Turn the Page

Sure it's fun to read the sex tips in magazines like Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Men's Health. But it's hard to take advice like "have a mini grope sesh," or "give him a 'Want it? Then come and get it!' grin," seriously. But when 37-year-old Cathy Alter found herself recently divorced, with a going nowhere sex partner she decided to see what would happen if she took magazine advice to heart.

"I thought it was the smartest idea ever, the idea that I could read all these magazines that were silly and fun," she says. "I didn't expect it to have such an impact on my life. I had no way of predicting how all these magazines would work on me."

Much to Alter's surprise, her life turned around after she started taking the advice literally. One magazine's suggestion to wrap lunch in plastic wrap enabled her to escape her routine of hitting up the office vending machine and carousing with a no-good co-worker.

Alter documents her yearlong experiment in her book, Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex and Starting Over. At the end of her journey she lost weight, stopped eating out of vending machines and found a new mate.

What's the best sex advice you've ever gotten from a magazine? [Media Life Magazine]