Health

The aging process is generally considered a bit of a bummer, yes? And part of that bummer is that it seems to start so early.

It's no secret that the images of models and celebrities that we see in magazines are heavily altered on computer programs like Photoshop before they make it to the newsstands. A few recent incidents have shown just how extreme the digital reworking has gotten: Ralph Lauren had to apologise after running an ad with an alarmingly thin model, and the blog Jezebel criticised Self magazine for their heavy-handed retouching of singer Faith Hill. But does all this reworking of women's bodies have serious health consequences?

With all of the rain and gloom of late, as I sit at my desk staring out the window and longing to break out my tube tops and flip flops and hit the park, I've been thinking about how to raise my spirits. I've tried a number of things to compensate for the grey clouds — re-watching my favourite movies, tackling ambitious recipes (for my personal culinary skill set) and going to the gym - with mixed results.

I’m not exactly in Chatelaine's target market, but I’ve signed up for their emails and follow them on Facebook (you should too) to keep apprised of what’s new. And of course, when I saw a post called "The Politics of Waxing ‘Down There’", I had to read it.

We’ve touched on the fact here a few times now that money doesn’t buy you happiness. So what does? Choice, as it turns out. The freedom to choose is key in being a happy person, discovered Dr. Ronald Fischer, a senior lecturer with the Victoria University of Wellington’s school of psychology, in a review study. In the study, the New Zealand psychologist reviewed happiness-related data from 420,599 people from 63 countries. I asked Fischer a little bit more about why choice is so important.