What sets apart a successful fitness enthusiast from a quitter? A positive, can-do attitude. Success in any physical activity, be it weightlifting, running or Ultimate Frisbee, depends on one’s ability to push forward mentally. Willpower is key. When people say running, golf or any other physical activity is 90 percent mental, it’s not to sound like some cheeseball motivational speaker (no matter how corny that saying sounds.)

In order to progress fitness-wise, you’ve got to push past the point with which you’re comfortable. Say, for example, you run as much as 3 miles a day. In order to reach the 4-mile point you’ve got to focus mentally and look past the pain and fatigue that comes with pushing beyond your fitness threshold.

A 100-pound weakling most likely can’t bench 1,000 pounds. Within reason, however, a relatively healthy guy can push himself beyond his physical expectations. It’s all about setting a goal and sticking with it.

The concept of no pain, no gain ties in perfectly with the idea of mental focus. In order to progress, you’ve got to endure physical stress. You can do this by focusing on your goal. You’ve got to treat temporary pain and fatigue as just that: temporary. Unless you’re seriously overexerting yourself and going way beyond your normal fitness level (from the couch to the Iron Marn Triathlon overnight is not recommended), you should have nothing to worry about.

I run fairly often. There are times in many runs when my legs feel sore, I’m out of breath and I just feel like quitting. Despite the pain and frustration, I make myself keep running. I focus on the goal at hand (which is, at the moment, training for a half-marathon) and follow through no matter how crappy I may feel.

Auto titan Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” This quote fits in perfectly with the mental aspect of physical fitness. If you believe you can accomplish a goal and actually put in the work, chances are you will. If you feel something is beyond your reach, then you won’t.

The only thing keeping you from success in physical fitness is Y-O-U. Don’t blame poor genes or ill-fitting sneakers (well, unless you’re cutting off blood flow.) If those people on “The Biggest Loser” can put themselves in the mental state to succeed, so can you.

Whatever your fitness goal, keep a positive attitude and always stay focused. Think beyond the fatigue and you’ll reach new heights on a regular basis. Just don’t get so mental you actually go mental. It’s pretty hard to bench press with a straightjacket on.

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Stand up for health

Which is why today we’re highlighting this piece from Men’s Health highlighting the best stand-up desks around. They not only explain WHY the stand-up desks are vital if you want to maintain any kind of fit disposition while having a nearly all-the-time sit-down job, but also go through some to try out. For instance:

We’ve been trying out Ergotron’s WorkFit-A and WorkFit-S (ergotron.com). The WorkFit-A is a cantilevered, space-agey machine with a sturdy, articulating arm that lets you sling your keyboard and monitor around like a desk lamp. WorkFit-S is a more robotic, linear device that smoothly slides your array up and down using an internal system of cables and pulleys. Both retail for between $379 and $500—prices vary depending on what options you add, including additional work surfaces, dual-monitor capability, or laptop trays. The A-model clamps to the rear of your desk, while the S-Model grabs onto the front.

Head on over to check out the rest of the article, and then see if this new “standing desk” revolution is something you’d like to try out.

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I can’t believe that the world of spies is that cool. Yes, there are agents out there and they do find out information, but is it in the middle of a circus, a poker game or a black tie affair with plenty of good food and champagne? No. I bet it is more often Holiday Inn, McDonald’s and Budweiser. (Even “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” which seems to want to take the glamour out of the spy business still has plenty of cool locations. I guess you have to go back to Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent” to find a spy story that leaves no trace of glamour as the agent in question lives with his family and runs a store that sells pornographic materials. Not in a good way either, more like a creepy uncle way.)

The glorious Eva Green

Fortunately for our ids, when you look at the “Bond girls” in movies, you don’t see inexpensive hookers from Colombia. The girls that star in the movies have served as pin-ups for just about any man born after WWII. Ursula Andress, Britt Ekland, Carey Lowell, Famke Janssen, Teri Hatcher, Denise Richards, Halle Berry, and finally one of the last ones, Eva Green.

I first found Eva in a smaller movie in which her sexuality blew me away, but it was her turn in the Daniel Craig reboot, “Casino Royale” that made me think, wow, this is one amazing actress. (Her first film, “The Dreamers,” just made me think she was amazingly hot.)

To me, once you are a Bond girl, you get placed on a pedestal as a pinnacle of beauty. To run in those mythical circles, you could become a fictional spy or you could just check out Eva’s cool work in her top five movies including her time as a Bond girl.

5. Perfect Sense

This briefly hit theaters in February of this year and comes out on DVD on May 22nd, but based on the  summary, “A chef and a scientist fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions,” and the fact that it’s Ewan McGregor and Eva, I put it as number five. Eva’s list of movies is not that long yet.

4. Kingdom of Heaven

Ridley Scott directed this underrated film about fighting during the crusades. It’s not as good as some of his films, but so much better than “Gladiator.”

3. The Golden Compass

A good friend ranks this movie as his favorite fantasy film. With a cast that includes Ian McKellan (a must in any great fantasy film), Sam Elliot, Christopher Lee and Daniel Craig to go with Nicole Kidman playing a villainess as well as Eva, even having not seen it, I see the greatness.

2. The Dreamers

Picking between first and second movie for this list may have been one of the toughest choices I’ve had to make. Second place goes to this aforementioned first movie where I saw Eva and my goodness, she liked to run around in the buff for director Bernardo Bertolucci in her film debut. I’m not complaining. It’s made her hard to forget ever since.

1. Casino Royale

If you couldn’t tell from the introduction, I liked Eva and her role in this film. Seeing the origins of Bond and the grittier style made it more interesting, though it still suffered from way too much glamour. If you were to find a girl that would make a secret agent resign you can’t do much better than Eva.

Agree? Disagree? Which movies would make your Eva Green top five?

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The after-sex etiquette that most men skip

Don't blow it

If you were having sex and suddenly she stops, disengages her body from you and is snoring within thirty seconds, while you’re still ready to go, you would be frustrated. Yet this is what women often have to put up with. Just because you’re done, doesn’t mean she is.

You might think she already came, but especially if you haven’t slept with her before and don’t know her that well, you should ask if she is satisfied. Even if you’re absolutely sure she did climax, she could have been on the brink of another orgasm when you stopped, leaving her frustrated.

If she confirms that she’s satisfied, then she will appreciate that you’re considerate enough to ask. Or, if she’s still not done, get to work with your hands or mouth.

Not all women want to be cuddled

Romantic comedies would have you believe that all women want after climaxing is to be tenderly cuddled. While for many women that’s true, it’s not set in concrete. Take note of her body language after sex – if she is sprawled out or shying away from you, she does not want to be constricted by your embrace. Particularly after vigorous sex or if she seems puffed out, cuddling is too hot and uncomfortable.

She wants you to still show an interest

She doesn’t want to feel like you’ve gotten what you wanted from her, and now are completely disinterested. It will make her feel used and rejected. Kissing and fondling her body after sex, but in an affectionate way rather than how you would during sex, shows that you’re still keen. You could discuss what you liked and ask her what she liked, so you can build interest for next time.

Give her your full attention for a short while after sex. No checking your messages or emails, don’t jump into your clothes straight away, and especially don’t excuse yourself for a minute and come back with snacks.

Don’t thank her for sex

In a misguided attempt to be polite, some men and women think it’s proper etiquette to thank the other person after sex. Anyone who does this has obviously never had it happen to them!

Thanking implies that she has done you a favor, rather than it being a mutually pleasurable experience. Unless you’re terrible in bed, there is no need to thank. Some women even feel offended if they are thanked for an intimate experience because that seems like the sort of thing that happens after a transaction with a sex worker. Even if you decide to go with a ‘thank you’ and she’s not offended, it’s incredibly awkward.

What’s in it for you?

Impressing her with your bedroom manners will bode well for any future sex with her. However, if it’s a one-night stand and you don’t plan on sleeping with her again, you don’t benefit from practicing after-sex etiquette. Maybe that’s why so many men fail to give women what they want after sex. There’s nothing in it for you, but she will appreciate your effort.

Norman Wexler

Film geeks might know Wexler as the guy who wrote the screenplays for Mandingo, Serpico, Joe, and Saturday Night Fever, the last which made him a very rich man. Too rich, probably, because Wexler was extremely bipolar and prone to manic episodes in which he ran around New York City like a vagrant, pulling elaborate public stunts that were either funny, cruel, or brilliant, depending on who you asked. Like Andy Kaufman (who was deeply inspired by Wexler’s antics) and other performance artists, Wexler just liked to screw with people’s heads. That he was crazy enough to take things way too far and rich enough to not sweat the consequences of his behavior made him something of a perfect storm.

Bob Zmuda, a comedian and friend of Andy Kaufman’s, worked as Wexler’s personal assistant for a while, and has endless stories about riding around New York in a limo with a haggard, barefoot, fully manic Wexler and recording his shenanigans, which included buying out the entire stock of a bakery and paying the staff to strip down to their underwear. That’s over $10 grand spent in the name of public weirdness, and Zmuda got the whole thing on tape.

Zmuda was also witness to Wexler’s sexual escapades, in which he (to hear Zmuda tell it, anyway) banged seemingly every single waitress, actress, and aspiring starlet in the greater New York metropolitan area, even though he looked like something that would scurry under the refrigerator if you turned the lights on without warning.

Wexler had a dark side, though. People who resisted his stunts or refused to play along were cursed at and berated to the point of tears, and he was arrested in 1972 for threatening to shoot Richard Nixon, on what could have only been described as an off day.

That said, he was really good at his actual job. Serpico and Joe are considered classic American films, Mandingo was a box office smash, and so was Saturday Night Fever, which isn’t nearly as dumb as you might expect a John Travolta disco movie to be. In fact, Fever was movie critic Gene Siskel’s favorite film of all time, to the point where I think he bought the white suit Travolta famously wore in some of the dance sequences. Because of his success, Wexler was often hired to turn bad scripts into good, or at least passable, projects.

Sadly, his delicate mental state would be his undoing; a heart attack brought on by a year-long manic episode ended his life in 1999, a mere week after his 73^rd birthday.

I can’t say that Wexler was ever a happy person, but he sure wasn’t a boring one, and he left behind some great movies that still resonate in American culture today – Joe is a must-watch for anyone trying to understand the fundamental disconnect between working class Americans and hippies during the 1960s, and Mandingo is what happens when exploitation films have a real budget to work with. Get them from Netflix when you have a chance.

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He does everything!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hamm is set to star in a film detailing the life of sports agent J.B. Bernstein.

“The Million Dollar Arm” was actually the name of a reality TV contest created by Bernstein to find the individual in India who could throw the most accurate and fastest baseball. The film tells the story of the show’s creation and Bernstein’s discovery of two teenaged cricket players (content winner Rinku Singh and runner-up Dinesh Kumar Patel.) Bernstein signed and trained the two to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hamm has appeared in several films, but “The Million Dollar Arm” is one of his most high-profile roles to date. The “Mad Men” actor had small roles in “The A-Team,” “The Town” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” More recently he has held larger roles in films like “Bridesmaids” and “Friends With Kids.

Hamm’s lack of major starring film roles up until now certainly has nothing to do with his acting chops. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2008.

If a baseball drama sounds like a dramatic change-up for Hamm, consider his appearance as bare-chested saxophonist Sergio in the 100^th SNL Digital Short. This guy does it all.

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Alexis Bledel smiling

Oh dear, that is a clunky title. But here is the thing. Alexis Bledel is one of our all-time favorite attractive actresses, so when she showed up in last week’s Mad Men, you just knew we would have to somehow have to mention that fact here on the site. She is gorgeous, in every way possible, and we are glad that she is back on our television. (At least for now, unless she gets mowed down by a lawnmower in the Sterling Cooper Draper Price offices!) So, really as nothing more than just a thanking to the heavens for whatever casting person decided she was right for the role, we offer this gallery out into the internets. Enjoy.

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Whenever I did get girl-girl-guy threesomes it was down to 2 very distinct methods. They both require a high level of experience and it’s definitely not something that will happen overnight but, if you have the skill and determination, along with a good amount of patience, you’ll soon find yourself in bed with two gorgeous women.

Method 1 – The spontaneous meeting

This process is fairly easy but the actual execution is difficult to turn around.

Step 1 – You need to be sleeping with 2 different women, or at least slept with 2 different women recently. It’s going to be close to impossible if one of them has not slept with you. The ideal scenario would be two girls that you have regular casual sex with. You want these girls to be open-minded, liberal and who are also bi-curios or sexually adventurous.

Step 2 – One by one, when you’re alone, bring up the topic of bisexuality. It’s always a better idea to do this in bed before or after sex. If she shows any marginal interest, make sure you bring up the topic as a “thought experiment”. Make it seem very positive and if she shows even more interest try bringing it up during sex. I’ve noticed that many women are open to the idea but most of them are not comfortable with it. That’s where you come in, you need to make her feel comfortable about this, if you succeed it will go a long way.

Step 3 – If you have both women comfortable with the idea, give it a bit of time and after let’s say a few weeks bring it up again in a different way. Say “You know, I know this really hot girl…She’s bi (or just into it) and I’m sure she’d be down for it”. She won’t mind if you slept with the other one, on the contrary it will increase her trust in the other. If both girls seem keen on the idea, it shouldn’t be that hard to pull off.

Step 4 – Plan a spontaneous meeting. Make sure you tell both the exact same things (that you might meet the other one tonight as well, and if it’s ok to meet her too). Don’t plan it out as that will only freak out the girls.

Step 5 – Make sure you plan everything right. When it happens it has to seem very spontaneous, even tough you gave each of them a heads up.

Step 6 – The moment you get there you’ll know instantly if it’s going to happen or not. The girls will decide almost on the post. You’ll quickly know if it’s working by the way they talk, act nervous slightly tense etc. If it’s not, YES you’ve lost weeks of planning…but it was just a shot…never forget the fact that you were playing 2 women for the last months and, you just tried to have them together. Don’t stress it, things blew up in my face countless times.

Step 7 – Bring in the alcohol and lots of it.

Get it done

Step 8– The best thing to do is to get them to your house. They’ve both been there and their comfortable with the place, just make sure that when you make the proposition you do it in a way that won’t freak them out instantly.

Step 9 – Once there, start making out with one, then with the other, then get them involved and if all of this is going on, you’re going to have a threesome.

Note to remember: Quite a decent amount of them will freak out at the make out scene, don’t sweat it, if you got them here you can get another bunch in no time.

Method 2 – Leveraging your Bisexual Girlfriend

A couple of year back, I was with this bisexual girl. She was great but what made her even better was the fact that she was into girls. People think that if a girl is bisexual she’ll be bringing girls home for you to have sex with. Well, it doesn’t really work like that.

Being bisexual means that she can either have a girlfriend or a boyfriend. If you want her to have them both at the same time, it’s going to be your job to make it all happen.

So here’s how you do it:

First of all, when it comes to picking up other girls, your bisexual girlfriend should be doing all the pulling. She’ll own you at it because:

- She hardly gets rejected

- She can spot bi-curios girls 100x time faster than you. No more wasting time (30+ minutes), on doing sets with girls only to find out they haven’t the slightest interest in girls.

The only time she will ever need help is with groups of girls. Girls are not like us, being able to open a big group and alienate one of the girls. So that’s where you come in, just go and pick the one you like, separate her from the group and before you know it your girlfriend is there working her out.

Most girlfriends love doing things together, this includes “picking-up together” but when you tell them, “ok go open up that group and pick that blonde over there”, they just get nervous and want to stay the night with you.

Anyway the reason you still want her to open is because she knows instantly if the other girl is up for it. Regardless of how good your game is, when you ask a girl for a threesome she will always question your motives. She’s just less likely to believe you. A few times I still managed to get the 2^nd girl all by myself (at least 1 hour of work, compared to 10 mins by my girlfriend) and in this scenario, apart from my gf being upset that she’s been sitting alone for the last hour, she would also think that the other one just wanted to have sex with me and, not with US.

It’s paramount to remember that, threesomes are all about the girls. You’re just along for the ride.

She will do the pick-up, she will bring her to you, you start flirting and generally getting to know each other. By this time YOUR Bi-girlfriend should make the proposition of coming home with you. Now…it’s here where most of them realize that this is actually for real and freak out. In my experience about half of them do that, they either leave straight up or are flattered but can’t actually do it.

If you’re lucky and she agrees, it’s up to you to sort everything.  Get them drinks, keep them feeling good and entertained, flirt with both, be sexual with both etc.

This is when they start to gang up on you. They all do it, all the time. They tease you; make fun of you etc…let it happen. I usually just sit there thinking to myself “Blabla in about an hour I’m going to have sex with both of you haha!” All they said and teased didn’t really matter. I do have to admit, it might feel uncomfortable sometimes but deal with it, you’re a man right?

Either you or your girlfriend can initiate the kiss. Initially I always let my gf to do it but as we did it more I tried it myself and it worked just as good.

Now it’s time to take them home, like always once home let them get comfortable, more drinks, some music and let loose. They can still freak out at this point but, most of them, if they got this far, will let it happen.

One last note to remember: You and your girlfriend need to clarify everything before you embark on this journey. Make sure you let her go down on the other girl or the other way around. Also make sure you’re going to have sex with the other girl otherwise all of this is absolutely pointless.

This is the sort of stuff I discuss on my blog and in the free eBook I give out.  If you want to increase your success with women visit http://ThePlayerGuide.com - a place where the “dating” mindset is thrown out the window in favor of more direct (and fruitful) methods of meeting and seducing women.

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It seems, sometimes, like cash is a dying form of payment.  At most retail outlets, credit and debit rule. There is even the promise of contactless “chip-and-pin” smart cards and more-widespread use of mobile phone payment systems like Google Wallet.  Yeah, paying with a swipe is a hell of a lot more convenient than having to have your pockets filled with dollar bills and coinage, but don’t give up on greenbacks just yet.

Cash money!

You’re probably thinking about how sexy it would look if you carried around a gangster roll made up of 20s (or at least with 20s on the outside and a bunch of Washingtons in the middle).  But the fact is that most of the world still relies on cash as a practical means of payment.  I mean, in developing countries, you’d be able to find places that would accept your Visa or MasterCard, but for most day to day purchases (even large ones), a vast majority of people in these places aren’t relying on those small plastic rectangles at all.  They’re using cash.

Because cash is practical.

It is also completely anonymous, so no one can trace your spending habits.  And, cash is accepted absolutely everywhere.  Sure, MasterCard and Visa are pretty widely accepted, but you still can’t use them at a farmers market or to tip the bohemian cutie who works at the local coffee shop.  Furthermore, if you happen to find yourself in a gentleman’s club of some sort, you aren’t going to be having much fun without a pocket full of ones.

What about if you have to lend your friend 20 bucks?  He’s not going to pull out a credit card processor so that you can use your Visa to make the loan.  Perhaps cash’s best positive, in the age of crippling credit card debt, is that it is the simplest form of currency to budget.  It’s there until you spend it, then you can’t spend any more until it’s time to make the next withdrawal.   What better way to stay on budget?

And then there is the fee-filled world of personal banking.  More and more people are fleeing their standard checking accounts because of all the hidden fees and other non-customer-friendly traits.  There’s no better way to avoid the madness than to cash your paycheck (or withdrawal the cash that you need for the week or month).  Do this and you will not have to worry about ATM fees, minimum balances, bounced checks, and overdraft fees.  Yeah you’d want to have some sort of savings account and perhaps a card or two on hand for emergencies or online purchases, but cash can cover almost all your day-to-day transactions.

Some people are adopting more cash-centered habits before rising credit and debit card transaction fees start getting passed on to customers.  Swipe fees are fees charged to retailers by debit and credit card processors (mainly Visa and MasterCard – but also the likes of AmEx and Discover).  I’ve noticed these fees being transferred on to the customer at some gas stations and other retailers.  For example, at several gas stations I’ve been to, it costs a few cents more per gallon to “pay at the pump” than to walk in and pay with cash.  This two-tiered pricing is still not that widespread in the places that I’ve been, but it is noticeable, and, as banks and card companies start pinching pennies, I think it’s a good bet that it will be more widespread in the future.

This is an ode to cash, but, in an effort to be balanced, I’ll take a look at some of the drawbacks as well.  If you have more than a few bucks, cash is more bulky to carry than a credit card, but, more importantly, cash is not as secure as credit.  You can cancel a card if it is stolen and even have a replacement in your hand in a day or two.  When cash is gone… it’s gone for good.  Waive your rubber banded roll of dollar bills around in the wrong place, and you might attract stick-up artists or pick-pockets.

Despite this, though, I think cash is still a great way to pay.  As long as there are processing fees for other forms of payment, there will be a people who still choose to pay with cash.

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Sex juice!

When it comes to sex aids in the realm of men’s magazines and websites, there’s a lot in the realm of “how to turn her on with your hands” and “here’s a sex move that is sure to get that G-spot of hers so good that she will be gladly have sex with you many, many more times, indeed!” The point is, these sex tips generally focus on what you’re doing to her body — which, you know, is great and all — but they are completely missing a realm that you can explore to turn her on. Namely, her diet.

When she’s coming over, or when you’re going out on the town, there are certain foods that have been proven to be aphrodisiacs. Many of them are a bit too exotic to really get away with just nudging them toward her dish, but there is one out there that is so ubiquitous, easy-to-get, and delicious — and could already be in your refrigerator, just cooling until you decide to offer your date a glass. (And, spoiler, since it’s right in the title of this post odds are you already know it.)

So, without further adieu, the great magical, mystical sexual powers of pomegranate juice.

From AskMen.com:

[T]he researchers found elevated levels of testosterone in both sexes after administering consistent doses of pomegranate juice over a two-week span. For both sexes, testosterone is crucial to raising sexual desire.

The subjects saw an increase in testosterone ranging between 16% and 30% and some other useful side effects were noticed, too. Both sexes saw a drop in blood pressure and an increase in positivity as negative emotions decreased. If only the juice could wash away disgusting thoughts of a nude Octomom from our lives, too.

And yes. You should take that as a cue to head on out to the grocery right now and stock up with as much as you can. Happy shopping!

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