Kara Tointon dancing fitness

Pretty girl Kara Tointon without make-up in Heat magazine. The British soap star told Health&Fitness magazine: "My skin always looks its best when I'm properly hydrated. I drink loads of water. If I haven't had much to drink, I can tell from my skin." This is not the first time that Kara Tointon has gone au naturel. In an interview with FHM she recalls an embarrassing photo from her days as a model, when she was still in school: "One of the lowest points was when I was doing a tiny bit of modeling. The agency took a picture of me sitting in a bathroom with a towel wrapped around me, looking sad and it was used in a magazine to illustrate the dangers of contracting diseases. I was at school at that time so everyone took the piss out of me. I was Chlamydia Girl."



Left, Kara Tointon with Russian dance partner Artem Chigvintsev, on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing. The good-looking pair are one of seven remaining acts in the dancing competition, and in an interview with FHM Kara revealed her attraction for Artem: "Of course being able to dance is an attractive trait in a man, but it's not essential, although, saying that, if someone came up to me and did the caterpillar I would be impressed. Any man that can do that is cool with me." 27 year-old Kara finally revealed last week she was dating Artem, 28, telling host Tess Daly they had enjoyed a "romantic weekend" in Blackpool. Right, Kara Tointon shows off her gorgeous body in Health&Fitness magazine, wearing a No Balls Bamboo Seamless crop bra and Bamboo Seamless briefs. Kara may have naturally beautiful skin but she told the magazine how she makes it look and feel even better: "To boost the condition of my skin, I take a skin supplement. I always use a light fake tan to give me extra body confidence."

While Kara Tointon did gymnastics and board diving in school, she needed trainer Eric Ogoe for proper dancing fitness: "We do such a varied workout — including circuits, boxing, running, and resistance work — it's impossible to get bored. The best part of our workout is when Eric gets the boxing pads out — I'm like 'yeah bring it on!". I love working on my arms, too. I used to do gymnastics and since then I've tried to keep my arms looking toned. If I have a photo shoot or underwear modelling coming up, I get Eric to make me work harder on my stomach or butt!" Kara Tointon ended her four year stint as Dawn Swann on EastEnders in 2009, but she will return to the soaps with the new TV show Bedlam next year.



Left, Kara Tointon in the December 2010 issue of FHM magazine, wearing a Nichole de Carle bra, Ophelia Fancy panties, hold-up stockings from MyTights, and Kate Kuba shoes. Right, Kara Tointon and her gorgeous curves in the December 2010 issue of Health&Fitness magazine, wrapped in a Bloch crop top and Topshop Nude sparkly shorts. Before the new season of Strictly Come Dancing opened, presenter Tess Daly had told the Daily Record: "I think Kara Tointon is going to be brilliant. She's got a dancer's posture and poise and seems quite effortless on the dance floor."

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Drinking wine spohistication

Drinking most alcoholic beverages is a health risk, because of over indulgence and addiction. Wine is an exception. Drinking wine is associated with rich taste, sophistication, and style. Wine contains antioxidants, such as flavonoids and resveratrol, which reduce the likelihood of developing arteriosclerosis, the leading cause of strokes and heart attacks. While the health benefits from antioxidants in wine have been known for a while now, new research at the University of Natural Resources and Life sciences in Vienna, Austria reveals that moderate consumption of red wine can help fight Type 2 diabetics. All these health benefits only come with "moderate consumption" and even here wine has some distinct advantages.

Binge drinking is nearly impossible with wine, because it has to be sipped and savored for the lingering taste. Wine is also a light spirit, with alcohol content between 12 percent and 14 percent. And the best wine bottles are so expensive that it is financially ruinous to polish them off in one sitting! "The ordinary American, unable to understand how a natural fruit product (as wine undoubtedly is) can be sold for $50 or more a bottle, sensibly decides to have nothing to do with the mystery," writes wine historian Thomas Pinney.

Yes, the tradition of wine consumption has been about prestige and sophistication, and if that leads to snobbery, it can be off putting for some people. But one more good thing about wine is that it's family friendly. As per a recent survey, American consumers are more likely to drink wine during the holiday season with their families. 66% of wine drinkers say they prefer drinking wine at home, another 18% who drink wine at restaurants, and only 22% who drink wine at bars. This adds safety to the many benefits of drinking wine!



Another pointer to wine's association with sophistication, style, and taste, is the way it enhances a meal. Wine adds flavor to complement the tastes of the food, and different kinds of wines are matched with different types of meals. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was moved to observe, "Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy."

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Minka Kelly height and health

Actress Minka Kelly from TV shows like Parenthood and Friday Night Lights, worked in the health industry as a scrub nurse, and told Men's Health magazine: "I've held several feet of colon in my hand. I could definitely sew up your leg." With her photogenic face Minka Kelly also did some modeling, before getting into acting, but could never make it big because of her height and curvy body: "I never really took the idea of me being a model seriously, because I never thought that I had the body for it. I'm five-feet-five, and I have a bubble butt and pretty big thighs. So I learned quickly just to be happy with what I've got — and make the best of it. If I'm built thick, OK, then, I'll make it strong."



Minka Kelly looks in the mirror at her stunning body, in a photo for Esquire magazine's November 2010 issue, for which she is also the cover girl. The men's mag named her "sexiest woman alive". Growing up, Minka was close to her mother Maureen: "My mom lived a fast life. It was all about what we could do to have fun with nothing. She—for most of my life, she was a dancer. An exotic dancer. She was a stripper." Apart from the lack of money, Minka also endured teasing at school where she was nicknamed Stinka Smelly. She also picked up a little kickboxing in school and tells Esquire: "I'm a very nice girl, but nobody pushes me around......that's when you'll see a whole other side of me. That's when you'll see the side that grew up in Albuquerque." After graduating from Valley High School, Albuquerque, where she studied from 1994 to 1998, Kelly moved to Los Angeles.



Left, Minka Kelly does rope jumping at a gym, with weight training in between sessions. And Minka loves running for physical and mental fitness: "I do a lot of running, which I enjoy for mental reasons, too. I'll be really frazzled and run for 30 minutes, and everything sort of seems clear again."

Kelly tells Health magazine that getting enough sleep and drinking plenty of water are the essentials of good health....as is healthy eating. "I always have a bowl of Kashi Go Lean cereal with some cut-up strawberries for breakfast. It's just the quickest, healthiest breakfast. And it fills me up."



5'5" tall Minka Kelly with 5'5" tall Leighton Meester attending the InStyle Diamond Fashion Show Preview Luncheon, at the Beverly Hills Hotel on January 10, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California. With the same height, same beautiful hair, pretty brown eyes, and cute smiles, the two lookalike actresses were picked to star together in the psychological thriller The Roommate. Right, Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester in a scene from the movie, due out in February 2011. The plot involves Meester's character imitating Minka's character down to the point of making herself look exactly like her, and so it was necessary to pick lookalike actresses for The Roommate. Leighton and Minka have been friends since 2003, when they filmed commercials for Clearsil in South Africa!

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Cardio fitness and plus size women

A new study in the November issue of 'Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise' shows that high cardio fitness leads to lower rates of disease and death, without regard to size or weight! This means that plus size women with good cardio fitness, have a lower level of risk than slim women who do not do any aerobic exercise. Just to clarify, this is not an apology for obesity, which is a result of how much and what kind of food we eat. If a plus size woman who does cardio exercises, also starts eating healthy, she will start slimming down. But some women are happy with their body size and are exercising for good health, and not to lose weight.

Cardiovascular exercise involve the heart (cardio) and lungs. Vascular actually means blood vessels, and the proper medical term for such workouts is Cardiorespiratory, because they increase your breathing and heart rate. Cardiorespiratory covers moderate exercises like walking to more intense running, boxing, cycling, swimming, dancing, etc. Stephen W. Farrell, Ph.D., of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, and colleagues studied a total of 11,335 women, of varying shapes and fitness levels. They concluded that women with high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) have lower all-cause mortality than less fit women in all categories of adiposity (fat levels).

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Knee injuries female athletes

According to a report in the Billings gazette, knee injuries are rising among female athletes. More than 20,000 high school girls suffer a serious sports-related knee injury each year in the United States, according to the Chicago-based Children's Memorial Institute for Sports Medicine. Girls are up to seven times more likely to injure their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than boys in similar sports. "The number of knee injuries among young female athletes has reached epidemic proportions," said Dr. James Elliott, an orthopedic surgeon at Ortho Montana. "We are seeing players from all the high school soccer, volleyball and basketball teams. The injuries cut across every discipline."

Girls tend to have less neuromuscular control of knee motion than boys while performing certain athletic tasks, such as landing from a jump or suddenly changing direction. There are numerous anatomical and hormonal differences between men and women. Less than one-third of all reported ACL injuries involve contact from an outside force such as an opposing player or goalpost, Elliott said. Most are non-contact injuries, the result of a sudden change in direction, cutting movements, landing from a jump with inadequate knee and hip flexion or a lapse of concentration. It may take an athlete eight months to fully recover from an ACL tear and subsequent surgery and perhaps a year or longer before one's performance returns to top form. Prevention of knee ligament injuries in female athletes is possible through neuromuscular retraining programs.

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Lokelani McMichael model athlete

Lokelani McMichael gives fitness advice in Women's Health magazine. The Hawaiian girl's real name is Lokelani Kuu-Lei Maka Mae, and she is the youngest female athlete to complete the grueling Ironman Triathlon competition in Hawaii- a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile marathon run, all in 11 hours. That was back in 1995 when Lokelani was 18. Since then McMichael has competed in the Ironman contest for seven consecutive years, winning the women's section each time. Even now, at age 32, Lokelani trains for triathlons and competes in other athletic events in her native town of Kailua-Kona.



Left, Lokelani McMichael running on the beaches of Hawaii. "When I go for a run sometimes I'll take a soccer ball with me to stay engaged in what I'm doing. I kick it around a field. When surf's up in Hawaii I'll go surfing. Change the scenery, it's easier to stay in it," she told the Miami Herald about staying motivated for her long workouts. Right, 5'8" tall Lokelani McMichael posing with her bike for CosmoGirl magazine. From the early age of 12 Lokelani was a member of the Hawaii water patrol, a group of surfers who scan the start of the Ironman Triathlon, but it was only at the ripe age of 18 that she got her first bike!

"Living in Hawaii, I grew up in the water. By the time I was 10, I was competing as a runner and a swimmer. I got my first bike for my 18th birthday, so I only had a few months to train on it for my first Ironman. I'd wake up at 5:30 a.m. and ride for 18-20 miles before school, and then I'd go to track practice after. That first year I was so green, I didn't know if I could do it, so just finishing the race was exciting! Now I stick to a consistent training schedule to fine-tune my body. My body is the place I live. It's my vehicle through life; I have to drive it nicely."



Lokelani McMichael swimming with dolphins at the Dolphin Quest pool on the Big Island, for the March 2003 National Geographic- History of the Swimsuit issue. The Konawaena High School graduate says that to stay energized for her grueling workouts, she eats several small portioned meals in a day: "The main source of fuel for exercise comes in carbs. To keep trucking, start your day with oatmeal and berries. Fiber fills you up. Oatmeal, a slow-burning carb, will give you fuel for your cardio session. Eat a banana after: Potassium can help prevent muscle cramps. Even better, make a banana soy-protein shake to replenish energy and give your muscles what they need to recover."



Left, Lokelani McMichael posing for FHM magazine. Right, wearing fur and prancing in artificial snow for Complex magazine. Lokelani took up modeling as a means of paying her bills, but her athletic frame came in the way of some jobs. "I've been told my muscles are too big for fashion magazines," says McMichael, but despite that she was a model athlete in magazines like Elle, Self, Shape, Esquire, and did ad campaigns for Nike. Lokelani is also a swim coach, a TV host, and a spokeswoman for Lifetime Fitness centers. According to the Hawaiian beauty, looking good as a model or athlete is also important for workouts. "I like to dress up before I do a workout.....to get ready for it in character. You feel empowered, like Wonder Woman or something. Psychologically, it lifts your spirits," Lokelani McMichael told the Miami Herald. "I like to wear bright colors. They help me stay energized and motivated."

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