Mark Wahlberg, who looks like every guy you've ever forgotten the name of but is somehow one of Hollywood's most highly paid actors, recently revealed his daily routine. The 47-year-old begins his day at 2.30am with a half-hour of prayer.
Illustration: Simon Letch.
This is followed by a 3.15am breakfast, two workouts, and some "cryo chamber recovery" time, in which liquid nitrogen is used to plunge the air temperature to minus 100°C to aid in muscle recovery, all before a no doubt much-anticipated 10.30am "snack". (Those of us who, Hobbit-like, enjoy a second breakfast may be crying into our Weet-Bix bowl about now.)
Thereafter the day meanders through some more workouts, a shower which lasts for an hour and a half, and another snack – "10 turkey meatballs", say, or "five pieces of sweet potato" – before Wahlberg goes to bed at 7.30pm, immediately after dinner. I hope he occasionally treats himself to a mini Magnum.
There's something grotesquely appealing about learning the hour-by-hour regimens of the rich and famous. We've grown tired, it seems, of the celebrities to whom fame comes easy, the ones who claim to have fallen into worldwide acclaim and multimillion-dollar fortunes as though they happened on a manhole without a cover. Think of George Clooney, who last year made $334 million, not even through his day job of acting, but by selling his tequila company. Give me Mark Wahlberg's turkey-and-egg-white asceticism any day; at least he worked for his $94 million.
Another proponent of the Wahlberg school of work – in that she admits to doing some – is Martha Stewart, who once told a magazine she rose each day at 5am to apply a face mask for an hour to maintain her preternaturally glowing complexion. A few years ago, Gwyneth Paltrow, who is apparently so consumed with exercise that she sets aside two hours for dance classes seven days a week, admitted she nonetheless enjoyed a single cigarette every Saturday night. (I like to imagine her partaking while in a squeaky old pair of rubber gloves and a hairnet on the back porch.)
Or think of Barack Obama's now notorious nighttime ritual while in the White House, as reported in The New York Times, of eating seven almonds while reading his briefing papers. Obama has since told NBC News that it was a joke, though he added, "But, you know, almonds are a good snack. I really recommend them."
Fiction writers make for the best hour-by-hour routines. After all, they have an objectively weird job: making things up, for years on end. Charles Dickens always slept facing north; Dr Seuss, also known as Theodor Seuss Geisel, collected hats, and when faced with writer's block would retreat to his secret cupboard to play with them until he felt inspired.
One common theme among creative types is making the most of the morning. There is no waiting for the muse to emerge. The ferociously prolific Stephen King, who has sold more than 350 million books, begins work at 8.30am and doesn't quit until he's written six pages. Susan Sontag wouldn't take any calls until the afternoon lest her momentum faltered. W.H. Auden, who believed his mind was sharpest between 7am and 11.30am, was particularly dismissive of night owls: "Only the 'Hitlers of the world' work at night," he said. "No honest artist does." On this, Mark Wahlberg and the poet would agree.
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