Anthony Bourdain's Rules For Grilling the Perfect Steak

Flatten Your Belly by July 4th (Really!) AND The Sexiest Woman of Generation X Revealed!

Author

Stephen Perrine
July 01, 2025

🚨 Welcome to this week’s issue of Generation Xcellent. I’m Stephen Perrine, New York Times bestselling author and former top editor at Men’s Health and Maxim. And like you, I’m doing all I can to survive the moshpit of midlife. Thanks for joining me on the journey! If you like what you see, send me an email—and share this newsletter with another guy who could use our help.

Stephen Perrine

- FITNESS -

Shutterstock

Flatten Your Belly by July 4th. (Really!)

If your plan for the weekend involves taking off your shirt, you need to know these fast and effective slim-down secrets.

By Jeff Stevenson

> Losing weight can take time. But looking as if you’ve lost weight can take just a few days, if you know a handful of simple tricks. We asked some of the top fitness and nutrition experts to weigh in (pun intended) on how midlife men can flatten their bellies and look slimmer and fitter by the weekend.

1. Stretch it out. Long hours in a sitting position, combined with general weight gain, causes tightness in our hip flexors, the muscles that connect our hips to our knees. That causes our hips to tilt forward, making us look older and heavier than we are. Loosen your hip flexors and you’ll look curiously leaner (and taller) before you’ve ever dropped a pound.

Place your left knee on a mat, with your right knee bent at 90 degrees, right foot flat on the mat. Reach your left hand up over your head toward your right shoulder and, as you do so, engage your butt muscles. Now lean farther to the right as you push forward with your left knee. You should feel a stretch in your left hip flexor, the muscle that runs down the front of your left hip. Hold the stretch for 8 long breaths, then relax and switch sides to stretch the right hip flexor. Repeat on each side three to four times at the end of every workout. As you become more comfortable, extend the length of each stretch to about 12 breaths. — Stephen Perrine, New York Times bestselling author, The Full Body Fat Fix.

2. Tighten it up. Focus on your oblique abdominals—the muscles along the sides of your torso that hold everything in place. When they’re firm, they’ll give you the appearance of leanness. Use this 5-minute fix: Lay on your back with your left leg straight. Bend your right knee and place the end of a yoga block against your right thigh, then secure it in place with your left elbow. Your goal is to keep that block from moving. Rest both hands gently against the back of your head. Now, keeping your right knee bent and your left leg straight, simultaneously lift your left leg while curling your shoulders up and twisting to the left—try to get your right elbow to touch your left leg. Perform as many reps as you can, then switch sides, moving the block to your right thigh and curling the left side of your body up. Try to work up to 2 minutes on each side. As this gets easier, switch the position of the block to increase the distance your upper body has to travel. — Gwen Lawrence, former team yoga instructor for the New York Giants and cohost of The Better Man Show (see the exercise here.)

3. Shrink it down. Before a big TV appearance, my primary focus is on cutting carbs. Here’s why: Excess carbohydrates are stored in the body as glycogen. But to store glycogen, the body needs water—every gram of glycogen stored in our bodies comes with three grams of water. When we reduce carbs, we start to burn off that glycogen—and shed the water weight. So cut out sugars, grains, fruits, and processed foods, and focus on leafy vegetables, healthy fats and lean protein. You’ll weigh significantly less in just a few days. — Jorge Cruise, celebrity trainer and New York Times bestselling author.

4. Blow it off. I used to work with a lot of fitness models at Men’s Health. In the days before a shoot, they would be conscious of any foods that could cause gas or bloating, like starchy foods, and avoid eating anything at least three hours before going to bed the night before to minimize any bloat the next day. About two days prior, eliminate all traces of sodium from your diet. One fitness model even avoided toothpaste with baking soda because it contained sodium bicarbonate! — Myatt Murphy, CSCS, former Fitness Director, Men’s Health and coauthor of Game Plan.

—Jeff Stevenson has written for an array of classic men’s magazines, including Men’s Fitness and Men’s Health.

🍺 FORTUNATELY, THE OTHER 40% COMES FROM BEER

- FOOD -

Nathaniel Welch

Anthony Bourdain’s Rules for Grilling the Perfect Steak

Follow these 10 simple steps for a meal that’s fast, delicious and foolproof.

>“Any chimpanzee can grill a steak or a burger. (God knows, as a chef, I’ve trained enough of them.)” Before Anthony Bourdain pivoted to travel journalism, the chef and author taught a generation of guys how to bring testosterone-fueled energy into the kitchen—and the backyard. Here are his tips for grilling the perfect steak. —GX

1 Don’t get too hot. “Are you heaping your grill with coals and then dousing them with accelerants because the high flame somehow looks cool and makes your penis feel larger?” Bourdain asked. Moderate heat is the better approach. If you’re using propane, preheat the grill on high. Once it’s hot, turn the flame down to medium. The meat should sizzle when it hits the grill, not cause flames to leap up.

2 Air it out. Remove the steak from the refrigerator a half hour before grilling. Keep it covered so insects don’t crap on it.

3  Season it. Brush on a light coating of olive oil, crushed garlic cloves, ginger, soy sauce, and star anise. If you like salt, use kosher or sea salt; iodized table salt tends to increase salinity with cooking.

4 Oil it. Lightly brush the grill with olive oil so the meat won’t stick.

5  Sear it. To get those cool, professional-looking sear marks, cook one side of the steak halfway to its desired doneness, then turn it 45 degrees and let it go the rest of the way. Repeat on the other side.

6 Don’t fiddle with it. Use tongs to move the steak around—never pierce it with a fork or knife to check the progress. And don’t press down on the meat to speed up cooking—that just squeezes the good stuff out of the steak and into the coals!

7 Feel for doneness. A rare steak will feel as soft as the skin between your thumb and forefinger when the hand is held loose. Press the same area while making a loose fist: That’s how a medium-rare steak feels to the touch. Making a tight fist gives the feel of a well-done steak, but I wouldn’t go there; you want to remove the meat from the grill when it’s just a bit underdone. Note: If the meat is on a bone, as in the case of a rib chop, be aware that the bone conducts heat into the meat, so trim your cooking time accordingly.

8 Rest it. Place the meat on a plate and allow it to rest 3 to 5 minutes. The meat will continue to cook and, more significantly, the juices, left undisturbed, will redistribute throughout the meat in a lovely and rewarding way.

9 Cut against the grain. What’s the grain? Look closely. See the lines running through the steak? Cut perpendicular to that direction.

10 Add a side. Grilled corn on the cob is perhaps the finest summer option. Just leave it in the husk, soak it in water for a few minutes, and then grill until the husk is charred and the kernels are soft.

Battle of the ‘90s Crushes:
Meet the Ultimate Generation X Sex Goddess

Alamy

>The men of Generation X grew up in a media-soaked paradise: VHS tapes on endless loop, MTV beamed straight into our bedrooms, and movie soundtracks on cassette. Our crushes weren’t once-a-week TV events—they were daily companions, staring at us from the screen with perfect hair and a barely disguised contempt for authority. No wonder we fell in love with all of them: Jennifer and Courteney, Shania and Gwen, Alyssa and Christina. No wonder we had such a hard time picking a favorite.

“Even though they are imaginary, psychologically they are in many ways equivalent to actual relationships,” says Riva Tukachinsky Forster, a professor at Chapman University who studies the strange intensity of celebrity crushes. So yeah, picking a favorite celebrity crush? Basically like choosing a life partner. No pressure.

We put it to the people. After gathering nominations from you, the Generation Xcellent readers, we whittled the list down to 16 iconic babes of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and pitted them against each other in a March Madness-style tournament full of heartbreak and betrayal. The final showdown? A heavyweight matchup between two legends: Phoebe Cates vs. Susanna Hoffs. Hoffs’s biggest weapon? That famously sultry sideways glance in the “Walk Like an Egyptian” video, which at least 80% of her voters cited as the moment they first understood hormones.

But Cates…. She was the blueprint for the slow-motion dream sequence, the formative freeze-frame moment. You know the one. If you don’t, you’re not Gen X. Despite a dominant run by Hoffs in the lead-up to the final, the Bangles’ beauty just couldn’t compete with the Genie in the Red Bikini.

Phoebe Cates takes the crown with a commanding 73% of the votes. She is, was, and shall forever be the Ultimate Gen X Sex Goddess. The one and only. The queen of the scene we’ve all seen. Susanna, we still love you. But in this showdown of smoldering icons, a generation of men hath spoken.

- GEN X CULTURE -

Shutterstock; RJ Julia Independent Booksellers

The Gen X Man’s Summer Reading List

The sun is out. The kids are away. Seize the moment!

By the Staff of RL Julia Booksellers

>It’s harder than ever for a man to find time to read. The kids are crazy, the wife is frazzled, the parents need help more than ever, and the workday is now 25 hours long. But as the long weekend approaches, here’s your chance to finally kick back and relax—and maybe attract some female attention: @hotdudesreading has 1.2M fans on Instagram. We asked the staff at one of our favorite independent bookstores, RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, to pick out the best new books for Gen X men.

FICTION

A drummer for an ‘80s heavy metal band gets roped into becoming an international spy in The Whyte Python World Tour, a novel by Travis Kennedy. Please make this into a movie, Hollywood gods!

Like outdoor adventure? Like solving crimes? Paul Doiron combines the two with Skin and Bones: And Other Mike Bowditch Mysteries. Doiron is a fly-fishing guide who lives on a trout stream in Maine. Try not to hate.

The Devil appears to a woman on a slave ship, and strikes a deal; for the next 175 years, Satan will revisit the woman’s descendants as they journey through American history. The Devil Three Times is a creepy and original novel from Rickey Fayne.

A new serial killer novel from Stephen King. What else do you need to know about Never Flinch?

The original Florida Man, Carl Hiassen, is back with a new mystery, Fever Beach, a gleefully hilarious ride through some spectacular comeuppances.

In So Far Gone, a fed-up journalist clocks his son-in-law in the mouth, tosses his cell phone, and flees for a cabin in the woods—but must re-emerge to save his kidnapped grandchildren. It’s the literary version of every Liam Neeson movie.

In the late ‘90s, a promising teenage boxer disappears. A decade later, his uncle discovers clues that lead to new investigation in Lucas Schaefer’s The Slip.

NONFICTION

Drugs, tech and rock ‘n roll: That’s the promise of Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection, which explores the band’s obsessive quest to build the greatest speaker system ever to tour the country.

If you like Seinfeld reruns, you’re familiar with the name Larry Charles. The writer and director, whose other credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat, and Entourage, recounts many bizarro tales in Comedy Samurai: 40 Years of Blood, Guts & Laughter.

Smell the pot, piss and b.o. of CBGBs and other classic 1970s venues as you follow David Byrne and company through Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene that Transformed Rock.

Take a deep dive into a twisted mind with Steve Martin Writes the Written Word, a series of stories and musings that will make you go Ha! and make you go Hmm….

Imagine spending a year learning at the side of the greatest golfers in the game. Writer Thomas Bamberger recounts his season in the inner sanctum in The Playing Lesson: A Duffer’s Year Among the Pros.

If you have ever found yourself recounting Chris Rock monologues at the water cooler, you need That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor, by columnist and podcaster Damon Young.

Generation X was defined by its music, but also by its movies. So come back in time with us to Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies, by former SNL and Spy writer Bruce Handy. Never be Clueless again!

Do you live near a little stream, a babbling brook, or a mighty river? There’s much more going on below the surface, as you’ll learn in Robert Mcfarlane’s Is a River Alive?

💦 BUT GEE WHIZ, IT FEELS LIKE 3 GALLONS

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