The Real-Life Diet of Danny Trejo, Who's Banging Out Two-a-Days In Isolation

One thing we've learned from COVID-19-induced solitude is that some famously macho guys are big fans of staying cozy at home. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's been delivering stay-indoors PSAs while cradling a mini horse and donkey in his kitchen. Or Danny Trejo, the tough-as-nails character actor who, on the day we speak, is at his house with his five dogs, doing jigsaw puzzles and organizing his pants by color.

Somehow Trejo is both as tough as the characters he plays and, as the late Anthony Bourdain put it, "the nicest guy in the world." He spent his teenage years in and out of the California State prison system, boxing his way to lightweight championships while struggling with a drug addiction. At 24, he joined a 12-step program in San Quentin, then became a drug counselor upon release. Soon afterwards, he found himself meeting a sponsee on the set of Runaway Train, which became his acting debut when a screenwriter recognized him as a legendary prison boxer. From there, Trejo worked up to scene-stealers like Breaking Bad’s Tortuga and Desperado’s Machete, which he spun into a full-blown action hero franchise.

More recently, he's built a burgeoning L.A. restaurant empire and created a cookbook, Trejo’s Tacos, out soon. He’s still a drug counselor, too, but the bulk of his time is focused on his restaurants, where he employs what he calls “second chances”—young adults who’ve gotten into trouble and could use a steady job to help them back on their feet.

So how does Trejo keep his mind and body sharp while he’s helping out everyone around him? At 75, he admits he’s not aiming for a six-pack anymore, but he still works out every day in his home gym and hasn’t touched fast food in years. While social distancing, he tells GQ he's cooking up his favorite healthy dishes, hitting the bench press, and getting cardio with his dogs—when he's not organizing pants, of course.

GQ: How’s your social distancing going?

Danny Trejo: We've been keeping busy. I've been rearranging everything at my house, and I've got two assistants that stay here, so we do a lot of house projects. I have three 2,000-piece puzzles. And I love Western movies, so I'm gonna watch some John Wayne. The dogs are all happy 'cause I go out and play with them every hour. We're just really trying to stay busy and eat three square meals, because when you're working and moving and running you've gotta just eat what you can.

Are you exercising at home?

About five years ago, a lot of people started recognizing me, and it got real hard to go to the gym. So I put a little gym in my house. I have a treadmill, a bike, and a whole gym apparatus. I have a bench for bench press, and a squat rack. I have all the time in the world right now, so I'll do chest in the morning, arms in the afternoon, and then the next day I'll do legs and then back. Then I'll walk. I've had a routine for so long, I just kinda do what I want to stay in shape.

Exercise is necessary, but it's no longer a must. I'm in pretty good shape, and at 75, it's gonna be pretty hard to get abs. So you just stay lean. I used to lift, like, 215 pounds on the bench, but now I don't do anything like that. It doesn't matter how much weight you lift anymore, it's just the movements. Walking is probably the most important thing. I have five dogs, and I walk them each for 20 minutes so they get a little bit of exercise.

What kind of dogs do you have?

I have a golden retriever named Liam. I have a pit bull named Duke, after John Wayne of course, and then I have a little schnauzer named John Wesley Hardin, after the meanest cowboy in the West. And then we have another schnauzer-poodle mix named Sgt. Pepper, and his sister is named Penny Lane.

I’ve read that you had a pretty prolific boxing career when you were serving time.

My uncle, Gilbert Trejo, used to fight Golden Gloves. He was six years older than me, so I was his punching bag—or, his sparring partner. I had to learn how to fight. When I was 8 and he was 14, I was boxing with him quite a bit. So I became really good, and when I got in trouble I'd always box inside. I became the lightweight champion of every institution in the state of California.

When I got out, I couldn't get a [boxing] license because of my record, so I used to do club fights. I made a little bit of money, but you kinda start realizing, "Wait a minute, this might not be what I want to do." And then I became a drug counselor, which I still am.

What kind of workouts did you do when you were boxing?

Boxing and weightlifting are completely different workouts. With weightlifting, you're gaining a lot of muscle. Boxing, you want to be lean, so cardio is the main thing. You run five or six miles every day. When you start boxing, you're burning energy even before you get into the ring. The difference between MMA and boxing is that when people are down on the ground holding onto each other, they're not wasting the same energy that you waste when you're just fighting.

Do you still box?

No. My God, I'm 75, the last thing I wanna do is get hit in the face. I still hit the bag and jump the rope, but I don't spar anymore. There are a couple people that wanted me to train them, but I don't have that kind of time. Being a trainer is a whole career. Otherwise you're just wasting your fighter's time. I do have a fighter I sponsor—her name is Seniesa Estrada. She won the WBC Championship of the world, and she's amazing. She's at 19-0 right now. I'm really proud of her.

What is your diet like?

In the morning, I'll eat a good, healthy breakfast. Usually it'll be scrambled eggs with turkey bacon. It's with soy, so it's not fatty. And then peppers, onions, spinach, and feta cheese.

I don't eat fast food, so if I have to stop somewhere for lunch or dinner, I’ll find a deli where I can get a good sandwich. My favorite food, really, is the carne asada nachos that we have at Trejo’s, with two eggs on top. We have the best nachos in the world. I'll put those up against anybody. And they’re actually pretty healthy. They're gluten-free.

You’re very outspoken about how your restaurants—and your personal diet—are all about food that’s high-quality, organic, ethically sourced, and the like. What went into applying those ideas to a restaurant business?

I was doing a movie called Bad Ass, and if I didn't like what the food truck on set had, I would order food. Ash Shah, the producer, kinda jokingly said, "Hey, Danny, why don't you open a restaurant?" And, still joking, I said, "Yeah, Trejo's Tacos." Two movies later, he brought me a business plan.

For the menu we talked about vegan and vegetarian options, how everything's gonna be fresh, and you can bite into a cow if you want to. So we had all that covered. We have four menus: your regular menu, a vegan menu, a vegetarian menu, and a gluten-free menu. We make it really, really easy. We've gotta take care of each other, and we've gotta watch out for one another.

Have you been cooking your entire life?

Yeah, in one way or another. I just kind of did it. Necessity is the mother of invention. I was a single parent for a while, so I'd cook my kids breakfast in the morning, I'd pack them lunch, and then cook them dinner. A dinner I love is a couple chicken breasts with garlic and rice and veggies. I'm not big on desserts, but that's a pretty good meal. I wouldn't say I'm a health nut, but I've always tried to live healthy, and my kids' mom was a good cook. She always did a pretty balanced meal.

Do you still have access to all the food you like in quarantine?

I'm still eating the same thing, but all our restaurants now do just take-out and delivery. We have a few people around the restaurants who are disabled, so we deliver to them. We make a point to make sure they're eating.

You’ve got a bunch of projects to juggle. On a day where you're not social distancing, how do you manage your time?

It was once told to me that a busy man has time to do everything. When we're not in isolation, I just do whatever's in front of me. I gotta go here, I gotta go there, I just go. I really believe that success depends on the people around you, and I've got some great people around me. Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else.

Also, I love coffee. And Trejo's has the best coffee. I'm drinking our coffee right now.

Have you identified any specific ways to help people during the pandemic?

Right now what we're trying to do is partner with Angel Food. They pack up food, deliver it to anybody that needs it—you just call them, say, "Hey, we need food," and they'll deliver food to your door. It's so beautiful. We've worked with them for a while, so now we're trying to figure out how we can handle this crisis with them, because they go all over Los Angeles.

We're prioritizing getting food out because there are so many people that can't come out of their houses. I'm 75. I have two sons and a daughter. My son calls every day, I say, "I'm fine, I'm great, don't worry," but he'll come by, bring us masks, and if I had no kids or didn't have kids nearby and I lived alone, I would have to go to the market.

I think the government right now is trying to play catchup, because we didn't get on this thing right when we had to. A lot of people at the top didn't take it seriously. So now it's up to us.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Real-Life Diet is a series in which GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in-between about their diets and exercise routines: what's worked, what hasn't, and where they're still improving. Keep in mind, what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

The NFL star's figuring out how to keep up his unorthodox workouts in a world of social distancing.

Originally Appeared on GQ