Griff Whalen is toiling in the kitchen of his downtown Indianapolis apartment, in a charcoal gray T-shirt and jeans. His dog, Harper, is scrambling about after a pink tennis ball. His girlfriend is sitting nearby, chatting with Whalen about nutrients and vitamins.
It's dinner time for this NFL wide receiver, just days before his Indianapolis Colts take on the New York Giants, a guy who's just finished an intense practice and who burns up thousands of calories a day.
It's dinner time for this 24-year-old who weighs a solid 190 pounds – and who teammates say may just have the most enviable body on the team.
But what Whalen is whipping up for dinner is not anything you'd expect for an NFL player, for the Colts' go-to guy for punt and kick returns this season, for a guy who on average takes in 6,000 calories and 200 grams of protein a day.
EAT LIKE GRIFF WHALEN
Every morning, he makes a concoction of four ounces of water, a pinch of baking soda, a tablespoon lemon juice, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses and sea salt.
"As he likes to describe it, it's flat soda with no sugar," said Osadetz. "But it kind of wakes up your system and gets your metabolism going."
Breakfast: Engine 2 cereal (shredded wheat, rolled oats, whole grains) with almond milk, banana, chia and flax seeds. Smoothie with fruits, veggies, nuts, spinach and kale.
Snack: Apple, pear, orange or carrots.
Lunch: Vega protein smoothie with kale, spinach, banana and other assorted fruit.
Dinner: Baked sweet potato with red lentil pasta and kale salad.
Bedtime snack: Two pieces of Ezekiel 4:9 flax bread, toasted, with almond butter and banana. He adds cinnamon and cocoa power. Apple.
Drinks: Green tea, almond milk or water.
