A male model who graced the cover of over 600 romance novels has opened up about the extreme lengths he went to in order to stay picture perfect at all times.
Jason Bara, who is now 51 and officially retired from modelling, tells DailyMail.com that he followed a ‘very strict’ diet that often consisted of the bare minimum, such as eating chicken and broccoli ‘day after day’.
‘I never gave myself a break or said, “Oh okay, I’ll have this chocolate cake this time.” If I did something like that, I’d of just let myself down. But I liked it that way,’ he said.
The only time Bara ever touched sweets was to give his muscles a quick boost before shooting.
‘My diet trick on the day of a shoot was that I would fast that morning, then an hour before the shoot, I’d have Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. For whatever reason, the sugar would bring out vascularity and muscle tone,’ he explained.
As for keeping fit, Bara never missed a day and would even workout while on set.
‘I was an athlete growing up and played baseball in both high school and college,’ he explained.
Former romance novel cover model Jason Bara survived on chicken and broccoli and worked out constantly to look picture perfect for his shoots
‘Especially when college came, we’d be practicing all year long on the field and if we weren’t on the field, we were in the gym exercising,’ he continued.
‘Doing the romance novels was a great thing cause at the same time, I was doing shoots for fitness magazines as well. They both went hand and hand. Both required a person to be fit and disciplined.’
During shoots, Bara would start working out any time he got a spare moment.
‘When the photographer, art director and props people would be doing something other than taking my photo, I would do push ups or I’d bring in a stretch cord exercise band and workout during the in-between times,’ he said.
‘They would always get a kick out of seeing me hit the floor and start doing pushups. Sometimes they’d just stop talking and watch me [laughs].’
He added, ‘I didn’t care. I knew that by doing this, it would bring out the vascularity and muscles.’
Despite Bara’s dedication to perfection, the former model thinks that the recent trend of AI-generated book covers is going too far.
Bara covered over 600 romance novels before retiring from the industry in 2019
During shoots, Bara would start working out any time he got a spare moment
‘Now if you browse through some of the Amazon books you’ll see that 7 out of 10 are [AI],’ he said.
‘The models look “too perfect” with no flaws and lifeless to me. I like imperfections. I think that’s a good thing and what makes a person,’ he shared.
‘Now that AI is just getting better, it’s wiping out industries like this that were once a full blown business. The models no longer have jobs coming, the art directors… I’m not sure what they’ll do if AI can create the concept for the publisher. And the photographer won’t be needed as well. Don’t get me started!’
Bara, who officially retired in 2019, said that he’s glad that he left the industry when he did and he has no plans to move into acting or other areas of entertainment.
‘When it comes to acting, I have zero talent. I don’t know how to act at all,’ he admitted.
‘As for the modeling career I had, I have no regrets to tapping out when I did. It was definitely time. I do continue to exercise and eat a balanced diet.’