Guest Author - Katie Byrd
Jack LaLanne recently celebrated his 90th birthday. Known to millions of TV viewers as “The Godfather of Fitness,” Jack is still looking good, going strong and a great inspiration. “You’ve got to work at living,” Jack says. “99.9% of Americans work at dying! You’ve got to eat right, exercise and have goals and challenges.”
Jack didn’t always lead a healthy lifestyle. “As a kid,” he says, “I was a sugarholic. I was a junk food junkie. It made me weak and it made me mean.” But at a lecture in 1929, pioneering nutritionist Paul Bragg called 15 year old Lalanne a “human garbage can.” Ever since then Jack has been following Bragg’s philosophy – “If you obey nature’s laws, you’ll be born again.”
And Jack certainly was born again. He immediately changed his diet – no white flour, no sugar, no meat and lots of fish, fruits, vegetables and nutritional supplements. He also started lifting weights and became a bodybuilder, eventually being named Professional Mr. America in 1955 when he was in his 40’s.
LaLanne also became a hard working businessman. At 18, he ran his own bakery selling healthy breads. At 21, he opened the first health club in the country with a gym, health food store and juice bar in downtown Oakland, California. His club became the prototype of all modern health spas. Today more than 200 clubs still bear the Jack LaLanne name.
But it was on TV that Jack became famous all over the world. In 1951, he started the first exercise show. Critics thought he’d be off the air in six weeks, but “The Jack LaLanne Show’” ran for an amazing 34 years. Black and white reruns of the jump-suited LaLanne can still be seen twice each weekday morning on ESPN Classic.
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