Weight

Skechers has agreed to pay $40 million to consumers who purchased its  rocker-bottom shoes under the mistaken belief that the shoes would help give them Kim Kardashian's booty or Joe Montana's stamina. So how do you get your piece of the payout if you purchased the shoes months, if not years ago, and don't have a receipt? No problem. This refund relies largely on the honor system. Anyone who purchased the company's line of Shape-Up shoes -- or its Resistance Runners, Tone-ups or Toners -- is entitled to a partial refund whether they have proof of purchase or not, officials said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - An influential network of some of the country's wealthiest liberal political donors is steering resources to an advocacy group backing President Obama's agenda and to organizations working to pass immigration reform, providing a surge of money that could boost the president's legislative goals. Democracy Alliance, an invitation-only group that makes funding recommendations to its members, selected the pro-Obama Organizing for Action and immigration reform groups such as the National Immigration Forum as some of its top 2013 priorities at its spring conference in Laguna Beach last week, according to leaders of the organization.

When I think of actress Lupe Ontiveros, who passed away from liver cancer at 69 Thursday night, what stays with me most is her strength. Her women tended to be strong and resilient, no-nonsense types, whether they were running a theater company as she did in "Chuck & Buck," dealing with a rebellious daughter in "Real Women Have Curves," or picking up after some well-heeled white family, as she did in"The Goonies. "There was a "I have seen it all" quality that danced in her eyes, more bemused by the frailties of the human race than bitter about them.

Another week, another new twist served up in "Hell's Kitchen. " Cook for your life. Or, your chef's jacket. Chef Ramsay defied expectations with last week's cliffhanger ending when he had four players lined up on the chopping block. He didn't eliminate them in one fell swoop. He didn't make them swap teams. Instead, he put them all on probation and gave them a shot at culinary redemption. It added an element of tension, but were you hoping that Dan would fall short? He's Mr. Annoying, no doubt, but he's also Mr. Entertaining (in that he's fun to point at and laugh at.)

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

You've heard about the "Wheat Belly" diet, right? Well, technically, it doesn't exist. Dr. William Davis points out that the word "diet" does not appear on either the cover of his bestselling "Wheat Belly" book published in 2011 or on the follow-up, "Wheat Belly Cookbook," which was published last month and already tops bestseller lists. And that omission is intentional, Davis said. "Wheat Belly" is about stripping your plate of a substance that contributes to heart disease, causes joint pain, inflammation, foggy thinking, bloating and much more, Davis said.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

You're at the gym working out, confident that you can lift more weight today than yesterday. You bend down to pick up the barbell and, as you come up, you feel a pop in the groin area. Next comes a dull pain and a queasy feeling. Even though the pain continues after you finish your workout, you figure it's just muscle strain. But the bad news is it may be a hernia. A hernia occurs when part of an organ within the body slips through an abnormal opening in the wall that normally contains it.

Emma Watson will strip down to raise environmental awareness, even though she won't do it for the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" star tweeted her support for James Houston's book of celebrities posing nude to raise environmental awareness. The book's proceeds will go to Global Green USA, a nonprofit focused on sustainability. PHOTOS: Hermione Granger through the years "My friend is supporting GlobalGreenUSA with his book Natural Beauty.

The rise of the adjusta-bells ( adjustable kettlebelly things) … roywallack@aol.com or 949-854-1363 … Needs a GEAR kicker. The growing popularity of kettle bells, the primitive-looking bowling-balls-with-handles that deliver a great all-body workout, has given rise to similar products with more flexibility. Available now are weight-changeable kettle bells that can be customized to new fitness levels, for different family members or even during a workout — so you don't have to own more than one. Below, find four innovative ways to throw your weight around.

President Obama pledged the full resources of the federal government in helping Boston and in investigating the bombings that killed at least two people and injured dozens of others at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday. “The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight,” Obama said in televised remarks. The president said he had spoken with congressional leaders and that all were united in dealing with the tragedy. Obama cautioned that authorities were still investigating and that people should not jump to any conclusions before all of the facts are learned.

In the beginning, it was about losing a few pounds. Hans Svanoe, 64, would leave his house in Encino at 5:30 a.m. and walk for an hour before driving over the hill to Century City, where he works as a butler. A what? "A corporate executive butler," said Svanoe, who caters to the domestic needs of media mogul Haim Saban and his business partner, Adam Chesnoff, when they're at the office. Before that, the Norwegian-born Svanoe was a domestic for Milton Berle, who once responded to a Svanoe quip by saying: "I'll tell the jokes around here.

Researchers have found an association between stricter school meal standards and the weight of students, especially those from low-income families. States that require more nutritious school lunches than the federal government mandated were compared with those that did not, looking at 4,870 eighth-graders in 40 states. And, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Pediatrics that students didn't compensate for the stricter standards by buying chips, cookies or other snacks elsewhere at school.

The names have changed, but the steady production from the Ducks' fourth line hasn't. The Ducks' fourth line has 16 goals through 40 games, an undeniable difference-maker, along with home-ice sharpness, strong goaltending and contributions such as veteran free-agent pickup Radek Dvorak's two goals Monday. After missing the playoffs last season, the Ducks can clinch their sixth trip to the postseason in the last eight years with one point against visiting Colorado on Wednesday night.

Trisha Yearwood presented an award as well as her newly trimmed body at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, y'all. The Grammy winner and wife of singer Garth Brooks has been making headlines with her Food Network show "Trisha's Southern Kitchen" and bestselling cook books, but her slimmed-down physique and moderation diet are putting her front and center once again. "Trisha has always been a successful, shapely bombshell. Recently she has taken her fitness routine to a new level," her spokesperson told E!

News that the tiny Samoa-based carrier Samoa Air has begun to charge fares based on the weight of its passengers has some fliers worried that the idea might catch on with other airlines. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future,” said Samoa Air's chief executive, Chris Langton. But industry experts don't think the idea will fly. “Any airline that tries that, heavy people would not fly that airline,” said Jan Brueckner, a UC Irvine economics professor and expert on the airline industry.

He had just made the final out in a city where his name is booed, his jersey is reviled, and his team had been swept. His power had disappeared, his swing was spotty, and his season was a wreck. Matt Kemp would have been excused for quickly disappearing through the dugout at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Sunday night and forgetting all about an earlier promise to third base coach Tim Wallach. “But that was the neat deal about it,” Wallach said. “He was standing there waiting for me.” PHOTOS: Greatest moments in Dodger Stadium history Kemp was waiting to cross the diamond to sign an autograph for a terminally ill Dodgers fan, waiting to summon the passion necessary to pass along the hope that he now found so precious.

With two-thirds of U.S. adults overweight, it's not rocket science to conclude that we don't have a clue about how much to eat. But now there's a countertop gadget that looks a little like a kid's cooking set - perhaps not for nothing - that is meant to help with portion control. It's called Lifesize and was created by Myles Berkowitz, who'd had it with being overweight, and trainer Stephen Kates, who says, "You have to eat less food - that's the whole secret. " "Don't change what you eat; change how much you eat" sums up the idea behind Lifesize, a set of plastic measuring vessels marked for meats, toppings, saucy dishes and other categories of food.

Melissa Joan Hart may have been able to work magic when she played teenage witch "Sabrina" on television about a decade ago. But losing pounds after giving birth to her third child in September wasn't likely to happen with the snap of magical fingers. Instead, she reportedly turned to Nutrisystem for help in shedding the pesky pounds (20, so far). On Tuesday, Nutrisystem announced via news release that Hart, 36, is its newest spokes-celebrity. In that role, she'll be able to "explain it all" for you -- kind of like her character Clarissa did in another popular show from the early 1990s.

If we've  learned anything from March Madness, it's that an office pool is fun: It not only holds out the promise of a financial windfall; it pits us against our co-workers in vying for the payoff.  So when it comes to tackling obesity, could the same combination of inducements work to trim workforce fat? A new study , published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, says it can. At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 105 employees who were obese (having a body-mass index between 30 and 40)