INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Another option is to sit on one end of the couch. Let your girl stretch out and put her head in your lap. Play with her hair or put your arm around her. Alternatively, she could lay with her feet in your lap. Major bonus points if you give her a foot massage! Have your girl put her head on the fleshy part of your chest, and snuggle up at your side. Put your arm around her while she gazes out. Alternatively, you can face each other. Put your girl's head on your chest and wrap your arms around her. Rest your cheek near her temple. Gently kiss her on the top of her forehead or her cheek. You can even lift her hand to your mouth and kiss it, or kiss her on the neck or shoulder. If you want to mix it up a bit, lay down on your side on and have your girl lay in front of you, facing the same direction. You can put your bottom arm under your head and wrap your top arm around her waist. Other variations of spooning include: Sitting up with your arms around each other, your girl's legs are folded and turned toward you so they fit onto your lap, and your legs fit below hers. Having your girl curled behind you while putting her arms around you. Spooning with your girl curled up behind you, but this time, you've put your arms around her. You may love snuggling with your girl, but don't squeeze her so tightly that she can't breathe! Also, don't get so entwined that you resemble a human knot. Avoid the "dead-arm," in which one of your arms falls asleep from being behind her head or body, by: Doing the the superman. When you're spooning her from behind, instead of putting your bottom arm around her, hang it up over her head or straight out. You may have to scoot down a little lower in the bed so there's room for your arm. Doing the shoulder roll. While you're snuggling, turn your chest closer to the bed so you can easily roll the arm that was supposed to be under your girl behind you.

SUMMARY: Let your girl lay her head or feet in your lap. Hold your girl close to your body. Try some gentle kisses. Try a spoon position. Avoid uncomfortable positions.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Before you change your behavior, you need to understand your current situation. Take a baseline, or keep a count, of how many cigarettes you smoke in a day. You can use a calendar, notebook, journal, poster board, or anything that helps you track it consistently. As you track your consumption, try to notice if there are any patterns. For example, you might notice that on Wednesdays you tend to smoke 5-8 more cigarettes than the rest of the week. What is going on on Wednesdays? Maybe you have a stressful weekly meeting on Wednesdays that wind you up, and you smoke to relieve the anxiety. Set a goal once you have tracked how many cigarettes you typically smoke in a day. Since quitting cold turkey (cutting out smoking completely) is bound to be stressful, difficult, and may lead to a higher rate of relapse, start by limiting your smoking. You may try going from a pack a day, 20 cigarettes, to 15 a day. Only you can decide what is the right amount to cut down to, but a good start may be to cut down by a quarter. For example, if you smoke 16 a day, go to 12. Or go from 12 to 8. If you are going to allow yourself five cigarettes a day, decide when you will smoke them. This removes the option of smoking a cigarette when you are feeling bored or have nothing else to do. Instead, you have designated smoking times to keep you accountable. For example, you might smoke one in the morning, two at work, one in the evening, and one before bed. It may be hard to give up the instant gratification of smoking, especially if there's no immediate reward for cutting back. You need to create a system of immediate rewards and consequences. So, if you smoke 2 more cigarettes in a day than you had allowed yourself to, there should be a consequence. Choose consequences that will benefit you in some way. For example, for every additional cigarette you smoke, tell yourself you have to do 10 minutes of stretching, put a dollar in a jar, clean the bathroom, or journal for an extra 10 minutes. While this is supposed to serve somewhat as a punishment, at least you will have worked in some way to make up for the lapse in discipline. Reward yourself when you meet or exceed your goals. This will make you more likely to continue cutting back. Rewards don't need to be tangible things. You could remind yourself that you're investing in your healthy future and that's a reward in and of itself. For example, if your goal was to smoke no more than 8 cigarettes a day and you only smoked 5, you might reward yourself with a glass of wine, 20 minutes of playing your favorite video game, or free time. Choose something that you enjoy, but don't necessarily have access to all the time. This will create a progress report. You could even graph your cigarette consumption in order to see the peaks and troughs. Here are a few things to consider keeping track of when you're monitoring your smoking habits: Triggers: Watch for what factors trigger higher rates of smoking. Cost: Track how much money you spend on cigarettes every week. If you're saving money during the week, start putting it aside. After a few weeks, use the money to buy yourself a reward. Consequences/Rewards: Notice if certain intervention plans (like increasing or decreasing consequences and rewards) are working or not. This way you can change them to make cutting back more effective.

SUMMARY: Track your cigarette use. Decide on a daily allowance. Set up a smoking schedule. Set up consequences. Set up rewards. Keep tracking your smoking habits.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: It's not enough to write in your goal journal every day. While the act of writing itself has benefits, you also need to read over those entries on a regular basis if you want to track your progress. By going back over your entries, you may be able to identify patterns in your behavior that you didn't notice before. You can see how your work towards this goal is impacting other areas of your life. Set aside additional time at the end of each week to go through your entries for that week just a couple of minutes is all it should take. Then at the end of each month, read over all of your entries for that month. You may want to leave extra space in your journal for thoughts or reflections on your progress at the end of each month. You want your goal journal to exist as a permanent record of your progress towards your goal. As you're reviewing your entries, clean up any mistakes and clarify sloppy writing. You may want to do your initial journaling in a notebook, then copy your entries once a week into a clean computer file. The act of copying your entries also will help you review them and notice patterns emerging in your behavior. Your goal journal may include discussions of sensitive situations, or reveal intimate details about your life. Keep your goal journal safe from prying eyes by hiding it in a secret location or in a locked drawer. You need to be able to be 100 percent open and honest in your goal journal. You may be less inclined to do that if you are afraid someone else will be able to read it. If you're keeping your journal on your computer, you may want to password protect or encrypt the file so that anyone who accesses your computer won't be able to look at the document. Your goal journal is a record of your progress towards your goal. Even after you've achieved your goal, the journal has information that can help you if you decide to go after a different goal. Looking back over your accomplishments also can be motivating. If you have a goal you achieved, you can read back through your goal journal when you're feeling a little down to remind yourself of how far you've come. If you're keeping a notebook as your journal, you may want to make a computer file each month, or once you've achieved your goal, to keep as a permanent record. You can either scan the pages or retype them from the words you wrote.

SUMMARY:
Review your entries regularly. Update and rewrite illegible entries. Protect your privacy by locking away your journal. Keep your journals indefinitely.