Howard Stern, on the radio is an entertainer. He knows how to attract listeners and boost ratings. Howard’s craziness on the radio often overshadows his intelligence, career success, and real world insight.
Lately, most of my driving has been accompanied by Howard Stern streaming through the airwaves.
If you don’t like Stern, I apologize. Keep in mind, he’s an entertainer. What you hear on the radio is not the REAL Howard Stern.
The Stern Show is ridiculously entertaining. His no bullshit unfiltered and uncensored interviews to world-famous people are second to none, mainly because of the Sirius censor-free platform.
For the last 4 years, I’ve renewed my Sirius subscription without batting an eyelash.
Howard is has mastered his craft, radio. Detailing it further, he’s a master of entertainment and communication. It’s got to be difficult to do.
One aspect of the Howard Stern show that’s fascinating is how frequently he talks about his personal life, more specifically his ongoing battle with nutrition and fitness.
It’s comical, but it’s reality.
The other day, I turned on the radio to catch him ripping apart one of his staffers, Benji Bronk. Benji is a long-time writer and content creator for the Stern show who’s famous for his clever public pranks and funny radio bits. Benji is an absolute character.
If you know the Stern Show at all, you know the staff feuding is as entertaining as the celebrity interviews.
In the radio bit, Benji told Howard that he’s depriving himself of eating in order to drop weight. Leveraging the old calories in versus calories out equation.
As is common with a lot of people, Benji lost focus with healthy habits. He had gained an unnecessary large amount of weight and now wants it gone ASAP.
Howard’s conversation with Benji evolved into a hardcore lashing of Benji’s extreme strategy.
Overall, I have to say that Howard didn’t miss the mark by much with his advice, which was…
- Find a mentor who understands nutrition and eat what they eat.
- Avoid the extreme in favor of simple, work into it, increase the intensity.
- Identify a health strategy he enjoys and can stick to over time.
One might read this and think, “duh”.
But common sense is not so common.
Humans overcomplicate and overanalyze EVERYTHING.
What makes perfect sense to you doesn’t make perfect sense to everyone else.
The perfect health plan doesn’t exist, so if you fall into the category of a person who’s constantly searching for the “truth”, call off the search.
We live in the age of computer, tablets and cell phones, all connected to the internet moving at break neck speed. Information is literally everywhere. It’s difficult to find focus on just one thing, especially if you’re desperate to lose weight.
There are so many strategies, it’s overwhelming for a lot of people.
Let’s briefly touch on why I valued Howard’s health advice to Benji…
#1. Role models are important.
Someone, somewhere, has already done what you are attempting to do, so why not learn from them?
Regarding the best approach to health, get around people that are already on the healthy path. Do what they do. Spending time with people who are not making health oriented decisions is going to send you in the same trajectory. YOU BECOME WHO YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME WITH.
Start teaming up with people in the gym who are getting after, and understand how to get after it. If they are a decent human being, they will take you under their wing and stretch your comfort zone. Eat as many meals with people who understand what simple clean eating is.
Learn from what they do. Study their habits, emulate those habits. Are they bringing healthy leftovers from last nights dinner in a Tupperware versus scrambling to the local fast food establishment for a burger and fries? Follow that lead.
One of the first steps to making incredible gains in fitness and nutrition is becoming aware. Once you know, you cannot un-know.
Role models can help guide you along the way.
#2. Begin with the long-term in mind.
If you want to put the pedal to the metal right out of the gates, go for it. It’s your life. But beware that many people fade with this approach.
It’s mentally draining to adopt healthier habits.
Health is a process. It takes time and it requires discipline. You have to trust the plan and stick to the plan.
Fast gains can be made, but there is no overnight success and there shouldn’t be.
Celebrate your efforts in the short-term, but understand that the real victory is in dedication the long-term.
Begin with the end in mind.
#3. Make an effort and enjoy it.
If you hate your workout program and your eating plan, it wil never last.
You will burnout. The resistance crush any will-power you have.
There is a happy-medium between making an effort and finding enjoyment in the efforts being made. Where those two intersect is where results reside.
But here’s another reality. Making a shift from sloppy eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle over to smart nutrition and daily workouts are going to be stressful in the beginning. It’s work, and it’s not always easy.
You can expect many days where the last thing you want to do is eat a salad, especially when everyone else is smashing a greasy burger. You can expect days where getting up an hour earlier to get a workout in before starting the day is the last thing you want to do, especially when other people are sleeping in.
There is great (perceived) pain in building healthy habits. It is a lot easier to ignore the details and be careless. But, doing so has a price.
So, in the beginning, find foods that fall into the realm of being nutritious. Eat them. If you don’t know what foods are nutrient dense, Google it. Seriously. Type in “healthy foods” and you’ll find millions of search results. Find a list, go to the grocery store and familiarize yourself with those foods, regularly.
As you gain confidence, expand. Find other foods that serve your health well.
Same goes for fitness. Don’t jump into a hardcore metabolic conditioning workout on the first day. Opt for yoga, a long walk or some simple body weight drills like Animal Flow.
Animal Flow is an ideal fitness program for beginners since it’s body weight based. Plus, you can learn how to exercise effectively in the privacy of your own home.
Crawling is a low-impact highly effective activity to build strength, motor control, and core stability. Can you do this? I bet you can.
Bodyweight training is ideal for everyone, particularly beginners because you can get your training in ANYWHERE. Stop thinking, buy the Animal Flow DVD and get going.
Mike Fitch, the creator of the program will teach you everything you need to know.
If you’re not there yet, at least subscribe to my YouTube channel. Watch me do it, then you do it. Simple.
Less thinking, more doing.
Not into Animal Flow? Fine. No matter what you choose, remember that YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN EFFORT. You have to.
The effort given will be proportionate to the reward, nothing more and nothing less.
So what does Howard Stern’s Diet consist of?
Plain and simple, Howard is a mono-eater, just like many other lean and healthy people I know. No surprise here. A lot of times, people who have a good grasp on healthy habits aren’t preparing extravagant meals like you see on the Food Channel or various social media platforms.
Howard knows the foods he likes and he eats those foods on a regular rotation. A lot of healthy people do this. It removes the decision fatigue from the situation.
Here’s a snapshot of a day in the life of the Howard Stern diet:
- Breakfast- Egg Whites, half piece of toast and fruit
- Lunch- Salmon with 1/4 baked potato and veggies
- Mid-afternoon snack- Apple
- Dinner- Eat out or at home (protein with veggies/fruit)
He keeps it simple. I can appreciate that.
If I could change one thing about Howard’s daily eating, I would add more protein. I would also encourage him to eat the yokes in the eggs. There is so much nutrition in egg yokes!
I’d also be curious to see if he’s consuming enough calories. Based on the example above, it seems like he’s a contestant on the TV show Survivor.
On the fitness side of things, I would encourage Howard to limit the long, slow distance cardio training. In general, adults need more resistance training to preserve or build lean muscle mass.
Nothing crazy here… just simple and effective exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups and chin-ups, body rows, etc. People underestimate how effective a couple of rounds of simple bodyweight exercises can be.
Ground-based movements like you’d find in Animal Flow are also making giant waves fitness. Crawling, locomotion exercises various dynamic core drills, mobility training, etc… are all incredibly effective for burning fat, building lean muscle and re-establishing movement capacity. Again, this is all stuff you can find in the Animal Flow DVD.
Now, if you’re interested in leveraging the power of nutrition, I am going to direct to Brad Pilon and his intermittent fasting program, EAT STOP EAT.
Brad is one of the smartest nutrition coaches in the world, and EAT STOP EAT is a perfect example of a massive shift in our understanding and approach to healthy diets. In fact, he refers to it as a “pattern of eating”, rather than a diet.
What we now know about highly effective eating, is that it’s not only about the foods you’re eating (or not eating) but it is also about the timing of eating food.
Intermittent fasting is not nearly as torturous as it sounds, so I encourage you to check it out.
The food you’re eating should give you a metabolic advantage to stay lean and healthy, no matter what your age or body type.
If you’re constantly stressing over counting calories, it’s worth auditing your food choices. Sometimes, I feel that calorie counting is what the modern generation does to manage the negative effects of eating food we know to be bad for our bodies.
Howard turned 60 years old this year. He often comments his body has never looked or felt better since he started focusing on leveraging smarter nutritional strategies.
Nutrition and fitness are never a bad investment, and it’s a lot more simple than you’d think.
The biggest secret is getting started and building steadily on that momentum, day by day.
Cheers to the Howard Stern Diet…
KG
M(eaux)tion Fitness 