Wash Your Clothes On "Cold" - It was a great advertisement because it was true: Tide promised that if everyone in New York City washed their laundry in cold water for just one day, the energy savings would light up the Empire State Building for an entire month. In fact, today it could save even more.Saturday, May 31, 2014
Save The Earth, Simply
Wash Your Clothes On "Cold" - It was a great advertisement because it was true: Tide promised that if everyone in New York City washed their laundry in cold water for just one day, the energy savings would light up the Empire State Building for an entire month. In fact, today it could save even more.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Stay In The Game
Face your attacker - In a lot of sports, it's not whether you'll be nailed, it's whether you'll be able to absorb the blow. Bettis does a footwork drill based on a Latin dance move -- the carioca -- to maintain his agility and to face linemen squarely.
Try it: Move laterally along a straight line, using crossover steps. Facing forward with your shoulders squared and both hands held out in front as if to absorb a tackle, swivel your hips from side to side, rotating to face the sideline.
"The more relaxed your hips are, the more responsive they are, and the better your body's going to react to a hit," Bettis says.
Assess the course - It doesn't matter whether you're biking, paddling, or skiing -- take a dry run down any route first. "You see a lot of paddlers injured because they just don't know what they're getting into," says Tao Berman, a world-class kayaker who holds the record for running the highest waterfall (98.4 feet) in a kayak. "If I look at a fall and think I'm not going to be able to control the way I land, then I walk away." As should you.
Source: Men's Health
Try it: Move laterally along a straight line, using crossover steps. Facing forward with your shoulders squared and both hands held out in front as if to absorb a tackle, swivel your hips from side to side, rotating to face the sideline.
"The more relaxed your hips are, the more responsive they are, and the better your body's going to react to a hit," Bettis says.
Assess the course - It doesn't matter whether you're biking, paddling, or skiing -- take a dry run down any route first. "You see a lot of paddlers injured because they just don't know what they're getting into," says Tao Berman, a world-class kayaker who holds the record for running the highest waterfall (98.4 feet) in a kayak. "If I look at a fall and think I'm not going to be able to control the way I land, then I walk away." As should you.
Source: Men's Health
Saturday, May 3, 2014
5 Cancers that strike Men and the Warning Signs
No man is invincible, especially when it comes to health. Learn to detect and defend against the cancers most likely to attack men, and you'll be able to take the disease head-on if it strikes—and increase your chances of beating it.
Prostate
Early signs: Usually there are none. A digital rectal exam can tell if your prostate is hard or irregular, and cancer is suspected with a high PSA (prostate specific antigen) level.
False alarms: Urination problems—frequency, urgency, slow stream, incomplete emptying—can be related to prostate enlargement or narrowing of the urethra.
The test: A biopsy if the PSA is high or its rate of change is high. But a spiked score can also be a sign of infection, which should be treated with antibiotics for 4 weeks. The cancer grows slowly; waiting isn't dangerous, says Christopher Saigal, M.D., a urological oncologist at UCLA.
Lungs
Early signs: Frequently, none. But a cough that won't go away—or one that brings up blood—is often evidence the cancer is there. Also, chest pain that's always present and not influenced by movement, says Ezra Cohen, M.D., a medical oncologist at University of Chicago Medical Center.
False alarms: Pneumonia. On a chest x-ray, both pneumonia and a tumor look white. The pneumonia will resolve, but you'll need another x-ray 4 to 6 weeks later.
The test: Biopsy.
Colorectal
Early signs: Blood in the stool. Never ignore it, even if it's a one-time occurrence. It could be a precancerous polyp leaking blood, and bleeding is the only early warning you'll receive. In more than half of cases, there is no sign, says Greg Enders, M.D., Ph.D., a gastroenterologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center.
False alarms: In men under 50, bleeding is probably from hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, colitis, or an abnormal blood vessel. Still, see a doctor.
The test: A colonoscopy allows the doctor to check for large and small problems and remove polyps in the same procedure.
Bladder
Early signs: Blood in the urine, which should always be checked, although if you're younger than 60, it's often a sign of kidney stones. Most bladder cancer only affects the lining. If it is caught early, it can be beaten, says Brian Rini, M.D., an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute.
False alarms: An overactive bladder or painful urination is more often a sign of an infection.
The tests: A scope through the penis to look at the bladder and a urine test that detects cancer cells.
Lymphoma
Early signs: Painless, swollen lymph nodes in your neck, armpit, or groin. Nodes swell with infections, but if they don't subside in a week, have them checked. Also, unexplained weight loss over 1 or 2 months, pain in the node area after drinking alcohol, or generalized itching with swelling (without rash) could be cause for concern, says Cleveland Clinic oncologist John Sweetenham, M.D.
False alarms: Nodes can swell because of an infection.
The test: A blood test can occasionally pick up something, but a biopsy of the node is more thorough.
Source: Men's Health
Prostate
Early signs: Usually there are none. A digital rectal exam can tell if your prostate is hard or irregular, and cancer is suspected with a high PSA (prostate specific antigen) level.
False alarms: Urination problems—frequency, urgency, slow stream, incomplete emptying—can be related to prostate enlargement or narrowing of the urethra.
The test: A biopsy if the PSA is high or its rate of change is high. But a spiked score can also be a sign of infection, which should be treated with antibiotics for 4 weeks. The cancer grows slowly; waiting isn't dangerous, says Christopher Saigal, M.D., a urological oncologist at UCLA.
Lungs
Early signs: Frequently, none. But a cough that won't go away—or one that brings up blood—is often evidence the cancer is there. Also, chest pain that's always present and not influenced by movement, says Ezra Cohen, M.D., a medical oncologist at University of Chicago Medical Center.
False alarms: Pneumonia. On a chest x-ray, both pneumonia and a tumor look white. The pneumonia will resolve, but you'll need another x-ray 4 to 6 weeks later.
The test: Biopsy.
Colorectal
Early signs: Blood in the stool. Never ignore it, even if it's a one-time occurrence. It could be a precancerous polyp leaking blood, and bleeding is the only early warning you'll receive. In more than half of cases, there is no sign, says Greg Enders, M.D., Ph.D., a gastroenterologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center.
False alarms: In men under 50, bleeding is probably from hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, colitis, or an abnormal blood vessel. Still, see a doctor.
The test: A colonoscopy allows the doctor to check for large and small problems and remove polyps in the same procedure.
Bladder
Early signs: Blood in the urine, which should always be checked, although if you're younger than 60, it's often a sign of kidney stones. Most bladder cancer only affects the lining. If it is caught early, it can be beaten, says Brian Rini, M.D., an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute.
False alarms: An overactive bladder or painful urination is more often a sign of an infection.
The tests: A scope through the penis to look at the bladder and a urine test that detects cancer cells.
Lymphoma
Early signs: Painless, swollen lymph nodes in your neck, armpit, or groin. Nodes swell with infections, but if they don't subside in a week, have them checked. Also, unexplained weight loss over 1 or 2 months, pain in the node area after drinking alcohol, or generalized itching with swelling (without rash) could be cause for concern, says Cleveland Clinic oncologist John Sweetenham, M.D.
False alarms: Nodes can swell because of an infection.
The test: A blood test can occasionally pick up something, but a biopsy of the node is more thorough.
Source: Men's Health
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Oily Hair Solution
Some heads are programmed to pump out more sebum than others. But exposure to blow-dryer heat and vigorous brushing or combing make the problem worse. It triggers more oil production on the scalp. Wash the dishes and then your hair. Nothing beats dishwashing liquid for sebum control. It's too drying to use every day. For daily use, try Aqua Glycolic Shampoo and body cleanser. If you want to be more creative, squeeze a lemon into 1 cup of water and use it to rinse your hair after shampooing. The acid strips away oil buildup. Also use fewer brushstrokes to reduce the amount of oil you distribute from your scalp.
Source: Men's Health
Source: Men's Health
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Tips to Get Ripped: Fat Loss Guide and Troubleshooting
A common scene really, but it’s uncommon that someone’s efforts actually payoff the way they originally intended. Within a month most guys find themselves pretty frustrated. They are halfway done cutting at best, and feel like they are running through quicksand. As a competitive bodybuilder and contest coach, I get to hear my fair share of rants from these guys and it’s the same issues over and over. Landmines placed in the exact same spot as last year get stumbled upon the following year. In this article we will name a few of the most common traps that slow down, discourage, often leave cutting phases unfinished, and with results that leave so much more to be desired.
Bodyfat
“What’s your body fat dude?”, “What’s my body fat at?”, “So what bodyfat should I get to?” This has got to go!
Be it if you are trying to compete in a bodybuilding show, gain the notoriety from the opposite sex, or just look good for your upcoming vacation. Nobody is going to look at you, point and say “WOW! Check out his 5.62934% bodyfat!” Truth is you are either in shape or not, and aiming for bodyfat percentages is a waste of time, a distraction at best. When I start dieting for bodybuilding shows I will get that question quite a bit. “So what bodyfat are you going to cut down to?” Truth is I just keep losing weight until I have achieved the look I desire. While your goal might not be striated glutes, I am sure you have a look in mind.
What if you get callipered at the 8% you were aiming for, but don’t quite look the way you anticipated? Do you end your diet there? Which brings me to my next point: bodyfat testing in general is pretty hit or miss, at least all the affordable ways are. This is why I never have my clients send me bodyfat percentages in their weekly reports to me. I want weight (which tells us how many lbs. of bodyfat we have lost) and pictures which of course you can’t argue with. You are either ripped or not, and it’s that simple. Yes numbers are sexy, and being able to quantify things is something people just like to do in general, but “ripped” you either are or you aren’t.
Let the mirror decide, not some plastic calipers. Much like the judges don’t get on stage and caliper myself and the other competitors, neither will that young lady at the beach. Shredded doesn’t need a number, it just is.
Carbs
Fat loss and carbs just don’t go together in the eyes of most people looking to get into shape. Dieting is synonymous with low carb, and even no carb diets. While you will have to cut out some of your carbs when you start your mission towards getting lean, usually the amounts that are cut are too extreme. I will get asked often “so how man carbs should I take when dieting?” The answer is simple: as many as you can while still losing fat at the desired pace. Key words there being as many as YOU can!
Carb intakes can be one of the biggest variables when it comes to dieting.
Two guys with similar training programs, ages, and weights will often require two different approaches nutritionally. Some people might need to diet on 100 grams of carbs, others might require double or triple that amount. One thing is for sure, most folks low ball their carbohydrate threshold and diet on too little food. When you diet on less carbs than you require you will see the following occur: You will come out flying at the start, and then it will drastically slow down, and from there you will likely have to apply more aggressive protocols. Either dropping food lower or adding ungodly amounts of cardio will be required. You will then plateau to where nothing seems to work and progress will simply stall. This is where most guys end up a few weeks into their diet plan.
Use as many carbs as you can, as they will help power through your workouts in the gym, keep your metabolic rate healthy so you can lose fat longer and more efficiently and not just make progress the first month.
Second Approaches
Well if it worked for him than it should work for everyone else? If it were only that simple, how wonderful would it be. It would be great because I would no longer need weeks and weeks to get a feel for a client’s metabolic rate. Actually it would not be a good thing because there would be a “secret diet’ that would be applicable to everyone, and in turn I would be out of business. All joking aside, there is enough variation from individual to individual that one diet plan simply can’t fit all.
So while it’s cool, and I am always intrigued as to what other guys have done to get into magnificent shape, my interest has nothing to do with me wanting to mimic their approaches. I enjoy reading these protocols because it confirms the notion that we are each very unique and a wide array of approaches do work.
Some guys need to get in 3-4 hard cardio sessions a week, and others can count the number of cardio sessions they do during their whole diet on one hand. Varying protein intakes, caloric requirements, training guidelines etc. However as intriguing as these protocols are, what most likely makes these athletes successful is trial and error over the year, attention to detail, and being consistent. Good genetics usually help too, which in most cases these individuals happen to possess. For these guys almost anything will work, and let’s be blunt for a moment, if you were genetically predisposed to being muscular and lean you would likely not be reading this article.
Hard work and persistence is going to really make a big difference, the other half will come from using more sound physiological approaches, and not some copy and paste job.
Abs & Cardio
I am talking about the guys that go to the gym and spend 30-40 minutes working out abs. Not only is it a waste of time, but there could be better things you can spend fluff time at the gym on. For example prehab work, foam rolling, as in all the things that will help keep you healthy and progressing for a long time.
Quite often I will get curious inquiries from clients about dedicating a whole workout to abs in an effort to tighten up the mid-section. Which still leaves me in awe since we can’t spot target fat loss, and why would a bicep grow when you use it, but the torso muscle shrink and tighten up? Truth is a little goes a long way since abs are involved in some of the bigger movements we do in the gym, and also what works best for other muscles works best for your ab development. Weighted ab exercises in the 5-12 rep range, at about 3-4 sets twice a week is more than enough. Real definition and true sculpting is going to come via fat loss, but like any other muscle in your body it can be very well developed, but if you are not lean enough it won’t show.
As the old saying goes: “abs are made in the kitchen”, not on the 400th rep of some weird ab crunch variation that is synchronized to some horrible techno music.
Weight Training Gone Circuit Training
In the offseason I love to hit heavy squat sets. Most of my leg development has come from the 1-5 rep range. So come time to diet I like to squat in the 1-5 rep range. Yes you read that right, and I do keep about 90% of my strength when dieting. In reality, if you want to keep your hard earned muscle, you need to continue lifting heavy throughout your diet. If it’s getting harder to hit those heavy sets I would first abandon the higher rep work so that I can save my energy, and recovery for the heavier weights. Here is how I would adjust once I get into those nitty gritty portions of a diet. The last few weeks where things can get tough at times, as not only does the weight seem heavier, but energy can take a hit.
Offseason Chest Workout
DB Press (Flat)
• 145 X 5 (2 sets)
• 135 x 7 (2 sets)
• 125 x 10
On season/Dieting Phase Chest Workout
DB Press (Flat)
• 145 x 5(2 sets)
• 135 x 7
On the contrary what you will commonly see is guys abandon the lower rep work for the higher rep work. The main reasons behind this is one, they have a hard time holding on to strength because they attempt to keep volume at offseason levels. Next is the all too common they are trying to “condition” the muscles. The latter is still one of those bodybuilding fables that I wish would go away, but like fanny packs they are still a sight for sore eyes at gyms today.
Want your muscle to look its best when you diet? Then go with what got you there in the first place. Keep lifting heavy!
Too Much Diet Restriction
Everybody cheats on their diet, I have found this out first hand. I have had my share of slip-ups, but also from working with countless bodybuilders over the years. Yes even the most hardcore guys have their moments of weakness where they give in. However, so much of this can be avoided by not sweating the details that don’t matter and avoiding specific pitfalls.
Such as banning specific macronutrients (fat, carbs and protein) completely, as many popular diets have in recent years. Be it the 80’s with their extremely low fat approaches, or in recent years the ketogenic type diets. This is why I am a fan of moderate approaches, because if you swing the pendulum too hard one way, it’s going to push back just as hard.
For example the guy who decided to diet on 1,000 less calories than he required, and then binges out of control on the 3rd week of his diet. Or perhaps a diet were you must eat 8 meals a day to keep the metabolism fast (which is more fitness folklore) and one day misses a meal and loses his mind. You’ll have a hard time dieting in the real world where you can’t always eat every 90-120 minutes. Trying to do so is an unnecessary stressor.
When designing a diet for someone, I never hand them an envelope labeled “the diet” as for the numerous reasons discussed above it just doesn’t work that way. On the contrary, often we have to discuss what their real world looks like. If they have foods that lead to binges we get rid of those right away, if they have special occasions coming up were food will be eaten we adjust. If they are a busy mom and eating six times a day is too much, well then we will only eat three times a day.
Final Words
The most perfect diet will not work if the person cannot adhere to the details that actually matter. A diet has to make sense physiologically and psychologically. Diets that leave both variables unaccounted for are usually setting up people for failure, rather than helping them reach their full potential.
AUTHOR: ALBERTO NUNEZ
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Blast Your Abs Without A Single Crunch!
To truly carve your core, get up off the floor. Certain upper-body moves fire up your six-pack muscles as much as—if not more than—crunches. A new study in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that several arm exercises on the cable machine work your abs more than a classic situp.
The purpose of your core muscles is to stabilize your torso while your arms and legs move, study author Sami Tarnanen, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, tells MensHealth.com. Take advantage of your physiology to train your rectus abdominis and obliques isometrically—that is, by bracing them against the torque generated by your arms. You’ll do double duty, strengthening your shoulders while building the type of core strength that can beat back pain and power your sports performance.To do the bilateral shoulder extension, stand with your spine neutral and your feet hip-width apart. Step your right foot back, so your left heel aligns with your right toes and your left knee is slightly bent. “This stable posture enables you to use heavier resistance, and that means more activation in the core muscles,” Tarnanen says. Hold the rope handle with your arms straight ahead at shoulder height. Pull back and down to hip level, maintaining a slight bend in your elbows.
Watch this video to see how to do the move.
Source: Men's Health
The purpose of your core muscles is to stabilize your torso while your arms and legs move, study author Sami Tarnanen, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, tells MensHealth.com. Take advantage of your physiology to train your rectus abdominis and obliques isometrically—that is, by bracing them against the torque generated by your arms. You’ll do double duty, strengthening your shoulders while building the type of core strength that can beat back pain and power your sports performance.To do the bilateral shoulder extension, stand with your spine neutral and your feet hip-width apart. Step your right foot back, so your left heel aligns with your right toes and your left knee is slightly bent. “This stable posture enables you to use heavier resistance, and that means more activation in the core muscles,” Tarnanen says. Hold the rope handle with your arms straight ahead at shoulder height. Pull back and down to hip level, maintaining a slight bend in your elbows.
Watch this video to see how to do the move.
Source: Men's Health
Saturday, March 1, 2014
11 (Rumored) Ways to Ease a Hangover
The 11 Best Ways to Ease a Hangover
By: Brittany Risher
You know better than to buy anything labeled "hangover cure" for the mornings after a wild night, but there has to be something out there to ease the headache, nausea, and overall sense of feeling like crap—right? We went to the experts with your list of hangover remedies (thank you, Facebook fans) and asked them what really works. While the research on this topic is limited and there's no one solution to fix all the symptoms of a hangover, a few things can help alleviate specific problems. The next time you hit the bottle too hard, here's what can make the next day at least somewhat less horrendous.
Water - H2O is a must. As you likely know from the frequent trips to the bathroom during a night of debauchery, alcohol is a diuretic and can cause dehydration. Before falling into bed, down 16 to 20 ounces of water, says Daniel K. Hall-Flavin, M.D., a consultant in addiction psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic. And the next time you go out, he recommends ordering a glass of water with every beer—and alternate between the two to replace lost fluids as you go.
Sports Drinks - "Even though the diuretic effect of alcohol may cause the body to lose some electrolytes, it's not so much that you need to replace them right away," says Samir Zakhari, Ph.D., director of the Division of Metabolism and Health Effects at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. And research has shown Gatorade is no better for a hangover than water from your tap, so save your money.
Coffee - Lots of people—hungover or not—use a cup of joe to wake up and feel alert at work. But a trip to Starbucks won't give you lasting benefits, and caffeine can both treat and cause headaches and migraines, so this one is a personal preference. If you do down a cup, be sure to drink water, too, since studies suggest caffeine causes dehydration.
More Alcohol ("Hair of the Dog") - "Bad idea," Dr. Hall-Flavin says. "It will provide a numbing effect, but all you're doing is prolonging the inevitable, and it will likely make your headache worse." Another reason to avoid cracking open a cold one: Experts agree that if you use this "cure," the risk of abuse increases and could lead to alcohol dependency.
Toast or Crackers - Remember when your mom gave you toast as a kid when you couldn't keep anything down? This is good advice for adults who've spent the night hugging the porcelain throne, too. While no food can halt the roller coaster in your stomach, carbs can help bring your blood sugar levels back up the morning after, Dr. Hall-Flavin says. Normally when blood sugar levels dip, your liver reacts by producing more glucose from stored carbs. But if you've been drinking too much, your liver is busy metabolizing the alcohol and can't handle the extra work, so your blood sugar levels stay down, and you can feel irritable and tired.
Greasy Food -What you eat after drinking doesn't matter—it's what you eat before all those Jagerbombs that can help lessen the pain the next day. Food helps slow the absorption of alcohol, and the longer it takes the alcohol to reach your blood stream, the longer it is until you become intoxicated.
Pain Medication - Ease a pounding head with a pill (or two, depending on the recommended dosage), but stick to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (or NSAIDs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen), not acetaminophen (Tylenol): "While it's OK for a headache, when combined with a liver that's working overtime to metabolize alcohol, it can cause liver damage or be deadly," says Dena Davidson, Ph.D., former associate professor of psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine.
If you normally take a multi, go ahead, but no studies have found that any particular vitamins do anything for a hangover. And one night of intoxication isn't enough to throw off the levels of nutrients in your body to the point where you need to worry.
Exercise - One drink—a 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor—is metabolized by your body in about an hour, so the whole "sweat it out" theory is myth. At the same time, the endorphin release could boost your mood. And burning off a few calories may ease your guilt about how much you drank. Just be sure you keep your water bottle handy so you don't become even more dehydrated.
Sex - "There is no research that shows that sex will make a hangover go away, but maybe it will make the time go faster," says Joris C. Verster, Ph.D., assistant professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "If it makes you happy, go for it."
The Best Cure: Prevention
You're a grown man, you know to drink responsibly. But just in case you forgot: Limit your drinks to about one every hour. Your body metabolizes each beer (or wine or shot) in about 60 to 75 minutes, Dr. Hall-Flavin says. Drink faster, and your blood alcohol level rises faster. Eat before you drink and follow Dr. Hall-Flavin's "I'll have a beer and a glass of water" rule when ordering—and drink the water, don't let it just sit on the table.
And how's this for sobering: In research, “moderate drinking” by a man is defined as two drinks a day. More than five in one sitting is considered "heavy drinking." So think before you order that extra round.
Source: Men's Health
By: Brittany Risher
You know better than to buy anything labeled "hangover cure" for the mornings after a wild night, but there has to be something out there to ease the headache, nausea, and overall sense of feeling like crap—right? We went to the experts with your list of hangover remedies (thank you, Facebook fans) and asked them what really works. While the research on this topic is limited and there's no one solution to fix all the symptoms of a hangover, a few things can help alleviate specific problems. The next time you hit the bottle too hard, here's what can make the next day at least somewhat less horrendous.
Water - H2O is a must. As you likely know from the frequent trips to the bathroom during a night of debauchery, alcohol is a diuretic and can cause dehydration. Before falling into bed, down 16 to 20 ounces of water, says Daniel K. Hall-Flavin, M.D., a consultant in addiction psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic. And the next time you go out, he recommends ordering a glass of water with every beer—and alternate between the two to replace lost fluids as you go.
Sports Drinks - "Even though the diuretic effect of alcohol may cause the body to lose some electrolytes, it's not so much that you need to replace them right away," says Samir Zakhari, Ph.D., director of the Division of Metabolism and Health Effects at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. And research has shown Gatorade is no better for a hangover than water from your tap, so save your money.
Coffee - Lots of people—hungover or not—use a cup of joe to wake up and feel alert at work. But a trip to Starbucks won't give you lasting benefits, and caffeine can both treat and cause headaches and migraines, so this one is a personal preference. If you do down a cup, be sure to drink water, too, since studies suggest caffeine causes dehydration.
More Alcohol ("Hair of the Dog") - "Bad idea," Dr. Hall-Flavin says. "It will provide a numbing effect, but all you're doing is prolonging the inevitable, and it will likely make your headache worse." Another reason to avoid cracking open a cold one: Experts agree that if you use this "cure," the risk of abuse increases and could lead to alcohol dependency.
Toast or Crackers - Remember when your mom gave you toast as a kid when you couldn't keep anything down? This is good advice for adults who've spent the night hugging the porcelain throne, too. While no food can halt the roller coaster in your stomach, carbs can help bring your blood sugar levels back up the morning after, Dr. Hall-Flavin says. Normally when blood sugar levels dip, your liver reacts by producing more glucose from stored carbs. But if you've been drinking too much, your liver is busy metabolizing the alcohol and can't handle the extra work, so your blood sugar levels stay down, and you can feel irritable and tired.
Greasy Food -What you eat after drinking doesn't matter—it's what you eat before all those Jagerbombs that can help lessen the pain the next day. Food helps slow the absorption of alcohol, and the longer it takes the alcohol to reach your blood stream, the longer it is until you become intoxicated.
Pain Medication - Ease a pounding head with a pill (or two, depending on the recommended dosage), but stick to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (or NSAIDs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen), not acetaminophen (Tylenol): "While it's OK for a headache, when combined with a liver that's working overtime to metabolize alcohol, it can cause liver damage or be deadly," says Dena Davidson, Ph.D., former associate professor of psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine.
If you normally take a multi, go ahead, but no studies have found that any particular vitamins do anything for a hangover. And one night of intoxication isn't enough to throw off the levels of nutrients in your body to the point where you need to worry.
Exercise - One drink—a 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor—is metabolized by your body in about an hour, so the whole "sweat it out" theory is myth. At the same time, the endorphin release could boost your mood. And burning off a few calories may ease your guilt about how much you drank. Just be sure you keep your water bottle handy so you don't become even more dehydrated.
Sex - "There is no research that shows that sex will make a hangover go away, but maybe it will make the time go faster," says Joris C. Verster, Ph.D., assistant professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. "If it makes you happy, go for it."
The Best Cure: Prevention
You're a grown man, you know to drink responsibly. But just in case you forgot: Limit your drinks to about one every hour. Your body metabolizes each beer (or wine or shot) in about 60 to 75 minutes, Dr. Hall-Flavin says. Drink faster, and your blood alcohol level rises faster. Eat before you drink and follow Dr. Hall-Flavin's "I'll have a beer and a glass of water" rule when ordering—and drink the water, don't let it just sit on the table.
And how's this for sobering: In research, “moderate drinking” by a man is defined as two drinks a day. More than five in one sitting is considered "heavy drinking." So think before you order that extra round.
Source: Men's Health
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Low-Fat Homework Made Easy
Serving Size - Ask yourself whether you'll actually eat the amount shown on the label. If you will, then you don't need a calculator to figure out how much fat and how man calories you're getting. But if you're going to eat twice that much, remember to double everything.
Calories and Total Fat - This is where it's better to look at the absolute numbers rather than the percentages. If you know how many calories and how much fat you're allowing yourself every day, these numbers tell you instantly whether you're within your range for the meal or snack you're about to have.
Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - No more than 10 percent of your calories should come from saturate fat. As for cholesterol, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 300 milligrams a day.
Sodium - Although it's not a factor that directly affects your low-fat diet, high sodium can pose another health risk for some people by leading to high blood pressure.
Dietary Fiber - The more, the better. Foods that are high in fiber help keep your digestive system working smoothly. Since they make you feel full longer, high-fiber foods ultimately help you eat less food in general and there-fore less fat and fewer calories.
Source: Low-Fat Living
Calories and Total Fat - This is where it's better to look at the absolute numbers rather than the percentages. If you know how many calories and how much fat you're allowing yourself every day, these numbers tell you instantly whether you're within your range for the meal or snack you're about to have.
Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - No more than 10 percent of your calories should come from saturate fat. As for cholesterol, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 300 milligrams a day.
Sodium - Although it's not a factor that directly affects your low-fat diet, high sodium can pose another health risk for some people by leading to high blood pressure.
Dietary Fiber - The more, the better. Foods that are high in fiber help keep your digestive system working smoothly. Since they make you feel full longer, high-fiber foods ultimately help you eat less food in general and there-fore less fat and fewer calories.
Source: Low-Fat Living
Monday, January 27, 2014
Dull Hair Solution
Since many pomades and volumizers are water based, adding a dab to wet hair just dilutes the effect. The product will work best with a dry base. Use Beer. Just take one into the shower and massage it into your hair a few times a week after shampooing, and then rinse. The hops may help coat your hair and add volume.
Source: Men's Health
Source: Men's Health
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Carbs Curb Hunger
Source: Health Magazine
Monday, December 16, 2013
I'll Show You My Skincare Routine
By Petra Guglielmetti
So here's my skincare routine--with the disclaimer that the exact products I use changes very often, as I'm always discovering and testing new things. That said, the basic framework of my routine and the ingredients I use remain pretty constant, and lately I've been very dedicated to the following regimen.
EARLY MORNING
1. Super-quick wash with a gentle cleanser. Cetaphil is my trusty standby.
2. Apply Aveeno Positively Radiant. I have tried all sorts of daytime moisturizers and this one remains by far my favorite; great hydration while not greasy, and the sunscreen never stings my eye area. Plus, helps fade dark spots and adds subtle sheen.
MID MORNING
1. During post-gym shower, I use my Clarisonic Mia brush and a slightly deeper cleanser--currently Mario Badescu Botanical Facial Gel. It never dries out my skin and smells great. I also like to borrow the husband's Biore Ice Cleanser sometimes to mix things up and clear out my pores even more (I got it for him after you guys recommended it for fighting pimples!).
2. After shower, I use a glycolic-acid toner or pad. Currently I am testing (and loving) Cane + Austin Retexturizing Treatment Pads.
3. Apply an antioxidant serum, like Skinceuticals Phloretin CF or Mario Badescu Vitamin C Serum.
4. Reapply Aveeno Positively Radiant.
NIGHT
1. Clean skin with Clarisonic and Cetaphil. I used to be lazy about p.m. washing--sometimes I'd just use a face wipe--but lately I'm being diligent so that my night treatments/creams absorb more effectively.
2. Every other night, I apply Skinceuticals Retinol .5 (their less-concentrated version). I'll up it to every night once my skin fully adjusts (if I use it daily now, I peel a LOT and feel sensitivity).
3. I wait half an hour for the retinol to absorb, then I apply a night cream. Sometimes I use Olay Pro-X Wrinkle Smoothing Cream, a drugstore product derms swear by. Or if I feel like I need something more mellow, I use Mario Badescu Seaweed Night Cream.
My all-time favorite p.m. moisturizer so far, though, is a weird sciencey one called Bio-Cream that uses one ethically questionable ingredient (I've posted about it before). The things is, they haven't sent me any in a while and I feel silly paying $135 for moisturizer when I get tons of it for free. But I might break down and do it soon. This stuff is that amazing.
I know this all looks like a lot in writing, but honestly I probably spend 5 minutes total on my face each day.
More Mario Badescu...
ShopStyle
Once or twice a week, depending on how my skin feels, I'll do an exfoliating peel or mask. Lately I use something different pretty much every time.
Oh, and before some of you ask whether I'm on the Mario Badescu payroll, I'm not! The reason I discovered their products is because I used to live just one block from their NYC spa and went there for facials! I always end up falling back on their products despite the many I have to choose from because they never make my skin freak out and have a sort of hand-crafted feel about them.
Source: Glamour
So here's my skincare routine--with the disclaimer that the exact products I use changes very often, as I'm always discovering and testing new things. That said, the basic framework of my routine and the ingredients I use remain pretty constant, and lately I've been very dedicated to the following regimen.
EARLY MORNING
1. Super-quick wash with a gentle cleanser. Cetaphil is my trusty standby.
2. Apply Aveeno Positively Radiant. I have tried all sorts of daytime moisturizers and this one remains by far my favorite; great hydration while not greasy, and the sunscreen never stings my eye area. Plus, helps fade dark spots and adds subtle sheen.
MID MORNING
1. During post-gym shower, I use my Clarisonic Mia brush and a slightly deeper cleanser--currently Mario Badescu Botanical Facial Gel. It never dries out my skin and smells great. I also like to borrow the husband's Biore Ice Cleanser sometimes to mix things up and clear out my pores even more (I got it for him after you guys recommended it for fighting pimples!).
2. After shower, I use a glycolic-acid toner or pad. Currently I am testing (and loving) Cane + Austin Retexturizing Treatment Pads.
3. Apply an antioxidant serum, like Skinceuticals Phloretin CF or Mario Badescu Vitamin C Serum.
4. Reapply Aveeno Positively Radiant.
NIGHT
1. Clean skin with Clarisonic and Cetaphil. I used to be lazy about p.m. washing--sometimes I'd just use a face wipe--but lately I'm being diligent so that my night treatments/creams absorb more effectively.
2. Every other night, I apply Skinceuticals Retinol .5 (their less-concentrated version). I'll up it to every night once my skin fully adjusts (if I use it daily now, I peel a LOT and feel sensitivity).
3. I wait half an hour for the retinol to absorb, then I apply a night cream. Sometimes I use Olay Pro-X Wrinkle Smoothing Cream, a drugstore product derms swear by. Or if I feel like I need something more mellow, I use Mario Badescu Seaweed Night Cream.
My all-time favorite p.m. moisturizer so far, though, is a weird sciencey one called Bio-Cream that uses one ethically questionable ingredient (I've posted about it before). The things is, they haven't sent me any in a while and I feel silly paying $135 for moisturizer when I get tons of it for free. But I might break down and do it soon. This stuff is that amazing.
I know this all looks like a lot in writing, but honestly I probably spend 5 minutes total on my face each day.
More Mario Badescu...
ShopStyle
Once or twice a week, depending on how my skin feels, I'll do an exfoliating peel or mask. Lately I use something different pretty much every time.
Oh, and before some of you ask whether I'm on the Mario Badescu payroll, I'm not! The reason I discovered their products is because I used to live just one block from their NYC spa and went there for facials! I always end up falling back on their products despite the many I have to choose from because they never make my skin freak out and have a sort of hand-crafted feel about them.
Source: Glamour
Save The Earth, Simply
Go Vegetarian For A Day - Livestock production is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse gases.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Lose Your Love Handles
By John Romaniello
When it comes to losing fat, we’ve all experienced the dreaded plateau. You work hard and make good progress in the beginning, and then you hit a wall. Things are slow going from there, and you make on-and-off progress.
Why? Why isn’t fat loss a linear process?
When you get to the final stages of leanness, it’s not enough to just keep doing the same things you’re doing; it’s not enough to reduce calories and exercise more.
You’ve probably also noticed that when you hit a plateau, fat loss doesn’t just slow down all over; it begins to reveal other things. When you’ve lost the first several pounds — whether that means 20, 50 or even 100 pounds — you’ve lost the "easy" fat. As your fat loss slows, you’ll notice that you’re holding fat in some areas more than others. In fact, you may be holding all of your fat in one or two specific areas.
We tend to call these “trouble areas.” These vary from person to person, but generally, men will deal with trouble areas in the love handles and belly, while women will have them in the hips and thighs.
Why do we have these trouble areas and how do we fix them?
This has to do with your hormones. At the later stages, fat loss is not just about calories in vs. calories out. It’s not just about energy debt or cardio or even (to a lesser extent) diet, although all of those things do factor in quite a bit, obviously. Really, it’s about your hormonal environment and the way that affects fat storage and, thereby, fat loss.
When your fat loss has stalled and you’re trying to break through that wall, or when you’re trying to rid yourself of those last stubborn 5-10 pounds, it’s a hormonal battle.
Far and away, the most common incarnation of this issue in mean is sagging love handles.
My own battle, and that of many of my male clients, revolves around love handles and lower back fat. When I’m dieting or getting ready for a photoshoot, it can take me several weeks to get rid of the fat in this one area, even when I’m very lean everywhere else.
As mentioned above, the reason many men, myself included, tend to store fat is due to the effects of hormones on fat storage. The hormone responsible for love handles is insulin.
The degree to which you are able to process and respond to glucose (sugar) levels in your body is called "insulin sensitivity." The higher this is, the easier and more efficiently your body uses carbohydrates for energy and the less likely you are to store carbs as fat.
If you’re insulin resistant, on the other hand, you don’t deal well with carbs. And anything other than a low-carb diet pretty much means you’re going to be storing more fat overall, specifically in the love handles. If you’re insulin resistant and you still eat a lot of carbs, then your glucose clearance from the heavy carb load is going to be compromised and hormonal receptor sites in your love handles and lower back are going to be overloaded.
The good news is that insulin resistance (and the resulting cascade of regional fat) can be mitigated with certain types of diet and training.
Misconceptions
You can see in gyms across the world the rampant use of “site specific” spot training. This is a futile attempt to thrash the last bits of fat from the edges of your body and does little to help you understand why nothing has worked up to that point.
My friends, the time for side bends and ab-twister machines is over. In fact, it should never have ever begun.
The reality is that these “spot-reducing” exercises often carry an abysmal level of total-body taxation. That is, they are incredibly easy and contribute very little to improving your insulin sensitivity.
Sure, you may drop a bead of sweat and cringe at the burn through your midsection, but the reality is you are probably wasting your time.
Big, dynamic multi-joint movements strung together in a specific way will provide the results you crave and rid you of those horrible handles of love. By doing this, we play into the power that hormones have on the body and use them as weapons.
One hormone in particular plays a major role.
Insulin Resistance vs. IGF-1
Insulin resistance can be combated very nicely by a hormone called IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor 1.
Producing extra IGF-1 through training will help you improve your insulin sensitivity and rid yourself of love handles and lower back fat.
We know that insulin resistance is very common, particularly in people who were previously overweight. So, if you have lost some fat and you’re now struggling to lose a bit more (and that fat happens to be in your love handles), I’m willing to bet you’re suffering from some degree of insulin resistance and an inability to efficiently clear glucose from your system.
In order to get rid of that fat, you need to do fat-burning workouts (obviously) and increase your insulin sensitivity to the greatest degree that you can. As a result, you need to employ metabolic resistant training (MRT).
MRT is the overarching theory that dictates how I design fat-loss training programs; it consists of using fast-paced, multi-joint movements to train the body to move more efficiently.
Because this style of training is extremely expensive in terms of energy (caloric) demand, MRT is excellent as a general fat-loss modality. However, perhaps more important is the fact that it's also an incredible way to produce IGF-1.
The Method
Using a combination of explosive exercises, speed drills and numerous varietals of traditional methods, train in a way that increases your agility, dexterity, and mobility.
Nearly all of your training sessions should be heavily dependent on variations of the best fat-loss exercises, which are compound, dynamic exercises that move your body through space.
My personal favorites are the lunge, overhead press, single-leg squat and bodyweight pulling. These exercises serve as the foundation for your fat-burning mission and can be built upon to provide variety to a number of different training protocols.
When setting up a workout, using a noncompeting order — like alternating lower body exercises with upper body exercises — is also a powerful variable. The extreme flow of blood from one side of the body to the next causes a great deal of systemic disturbance. Your heart is practically cracking your rib cage while it pounds to move enough blood from point A to point B.
Combine this with minimal rest, moderately high repetitions and adequate loads, and you've got one of the most effective fat-loss protocols known to man. As an added bonus, your cardiovascular efficiency will enjoy a nice boost.
Here’s a quick workout using the above concepts:
A1) Bulgarian split squat — 10 reps per leg
A2) Inverted row — 12 reps
A3) Push-up — 15 reps
A5) Reverse lunges — 8 reps per leg
A6) Pull-up — 6 reps
A7) Overhead press — 12 reps
A8) Plank — 60 seconds
Perform A1-A8 in a circuit fashion, moving form one exercise to the next with little to no rest. Perform a total of 6 rounds, resting 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Even though you’re only doing one abdominal exercise (the plank) and none for the actual area where you store your love-handle fat, this workout is far better for increasing insulin sensitivity — and therefore reducing love handles — than any workout with a bunch of side bends and twists.
Without the use of any spot-reducing movements, your love handles will melt before your eyes. However, a warning: This type of training takes effort — a ton of it.
If you’re not one to tolerate hard work, possess mental toughness or have a burning desire to break past the final stages of fat loss, this may not be for you. Sadly, sitting or lying in a machine while flexing the spine will not get you where you need to go, but it is a heck of a lot easier.
So, if you're plagued by love-handular fatitude, do yourself a favor and start incorporating some dynamic work and MRT into your programming in order to up-regulate every fat-burning mechanism your body has to offer.
Seeking the “burn” in your abdominals is a false altar when it comes to the final stages of fat loss, particularly when dealing with love handles.
By performing big, taxing exercises, a different type of deficit is created. Instead of starving yourself, the deficit comes from an increased metabolic rate and systemic up-regulation. Hormonal function is maintained, sanity restored and stubborn fat storage combated.
Armed with this knowledge, design yourself a program that combines each of the variables mentioned above. Stay committed to the mission, and in a few weeks' time, those love handles may not be such an impossible issue after all.
Source: Askmen.com
When it comes to losing fat, we’ve all experienced the dreaded plateau. You work hard and make good progress in the beginning, and then you hit a wall. Things are slow going from there, and you make on-and-off progress.
Why? Why isn’t fat loss a linear process?
When you get to the final stages of leanness, it’s not enough to just keep doing the same things you’re doing; it’s not enough to reduce calories and exercise more.
You’ve probably also noticed that when you hit a plateau, fat loss doesn’t just slow down all over; it begins to reveal other things. When you’ve lost the first several pounds — whether that means 20, 50 or even 100 pounds — you’ve lost the "easy" fat. As your fat loss slows, you’ll notice that you’re holding fat in some areas more than others. In fact, you may be holding all of your fat in one or two specific areas.
We tend to call these “trouble areas.” These vary from person to person, but generally, men will deal with trouble areas in the love handles and belly, while women will have them in the hips and thighs.
Why do we have these trouble areas and how do we fix them?
This has to do with your hormones. At the later stages, fat loss is not just about calories in vs. calories out. It’s not just about energy debt or cardio or even (to a lesser extent) diet, although all of those things do factor in quite a bit, obviously. Really, it’s about your hormonal environment and the way that affects fat storage and, thereby, fat loss.
When your fat loss has stalled and you’re trying to break through that wall, or when you’re trying to rid yourself of those last stubborn 5-10 pounds, it’s a hormonal battle.
Far and away, the most common incarnation of this issue in mean is sagging love handles.
My own battle, and that of many of my male clients, revolves around love handles and lower back fat. When I’m dieting or getting ready for a photoshoot, it can take me several weeks to get rid of the fat in this one area, even when I’m very lean everywhere else.
As mentioned above, the reason many men, myself included, tend to store fat is due to the effects of hormones on fat storage. The hormone responsible for love handles is insulin.
The degree to which you are able to process and respond to glucose (sugar) levels in your body is called "insulin sensitivity." The higher this is, the easier and more efficiently your body uses carbohydrates for energy and the less likely you are to store carbs as fat.
If you’re insulin resistant, on the other hand, you don’t deal well with carbs. And anything other than a low-carb diet pretty much means you’re going to be storing more fat overall, specifically in the love handles. If you’re insulin resistant and you still eat a lot of carbs, then your glucose clearance from the heavy carb load is going to be compromised and hormonal receptor sites in your love handles and lower back are going to be overloaded.
The good news is that insulin resistance (and the resulting cascade of regional fat) can be mitigated with certain types of diet and training.
Misconceptions
You can see in gyms across the world the rampant use of “site specific” spot training. This is a futile attempt to thrash the last bits of fat from the edges of your body and does little to help you understand why nothing has worked up to that point.
My friends, the time for side bends and ab-twister machines is over. In fact, it should never have ever begun.
The reality is that these “spot-reducing” exercises often carry an abysmal level of total-body taxation. That is, they are incredibly easy and contribute very little to improving your insulin sensitivity.
Sure, you may drop a bead of sweat and cringe at the burn through your midsection, but the reality is you are probably wasting your time.
Big, dynamic multi-joint movements strung together in a specific way will provide the results you crave and rid you of those horrible handles of love. By doing this, we play into the power that hormones have on the body and use them as weapons.
One hormone in particular plays a major role.
Insulin Resistance vs. IGF-1
Insulin resistance can be combated very nicely by a hormone called IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor 1.
Producing extra IGF-1 through training will help you improve your insulin sensitivity and rid yourself of love handles and lower back fat.
We know that insulin resistance is very common, particularly in people who were previously overweight. So, if you have lost some fat and you’re now struggling to lose a bit more (and that fat happens to be in your love handles), I’m willing to bet you’re suffering from some degree of insulin resistance and an inability to efficiently clear glucose from your system.
In order to get rid of that fat, you need to do fat-burning workouts (obviously) and increase your insulin sensitivity to the greatest degree that you can. As a result, you need to employ metabolic resistant training (MRT).
MRT is the overarching theory that dictates how I design fat-loss training programs; it consists of using fast-paced, multi-joint movements to train the body to move more efficiently.
Because this style of training is extremely expensive in terms of energy (caloric) demand, MRT is excellent as a general fat-loss modality. However, perhaps more important is the fact that it's also an incredible way to produce IGF-1.
The Method
Using a combination of explosive exercises, speed drills and numerous varietals of traditional methods, train in a way that increases your agility, dexterity, and mobility.
Nearly all of your training sessions should be heavily dependent on variations of the best fat-loss exercises, which are compound, dynamic exercises that move your body through space.
My personal favorites are the lunge, overhead press, single-leg squat and bodyweight pulling. These exercises serve as the foundation for your fat-burning mission and can be built upon to provide variety to a number of different training protocols.
When setting up a workout, using a noncompeting order — like alternating lower body exercises with upper body exercises — is also a powerful variable. The extreme flow of blood from one side of the body to the next causes a great deal of systemic disturbance. Your heart is practically cracking your rib cage while it pounds to move enough blood from point A to point B.
Combine this with minimal rest, moderately high repetitions and adequate loads, and you've got one of the most effective fat-loss protocols known to man. As an added bonus, your cardiovascular efficiency will enjoy a nice boost.
Here’s a quick workout using the above concepts:
A1) Bulgarian split squat — 10 reps per leg
A2) Inverted row — 12 reps
A3) Push-up — 15 reps
A5) Reverse lunges — 8 reps per leg
A6) Pull-up — 6 reps
A7) Overhead press — 12 reps
A8) Plank — 60 seconds
Perform A1-A8 in a circuit fashion, moving form one exercise to the next with little to no rest. Perform a total of 6 rounds, resting 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Even though you’re only doing one abdominal exercise (the plank) and none for the actual area where you store your love-handle fat, this workout is far better for increasing insulin sensitivity — and therefore reducing love handles — than any workout with a bunch of side bends and twists.
Without the use of any spot-reducing movements, your love handles will melt before your eyes. However, a warning: This type of training takes effort — a ton of it.
If you’re not one to tolerate hard work, possess mental toughness or have a burning desire to break past the final stages of fat loss, this may not be for you. Sadly, sitting or lying in a machine while flexing the spine will not get you where you need to go, but it is a heck of a lot easier.
So, if you're plagued by love-handular fatitude, do yourself a favor and start incorporating some dynamic work and MRT into your programming in order to up-regulate every fat-burning mechanism your body has to offer.
Seeking the “burn” in your abdominals is a false altar when it comes to the final stages of fat loss, particularly when dealing with love handles.
By performing big, taxing exercises, a different type of deficit is created. Instead of starving yourself, the deficit comes from an increased metabolic rate and systemic up-regulation. Hormonal function is maintained, sanity restored and stubborn fat storage combated.
Armed with this knowledge, design yourself a program that combines each of the variables mentioned above. Stay committed to the mission, and in a few weeks' time, those love handles may not be such an impossible issue after all.
Source: Askmen.com
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Questions Women Ask About Their Body
Q: I'm always starving after I work out, and then I eat more! What's going on?
A: The problem is probably the foods you're choosing, not your workout. A recent study of young women found that those who exercise and ate foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat yogurt and lean protein felt more satisfied, even hours after exercising, than those who ate a diet with more pasta, bagels, cheese, cookies and pizza. And while both groups ate approximately the same number of calories over the course of the day, the women who ate the healthier stuff lost more weight and body fat. Fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber and keeps hunger under control.
A: The problem is probably the foods you're choosing, not your workout. A recent study of young women found that those who exercise and ate foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat yogurt and lean protein felt more satisfied, even hours after exercising, than those who ate a diet with more pasta, bagels, cheese, cookies and pizza. And while both groups ate approximately the same number of calories over the course of the day, the women who ate the healthier stuff lost more weight and body fat. Fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber and keeps hunger under control.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Mila Kunis Eye Makeup
It's not hard to make Mila Kunis' eyes look amazing. She maybe has the most gorgeous peepers on the entire planet. But there's a trick she uses upon occasion to make them look a little bigger and more sultry at the same time.Her eyeshadow is winged out and up past her eyes. This is an old-school trick that opens your eyes and makes them look like they extend a bit farther. And because it's done with dark shadow, it also adds a touch of smokiness that's pretty hot. A one-two punch, really.
All you do to pull this off is load up a tapered-tip eyeshadow brush (or a Q-Tip, if you don't have one) with some shadow and brush up as if you were following the line of your lower lid up toward your temples. Easy enough, right?
Source: Glamour
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