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Jack La Lanne preaches 'pride and discipline!'
An interview conducted Sept. 9, 2003 from La Lanne's home in Morro Bay, Calif.
Suzanne Havala Hobbs

Jack La Lanne, the original TV fitness guru, turns 89 on Sept. 26. La Lanne took time to talk with me recently about his fitness regimen, his diet and how he got started in television.

Here is an edited transcript of the interview:

Havala Hobbs: Jack, I grew up with you. I did jumping jacks with you.

La Lanne: I taught you how to count. (Laughter).

Havala Hobbs: You did. It's just such a pleasure to talk with you.

I want to hear about your diet philosophy. I'm interested in finding out some practical, how-to advice about diet.

La Lanne: Mine is real simple: If man makes it, don't eat it. And if it tastes good, spit it out!

That's what's killing people: all the cakes, the pies, the candy, ice cream, the soda pop -- the man-processed foods. You've got to stick to nature as much as possible.

Havala Hobbs: Do you shop at a natural foods store or at a regular supermarket?

La Lanne: I just go to the regular supermarket.

Everything today has been fooled around with by man. There isn't such a thing as organically grown, because you've got impurities in the soil, the water, in the air. Everything's got certain junk in it, right?

How many people are going to go get organically grown food? Just go get it out of the supermarket.

Havala Hobbs: It's not practical for many people. I've told people you should load up on fruits, vegetables and whole grains, beans. And you can get that at the regular supermarket.

La Lanne: If they want to spend the money and the time, if it makes them feel better, go ahead and go the health food store and get it organically grown.

It's such a personal thing. What I put in my brain, what goes into my mouth, that's my business. I made it happen.

I get 10 raw vegetables every day of my life. We eat out at night. Even when we're on the road, we eat out, naturally. And I bring the chef over and I tell him: 'Look, I've never told my stomach I'm a poor man. I want the best. Here's what I want: I want a salad, very little lettuce." I tell them I want bell peppers, I want carrots and avocados. I want at least 10 raw vegetables and I make them chop them up real fine.

Then I try to get five pieces of fresh fruit every day. I eat no meat other than fish.

I was a strict vegetarian up until the age of 20, 21.

Havala Hobbs: So when you were a kid, you were vegetarian.

La Lanne: I started out when I was 15. I was a weak, fouled-up kid. I was a complete sugarholic.

I was a nervous kid as a baby. My mother used to appease me by giving me a little piece of cloth with corn starch, sugar and water. And I'd suck on that thing. By the time I was 4-years-old my teeth had rotted out. And I became addicted to sugar.

Havala Hobbs: Who influenced you to go vegetarian at an early age?

La Lanne: Well, you see, my mother was a strict Seventh-day Adventist. But that wasn't it, though, because I rebelled against the church because my mother was forcing me, she wanted me to go to college and become a doctor and go to Africa and help the starving Africans, you know.

I attended a health lecture when I was 15 years old, and the man's name was Paul Bragg.

Havala Hobbs: Oh, sure. From Bragg's Aminos?

La Lanne: Yeah. Well, that was the first health lecture I ever went to. And I went home that night and after hearing the lecture. And I got on my knees and prayed. I wasn't overly religious. I said, "God, or somebody, help me. Give me the willpower to refrain from eating these foods that are killing me."

I was 30 pounds underweight, pimples and boils, wearing glasses. I couldn't participate in sports, I was so weak.

That night I quit all white flour, white sugar products, went strict vegetarian. I joined the Berkeley, California, YMCA and started working out. And the rest is history.


The exercise regimen

Havala Hobbs: What is your height and weight now?

La Lanne: I'm 5-7 and I weigh 150.

Havala Hobbs: Do you have any idea what your percent body fat is?

La Lanne: Oh, real low. My chest is 46, my waist is 30, my neck is 17.

I work out two hours every day of my life. I try to hit the gym between 5 and 6 in the morning.

You know, for about 30 years I worked out at 4 in the morning. I roll out and my wife rolls over. Even on the road I work out.

You know, you don't have to work out, Sue, two hours a day. But I'm just using myself as a guinea pig. It's an ego thing. I just want to see how long I can keep this up.

Havala Hobbs: But it makes you feel good too.

La Lanne: Oh, you know, I'd rather take a beating than work out.

Havala Hobbs: Seriously?

La Lanne: You talk to a thousand athletes. Ask them if they like to train. What'll they tell you? They hate it. But they like the results. That's what counts.

For me to leave a hot bed, leave a hot woman and go into a cold gym at 5 in the morning, you think you're going to like it?

Havala Hobbs: I wouldn't. (Laughter)

La Lanne: Exercise has got to be vigorous. It's gotta be hard! It's like life. Life is hard! Life is tough! Life's a battlefield.

You know, any stupid person can die. Dying's easy. Living is tough. You've got to train like you're training for an athletic sport. You've got to eat right, you've got to think right, you've got to exercise.

Everything in life has a price to pay, right?


Pride and discipline!

Havala Hobbs: But how do you motivate these couch potatoes?

La Lanne: I ask them, "Do you want to feel better?" And everyone says, "Oh, yeah, yeah." "Do you want to look better? Do you want to have more energy? Do you want to have a better sex life? Do you want to live longer? All these things.

Havala Hobbs: What do you say to kids, though, because kids aren't motivated by health concerns.

La Lanne: You know, what is happening in our society today is a travesty. It's a sad, sad commentary. These athletes, they sell their souls for a buck. All these terrific athletes are out there sucking on a candy bar or a cola drink of some type with all this sugar. What the hell do you think the kids are going to do? What those athletes tell them to do.

I go to the schools and tell the kids about the deleterious effects of white flour and white sugar and all that terrible hamburger and white bread and junk, and all the mayonnaise.

And the kids say, "Well, Michael Jordan does it." What are you going to tell them?

Havala Hobbs: I'd like to know how to get them off the couch, too. Kids are not physically active.

La Lanne: They've got to bring physical education back to the schools.

Physical education has to start in kindergarten. That's where these kids should be learning what to eat and what to do.

Pride and discipline! Put that down! That is the key. If you develop pride and discipline you can't fail at anything in life. Think about it. The pride to be the best you can, to do the things you're supposed to do. And discipline. Being able to say no when you have to say no. Think about it.

You know, you're a wonderful lady. You're successful, rich, talented, sexy. You've got everything going for you, right?

Havala Hobbs: Ha-ha-ha. I don't know about that.

La Lanne: What made you what you are? Pride and discipline. That's the whole key. Having goals, challenges.

I've never, ever been satisfied with anything I've done or how I looked.

You've got to keep that carrot in front of the horse. Keep striving! Keep striving! Keep striving!

Havala Hobbs: Now, are gardening and walking enough?

La Lanne: That's not enough! That's better than nothing.

You know, your health account and your bank account are the same thing. The more you put in the more you take out.

If you can't afford a half-hour three or four times a week to take care of the most priceless possession on this Earth -- your body and your health -- you've gotta be a psycho.

Think about it!


Do something!

Havala Hobbs: Do people need resistance training?

La Lanne: Absolutely.

I was the first one in the world to have women working out with the weights. 1930. I was the first one to have 80-, 90-year-old people working out with the weights. I was the first one to have athletes working out with the weights. 1930!

That's why I use myself as an example. Why do you think I did all those feats that I did? Like on my 40th birthday. You're over the hump, right? You're an old man at 40. And I was weightlifter. And they say, "Oh, weightlifters are muscle-bound. They can't swim." So, I put handcuffs on. I was at Alcatraz prison and I swam over to San Francisco, handcuffed.

This made publicity. Every three or four years I would do something proving that age didn't mean anything, that you can do things until an advanced age. If you kept doing it. If you kept your mind and your body together.

Havala Hobbs: What do you recommend for people who have been sedentary for a long time. How do they get back into it?

La Lanne: Get off of their great big, fat butts and do something. Don't just sit there and worry. Do something!

Havala Hobbs: Do they necessarily have to join a gym?

La Lanne: No, you don't have to join a gym. If they have the money and everything, sure, that's the best way. Get a personal trainer and everything if you can afford it.

But you don't have to do that. There are so many good tapes out today. There's aerobic tapes, and different tapes for different parts of the body.

And there are so many books out there today. Of course, a lot of these books are just for somebody to sell something and there's a lot of junk in them. Like they tell you not to mix carbohydrates and starches, and this and that. That's the biggest lie.

Suzanne Somers and some of these other people writing these books, just to sell them. One guy goes all vegetarian and the other guy goes all meat. The poor public is all confused. They don't know what the heck to do.

I tell people if God didn't want you to mix carbohydrates, starches and sugars and fat, he never would have made a grain and never would have made a nut.

Think about it!

That's why I get standing ovations. I tell the truth. And I give people something practical they can do in their whole life.

You're sitting in a chair right now, right?

Havala Hobbs: Yes.

La Lanne: Stand up.

Havala Hobbs: OK.

La Lanne: Sit down!

Havala Hobbs: OK. (Laughter)

La Lanne: Stand up. Keep going. Come on. Stand up! Sit down! Keep going, come on!

All right. Pull both of your knees into your chest. Pull them in! Now push 'em out! Now, bring your knees into your chest!

All right. You doing that?

Havala Hobbs: People have to wear comfortable clothing to do that.

La Lanne: Oh, what the heck, but you can do it right at home.

Havala Hobbs: You're right.

La Lanne: And you can walk right in your living room. Just walk around the house for 10 minutes or 15 minutes. It's better than doing nothing.

Havala Hobbs: How do you get resistance training at home if you don't have a bunch of equipment?

La Lanne: There's a lot of stuff you can do. You can do it just like I showed you on the chair. Get a chair with arms on it. And do like you're doing pushups. Push up on the arms of the chair there. That's terrific for your chest muscles and your arms.

Havala Hobbs: Jack, do you ever get sick? Do you ever have any down days?

La Lanne: Are you kidding? I don't allow it.

Havala Hobbs: But you've got a real positive attitude.

La Lanne: How do I get that? I developed it. I make it happen. I think of the positive things.


La Lanne's diet

Havala Hobbs: You talk about eating out, and there are so many who do eat out. What tips do you have?

La Lanne: Most people who go to restaurants, they don't know what they want. They don't know what's healthy.

But I tell them what I want. If I'm going for lunch, I want five pieces of fresh fruit and I want four egg whites. It's that simple!

If I'm going out to dinner, I've got to have ten raw vegetables, and I want about three or four ounces of fish. And if they have some soup that doesn't have cream or butter or cheese in it, I have that. Then for dessert, if I'm still hungry, I have a piece of fresh fruit.

And, I never, ever, ever eat between meals.

For breakfast I have a drink with 50 grams of protein in it made out of soy.

Havala Hobbs: So the first thing you eat or drink when you wake up in the morning is this drink?

La Lanne: I don't have anything when I first wake up. I work out for two hours. And I never work out on a full stomach. I want the blood to go to my muscles. I always eat after I work out.

And I take 40 or 50 vitamin pills.

Havala Hobbs: Wow.

La Lanne: Once in a while when I eat out I might have a piece of whole wheat bread.

We have restaurants here where we live and we call them ahead of time and they fix brown rice for me. Or else I have a baked potato. I tell them to throw the insides away, I just eat the skin.

You know what I do? I say to myself, "What is it doing for Jack La Lanne? What's it doing for my hair, my sex life, my elimination, for all the cells in my body?" Then I create a liking for it.

Most people, they create a liking for whatever's sweet and sour. That's about all they taste.

Once you get it fixed in your brain that this is going to help you sleep better, you're going to look better. Think of the positive things.

You've got to work at living. I keep saying it. Work at living! Work at living! Work at living! Forget the dying.

Havala Hobbs: Jack, do you drink alcohol?

La Lanne: Absolutely! Wine. When we go out to dinner we may have a glass of wine.

Havala Hobbs: Red wine or white?

La Lanne: Well, I mix half white zinfandel and half red wine. One's too sweet and the other's too sour.

And if it's a special occasion I may have a couple glasses.

Havala Hobbs: What about caffeine?

La Lanne: I have never had a cup of tea or coffee in my life.

Havala Hobbs: How about sweets? I mean, candy, cookies, commercial sweets.

La Lanne: None of it. I have none of that stuff. My wife may have a cookie once in a while that she gets at the health food store. I just don't need it.

Havala Hobbs: No meat nor poultry either?

La Lanne: Zero.

See, I was a strict vegetarian up until the age of about 20, 21. Then I started entering physique contests, like Mr. America and all that. In those days we thought that you had to have meat to build muscle. So I ate meat for a few years. Then I cut out so that I was just eating fish, chicken and turkey.

Now I eat nothing but just fish.

Havala Hobbs: No dairy products?

La Lanne: No.

You can have a little skim milk once in a while or a little yogurt. But I don't do that. I'm not a suckling calf.

Name me one creature on this Earth that uses milk after they're weaned. Only man.

Havala Hobbs: You're exactly right.

La Lanne: Cream and butter and cheese and ice cream -- those are the killers! That's the ones that give us high blood pressure and load the body with fat.

Havala Hobbs: What about oils?

La Lanne: Oil, you need oil. Oil is a must.

Havala Hobbs: What do you use at home.

La Lanne: Canola oil or olive oil.

Havala Hobbs: What do you put on salads when you eat out?

La Lanne: I have a special dressing that I get at the health food store. It's got no junk in it and my wife gets it for me. But if we go to a restaurant, I get a little oil and a little vinegar. It's simple. And I mix a little avocado in it. I love avocados.

I eat a well-balanced diet.

Havala Hobbs: It sure sounds like it.

La Lanne: Something's right because I'm still here. I work out two hours every day and Elaine always has a smile on her face. (Chuckles.) So, I'm doing something right.

Family history

Havala Hobbs: What kind of genes do you have? Did your parents live a long time?

La Lanne: My dad died at 50. And my mother, she would have died at 60 or 55, but I became Mr. Physical Fitness at fifteen and she ended up in a sanitarium for six months and when she came out I got her eating on a strict vegetarian diet with me, eating all the natural foods. She lived to be 94.

Havala Hobbs: Oh, wow.

La Lanne: You see, she worked at living.

And I've got my brother. My brother is in his 90s. And I got him working out when he was 40. He was a complete, full-blown sugarholic. He was an alcoholic. He was about 50 pounds overweight. I set up a gym in his home. I got him on a complete program of nutrition. So, for the last 50 years he's been eating right and exercising and he's still here.

Havala Hobbs: Oh, that's wonderful.

La Lanne: You see, he worked at living! I could do that with anybody if they'd listen. But how many people do it?

Havala Hobbs: Well, there are so many challenges.

La Lanne: I tell people, would you get your dog up in the morning, give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a doughnut? Do you know how many millions of Americans got up this morning with a cup of coffee and a doughnut?

And they wonder why they're sick, why they're tired, why these kids can't study, why people are irritable, constipated and fat. They're exceeding the feed limit, putting the wrong fuel in this human machine.

Havala Hobbs: There are so many obstacles to wellness these days. Doesn't it feel harder now than it was 50 years ago?

La Lanne: What's harder?

Havala Hobbs: Harder to navigate the commercials and all the advertising and marketing?

La Lanne: It may be for the average person. I wouldn't know about that. I don't even think about those things. I've got myself in a schedule and that's what I do. Nobody influences me.

I know for the average person, I know what you mean. What we need is more people out there preaching the gospel of good health, out there talking to the kids.

Even the kindergartners, these kids start out with this junk. The cakes and pies and hamburgers and hot dogs. These kids by the time they're 6 or 7, they're fat. By the time they're in high school or college they have high blood pressure. It's terrible.


Motivating others

Havala Hobbs: How do you instill pride and discipline in people?

La Lanne: You know, just recently I talked at Microsoft. One of the biggest corporations in the world. I talked to their top executives. All these multi-, multi-millionaires. I looked at that group. Man, there were so many fat ones there. And I said, "You guys, you run the company. You should be the example. You should be the first ones to work. You should be encouraging all your people to eat better, to exercise. You should be the example.

But here, you guys are out of shape. You've got high blood pressure. Most of you have got aches and pains. You're worth all these millions and you're miserable."

You know, I got a standing ovation. After that lecture I signed autographs for over two hours. Every one of those guys said, "Jack, you hit the nail on the head. I'm going to start working out tomorrow. That's what I needed. Somebody to kick me in the butt where my brains are."

Havala Hobbs: So that motivated them.

La Lanne: They needed a little awakening. People get so wrapped up in their business, whatever's making money. Most people are into making money, making money. I understand that. I had to work to make money my whole life. But I never thought of making money. I thought about helping people. I thought about the purpose.

Too many people spend all their energy making money. I spend my energy telling the truth, setting an example and helping people.


La Lanne's move into television

Havala Hobbs: How did you break into TV?

La Lanne: I had my first gym in 1931. In 1936 I had the first modern health club in the whole world. It had rugs on the floor and all this special equipment I invented with weight selector. The leg extension, pulling machines. I had all that back in the 30s! And I had personal supervision. When people came to my gym I checked their diet and made sure that they were eating right and I made a terrific success of that.

In 1951 television was just coming in. I had a friend of mine over in San Francisco who was manager of the ABC affiliate over there. And he said, "Jack, I want you to come over here. I want you to test out for a television show."

I say, "Come on Ben. What do I know about television? You've got to have a certain look, a certain height and you've got to have a certain type of voice."

So, I sent over the lady who was running my women's department. So, this woman, I just took 111 pounds off of her. And she was glib and articulate, so I sent her over.

I get a phone call. "Damned Frenchman! I don't want this broad! I want you! I want you to go down to Hollywood and try out for this thing."

This was my best friend, you know.

So, I go down to Hollywood and they pick me up in a stretched-out limousine. And this guy picks me up at the airport and he says, "Jack, if you had a health-fitness show, what would you do? I'm going to give you about a half-hour to think and that'll get us into Hollywood."

So we get to his office, and he let's me think that we have to go to somebody, somebody who has to make the decision.

So, we get into his office, this fancy office in Hollywood with all the beautiful girls. I go into this spacious office and I'm sitting in this chair and he's sitting down, and he says, "Now Jack, if you had a health and fitness show, what would you do?"

And he had a big gut on him.

I say, "Sit down in your chair. Now scoot down a little bit. Now bring your knees into your chest. Now push them out. Now, bring them in to your chest, tight! Out! In! Out! In! Out!"

Then I give him about five or six exercises to do around the chair and in the chair.

He says, "Boy, I sure feel those. What else would you do?"

I say: "Every day I would have a one-minute nutritional tip, a tip of the day. Then at the end of the show I would tell them what we're going to do tomorrow. Promise them tomorrow I'm going to show you how you can lose a pound every other day. And the rest of it's all exercise."

So I get him all enthused. He calls his secretary. He says, "Mary, get OJ on the phone." Couple minutes later: "OJ, stop all the auditions, I've found my man."

And I got it just like that.