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Mark Teixeira turns to 'no fun' diet to stay healthy
Coming off three consecutive injury-plagued seasons in which he missed a total of 225 games, New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira made some drastic changes to his diet and his overall preparation in hopes to stay healthy moving forward.
According to Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York, Teixeira is now on a "gluten free, sugar free and dairy free" diet, which he hopes will keep him injury free. So far, Teixeria says the results of his self-described "no fun" diet are encouraging and will hopefully lead to a more fun season.
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During the offseason, Teixeira says he lost 13 pounds of fat and added 15 pounds of muscle, which he believes will give him added strength, durability, and above all, confidence.
“Last year was really, really difficult, physically and mentally,’’ said Teixeira. “I felt like garbage all season. When you are feeling like that and trying to perform, you get beaten down and you wonder, ‘Am I ever going to be the same?’ This offseason I asked my body to do a lot of things, and it responded. That’s the exciting thing, everything I wanted to accomplish I did, and I feel great going into the season.’’
Teixeira decided to apply the diet after consulting with trainer Ben Prentiss, who's closely associated with several NHL players. As for what the diet consists of. According to Teixeira, bread is a no-no, but he will be consuming a lot of buffalo meat between now and the end of his career.
"I have to go all-in," Teixeira said.
Yeah, he's definitely made the commitment. Now it will be interesting to see how much impact it has actually on his health and performance. It should be noted that despite battling a nagging right wrist injury last season, Teixeira still hit .216 with 22 home runs and 62 RBIs in 123 games. Sure, that's a lousy average, but it's easy to see that a healthy Teixeira can still provide a boost in the power department, and would likely be much improved all around.
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Speaking along those lines, Teixeira also weighed in on another tppic that's garnered some attention in recent months thanks to new commissioner Rob Manfred. That would be defensive shifts, which Teixeira says have contributed to his drop in production. However, unlike Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis, who says he'll be more willing to bunt to beat shifts this season, Teixeira simply wants to hit the ball over the defense for extra bases and also draw more walks.
"We have talked about it ad nauseam," Teixeira said. "Every time I try to talk about it and slap the ball the other way, it just doesn't go well for anybody. That's exactly what the other team wants, to take a middle-of-the-order power hitter and turn him into a slap hitter."
Hey, he's already changed his body. One can't expect him to alter his approach along with it.
Really though, all the Yankees care about going into the 2015 season is keeping Mark Teixeira healthy and on the field. And if that does indeed happen, perhaps we should expect the menu to change in their clubhouse.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
