When Guardians of the Galaxy was pitched to me, I said, “I don’t think so.” I just didn’t picture myself getting the role. I didn’t want to go and embarrass myself like I did when I auditioned for G.I. Joe a couple of years previously. I went in there, and halfway through I saw the director’s eyes just glaze over. It made sense—I was a little heavy and out of shape. I was not gonna play someone from G.I. Joe. I did not look like a G.I. Joe action figure come to life.
It’s a thing when it becomes three peoples’ job to mop sweat off of you. The hair person, the makeup person, an assistant. When their primary job becomes stopping you from sweating? But I sweat less now that I’m in better shape. When I was fat, it could be ice cold in a room and I would sweat.
It was getting to the point where I would wake up in the middle of the night and I wasn’t breathing. A little bit of sleep apnea. My neck was pushing down on my throat, so my sleep felt like it was panicked all night.
I like clothes now. I have more energy. I sleep better. My sex drive is up. Blood’s flowing. I’m less susceptible to impulse. I’m in a different mode. When I was way out of shape, the idea of using whitening strips on my teeth seemed terrible. I have to do that every day? I’ll never do it. What you want is instant results when you’re out of shape. You want your teeth whitened in 45 minutes with the use of lasers. But when you’re in shape, you know it’s the result of doing a little bit every day. Moments aren’t just moments. A moment might be a week or a month. So instead of Boy, I’d love to eat this hamburger right now, I’m considering a little further into the future. I’m thinking, I eat that hamburger and that’s 1,200 calories, and I’m gonna work out tomorrow and lose 800 calories. I may as well eat a salad here, still do that workout, and then I’m actually making progress.
You have to eat protein. You can’t have hashbrowns, or burgers, or anything fried. You can’t have carbs. You have to work out five times a week.
But I can do 40-inch box jumps now. Action-hero physical stuff. Jumping that high feels really good. You see a giant hillside, and you think, I wanna get up that. You see a building, you think, I could climb that. When you get in shape, the world around you becomes things you wanna jump on and climb up.
Via esquire
This is so true and awesome!
