Jumping Jack Lalanne

[Guest guest]

JUMPING JACK LALANNE

Following are some exerts from an article titled "Jumping

Jack," as found in the February 2003 issue of Readers

Digest:

" . . . Today, the 88-yer old father of fitness knows --

maybe better than anyone else -- that there's no secret

potion for health and longevity. Having experimented with

all kinds of regimens over the years, he now finds himself

back where he started: exercising and eating his greens --

lots of them. LaLanne consumes ten raw vegetables and

several fresh fruits daily and stays away from sugar, white

flour and dairy. 'I'm not a suckling calf," he says.

LaLanne is out of bed at 5:30 each morning when he begins

his two-hour workout. Love him, hate him, laugh at him or

with him, there's no arguing that LaLanne is a legend who

was decades ahead of his time. He says he's never had a

major illness. He holds Mr. America Best Chest and Best

Back honors . . . "The son of French immigrants, LaLanne grew up in the San

Francisco Bay Area and was, by his account, a skinny,

depressed, acne-prone weakling addicted to sugar. 'I had

blinding headaches and an uncontrollable temper,' he says.

At age 15, LaLanne attended a lecture by nutritionist Paul

Bragg. 'My mom and I came in late, and there were no

seats,' he says. 'I was hoping we could just leave.'

Instead, Paul Bragg pulled him onstage. 'My life changed in

the next few minutes,' LaLanne remembers. So ignited by

Bragg's discourse, LaLanne became a vegetarian and cut out

sugar. He bulked up, transforming himself into the school's

most unlikely football star, and began to spread the gospel

of good living. His workout of choice was weightlifting,

still a relative novelty. And talk about swimming against

the tide; He opened his first health club in 1936 . . . "To prove the payoff of his own philosophy, LaLanne has

marked his birthdays with extraordinary feats of

accomplishment. At age 60, he swam from Alcatraz to

Fisherman's Wharf, handcuffed and towing a 1000-pound boat

.. . . His passion for nutrition remains undiminished. He's

outraged by the eating habits of American children. 'Soda

pop has nine and a half teaspoons of sugar in it, and you

wonder why they're psycho and getting failing grades,'

LaLanne sputters. 'You know why there are so many fat kids

today? We're exceeding the feed limit!' . . . 'Remember,

the food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow,' he

likes to say. Or, 'Would ye get your dog up in the morning

and give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a doughnut?'

.. . . And LaLanne is still hell-bent as ever on getting his

message out . . . To date, he's his own best advertisement.

'I can't die,' he likes to say. 'It would ruin my image."

________

[Guest guest]

wow. Thanks for sharing that story Helen.

 

Paula