Habits and Hustle - Episode 462: Wesley Hunt: The Ex-Military Method for Staying Lean While Eating Massive Meals

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

How does a busy congressman maintain peak physical condition while juggling DC politics and constant travel? In this Fitness Friday episode on the Habits and Hustle podcast, I am joined by Congressman Wesley Hunt as he breaks down his unconventional approach to fitness and nutrition that keeps him razor-sharp. We dive into his extreme intermittent fasting protocol, his massive one-meal-a-day strategy, and why he never schedules breakfast meetings. Hunt also shares his strategic workout split, 10,000-steps-a-day commitment, and how he stays disciplined with his three-days-on, one-day-off lifting routine even during hectic congressional schedules. Wesley Hunt represents Congressional District 38 in Houston, Texas. A West Point graduate and former Apache helicopter pilot, Hunt served eight years in the Army before entering politics. He currently serves on the House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees. What we discuss: 20-hour intermittent fasting and one-meal-a-day protocol Eating 33-ounce steaks and whole chickens in single sittings 10,000 steps daily through strategic treadmill and walking Three-day workout split: legs, chest/triceps, back/biceps Why he avoids breakfast meetings and alcohol Thank you to our sponsor: Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off.  David: Buy 4, get the 5th free at davidprotein.com/habitsandhustle. Find more about Wesley Hunt:  Website: https://hunt.house.gov/  Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor, Momentous. When your goal is healthspan, living better and longer, there are very few non-negotiables. One of them, quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high performers, nobody does it better

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Okay, you're not old, first of all. So you're not old. I'm one 40 days. I mean, listen, well, you're not 25, but like, you know, by the way, did you hear that 50 is the new 35? Have you heard that? And I believe it. And I'm gonna live, I'm gonna hold you to that.

Well, listen, so that means like, you're actually really only 30 or 29 really Daisy had a song that came out said Mornings the new 30 that was a while ago now they moved it up. They knew that Yeah So, okay, so then that's why so what do you what time do you wake up in the morning then and what and also that Means you're in that means you're intermittent fast. So you have no coffee, no water, no nothing until four?

No, no, no, no, I do coffee and water. Oh, you do, okay. But are you intermittent fasting or just like not eating food? I intermittent fast for 20 hours a day. So I do 20 hours for my last meal. Right, so that's what I'm saying. You do the one meal, but are you putting like

anything in the coffee or just drinking black coffee? Black coffee. Oh, okay. Old school black army, black coffee. Wow. And now when I started doing this, I will admit it was spiritual. That's how you really get to find. Oh, yes. It is tough. It is tough. After about a month of doing it now, I, this is, I can't see it any other way. Really? Have you tried Prolon? I've not. Oh, you haven't? Because you do like this one meal a day.

Prolon's like a fasting, you know, it's like a whole fasting system, but there's a lot of back studies and has more research in science than I think any other fasting program in terms for its longevity. And so I haven't tried it yet, but I want to because a lot of times on this podcast, people do fast, they tell me that they

fast intermittent fast water fast. But so I did a ton of research and that was prolonged has have does have the most backed research on all these like longevity benefits and like, I want to tell people too is like that works works for me though, that's not for everybody. I mean, and I've. Yeah, of course you gotta try. It's a trial and error. I've tried it all. I've tried six small meals a day.

I've done it all. And then over time I found out, given my life, my schedule, what I have to do, how busy my days are, all the travel. This is what works for me. Yeah. Well, the thing is also, I think when people people are so busy, like you, and travel a lot, and when I'm in these, like, boats where I'm traveling a lot, you can really, like, you know, you can easily, you know, see,

you can gain five to 10 pounds without even blinking an eye because you're not paying attention, right? And, like, you're sticking your rhythms off, you have lunches all the time, you have dinners all the time, everything is being, you're, you're, you're eating at restaurants and take out or, you know, they can never, you're not eating at home. So right away you have to add 500 calories to each meal. It's off top. Yes. It's off the top. So like, I like what you're, you're basically saying in order to kind

of like stay on point, this is what works for me. You are correct. Yeah. Because otherwise you can like, that's why I went, my not, my thing is I never make a line, I never have breakfast meetings. I always want to have the same breakfast and even like dinner meetings I don't love and I never go for drinks. I'll go for like a coffee or I'll go for something like that, but I'll never like go for too, the alcohol is what crushes you. Alcohol will kill your gains. Ugh. Alcohol will kill your gains. Oh.

It will, you could be doing everything right. And then you, you add that alcohol element and then you're like, forget it, you know? And also, because also your inhibitions are lower, right? So you're like, ah, fine, forget it. I'll have that piece of pizza or I'll find I'll have that French fry. Oh yeah.

Or one drink turns to five. Or one drink turns to five. Exactly. Either one. I'm five. Or one drink turns to five. Exactly. Either one. I'm much more of a food person, so I see how it affects my food intake, not so much my alcohol intake. But yes, that's true. Let's quickly talk about a health issue that affects almost all of us.

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Are you a cardio person or you just do what you do? I'm a 10,000 a day step person. Okay, so 10,000. Five days a week, 10,000 steps at least. Okay, so are you doing that on like a treadmill? Are you just walking everywhere? What are you doing? Yeah, at some point, at some point in my apartment, or I have a treadmill at my house.

So at some point in the morning, after I wake up at some point, I knock out two miles, two to three miles on the treadmill. I use them on the phone, doing work, taking calls, that kind of stuff. Knock that on the treadmill. And then I do a mile walk before my workout, and then a mile walk after my lifting workout.

Right, so you're breaking it up. So what's better for you? Yeah. Yeah. It keeps you active. And then whenever I walk after my lifting workout right so you're breaking it up so much better for you. Yeah Yeah, you should active and then whenever I'm up in DC. I mean I've already I mean I don't know I mean I'm how long I've walked today I've already walked just walking around DC walking to the Capitol and back walking through the airport now I mean, I'm already probably three miles in but I'm already up here and that's amazing Yes, I'll hit the gym and then I'll do a mile before and a mile after. Yeah. So like you're, are you doing splits? What's your workout?

So my splits are three on, three on, one off, three days on, one day off. And then it's a, my first day is usually a leg day, quad heavy leg day. The second day is a chest and tricep day. Third day is a back and a bicep day. Then a day off. Then shoulders. Then another, shoulders. Then arm day. And then another leg day, which is a hamstring heavy day. And then a day off. Like it. Okay. And so are you, how long is each workout? 25 minutes to an hour. Okay. Do you take supplements? Do you take anything? Lots of whey protein, creatine, and glutamine.

Oh, okay. That's all? Yeah, that's it. Okay. So you're not taking omega-3, you're not taking omega-3, you're not taking vitamin D? Nope, nope. And I am a big fish and a big steak eater. So I get a lot of those macronutrients. Oh, okay.

Well, you're only having one meal a day though. How much can you get? Like, are you deficient in anything? No, because this meal is a- A big meal. It's a- It's a big meal. It's really funny, my best friend is up here with me

and he works with me in the office. I mean, the other day, two days in a row, I mean, I had a 33 ounce thing today. Oh my God. Are you joking? No, I'm dumb. That's serious. Like last night I had a whole,

or just three chicken. Oh my God. Yeah. That's like 70 grams of protein. I ate an entire 33 chicken yesterday. My wife is like, she's like, what is this? I was like, you need to get two of those because one's for me and then one's for y'all. That's awesome.

In my body, I think everybody is different. So a lot of people can't process all that protein in one sitting. And I fear a lot of people say, you know, your body can only process up to 50 grams of protein every three hours. As I think that's a generalization, depending on your blood type, your activity, uh, what your body gets used to. Every human being is different. That has worked out.

That has worked wonders for me. But I mean, it's a massive, I mean, it's a massive. I love that. First of all, I'm a massive eater. So, I mean, I can probably like, I can probably love that. First of all, I'm a massive eater. So I mean, I can probably take that down. But I think because I'm so active also, I know people say a lot of things. You shouldn't have this.

You should do that. Everyone has their own opinion. But everyone is so different, right? I can, I'm gonna have four chicken breasts and one sitting before somebody even has their third bite. Just because that's how I am. I eat so fast too, that's the problem. I'm like a huge eater and I eat fast.

Like, and there's like, everyone says, slow down, slow down. But like when you're hungry, you're hungry. So I get it, I get that. 33 hours of, so what did you have with the steak? Do you have vegetables or do you have? So I had 33 ounces of steak. I had it, I had a whole sweet potato. I had broccoli and a dinner salad.

Oh my God, that's hilarious. Okay. All right. That's awesome. I mean, it is, it's an event. It's a significant emotional event for a lot of people. I love it. Can we have dinner together maybe when you're out late?

I would love that. Yeah, I would love that. I would absolutely love that. Like, where do you go? What's your favorite steak? Like, tell me the best places. My favorite steak. So I eat at two restaurants when I'm up here in D.C.

One of them is Joe's Seafood, Stone Crab and Seafood. Oh my God, I love that place too. It's the best restaurant in D.C. and my humble opinion god I love that place too. That place it's the best restaurant in DC and my home of the bay. I love that place and then they have a porterhouse 33 ounce porterhouse they have a bone in a rib eye they have stone crab claws and there's a very high protein meals too by the way very high protein. Oh I love this this is you and I are on the same page. Great it is it is wonderful and actually what's really funny I actually went out eat I was one of my supporters one day and then he just sat there and watched. Oh, I love that.

I've never seen anything like this before in my entire life. That's amazing. Where, what other places do you like, have you been to anywhere in LA yet? Have you been to, do you get steak here? Um, um, so, um, uh, Mastro's, uh, in that area is, is a really, Yeah, I like Mastro's that's really good. I have, it was really cool. So I happened to be the, the Congressman for the owner of the chain as well. And so I get to try out all the Mastro's all across the country. Best ones in Houston and Miami. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you for telling me that because I didn't know that there, like I had never been to the Mastros in Houston or Miami. And so now that you said that, really? Okay, I'm gonna try that. Okay, when you come here though,

we're gonna go to the one here. Great, let's do it. Okay, that sounds amazing. Okay, so we got the steak part down. How about all the other stuff? Like do you do any kind of sauna, cold plunge, red light, any of those things? I do. So whenever I'm up here in DC, there is a sauna down here and after my workouts I'll do 15 minutes of sauna. Okay, no cold plunge. Not yet. No, I hate that thing. I gotta talk about Oh, it's so terrible matching pilot army guy like I got tough enough for the cold. Isn't that crazy?

I know I'm gonna say I mean for whatever reason that cold just I can do hot all day, but the cold just it's so Great. I've done a few times. Yeah afterward. It's great Afterwards, but so we do but during it's really rough It's great. F afterwards. Sorry, what during is wrong. Really rough.