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Its your girlfriends birthday or your first Christmas together, and you want to get her the best gift shes ever had. Gifts mean a lot to women. The right gift tells her youre thoughtful, observant, and you really understand her. The wrong one, however, can tell her just the opposite. Dont get stuck in her bad Boyfriends book of Records. Heres a list of the six worst gifts to give your girlfriend.

Exercise equipment. Nothing says, I think you could stand to lose weight like a Stairmaster. The same goes for a set of barbells, a Pilates instructional video, or a gym membership. Even if shes talked about getting fit, this kind of gift will make her wonder whether you like her body the way it is.

If you really would like to see her exercising more, lead by example. Join the gym yourself. Chances are, when she sees how great you look and feel, shell be inspired to join as well. You could also take up a physical activity you could do as a couple, such as cycling, jogging, or hiking. To increase the chances shell get into it, pick an activity shes expressed interest in before. It should also be one you can do relatively easily. Dont decide to take up sea kayaking if youre two hours drive from the ocean, for example, and dont pick one that you need a lot of expensive equipment to get started in.

Cookware. The subliminal message here is Get in the kitchen and make me some supper, woman! This is a bad gift even if shes expressed interest in cookingor if youd like her to. If you have a master chef for a girlfriend, its especially important to pass on this kind of gift. Its likely she has everything she needs already, and most high-level cooks are picky about their equipment.

If you really would like to encourage her to cook more, start with some positive reinforcement. Praise the meals she does cook. If you tell her you see her as a great cook already, shes more likely to take more of an interest in the culinary arts.

A vacuum cleaner. The same goes for feather dusters, mops, bottles of Pine-Sol, oven cleaner, Lemon-Scented Joy, and any other household cleaning products. These gifts tell her that you see her as more of a maid than a girlfriend.

A puppy. Animal gifts are tricky. Sure, puppies and kittens are adorablebut theyre also a lot of work. Food and vet bills can be expensive, and many pets require a change in lifestyle to take proper care of. For these reasons, its best not to surprise your girlfriend with a new pet.

part of the fun is choosing the pet yourself. If your girlfriend has told you she wants a dog or cat, offer to take her to the local animal rescue shelter instead and pay for the pet she picks.

Something you want for yourself. You know youve been tempted to buy her that subscription to Fly fishing magazine, new set of golf clubs, or Playstation II. Dont do it! Shell see through it instantly.

Jewellery. Jewellery has a great deal more meaning for most women than other gifts. If you give the right one, shell see it as a sign that youre the right guy for her. If you get it wrong, however, at best shell laugh about it with her friends for ages. At worst, she could see it as grounds for doubt about the relationship. If youre going to give her jewellery, youd better get it right the first time.

What makes giving jewellery so difficult is that every woman has distinct tastes. The jewellery you pick could be too chunky, too eccentric, too classic, too delicate, too cheap-looking or expensive-looking for her. Some women never wear gold, some never wear silver, and most women have a preference for certain precious stones over others. If you really do want to give her jewellery, casually take her into a few stores. See how she reacts to the merchandise. Make note of any pieces she especially likes. Then go back later to buy them.

Most women dont want practical gifts from their boyfriends. They want gifts that send a positive message about how you see them. A sparkling diamond bracelet tells her you see her as precious and beautiful. Elegant lingerie can tell her you see her as sexy and desirable. A book about something she finds fascinating tells her you take her interests seriously. However, its important to take her unique tastes into account before buying her any present. If you do, and if you follow our tips, you should be able to find her the perfect gift.

Janette Vince is managing director of http://www.thanksdarling.com a website full of great gift ideas whatever the occasion. For a range of interesting, novel and exciting gifts visit the website at http://www.thanksdarling.com.

"Fast" and "flat" are relative. How "fast" you get a flat stomach will depend on a lot of things such as:

1. How much you exercise

2. What exercises you do

3. How old you are

4. What you eat

5. How much rest you get

6. The shape you are in when you start

7. The genes you inherited from you mom and dad

You get my point. Two people can start today to work on getting that flat stomach and one could be there in six weeks, and the other could take six months...or more.

"Flat" is going to vary a little from person to person...not only in what they CAN achieve with the right exercises and so on, but in terms of what they WANT to achieve. Some people want the six-pack abs ripped and shredded to the max, while some just want to stop drooping over the waistband of their bathing suit.

The 6 tips I am about to explain are basically what you need to accomplish either in a reasonable amount of time, but how far you get on your journey to the land of the flat stomach will depend on the factors mentioned earlier.

Tip 1: Stay hydrated. First of all, what you perceive as hunger is often actually thirst. Some people snack a lot because their bodies are crying out for water. Also, not drinking enough water can slow your basic metabolic rate, and that means that it is harder to burn the fat on your stomach. We'll talk more about that later.

Tip 2: Get your rest. By this, I mean SLEEP!! Your body will respond best to ANY sort of exercise program from weightlifting to yoga if it gets the rest it needs. Not only will you be able to perform better after a good night's rest, but it will help your body get on with the business of resculpting your muscles, wherever they may be.

Tip 3: Get the proper nutrition. This means not only the right foods, but in the right quantities at the right times. A tip inside this tip is to try to eat several small meals a day rather than two or three big ones. Foods should be high in protein, but don't neglect the carbs. You need those for energy. Shoot for complex carbs. The rule of thumb is that the closer it is to natural, i.e. apple vs. apple pie, the more complex the carbs. Ice cream is NOT complex.

Tip 4: exercise your stomach muscles. Your "stomach muscles" are actually made up mainly of three sets of muscles. Each one is in a different position, and has a different job to do. By the same token, developing each set of muscles will require you to do specific exercises for that set of muscles.

The three sets of muscles are the rectus abdominis (the six pack down the middle of your body from ribcage to groin), the transversus abdominus (TVA) which runs from back to front and holds everything in place, and the obliques (internal and external) which lie on the side.

Bad news: You've got to exercise each set of muscles.

Good news: No need to do ten thousand crunches a week. Pick your exercises and do each set of muscles twice a week. Start slowly with low reps and ease upward. Thirty reps per set with a couple or three sets might be all you need. I will only have room in this article for a couple of exercises, but you can find plenty on the internet.

exercises for the rectus abdominis:

1. The crunch: You know this one, right? On your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor close to your buttocks. Put your hands beside your head or across your chest and curl your head and shoulders up toward your knees. You can increase the difficulty by holding a weight behind your head, putting your feet up on something, or by holding your feet in the air as you crunch. I recommend hands "beside" the head rather than "behind" as this may help prevent injury from pulling on the head and shoulders as you try to knock out a few more. Before you begin each crunch, try to flatten your lower back to the floor. When you have curled up to the maximum position, hold that position for a second and then try to curl just a little more. You might be surprised to find that you may be able to go just a little farther.

2. The reverse crunch: In basic crunches, you keep your feet and legs still while curling your head and shoulders up. In reverse crunches, you begin on your back with your hands at your sides on the floor with your knees elevated towards your chest. The movement is merely pulling (crunching) the knees towards your head while keeping head and shoulders in place.

exercise the transversus abdominus:

The vacuum: Practitioners of yoga will recognize part of Cat Pose (Bidalasana) in the vacuum exercise. In fact, the movement can be done standing, hanging (by your hands of course), or on hands and knees as in the cat pose. It is pretty simple. You just slowly exhale, using your abdominal muscles to draw your navel in as far towards your spine as possible and hold for a few seconds and then let it go. Slowly build your way up to a couple of sets of twenty holds.

exercise the obliques:

More good news! You really don't want to work these incredibly hard unless you want a WIDE waist! While strong, healthy obliques are good to have, power lifters and people like that are the ones who will really WANT to develop their obliques to the max.

Side bends with dumbbells are probably the most common form of exercise for these muscles.

exercise the entire core:

Again, a yoga pose, slightly modified, will help tighten and tone the entire core. Known in yoga as Plank pose and also called Abdominal Bracing, this is an easy to perform yet highly effective exercise when done over time.

Lie face down on the floor with your toes touching the floor as if you were going to do a pushup. Rest your upper body on your elbows with your forearms extended on the floor. Raise the center of your body so that it is in a straight line resting only on toes and elbows. Hold this position for as long as possible, up to a minute. At first, even a few seconds may seem like forever, but you should progress fairly rapidly with this one. Do it twice every couple of days.

Now, if it sounds like I sort of glossed over the exercise portion, that's because the exercise is not really THAT important.

Having strong stomach muscles is of value, but the stomach muscles usually react favorably to regular, moderate exercise, and you don't have to kill yourself to get strong stomach muscles. In fact, as fitness coach and competitive bodybuilder, Tom Venuto says in his great eBook, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle":

"It's entirely possible that you could have a GREAT set of abs that are completely covered up with fat, so you can't see them!"

That's why MOST people don't have a flat stomach already! Whatever stomach muscles they have are covered over with fat.

ABDOMINAL exercises DO NOT BURN FAT!

Cardio workouts, i.e. aerobic activities such as "Sweatin' to the Oldies", running, walking, biking, swimming, and similar activities burn fat. So....

Tip 5: Add cardio activity to your fitness program four to six times a week. Thirty to forty-five minutes would be good. Again, work your way up. When my wife first tried following Richard Simmons, she thought she was going to have a heart attack. She had to sit on the couch and wave her hands and try to wiggle her feet in motions something like what the people were doing on the screen. A few days later she could go through the whole routine...standing up and sweatin' with the gang!

As great as cardio is, the fat burning effect lasts primarily during the exercise session itself, so here is the last tip to elevate your basic metabolic rate so that you are burning calories at a higher rate all day long.

Tip 6: Start weight training or other progressive resistance strength training. As you build muscle over all the parts of your body, you will be creating thousands of little tiny heaters that burn the fat day and night. You don't have to use super heavy weights. An explanation of a basic weightlifting workout is a little too much to get into here, but many websites can point you in the right direction.

WON'T ALL OF THIS REQUIRE A LONG TIME EVERY DAY?

Nope!

It's a little bit beyond the scope of this article, but if you were to train half of your body with weights for 20 to 30 minutes on Monday and Thursday, and the other half on Tuesday and Friday, and then immediately follow each resistance workout with enough cardio activity to bring your total workout time to 45 minutes, you would spend about three hours a week actually working out. You can find time for additional walks or other strenuous activities throughout the week, or increase your workout time to 50 or 60 minutes a day if you are really dedicated and want to accelerate the process of getting a flat stomach fast

Donovan Baldwin is a freelance writer residing in Copperas Cove, texas, and a University of West Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However, his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health, and fitness. There is a collection of his articles on health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com/articledirectory and information on a free weightlifting workout plan at http://nodiet4me.com/articledirectory/free_weight_lifting_workout_plan.html

With all the new advances in nutrition and exercise research it seems to be a contradiction that obesity and over weight is on the rise in North America. It's pretty clear that we know more now than we ever did about how to eat properly and how to exercise for weight loss and overall health. research in nutrition and exercise shown us exactly what we need to do to lose weight, get into great shape, and stay that way? If science has progressed in these fields of research, why hasn't it resulted in a more fit, healthy, and slimmer population?

The truth is that the opposite is happening to the population. The percentage of overweight, obese and unhealthy adults is rising right along side our scientific knowledge of how to fight it. What is even more alarming is the rise in the percentage of overweight and obese children. We are teaching our children our bad habits.

This is sending a pretty clear message to me. The information we get from scientific research is not reaching the general population. Or more accurately, the message isn't being supported enough by government and industry in our daily routines.

For example: Science would dictate that you should eat modest portions of whole foods, with plenty of fruits and vegetables as a staple of a healthy diet. The reality is that most of us can find half a dozen fast food restaurants within 5 minutes of our houses that are offering us the exact opposite of what we know we should be eating. Even more troubling is the fact that if everyone actually tried to eat the daily recommend amount of fruits and veggies there wouldnt be enough to go around. Author and acclaimed nutrition researcher Marion Nestle points out in her book What to Eat that the north American food supply of fruits and veggies doesnt even add up to the daily recommend amount for each person. The food industry will only produce the food they know they can sell. And we as a population just dont buy that much produce.

The repeated and relentless marketing messages to eat more we receive on a daily basis can overpower most of our better intentions when it comes to making food decisions.

The one message you will never hear from the food industry is eat less. However almost all diet studies that show any significant amount of weight loss have one thing in common: the people in the study consumed less calories.

This is the paradox. Science tells us to lose weight we need to eat less. But the food industry which surrounds us every day is telling us to eat more. And the voice of the food industry is much louder than the voice of science. Just think of how many fast food restaurants, convenience stores, radio and tv commercials, flyers, coupons and other food ads you are exposed to in a day. Then think of how many daily messages you get reminding you to eat a sensible diet with moderate portions and whole foods.

Its not a fair fight, and I dont have to tell you which side usually wins in the battle for your attention. Look no further than the rising obesity, overweight, diabetes and heart disease rates and you have your answer.

food manufacturers and restaurants know how to push your buttons and entice you to purchase their products, and lots of them too, this is unlikely to change any time soon. It will always be your personal challenge and responsibility to choose to eat less in a society that will forever continue to tell you to eat more.

John Barban is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a varsity strength and conditioning coach. His trademarked http://www.6minuteCircuits.com Circuit Training Workouts is designed to get a full body cardio and muscle toning workout in the comfort of your own home. John is a senior contributor at http://www.grrlathlete.com where you can sign up to get insider information in the nutrition and fitness industry. You can ask John a question on the http://www.grrlathlete.freeforums.org dedicated to support women with their fitness and nutrition goals.

First off I consider myself a recreational gamer. I own the Sony ps2. The microsoft Xbox 360. And I just purchased the nintendo Wii. Now the nintendo Wii was very hard to come by believe it or not. I went to every store I could think of. But everyone of them were sold out. I finally picked one up on E-bay for $66 more than retail price. Which I didn't think that was to bad. Considering what other consumers were forking over.

So with that all said and done here is what I think of the nintendo Wii.

The console itself is rather small,not much taller than a 100 pack of blank dvds. I bought the sports package which comes with a game disc with five games. Baseball, golf, boxing, tennis and bowling. It came with with one Wii remote controller and one nunchuck controller. I also purchased an extra remote controller and another nun chuck. The console itself was very easy to hookup right out of the box. My family and I were playing within 10 minutes. And what a blast everyone was having. The interacting controllers worked perfect.

The first game we played was Bowling. It was like having your own bowling alley in your living room. Then we tried out the rest of the games. All equally entertaining. For the price tag of $249.99 you can't go wrong. This console is sure to bring your family together. Everyone loved it. The nintendo Wii is definitely a great system that both young and old will love and enjoy for hours on end.