A man's health

I realised this morning, while chatting to my wonderful ex-boss back in London, that your first job in magazines is very much like a first love. You'll always hold a special place in your heart for that first magazine – what it taught you, the excitement you felt whenever you saw it, your overwhelming pride when you introduced it to your family… It was new, you were passionate about it, it was totally addictive. It was your first time for everything. I didn't want to spend time apart from it. I missed it we were apart.

Plus I used to ogle the collection of hotties filing through the office each month for cover castings. It bode well for me that I was the only chick on the team.

My first magazine was Men's Health UK. Probably why I often feel I have the authority to preach to my male friends about what they should be eating, drinking, doing, saying... I've even offered valuable courting tips and imparted my excellent knowledge on various techniques in the bedroom. I mean, I used to edit the stuff for Christ's sake!!

I actually worked on this exact issue (above). I auditioned for the part of the bird on the cover but they turned me down for being too thin and too hot.

There were two stories I wrote for the mag back in the day (during the recession) that I decided I'd paste in here for all the boys who read my blog. Enjoy!:

Get your hands dirty
Did the recession force you to let your gardener go? Well you (and your squeeze) are going to dig this: gardening really can help you make the earth move!

A new study from the Medical University of Vienna found that a mere 30 minutes a day of gardening can increase a man’s sex drive and dramatically improve his performance in bed by more than a third. So grab your sheers and tell your wife to step aside as you brave her precious rose bed.

Digging, weeding and mowing the lawn for half an hour has also shown to significantly reduce men’s risk of failing to live up to expectations in bed. 'Erectile function can be maintained by low, regular physical activity,' concluded the study.

Best you get moving: log on to Amazon.com and bag yourself a copy of Alan Titchmarsh’s How to be a gardener: back to basics (BBC Books) and go get dirty in the vegetable patch… In more ways than one.

Want a slice?
Men who are hungry find fatter women more attractive, according to a study by psychologists at Liverpool University's Department of Public Health in the UK. Men experiencing hunger pangs are more attracted to plumper women rather than the emaciated beanpoles of our world, but the researchers also found that – once men’s boeps were filled – their taste in women reverted back to those with slimmer frames.

'Hungry men are much more tolerant and rate obese women more positively than men who have eaten,' says lead researcher Viren Swami. 'In evolutionary terms if you are overweight it means you have more resources. When food is scarce the best chance of healthy offspring is a fatter woman.' In other words boys, if you want to get out of this recession alive – go big or go home!

Good God – the sexual tension at Fat Club meetings must be overpowering.