Luke Bryan on Staying Fit Over 40 and Completing His First Century Ride

Luke Bryan feels at home on the road. Whether that means being on tour, performing to thousands, or hitting the pavement on his bike. For the Nashville native, cycling is an escape from the digital world and a low-impact means of staying strong.

“I’m a big guy,” says Bryan, who stands at 6’2. “I used to love jogging, but if I hit the stage after a long run, I would be feeling it in my knees. My concerts are very physical and the deeper I got into the setlist the more I would feel the toll of those miles.”

Now, Bryan doesn’t leave home without his wheels. We caught up with the country singer to talk about his love of cycling, fitness on the road, and completing his first century ride.

Men’s Journal: How has your relationship with fitness evolved over the course of your career?

Luke Bryan: You know, during the start of my career, when I was in my early 20s, I could just drink a few less beers and lose 12 pounds. Even into my 30s it didn’t take too much to get my body into a good place. Now that I’ve hit my 40s, it takes more; it’s trickier. You have to be a little more conscious about what you’re taking in. And you have to make sure to stay as active as you can.

How have you trained in the past?

I remember when I moved to Nashville in 2001, I felt like I was a little overweight, so I started jogging a lot. I would run somewhere around five or six miles daily, then I would go play a lot of basketball with the guys. I got into the best shape of my life around that time. On top of that I tried all of these workout programs like P90x and Insanity, but started to feel the aftereffects of them in my joints. That had a lot to do with how I beat my body up in my youth working for my dad, spending my days just picking up heavy stuff. The runs started to leave me in pain too. I needed to find another way to stay moving.

How did you find your way to cycling?

It really happened about five years ago. I met [former professional racing cyclist] Robbie Ventura and [entrepreneur] John Cassimus, who is also a big rider. We all shared a mutual friend Sam Bell, who’s also a great rider, and owned Blackberry Farm in Nashville. He sadly passed away after a skiing accident at an early age. So it became about paying homage to Sam and becoming more familiar with what he was passionate about. That’s one of the entry points into cycling.

What do you enjoy about it?

First off, having a family while also being on the move so much, and having to travel constantly, you want to savor every second you can. So the fact that I can walk out to my garage, get on my bike, and immediately be working out is a huge benefit—rather than having to get into my car, commute, park, and try to squeeze in a session. Next I would say I love cruising in my neighborhood. From my house going south it’s just some of the best road cycling you could dream up. The roads are built on this hard Tennessee limestone—real smooth, no cracks or bumps. The hills are incredible, especially in the fall when the leaves are changing. There are these great routes where you go under amazing canopy.

Do you have a favorite local cycling route?

I love a ride at the beach. My friends at Trek sent me a beautiful fat bike, perfect for cruising through the sand. I inflate those big ‘ol tires to about 5 or 10 PSI and just get down by the water. That’s especially fun because you don’t have to worry about traffic, parking, and if you fall because you aren’t going to get too hurt. I like doing a little one-hour trip to the beach. Ride around, jump in the water, then an easy one-hour ride back. It doesn’t get much better than that for a day activity.

How do you get your cycling in and stay fit on tour?

I have a closet that I store my bike in when I’m on the road. I also have a Wahoo KICKR stationary that I can use when I can’t make it on the road and want to stay safe. I’ve been using that Wahoo for over three years at this point. I’ll get on Swift and try to beat my times, see what my guys have done. Either way I try to get about an hour or an hour and a half in the seat. I also have a trainer who I bring on the the road with me, Brad Roby at Shed Fitness. I’m always moving on tour, so it’s not too hard to stay in shape.

Do you listen to music?

I love music, but I think it’s really important to be able to hear the road, especially when I’m riding somewhere I’m not familiar with. So I try to avoid headphones, but I’m able to clamp my phone onto my handlebars, so sometimes I’ll put the music over the speaker. I don’t really need music to pump me up though. I get a lot from just hearing the wind out in nature. It’s important to have those mental escapes from time to time.

Have you come up with songs on your rides?

I’ve definitely written songs on rides. I always have my iPhone in my back pocket so when I have a moment of inspiration whether it’s music or lyrics, I’ll record it. I have these little voice notes of me singing with the wind in the background. Being out there, in nature, with your mind quiet, there’s no better situation for inspiration. There have been many times where I’ve called song-writing friends from my bike to discuss ideas.https://www.instagram.com/p/CD2dFzbli5Z/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=12&wp=658&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fbodyweightloss.com&rp=%2Farticles%2F2020%2F08%2F19%2Fluke-bryan-on-staying-fit-over-40-and-completing-his-first-century-ride%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A9843.769999977667%7D

What was the motivation for doing your first century ride?

I’ve been doing some pretty long rides recently, going out around the house and doing 40 or 50 miles. A few of the guys I know who watch my numbers and stats came to me and said I was ready for the 100 miles. I wasn’t so sure, but I couldn’t turn it down. I also have a Trek Madone perfectly fit for me, which makes the miles easy.

How did you prepare for it?

We rang up a local trainer, Dave Carpenter, who works with triathletes, and he built us a course based off the routes we were going to be hitting. I did the ride with Robbie Ventura, who has quite a few [century] wins under his belt, I think like 50 or 60 of them. He rode for the Postal Service team. Now he owns a training company up north of Chicago called Vision Quest. There were six of us riding, and everyone else had done multiple century rides, so I was definitely in good company. There was even a doctor in the crew, so if something happened we were covered.

How did the ride go?

We did it under six hours. We started at my house, at around 6 in the morning. There was a nice fog outside. The whole ride was magical honestly. The sun was behind clouds most of the time, but by noon it was starting to get pretty hot, which made it a little more difficult. We actually ended up riding for 105 miles.

What did you enjoy about completing the century?

It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I really liked challenging myself to that degree, in terms of endurance. The real great part started on the 50th mile. I had never gone farther than that on one of my solo rides, so it was pretty cool that, for the whole second half of the ride, every single mile was a new personal best. Even when the miles were challenging, that idea really helped propel me on.

How did you celebrate the completion?

To get that sodium and carbs, we ordered a bunch of sushi to the house, along with some noodles and lo mein, and a couple beers to wash everything down. Nothing after a good long ride than a nice cold beer. I have my own label called Two Lane Lagers, so that’s the brew of choice.

5 Best Lean Muscle Protein Powders For Any Gym Lover

Working out is a great way to stay healthy. But if you want to boost the results of any workout, you need to pick up some protein powders. That way you can make shakes before and after a workout to fuel your body with the proper nutrients. But not all protein powders are made the same.

You have plenty of options to choose from out there. So to help you make the right choice for your needs, check out the selection we have gathered for you below.

If you want to grab the best overall container of protein powder, then you would be wise to pick this container up. To us, it is the best overall for a few reasons. For one, it’s very affordable for the amount you will get. Another being that it tastes really good, making it very easy to ingest it. It’s also lacking in lactose, carbs, and fat while also being very low in sugars. No unnatural comedown after taking this. But to us, what makes it so great is that the protein will absorb into your bloodstream much quicker than others. So if you want the all-around package, then this is the one for you.

There are plenty of great protein powders out there for you to pick up. But a good deal of them has sugar in them. If you aren’t looking to fill your body up with sugar but you still want a highly effective protein powder, then this is the one for you. You will gain a ton of muscle and burn a whole lot of fat with this in your workout routine. So if you don’t have an attraction for sugar in your diet, then this is the one for you.

When you workout, you are more likely than not looking to build muscle. So a protein powder is there to aid in your musculature’s growth. But with this option, you won’t just see your body growing with muscle. You will also see it burn away that excess fat that you no longer want to see on your body. You’ll get plenty of energy to keep up the good work during your workout. And with this in your workout routine, you will see yourself gain a lean and mean looking body. So if fat burning is key for you, then look no further.

For plenty of people out there, cutting out dairy is a vital way to stay healthy and lose weight. There’s a lot of good protein powders out there that wouldn’t fly for these folks. But this option is not just great for them because it is dairy-free. It’s just great in general. Your body will be very happy that you are putting this into it. All-natural ingredients make the body feel great and it greatly helps in aiding in your workout. Muscles will grow and energy won’t be depleted. Not to mention that despite the lack of dairy, it will still taste amazing going down. So pick this up if you want to avoid dairy in your life.

Everyone working out at the gym or at home is focused on making their bodywork a lot better than it has before. But there tends to be one element people forget in this journey. And that is making sure your immune system stays strong too. If you work out too hard and burn yourself out, you can severely weaken the immune system. But with this protein powder, your immune system will be just as strong as your new muscles. Get all the help you need to make the most of your workouts and keep your self from getting sick. You can’t go wrong with those options.

>>Check out the protein powders below<<

What It’s Like to Live With Parosmia and Anosmia

There’s something about a global pandemic and lengthy at-home lockdown that seems to intensify the need for an after-work cocktail. In April, I considered a bottle of Cazadores blanco a pantry staple. Cracking ice into a rocks glass with a shot of tequila, soda water, and a squeeze of lime or two was the occasional, after-work break I needed from hitting refresh on the The New York Times website over and over again. But for a few weeks, the drink tasted like nothing. A cold collection of bubbles that was relaxing in its effervescence but wholly devoid of flavor. The smell was empty, too. I came down with COVID-19 in early March. I was lucky to have a mild case that put me out of commission for a few weeks but needed no hospitalization. The strangest symptom for me was the complete loss of smell, something called anosmia (and later, parosmia). At the time, smell loss was newly linked to COVID; now, it’s a more reliable predictor of infection than a PCR test. It happened very suddenly.

One morning, I could smell; that evening, I could not. I was sitting in bed, drinking ginger lemon tea and hitting refresh repeatedly on the news. A story popped up about anosmia in European novel coronavirus cases and, suddenly, I realized the tea I was drinking was nothing more than scentless, tasteless, warm water. My nose was clear, but my brain registered nothing. I leaned over to my boyfriend, who had been embracing his new work-from-home setup and had gotten more lax on showering. Nothing.

My inability to smell lingered long after I recovered from the other symptoms of the virus. The air inside my home had no comforting, discerning scents. No fragrances of morning coffee, fresh laundry, or anything at all. It made cooking challenging (how spicy could it be, really?), but cleaning out my cat’s litter box was a breeze. I immediately became aware of something that had never crossed my mind before: My ability to smell my surroundings was far from guaranteed. Initially, I worried daily that maybe my sense to smell was gone forever. I felt weirdly alone without it—separated from a perception of my environment I’d always taken for granted. Thankfully, by the end of April, I started to taste the tartness of lime in my tequila sodas again, soon followed by the subtle presence of agave.

Bit by bit, it came slowly back. By early May, I could smell most things around me, though not as intensely as before. Eating was enjoyable again. I wasn’t permanently changed, but my anosmia had gotten markedly better. But then, during the third week of May, I took one sip of a freshly made drink and forcibly spit it out onto the counter before I could make it to the sink. Tequila. Soda water. Lime. But what I tasted was a forgotten pile of vegetables left way too long in the fridge— like rotten zucchini had been muddled into the beverage. A putrid, ripe smell emanating from the glass caught my nose and I gagged, dumping the tequila down the sink.

Suddenly, many previously normal smells—in particular, smells I loved—were rancid. A geranium-scented hand soap in the kitchen smelled like rotten squash. Taking a shower was an exercise in sensory futility between fragrant shampoos and facewash. I had to hold my breath in order not to gag walking through the produce section of the grocery store. Most fruits—from strawberries to pineapple, oranges to bananas—were completely inedible as they tasted as terrible as they smelled. I had to stop eating cucumbers, tortilla chips, eggs, and olives—among many other things. One of the most crushing blows: when pizza tasted so awful I had to hold my breath to get down a single bite.

This sounds ridiculous, I know. The idea that a piece of pepperoni pizza could taste rotten when it’s most definitely not, sounds crazy. It sounds made up. And it sounds like something that shouldn’t be a big deal because it’s not life-threating. I was otherwise okay; everything around me just made me gag. It wasn’t until I discovered AbScent, a UK-based non-profit dedicated to promoting awareness of smell disorders and offering support for sufferers, that I even learned what was happening to me. Experts refer to the distortion of smell as parosmia. Chrissi Kelly, who grew up in Maine but has lived in England for the past three decades, founded AbScent after her own experience with anosmia that began in 2012. “It’s very, very difficult to get people to understand just how awful it is to lose your sense of smell,” she told me. “It’s a very isolating experience. [Friends and family] think to themselves, ‘Well, I can plug my nose and I can see what that’s like and I just don’t get it. What’s the big deal?’ And the fact of the matter is that people who lose limbs, people who lose their eyesight, people who lose their hearing recover their well-being eventually, within about two years. People who lose their sense of smell tend to deteriorate over time.”

How COVID-19 Can Affect Your Sense of Smell

There are two ways viral infections can cause smell loss. The first is through mucus blockage—i.e. a stuffed-up nose—that prevents odors from reaching receptors in the upper part of the nasal passage. The second, which is generally more rare, is when the olfactory neuroepithelium—the tissue that lines the nose and contains the nerves that communicate scent to the brain—is damaged by the virus. “Basically, if the nerves are damaged, that can lead to a more profound loss of sense of smell,” explains Dr. Evan R. Reiter, professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University. While the research on smell loss and COVID-19 is of course, still evolving, studies have found that smell loss affects anywhere from 50-80 percent of individuals who contract the virus. That is not an insignificant amount. A recent study in Europe reinforced the distinctiveness of loss of smell and taste caused by SARS-CoV-2, sharing that while many people seem to recover quickly, there is reason to believe that problems with olfactory functioning will persist for some, long after they’ve otherwise recovered from the virus.

What Living With Anosmia and Parosmia Is Really Like

While far from a medical niche, smell and taste disorders exist outside of the general purview partly because of a lack of familiarity and partly because they just don’t seem as serious as issues with the other senses. This can make it confusing for those experiencing it, as well, gauging how to react or when to see a doctor. But, a lack of smell presents a set of real, life-affecting problems. Some scents alert us to possible danger: smoke from a fire, sulfur from a gas leak, even the smell of something burning on the stove. But even more, scent provides a way to connect with those around us. It provides comfort, familiarity and often nostalgia; it helps us to understand and interact with our environment in ways we really never consider until they disappear.

If anosmia is already an unfamiliar condition, then parosmia is even more so. With parosmia, the distortion usually happens with smells that are familiar. Generally pleasant scents are replaced with aggressively foul odors, like rotten vegetables or cigarette smoke. Parosmia renders food inedible and makes simple chores, like washing dishes, very challenging. How does it work? “In general, there are thousands of different receptors, all coded by different genes for olfactory neurons,” explains Dr. Reiter. “Most odors are relatively complex; they stimulate a whole bunch of different types of sensors. Your brain gets input from all these different receptors, then puts all that together to determine, this is a rose, this is my husband, this is dog poop. With parosmia, when there’s damage from any source, potentially all of the neurons and sensors are not affected the same, so instead of getting the signals from all of these different receptors, which the brain is used to, it’s maybe only getting signals from 25 or 50 percent—and when it puts that together, it changes the nature of what you’re smelling.”

What this means is that I dread brushing my teeth because the toothpaste tastes like it’s spoiled. A squeeze of lime in a cocktail—previously a nice way to wind down after work—is enough reason to pour my drink down the drain. For me, five months out from having COVID-19, parosmia affects every aspect of my daily life in a savagely smelly way.

How COVID-19 Could Help Experts Raise Awareness Around Olfactory Disorders

The nature of COVID-19 offers a unique opportunity to learn more about smell disorders in ways that can help people in the future. In early April, Dr. Reiter, who is also the medical director of the VCU Smell and Taste Clinic, launched a study with his team to understand more about the loss of these senses. “More often than not, when people experience changes in their sense of smell due to a virus, they will come in months or even years after their viral infection, simply because it hasn’t gotten better and they’re curious about that. You can also reason there are probably a lot of people who don’t seek medical attention or get tested.” This has made it challenging to research olfactory disorders, and in this way, COVID-19 presents opportunity. “Here we are with a highly publicized pandemic and the lay community is very aware that loss of sense of smell can be a hallmark symptom, so we’ve got all these people who are going through it together. We took the opportunity to try and study the natural history because that really hasn’t been possible [previously] with the way patients present so sporadically and so after-the-fact.”

This is hopeful. And in the meantime, the ranks of AbScent members continue to swell. In March, Kelly launched a COVID-specific parosmia support group on Facebook. Currently, there are more than 5,000 members who all describe similar experiences: coffee tastes terrible; gin seems to be the only liquor that isn’t wretched; rotten, smokey, and chemical smells and tastes abound. Everyone feels alienated because their experience is so unrelatable and sounds so ridiculous to their friends and family. Everyone finds solace in the experiences of other group members. Not one person has reported that the parosmia has ended and their sense of smell is completely back to normal. But it’s still early. The longest stretches of anosmia and parosmia date back to March; smell disorders can resolve—but it often takes months or years. And with every post shared in the group and every bit of information gathered by AbScent and shared with researchers (with permission, of course), the future of helping those suffering from smell disorders gets brighter. In a group that thrives on shared experience, this is definitely meaningful.

The best hope currently, as COVID-related anosmics and parosmics patiently wait for more scientific findings to emerge, is something called smell training, which is essentially physical therapy for the neural pathways between brain and nose. “The olfactory neurons are somewhat unique in the nervous system, in that they have the capacity to regenerate,” says Dr. Reiter. “What can happen in some cases is as the neurons regenerate, the wiring may get crossed, if you will, and people get a distortion.” Smell training is the repeated exercising of these neural pathways to help them recover properly, whether someone has no smell, or one that seems to be misfiring. It is the only research-backed technique that’s shown symptomatic improvement for smell disorders.

And it’s a process. “We have to think about this olfactory nerve as an injury rather than a disease that can be cured,” says Kelly. “If you got into a car accident and you looked at yourself in the mirror and saw that you were covered in scars, you wouldn’t say, when are my scars going to go away.”

There are success stories within the olfactory community. Chrissi, herself, is one. And her experiences resonate within the ranks of AbScent members suffering from anosmia and parosmia. I smell train every day. I take out a collection of small glass jars that contain different essential oils in various scent categories: orange and lemon for fruit, rose for floral, eucalyptus for resin, and clove for spice. For about 10 seconds each, I smell them individually. I focus on how they smell, how they’re supposed to smell, and I imagine being able to eat anything I want in the future, with no fear of an unexpected, rotten flavor. A few days ago, as I was brushing my teeth before bed, the toothpaste tasted utterly, completely normal. It’s been five months since I originally lost my sense of smell, and every small win makes me more hopeful.

Healthy Pasta Recipes to Lose Weight

Pasta and weight loss simply don’t sound like two things that can go hand-in-hand. But here at Nutrisystem, we believe that transitioning to a healthier lifestyle should not have to mean giving up all of the things that you love—pasta included! Sometimes all it takes is just a little bit of creativity to devise pasta recipes that use healthy substitutions.

At your local grocery store, you can most likely find a large variety of healthy pasta swaps, such as spiralized veggies, whole wheat noodles, gluten free pasta and even spaghetti squash! We’ve rounded up 20 of our best (and simple) recipes that will give you your healthy pasta fix while still keeping you on track with your weight loss goals.

If pasta and meatballs is one of your favorite comfort food combos, then you probably know how easy it is to overindulge on this classic dish. One heaping turns into two or more and soon you’ve eaten way too many servings. That’s what makes these skewers so great. It forces you to slow down and savor what you’re eating. That helps with portion control but also allows you to realize when you’re full. Oftentimes when we eat fast, we don’t give our stomach the chance to tell our brain that we’re satisfied!

This pasta meal gives you the decadence of a creamy dish but without the cheese. Instead, we prepare it with a homemade cashew cream sauce. If you’re trying to avoid dairy, this will be one of your go-to healthy pasta recipes. Filled with healthy fats and fiber, this dish also features vitamin-packed spinach and tomatoes to help you get your fill of daily veggies.

This flavor-filled recipe has a little bit of everything by combining chicken, ziti and a variety of veggies all in one delicious dish. It’s colorful and nutritious with wholesome vegetables like mushrooms, bell peppers, onions and celery cooked in just a small amount of butter. If you’re someone who is tired of boring chicken dishes night after night, then this is a great way to jazz up your dinner.

If you’re looking for comfort food that won’t totally derail your healthy eating plan, then this dish is sure to become a new favorite. Although most casseroles are made in the oven, this no-bake version is cooked on the stovetop. While the end result is creamy and decadent, a serving is a mere 326 calories. This is achieved with some healthy substitutions, such as using part skim mozzarella and light sour cream instead of the full fat versions. That means you’ll get your creamy pasta fix in a healthful way.

If you’re someone who thinks healthy shrimp pasta recipes are too difficult to make at home, this meal will change your tune. Shrimp dishes can be much simpler to whip up than you might imagine and are a great way to incorporate lean protein into your diet. This particular recipe also features asparagus, which is a great source of nutrients including fiber, folate and vitamins A, C and K. You’ll feel like you got a restaurant-quality meal but will know that it was a healthy choice—and you’ll be proud that you made it yourself.

If you love spicy seafood dishes, then Shrimp Fra Diavolo might be a favorite. In this recipe, we’ve created a lighter version of this classic favorite. With antioxidant-packed tomatoes and the addition of some bell peppers and onions, it’s got plenty of veggies. But it’s the lean protein that shines in this dish! Shrimp is high in several vitamins and minerals while also serving as a rich source of protein.

This recipe is a great choice if you’re looking for a pasta-like dinner without the pasta. Spaghetti squash makes an excellent noodle-alternative for your healthy pasta recipes because it’s low in calories and high in fiber. It’s one of our favorite foods here at Nutrisystem, thanks to being considered a non-starchy, unlimited veggie that is highly versatile. In this dish, we combine it with diced sweet potato, seasonings, honey and goat cheese for a decadent-tasting meal that’s good for you, too. One serving is just 288 calories.

This meal is a great way to get your pasta fix without the pasta by using spiralized zucchini (also known as zoodles). It features a lighter cheese sauce that’s made with reduced fat shredded cheese and some nonfat milk. Plus, it packs in a ton of roasted veggies for plenty of antioxidant goodness. With everything from broccoli and bell peppers to onions and sweet potatoes, this dish is chock-full of flavor and healthy fiber, too.

Shrimp scampi is often a restaurant favorite. However, it’s known for having lots of butter and being loaded with carb-heavy white pasta. Our version removes the butter and goes low-carb with healthy spiralized zucchini and just a handful of whole wheat spaghetti. But have no fear, all that flavor you love is still there. It’s a great way to enjoy a classic dish with a healthy twist.

Besides being warm and comforting, particularly during colder months, soups are also fantastic for packing in the veggies. This soup does not disappoint! It has carrots, celery and tomatoes featured alongside hearty beans, lean ground chicken and just enough pasta to fulfill your craving without sending you into carb overload. A serving is hearty enough to count as a Flex Meal and won’t leave you feeling hungry after eating.

Nothing tops an easy-to-make meal that’s healthy, too. That is certainly the case for this tasty Beef Lo Mein dish that incorporates flank steak strips with lo mein noodles, healthy snow peas and carrots. It has all the flavor of take-out without the typical fat and calories associated with it. Plus, you’ll be able to whip it up a lot faster than calling for delivery.

If you’re a seafood lover, then you’ll definitely want to add this recipe to your weekly lineup. It combines mussels and shrimp with cooked spinach, parmesan cheese and whole wheat spaghetti—all covered in a tomato garlic sauce that adds a major burst of flavor. It’s both delicious and nutritious, making it a win all around.

Pasta Bolognese is an Italian favorite—but the pasta and the red meat can also make it a heavy, calorie-packed and fat-filled dish. Our version is much lighter, swapping out pasta with spaghetti squash and the traditional mix of beef, veal and pork with lean ground turkey. Still packed with flavor, our healthier recipe also shines a spotlight on the veggies with peas, zucchini, onions and tomatoes sneaking their way in. It’s so full of flavor that you’ll forget it’s a healthy twist on a classic dish.

If you’re looking for the creamy goodness of pasta in cheese sauce but don’t want to wreak havoc on your weight loss regimen, then this dish has got you covered. It uses low-fat ricotta and parmesan cheese for a simple sauce that kicks up the flavor factor on some whole wheat gnocchi. Add in some vitamin-packed spinach and sundried tomatoes and it’s clear to see how this dish has it all.

As yummy as classic chicken piccata may be, its downfall is in the heaps of butter it’s traditionally browned in. Typically served atop carb-loaded pasta, it’s easy to see how this dish can be a diet detour. But don’t worry—we’ve created a healthier version! This recipe eliminates the butter but adds in nonfat plain Greek yogurt to get that creamy texture. It still has plenty of flavor. Served over top of whole wheat pasta, it’s also got some hearty fiber.

Our Vegetable Lasagna Bake is a great example of how you can have your favorite pasta recipes while still sticking to your healthy weight loss plan. This version packs in spinach and butternut squash, a low-calorie, fiber-rich winter veggie that adds a touch of sweetness. With just the right amount of low-fat cheeses, it’ll satisfy your lasagna longing without derailing your diet.

Whereas traditional meatballs are made from a combination of pork, beef and veal, our healthy vegetarian meatballs are made from brown lentils, mushrooms and oats. Still seasoned and baked to deliciousness, these meatballs are big on flavor—and fiber—while being low in fat and calories. Served atop zucchini noodles with no-sugar-added marinara sauce, it’s a great way to get your spaghetti and meatball fix in a healthful way.

This classic meal has the same ingredients as the traditional version, including top round roast, beef broth, onions, mushrooms and noodles. However, some healthy substitutions help to make it lighter and healthier. Fortunately, it’s still so full of flavor that you would never notice the difference! It will give you that classic comfort that you crave from this hearty favorite.

This noodle bowl replaces carb-laden noodles with healthy spiralized sweet potatoes. Add to that some lean cooked shrimp, antioxidant-packed spinach and a delicious, homemade almond butter sauce and you’ve got a tasty meal that won’t disappoint.

Spaghetti squash and lasagna unite in this healthy air fryer recipe that’s filled with Italian-inspired ingredients. Low sodium marinara sauce, part skim ricotta, mozzarella cheese, spinach and oregano are tossed with spaghetti squash noodles and stuffed back into the homemade squash “bowl.” It’s a healthy and simple meal that almost tastes too good to be true.