Phil Mickelson has been looking remarkably stylish lately – a far cry from his former self.
The 51-year-old slipped backwards to win the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island last summer and is back to play golf in the controversial LIV Series.
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Lefty cut a fairly chubby figure in the mid-2000s – as he personally admitted – but he managed to clean up his diet with remarkable results.
After stacking a few pounds too many, the American has been putting in a lot of effort to improve his physique in recent years.
A psoriatic arthritis diagnosis in 2010 was in part due to Mickelson’s alerting of his need for change.
He is now fully invested in his six-day fasting routine, during which he survives only on water and a special blend of coffee.
The mixture consists of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, almond milk, cinnamon and MCT coconut oil.
Mickelson has become a huge advocate of “Coffee For Wellness,” which he talks about regularly on social media, after collaborating with performance consultant Dave Phillips.
Despite being at his peak in the mid-2000s, the golfer began to feel his body and his performance declining.
He previously stated: “I didn’t play well and didn’t feel good about myself.
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“I wasn’t recovering as quickly as I would have liked after the rounds and was tired and out of focus towards the end of the run.
“I felt like the first step in getting that back was to get in better shape – lighter weight, and what I noticed was I recovered faster.”
But the diet plan isn’t an exclusive approach to losing weight, as Mickelson feels the massive “wellness” benefits, too.
In 2019, he commented, “I didn’t fast to lose weight. I fasted to heal.”
Mickelson looks as good as ever and has admitted that such a change is vital if he is to regain his best form.
The results also showed that he stormed to victory on Kiawah Island.
Mickelson is selected on the field for the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills later this month.
He is set to defend his title despite a year of controversy over his support for a rival league backed by Saudi Arabia.
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In a Twitter video endorsing the plan last year, Mickelson said: “I didn’t feel good about myself and the way I’m playing, so I didn’t do anything and didn’t want to appear in public.
“For the past 10 days I’ve done what I call a factory reset – a change to try and make things better.
“I don’t know if it will help me play better or not, but I am willing to do whatever it takes to try to get my best back.”
He also noted in 2019: “I will continue to make a lifestyle change.
Fasting, if you look at it, is hard to reset, but the body gets rid of the bad and craves the good.
Dave Phillips
“I will continue to eat better, eat less, work out more, and stay committed to that.
“It’s not going to be violent or fast, but I expect over the next year or two that I will continue to fall a little bit off. [in weight]. “
Performance consultant Phillips described the fasting routine as being fairly common among athletes.
“It’s not as drastic as everyone thinks,” he said.
“In the performance space, there are a lot of athletes who do this kind of thing.
“Fasting, if you look at it, is a hard reset, but the body gets rid of the bad and covets the good.
“The body goes on a trip or fights. Sometimes you need to do that.”