By Apryl Blakeney

MORGANTON — At one point in your life a low cut blouse may have guaranteed drinks and dates.

Now your secret weapons hang like weights by the waist wondering what to do. Tell them to start looking up.
For her 40th birthday, Sue Howard joined Curves and trashed her underwires.

“Before I started working they would hang down from breast feeding,” Howard says. “Now I’ve thrown away those awful underwires and I have cleavage .”

Howard spent 30 minutes a day, six days a week working with weights. After three months she noticed improvements. Well, actually her husband saw it first.

“He noticed when I laid down that my boobs were actually on my chest instead of beside me in bed,” she says.

The workout also increased her cup size and decreased her band size. Plus it helped her drop 110 pounds from a size 28 to 18.
“It makes me feel more attractive and feminine,” Howard says.

That was four years ago. The 44-year-old says she hasn’t gained a pound back. Now Howard even works at Curves, passing along tips to others.
Howard helped one 71-year-old woman up her bust measurement to a bigger cup size.

“We told her we were going to get her a bikini too,” Howard jokes.

She says its never to late to improve the bust line. Here are a few tips that might help.

Try the fly
Working out can take years off your chest, says Tim Thomas, assistant manager at Body Tech Fitness.

Thomas says ladies of all ages come to the gym for a pick-me-up. Here are some tips you can try at home.

Thomas recommends building muscle with what’s called the dumbbell fly. This exercise firms the top part of the breast, Thomas says.

Lay belly-up on the ground with a weight in each hand. Keep the dumbbell’s parallel to your body.

Pull both arms straight up, keeping your elbows bent, so the weights meet over your chest.

Then, return the weights out to your sides at shoulder height, Thomas says.

He recommends 14-18 pulls followed by a 1 minute rest.

“It will work,” he says. “I guarantee results if people stick with it.”

But they have to do more than the dumbbell fly. That is just step one.

Step two follows the same format, only lying on an inclined surface. Hence the name incline dumbbell fly. This exercise works the middle part of the chest.

Each work out should include both phases at least two or three times.

Thomas says most people see results in four to six weeks.

Magic pills?
Nature’s Bounty sells two different bottles of pills promising to firm you up and fill you out.

“I’ve been selling them for years,” says manger Bob Feimster. “I wouldn’t keep stocking them if they didn’t keep selling.”

One product is called Great Curves. It sells for roughly $20 and each bottle is a month’s supply at two capsules a day.

Feimster says most women will probably see results after two bottles.

The other supplement is Miracle Breast. It retails for about $26. Each bottle holds 180 pills but the recommended serving is a bit higher: two tablets three times a day.

Feimster says both bottles add fluids to the breast, giving them a healthy appearance, like when a woman is pregnant.

Strap it on
The torture devices — bras — actually are there to help.

“They work by preventing gravitational pull,” says Dr. David Kirk with the Women’s Health Group.

He says women who go without are the first to feel the downward pull of growing up.

But don’t go overboard by sleeping in your boulder holder. Kirk says that doesn’t offer additional support.

“Because gravity isn’t much of an issue when you are lying down,” he says.

The situation also is different when exercising, because of the added motion. That’s why Kirk recommends a good sports bra or one with added support.

Lather up
Soaking up the rays may give you a temporary tan, but it permanently ages your body. The sun weakens the elasticity of your skin, causing it to sag sooner, Kirk says.

“Sun exposure is the number one culprit in aging,” he adds.

Lather up when laying on the beach or when wearing anything low cut, he says. Especially in the South.

A daily moisturize on your neck and chest also helps skin stay firm, he adds.

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Posted in Health Home Life

Tracy Farnham
http://www.grabthegab.com

No longer is a woman’s place just in the home. And hunting isn’t just for men either.

More women than ever are embarking on this popular hobby once considered an interest predominately enjoyed by their male counterparts.

Fathers’ bonding with their children during hunting season now includes fathers and daughters getting closer in the great outdoors.

“I coon hunted as a little girl with my dad,” says Tracy Norman.

She also has hunted turkey, deer, rabbit, dove and even bear.

Norman, whose brother also hunts, says her niece got her first deer this year.

Norman is preparing for Turkey season. “I went out yesterday and saw four turkeys,” she says eagerly.

Recently during the Wild Turkey Federation Banquet, Norman set up a display table to encourage participation in a local chapter of Women in the Outdoors.

She says, “I helped with the banquet committee and was the first female to serve on the committee.”

Norman’s participation has paid off. This year, she also won a shotgun during the banquet.

According to womenintheoutdoors.org, an outreach of the Wild Turkey Federation, many of these women are taking to the outdoors and hunting in order to spend more quality time reconnecting to the special people in their lives.

That’s just what Patricia McGinnis of West Virginia did around five years ago. Her husband and his friends from Ohio gathered the day before deer season with a major air of excitement.

They were really having a good time. Early the next morning they went out to hunt and she went to work.

“I thought, ‘I know they’re out there having fun and I need to experience this,’” McGinnis says.

“On the way home, I purchased a hunting license and by that time they arrived with one or two deer in each truck bed. I let them finish their stories, and then I showed them my license and told them ‘I’m going tomorrow.’

“I love animals and never want to hurt a deer, but there’s something different about deer season,” McGinnis says.

On her first hunt she waited through most of the day, placed her sights on a deer and took two shots.

“After the first shot I thought, ‘ooh, that felt good.’”

Her husband was disappointed with its size.

She says, “I took it as a compliment because I shot twice and hit it twice even though it was a small target.”

McGinnis also enjoys photography and quilting and runs a profitable Mary Kay business, which are complete oppo-sites on the spectrum, she adds.

“I’m the girliest girl there is, but when it comes to getting in the woods, I’m there,” says Crystal Burns a college student at Appalachian. This is Burns third year hunting for turkey, but she says she also likes to squirrel hunt, along with a little deer hunting.

Last year Norman and Burns spent the night in Norman’s vehicle during a storm, just to get a good spot on the opening day of turkey season. “Tracy is the first woman I’ve ever met who hunts, and I can’t talk any of my friends into trying it,” Burns says.

According to these two die-hard hunting women, it was a very rough night.

Regardless of lots of lightning, thunder and a tornado warning, this pair of brave women were determined to keep their vigil through the night.

Burns says it was very interesting and a little uncomfortable, Norman adds “I wasn’t afraid though.”

It’s not just girl talk that keeps these women in the wild, but calling in the turkeys. While demonstrating some of their turkey calls, Norman tells how Burns brought in more than just Tom turkey she called in two men hunters last year, says Norman.

“They thought I was a turkey,” Burns says.

Turkey hunting is one of the most challenging hunts, Norman says, because turkeys see in color. But it is my favor-ite, she adds.

The turkeys are very smart and their hearing is really good.

“You can hardly move when you’re out there,” she adds.

These women even know about turkey droppings enough to tell whether it came from a Jake, Tom or hen. (For those who are not sure what these terms mean, a Jake is a young male bird, a Tom is a male and you know what a hen is.)

Norman even cleans out her birds and freezes them for later use. From last year’s catch she saved the tail feathers and wings in order to have a fan made. This year her plans include having a turkey call made out of the wing bones of one of her birds.

Until then, she wants to get the word out to other women about hunting. With great enthusiasm in her sport Norman says, “I love it, I can do it every day.”

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Posted in Gab in Print

When I was in labor for 13 hours. And it was a natural child birth because the drugs gave me seizures.
Holly Moody, 24

Watching my grandma die. She had Lou Gehrig’s disease and her mind was still there but she had no way to express it.
Amy Powell, 52

When I sprung my ankle. I was running from a dog in the rain and I slid under the porch. But the dog didn’t catch me.
Erica Johnson, 15

When I lost my father. I was only nine and he was 36. I still miss him but I have hope that I will see him again.
Pam Boggs, 49

When I gave birth. It was two hours of hard labor without drugs, because she was six weeks premature.
Noel Swink, 22

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Posted in Gab in Print

By Adam Shull

On all those first dates with a guy, you’ve wondered what on earth is going through his head.

While you’ve been maneuvering through the shadow boxing games that are the first two to three dates, you’ve wanted to know his thoughts.

Now popular culture says all of those thoughts rhyme with Rex.

But here’s some of the other stuff.

Read closely, this kind of access isn’t allowed to women often.

Cleavage is like the sun.

Jerry Seinfeld pointed this out first, I believe.

The amount of exposure varies among women, but halfway respectable guys have to treat every woman’s chest area as they would the sun.

We cannot look directly into it for more than a second or two.

To get a glance we must scan from left to right and let it come across our field of vision, as you might if forced to look at the sun.

*You may have noticed this in effect when it appears your date is popping his neck a lot.

Paying the price.

With advances in modern dating, more and more women are experiencing increases in the amount of money they spend in the dating world.

The thing is, guys know that beyond date three the market is unfavorable at best.

We know that on a relationship bar chart, Guy A’s expenditure is going to wallop that of Girl A, over time.

Oh the double edged sword of the double standard.

Not the nice guy

Almost every guy seeks to avoid being the overly nice, walked over and pansified date.

Polite, sure.

But once the “nice guy” label sticks, good-bye romance.

Just remember this ladies if we happen to cross the line.

Dancing? Crap

Have pity on the man who is somehow duped into dancing on the first date.

The entire time he’s thinking, “OK. Don’t bite your lip. She’s only going to predict your romantic performance on your dance moves, so…God, I’m doomed.”

Why does that smell good?

Guys know you ladies put perfume on the undersides of your wrists. We just don’t know why.

And that’s why when you’re pointing out sauce or black pepper stuck in your date’s teeth, he may shoot you a look that says, “Wait, what smells so good?”

The perfect date

Please just once, as a woman, tell a man that your idea of a great first date is to watch Roadhouse at home and drink a six-pack.

Eat

We do like to see a girl eat if the first date involves food.

It’s not a wasted money issue, either.

Our ravenous appetites don’t take a break for anything.

It’s awkward when our calories are flying in like a rushing vortex, and then we look up to see your biggest bite so far has been your crouton.

Seal the deal

Not that guys really need any signal from their dates to attempt a goodnight kiss or other sign of affection.

But just in case a girl is feeling squirrely and wants to, without a doubt, tip a dude off that he’s doing well on the date…

Scratch the back of his neck or play with his hair back there, casually, as he is driving and you’re riding shotgun.

It’s one of the few unmistakable signals we recognize.

Adam Shull is a staff writer for The News Herald and is brave enough to write for Gab on the second Sunday of each month. Contact him at .

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Posted in Gab in Print