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I've worked for Hilton, Wyndham and Sheraton national hotel chains plus a couple of privately owned resorts. For more than 20 years I worked behind the scenes and on the front lines within the confines of the hospitality industry in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's been a long ride and I'm glad it's over, I'm retired now, a full-time blogger and finally I can tell my story.

And while I did meet & work with some great people, enjoyed traveling in connection with my job, to international trade shows, travel shows, etc, if I had to do it all over again I would go back in the marines!

Some career highlights:

Partying with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie at the Bowery Ballroom in NY City.

Smuggling a body out of a suite during a mortuary convention.

Sitting next to Lee Trevino on a flight to Dallas.

One on one against Chef Gordon Ramsey at The Phoenician

Giving Arnold Palmer putting tips at The Tradition at Desert Mountain

Meeting Tony Robbins, Conrad Hilton and Bill Marriott

Stay tuned for some dirt!

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Except as otherwise provided by the President and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President may authorize and prescribe, it shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport.

My friend Elliot found this out the hard way while traveling from Paris to the US. He had lost his passport and had to go to the US Embassy and spend $100. on an emergency passport.  Don't let this happen to you. Read the full story

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And Not Gain Weight

It's after we get out that we have problems with weight gain or obesity. Here is a tip from a former marine who gained too much weight after leaving the Marine Corps.

You don't have to dedicate yourself to any diet plan or low-carb regimen to lose weight. Just substitute what you might eat in carbs with protein, bacon vs donuts, cheese vs cereal, or a sandwich with mayo without the bread.  Doing this will have much less impact on insulin levels, where upswings cause weight gain.

There is no secret to losing weight, only hard facts. If you can stay away from sugar and processed foods you can beat the big O. Obesity.

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Of course, when my mouth could handle it I too started eating like my Dad, I didn't just pick up this eating style during my stint in the Marine Corps, although I ate fast because I either had to or was in a hurry to get somewhere. The marines will tell you "eat all you want, but eat all you take".

Ufortunately, as a result of his eating habits,  Dad became extremely overweight, developed diabetes and died at the tender age of 62 from complications of a gastric bypass operation.

I had to learn how to eat all over again. In USMC boot camp I was always hungry, not because they starved me (just the opposite) but because I was expending so many calories in training I needed the nourishment. And the food was darn good too! Since leaving the marines I have had to watch what I eat and was not always successful. Before I discovered the low-carb lifestyle I was headed toward repeating my Dad's mistakes and fortunately I woke up in time to reverse it.

As a low carb aficionado my sandwiches (I call them roll-ups) now consist of ingredients such as ham, turkey, cheese and lettuce, minus the bread and I don't really miss it. I may never be able to give up bread completely but the carbs I have not resisted not eating bread with a sandwich allow me to eat other carbs I enjoy, especially pasta (low-carb) and fruit.

What brought all this up was  coming across an article in Men's Health titled Chew on This which brought back memories of Dad's eating habits because the article is about what Dutch researchers discovered;  big bites (and fast chewing) can lead to overeating. I didn't know about this and was surprised to read that people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed smaller bites for 9 seconds. Their findings suggest that tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner.

I wish these Dutch scientists had discovered this in time to help my Dad, he might have lived longer had he been able to change his eating habits by taking smaller bites and chewing longer.

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Hotels Need to Adjust Their Thinking

They say that timing is everything and for once I guessed right, 2009 was a good year to leave an insane business in a big city and start a new Internet Marketing consulting business, moving the family, lock, stock and  dog to a small town. I can safely say I am glad to be gone from the likes of Wyndham,  Hilton Hotel Corp. in Scottsdale, and working in the hotel business in general. Not that there is anything wrong with those particular brands, they are all equally screwed up!

I don't know about the rest of the country's resort destinations but I do know the Scottsdale market and they are down considerably over 2008.  According to the Arizona Republic's December 25th article Travel slump hurts Scottsdale hotels Scottsdale's hospitality industry continued to struggle in October with a 23 percent decline in revenue per available room from a year ago, according to Smith Travel Research.

Ouch! This means that hoteliers (us poor sales slobs) filled only 61.4 percent of their rooms, not a good number and not good news for hotel management companies who have to answer to investors . On top of that bad news they posted a miserable $136.79. average room rate, down over 21%!

Revenue per available room, which combines occupancy and average room rate, was $83.97. Basically what this all means is that in spite of a horrible travel slump, of the kind never seen before, the bull-whips come out and sales has to come through. I wish them all the luck in the world, I did it for 25 years and I am done!

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Take a look at a few of these volunteer and odyssey adventures and see if any of them could change your life. Then vote in our poll as to which vacation you think might cause you to see the world in a whole new way. life-changing vacations