Follow these 10 simple health and nutrition tips to make the face staring at you in the mirror hotter than ever.

1. Care about skin care.
Too often, this advice is sloughed off like dead epidermal cells. But listen anyway: Use moisturizers to keep your skin from drying out — and more importantly, apply sunscreen to curb premature aging and undue damage from ultraviolet rays. Make it a habit, like shaving or brushing your teeth.

2. Butt out.
As in, stop smoking. Cigarettes cause worse wrinkling than the sun. Smoking robs the skin of collagen and elastin which give the skin texture, strength and elasticity and in turn speeds up the aging process. Cigarette use can also give the skin a grayish tone. 

3. Eat right.
A healthy diet equals a more glowing complexion, shinier hair and a fitter you.

“The key is to stay well balanced,” says Jim White, a fitness and nutrition expert, and a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. “Oatmeal is a great power food. It’s loaded with fiber and can help manage hunger and lower cholesterol. Cottage cheese, meanwhile, is low in sugar and high in protein and calcium.”

Overall, stick closely to diet with few high-fat meats and larger amounts of grains, fish and olive oil.

4. Sleep.
Get the recommended eight hours a night, at least. Sleeping restores all organs of the body, including the skin, which is the body’s largest organ. It also reduces tension and anxiety, lessening crow’s feet, frown lines and worry lines. Lack of sleep also causes those dreaded circles under your eyes. 

5. Hydrate.
Skin needs water to function properly especially to fight damage caused by the sun. Drinking the recommended eight glasses a day additionally flushes toxins from the body and brings nutrients to the deep layer of the skin (the dermis).

6. Slim down.
Trimming down will not only improve your appearance but also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

But don’t go on some radical diet. Instead think about portion control. Shave your calorie intake by 500 calories a day by cutting back on some vices like fried foods, and you’ll lose a sensible pound or two a week.

7. Be pro-antioxidant.
Antioxidants like vitamins A, C and E found in fruits and vegetables are essential. They promote skin repair and elasticity and also reduce your risk for heart disease and cancer.

8. Do cardio.
A cardio workout regimen lowers stress, makes you happier and gives your skin a glow. Do any kind of aerobic exercise that will raise your heart rate above baseline for half an hour a day. It could be going for a walk, taking a bike ride or using the elliptical — something that works up a sweat a little. Don’t do too much too fast or you’ll get injured and quit. Exercise should be fun, and you should feel good doing it.

9. Watch the booze.
Alcohol causes swelling of the tissues, especially puffy eyes, and often leads to bad eating habits — causing weight gain — and smoking,

10. Stand tall.
Good posture really is a good thing. Core strength training will get rid of that unseemly slouch. Do light resistance training two to three times a week to strengthen core muscles. A certified personal trainer can work with you on a regimen that you can follow at home.

Content sourced and modified for use with permission from Men’s Life Today.

1. Leave the bodybuilding routines for the bodybuilders

You’ve seen those hulks at the gym and are tempted to try that chest workout they are using. Stop. You should know what works for somebody on steroids doesn’t work for somebody who wants to be natural. Many hard gainers think more is better and end up doing an insane amount of sets and reps. They’ll often be in the gym for two or three hours. Instead, spending only 45 minutes to an hour with the weights and no more than two to three weight workouts a week.

2. To get bigger, go basic

Get rid of the so-called “shaping exercises” done with little dumbbells — such as shoulder raises, chest flyes and concentration curls — as these target only part of a muscle group. Instead, stick with barbell-type moves and heavier weights, and aim for compound movements that involve at least two or more muscle groups, such as the chest, shoulders and triceps for the bench press. Why? Your muscles respond most to lifting heavier loads, and the impact on the muscles can be considerably magnified by moves that involve more muscle groups. This will enable you to lift even heavier weights and build more muscle thanks to those bigger loads. Go for the bigger exercises like squats, presses, deadlifts, chin-ups and straight bar curls.

3. Challenge yourself

To maximize your gains, choose challenging moves and go hard during every set. Intensity is much more important to muscle growth than quantity. It is better you do two very intense sets to failure (until you can’t lift anymore) with heavy weights and with forced reps (four to eight) than four to five sets of 12 to 15 reps at moderate intensity. For example, if you get to 10 reps with a lot of muscle straining, then you’re going too light.

4. Pound up!

Many guys take the easy route in the weight room. They would rather do tricep press-downs than dips, or leg presses than squats, but they’re just cheating themselves of better muscle gains.

5. Choose ‘muscle cardio’

The last thing you need – after putting your muscles on the get-bigger track — is going through a long cardio session, which will only whittle down those gains. Inevitably, your body will extract the energy it needs for long cardio from your muscle tissues, no matter how fueled up you are before. Instead, further enhance the muscle-building process by adding some muscle cardioor explosive cardio – short bursts of power followed by longer bouts of rest two to three times a week. Do eight rounds of 10 to 20 seconds of high-intensity cardio, such as wind sprints or cycle sprints, followed by 20 to 40 seconds rest.

6. Master before-and-after eating

There’s no shortcut to the beefed up version of you. Frankly, a lot of it has to do with what you routinely eat including different kinds of carbohydrates and proteins, before and after workouts and before and after sleep.

After you wake up, you want to get your muscles back into the anabolic (muscle building) state and out of the catabolic (muscle breakdown) state they fall into by morning time. Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and author of Power Eating, recommends eating protein for breakfast to avoid that latter state — and that’s why eggs are a good start to the day. If you prefer to sip rather than chew early in the day, go with a whey protein shake — which your muscles rapidly absorb — with fruit. Overall, she says that each day hard gainers must consume at least 0.73 grams of protein per pound of body weight and 2.73 or more grams of carbohydrates. In other words, if you’re 180 pounds (81 kgs) you need 131.4 grams of protein and 491.4 grams of carbohydrates per day. If you have five meals per day, that translates to 26.3 grams of protein (equivalent to about four eggs) and 98.3 grams of carbohydrates per meal. A four-ounce chicken sandwich with a side of brown rice and vegetables would be a perfectly balanced meal.

Two to three hours before the workout, down a carbohydrate-protein mixture, such as a mixed-nutrient sports bar. This will provide immediate energy and decrease the negative effects of exercise, such as damage to muscle tissue and muscle soreness.

After your workout, don’t waste any time. Within 15 to 30 minutes after setting down that last weight, take in some carbohydrates to refill your glycogen stores, build new proteins and refuel for tomorrow’s training session.

Lastly, before bed, switch out the fast-digesting whey protein for slow-digesting, time-release proteins like casein protein powder and dairy food like milk, curd, paneer. This will help keep your body in muscle-building state.

Content modified for use with permission from Men’s Life Today