What did that first step look like?

I tried a few, but I found a meal prep company that I will use for the rest of my life: Nutrition Solutions. That changed everything. I started eating their meals, stuck to them religiously, and then I started seeing the changes. It also caused me to put in work at the gym, because my body was feeling better. I was seeing the transition, seeing the change. You know, I was 250 pounds. Suddenly, I found myself at 220.

And this is all before you even had the idea of making a return to the ring?

It was. I just wanted to get healthy. And as I started to get healthy, it really started dawning on me. Like, Hold on a second. I feel great! I’m doing these fight scenes on Vikings [Ed: a show on the History channel, Edge plays a character named Kjetill Flatnose] and feeling fine. I’m wiping out on my mountain bike and feeling fine. I can look fine, but feeling fine is a different thing. I realized wrestling might actually be possible again. But it all started with the diet.

Can you give some examples of meals that are part of your new diet?

In the mornings leading up to the Royal Rumble, I’d have six hard-boiled eggs—just the whites. Then I would do Nutrition Solutions’ protein pancakes and a Dave’s English muffin. That was my breakfast, and three hours later, I would have my first proper meal. Throughout the day, I’d usually have two or three more proper meals. Lots of rice and chicken, and my last meal would typically be meat and a vegetable—like five ounces of sirloin and asparagus.

Was it tough for you to get used to eating some of the same types of meals fairly regularly?

I’m a creature of habit. I could truly eat the same thing every day. I’m okay with that. But I’ve also found products that really help keep me sane. Like Bolthouse Farms. They make these yogurt-based salad dressings that have very little fat and very little carbs. You put a little bit on your rice and it does so much to add some flavor in there without any huge macro imprint.

And then, if I’m watching TV at 9 or 10 o’clock at night and feeling like I just need a snack—you know when you just want that crunch? I found this company called the Cereal School, and they have a peanut butter cereal that has three grams of fat, one gram of carbs, and 16 grams of protein. That’s not going to store as fat overnight and I get that crunch that I need late at night.

Those three or four meals throughout the rest of the day, are those smaller meals? Or are we talking full-portion servings?

One thing I’ve found while traveling for my career is that portion control is normal in a lot of the world. Then you come back to the U.S. and you understand how out of whack our portion control is. We don’t really need to eat all of that. Living in Ireland off and on for two-and-a-half years is when that really dawned on me. I was eating normal portions over there. Nutrition Solutions has helped with my portions back in the U.S.—you know the macros you’re taking in. Then, for WrestleMania, we jumped it up accordingly and made the necessary tweaks to come in looking the way I want to look. And that just meant eating a little bit more. Not portion-wise, but just more often. Throwing in a shake here, or some overnight oats there, or rice cakes with peanut butter to get good fats in.