My daily routine is boring. I do the same thing every single day, weekends included, and that’s exactly why I have six pack abs at 41. When it’s the same thing every day, I don’t have to wake up and decide whether I feel motivated.
My morning
I wake up without an alarm, usually between 8 and 9:30. First, I wash my face and put on lotion with SPF. Then I go outside in my backyard for a few minutes of sun. It really helps to wake me up.
I go out naked. Yes, it’s a little weird, but fortunately there’s a wall around my backyard pool so my neighbors don’t complain.
Next, I have Athletic Greens and two small Yeti cups of black cold brew. No food yet.
The gym, seven days a week
I go to the gym from about 9:30 to 10:30, seven days a week. Every workout is total body: 15 minutes of cardio, then one leg exercise, three upper body exercises and one ab exercise, three sets each. That’s about 45 minutes of lifting and an hour total.
There’s no chest day or arm day. It’s the same structure every day, so there’s nothing to plan.
Now, I own a $20,000 home gym, but I still go to a real gym. I train harder around other people who are training hard. And there’s equipment I don’t have at home, like a leg press.
I started training every day about six months ago, and it made working out far easier. There’s never a decision whether today is a gym day.
Supplements after training
First, I eat a small handful of almonds and pumpkin seeds. Capsules on an empty stomach upset my stomach, and a few nuts first prevents that.
Then I take my capsules and eat about 20 grams of protein from chicken. Some days it’s sardines instead. Last, I mix my powder supplements into one cup.
I take them at the same point every day. Tying them to my workout means I remember them.
Food that’s already in the fridge
Other than my post workout protein and supplements, I don’t eat anything until 2pm. Pushing my first meal back has helped me a lot.
At 2pm I eat my daily salad. This is my most important nutrition habit, and I have a whole video on how I make it.
Between 5 and 6pm I eat one small meal prep meal. Between 7 and 7:30 I eat two more. I order from CleanEats, six different meals a week for about $8 to $9 a meal. Everything has the calories and macros right on the side, so tracking is easy and accurate.
Some weeks I’ll cook my own meals. My favorite repeat recipe is salmon with Korean barbecue sauce, rice and Brussels sprouts with onions and garlic.
If I have a snack, it’s protein, sardines or hard boiled eggs. I buy the prepackaged hard boiled eggs so there’s nothing to cook. To drink, it’s water or black coffee.
Order meal prep so the right food is already in your fridge once you get hungry. Once you stop deciding what’s for dinner every night, you’ll be shocked at how much easier it is to hit your calories.
My bedtime routine
At night, I eat and put a football game on the projector in a totally dark room. I found that this makes me sleepy. But using my iPad or watching a TV in a lighted room keeps me up.
I aim to be in bed by 10pm. But I’ll keep it real with you guys. Usually I get to bed at 11 or 11:30. This is a habit I’m still working on, and hopefully I’ll be dialed into a 10pm bedtime soon.
I brush, floss, do my skincare and take 3 grams of glycine powder about an hour before bed. It improved my Oura sleep score a little.
Pick a bedtime routine and repeat it every night. That’s what I’m working on too. The goal is to repeat the same things each night so my body learns the routine.
My weekends look like my weekdays
My weekends look almost exactly like my weekdays. I wake up at the same time and do the same workout. I do one or two hours of work, and then I go and do something fun.
Most guys are dialed in Monday through Friday and then they blow it all on the weekend. That’s a big mistake. You can have some fun, but keep your eating reasonable and make sure you work out. Don’t make the weekend a cheat day and lose the progress you made during the week.
What I stopped doing
Now let me show you what changed since I was 200 pounds and had that dad bod.
First, carb snacks like chips and crackers. They’re so easy to overeat because they don’t fill you up. Second, taking days off from the gym. Third, drinking as much. I didn’t quit drinking, but I cut way back. Fourth, I started eating at restaurants way less.
Finally, I had fewer days where I broke my routine. I’m still not perfect. Some days I’m on vacation, there’s an emergency or something else comes up. But these days used to happen all the time when I was 200 pounds. Now they’re much more rare.
You don’t have to change all five at once. Pick one to change this week, then pick the next one.
When every day looks the same, I don’t have to decide whether to train or what to eat. It’s already decided. Motivation matters less when I do the same thing every day at the same time.
Fitness influencers change workouts and diets because exciting gets views. In my opinion, boring is easier to stick with. That’s why this routine works for me.
This is general fitness information, not medical advice. Some images in the video are AI-generated visualizations, and they’re labeled.
