Building a jacked physique in Hollywood may require a lot of sacrifices in one’s diet. But Reacher star Alan Ritchson aims to maintain balance while gorging on whatever he feels like. Popular for his looks and well-built body, his diet isn’t as restricted as one might assume.
In an exclusive interview with Men’s Health, Ritchson takes fans on a journey through his fridge, revealing some of his daily essentials. What stood out amongst his go-to foods the most was how he gave in to his guilty pleasures while making sure to sweat it out at the gym.
The star begins with his breakfast essentials, which include eggs and oatmeal. He prefers free-range eggs and a mixed bag of microwaveable oats of various flavors. His fridge also had a lot of fruit bowls since he and his sons loved to snack on fruits every day. However, he noticed one of his must-haves was missing, which turned out to be a curveball in his diet.
He walked into a mess-free fridge, to begin with, which he found suspicious. He assumed his wife, Catherine, cleaned it up along with his favorite meal of all time: leftover pizza. Although it might seem surprising at first, Ritchson admitted that pizza was one of his go-to fast food preferences.
“It doesn’t usually look like this. There’s no pizza leftovers in here… so my wife must have known you guys were coming and cleaned out the pizza, because there’s always pizza in the fridge.”
Ritchson constantly maintained that he gave himself the liberty to eat whatever he wanted. His character in Reacher was huge, and that allowed him to bulk up and eat well. He moved on to his go-to lunch, which was a mustard deli cheese and turkey meat roll-up. For dinner, he preferred lean meat and had his wife-prepped turkey meatloaf with some mashed potatoes and green beans or salad.
“When I’m on set, it’s super easy to maintain what I eat. In fact, I eat the healthiest when I’m on set, because I have somebody cooking for me.”
Towards the end of the segment, Ritchson recalled how his childhood staple of a ham and mustard sandwich wasn’t too popular these days. And while he would eat anything decadent without guilt, he expressed his dislike for vegan food—a rare category that one wouldn’t find in his fridge. He once revealed his philosophy surrounding the food he consumed at the Rich Eisen show.
What was the one diet trick that allowed Alan Ritchson to stay ripped and eat guilt-free?
At the Rich Eisen show, Ritchson opened up on how he transformed his body for the big screen. Apart from the intense workout sessions that would last 45 minutes, he also followed an ideology surrounding his diet.
Ritchson believed that one could indulge every day, provided they maintained moderation. He would happily have a giant ice cream sundae with his agents one day and work it all out at the gym the next day. The key was to keep a balance between the two.
