It used to be that cosmetic surgery was used mostly to make big noses smaller and small breasts larger, or to repair damage from accidents and birth defects. Well, no more. In the last seven years the number of youth enhancing procedures like Botox injections and chemical peels have increased by a whopping 81 percent, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

These procedures might make you look younger — but not better. MSNBC recently asked Dr. Tony Youn, a Michigan plastic surgeon, to put together a before and after slide show and lecture on the stars we love to watch. He takes apart Nicole Kidman’s face piece by piece, and commends Susan Sarandan for her restraint and good taste.

This riveting slide show is a great lesson on plastic surgery that most likely will inspire you to accept your years — and the face that goes with it. Tara Parker Pope, who writes the well blog for the New York Times, says the slide show is a lesson on what not to do.

If you must use plastic surgery, Youn also provides a list of tips on how to turn back the clock without looking bizarre.

He writes a blog on celebrities and their plastic surgeries called celebritycosmeticsurgery.blogspot.com.

What do you think of what these celebrities have done to their faces? Would you have plastic surgery to make you look younger?

I promise to write about dieting and weight loss rarely, and only when I have a good reason. Today, I do. Colin Firth.

Oh, and my colleague Laurie Hertzel, who writes Three Dog Blog in her spare time, and who can make anything engaging. Even aerobic exercise. So here are her wise words.

I had gained five pounds in Paris, and over the next few months found that not only was it impossible to get rid of them, but they were calling their friends. Parisian pounds, sadly, are no more glamorous than Midwestern American pounds. Desperate measures were needed.

So I rummaged around in my bag of old boring tricks, and came up with this: eat less, exercise more. I already walk a lot–well over an hour a day, with my dogs. I needed to add something aerobic.

I have an elliptical trainer in my basement, but I have never been able to stick to it. Music, podcasts, TV–none of it kept my attention. Each time I started an exercise routine, I ended up quitting in boredom.

This time, it occurred to me to haul the laptop into the basement and pop in a DVD. I started with Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” and found that exercising with Captain Wentworth was not a bad way to go. Watching it 20 minutes a time kept my exercise routine going through February and into March.

And then PBS started running “Pride and Prejudice” on Sunday nights. I realize I am 13 years late to this party, but trust me–even 13 years late is pretty good for me; I seldom show up at parties at all. I caught a few snippets of it on Sundays, but only enough to determine that Mr. Darcy was a strange stalker-type character who did nothing but glare at the vivacious Lizzie from 10 feet away.

My friends assured me I was wrong; he is not a stalker, he’s reserved and proud and awkward, and he gets better. So I bought the DVD.

Ah. Now I get it.

“Pride and Prejudice” took me through March and April, 20 minutes at a time. It not only made me exercise, it made me want to exercise, so that I could find out what happened next. (Will the odious Mr. Collins really propose? When will Bingley come back? What is Mr. Darcy doing in that pond?) It made me extend my exercise time from 20 minutes to 25 minutes and occasionally beyond.

I have lost nine pounds.

And now that Mr. Darcy is transformed; and Lizzie is –well, not tamed, exactly, but made a bit less impetuous; and the big-eyed Mr. Bingley has finally done right by Jane, it is time for me to find a new boyfriend to serve as my personal trainer into the summer.

Any suggestions?