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Good in Bed Guides
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TODAY books
updated 10/7/2011 3:55:37 PM ET 2011-10-07T19:55:37

Please note that the following book excerpt describes adult situations. Reader discretion is advised.

From sex educator and author, Logan Levkoff, Ph.D. comes a book that proves the point that at least when it comes to sex, "happy wife, happy life." Here's an excerpt.

Ladies, does your guy grumble about wanting more sex? Do you find yourself swatting his hand away when he goes for a quick grope? Does it seem like these days you are the one who is constantly turning him down because you're just not in the mood? Do you want to want sex, but feel like your man needs to seriously step up his game in and out of the bedroom? Is his idea of foreplay mounting you from behind while you're bending over the dishwasher? Sure, your relationship may no longer be in the hot and heavy infatuation phase, but do you want your man to have an education in what makes a married woman (and mom) sexually tick?

Guys, do you remember what it was like to have regular sex with the woman sleeping next to you? Do you love your wife, but wonder what happened to that sex life you once bragged about to your friends? Are you trying to figure out why your wife still turns you on, but it seems like she's not as excited by you? Are you wondering what you can do to bring back the sex goddess who, once upon a time, couldn't keep her hands off you and was up for doing it anytime/anywhere?

I know what you're thinking. Why on earth would you need a guide on how to get your wife to have sex with you? I mean, really. Doesn't marriage give you automatic access to guilt-free, frequent, and, hopefully, experimental sex?

You're no longer dating, the rules against premarital sex don't apply to you anymore (if they ever did), and you're not living with your parents or roommates. C'mon. Sex--good sex, in particular -- is a marital right.

Right?

So what happened? How did your life go from spontaneous sex in the backseats of cabs to the obligatory once-a-week, four-and-a half-minute hump?

Well, I'll tell you ...

But before we get down to business, you're probably wondering what makes me qualified to pen this guide. Let me put your mind at ease. I am a sexologist and sexuality educator. I have been working in the field of sexuality since the age of 15, when I was a peer HIV/AIDS educator. I have received both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality Education, given hundreds of lectures, written countless columns, and have been a talking head on television news and lifestyle programs at least a thousand times. Suffice it to say, I know a thing a two or about sex.

But do I really get what you and your wife are up against? Have I experienced the relationship roller coaster, where sex goes from "can't get your hands off each other" to "maybe tomorrow night, honey"? Yes. I have. I have been married for 10 years, have two children, and juggle responsibilities both at home and at work. I've not only been there, but I experience the same issues that you do...all the time. Even more importantly, Gentlemen, I know why you're experiencing these issues and what you need to do to jump-start your sex life. And I am willing to share.

In addition to my professional credentials and personal experience as a wife, I have spent hundreds of hours with my girlfriends talking about you. And we have a lot to say. Believe it or not, we really do want to have sex--great sex--but you guys can act like such babies at times, and we have those already. We want a man who makes us feel sexy, wanted and, more importantly, appreciated. We don't want to have sex-starved lives. But we do want you to step it up.

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While you're reading this you may feel at times that I'm being sarcastic, snarky, and maybe even a little bit mean. I'm not trying to make you feel bad; I'm just trying to give you a little taste of what women may be experiencing--not all of the time, but sometimes. And I want to be as honest as possible. So please know that you are not the only ones to blame. Relationships are a mutual responsibility and women need to be held accountable too. But there are a few things that guys need to know about how sex changes over the course of a long-term relationship (which will save you both a lot of time and trouble, not to mention therapy). Maybe you're reading this right now, in bed, with your wife next to you--or maybe she's asleep. Either way, the purpose of this book is to get you to rethink how you handle sex in your relationship. Hopefully, it will lead to some stimulating conversation, some constructive communication, and, yes, some good sex.

I don't expect you to follow every single suggestion I have made. What I hope is that you'll read this and change some of your behaviors and approaches so that your relationships can be more sexually (and emotionally) fulfilling.

This book is divided into two simple sections: "Out of the Bedroom" and "In the Bedroom."

Let the "Out of the Bedroom" part of this book guide you in setting the stage for positive interactions in your relationship. These moments are the ones that will make it more likely for you to have sex ... with quality as well as quantity.

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"In the Bedroom" will help you satisfy her (and your) physical needs. This section is designed to improve your approach and pleasure quotient in the bedroom, or wherever else you like to be intimate.

So let me be clear. There's no guarantee that you're getting laid this evening. If you really want to have great sex with your wife, prep for tomorrow, not tonight. If you think she'll just hop into the sack after a long day juggling responsibilities at the office, or at home with the kids, or BOTH, you'll most likely be met with an eye roll. It's probably too late for tonight.

So don't focus on the sex you wish you could have tonight. Focus on the sex you can have tomorrow night. And try to understand that female desire isn't like male desire. Maybe watching us bend over to load the dishwasher is all you need to get all hot and bothered, but we need more. (So don't even think about mounting us doggie-style in front of the dishwasher.) It's all of that "outside the bedroom" stuff that makes us want to get it on inside the bedroom. If we turn you down tonight, don't let it piss you off. It's not that we want to turn you down. We just need a little more prep time. So come to bed and snuggle with us. Hop in, give us a kiss, and focus on the great sex we're going to have tomorrow night. Maybe we'll be nice and give you a back rub.

Reprinted from "How to Get Your Wife to Have Sex with You" by Logan Levkoff, Ph.D © 2011 by Logan Levkoff, Ph.D. Used with permission of the publisher, Good in Bed Guides.

© 2012 MSNBC Interactive

Video: Feeling sexy again after baby

  1. Transcript of: Feeling sexy again after baby

    HODA KOTB, co-host: OK. You've got a great job, a good home and a wonderful new addition to your family, but once you bring home the baby, you don't know how to get your sexy back, and that's kind of the last thing you feel like worrying about.

    WILLIE GEIST, co-host: Yeah. Logan Levkoff knows how. She's a sexologist, sex educator and a married mother of two.

    KOTB: A lot of sex in this title, Logan .

    Ms. LOGAN LEVKOFF (Sexologist): Yes. Lots.

    KOTB: Some of it is about just feeling good. I mean, we saw Bethenny Frankel , and she was pregnant for a second and then it seemed like the weight came off like that. So you would look at her and you'd think, wow, OK, it would feel easy to get your sexy back if you're here. But a lot of women struggle with the weight loss issue.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: Oh, 99.9 percent of women struggle with getting their body back.

    KOTB: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And I think that's important to remember that not all of us are like celebrities. We don't have the access to huge diets and trainers and maybe plastic surgeons. Whatever it is, we don't have access like that. So it's important to know that you have new priorities. Your body is going to be different. And you will get past it.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    GEIST: It's so true. My wife will look in like the Us Weekly magazine.

    KOTB: Yeah.

    GEIST: `See, she lost all her weight in five minutes.'

    KOTB: Right.

    GEIST: I said, `That's her job is to look good.'

    KOTB: Right.

    GEIST: `She has trainers and dietitians and the rest of it.'

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And air brushed.

    GEIST: And air brushed.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And air brushed. Let's not forget air brushing.

    GEIST: Now, is it a physiological thing for a woman? Or is it -- in other words, is she physically not interested in sex or is it a self image thing more than that?

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: It's both. First of all, I think that doctors us the OK at six weeks, you can go back and have sex.

    KOTB: Right.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: But it's scary.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: There's the thought of pain, there's discomfort, there's anxiety. And there's also this idea that you are just exhausted.

    KOTB: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And it's not just I stayed up all night feeding the baby.

    GEIST: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: It's 24 hours a day , seven days a week, you are on call, you hear every breath, every cough, every movement.

    KOTB: Right.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And that's a hard to explain to your partner when they don't understand.

    KOTB: Well, if you are that tired, is it -- should you just sort of suck it up and say, you know what, it's going to be better for my marriage long-term, it's not going to take all that long.

    GEIST: Boy, that's romantic.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: Oh.

    KOTB: No, but sometimes you just have to, don't you think?

    GEIST: Wow.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: Well...

    KOTB: Sometimes it's like that. You know, Willie .

    Ms. LEVKOFF: Well, it's certainly important to get -- to get back in the mood and remember what sex is like.

    KOTB: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: Not before six weeks, not before you get the OK, and it might be a couple of weeks later. But I think it's also about redefining what intimacy is and recognizing there are a lot of ways to be intimate and physical and still get pleasure. Maybe not through the official act of sex right away.

    KOTB: Right.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And communicate with your partner and tell them what's going on in your body so that the father doesn't think that it's an issue with him. Because it's not, it's the baby.

    GEIST: Most -- I was going to ask you, because it's a sensitive issue for men, too, because you want to be respectful of your wife...

    KOTB: Sure.

    GEIST: ...and everything she's just been through physically. When's a -- how should the man approach it?

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: To be honest and say, `Listen, I'm confused about this as well. I feel like I'm being replaced.' Because often, that's what men feel, that they've been replaced, the baby is now the -- your wife's new partner and all the love goes -- and attention goes there.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And it's going to be like that in the beginning, especially if a woman is breast-feeding, too. The connection is there. Breasts are not a man's anymore.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: They're now a baby's.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: So it's about being honest and saying `I'm feeling uncomfortable with this, can we talk about it?'

    KOTB: OK. Other than like trying to get your body back in shape and getting as much rest as you can so you feel up for it, what else can women do to just sort of get her sexy back?

    Ms. LEVKOFF: I think the first thing that we should do is take time for ourselves.

    KOTB: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: We become so consumed with having this baby and taking care of this baby that we forget that even an hour away to be a grown-up, to read a magazine, to read a book...

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: ...to get out of that motherhood mind-set is really important. To remember that you are a person, not just a mother.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    GEIST: It's so true. My wife and I, we have a one-year-old.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    GEIST: We've set date nights. Saturday, we're getting a sitter, regardless. You've got to go out and feel like a grown-up again, you know, as you say. Does there become a moment, though, when we see, OK, this is a problem now? It's been six months or it's been nine months or a year?

    KOTB: Or some people suffer through postpartum.

    GEIST: Sure.

    KOTB: I mean, there are lots of other issues that come in there.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And there's...

    GEIST: When do you go for help?

    KOTB: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: There's a roller coaster of emotions after you give birth, certainly a lot of highs and lows, and baby blues are really common. It's really important that you're not ashamed to get help if you're concerned with hurting yourself or a baby. I mean, that -- those are extreme cases.

    KOTB: Mm-hmm.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And you'd want to seek some kind of help. But having the roller coaster is really normal. But communication is key.

    KOTB: Communicate.

    GEIST: Yeah.

    Ms. LEVKOFF: And oftentimes we forget that we expect our partner to just miraculously know what we're thinking.

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