Last fall, Brooklyn Nets guard Caris LeVert was playing the best basketball of his careeruntil November 12, when he dislocated his foot in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was an injury far too gruesome to show on replay, the kind involving a mangled extremity that causes teammates and opponents to collectively shake their heads in disbelief while the crowd sits in absolute silence. (Seriously, dont Google it.) Except, LeVert remembers, it didnt actually hurt that much. At first.

I was more mad than anything, he says. I wasnt even thinking of the pain, which was probably partially adrenaline and disbelief. It didnt hit me until we got in the ambulance 15 minutes after they carted me off the court, and my trainer was talking to metrying to distract me. Next thing I know, theyre jerking my foot, and thats when I realized, Oh, this is real. That moment was the worst pain Ive ever felt.

Remarkably, after doctors popped LeVerts foot back into place, no surgery was required. He missed three months, but returned to action in February. He had an (understandably) up-and-down remainder of the season, but capped it off with an impressive performance in the first round of the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers.

This offseason, LeVert prioritized strengthening his foot and ankle by employing a variety of balancing drills, while also squeezing in a healthy amount of hooping. LeVert logged four-a-days: two on-the-court workouts and two off-the-court workouts. Thats an encouraging development for Nets fans hoping hell emerge as the teams second star this season, behind Kyrie Irving (and third star next season when Kevin Durant presumably returns after suffering a ruptured Achilles.)

A few weeks ago, I spoke to LeVert about the full extent of his offseason routine, recent changes to his diet, and his affection for float tanks. At the time of our conversation, LeVert was gearing up for his first-ever trip to China as part of a preseason double-header against the Los Angeles Lakers, and Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had yet to fire off his fateful tweet about Hong Kong. LeVert said he was looking forward to the overseas experience, which presumably became a bit more complicated than originally anticipated.

GQ: Can you walk me through a normal day for you this offseason?

Caris LeVert: I took about two weeks off after we lost to the 76ers in the playoffs. After that, I started my workouts here in Brooklyn. First, Id get some breakfast inusually two or three eggs, some veggies like broccoli, and I love oatmeal in the morning, too. Id head to the gym around 9 a.m. to do a 30-minute lift. We call those correctives, where youre more working on balance drills, hamstrings, and core work. The Nets are big on that. The corrective workout isnt your typical lift, but it helps strengthen your little muscles.

Then, Id have an hour-and-a-half workout on the court, and after that is a bigger upper- or lower-body lift. Id get some treatment, do some more balance drills to strengthen my ankle back up. Then Id usually go home and take a nap, chill for a couple hours, and head back to the gym later that night and get a bunch of shots up.

Have you always stuck to a healthy-sounding diet?

No, thats been the biggest adjustment the past couple of years: I wasnt really very educated on what makes up a healthy diet. In college, I would eat a lot of Five Guys and burgers. Everybody eats differently, but thats not the best for your digestive system, and Ive learned that over the years. Now I stay away from pork, beef, and things like that. I stick to chicken a couple times a week, and I eat a lot of fish and veggies. I dont really like fruit, so I drink a lot of smoothies to get my fruit intake up.

Yeah, Ive seen that the Nets are big on pre-game fruit smoothies.

Weve got a couple smoothie-makers. Ill drink one on game days, and then any other day, if you ask for one, youll get it. I think as Ive matured and learned more about food, Ive stopped eating as much for taste. I eat and drink based on what I need in my body. Usually my smoothies have strawberries, bananas, some sort of vegetable, a protein powder, almond milk, honey, blueberries, and sometimes orange juice.

Whats the one thing you still sneak in when you can?

Chocolate chip cookies. I cant go too long without having one. Theyve gotta be homemade, straight out of the oven. I dont like the store-bought stuff. They need to be crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

I read that you eat Chipotle five times a week. True or false?

True, though Im sad to say me and Chipotle have cut ties a little bit. I got sick eating while training in LA over the summer, and Im not positive, but I think it was Chipotle, so I havent had it since. It was definitely tough at first, but Im doing alright now, starting to get used to not eating it every day.

I wrote a hot take essay for GQ where I proudly proclaimed that Qdoba is better than Chipotle, so this is an issue near and dear to my heart. Are you familiar with Qdoba?

I am, and wow, I disagree with that statement. I know a lot of people think that, though, so I dont know if its even a hot take. Maybe its a Midwest thing, but in high school and college, people really liked Qdoba more than Chipotle. To each their own.

You weighed 162 pounds when you arrived at Michigan in 2012. Were you getting thrown around at practice your freshman year?

Honestly, I wasnt. I was so used to playing at that size that I adjusted to it. People probably werent used to seeing someone that small. Playing in the Big 10 was definitely an adjustment though. Unlike a lot of other conferences, its very physical and defense-based. I feel like at a lot of other conferences, everybody scores 80 or 90 points a game, but Big 10 scoring was in the 40s when I was there. I definitely had to bulk up. Some of that happened naturally, but I had a great strength coach too who prepared me for the next level. Going into my sophomore season, I was up to 190, 195. I stayed at Michigan through the summers when people went home and dedicated all my time to my body and my game, and it paid off for me.

One of the many, many reasons I did not advance past high school basketball: I avoided the weight room like the plague. How was your workout regimen growing up?

My high school coach my junior and senior year was a man named Jerry Francis. He played basketball at Ohio State and is one of their all-time great players. He started to get us in the weight room, and I hated the weight room. Wed go in there and Id act like I was doing stuff, but I really wasnt. Id do a pull-up here, maybe a bench press there, but I wanted to play basketball. I was not dedicated to the weight room. He changed my mindset and pushed me on that, which I appreciate him for. But back then, I really didnt want to be there.

Youve had to deal with a couple annoying and painful injuries over the years. Do you practice any relaxation techniques or meditation so you dont go stir crazy during those rehab periods?

Ive been doing headspace stuff since before I had any of those injuries. [John Beilein, current Cleveland Cavaliers coach and former Michigan Wolverines coach] actually brought someone in who taught that stuff to us, and Ive carried it with me ever since. I do meditation and visualization before every game. I do things like the float tank, which helps me get into that mindframe of calmness. I take that really seriously.

How long does a float tank session last?

As long as you want it to, but I usually do an hour. You go into a podits kind of like The Matrix. The first time I did it, I was a little skeptical, because Im claustrophobic. You put headphones on, you dont hear anything, and its pitch-black. Its just you and your thoughts. I use that time for meditation, focusing on breathing and visualization. I do that once or twice a week during the season, and it relaxes me.

Steph Curry ranked the Nets popcorn selection second-best in the league. Have you tried it?

Nah, Im not a big popcorn guy. Ive heard its fire, though.

For a while, I know PB&Js were all the rage in the NBA.

I used to eat a bunch of those my rookie year. Charlotte had the best PB&Jsthey had them toasted or something like that. But I dont really eat that anymore. At halftime now Ill eat, like, pineapples. Just trying to stay consistent with it, you know?

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Real-Life Diet is a series in which GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in-between about their diets and exercise routines: what's worked, what hasn't, and where they're still improving. Keep in mind, what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

The Real-Life Diet of Loic Mabanza, Madonnas Secret Weapon

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Originally Appeared on GQ

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The Real-Life Diet of Caris LeVert, Who Swears by Fruit Smoothies - Yahoo Lifestyle

The Inner Hall of Windsor Castle, the queens grand estate an hour outside of London, was opened to the public this week. That sounds coolbecause, well, castles are coolbut what makes the unveiling of the recently restored Inner Hall so remarkable is that this space hasnt been available to view for more than 150 years.

Or 153 years, to be exact. In the 1820s, the Inner Hall, with its impressive vaulted ceilings, was used by George IV as a grand, stately entrance for esteemed guests. But it was closed by Queen Victoria in 1866, its entry sealed off by a stone wall. For the past several decades, it has been a storage space, albeit a fancy one.

But the space was restored thanks to the Royal Collection Trust. Paint was chipped away to uncover the original ceiling design: the work of the famous Regency-era ornamentalist carver Francis Bernasconi. A view of Windsor Castles leafy-lined, two-and-a-half-mile Long Walkthe final stretch of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs fairy-tale carriage ride after their royal weddingcan be seen from the antique windows. The entire project took two years to complete.

Inside the Inner Hall, which dates back to the1920s and the days of King George IV.

The 1,000-year-old ancient fortress isnt the only one of the queens properties to recently undergo renovations. Buckingham Palace is in the midst of a 10-year, $482 million restoration. Much of the badly needed repairs involve replacing things like boilers, generators, electrical panels, and water tanks. (Its electrical cabling, plumbing, and heating systems have been around since the 1950s.) The palace also hopes to become more energy efficient.

In the fall of 2018, work began on the East Wing, which involved relocating more than 3,000 priceless works of fine art.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also recently renovated their royal home, Frogmore Cottage. Its said that they used interior designer Vicky Charles, who previously oversaw design for Soho House.

Originally Appeared on Vogue

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A Glimpse Inside a Historic Part of Windsor Castle That Hasnt Been Seen for More Than 150 Years - Yahoo Lifestyle

We broke up because she made out with someone else, is what my ex would tell you if you asked him how we went from (for lack of a better term) #RelationshipGoals to We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. And while yes, on paper that was the catalyst that moved me out of Marvin*s apartment in Brooklyn and into my parents house in Connecticut at 31. In reality, cheating on my boyfriend by making out with another guy was only the tip of the iceberg of our problems, which, unlike the Titanic, I saw from the second I got onboard our relation-ship.

And before you hate-read the rest of this, as perhaps someone broke your heart when they cheated on you (I can relate! Its happened to me more times than I can count.), I want you to know I am not a cheater. Thats not who I am.

Before this happened to me, I thought cheaters were always cold, heartless, and terrible people, but now I understand why people cheat. Cheating isnt black and white. But it all boils down to one thing: It can take two people to cheat, and cheating isnt always one-sided.

While I wholeheartedly believe that if you are going to or are tempted to cheat, you should get out of your relationship, sometimes its not always that simple. I tried to get out of this relationship many times but felt trapped.

I am writing this not to excuse my bad behavior, because whats done is done. I own all my actions and all I can do is learn and grow from this. I no longer believe in the saying once a cheater always a cheater, as I could never put someone I used to love or myself through this againever.

There were many times in my relationship with Marvin when I felt emotionally cheated on by him. Times, upon looking back, I realize may have been the perfect opportunity to end things.

Like the time he told me that before we started dating he was hooking up with a girl he worked with. He broke things off; she didnt handle it well. Any night hed be at the office late, a pit of fear would eat up my insides. I couldnt sleep most nights, worried that he was cheating on me, and to this day Ill never know.

Or how one day an hour after leaving his apartment, while I was at an event with friends, he tried to break up with me in a paragraph-long text message ending with an eagle emoji. Wed been dating for nine months at this point and had hit all our relationship milestones. You deserve better, the text said, and he was right, I did. But I was too focused on decoding the eagle emoji: Was he trying to tell me he loves America? He wants freedom? Or is it a bald eagle and he wants me to know hes losing his hair? Instead I assured him we were solid and did everything I possibly could do to make him feel happy, never realizing you cant fix a broken person.

Then there was the two months up until the moment I became a cheater. When I felt more alone in the relationship than I ever felt when I was single. Wed go days without talking or texting. And when we did talk, wed have one-word conversations.

It was around this time I kept running into Richard,* a guy I went to high school with, who I always thought was cute, but he always dated my friends. He started talking to me over text more than my live-in boyfriend ever talked to me. Id instantly smile any time his unsaved 203 number flashed up on my phone. Hed ask me how my day was, and what I was working on, questions my boyfriend stopped asking me months ago.

So when Richard asked if I wanted to grab drinks one night, I said sure, viewing it as harmless since we were just friends.

I knew I had to break up with Marvin immediately. But we had his best friends wedding the next day, and I didnt want to ruin it for him. So I decided Id come clean and end things when we got back a couple of days later.

But the guilt was eating away at me. I couldnt believe what I had done. I made out with Richard, I texted my best friend from high school. She knew Richard and how unhappy I was with Marvin. You made out with someone else. You need to tell Marvin, she texted back the next morning.

But the strangest thing happened. Suddenly Marvin transformed from the grumpy boyfriend I never talked to, into the enthusiastic best friend I fell in love with. We were us again, making plans and supporting each other in any endeavor.

What had I done?

Back in New York, for the first time since Marvin and I moved in with each other, he came home in time for dinner. We were eating soup dumplings and watching Sabrina, when he said what I wanted to tell him the second it happened:

I know you made out with someone else.

Turns out he saw the text on my phone from my friend. Which brings me to the whole point of this essay: Always make sure your text previews are off.

Im kidding.

The real point here is while cheating isnt right, there are two sides to cheating. The side where the cheater messed up in a moment, and the other side where the cheater felt cheated on and trapped from the moment they got into this broken relationship but never spoke up out of fear.

It feels unfair that my two years spent in the relationship, all the loving and supportive things I did for Marvin, like uprooting my life in Los Angeles to be with him in New York, the thoughtful gifts, homemade couples costumes, breakfasts in bed, packed lunches for work, and gourmet dinnersdevoting myself fully to someone who rarely put me first, means nothing because I kissed back a stranger and he (to my knowledge) didnt.

But the bigger lesson for me here, aside from, if youre tempted to cheat its time to break-up, is you should never stay in a broken relationship because youre scared like I was. All of those times it was crystal clear Marvin and I were doneI made it work because I was scared. I was scared to be alone in my 30s. And this was one of the reasons our relationship was so broken. I wasnt ready for a relationship, from the moment I asked Marvin What are we? to the second I moved out of our apartment.

That is not a healthy relationship. It is only when you have truly found comfort in yourself and basked in your loneliness, like I have for the past ten months, that you are truly ready to be in a relationship. A relationship that you dont necessarily need, doesnt measure your worth, and you could live without. A relationship in which you mutually add value and happiness to each others lives, so it would be even more backwards to deny this connection solely based on the fear that you will get hurt again. Because most importantly, in this relationship, you feel calm.

Most of my time with Marvin I was anxiety-ridden, heart racing, shortness of breath, terrified it would end. And when it did end (in a way I wish I could rewrite but accept that I cant) for the first time in two years I felt calm. If your relationship ended because you cheated, dont beat yourself up; there was probably a reason. While you cant edit your past, you can take your lessons with you into your future and grow from your flaws.

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I cheated on my boyfriend and learned it takes two to cheat - Yahoo Lifestyle

We may never achieve a waistline the size of a thumb or go out with a dreamboat like Ken, but not all ofBarbies fantastic plastic lifestyle is out of reach.

The Mattel doll is opening up her famedMalibu Dreamhouse or, at least, a human-sized approximation of it on Airbnb for a one-time-only booking in honor of her 60th anniversary. The best part: Staying in her playful pink pad will cost just $60 a night plus taxes and fees.

Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse is hitting Airbnb. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

Barbie's spacious dressing room includes a space suit. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

According to a release issued by Mattel, the three-story, ocean-front Dreamhouse is based in Malibu and features two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an infinity pool, private cinema, sports court, office, hobby room, meditation space, a dressing room that would make Carrie Bradshaw gasp, outdoor dining terrace and a gallery wall calling out Barbies countless achievements. It sleeps four guests so theres plenty of room for your very own Ken and Skipper, and everything is decked out in cutesy, Barbie-approved details like a super-sized hot pink boom box, surfboard and the part-time astronauts personal space suit.

The infinity pool is decked out with a surfboard and giant boom box, but the waterslide sadly isn't included. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

As trendy and luxe as this place may be, theres an empowering message underneath it all. To highlight Barbies role as a before-her-time homeowner and global inspiration, Airbnb guests will enjoy experiences with a few other female role models and business owners, from a private fencing lesson with Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad and a tour of the Columbia Memorial Space Center with pilot and aerospace engineer Jill Meyers, to cooking lessons with chef Gina Clarke-Helm and a meet-and-great with celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin followed by a hair makeover. A donation will also be made to theBarbie Dream Gap initiative, which strives to empower young girls.

Barbie's all-pink office means business. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

The Dreamhouse sleeps up to four guests, with two bedrooms on offer. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

And how, pray tell, does one check in? On Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. PDT, Airbnb will allow booking for the exclusive one-time, two-night-max stay. While its not a contest, demand for the Dreamhouse is high, so set your alarm and clear your calendar; guests must schedule their visit from Sunday, Oct. 27 to Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Barbie's hobby studio should satisfy all your crafting needs. (Photo: Courtesy of Mattel)

And now for the part you really need to know: Yes, there is Wi-Fi.

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Barbie is renting out her playful pink Malibu Dreamhouse on Airbnb and it'll cost you just $60 a night - Yahoo Lifestyle

If youre in the mood for a good cry today, oh boy, do we have the video for you. Prince Harry got emotional in a speech talking about Meghan Markles pregnancy with baby Archie, and all we can say is, grab the tissues.

CHRIS ALLERTON, Getty Images

On Tuesday, October 15th, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appeared at the WellChild Awards, an annual ceremony that supports seriously ill young children and those who care for them. There, Prince Harry spoke to the audience about life as a new parent. As he recalled attending the event with his wife last year, when the couple hadnt yet publicly announced Markles pregnancy, he was overcome with emotion. Our hearts can hardly handle this.

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He took a moment to collect himself, and then went on to talk about what it might be like if their future children experienced health challenges, and what it means to him to meet the young people who work with WellChild.

He added, I remember squeezing Meghans hand so tight during the awards, both of us thinking what it would be like to be parents one day, he went on. And more so, what it would be like to do everything we could to protect and help our child should they be born with immediate challenges or become unwell over time.

Prince Harry has been a patron of the organization since 2007, and Markle joined him for the first time at last years awards, just weeks before announcing her pregnancy. While we always love seeing these two use their platform for good, its especially heartwarming to see just how much it means to them to do so.

Dont mind uswell just be watching this on repeat with our box of tissues nearby.

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Prince Harry choked back tears talking about Meghan Markle and Baby Archie, and now were crying too - Yahoo Lifestyle