By Lily Dayton, Los Angeles Times

Each time health psychologist Kelly McGonigal teaches her Science of Willpower class, she asks students to select a willpower challenge to focus on during the 10-week course. Though students’ goals are diverse — kicking nicotine or getting out of debt, controlling their temper or overcoming alcohol abuse — there is one goal that is most common among the 200 or 300 students who pack the lecture hall seeking life change: They want to lose weight.

“It’s important to understand that everyone is struggling with something,” says McGonigal, whose experience in the Stanford University course inspired her to write “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.”

Beliefs about the role of willpower in weight loss have changed through the decades. In the mid-20th century, doctors told patients to use their will to eat less. After such restrictive diets failed, the pendulum swung in the other direction as doctors, nutritionists and psychologists recommended that people forget willpower and instead focus on making changes in their behavior that allow them to lose weight.

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Placer is the second healthiest county in California according to the annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps.

The rankings measure health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income, and teen births in nearly every county in the United States.

“The people of Placer County should be very proud of our 2nd place ranking in the recently published County Health Rankings. Our high ranking reflects years of hard work and healthy choices by the people of Placer County and our leaders, our businesses, our community- and faith-based organizations, and our very dedicated professionals in public health and health care delivery,” Robert Oldham, Placer County health officer, said in a statement. “A healthier Placer County keeps health costs down, helps our children to learn, improves our productivity and quality of life, and makes Placer County more attractive to tourists, employers, and investors. While we celebrate our success, we will also use these rankings and other available data to help us to build upon our success so that our legacy to future generations will be an even healthier Placer County.”

The Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The rankings are online.

By Timothy Dimoff

Disgruntled employees, workplace bullies, active-shooter situations, illegal drug use, ex-spouses and dissatisfied clients – all can be found in a random sampling of the 2 million people affected by workplace violence in the United States, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Of course, of the millions of reported cases, there are many more that go unreported; workplace violence includes any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.

From demeaning jokes to sexual innuendos to genuine fear of shots fired at work, hiring managers and their bosses need to understand these problems of human nature and know how to react. In my decades of experience with law enforcement and as a security entrepreneur, I’ve seen the evolution of workplace violence and management often do not know how to respond.

Here are some tips for conflict resolution and prevention:

• Inadequate use of hiring tools: Know who you’re hiring. I can’t emphasize this enough; this is the age of information, yet potential employees often provide falsified or misleading details. With so many candidates and so much information available today, employers often overlook useful tools in a hurry-up effort to maintain productivity with a premature hire. There are many resources, including drug testing acknowledgment and consent forms; fully understanding laws including the Fair Labor Standards Act, equal employment opportunity guidelines and military leave guidelines; and simply knowing how to ask revealing questions to applicants.

• Workplace intimidation and cyberbullying: Bullying is not exclusive to the schoolyard; it can follow adults into the workplace, and even home via email, texts and social media. The first and best thing employers can do is prevention, and you do that by creating a positive and fair company culture. Next, implement a zero tolerance policy for bullying; encourage employees to document and report bullying, and take those accusations seriously. Hold occasional staff meetings so that employees are taught to recognize signs of bullying and everyone is reminded of the zero tolerance policy.

• Gun violence: It can happen at what appear to be the most secure places in the world, and it can happen to the most innocent among us. Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist turned jihadi, shot 13 fellow soldiers to death at Fort Hood, Texas. Twenty first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School never had the chance to become second-graders. We hear story after story about shootings in movie theaters, parking lots and neighborhoods. Train managers to recognize and attempt to de-escalate the situation, which can include talking to the potential aggressor in an empathetic, non-judgmental way. Fail that, there are situations for which heroes are necessary.

• Violence against women: Homicide is the leading cause of death for women in the workplace, according to OSHA. Of the 4,547 fatal workplace injuries that occurred in the United States in 2010, 506 were workplace homicides. Once again, this comes down to a zero tolerance policy for bullying and sexual harassment, applicable to all workers, patients, clients, visitors, contractors, and anyone else who may come in contact with company personnel, such as an ex-spouse. A well-designed on-site security protocol can significantly reduce the risk of severe violence.

Timothy Dimoff is founder and president of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services Inc.

By Kathryn Reed

Changing things up a bit, while keeping tradition and offering something that others don’t. That is the winning combination for Elegant Evening.

The main fundraiser for Soroptimist International Tahoe Sierra is now in its 25th year.

“Not only do we raise funds, but we want it to be a fun community party as well,” Laurie Brazil, president of the Soroptimist group, said of the April 26 event. “One aspect that sets us apart is we have a very large art piece to the silent auction.”

Elegant Evening is celebrating its 25th year. Photo/Provided

It is such a well-attended event that even now being at a larger location than when it first started Elegant Evening often sells out. And this is good for the community because every penny raised is spent here.

Most of the money goes toward programs for children in the form of scholarships, self-esteem workshops at South Tahoe Middle School, anti-bullying programs, and the summer reading program that provides K-8 students on the South Shore with a book at the end of the school year that they get to keep.

As much as $40,000 has been raised. It comes from ticket sales, silent auction and “elegant bags”. The latter are like mystery bags full of themed goodies ranging from gardening items to coffee to power tools.

The ticket price went up this year to $55 – an increase of $5. But it had not gone up in the last decade.

“We are the most affordable event for what we offer,” Brazil told Lake Tahoe News.

No buffet or finger food for these women – it’s a sit down dinner.

No disc jockey or band playing music that people can’t dance to – it’s the Soul Experience with Trey Stone. And the band does its part to help out by giving Soroptimist a break on the bill.

This group also rallies to produce one of the largest and most diverse silent auctions.

Thran’s Flowers helps with decorations to add to the elegance.

In the early days Elegant Evening started off as a cruise night where people would dress up as if they were going to different locales around the globe.

It’s still a dressy affair, but then again it’s Tahoe, so you won’t be banned for wearing something more casual.

—

Notes:

• This year’s event is April 26 from 5:30-10:30pm at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

• Tickets are $55 and may be purchased online.

• Donations for the silent auction will be taken until April 10.

By Dan Waldschmidt

Great people throughout history often fail, quite miserably, before finally reaching their goals.

Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime; Winston Churchill lost every public election until becoming prime minister at age 62; Henry Ford went bankrupt five times; Albert Einstein was a terrible student and was expelled from school; Sigmund Freud was booed from a stage.

Ideas, brilliance, genius – they all mean nothing without the guts, passion and tenacity necessary to make your dream a reality. But often, people fall back on excuses and give up on trying to reach their goals.

Most of us have dreams, and many of us have big ones, but few of us actually see them through.

Here are six tricks for jumping off the excuse train and forge the path to your goals.

• Avoid the need to blame others for anything. Mean, small-minded people know that they suck. That’s why they are so cranky and eager to point out others’ mistakes. They hope that by causing others to feel inadequate, everyone will forget about how woefully off the mark their own performance is. Don’t blame anyone, for any reason, ever. It’s a bad habit.

• Stop working on things that just don’t matter. Not everything needs to be done in place of sleep. If you work for a boss, then you owe them solid time. You can’t cut that out. You can, however, cut out television time, meetings and anything else that gets in the way of achieving your goals. Replace entertainment with activity toward your goal.

• Refuse to let yourself wallow in self-doubt. You’re alive to succeed. Stop comparing your current problems to your last 18 failures. They are not the same. You are not the same. Here’s something to remember: Your entire life has been a training ground for you to capture your destiny right now. Why would you doubt that? Stop whining. Go conquer.

• Ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?” And then do it next time. If you spend a decade or two earnestly trying to be better, that’s exactly what will happen. The next best thing to doing something amazing is not doing something stupid. So learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to dominate.

• Proactively take time to do things that fuel your passion. Exercise is a great example. Living in the moment requires you to live at peak performance. A huge part of mental fitness is physical fitness. A sparring or running partner is a great way to refresh physical competition. Physical activity accelerates mental motivation.

• Apologize to yourself and those around you for having a bad attitude. Do this once or twice and you’ll snap out of your funk pretty fast. When you start genuinely apologizing for being a bad influence on those around you, you learn to stop whining and start winning.

Dan Waldschmidt is the author of “Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Achieve Outrageous Success”.

The lineup for Harveys Outdoor Concert Series continues to grow.

Added this week are Sammy Hagar and Friends on Aug. 16 and Rascal Flatts with guest Sheryl Crow on Aug. 24.

Both shows go on sale on April 18.

Harveys officials say more shows are still to be booked.

Other shows include:

• Sara McLachlan — June 24 8pm; $39.50-$89.50
• Carrie Underwood — July 18 8pm; $89.50-$175.50
• Zac Brown Band — July 20 6:30pm; $59.50-$135.50
• Journey/Steve Miller Band — July 30 6:30pm; $59.50-$199.50
• Lady Gaga — Aug. 2 7pm; $89.50-$225
• Boston/The Doobie Brothers — Aug. 3 6:30pm; $49.50-$125.50
• Bruno Mars — Aug. 14 7:30pm; $69.50-$135.50
• Eagles — Aug. 29-30 7:30pm; $99.50-$255.50.

By Jeremy Miller

I was pretty apprehensive about this one, but found myself somewhat pleasantly surprised by “Divergent”. Starring one of my favorite up and comers, Shailene Woodley, as the lead, I had enough reason to get to the theater and check it out.

Also starring we have Theo James, Kate Winslet, Jai Courtney and Miles Teller. Tris (Woodley) is a young member of society in futuristic Chicago that is divided into factions based on virtues. The youth of this “perfect” society hit an age at which they decide which faction they will spend the rest of their life serving and once they decide there’s no going back.

There is a test they take that “helps” them decide which faction they best fit. While taking her test Tris discovers that she’s a divergent: someone who doesn’t fit into any of the factions and if found out she’d be cast out or even worse, destroyed. She is forced to keep it a secret and on decision day decides against the faction of her parents and goes off on her own.

From there she’s put through a gauntlet of rigorous training and initiation into her new faction. While doing so, she starts to uncover a plot to destroy any divergent and take control of all the factions that would turn the perfect society upside down. Along the way she finds comradery and self-conflict, and some serious counter effort from her peers and instructors.

I liked a lot of things about this flick. I must admit I actually loved the premise: A sci-fi coming of age flick that takes place in the future with hormones flying all over the place. It makes for a good time. I liked the characters and the twists and turns were fun and only somewhat predictable.

The special effects were mediocre at best, but not so bad that they drew away from the realism of it all.

Along the way Tris develops a thick and often awkward crush on her trainer, Four (James) that’s both difficult and fun to watch. His mysterious demeanor and alpha bad-ass persona kept me involved and wanting to know more, but sometimes was outweighed by an overly cheesy script.

That brings me to my dislikes. The script was at some points unbearable. I was honestly conflicted at times. There were moments that I was really into it and cheering these guys along, and other times I could barely keep my eyes forward and watch the train wreck. The love scenes were pretty awful, about as out of sync as two boots in a dryer really.

But, like I said, overall I was entertained. It definitely sets up for a sequel and somehow I feel if they got some more seasoned sci-fi writers on the thing it could really be something awesome. For the first go around, they did a good enough job to keep me in my seat from start to finish so I guess that counts for something. Overall, it’s really nothing special, but it’s a fun movie and if you go in with expectations of the cliché PG-13 campy romance battered sci-fi epic, then you’ll get what you paid for and leave satisfied.

South Lake Tahoe resident Jeremy Miller has more movie reviews online.

By Jeremy Miller

“Noah” is the latest from one of my all-time filmmakers, Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”, “The Fountain”, “The Wrestler”).

It stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson. The premise is of course the classic biblical tale of Noah (Crowe) one of the last “good men of clean heart” type guys left on Earth, as Tubal-Cain (Winstone) has left mankind in a condition of aberration and chaos. Noah receives a message from The Creator that soon Earth and its inhabitants will be wiped out through a massive flood. He immediately uproots his family and migrates toward the mountain of residence of his grandfather, Methuselah. There he seeks advice and further clarification of his message and finds that he must build an arc to save all animals of earth from the upcoming flood that will ultimately end all life.

With the help of the big man upstairs, he plants a seed that spawns an entire forest from which he can build his arc. Along the way fallen angels assist in the construction of the arc and Noah finds much needed moral support from his wife, Naameh (Connelly), who most certainly could have bounced at the first sign of crazy, but stuck by him regardless.

Most everyone knows the story, so I’ll leave the rest of the story for the film to tell. Now, here’s the deal: I am not a religious person, nor do I claim to be or try to be. I went into this flick knowing the basics. I feel like so often films are criticized so heavily due to lack of accuracy or alignment with source (the Bible in this case) and it drives some people nuts. Me, not so much. I went to this expecting a movie from Hollywood and that’s exactly what I got.

Russell Crowe played Russell Crowe like he does in every other movie, but I love it and he entertains the heck out of me when he does it. I felt like the way Aronofsky built the landscape of the film was perfect, a good balance of what seems to be non-fiction balanced well with fantasy. It had good movement from the build of the characters and plot to delivery of action and the inevitable flood. I thought the special effects were tiptop, minus the animals. Darren certainly earned brownie points with PETA for not using real animals, but it’s obvious. The CGI at times was a bit disappointing.

The climax of the movie was intense and had me nervous for everyone involved. I’ve read a lot of critical reviews of this piece specifically of how Noah is portrayed. I guess I just don’t get it because if God told me that he was going to destroy the world and I had to build a boat, sail in it with my wife, kids, and all the animals of the world, I would be a little more than upset. It’s like an overly epic road trip across the country for 40 days with no escape. That’s rough no matter how good you got it at home.

The only gripes I had with the picture are as follows. Typically, Jennifer Connelly can do me no wrong, however at times she really forced her character and her lines, which I am going to blame on the script. But, admittedly she did over-act for bits and pieces. The score was also very minimal, especially for Clint Mansell who just happens to be amazing and he really didn’t give this one his all.

Overall, I can understand some criticism, but personally, I had fun, a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed the story telling and cinematography. If you’re expecting “Passion of the Christ”, you won’t find it here. If you’re looking for a Hollywood blockbuster with Russell Crowe kickin’ butt during the bible times, look no further.

South Lake Tahoe resident Jeremy Miller has more movie reviews online.

World-renowned classical guitarist George Sakellariou will be at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City on April 26 at 7:30pm.

The 69-year-old native of Athens has entertained audiences around the world. He began playing the guitar as a youngster, then trained at the Conservatory of Music in Athens, graduating with honors. By time he was 20, Sakellariou joined the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

He has shared his music with concertgoers from Singapore to Hong Kong, and from Toronto to Rio de Janeiro. He has also appeared at the Kennedy Center concert hall and privately performed for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Tickets are available at the Brewery Arts Center, 511 W. King St. in Carson City. General admission is $12; $8 for BAC members, seniors and members of the military; and $5 for students. For more information, contact the BAC at 775.883.1976.

The Tahoe Choir and Lake Tahoe Community College Chorus present the music of George Gershwin and Cole Porter on May 2-4.

‘S Wonderful features a guest performance by South Tahoe High School Jazz Band.

The first two performance are at 7:30pm, the Sunday show at 2pm. Performances are at Duke Theater at LTCC.

Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 seniors and students, free for children under 5. Tickets are available from choir members or at the Duke Theater Box Office, which opens one hour before the performance.