Howie Mandel really needs to run. The 65-year-old comedian, who’s currently filming a socially-distanced season of America’s Got Talent, is hard pressed to remember a time when he wasn’t running.

It may have a little something to do with his ADHD, which he publicly revealed back in 2008—on top of an OCD diagnosis he’d referred to on-air with Howard Stern show two years prior. He remembers constantly needing to move as a kid, getting in trouble for fidgeting in class—which he still does, sitting here in his house on Zoom. Exercise was his only form of relief, and it still is: every morning after a cup of coffee and some cereal, Mandel jogs until someone summons him back home to start his work day. It helps, he says, with the fidgeting and the anxiety and all the compulsions.

But the most attention-demanding diagnosis Mandel’s gotten over the years is actually high cholesterol, which he now pays extra care to after failing to take the condition seriously. “I looked healthy and I was always active,” he says of getting his diagnosis 25 years back, so he didn’t take his prescribed meds until his doctor sat him down for a stern talking-to.

Mandel talked to GQ about eating fruits and veggies, managing OCD in the middle of a global pandemic, and why he’s not trying to look like the Rock.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in between 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: You’ve been filming America’s Got Talent on a socially-distanced set. How has that been feeling for you?

Howie Mandel: The set of AGT is the safest place I could be. There's a lot at stake, so they're following every possible protocol. If anybody has to approach on-camera people they're all wearing masks and goggles. It's like working on the moon. It's a great respite from what everybody else is dealing with these days. It's good for mental health. I think of AGT as the light at the end of the tunnel every week, to share and to work and to get your mind off of other things.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning?

I get up fairly early—like, 7 or 8. I’m not getting up at 5 A.M. I'll have my cereal. I eat like a five-year-old, but I have a healthier whole grain cereal. My wife is more of the health nut, so she likes to make sure that I eat healthy and I don't forget to eat. She wants me to get my fiber and my protein. I need a little bit of caffeine, so I'll have my morning coffee.

And then I usually go and I run. I just run away. But somebody always finds me and brings me back. How far? I don't know how far. I don't do it in miles, I do it in time, but my whole life I've been running. I used to run, and still do, for my mental health. But I learned decades ago that I had high cholesterol. I didn't know what it meant. I look healthy, and I especially looked healthier 25 years ago, and I was always active. I can't sit and I need to move.

So my doctor prescribed me a statin. That was the first time I didn't feel good. I'm not a person that takes a lot of medication. So I just stopped taking it. I went back and my cholesterol was higher, and I said, "Oh, okay." And he said, "No, you don't understand, if you don't maintain a healthy cholesterol it can lead to heart disease and stroke, which is the number one and number two killer." So now I had this silent ticking time bomb in my body.

I'm already neurotic, so that made me even more neurotic. In talking to him I found out I just didn't like that statin. I didn't know that there were other choices. I'm on another one now that doesn't bother me.

How do your cholesterol concerns factor into your day-to-day?

I'm always cognizant of it throughout the course of a day, whether it's getting up and eating a healthy breakfast and then running until I have to go to work.

I didn't make any changes when I was diagnosed. I eat healthy, just by virtue of what I like. I love vegetables. I love fruit. My one weakness is chocolate. But I do eat healthy, I am active, I move a lot. My life pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis is kind of exactly the same. I'm living the same life, taking the prescribed medication, and getting checked every time I go for a checkup.

How long have you been running for?

I've been running ever since...school was dismissed. I remember in sixth grade just trying to see how many times around the gym I could run. There was no reason, I just always wanted to run. I liked not being in the same place for more than 15 seconds. I never wanted to walk anywhere. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't run. I've run up to 15 miles in a day, sometimes it's two or three miles. It's like an urge—I'm compelled to run. I don't even listen to music or watch TV. It releases endorphins. That's my meditation, my distraction. My heartbeat and my foot hitting the pavement or the treadmill, that's when I lose myself and become creative, come up with ideas and get to resolve things that are going on in my own mind.

Do you supplement that with any other kinds of fitness?

Yes, but right now I have a little tear in my shoulder. I have a tendency to overdo. I don't do anything moderately. At the beginning of this lockdown I overdid it and I hurt my shoulder doing weights. Apparently too much weight, in bad form. One of my daughters is a physiotherapist, and she's given me exercises and stretches to repair it. So I'm resting.

Look at me. Weights aren't a big thing. But I try to do something physical, to sweat, to move and be active every day. As you get older, you do so much less, and you're so proud of so much less. "Oh, boy, I got up at 5 and I ran two miles!" It hurts more, but every day I try to get up and move. I'm not trying to become the Rock. He's the Rock, I'm the Stick.

But I do everything. What I need in life just to keep myself sane and happy is, my life is just trying to figure out what the next distraction will be. I just wanna distract myself.

Do you need to eat a certain way to maintain your health?

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My favorite foods in the world are chocolate and pizza. I don't think a day goes by when I don't have a little bite of chocolate. But it's moderation, and whenever I can treat myself to a slice of pizza I do. You can do the things you want to do as long as you do all the other things you need to do so that you can do the things you want to do. I'm taking a slice of pizza, but I am also running every day. I am exercising and eating fruits and vegetables. But I'm doing the fun, bad stuff also.

How are you managing your OCD amidst a global pandemic?

My fears always felt real. But there was something comforting up until about seven months ago of being surrounded by people who were much more calm than I, who were saying, "Don't worry, Howie, nobody here is sick." So it was just my nightmare, and I could constantly live in a world where everybody else wasn't in the nightmare. And now you've all joined in the nightmare, and it's real. To be totally honest, this has been incredibly hard for me. I've gotten some solace in being able to distract myself with work and taking care of myself and my cholesterol. Distraction has always been my savior. I think I've moved my therapist into a whole new tax bracket, and I've upped my meds. But I'll get through it.

On top of medication and therapy, what do you turn to when you're really spiraling?

Humanity. Just people. Whether it's talking to a stranger, a family member, a loved one—there's a lot of power in words and connection. There's people out there that need help and we can all do our part. It's about trying desperately to connect. I come from a generation where you don't talk about anything. People always think, "I'm alone." We're here to say, whether it's mental health or heart health or whatever, this is something that is part of the human condition and a lot of us are dealing with this. With mental health, once I opened up about it accidentally on Howard Stern's show, people approached me and said that made them feel good. It made me feel so good to hear that I'm not alone.

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Danielle Cohen is GQ's Editorial Business Assistant.Related Stories for GQReal Life DietTVWorking OutMental Health