I quit smoking a few years, after having smoked for 30 years.  I was part of a stop-smoking study, and I was given nictotine patches (all the steps, exactly as described on the box the patches come in), group counseling, and Zyban (also known as Wellbutrin).  I had a bad reaction to the Zyban, and I stopped using it in a week, which was before my quit date.  So I quit using the p...

I had never thought of buying shampoo in Trader Joe's until one day, when I was shopping there for food, I happened to be out of shampoo and thought I'd give theirs a try to save a trip to another store.It turned out their shampoo is very nice, and I've been using it ever since.It comes in a deep blue-purple bottle -- a beautiful color that looks great in the bathroom.  It'...

I wasn't sure if it was such a great idea to buy jeans through the mail, but I took a chance and I'm glad that I did. L.L. Bean sells several types of jeans.  After looking through their online catalogue, I decided to try the "Adirondack" model, which is the lowest-priced jean that they sell.  I measured myself with a tape measure and used the company's char...

I just got this out of the library.  I found it significantly harder than the 2 Leslie Sansome videos that I own (Walk Away the Pounds High Calorie Burn 2 Miles, and Walk Away the Pounds Express Brisk Walk 2 Miles).It contains 2 DVDs.  The first DVD is called "Fast Start" and is supposed to be a 1 or 2 mile walk.  The second DVD is "3 Fast Miles."The "Fas...

My dental hygienist recommended that I use stim-u-dents as part of my regimen to fight my gum disease.These are similar to toothpicks, except that they are flat.  What you do is put one in between two teeth, up by your gumline, and then push it back and forth.  This will not only get out any food that's left between your teeth that brushing may have missed, but it's also suppo...

This is a complex, intelligent drama, originally on HBO, that is set in Baltimore.  The city itself, in a sense, is the main character of this show, and each season focuses on a different aspect of Baltimore life. The first season deals with drug dealers and the police.  They are not presented strictly as the good guys versus the bad guys.  Instead, all characters are shown as be...

This is an old book that's been sitting on my shelf that I haven't looked at in a long time.  Published in 1986, it's a collection of tips on how to get organized, reduce clutter, and streamline your life.The tips themselves would apply just as well now as when the book was written, but the book still seems dated, probably because there have been so many books, magazine article...

The first time I ever tried fish oil capsules, they smelled so awful that I threw them out.It was a while before I tried again.  Then I bought some tablets that were supposed to be buffered so that they would have no taste.  Those were fine.When those ran out, I bought these (Nature's Bounty Omega-3 Fish Oil 1000 mg softgels) just because they were on sale, 2 bottles for the price...

This suitcase looks cute -- it's a deep pink (almost a cherry red) with silver trim.  I used it for a week-long trip, and it was a perfect size.  I didn't need to use the expansion feature.  It rolls smoothly, the handle comes out and retracts easily, and it has some handy pockets inside.  It's relatively light, for rolling luggage.  It's soft-sided with...

I've done a couple of other Richard Simmons' exercise videos (Dance Your Pants Off and Sweating to the Oldies 2), and Disco Sweat is my favorite.  The moves are the most fun in this video, and Simmons is really on fire here, at his over-the-top, funny, campy, and inspirational best.The video alternates between low-intensity and high-intensity aerobics segments, and contains, at the...

This is an easy aerobics video that is aimed at people who don't want anything too complicated.  There are only four basic moves -- marching in place, knee lifts, kicks, and kick backs -- with a few simple variations.The video runs for half an hour, including a short stretching session at the end (there's no stretch at the beginning).  About two-thirds of the way through, the ...

This video is similar to another Leslie Sansome video I reviewed (High Calorie Burn 2 miles).  The main difference is that the other video uses weights to exercise the arms, while this one uses a stretchy band.As in all of Leslie Sansone's aerobics videos, there are only four basic moves -- marching in place, kicking forward, kicking back, and knee lifts.  Sansone leads the class,...

I bought this tape when I was planning on quitting smoking.  I like Jane Fonda's tapes, and I thought that I would need a lot of help with stress reduction after I quit.I ended up, though, not using the video quite the way I thought I would.  It contains three distinct parts -- a low-impact aerobics section, a stretching section, and a guided relaxation session.  I ended up d...

This was the first exercise video I ever bought, many years ago, and I still use it every now and then.It's a light toning and stretching routine, done to classical music.  It does NOT contain any aerobics.  It's 25 minutes long.It's a perfect video for a beginner because Jane Fonda pays a lot of attention to doing things using the proper form.The set-up is a class that lo...

The best thing about this video is that it tells you what to do every day.  The DVD contains a lot of different little segments -- two 13-minute aerobics sessions, one 10-minute full-body strength training session, several 5-minute toning sessions focusing on specific body parts, and a warm up and cool down.What you do is select your goal -- losing weight, or being healthy or toning, etc -...

Sometimes you have to get off the computer and actually use a pen and paper!  This is a nice basic cheap disposable ballpoint pen, but what's different about it is that it has some kind of rubberized material wrapped around it near the pen's point, in the place where you would grip the pen with your fingers.The material makes it easier to hold the pen.  It's softer than th...

It's nice when even the most mundance objects, such as pencils, are well-designed and work the way they are supposed to.These are nice-looking pencils, black plastic with an assortment of different-colored clips.  They're mechanical pencils, which means the lead is inside, and you click on the eraser to bring more lead out.  I like this much better than conventional pencils wh...

These are plastic sandals that you can buy in the supermarket or the drugstore.  You could, I guess, wear  them outside, but I wouldn't.  They don't really look good enough.  (Though I just took a look at their website and saw they had a new slide style, which I hadn't seen in the stores, which is cute and would look nice poolside or on the beach -- maybe even on...

I bought this backpack about 15 years ago, and it's still in great shape!  I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted longer than I did.I don't remember how much it cost, except that I do remember it was expensive, and that I had bought it on sale.I'm sure they don't still make the same exact style (which is a very attractive black with lavender trim), but I just wanted to le...

I'm not particularly loyal to one brand or another, when it comes to deodorant.  I figure they all work more or less the same.  So I usually just buy whatever is on the sale at the time that I need it.One thing I do like, though, is to get an "invisible solid."  I don't like having to wait for a liquid to dry after I put it on, and I don't like the way some ...