Jack LaLanne Quotations

I'd rather see you drink a glass of wine than a glass of milk. So many people drink Coca-Cola and all these soft drinks with sugar. Some of these drinks have 8 or 9 teaspoons of sugar in them What's the good of living if you can't have the things that give a little enjoyment?

The only way you get that fat off is to eat less and exercise more.

Do you know how many calories are in butter and cheese and ice cream? Would you get your dog up in the morning for a cup of coffee and a donut?

We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge.

Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you.

Probably millions of Americans got up this morning with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a donut. No wonder they are sick and fouled up.

What you need to do is get that tape measure out, and start measuring that gut. Then you start working out and you start eating properly till that gut gets down close to it was when you were in your 20's. Then you'll find out what your weight should be.

Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest. Maybe your chest is flabby or your hips or waist need toning. Also, you should change your program every thirty days. That's the key.

By exercise. I'll tell you one thing, you don't always have to be on the go. I sit around a lot, I read a lot, and I do watch television. But I also work out for two hours every day of my life, even when I'm on the road.

You can't get rid of it with exercise alone. You can do the most vigorous exercise and only burn up 300 calories in an hour. If you've got fat on your body, the exercise firms and tones the muscles. But when you use that tape measure, what makes it bigger? It's the fat!

I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline.

So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don't get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity.

If you've got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get bigger because you build up the muscle. You've got to get rid of that fat! How do you get rid of fat? By changing your diet.

I have spoken to a whole group of millionaires, head executives at Microsoft. Boy did I chew those guys out.

I only eat fish - no chicken, no turkey, just fish. I get all my protein from fish and egg whites.

Look at the average American diet: ice cream, butter, cheese, whole milk, all this fat. People don't realize how much of this stuff you get by the end of the day. High blood pressure is from all this high-fat eating.

They thought that athletes that worked out with my system wouldn't be able to throw a ball because they'd be too muscle bound. Those are the misconceptions I had to go through for about 40 years.

I just want to see how long I can keep this thing going. The easiest thing is dying. Living is a a pain in the butt.

The tape measure doesn't lie. Get that tape measure out and put it on your hips and your waist. Keep checking it. And keep exercising and cutting those calories down until that tape measure gets close to where you were in your prime.

I'm a believer in routine. I like to see people work out at the same time each day.

One of the reasons so many people fail is they get on this treadmill for an hour or an hour and a half. That's totally unnecessary. If it's cardiovascular, you don't need more than 15 to 17 or 18 minutes if it's vigorous.

I'm always asking people to do something in their mind [first]. So if they're gonna do one exercise, it would be to ask themselves what they want to change about themselves in the next 12 weeks. Once they solve that, the body will follow.

On one of my birthdays I did 1,000 chin-ups and 1,000 push-ups. For my 70th birthday I towed 70 boats with 70 people in it, my feet and hands tied-my hands were in handcuffs, my feet were tied together-and I towed these boats a mile-and-a-half in Long Beach Harbor. For my 93rd birthday I'm going to tow my wife across the bathtub.

I don't think about wealth. I get one thing in my mind, "How can I help people...come on humans...do something, you know. Let's wake up. Man alive...you're half dead. Let's do some living".

If you don't like Corvettes, you don't like sex and money.

I've always liked fast cars and slow women.

The brain's preferred source of fuel is glucose/carbohydrates. And when you go on a low-carb/high-protein diet, your brain is using low-octane fuel. You'll be a little groggy, a little grumpy.

People feel so guilty about not exercising. Especially people over 50, who feel like they've gone a lifetime without taking care of themselves. Instead of aiming for perfection, you should try to celebrate the progress you're making.

Be young. Keep yourself young by having a good, sporty car like a Corvette. It keeps you on your toes. It keeps you young. It keeps you thinking young. It keeps you thinking modern and good things. Corvette is a modern, modern automobile.

Never, ever get satisfied; keep the carrot in front of the horse.

Be an example of what you teach. [As a personal trainer], delve into your student's life, know everything about him. Be interested.

If you take steroids, you have to pay the price. They can kill you; there are no shortcuts. It's like going to bed with a rattlesnake, it's got to get you.

Living is like training for an athletic event. You have to have goals and challenges; you need to exercise and eat right.

I've never been satisfied with myself, ever. But I feel good about myself, because I'm truthful. I don't corrupt myself. I'm also a perfectionist. I'm very impatient. I've got energy and drive and I can't stand inefficiency in people. And I can't stand dumb people. Why surround yourself with people who are going to tie you down? I don't suffer fools.

You've got to appeal to the pride in people. When a woman is flabby and soft, she's unattractive. When you married a beautiful girl and all of a sudden you start seeing her tits down and her breath stinks and she's not clean anymore and has no pride in herself, you can't love her. You may bullshit yourself, but you can't. Energy makes people beautiful. That's what charisma is.

My wife is my protector. Without her, I'm nothing. She wants to please me, and I want to please her. We've been together over 53 years.

Progress is made where progress is measured.

Muscle cells strengthen in response to intense exercise - whether you're 18 or 88. But the intensity is what's lacking in most people's workouts. And there are doctors who'll give you the advice, "Well, don't push it."

People will set a New Year's resolution: "I'm gonna get in shape this year." But they don't set a parameter for how they're gonna measure it. Or if they do measure it, they wait until the first day of the next year. You'd never run a business that way. Document your progress.

Another intruder that plagues our good health is sleeplessness. Insomnia is much like constipation in that stress or nervous tension can bring it on or aggravate it until there's almost no coping with it. That's why you find sleeping pills in so many medicine cabinets next to the laxatives.

Jesus, when he was on Earth, he was out there helping people, right? Why did he perform those miracles? To call attention to his profession. Why do you think I do these incredible feats ? To call attention to my profession!

I say stick with Mother Nature as much as possible.

I have one thing in my mind. How can I get people to start taking care of themselves? That's all I think about.

George Burns was more athletic than you think he was. And he was a very social man--he loved people, he enjoyed life. He worked at living. Old George was a social lion, he got around and did things. That's the key right there. It starts with your brain. Some people, when they get to 60 years old have no interests anymore, have no friends left. George Burns was busy all the time doing something.

If you lose a couple of inches off your stomach, your business down there will look a lot longer.

Whatever you can handle, it's up to you. Pick something where you are going to do it to failure--in other words, where you can hardly do it. That's the key. So many people will just take five pound weights and do something 10 times. What are they getting out of it? Nothing! Say you are going to build up your bank account. If you put in a penny a day, it's going take a long while. It's the same with exercise--the more you put into it the more you take out.

I see a sea of millions of people going down with their own negative thoughts, going down for the third time in this big sea of iniquity and negativity.

Sex has to do with imagination, so the sky is the limit. If you're not doing bodily harm, why shouldn't you do what turns you on?

All athletes would be better if they eat better. Junk in equals Junk out.

Twelve to seventeen minutes is plenty on the treadmill--if it's done fast. That's all you need for cardiovascular benefit. You don't need to spend that extra time unless you are over weight and you need to burn off extra calories. Do it vigorously, like somebody is chasing you. You've got to do it hard. Otherwise, if you just take it easy and do it longer, you are spending all that time when you don't need it. Use that extra time with your weights instead.

Ask the guys who are doing serious triathlons if there are any limits to what can be done. The limit is right here. You've got to get physically fit between the ears. Muscles don't know anything. They have to be taught.

Who puts the food in your mouth? Who goes to the bathroom for ya? You do. You came on this earth alone and you are going to leave alone. Think about it. If anything happens to Jack La Lanne good or bad, I made it happen. If anything happens to you good or bad, you made it happen -- right?

The secret to a long and healthy marriage is to work at it and don't try and change each other.

Please help my arthritis. Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again.

My top priority in life is my workout. Regardless of what happens, I hit that gym. Even when I was in the hospital twice with serious knee operations: Right after I came out of anesthesia, there was a chin bar over my head and dumbbells. I worked out immediately.

How do you know what's really organic? Today, there's all these impurities in the water and the air. The water for the fruits and vegetables has junk in it. If you get enough vitamins and minerals out of normal food and whole grains, and you get enough proteins and exercise (that's the key) then nature builds up a tolerance to all of these things. It's survival of the fittest. You can't have everything perfect, that's impossible, but the fit survive.

I was the worst, most sickly kid of all -- 30 pounds underweight. The girls used to beat me up. Actually I was a mean kid, early on because I had no self-esteem.

We know today about nutrition and we know about exercise. There's no reason for anybody to be sick and tired, fat and out of shape -- it's ridiculous! This has got to be taught in the schools. It's got to be taught in kindergarten. That's when kids should first get the idea that the most important thing in your life is your health and your body.

It's a bunch of bull! If God, or nature, or whatever you want to call it didn't want you to mix carbohydrates, starches and fats, you'd never have a grain, you'd never have a vegetable or a fruit, would you? What's in a grain? It's got carbohydrates, starches, fats, sugar. It's got everything in it. Why does nature do that? One guy says don't mix carbohydrates, and the other guy says don't mix protein with it; it's all a bunch of lard, something to sell a book. And the poor public is so confused, they don't know what to do.

My Dad was overweight and unhealthy, and he died young. I wasn't going to let that happen to me.

When I first started out, I was considered a crackpot. The doctors used to say, "Don't go to that Jack LaLanne, you'll get hemorrhoids, you won't get an erection, you women will look like men, you athletes will get muscle-bound -- this is what I had to go through.

If man makes it, I don't eat it!

You can't separate the mind and body. It's impossible.

If it tastes good, spit it out. All those cakes and pies and candy and ice cream -- all that terrible fast food stuff! I just bought a new corvette sports car ... would I put oil in the gas tank? Would I?

I tell people that the scales lie. You may have played basketball and weighed 175 pounds, with a 30-inch waist, back when you were in college. And you may still weigh 175 at 55. But you probably have a 35-inch waist and you've probably lost 30 or 40 pounds of muscle -- and gained 30 or 40 pounds of fat. The tape measure doesn't lie. Get that tape measure out and put it on your hips and your waist. Keep checking it. And keep exercising and cutting those calories down until that tape measure gets close to where you were in your prime.

The first thing I did when I was forty years old, I put handcuffs on and I jumped off Alcatraz prison and swam to San Francisco handcuffed. That made national publicity. Then, there were three or four years where I would do more difficult feats. Another birthday I towed a thousand pound boat across the Golden Gate. On my 65th Birthday I towed 65 boats a mile and a half in Tokyo. On my 70th Birthday I towed 70 boats with 70 people in it with my feet and hands tied a mile and a half in Long Beach.... My next Birthday I will be 93. I'm gonna tow my wife across the bathtub.

I was going to be a singer. If I hadn't been in my profession, I was going to be an Opera singer. That's from a young kid. I had all these records from all those famous Opera singers. I wanted to be an Opera singer -- that was my whole thing and physical fitness got in the way, thank God.

What the hell do doctors know about exercise? Most of them know zero. You gotta push elderly people to failure like anybody else. Then the body responds.

Sitting around on your big fat gluteus maximus talking about the good old days. The good old days are right this second. You've got to exercise VIG-OR-OUSLY! Life is tough. Life is a challenge. Life is a battlefield... . Life is an athletic event, and you must train for it.

Exercise to live. Never live to exercise.

If you can't afford a half hour three or four times a week taking care of the most priceless possession, your body, you've got to be sick. You're stupid.

It's survival of the fittest. You can't have everything perfect, that's impossible, but the fit survive. The fit can handle the impurities in the air and in the water, but the poor people who are sick, it really affects them more.

Don't talk age! Age has nothing to do with it. One of my guys who started out at my gym is 87 now, and he still does ten bench-press reps with a hundred-pound dumbbell in each hand. He's training to set a leg-pressing record. I put things in the guy's brain way back when, and now he'll never get away from it.

I can't afford to die. It would wreck my image.

People don't realize how much of this stuff you get by the end of the day. High blood pressure is from all this high-fat eating. Do you know how many calories are in butter and cheese and ice cream? Would you get your dog up in the morning for a cup of coffee and a donut? Probably millions of Americans got up this morning with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a donut. No wonder they are sick and fouled up.

Life is great when your in shape!

You've got to work at living-99 and 9/10 of Americans work at dying!

You can take them in a wheelchair and put them in a pool, so they can move their arms and legs. In a pool disabled people can do things that they can't normally do otherwise.

Billy Graham is for the hereafter, I'm for the here and now!

That is the beautiful part about weights: even if you are 100 year old, you can lift something. Maybe it's only a half a pound or a pound or two pounds. It will still do something.

Any stupid ass can die- you have to work at living!

Yes, exercise is the catalyst. That's what makes everything happen: your digestion, your elimination, your sex life, your skin, hair, everything about you depends on circulation. And how do you increase circulation?

My workout is my obligation to life. It's my tranquilizer. It's part of the way I tell the truth--and telling the truth is what's kept me going all these years.

That's what I wanted! I wanted to be an athlete , I wanted the girls to like me, and I wanted to be able to get good grades in school, and this man said I could do all that.

The crusade is never off my mind -- the exercise I do, the food I eat, the thought I think -- all this and how I can help make my profession better-respected. To me, this one thing -- physical culture and nutrition -- is the salvation of America.

You only live once, why be miserable? Fat people are miserable -- you are carrying 50 lbs on your shoulders all day, you get a disease called "pooped-out itis". Don't tell me that they are happy with the way they look and feel. I have to be honest, that is all I have.

I can't die. It would ruin my image.

If you're tired and pooped out all the time, do you have love and compassion in your heart for your fellow man? You don't even like yourself!

I want to move well and comfortably, and enjoy the world around me.

If it tastes good, spit it out!

Sometimes people - especially people over 40 - underestimate what they really are capable of. They believe they're not capable of doing something great. I tell people who are over 40, "I don't want your best. I want better than that. I want better than what you perceive your best is."

You don't have to call it God or Jesus. That's religious humbug to a lot of people, but you've gotta believe that nature and spiritual things surround us. That is what put us here! I thank the universe for that every day of my life.

You put junk in, junk comes out. You put good in, good comes out.

There are so many health food nuts out there that eat nothing but natural foods but they don't exercise and they look terrible.

Exercise is your king, and nutrition is your queen. Together they create your fitness kingdom.

I never think of my age, never - I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I'm just me.

Eat right and you can’t go wrong.

People don't die of old age, they die of neglect.

Forget about what you used to do. Don't make those same mistakes again. Everybody says, "Oh the good old days" - the good old days are right this second! This moment controls the next moment.

Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it's never too late.