This time I was flying, and the other times I feel like the pain, the hunger has really come to me. I struggled by thinking about food at home, whereas this time my mind was like, “This is temporary. It’s not going to last forever.” There’s these beautiful things that happen from autophagy, to cell regeneration, to just complete immune reset at about 100 hours. I was doing these huge 100-hour fasts once a month to prepare for Survivor. That was a big part of it, and also just being in the gym and doing interval training and doing sprints. No 54-year-old man wants to be sprinting. My whole life, I’ve hated running, but you’ve got to get out there and you got to find a partner—iron sharpens iron—who’s willing to do it with you. That was my nine-year-old son. He loves to run. Three months before I left, I was on the fence if I was going to actually say yes. Before I left, he was whipping me in races. Then by the time I left, he was like, “Man, dad, you’ve really gotten faster.”

As a fan I often talk with my friends about, if we were to go on Survivor, is the move to fatten up to give your body a deeper well to draw from while you’re withering away, or do you want to prepare for the hunger by fasting? You clearly went the fasting route.

I think it also depends on your vanity, right? We got one shot at this life, so we might as well take care of our bodies. If you got 10 extra pounds or 20 extra pounds or 30 extra pounds, that’s cool. But some of these old timers show up and they got like 50 extra pounds. I’m just like, man, that’s crazy. That was a great motivator for me to see other returners come back on Survivor.

I didn’t want to show up like I’ve just completely let go. I’m in my 14th year of marriage and it’s still like the honeymoon, and part of that is that we haven’t given up. I haven’t given up on my style. I haven’t given up on my diet. I haven’t given up on my exercise. I haven’t given up on my romance. I’m going to give her a massage and have a little rose waiting for her. You got to work at life to be successful, whatever it is. Everything that I do, I try to be successful at, but it means that you got to work for it.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Survivor? What is the stuff you associate with living on a beach?

I’m different than some people because they get sick of coconuts. I love coconuts.

You get off a Survivor, your body’s trying to adjust. I wasn’t motivated to be in the gym. So I went to the store, bought a bunch of cartons of coconut milk and I’m like, “I’m going to do this for a week so that I get all slimmed up for the premiere.” It’s really silly, right? But I actually failed at it. I started it for one day and I’m just like, screw it. I started eating again. But anyway, I love coconuts out there. It was really weird because this time I did not sit there and have these weird cravings.

You mentioned that you’ve stuck to a pretty strict diet. What does a normal day of eating look like for you?

I have tried all the diets. I did carnivore last year. I felt horrible. Everybody’s body is different. My mom is 81, she doesn’t have any fat on her. She’s super stylish. She’s my piano accompanist for my choir and she also plays piano in my symphony. We work together every day and she’s always dressed well, and her mom was dressed well. My dad would wear suits all day. So, I think it’s just something that I grew up around—taking care of yourself. But my mom figured it out. I said, “You eat whatever you want to eat.” My mom said a long time ago, “I started paying attention to what makes my body feel the best.” She eats potatoes, like white potatoes, all the time. She does cook with healthy oils, either olive or avocado, but I think just pay attention to your body to know what works because we’re all created differently. I feel the best when I fast.