Joel Kim Booster says he has been intermittent fasting since 2017 or 2018, and that his first meal usually does not come until around 2 p.m. The writer and actor, who has built a profile on streaming-era projects such as Fire Island and Industry and now plays Dr. Eric Park in the Scrubs revival, said his last food is usually around 10 p.m.
Booster said the routine is tied to the way he lives and works. “I mean, I'll be frank, it's because I'm a huge stoner,” he said, adding that after 6 p.m. “when I start smoking weed, it's game over.” He said he takes Adderall during the day because he has ADHD, which makes it easier to wait until later to eat.
He also said he keeps the house stocked with foods that are “reasonably good” for him. That includes fried chicken skin as a low-carb chip substitute, fruit leather instead of candy and protein ice cream, all part of a broader conversation in which his eating habits came up alongside talk of snacking, longevity, Tobey Maguire’s body, non-monogamy and body ideals in the gay community.
The bluntest detail came when Booster talked about blended chicken, a food he said he has not made in a long time and last used before the pandemic. He said he relied on it when he was less economically stable because it was “a very cheap way to eat a lot of food very quickly,” and because fasting meant he needed a way to take in a lot of calories and protein when he was not very hungry.
That puts his routine in a familiar place for a lot of people who juggle appetite, work schedules and cost. Booster is not pitching a wellness doctrine. He is describing a survival habit that evolved into something more structured, and the one thing he does not seem interested in changing is the part that lets him get through the day.
