42. JACK LALANNE, THE GODFATHER OF FITNESS

Jack LaLanne was a household name when I was a young woman with small children. Every weekday morning we would do exercises with this fitness expert on his television program, The Jack LaLanne Show. Quite often we would get chairs to perform the special moves of his routines. He had amazing talent to motivate exercise.

Jack was born in San Francisco to parents who had emigrated from France. He was an insecure pimply 15-year-old kid addicted to junk food and sugar, when his mother persuaded him to go with her to hear health food pioneer Paul Bragg talk about the evils of meat and sugar. At the end of the program, Paul did back flips across the stage.

Jack was born again. As he started focusing on diet and exercise, he transformed himself into a strong, healthy young man. He made the football team in high school and passed by several athletic scholarships to become a doctor of chiropractic, which he never practiced. He focused on the human anatomy learning as much as possible about muscles, bones and tendons.    

He opened the nation’s first health and fitness center in 1936 in Oakland, CA, where he offered supervised weight and exercise training with nutritional advice. Doctors advised their patients to stay away from his health club. They said his program would make them muscle bound, lead to severe medical problems and heart attacks, and cause them to lose their sex drive.

Time proved the success of Jack’s teaching. He invented several exercise machines, wrote books and marketed juicers. He began the television program in the fifties which ran for 34 years. His fitness centers morphed into a chain of 200 health clubs, eventually becoming the largest in the world.

Throughout the years, he did amazing physical feats. At age 40 he swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge under water with 140 pounds of air tanks and other equipment strapped to his back. He set a world record by performing 1033 push-ups in 23 minutes when he was 42. Handcuffed and shackled, at age 70, he towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, for one mile.

Jack lived what he taught. He arose at 4:00 a.m. each morning for a 2-hour workout. He lifted weights for one hour, then swam for the second hour. He often said. “I’d hate to die. It would ruin my image.”

He promoted a healthy diet, recommending 10 raw vegetables a day, 5 fruits, no dairy and no coffee. He ate only two meals a day with no snacking. In talking about processed food, he said, “If man made the food, don’t eat it.” He also said that sugar was worse than smoking. Jack’s motto was “Be happy you are alive! Get up in the morning and say, ‘Thank God, I’m here again!’”

Here is another quotation from Jack that summarizes his strong feelings for living a healthy lifestyle:

“Dying is easy. Living is a pain in the butt. It’s like an athletic event. You’ve got to train for it. You’ve got to eat right. You’ve got to exercise. Your health account, your bank account, they’re the same. The more you put in the more you can take out. Exercise is king and nutrition is queen. Together you have a kingdom.”

In spite of thinking that dying would spoil his image, pneumonia took his life on January 24, 2011, at age 96. HE LEFT BEHIND HIS WIDOW, THREE CHILDREN AND A LEGACY THAT WILL LIVE ON! 

MEDITERRANEAN BEAN SALAD
4 c cooked brown rice
1 can kidney beans drained
1 sliced cucumber
2 tomatoes diced
1 can artichoke hearts water packed drained and sliced
1/3 c fresh lemon juice
2 T olive oil
salt to taste
1/4 t garlic powder
1 t basil
Mix well and chill.

LENTIL-POTATO PATTIES
2 c cooked, drained lentils
1 t parsley
1/2 c chopped celery
1 t sage
1/4 c liquid from lentils
1 t thyme
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 t marjoram
1 c mashed potatoes
1/2 t rosemary
1 c whole wheat bread crumbs
1/2 t salt
Heat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together, then
form patties. Place on sprayed cookie sheet. Bake
20 minutes on first side, then 10 minutes on the
second side. Serve hot on whole wheat buns.
Makes 10 patties.