A new spring in his step! Phil “Lefty” Mickelson showed up at the Masters 25 pounds lighter following his recent weight loss journey.
“Thank you. I stopped eating food. That was a big help,” Mickelson, 52, quipped to a reporter on Tuesday, April 4, interview after being complimented on his slimmer physique, per Golf Digest.
The pro golfer added: “I also lost muscle, so I had to start lifting, and I’ve been lifting and slowly have been getting my speed and strength back to where I need it to be.”
Mickelson — who has won three Masters titles over the years — returned to the Augusta, Georgia, tournament this weekend after voluntarily sitting out of last year’s championship.
“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” the PGA Tour champ said in a social media statement in February 2022. “I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”
As the California native aimed to prioritize his mental well-being, he also remained focused on his physical fitness.
“I work harder physically to be able to practice as long as I wanted to and I’ve had to work a lot harder to be able to maintain focus throughout a round,” Mickelson previously told Golf magazine in September 2020 of being an older pro athlete. “If I work a little harder, spend a little more time in the gym, eat well, practice hard, there’s no reason why I can’t put it all out there for 18 holes.”
The World Golf Hall of Fame member also found success with intermittent fasting, telling the magazine that he does three-day fasts every few months. “It gives my body a chance to reset,” Mickelson explained. “I’ve got to eat a lot less and I’ve got to eat better. I just can’t eat as much and I have to let my body kind of recover. But it’s also been a blessing for me because I feel better and I don’t have inflammation and I wake up feeling good. It’s been a sacrifice worth making.”
The Open Championship winner initially found that his weight gain was a side effect of psoriatic arthritis, which is a chronic, inflammatory condition in the body’s joints. Mickelson has since discovered that drinking his own specialty coffee helps manage his symptoms.
“Every morning I like to start the day off with coffee,” he said in an August 2020 Twitter video, highlighting a brew from his For Wellness brand. “[It’s] the foundation for my overall health and wellness. So, I put a lot of collagen, protein powder as well as MCT powder in a bowl [and] I put some Himalayan sea salt as a natural energy source, [which] also helps my cells absorb the water.”
