Early in his professional baseball career, Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner says he thought of the gym like a bit of a meathead. “I thought working out was going in and throwing around as much weight as I could, getting as big as I could,” he told GQ. But the World Series champion and two-time all-star is now in his 14th season, and he's matured a bit. Now he's all about a “less-is-more” approach, with plenty work on mobility and recovery. Along with that shift in mindset came some adjustments to his diet, like going dairy-free, that he credits with extending his playing career. It seems to be working: These days he's the heart and soul of a division-leading Dodgers team that seems like a lock to contend for another title this fall. 

For more, Turner caught up with GQ about exactly how he’s tweaked his nutrition, the secret to clean eating while on the road, how he manages to still enjoy a little fast food, and his game-day routine from start to finish. 

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: What was the deciding factor that led you to eliminate dairy?

Justin Turner: There wasn’t just one. I broke my wrist in spring training four years ago, a week before the season was going to start. I played with Chase Utley, who had been diary-free, and he was always talking about how I was putting inflammation in my body. Obviously, I was trying to come back as fast as I could, so I did no dairy while I was recovering and didn’t find it to be that difficult. I wasn’t really paying attention to how it made me sleep or feel because I was so homed in on trying to rehab my wrist. When I came back, I went back to living my normal life but that next year my wife asked what I was going to do for my New Year’s resolution. I decided I was going to give up dairy, and it’s really changed my life over the last four years, and it’s changed my body. I think I’ve been moving better, sleeping better, I recover faster, and it’s really been something that I can directly attribute to extending my career. 

And now you've gone so far as to invest in the plant-based milk company Ripple. How did that get on your radar?  

Our team over at VaynerSports has been on the lookout for products that are in our wheelhouse—that’s how Ripple came up. They sent us their pea-based protein shakes, non-dairy dairy products, and their version of chocolate milk, which is phenomenal. I feel like I can drink the whole bottle in one sitting. I have to pace myself or otherwise it’s gone.

Before last season’s spring training, you and your wife did the Whole30 diet, which led to some drastic weight loss. What led to that decision?

I wasn’t familiar with it, but my wife had heard about it, and usually when she wants to try something I do it with her. She was going to do it while I was going into spring training. I was on board with that, because we weren’t doing dairy and we usually don’t drink during spring training because of the early mornings, so it didn’t seem too hard cutting out the other categories. The Whole30 is an elimination process, and I was really doing it to reset—clean everything out and go into the season feeling fresh. I didn’t know that I was going to shed 16 pounds in 30 days. I had been trying for about seven years to get under 200 pounds. I would get down to 201 and I would just plateau.  I just found that the pounds just started falling off. I did it again going into this season, and I got down to 192 this year, which is the lightest I’ve been in at least 15 years. 

As far as the Whole30 goes, we try and eat as compliant as we can. We also have this product Fresh N Lean that we’re investors in. They send meals out once a week. It’s 10 meals, you cut a hole in the top and pop it in the microwave for three minutes and you have a fresh, Whole30-compliant meal. During the season, it’s tough with the travel and late nights. Sometimes, you’re leaving the field at 11 or 12 at night and you don’t have a lot of good options. We just landed in Chicago, and I have a box of Fresh N Lean at the front desk right now. I’ll have a box on the road so that if we do get back late at night, instead of ordering a pizza, wings, or some kind of sandwich, I can just pop a Fresh N Lean in and know that I’m going to eat clean and not be up all night with heartburn and be unable to sleep. 

With all this clean eating, what does a cheat meal look like for you?

It’s so easy now to have a dairy-free dessert. There’s dairy-free ice cream, like Dole Whip. We go to Trader Joe’s and find some dairy-free cookies or dairy-free cupcakes. You can still have fun and eat stuff that tastes good—it’s way easier to do that than it used to be. My cheat meals, though, is In-N-Out. There’s a Whole30-compliant In-N-Out as long as you don’t do the bun. You can go get a double double with mustard and grilled onions. You just don’t do the bun, ketchup, or cheese. Technically, the fries are also compliant. Also, Chipotle has a Whole30-compliant bowl that you can get.

This is your 14th season in the MLB. What are some things you do differently now to make sure you’re ready to go each game?

The warmup part of it—paying attention to activations—is a lot more important. It’s kind of a less-is-more approach in the gym. I’m not trying to back squat 500 pounds or trying to bench press the house. I’m just trying to make sure I’m getting my workouts in while maintaining mobility and flexibility. 

It’s been a lot different since I’ve been with the Dodgers, versus when I was with the Mets or the Orioles. I thought working out was going in and throwing around as much weight as I could, getting as big as I could. I really learned more about the mobility, stability part of workouts when I got to the Dodgers. That’s kind of the focus now: How can I take every exercise and incorporate some type of stability, mobility, or core into that workout so it’s not just standing there doing 100 curls? I’ll still do curls but usually I’ll do them on one leg, so I have to stabilize and engage my core. It’s little things like that I incorporate and not just necessarily meathead bench presses, curls, or back squats. 

With the games coming as often as they do, what do you do to get your mind off of baseball? 

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My wife watches every single game. After the game, I give her three questions about the game. You get three: You can ask me anything about the game. After that, baseball is done for the night and that’s the last conversation about it. It's 180 days and you’re playing 162 games —It’s hard to rest and turn it off. You have to find a way to check out, let it go, and get a good night's sleep, so you can wake up and do it all again tomorrow. 

What does a typical offseason look like?

I consider myself lucky. My wife runs marathons, so usually in the offseason, she’s figuring out her training programs and where her runs are going to be. This last year with the lockout, I didn’t have a chance to go to Dodgers Stadium every day like I usually do, so I found myself going to F45 classes with my wife and jumping in workouts, which was actually pretty fun. During a normal offseason, I’m in L.A., going up to Dodgers stadium. I’m working out three to four times a week with our strength guys. They put together a program for me that’s specific to me, which I think is important. A lot of times you go places for workouts, it’s just a cookie-cutter, generic program, where I’m a third baseman in a group doing the same workouts as a left-handed reliever. Those position-specific workouts that [Dodgers VP of Player Performance] Brandon McDaniel puts together for me is huge. Because it’s at Dodgers Stadium, the cages are right there, the field is there. You can play catch, get in the cage, and hit. You can go on the field to run and or work out all in one spot. 

In November and December, you’re doing your workouts and you’re tossing the ball around, taking swings here and there. I really start to ramp it up in January. That’s when I’m in there four or five days a week, hitting every day, taking ground balls, making sure I’m long tossing. Within all of that, we try to find a way to travel and take vacations. My wife is from Indiana and for the last two years we’ve rented an RV and drove back to Indiana for the holidays. When you’re doing that, you’re kind of piecing together workouts.

Can you take me through your game-day prep?

We have two miniature pinchers, so first we’ll go downstairs, give them breakfast. After they eat, we take them on a one-mile walk. We’ll come back and we cook breakfast every single day. It’s pretty much the same breakfast—two eggs, two pieces of bacon, and half of an avocado. After that, we open up the L.A. Times and we do the crossword together. We usually hang out at the island in the kitchen, doing work for the foundation. Well, my wife is doing most of the work and I’m there with her. It’s answering emails and trying to figure out what’s going on with upcoming events. A lot of time we have requests for videos, signing a ball for a kid at the game or meeting someone for batting practice—so ironing all of that out and making sure she has me organized with everything that is going on that day. 

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Around 12:45 to 1, I’ll head to the field and start my routine. I usually go into the kitchen, grab something to eat and it’s already prepared there. I’ll go into the training room and do what I have do to do to prep for that day. I’ll then go to the weight room and that’s where the activations and core warmups happen to get ready before I go and start my cage work. I’ll have conversations with our hitting guys about how I felt the day before, what adjustments to make today, what pitchers are throwing against us that night and what our approach is against those guys. I’ll go into my cage work—hit a little bit off the machine. By that time, I’m headed out for defense. I usually go out early and do early defense, play catch, get my ground balls. After early work, we’ll come back to the cage, and we’ll have a hitters meeting. Every position player will be in the cage to talk about the starting pitcher that we’re facing that night and what each guy’s approach is going to be or what each guy’s plan is going to be for that starting pitcher to try to have success. 

From there, we go into batting practice on the field. After that, we get a good 45 minutes to an hour of check-out time. Sometimes, it’s in the locker room playing cards. There are always baseball games on. Right now, it’s basketball and hockey playoffs on all the TVs in the clubhouse. We have some guys that are playing video games in the clubhouse and some guys are sitting around having a good old-fashioned rounder, talking about different things. Around 5:45, I’ll head into our wet room, and I’ll jump into the hot tub for about 15 minutes. Get out of there and it’s time to get ready for the game. Get dressed, tape up and head back down to the cage to take some more swings from the machine to get loose for the game. 

After the game? Right now, we’re winning a lot of those games, so everyone will have some loud music and fun. I’ll have a quick bite to eat and head home. It’s see the dogs and give them dinner. I have a little sauna at home that I’ll jump in for about 15 minutes. After that, I’ll take a shower to go to bed. Usually, the last thing I do when I get in bed is I’ll watch a video of the pitcher who is pitching against us the next day—that will be the last thing I see. I know I said I turn it off, but I lied [laughs].

This interview has been edited and condensed.  

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