In this episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick shares the health philosophy and eating plan taught to him by his mentor, fitness legend Mack Newton. Gubernick argues that true health extends far beyond body weight, emphasizing metrics like body‑fat percentage, lean muscle mass, energy levels, sleep quality, optimism, and peace of mind. He outlines Mack’s “3:2” eating plan—a simple framework for active people that limits daily intake to three food groups (fresh meat, a core set of green vegetables, and fresh fruit) and two beverages (≈120 oz of plain water and fresh‑pressed fruit juice), while strictly avoiding white flour, added sugar, and table salt. The episode also debunks the low‑fat myth, explains why quality meat fat is not harmful, and stresses that fat loss is a by‑product of building lean muscle. Gubernick recommends starting physical activity with regular walking, progressing to moderate exercise, and highlights sleep as a “hidden health weapon” that improves with better nutrition and muscle mass. Finally, he ties all these practices to achieving peace of mind and choosing a vibrant, aging‑free life.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. It's been a little while since we talked about health, and so I want to get into some health-related conversation today. And it's also been a bit since I referenced our good buddy, Mack Newton, my mentor Mack Newton. So I wanna talk about Mack's guidance around health and how health is really just, it goes well beyond the scale, right? It's not just about your weight. See, Mack was a fitness mastermind. I mean, the guy understood health and fitness at a level that most of us will never comprehend. He's one of the greatest athletes to ever live. He's one of the most energetic individuals to ever live. The guy was just second to none and he knew a lot. He was well ahead of his time with respect to all of his knowledge around fitness and health. And I wanna share some of that here with you today, especially the eating plan that he had me follow for the many years I trained with him. If we talked around, if we had the opportunity to interview Mack right now around health, I'll tell you what he would say. He would tell you that Getting older is inevitable, but feeling old, now that's a choice. And that choice, according to Mack, is oftentimes tied to how well, of course, you take care of your health. Not your weight, not your body weight, but your true health. Mack would teach us that there's a widespread misconception, and that misconception is that your weight is the ultimate indicator of your health, your body weight, and it's, it's not. Your weight only tells you one thing, as Mack would tell us. He would say, your weight only tells you one thing, what you weigh. But what really matters are the numbers behind your weight. And those numbers are things like your body fat percentage or your lean muscle mass or your energy levels. Not your weight, but what, what matters beyond just the number that is your weight. That's why it's misguided when people say, I just, I just need to lose a few pounds and, and I'll be healthy. Because weight loss alone does not equal health. In fact, Mack would go so far as to say he's not in the weight loss business because it's too insignificant based on his experience. He would say he was in the health business. So what does real health then look like? I think that true health means that you have better sleep. I think it means you have more optimism. I think it means that you're consistent with your energy and you have high energy at that. You're less irritable. You can do the things physically that you want to do. You can live the life that you wanna live. Now, where does better sleep and less irritability and more optimism and high energy, where does that come from? According to Mack, the professional here, he would tell you that it comes from oxygenated blood flowing through your body and your brain 24/7. And how do you get this oxygenated blood? Well, it starts by building lean muscle and by reducing fat mass. And in order to build lean muscle and reduce fat mass, it's pretty simple. You've got to eat the right way, so you gotta have proper eating habits, and you have to exercise at least a few times a week. And so when you do that right, the fat is used to build muscle and weight loss just becomes a byproduct. It's not the goal. Weight loss becomes the byproduct. It's not the target. When fat is used to build muscle, you just start to burn weight. That's the way your body is going to process things. Let's get into the crux though of what I wanted to share today, and that was Mack Newton's eating plan that he had me run for about 17 years. And I wasn't always perfectly dialed on this, but I was pretty darn close a lot of the time. And I'll tell you, it made a world of a difference for me, and it was really simple. Now, before you go into any eating plan, of course, I've gotta have the disclaimer here. I'm not your health professional. This was an eating plan that worked really well for me, taught to me by a health professional. And the eating plan, Matt called it the 3:2 eating plan. He had created it decades before I arrived. And it's not a diet. It was a way to fuel high-energy living, is what he would tell us. And it was designed for active people, which are really those that are working out at least a few times a week, if not every day, and people who love food— the taste, the smell, the presentation. So it was designed for active people who love food. Now, what made the 3:2 unique— and we're going to talk about the numbers here in a moment— it's not a diet, number one. Number two, it led to weight normalization and muscle gain. And number 3, it satisfied gourmet taste without that guilt or without hunger. So here's how it works. It's really, really, really simple. It's hard for many to execute though. The 3, you can eat these 3 things according to Mack. Number 1, fresh meat. Fresh meats being beef, pork, lamb, poultry, fish, and you can cook it any style you'd like— grilled, sautéed, whatever it may be. So of the 3 things you can eat, the first thing, fresh meats. The second thing, green vegetables. And you would focus predominantly on really kind of 5 core vegetables: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, collard greens, kale, and asparagus. Man, I nailed all 5. I'm shocked. The I remembered those. Brussels sprouts, collard greens, kale, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts. Oh, I said Brussels sprouts. Whatever, whatever the fifth one. Broccoli. Those are the 5 green vegetables he would talk around. So again, you could eat 3 things, fresh meat, green vegetables, and last, fresh fruit. That's it. Those are the 3 things that you could eat. The 2 things that you could drink was 120 ounces of clean water every day, not flavored, not even carbonated, 120 ounces of water every day, which is a lot, especially if you're not even close to consuming that today. But he was— it was required if you were turning in food sheets that you drank 120 ounces of water every day, number one. And number two, you could also have fresh fruit juice. Ideally, it was cold-pressed. So 3 things you could eat: fresh meat, green vegetables and fresh fruit. Two things you could drink: water, and a lot of it, as well as fresh fruit juice. Now, you had to avoid all of the common sense things, you know, you need to avoid. He specifically would point out white flour, he'd point out sugar, and he'd point out salt. Believe it or not, some people believe that salt intake is, is not too bad of a thing for you. If you've listened to the No Days Off podcast for a while, you know that I believe that Himalayan salt first thing in the morning with some lemon and water is a great way to hydrate yourself. And so I think Mack would be okay with that. What he was referring to was the table salt we put on everything in our country. He would say avoid salt, avoid sugar, and avoid white flour. So what that really means is no bread, no crackers, no cake. No muffins, no pastas, no dairy, none of the creamy dressings that go on salad, no soda, and certainly no alcohol. And then just some of the obvious things like you're gonna have oil, have olive oil, maybe grapeseed oil, but don't have canola oil and all that other stuff. So it was pretty simple and really easy to remember is what I'm eating a meat, green vegetable, or fresh fruit, is what I'm drinking water or fresh fruit juice, and does it not have salt, sugar, white flour in it? I could probably eat it and I could eat a lot of it because Mack would say, "Food is your friend." He loved food. He thought food was one of the great gifts of life, just like music and just like dance. He thought food should be enjoyed, it should be celebrated, and you should never feel guilty after eating. If you do, it's not the food, it's your attitude towards the food that needs to change. So he was always asked some questions like, "Isn't all that fat?" bad for you? Because naturally what he just described in terms of food, it has a decent amount of fat in it. And his short answer was no, because the real culprits of weight gain and of poor health are processed carbs, which are the breads, the cookies, the cakes, and excess starches and excess sugars. The fat that's in quality meat that's paired with a green vegetable is not gonna make you fat. But bread, let's be super clear, is not your friend. He really, like, when he first started kind of pushing this 3-2-8 eating plan, there was this, like, low-fat myth that even still exists today where the government used to push out this idea that low-fat equals healthy. And that message is still out there even today, even though the science behind it is flawed. According to Mack, he's always felt that that was outdated advice, and he thought, you know what, start following something that actually works. So you run this 3:2 eating plan and then you exercise, you move your body. And if you're not active right now, you start with walking. Pair the 3:2 eating plan with consistent light to call it moderate exercise. And again, the best way to start, walk. Just start walking. Walking is really effective. It's easy on your body. It's immediate. It has sustainable results. Work up to a 15-minute mile. In terms of your walking. If you want a great target, I think most people, if they train a little bit, they could walk a 15-16 minute mile. Don't start by running. I know I talk a lot about endurance training and things like that. Don't start by running, especially on hard surfaces. You don't have to run to just to get in shape. You get in shape to run. It's different. You don't run to get in shape, you get in shape to run. So you could start by walking and obviously starting to ratchet it up from there. Lastly, I want to talk around sleep, because Mack would say that sleep, as we've heard many a time, is the hidden health weapon, the hidden health weapon. And he would ask questions like, do you sleep through the night? Do you wake up refreshed? Most people don't sleep through the night. Most people don't wake up refreshed, and it shows, because poor sleep right now is a real, I would say, national epidemic. It causes all sorts of issues, mistakes, accidents, low productivity, lost business, all of that. But the truth is this, you've got to be in shape to sleep well, which is kind of interesting to think about. You have to be in shape to sleep well. That means more muscle, more blood volume, less sugar and salt, and those things spike your heart rate and it allows you to sleep a little bit better. At the end of the day, peace of mind is the ultimate goal, right? Peace of mind, according to Mack, is going to be the ultimate goal. And peace of mind means living without anger, without fear, without guilt. Mack would tell you it's the highest human good. And it's impossible without vibrant health, without good sleep, without exercise, without eating the right way. No one gets old by surprise. You either choose to live or you choose to age and decline. That choice starts with how you eat, how you move, how you sleep, and how you think. That's all I have for you today in the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
