Moderation is a great word
Jack Lalanne, for those of you that might not know of him, is one of the original exercise promoters who swam ocean and harbors, lifted weights, and is a pioneering nutritional expert as well as a business entrepreneur.
In 1951, Jack had a local TV show in San Francisco back when TV was broadcasted in only black and white. In 1959 his show went nationwide with his co-star German Sheppard “Happy,” his faithful sidekick, as an organ played way way high and then way way low whenever Jack inhaled and exhaled following an exercise.
Born in 1914, Jack was the son of French immigrants. As a child, Jack was addicted to junk food, had temper outbursts and was a rabble-rouser on the streets of San Francisco. When he was a teenager he heard on the radio the advantages of exercising and nutrition. That message was so appealing that the little rascal began focusing his life on nutrition and exercising.
Jack began running, swimming and lifting weights that eventually led to one of the first franchise health spas that were named after him, which ultimately became known today as Bally’s. He designed weight-lifting equipment, whose engineering designs are still in use today. Early on he encouraged women to lift weights even though it was alleged at the time that they would wind up looking like today’s California Governor.
Some of Jacks exploits were second to none; at age 40 Jack swam the entire span of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater mind you, with 140 pounds of equipment. At age 42 and then again at 60 he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s wharf while handcuffed. To celebrate the United States Bicentennial in 1976, he swam the Long Beach Harbor, handcuffed and shackled, as he towed 13 boats that represented the original 13 colonies with 76 people hanging on for dear life inside the boats.
Again handcuffed and shackled, he swam 1 1/2 miles towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queens Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary. Why 70 people on 70 boats? He was just celebrating his 70th birthday. One day in 2002, he and Johnny Grant met in Hollywood as he was awarded a star on Hollywood boulevard.
There were two aphorisms by Jack that always stuck with me over the years. When talking about the allure of eating something that isn’t good for you he once remarked. “… Is it really worth those 5 seconds of chewing and tasting just prior to swallowing?” His most classical statement was when he was being interviewed on a morning talk show claiming, “I can’t die, it’ll hurt my image.”
The other night I viewed a 21st century version of an exercise show, broadcasted on HD TV called “The Big Losers.” If you haven’t seen or heard about the show, it highlights overweight people, obese would be a better description, with competing 2-person teams doing some really unusual sporting events.
The teams battle to win against each other based on the amount of pounds/percentage each team collectively loses in a given time span. My overriding reaction was that of empathy laced with appreciation of what they were attempting to accomplish, which resulted with me walking in front of my bathroom mirror looking sideways after the show ended.
There was certainly was no happy tails wagging from the Cox cable during the show; rather, it’s a cheerless reflection of how overweight Americans have become. A recent survey taken by the National Health and Nutrition Examination showed that 61% of us are overweight; of those, 35% were moderately overweight with a whopping 26% being classified as being obese. The general culprit of this expanding medical problem is that we’re simply transferring too many calories from our own hands into our own mouths compounded by not exercising or own bodies enough.
We all have unique bodies that depend for the most part on the genes we inherent from our parents. These overriding gene tendencies awards some of us to be overweight, resulting with hips shaped in the likes of a pear, bowed legs like cowboys, and front teeth like David Letterman.
The luckier ones have genes that affords us fit, slim and thin bodies, size 4 dresses for life, natural muscle tone, and a hasty metabolism allowing for three-course dinners followed by mud pies with all the condiments.
The majority of us who were blessed with good health, but don’t have a body that would appear on the cover of People magazine, should count the given blessings. We were all created in the image of nature, which is perfect, with special gifts and talents that are second to nobody.
It’s comforting to know that there are others like Jack who promote good health habits and diets and remind us that we alone hold the power of choice to improve and maintain our health. Its people like Jack who we should try to emulate, in moderation that is, while encouraging our impressionable game-video-kids as well.
Today at 94, Jack still lifts iron and swims every day. In 2007 when interviewed on national TV he stated that he’s planning on celebrating his 95th birthday by swimming from California to Santa Catalina Island, which is only about 22 miles.
No one is a loser. We’re all stars and winners with the right attitude that we alone choose to take. If I could tell Jack just a thing or two as he nears the one-century mark of his life I’d say:
“Monsieur Jack, it’s OK to pass on one day, your image will always be synonymous with an evergreen. Thanks for your inspiration of fortitude, as I’ve decided to pick up my pace a bit during my walks to Soka University, but, I’m still going to unchain myself now and then and savor over five seconds each luscious bite of my jumbo size Resses’s dark chocolate peanut butter cup … when nobody’s looking.”
Steve Sayer
ALNews Columnist
