Whether you want one as big as Kim Kardashian’s or something more subtle like J-Lo’s (ok, it’s not that subtle, but in comparison…) I have the perfect plan for you. While squats and lunges are my quick go-to favorite, they can get a little boring. Here are some easy ways to spice up your workout routine.

1) Fire Hydrant

Called “fire hydrant” for obvious reasons, this move really tones all of those gluteus muscles. Begin on all fours, with your hands directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Keeping your right knee in a bent position, bring your leg away from your body and stop when it is hip height. Make sure your back is flat, tighten your abs and squeeze your booty every time you lift. It’ll give it that extra oomph! Aim for three sets of 15-20 reps on each side.

2) Leg Lifts

Stay in the same position as you were in for the fire hydrant. This time, extend your leg behind you, keeping it in a straight line and hip height. To perform the move, raise your leg a few inches above hip height and then lower back down. Keep your back as neutral as possible and squeeze your booty every time your raise your leg. Aim for three sets of 15-20 reps on each side.

What are you trying tone up this summer? Get up and get active – tweet me @jackelynho. I’ll be your personal trainer and help whip ya into shape!

As women, we spend a lot of our time focusing on our flaws. Whether it’s standing in front of a mirror and staring at the cellulite on our thighs, talking about said cellulite with our girls over salads (dressing on the side!), or Googling creams that promise to erase cellulite, we tend to only notice the negatives.

Not the beautiful, strong legs underneath.
Or the killer ass on top of those legs.
Or the perfectly shaped lips that form a beautiful smile in pictures.

This week, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, we’ve all seen the scary effects this sort of negative thinking can have on people, especially college women like us. It’s really easy to get caught up in it – compare yourself to others, find serious flaws within yourself – but it’s just as easy to think positively. There is no ideal woman. There is no perfect body. Everybody’s got something to be proud of.

So today I asked the CollegeCandy writers to stop thinking about what they hate about their bodies and focus on what they love. What’s your favorite part?

Jasmine – Northern Arizona University: My legs – they’re lean and toned, thanks to hours of dancing to Britney and Beyonce in stilettos.

Caitlin – University of Alabama: I love my broken and crooked nose because it gives me character. And my boobs because they’re like twice the size they should be for my body type.

Arielle – Quinnipiac University: My back dimples!! Even though I can’t actually see them without holding a mirror up to my back… which I don’t do often or anything…

Sarabeth – University of Texas: I love my eyes. They’re an odd mix of grey and blue that’s pretty and hard to find in people.

Alex – Lakehead University: I love my hair. It’s huge, curly and totally fierce. I used to struggle with it, but now that I’ve embraced it, I’m constantly getting compliments. Plus you can see me coming from a mile away!

Melanie – Northeastern University: I’ve got some killer legs that have the strength of a bear trap.

Kelly – University of Iowa: My boobs. It wasn’t until I turned 20 that they shot up four sizes, so maybe they were some sort of gift for surviving the teenage years.

Lauren – University of Michigan: My arms and shoulders. They have such definition from all the work I do in the gym and I just love showing them off.

Rachael – University of Miami: Probably my legs and my eyes. I’m a dancer, so my legs are long, lean, and nicely toned. And my eyes are an olive green rimmed in black and laced through with brown and gold- definitely love them, even when I’m feeling my worst!

Jackie – Delaware: Although I may say I hate them to comfort all my boob-less friends, truthfully I LOVE my set of D cups.

Ricki – University of Michigan: I love my butt!  It’s nice and round but not too Beyonce-like

Samantha – UC Santa Barbara: My entire chest and shoulder area! Got my DD’s from my Italian Nana, and my thin arms and shoulders with pretty a little clavicle from my Momma.

Brittany – University of Saint Thomas: I have to shamelessly admit I am in love with my legs (especially shaved in a pair of pumps).

Jackelyn – San Francisco State University: I love everything about my body! It may sound conceited, but because I work hard to keep myself in amazing shape, there’s no reason for me not to be proud of the end product. Plus, it’s MY body – I carry it around with me wherever I go. I gotta love what’s mine!

Brithny – Duke: I like my feet for some reason. Glammed up with red nail polish.

Zahra – Northwestern University: I was a swimmer for eight years and I love the fact that my body can get through those practices. Being able to swim two hundred laps (sprinting made up half of practice) is something I’m insanely proud of.

Christie – NC State: I like my eyes, because they are a weird golden color that matches my hair. Weird, but true!

Jessica-Delaware: I’m not afraid to say it, I have a nice rack. Although I do worry about how nice it’ll be a couple decades from now…

Meg – University of Delaware: Despite the general consensus that boobs are the best part of my body, I like my hair and eyebrows. Oddly enough I get a lot of compliments on my eyebrows and they have a really great natural shape. I love the color and length of my hair and I’m really lucky that it stays naturally healthy and manageable (most of the time)!

Hannah- Assumption College: I love my shoulders. I have worked hard to gain definition and I am really proud.

Cristina – Michigan State University:  I’m proud of my legs because they work, they’re short and on days when I feel like they’re fat, I catch myself in a reflection somewhere and they’re actually lookin’ pretty good.  They never let me down.

[Everyone's got a morning-after story and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we'll post it - anonymously, of course - right here!]

So the dorm policy at our school is tighter than a drum, and at times, it seems as though the administration has figured out every possible way to keep us out of each other’s dorms at 3 am.  Luckily, for one dorm, a crafty little in-and-out maneuver has been devised called The Sneak.  One night, I was (un)fortunate enough to get a glimpse of just how The Sneak works.

I really shouldn’t have hooked up with this guy, but such is the story of my life.  We went back to his dorm and “hung out” for a little bit, and then drifted off together.  It seemed to be a pretty standard night as far as these nights go, but it took a very weird turn around 4 am.

The guy and I didn’t even hear the door open, but apparently it did, as we figured out in about five minutes. I awoke to hear a kind of grunting and girl moaning, which I cleverly deduced was not his roommate.  My guy awoke at this point, having also heard the noise, and peeked over the loft to see what was going on.

“Looks like [roommate] brought someone back,” he muttered.

Uh, obviously. 

We didn’t really move for a while,  awkwardly listening to the intense (and getting more intense) noises coming from below. I quietly rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I was afraid to even breathe, thoroughly creeped out by our situation, which had completely unfazed my guy. In fact, the whole being woken up thing merely reminded him I was there, and he decided to try and initiate some kind of second sexy go around.  I don’t think he even realized how weird that was, but I did. After a little groping and a sloppy kiss, I rolled over, forced some cuddling, and he quickly konked out again.

Eventually, after all the moaning stopped and I felt like some sort of sick voyeur, the rest of us fell asleep too. I woke up with the sun a few ours later and decided it was time to do the reverse Sneak back to my place. It wasn’t easy. Not only did I have to climb down from the loft without waking my friend, but I had to tip toe around so as not to wake the other friends sleeping down below.

I held my breath, grabbed my things and ran.

The Sneak is apparently way more popular (and successful) than I had originally thought, but after that night, it’s going to be a while before I try it again.

There are many difficult decisions we women must make at different times throughout our lives: tampon or pad, Brazilian or bikini, Pantene or Herbel Essense, Gossip Girl or The Hills? Difficult, difficult decisions.

It wasn’t until recently, however, that I faced one of the toughest short term decisions of my life. Or night. This choice would affect it all: my looks, my weight, and my potential for pulling some major booty.

Here was my dilemma: Do I wear Spanx, the best body shaping underwear that eliminates panty lines and takes about 10 pounds away from my curvaceous bod, or do I wear the sexy, skanky, black lace thong?

I know I’m not the only girl out there who has pondered this perplexity. And I am definitely not the last. So, what should you do? Let’s break it down:

Spanx make that tight dress fit perfectly and suck you in at all the right places. Problem is, body shaping underwear looks like this, or worse, like this. They’re like granny-panties-meet-military-armor with the dangerous potential to scare away any guy who finds his way down south.

Thongs, on the other hand, are straight out of every man’s fantasy. They are a guaranteed turn-on and a real flag raiser (if you know what I’m sayin’…). But they also leave everything hangin’ out…and jiggling.

Spanx make you look good, which, in turn, make you feel good and beautiful and confident enough to walk up to that fellow you’ve been eying and spit your best game.

Thongs are thin strips of material that ride uncomfortably high, making them nearly impossible to ignore as you go about your business all night. Jiggling.

Spanx require a full-body workout to get on and off. And when you finally do roll (yes, roll) those suckers down your legs (which is impossible to do while still maintaining some semblance of sex appeal), you’re left with deep red lines across your stomach. Hotness.

Thongs only require a slight tug (with teeth) to remove. They also happen to be easy to stuff back into your purse for the long Stride of Pride home. Jiggling.

You can see the dilemma. There’s really no true winner. It looks like the only option might be the old “I’ll meet you outside in a minute”/run into the bar bathroom and break a sweat taking off those Spanx and go commando before he has a chance to look up your skirt maneuver.

Sigh. It’s not easy being a girl.

It was the first party in our new house. Our boxes weren’t even unpacked yet, but our new neighbors (who all happened to be very cute boys) were having people over so we thought we’d join in too. I rifled through my duffle bags to find a low-cut shirt and a pair of jeans to wear, dabbed on a bit of makeup and was ready to mingle with my new friends.

Fast forward 3 hours and I’m drunk and wading in a kiddie pool (that just happened to show up on my porch) with a guy I didn’t know.

“Uh, I’m gonna go downstairs and dry off….” I slurred as I attempted to stand up.

“Want some help?” He responded. Always being the one to have to work for booty, I was excited by how easy he was making this.

“Sure.” I wanted to be demure, mysterious and sexy, which I’m sure I was as I tripped out of the kiddie pool, thus exposing my thong to the entire porch.  Still, he followed me inside and down to my basement lair. My bed was covered in boxes and clothes that I attempted to seductively brush aside. And was unsuccessful. I ended up with a giant paper cut up my arm and 15 broken picture frames that dumped out of a box as it hit the ground.

But I wouldn’t let a little glass stop me. I took that boy, grabbed his face, and dragged him onto the bed. We were makin’ out for a bit and as I turned my head to let him kiss my neck (droooool) I looked out the small window over my bed. It faced the driveway where the party was going down. And it had no drapes. I was a bit nervous and paranoid that everyone could see in, but then I realized that the lights were off in my room, so no one would be able to see a thing.

Things began to heat up and before I knew it my underwear was across the room and this boy was taking me to Happy Town. I was getting really lost in the moment when – BAM – my door swings open, the lights flip on and my roommate and gay best friend walk in.

“And this is Lauren’s roo- OH MY GOD!” My roommate, giving a house tour, stopped. And stared.

“OH MY GOD! GET OUT!” I screamed, placing my left hand over my vajay and my right hand over my right boob. Why that one was more important to cover than the left I’ll never know.

“I’m sorry – I didn’t know you were in here. Joe wanted a tour of our new house and I thought you were outside!”

“STOP EXPLAINING AND GET OUT!”

“Sorry! It’s my fault,” Joe chimed in. He and my roommate both blocked their eyes and began to leave the room. Before he slammed the door, though, Joe screamed, “YOU LOOK REALLY SKINNY!”

When the door slammed, I looked at the boy and we both started to laugh. Awkwardly. I wasn’t really sure what to do – there is no jumping back into things after an interruption like that (no matter how skinny I looked). Especially, as we soon noticed, when the lights are still on and everyone on the driveway is peaking in the window. Pointing. And laughing.

And my left boob is pointing right back.

A few months ago, while visiting the parentals for break, I hooked up with a friend of a friend. And it was awesome. He was hot, he was funny, and he had a visible six-pack. Yes, that was the first visible six-pack I’d ever boom boomed with, so it was pretty magical. In fact, that night is on my list of top 5 life experiences between my bat mitzvah and that time I found a Calvin Klein dress on sale for $9.99.

I have thought about that boy a lot since we awkwardly parted ways in the morning (“Maybe I’ll see you around next time you’re home.”), but have yet to contact him. It’s not like I want a relationship with the kid (it’s hard to build something real on a nice set of abs), but I would like to make this a continuous encounter on any and all trips back home.

But every time I’ve attempted to reach out – usually via Facebook – I freak out. I don’t want him to think I’m making this more than it is, or that I sit at home at night looking at his pictures and hoping he puts some summery/shirtless ones soon. (I do.) I don’t want him thinking I’m some crazy stalker girl who can’t just hook up with someone and let that be the end. I feel weird trying to start a conversation when the only history we have is a night at the bar followed by late night sliders and a roll in the sack. (Warning: Late night greasy sliders are NOT a good idea if you even THINK you will be getting some….)

And then there’s the whole dignity issue. I’m going home in a few days and I would love to tell him I’m coming so we can go for round two, but what if he doesn’t want round two? And is it weird for me to tell someone I’ve spoken to once that I’m gonna be home and we should go out? It would be so much easier if we could just be in the same place and let it just happen.

I know it’s weird that I can’t muster up the courage to talk to someone who has watched me crawl around on the floor naked looking for my underwear, but I can’t. And that’s weird. I mean, we had sex. A lot of sex. I should be able to talk to him.

Ugh. Why are booty calls (or booty-I’m-too-scared-to-calls) so complicated?

[One of the greatest aspects of college life is the morning-after recap with friends. You stumble out of bed, grab your liquid of choice, and gather around the living room to replay (and remind yourself of) the events of last night. You laugh, you cringe and you share the highest of highs...and the rock-bottom lowest of lows. We thought we'd bring the fun of the recap to CollegeCandy, so grab that coffee and take part in the deliciously awkward moments your CC friends have to share.]

One evening after senior year of High School had just finished, my boyfriend and I were lying around watching T.V.  On That 70’s Show, Donna and Eric had just gotten caught having sex in their car.  The policeman took them home and I could feel their embarrassment as they had to explain what happened to their parents.

“That’s it,” I told my boyfriend, “I’m not having sex in the car anymore.  Look what happened to Donna and Eric!”

“It’s just a T.V show, this stuff doesn’t happen in real life,” he reassured me. I believed him.  After all, many absurd things happen on That 70’s Show that would never happen in the real world, right?

So the next night when my boyfriend suggested we go for a drive, I thought why not?  We went down a long dirt road in a nearby town and parked at a lake.  After sitting by the water we went back to the car and started fooling around in the back of his Jeep.  After we had sex and were lying in the back on top of blankets, I noticed another car pull into the lot.  I assumed it was just going to turn around, but then the light started getting closer and closer and I soon realized that it was not the headlights of a car, but rather a flashlight.  And on the other end of this flashlight was a policeman. 

OMG! Was this really happening? Surely this was some kind of a joke.  I was wearing abso. lutely. nothing. He tapped on the side window and my boyfriend rolled it down.

“Uhh hi,” he said.

“Put on your clothes and come out of the vehicle,” Officer D-bag said.

“I’m not going out there!” I yelled at my boyfriend as Officer A-Hole shone his light in and watched as I got dressed.  Creep. “You’re going to have to go out there,” I told him.

My boyfriend got out of the car and I saw him chatting with the officer.  He came back to the Jeep and told me I had to go out and talk to him too.

I reluctantly got out of the car.  Disheveled and scared I approached the policeman.  Surprisingly he as more concerned than angry at first.  “Are you here on your own will?” The officer asked me.  I laughed to myself; the officer thought my boyfriend had abducted me! (Understandable given the fact that I was totally cuter than him.)

“Umm yeah,” I said, “I am.”

“So this was something you did willingly?” he asked me.  I supposed that sending my boyfriend to jail was not a fair payment for encouraging me to continue our car sexcapades, so I told the officer that, unfortunately, I was also as stupid as my boyfriend.

Officer Night-Ruiner then told me he needed our licenses to run a scan and see if there were warrants out for our arrest.  (WTF?)   The scan came up clean – umm, duh , I’ve never even had a speeding ticket! What does this officer think I am?  A hooker? A runaway? A drug dealer? I was just a teenage girl lookin’ for some action.

Apparently he did not see it that way and then said he needed to search our car.  “You are going to need to open the doors,” he told us, “the windows are fogged up.”  I tried to make a joke and befriend the officer.  “I can’t imagine why that is, officer”

He sneered.

After thoroughly searching the car, Officer Stick-Up-His-Ass turned back to us and reminded us that it is illegal to be at this lake after sunset and not to do it again.  I looked at my boyfriend, looked back at the cop and assured him that it was never. going. to happen. again.

We have been sticking to beds ever since.

In the spirit of making excuses, I’m going to pardon myself and the rest of the lazy gals who have, too, put off their summer 2007 workout plans. The excuse? Summer didn’t officially start until yesterday.

So while there’s no point in regretting our inactivity thus far, I do think it’s about time to step up our game and make up for lost time.

And I’ve got the perfect assistant to help you get back on track: “Tank Top Arms, Bikini Belly, Boy Shorts Bottom.” It’s not just a catchy title. This workout delivers a solid total body workout that’ll prep you for each of the three clothing items referenced.

Minna Lessig, who’s apparently an at-home exercise guru, leads the workout, which is broken down into six sections: warm up; tank top arms; bikini belly; boy shorts bottom; total-body workout; and cool down.

The best part about this workout: the sections are only about 10-15 minutes each (which makes it hard to make excuses about not having enough time to do a couple of segments a few times a week).

A personal trainer who recommended the DVD advised starting with the warm up, and then combining the total-body with one of the isolated segments—and then switching to a different isolated segment the next day.

And I give you my word (and this may just be because I haven’t worked out in months), the workout is intense. I got through the whole DVD this morning, and it’s not your standard light toning workout. (I’m already sooooooore.) Lessig throws in some light cardio moves to compliment the deep toning. I don’t care if you have the tightest glands in the world, you will sweat… a lot.

But fear not, the workout is fairly simple. Lessig starts each circuit by slowly demonstrating the move and then progresses to a quicker, more challenging version. Plus, if the workout gets too intense, one of her assistants does the entire workout at the beginner level.

“Tank Top Arms…” is advertised as a 4-week program that delivers visible results within 10 days (in combination with a healthy diet, of course). If the next 4 fitness-friendly weeks can reverse the damage I’ve done in the past 4 gluttonous weeks, I’m in.