A slimmer, more fit Tony Stewart showed up at the Stewart-Haas Racing shop on Monday and started talking eating habits and the impact they can have on one’s lifestyle.
The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and team owner acknowledges he has altered his eating habits in recent months. But don’t think that Stewart has gone completely into a health craze; he's just worked to become more fit.
Initially, Stewart joked when asked about his weight — or lack thereof.
“I’m definitely not the guy to be adding a lot to the fitness comments,” he said. “I can tell you my left hand controls volume and the right hand controls the channel, that’s the workout regimen I’ve had. I did start working out a little bit before the end of the year and changing how I eat before the end of the year. I actually wasn’t eating enough, believe it or not.”
At which point, teammate Ryan Newman couldn’t help but weigh in on the issue.
“No, we don’t believe it,” he said with a laugh.
“Let me rephrase that: I wasn’t eating frequently enough ... I haven’t lost a lot pound-wise but I’ve lost a lot of body fat,” Stewart said.
How has he done it? By taking advice dieticians often give and eating at more regular intervals throughout the day. Stewart says he had fallen into the habit of eating just a couple of meals a day, and often waiting quite some time after he got up to begin eating.
Now he’s trying to eat five smaller meals over the course of the day. And although he acknowledges it’s sometimes hard to stick to the schedule, he seems to be doing just that.
“It was hard,” he said of the change. “That’s still a hard thing. The good thing is when I wake up in the morning I’m ready to eat, whereas I used to get up in the morning and go two or three hours before I ate anything. It’s not so much that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it gets that cycle started.”
And don’t think he’s abandoning all of his habits to become a fitness guru. Stewart still has his favorite foods, and plans to enjoy those as well. The way he sees it, eating well just gives a driver a little more wiggle room when it comes to cheating.
“I still like my Burger King, I like my pizza, chili. ... You do it long enough it does become part of your lifestyle, too, but there’s still things I like to eat,” he said.
