Q:I love Sriracha sauce. Is it OK to put it on everything? 

A: The original Sriracha that comes in the squeeze bottle with the green top has a gram of sugar per teaspoon. That will add up fast if you're using it to flavor a big stir fry. Huy Fong makes another product, Chili Garlic Sauce, that does not contain sugar. I like this one better anyway.

More sugar-free stir fry sauces are LC Food Low Carb Teriyaki Sauce, which has two grams of carbs per serving, and San-J Organic Shoyu, which has only one gram of carbs per serving. Whether it's sauce, cooking spray or condiments, be mindful of how much added sugar and carbs are in those often overlooked (and overused) food products. 

Add Protein to Your Breakfast to Reduce Cravings, Study Says >>>

Nutrition Q&A: Should I Eat the Same on Off Days as Training Days? >>>

One day of gluttony isn’t a big deal. But if you chase it with three days of the same rich, calorie-dense leftovers, you risk undoing everything gained from weeks of moderation. However, if you integrate your holiday treats into healthier fare, you can empty out your fridge and still enjoy the long weekend without worrying about dieting later. The following recipes have been tailored to leftovers, from the bird to the cranberry sauce.

7 Surprising Sugar Bombs >>>

Four Whole Grains You Haven't Tried >>>

TURN LEFTOVER PUMPKIN PIE INTO A... CINNAMON PUMPKIN SMOOTHIE

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin pie, crust removed
½ cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
6 tbsp 1% low-fat milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ice cubes

Directions:
1) Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Serves: 1

Nutrition:  280 calories, 20g protein, 40g carbs, 2g fat 

Add Fat to the List Of Things Apples Keep Away >>>

TURN LEFTOVER CRANBERRY SAUCE INTO... APPLE-WALNUT OATMEAL

Ingredients:
½ cup quick-cooking oatmeal, uncooked
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
1 small apple, cored and chopped
2 tbsp cranberry sauce
2 tbsp walnuts, chopped

Directions:
1) Place oatmeal, milk, and apple in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 1–1½ minutes on high. Stir in cranberry sauce. Top with walnuts.

Serves: 1

Nutrition: 437 calories, 17g protein, 63g carbs, 14g fat

TURN LEFTOVER CIDER INTO... MULLED CIDER

Ingredients:
2 whole cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp whole allspice berries
4 strips orange peel
4 strips lemon peel
6 cups apple cider

Directions:
1) Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Serve in mugs.

Serves: 6

Nutrition: 115 calories, 0g protein, 28g carbs, 0g fat 

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TURN LEFTOVER TURKEY AND SWEET POTATO INTO A... STUFFED SWEET POTATO

Ingredients:
1 large cooked sweet potato, skin on, cut lengthwise
¼ cup cooked turkey, chopped
¼ cup canned black beans, drained
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of chili powder
2 tbsp salsa
1 tbsp low-fat sour cream
Chopped scallions or cilantro, if desired

Directions:
1) Open up the potato to accommodate filling. Microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute.
2) In a small bowl, combine turkey, beans, paprika, and chili powder. Cover and microwave for 30 seconds.
3) Place turkey mixture in center of potato. Top with salsa and sour cream. Sprinkle with scallions and/or cilantro.

Serves: 1

Nutrition:  320 calories, 20g protein, 50g carbs, 5g fat

5 Weird Things That Make You Bloated >>>

TURN LEFTOVER TURKEY, MASHED POTATOES, GRAVY, CARROTS, AND GREEN BEANS INTO... TURKEY SHEPHERD'S PIE

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked turkey, diced
2 cups cooked carrots, sliced
2 cups cooked green beans
1 cup turkey gravy
½ cup reduced-sodium chicken or turkey stock (or broth)
3 cups mashed potatoes

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350˚.
2) Layer the turkey in a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with carrots and green beans.
3) In a small bowl, combine gravy and stock/broth. Microwave for 45 seconds. Stir well.
4) Pour gravy mixture over turkey and vegetables. Spread mashed potatoes evenly on top.
5) Bake 30 minutes; serve immediately.

Serves: 6

Nutrition: 260 calories, 25g protein, 25g carbs, 7g fat

The Food That Helps You Feel 31% Fuller >>>

14 Foods To Kick Out Of The Kitchen Forever >>>

Guys in the military used to call the hand-sewn straps “the gizmo.” It did look a little wacky, hanging from a door frame. That’s until they snagged the Jerry-rigged handles and learned how to crush a workout, usually in remote, dangerous locales far away from dumbbell racks.

Almost two decades later, celebrities and professional athletes use TRX. Weekend warriors use TRX. Your trainer probably uses TRX. Your CrossFit-snob buddy definitely uses TRX. The pair of hand-sewn straps that got Navy SEALs ripped in the middle of the desert in the 90s has turned into a fitness empire. Behind it all is SEAL veteran, entrepreneur, and workout buff Randy Hetrick. We spoke with Hetrick on how he came up with the idea, and where TRX is headed next now that it’s taken over your gym and your home.

Five Toughest TRX Exercises>>>

Men's Fitness: How did you come up with the original idea?

Randy Hetrick: I was a Navy SEAL for 14 years and you have to maintain the physical readiness of a professional athlete. When you’re back stateside you have world-class gyms built into your compound, but when you deploy all of that disappears. In the middle of the 90s we were doing a lot of work in a variety of different places where you can’t just go out for a run. 

I happened to be deployed over in Southeast Asia and we were preparing for a ship-boarding counter-piracy mission. I had accidentally deployed with my jujitsu blue belt in my bag. We were sitting there in this warehouse. The mission involves climbing up 40 feet or so on the side of a freighter with 80 to 100 pounds of gear on your back. You are highly motivated to try and keep the climbing muscles in shape. I thought, you know if I tied a knot at the end of this belt I could throw this over one of the doors and just literally pick myself off the ground and use my bodyweight to do some cool exercises.

25-Minute TRX Circuit >>>

MF: When did it click that you could turn this into a business?

RH: It wasn’t until my first year of business school at Stanford. The big kicker was that one of my buddies was a stud football player at Stanford and he got us permission to train in the athlete-training center. So I would go out to this killer workout facility, I would hook up my straps and just crush myself. I was in really good shape and just about every single one of the coaches came up to me and their line of questioning was always the same. "Hey, why are you so old and what the hell is this thing?" Within like 20 minutes they'd be on the straps and they'd be telling me why this was the greatest thing ever for everyone from their 300-pound lineman to their 100-pound female tennis players. That was when the switch flipped. I took the summer between my first and second years there and I literally bought a $39 sewing machine, hunkered down in my garage, and worked through 50 types of prototypes.

MF: How did you get people to buy into the system?

RH: I was trying to sell these things out of the trunk of my car to these little specialty fitness stores. Then I decided to go down to this trainer convention. I had this pathetic little 10 by 10 booth and I rigged up this goofy freestanding door that you could stand up and hang the thing. I sold out of every single strap I had. At the end of that show I did not have a single unit of inventory to my name. 

MF: Now you have celebrities and athletes of all kinds using TRX. When do you think your first big breakthrough happened?

RH: Early on one of the big endorsements came from this cat whom I didn't even know anything about. One of the trainers that I had become close to trained this guy. He was the quarterback for the Chargers but had just been released because he had torn the labrum in his throwing shoulder. This friend of mine said "Hey, would you send a couple of units for one of the guys I work with? He's a great guy, really promising but he's got this injury.” I sent them down a few as a favor.

It turns out this guy is Drew Brees. He signed with the Saints and right when he signed he had an opportunity to do a story with Sports Illustrated, where he gave us a killer plug.

Four Steps to Master Your TRX Workouts >>>

MF: What’s next for TRX?

RH: We aren’t just a gear company, we are a gear and education company. And one day I woke up and went, “Wait a minute, we are a gear, education, and programming company.” That’s the perfect definition of a complete training solution. There’s now this big opportunity to create the world's greatest training brand. 

Our most recent product is a fully deployable shipping container loaded with functional training gear and we sell it into the military and first responder communities. It’s a fully deployable world-class gym in a box. So now we are in fact much broader than the straps, although the straps are what we became famous for.

MF: What’s your measure of success?

RH: A significant amount of our success is the results we give and get to share with our customers. The second part of the answer is obviously financial. You need to generate sales and to be able to have a profitable business off of that. The final one is personal; if I can create a great place to go to work every day for my team and for myself and provide a great lifestyle for my family doing something I enjoy, then to me that's a pretty high and fortunate place to be.

Warm-up x 2 Rounds

1. Squats x 10
2. Pushups x 10
3. Band rows x 10
4. Jumping Jacks bx 30

Circuit 1 x 2 Rounds (no rest between exercises)

1. DB Chest Press x 12
2. DB Single-Arm Rows x 12 (each side)
3. KB Goblet Squats x 15
4. KB Swings x 15
*Rest 45 seconds and repeat

**Rest 45 seconds, then start next circuit

Circuit 2 x 2 Rounds (no rest between exercises)

1. DB Push Press x 15
2. Eccentric pullups x 8-12
3. Walk-Out Plank x 45 seconds
4. Step-Up to Bicep Curls x 8 each leg
*Rest 45 seconds and repeat

**Rest 45 seconds, then start Finisher

FINISHER: Tabatas
Do 20 seconds of KB burpees at all-out (100%) effort followed by 10 seconds of rest for a total of 4 minutes.
 

Shot on location at FOCUS Integrated Fitness in New York City.

After an agonizingly long day at work, the last thing you want to do is get out and hit the gym hard. Just because this is a fitness site doesn’t mean we can’t relate – it’s natural to just want to grab some food, veg out in front of the TV for a bit and hit the sack. But don’t give in, as there’s always still time for a super-quick, efficient workout if you’re willing to delay your well-deserved rest for just a tad longer. To anyone who scoffs at the ease of a standard 40-hour workweek, this is the workout for you.

The "I Ain't Got Time" Workout >>>
The "I Just Got Dumped" Workout >>>

THE WORKOUT

1. SUITCASE DEADLIFT
Sets: 5
Reps: 5
Rest: 30

2. WALKING LUNGE
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rest: 30

3. BARBELL BENCH PRESS
Sets: 5
Reps: 5
Rest: 30

4. PULL UP
Sets: 3
Reps: Failure
Rest: 30

5. Treadmill at 60%
20-Minutes

His dad, Deepak Chopra, may be a world-renowned mind-body healing expert who’s enlightened and befriended everyone from Oprah to Madonna to the Dalai Lama — but Gotham Chopra, 39, is building some pretty good street cred of his own. So far he’s produced nine films, including the (decidedly unspiritual) Bulletproof Monk, and taken on a slew of other projects, including directing an ESPN documentary on the curious nature of Indian cricket, The Little Master.

Chopra the younger is also a diehard Boston-bred Celtics fan; so his next project, Kobe Bryant’s Muse — a Showtime documentary on the aging Lakers superstar—particularly piqued our interest. We caught up with the filmmaker and found out how much fun it is to trash talk with Kobe — and how his famous father just kinda doesn’t get it.

Common Knowledge: Q&A With the Chicago Rapper >>>

What so interested you about Kobe that you wanted to make a film about him? 

Well, I’ve always been a fan of basketball in general — I grew up in Boston, and to this day I’m still a huge Celtics fan. So, ironically, for 99% of my life I hated Kobe. I hated everything he represented, and rooted very actively against him. But even when I was a diehard Laker-hater, I also respected that he’s indisputably one of the greatest at his craft. Be it in basketball or business or art, I’m always fascinated to learn how that works: How do you get to be that great at something?

Did your Boston fandom ever come up? 

Oh man, it came up every single day! And while we were making the film, the Red Sox won the World Series, and the Bruins went pretty far. It was just a constant source of trash-talking between us.

It was fun, and I think it’s sort of ironic that he let somebody in who grew up behind enemy lines.

How did you manage to narrow down his story to find a focus for the film?

The story starts about a year ago, when Kobe was recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, so it’s almost like a yearlong comeback story.

But the larger theme is Kobe’s pursuit of greatness. All through his career, he’s wanted to be the very best.

We also get into what life after basketball will be like, which is very much on his mind, and something he talks pretty openly about.

What impressed you most about him? 

He’s gifted and talented, but nobody outworks Kobe Bryant — I mean, nobody. I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know him, to watch him come back to full strength, and he works his ass off.

But he’s also humble. He doesn’t take anything for granted. As a fan — as somebody from the outside — you know this guy really is a Black Mamba, like his nickname. He’s this killer, and he’ll run over his grandmother to win the game.

But there’s also a certain humility to him about shit he doesn’t know about, and he’s constantly asking questions. He’s curious. He wants to talk to people, he’s reading websites and sending me articles and asking questions about things like Pinterest, and asking, “How did this company get to be where it is?”

Did any of his zeal in the gym rub off on you?

I certainly don’t want to compare myself in any way to Kobe, but I’ve always been active — seven days a week I’m doing something. I ride bikes, swim, run, and play basketball once a week. Every day I’m doing something, usually for up to an hour and a half.

And my wife tries to get me to go to yoga— which, interestingly, everyone assumes I do lots of — but I’m lucky if I get there once a month, just to indulge her.

Workout Advice From Terry Crews >>>

Your father is a bona fide spiritual icon — how did you manage to get so deep into sports?

I like to say that everything “spiritual” that my dad’s talked about for years actually exists in sports. When I watch Kobe doing his workouts in the morning, where it’s just him and a ball boy, it’s like watching somebody do yoga, or martial arts.

But I also have to say that, while my dad maybe a spiritual icon, he’s also perhaps the least sports-savvy person ever. When I told him about this project, and working with Kobe, he was like, “Wait, the Lakers — didn’t they win the Super Bowl a few years ago?”

If you’re not a boxing fan, you might not know the name Chris Algieri. But you should soon. Algieri, an undefeated champion fighter and Long Island native, has never fought outside of the United States. He’s never fought outside of New York, for that matter, and never swapped punches with an athlete who transcends his sport.

But here he is. Algieri has a date on November 22 in Macau, China against future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao. And Algieri might be the only one who thinks it’s not a big deal.

“It’s only a big deal if you make it a big deal,” he said recently during a phone interview from his private kitchen at this training headquarters in Las Vegas. “I don’t care where it is. … Is Manny going to be there? Is there gonna be a ring? What does it matter?”

Does he want to prove people wrong?

“I don’t care about proving people wrong."

Shut up the critics?

“No. I don’t care. What they say doesn’t matter to me.”

If you ask Algieri, he’s simply preparing for another fight, another fighter. Nothing has changed. Well, except for the cameras that make their way into every workout session and the obligations that have grown so overwhelming that he now has staff to manage it all. His training and nutrition – those things are the same.

So is the fact that Algieri steps into the ring as the biggest of underdogs. The same as he was when he catapulted himself into boxing’s consciousness by outscoring Ruslan Provodnikov for a piece of the 140-pound title with a right eye so swollen it belonged in a Rocky movie.

The Best MMA Cardio Workout>>>

It’s a long way from where Algieri started. The 30-year-old grew up in Huntington, Long Island, earned a degree in health sciences from Stony Brook University and a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from New York Institute of Technology.  Algieri, who started his fighting career in kickboxing, still works as a certified nutritionist and until his upset win against Provodnikov, he was still taking on clients.

Algieri contends that his training diet mirrors his regular routine. He simply eats more. And that doesn’t mean he cuts out all the things he likes either. “I put butter on my toast,” he said. “I love butter. Everyone’s surprised by that.”

Also surprising: “I eat white rice. Does that make me a bad person? No.”

Find Chris Algieri's typical daily meal plan on the following page>>>

Chris Algieri's Typical Daily Meal Plan

Morning

I wake up in the morning and I make myself a super huge smoothie. I usually do a base of broccoli and spinach. I use almond milk, coconut water, on a sparring day I’ll use beet juice, organic beet juice. I use whey protein, a couple different supplements in there: creatine, gluten, beta-alanine, sometimes I put almonds in there just to mix it up. Depending on what kind of fruit we have, if I have any kind of sore muscles I’ll had pineapples or papaya. Strawberries, blueberries are staples in a morning smoothie.

After Morning Workout

I eat eggs almost every day. I love eating eggs. I’ll do sunny-side up eggs. Right now I’ll do an omelette with Ezekiel toast, lots of fresh fruit. I love butter. I put butter on everything. I put butter on my toast. Everybody’s surprised by that. For me, I don’t want to get rid of butter. It’s a saturated fat and you need that as well.

Afternoon (following boxing session)

Finish that up with a protein shake. I use a supplement called Vitargo, it’s the fastest digesting carb on the market. Put sugar and glytrogen back in your muscles immediately. I take that with my protein or my creatine. That’s immediately after my workout. An hour later I’ll eat again. Usually some piece of protein, a chicken breast or a chicken thigh and then a sweet potato – light and low in fat. And then it’s dinner time.

Dinner

I love to cook. Dinner is my favorite meal of the day and I love to mix it up and get kind of fancy and kind of different.

I do the same thing I tell my clients. I take my plate and cut it in half. A quarter of that is going to be your meat entrée and a quarter of that is going to be your starch. I’ll double up on my veggies. I’ll either have a side of broccoli or a side of asparagus and then I’ll have a green salad with that and then I’ll throw in a sweet potato or brown rice and then I’ll have my entrée, like last night was a tuna steak. Tomorrow it’ll probably be another fish like salmon. Another day it might be a hamburger. That’s another thing I won’t give up during camp is hamburgers.

Q: FOODWISE, HOW CAN I ENJOY THANKSGIVING BUT KEEP IT FROM WRECKING MY DIET? -LEVI R., RUTLAND, VT

Precede the big meal—and any meals made of the leftovers—with a protein shake to help fill you up. The creamier the shake, the better: Protein is more filling than carbohydrates, but a 2013 study in the British Journal of Nutrition also found that the thickness and creaminess of a protein drink can further heighten the perception of its protein content and its ability to satisfy the appetite.

In the study, healthy males drank two protein-rich mixtures before lunch, one with the thickness of a milkshake and the other with a more juicelike consistency. Then, in a companion experiment, the men drank both a high-carbohydrate drink made to look thick and creamy (as if it contained protein) and a more watery beverage.

In both cases, the creamier drinks were the most effective in curbing the subjects’ appetites, causing researchers to conclude that the look and feel of a drink may be even more important than the protein content itself in terms of making you feel full.

My advice: Drink a conventional milky protein shake—not one of the clear juice-like ones—shortly before mealtime.

Add Protein to Your Breakfast to Reduce Cravings, Study Says >>>

Maybe you've been working out forever. You've got your routines down, and at this point it's just getting it in and getting out. But at some point boredom is inevitable and change is needed. We dropped by FOCUS NYC to meet up with trainer Ryan Heffernan for him to give us the quick run-through on 25 exercises you probably have never tried in your life. And if you have, well, congratulations.

The Exercises (in order of appearance in the video):

1. Medicine Ball Pushup (feet and hands on ball)
2. Incline Medicine Ball Pushup
3. Single-Arm Anterior Rotation Press (seated on Swiss ball)
4. Eccentric Push Press
5. Plate-Loaded Bench Dip
6. Barbell Single-Arm Push Press
7. TRX French Press
8. Zottman Curl
9. Off-Set Pullup
10. Incline Dumbbell Shrug
11. Band Retraction Hold (for traps)
12. Inverted Kettlebell Curl
13. Single-Arm Barbell Row (using landmine)
14. Barbell Suitcase Deadlift
15. Jefferson Deadlift
16. Single-Leg Barbell RDL
17. Super-Band Pull-Through
18. Zurcher Squat
19. Pause Front Squat
20. Single-Arm Plank
21. Half-Kneeling Pallof Press
22. Feet-Elevated Wall Plank
23. Snatch-Grip Deadlift with Jump Shrug (traps)
24. TRX Rotation
25. Side Plank with Shoulder Abduction
 

Want to ensure that you’ll finish a marathon?   Sign up for one, and when you do, share it on Facebook, tweet about it, and post it on Reddit.

It's that simple. And yes, it's that powerful.
 
The “commitment and consistency principle” is one of the oldest and most effective behavioral science brain-hacks. In short, once you commit to doing something, your chances of being consistent with that commitment (i.e., following through) increase dramatically.

The effect is especially powerful if you write down your commitment and share it publicly. This is rooted in our innate desire to have our actions be in harmony with our words and public image, a need that can compel us to accomplish activities and ambitions that we might otherwise abandon.

In the words of Robert Cialdini, perhaps the nation’s top expert on persuasion, “The drive to be (and look) consistent constitutes a highly potent weapon of influence.”   

Train Your Willpower Like You Train Your Muscles >>>
 
How the Commitment and Consistency Principle Works
 
When our actions conflict with our written goals and public image, we experience a type of mental distress that often proves harder to deal with than running 26 miles (or losing 20 pounds, giving up added sugar, etc.).  A written declaration of your audacious health or fitness goal makes it unforgettable and undeniable.  

Sharing this goal publicly only raises the stakes by further linking your social identity - which, let’s be honest, most of us care a lot about - to the accomplishment of your goal.  In his best selling book, Influence, Cialdini writes that:
 
“Once an active commitment is made (publicly), then, self-image is squeezed from both sides by consistency pressures. From the inside, there is a pressure to bring self-image into line with action. From the outside, there is a sneakier pressure – a tendency to adjust this image according to the way others perceive us. And because others see us as believing what we have written, we will really experience a pull to bring self-image into line with the written statement.”

Training Tip: Have a Fresh Start >>>

This is the Cure for Burnout >>>
  
Using Commitment and Consistency to Accomplish Your Health and Fitness Goals
 
I am a competitive ultra-marathon runner, so to keep myself consistent I take the following steps. These can apply to any fitness goal you want to reach. 

1. Sign up for the race and document this publicly (social media makes this very easy)

2. Buy all kinds of ultra-running gear

3. Start hanging out with crazy-fast runners

4. And, if you really want to ensure your commitment will be long-lasting, go get some tattoos that only look cool if you’re a lean, fast, trail-running machine. (You might want to ask your wife first; I learned this the hard way).

 Although simply writing down and sharing your goal is quite strong in and of itself, the more that you can do to create your desired self and social image, the more likely you are to become it. And, especially in the case of tattoos, maintain it. 

It would be hard to blame Alterraun Verner if he was searching for comfort food. His Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 1-8 heading into this week's matchup with the Washington Redskins and Verner missed last week while nursing a hamstring injury. But the injury, much like this season, is an exercise in patience. Verner, a Pro Bowl cornerback in 2013, signed a four-year deal with the Bucs last March worth $26.5 million. Remaining healthy is paramount and that's why the 25 year-old Verner warns anyone dealing with a hamstring injury not to rush back into intense activity and when you can't train at full speed, keeping up with your nutrition becomes even more important. 

Verner doesn't do much cooking himself anymore. Especially now that he's married. He says his wife, Sina'e, takes care of his meals at home. Otherwise his nights would be filled with various sushi and fried rice plates. Most days, he's eating with the team though. Here, he shares exactly what's on his plate one day before practice in this installment of DISHED, a series in which top athletes tell us what they're eating and why. 

GREENS: The first thing that I usually get when I walk into our cafeteria - there’s a salad bar - I usually get a salad with lettuce. I might sprinkle a little cheese. I usually try to get balsamic vinaigrette as the dressing. I usually do that because I like salad and having some kind of greens on your plate to get those minerals and vitamins. I usually at least start off with that before practice. I’ve got some green beans to go along with the salad. I also usually have some kind of starch, veggies and then a main meat, or protein item.

RICE: I’ve got the rice pilaf to get some starch. I try to get some starch and some carbohydrates before I work out.

PROTEIN: It was a taco day that day. I had beef and chicken in the taco. I tried to actually roll it up like a Chipotle burrito but it was so full I couldn’t close the other end. I was trying to put the chicken in so that it didn’t fall out – or at least that’s what I attempted to do. I put lettuce, guacamole, sour cream. I had tomatos and salsa. I tried to load it up actually and get all the different types of things in there with a little bit of cheese. 

Alterraun's Go-To Dinner

Since I’m married now my wife will cook something for me. She usually tries to keep to the same thing, making sure there’s veggies, starch and a protein. She cooks relatively healthy for me. When I was by myself I would attempt to cook or I’d go out and buy something. My favorites would be sushi or some kind of fried rice, fish or a steak with potatoes and sautéed spinach or creamed spinach.

Alterraun's Favorite Sina'e-Cooked Meal

She makes a lot of good things. I would say my favorite is like an enchilada thing. She’ll cook meat and potatoes and put it all in a pot and put some cheese over it and tortillas and then she’ll oven-bake it into some enchilada type of mix. It’s almost like a pie-slash-enchilada dish and I eat so much of it and I know I probably shouldn’t. But I end up eating a lot of it. 

Alterraun's Favorite Homecooked Meal

My dad is more the cook. He does the barbecuing. He cooks all types of things. The thing I grew up eating was his spaghetti. He makes this really good spaghetti. I don’t know what it was (that made it so good). I think it’s because he put some type of cheese in it. It’s always good. Lately he’s been doing this spaghetti pie where he’ll put a layer of cheese on top. That’s something he’s been doing recently but his regular spaghetti I’ve always really liked. He also does this fried rice dish where he’ll put chicken, shrimp - all different types of meat - then he’ll fry the rice and have the peas, carrots and everything in it. It’s really good.

Alterraun's Favorite Cheat Meal

Red velvet cupcakes. There’s something back at my house that my sister (Vicki) used to buy and it was so good. I would eat three or four of them. They were Susie's cupcakes in Los Angeles. 

Turns out your 5-year-old self was right all along: Girls do have cooties. But so do you. And for every 10 seconds you spend kissing, you pass along 80 million bacteria.

Grossed out? Don’t be. Those shared germs actually boost your immune system, the Daily Mail reported, based on a study from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. By swapping spit, you introduce your lady to bacteria she may encounter later on, making her more equipped to ward off future infections. And she does the same for you.

Kissing also forms a similar mix of living bacteria in your and your partner's body, which makes you both better prepared to deal with similar infections.

Lock some lips in lieu of cold and flu season—as if you needed another reason to initiate a make-out session.  

7 Superfoods to Boost Immunity >>>

We recently got our hands on a new HAVYK sliders, and what better way to test them out for a good workout than with two trainers in New York? Ryan Heffernan and Luis Tejada of FOCUS NYC demo a series of moves you can add to any routine.

Spiderman Pushups x 5 each side
Knee Tuck x 10
Lateral Lunge x 5 each side
Sliding Pushup x 5 each side
Single-Arm Rollouts x 5 each side
Plank Walk x 20
Hamstring Curl x 10
Pike x 10
Reverse Lunge x 5 each side
Around the World x to failure

Body-Weight Workout: Six-Pack Plank Variations >>>

Over the course of a single day, a townis ravaged by an onslaught of powerful tornadoes, and while most people seek shelter, several daring storm chasers head towards the cyclones in an effort to capture an up-close perspective on nature's fury.

Enter for a chance to win one of 25 Digital Downloads. Own Into the storm on Digital HD now, and Blu-Ray™ Nov. 18. No purchase necessary to enter. 

High Definition not currently available for streaming or download on all devices from all UltraViolet retailers. Dos not include iTunes file, but is compatibl with most iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Andriod devices. 

ENTER NOW - (Nov. 17 - Dec. 1)

Movember is upon us, so Men’s Fitness and the Amazon Sports Collectible store are teaming up to give you the chance to win memorabilia from the Amazon Sports Collectibles Store. Amazon offers millions of unique and rare sports collectibles items, with everything from memorabilia and trading cards to game-used jerseys and autographed helmets.

Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been dubbed the “King of Movember,” so what better way to celebrate than winning an item from the king himself. One lucky winner will walk away with an Aaron Rodgers signed jersey.

ENTER NOW - (Nov. 18 - Dec. 2)

THE GOOD

WHAT: Lean beef 
WHY: It can lower your blood pressure 

The heart-healthy DASH diet has always frowned upon beef intake. But a Penn State study on four DASH variations, each recommending from 0.7 to 5.4 oz lean beef daily, found that the one with the most lean-beef protein was best at lowering blood pressure. 

So, if you’re still doing cow, 90% lean (best cuts: top sirloin, T-bone, London broil, flank steak, ground sirloin) is the way to go. 

10 Foods to Lower Bad Cholesterol>>>

WHAT: Perdue poultry 
WHY: It’s newly (well, nearly) antibiotic-free 

Certified organic always wins in our book, but the poultry giant is at least making an effort. This year Perdue stopped injecting unhatched eggs with antibiotics (which foster the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans). 

Some of the company’s birds still get antibiotics in feed (c’mon, Perdue!), but it’s a step in the right direction. 

8 Ways to Sneak in More Protein>>>

WHAT: Spinach
WHY: It combats the desire for junk food 

Compounds in spinach called thylakoids reduced the hankering for unhealthy food in 95% of participants in a study at Lund University in Sweden. 

11 Green Foods for Every Dude's Diet>>>



THE BAD

WHAT: Unwashed fruit 
WHY: It can trigger allergic reactions 

If you have food allergies, add antibiotic pesticides to the list of things to worry about. Chemicals used on fruits and vegetables to combat the growth of bacteria, fungi, and algae can trigger life-threatening anaphylactic reactions in those with allergies, according to a study published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. 

Though reactions to antibiotic pesticides are rare, be cautious (and carry an EpiPen) if your body tends to freak out over certain foods. 

WHAT: Packaged foods listing “partially hydrogenated” anything 
WHY: Labels can legally “lie” about trans fat 

When NYC health officials analyzed labels on 4,340 packaged foods, they found that one in 10 of the products that claimed to contain “0g trans fat” actually did have trans fat (in the form of “partially hydrogenated” oils), which ups your risk for heart disease and type-2 diabetes. 

The FDA allows any food with less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving— even if it’s 0.499g—to list “0g trans fat” on the label. This means that, over time, you’re getting loads of the bad stuff. 

Next time you’ve got your paws on a package of cookies or crackers, go straight to the ingredients list—if you see the words “partially hydrogenated,” walk away from it. 

12 Foods to Remove from the Fridge Forever>>>



THE IFFY

WHAT: MSG 
WHY: It doesn’t cause headaches but may cause sensitivities 

Weakness, numbness, and headaches—what one 1960s scientist dubbed “Chinese restaurant syndrome”—are not linked to normal consumption of monosodium glutamate, says the American Chemical Society. 

But MSG is a sodium-added relative of L-glutamate, a natural amino, and some people are sensitive to it. If that’s you, avoid foods like soy sauce and aged cheese, says nutritional neuroscientist Kathleen Holton, Ph.D. 

WHAT: “Unearned” wine 
WHY: It doesn’t do much for your heart unless you exercise 

After two groups in a European study drank wine in moderation up to five times a week for a year, only the group that had also exercised regularly showed a significant decrease in harmful cholesterol (red and white wine were equally effective). 

No word, though, on who actually enjoyed the year most. 

How Boozing Affects Muscle-Building>>>

On the December cover of Men’s Fitness, Liam Hemsworth is flexing his bulging triceps in a fitted white T-shirt. There’s no question that the Hunger Games actor is built like an action hero. But he has no stories of tireless sessions in the gym, and no trainer barking him through interval workouts.

In fact, the Australia-born Hemsworth (yes, the same Hemsworth whose older brother Chris plays Marvel’s Thor) doesn’t fancy himself a gym rat at all. “I generally don’t do much,” he admits in his Men’s Fitness cover story. “I don’t lift weights. I do some body-weight stuff, some high-intensity training, but mostly it’s just boxing.”

Hemsworth, 24, often spars after work with the head stunt guy on Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, which is out Friday, November 21. The actor also doesn’t use a nutritionist, and admits that he eats like a binging teenager when he’s not working.

“I love junk food,” he says. “I gain weight. My brother Chris will be like, ‘What’s up with you, dude?’ I can see it in your face.’ That’s what’s so weird about this job: When you know you’re not working for another couple months, what stops you from just drinking and eating everything? Nothing.”

During his interview with Men's Fitness, Hemsworth discussed everything from the upcoming Hunger Games film and his relationship with Miley Cyrus (“There are still feels there,” he says.) to his new Zen-like outlook on life. Hemsworth meditates regularly and practices living in the moment.

“Tomorrow doesn’t exist, yesterday is gone,” he says. “The more I remind myself of that, the stronger I feel.”

COVER STORY: Liam Hemsworth: Dawn of a Rebel>>>