Goodbye Jack

 

Jack LaLanne, the man who made it his mission to motivate everyone to eat healthy and exercise, died Sunday at the age of 96. “I can’t afford to die,” LaLanne used to joke. “It would wreck my image.”

LaLanne became interested in fitness as a teen, a passion that would define his life. From a long-running television show to a series of gyms and even his own power juicer, LaLanne was not only a force but also the first on the fitness scene.
“I never think of my age, never,” LaLanne said in 1990. “I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I’m just me.”
In 1957, when he turned 43, LaLanne did more than 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes on the “You Asked for It” television show. At 60, handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. He performed a similar stunt 10 years later in Long Beach.

LaLanne’s actions were designed to inspire others to transform their lives.
“The only way you can hurt the body is not use it,” LaLanne said. “Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it’s never too late.”