With the Rio Olympics underway, we went to the stars of the games—the athletes—to find out what’s involved in preparing for the world’s most elite sporting event.

MORE: 7 Female Athletes Talk on the Biggest Issues Facing Women in Sport

Becky Sauerbrunn, the co-captain of the women’s US soccer team, who already has an Olympic gold going into this year’s event, told us about the way her team’s learning to acclimatize to the hot temperatures in Brazil, while also switching up their style of training. Shannon Miller, one of the most decorated American artistic gymnasts in history and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, opened up about the diet she follows while training, and track star Allyson Felix laid out her intense 30-hour weekly training schedule. Plus, we’ve got more insight from some of the world’s elite athletes when you click into the slideshow.

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Any bride or groom can tell you that that simply mentioning the word wedding to any caterer, venue, or dress designer will usually cause the price of each service to inflate drastically. The same can be said of personal training, with some boot camps tagging on the phrase bridal body and charging upwards of $1,000 for what are essentially just multiple group fitness sessions. So, if you do decide to ramp up your fitness routine ahead of your nuptials, don’t get sucked into overpaying. Instead, try this simple 14-minute workout from fitness Instagram sensation Kayla Itsines. You can do it at home with no gym membership, no trainer, and no equipment.

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Itsines recommends that, as with any new fitness routine, you should approach your pre-wedding workout goals realistically. “I want women to focus on feeling confident and healthy for not only their wedding day, but their honeymoon, first year anniversary and the rest of their life with their partner,” she said. Once you’ve set those not-too-lofty expectations, incorporate high-intensity interval training into your exercise routine—along with some low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS) and resistance training that you can learn about through her app—to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. “HIIT involves short bursts of intense exercise followed by a short ‘rest’ period. It can be done in 10–15 minutes and has the added benefit of what is known as the ‘after-burn’ effect, meaning when your workout is over and you’re sorting out your seating chart and speaking to the caterers, your body can continue burning fat,” Itsines said.

The pre-wedding workout she delivered below involves two rounds of one circuit, each lasting seven minutes. Start by setting your timer for seven minutes and aim to complete the exercises in the below circuit as many times as you can before the timer goes off. Once completed, take a 30-second break, and then reset your timer to seven minutes and complete the circuit again for your full 14-minute workout. “While you’re aiming to complete each exercise as quickly as possible, it is important that you maintain proper technique throughout,” Itsines added.

Roll out that exercise mat and get started!

Circuit:
In and out push-ups: 10 repetitions
Ab bikes: 40 repetitions
Snap jumps: 10 repetitions
X hops: 24 repetitions

Place both hands on the floor slightly further than shoulder-width apart and both feet together behind you, resting on the balls of your feet—this is called push-up position. Quickly jump both feet outward so that they’re wider than your hips, as shown. While maintaining a straight back and stabilizing through your abdominals, bend your elbows and lower your torso toward the floor until your arms form a 90-degree angle. Push through your chest and extend your arms to lift your body back into push-up position with your feet still apart. Quickly jump both feet inward to bring them back together. Bend your elbows and lower your torso toward the floor until your arms form a 90-degree angle. Push through your chest and extend your arms to lift your body back into push-up position. Continue alternating between push-ups with feet apart and feet together for the specified number of repetitions.

Start by lying flat on your back on a yoga mat with your feet extended out in front of you. Bend your elbows to place your hands behind your earlobes. Gently raise both feet, your head and your shoulder blades off of the floor. This is your starting position. At the same time, extend your left leg so that is approximately 45 degrees from the floor and bring your right knee into your chest. Extend your right leg completely so that is 45 degrees from the floor and bring your left knee into your chest. This creates a pedaling-like motion. Once you have grasped this movement, incorporate a twist with your upper body. This can be achieved by meeting the knee with the opposite elbow. For example, as you bring the right knee into the chest, twist your upper body over to the right so that it can meet your left elbow. Continue alternating between left and right for the specified number of repetitions.

Plant both feet on the floor slightly further than shoulder-width apart. Looking straight ahead, bend at both the hips and knees, and place your hands on the floor directly in front of your feet. Keeping your body weight on your hands, kick both of your feet backward so that your legs are completely extended behind you, resting on the balls of your feet. Jump both of your feet in toward your hands, ensuring that your feet remain shoulder-width apart. Repeat the specified number of times.

Plant both feet on the floor slightly further than shoulder-width apart. Looking straight ahead, bend at both the hips and knees, ensuring that your knees remain in line with your toes. Continue bending your knees until your upper legs are parallel with the floor. Ensure that your back remains between 45 and 90 degrees of your hips—this is called squat position. Propel your body upward into the air. Extend and reposition both of your legs to land in a lunge position with your left leg forward and right leg back. Ensure that your weight is distributed equally between both legs. Immediately propel your body upward into the air again. Extend and reposition both of your legs to land back into squat position. Immediately propel your body upward into the air again. Extend and reposition both of your legs to land in a lunge position with your right leg forward and left leg back. Continue alternating between lunge and squat movements for the specified number of repetitions. Each movement of the feet is equivalent to one repetition. Breakdown: The sequence will be: squat, lunge left leg forward, squat, lunge right leg forward.

Want more workouts like this? Download Kayla Itsines’s equipment-free guides.

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Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic gold medal on Sunday for doing good swimming, but his victory wasn’t the only thing that had people talking. The man who is good at swimming also raised questions when he removed his warm-ups to reveal large, dark circular bruises on his shoulder. Confirmed: Phelps has been getting cupped.

Anyone who has ever hate-read an interview with well-documented cupping fan Gwyneth Paltrow already knows what’s going on here—as does anyone who follows Kim Kardashian on Snapchat, where she shared the details of her own cupping experience just last night.

Source: Instagram

But for the uninitiated, cupping is a form of alternative physical therapy that involves using heated glass cups to suction the skin and create a vacuum, which is then released. The line of thinking is that the suction stimulates blood flow to the area and helps relieve muscle soreness and pain, which is why Kim has turned to the treatment in an effort to ward off neck discomfort.

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Though it comes from the same school of Eastern medicine as acupuncture, cupping hasn’t become quite as ubiquitous, which probably has something to do with the telltale bruises it leaves behind—and the fact that there’s no scientific evidence whatsoever that the practice has any medical benefit to speak of. Many experts believe it’s essentially the Chinese lettering tattoo of alternative medicine, including Dr. Terry Dubrow, M.D., who discussed cupping with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live last night. “It’s total B.S.,” Dubrow said.

Source: Instagram

Dr. Robert Glatter, M.D., an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and a former sideline physician for the New York Jets, agrees that there are few benefits to cupping, if any at all. Glatter told USA Today, “It’s a hickey, to be honest. What you’re getting is a large, circular hickey.” But he does acknowledge that there’s a placebo effect that comes into play: “When people feel better, they may perform better.” So that explains how Phelps got 19 gold medals, and how Kim got 12 (and counting) seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

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It should come as no surprise to you that Lily Aldridge, wife to Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill, listens to rock music when she works out—even though her preferred style of exercise is Ballet Beautiful. The Victoria’s Secret model told us this while sharing her complete food and fitness routine, including the exact meals she has for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the light salad combination she orders online; where she goes for a healthy (ish) meal in New York; and how often she works out. Keep scrolling to learn all about (and, inevitably, copy) Aldridge’s food and fitness diary.

For breakfast I had:
I scramble a couple of eggs, and sometimes I might add a little bit of avocado on the side.

For lunch I had:
I ordered a salad for lunch today from Sweetgreen. I ordered the Spicy Sabzi (380 calories), which is a little bit spicy and I think there’s tofu and chili, beets, carrot, broccoli, quinoa, and greens—it’s delicious.

For dinner I had:
Simple fish with lots of roasted vegetables.

@lilyaldridge

My favorite healthy restaurant is:
I love ABC Kitchen in New York, it’s delicious. What I decide to order really depends—if I’m being healthy, I’ll have a salmon salad which is super delicious, and if I’m not being healthy, I’ll basically order everything else on the menu.

My go-to healthy drink is:
I love just a simple green juice with ginger and lots of healthy vegetables.

My favorite healthy snack is:
I love those Lara Bars. The cherry pie flavor is my favorite.

My go-to smoothie recipe is:
Protein powder, almond milk, blueberries, and then different kinds of powders like spirulina and other green powders to get it all in there.

My favorite workout is:
Ballet Beautiful. I do [it] three to six times every week depending on the time of year.

@lilyaldridge

My guilty pleasure food is:
I love a cup of English breakfast tea with a scone and clotted cream.

My signature healthy dish is:
I love making roast chicken from Gwyneth Paltrow‘s cookbook. It’s very delicious and very clean.

The health trend I just can’t get behind is:
There was a cookie diet at one point that I thought was weird and not healthy! I thought, “That doesn’t sound healthy at all!”

The best part about my job is:
My friends.

I start an average day by:
Kissing my daughter.

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My favorite activewear brand is:
Victoria’s Secret Sport.

The activewear trend I’m wearing right now is:
I love the really high-waisted leggings with the classic sports bra. I think it’s really cool and it’s what I wear to work out, on the street, everywhere.

My summer health tip is:
Enjoy life and don’t worry.

The music you’ll find on my workout playlist includes:
I love Arcade Fire, Rolling Stones, and rock ‘n’ roll when I work out.

@lilyaldridge

@joja

This news will surprise approximately nobody with a Facebook account: A new study found that people who post constant workout updates to the social network are unequivocal narcissists. That includes humblebraggers complaining about their 5 a.m. marathon training, yogis posting their crow pose progress photos (🙏,) and anyone who checks in at the gym, ever. 

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@basebodybabes

The new study was conducted by researchers at Brunel University in London, and considers data from 555 Facebook-using participants who answered questions about their social media habits and their personality. It found that what people post about on FB often correlates with certain personality traits—and narcissists are particularly keen on sharing their accomplishments and achievements online. And yes, an “accomplishment” could include something as minor as choosing to create a #smoothiebowl for breakfast—in fact people with narcissistic tendencies were more likely to talk about their food and fitness routine.

“Narcissists also wrote more status updates about their diet and exercise routine, suggesting that they use Facebook to broadcast the effort they put into their physical appearance,” the researchers wrote. And while the study only looked at Facebook use, we’d be willing to bet that the same goes for Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter users.

Researchers also noted that people with low self-esteem were more likely to post about their romantic partners constantly on Facebook, which is also absolutely not shocking to anyone.

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@fit

@fit

If you talk to a gynecologist about period pain, the usual response from the doctor is to recommend a) the pill, or b) stronger pain killers and a heat pack. There’s really no other solution, apparently. Except, there might be—and it doesn’t even require a prescription.

Chaste tree, also known as vitex, comes from a small Mediterranean shrub and its fruits have been used for hundreds of years as a natural way to address hormone and fertility issues. Studies show the magical herb helps your pituitary gland make progesterone and hormones linked with ovulation, which women’s health expert and Flo Living founder Alisa Vitti says is “necessary for your body to ovulate, for regular menstrual cycles, and for you to avoid symptoms of hormonal imbalance.” Symptoms like, say, PMS.

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I first heard about the supplement not from my ob/gyn, but after visiting a medicinal herbalist, Daniela Turley, in New York several months ago. After listening to me bitch about debilitating PMS for a solid 15 minutes, she clued me in about vitex, which, in her opinion, is a hugely underrated, natural way to ease symptoms like mood swings and cramps. “It could even help with breakouts,” she told me, adding that it almost always works for her patients, but because I was an extreme case it may take longer to have an impact or possibly not work at all. Turley suggested 20 drops of the herb each morning in water to “boost progesterone and normalize pituitary function.” 

I didn’t notice a difference for the first four months but kept hopefully adding those drops of Gaia’s $13 blend to my smoothie every morning. Eventually, my symptoms—while they certainly haven’t magically disappeared—started to ease up without taking a synthetic hormonal contraceptive or relying on pain-relieving meds that other experts had recommended for most of my adult life.

Vitti says it’s normal for the herb to take many months before impacting your symptoms: “Vitex is a relatively slow-acting herb,” she explained, adding that women should “take it for up to six months to see any change in your cycles or improvement of symptoms.” During this time it works to address the root cause (rather than just covering symptoms up with an Advil!) in women who are progesterone deficient and therefore estrogen dominant and have a “luteal phase defect,” which refers to the time of your cycle straight after ovulation and before your period.

She recommends vitex in conjunction with dietary changes (more on that here), particularly when you first come off the birth control pill, are trying to get pregnant, you want to breastfeed, or are suffering from symptoms of mild endometriosis. But, of course, it’s always a good idea to speak with your own doctor before taking any medicine—even if it is natural.

MORE: This Device Promises to Cure Period Pain Without Drugs

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Before Simone Biles became the poster girl for gymnastics, there was Nadia Comaneci. The Romanian gymnast shot to fame during the 1967 Olympics in Montreal when, at just 14 years old, she became the first person—man or woman—in modern Olympic gymnastics history to be awarded a perfect 10 during her routine on the uneven bars. She went on to earn six additional perfect scores of 10 at the games, and changed gymnastics forever.

With the world buzzing today about Team USA’s incredible performance in Rio, we reached out to the icon—who’s currently in Rio supporting the gymnasts—to learn a little more about her own Olympics experience, and the fitness and diet routine she follows today. Keep scrolling!

For breakfast I had:
I’ll normally have fresh-squeezed orange juice, one coffee a day in the morning with a little milk, yogurt, brown toast, turkey and a little bit of cheese. I’m European so I have protein in the morning! Occasionally I’ll have a boiled egg.

For lunch I had: 
A wrap—I like to use leftovers from dinner the night before to make a wrap. Usually it’s a combination of salmon, hummus, and cheese.

For dinner I had:
Mostly fish with hummus and salads. I eat all fish but tuna—I’m allergic to tuna!

Nadia Comaneci performing her perfect routine during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. (Getty Images)

Today I snacked on:
Qivana bars.

I’d absolutely never eat:
Tuna, because I’m allergic. And french fries! I haven’t eaten them in 25 years.

Right now I’m working on:
I’m so excited to be here in the P&G Family Home during the Olympic Games, where brands are supporting athletes and their families throughout the games. I love the relationship I have with Tide PODS, which is celebrating the “Evolution of Power.” The video shows a true evolution—40 years since I made history, 20 years since Dominique Dawes made history, and now how everyone’s eyes are on Simone Biles here in Rio.

Before an Olympic event, I would prepare by:
I [didn’t] make any drastic changes. Everything, every part of your training, is planned so you reach your height of performance at the right time—at the Olympics. You can’t make drastic changes unless something drastic happens, and you definitely don’t want that!

My favorite workout is: 
I love a workout that fits well into my life. I like short, quick workouts that I can be consistent with, that I can do every day. In the morning is the best—get it out of the way and it makes you feel good. I do a maximum of 30 minutes that includes cardio—a little running and then the elliptical—plus stretching and light weights.

Nadia Comaneci performing a routine in 1979. (Getty Images)

My favorite healthy restaurant is:
We have a 10-year-old, so we always go to his favorite restaurants. I usually order fish wherever we go.

My go-to smoothie ingredients include:
I don’t usually make smoothies. I’m on the road all the time, and I don’t want to make something that I can’t take with me! I want to make and take things that are simple.

MORE: Exactly How Top Athletes Prepare for the Olympics

I begin my mornings by:
I go to the fridge and grab a juice and breakfast before I work out!

Each week I work out:
Every day. If I fly somewhere for 15 hours, the first thing I do at the hotel is go to the gym.

The three ingredients you’ll always find in my fridge are: 
Eggs, bread, milk.

My signature healthy dish is:
My husband’s favorite dish—an eggplant dip. It’s a Romanian recipe. You bake the eggplant, take the skin off, drain it, chop it, and mix it with olive oil. It’s delicious!

Nadia Comaneci competing in 1978. (Getty Images)

My favorite health app is:
Nadia’s Perfect 10 game, coming soon!

The most-played song on my workout playlist is:
“Stayin’ Alive” by the BeeGees.

The best part of my job is:
I love that I am able to connect with a lot of the young generation of gymnasts and help them get over barriers that they have when they learn a skill, or get over a fear of the balance beam—it always takes me back to when I was their age. I like sharing the personal experiences that I have with gymnastics that many people don’t to help the new, up-and-coming gymnasts. It definitely makes me feel good!

STYLECASTER/Getty Images

I’ve had the lovely misfortune of chronic bacterial vaginosis (BV) and yeast infections for almost as long as I can remember. I vividly recall my first yeast infection as a semi-adult: I was 16, and I had just started birth control thanks to a trip to Planned Parenthood with my sister. I thought if I told my mom about the infection, she’d somehow know I was on the pill, so I just rode it out for a week while I panicked inside. It also just so happened to be a hot mid-August week filled with two-a-days for field hockey, so the word uncomfortable is a vast understatement. More than a decade and a dozen birth control swaps later, I finally get them with less regularity—about twice a year, but still one right after another: The antibiotics I was taking for my thrice-yearly bout of BV would always bring on a yeast infection, never fails.

Fast forward to a few months ago: After a short breakup, my boyfriend and I got back together and started having sex with much more regularity (from once a week to about three or four times), which meant our trusty bottle of KY Jelly—something my gynecologist recommended for dryness when I was 22—entered the picture often. We had used it a handful of times when we first got together two years ago, but because we didn’t use it consistently, I still blamed the estrogen in my birth control pill for my flare-ups. This time around, I woke up almost every morning feeling so itchy and uncomfortable that my boyfriend actually suggested I might be allergic to sex. Great.

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This happened to coincide with my annual, and when I told my (new) gyno I thought the pill could still be causing my BV/yeast infections, she sort of laughed it off and let me know that newer birth control pills, like the one I’m on, were made to decrease incidents of infection. Right away, she asked me if anything in my routine had changed, and her eyes lit up: Finally, after a particularly awful two months of oh-my-god-is-this-ever-going-away, we finally pinpointed the cause: my lube.

I made a few key changes immediately: I replaced my scented body wash with this pH-balanced one from Good Clean Love; then I swapped out my feminine wipes (how is there not a better name for these?) from Pampers or something similar with these from SweetSpot Labs; lastly, I tossed the bottle of KY Jelly with such triumphant fury that you’d think it stole money from me, and picked up the Almost Naked lubricant, also by Good Clean Love, which is aloe-based, rather than glycerin- (aka the devil) based. The latter feels like traditional lube—slippery and natural—but with a telltale aloe scent. I’ve found that it dries out a bit quicker than lubes made with glycerin and silicone, but a little water or saliva (if you’re both STD-free, of course) helps reactivate the formula. It’s a very small price to pay for a healthy vagina, if you ask me.

“The majority of personal lubricants on the market are made with heavily concentrated petrochemicals, says Wendy Strgar, founder of Good Clean Love, which formulated its products with the help of a biophysicist at Johns Hopkins. “These ingredients make the products hyper-osmolar, which means that they disrupt the equilibrium of the vaginal tissue—so much so that a single use makes you up to 13 times more likely to contract bacterial vaginosis.”

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She’s understandably biased, so I reached out to clinical sexologist and couple’s therapist Dr. Eve, to find out if our findings could be merely anecdotal. “I wouldn’t steadfastly state that the cause of infections was the lube,” she says, but “yes, lubes with these properties, plus those with menthol, carry risk for vaginal infections. Lubes should be glycerin- and paraben-free, and should be as natural and organic as possible.”

Dr. Eve also recommends using the top ingredient in Good Clean Love—aloe gel—as a stand-alone lubricant: “[It’s] soothing so I’d recommend it for women who have discomfort with penetration.”

It’s been a couple months since I swapped lubes, and so far so good. I can’t say this will work for everyone suffering from chronic yeast infections or BV, but it’s worth taking a deeper look into what you’re putting in your body.

“Does my face look different?” asked my twentysomething friend, turning her face from side to side and wiggling her jaw. A set of small, dark, barely there bruises peeked out from both sides of her face. “I got Botox,” she whispered, beaming. Uh, what? Not only does my friend already look a good three years younger than she is, but her skin also has zero fine lines, zero wrinkles, and certainly nothing worth Botoxing. But as I promptly pointed out these basic facts, she stopped me. The Botox wasn’t for wrinkles, she said, it was to slim down her face. Or, more accurately, her jaw.

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The process, as I found out, is called a masseter muscle injection. The masseters, which are the major muscles responsible for chewing, grinding, and, for anyone who has ever been under a 6 p.m. deadline, clenching, take a beating as we live our insanely chaotic lives. “After years of use, or simply because of genetics, they can become thick and prominent, giving some women a square, wider-looking face,” says Joshua Zeichner, MD, director of cosmetic and clinical research at the department of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. And since you can’t just refrain from using your jaw for a year or two, your options for slimming down have historically been either surgical or, well, acceptance. And then came Botox.

“By injecting a small amount of Botox into the muscle along your jawline, you can actually relax the muscle until it thins out and appears smaller,” says Ziechner. “It’s basically a vacation for your muscles.” Still, I was skeptical. But as I simmered in doubt, I watched my friend’s face slowly transform. One week later, her jawline appeared softer and more rounded, as if someone had sanded her angles down by just a few degrees. She looked as she had hoped: Like she had just returned from a long, diet-and-cleanse-filled vacation …and then maybe drank a bit from the fountain of youth. And if I hadn’t known about the Botox—or hung out with her in the same zip code for a week—I would have believed it, too.

Turns out, the youthful glow wasn’t just in my head. “Young faces tend to be widest near the eyeline and narrowest at the jaw and chin,” says Zeichner. “But as we age, our faces square off, or grow wider at the jawline. So by slimming the jawline, you’re naturally going to appear younger.” Which, to someone going through their quarter-life crisis and doesn’t get carded anymore, sounds freaking awesome.

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Of course, Botox is not a permanent solution. Though it can take effect in as little as a week, the muscle vacation only lasts for up to five months. And because it only works on your muscles, not your bones, “it won’t do much for patients with naturally wide, strong-looking jaws,” says Zeichner. But before you think of cutting corners and finding a shady “doctor” on Google who promises cheap injections, think again. “If done incorrectly by an inexperienced physician, which can actually happen quite easily, since this is considered an off-label use of Botox, the muscles in your jaw can weaken and atrophy,” he says. Translation: Have fun eating pudding for a year because you tried to save a few bucks.

Scary stuff aside, though, most derms agree that using Botox to slim down your face is extremely effective, and the before-and-after photos speak for themselves. As for my friend? Her bruises have long disappeared, but her happiness—and newly infantilized jaw—has not.

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If you want to avoid the dreaded elliptical line, you might not want to hit the gym on Tuesday, according to new research by the exercise subscription service ClassPass. The survey identified a variety of different trends around the U.S., and the one thing that every region had in common is that Tuesday is the most popular day of the week to work out. Random! Maybe post-weekend blues kill motivation on Mondays, but people rally and recover by Tuesday?

The survey uncovered a few other interesting findings that might help you plot your workout schedule a bit more strategically: Early evening, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., is the most popular time of day to hit the gym for every part of the country except the Southeast, which peaks at 6 a.m..

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When it comes to favorite types of workouts, people in the Northeast prefer cycling, Southeastern residents enjoy barre classes, Midwesterners like strength training, and people in the West and Southwest favor pilates. Nationally, though, strength training won for the overall most popular workout category in the U.S.

So if you’re a New Yorker who loves to cycle—it’s the top form of exercise for Big Apple residents—consider booking classes in advance (57 percent of ClassPass users are guilty of last-minute booking) and avoiding the most popular time of the week: Tuesday evenings.

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When, earlier this month, reports exploded that a 19-year-old FSU student stabbed a married couple to death and chewed on the husband’s face, it was only the latest harrowing incident in a chain of scary flakka-related events. The gory murder has understandably gotten tons more attention than less sensational drug news. But actually, the drug itself isn’t new—it’s the ingredients it’s made with that are becoming more dangerous.

What’s in It

Flakka is a synthetic stimulant called a cathinone, more commonly known as bath salts. The key word here is synthetic, meaning, obviously, that the drug is 100 percent man-made and unnatural. “Flakka is similar to synthetic marijuana or K2,” says Warren Zysman, CEO of ACI Chemical Dependency Treatment Centers, who has been a clinician in the chemical-dependency field since 1997. “It’s lab-made, mostly in China, with absolutely no regulation. And the composition is constantly changing in order to prevent legal detection, so it’s hard to nail down, and that’s very dangerous.”

What It Does to Your Body

The reason people become so over-the-top aggressive and out of control when they’re on flakka, which is usually smoked, is because of those unnatural chemicals. “The effect is similar to LSD,” says Zysman. “Because of the toxic chemicals and the way it interacts with your brain, it triggers intense impulsive and aggressive behavior and paranoia. People lose control and do things they never would have done otherwise.” Physically, it’s likely to cause elevated blood pressure and can even cause stroke or heart attack, depending on the chemical compound.

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Why It’s “Trending” Now

There’s a widespread misunderstanding among young drug users right now about which drugs are considered safe, says Zysman. “There’s a big movement to get involved with opiates, K2, bath salts, and flakka, because many of these drugs can be obtained ‘legally,'” he says. “But they’re being misused and abused, and it’s leading to the synthetic drug trend we’re seeing, which leads to complicated medical reactions and severe drug addiction.” Another thing that makes flakka appealing to some users: A lot of labs don’t include it on drug tests, so people think they can get high and get away with it. “The crazy part is that because it’s sold as bath salts, you can’t get arrested for having or selling it even though it’s much more dangerous than something like marijuana,” says Zysman.

Why It’s Worse than Other Drugs

Because of the synthetic chemicals in flakka and the completely unnatural reaction our bodies and brains have to them, the “high” is more dangerous than other drugs, even possibly heroin, Zysman says. “When someone uses heroin, they cause significant damage to themselves and have a high risk of overdosing, but they’re not committing those acts against other people,” he says. “Whereas with flakka, there’s the risk of lashing out in an extreme and life-threatening way toward others.” The one silver lining of scary incidents like the incident with the FSU student is that word gets out about the drug, and fast. The negative publicity that surrounds it might help prevent people from experimenting with it, says Zysman—at least that’s what he hopes.

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Hailey Baldwin went to an extreme when preparing for New York Fashion Week this year. “Right now, I’m on a metabolic detox,” she told People ahead of this week’s fashion festivities. “I’m trying to reset my body before I get into the craziness of all this traveling and running around.”

Though she didn’t specify what “detox,” exactly, she had embarked upon, she did say that she spent 10 days detoxing and took supplements in addition to changing her diet. “It’s like a cleanse that you have to do with like protein powder and all this different stuff and you have to eat a certain type of way,” she said. “I eat healthy regardless but it’s very much more scaled down,” she said, telling the publication that she added “clean foods,” including fruits and vegetables, to her daily eating plan. 

Source: Instagram

In addition to the whole “cleanse” or whatever, Baldwin also ensured that she got enough sleep on a regular basis in the weeks leading up to this one. “Sleep is such a big one because I think when you’re traveling so much and you’re running around, you don’t realize how off your body gets,” she said. Indeed. Well, her abs look great—here’s hoping that the detox she went with is more along the lines of Dr. Joshi’s 21-day holistic detox (Kate Moss and Cate Blanchett are fans), on which you eat from a specific list of non-acidic foods, and less like a juice cleanse or, worse, a Master Cleanse, which can be wreak havoc on your body. 

Here’s Baldwin four weeks ago, pre-cleanse.

Source: Instagram

And here she is now, gyrating in an elevator with BFF Kylie Jenner.

Source: Instagram

More and more, experts are warning against extreme cleanses, because they can be dangerous and can also lead to bad eating habits. “Long-term juice cleansing can lead to deficiencies as well as to yo-yo dieting, which itself can lead to a whole host of problems,” cautions celebrity nutritionist and author Keri Glassman. “The best cleanses don’t follow an all-liquid diet, include any weight loss pills or powders and are not meant to be followed for a long period of time,” Glassman said. “Steer clear of a cleanse that requires you to invest a lot of money or requires really extreme practices.”

Plus, your kidneys, skin, and urinary system detox automatically, as long as you take care of yourself. “What many people don’t realize is that your body is a natural cleansing system built to detox all the time, if you treat it right,” said Glassman. She advises sticking to an organic, whole food–based diet for about four days for a reset, which can result in feeling less bloated, more energetic, and possibly shedding a few pounds. “The best way to stay cleansed is to consistently eat organic greens and lots of other veggies, and carefully portioned organic fruit and healthy fats,” Glassman said. “Follow a high-in-fiber diet with plenty of water, and take out all packaged and processed foods.”

 It’s that wonderfully interesting time of year again when dozens of beautiful, homogenous women slither into expensive evening gowns and tiny bikinis on live TV and compete against one another to be crowned the better American woman…and something something scholarship. But amid the spray tans, hair extensions, and fake breasts, there’s generally a few very real, and very grounding tales that steal the spotlight for a few hot seconds. This year, it’s the face of Miss Mississippi Laura Lee Lewis.

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Source: Instagram

Lewis revealed that she was born with mid-facial hypoplasia, a condition that left the bones in her upper face underdeveloped, and the bones in the lower half of her face overdeveloped. It left her face “very disproportional,” Lewis told People magazine. “The physical pain was tremendous with my condition. I had trouble eating and speaking, and there was a lot of pain in my face, but the emotional pain was so much stronger.”

But, unfortunately, Lewis couldn’t live with her condition in silence. “’I remember walking through the hallways of my school with people yelling names at me like ‘Horse Face,’ and [asking] ‘Why do you look like that Laura Lewis? What’s wrong with your face?’” she continued. “It was something I had to go through everyday—constantly seeing people staring at me and poking at me and laughing at me.”

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After 13 years in braces (yes, you read that right—13 years), Lewis’s facial plates had matured enough that she was finally able to have corrective surgery at age 18, which turned out to be one of steepest physical obstacles to overcome. “It was a seven-hour surgery, followed by six days with my jaw wired shut,” said Lewis. It was intense and all-consuming, but, as most Miss America stories tend to go, it had a happy ending, with Lewis recovering and continuing on to be crowned Miss Mississippi in June.

Source: Instagram

Even without the happy ending, the pageant winner says she would have been OK with her appearance. “I learned at a young age to focus on inner beauty,” she said. “I learned to focus more on character and service, because people were looking at the ugliness on the outside, but I wanted people to see the beauty I had on the inside.”

If the words “walking burns more calories than running” shock you, we have some news for you. Celebrity mega-trainer Tracy Anderson—who has toned the bodies of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Cameron Diaz, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham, Gisele Bündchen, Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson, Kate Hudson, Molly Sims, Jennifer Aniston, Alessandra Ambrosio, Shakira, and Hilary Rhoda, just to name a few, says that you might be wasting your time with all that running. In fact, she prefers the slower pace.

“You burn less calories running than walking if you aren’t able to run for very long or run very well,” Anderson told People. “To really be effective and calorie-burning, you have to be able to work your body to where it’s working up a sweat, where it’s pushing into that zone of actually being optimized to be effective in the calorie-burning range, so it’s much better to go for a long and powerful walk than it is to go for a short run.”

Tracy Anderson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo: Wenn

Though walking is usually painted as running’s ugly stepsister, Anderson explained that’s just not so. “I always approve walking as a really great cardiovascular workout to do,” she said. “It’s something that people think is for the aging crowd or that it’s not really aggressive enough, and I completely disagree with that. It’s a really responsible form of exercise.”

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What’s more, it’s accessible to all—not just to cardiovascular masters. “One of the great things about walking is that it’s something that almost everybody can do,” she said. “It’s something that is very healthy because it doesn’t have harsh impact on your joints. And even though you are doing the same movement over and over, you can change your speed, you can change your stride, you can change all different things to keep yourself engaged.”

Kim Kardashian, Tracy Anderson, and Molly Sims. Photo: Wenn

Don’t forget the earbuds, she added. “If you walk for exercise, put on your headphones, put on a good playlist, because you do become more internally charged to music,” Anderson said.

Anderson’s words are practically gospel among the fit set, so you might want to consider a brisk walk sometime this week. It might do wonders—at least for your posterior, on which Anderson likes to focus. As she put it to the Daily News last year, “As Jennifer Lopez’s trainer, I hope that the butt stays in.” Indeed.

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The idea of plastic surgery is like having a really big, really bad zit on your face: You can see it, everyone else can see it, but nobody talks about it. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting surgery to amp up the appearance or health of one’s body, people still tend to keep their procedures secret, returning from “vacation” with a magically slimmer nose, bigger breasts, or plumped-up lips. But you know the one thing the world can’t keep secret? Their Google search history.

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Plastic Surgery Portal, a website that helps you find the best board-certified surgeons, paired up with Digital Third Coast, a digital marketing agency, to compare Google’s national search volume with the most-searched plastic surgery procedures by state. Yes, that’s a mouthful. But what they found were fascinating trends in plastic surgery searches by region.

The western side of the country is all about bulking up, with almost every West coast state looking for breast implants and lip injections, while the Midwest—and, oddly, both Alaska and Hawaii—are in the market for penis enlargement. And, sure, you’ve got your oddball vaginal rejuvenations in North Dakota, eyelid surgeries in Minnesota, and a scattered range of laser hair removals (which isn’t really plastic surgery at all, but OK). But the most-searched procedure in all of the country, consuming pretty much the entire southern region and most of the East coast: liposuction. Yup, good ol’ fat-removing liposuction.

Image Source: Plastic Surgery Portal

Okay, yes, it’s not the most surprising that some of the most obese states in the nation are also searching for liposuction, but even New York, land of the stressed-out, over-caffeinated skeletons is on the liposuction train. We also have to remind you that these Google search results are absolutely not super science-based in anyway, so take this fun little map with a grain of salt, and don’t assume that your next-door neighbors are really getting penis enlargements and liposuction next time they ask you to water their plants for a week. But, hey, it’s fun to imagine?

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Let me begin by saying this: I know I’m not fat. I’m not plump, or bulge-y, or any other adjective you might hear in a midnight infomercial aimed at women above a size 0. I’m aware of this fact, and yet, I’m still a human with “problem areas” or whatever you want to call them. I’m a size 2 with love handles, and before you laugh, know that I’ve tried for years (years!) to get rid of them with diet and exercise, with only my ever-shrinking legs getting the memo. (I know, I know: poor me.) But this, apparently, made me an ideal candidate for BTL Vanquish ME (which stands for Max Energy), a new, FDA-approved, non-invasive fat removal treatment that “uses selective radio frequency energy to heat up fat cells to a temperature so hot, they essentially die,” says Dendy Engelman, a dermatologist at Manhattan Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery. If you’re even one-tenth of a beauty nerd (or have a stubborn-enough midsection), you have to admit: Body contouring sounds pretty cool.

So my love handles and I signed up for the recommended four sessions with Engelman, with each session being roughly a two-hour commitment. My first order of business: taking measurements. I was told I could expect to lose anywhere between two and four inches around my waist, but because I was starting off smaller than the average patient (I measured 36 inches around my hips, 25.5 inches at my waist), I’d probably be on the lower end. (It should also be known that the night before embarking on this lovely experiment, my boyfriend and I had broken up, so my appetite went out the window, leaving no control group in this little experiment. Sorry ‘bout that. Good news is, we’re back together and all is well, thanks for asking.)

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With all the photos I’ve seen of other body contouring treatments like UltraShape and CoolSculpt, I went into the office half-expecting to see an insane contraption the size of my body (I didn’t do much research before the fact) but was met with this:

Not so scary, right? While the device, which heats the skin to 101 degrees, and the underlying fat to 120 degrees, is most effective for flanks, the abdomen, love handles, and thighs, the abs “often show the most obvious change in photos,” says Engelman, who recommended I drink a lot of water before and after each session to be sure the radiowave energy is absorbed. David McDaniel, an adjunct professor in the School of Science at Hampton University, who has conducted some Vanquish studies, said not to worry so much about my reflection for a while: “Some patients may initially notice a difference in how clothing fits, more than noticing what they see in the mirror.” I have a pair of vintage Levi’s that I’ve had trouble zippering since 2014, so I was pretty excited and drank my weight in water (about 104 lbs) the previous day. I totally blanked and forgot to take a before photo, but here’s a highly exposed photo of me last year on the beach. I basically looked the same a month ago. See? Not fat, but could use a little toning.

Source: Instagram

Anyway, after a quick meeting with Engelman about what I could expect (she mentioned my skin would feel warm, and warned me about “hot spots,” a very warm sensation that can occur if the device is positioned too close to the body), the technician had me lie down on a flat bed. It took about five minutes of adjusting the three-paneled machine (one for the front, one on each side) to get it right. And then I just laid there, incredibly anti-climactically (see below). I stayed on my back for two fifteen-minute intervals as the device targeted my abs, and then three fifteen-minute intervals on my stomach, with the device targeting my love handles. I had to turn my cell phone off to keep it from interfering with the treatment, which meant I was alone with my thoughts, but the warm sensation was pretty calming, so I pretty much fell asleep each time. Bonus: The treatment doubles as a meditation session if you really want it to.

Just as I was told, I came out of the first session feeling totally fine, if not placebo-effect thinner. Oddly, I felt a renewed sense of motivation, as if I didn’t want my hour-long sessions of sitting and doing nothing but sit under a heat lamp go to waste: I not only ate better, but I signed up for approximately one million workout classes, and was generally more cognizant of how my clothes fit. I continued to stay well-hydrated, and went home to put on the jeans. No luck. I still measured exactly the same.

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And after my first session, I got to Googling (I know, I probably should have done this first), and I read on what looked like an unreliable forum that some body contouring treatments could make the fat come back with a vengeance. So I emailed Engelman immediately to find out if I just signed up to get fatter. “There’s a known complication exclusively linked to CoolSculpting called Paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) where fat in the treated area gets larger rather than smaller,” she says, duly scaring the shit out of me.  “This complication risk does not exist with the VanquishME treatment.” McDaniel agreed: “The fat cells that are dead and gone cannot ‘reappear.’” Now that I was in the clear, I signed up for my second treatment exactly one week later. I also started working out a bit more regularly. In the winter, I could go an entire month without putting on a sports bra, but once it gets warmer, I’m a twice-a-week devotee of Taryn Toomey’s The Class, my wallet be damned. I upped it to three times week, because that’s what you do when you go through a breakup.

My second and third sessions, both spaced a week apart, went by without incident—until I got home. I could zip up those Levi’s! I couldn’t really sit or even really move while in them, but they were up. That’s all that mattered. I measured myself and found I lost an inch in my hips, and about half an inch around my waistline. Almost success! I continued to work out, though not excessively, and made sure my diet

My fourth and final treatment, though kind of sad (I really bonded with Terri, the wonderful tech, during my sessions), was equally uneventful. I measured myself right when I got home and saw no difference, but in just over a week, I was 24.5 in my waist and close to 34 inches in my hips—down a full three inches overall. I measured myself three mornings and evenings in a row to see if this was consistent, and even though I was always a tad smaller in the morning (which is normal), I didn’t fluctuate as much as I usually do.

“Results can be appreciated sometimes within weeks, but typically the improvement is gradual and plateaus after a period of months,” McDaniel says, noting that my results are pretty typical. “There is individual variation on the time of response, but it’s a valuable asset in our toolbox for the non-surgical treatment and contouring of abdominal fat and that patients like the short treatment times and the relative comfort of the treatments.”

It’s been about three months since my last treatment, and even though my diet has fallen off a bit, I can still slither into those Levi’s. On a good day (i.e. one that is nowhere near my period), I measure about 25 inches at my waist and waver between 34.5 and 35 inches in my hips. McDaniel was quick to let me know that because my BMI is well within the normal range, my results would likely be less intense than those with some additional inches to lose, but I’m still pretty happy with the results. The price of the treatment varies by practice and is usually set based on the amount of sessions, but if you’re looking for a non-surgical fix after exhausting your lifestyle options, perhaps $2,500 isn’t such a hefty price to pay.

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All this time, we thought Kim Kardashian‘s abs were the result of a lot of hard work, a strict healthy diet, many early morning gym sessions, and actual blood, sweat, and tears. And while all of those factors may have played into her current physique—she stepped out last night in Miami practically naked, and there’s no faking that—it turns out that she also gets a bit of help from her spray tan, according to—you guessed it—her spray-tan specialist, or whatever you call the person who holds the spray-tan hose.

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Tan guru Fabiola Trujillo pulled the old post-and-delete on Facebook after she sprayed Kardashian to a perfect burnt-orange crisp the other day, and though she may have thought better of her words, People captured them for posterity. “While I was spray tanning Kim between layers as she likes to get dark she would go outside and took this Snapchat while drying, have to admit spray tan looks pretty awesome on her and even painted her abs while spraying her!!” Trujillo wrote on Facebook alongside Kardashian’s viral nude Snapchat photo.

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Source: Instagram

We’ll never know for sure why Trujillo deleted the post, but we have a feeling the reason may have started with a “Kim” and ended with a “Kardashian.” No one wants their beauty secrets exposed—especially not by their spray-tan master.

Source: Instagram

Sometimes—OK, most of the time–coming up with a Halloween costume is a difficult process. You stare at your closet, hoping something inspires you, or scroll through Pinterest for a few hours, grimacing at every done-before idea. And then, if you’re anything like us, you just throw together a makeshift outfit and call it a day, promising yourself that you’ll try again next year.

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Yeah, we’ve been there. But instead of being blah and boring this year, grab your inspiration from a hairstyle. As long as you can rock your hair, the rest of the outfit will quickly fall in line behind it. So we found the best celebrity hairstyles that can be turned into surprisingly quick and easy costumes. And yes, we gave you a bunch of costume ideas, too, because we’re nice like that. Click through to get inspired!

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For some reason, AskMen.com feels the need to poll their illustrious user base to find out the answer to what is apparently a burning question: Who “impresses” you the most? (Read: Which women do you think are the hottest?) Then they collate those answers to create a “Crush List” of the 99 women they have the biggest crushes on—again, whatever that means.

In any event, if you’re curious, the answers are vastly different today than they were five years ago. Though Rihanna and Kim Kardashian withstood the test of time, they were the only ones—no sign of Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, or Sofía Vergara this year, though the latter made it to #1 back in the day. Click through to find out the women most beloved by AskMen.com readers—apparently “frenzied fans voted so many times they actually crashed the site” when voting first started, so … yeah. Bet you’ll never guess #1. (Seriously.)

We know we might talk a big game about braids, giving you a ton of inspiring braid tricks and tips for mastering the “perfect” braid. But we’ll admit that it’s not that easy to pull off an excellent, awe-inspiring braid every single time you try. There’s a reason why you see so many three-strand braids in photos—they’re the easiest not to mess up! And even after watching approximately two billion video tutorials, we’ll (silently and anonymously) admit even we, the editors of StyleCaster, aren’t truly braid wizards. So we turned to the real M.V.Ps of the braid world and asked for their best, most-genius tips to make braiding even easier. Read on, and then proceed immediately to a mirror to test everything out on yourself.

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1. “Braid hair when it’s wet or damp, so you can catch all the loose ends inside the braid and form a really clean, sleek style. Also, rubbing a lightweight texturizing wax or cream [editor’s note: We love Redken Braid Aid 03 Defining Lotion] on each section before braiding helps holds little layers in place.” –Patrick Melville, founder of Patrick Melville Salon

2. “I love two-to-three-strand halo braids, which are braids that wrap around the head. They’re great for long-lasting styles. Wear the braid for two to three days, then drop the hair down on your final day for mermaid waves.” -Donna Tripodi, hairstylist at Eva Scrivo Salon

3. “If you sleep on your braids, use a silk pillowcase to keep the braid from frizzing or falling out.” -Olivia Halpin, freelance hairstylist

4. “It’s easier to braid layered hair when it hasn’t been washed for a day. It becomes more malleable and easier to work with. I like to start by spraying the hair with Black 15 In 1 Hair Treatment, [editor’s note: Tripodi was a brand embassador for Black 15 in 1] which helps calm the frizz for a smoother braid, until the hair slightly damp, and then I begin to braid.” –Tripodi

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5. “Mist your hair with a light hairspray, like Oribe Superfine Hair Spray, before braiding, to help prevent any layered pieces from falling out as you braid.” –Halpin

6. “The tighter the braid, the longer it will hold, so use a braiding technique like the fishtail or halo braid, to keep slipper hair from falling out.”-Tripodi

7. “Watch online tutorials to learn new braids! If you’re a beginner, try doing simple braids that are off to the side, such as a side fishtail braid, which is easier than doing a braid straight down your back.” –Halpin

8. “If you’re trying to keep a braid intact for more than a day, don’t use products on your hair for the first day of the braid, then on the second day, can play around and make it a more disheveled, broken up braid [editor’s note: Mist the braid with Living Proof Full Dry Volume Blast to give it a piece-y, boho feel].” –Melville

7. “Practice and be patient when trying new braids. It takes time to get your fingers moving correctly, especially if you don’t have the best dexterity. Sitting down in front of a mirror is also helpful, as you become more relaxed. Initially, choose simple, three-strand braids. Once you begin feeling more confident, you can try adding new hair to each strand to create a type of French braid. Remember that if you get lost in a technique, you can always resume with a simple three-strand braid.” -Tripodi

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