Jack LaLanne quotes:

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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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?

  • People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me -- they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Many so-called spiritual people, they overeat, drink too much, they smoke and don't exercise. But they do go to church every week and pray 'Please help my arthritis. Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again.'

  • Everything you do in life, I don't care, good or bad - don't blame God, don't blame the devil, don't blame me, blame you. You control everything! The thoughts you think, the words you utter, the foods you eat, the exercise you do. Everything is controlled by you.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • There is no fountain of youth, What you put into your body is what you get out of it. You would not feed your dog a coffee and doughnut for breakfast followed by a cigarette. You will kill the damn dog.

  • Go on, have a glass of wine with dinner. What is wine, anyway? Pure grapes. A glass of wine is much better for you than a Coke.

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

  • 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.

  • Your muscles know nothing. It's your brain. Exercise is something you've got to do the rest of your life. It's a lifestyle. Dying is easy. Living is a pain in the neck. You've got to work at it.

  • 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 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.

  • You should be proud of what you're doing, but not conceited. If you can't be proud of yourself, you're a failure. And discipline. To do anything in life you have to have discipline. To accomplish anything, you have a goal, challenge yourself, and work until you accomplish that goal. Practice what you preach.

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

  • Stay in shape. And remember, daily exercise is a must. Plan for it, and do it. The rewards will be well worth it.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • I've always liked fast cars and slow women.

  • 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.

  • My goal has always been to help people help themselves. Your body is your most priceless possession; you've go to take care of it!

  • Those who begin to exercise regularly and replace white flour, sugar and devitalized foods with live, organic natural foods begin to feel better immediately. Exercise is king, nutrition is queen -- put them together and you've got a kingdom.

  • 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.

  • Physical fitness takes commitment to exercise just as it requires good nutrition. But it doesn't have to be painful. Just the opposite: Vigorous exercise actually is stimulating. It boosts your energy levels, invigorates your mind, and just feels good afterward. The hardest part, of course, is getting started.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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

  • 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.

  • Your age is the sum total of your physical condition, the condition of your mind, and how you feel.

  • Invest in yourself now and reap the dividends day after day after month after year.

  • Life is great when your in shape!

  • 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.

  • Your waistline is your lifeline

  • The spine is the lifeline. A lot of people should go to a chiropractor but they don't know it.

  • 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.

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

  • Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you've got a kingdom.

  • It's difficult to change overnight but if you are persistent and take one step at a time you will see results!

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • If it tastes good, spit it out!

  • Homosexuals love to look good. They're clean, neat. They're fastidious, well mannered and well educated. They like aesthetic things. They like good, firm, tight bodies. Health. They want to attract other guys. What's wrong with that? Why be slobs? You've got to be insane to suggest that because someone looks good, he must be gay. That's envy.

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • I train like I'm training for the Olympics or for a Mr. America contest, the way I've always trained my whole life. You see, life is a battlefield. Life is survival of the fittest... How many healthy people do you know? How many happy people do you know? Think about it. People work at dying, they don't work at living. 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.

  • Most people, when they reach a certain age, let down and talk about what they used to do. Well, who gives a damn about what you used to do? It's what you're doing now.

  • If man made it, don't eat it.

  • You see, you don't get old from age, you get old from inactivity, from not believing in something.

  • How do you build up your bank account? By putting something in it everyday.Your health account is no different. What I do today, I am wearing tomorrow. If I put inferior foods in my body today, I'm going to be inferior tomorrow, it's that simple.

  • It's not what you do some of the time that counts, it's what you do all of the time that counts.

  • Develop a positive attitude. Think and picture how amazing you are going to be. Visualize it!

  • The hell what you USED to do! It's what you're doing NOW and what you're GOING to do.

  • The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow.

  • The only way you can hurt your body is if you don't use it

  • Thoughts are things. Negativity is what kills you... It's tough to do, but you've got to work at living, you know? Most people work at dying, but anybody can die; the easiest thing on this earth is to die. But to live takes guts; it takes energy, vitality, it takes thought. . . . We have so many negative influences out there that are pulling us down. . . . You've got to be strong to overcome these adversities . . . that's why I never stop.

  • Never get satisfied. The minute you stop trying, you go downhill.

  • 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 believe so strongly in what I do and I practice what I preach! My Dad died at fifty - do I have to die at fifty? My Dad ate all the junk food, he wouldn't exercise - how can you tell your Dad anything? We know 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!

  • I don't care how old I live! I just want to be living while I am living!

  • The most important thing in your life is your health and your body. You can have all the education and you can have millions of dollars in the bank, but if you've got headaches every day, if you're fat and you are out of shape - what good is your money? Your health account and your bank account, build them both up!

  • I'd rather take a beating sometimes than get in that gym every morning. Anyone who gets up that early and says he likes it is a goddamned liar. The only good thing about it is that when I'm finished, I look at myself in the mirror and say, "Jack, you've done it again!

  • Virtually everything we do in life is a matter of habit. Habits make us who we are. Why not change your habits to better your life?

  • 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!

  • Scales lie! You lose thirty pounds of muscle and you gain thirty pounds of fat and you weigh the same, right? Take that tape measure out. That won't lie. Your waistline is your lifeline. It should be the same as it was when you were a young person.

  • When it comes to health, diet is the Queen, but exercise is the King.

  • The essence of decay is inactivity.

  • You start out with an hour on the treadmill, then another hour of lifting - hell, in two weeks you're not doing anything anymore. You gotta be reasonable.

  • You should do it against the clock. Say you are going to do 30 laps in 15 minutes. Then you try to do it each day a little faster. That is putting demands on the body, and that is how you build up. You keep up your energy instead of going downhill.

  • There are so many health nuts out there who 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... Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you've got a kingdom.

  • Better to wear out than rust out.

  • Anything in life is possible, if you make it happen.

  • As it's often been said, the rest of your life is the best of your life. I'm reaching for your hand now to help you reassess your attitude on living and jump into the happiest, healthiest, most productive years you will ever have.

  • You've got to exercise. Your health account, your bank account, they're the same thing. The more you put in, the more you can take out.

  • 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.

  • You got to do what's happening today in the world. You got to keep up with time. Keep up to date, keep modern - keep up on your toes!

  • Sex is the greatest driving force on this planet. Christ, why are we living if we can't have a little fun? Sex is giving, and the more you give, the better lover you are.

  • 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.

  • Ten seconds on the lips and a lifetime on the hips.

  • If you want to change somebody, don't preach to him. Set an example and shut up.

  • I think fat, out-of-shape people should be fined.

  • Maybe 50 or 60 percent of all divorces are predicated on someone's being physically unfit. Who wants to live with negativism? Love goes out the window.

  • Everything in life that's meaningful takes effort - takes vitality. You have to work at it. And God helps them who help themselves...help you.

  • The only way you can hurt the body is not use it,

  • You can exercise vigorously and eat junk and get by. But you can't eat perfectly and not exercise. Look at many athletes today; they are human garbage cans. They eat anything, but they exercise so hard they burn it up. But why not exercise and put the right fuel in too?

  • 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.

  • Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Together, you've got a kingdom. If you have a Corvette, you don't put water in the tank. The human machine deserves the same treatment.

  • You need to make good health a hobby.

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

  • It's a lifestyle, it's something you do the rest of your life," LaLanne said. "How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep eating? You just do it.

  • Have you seen some of the crap they're selling as exercise equipment now? How about that Suzanne Somers? She should have been thrown in jail for selling the piece-of-crap Thigh Master. It just develops a little muscle on the inner thigh. What good is that?

  • How many cars out there look like Corvettes? You want something nobody else has. You don't want an old look-alike thing, and that's why Corvettes have the reputation of being one of the fastest cars. I've always had good cars, and a Corvette is one of the best cars I've had. I've had Lamborghinis, I've had Ferraris, I've had Stutz Blackhawks. You name it, I've had them. For the money, Corvette is tops.

  • Figure out what's good for you, then create a liking for it. You've got to work at living.

  • The most important person on this earth is you. What are you doing to help the most important person in this world: you? To live right, you have to exercise, have goals and challenges.

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

  • I eat 6 or 7 raw vegetables every day, 4 or 5 pieces of fresh fruit. I eat egg whites each day. If I eat bread, it has to be whole wheat. I eat brown rice. I don't eat between meals. I eat at 11 o'clock in the morning and 7 o'clock at night.

  • 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.

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

  • Eat right and you can't go wrong.

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

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

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

  • 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."

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

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

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