UrbanUpdate

Motocross and supercross wunderkind Ken Roczen spends nearly all of his time out in the blistering sun, pushing around a 230-pound bike—sometimes crashing said 230-pound bike, as he recently did during a race in Anaheim, dislocating pretty much his entire arm in the process. So you’ll have to excuse him if he wants to chow down on a little pizza and ice cream in his down time. (We’d say he’s earned it.)

Here’s the thing, though. Some of these other athletes claim they haven’t touched a candy bar in the last decade, but not Ken Roczen. “If you want to get my honest opinion, I think that athletes, they won’t tell you everything, you know what I mean? They say something that they do, but in the end it’s not even really like that at all times.” Winning professional motocross races is stressful enough, which is why Ken subscribes firmly to this philosophy: Take care of your body, but don’t deprive it of all the yummy goodness this world has to offer. After all, what’s the point of risking life and limb while becoming a world champion if you can’t celebrate with a little cake afterward?

GQ: You’re in an interesting position, because you’re not just a professional athlete. You’re out there handling what is essentially heavy machinery.Ken Roczen: That’s right!

So what’s the key to that? How do you ensure that your body can handle operating that machinery every single day?Well, I pretty much always start out the day with a cup of coffee. But even before that, on an empty stomach, I take my amino acids. I usually have a 30- to 45-minute workout in the morning, and then afterwards we prepare some breakfast. I believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I usually try to start things off with a bigger breakfast.

A lot of proteins then, I’m assuming?I need to have a good mix of protein and carbs, because if I only have protein, it just doesn’t hold on very long for me. I need both a good amount of protein and a good amount of carbs to get me through a day. So I’ll have two eggs, over-easy, and I usually put them on a couple little slices of gluten-free toast.

Oh, are you gluten-free?No, I just really like that bread. It doesn't necessarily have to be gluten-free. But I’ll put the eggs over it with a little bit of hot sauce on the side. Sometimes I like to prepare a little bit of a baked potato the night before and have that on the side, just for carbs. Oh, and some avocado—some good fats that will get me pretty far throughout the day. Here and there, I’ll also have a smoothie in addition to everything else. You obviously want to try to get all your vitamins in, and I don’t take any artificial vitamins or pills. I try to get all my vitamins strictly from foods. After all that, I pretty much go out to the track for the day.

I think that would be the hardest time for me, because when I get really into physical activity like that, sometimes I just forget that I need to eat and drink something.I try to take a legit lunch with me. Prepare a sandwich or something. Preferably chicken. I’m not a big turkey guy. And no cheese. I need quite a bit of food throughout the day, especially during our outdoor season. I have these little—they’re kind of like baby food, actually. Those little squeeze things.

My little cousins love those, but I’ve never actually tried one. Are they good?They’re pretty natural, so I usually take one of those. They’re not actually baby food, but you know what I mean by those? They have ones that are clean and are pretty much just mixed fruit and this and that with no added sugar.

I imagine it has to be pretty difficult to be out on a bike in the heat, covered head to toe in all that gear, every single day. How do you combat that?I always have salt tablets with me. Our workouts are so intense, and it’s not like we’re in an air-conditioned gym—we’re outside in Florida during the summertime. So I really need to stay on top of that so I don’t cramp. I’m not really a big water person either, so that has made it a lot more difficult for me, but obviously you really can’t get around it. Drinking lots of water with the salt helps me to recover and actually not get as tired. As soon as I get dehydrated, I start getting really drowsy and I have a hard time focusing, so that is definitely one of the biggest things. I try not to overdo it, but I have half a salt tablet here and there just to stay on top of it. And then I like—I don’t know if you’ve heard of Honest Kids? It’s kind of like CapriSun, but it’s a lot healthier and it doesn’t have a whole lot of sugar.

I would have guessed that you’d be looking to take in more sugars, just to keep your energy levels up throughout the day.You want to get the right sugar, you know what I mean? You cannot drink Mountain Dew or Coke or whatever. Obviously carbs are sugar, so I like to have some protein with that, because otherwise my insulin level raises and I have a huge high, but then it crashes back down.

So after you’re done at the track and with all your workouts for the day, is everything you’re eating after that basically to prepare for the next day’s workout?I’m never the kind of guy that keeps eating chicken and rice and vegetables, chicken and rice and vegetables, chicken and rice and vegetables… I eat chicken, but I also have pork. I eat fish, I eat steak. Every day is different, so I don’t get used to the same thing. I’ve gone through that whole stage of sticking to the same foods over and over and over, and that didn’t work out for me at all. Now I have the freedom to actually eat what I believe in. And I have to say, I have a weakness for sweets. My diet is probably 80 percent healthy, 20 percent whatever, but I take some sweets here and there. Ice cream once a week or something like that. I love pizza. Especially when I’m not racing, then on Sundays I’m okay with having stuff like that. I don’t feel bad about it. I’m not a person that—I allow myself to have bad things here and there. If anything, it makes me so happy mentally that in the end it motivates me.

Most Popular

GQ RecommendsThese Gym Equipment Sales Will Help Your Crush Your ResolutionsBy Tyler Chin

GQ RecommendsThe Alex Mill Sale Just Went Double PlatinumBy Gerald Ortiz

GQ RecommendsThe Best Hair Gel for Men Is Spiking Our InterestBy Adrian Clark

Must-have pizza toppings?You know what? I have been going between meat lovers and Hawaiian. I really like Hawaiian with Canadian bacon and some pineapple on top.

You mentioned ice cream, too. Now, are you doing something healthier like Halo Top ice cream, or are you going all in with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s?No, I’m going all in. Cookie dough or cookies and cream. But luckily, me being European and coming over to America, the portions are pretty big to me. So I usually just take the kids’ size, and that is plenty for me. Like I said, I don’t do that every single day, but I definitely do not feel bad about it at all when I do.

The Perfect Post-Breakup Workout:Related Stories for GQReal Life Diet