Jones appreciated the support of his fiancée, Michaela, who kept him on track in moments he was tempted to stray from the nutrition plan.
“I’ll be like, ‘Hey, let’s go get a cheeseburger right quick,’ and she’ll remind me, ‘Nuh-uh! You know what you’ve gotta do. You’ve gotta lock in,’ ” Jones recounted.
He’s also made his Christian faith a priority, something he says has helped him refocus in several areas of life, including football.
Jones and his sisters grew up attending church with their parents, and he said he’s always valued faith, but he felt it fall by the wayside during the busy schedule of a college athlete and then preparing for and starting his NFL career.
“I still believed in God but felt less in-tune with my walk with God,” Jones said. “Being in the NFL, it’s hard to go to church when we play on Sunday, but that’s not really an excuse for me – we had chapel services the nights before games, we had Bible study options, and I wasn’t always going to those.
“That’s something I told myself this year, that I really wanted to tune into God, my faith,” continued Jones. “That’s been a major thing for me. The diet was cool and everything, but I feel like [leaning on God] is what really did it, really got me right.
“I said, ‘God, you tell me you’ve got plans for me, a purpose for me, and I’ve gotta stick to the plan,” he added.
Jones is thankful for whatever quiet moments he can find to listen to sermons, spend time in prayer or simply re-center on the tangible goals in front of him.
He especially loves fishing, and he often spends hours on the river with his friend Luke. Sometimes the two talk about life – or the best time of day to reel in a 40-pound catfish – and other times they sit in almost silence, enjoying the simple sounds of an afternoon in Minnesota.
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