You’ll be
nodding off just as all her senses are waking up. Besides, routine large
meals not only mess up your short-term plans for passion, they almost
certainly guarantee that you'll have love handles the size of soccer
balls.
Follow your nose. Now, just to contradict ourselves, you
might want to stop by the bakery before your steamy evening of love.
Why? The human nose works in mysterious ways when it comes to
sex. It's not perfume, coconut suntan oil, or musk that turns men on;
it's plain, old, innocent (until now) cinnamon buns.
Neurologists at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research
Foundation in Chicago measured penile bloodflow in medical students
and found that only the fragrance of cinnamon buns seemed to turn the
men on. But remember, don’t go eating a half dozen, even if they are
still warm, because you’ll just take a nose dive for the pillow as the
blood in your body rushes to your stomach to help digest all those
buns. Sure, the fragrance is delicious (and sensual), but if you must,
eat just one. Or even better, eat only half of one.
Put out the light. If you really want more chances at puffing in
the bedroom, stop puffing on that cigarette. Cigarette smoking accel-
erates the formation of blockages in the heart's arteries, and there's
every reason to believe that it does the same to the vessels that supply
blood to the penis. In fact, smoking is now considered a major factor
in erectile dysfunction, with the first signs of harm appearing by age
40. Besides leading to plaque buildup along artery walls, nicotine in
tobacco is also a blood vessel constrictor. That means each puff makes
it more difficult for blood to get to the penis when it's stimulated. Thisdoesn’t help you to stand up before going down.
Hit the sack, literally. You don't want to be sinking before
you ever set sail. And since fatigue is one of the biggest roadblocks to
good sex, it's important that you make sure you're getting the sleep you
need. Adequate rest goes hand in hand with good diet and exercise to
keep that fine sexual tool, your body, functioning at its peak.
It's easy to fall into the routine of having sex just before falling
asleep at night, but for many people that's the worst possible time.
Your love life gets what little energy is left after the day is done, and
sometimes there's almost nothing left. If you think about it, among all
the priorities in your life, do you really think love should be last in
line? Try reversing your priorities for a change, beginning the day with
lovemaking instead of ending it that way. If Saturday morning is the
only time it's feasible to linger abed, and you've got kids, try having a
sitter come early Saturday morning; then lock the bedroom door, and
don’t come out till you’re through.
Fantastic Foreplay
Ever notice how often the tastiest part of a fine meal is the
appetizer? Often it's enjoyed as much as, if not more than, the main
course. This, in fact, is the way some sex experts prefer to look at
foreplay. To them, even the word itself is mildly
objectionable, because it implies that all sexual
touching is just a prelude to intercourse, which
may or may not be the case. To them, noncoital
sex play is a better term, because it includes
everything, takes the pressure off everybody, and
doesn't seem quite so desperately goal-oriented.
In The Ananga Ranga, an Indian sex
classic written in the fifteenth or sixteenth century,
we learn that even royalty needs a little foreplay.
This Muslim-era tome reminds readers what the
court physician said to Maria Theresa, Empress of
Austria: "Furthermore, I am of the opinion that the
sexual organs of your Most Sacred Majesty should
be titillated for some length of time before coitus."
The same book gives this practical tip for accomplishing that: Make an
"artificial elephant trunk' by bringing together the first three fingers of
either hand, and thus stimulate the woman. Whether you find yourself
trumpeting like a bull elephant in the bedroom or your mate is
pleading, "Ungawa, Tarzan!" the delectable rites of arousal-and
wherever they lead-are wonderful and important, especially to a
woman.
In one study, 709 female nurses were asked to rank the impor-
tance of 15 different things (such as fatigue, stress, and lack of ten-
derness) that interfered with their ability to reach orgasm. The
women's most common complaint, outranking all the others by a good
margin, was that their partners did not spend enough time in foreplay.
Men, overly focused on the "goal" (intercourse), tend to hurry through
it all. They don’t slow down and take enough time to linger, to be
playful, to explore, and to help their partners be satisfied.How long is long enough? Well, only you and your partner can
really tell for sure. But when these sexually experienced adult women
were asked how long they'd prefer that their lovers indulge in foreplay,
they replied (on average) about 17 minutes. That may seem like a long
time, but the rewards of patience are rich. When Paul Gebliard, a
collaborator of the late Dr. Alfred Kinsey, went back and reexamined
the
![](qr/40968/4.png)
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.