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 Jack
LaLanne exemplifies the health benefits of diet and exercise.
Jack was born Francois Henri LaLanne on Sept. 26, 1914,
to French immigrants John and Jennie; when the average American male
was expected to live to about 52. Jack was the second of three sons.
John LaLanne, his father, appears to have died 58 years old of a heart
attack.
On Fitness: "It's a way of life."
-- Jack LaLanne
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Jack LaLanne's transformation made possible by Paul
Bragg at the age of 15 lay first and foremost in nutrition. But,
after becoming a strict natural foods vegetarian, Jack realized he
would not be completely healthy unless he was also fit. He joined the
Berkeley YMCA. Swimming and wrestling were about the only organized
exercise activity the YMCA offered in those days, so Jack LaLanne
became very good at both. Jack eventually built his own backyard body
building gym which he rented out to police and fireman. He attended a
chiropractic college on the weekends. At 22 in 1936, Jack opened a gym
called Jack LaLanne's Physical Culture Studio on the third floor of a
building on 15th and Broadway, Oakland, California. Soon LaLanne was
stressing the value of weight training exercise for athletes at a time
when few did. He, also, encouraged women to join men in gyms and work
with weights. Jack LaLanne did the same for children, older people and
those with physical challenges.
For over 30 years, Jack was on television promoting
exercise. On television, he would lure, prod, encourage and exhort
viewers to take responsibility for their health and fitness. Jack
LaLanne's breadth of lifetime experiences included roles as a personal
fitness trainer; nutrition consultant; author; and manufacturer,
supplier and retailer of whole grain breads, cereals, bars, shakes,
vitamins, supplements and all kinds of exercise equipment.
"You can eat perfectly but if you
don't exercise, you cannot get by. There are so many health food nuts
out there that eat nothing but natural foods but they don't exercise
and they look terrible. Then there are other people who exercise like a
son-of-a-gun but eat a lot of junk. They look pretty good because the
exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you've got
a kingdom!�
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Jack is most famous for a series of well-publicized
feats of strength that always took place on his  birthday to remind
people that they could maintain fitness and health while growing older.
"I wanted to show I wasn't just a muscle man. I was an
athlete," Jack LaLanne said. "Later, I did it to show that
getting older doesn't mean you can't be strong and healthy."
Much of Jack's commonsense health advice sounds like a
broken record playing over and over again, since it has never changed
in over 50 years. He exercises each day for 2 hours from 6 to 8 o'clock
in the morning. His workout consists of one hour of bodybuilding
followed by one hour of swimming. Breakfast, for Jack, is a power drink
with 50 grams of soy protein and soy milk, plus a whole-grain cereal,
and between 40 and 50 nutritional supplements. Lunch consists of four
egg whites, five servings of fresh fruit, and five raw vegetables. For
dinner, Jack has 10 raw vegetables, a salad, soup, whole-wheat bread, 3
to 4 ounces of fish: Served always at a restaurant. While Jack often
says: "If man makes it, don�t eat it;" he definitely believes
in drinking a high protein shake first thing in the morning in order to
keep his blood sugar stable.
In recognition of Jack's achievements, he was awarded a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The above picture of Jack LaLanne
in a very public event documents for ever how Jack looked at 88 years
of age on Thursday September 26, 2002. "I'm going to live to be 150
years old," Jack LaLanne told an audience on Hollywood Boulevard
for the Walk of Fame ceremony. "Stick around and find out."
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