Lifestyle Choices

When I was a child growing up in Portsmouth, the naval town on the south coast, and we saw someone who was grossly obese, my mother would say pityingly, in a knowing stage whisper, ‘Trouble with their glands, dear.’ In those days Portsmouth was full of sailors of all nationalities and anyone who was very fat was unusual. Now, when I go back to my home town forty years later, the sailors have all gone and people who are very overweight are so common as to be unremarkable. The attitude to these heavyweights has also changed. They are no longer the subject of pity, but of a kind of loathing. Fat today says greedy, slothful and self-indulgent. As I will show you, hormones and obesity and intimately bound together. Trouble with your glands is indeed part of the obesity equation, including a gland that has only in the last decade been discovered to be secreting hormones — fat itself. (more…)

Lingerie choices for the modern girl abound! Never have you had so many lovely lacies from which to choose. Now the problem is what to wear under what; to get the best fit from your outer clothes, you need to pick the right ones to wear underneath. Study the illustrations on the following to get the lowdown on the undercover story. From left to right, top to bottom, they are:

Camisole.Cozy and toasty warm in winter, this simple little shirt adds warmth without bulk. Look for fine cottons, wools, even silk.

European-style teddy. Features stretch lace for a flattering, closeto-the-body look under blouses, dresses. (more…)

Shop with your head, not just your heart, and you’ll be sure to get the most from your foot-wise purchase. Touch the shoes you’re going to buy; rub your hand over suede shoes; the color should be consistent but look different each way. If it doesn’t, the nap is too short and it will wear poorly … If the shoes are unlined, take careful note: does the color come off on your fingers? If the answer is yes, you can bet that it will come off on your feet too … Velvet shoes should be thick and soft looking, feel plushy to the touch … With silk or other fabrics, check the edge where cloth meets sole; (more…)

Worry over breasts causes a great deal of anguish to many women. Occasionally it is about their being too large, or about cancer; more often it is about their being too small, or about how to restore a beautiful shape to a neglected bosom. For breasts are funny things—and most women’s judgments and perceptions about their own breasts are far from accurate. For a woman, the worry that her breasts are too small or that they are beginning to age can be a manifestation of some other underlying fear or insecurity that is masked behind concern over what is supposed to be the archetypal female sex symbol.

There are a lot of things that can be done to improve the less than perfect bust but it is important before you embark on any of them that you ask yourself if it is really the size, shape, or condition of your breasts that is bothering you, or if it is something else. Otherwise, you can work hard to improve things, find that you succeed in developing an almost perfect bust, and wonder. why it hasn’t made any difference at all as to how you feel about it. For although many glossy magazines would have us believe otherwise, some of the world’s most miserable women are blessed with exquisite breasts. (more…)

If your breasts are too small, the above kind of treatment can increase their size usually by somewhere between a half to two inches. If they are too large, the same treatment, because of its toning and firming action, will make them appear slightly smaller. But if you want a more drastic reduction, which I think should only be considered in cases of extreme size (a good bra can work wonders for the rest), the only alternative is surgery. Mammaplasty for breast reduction entails making several incisions in the breast area (just where depends on the particular patient) and then removing fat tissue. It usually also means moving the nipple itself, which results in scars around the nipple area and the strong possibility that the patient will be unable to breast-feed a child. But results from this operation are generally good. (more…)