This photo shoot featuring 43-year-old Cindy Crawford looking insanely gorgeous certainly got me in a spring/summer yowser-I-need-to-get-it-together workout mood.
I had a quick chat with my friend Jennifer Cohen, a health and fitness expert based in Toronto and Los Angeles, about the best way to approach what I’m now calling the “Cindy Crawford mental health effect.”
“What does one have to do to look like this?” I asked. Jennifer’s response was a surprise: “Forget it – she’s a genetic mutation,” she told me, without a trace of irony. “She’s got incredible genes and a body type that most of us don’t have.”
So that’s that, then.
Cindy looks awesome in those (airbrushed) photographs, but she’s not immune to cellulite:
’I think I look pretty good for 43, but I don’t look the way I did when I was 23,’ she said. And she also admitted she has cellulite: ‘I do, and I never said I didn’t. I’ve had two kids and I’m 43, so leave me alone!’
Jennifer’s advice is similarly frank. “It’s important to work with – and appreciate – the body you do have, ” she says. “Focus on achieving something that looks and feels good to you.” She recommends brisk walking uphill and swimming as two great ways to kick start spring training, and says cutting sugar and processed foods from your diet is half the battle if you want to lose a few extra pounds.
As an aside, if you want to use a body smoothing or cellulite fighting cream, they do help to make the skin’s surface look smoother and more toned when combined with a healthy diet, exercise and improving the circulation in your body.
This interesting article on cellulite suggests that tight underwear and pantyhose are partly to blame. Insert your own “going commando” joke here.
[This post is by More.ca's summer intern, Andrea Iseman. Welcome, Andrea!]
Inspirational people come in all shapes and sizes – celebrity or not – so it is no surprise to hear Edmonton-born Michael J. Fox is going on a search to see how one remains an “incurable optimist”. Tune in to his television special tonight, as he explores the nature of optimism, traveling across the globe, despite his own struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Speaking with famous friends, like Bill Murray over a game of golf, and regular people like those he meets randomly on the street, Fox never loses sight of how positive thinking can really change lives.
Like Fox, Farrah Fawcett is using her own personal story to inspire others fighting cancer. Still living her life like the angel she once was, Fawcett refuses to give up her own fight against anal cancer. In the NBC documentary entitled “Farrah’s Story,” airing May 15, Fawcett shows she is just like the everyday woman, taking her very personal struggle public, as she uses a personal hand-held camera to document her doctor’s appointments and her interaction with her loved ones.
Stories like Fox and Fawcett’s, about finding hope in their everyday lives are great inspirations to those facing similar struggles.
Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, airs tonight on the ABC Television Network.
Is there health beyond the swine flu? Why, yes. Here are some headlines this week:
I love this essay from the New York Times website, May it please the court, by visual columnist Maira Kalman. Here’s her TED talk as well, The Illustrated Woman.
I admit that I have a love-hate relationship with my mailbox. Too many bills, but also the odd handwritten letter or invitation. There really is something to “snail mail” that just isn’t present in an email.
But home delivery may be a thing of the past, as the Globe and Mail reported this weekend. Great, just what I need: Another must-do errand to a postal box somewhere. Isn’t there a point at which we have to say some things are worth funding as a society? Especially if it means I can just get home after work already?
(And yes – I know many people with superboxes already live this reality. Please weigh in!)
Just some links for those of you doing your spring or summer shopping this weekend:
I have to admit none of these touch on my current fashion issue which is the cap sleeve. I don’t look good in cap sleeves because my upper arms are, shall we say, less than toned. I’m working on the toning but meanwhile I like short sleeves. But all the shirts I’ve loved so far have had the dreaded cap. If you have suggestions, comment! Or share your dilemma.
Last night I attended the launch for Opportunity Rings (“a tale of sex and smartphones”), Sheryl Steinberg’s debut novel (see her article for More about ageism in the workplace). I got to the Indigo event a little bit early and found what seemed like a family reunion in full swing: Everyone chatting and catching up and hugging. I’ve heard writers talk about books being like giving birth to a baby, and if so, this was definitely like a shower.
I even had the pleasure of speaking with a very proud aunt.
As a mere member of the media I had to occupy myself with – what else? typing on my Blackberry. I haven’t finished reading my copy of the book yet but going from the reading it’s going to be a smart, funny read.
So now that you know what I’m reading this weekend, what’s on your bedside table?
