate goal: to have a happy marriage, say, or a solid friendship. Then, when torn between fact and fiction, ask yourself, “Which will put me closer to my goal?” Usually the choice is clear.
• Keep it simple. Most of the time, a short apology is all that’s needed, and you can omit some details without sacrificing the truth. Something like “Sorry that I didn’t call you back sooner” is usually sufficient and effective.

2. Lying to Shift Blame

• Dig deep. In some cases, blame shifting can signal difficulty with accepting responsibility for your actions, says Joseph S. Weiner, chief of consultation psychiatry at North Shore University Hospital, in Manhasset, New York. Maybe you were criticized for making mistakes as a child, for example, and so now you’re afraid to own up because of what other people may think of you. Once you realize this is a behavior that can be changed, however, you can start to regain the power you may feel you don’t have.
• Flip it around. Before using a colleague or a loved one as a decoy in a minor deception, think of how the other person would feel in the same scenario. If the deception puts other people in an unfavorable light, it’s best to leave them out of it

3. Lying to Avoid Confrontation

• Consider the options. Before you tell a fib, it helps to make a list of all the ways you could handle the situation―from delivering a total fairy tale to telling the stark truth. If, after thinking it through, you still decide a fabrication is the best choice, “it may signal that you don’t value having an honest relationship, and that in itself is worth pondering more,” says Marlene Chism, a relationship expert in Springfield, Missouri, and the author of Success Is a Given (ICARE Publishing, $15, amazon.com). On the other hand, maybe there is an option that will allow you to tell the truth but that will still provide your desired outcome.
• Pair it with the positive. Look for the bright, true spot buried within the lie. Saying to your mother, “Your ideas are always appreciated―I called that tutor you recommended last week!―but this time I just don’t agree,” makes the truth easier to swallow for both of you.

4. Lying to Get One’s Way

• Stop justifying. Maybe you think you deserved that day off. Or you figured it was late and there was no one on the road when you were speeding. While both rationalizations may be true, “that doesn’t make the lie any more acceptable in the end,” says Smith. If you have to convince yourself the lie is OK, chances are it’s not.
• Think of the alternative. Consider if honesty could still bring about a positive result. Example: “I know I don’t have any vacation left, but I’d be willing to come in Saturday or stay late every day next week if I could have Friday off.” Or admit to the police officer that you lost your concentration going down the hill and apologize. That may result in a warning instead of a ticket. You never really know until you try.

5. Lying to Be Nice

• Walk in the other person’s shoes. People often underestimate the information that others can tolerate and even benefit from, particularly when the words are said out of friendship, says Weiner. For example, you would generally want someone to mention it if you had a piece of spinach stuck in your teeth, if your blouse had a stain, or if your pot roast could use a pinch of salt.
• Tone it down. If you feel that a certain amount of truth stretching is a vital social lubricant, the best thing to do is to avoid gushing. “That’s a great color on you” is a lot more plausible than “That’s the most stunning sweater I have ever seen in my entire life.”
• Track it. Keeping a tally of the tales you tell for a day or a week can help you distinguish between the instances where being truthful matters and where it doesn’t. Maybe you didn’t need to tell the supermarket checkout gal that you loved her (hideous) earrings. But it made you feel better to say it, plus you got a pleasant reaction from her. Most experts say there’s no huge harm in that.

6. Lying to Make Oneself Feel Better

• Plan honesty ahead. Because self-deception can become almost automatic, “stopping isn’t simply a matter of just saying in the moment, ‘Hey, should I lie to myself right now?’” says Smith. Instead, pledging to face reality in the situations where you’re most likely to deceive yourself is a smarter tactic.
• Keep your goals in sight. Whatever you want to accomplish, from sticking to a healthy diet to keeping your bank account in the black to cutting down on those television marathons, lying about what’s really going on puts you one step farther from that objective. Instead, it’s a good idea to visualize, in full detail, what it will look, feel, sound, smell, or taste like when you attain your goal. “Painting a detailed picture in your mind will help you maintain your motivation, even in the face of temptation to sabotage yourself with deception,” says Weiner.
• Help others be accountable. When people who tend to deceive themselves spend too much time with frequent fibbers or even others who tolerate that type of mendacity, their destructive habits won’t be challenged or corrected. In the most serious situations, where lying is causing someone serious damage, it helps to be a particularly truth-conscious friend and lend support as well as a gentle, watchful eye.

Walking home, I met two women in their late 40s who are identical twins. Although they technically looked alike, one twin looked significantly older...I'd guesstimate about 10 years older. I came to find out that the older looking twin smoked. Huh. Remarkably similar genes...similar environment (they live minutes away from one another)...but very different lifestyles.

These twins were living proof...this was as close as you could get to seeing the impact of lifestyle on the aging process. Intrigued, I did some research to find out if there were any studies done to document this phenomenon. Surely enough, there have been.

In a study called Factors Contributing to the Facial Aging of Identical Twins, a team of doctors from the Department of Plastic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University studied the effects of lifestyle and environment on the facial aging process of 186 sets of twins. Although the study looked at multiple factors in lifestyle and environment, smoking and sun exposure were extremely significant to the aging process. Specifically, here are the results:

1. Smoking: For those pairs of twins where one twin smoked and one didn't, the minimum perceived age difference among the twins were 5 years. For every ten years of smoking, the twin who smoked looked approximately 2 ½ years older in appearance. Why is this so? Smoking causes blood vessels to constrict, resulting in decreased blood flow to skin. Further, it depletes the body of Vitamin C, which is key for keeping skin plump and moist. This in turn causes capillaries to become permanently damaged, increased dryness and skin dehydration due to a diuretic effect, a grayish complexion and lastly, an increase in wrinkles, including crows feet.

2. Sun Exposure: Increased sun exposure was associated with an older appearance, especially as the twins got older. Those twins with outdoor hobbies such as golf and tennis had a perceived older appearance, while those who used skin protection (sunscreen) led to a younger appearance. Why is this so? High amounts of sun exposure breaks down skin's structural tissues (collagen and elastin). As a result, skin looks mottled, freckles become more permanent, and skin becomes dried out, leathery, wrinkled and saggy.

Ok, great. So now we have living proof of these bad boys and their effects on your skin. But guess what, there are other lifestyle choices that can affect the aging process. Here are eight more enemies of your skin:

3. Alcohol: Alcohol dilates small blood vessels, increasing blood flow near the skin's surface. This can cause the skin to look wrinkled, red and flushed. What you can do: Try to limit yourself to one alcoholic beverage per day.

4. Caffeine: Caffeine can cause water loss from your body and skin, resulting in a lack of plumpness. What you can do: Make sure you drink plenty of water and limit intake to 300 mg a day.

5. Extreme Weather: Exposure to cold winds and low temperatures or extreme dry heat can dehydrate your skin, leading to wrinkles and roughness. What you can do: Use a good moisturizer and a humidifier if you are in an especially dry climate.

6. Eating Disorders: Depriving your body of important nutrients, vitamins and minerals required for proper cell turnover and growth can cause skin to become dry and thin. Further, hair and nails can become brittle and thin. What you can do: Make sure you are eating enough calories so that your metabolism stays high and your body is properly nourished.

7. Lack of Sleep: Not enough sleep deprives your body of needed rest and doesn't allow skin to regenerate. You'll look and feel tired, develop dark circles and bags under your eyes and your skin will become saggy. What you can do: Get at least 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night, if not more.

8. Stress: Stress and worry cause frowning, and over time muscles in the face actually conform to that movement, developing lines and wrinkles. What you can do: Monitor your stress levels throughout the day and find healthy ways to release the stress you feel through breathing and relaxation techniques.

9. Refined Sugars and Low-Protein in Your Diet: Refined sugar and carbohydrates can disturb collagen production, resulting in wrinkles and sagging skin. Further, spikes in your insulin levels can cause excess amounts of secreted oils, resulting in acne and breakouts. What you can do: Focus on whole grains, fruits and vegetables for your carbohydrates and a minimum of 20% of your calories from lean proteins.

10. Saturated Fats or VERY Low-Fat Diets: Saturated fats (butter, cream and high-fat dairy) can cause skin to age and become more wrinkled. However, not having enough healthy fats can harm the oil barrier of your skin, which protects from fluid loss and infection. Too little fat can result in Eczema, Dermatitis (inflammation of skin) and Acne. What you can do: Make sure you eat a well balanced diet that incorporates healthy fats, lean proteins and complex carbohydrates.

As we get older, our lifestyle choices become even more important...especially when it comes to the aging process and looking and feeling our best. Have you witnessed anything like the twin phenomenon? Have you made a lifestyle change that has helped you to 'reverse' or slow the signs of aging?

Source: Brett Blumenthal of Sheer Balance

Bathing Suit Cover Up
This is a must have. You'll be wearing your suit underneath but no one will see it. To avoid taking off the cover up you can busy yourself by checking that everyone else has a drink of water, enough sunscreen,and a snack. Think Mrs. Roper Chic.

Darling Skirts that Fall Just Above the Knee
Shorts are not our friends. But it could be 90 degrees outside so walking around in jeans increases you risk of hospitalization due to heat stroke. Plus if you are the only one in long pants you're telling the world you are uncomfortable in every way. The solution? A skirt that hits just above the knee. A skirt that says,"Hey it's summer - let's have some lemonade!" We've found our shorts tend to say, "Lordy, look at those thighs!"" Get a few darling skirts.

T-Shirts in Bright Colors (with sleeves)
Get three or four nice quality t-shirts in bright colors that can go with those cute skirts and you're good to go. Yes sleeveless is "in" right now but we've found we hate our upper arms. In our book sleeves are fine. We're classic dressers not mindless followers of every fad anyway, so there. It is our policy to only follow the fads that make us look smoking hot. With that in mind if your arms are toned show them off. Of course we'll be secretly simmering with jealousy but really isn't that the goal of every cute outfit?

Drinking is part of life for many 20-somethings. But beware: There’s one boozing practice that makes you vulnerable to all kinds of bad things. Let Cosmo fill you in before you fill ’er up.
By Michael Bender of Cosmopolitan.com

In case you need a reminder, here are several reasons why being unattached totally rocks.
By Ashley Wombie of Cosmopolitan.com

"Be thankful for whatever there is in your life right now, I know this time is not good for everybody but think of those other people who are in deeper trouble than you. At least you still wake up everyday with a roof above your head, or with a bread or a cereal box on your table, or have clean clothes to warm up your day- others don;t so don't sulk like everything's too bad for you.

As they say, there's always a rainbow at the end of a rain. And the sun shines at the end of the rain. So just keep holding on to that umbrella. :P "

Greek cuisine is very diverse and although there are many common characteristics amongst the culinary traditions of different regions within the country, there are also many differences, making it difficult to present a full list of representative dishes. For example, the vegetarian dish " Haniotiko Mpoureki" (oven baked slices of potatoes with zucchini, myzithra cheese and mint) is a typical dish in western Crete, in the region of Chania. A family in Chania may consume this dish 1-2 times per week in the summer season. However, it is not cooked in any other region of Greece.

The list will present some of the most representative Greek dishes that can be found throughout the country and the most famous of the local ones:

Meze is a collective name for a variety of small dishes, typically served with wines or anise-flavored liqueurs as ouzo or homemade tsipouro. Orektika is the formal name for appetizers and is often used as a reference to eating a first course of a cuisine other than Greek cuisine. Dips are served with bread loaf or pita bread. In some regions, dried bread (paximadhi) is softened in water.

• Boureki: individually vegetable and meat fillings wrapped in phyllo pastry or dough.
• Deep Fried vegetables "tiganita" (courgettes, aubergines, peppers or mushrooms).
• Dolmades: grapevine leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables, meat is also often included.
• Fava: Yellow split pea puree or other bean purees; sometimes made of fava beans (called κουκκιά in Greek)
• Greek Salad: The so-called Greek Salad is known in Greece as Village/Country Salad (Horiatiki), essentially a tomato salad with cucumber, red onion, feta cheese, and kalamata olives, dressed with olive oil.
• Horta: wild or cultivated greens, steamed or blanched and made into salad, simply dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. They can be eaten as a light meal with potatoes (especially during Lent, in lieu of fish or meat).
• Kolokythoanthoi: zucchini flowers stuffed with rice or cheese and herbs.
• Koukkia: fava beans.
• Lachanosalata: Cabbage Salad. Very finely shredded cabbage with salt, olive oil, lemon juice/vinegar dressing.
• Marides tiganites: Deep-fried whitebait, usually served with lemon wedges.
• Melitzanosalata: aubergine (eggplant) salad.
• Pantzarosalata: beetroot salad with olive oil and vinegar.
• Patata salata: Potato salad with olive oil, finely sliced onions, lemon juice or vinegar.
• Saganaki: fried cheese; the word "saganaki" means a small cooking pan, and can be applied to many other foods.
• Skordalia: thick garlic and potato puree, usually accompanies deep fried fish/cod.
• Spanakopita: spinach, feta cheese (sometimes in combination with ricotta cheese), onions or spring onions, egg and seasoning wrapped in phyllo pastry.
• Taramosalata: fish roe mixed with boiled potatoes or moistened breadcrumbs, olive oil and lemon juice.
• Tzatziki: yoghurt with cucumber and garlic puree, used as a dip.
• Tyropita: cheese (usually feta) wrapped in phyllo pastry.

Many other food items also are wrapped in phyllo pastry, either in bite-size triangles or in large sheets: kotopita (chicken), spanakotyropita (spinach and cheese), hortopita (greens), kreatopita (meat pie, using ground meat), etc.

• Avgolemono 'egg-lemon' soup: chicken, meat, vegetable, or fish broth thickened with eggs, lemon juice, and rice.
• Bourou-Bourou, a vegetable & pasta soup from the island of Corfu.
• Colomo soup.
• Fakes, is a lentil soup and one of the famous everyday Greek soups, usually served with vinegar and feta cheese.
• Fasolada, a bean soup defined in many cookery books as the traditional Greek dish, sometimes even called "the "national food of the Greeks"^[12]. It is made of beans, tomatoes, carrot, celery and a lot of olive oil.
• Magiritsa, is the traditional Easter soup made with lamb offal and thickened with avgolemono.
• Patsas, a tripe soup.
• Psarosoupa or 'fish soup' can be cooked with a variety of fish types, and several kinds of vegetables (carrots, parsley, celery, potatoes, onion), several varieties include the classic kakavia which is drizzled with olive oil.
• Revithia, a chickpea soup.
• Trahana soup, a mixture of fermented grain and yoghurt .

Vegetarian Main Dishes

Very popular during fasting periods, such as the Great Lent:

• Aginares A La Polita: artichokes with olive oil.
• Arakas Me Aginares: fresh peas with artichokes in the oven.
• Bamies: okra with tomato sauce (sometimes with potatoes and/or chicken/lamb).
• Briám: an oven-baked ratatouille of summer vegetables based on sliced potatoes and zucchini in olive oil. Usually includes eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and ample aromatic herbs and seasonings.
• Domatokeftedhes: tomato fritters with mint, fried in olive oil and typically served with fava (split pea paste). Mainly a Cycladic Island dish.
• Fasolakia freska: fresh green beans stewed with potatoes, zucchini and tomato sauce.
• Gigantes: baked beans with tomato sauce and various herbs.^[13] Often made spicy with various peppers.
• Horta (greens) already mentioned in the Appetizers section, are quite often consumed as a light main meal, with boiled potatoes and bread.
• Lachanorizo (Λαχανόριζο) (Cabbage with rice)
• Prassorizo (Πρασόριζο) (Leeks with rice)
• Lachanodolmades: Cabbage rolls, stuffed with rice and sometimes meat, spiced with various herbs and served with avgolemono sauce or simmered in a light tomato broth.
• Spanakorizo: Spinach and rice stew cooked in lemon and olive oil sauce.
• Yemista: Baked stuffed vegetables. Usually tomatoes, peppers, or other vegetables hollowed out and baked with a rice and herb filling.

• Baked lamb with potatoes (Αρνί στο φούρνο με πατάτες). One of the most common Greek dishes. There are many variations with additional ingredients.
• Bekri Meze: 'drunkard's snack', diced beef marinated in wine, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, olive oil and cooked slowly.
• Giouvetsi: baked lamb in clay pot with Kritharaki - orzo.
• Yiouvarlakia: meatballs with tomato sauce over rice.
• Païdakia:Grilled lamb chops with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper.
• Htapothi sti Skhara: Grilled octopus in vinegar, oil and oregano. Accompanied by Ouzo.
• Gyros: meat roasted on a vertically turning spit and served with sauce (often tzatziki) and garnishes (tomato, onions) on pita bread; a popular fast food.
• Kleftiko: literally meaning "of the Klephts", this is lamb slow-baked on the bone, first marinated in garlic and lemon juice, originally cooked in a pit oven.
• Keftedes: fried meatballs with oregano and mint.
• Kotopoulo pilafi ('Chicken Pilaf'), mostly popular on the island of Crete.
• Moussaka: eggplant casserole. There are other variations besides eggplant, such as zucchini or rice, but the eggplant version melitzanes moussaka is most popular.
• Pastitsio: a baked pasta dish with a filling of ground meat and a Bechamel sauce top.
• Pork with celery (hirino me selino/hirino selinato).
• Soutzoukakia Smyrneika: large meatballs with cumin, cinnamon and garlic and served in a tomato sauce.
• Souvlaki: (lit: 'skewer') Anything grilled on a skewer (lamb, chicken, pork, swordfish, shrimp). Most common is lamb, pork or chicken, often marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon.
• Spetsofai: a dish with country sausages, peppers, onions and wine. Originates from Mt. Pelion.
• Stifado: game (rabbit, venison etc.)stew with pearl onions, red wine and cinnamon.

• Baklava, phyllo pastry layers filled with nuts and drenched in syrup.
• Diples, a Christmas and wedding delicacy, made of thin, sheet-like dough which is cut in large squares and dipped in a swirling fashion in a pot of hot olive oil for a few seconds. As the dough fries, it stiffens into a helical tube; it is then removed immediately and sprinkled with honey and crushed walnuts.^[14]
• Galaktoboureko, custard between layers of phyllo. The name derives from the Greek "ghala", meaning milk, and from the Turkish börek, meaning filled, thus meaning "filled with milk."
• Halvadopites A nougat of sesame with almonds in a thin crust.
• Karidopita, a walnut cake.
• Koulourakia, butter or olive-oil cookies.
• Kourabiedes, Christmas cookies made by kneading flour, butter and crushed roasted almonds, then generously dusted with powdered sugar.
• Loukoumades, similar to donuts, loukoumades are essentially fried balls of dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
• Melomakarona, "honey macaroons", Christmas cookies soaked in a syrup of diluted honey (meli in Greek, thus melomakarona), then sprinkled with crushed walnuts.
• Moustalevria, a flour and grape must pudding.
• Moustokouloura, cookies of flour kneaded with fresh grape must instead of water.
• Rizogalo 'rice-milk' is rice pudding.
• Loukoumi is a confection made from starch and sugar, essentially similar to the Turkish delight. A variation from Serres is called Akanes.
• Milopita me Pandespani, apple pie with cinnamon and powdered sugar.
• Spoon sweets (γλυκά του κουταλιού) of various fruits, ripe or unripe, or green unripe nuts. Spoon sweets are essentially made the same way as marmalade, except that the fruit are boiled whole or in large chunks.
• Tsoureki, a traditional Christmas and Easter sweet bread also known as 'Lambropsomo' (Easter bread), flavored with "mahlepi", the intensely aromatic extract of the stone of the St. Lucie Cherry.
• Vasilopita, Saint Basil's cake or King's cake, traditional for New Year's Day. Vasilopites are baked with a coin inside, and whoever gets the coin in their slice are considered blessed with good luck for the whole year. Feta cheese, a traditional Greek cheese There is a wide variety of cheeses made in various regions across Greece. The vast majority of them remain unknown outside the Greek borders due to the lack of knowledge and the highly localized distinctive features. Many artisanal hand made cheeses, both common varieties and local specialties, are produced by small family farms throughout Greece and offer distinct flavors atypical of the mass produced varieties found commercially in Greece and abroad. A good list of some of the varieties of cheese produced and consumed in Greece can be found in the List of cheeses article, under the name of the country. Here are some of the more popular throughout Greece:

  Feta Kasseri	Kefalotyri Graviera	Kefalograviera Formaela	Myzithra Anthotyros	Manouri Metsovone \

  
  Drinks
  
  • Greek frappé coffee a foam-covered drink derived from spray-dried instant coffee that is consumed cold.
  • Greek coffee, made by boiling finely ground coffee beans, and is served thick and strong, and often sweetened. It is always unfiltered, with the coffee sediment at the bottom of the cup.
  • Wine is the most common drink in Greece. Legend claims that wine was invented on the island of Icaria.
  • Beer is widely drunk; common brands include Vergina, Heineken, Amstel, Zeos, Mythos, Alfa Hellenic Lager, Fix, Henninger, and Kaiser, all of which are produced locally, some under license.
  • Ouzo (an 80-proof clear alcoholic beverage that is flavored with anise; it turns milky white with water or ice; the best said to be produced on the island of Lesbos).
  • Tsipouro or (esp. in Crete) tsikoudia/raki (Mostly home-brewed, a clear drink similar to ouzo, often with higher alcohol content, and usually not flavored with herbs. The city of Volos at the centre of Greece is well-known for its Tsipouradika (literally: tsipouro places). In Thessaly tsipouro is always flavored with anise.
  • Retsina (a white wine that has some pine resin added, originally as a preservative, but nowadays for the flavor; this is an Athens region specialty. It should not be aged.).
  • Mavrodafni Sweet, liquor-style, red wine with higher alcohol percentage than normal.
  • Metaxa, a brand of sweet brandy, 40% alcohol content.
  • Tentura, a cinnamon flavored liquor from Patras.