Esquire piece with Luke Kuechly

[TheSpecialJuan]

Let's face it: no matter how hard you train, you'll never have the physique of even the laziest NFL player. But if your goal is to get in the same ballpark—or just, you know, in great shape—it's not just the work you put in at the gym, but also what you put into your body.

Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, that means nutritional supplements like Eat the Bear. Kuechly recently signed on as pitchman and a member of the board of directors for the company that produces a line of protein and physical performance products. A week out from the start of training camp, we talked to Kuechly about his fitness routine, his thoughts on the Super Bowl loss last year, Roger Goodell, and the risks of playing football.

[TheSpecialJuan]

http://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a47225/luke-kuechly-interview/

[Cary Kollins]

My thing is, if you're going to put stuff in your body, it's going to be beneficial. Clean carbs, complex carbs, good proteins, a balanced diet. It's difficult to do it on a consistent basis, but it's pretty straightforward: fish, chicken, lean red meat, vegetables, fruits, complex carbs. The hardest part is putting on the work. But I'm living on the edge a little bit—I'm an ice-cream-and-pizza guy.

[top dawg]

6 minutes ago, Cary Kollins said:

My thing is, if you're going to put stuff in your body, it's going to be beneficial. Clean carbs, complex carbs, good proteins, a balanced diet. It's difficult to do it on a consistent basis, but it's pretty straightforward: fish, chicken, lean red meat, vegetables, fruits, complex carbs. The hardest part is putting on the work. But I'm living on the edge a little bit—I'm an ice-cream-and-pizza guy.

Nothing inherently wrong with ice cream or pizza as long as you eat them in moderation. I have my fair share of thin crust pizza, but only 1200-1400 calories a sitting, at dinner. Ice cream and frozen yogurt are a guilty pleasure I must admit, but a serving isn't that bad.

[CPcavedweller]

5 hours ago, Cary Kollins said:

My thing is, if you're going to put stuff in your body, it's going to be beneficial. Clean carbs, complex carbs, good proteins, a balanced diet. It's difficult to do it on a consistent basis, but it's pretty straightforward: fish, chicken, lean red meat, vegetables, fruits, complex carbs. The hardest part is putting on the work. But I'm living on the edge a little bit—I'm an ice-cream-and-pizza guy.

Honestly, I never was a huge fan of pizza or sweets which includes pastries. My biggest issue was energy drinks and fried food, namely chicken and not white meat which means I was consuming more saturated fat. I cut all of that our and stick to the fish, chicken, lean red meats and veggies, walk 5 to 10 miles a day and lift 4 days a week, dropped 17 pounds (from 188) in about 2 months. 

I'm not sure I'd be too keen on spending $60 per container of ETB. 

[panthers55]

18 hours ago, CPcavedweller said:

Honestly, I never was a huge fan of pizza or sweets which includes pastries. My biggest issue was energy drinks and fried food, namely chicken and not white meat which means I was consuming more saturated fat. I cut all of that our and stick to the fish, chicken, lean red meats and veggies, walk 5 to 10 miles a day and lift 4 days a week, dropped 17 pounds (from 188) in about 2 months. 

I'm not sure I'd be too keen on spending $60 per container of ETB. 

Let's be real here, guys drinking and eating ETB are usually not doing everything you are and working so hard. I bet you could make your own energy food.LOL.

Most of that stuff is bought by guys who want results but aren't as dedicated to the process.

[KSpan]

Great perspective from Luke:

Quote

Obviously, you guys had a big disappointment last year. How do you work yourself to start over from square one? Is that still in the back of your mind?

If you look on the season, I wouldn't say it was a disappointment. If you look at the last game, it was disappointing, but what we did during the year was a special thing. But that's in the past. You can learn a lot from it, take the positives and negatives, but you gotta understand the only way to get back to where we were is to start from the bottom. You can't expect what happened last season will happen again.