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1. Head for the Hills
Walking uphill is a great way to up the challenge without having to up your pace. Even if the hill is modest, you’ll still work more butt and thigh muscles and burn more calories. Find a hilly outdoor course or set your treadmill to a 4-8 percent incline and either sprinkle the hills into your workouts or do repeats (Find a hill or increase the incline on the treadmill for 1.5 minutes, decrease incline and rest one minute on the flat). Repeat 6-8 times.

2. Swing, Swing
Although carrying hand weights while walking ups the calorie burn by almost 5 percent, the strain on your shoulder and elbow joints just isn’t worth the risk. But since most of the additional calorie burn comes from the increased arm swing and not the weights themselves, you can still give your walk a boost by swinging your arms more forcefully and in a bigger arc for similar benefits with no risk!

3. Intervals
Short bursts of higher-intensity exercise will work wonders for your butt and thighs (ever wonder why sprinters have such amazing assets?). If you’re not ready to do an all-out sprint, try alternating fast and slow intervals. Walk at a slow pace for two minutes, a moderate pace for two minutes and then a really quick pace for two minutes. Repeat the pattern three to six times and start feeling the burn.

4. Get on the Poles
Poles are a great alternative to hand weights because they’re safer, they involve more muscle groups and, according to some studies, they can skyrocket calorie burn by almost 33 percent! You can use them on the track, on the roads or even in the mall. Although very popular in Europe but just catching on here, pole walking or Nordic walking is not only effective, it also gives you a wonderful gliding feeling. And depending on the angle in which you push on the poles, you will use various different muscles in the arms and back.

5. Listen to Your Heart
To get the most out of your walk, you need to pay attention to your heart rate and aim to work out at 60 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate or effort. Subtract your age from 220 to quickly estimate max heart rate, but keep in mind that this formula is not 100 percent accurate; getting it tested by a knowledgeable trainer or doctor is your best bet. Another option is simply bypassing heart rate all together and grading your intensity by how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being very easy and 10 being an all-out effort. If you choose this method, make sure to stay between 6 and 9 during the majority of the workout (excluding the warm up and cool down where you should stay between 3 and 5).

By upping the challenge and intensity of your walking workouts, you’ll burn more calories, tone and tighten your butt and thighs and increase your fitness level. Integrate these tips into your routine at least three to five times a week for 30 minutes per day and start seeing your body change.

If you were like me as a kid, you probably resented having to wait after eating — seemingly an eternity — before you could go back in the pool. Some parents said to wait an hour; others recommended less time. And what would happen if you disobeyed? Would you really develop a cramp and drown?

If you are now a parent, do you still promote this poolside wisdom? Do you follow it yourself? If so, you might wonder:

What is the ideal time to wait after eating before returning to the pool?

Does it matter how much or what you eat?

Should you wait at all?

The medical literature does not provide ready answers for any of these questions. Specifically, research provides no compelling support for a prolonged waiting period before swimming after eating. On the other hand, no studies clearly refute the recommendation either. Perhaps this lack of published information is because documentation of the specifics of recent meals in cases of drowning or near-drowning is simply unavailable and unrecorded. Alternatively, it may reflect the rarity of the problem, especially in waters that are easy to leave (such as a hotel pool) if problems do develop.

Considering how food is digested, waiting for complete absorption of a meal is clearly unnecessary. After you consume food, enzymes in saliva and the stomach begin the digestive process right away. About half of the consumed food remains in the stomach for two hours; it takes about four hours for the stomach to completely empty. Food spends another two hours in the small intestine and 14 hours in the large intestine. Moreover, what you eat makes a difference in terms of digestion. Simple carbohydrates (such as the sugar in an apple or a carbonated beverage) may be digested more quickly than a fatty meal (for example, a cheeseburger).

After a meal, there is an increased flow of blood to the stomach and intestines to absorb nutrients. This increased blood flow leaves less blood available to deliver oxygen and to remove waste products from exercising muscles, including those muscles involved with breathing. Trying to exercise after eating thus sets up competition for blood flow between the digestive organs and the muscles. It is thought that some abdominal or muscle cramps (including what is often called a “stitch”) might be caused by an inability to meet the increased demands of both areas.

Is this situation dangerous? If cramping occurs, will it paralyze or otherwise incapacitate a person so suddenly that he or she could drown if in the water? It is possible. However, if drownings or near-drownings have ever occurred because a person did not wait long enough after eating, these events are rare. More important risk factors for drowning include alcohol use, a lack of safety gear on boats and a lack of protective fencing and covers for pools.

The notion that swimming soon after eating is dangerous may be a medical myth based on commonsense, intuition and the oral tradition that passes “wisdom” down from generation to generation. Strenuous exercise after a large meal is often uncomfortable, so taking some time to digest (more time for larger meals) makes sense, but failing to do so is probably not the enormous danger about which we are often warned.

Age-old wisdom may not always be based on sound scientific reasoning, but listening to signals from your body does makes sense — if you experience pain, cramping or severe fatigue when swimming, perhaps you did go back in the pool too soon.

One of the world’s most prestigious health journals has lashed a fast-growing trend in the United States and Britain for “designer vaginas,” the tabloid term for cosmetic surgery to the female genitalia.
The fashion is being driven by commercial and media pressures that exploit women’s insecurities and is fraught with unknowns, including a risk to sexual arousal, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says.

Known as elective genitoplasty, the surgery usually entails shortening or changing the shape of the outer lips, or labia, but may also include reduction in the hood of skin covering the clitoris or shortening the vagina itself.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the practice is spreading fast in the United States as well as in Britain, but the picture is unclear, the BMJ says.

Not only is there a disturbing lack of data about the phenomenon, there has been negligible assessment about surgical after-effects — and almost zero reflexion as to whether a labial “problem” exists in the first place, the BMJ says angrily.

In 2004-5, 800 “labial reductions” were conducted by Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS), more than a doubling of the figure of six years earlier. Other operations were carried out by the private sector, although the full figures are unknown.

The authors of the article, London gynaecologist Sarah Creighton and clinical psychologist Lih Mei Liao, conducted their own small-scale probe into why women sought this surgery.

“Our patients sometimes cited restrictions on lifestyle as reasons for their decision,” they say.

“These restrictions included inability to wear tight clothing, go to the beach, take communal showers or ride a bicycle comfortably, or avoidance of some sexual practices.

“Men, however, do not usually want the size of their genitals reduced for such reasons. Furthermore, they find alternative solutions for any discomfort arising from rubbing or chaffing of the genitals.”

Patients who sought genitoplasty “uniformly” wanted their vulvas to be flat and with no protrusion, similar to the prepubescent look of girls in Western fashion ads, they found.

“Not unlike presenting for a haircut at a salon, women often brought along images to illustrate the desired appearance,” say Creighton and Liao. “The illustrations, usually from advertisements or pornography, are always selective and possibly digitally altered.”

Plastic surgery to the labia carries risks, for this zone carries nerve fibres that are highly sensitive and are a key pathway of sexual arousal, the article warns sternly.

“Incision to any part of the genitalia could compromise sensitivity,” it says.

The BMJ piece suggests genitoplasty is a classic example of where commercial, media and social pressures artificially create a problem, fuel concern over it and then put forward a solution for it.

“There is nothing unusual about protrusion of the labia,” it says.

“It is the negative meaning that makes it into a problem — meanings that can give rise to physical, emotional and behavioural reactions, such as discomfort, self-disgust, perhaps avoidance

Fergie Fuels Up

What: Fuel Belt Endurance 4-Bottle Belt

Why: Fergie keeps the boys on “lock lock” with her very serious exercise routine. She’s been spotted sweating all over town, and it looks like she’s got a new addition to her regular routine. This FuelBelt consists of four, seven-ounce flasks that can carry water or gels, so you can’t use extreme thirst as an excuse to bail on your workout. Generally used by marathon runners, or people in training, the belt can also be used to add some weight, and increase the intensity of your workout. It’s also available in two- and six-flask models, all of which feature a little pouch for storing your keys, MP3 player and ID.

With all the water she’ll be drinking, let’s just hope Fergie remembers to hit the ladies after working out, lest she have another “accident” like she did at the San Diego Street Scene concert.

Price: $36

Find it on www.Amazon.com