I flew from JFK to Florida via JetBlue, taking the 6 pm flight so that I could get some work done before staying with my mom while my dad was in the hospital.

I got to the airport at 4:45, grabbed a sandwich and water and headed over to the boarding area. At 5:30 pm, an announcement said that our plane was being delayed because it was coming in from one of the Islands and it needed to go to the international arrivals first before we could get on.

I looked at my neighbor sitting next to me. “Did I just hear right?” I asked. “Don’t you think they would have coordinated this better?  Why wouldn’t they use a Florida plane?”

She laughed and agreed.

At 6:30, an hour later, the flight attendants asked passengers to board the plane. Since they usually board from the back to the front and since I was sitting in seat 9F, I decided to grab a quick cup of coffee from a freestanding kiosk.

The woman gave me the coffee and of course, while I was putting the skim milk and splenda in it, the coffee cup spilled, but not all the way.  I was happy about that because I definitely needed a pick me up after being up at more than 12 hours.

I was last to board the plane. When I got to my seat, I was surprised to see that I didn’t have one. Someone was in my seat! “Excuse me,” I said, “I think you’re in my seat…”

“Well, since I have 9D and the man over there has 9D we are sitting in your seat,” the older woman said.

Okay, I thought.  That makes sense?  I called the flight attendant over.

Meanwhile, I was standing in the aisle with my coffee in one hand, my backpack on and I was holding the suitcase. “Excuse me,” a woman said to me as she pushed her way past me. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Can’t you wait a moment?” I asked.

“No,” she said and with that, my coffee spilled all over an old woman wearing a white shirt.  I was so embarrassed.

After several minutes, the flight attendants finally figured everything out by rearranging everyone in my section of the plane.

Everyone was seated. The plane took off.  The man next to me blessed himself.  I looked at him and thought  I go on way too many planes…

Once up in the air, I could still feel the tension from passengers but it slowly dissipated. As we landed, the man next to me said another prayer and we were down.

I took my luggage down from the overhead bin and headed to the car rental place. I decided to rent a car from the same place I had rented from before because the last time I was in town, I left my hat in the car and asked the manager to hold on to it for me. Unfortunately, the hat was gone but I got a rental car quickly and went outside to start the car. When I put the key in the ignition, the car wouldn’t start… I started to laugh… Another travel adventure!

My daughter always loved to go shopping.  She still does. But my son, on the other hand, dreads shopping.  He will do anything to get out of going to the mall or going to a small store.  It doesn’t matter to him.  He just hates it.  So, oftentimes, I find myself going to various places buying him clothes without him being there.

The other day, though, I decided to take him  to American Eagle.  I wanted him to have more say in what he wears.  (He usually wears the same tee-shirts over and over again.)

As soon as we pulled the car up next to the store, he said, “can’t we skip this?”

Obviously, I said NO and we went inside. I pulled a few things off the shelves that I thought were cute. “What do you think of this? or this? or this?” I asked him.

Some things he liked and other things he didn’t like.  But when I made him try them on in the dressing room, that’s when all “hell broke loose.” He tried on the clothes but was really angry.  “I’m getting a cold because we went clothes shopping!” he said.

“How could you get a cold from trying on clothes?” I asked.

“I don’t know but I did and now I feel sick,” he said.

So I quickly paid for the items and left the store. “Before we go home, can we get the car washed?” I asked him.

“NO!” he said.  “Now I have a cold and I want to get home before I really get really sick.”

So much for our little adventure to the clothing store… Share your experiences with me with any tips and strategies on making shopping fun…

I am a big fan of The Biggest Loser. I find it motivating and uplifting to hear the stories of other people’s struggles with weight loss. I also love the trainers, Bob and Jillian. They have a rough edge, but if you watch the show on a regular basis, you know that they are caring people.

Our country is in trouble. There are more than 190 million Americans who are either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has increased at an astounding rate as well. In 2010, childhood obesity has tripled as compared to thirty years ago.These statistics are scary. However, diet products are capitalizing on this.  They are popping up all over the place and people are spending tons of money on diet books, diet food, and fitness manuals to try to do it themselves.

However, as many of the contestants on The Biggest Loser can confirm, most of these diets don’t work. People need to get to the route of their problem, understand their pain and get beyond it. This year’s contestants have very sad stories to share and one could understand why they have weight problems.

The new season, which premiered last night at 8 pm EST on NBC, tooks place in several major cities around the country. Jillian, Bob, Alison (the show’s host) or one of the successful contestants from a past Biggest Loser season were in these cities along with dozens of people looking to change their behavior and lose weight. In each city, three people were called out of the crowd. They were told to weigh in in front of everyone and then compete in their first challenge. Two of the three get a chance to go to the ranch.

My “biggest” complaint about this episode was the challenges. In each city, the three contestants either had to climb 500 steps or run a 1-mile race. It would have been more interesting and exciting if in each city, the contestants did a different challenge.

At one of the races, one of the contestants collapsed and at one of the step challenges, someone also passed out. It was so sad to see that these people tried so hard to get on the show and couldn’t even complete or finish the challenge. All I kept thinking was, the people who came in last needed the ranch the most!

On each season of The Biggest Loser, there is always some type of new spin. In past years, teams were family members and in the beginning years, they were random people. This season team members don’t know each other at all. They are complete strangers who need to work together in order to survive on the ranch.

There will be some new twists and turns on the ranch to keep the interest up. But the main premise is for the contestants to learn to exercise and to eat a balanced meal the right way. Jillian and Bob will keep the contestants on their toes by making them “go the distance” in their exercise regime.

Watching The Biggest Loser for the past ten years, I realized that I too needed a trainer to push me to another level. Through the years, I have found that it is very difficult to do it any other way and make it stick.

Article first published as TV Preview: The Biggest Loser Premieres Tenth Season September 21 on Blogcritics.

I have a material connection because I received a sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content.
I am not expected to return this item after my review period.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about what to wear to work, I have some difficulty making a decision.  The reason is years ago, I used to only wear suits.  Everyone wore suits to business meetings, to networking parties and to after hours.  Today, it’s different depending on your locale.

For example, if you work in New York City, it seems to be more casual.  When I go to business meetings, I often see men in jeans and a collared shirt.  Women wear a pair of slacks and a sweater.  I even see women wearing flip flops in the summer! I usually go to these meetings and I feel totally overdressed!

But then, one day I had a meeting with my Entrepreneurs’ Organization group and I wore jeans and a tee-shirt. Everyone commented how under dressed I was.  Was I really under dressed when everyone else wore jeans and tee-shirts too?  Or, was it that other members never saw me so casual?

Long Island and Rochester are a little different.  Business people wear suits and are more casual on Fridays.

If I wear a suit, I feel out of place and when I don’t wear a suit, I wish I wore one. So what does one do?

Why is it that the dress code is an unwritten code?  When is it okay to wear jeans to a meeting and when is it not okay?