Howard refused to eat away career - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

Howard refused to eat away career - MLB - Yahoo! Sports:

"In early January, he went to Tampa for a full-bore evaluation: a biomechanical assessment, a body-composition analysis, joint manipulation, conditioning tests and a nutritional breakdown. In the last category, Howard failed spectacularly. His heft wasn’t because he was lazy and didn’t work out. He just ate like any 29-year-old bachelor: poorly.

So he stayed in Tampa until spring training. He let the facility cook his meals. He ate organic for the first time. He cut out fat. He feasted on lean meats and whole grains. He ate chicken covered with an almond crust instead of bread. It was a million miles from Subway.

“I’m trying to play as long as I can,” Howard said. “To do that, I need to be in shape. I can’t be getting fat. It won’t work that way. And if I don’t start now, then by the time I’m supposed to go downhill, I will. I want to be able to maintain this shape. If I tackle it now, stay in front of it, I can beat it.”"