Detox mode this past off-season started for Jose Bautista the moment he returned home following the Toronto Blue Jays’ elimination in the American League Championship Series.

To fight the inflammation that had accumulated in his body over the course of a long year, he shifted his diet, cutting out all red meat, pork and red wine. Not a bite, or a drop, all winter. His mother, Sandra, regularly asked him why he was shunning the foods he so loved. But this was method, not madness. Every single thing he put in his body was meticulously planned in order to generate a calculated effect.

“Body management is what I call it,” Bautista says by his locker one afternoon, making his way through an omelette and some vegetables, a banana, a teaspoon of nut butter and a cup of turmeric tea. “We’re athletes and in essence we’re a revenue-generating entity. Our asset is our body, and how to better manage your body will yield better results, so I just took that approach. Whatever that entails, I seek, I look, I try, experiment. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Such regimented meal-planning, adjusted for differing needs at different moments, is but one part of Bautista’s meticulous year-round regimen. Since a bone bruise and inflammation in his left hip cut short his 2013 season and prompted Bautista to fully investigate its root causes, the all-star right-fielder has done plenty of trial and error, and learned lots about works for him, and what doesn’t.

He attributes playing in 308 of the Blue Jays’ 324 regular-season games the past two seasons and all but one of 55 so far this year to the holistic approach he takes to his “body management,” which includes a strict nutritional diet, yoga, stretching exercises and specialized breathing techniques on top of the usual exercise routines baseball players typically follow.

It’s also why the 35-year-old expects to play and remain productive well into his 40s, a belief that colours the expectations for his impending free agency at season’s end. Teams are sure to counter with the loads of data demonstrating how bat speed, strength and speed start declining rapidly in players his age, but Bautista thinks he’ll be able to wring more from his body than his counterparts.

“I don’t think so—I know so,” he says. “You have two animals—let’s just pick two dogs, exactly the same age, one that’s been eating garbage for his whole life, and one that’s been eating good. The one that eats garbage doesn’t work out; the other dog works out regularly because his master takes him out for regular runs. If they both have to race when they’re 10 years old, which one would you put your money on? That’s how I look at my career. It takes discipline and dedication and hard work and commitment, and not everyone is willing to go there. Not a lot of people even understand that they can get better results doing it this way, so most people just don’t know.”

A common refrain heard from older baseball players is that Father Time is undefeated. Does Bautista think he’s going to defy time?

“I’m not saying I’m going to defy time. I’m saying that I feel good,” he replies. “I know what works for me and I’m going to continue to do it. I feel great, I don’t have to apologize for that. If other people haven’t done their due diligence to figure out what works for them to feel great, it’s not my problem. I’m doing it because it’s going to allow me to be the best I can be.”