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Introducing LiteN Up: Laugh Yourself Skinny!

Here’s author Samara Klein's version of how it plays out:

You get naked for the first time with your new sweetie, or go to the beach with a group of friends, or receive an invitation to your high school reunion, and right then and there, you decide with the utmost conviction: I’m going on a diet! From here on out, I’m never eating sweets and carbohydrates again. Starting now, I’m only eating fruits and vegetables. I’m going to the gym every day. I’m flailing around on those cardio machines until sweat pours down my back. This is it. I’m changing my habits forever.

You clean out your cupboards of all things fattening. You go to the grocery store and stock up on all things healthy. You renew your gym membership.

The next day, you eat a grapefruit, a salad, and then another salad. You go to the gym and work out like mad.

The following day, you do it again.

The day after that, your boss yells at you for something you didn’t do, or your loan application doesn’t go through, or that guy still hasn’t called you and it’s been three days.

In other words, you’re not on top of your game – and you’re obsessed with your diet, so you eat a bag of chips to pacify yourself. And then you feel even worse – not only did your day suck, but now your diet has been ruined too. Might as well down your sorrows in ice cream. Diet sabotaged.

Sound familiar?

Well then LITE’N UP, would you?

Dieting shouldn’t be so serious and humorless!

Actually, being morbidly obsessed with losing weight is a recipe for disaster – we end up anxious all the time, so we reach for a bag of chips to pacify our anxiety . . . which causes us to feel badly about ourselves, so we reach for a pint of chocolate fudge ice cream in which to drown our sorrows.

It’s a vicious cycle – for psyche and hips alike.

Still, the only way remove the junk from your trunk is to diet. Diets themselves are not difficult; it’s the sticking to them that seems impossible. We start off strong, full of resolve and determination, only to lose our conviction three days later. A favorite desert on the menu, a bag of cookies after a hard day at work, P.M.S. cravings – these are the situations that doom us to failure.

There are always going to be reasons to go on a diet and there are always going to be bad days . . . and if you take your diet seriously, it will always be the scapegoat for your bad days.

This is where Lite'n Up: Laugh Yourself Skinny (paperback journal, $14.95) comes into play. Each page has a funny reminder that you can take to heart and hearken back to at those critical moments when you are about to lose your self-restraint. When you’re at an office birthday party and you’re considering having a cupcake, read the reminder! When you find yourself loitering around the vending machine, remember the reminder! When you’re at home watching TV and that bag of chips is calling to you, reminder, reminder, reminder! The reminders will cause you to smile, laugh, and groan, and, ultimately, they will distract you from temptation by reminding you that dieting isn’t all that.

By the time you finish Lite’n Up, you’ll be slim – it’s so easy, it’s not even funny . . . well, actually, it is pretty funny.

Holiday Specials

Holiday Gifts from Plain White Press

Thoughtful gifts for the busy people in your life -- all under $25.

NY Center for Independent Publishing Bookfair

Join us this weekend for the Independent Bookfair!

My Money Matters in Self Magazine

Author Galia Gichon Reports that she's been cited in Self Magazine.

Says Galia, "There is no better time than the present to do a financial check-up. However, that seems overwhelming and many of us don't know where to start!In this month's SELF Magazine (November 2008) I give advice on the four numbers you need to perform a quick and easy financial check-up. Plus, they quoted "My Money Matters" kit as a resource. Pick up your issue now and read the cover story, "Live Rich Without Getting a Raise." You won't be disappointed!

Acting Workshop at American Jewish University

Learn "Perform at Your Best" Techniques in a Live Workshop

at American Jewish University

Jane Marla Robbins is teaching a two-part workshop using her just-published award winning set of illustrated flash cards, this course will give you effective, transformative techniques to make difficult situations easier and even fun. The cards are fun, why shouldn’t the course be? Situations could include everything from job interviews to confrontations with your mother-in-law. The art of transformation has always been a sacred one, and who says self-transformation can’t be fun?

American Jewish University

Familian Campus

15600 Mulholland Dr.

Bel-Air. California 90077

Phone:1-888-853-6763 or

(310) 476-9777

Fax: (310) 471-1278

Conveniently located in beautiful Bel Air, near the intersection of the 405 and 101 freeways in Los Angeles.

Release: Women bear the stress in a bear market

How You Can Improve Personal Finances and Make Life More Bearable

Overeating, binging on junk food, insomnia, irritability, and other stress-related symptoms are a sign that financial worries are causing excessive worry among American women. According to a survey just released by the American Psychological Association (APA) 83% percent of women are stressed about money, especially about whether they will be able to provide for their family’s basic needs.

“Taking one small action every day can make you feel better, reduce your worries about money, and make significant improvements in your finances” says independent financial expert Galia Gichon. Gichon is author of the My Money Matters Kit (Plain White Press, Distributed by Consortium, publication 2008, $24.95). Gichon says there is an emotional connection to money and sees it firsthand in her work with individual clients. “Women need to combine their financial knowledge with a good dose of inspiration and positive motivation to really have a healthy relationship with money” says Gichon, which is why she designed the My Money Matters kit. Each kit is a personal financial management tool that helps women improve their money savvy, while reducing their stress at the same time.

In an interview last week, Gichon recommended the following things that women should do right now to reduce their stress and cut down on their expenses:

• Space out your luxuries. If you are getting a manicure every week, get one every other week. At the same time, say no to the extras.

• Call your credit card company and ask for a lower rate – tonight.

• Find a debt pay-down buddy: Someone who will hold you accountable, want to pay down their debt too, and who will motivate you to make it a priority.

• Consolidate and streamline your investments to as few places as possible. With fewer statements, you will feel more in control of your money.

Plain White Press is an innovative woman-owned publishing company based in White Plains, NY that provides solutions for busy women who want to manage some of the challenging aspects of modern life with style.

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If you’d like more information about this topic want to request  a review copy, or would like to schedule an interview with financial expert Galia Gichon, please contact Julie Trelstad at Julie@PlainWhitePress.com, or visit the kit website: www.MyMoneyKit.com.

We're in the Pink!

... Magazine Event that is. Yesterday Galia Gichon, author of My Money Matters and I had a table at the Pink Magazine Event in NYC with a table full of the Money Kits. Given that everyone is very worried about their money management and investments, Galia's extremely busy helping her clients calm down about their finances and take little steps to manage their money wisely. Her advice? Just take one action. Now. Cut your cable bill, check your credit score, make a contingency plan if you think you might have financial difficulties in the coming year.

You can find more than 100 little money actions in the My Money Matters Kit, and you can meet Galia in person at two upcoming Pink Events: At the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston on Oct 14, 2008 and in Atlanta at the Omni Hotel on November 12.

Free Book Marketing Course

AuthorSmart’s Virtual Book Marketing Conference is a series of ten weekly session covering a range of topics critical to effective book promotion. Each session is presented by a publishing industry insider sharing his or her expertise. I will be a featured presenter during Session #10: What You Need to Know About Distribution on Tuesday, November 11th at 11am Eastern. The conference is free to attend and packed with valuable information. I hope you will check out my session as well as the rest of the sessions to be offered and the stellar line up of professionals presenting them. Each speaker is providing a signing bonus to everyone who participates.

Articles About the Plain White Press

If you missed them, here are Julie's recent interviews -- including an admission to an obsession with Web 2.0 software solutions and a glimpse of what we're trying to do to (or for?) the publishing industry.

April, 2008 Smart Money's Small Business No More Software in a Box

Feb, 2008 Publisher's Weekly Article Ex-Sterling Editor Starts Press

August, 2007  Interview with Visual Thesaurus on Reimagining Publishing

Our first ever YouTube video!

Hi, it's Ali and Catie - the PWP summer '08 interns!

We're super excited to introduce our very first YouTube video, based on the Perform at Your Best: Acting Techniques for Business, Social & Personal Success card deck by Jane Marla Robbins. We came up with the idea to make a video that was humorous and unique, which we hope will create curiosity about our products and generate even more positive buzz surrounding Perform at Your Best.

We enlisted Alex Cantatore, a young aspiring filmmaker from White Plains to help us tackle the project - and tackle he did! After presenting us with multiple pitches for video ideas, Alex agreed to put on a tutu, and get to work. It's definitely turned out to be better than we could have imagined, and it was a fun project to work on.

Head on over to http://www.youtube.com/user/PlainWhitePress to check out the video!