Solange Magnano was one of the most beautiful women in the world, having won Miss Argentina 1994 and gone on to a career of runway modeling and success. She died on December 1st, 2009 after complications arose from butt surgery that she received in Buenos Aires. She is survived by her 8-year old twins, a husband, a thriving business career. All because she was willing to risk gluteopasty for a tighter rear, willing to undergo general anesthesia and invasive surgery. And she’s hardly alone on that front—every year thousands upon tens of thousands of people undergo plastic surgery, willingly submitting themselves to the tender love of the scalpel and cannula in order to pursue an elusive dream of beauty, perfection, a better version of themselves. While most do not end up dying, the dangers are high, the results unpredictable (you’ve seen those ladies whose face lifts have left them looking like they’re in a permanent state of inhalation) and even when the results work out, they don’t often stick. So why? Why are people willing to undergo such dangerous, costly (a Brazil Butt lift costs about $20,000) surgeries? Especially for something that can be achieved through inexpensive, healthy means like exercise in the case of butt lifts?

An old complaint, I know. Nothing original thus far. America has been typecast as the gimme-gimme ‘Now’ nation for decades. Instant satisfaction is all we crave, from that minute of nicotine high to that five second orgasm. Tell somebody to hit a gym, eat organic, quit drinking and smoking, and they’ll just roll their eyes and laugh as the turn back to the bar/McDonald’s counter/couch/whatever. But come midnight, which’s staring at their lumpish bodies in the bathroom mirror, suddenly feeling wretched and abject in their lack of perfection, and then googling up surgeons, diet pills, miracle machines that will deliver washboard abs in only five days of ten minute workouts?

People need to wisen up. People need to start realizing that our bodies are machines, just like cars, and depending on what fuel you put in them, how much maintenance you give it, your engine will run fast and smooth or coughing and hacking. Exercise, people. You want a perfect butt? Work for it. No, I don’t mean lunges and squats until the end of the world, huffing and puffing in some overly air conditioned gym, and sweating and cursing your life as the jiggles refuse to depart. Invest your time in learning about something new like Leandro Carvalho’s ‘Gylok Health Center'. The man trains Victoria Secret models, for crying out loud, teaches them how to target key muscles so as to appear lean, slender and toned. Set to Afro-Brazilian music and incorporating samba dancing, ballet, capoeira and Axe dance moves, it’s going to get you moving, dancing and wiggling that butt in to supermodel perfection.