“I like eating hamburgers. I loved eating hamburgers, fried chicken stuff like that. I didn’t think I could do no diet. I like eating what I like eating….It was extremely hard at first [dieting]. I ain’t going to lie”, this is what Ronnie Coleman said to strongman Brian Shaw while talking about his intense diet to become a pro bodybuilder.

However, that "extremely hard” thing became easy with his mind game and his mother's help.

Ronnie Coleman's psychological strategy

A short video of Ronnie Coleman was shared on the Instagram account sweetn_smile, where the 8-time Mr. Olympia winner revealed how his mom supported him throughout his journey. He said, “My mom was the greatest cook ever, because she cooked a lot of your meals for you. She cooked all of my meals for me. And it was like, the food was so good, it was like I wasn't even on a diet”.

Ronnie Coleman also admitted that dieting or doing anything that does not come under your comfort zone becomes easy if you handle it psychologically. Roonie Coleman’s psychological strategy was to make his restricted food items look like cheat meals.

He said, “No, I'm putting barbecue sauce on it. Ketchup, you know, on the fries. People think those were actually French fries. What I did was bought a crinkle cutter, cut them up with that crinkle cutter, sprayed a little Pam on the bottom of the tray, and then I sprayed the top to give it that brown look. Put it in the oven, let it cook for about 45 minutes. Golden brown and crispy, they look just like French fries, right, and everybody thought I was eating French fries, but I was just eating cut-up potatoes with a crinkle cutter made to look like French fries, you know, and it's kind of a psychological thing too”.

With his psychological approach and his mother's food, there was his family’s support that made his journey easier.

Ronnie Coleman on his family’s support

In an interview with Generation Iron, “The King” was asked whether it was easy for him to maintain a family while becoming a bodybuilder. In response, he said, “I think the reason why is my family supported me like 100%. I mean, they were there, you know, doing everything for me. They helped clean my house, clean my cars”.

He also added, “My mom was cooking all my food. My sister was helping me with, you know, fan stuff”. His sister used to help Ronnie Coleman reply to his fans, pictures, and with merchandise.

His family did not miss any of his shows, and this motivated him. He said, “My first show till I retired. They were all there”.

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu