All posts tagged: real life diet

The Real-Life Diet of Fernando Mendoza, Who Eats What AI Tells Him To

The Real-Life Diet of Fernando Mendoza, Who Eats What AI Tells Him To

Published by Jenni Sidey

It’s been the biggest year of Fernando Mendoza’s young life. The 22-year-old quarterback started 2026, fresh off of winning the Heisman Trophy, by leading Indiana to the College Football National Playoff Championship with a 27-21 victory over the University of Miami (as it happens, the U’s campus is just minutes from Mendoza’s childhood home in Coral Gables). At that game, the athlete demonstrated to a wider audience what NCAA-watchers had long been saying: here was a kid with a golden arm and a brain to match it. Mendoza threw for 186 yards, and scored his own critical touchdown, too, all while remaining level-headed and pragmatic as the pressure mounted. After that, the spotlight started to burn hotter: Mendoza appeared on the cover of a Sports Illustrated issue commemorating the win. Then came a late-January appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. And then an Esquire cover. The NFL draft—at which many were saying he’d be the number one pick—was looming (and so were brand deals, including with BOSS, and, as of today, OpenAI). That …

The Real-Life Diet of Caleb Williams, Who Drinks Small-Batch Olive Oil for Gut Health

The Real-Life Diet of Caleb Williams, Who Drinks Small-Batch Olive Oil for Gut Health

Published by Jenni Sidey

That’s a nice quote. Optimizing life and optimizing my sport are both really important to me. I also take collagen, bone-support supplements, creatine for muscle recovery and for my brain. I do it all, but in the right way. Not overdoing it, not under-doing it. How are you working with the company Fruitist in particular? It’s been great for me. We measure everything and figure out what works best with my blood type and the rest of my diet, and from there, figure out the proportions I need so I feel my best. I don’t want to feel sluggish, but I don’t want to feel too light, either. The thoroughness is impressive. You’ve got us rethinking what’s in our kitchen right now. I’m still human, though, man. I still go get an ice cream or a Cinnabon every once in a while, and honestly I think that’s good for the mind and the body—being able to have stuff like that occasionally instead of being all purified all the time. I’m good with it as long …

The Real-Life Diet of Deryck Whibley, Whose Body Is No Longer Fighting Against Him

The Real-Life Diet of Deryck Whibley, Whose Body Is No Longer Fighting Against Him

Published by Jenni Sidey

Deryck Whibley nearly drank himself to death. In 2014, the frontman of legendary pop punk band Sum 41 found himself in the hospital after excessive alcohol consumption caused his liver and kidneys to stop working. Fortunately, Whibley survived, and after following the long road of recovery, he’s now able to do all the things he loves again. That includes playing guitar, something the “Fat Lip” singer had to re-learn following his close brush with death. These days, the 46-year-old is playing all the wellness hits. He’s a cold plunge devotee, tailoring his diet to fight acid reflux, and learning that even rockstars need their sleep. No longer the tabloid darling who dated Paris Hilton and checked into hotels under the name Jack Daniels, Whibley is extremely candid about his fast living, reckless days of yore. In 2024, he put out his memoir, Walking Disaster, chronicling everything from being raised by a single mother in Canada to his balls-to-the-wall Warped Tour debauchery. With that all in the rearview—and Sum 41’s breakout album All Killer No Filler …

The Real-Life Diet of Kane Brown, Who Built an Exercise Barn at His House

The Real-Life Diet of Kane Brown, Who Built an Exercise Barn at His House

Published by Jenni Sidey

Are you doing full boxing workouts too, like Rocky, jumping rope and running in a hoodie and all that stuff? I jump rope every day, 10 minutes non-stop as a warmup, then the box jump. I hit the bag for 10 minutes, the double end bag, and water bag for uppercuts. Then we get in the ring, we go about five to seven rounds, and then we go and hit a weightlifting workout afterwards. I mean, we probably burn about 3,000 calories a day. That’s why I’m eating 4,000. I probably need to eat more! I built kind of a compound, so we have a lot of space. I have a barn up on top of my house, got all my stuff up there. During your fitness journey, have you tried anything and were immediately like, “Actually, I don’t like this. Let’s find something else?” Not yet, but they’re trying to get me into Pilates. I’m down to try it. I wouldn’t mind being mic’d, because I know it’s going to hurt me. I’m not …

The Real-Life Diet of Chace Crawford, Who Would Rather Touch His Toes Than Have Massive Muscles

The Real-Life Diet of Chace Crawford, Who Would Rather Touch His Toes Than Have Massive Muscles

Published by Jenni Sidey

I like to work out in the morning, but I used to do all fasted workouts. That does not work for me anymore. I just don’t have it. I don’t have the proper energy. I feel way better eating before a workout and eating a little something right after, even if it’s small on both ends. I’d rather just eat some food, get the metabolism going, have a pint of water. Then usually by that time it’s been an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and I’ll have the first coffee. It’s changed a lot with anxiety as well. [Coffee] is like anxiety juice, right? It’s not supposed to! There’s all the chemistry with the adenosine, and they say you want to let your body process the adenosine naturally, whatever. I’ve heard all that, I believed it, but I don’t really care. I just go by how I feel, and if I’m drinking a cappuccino or a black coffee on an empty stomach and then going to the gym, I’m going to feel too …

The Real-Life Diet of Lewis Tan From ‘Mortal Kombat II’, Who Used to Jump Off Buildings at School Talent Shows

The Real-Life Diet of Lewis Tan From ‘Mortal Kombat II’, Who Used to Jump Off Buildings at School Talent Shows

Published by Jenni Sidey

With your background in martial arts and stunts, are they coming to you on set like, Lewis, we need your expertise on this stuff? The stunt people and the fight choreographers, 90% of the time, I know them, or I know of them, or we have some sort of connection through different martial artists. There is a collaborative process, but also those guys are really talented. They’ll pitch an idea of what they want to do with it, I’ll pitch some other ideas, and we kind of collaborate and make it something that everybody loves. If there are certain moves that I really want to put in—and if there are certain things that I really feel like I could do better this way—then it’s a collaborative process for sure. My thing is, we’re always trying to up the ante. For Mortal Kombat II, we up the ante so much higher than the first movie. I really, really, really truly mean that. The action team was given a lot more creative control. That really helped us …

The Real-Life Diet of Josh Hart, Who Drinks 400 to 500 Milligrams of Caffeine Before a Game

The Real-Life Diet of Josh Hart, Who Drinks 400 to 500 Milligrams of Caffeine Before a Game

Published by Jenni Sidey

When watching New York Knicks shooting guard Josh Hart hustle for loose balls, corral crucial rebounds, and defend opposing scorers like his life depends on it, it’s easy to think, Wow, that guy plays like he’s on a caffeine high. Turns out, that’s exactly the case. Hart—who is partnered with C4 Energy, the emergent, zero-sugar energy drink—uses the canned performance fuel to get his mind and body ready for grueling battles at Madison Square Garden. The wily veteran is now in the midst of his fourth consecutive postseason run, which has pushed his NBA odometer well beyond many of his peers. Known for his hard-nosed, never-say-die playing style, Hart has also learned how to take the bumps and bruises that come with his bold presence on the court. Before the playoffs began, the 31-year-old sat down to give a behind-the-scenes look at his pregame dietary routine (or lack thereof), call out the young players in his orbit for their less-than-stellar health habits, and share his feelings on wearable fitness devices. GQ: When you’re this far …

The Real-Life Diet of Jackson White, Who Loves Cooking Steak the ‘French Way’

The Real-Life Diet of Jackson White, Who Loves Cooking Steak the ‘French Way’

Published by Jenni Sidey

What are the spots that you’re going to? I mean, I live kind of far from everybody, and sometimes I like it that way. Sometimes I don’t. But I am right by this trail, and I bought myself a mountain bike for my birthday last year, and I go mountain biking on this dirt trail by my house. I’ll do that for an hour just to exhaust myself. And that’s a California bonus: I can ride my bike on a hill and I’m around now. I’m around nature. In any pocket of the city, you can get to a trail or run all the stereotypical hikes in LA I like to do. I think they’re great. They’re clichés for a reason. They’re fucking awesome. We talked a little bit about diet as in food, but do you like to cook? I make a lot of steak. I’ve just gotten my steak recipe down. Which is what? I just like to cook it the French way. So I’ve invested in a really beautiful cast iron, and …

The Real-Life Diet of World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper, Who Is Putting Nine Plates on the Squat Rack

The Real-Life Diet of World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper, Who Is Putting Nine Plates on the Squat Rack

Published by Jenni Sidey

GQ: How did you initially take an interest in powerlifting? Mitchell Hooper: The interesting part of that story is that I did my undergraduate in human kinetics. I worked as the head strength and conditioning coach with a professional basketball team. Then, I found that relatively meaningless in terms of sport results. So, I applied and got into a master’s of clinical exercise physiology at the University of Sydney. When I got into that, since I’d always been active, I thought there’s three things you ask people to do when you’re exercising them: that’s to lose weight, to get fit, and to get strong. Those are really three things that, if you can do that, you’re going to be reasonably healthy long-term. I started by losing weight. I lost 100 pounds, stepped on a bodybuilding stage, then I ran three marathons. Just in the process of getting strong, I found guys who did powerlifting. That took me towards powerlifting contests, which eventually evolved into Strongman. And I had no idea how good I was going …

The Real-Life Diet of Joe Baena, Who Got the Bodybuilding Encyclopedia From His Dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Real-Life Diet of Joe Baena, Who Got the Bodybuilding Encyclopedia From His Dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Published by Jenni Sidey

Joe Baena possesses a classic bodybuilder’s physique. That’s no longer a matter of strict opinion, either. He’s got hardware to prove it. On March 28, Baena—son of seven-time Mr. Olympia, former California governor, and revered actor Arnold Schwarzenegger—took home the top prize at the NPC Natural Colorado State bodybuilding competition, including the gold medal for Men’s Classic Physique. The “natural” part of the contest refers to the bodybuilders’ training methods, which is all natural, meaning without the aid of steroids, peptides, or other performance enhancers. Baena, who only decided to seriously pursue bodybuilding this year, obviously had the help of some legendary genes. But he also developed a juice-free training regimen that was accessible and fun to even his non-bodybuilder friends. Pumping iron on the hallowed grounds of Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, California—the same place his father got swole in the ’70s—Baena was able to sculpt a body that also recently earned him a pro card on the International Natural Bodybuilding Association circuit. (He’s also worked out with his famous father, something that meatheads …