Please, don’t let Dale Earnhardt Jr. start any NASCAR detox diet crazes
If you were going to think of a NASCAR diet, the first things that come to mind are definitely not healthy. Unless you think the funnel bacakonator is healthy. If you do, you have issues. And I want to be your friend.
Anyway, during his press conference on Friday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked about his newfound consumption of carrot juice. Yes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was drinking carrot juice. We'll let him explain. (The topic first came up on a Junior Motorsports podcast earlier in the week)
[Also: Danica Patrick, crew chief make for odd couple]
"A buddy of mine was talking about this detox diet, it’s like a 15 day deal and for the first eight days you drink prune juice and then the last half of it you drink carrot juice, so they were just picking on me, somebody that was talking in that podcast, I guess it was (JRM spokesman) Mike Davis," Junior said. "Just misinformed, I’m not drinking it all the time, but just during that little detox thing."
As a fitness professional, when I hear the words detox, little sirens go off in my head like there's a fire in my brain. Detox. Not good. They're kind of (OK, really) dumb. Please Junior, continue. Don't tell me you actually did one of those stupid cleanse things did you? Next thing I know, you'll be talking about the sweet Tracy Anderson workouts you've been doing to tone up in your firesuit.
"It was pretty tough too. I was surprised I was able to make it. It was like just fish, chicken and raw, steamed vegetables and then there was like two days where you just ate vegetables and fruit. That was pretty tough for me to not have any meat. I think the older you get the more you have to do to kind of maintain a healthy weight," Junior said.
AHHHH!!!! Protein is your friend, Dale! It's the building block of muscle after all. Yes, you can't eat at 38 what you could eat at 21 without paying the waistline consequences, but move some heavy stuff man. I know you're not a big fan of it, but you'll feel better about pigging out every once in a while.
But wait, that detox thing was temporary, right?
"That’s really what it’s about for me is just trying to maintain my weight so I don’t have to keep getting my driver suits altered throughout the season," Junior said. "Last year I was like, ‘Man, they’re shrinking, something is wrong with the washer.’ This off-season I lost a lot of weight, lost about 15 or 20 pounds and just trying to do a better job of managing my calories and stuff like that. I never really worried about it before; just eat all kinds of stuff like pizza and wings and stuff every day and not really watching portion controls and stuff like that. Just getting out of control so reining all that back in, not getting too crazy about it though. I’m no health freak by no means.”
OK, whew. There's some common sense. And something that everyone can follow. If you want to lose weight like your favorite driver, you don't have to do anything crazy, I swear. Just start paying attention to portion control and don't overeat. It's the most effective way to maintain and lose weight. No carrot or prune juice needed.
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