Healthy Life Guide

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our new  Transformation of the Week  series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at  and you could be featured next week! Redditor  aModernViking  managed to pull off what so few people in his situation could do. He turned his life around by getting fit. He lost over 100 pounds in the span of only eight months -- truly a transformation. When he was younger he was very active, playing football at school. He jonied the army at the age of 18 and spent a year there. But when he got to university, he had to take care of himself, his own rent and his diet.  However after the army I decided to go to university, and that meant I would move in to my ow...

Being a wiz in the kitchen isn’t everyone's forte, and it never was mine. But when you’re working on putting on lean muscle, you know diet is essential, and that means cooking for yourself. I’ve packed on more muscle by making my own food and knowing exactly what is going into my body, instead of leaving it up to someone else and hoping they got it right. That way I am sure to only consume whole foods and high quality supplements . Two essential things to know when you’re trying to cook up some big muscle in the kitchen are what you’re eating, and what tools will need to help you make the best of your food. If I had to guess, I would say that I’m about 97% sweet potato. I joke about this, but in reality, sweet potatoes are my main source of carbohydrates. This means I’m packing in the sweet potatoes as I’m packing on the muscles. And no, I never get bored of them. That’s because I found 45 different ways, all in my book, The Swee...

Michael Jeffries never felt right in his own skin. He was 27 years old, overweight, and was struggling with the fact that his band broke up. He felt lonely. 'I was a bit depressed with that,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'I drank a fair bit, ate a fair bit.' He let himself go and the pounds were starting to rack up -- something that didn't help his struggle with depression. This continued until his body weight peaked at 236 pounds. Something had to give. RELATED:  8 Easy Steps To Weight Loss He told Unilad in an interview : I was hating the person I would see in the mirror! I was embarrassed to wear any tight clothes, or to be topless at the beach or pool. I was sick of the fat jokes and it got to a point where I thought enough was enough I decided I needed to make a change, and I haven’t looked back since! The firs thing that went was alcohol. He started to hit the gym and lift weights. He fell in love with the feeling of lifting heavy. As soon as he hit a wall...

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our new Transformation of the Week series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week! People struggle with motivation. That's not new. Especially those of us on weight loss journeys. Motivation is tricky. It's like holding water in your hands.  But sometimes -- sometimes we find something that helps it stick. Something that lights your fire and suddenly you can't find your off switch. You've discovered a newer version of you. That's what happened to Redditor shinichii . He had been overweight his entire life. And he had lost the weight before. But then his motivation, the fickle thing that it is, left h...

"Til  I die." Those were the three words that changed everything. For Reddit user jeanbodin , it was two years ago when he visited the doctor and found that his blood pressure was high enough that he would likely need to spend the rest of his life taking pills to regulate it. But it was that part death part -- the finality of it -- that flipped a switch for him.  It wasn't that he was on Death's door. But even the idea reminded him of his children -- that he wanted to be around for them as long as they needed him. He needed to be healthy. He needed change. He started with his diet.  He ditched the fast food, the fried foods, the sugar. But he wasn't seeing progress. He needed more work in the gym and when his wife decided to join, he had a partner in the fight and suddenly he was rolling. The couple researched training programs on message boards. They started counting macros. They employed a simple push-pull-legs style weight lifting program and...

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our Transformation of the Week  series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week! Usually weight loss transformations could with stories about relentless work in the gym, experimenting with weight lifting programs and flexing new muscles in the mirror. But this one proves that your kitchen habits can be your biggest asset for anyone that wants to make changes to their health and body. This woman says she dropped 102 pounds, and mostly without the grueling gym work. She simply made a hard pivot with her eating.  The woman, who's name is Kristina, practiced the increasingly popular ketogentic diet, a low-c...

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our  Transformation of the Week  series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week! Brad Jackson had been overweight for more than 20 years. He didn’t have a problem getting motivated. Jackson tried all the diets. He picked up running. The problem was staying motivated. Jackson, at 264 pounds, didn’t need a fix. He needed a lifestyle change. And the 51 year-old father of three found it in an unlikely place – on an app on his phone. He credits the Lose It! App for helping him drop 69 pounds and start battling back from a health condition that would alter his life. In January last year, Jackson was diag...

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our  Transformation of the Week  series, AskMen is celebrating men and women who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week! There’s no question that there are millions of fans across the world that have been inspired by Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who had both his No. 8 and No. 24 jersey retired at the Staples Center earlier this week. But few fans more than Chris Huerta. The Lakers fanatic dropped 170 pounds since Bryant’s final game in April 2016 and credited his determination to following the “Mamba Mentality.” He tweeted his progress this week and immediately went viral, receiving more than 6,000 retweets in t...

On the surface, it seems that beer and burgers would have no place in a healthy diet. But most dietitians argue that from time to time, they do. We call it the cheat meal; they prefer the term “balance.” In fact, letting loose occasionally can help you adhere to a nutritious eating plan. Here, the science behind why our body’s need a break from kale and hardboiled eggs every now and then—and how to keep your balance from, well, growing seriously imbalanced: Why Balance Matters Read it to believe it: “It can be unhealthy to eat perfectly all the time from a psychological standpoint,” says Dana Hunnes, Ph.D., R.D., a senior dietitian at Ronald Regan-UCLA Medical Center. Think about yourself as a rubber band being stretched. Without any balance, you can want something so badly that you go from never eating it to gorging on it (or…snapping). “By allowing yourself indulgences on a regular basis you are showing yourself that you can stick to an...

Holidays are for family and college Bowl games and food – lots of food. Christmas meals might only take a backseat to Thanksgiving feasts. Both are a gift. Both somehow are a formula for extended naps on the couch. But it’s important to know that holiday layouts don’t need to limited to gingerbread cookies, giant slabs of ham and a reserved corner of the table designated for the three-year old sugar-coated fruit cake Grandma slaved over. For those of us still trying to figure out what’s on the menu, lifestyle blogger Camille Styles, author of Camille Styles Entertaining, shared a pair of holiday-themed recipes to equally worthy of date night or having the parents over for dinner – and they taste good enough that your mom will be too distracted to ask when you’re finally getting married. Check out the ravioli recipe below which is perfect for the emerging population of veggie eaters that will show up to your kitchen without leaving the meat lovers in t...

Nothing fuels motivation like a breakup. Well, that and finding a new girlfriend. Collin Fissell, a former football player at Texas State University, was heartbroken when his girlfriend broke up with him a day before their sixth anniversary. He was also 322 pounds, the heaviest he had ever been. It was time for a life change. And this new life would be plant-based.  Fissell, an Austin, Tx. Native, tried to tweak his diet but it wasn’t really until he started dating his new girlfriend, Haley Rosenberg, that his weight loss accelerated. Haley, already a vegetarian, suggested they go vegan. “I remember stepping on the scales and at that time I weighed [322 pounds],” he told the Daily Star. “I just realized it was time to take a hard look at myself. I would have never thought my life would have changed so much. I am the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. People are astonished by my weight loss.” Related: Should You Use A Plant-Based Protein? Fissell...

Brent Fikowski does not necessarily like the title, “Second Fittest Man on Earth.” He understands it. It’s punchy and works for branding. But he’d much sooner call himself a silver medalist. He placed second at the 2017 CrossFit Games. But there’s no question that you’ve got to be one of the fittest athletes on the planet to stand anywhere on that podium. Everything from the way that he trains, what time he wakes up in the morning, how he sleeps and recovers must all be meticulously accounted for. And of course, there’s a high priority on food. And Fikowski eats like an animal. No, seriously. He eats like an animal. “Recently I’ve been experimenting with some foul parts which will be like tongue and heart and kidney and liver, because it’s cheaper,” Fikowski recently said while he was in New York promoting the release of Reebok's new Nano 8 training shoe. Fine. So there’s a benefit to your spending budget but ...

Any guy who’s trying to build muscle is probably sensitive to two things: 1. How he works out and 2. What he eats. Ask any trainer or nutritionist, and they’ll both tell you the same thing: both carbohydrates and protein are essential if you want to see next-level strength gains. And while you may be tempted to load up on protein powder and steaks, you could be making a major mistake by skipping over the produce section. Not only are vegetables chock-full of good-for-you nutrients that help your body function at optimal capacity and recover better, but some of them can even help you build muscle. Something that plant-based diet fans know all too well. “The biggest misconception about following a vegetarian diet is the inability to consume adequate protein to support muscle growth and maintenance,” says Georgia Rounder , RDN, CDN. “However, you can definitely meet your personal protein needs when following a plant-based diet full of a variety of vegetables, ...

I should start be saying that I thought this would be easy. Sometimes – a lot of times – breakfast is something I just think about in the morning. Like that thing you keep meaning to do but never get around to. Then as soon as my belly alerts me that I am, in fact, starving, like that gripping feeling that tells you to hit the restroom, I know that it is time I should eat. I love food. All the foods. I just don’t build my days around it. Then I tried intermittent fasting . Fasting isn’t new. Throughout history, whether there was a lack of available food or for religious reasons, fasting as always been something people practice. I’m the same way, but my reasons usually come down to disorganization or that I’m too lazy to cook or decided to boycott greasy takeout. But as a general rule, I eat when I’m hungry even if that means munching at 1 a.m. This diet, more accurately described as an eating pattern , is simple and works just how it sounds...

Redditor Dexcov always thought about this diet. He just couldn’t keep on going. There would be a week when he was iron clad and he would hijack contents of the refrigerator; consistent for a month and then stumble again off the wagon. Up and down habits yielded up and down results. Then, at age 26, he was tired of giving up. Finally, he found a way to make it stick. “Once the feeling of giving up hurts more than the draining early morning gym sessions and undying hunger for comfort food, you’re succeeding,” he wrote. He went for small changes over a long period of time, methodically crafting his new lifestyle instead of taking a sledgehammer to his regular routine and starting from scratch. Sure, his commitment to the gym was paramount. But his primary focus was on cementing his dietary habits. He broke it down in detail this way: Breakfast: (1) Serving of  Legion  GENYSIS Greens Superfood Carbs : 10g Protein : 4g Fat : 0.5g (6) Hard Boiled Egg whites (...

Talking about your gut is in vogue. We now know that the gut’s microbiome (the bacteria inside) is linked to everything from our brain health to our emotions and how we feel on the regular. And that, friends, is where the low-FODMAP diet comes in. A way of eating that’s been rising in popularity because of its low-carb nature, FODMAP was originally crafted to help sufferers of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Those suffering from IBS, which essentially translates to a sensitive stomach (well, large intestine actually), typically see a 68 to 76 percent improvement in their condition when adopting this diet, according to an Australian review . But what is a FODMAP in the first place and how does one follow this on a daily basis? Let’s take a closer look. What does FODMAP stand for? FODMAPs are small-chain carbohydrates. To break it down even further, let's hone in on  the acronym FODMAP, which stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharid...

There’s a reason we have role models. For Reddit user greymda, that reason was life-changing. For most of his life, the 35 year-old never had much use for fitness. He sat out of gym class regularly – enough so that he “earned” a certificate for his lack of participation. “Why bother?” was his mindset. That was until he saw his favorite musician, a Belarusian punk rocker named Sergi Mikhalok, had recently underwent his own body transformation, going from a soft-bodied musician to completely shredded, shirtless band frontman. His idol had abs, so why couldn’t he? Not knowing where to start, he scoured the message boards and experimented with strength training cycles. But he dropped the ball on the nutrition part and when he wised up, he followed a plan to bulk up when his goal was getting lean. Mistakes were made. His mistakes, like many a man, were cleaned up by his new wife, a part-time personal trainer. He outlined these important dietary chang...

Some nights you want nothing to do with meal prep . Maybe you deviate from the typical route home to the nearest sushi restaurant or settle for a salad thrown together with whatever’s left in your fridge. Fact is, you could be seriously missing out if you’re not taking the time to cook your own eats. Not only do people who cook their meals at home eat healthier and fewer calories than those who cook less, according to one Johns Hopkins University study , but their bodies are better for it, too. That’s right: Certain eats are simply better for you when you take the time to cook them. Specifically, a lot of your favorite vegetables. “With certain foods, adding heat breaks down the cell walls, which helps release more antioxidants from the food, meaning it's easier for our body to access them, says Alissa Rumsey MS, RD, CSCS, of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness in New York City. On the short list: beta carotene, lycopene, quercetin, rutin, lutein and zeaxanthin. Before we...

Boiling eggs is easy enough. Getting the freaking shell off is another story. Several recommended techniques to make the shell easier to remove include putting the freshly boiled eggs into an ice bath or shaking the egg in a cup of water to force the shell off. But what if you could ditch the shell altogether? That’s what Egglettes are for. It’s an idea as simple as it is clever. Simply crack your eggs into one of these plastic moulds, screw on the top and boil like you would. When it’s time to eat, just slide the egg out of the container. No more rolling your eggs in paper towels or trying to pierce the membrane of the shell with your fingernails while you dig out perfectly good chunks of egg white all over the counter. A four-pack of Egglettes will run you $9.99. Via : https://fakeitwhilkeyoumakeit.blogspot.com

The holidays are here again and that means food, food, and more food. Holiday parties and seasonal cheer often present an overload of eating, and attending these feasts can be a challenge because there is great temptation to sample luscious and sinful treats. Don't worry, you don't have to pass up that onion dip or fruitcake this holiday season. You can still have a great time, as long as you're aware of what you eat. The following suggestions will help you make healthy eating decisions while cooking and celebrating this festive month. Scary But True The average American typically gains between 7 and 10 pounds during the holidays. If you want to be anything but average, take a different track this holiday season. Where Does It Come From? To gain that weight, you need to consume an extra 24,500 to 35,000 calories. Sounds impossible? It's not. Take a look at how much extra food a person would need to eat to gain 7 pounds in five weeks: 36 pieces of chocolate candy = 2,200...