Gifts of the Angels

Steven Halpern has more than 60 recordings in circulation, including audio projects ostensibly designed to enhance memory, wealth, and weight loss. He even has his own trademarked slogan--the Halpern Effect(tm)! (Take that, Mozart.) Thus, it's easy to view Halpern's high-volume output since 1975 less as art and more like a commodity. Gifts of the Angels, a 68-minute compilation (sampling eight albums and adding two original pieces), offers a few nuggets that suggest Halpern's music at times can stand on its own merits, detached from all of its deep-bliss, New Age pretensions. "Celestial Prophecy," is a nicely detailed (which is not to say complex) excursion on solo piano that briefly stirs the senses, and the title track from Higher Ground is a delicate space-music standout. Meanwhile, the 1970s-flashback tonality of Halpern's electric piano (one piece, "Earthrise," can be traced to Halpern's debut release, Spectrum Suite) dates several of the tracks included here. Nevertheless, the disc's pace, which drifts deeper into the ether on each of the last five tracks, is nicely constructed for those aiming to nod off into a state of contented nothingness. --Terry Wood

Price: $16.98

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Tae-Bo Workout (SET OF 4: Basic, Instructional, Advanced, 8-minute Workout) [VHS]

Billed as the "future of fitness" and hawked by numerous celebrities, Billy Blanks's Tae-Bo actually deserves much of the hype it's receiving. A mixture of boxing punches and martial arts kicks, Tae-Bo is fun and easy. One of the best elements of this four-tape set is that the first tape (which is 40 minutes long), Tae-Bo: Instructional, lays out the movements you need to successfully complete a workout. Once you've mastered the steps, you won't have to fast-forward through half the tape to get to the workout, nor will your workout be slowed down by the repeated lessons. After you feel comfortable with the movements (and they're really quite easy to follow; nothing too complicated to trip you up), you're ready to move on to Tae-Bo: Basics, a 27-minute workout (5 minutes of warm-up, 18 minutes of Tae-Bo, and 4 minutes of cool-down) that will have your heart pounding and your body sweating. Next comes Advanced, a 57-minute workout that will have your heart racing, pulse pounding, and sweat glands working overtime. There's razzmatazz on the moves, with slightly more complicated combinations that should be fairly easy to master if you've completed the first two tapes. This video seriously raises the bar on the difficulty factor.

In addition to the short warm-up, the cool-down, and the 30 minutes of Tae-Bo, Advanced Tae-Bo also includes 18 minutes of muscle-crunching floor work. You know you're in trouble when even the guys in the tape have trouble keeping up. Make sure you have truly mastered the first two tapes before attempting this one. The 8-Minute Workout is a highly compacted workout (actually 14 minutes long when you include warm-up and cool-down) for those days when you're too short on time for Basic or Advanced. While the 8-minute idea is compelling, it's not an adequate substitute for the longer workouts. Blanks, a seven-time World Martial Arts champion, is a superb instructor, providing encouragement and careful instruction (if you don't know by the end of the tape to hold in your stomach, that's no one's fault but your own). The only downside to these tapes is the less-than-exciting music. Not only is Tae-Bo great exercise for all levels, but the punches and kicks are wonderful for working out stress and aggression. This is the aerobics exercise video for people who are bored by aerobics. --Jenny Brown

Price: $29.98

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Shark Navigator Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner, NV22L

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Luscious - The Bellydance Workout for Beginners

Lavish and overflowing with deep, rich, feminine movement, Luscious: The Bellydance Workout is made of 100% of bellydance moves and steps It is gentle, but it will work your body to enhance your muscle tone, flexibility, and fluidity, and promote weight loss. With a special focus on muscle conditioning and elongation, the program works each group of muscles deeply - using carefully built combinations to switch between muscle groups and add intensity to the workout.

Lusscious: The Bellydance Workout features gorgeous music and a beautiful flow undiluted by conventional exercises. Systematically addressing each group of muscles to deliver a total body workout, it creates an entertaining and aesthetically fulfilling dance experience inspiring you to do your best in executing each move with the proper depth, range of motion, and articulation.

A true dance experience as much as a fitness experience, Luscious is beginner level, but it offers you a perspective of challenge and growth. The workout consists of 7 sections, each building consistently upon the dance vocabulary covered in the previous sections through its own series of combinations. The combinations include classic bellydance transitions between steps to help you create the muscle memory to ingrain dance in your body.

Luscious is an instructional workout. It introduces the dance vocabulary in a careful, systematic way and contains an extensive tutorial section breaking down each move used in the workout.

If this is one of your first steps in bellydance, this program will be a fun introduction to all the basic groups of bellydance moves and transitions. If you are a dancer, it s a great way to practice the core of the bellydance technique and vocabulary through functional drills performed in the context of dance combinations and transitions creating an extra layer of muscle memory that isolated drills do not provide.

Workout duration - 45 min.

Tutorial section - 50 min.

The Circles section explores circular bellydance moves. It follows a slow-to-moderate tempo, working both the lower and upper body through isolations.

Next is the Infinity Loops section. Together with the stretching and toning impact of every move in this section, infinity loops are the ultimate exercise in fluidity.

Undulations maintain flexibiilty of your spine and help develop deep awareness of your core. They are also a challenging full-body muscle-conditioning exercise.

The bellydance hipwork section exercises your thighs, glutes, and abdominal muscles. In the Hip Accents section we ll perform traditional bellydance hip moves and then weave them together with the fluid movements: circles, infinity loops and undulations. Hipwork is what gives bellydance such vibrancy and party appeal - these steps look great on any dance floor.

The Shimmy - that effortless shaking of the hips - is actually hard work! Join us to shake your way through a few styles of shimmy, and enjoy the wide range of shimmy flavors.

The Body Line section is built of moves involving your total body. It shifts focus from working individual body parts to dance steps that offer the most stretching and give you a dancerly posture and carriage.

The last section is a short dance routine choreographed entirely of the bellydance moves featured in the workout.

Price: $14.98

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Damien Young, a Clinical Hypnotherapist, Sports Nutritionist, and Personal Fitness Trainer eloquently relays groundbreaking, new information that can't be found anywhere. This insightful 7 hours of information can and will change the lives of anyone who needs or wants to lose weight. By reconditioning the subconscious mind, one can achieve weight loss that's automatic. Losing weight without thinking about it has been the goal of scientists, dieticians, psychologists, and physicians for over a century. Damien Young has discovered the secret, and shares it with you in this inspiring, brilliant, and soon to be a worldwide phenomena of a product. These 7 hours can make a dramatic and profound impact on your life and your body.
In Damien Young's words:
"Every human being has a Subconscious Mind, and this powerful active force in our lives produce over 60,000 thoughts each day in the average person. Only approx. 10% of those thoughts we actually take notice of. The rest come and go, without much scrutinization on our parts. But it's in these 90% of unconscious thoughts that compel us to take 90% of our actions on a daily basis. It's in these 90% of our thoughts that compel us to eat when we're not hungry, to sit instead of stand, to eat food that's detrimental instead of nutritious, and to avoid exercise even when we know of its benefits. By targeting the source of these 90% of unconscious thoughts, and by changing the perceptions and the images associated with our bodies, food, and exercise in a way that makes it not only enjoyable, but rewarding, we can finally say with certainty that long term weight loss is not only possible, but inevitable."
Damien Young, Cht,Cpt,Spn

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EatSmart Precision Pro - Multifunction Digital Kitchen Scale w/ Extra Large LCD and 11 Lb. Capacity

The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale is a versatile multifunction home appliance. Designed to be highly accurate and aesthetically pleasing, the Precision Pro is manufactured to the highest quality specifications. Weigh items up to 11 lbs quickly and accurately, with results displayed in four different units: grams / ounces / pounds / kilograms.

For cooks - Weigh food items directly on the scale platform or utilize the scale's tare (zero) function, which eliminates the weight of a plate or bowl and makes cleanup a snap. The high resolution screen provides easy viewing angles on any kitchen counter and the five rubber feet eliminate sliding. Additionally the three minute auto-turnoff feature ensures that you will never again lose your measurement in the middle of your recipe prep!

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The Firm - Total Body: Low Impact Aerobics [VHS]

This video misrepresents itself. Although the title is Low Impact Aerobics, it is not low impact. The cardio intervals include jogging, jumping jacks, and other moves with hops. This is a 65-minute reissue of a 1988 video that features Janet Jones-Gretzky, who is so slim that you can count her ribs through her white leotard, leading a class of fit, gorgeous exercisers (female and male). This aerobic interval workout combines fast cardio (no patterns) with more controlled cardio plus weights, though still at a fast pace. We've learned a lot about exercise since 1988, and these two-second reps with weights are not as effective as slower reps. They are also more likely to lead to injury. Although the video is targeted to all levels, unless you're an experienced exerciser, it's too easy to lose correct form when you're doing such fast reps and aerobic moves at the same time. You might find the weight intervals repetitious (tons of lunges and shoulder presses). A floor-work segment uses ankle weights, followed by a stretch. Unless you miss the old Firm workouts, choose one that is more up to date (and therefore safer and more effective). --Joan Price

Price: $14.98

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