Is a little tummy bulge getting you down? Do you have a big party coming up and wish you looked just a bit flatter? Here are 5 tips to help you acheive just that.

1: Stand Up Straight
Straighten your shoulders and stand up proud and tall. This will naturally tuck in your stomach. According to trainer Ellen Barrett, "imagine your spine as an elevator going up and lift your rib cage up and away from hips." Practice the tuck till it becomes comfortable, and soon it'll be habit.

2: Switch to Green Tea
Tufts University study showed that people who drink green tea lost more tummy fat than people who drank other caffeinated beverages. Plus, green tea has lots of other health benefits, so it's a great switch to make.

3: Get more sleep
Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine found that people who get 6-8 hours of sleep a night have significantly less tummy fat than those who sleep fewer than 6 hours. That's because when you don't get enough sleep, your metabolism slows down, causing you to burn fat more slowly.

4: Avoid the 3 C's
To prevent stomach bloating, nutritionist Lauren Slayton suggests steering clear of the "three C's—canned, carbs, carbonated." Eat fresh fruits an veggies, minimize your carb intake (or at the very least, switch to whole grains) and start drinking un-carbonated beverages (like green tea!). Healthy natural deflators include asparagus, protein, dandelion tea, parsley, and apple cider vinegar.

Our $75 Amazon Gift Card Facebook giveaway has ended! Thanks to all who participated!

And the winner is.......... Brooke A.! (We'll be sending you an email with the details of your gift card)

Looking forward to more awesome giveaways!

Don't forget to check us out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kneesandtoes

Happy birthday to us! We're celebrating our third birthday this week and the celebrations are something to see! We know that we owe everything to you, our loyal customers, and so who better to celebrate with than you? As a token of our appreciation, we're offering completely unheard of sales: socks for just $1, women's tights for just $3, kid's tights for $3, multipacks of socks for just $3, plus 33% off and more for women and kids!

We're proud to announce the launch of our new Knees and Toes affiliate program! 

Do you have a website or blog? Are you looking to make extra money? Sign up to be a Knees and Toes affiliate and you can earn up to 10% commission on each sale you refer!

You will have plenty of banners and text links to place on your site, the full support of the Knees and Toes affiliate management team, and the potential to earn up to 10% commission on each sale!

So what are you waiting for? Click here to sign up now!

There comes a time in every girl's life when she weighs just a teensy bit more than she'd like. Maybe the winter was too depressing. Cold and windy and nasty. Eating makes it all better. Or, maybe it's just hard to tell if you've gained weight under bulky winter sweaters. Or maybe that darn baby weight just seems to have settled in for the long haul.

Whatever the reason, summer is when we want to be looking our best. So what to do now? Before I go any further, I must apologize for my language. But there's no getting around it; the only solution is that dreaded four letter word. Diet. I know. Isn't there an easy way to lose weight without dieting? But the truth is, the only way to lose the weight and keep it off is to reform your eating habits.

But there's a Secret

When I say reform your eating habits, I don't mean just cutting out the triple hot fudge sundaes. To lose weight and keep it off, you have to change how and when you eat. And the biggest secret is one that's not even that hard to do. I'm sure you've heard it before but the key to losing weight, besides for cutting calories, is, drumroll please.... not to eat after 7 p.m.

Huh? Why does that do anything?

How does that help? It helps in two ways. Firstly, your body has time to properly digest all the food you've eaten during the day. Your metabolism doesn't want to work any harder than it has to. The second you go to sleep, it's like the boss has left the office. Your metabolism decides to take a snooze too. And all that food you just ate? Eh, I'll get to it at some point. I'll just stick it in this Fat drawer in the mean time. Yup, if you go to sleep too early, all that food you just ate gets stored as fat. So stop eating earlier, and give your metabolism a chance to do its thing.

Not eating after 7 also cuts out unhealthy snacking. If you know 7 p.m. is the food cut-off time, you'll be less tempted to sneak that late-night chocolate bar snack. So that cuts down on the calories.

So that's it? That's all I have to do?

Obviously eating all-you-can-eat Chinese 3 meals a day and stopping at 7 p.m. is not going to help you lose weight. But if you're eating sensibly, giving your body enough time to digest your food before going to sleep can be the key difference between losing weight and just staying stagnant.

What if I want to look good NOW!?

Dieting doesn't work overnight, though - so if you need to fit into that dress tomorrow, we let you cheat a bit. Try our Berkshire Curves Shaper or High Waist Shaper to smooth and firm your curves. Dieting will help you feel good knowing your on your way towards your goal, but who's to say you can't look good at the same time?

Have you tried dieting recently? What has helped you succeed? What tips would you share?

Yes, I know skinnifying isn't a word. But how else do you describe these mouth-watering pantyhose? And yes, I know mouth-watering isn't exactly a word one associates with pantyhose. But seriously, when I saw the Hanes Absolutely Ultra Sheer High Waist Shaper Pantyhose in the new arrivals section at Hanes, I fell instantly in love.

We're always looking for the sheerest possible pantyhose that will enhance our legs, disguising any imperfections, adding a bit of color - without LOOKING like we're wearing pantyhose. Well, you don't get much sheerer than 5 denier! 5 denier pantyhose that matches perfectly to your skin tone - it's Christmas come early!

Ok, so now you've got gorgeous legs. But what if there's a little more of you to love than you'd like? Got you covered there too. High waist shaper panty smoothes from just under your bra down to mid thigh. Battle of the bulge - defeated! Say hello to a long, lean, model-worthy sillhouette!

Starting to understand my obsession?

If this isn't a lesson on overcoming obstacles, I don't know what is.

Summer's around the corner and it's time to start prepping your legs for short skirts, flip flops and summer weather! Here are a few tips to get you started.

Tone

If you've spent most of the winter curled up on your couch snacking on cheese curls, your legs probably aren't in the best of shape. If you want lean, toned legs you're going to have to start working at it. Luckily for you, there are tons of easy, non-time consuming ways to do this.  If you're short on time and want to do some leg exercises at work, you can do leg extensions under your desk, without your boss even noticing! Just sit back in your chair and extend first one leg, and hold. Then raise the other, and hold. You'll feel the strain in your calves so you'll know it's working!

Moisturize   

Dry legs don’t exactly give off a gorgeous, glowing impression. The winter was hard on your skin – now it’s time to treat it right. Moisturize your legs every day to get them feeling silky smooth. Try adding a hint of color by using a slow tanning moisturizer that adds a little bit of color each time you moisturize. That’ll give you a jump start on you summer tan which should tide you over till the weather gets warm enough to hit the beach!

Pedicure    

We all lead busy lives, that’s the truth. But every woman deserves to pamper herself once a while, and the change of seasons is a great excuse to treat yourself to a pedicure. Browns, grays and soft purples are hot colors this summer – but don’t be afraid to liven things up with some brighter variations!

Have you seen our new Facebook contest?

Submit your most creative Purim costume pictures for a chance to win a $50 Gift Card to Knees and Toes! Have your friends 'like' your picture and the picture with the most 'likes' wins! It's that simple! To enter, email your picture to CustomerService@kneesntoes.com. Check out the pictures and vote here!

Here's a sample of some of the entries:

Besides for the fact that all the cool kids are doing it? Here's why:

• They're slimming:  Black = slim, and tights are no exception. Black tights automatically make your legs look slimmer.
• They elongate your legs: Especially when paired with black shoes, they make your legs look like they just keep going, making you look taller. Going totally monochromatic, while possibly slightly morbid-looking when that color is black, heightens the effect.

Time to bring black tights out from their exile and place them back on the fashion pedestal right next to their bolder, patterned counterparts. Check out a few of your best options here!

After years of watching women adapt men's fashions to suit their own, men have finally decided to fight back. Women have taken pants, ties and oxfords from men... now men have taken tights from women and superheroes. Meggings, as the male leggings are commonly referred to, first showed up on overseas catwalks in 2007 but have since gained rapid popularity. At least when women make the mistake of thinking leggings are pants, they wear longer tops over them. The trend for men seems to be to wear them in a manner akin to ultra tight jeans.

 

Something tells me you wouldn't catch any of these men wearing a baseball cap, sitting at a football game and chugging beer....

Have you been throwing out your pantyhose after they run? Check out this video for a list of innovative uses for pantyhose that are no longer fit to be worn.

Gabbie started out as a replacement sock for a Knees and Toes employee whose rainboots just weren't able to hold up to the rigors of international travel. Walking in Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem on a rainy evening, the aforementioned employee noticed that her feet were getting wetter and wetter with each step she took. Confused by this state of affairs, having thought that rain boots would protect her feet from the rain rather than bathe them in it, she decided to purchase a new pair of socks to replace her now soaking wet ones. (She later found out that the rubber soles of her boots had literally cracked in half, leaving her to walk along the rainy streets in the cotton bottom, but that has no bearing on our story.) She picked up the first pair of socks she found, not bothering to do any intense interviewing, and so the pink sock we now know as Gabbie was one step closer to her dream. The sock was then relegated to the bottom of the sock drawer and forgotten about. When the idea of creating a sock puppet first arose, the cute little pink sock was retrieved from her ignominious position as a sock drawer filler and given a complete makeover. She was then presented to the Knees and Toes fans and given the name Gabbie. She is so excited to be joining the Knees and Toes team as their new mascot and can't wait to acquaint herself with all our fans and customers. Become her friend on Facebook now.

Age: 21
Favorite Color: Blue and Purple
Favorite Food: Organic cheeses and Tofu
Favorite Activities: Jogging and tennis, all done at 6 am before she leaves for work


Kneelee joined the Knees and Toes team after a brief stint as a sample sock. "The sample sock career just wasn't challenging enough for me." She told interviewers. "I didn't feel as though my talents were being utilized to their utmost. I was being wasted." She has always been interested in PR and was absolutely ecstatic when she was chosen to be the Knees and Toes mascot. She had applied for the mascot position at numerous other legwear stores, but she never quite felt comfortable until now. After trying an endless number of different hair styles, makeup styles and accessories, she finally settled on her current look. Cutting her hair was a bit traumatic, she admits, but she thinks it will be better for her image in the long run. "Signing the contract with Knees and Toes is a HUGE step for me. I couldn't be happier with the way my career is going right now." She told interviewers last week. You can become her friend on Facebook by clicking here.

Knees and Toes is back from the spa and can't wait to show off its new makeover. We've completely redesigned the site to make it simpler, easier, and all around more fun to shop!
First you'll notice our improved product descriptions that include all pertinent information, including color charts and denier.
Next, take a look at our new product tags feature. You can tag products with descriptive words that'll help you and other customers find what you're looking for that much quicker!

Oh, and don't forget our new blog where we'll be posting tips, contests, giveaways and fun fashion facts, so be sure to subcribe to the RSS feed!
We've also added a handy 'compare products' feature that lets you easily decide between those two styles of pantyhose that look exactly the same!

On the bottom of some product pages you'll notice a 'You may also be interested in...' tab. This makes you aware of similar items you may want to take a look at.

Your account got easier to use too! When you log into your account, you can keep tabs on your different shipping addresses, your product reviews, product tags and more.

There are tons more improvements and changes so go ahead and take the new site for a spin around the block! We'd love to hear what you think so feel free to comment, email us, or contact us using the contact us link at the bottom of the page to tell us your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you!